Infinite Reef (35 page)
Authors: Karl Kofoed
Mary looked down at the purring cat, cradled in her arms. “Inky is a loner. He used to keep all the other cats away from me. I decided to bring him because he’s a survivor. And the pet shop would be a happier place without him, I’m sorry to say.”
Mary kissed Inky’s head as he gazed up at her, blinking lovingly, then she dropped him to the floor.
Alex watched Inky’s rear end waddle out of the room and frowned. “He’s the only man I’ll allow near her, you know.”
The ship gave another shudder as the engines increased power. Johnny looked around and smiled. “We’ll feel a few of those. Ship quakes, they call ‘em. A ship this size ...” He stared out the window. “Well, you should get soak up as much of this view as you can. Even this dreary scene will be gone soon.”
“How soon before you lock down the buildings?” asked Alex.
“Oh, not too soon,” the Commander assured him, “You have some time. We need to build speed.” He glanced back at the planet on the viewscreen. “It’s good we did the scoop maneuver, though. Otherwise we’d have had to swing by Lalande B to get up the speed necessary to engage the gee-pulse. And I’m not sure what the Lalandians would think of our going back there.”
“That’s true. They’d think we were going back to visit their egg again,” offered Mary.
“Do you want a drink, Johnny?” asked Alex.
”Any more Ganny brew left in that thing?” the Commander asked, scratching his unshaven chin. “I could use some.”
Mary went to the refreshment panel and looked back. “No geebrew left at all, I’m afraid, Johnny. There’s water, fake coffee ... or tea. But somewhere out among that crew of yours is a brewery with all the gee-brew you can drink, I’ll bet.”
Mary pointed a chin toward the window.
“Well, let’s invite ‘em over,” answered Commander Baltadonis.
Another tremor shook the ship. This time Johnny held on to his seat as the room swayed and shook. Um ... are you sure you don’t have any brew?”
Mary flattened her body against the wall as the structure. “That was a bit rough, don’t you think?”
“Computer. Commander to Ned Binder. Ned, what’s happening?” shouted Johnny.
There was a brief pause, then Captain Wysor answered. “Ned’s lookin’ into’ t, p’fessor. All the lights ’re green. No worries, at th’ moment, far’s I c’n see.”
“Tidal stresses or something, Captain?” asked the Commander.
“Aye, sir,” said the Captain. His tone warmed. “Y’ say yer wi’ Alex an’ Mary?”
“We’re right here.”
“Alex! How’re you ’n th’ wife holdin’ up?”
“I’m fine,” said Mary. “Until that last quake.”
“I’m good, Captain,” added Alex. “You?”
Ned Binder’s voice interrupted before the Captain could reply. “You’ve got to see this, Commander. I’m putting the tail cameras on your monitor.”
It was the first time Alex had seen a picture of
Goddard’s
stern with the engines firing. Because of their gargantuan size, only a few engines could be seen, each producing a glowing plume that trailed off behind the ship. Everything looked normal, as far as Alex could see. ”Is there a problem?” he asked Johnny.
Johnny’s eyes were wide with concern. “Perhaps,” he growled. “We still have company.”
9
Alex and Mary expected the Commander to get up and leave, but he didn’t move. All he did was turn his chair so that it faced the com screen. Now it displayed the cause of Johnny’s dismay.
Circling
Goddard’s
stern was a ring of black saucers, arranged in perfect formation. Each one had its flat underbelly facing the ship’s conical stern. The camera zoomed slowly back, showing a wider view. The roaring engines were still in view, apparently functioning perfectly, but the bluish plume surrounding each of them had narrowed considerably.
The image suddenly vanished, replaced by a shot of the main control room. Ned Binder was standing in front of the camera, looking every bit as haggard and unshaven as the Commander. “Pardon me for interrupting, sir,” he said. “But will you be coming to Master Control soon?”
“No, I’m here,” answered Johnny cryptically, with no emotion in his voice. “No need to leave.”
“As you wish, sir,” replied Ned, appearing disappointed. “You’ve seen ...?”
“Yes. Of course. Any idea what they want?”
“We’re accelerating.”
