Farthest Reef (12 page)
Authors: Karl Kofoed
Tags: #Fiction, #Action & Adventure, #Science Fiction, #space
He counted four black-cloaked clicker men before two of them moved out of sight behind the ship. Their petal-like arms undulated casually, revealing flashes of their crimson linings. Alex switched the camera’s view to the cabin monitor. “We have company,” he said. “See for yourself.”
“Stop the ship, Tsu, if you please,” Johnny said.
Alex folded his arms and sat back in the seat, watching the clicks. They moved in and out of view like floating specters at the edge of
Diver’s
lights, looking just as they had when he and Mary first saw them. “What do you hear, Mary?” asked Alex. “Don’t tell me they sneaked up on you.”
“I can’t hear what isn’t said,” Mary replied quietly. “But if they’re being quiet, the odds are they’re hearing us.”
5
“Why aren’t the clicks approaching?” Alex muttered. “They always did before.”
The ship was drifting, hovering in the warm current that ran through the tunnel. Tsu kept the engines running, but only to keep the ship away from the walls. As Alex surveyed the area around them he could see several fronds of gray matting protruding from cracks. The engines were stirring the air enough to blow them downward and even dislodge bits that trailed off in the current.
“Is it the engines?” Inside Johnny’s virtual bubble, Alex was thinking aloud, but the quiet remark was easily heard on the cabin speakers.
“I don’t think the engine exhaust is putting them off, Alex,” offered Johnny. “The earlier incarnation of
Diver’s
engines put out much more turbulence. That didn’t keep them away.”
“The null-gee field is even less than before,” added Tony. “It isn’t that. I don’t think so, anyway.”
Alex was listening in the darkness of Johnny’s plastic bubble, hearing his friends but watching the clicks for any hint of their intent. They were hovering beyond the range of the ship’s lights, as if waiting. But for what? he wondered. “They must be talking, Mary,” he said loudly, “Isn’t that what spectators do? Do you hear them?”
“I hear them, Alex,” he heard Mary answer.
Her soft voice soothed Alex, even though he couldn’t see her. “Anything?” he asked.
“Not really. It sounds … well, I have the impression they are just muttering. One thing, though. They’ve changed frequency.”
“Changed frequency?” Johnny, Tsu, and Alex said at the same time.
“So it seems,” said Mary. “That’s why I couldn’t hear them for a while. The rest of the clicks are using it, too.”
“They know we can hear them.” Johnny’s hushed tone sounded full of wonder and anticipation.
Alex was less than thrilled. “I thought that was obvious,” he muttered. “No points for that one, Johnny.”
“Stealth,” said the Professor, ignoring Alex’s remark. “They’re demonstrating stealth.”
“Fear,” said Mary.
“Are you sure?”
“Of course not, Professor.” Mary laughed. “Honestly, those language tapes are absurd. You all touted them like they were a Rosetta Stone. Good try, but the fact is they’re practically useless. I thought it was just me … but every time I’ve heard them they sound different.”
Listening in the semi-isolation of the Professor’s bubble, Alex thought Mary was finished with her speech, but she had just begun.
“That’s what’s wrong with our cheap power overlording Corpie structure,” she railed, her silky voice becoming almost shrill. “A committee tells a committee to do something and they do it … or else. I wonder, Professor. When Stubbs told the linguists to decode the clicks’ language, did anyone ask if it could be done? Moreover, did they ever think to ask
me
?”
No one responded for a moment. Alex found himself holding his breath.
“Ask you what?” inquired Johnny, sounding overly casual. “I’m disappointed you feel this way.”
“Feel?” said Mary Seventeen. “That’s the crux of it. On the early missions the clicks plagued me with their broadcasts. But it wasn’t the sound that got to me. Nor their incessant radio chatter. It was the … feeling.”
“Feeling?” asked Connie.
“Yes. I can’t explain. What is important is the feeling that I have now.”
“What is it?” Johnny sounded amused. “Sounds like anger to me.”
“Fear. Caution,” stated Mary. “Part of the feeling comes from watching them, I’ll admit,” she added. “But I’m hearing them, too. They’re speaking softly … whispering.”
“They sure look like they are,” said Alex. But when he looked again at the monitor the noticed that two of the clicks were coming toward the cameras at a high rate of speed. “Oops,” he said, grabbing the camera toggle arm. “Two clicks, comin’ atcha’.”
Like two large black squid, the clicks shot past the snatcher and camera pods and continued at high speed toward the front of the ship. By now Alex had mastered the art of manipulating the cameras, so he managed to follow the action and even zoom in on the clicks as they vanished down the tunnel, out of range of
Diver’s
lights.
