Farthest Reef (28 page)

Johnny saluted, put down the probe, and retraced his steps to the ship, gathering the black line as he walked. Back at the ship he stowed the tether in his pouch before returning to the airlock. Alex saw Johnny’s feet step on the ladder base. “If you’re ready, Professor, Tony will fire the dye.”

“I’m watching,” said Johnny. “Do it.”

“On three,” said Tony. “One … two …” On the count of three Tony pressed the launcher pad and they heard a soft ‘pop’.

Alex saw the bottle fly toward the spot. It exploded midair in an orange cloud that settled on the spot as planned. “Perfect!” shouted the Professor. He laughed. “I heard it explode.” When the orange mist dissipated what remained was an irregular oval stain partially covering the spot.

Alex looked at Tony. “Is the probe working?”

“Pingin’ away, loud and clear,” replied Sciarra.

“Come in, Johnny,” said Alex. “Everything’s working fine.”

Johnny didn’t reply, but a moment later the outer hatch opened and he stepped inside and sealed the door. He walked to a samples case on the wall of the airlock and removed a silver canister from one of the slots. He pulled a plastic bag from his suit pocket and stuffed it inside, then screwed the lid on tightly before putting it back in its slot.

“What are you doing?” Alex asked.

Johnny waved. “The ladder broke off some surface material. I’ve taken some sample chips. It’s in the can.” He gave Alex the thumbs up sign and moved to the inner door. “You can pressurize now, Alex.” A few minutes later, Johnny, fresh from the lavatory and changed into fresh coveralls, was back at his bubble.

“Welcome back from … well, whatever this is,” said Tony, watching Johnny sit down.

“Flatland,” said Johnny. “Computer,” he added. “Have you checked for contamination?”

Tony and Mary seemed surprised.

“Protocol,” said Johnny. “It’ll take only a minute.”

“
Analysis in seven minutes
.”

Johnny smiled. “No one’s asked me what it was like?”

“You said what it was like. Martian snow,” said Mary. “Isn’t that right?”

“Yes,” said Johnny, looking out the window. “Now it has a stain.”

4
Johnny was in his bubble when the computer announced his medical analysis. There was no comment from him, so Alex spoke up for him. “I copy that, computer,” he said. “Now, get outa here.”

“
Was that a takeoff command?
”

Alex laughed. “Did you hear that, Johnny?”

“I did, Captain Rose,” answered Johnny over the intercom. “Proceed.”

“Fire it up, computer,” said Alex. “Lift off immediately.”

Perhaps it was too trusting of Alex, but he judged that the fastest way to the
Goddard
was to let the computer start them off. It would do the preflight checks and retract the ladder and gear automatically.
Diver
lifted easily from the glowing surface. As it raised skyward the ship’s belly cameras caught a glimpse of the bright orange splash and a tiny black probe broadcasting its position on the great egg’s surface. The ship soon angled upward and the engines powered up.

Alex had the computer pilot the ship past the strange columns they’d encountered on the way to the surface. As they rose onto the sky, Johnny, from the sanctity of his technological cocoon, began hypothesizing on Howarth’s egg, as he now called it. “I half expect
Tai Chi
to emerge from that egg at any moment,” he said. “Even at 80% power, that ship is strong enough and powerful enough to crash through the shell.”

As
Diver
lifted higher Alex saw the lattice of vertical pylons at a great distance and the cloud bank beyond. Moving at high speed, they quickly covered the distance. Mary stared at the wall of cloud and frowned. Lit from below it looked foreboding, its surface twisting and undulating as if it might collapse.

“We have to see where those go.” Alex stared at the approaching pylons. “Manual drive, computer, please.”

“Straight up,” offered Tony.

Alex pulled back on the stick and pushed forward.
Diver
responded with a lurch that surprised him until he remembered that the null-gee was still not set to maximum. “Sorry, everybody. I’m boosting the null-gee. Better to do this as weightless as possible.”

“Thank you, Alex,” said the Professor.

Diver
accelerated even more when Alex turned up the null gee system. Nose up, the ship seemed to have power to spare as it followed the edge of a mighty pylon straight up into the sky.

“We’d better get a message to
Goddard
as soon as possible,” said the Professor’s voice. “Did you hear me, Mary?”

