Farthest Reef (13 page)

“Wagons?” said Tsu.

“You know … John Wayne?”

“You mean Jan Wan,” said Tsu. “The clavichrome player?”

“John Wayne. Western movies?” Alex shook his head. “I meant that we’re under attack.”

A splash of something red hit the window. Then another, like a round wet crimson blanket, hit the glass with a noiseless splat. The click lingered, splayed out against the glass. In the center of the crimson ring of wide petals was a stalk, slender and white, made of a translucent material that revealed what appeared to be a column of blue internal organs.

Each click stayed only a second, then shot away.

“Cripes!” said Tsu. “That looked rude!”

“Mary,” Alex said in an urgent voice. “We need advice.”

“Advice? I have no advice,” Mary almost growled.

The Professor sighed. “What do you propose would be our appropriate course of action, Mary? Is there any insight …?”

“Let the clicks go,” Mary answered, smiling. “I can’t believe capturing clicker men is of value to the mission. Dump them and report we were unsuccessful. Who’s to …?”

“Let the clicks go?” interrupted Johnny. He studied Mary’s perfect features for a moment, then calmly said to Alex, “Pilot, hold our course. Proceed toward that cave … but carefully. Try not to run over any clicks. I’ll be at my station.”

Johnny looked tired and bewildered as he returned to his virtual bubble.

“Tony,” said Tsu. “Any traces on the radar? Anything in that tunnel?”

Sciarra shook his head and looked over at her. “No more than everyone can see on the big screen. If you’re asking my opinion, I’d say this tunnel is as good a bet as any to get out of here.”

The view began to darken inexplicably. At first they hardly noticed, but in less than a minute the scene outside grew black as pitch. They didn’t have to wonder for long. A storm of blinding black fluff had suddenly filled the air outside the ship.

“It seems to be raining down on us,” said Tsu.

Johnny panned the cameras upward.
Diver’s
floodlights followed. “They’re throwing their bodies at the roof,” said Tsu. “Trying to bury us.”

“Or make us change course,” said Alex, concentrating on his flying.

“Are we taking on material? Are the outer vents closed?” Johnny sounded panicked, his voice booming on the cabin speakers. “How’re systems?”

“Air feed half down without using gassers,” reported Alex, reading the dials of his console. “Reason to worry, Professor?”

Tsu looked at Alex, “You’re the best judge of that. The one with all the experience.”

Alex laughed. “I’m the screwup who destroyed the reef samples last time, remember? You trust me?”

“Not willfully, of course,” said Johnny’s voice. “Tsu’s right, Alex. You know the reef. That’s why we drafted you.”

“Right, but …” Alex held the course as steady as possible despite the attacking clicks. Now he also had to consider that the flight recorders were running. Everything they said was subject to official review. He shook his head doubtfully and he rubbed his unshaven chin. “This part of the reef is new to me,” he said. “There’s no glow. It looks abandoned. It’s like an ancient … I don’t know … graveyard. But there’s all these clicks. I honestly haven’t a clue.”

“Maybe it’s an old city,” said Johnny. “Anyway, we’re leaving it.”

Johnny’s camera zoomed in on the nearest wall and brought up the image brightness. The resulting picture showed pockets dotting the walls of the cavern, like decaying alcoves or abandoned homes.

“This place is a dead zone,” mumbled Tsu, shifting uneasily in her seat.

“If the place is dead, that explains the weak radar tracings.” Tony yawned as he spoke. “If it’s all dead … it’s all the same. The tracings flatten.”

“You don’t think they brought us here, do you?” asked Tsu, looking at Alex.

“Let’s please stop the speculation,” said Johnny’s voice. “We have some hard decisions to make before committing to that tunnel we’re entering.”

Alex felt the clicks were responsible, at least in part, for their situation, but he couldn’t see how they accomplished it, or why. As Johnny had said, speculation was meaningless. The opening resembled a cave with a yawning leafy mouth. Out of it was pouring the cool breath of a descending current of air, air that probably was descending from the top of the reef. The clicks moved as a single body, as though they understood that the invader in their midst had decided to depart. In only a few seconds the cave mouth began to fill with them.

“We’re gonna have to fight,” said Alex. “We’ll have to hurt a few to get out of here. Do we want to do that, Johnny?”

