Infinite Reef (7 page)

But our instruments have detected nothing emitting from it, gas or otherwise. And it is very cold, as Mary said, and may be absorbing heat. If that’s true, we should seal it up.”

“And get rid of it,” added Stubbs.

“How would you get it out of the cylinder? Have your engineers figured that out?” asked Alex.

“We’ve begun filtering the air near it as an immediate precaution. And, yes, there’s talk of sealing it in aerogel. Some’s being prepared now.” Behind Stubbs in the image was the ceiling of the control room. Alex guessed the camera was on the Commander’s console.

“How do you plan to get it out of the cylinder?” asked Mary.

“Good question,” said Stubbs. “It will fit in a tubeway transport. The engineers are considering a connecting tunnel to the tubeway.”

Professor Baltadonis then interrupted and began detailing those plans. Alex raised a finger. “What about the outside material, the stuff on the hull? Has it been analyzed?”

“A cellular formation,” Johnny said soberly. “Like plant cells, I was told,” he added. “Melted when it hit
Goddard
. Froze up solid on the hull. We think the freezing action may have helped punch it through the ship.”

Mary shook her head. “Why take it through the ship and do all that building? Seal it up and transport it to the hole it made. That leaves you with only two repair jobs, not three.”

Stubbs blinked. Then he smiled. “Thank you, Mary,” he said, and ended the transmission.

Alex looked at Mary. “Wow,” he said.

7
As concerned as everyone was about removing the sphere and repairing the damage, there was equal concern over its origin and purpose. Even as teams applied the coating of aerogel to the cold ebony sphere, speculation among the crew was quickly turning into paranoia and fear. And the question on everyone’s mind seemed to be – what next?

The Commander acted quickly. Three hours after Stubbs had given the order, the sphere was being coated with an aerogel spray and a transport vehicle was being modified to carry it. But even though they hurried, it would take an estimated six hours to move the sphere around the cylinder to the hole where it had entered the ship. At the same time a special frame was being constructed to lower the sphere to the bottom of hole it had made in the cylinder. Getting the sphere to the hole, however, only solved part of the problem. They also had to devise a way to get it through the hull. This meant transferring the sphere from the cylinder to the outer hull section despite the cylinder’s continuous rotation.

The last thing Commander Stubbs wanted to do was stop the cylinder, but firing the thing out through both holes when they merged was risky at best. It was decided, therefore, that the rotation of the cylinder should be slowed to one-third speed.

Stopping the rotation entirely would require draining the lake and securing everything in the cylinder for weightlessness. That unthinkable prospect motivated the engineers, who quickly built a shaft to guide the sphere through the hole in the cylinder.

At the same time, crews built a matching shaft through the entry hole in the outer hull and sealed it in place.

The idea was simple. When everything was in place and they were ready to launch the sphere into space, the shaft containing the sphere would be pressurized and the hole in the outer tube would be opened to the vacuum of space. At the moment the two holes merged the sphere would be fired into space, ejected by air pressure and centrifugal force.

Commander Stubbs liked the plan, saying the engineers had proven once again that ‘desperation is the mother of invention’. But despite his overwhelming approval he didn’t relent on his demands. He gave them 24 hours to complete it.

Professor Baltadonis visited Alex and Mary later that evening. In the quiet of their com room he reluctantly admitted that the doubted that the operation would be accomplished on Stubbs’ timetable. An armed convoy, moving slowly along a winding pathway that led around the lake to the opposite wall of the cylinder, was transporting the sphere. Mary’s keen eyes spotted them from the picture window.

Johnny and Alex walked to the glass and peered up into the glowing sky, but Johnny left the window complaining of the glare. Alex agreed. “My eyes aren’t that good, either.”

He did, however, notice a number of ultralights flying in formation above the place where Mary was looking. The central column was dimming as the artificial day drew to a close. Flocks of birds were settling in the trees and bushes, while here and there lights began to blink on.

Alex turned away from the window. Johnny was seated opposite the viewscreen staring at it blankly. The images displayed were from cameras following the transport from all angles, even from the air, presumably using cameras aboard the ultralights. But the Professor seemed disinterested and detached.

“What’s on your mind, Johnny?” asked Alex.

