Farthest Reef (18 page)
Authors: Karl Kofoed
Tags: #Fiction, #Action & Adventure, #Science Fiction, #space
“Doctor,” said the woman as she disappeared from view.
Johnny returned to the screen. “The medicine will take an hour to work, Alex,” he said. “Seems you’ve had an adverse reaction.” Johnny looked away. “The medicine that dampened Mary’s nerves blitzed you, but you’ll be fine.”
Alex smelled a sweetness in the air. It caught in the back of his throat and he coughed, then a puff of pink smoke covered his body, but dissipated almost instantly. Panic and paranoia suddenly hit him. He felt like a lab rat. “Dingers, Johnny …”
The Professor held up his hand. “You’re upset, I know, Alex. I’ve got work to do. Trust me … you’ll be fine. By the way, you can get dressed now.” The screen went blank and Alex, still swimming in a fogged reality, stared up at a blue sky. His mind drifted again. The color, a soothing shade of blue, was generated at the doctor’s orders, but the illusion he saw in his mind contained clouds, a sun, and even the tops of trees.
The color of the clouds changed quickly to reddish hues and the sun disappeared behind the trees. Birds around him chirped softly as darkness fell and the stars came out. He saw a huge needle suspended in space and recognized it instantly as the
Goddard
. It appeared small, its seamless white hull no longer gleaming white but a ghostly gray. The ship was getting smaller, disappearing into the night. Soon the
Goddard
was gone and Alex was left behind turning slowly in space, lost in a sea of stars, weightless and alone.
4
When the medicinal fog cleared, Mary lay next to Alex, her perfect body wrapped around him. Awakening that way, especially after the solitude of his dream, was like returning from the dead in the arms of an angel.
It took a day for the medicines to adjust Alex’s system, but aside from brief periods of dizziness, he was fine. Fine though he was, his dream haunted him. When he told Mary about it, she smiled. “I saw it, too, Alex,” she said. “So did everybody. While you slept, a probe was sent out to document
Goddard
and help get a fix on our position. The pictures it took were on all the monitors. I saw you open your eyes and look at it,” she added.
Knowing that his dream had been real made Alex feel better, but only slightly. “Dingers, love,” he said. “We’re really out there in deep space, aren’t we? I remember looking everywhere to find the brightest star … the sun, but all the bright ones looked the same.”
Mary nodded. “Well, the probe looked around, as you did, but it found the sun. But to my eye they all looked the same, too.”
A hearty meal and some coffee helped revive Alex. Soon, he and Mary were exploring
Goddard
, using their cab to visit ports of call all over the ship. On one foray they even took Inky. Alex didn’t approve, but Mary insisted the cat was part of the mission.
The decks of the great rotating cylinder were not only divided by walls and depots, but also by pass requirements. Alex and Mary had to wait for permission to see the Life Sciences Section and its Clonic Labs, the Greenhouses.
But the place Alex had become most curious about was the Power Train Assembly, housed inside the gigantic columnar axle that ran down the spine of the ship. Wrapped around it was a weightless world of vines and vegetation divided by glowing trenches that provided daylight for the cylinder. The giant verdant column housed the machine that created the graviton pulse wave that opened the wormhole. Alex knew it took enormous power to do that, but when he had probed Johnny for more information about, it all the Professor would say was, “It’s basically just a chain of generators.” He was told that the area was off limits to all but a special team, for security reasons.
Johnny’s secrecy and brief description of the machine served only to pique Alex’s interest. So at the earliest opportunity Alex tried to get the cab to take them to the Power Train. The computer said that it was inaccessible from this tubeway.
“Inaccessible?” Alex did his best to sound offended.
“
Yes.
”
“But we have priority clearance, don’t we?
”He and Mary sat unmoving in the cab, waiting for the computer to say more. Alex was about to give up on it when the monitor on the cab’s control panel blinked on, revealing the face of Captain Wysor. “Greet’n’s, Rose. Call it testin’ th’ system,” said Wysor with a congenial grin. “Y’know’ Rose, the only motors assigned to you are abo’d that ship o’ y’rs.” He winked. “But ’e can’t say the same ’bout the Power Train.”
“You’re saying I’m bucking security?” said Alex. “Dingers! What harm can a little show and tell do?”
Wysor’s face turned downward and he took a deep breath. “Security was gonna stomp you f’r ev’n askin’,” said the Captain. I told ’em to let a Ganny do the talkin’. Y’ see, Alex, we’re keepin’ every soul from the Train,” he said, eyeing Alex through the camera again. “It’s ’bots alone, aft’ the first kickoff, ya might say.”
“And we’re movin’ ta first ’n goal?” replied Alex. “That it?”
“Ye’,” said the Captain. “You n’t find ’t too pleasant, lad. Nuff said?”