“Yes, Professor,” she said in a loud voice. “We’ve been broadcasting continuously. And, of course, I’m listening for an answer.”

A cloud or some other massive dark object loomed in front of them, and they were gaining on it fast. “Look at that,” Alex said. In the intense glow from below the object had been all but invisible against the dark sky.

Tony quickly switched the radar traces to the viewscreen. “I saw it …but …” It was there, barely visible on the radar, a mere trace, but a giant one.

At first the thing looked like a veil of cloud fanning out above the pylons, but as they neared it and Tony refined the radar image, a pattern began to emerge. It wasn’t a single object, but countless clusters of smaller ones. The entire sky was full of them, so many that the way to the surface seemed completely blocked. Shrouded in darkness and cloud, a thermal image was coming into view. Alex thought he saw something familiar about the formation, and it dawned on him that the material he saw hanging down was like the underside of the reef on Jupiter.

“I see gaps in the material,” Tony offered as they climbed ever nearer to the long tendrils of gray fluff moving slowly in the frigid breezes. “Straight ahead and up, 17 degrees,” he instructed. “You should see a channel, a space between two masses.”

“I see it,” said Alex.

Mary pointed to the right. “That way,” she said urgently.

This close to the mysterious structure,
Diver’s
high rate of speed became apparent. They shot past several hanging fronds so quickly that the material shuddered in their wake.

“Slow down, Alex,” demanded the Professor.

Alex had already eased back considerably. He switched on the ship’s searchlights and tuned the cameras accordingly. Suddenly the darkness became twilight and the clouds transparent.

“Look, Alex,” said Mary. “Those look like roots.” The ship was now high enough between the massive objects to see their overall shape. Attached to sinewy vines were vast numbers of puffy looking objects.

“I see it, now,” shouted the Professor. “If I hadn’t seen the reef on Jupiter I wouldn’t have recognized it. This is a mini reef built on balloon critters. They’re being used to suspend the heaters.”

“Heaters?” said Mary.

“The pylons,” said Johnny. “They manage the temperature and the airflow near Howarth’s egg. They heat this mini-reef and keep it alive. And the reef feeds the gas bags that, in turn, lift the pylons.”

“How symbiotic,” said Mary.

Something darted in front of the ship. It missed them by a wide margin, but left a faint line on the radar, which soon vanished. Since everyone was watching the screen the entire crew saw it. “And that was …?” said Mary.

“Something …” Johnny began to say something but cut himself off. Three more dart shaped creatures flew in front of the ship. There was a hard thump against the hull.

“Dingers!” said Alex.

“Exactly,” said the Professor. “There are lots of them, and they seem to be launching themselves randomly. I’m not even sure they see us.”

“But one hit the ship!” Sciarra sounded terrified.

“Dagger birds,” offered Mary. “Balloon killers.”

“I’m not sure,” said Johnny.

Diver
negotiated a relatively narrow space between huge clumps of hanging material. Above them were the objects Alex expected to see, scores of balloons of varying sizes. The smallest of the puffy sacks were at least the size of the ship, while others were much larger, all bound together in a mass of black moss and vines.

Still going straight upward, Alex deftly steered the ship through the narrow space between the two dark masses. Something hard hit the hull. Then another.

“More of those dart things?” posited Mary. “I didn’t see a thing.”

To Alex the sound wasn’t the same. Then he heard it again and at the same time saw a vine hit
Diver’s
nose and snap. He switched on the rear lights and cameras and they all saw a dart shaped object fly up past the ship and into the mass of balloons above. The thing left thread, like spider silk, trailing in its wake.

“A repair,” said Johnny. “Right before our eyes.”

Alex saw clear air above them and steered
Diver
toward it. When they were clear of the mass of balloons, he looked around at Johnny’s bubble. “If everyone’s ready, I think we should see what
Diver’s
new engines can do.”

Johnny raised his bubble to the ceiling and tightened his seat belt. “Is everyone ready?” the Professor asked. Mary and Tony nodded.

“Let’s punch it,” demanded Tony.

“I hear you,” said Alex. “Computer … chart a launch to
Goddard
.”

“
Computing
,” said the computer’s androgynous voice. After a few seconds, it continued, “
Electromagnetic interference prevents locating
Goddard
. Path to orbit calculated. Course set to adjust for atmospheric forces. Engines primed. Set to launch on command.
”

“Launch,” said Alex. He let go of the stick.