The Professor grinned. “Mars,” he said. “Wondering how the terraformers are doing. If they ever beat the microdust problem in the atmospheric crackers.” He looked at Alex. “Martian dust gets into everything.”

To Alex Mars was a dust bowl, hardly worth the time and trouble to terraform. It amused him to see someone waxing nostalgic over it. “You miss ol’ red, eh, Johnny?”

“I miss my orchids. My swamp lilies. I miss my daughter.” Johnny said wistfully. The Professor was wearing a bright blue Hawaiian shirt and yellow shorts. When he’d arrived he’d explained the garb as a protest to the tense atmosphere. “We need some brightness. Some beauty aboard this ship.” He drifted into remembrance. “I’ll bet they let my gardens rot.” He sighed deeply.

Mary walked over to Johnny and rubbed his shoulders. “I’m sorry, Johnny. I wish your daughter had come along.”

“That’s just it,” said Johnny. “She could be here on this amazing trip. But ...”

“You had to come, Johnny,” said Alex. “Hell, nothing could have prevented you from coming along. You’re as essential to the mission as Stubbs, you know.”

“I suppose that should make me feel better, Alex,” said Johnny, managing a smile, “but somehow ...”

Mary looked at Alex angrily. Then she faced the Professor. “Alex and I often forget how lucky we are, Johnny. We have each other while so many are separated from loved ones.”

Johnny smiled. “No, Mary. Alex is 100% right.” He stood up, stretched, and went to the food panel. “May I?” he asked politely. “I’m lowering your coffee ration a bit here.”

“Don’t overdo it, you ol’ guzzler,” griped Alex. “We know your sob stories are just a ploy to steal rations.”

Mary looked perplexed as both Johnny and Alex burst into laughter.

“I wasn’t just thinking about my daughter. It’s the sphere ... and the mission.” Johnny took the coffee from the slot in the wall and stared at it thoughtfully. “The fact that there are sentients on Lalande b almost makes it certain that we’ll have to investigate Lalande c.”

“When?” asked Alex. “Is Stubbs ...?”

Johnny put up his hands defensively. “I should have kept my mouth shut,” he said. “This is still just talk.”

“Stubbs talk?” said Alex.

Johnny nodded and looked again at the screen. “Right now I’m hoping the engineers got everything right.” He walked to the window and gazed out at the cylinder. “And thank God for the repair-bots. Without them the work would take weeks.”

With
Goddard’s
nightfall coming swiftly it was easy to spot the gathering of lights that marked the convoy, now a third of the way around the cylinder. “Like Martian fireworms, climbing a wall,” said the Professor. “Someone should take a picture.”

8
Alex knew Johnny had been joking, of course. There were cameras everywhere monitoring every nuance of the
Goddard
mission, and all the data was being transmitted home. The broadcasts to Earth were continuous. Every measurement, every lab report, were all faithfully bundled, and launched in microwave packets toward the distant solar system. But for all the effort to share the data with the rest of humanity, everyone realized they might never know if the data reached home. Only when they returned would they find that out, and then it might not matter. Despite all the theoretical physics involved in worm-hole flight, the time effects on large scale missions were unknown. For all any of then knew, when they returned to Earth centuries might have transpired, or they might even find themselves back in time or confronted with an alternate reality.

There had been tests of the system before the
Goddard
mission, but all of them had been within the solar system, between Earth or Mars and Jupiter, where repairs and rescue missions could be quickly implemented.

Alex had always seen the mission as a test flight, and he’d always assumed that it would take no longer than a few years at best. But he knew also that it could be a one way trip. Only when they safely returned to Gannytown would they know for sure. With a trip to the second gas giant suddenly looming, the prospect of that happening seemed as remote as the solar system itself.

As the time for the explosive launch of the alien sphere neared, Alex found his mind drifting to concerns for Mary. After Johnny left their home his fears had increased. He suspected they both would be drafted for an exploratory flight into Lalande c’s vortex. Once the explorer instincts in him would have welcomed that prospect, but the rescue mission to Howarth’s egg had quelled that part of him, and he was already dreading a return trip. His suggestion about a return mission was the only way he felt he could learn if such a trip was in Stubbs’ mind. What Mary had taken as volunteerism was really a bid for information from a Commander whose intentions seemed blurry at best.

