Infinite Reef (22 page)

This job is harder than I thought.”

“Well, it’s a good idea. That’s what counts.” Alex pointed at the screen. “What’re you going to do about them?”

Johnny took a deep breath as he gazed at the viewscreen. “That’s why you’re here.”

“I was afraid of that,” grumbled Mary.

Ned Binder joined the group and handed a small data cube to Johnny. “The research you wanted, sir.”

Johnny scrutinized Alex and Mary. “Are you rested?” Both of them laughed.

The Professor smiled. “I take that as a yes.” The smile left his face as he examined the cube. “This data is for you, specifically for
Diver’s
computer. We want you to use your ship again, Alex. We want you and Mary to try and make contact.”

As Alex considered the question he realized that they were the logical choice. Where piloting into the unknown was required, he was the most experienced. And where human sensitivity was needed, no one outqualified Mary Seventeen.

Alex nodded and took the tiny blue cube from the Professor. “Immediately, I suppose?”

“Your ship is prepped,” said Johnny. “Get there as quickly as possible and download that data before you do anything else.”

Alex frowned. “Another autopilot excursion?”

“That’s not the case, Alex,” said Johnny. “The cube contains data for your computer. Information, should you need it.”

“What kind of information?” Mary said, peering at the tiny cube.

“It contains all the data we’ve accumulated about the aliens, air sample records from our incursion into the egg, and a catalogue of data from our library ... stuff about us.”

Johnny looked at Ned, who had seated himself in his chair next to the Commander, listening intently to Johnny’s every word. “Did I miss anything?”

“The cube also provides a link to
Goddard’s
master directory.”

Johnny’s eyes returned to Alex. “If you need any information, ask your computer.”

“Anything else?” asked Mary.

“Tony Sciarra and Commander Baltadonis will be along for the ride,” said Ned.

Surprised, Alex looked at Johnny. “You’re going? Shouldn’t you be here, running the show?”

The Commander rose from his seat. “First contact was my job all along, Alex. I wouldn’t miss this chance for anything.”

4
Buckling himself into the pilot’s seat, Alex looked around and smiled, remembering that this crew was the same one that had documented Jupiter’s Reef. As on that mission, Mary was seated in the co-pilot’s chair and Tony was behind Alex and to his right. The chair behind Mary was empty and Johnny was in his command bubble in the center of the cabin.

Alex noticed the military helmet, still mounted on a post next to his chair. “What’s this doing here? I thought this was a diplomatic mission.”

“The tactical gear?” Johnny seemed surprised by Alex’s question. “Is that a problem?”

“I see Alex’s point,” offered Mary. “If the aliens see our weapons ...”

“Do you propose we remove them?” Tony was clearly annoyed at the suggestion.

“Actually, that might be a good idea, Tony,” observed the Professor. “All they know of us is what they see. If we present a different face ...”

“It will take some time,” interrupted Tony.

Alex regarded Tony as a friend, but he was also a key technician, always in demand. Since the
Goddard
mission began Alex had had little contact with him. When they were together, at briefings and other functions, there had been few opportunities for them to rekindle their relationship, already weakened by Alex and Mary’s five years on Ganymede.

Now, as Tony seemed to bristle at the idea of removing the weapons, Alex realized that he had a new Tony to deal with and that they had to reinvent their relationship. He turned to face Tony. “You and Norma put a lot into those systems, I know,” he said. “To tell the truth I’d be a lot more comfortable with them than without them, but ...”

“Don’t patronize me, Alex,” said Tony shortly. He looked at the Professor. “Take ’em off if you need to, Professor.”

“Dingers, Tony,” said Alex. “I’m not patronizing. Just sayin’...”

Tony put up his hand and squinted at Alex though his round spectacles. “That’s okay, Alex. I see your point. I’ll get them off in a jiffy.” Looking at the Professor for confirmation, Tony made a call to the hangar crew.

Alex wasn’t sure if he should say any more. His eyes drifted to Mary and she smiled. In his mind he heard her say,

“Don’t push it, Alex.”

The removal of the weapons took only a short while, and Johnny used the time to review the situation. “It’s good we have the time to bring everyone up to speed. We’re on a first contact mission. The data cube I gave Alex, now loaded into the ship’s computer, will be our guide.”

