Farthest Reef (22 page)

“True, Johnny,” said Alex with a grin, “You never know what some folks’ll do?” Johnny returned his gaze unflinchingly.

Mary had been listening to the two men talk and was getting uncomfortable with it. “Okay, you two,” she said. “Let’s put the rubber tips on those horns.”

Johnny laughed out loud, but Alex didn’t. Outside the house, pools of light moved back and forth over the landscape.

Something seemed to be bothering Mary, but Alex waited until Johnny left to ask her about it. At first she was reluctant to discuss it, but he pressed for an answer.

“I don’t know what it is,” Mary said as she climbed into bed next to Alex.

“Something I said?”

Mary kissed his cheek. “Not at all. It’s a strange feeling,” she said. “It’s just a feeling.”

Alex chose not to probe further. He knew Mary would tell him when she was ready, so he held her close and eventually they both fell asleep.

3
They spent the next morning watching ultralight aircraft negotiating the cylindrical sky. These were different from the ones Alex had seen at dusk. He guessed the pilots he now watched were burning time, waiting for work, as Alex and Mary were.

“What do we do today?” asked Mary.

Until they were ready to fire up
Diver
, all Alex and Mary could do was to absorb as much of the giant ship as they could. Johnny had said that
Goddard
was so immense that no one could master the floor plans, let alone visit every floor. They had seen as much of the ship as they could. But, as Johnny said, there was much left to explore.

But Alex felt drawn to only one place. Like a question unanswered, the clicker men haunted him. Even now, watching the gossamer airships learn the complex dynamics of an airspace with variable gravity, all Alex could think about was them. “I want to see the clicks again,” he answered.

“Me, too,” said Mary.

Alex stared at her. “Really?”

“I was thinking the same thing you were,” she said, smiling demurely.

Alex sighed. “Why am I surprised?” He lifted his wrist strap. “Computer … is it okay to visit the bio labs … specifically the clicker man enclosure?”

A tiny but easily audible female voice spoke from the strap. “
Your cab has been activated and programmed
.” There was a slight pause. “
Matt Howarth has been notified of your request and approves your visit. He asks that you bring a few geebrews, as their food panel is being repaired.
”

“Not bad,” said Alex, putting down his coffee. “Let’s go, Mary.” Mary shook her head. “What’s wrong?”

“You might want to put on clothes first,” she said, grinning.

They loaded four squeezers with geebrew until the ration light came on, then went down the spiral stairs and into the underground tubeway. The way the steps bent slightly under Alex’s weight made him grip the railing tightly. He told Mary he couldn’t shake the notion that
Goddard
might start falling apart before long. He was glad she laughed. That meant she didn’t agree.

As the computer had promised the cab was waiting to speed them off to the Biolab, and soon they were standing again in front of the click’s enclosure. Matt was there too, but too busy to do more than greet them. He and several technicians were setting up a camera pod to monitor what Matt was already calling the fledglings.

But Alex saw no baby clicker men. In fact, as he examined the balls of fluff, he was surprised to see that they had changed little since he had last seen them. “Notice any change?” he asked Mary.

“Not really,” she said, peering into the enclosure. “They sound different, though. They were just making static before. Now I hear clicking.”

“Can you pinpoint the source?”

“Many sources.” She moved closer to the glass. The lone adult clicker man, who had been resting against a large pile of fluff, unfurled blanket-like wings and lifted. In seconds it was hovering at the glass opposite Mary. She didn’t recoil as it approached, but stood her ground, facing the clicker man. Alex saw that she was smiling and her lips were moving slightly. He looked to see if anyone else was watching Mary and the click, but the others were involved in erecting a latticework to which they would attach the cameras.

Alex eyed the clicker man suspiciously. “I thought it was going to bump the glass and explode … or something.”

Mary was still moving her lips, gazing at the clicker man. “What are you doing?” Alex whispered.

“Nothing.”

“Are you talking to it?”

“Trying to.”

“Any luck?”

Mary shrugged. “I’m not sure I could tell if I was getting through or not. I never tried a direct conversation.”

The click was hovering in place, its five wings furled in an arch that formed a black bowl shape around the creature’s milky stalk-like body. The wings rippled with small waves that moved along their surface toward the floor. The click reminded Alex of a hovercraft. “Are you getting any … back and forth … at all?” he asked.