“Do you have crews for maintaining the Train?” Alex persisted, holding up a finger.
“That’s a roger, pilot,” said Wysor.
“Couldn’t we suit up and go with ’em?” asked Mary.
Wysor’s head lowered again and his engaging smile vanished completely. Alex held up his hands. “Sorry. Second thought, cap, it’s not important,” he said loudly. “I’m just stirrin’ up dust. F’get it.”
The Captain’s smile returned. “Tha’s it. Now, if ya’ll excuse …” The Captain’s face vanished and the monitor went dark.
“Flyin’ to the stars with Big Brother,” Alex shook his head, looking at Mary.
“This is obviously serious business to them,” said Mary. “Best to do as he says.”
Alex wasn’t ready to drop the subject entirely, however. He spent the rest of the evening in their communication room, using his special access status to probe the computer’s engineering archives. He didn’t find much that he could access, but enough to tell him that the Power Train held a slender rod of neutronium. Around it, and running the length of the ship, was a series of power plants that worked sequentially. As Johnny had said, it was a train of generators that produced power in a chain. The pulses built up for days and discharged at the speed of light. The enormous pulse of energy opened a wormhole in space and sent the
Goddard
riding a wave down it.
Magnificent as this feat was, it created only a small wormhole, nothing like the ones produced by black holes. Those were powered by collapsing stars, not a few high powered generators. While
Goddard’s
Power Train did distort the fabric of space, it allowed only limited hops of a bit over 1.6 light years. This was a vast distance for a ship to cover in one leap, but still minute in the scale of the cosmos. Hopefully, at the end of
Goddard’s
wormhole tunnel would be the star called Lalande. One of the sun’s close neighbors, it was only eight light years distant. Still, it would take five jumps and almost as many weeks for the passage.
In his research Alex learned that Power Train was installed and maintained almost entirely by robots. He learned also that if any one of the power plants failed during the ten jumps required for a round trip, the
Goddard
would remain among the stars, with only rocket power to get her home. The idea was almost too frightening to ponder. His curiosity satisfied, Alex was glad to drop the subject.
Chapter 9
1
Inky slept as if nothing had happened, but Alex and Mary were up and out of the pod as soon as the last of the five jumps was over.
Goddard
was at the edge of the Lalande system, still billions of kilometers from their goal: Lalande 21185b, the innermost of the system’s two Jovian planets. But there was no hoopla, no fanfares; only a sober announcement from acting Commander Baltadonis to start the “Lalande Implementation”, as he called it. Put simply, it meant that the crew of the
Goddard
should begin to set up shop.
Everyone had been anticipating this moment for weeks, of course, but Alex still had trouble believing that in only four and a half weeks their ship had successfully bridged light years of space and reached another star. Until this moment everything had been theory.
Alex stopped at the food panel for coffee and hurried to the communications room, trying not to spill the scalding brew. “Computer,” he directed. “Patch our monitor into Master Control. I want to see what’s going on.”
The image of the control room was on screen when Mary arrived close on his heels, holding a piece of sweet-soy pie and a geebrew. She sat down on the while foam sofa next to him and pointed her chin at the screen. “Well …?”
“Donno’,” Alex said. “Nothing going on.” He pointed to the screen. “They’re waiting like we are. But there’s no doubt we’ve arrived. That’s Lalande on their screens.”
Mary seemed disinterested, only glancing at the picture of the com. She took a bite of her food and glanced at the window that looked out on the interior of the great cylinder. “They’ll be powering up, soon, I suppose. Filling the lake, starting the day-night thing.”
“I guess …” Alex said. He noticed Mary’s skin seemed unusually pale. “By the way, how was the jump for you?”
“Fine.”
“You look … pale.”
Mary laughed. “Those are my genes, Alex, not my skin. I’m fine.” She moved close to him, holding up her arm, comparing his skin to hers. She flipped his robe aside and gasped at his member in mock astonishment. “It’s so … so … pale. Are you okay?”
Alex looked down and laughed. “Ask him yourself.”
“Oh, he talks now, does he?” Mary giggled mischievously.
“What?” Alex closed his robe forcefully.
“It reminded me of the clicker men,” said Mary, getting up and walking to the window.
“Dingers, love, that’s hitting below the belt.” He glared at Mary as she touched a button on a vertical strip that divided the wide expanse of glass. She waited until the button glowed green, then pushed it again and the window slid open.
“It’s foggy out there,” she said sadly.
“Computer. How long before the cylinder is activated?” asked Alex, joining Mary at the window.
“
The process has already begun, Alex.
”
He sniffed the air and noticed a musty smell. He’d smelled something like it on Earth but had no idea what it was. “Maybe we should close the window, Mary,” he said. “It stinks out there. Computer, can you identify that smell?”