He touched his console and the viewscreen above the cockpit windows blinked on. The image was the same one they’d been seeing for hours, an alien saucer frozen in position against a background of stars. “This is kind of funny,” I guess,” he observed, regarding the image skeptically. “Aliens in flying saucers. I don’t have to remind you of the twentieth century and its preoccupation with what they called U.F.O’s ... unidentified flying objects.” He touched his console and the screen displayed a series of fuzzy images. Most of them were odd groups of lights, but some images showed saucer shaped disks. As far as Alex could see, none of them precisely matched the ones clustered around
Goddard
. “Today, we are confronting a similar phenomenon,” continued the Commander, “disks that fly without any apparent means of propulsion, with the ability to simply vanish.”

Johnny watched the screen as the program ran through countless historic images. “It’s clear that none of these resemble our alien ships, but the similarities can’t be completely ignored. The implication is that something or someone with similar technology visited the skies of Earth centuries ago.” The image of the black saucer returned to the screen. “Our current situation requires that we reexamine everything connected with that phenomenon.”

Tony put up a hand and the Professor immediately acknowledged him. “Yes, Tony?”

“I don’t see how any of this affects our mission. We should be focusing on the Lalandians, not ancient myths.”

“I thought I addressed that,” replied the Professor. “But perhaps you’re right. The UFO issue is best left to those evaluating our data.”

Tony nodded impatiently. “So what do we know about our aliens?”

“That’s the problem. We know very little. That’s why we’re reexamining the past. There were phenomenon of that type all through history, not just in the twentieth century: historical anecdotes, biblical occurrences, stories of abductions. None of them have ever been explained.”

“Abductions?” asked Mary.

Johnny nodded. “Yes. There are many on record, and many more are presumed to have occurred.”

“Presumed?” Tony smiled.

“Since the phenomenon was so extraordinary, people didn’t report them for fear of ridicule.”

“Okay,” said Tony. “You’re still raking over ancient legends. I don’t get it.”

Tony’s attitude seemed to anger Johnny. “Old sayings die hard, Tony,” he said. “My favorite is, ‘knowledge is power’.

I’m giving you information our staff deems relevant. No one’s asking you to believe anything.”

Tony drew a deep breath. “I’m a pragmatist,” he said. “And now that you’ve mentioned abductions I have to wonder why you disarmed us.”

“As Alex said, Tony, we don’t want to appear hostile,” replied the Commander. “Simple as that. But the abductions I spoke of were, for the most part, a temporary phenomenon. People all over the planet disappeared under odd circumstances, sometimes for long periods of time, sometimes never to return, but the majority of the reports were of people abducted for brief periods. I agree with you that we can’t take these stories too seriously, but we can’t dismiss them, either.”

A signal came in from the hangar crew that the ship’s weapon array had been removed and
Diver
was cleared for launch.

Though the cockpit windows they could see the hangar doors opening. “Alex,” said the Professor, “you can take us out.”

5
Their flight was indeed programmed into the little blue cube along with all the other data, and they wasted little time getting to the rendezvous point that Johnny, and
Goddard’s
best thinkers, had decided upon.

Alex found himself a passenger again as they moved above the surface of the hull of their giant ship. The computer had chosen a slow, deliberate pace toward the front of the ship and their goal, a black saucer no different from any of the others except that it was located directly in front of the
Goddard
.

Alex glanced around at his console. The same smooth hemisphere of holo-displays and pod light buttons greeted his touch.

Dead ahead of them was their invisible goal. Above the cockpit the viewscreen showed an artificial view of their nearly invisible quarry. Alex could see the disk, a ghostly gray circle blotting out the stars, but he still couldn’t see any details.

“Our altitude above the planet is three hundred kilometers, five kilometers above the ring system,” announced Johnny.

“The saucers are a third of a kilometer away, oriented so each is presenting a flat surface toward the
Goddard
.”

Professor Baltadonis enumerated these details as the foreboding circle grew ever larger on
Diver’s
viewscreen. “Further, all the saucers are the same size,” continued the Commander. “We have no reason to assume that this particular one is a lead ship. Other than the obvious fact that it is leading.” He chuckled as the disk on the viewscreen blotted out the stars entirely.