“It’s like whistling to birds. Sometimes there’s an answer, but you’re never sure if you’re connecting or not.” Mary looked at the click. It was moving again along the glass toward the group who were building the camera platform. The clicker man moved so slowly, tipping slightly to move in one direction or another that the workers didn’t notice. In a few seconds the bell shaped dark form was hovering at the glass opposite the camera platform. There it floated as if watching the human activity beyond the glass wall.

Alex realized that the click might be hovering over the nest of presumed clicker eggs. A protective gesture? Once again Alex found the click’s behavior impossible to decipher. For all the activity he had seen down under the clouds of Jupiter; the cities, the constructions, and the many incidents of group behavior; the clicks remained enigmatic and alien.

Matt left the camera platform, now nearly completed, and approached Alex and Mary. “Hi,” he said. “What do you think? Baby clicks or dried guts?”

“Why would dead parts of a creature be broadcasting?” asked Mary, handing Matt the plastic bag containing the four squeezers of geebrew.

“Donno,” said Matt, nodding gratefully as he took the squeezers. He tucked three under one arm and opened a fourth. “Any ideas?”

She shook her head. “I’m afraid not. The clicks are just too alien.”

Matt tisked, disappointed. “I thought by now you guys would have some insight … some understanding of their behavior.” He lifted the squeezer to him mouth and took a long draught, savoring the taste. “Mmmm. Ganny brew. Thanks!”

Alex and Mary’s wrist communicators beeped simultaneously. “
Alex and Mary Rose … Professor Baltadonis requests that you both go the main control room for a meeting in forty minutes.
”

“You have forty minutes,” said Matt. “You’re welcome to stick.” He noticed the clicker man hovering near the camera platform. He watched it for a moment before his attention returned to Mary. “Talking to it doesn’t seem to get a reaction, you say?”

“Not that I can see,” said Mary.

Matt smiled. “You know, our techies heard you. Some chirps back and forth. Shortwave.” He looked at Alex. “We noticed she left out the patterns recommended by our linguists. Given up on that entirely, eh, Mary?”

Mary folded her arms across her chest defensively, but made no comment.

“She tried. It didn’t work,” said Alex. “That sonic dictionary was useless.”

“It was our best guess at a language, Alex.” Matt spoke quietly but emphatically. “We made it to help you do your damned job. You’re welcome, I’m sure.”

Alex took a step backward. “Dingers. No reflection on you or …”

“No refection on me? My staff made that dictionary. It took months to compile.”

“Nice try,” said Mary. “But it was based on assumptions.”

Matt listened quietly, but he was clearly agitated. Alex wanted no trouble, especially over such trivial matters. “Look, Matt,” he said, facing the scientist. “Nobody’s criticizing you. You gave it your best shot. We never said we didn’t appreciate it.” He pointed to the click who was still hovering close to them. “Nobody understands them, Matt,” he added, trying to sound sympathetic but not patronizing. “Not Mary. Not me. We have no basis to understand them. They live on a gas giant! But, we tested the vocabulary … well, Mary did. Bottom line, Matt. It didn’t fly.”

Matt’s smile returned. “We really thought we had it. We were sure.”

The click began to move to the far end of its enclosure. Mary took notice and cocked her head oddly, as she sometimes did when she used her internal radio system. The click stopped moving and began to rotate, then it shot quickly across the enclosure toward Mary. The click’s black wings spread wide, showing their crimson linings. Then it reformed itself into a bell shape. Its sudden flight disturbed the air inside the enclosure and clouds of black fluff floated everywhere, like a black snowstorm.

Everyone had taken a giant step backward when the thing flew toward them, expecting it to explode against the glass. Alex realized that only Mary hadn’t reacted defensively when the click made its lunge. She’d stood her ground as though she’d expected it. He noticed her head was still cocked to the side.

Matt had a small red earplug in one ear. He looked away as she touched it and listened for a moment. He eyed Mary dubiously. “A dialogue? But you just said …”

Mary ignored him entirely and remained focused on the clicker man, still floating almost motionless on the other side of the thick glass.