“Maybe they just wanted to get by us,” said Mary’s voice.
“We are a major road hog, Johnny,” said Alex. As he spoke three more clicks shot by, this time on the other side. They too vanished in the darkness ahead of the ship.
“So there’s no real significance to this … visitation … I suppose,” said Johnny. He sounded disappointed. Alex deduced the question was directed at Mary, for she answered promptly. “Don’t look at me, Professor. I’m guessing, just like you.”
“I wonder if there’s any point to this,” said the Professor.
Alex closed his eyes and bit his lip. The Professor’s statement set him alight with feelings: anger, disgust, and frustration. None of them were good. He might normally have blurted out something like ‘Dingers!
Now
you wonder?’, but he knew it wouldn’t help their situation. Instead of growling, he laughed. It echoed his bubble and in the cabin.
“Something funny, Alex?” asked Johnny.
“The mission,” he said. “But you’re the one who is wondering what the hell we’re doing here. Not me.”
“I doubt that,” snapped Johnny. “I doubt that very much.”
Tsu’s voice cut in. “There go the rest … I think.” Apparently only she was currently watching the cameras and saw a large flock of clicks fly past the ship.
“We’re just sitting here,” said Tsu.
Alex wasn’t watching the screens. He switched off the intercom and activated the computer with a command. “Alex one, computer,” he said. “Question. Can you operate the snatcher arm?”
“
Yes
.” said the computer’s androgynous voice.
“Follow the clicker men. Locate one of them … and then use the snatcher arm to catch it. Can you execute that command, computer?”
“
Yes.
”
“Wait for the command word … enable!” ordered Alex. “Computer, repeat the command word.”
“
Enable
!” the computer snapped back at him.
Alex smiled as he switched on his intercom. “Johnny, I don’t know if you heard that … but I believe the computer can help us catch a click.”
“The ship’s computer?” asked Johnny. “How so?”
“By telling it to. It would be easier and faster for me to demonstrate,” Alex explained as he studied Johnny’s complex console. With little difficulty he adjusted the cameras to show a wider forward view and then switched on
Diver’s
running lights. “Do I have your permission, Professor?” he asked politely.
“If you’ve got a way to achieve our goals, by all means!” Johnny sounded amused but skeptical.
“Okay, gents and ladies. I suggest you strap in tight,” quipped Alex, rubbing his hands together. “Computer … enable!”
Left completely to its own devices the computer weighted all its well compiled data and chose a target, somewhere far ahead, all in an instant. The ship snapped to life, accelerating forward at a speed that seemed almost reckless, banking on the turns and moving at blurring speeds on the straightaways. Though hair raising to watch from his vantage point in the virtual bubble, Alex had to admit that the computer was judging its moves well and finding ample room to maneuver.
From what Alex was seeing in the virtual dome, the computer was using targeting radar while projecting a beam of infrared light directly ahead, and already he noticed a group of pale dots far down the tunnel. As soon as these appeared, targeting programs automatically added a layer of information to the image surrounding him. He had never seen any of this before.
“Tactical defensive targeting, Alex?” Sciarra’s voice sounded concerned. “Are we shooting them down? Is that the plan?”
“In a way, it’s brilliant. The ship is targeting the clicks,” Alex heard Johnny tell Sciarra.
The ship closed quickly on the clicks, and the blips on the screen were becoming distinct shapes, six of them.
Diver
slowed and its forward running lights dimmed and reddened. Alex saw the snatcher mechanism activate itself, its tubelike mouth telescoping rudely from the ship’s middle. The ship was calculating all its moves, actually sneaking up on its quarry like a living predator and readying its jaws for the catch.
“This is quite extraordinary,” said Johnny’s voice. “Are you doing this, Alex?”
“Nope.”
The clicker men could now be seen in
Diver’s
blood red lights. Alex felt dizzy for a moment, then realized the null-gee system had suddenly amplified, reducing the gravity. At the same time, the snatcher’s pumps engaged.
It was hard for Alex to believe that sophisticated avionics could account for
Diver’s
performance. As his ship poised to spring on its quarry he found its skill more than disturbing.
Realizing there was no reason to be under the bubble, Alex raised it to the ceiling. “Mary,” he said, seeing her look at him. “What do you think?”
“Same as you,” said Mary. “How do you like Johnny’s bubble?”
“Nothing to do. The computer has it covered.”
Since Alex was not using the bubble, Professor Baltadonis suggested he and Alex switch seats again, and Alex quickly agreed. “Do it quick, boys,” said Connie. “We’re closing on the kill.”
The gap between the ship and three fleeing clicks was now only a few meters.