“
Biological substrates tend to decompose after prolonged ultraviolet deprivation
,” said the computer. “
Simulations have predicted that Goddard’s interior would experience 20-40% degradation by the arrival at Lalande 21185b. I have no direct way to sample the aromas you describe.
”
“Yuk,” said Mary, pushing the window button repeatedly to hasten its closure. She returned to the sofa.
“Computer,” Alex said in a commanding tone, “Can you explain the fog?”
“
The interior has cooled, condensing water vapor. Dampness assists the propagation of the odors.
”
Mary stared at her half eaten pie and pushed it aside. “Computer. How long before that stink is gone?”
“
After the solar core is activated the air cleaners will be activated.
”
“I guess we may as well get used to it,” said Alex.
“Congratulations, everyone,” said the voice of Professor Baltadonis. “We made it.”
Alex looked at the viewscreen. Johnny’s face was there, surrounded by a jubilant staff. Foam hoods, gloves and slippers were flying through the air amid the cheers.
Alex looked at Mary and saw the same light in her eyes. “We really made it,” she said.
The cheers in the control room abruptly faded. The image on Alex and Mary’s com screen had changed. Instead of the control room, there was a picture of a star, one that looked much like the sun, but much smaller. “Captain Wysor would like to address the crew,” said the Commander’s voice. “Captain …?”
“We go’ no windows,” said the Captain, his words tinged with emotion. “Cameras th’ best we ’ave. This picture’s to our aft. The view behind us, that is. I thought you’d all like t’ gander at th’ view ’fore we chug off to Bubba. That star, left o’ center … she’s our sun.”
“That’s right, Captain,” interrupted Professor Baltadonis. “While we admire that view, I’d like to share some reports I’ve received.
Goddard’s
trajectory is now 100% confirmed. Our position also has been verified. Mechanically we are in excellent shape. The Power Train did its job … working perfectly.” The Professor paused, apparently to check his figures. “Our speed is slowing because of the ramjets, which are also functioning perfectly. Structurally, we are also in good shape. The flexweb has worked as planned, standing up well to the wormhole distortions.” Johnny took a deep breath. “So, everyone,
Goddard
has made the first successful interstellar crossing … and I am pleased to announce that we’ll be orbiting Bubba … and setting up shop … in less than a week.”
Suddenly Johnny’s face replaced the image of the sun on all ship’s monitors. Behind him was the control room. The Professor faced the camera, beaming, adding, “I wanted to say some words … appropriate words … to underscore the significance of our arrival, but I find myself a poor spokesman. All I can think to add is congratulations to all of us … and may God continue to grace our mission.” He paused and looked away from the camera. “I should add that in four hours the interior lights will be ignited. There will be a general briefing in the middle of Geneva Island.”
The camera switched to the outside view again. This time the image was of the red dwarf Lalande.
“Is there something we should do?” asked Mary.
“Breakfast, I suppose,” said Alex.
2
What mattered most to the 1276 souls aboard the
Goddard
was that their ship was still in working order. This knowledge was all the reassurance most needed, at the moment, to concentrate fully on the mission. Alex knew that if the news had been different, and the voyage had become a one way trip, this marooned pocket of humanity would have had completely different priorities. With each of them thanking whatever God they held dear,
Goddard’s
crew focused on their goal, a ball of hydrogen and helium now called Bubba.
Soon the great strip lights burned once more from the hub of the great cylinder and Mary’s mood brightened considerably. Still, for the moment, there was nothing for them to do. Months might pass before any mission involving
Diver
could be planned, but as flight and communications officers, Alex and Mary attended all the general briefings.
The first of these was held as announced, on Geneva Island – a peninsula really, surrounded by the U shaped lake. Access to the place was provided from anywhere via a network of roads and bridges, and from below. Most of the crew, now free to travel the surface, had chosen to walk to the great meeting.
An hour before the assembly, Johnny, Tony Sciarra, and Connie Tsu met at Alex and Mary’s domicile, which had been elevated to its normal two story height. Now from their com room window Mary had her picturesque view, looking out on a park with tall trees and a playground. To the right was the lake. Everyone converged in Alex and Mary’s com room, and Johnny went straight to the communications console and inserted a data disk.
“A little preview. Our astronomers have been busy. I have Bubba’s first pictures.” Johnny smiled and surveyed the faces surrounding him. “The spot. The spot on Bubba is … big.”
How big?” asked Alex.
“Big,” said Johnny. The wall screen went black, and official documentation scrolled in white lettering for a few seconds, then they were looking at a hazy blue globe. The planet filled the rectangular screen. Jovian style atmospheric belts stood out clearly but subtly in great swaths of blue and gray. Alex noticed planet’s slightly oval shape and knew it meant that Bubba’s swift rotation was causing its equator to bulge and the poles to flatten. In the center of the image was a mottled oval, its color blue like the rest of the planet, but to Alex it stood out boldly as a match to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.