“As well we should be,” said Johnny. “All our engines are at full blast.”
“No, sir. We’re REALLY accelerating,” Binder answered nervously.
Johnny blinked. “How much?”
“Twice what it should be.”
“And the saucers?” Johnny was almost shouting.
“They seem to be the reason, sir. We’re locked in another magnetic torus.”
Johnny looked first at Mary, then at Alex. “Accelerating,” he mused. “Any thoughts?”
Mary shrugged. “They’re helping us?” She retrieved a steaming cup of coffee from the food panel and handed it to the Commander. “You look like you needed this.”
Johnny took the cup and smiled gratefully. “That’s precisely what I need. Thanks, Mary.”
“What if they follow us all the way home?” asked Alex.
Ned was still on the screen and listening to them, with his hands in the pockets of his blue coveralls. “Funny,” he said. “I was thinking similar thoughts. Your orders, Commander?”
“Stand by. And thank you, Mr. Binder. Put the saucers back on the screen.” Johnny’s cordiality was an obvious struggle for him. When the view of the saucers returned his shoulders seemed to relax a bit.
“How long since you’ve slept, Commander,” asked Mary.
“Sometime before the Lalandian came aboard.”
“Dingers,” Alex said. “There’s a sofa over there, Johnny. If you’re going to hang here, then at least catch a nap or something. Put up your feet.”
Johnny smiled weakly. “I’m okay, Alex. In case you haven’t noticed, we have a crisis here. And crisis is grist to a leader.”
“Who said that?” asked Mary.
“I did,” replied Johnny. He raised his coffee as if to toast his statement, then took a sip. He lowered the cup and stared at it. “Who’d have thought that something artificial could be made to taste like coffee.”
“It can’t,” Alex scoffed. “Obviously you don’t drink a lot of it.” He looked at the screen. “If we’re accelerating, shouldn’t we be resetting our schedule for the jump?”
Johnny straightened in his chair. “That’s a good point. I’m sure it’s being considered right now by our telemetry team.
No doubt we’ll be notified soon. It means we may be getting into our crypts sooner than expected.”
Alex was still watching the implacable saucers on the screen. Their glassy black surfaces reflected the flickering blue light of
Goddard’s
huge engines. “Aren’t you getting ahead of things? We still have them to deal with,” he said.
Mary touched her temple and smiled. “Who’s playing that recording?”
“What recording?” Johnny’s body stiffened as he searched Mary’s perfect features. “Radio?”
“The crew must be broadcasting it,” Mary guessed out loud. “It’s our own musicians playing
Ode to Joy
in the cylinder.”
“Seems appropriate,” said Johnny. “Let it play. I hope the aliens are picking it up.”
“The cylinder’s empty,” noted Mary. “It’s coming from them.”
10
Alex and Mary made love under their bubble that night as
Goddard’s
engines continued their long burn a kilometer or so from where they lay, and Inky was between them when the first of three relaxant gases began to seep into their bubble. Soon they all fell asleep listening to the aliens’ recording of
Goddard’s
orchestra playing on the speakers overhead.
When the ring of saucers stopped and turned back toward their dim star, their radio waves still followed. Limited to the speed of light, the waves fell far behind the
Goddard
as its power train surged and the ship disappeared into the infinite night toward the distant sun.
Chapter 13
1
Far beyond the sun, in the cold dark region known to Earth’s cosmologists as the Kuyper Belt, a huge needle of a ship called
Goddard
blinked into reality. Inside, its crew of 1270 slept in protective bubbles, insulated from the rigors of faster-than-light travel.
Alex opened his eyes and looked to his right. Still asleep, Mary was curled happily next to Inky, their cat. “Our luck’s still holding,” he whispered as his attention turned to the white dome that enclosed them. On it was a scrolling message that had been playing for hours while
Goddard
’s computer waited for the crew to waken from chemically induced sleep.
“GOOD MORNING ... ALEX AND MARY ROSE ... YOUR CONDITION IS NORMAL ...
GODDARD
HAS ENTERED
SOLAR SPACE ... ALL SYSTEMS NORMAL.”
He tried to move, but the effort failed at first. “Dingers!” Alex croaked. “What now?”
