Farthest Reef (24 page)

“Pretty much,” answered the Professor. “Any ideas, Mr Rose?”

“I’m trying to figure out how these spots would evolve over time. Over, say, a billion years.”

“So are we, Alex,” answered Johnny, smiling at Stubbs.

Alex ignored the Professor’s patronizing tone. “There was a bulge in our reef, not a depression.”

“Indeed,” said Stubbs.

There was a prolonged silence while everyone pondered the spinning holographic image. “How much enhancing was done to these tracings?” asked Alex.

Tony Sciarra stood up. “I … well, our team did the work. We chose to keep the tracings unaltered.”

“Meaning?”

“The hard edge isn’t an illusion.”

“How tightly have you resolved it?” asked Alex. “It looks fuzzy.”

“That’s resolution. And some other effect. We aren’t sure what it is. Most likely an ice layer … or atmospheric feature.” Tony pondered the image up close, examining the center of the structure. “This is strange,” he added. “Our computers have run lots of simulations. No matter how much we age Jupiter’s reef’s it never ends up shaped like this.”

As Alex listened attentively to Tony’s comments, he recalled that popular theory held that Jupiter’s reef was made from recycled cometary debris. Its shape was largely due to the way it had grown over time, evolving into a pancake shape that floats, like a lily pad, on top of a huge vortex of rising heat. The theory sounded good, but the structure under Bubba’s clouds wasn’t like that at all. Not even close. Alex knew then that he and the crew of
Diver
were in for an unusual ride.

2
When they returned to the house the computer delivered an invitation to dine with Captain Wysor and his family. It had come from the Captain’s wife Abby.

Considering Mary’s homesickness, Alex thought a night with a Ganny family would do them both good. Wysor was well qualified for the task of cajoling Alex and Mary. As Captain of the ship that waited in orbit during
Diver’s
second exploratory mission to Jupiter’s reef, he had known Alex and Mary as long as anyone aboard the
Goddard
, and they had come to value his friendship. It was, after all, Wysor’s ship and crew that induced them to ‘retire’ on Ganymede. Like most Gannys, Wysor loved to party, but few would argue his zeal during missions.

When he was chosen to Captain the
Goddard
, almost overnight he became a hero, the first human to fly a spaceship to another star. The enormity of that idea loomed as Alex and Mary dressed for a ‘formal meal’.

They had packed light for the
Goddard
mission. After all, the fashion standard aboard would be jumpsuits of one color or another. Fine with Alex. But Mary calculated her allotment of luggage to include several diaphanous outfits for special occasions. For this dinner she chose a silky white pantsuit. With her white hair and silver eye makeup, Mary looked like an archangel next to Alex in his dark blue coveralls, but he didn’t object. He was used to being with someone who attracted people’s eyes. He enjoyed it for the most part. Less attention on him, he figured. Besides, the focus of his thoughts this night was Mary and her happiness.

“How do I look?” she asked demurely, spinning like a ballerina. The question was moot. Mary always looked great. Tonight however, she looked ravishing. She wore nothing beneath the thin silky material, but her pale features masked the details.

“You look … great!” Alex said, licking his lips. “Spectacular, in fact.”

The walk to the Wysors’ bungalow took less than a minute, and the Captain’s wife greeted them like old friends. They had expected more lavish surroundings, but as they were ushered to the Captain’s com room, they could see that it was a match to theirs. “Looks familiar,” said Alex, as he took Captain John’s hand. The Captain and his wife both wore simple dark blue jumpsuits like Alex, but in the dimly lit room, with Mary as a centerpiece, they all looked appropriately formal.

Wysor gave Alex his traditional Ganny bear hug, a reminder of their friendship on Ganymede. “Great ya’ came, Al’x,” said Wysor, allowing his native dialect to return. “’n you ’s well, Miss Mary.” The Captain released Alex and wrapped his long arms around Mary, clearly relishing the bear hug he gave her. With his hands on her bare shoulders, the Captain looked into her eyes. “Missin’ th’ shop on Ganny, are ya, Mary…that ’ouse full o’ cats?”

Mary lowered her eyes. “Actually … yes. Something like that.” She kissed his cheek. “Nice to be here.”

Abby Wysor hugged Alex and pointed to a tray of appetizers – crackers, sytheez, pattay and what looked like a bowl of shrimp. “Go for ’t, Alex. First o’ th’ shrimps ’r in,” she advised, sounding like a seasoned Ganny hostess. “Don’t fill ’er up on ’em. “Th’ roast’s big as Ol’ Joe.”