As if on cue
Diver
banked, and braking thrusters brought them to a stop about fifty meters from the rounded edge of the alien craft.

Alex looked at Johnny. “What now, Professor?”

“It’s time for me to get under the hood,” answered Johnny as he touched a lever next to his chair. The black hemisphere above him lowered until it clicked into place, covering his chair and console. Johnny switched on the intercom and sent a laser call to the
Goddard
. The consensus was that
Diver
should hold its position until something happened.

Johnny gave a brief report to be entered into
Goddard’s
mission records. When he finished he asked if anyone had anything to add.

“You might add that our systems were unaffected by the saucers,” offered Tony without looking up from his console.

“That’s weird, considering they put the
Goddard
into orbit.”

“That happened while we were under power,” observed Alex.

“So?” Tony asked in a contentious tone.

“I think they absorb and redirect power, but don’t produce it themselves,” offered Mary, gazing at Sciarra serenely.

“She’s right,” said Johnny’s voice. “The array we destroyed was doing exactly that.”

“Why not now?” asked Alex. “Why aren’t they sapping our systems?”

“Maybe they’re shut down at the moment,” suggested Tony.

“They’re holding position,” Johnny observed. “Besides, we haven’t tried to get away from them. We’re surrounded, after all.”

Johnny’s sobering observation brought the discussion to a close. He asked Alex to turn on
Diver’s
floodlights. Instantly reflections of the lights on the smooth black glass surface in front of them seared into the cabin windows. “Yow, Alex, crank

’em down,” shouted Tony, covering his eyes.

Alex tried to see details behind the glare but finally gave up. He looked at Mary and she returned his gaze with a disappointed expression. “I can’t see anything,” she said with a shrug.

Some time passed as everyone sat mutely staring alternately at the viewscreen and the cockpit windows, but nothing seemed to be happening. After a while, Tony broke the silence. “It’s been a half hour. Don’t you think they’d have made a move by now?”

A call came in from
Goddard
. “They’re using a different channel, Professor,” Mary noted. “Movement in the array. Ned Binder on channel 8.”

“What movement, Ned?” barked Johnny.

“The trailing disk is gone, sir,” said Binder’s youthful voice. “Vanished.”

“When?”

“Not sure. We’ve been concentrating on you.”

“Meaning it could have been hours ago, right?” asked Professor Baltadonis, sounding disgusted.

“That’s correct, sir,” replied Ned. “We reported it as soon as we ...”

“Thank you, Ned,” interrupted Johnny, irritation clearly in his voice. “Maintain radio silence on all channels. Report any changes.”

It was only because of Mary’s keen vision that anyone aboard
Diver
noticed a change in the disk before them. “Have we moved, Professor?” Mary asked. “Has our position changed?”

“No. Why?” Johnny said.

“The reflections in the saucer’s surface,” she said dubiously. “I think it’s changing shape.”

“Alert the
Goddard
,” ordered Johnny. “On a different channel, Mary. Use one of yours.”

“I haven’t used my Sensor channels in a while, Commander,” said Mary, shifting uneasily in her seat. “But I’ll try.” She reflexively touched her temple as she concentrated on sending the message. A moment later she smiled. “Message sent.”

“What do they say?”

“Their observations cannot confirm a shape change. Remember they are seeing the full disk, not its edge.”

Inside the virtual bubble the Commander had access to all of the ship’s sensors which were operating passively, detecting changes in the energy fields near the ship while emitting no energy of their own. A shape change in the saucer would be difficult to detect, but it didn’t take long for the Professor to confirm Mary’s observation. “Good call, Mary,” said Johnny.

“The disk is growing thicker, I think.”

“Shouldn’t we back off a bit?” asked Alex, his hand ready on the drive stick.

Alex’s last words rang in his ears. He was sweating profusely. Something had changed suddenly, but the cabin, his console, everything appeared to be the same. He looked at the windows and noticed that the stars were gone.

“What just happened?” yelled Tony. His words seemed to echo in the cabin.