Farthest Reef (34 page)

Alex put a hand on Mary’s shoulder. “I think I understand what she’s saying. It’s like trying to explain mind reading. To her, to a Sensor, it’s just data. The messages aren’t always in words.” He looked at Mary. “Is that accurate?”

“Pretty much.” She smiled, then looked at Matt. “What’s her condition?”

“Quarantined.” Matt looked around at the group. “Her suit might have been torn. Too soon to tell about the leg, but she’s okay, reading a palmbook when I last saw her.”

“Good,” Stubbs said. “Cause to celebrate, I would say.”

Alex grinned. “Geebrews all around, I say.”

The Ganny Captain roared. “Tha’s a jolly roger!”

When everyone was comfortable, foaming drinks in hand, Stubbs walked to the screen. Displayed on it were recordings from
Diver’s
cameras as they approached the crash site. “What’s going on down there?” he asked, looking at Alex and Mary.

They returned his stare but didn’t answer.

Stubbs smiled at them, like a teacher to his pupils. “Something all of us overlooked while inside the egg.”

“What would that be?” asked Tony.

“The sounds,” said Stubbs. “We were too busy with the rescue to listen. Fortunately the ships were linked well enough to give us locatable sources, a three dimensional picture in sound.” He touched the panel. “Listen to this,” he whispered.

Alex expected a cacophony of static, something like the sounds of Jupiter’s reef, but music met his ears. Tones and notes, distant trumpetings and the deep thrumming of the distant airship’s engine. A low pulsing sound that made the window vibrate.

“Infrasound,” said Tony.

Stubbs smiled. “Yes, lots of infrasound. Not just that ship, but everywhere. All in harmonics.” Stubbs cocked his ear toward the speaker panel. He touched the console lightly and the sound level grew substantially. “Listen to this,” he said with excitement in his voice.

They listened as Stubbs advanced the recording to the moment when
Diver
was launching from the hole after the rescue. “Cutting to the chase …” The sound of clicks filled the room.

“There’s our clicker men,” Professor Baltadonis observed. “On Bubba, they walk and talk.”

Stubbs scowled at him. “Surprised at you, Johnny. Suppositions? Careful.”

Johnny suddenly looked much older in the blue white glow of the screen. “It was just a …”

Stubbs cut him off. “Awwww. No matter,” he said with a casual wave of his hand. “Speculation is all we have at the moment. Right?”

“I thought that’s what this meeting was for,” said Alex. “Speculation … impressions about the mission.”

“Did I say that?” asked Stubbs, looking puzzled but amused. “I said thoughts. But, what’s the difference, really? Sorry, Johnny, but this is a research operation. We gather data and evidence, not conclusions. Ostensibly that’s EarthCorp’s job, after we return with the data.” Without further comment Stubbs stopped the playback. Sensing that the screen was no longer on, the computer illuminated the room.

Everyone but Stubbs was seated. The commander lifted the data cube from the console and put it into a small black carrying case. Noticing all eyes on him, he held up the case. “Five data cubes, on their way to Earth. They’ll be transmitted two hours from now.” He sounded almost triumphant.

“What can we conclude?” asked Johnny, looking skeptically at Stubbs.

Stubbs smiled. “I think we’re all tired. The debriefing was perhaps a good idea, but perhaps some sleep is more important.”

“Bubba’s spot, like Jupiter’s, has life in it,” said Mary, shrugging her shoulders. “You can certainly conclude that much.”

Alex laughed. “There’s no life down there ’til Stubbs says so, Mary. ’Til then it could be rocks, for all we know.”

The laughter that followed included the commander’s. “Actually, we never saw any rocks down there,” he noted.

“Why call it Howarth’s egg?” Matt blurted out. “Why name it after me?”

The commander shook his head. “Does it surprise you, Matt?”

“Well … yes.”

Alex smiled. “We’ve called it that since you discovered the egg! You captained
Tai Chi
. It only follows …”

“You disco’ered it, all right,” said Captain Wysor, his gaunt frame shaking with a suppressed chuckle. “Cracked the egg, ya might say!”

Everyone laughed uproariously. Except Matt.

Stubbs raised his hands to quiet them. “The purpose of this meeting is to debrief everyone involved, myself included. An archaic term for ‘pinch me and tell me if it was real’.” Stubbs hung his head for a moment, then leaned against the wall behind him. The soft material gave slightly under his weight. “It was real. We know that. And, as Mary correctly pointed out, very much alive. We’ve answered the mission’s core question. We’ve found life. And it turns out to be an advanced form of life. Now we have to let Earth know. That’s our mission, too.” Stubbs looked at each of the faces around him as he drew a deep breath. “But, right now, having rescued Jeanne is all that seems to matter. We completed a successful rescue mission. And, as far as the early analysis shows, we probably didn’t contaminate them. That was my principal worry.”