“
Engaging thrusters. Attitude 41 degrees.
”

Diver’s
acceleration astonished even Alex, who thought he knew what to expect. As the back of his head slapped against the seat he looked over at Mary and smiled broadly. “When we get back, my love, this baby’s ours.”

5
The trip through the clouds was brief but rough. At one point
Diver
was hit by a severe side wind and sent spinning, like a top, but the computer’s guidance managed to stabilize the ship and hold their heading. They emerged from the clouds shaken but undamaged. For some reason Alex had expected to burst into the sunlight. Instead, a distant red light, no brighter than a quarter moon on Earth, was a cold reminder of their situation.

“Red dwarf is right,” quipped Alex.

“I hate this sky,” said Mary, glumly. “It’s so … empty.”

“I second that,” agreed the Professor. “I guess we’re all children of the sun.”

“
Goddard
has to be on the other side of the planet, Johnny,” said Mary. “I can hear her transmissions, but weakly.” She paused a moment and smiled. “I hear Earth.” she said. “God, it’s far away.”

Sciarra groaned. “Let’s not rub it in, Mary.”

Mary nodded. “I’m sorry.”

“As they reached orbit above the brooding purple planet, Mary suddenly jumped. “I hear
Goddard
,” she said excitedly. “Their beacon, anyway. I’m hailing them.”

Mary was quiet while she sent out a call on
Diver’s
assigned frequency. Moments later, Johnny had Stubbs on the intercom. Alex could hear sounds of people cheering in the background as the commander offered congratulations.

“I’d hold the champagne, Harry,” said the Professor, gravely. “And I’d get people working on the other shuttle.”

“What are you saying?” asked Stubbs. “Where’s
Tai Chi
?”

“We were hoping you would tell us she’d returned to the ship,” offered Alex, “but … we think they’re still down there.”

“Lost?”

“So to speak,” said Professor Baltadonis. “We’ll download our records. Best to see for yourself.”

Mary looked up. “I’m downloading the visual flight record first, Commander,” she said. “Followed by …”

“For God’s sake, Johnny,” shouted Stubbs. “What happened?”

“In a nutshell,
Tai Chi
crashed … we think … into whatever is down there, a huge, and I mean
huge
, egg. It was glowing very brightly and Connie apparently lost track of the distance as we approached it. Alex pulled the ship out just in time but Tsu … well, we didn’t see it, but we think she never pulled out. There was a hole …”

“A hole?” said the voice of Ned Binder, Stubbs’ assistant.

“The hole sealed itself but we marked the spot,” continued Johnny. “Connie reported a power loss, but only a slight one. I don’t think it caused the crash.”

“An egg, ya say?” said the voice of Captain Wysor. “Di’ ya say ’t was an egg?”

“A shell, Captain,” answered Alex. “Like the whole thing is contained inside a shell. Howarth called it an egg.”

“I’m sending the flight data,” said Mary, almost in a whisper.

“Thank you, Mary,” Stubbs’ voice said, politely and calmly.

As
Diver
and the great ship merged orbits the intercoms buzzed with conversation. Soon, Johnny had to retire inside his lowered bubble for a conference with Stubbs. He was still there when
Goddard’s
shuttle bay opened wide to receive them.

The crew of
Diver
had to wait while decontamination measures were applied to the hull. She had, after all, been exposed to the biota of an alien world. During the long wait they were all gratified to see the third of
Goddard’s
shuttles sitting ready for launch in the bay beside theirs, but Johnny for the most part sat brooding in his chair, impatient for the decon to be over. Meanwhile, at his insistence, the specimens he had collected were hustled away to Biolab before the airlock was purged. The process destroyed Johnny’s EVA suit as well as every stray speck of Bubba.

Soon Alex and Mary found themselves in their house inside the great cylinder. They arrived at dawn, five in the morning
Goddard
time, with Sciarra, Stubbs, and Captain Wysor in tow. Since Stubbs had insisted on the briefing and Mary insisted on feeding her cat, the briefing was held in Alex and Mary’s com room.

“It’s been six and a half hours since
Tai Chi
vanished,” began Stubbs. “
Goddard
has located your sonde and targeted high intensity transmissions on the thing you call Howarth’s egg.” He looked at Mary. “We’ve heard nothing but the sonde.”