Alex lay back and searched his memory, piecing together the details of the last year. Through the chemical stew that clouded his mind he began to remember why he was there and not on the giant moon Ganymede, mining ice. Soon, with the silent message playing across the dome above him, it all began to come back.
Mary stirred and groaned, then so did the cat. Mary’s perfect gray eyes opened and she eyed him sleepily. Then she saw the lettering overhead. “Jeeps,” she said in a husky voice. “We made it.”
Alex managed to put a numb arm around his wife to pull her close. It took a bit of doing. “How’re you feeling, love?” Alex managed. “How’s ...” he looked down at her belly.
Mary raised an eyebrow, then looked down at the cat squeezed between them. “Don’t crush Inky.” Then she touched her naked midriff. “She’s fine, I think.” Then Mary smiled. “Oh! He jumped. He’s waking up, too, I guess.”
Alex released Mary and took a deep breath as he glanced back at the message scrolling across the dome in bright red letters.
“We’re home,” he said. “Puter don’t lie.”
“I see you’re both awake!” said a familiar voice on the dome’s loudspeaker.
“Johnny ... er, Commander,” answered Alex. “I guess you could call it that.”
Laughter followed, and then Commander Baltadonis spoke again. “We’ve already activated the cylinder. We’ll probably have to use it for a while.”
“Is there a problem?” Alex rubbed grit from his eyes and managed this time to sit up. Smoothing back his long sandy hair, he watched as the oval door to their pod slide open. He squinted as bright light flooded in. “Where are we, Commander?”
“In the Kuyper Belt. About 500 million klicks off Pluto,” answered the Commander. “Come to Master Control when you’re ready. I’ll fill you in.”
2
An hour later, after exploring their domicile for damage and feeding themselves and their cat, Alex and Mary felt refreshed enough to venture outside. Their house, like all the others on their street, was raised from its locked-down position inside the superstructure.
When they opened the door a musty smell wafted inside. “Dead plants,” observed Mary. “They’ll have to do better, if this ecosystem is going to survive.”
Alex looked around at the curving horizon. Overhead the central column was at its noontime setting. “I don’t know,” he said,
“They brought them back okay after we reached Lalande.”
“True. But I hate that smell,” Mary snapped. “It’s like ... death.”
“It’ll be gone in a couple of days,” said a passerby, jogging happily along the lane that led to Lake Geneva.
Alex smiled as he watched the man trot away down the long curving lane. “See?” he said to Mary.
Mary didn’t seem satisfied with the assurances, but didn’t argue. She stretched her lithe body and yawned. Behind her amid a grove of trees some of the crew were releasing flocks of birds. The sight made Alex feel good. Somehow the vision of them taking wing symbolized a successful mission. He had to admit that he was beginning to get used to the bizarre surroundings of their artificial world.
Ahead of them lay a new kind of adventure; the return of the great ship to a solar system they had left in turmoil. When they had left, over a year ago, the Earth had been at the brink of war. And EarthCorp, the organization who’d made the
Goddard
’s maiden voyage possible, had been about to call off the flight in favor of another destination. It was Johnny’s fault – if fault was to be found – for choosing Lalande as their objective. Alex wondered if they would condemn the man for launching without definitive orders, or would they reward the Commander for having discovered life on an extra-solar planet? Perhaps Johnny already had his answer. “Let’s go,” he said. “I’m dyin’ to know what’s going on back home.”
Following the arching pathway to the end of the lane they walked toward the circular building that housed the ship’s command and control center. As they walked Mary eyed their neighbors’ lawns skeptically. “Look at those plants,” she said, "I knew they’d be dead by the time we got back. Why did they even bother to plant them?”
Alex put an arm around Mary’s shoulders. “I love it when you bitch like that,” he said bemusedly. “It gives me goose bumps.”
Mary ignored his comment, instead sniffing the air disdainfully. “It’s not just the air that stinks, you know” she muttered. “Our clothes do too. These coveralls haven’t gotten proper washing in months. I’ll be glad when we get back to Gannytown. I miss REAL civilization.”