Diver
and its quarry moved slowly, against the wind. It looked as though both the ship and the clicks were holding their positions, but the instruments showed that the ship was closing, centimeter by centimeter. Moreover, the two cameras, one port and the other starboard, were perfectly aligned and focused on the clicker men.
“Any orders?” asked Alex. “I don’t want it on record that I ordered a killing.”
“Seems to be doing fine, Alex,” answered Johnny. “Let it ride.”
“Okay, but I’d feel better if the computer and me talked some,” said Alex. “Computer … State present objective.”
“
Acquiring clicker man specimens.
”
“Computer. Can you do that without injuring the specimens?”
“Do you have to shout, Alex?” asked Tsu, covering her ears.
“
Yes
.”
“Okay,” said Alex. “Execute.”
“That’s a troubling choice of words, Alex,” said Johnny over the intercom.
“Hopefully, not to the computer,” whispered Alex.
“
Executing.
” There was a blinding flash and a mechanical hiss as the ship lurched suddenly forward. “
Specimens in hold … analyzing atmospheric environment.
”
Chapter 6
1
“That was too easy. Have we suddenly become superfluous?” Mary sighed.
“No,” said Johnny. “And you’re right to be wondering why that tactic wasn’t planned. I’ve been mulling that one myself.”
“Someone would have thought of it sooner or later,” said Alex. “It follows that it would be me. I know the ship and its capabilities. Scout ships can fly themselves.”
“We rushed into this trip. Barely any simulation work,” said Johnny with a shrug. “No time to think it through, I guess.”
Everyone was quiet for a moment, considering their situation. Then Johnny got up and bounced in the low gravity toward the rear of the cabin. He opened a wall panel and flipped a lever inside. At his feet a section of the floor slid open and lights came on below, illuminating the Professor as he bent over and gazed inside.
Alex had forgotten that there was an observation port to view the specimens. He jumped out of his seat and joined the Professor, with Mary and Tony close behind. A thick pane of polyglas separated the cabin from the specimen chamber below. The specimen case itself was in its own glass cylinder cocooned in a heavy metal mesh. At either end of the chamber were clusters of life support machines and tanks.
Two clicker men were inside, but Alex saw immediately that their black petal-like arms were folded tightly. He thought at first they might be dead until he noticed that both clicks were moving. They looked like black velvet bats, with wings arranged like petals of a flower. The heads were melon-sized globes, as featureless as mushrooms.
Johnny said they reminded him of his favorite plant, Jack-in-the-Pulpits, marsh loving plants he hoped might one day bloom naturally on Mars.
“They don’t seem to mind confinement,” whispered Mary, studying the clicks. “Shouldn’t they be acting a bit more upset?”
“Perhaps they have no idea what confinement is,” suggested the Professor.
“Are they in shock, maybe?” asked Tony.
“Am I allowed to see them?” asked Tsu angrily. “Or do I have to sit here and
not
fly this ship!”
“Sorry, Tsu,” said Johnny. “Ordinarily someone should be at the helm but the ship’s programmed to stay here until the tanks are full. By all means, have a peek.”
“There’s no reason I can see for them to compress their bodies so tightly.” Mary was now on hands and knees, holding the cat and peering into the enclosure. “The tank’s large enough”.
Alex noticed the clicks seemed to be clinging to one another. Close inspection, however, suggested the wings had a sticky surface. He remembered the red undersides of the click’s wings, but saw no evidence of it now.
Diver’s
pumps came on and Johnny looked at his watch. “I didn’t expect that for a while,” he said, looking puzzled. He ducked under his bubble and checked the readouts on his console. “Hello.”
Alex jumped to his seat when he saw the image on the screens. The tunnel was filling with clicker men.
2
“Computer! Hold position. Continue evaluation!” shouted the Professor.
The rest of
Diver’s
crew were already strapped in when Alex swiveled in his chair and checked the room. Johnny had secured his bubble and the specimen tank’s lid was closing.
Tsu watched Alex as he secured his seat belts. He noticed her watching him and shrugged. “I guess we sit here,” he said, “until the fat lady sings.”
Connie looked at Alex quizzically. “Fat lady?”
“I’ve been wondering what to call the computer.” Johnny laughed. “But Alex is right. We stay here ’til the computer says we can leave. The pumps you hear are just feeding air to the clicks. The sniffers haven’t even finished their analysis yet.”
“How far along are we?” asked Sciarra, watching at his radar screen intently.
“Maybe 50%. Why?”
“More company’s on the way, Professor.”