“Where’s that son of yours, Abby?” Alex asked, looking around.

“Oh, Ted. He’s learnin’ ultr’lightin’ with friends. ’e’ll be ’ere by the sec, I sup’s.”

“It’s good to be here,” said Alex, sampling the shrimp. “And not just because you get all the good food.” He winked at the Captain. “Nice to hear Ganny ag’in. Know’e’mean?” His remark set the tone for the rest of the evening. Instead of discussing the mission, the hours were spent reminiscing about life on Ganymede.

Before long Mary’s conversation even sounded happy and optimistic. When she asked her hostess about the loneliness of being a Captain’s wife, Abby scoffed. “Sauce f’ th’ goose, Mary,” she said, telling Mary she was organizing a theater group and support groups for the homesick. She’d even formulated a passable honey drink she called mead, based on a thirteenth century recipe. “As a fact,” she said with a note of pride, “I made a test batch ’n was hopin’ you’d want a try.”

Alex sipped the drink, tasting of honey and raisins, and smiled. “Nice,” he said. “A … rare taste. Not too sweet.”

“We haven’t bees, o’ course,” Mrs Wysor said. “Used the synthy to make it.”

Mary took a sip and giggled as the liquid hit her tongue. “Ooo, I’ve read about this. I’ve always been curious about it.” She took another sip and closed her eyes. In a moment she opened them again. They sparkled with a strange light. “Here we are, drinkin’ mead in another star system,” she said. “Fancy that!”

“Carryin’ on th’ tr’dition,” offered the Captain, raising his glass. He gave Mary a fatherly look. “Tell us, Mary Seventeen Rose, how d’ ya’ feel about it all?”

“The mission? Excited. Apprehensive. Uncertain.” Mary raised an eyebrow. “I truly miss the solar system, silly as that may sound.” She glanced at Alex almost shyly.

Wysor raised a skeptical eyebrow. “At times … back in th’ chair … I want’d ta quit. Turn us around. Fancy that?”

“But you didn’t.”

“More that I couldn’t.” The Captain picked up his glass. “Who would? Would you, Mary?” He pointed his chin at her. “Would ya quit?”

Mary shrugged. “I’ve never been in that position.”

“I knew we would get a pep talk if we hung in long enough,” said Alex, winking at the Captain. “Just point us in the right direction, Captain.” He drained his drink. “Have they started mapping the missions yet?”

Wysor nodded and stroked his short gray beard. “I s’ppose they are.”

“I’m right that it’s missions … with an ‘
s
’?”

“Well … we’re here, aren’t we?” said the Captain, surprised at Alex’s question. “Sh’d we jus’ look ’t th’ one, then catch the sec’nd Bubba on th’ next trip to this star? D’s tha’ make sense?”

Alex shook his head. “Whatever’s down there is twice as deep as
Diver’s
flown before. The conditions are worse. Colder … more wind. One mission is a risk. But two?”

The Captain rolled his eyes. “They’ve talked, Alex. Stubbs … the others … they’ve all talked about safety. That’s why Stubbs’ plannin’ two ships for the dives.”

“Two ships?” Alex was stunned. “Another rigged like my ship?”

“There’s three, Alex.
Diver
class. All wi’ crew transfer abil’ty. Ya’ di’n’ know that? I’m shined!”

Alex shook his head. “
Diver
class?”

“You discovered the reef, but also created a new class of vessel,” offered Abby.

The Captain walked over to his computer console and touched a panel. The room filled with music, a male singer backed by a pulsating rhythm orchestra. “Wez Walenga,” Abby said, approving her husband’s selection. “His fav’ … mine. too.”

“Afro-rock …” said John. “Turn o’ the millennium. Th’ best!”

As the music played on they walked to the picture window that looked out on the great cylinder. The orange glow of twilight filled the sky. Off in the distance, ultralight aircraft spiraled in great circles. “Is your son in one ‘o those?” asked Alex.

“If ’e managed t’ talk th’ instructor into it, ’e is,” said Abby.

3
Diver
had an odd smell that Alex noticed immediately when he stepped through her airlock. He made a face. “Dingers, Mary,” he said. “Smells like the sulfur moon. What did they do in here?”

“Hatch sealant!” shouted Tony from inside.

Mary laughed as she floated through the hatch ahead of Alex. The hangar bay observation deck was filled to capacity with onlookers cheering the launch of the first mission to explore an extrasolar planet. Alex waved to them one last time before he closed the hatch.