Then there was the matter of Mary’s health. She had been sick again that morning and, as before, had been dismissive when he showed concern. Would Mary’s undiagnosed malady cause her harm if she went on another mission?

9
They had settled in to watch the launch of the sphere from the comfort of the bubble when orders came from the Commander.

Minutes later, Alex and Mary boarded a tube car for a trip to their shuttle. Stubbs wanted a chase vehicle to observe the sphere after its launch from
Goddard
. His choice was
Diver
, with Alex at the helm, of course. Johnny and Matt Howarth would be along to monitor the sphere while Alex and backup pilot Connie Tsu manned the helm. Stubbs wanted Mary to go along as communications officer.

When Alex asked her if she felt up to it, Mary looked at him as if he was crazy. “I’m fine,” she insisted. I want to go. I just wish Stubbs had let me take Inky along, too. He’s been lonely during all the excitement.”

Mary was changing the subject, and he understood why. The only illness that she had ever known resulted from injury or implant surgery. He never heard her complain of a headache or even an upset stomach. If Stubbs hadn’t been so adamant about the importance of the mission, Alex would have insisted the meds look at her first. But the dolphin had said there was no urgency, and the cylinder’s weather staff had already reported a mean temperature drop of two degrees. As the Commander had said, the longer the sphere stayed aboard the greater the threat to ship and crew.

Though Alex still worried about her, Mary seemed fine as they got out of the tubeway and floated together, hand in hand, toward the hangar doors. They were dressed in the silver coveralls provided without explanation by the med techs.

Inside the hangar stood the rest of the crew, and one more member, borne in a small locker by Connie Tsu. When Connie saw Mary enter the hangar bay she pushed the box gently in Mary’s direction. Alex heard protesting meows of their cat as the box tumbled toward Mary, who caught it handily and peered inside. She smiled, wide-eyed, at Tsu. “Inky?”

“We thought he should be along, for old time’s sake,” said Johnny, hovering next to Tsu. “I had the crew stow some chow for him.”

Mary’s brightened mood was evident when they reached
Diver’s
airlock. She breezed inside and took up her station.

Everyone else did the same, hastened by the steady urgings of the Commander’s voice on their wristbands.

Alex surveyed the cabin and smiled, glad to see that there were no unfamiliar modifications, as had been the case on the last two missions. His eyes fell on Tsu and she returned his look with one of consternation. “What?” she asked. “Why the grin?”

Alex was about to reply when Stubbs’ voice came over the cabin intercom. “Stow it and buckle up, people,” said the Commander. “We have a launch sequence for the sphere. Two minutes.”

“Wow! They’re really pushin’ it,” remarked Matt Howarth, last through the airlock. “Jesus H. Pope,” he growled as he floated like a silver pillow to the radar station behind Alex’s chair.

The Professor was already busy inside the bubble that dominated the center of
Diver’s
cabin. “Sealing the lock,” he said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Contact,” said Stubbs’ voice on the intercom.

Diver creaked as it moved out of its docking position and onto the launch ramp. There was nothing for Alex to do but sit back until he was called upon to perform his duties. Beside his chair was the tactical helmet that allowed virtual reality instead of just a viewscreen. He might have put the helmet on, but he knew that would automatically arm the weapons system and put the computer into tactical mode. Then he noticed that it was secured with a silver cord and a coded lock. “No war games today, I guess,” he muttered as
Diver’s
engines started up.

The viewscreen over the forward windows blinked on. The outside cameras, set to mimic the forward view, now showed only stars. One of them, Alex mused, could be the sun. Almost unseen at the right side of the screen was the shadowy rim of Lalande b. He noticed it only because a lightning flash on its cloudy surface was brighter, for a moment, than the red dwarf Lalande that lay centered at the top of the screen.

Clearing the shuttle bay doors,
Diver’s
computer turned the ship to parallel the surface of
Goddard
, and they began to move forward slowly. The great ship filled the left half of the viewscreen, a tapering white structure that seemed to trail off into infinity. Everyone was busy but Alex. Matt, just behind him, was muttering to someone on his personal com. Johnny had his bubble lowered, also engaged in private conversation, and Tsu was busy recalibrating the ship’s navigational trackers.