The screen above the cockpit windows changed back to a full spectrum mix of images, some graphic, some real. Despite the information it afforded the Professor, it gave the reef an additional level of strangeness, if that was possible. The clicks, portrayed in opalescent colors, looked almost luminous as they approached the ship in an undulating wave. They moved quickly and zig-zagged around the tunnel, making it impossible to estimate their numbers. Meanwhile, the tunnel itself had changed.
“Seems the reef has been altered somehow,” observed the Professor, his voice resonating on the cabin speakers. “We’ve moved at least a kilometer since capturing the clicks. But … I don’t see the sides of the tunnel. Do you, Tony?”
“Do we have a hostage situation, here, Professor?” asked Tsu with some urgency. Her eyes were focused on the overhead screen.
“That’s a thought,” replied Johnny, almost casually. “We have no choice but to wait and …”
Clicker men were now bee-lining past the ship, all around them. Johnny was trying his hand at following the action with the cameras. The horde of clicks continued streaming past the ship until they’d all made the transit. Then they all began hovering en masse, like hundreds of undulating flowers with ghostly white centers.
Johnny’s cameras zoomed in on and followed three clicks as they flapped their petal wings in unison and darted toward the ship, then returned to the group. Alex guessed they were scouts, sent to test the null-gee field near the ship or to sample the engine heat. Each was greeted with a nudge by several other clicker men when it rejoined to the group.
“What now, Mary?” Johnny’s voice broke the silence. “What are you hearing?”
“A lot of chatter,” Mary answered. “Have you been monitoring them?”
“Actually I haven’t,” said Johnny. “No reason for me to listen. That’s why you’re here.” The Professor laughed, but Mary said nothing. In his mind Alex heard her say, “I’ll take that as a compliment, Professor.”
“I’m switching it on, Mary.” Johnny added. “What should I be noticing?”
“That’s just it,” said Mary, forcing a grin. “Nothing irregular. It’s just their usual chatter. They don’t even sound excited.”
“What about your feelings?” Johnny seemed to be speaking more tactfully.
“That’s something else again,” replied Mary. She was looking around the cabin. “Where’s Inky?” she asked.
Alex surveyed the floor. “Under your chair, I bet.”
“Well, what do you feel?” Impatience was growing in the Professor’s voice.
Mary ignored Johnny and got up to look for Inky. It took only seconds to determine that the cat was missing. She ended up on hands and knees with her ear pressed to the sliding door to the specimen hold. “I hear him,” she shouted in alarm. “He’s in the hold.”
“Jeez,” said the Professor. Raising his bubble, he stepped over to the panel and inserted a key. The doors opened and the light below came on, illuminating Inky’s jump to freedom. The cat landed in Mary’s arms. “Oh, Inky,” she said, “How did you get in there?”
“Now will you answer the question?” said Johnny, resealing the hold as he watched Mary return to her seat.
“Disorientation … loss … confusion,” said Mary, stroking Inky. “That’s what I’m feeling.”
“Is that from the clicks or is that how you feel?” Johnny returned to his bubble, adding, “You say they’re not communicating anything. Is that so?”
“I expected to hear their alarm calls,” answered Mary. “Excited chatter. But there aren’t any. I’m beginning to wonder if the clicking is a language at all.”
“What, then?” Johnny was about to lower his bubble, but Mary’s statement surprised him. “If they’re not speaking …”
“The sound, I think, is echolocation. The radio bursts may be their speech.”
Johnny looked angry. “So all that language work was useless?”
“Not entirely,” offered Alex with a smile. “Without it we wouldn’t know how wrong they were.”
Johnny took a deep breath. “But, assuming Mary is correct, we’re back to square one.”
“I’m getting feelings, Professor, but I don’t trust them to be meaningful.”
“They might be,” argued Johnny. “The feelings you describe are consistent with the clicks’ situation. Disorientation … loss, I think you said.”
“But I’m a human being, not a click,” Mary said as she put the cat on the floor. “How can we determine if my interpretations are valid? There’s no way to confirm it … at least not now.”
“Shit!” snapped Johnny. “This is
not
what I want to hear.”
“Nevertheless …” said Mary, “that is the case.”
Johnny brought down his bubble, sealed it and said nothing more.
Mary shrugged. “What should I do? Lie to him?”
Alex shook his head. “I don’t know. The real question is what are we going to do … about them.” Alex pointed to the cockpit windows. “Is it my imagination or are there more of them?”
“More,” said Tony. “And we’re not in the corridor any more.”
Tsu was standing at the food panel eating peppizza. “What?” she exclaimed, nearly choking. She dove for her chair and fastened her seatbelt with one hand while holding her half eaten snack in the other. “Are you saying they moved us? Didn’t we tell the computer to hold our position?”