“Yeah, and real coffee,” added Alex. “And Ganny geebrew! I’ll bet Captain Wysor’s mouth is watering already.”
The stroll up Geneva Lane – the main roadway that crossed the bridge to the peninsula that divided the lake and circumnavigated the cylinder – didn’t take long. Soon they arrived at the wide glass doors of Master Control.
Two sleepy eyed security guards met them inside the doors. They recognized Alex and Mary instantly. “Captain Rose,” said one, standing at full attention and saluting. “Welcome, sir.”
“Not need for that,” Alex quipped. “We’re all one big happy family by now. Right?”
“Aye, sir,” said the man. “Good to see you, Mrs Rose,” he said, nodding politely.
Mary smiled as she surveyed the large circular room. At the center, overhanging the stations occupied by Commander Baltadonis and the Ganny Captain, John Wysor, hung the large circular globe that Mary knew was the ship’s position plotter.
“Look, Alex,” she said happily. “It’s the solar system! Doesn’t it look great?”
“Same as it ever was,” answered Alex, dryly. “But that is a good thing.” Then he glanced back at the young lieutenant. “How’re we doin’?” he asked. “Any news from Earth, yet?”
“Not really, sir. I don’t think they’ve seen us yet.”
Mary looked at the man approvingly. “Well, we’ve just arrived. Isn’t that right?”
The lieutenant smiled graciously. “Aye, ma’am. That we have.”
Alex glanced about the room and was surprised to see most of the workstations filled. “Looks like we were the last to get up, love,” he quipped. Then he noticed the two larger stations at the center of the room where the Commander and Captain John Wysor stood engaged in a conversation. The Commander’s aging frame looked diminished compared to the gaunt stature of the Ganny Captain. He noticed that both men now sported short gray beards. Alex waved, but he didn’t catch either man’s attention.
“They seem pretty occupied,” noted Alex to the guard.
“Yes, sir,” the man replied, still at attention.
As Alex and Mary began walking toward the center of the room a few of the staff noticed them and applauded. Some even stood. Alex blushed and smiled as the Commander turned from his conversation with the Captain and saw them. He motioned for the two of them to join them, then looked around at the rest of the staff and raised his hand. “All right, people,” he shouted above the modest commotion. “Let’s get back to work. We need information, not levity.”
The Commander greeted Alex and Mary with outstretched arms. “Thanks for coming so quickly,” he said, smiling broadly. He put an arm around Mary Seventeen. “I need you especially, Mary,” he added. “It looks like your Sensor’s abilities are going to be needed.”
Mary seemed a bit surprised at Johnny’s statement. “Is there a problem, Johnny?”
“I was going to ask you that, dear,” replied the Commander. “The radio chatter is pretty dim from what our com boys are saying.”
“Have you contacted Earth?”
Johnny shook his head. “There hasn’t been time. Of course we’ve sent out hails but it will be hours for a return.”
Mary put two fingers to her temple. “I’m a bit rusty,” she said. “But I’ll do my best.”
Captain Wysor had been waiting his turn to speak, but at the first lull in the Commander’s conversation he took Alex’s hand.
“Glad ye’ made it through th’ haze, you two,” he said. “How’d the, meds do fer your ’ferms, eh, Alex?”
Alex understood the Captain’s Ganny dialect immediately, having spent five years among the Captain’s kinsmen. “The meds did me fine,” he answered. “I guess the med got the right mix for me.”
Commander Baltadonis urged them both to sit down in two vacant seats near his station. “Mary, you take the seat nearest me, if you don’t mind.”
It had been years since Mary Seventeen had served as a Sensor aboard a deep space vessel, but her training as a biological communications officer never left her. It was the main reason she had always been a principal member of all off-ship excursions during the Lalande mission.
She followed the Commander’s suggestion and sat down, but her mood seemed to change. Alex felt it immediately, and looked at her questioningly. He knew he didn’t have to vocalize his question because she could read his thoughts. All Alex had to do was keep an eye on her. But Mary seemed to ignore his unstated inquiry, turning her attention instead to the holographic projection overhead. She still had her fingers pressed to her right temple. “We’re a long way out, Johnny,” she replied to the Commander. “The signals are pretty weak.”