Mary looked at the commander sympathetically. “That was clear from the start. We were all concerned with contamination. We all tried to do our best. We had to.”

“No’ bad fo’ a shakedown cruise,” added Captain Wysor. “Earth’ll be proud.”

Stubbs lowered his eyes. “Perhaps it’s out of fashion to say, but I thank God for it.”

“No harm in that,” said Alex. “What’s next on the agenda, Commander?”

“That’s a good question, Alex. One we can all sleep on,” Stubbs said, smiling.

A beep sounded, followed by the voice of the computer. “
Sorry to interrupt your meeting, Commander Stubbs, but there is activity in the vicinity of the sensor near the hole in Howarth’s egg. Shall I put its visual display on the Rose’s com screen?
”

“At once.” Stubbs turned to face the screen. It went black for a moment, then a scrambled image appeared. Suddenly the picture cleared, revealing what looked like an ice floe, except that it was too smooth and too white. The camera showed a wide angle view of the hole in Howarth’s egg. A telephoto lens was focusing tightly on the hole. Every few seconds the view switched from wide to closeup, then back again. Both views showed a ragged oblong shadow.

Nothing visible seemed to be happening. After a while Stubbs asked, “What kind of activity are you detecting, computer?”

“
The sonde in the hole hanging from the cable is detecting movement at the base of the hole. One moment … sorry, Commander, we have lost contact with the hanging sonde.
”

Stubbs’ wrist phone beeped while the computer was apologizing. He began murmuring to it.

Alex saw movement at the hole. A white globule, something resembling an overstuffed maggot, hopped out of the hole. Then another, and another. Each one leapt from the hole with apparent precision. In the wide angle view, it looked like someone was throwing pillows out of the hole. Finally a perfect circle of puffy grubs surrounded the hole.

“Close-up view only, computer,” instructed the Commander.

By the time the command was implemented the circle of grubs was complete. They were translucent white except for a pointed black head at one end. Alex could see no feet or other appendages, and the heads were no more than featureless black shiny beads. The circle of maggots wriggled slowly until they were all aligned, facing the hole.

A dozen or so long reddish rods emerged from the hole and waved wildly in the air for a moment, then each of them flexed and plunged toward the grubs, piercing each behind the head. The rods appeared to penetrate their bodies easily, and though impaled the grubs didn’t react at all.

Alex and Mary looked at each other, puzzled by the behavior. Tony Sciarra, seated next to him, shook his head, smiling as though he saw some wry humor in it all. Johnny, beside Tony on the long foam sofa, sat leaning forward as though he might spring up at any moment. He mumbled to himself as he watched the screen. Standing near Johnny, Captain Wysor rocked slowly back and forth as he watched the action. His head was turned slightly away from the screen, his attention focused, at least in part, on Stubbs.

For several long moments nothing happened, and then the grubs began to swell, apparently filling with gas or fluid. As they became larger their bodies looked more and more transparent. In less than a minute, the grubs had grown to three times their original size. Now they looked more spherical than oblong. What happened next took everyone by surprise. All the grubs suddenly exploded at once in a white frothy foam that merged and become a huge droplet of liquid covering the hole.

“Whoooaa,” said Wysor, taking a short step backward. “What’s this? Some movie trick?” The closeup showed ragged seams forming and dividing the thing into segments. Then all movement ceased.

No one spoke, or even moved. After several minutes of staring at the screen at nothing happening, Stubbs yawned. “It think the show’s over, for now,” he said. “And, with that, I think I’ll close the meeting and go get some sleep. I can watch the re-runs, you might say. Thanks, and congratulations to you all. And, well done.” He nodded approvingly to Alex and Mary, then made his exit with Ned Binder on his heels.

Johnny walked to the viewscreen and put his hand on the control. He paused for a moment, staring at the view of what looked like a glass igloo sitting on a smooth glacier. “I think Stubbs is right, Alex,” he said, shutting down the screen. “That’s the show. The cameras are still recording everything that happens. The computer will alert us if there’s movement.”

Sciarra and Johnny Baltadonis left soon after. Like Stubbs, they had little comment on what they’d seen. Standing near the window, Alex looked outside. It was three in the morning,
Goddard
time, and floodlights were playing up and down the interior of the great cylinder. Somewhere on the opposite side of the biosphere he could see lights of a gathering. Everyone had left except Captain Wysor, who was finishing his glass of geebrew.

“What’s that bash going on up there?” Alex asked.

The Captain walked to the window and squinted dubiously at the twinkling lights in the distance. “Human sacr’fice, no doubt, Al’x,” he said, straight faced.

“Human what?” Sounding shocked, Mary joined them at the window. Her keen eyes spotted what Alex and the Captain were talking about. “No, really, Captain,” she said. “What’s going on?”

“Maybe a cook-out. None o’ my affair.” Wysor gave them a pleasant nod and left.