“We need the specimens, Alex.”

“What if we let one out?” asked Mary. She took off her headphones and shook her head. Her crown of snow white hair fell back into place perfectly. “We can see if that does any good.”

“I’m not sure we can let one out,” said Johnny. “Besides, it’s better to have two clicker men on the
Goddard
in case one fails to make the trip.”

“You could open the snatcher, then cut its power,” proposed Sciarra. “It will probably freeze open.”

“They’d both leave,” said Johnny.

“Suck one back as it leaves,” said Tony.

“If they both leave at the same time?” Johnny’s patience seemed to be wearing out.

“They can’t,” said Alex. “Not if they leave under their own power.”

“That’s right,” said Mary Seventeen. “They need room to spread their wings.”

“Stop the engines and dim the lights,” ordered Johnny.

Diver
hovered with the entrance to the cave only about fifty meters ahead. In order to hover the ship’s engines had to be operating. Alex took the Professor’s order literally and switched off the engines. Immediately they were nudged backward by the wind.

“Computer. Hold our position relative to the surrounding material.” Johnny sounded angry. Another click smashed into the window, then another as the clicks attacked the ship with greater frenzy. Over and over, the clicker men thumped their bodies against the hull. One click, an especially large one, spread its crimson petals and slathered across the cockpit window. It hovered there a moment before detaching itself and flying off. It left behind a gooey mass that looked like mucus, then a large clump of black fluff hit the window and stuck to the slime.

When another clicker man did the same, Sciarra leapt to the window and watched the red underwing as they exuded the goo. “Tiny vermicelli,” he said to Alex, half in awe and half in disgust. “Millions of worms.”

The click outside departed wetly. Strings of slime followed it away, collected black fluff, and snapped back onto the window where more of it had already collected.

“They’re burying us in the reef,” said Alex. “Or something worse. We can electrify the hull. But I can’t find the switch,” said Alex looking around his console. “It’s been moved.”

“It’s in here,” said Johnny. “Good idea. I’ll switch it on.” Sparks suddenly flashed all over the cabin windows. Gradually the material began drying up and charring. Soon it was flaking away.

And the clicker men were gone.

Johnny instantly brightened the outside lights. The air was still full of debris, but it was beginning to thin. Johnny switched on the lower cameras. When he did so, everyone immediately saw where the clicks had gone. Their bodies were littering the floor of the cave, tossing in the steady breeze like dried black flowers. One by one the clicker men began to move, but none seemed able to fly, at least at the moment.

4
Johnny laughed. “Well, that was a great idea, Alex. I think that material in the air carried the hull’s static charge out to the clicks. I’m switching it off now. Doubt they’ll try that again.” He was quiet for a moment. “I suppose that was an historical moment. The first battle with the clicks.”

“Won handily, I might add,” snapped Tony. “And cleaned our windows, too.”

Everyone laughed, except Alex and Mary. “We zapped them,” said Alex darkly. “But that’s what we wanted to avoid. Dingers, Johnny, what’s to laugh about? If we wanted to hurt ’em we could’ve just jacked the engines.”

The viewscreen showed the clicks gradually coming back to their senses. Some of them had even taken wing. For the most part it looked as if the clicks had merely been stunned.

“Awww, they seem fine. Hell, Alex. It was your idea, anyway.” Johnny sounded weary. “Anyway, we have to leave the reef. We’re on the clock. Let’s go, Alex. That’s …”

“I know,” interrupted Alex, pressing the stick forward. “That’s an order.”

With no clicks impeding their advance, Alex took the ship straight into the tunnel. Knowing that the clicks had probably just been stunned was enough to allow him to concentrate on piloting the ship.
Diver’s
crew had accomplished the mission without rest. What lay ahead was an uncertain exit from the reef, and already the smell of nervous sweat was beginning to linger in the cabin. This was no time to worry about the clicks.

Mary apparently read his mind. She brought hot coffee made from fresh beans grown in one of Gannytown’s underground farms. The smell of it reminded him of a time he and Mary had picked their own beans from greenhouse bushes, brought them home and roasted them. “Yum,” he said appreciatively. “You read my mind.”

Mary smiled. “We need you awake to get us out of here. As for me, a geebrew and orange will do nicely.”