This time it wasn’t just
Diver’s
crew the crowd was cheering. Connie Tsu, Alex’s co-pilot on the last reef mission, now had her own ship. Alex had watched her glide through the hangar to her shuttle, relaxed, glowing with confidence, a young pilot living a dream.

“Enjoy the flight, Connie,” Alex had called to her across the hangar, but the crowd was too loud for her to hear.

Tsu had been given the honor of choosing the name of her shuttle. Why she chose the name
Tai Chi
eluded Alex, but he liked the sound of it. Her crew included Jeanne Warren and Matt Howarth, whose presence was a surprise to Alex. Matt was taking the same station Johnny occupied aboard
Diver
– overseer.

The day after the dinner with the Wysors, Alex and Mary found themselves feverishly preparing for the mission into Bubba’s blue spot. Starting early in the morning, they were held captive by their computer as it drummed into them, in 3D and stereo, a refresher course on Bubba with special emphasis on ice layering and wind shear. And at Stubbs’ orders, the computer didn’t let them go until the virtual briefing was concluded.

The briefing ended with an analysis of Old Blue and the potential dangers of exploring this ‘cryo-vortex’.
Goddard’s
sensors probing the spot had revealed stratified screw-like layers of opposing air currents, all of them cold.
Diver
and
Tai Chi
could expect wind shifts of several hundred kilometers per hour. As to what lay deep under the clouds, all the
Goddard’s
experts could conjure were educated guesses. Even Alex, with his reef experience, was completely baffled by the shape of whatever was down there.

Tsu’s service shuttle had been outfitted to match
Diver’s
specs. Like Alex’s ship, it had new Vega Scramjets, a null-gee core, and twin gassers to extract fuel, air and water from the planet’s atmosphere. Those systems had originally been configured by Alex when he put
Diver
together at Ra Patera colony on Io. The knowledge that Earthcorp’s best engineers hadn’t changed the basic configuration gave Alex a sense of pride.

As Alex planted himself in the pilot’s chair and tightened the seat belts, he switched on
Diver’s
systems and watched Mary, in the co-pilot’s seat, do the same. Behind him was Tony Sciarra, in his usual seat as radar and guidance officer. Professor Baltadonis was stationed under his bubble, now firmly locked to the cabin ceiling, nervously checking systems on his console.

Johnny had a right to be nervous. When he had first visited Jupiter’s reef it was as a scientist accompanying Alex on a course already traveled. Now he was commanding the maiden flight to a world never before visited by mankind. Perhaps the Professor’s only consolation was the promise of a radio link with
Goddard
for the duration of the mission. Even at the depth of a hundred kilometers the ship’s eight kilometer length made it a formidable transmitting and receiving platform. If something went horribly wrong, at least history would have Stubbs sharing part of the blame.

4
By the time the first icy winds of reentry screamed past
Diver’s
hull Johnny’s bubble was down and he was monitoring the ship’s sensors. This time his virtual view of the universe was shared via a radio link to Matt Howarth in an identical bubble aboard the
Tai Chi
. The combined systems gave Johnny’s equipment twice the sensitivity and ensured that both shuttles were synchronized for the dive.

Alex’s apprehension vanished almost as soon as
Diver
launched. As he touched the controls, she responded like an old friend.

The view through the cabin windows was dark, overwhelmingly so. Johnny ordered the cabin lights, except those on the instruments, extinguished. In spite of this no one actually saw the planet that loomed below them. All Alex could see was the line where the planet eclipsed the background of stars. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he could see explosions of lightning dotting the face of the gas giant.

At a distance of exactly one kilometer,
Tai Chi
trailed
Diver
as they pulled away from
Goddard’s
gaping hangar door. In the distance a bright pink light hung in the sky, the red dwarf star Lalande, dim enough to look at without squinting. “Dingers,” said Alex reflexively. “How can we discover anything if we can’t see anything?”

“Johnny has eyes,” said the Professor’s voice from the cabin loudspeakers. “I can see our objective well enough. It’s cold, but it sure isn’t dead.”

“Can you extend the holo-link to my console, Professor?” asked Alex. “Nobody told me we had to fly blind out here.”

The second ship, piloted by Tsu, was in contact with Mary by radio. All conversation aboard
Diver
was automatically shared by the crew of
Tai Chi
, a two way system, unless one of them chose not to broadcast. From the chatter Alex overheard, he surmised that
Tai Chi’s
crew had an identical reaction to the darkness. Alex saw
Tai Chi’s
running lights blink on, then go dark again. “Sorry, Matt,” he heard Tsu say. “Reflexes.”