“It did. But the air moved,” said Johnny. “As ordered, the ship stayed with the airflow … taking samples.”
Tsu threw her peppizza on the floor in disgust. “That means the computer got us lost in the reef. I thought computers were supposed to be smart.”
“Computers do what they’re told, Tsu,” replied Alex. “Most of the time, at least. I told it to chase after the clicks. If you need a goat, blame me. But maybe I can fix it.” He lifted his head. “Computer …” he said, loudly. “Can you navigate back to the position where we caught the clicks?”
“
Define location,
” said the computer’s artificial voice.
“Where we caught the clicks.”
“
Unspecified location.
”
“Computer … can you locate the tunnel we came from?” Despite his growing frustration, Alex did his best to speak in a calm, controlled manner. There was a prolonged silence before the computer spoke again.
“
State coordinates
,” it finally answered.
“Dingers,” said Alex, looking out the window. The air was full of clicker men still making passes at the ship, but none of them seemed inclined to linger.
“Where are we, Johnny? Tony?” Alex looked around.
“We’re in a cavern,” said Tony. “That’s why it looks like there’s nothing out there but clicks. I can see its shape on the radar. It’s not round. Hard to define. It’s like a tree root. Lots of forks and channels. The picture’s confusing.”
“I thought the whole reef glowed,” said Tsu, looking sadly out the window.
“Only near the top,” offered Mary. Her cat was back in her lap and she stroked it nervously. “I think we should just let the clicks go, Alex,” she added. “This doesn’t look good.”
“What good would it do to let them go?” roared Johnny.
“Analysis complete
,” said the computer. “
Maintenance of specimen can be accomplished artificially.
”
“Verify,” ordered the Professor.
After another prolonged moment of silence the computer said, “
Verified.
”
“We can leave any time, Alex,” said Johnny, his voice sounding a bit more positive.
“Computer … Reverse course,” said Alex, without hesitation. The ship began turning and the clicker men suddenly vanished into the darkness.
“I think we scared them away,” said Tsu, peering at the window.
The ship continued to turn, then it powered up and began moving against the wind. “Do we know where we’re going?” asked Alex.
Sciarra shook his head. “I hope the ship has more to go on than wind direction.”
“We’re going against the wind,” said Tsu. “Shouldn’t the wind be taking us out of the reef.”
“Are you forgetting the current brought us here?” asked Johnny.
“I think wind direction is meaningless,” stated Tony. “There must be a dozen channels nearby. Then there’s the breeze kicked up by the clicker men.”
“That wouldn’t affect
Diver
,” said Alex.
Tony gave a long frustrated sigh. “But if they can make tunnels … redirect air currents … who knows what they can do?”
Tony’s statement jogged Alex’s memory. “That would explain how the clicks got here so quickly, how they managed to be everywhere … in front or behind.”
“I think we hit a nest of them,” agreed Tony.
“We’ll have to find our way out,” said Johnny as he switched the outside floodlights to their maximum setting. “I don’t think the computer can do it.”
3
“Take the helm, Alex,” ordered Johnny as he lifted his bubble, stood up and gazed at the viewscreen. The ship’s blinding lights showed the cavern still full of clicker men. “They’re moving randomly,” the Professor observed.
Inky had grown weary of Mary’s over-petting and retreated to the back of the cabin. Mary watched him go and smiled. She noticed Alex looking at her. “What?”
“Time to communicate with the clicks, if you can, my love,” said Alex. “Ask ’em where the exit is?” Though weary from lack of sleep, he managed a smile. Equally stressed, Mary frowned and put on her earphones without comment.
What Alex saw of the cavern behind the cloud of clicks resembled the inside of a vast multi-chambered organ. He judged it to be at least half a kilometer wide with walls dotted with passageways, including a few that looked large enough for the ship to enter.
Alex could have changed their heading, but he believed the computer had chosen the course for a reason. He had trusted the computer on other occasions and saw no reason to doubt it now. His only worry was the clicker men. He felt certain that it looked to them as if
Diver
had eaten two of their kind. He wondered what kind of resistance they might muster to capture their colleagues, if that’s what they had in mind. What haunted Alex was that the hostage clicks had cocooned themselves, perhaps reflexively. Since exploring the reef, he had taken time to bone up on terrestrial biology. His and Mary’s bedroom on Ganymede was full of disks on the subject, many of them on loan from Gannytown’s General Data Hub.
Now, watching scores of the clicks dancing in front of the ship, Alex was trying discern some order to their actions. “Circle the wagons,” he said as he eased forward on the stick. “We’re goin’ in.”