“This recording is only a few hours old,” continued Johnny. “The astro boys wasted no time. Look here …” The Professor walked to the wall screen, pointing enthusiastically. “So far Bubba’s spot looks structurally similar to Jupiter’s.”
“So far, so good,” said Sciarra.
Without knocking, Matt Howarth came into the room with his assistant, Jeanne Warren, and two officers. “So I see,” said Matt. He nudged his assistant. “Look, Jeanne, there’s the spot.”
“Just walk right in,” Mary grumbled quietly.
Matt heard her. “You have no doorbell, it would seem,” he said. “I knocked, I assure you.”
“Fine, fine, fine. Please …” Johnny raised his hands in the air. “We need to leave for the gathering soon. Are the transports here?”
“We came in it. A bus, really,” offered Jeanne. “They dragged us away,” she added, casting a critical eye on the staffers who waited by the doorway.
“The clicks were moving in circles.” Matt explained, looking doubtfully at his assistant. “We don’t know why.”
“Are they all right?” Johnny raised an eyebrow as he peered critically at Matt.
“As far as we can tell.” Matt sounded dubious.
After a long silence, Johnny pointed to the picture of the planet on the screen. “I just wanted to emphasize that the spot is structurally identical to Jupiter’s spot. This is what we were hoping for, is it not?” He grinned expectantly.
Matt looked blankly at the screen. “I’m not surprised,” he said. “Shall we go?”
Howarth’s words were a cue for everyone to adjourn to the bus that waited in front of the house. It was an open air wagon, a spindly surface rover made to minimal weight specifications, like everything else aboard. The landscape around them was green, and despite their long sleep in darkness, the trees still held their color. Birds seemed to be everywhere, even high above near the green central column where the gravity was weakest. The birds seemed to revel in the experience, flocking and looping crazily.
“What exactly is supposed to happen here, Johnny?” asked Alex as he slid into a plastifoam seat next to Mary. They sat side by side in twos, everyone facing forward behind two uniformed officers. One of them piloted the bus down a wide path, then to a roadway that led to a causeway across the empty lake.
The cart moved no faster than a walk, but Alex didn’t mind. The snail’s pace trip to the grand assembly added drama to the moment.
3
The shoreline of Geneva Island was lined with fruit trees, placed randomly as though they had sprouted there. Beyond stretched a wide expanse of grassy lawn with picnic tables and seats. The road the bus was traveling wound along the edge of the grounds, with turnoffs every so often leading to a broad open field in the middle of the peninsula. In the distance, visible because of the cylinder’s curvature, Alex saw the tops of trees and the lakebed beyond. He guessed the peninsula was over a kilometer long and half as wide, but the distortion of the environment made distances hard to gauge.
People walked in groups, talking as they strolled toward the end of Geneva Island. Most of them wore fatigues of various colors. The colors, Johnny said, signified their assignments. The military wore dark blue, the biotechs wore yellow, and so on. But as Alex surveyed the multitudes, he noticed they didn’t appear regimented. Most of them had personalized their coveralls, or they wore standard clothes, typical of Earth. Mary pointed out some wearing the tight outfits typical of the Martian terraformers. There were people of all races and ages, many of them grouped as families, small and large. One couple, also riding in a bus, was in the company of about a dozen children singing songs and laughing. Their mood was contagious and soon everyone on Alex’s bus was singing with them.
“I should have brought Inky,” said Mary. “He’s part of the family now.”
Alex smiled but said nothing as he continued to survey the multitude. “They were right,” he said. “This is one hell of an assembly.”
Alex noticed a structure at the end of the field, rising three stories above the ground and topped with a billboard sized screen showing the image of Bubba that Johnny had previewed on their com screen. He found it strange to see the same picture looming so large in the open air of the great cylinder.
Mary directed his attention to the sky. High up, near the glowing axle of the cylinder, were groups of what appeared to be multi-colored birds. As they descended from the weightless hub their gravity increased and they fell more swiftly, gaining speed with each passing second. As they neared the ground, Alex could see that they were people with their limbs outstretched. Their brightly colored outfits had webbing connecting their arms and legs. The crowd watching from the field gasped as the flyers turned in unison and began to glide in wide circles, finally deploying colorfully decorated parachutes and landing safely amid the cheering crowd.
He looked at Mary and smiled. “Everybody seems right at home,” she said. It was, of course, exactly what he was thinking, word for word.
The bus came to a stop not far from the building and everyone got out except the two officers and Johnny, who continued onward. Alex, Mary, and all the others settled on the yellow-green grass and watched Johnny and the two officers enter the building. A large stage extended from the front of the building, with steps on either side leading to it. The tall structure had windows and walkways running along the front of each floor and was topped by the large screen they had seen from a distance. Sciarra, standing next Alex and Mary, said the building was called the Forum.