Everyone present, including the technicians working on the camera platform, watched intently and silently as the phantom conversation continued. The click had extended its egglike topknot, and occasionally a wing would break out from the bell shaped group, flap for a moment, then settle back into formation.

Jeanne Warren appeared through the doorway and hurried to join them at the glass, glancing first at Mary, then at the click. “Is she doing it?” she asked Matt in a whisper. “Is the computer right?”

“I think so,” said Matt. “But who knows what they’re saying?”

Alex’s wrist locator beeped again and John Baltadonis’ voice called Alex by name. “Don’t go anywhere,” said the tiny voice. “I’m on my way.”

“What about the meeting?” Alex said into his wrist.

“I’m on my way,” was the only response.

Mary looked at Alex and smiled enigmatically. Alex smiled back at her with raised eyebrows serving as a silent query. She didn’t answer him, even in his mind, as she looked back at the click. A moment later it spread its wings and moved away toward the far end of the enclosure where the new scaffolding had been erected. Mary followed it to the camera platform, still staring at it. She looked at the click nest inside the enclosure and then back at the click.

Finally Mary turned and looked at Matt. “Can you make lightning and rain in there?”

4
The news had spread quickly all over the ship. Mary Seventeen had talked to a clicker man. Now the big question was what had been said. Professor Baltadonis, when he burst into the room, was the third person to ask Mary the question. “Are you really conversing with them?”

Johnny was quite disappointed when Mary wouldn’t elaborate on her experience. “It wants rain and lightning,” she said. “No … it needs them. That’s it.”

Johnny looked at the click. “It really said that to you?”

“I guess,” said Mary. “In a way.”

“Explain, please, Mary,” said Matt, politely but firmly. “This is important.”

“Sorry,” said Mary. “I … I can’t.”

Next to enter the Biolab was Stubbs in a wheeled autochair, followed by his assistant. The Commander’s appearance prompted a repeat of Mary’s interrogation. Like Johnny, he pressed for details, but it was clear from the welling of tears in Mary’s eyes that she had no more to offer. “You can keep asking your questions all day if you want to,” she finally shouted at them. “I can’t tell you more than that!” She looked at the click, who still hadn’t moved. It seemed to be watching Mary. “I’m starting to hate those things.”

Stubbs raised a hand. “Mary told us what we need to know,” he said. “If you don’t mind, I’d like everyone here to figure out how we’re going to supply rain and lightning to that thing in there!” Everyone began tossing suggestions at him.

Since the attention was now off Mary, Alex thought it was a good time for them to slip away. He could tell that was all she wanted at the moment. “Computer,” he whispered to his wrist locator. “Bring our cab immediately.”

Jeanne Warren heard Alex, but she said nothing. She gave them both a knowing smile and again faced the group, now lost in the details of accomplished what Matt now called ‘Jupiterizing’ the enclosure.

When the strap on his wrist told Alex the cab was in the tubeway, he took Mary by the arm. “Excuse us, gents,” said Alex softly, “We need a break.” No one heard him or even noticed when they started to leave. They were all too busy trying to figure ways to implement Stubbs’ directive.

Instead of going back to their lodgings, Alex had the cab take them to Lake Geneva, where they strolled along the shore. In their jumpsuits Alex and Mary blended with the other colonists and both their moods improved remarkably.

With the lake now filled, the superstructure that supported it was invisible. It looked almost natural as schools of fish skimmed the faux sandy bottom near shore. They had walked hand in hand in silence for some time when Mary’s keen eyes spotted the colony’s only school of dolphins cavorting far down the lake. “Alex! I want to swim with them,” she said, excited as a schoolgirl.

“Don’t just jump in …” Alex was kidding, but only to a degree. He was never sure what Mary would do.

Mary frowned. “What do you take me for, Alex? I’m not going to swim that far. We’ll run down to that point of land and swim from there.” She jogged away down the path.

“Dingers!” Alex broke into a dead run, hoping to catch up with her before she took off all her clothes and dove into Lake Geneva. Unfortunately Mary’s genetics gave her unusual stamina, and despite the lower gravity of the cylinder he grew exhausted long before he could catch up with her. He watched helplessly as she peeled away her coveralls and dove headfirst into the water.