Following the contours of the tunnel,
Diver
lifted suddenly. Mary lost her balance and nearly fell on Inky at her feet. The cat had just summoned the courage to rejoin the crew. In the low gravity Mary easily caught herself, but not quickly enough to prevent Inky’s explosive return to hiding. “Jeeps,” she said. “Take it easy, Alex.”

Through the smudges on the glass Alex saw the familiar greenish glow of living reef, and before long the tunnel expanded and filled with the biological light of thousands of creatures. With more room to maneuver and a reliable radar image now on the screen, he was finally able to relax a bit, and Mary’s touch when she brought him the coffee helped revive him as much as the splendid brew she’d made.

Outside, living animals began flitting through
Diver’s
lights, and over the loudspeakers Alex heard distant hummers. “Hear those hummers?” asked the voice of the Professor. “That means we’re getting near the top of the reef.”

Mary leaned over and kissed Alex’s ear. “Not to distract you, but I can hear clicks.”

Alex looked over his shoulder at Sciarra. “Any activity out there, Tony? Look as far ahead as possible.”

“I can use high intensity bursts. But …”

Johnny was apparently listening from his booth.“Do it, Sciarra.”

Mary was still leaning against Alex’s chair, close enough for her white locks to tickle his ear. His testosterone kicked in immediately. “Right here, right now, Mary,” he whispered lustily. “Before the clicks get us.”

“Only if I can sit on your face,” she must have thought, because Alex heard her say it even though her lips didn’t move. Her loving eyes caressed him. “We’ll be aboard
Goddard
before long.” Mary glanced up at the screens. “They’re way behind us,” she said as she turned and went back to her seat, leaving Alex to his testosterone and coffee.

Tsu looked at Alex and smiled. “You two now qualify as in-flight entertainment.”

5
The tunnel was now wider and flatter. Alex had seen such caverns before, huge caves that were far wider than they were tall. All the large air channels formed that shape, the Professor noted, presumably because the reef was made of layers, laid down like sediment over time. The Professor was out of his bubble, discoursing on the reef. The layers, he said, formed natural baffles that lifted the reef. Each one deflected the heat upwelling in the Great Red Spot one way or another, holding the reef in place. There were millions of these channels. Together, they lifted an area larger than the surface of the Earth.

“That hasn’t been established,” snapped Tony. “With less than 1 percent of it explored, you’re speculating.”

“You’ve seen it for yourself, for God’s sake, Sciarra. I fail to see why you’re arguing this. What’s wrong with you?” The Professor’s voice seemed to rise an octave with each outburst.

At the moment Alex wasn’t in the mood for a debate about the reef. While the Professor and Tony argued, Alex focused on his flying. Tony’s radar had been sweeping the reef, and the clarity of the image was remarkable. He could see several levels of the reef structure Johnny was describing, and the tunnels that riddled its fibrous flesh. He switched the radar to a rear view and saw what he expected to see. Thousands of blips were following the ship in the tunnels that ran parallel. The clicks were clearly keeping their distance. He switched the radar to look forward again, and saw no blips in front of the ship. The channel they were in seemed to be narrowing and seemed to have fewer tunnels crisscrossing its flesh. Alex decided to try the computer again.

“Computer,” Alex said. “Can you calculate a course that will take us to the surface?”

“
Evaluating.
” The computer took control of the radar.

Engrossed in his argument with Johnny, Sciarra hadn’t been paying attention to his screens. When the computer took control they must have changed radically, because he reacted with alarm. “What are you doing, Alex?” he demanded.

“Getting us out of here,” said Alex.

Connie Tsu laughed. “While you experts have been jawin’, our Alex has figured a way out of the reef.”

“Not me,” remarked Alex, keeping his eyes fixed on the viewscreen. “But maybe the computer can. It did it before.”

“
A track to the surface has been mapped
,” said the voice of the computer.

“Enable,” said Alex. Then he caught himself. “Belay that order, computer.” He turned to face the Professor. “Is that okay with you, Johnny?”

“Of course,” Johnny said. “Thank you, Alex.”

“Computer … enable!” said Alex, firmly. “Thank
Diver’s
computer, Johnny,” he added as the ship accelerated. “With all the add-ons,
Diver’s
quite a ship.”

“That’s why we want her on hand to explore Bubba,” answered Johnny’s voice.