“Aye, Mary,” said Captain Wysor. “Too weak for our comfort, we’re thinkin’.” The Captain took his own seat a few feet away from them. “’s good yer here.”
Alex kept an eye focused on his wife as he sat down, but he still held his tongue. For all he knew her distress had more to do with her pregnancy than anything else. The baby was still their secret. After all, Sensors were clones, and like all clones were forbidden to bear children. Despite their celebrity, the law was the law, and Mary was no more exempt than anyone else aboard ship. Though they had been away more than a year, Corpie Law still ruled aboard the
Goddard
.
But as soon as the Commander’s attention went elsewhere, Mary looked at Alex and smiled weakly. “The baby’s fine,” she whispered. “But I just realized ...”
“What?”
“I can’t hear the other Marys.”
“What’s the problem?” asked Commander Baltadonis, when he noticed them talking.
Still holding her fingers to her temple, Mary nodded and said: “I don’t know.”
3
“I understand,” Johnny said sympathetically. “You don’t like being out of touch. Well, neither do we. We’ve come eight and a half light years only to be greeted by silence.”
“Pe’haps we’ still too far,” suggested the Captain. “It’ll take so’ time ’fore we c’n check in.”
Johnny took a deep breath and reflected for a moment; his eyes fixed on the projection overhead. Then he looked back at Mary.
“You must be hearing something. Radio chatter leaking from the system. Isn’t there anything?”
“What are you picking up?” she replied, shifting uneasily in her seat. “Ship’s systems are more powerful than mine.”
Johnny pursed his lips. “Just static ... background radiation.”
Not far away from them, a young officer stood up. He had been overhearing the conversation. “I’ve calculated our speed, sir.
We’re at .5c.”
“What’s our heading?”
“We’ll be passing Neptune first, sir,” said the officer. “We’ve located the Jovian system, which is next in line.”
“How long before we arrive?”
The young man rubbed his forehead thoughtfully. “Well, that depends ...”
“Ballpark it.”
“Well, it depends on whether you give the order for a retro, Commander.”
Johnny nodded. “I guess we’ve got some calculating to do before that,” he said. “Let’s get on it. But bear in mind, I want to get to the inner system as quickly as we can.”
Mary still had two fingers to her temple and she looked grave. Alex hated to see her in what he could only suspect was great emotional pain. He swiveled his seat to face the Commander. “I wonder what year it is,” he said.
“Funny. I was thinking the same thing, Alex,” replied Johnny. “As much as seventeen years might have passed since we left.
That’s following temporal calculations based on a few test flights.”
“My lucky number,” Mary mused without smiling. “But I wonder if it’s so lucky.”
Alex nodded. “A lot can happen in that amount of time.”
The Ganny Captain was listening as he sat at his console. Snorting a coarse laugh he looked up. “That’s th’ time i’ took to build Gannytown.”
“I was thinking more about the war,” replied the Commander.
No one commented. They were all more than aware that war had been brewing on Earth when the
Goddard
launched for Lalande. Alex’s mind went back to the time he and Mary had visited Earth. Alex had wanted to get the credit due him for discovering the Jupiter’s Reef. It had been a long voyage aboard
Diver
from Jupiter to Mars and then, with Professor Baltadonis for company, to Earth.
While they were there Mary wanted to tour the planet. All she had ever known of planetary life was Martian dust and sand. The idea of a water world was almost beyond her ken. Alex remembered her delight when they reached Earth and she first saw the oceans. She was even more delighted when EarthCorp let them tour the Earth while they evaluated their data and made plans to return to Jupiter for an official exploration of the reef they had discovered.
Once Earth had icecaps, like Mars, but when Alex and Mary toured it the polar caps had long ago melted and the seas were wider and deeper than in all of recorded history. And its resources were limited, as was the space available for mankind. Inevitably this led to conflict. But human ingenuity had used technology in new and novel ways to solve the problem. Domed cities now stood where sprawling megalopolis had once been. The seas were being farmed to such a degree that those living and working in the seas – those who called themselves the Atlantians – eventually developed their own laws and grew apart from those on land.