Authors: Karl Kofoed
Infinite Reef (8 page)
Even Mary was busy, establishing multiple radio links with
Goddard
.
Only Alex sat idle watching the seemingly endless white hull move slowly by. It looked brand new, completely unblemished by its passage across eight light years of interstellar space. He knew that while under the influence of the gravitational pulse drive the ship traveled in a bubble outside of reality. Particles of dust and other more massive debris would simply not interact with it. But much of
Goddard’s
travel had been in normal space, and at high speeds. That meant frequent collisions with dust and space debris or ‘dingers’, as spacers called them. Yet, everywhere he looked, the polyceramic plating was pristine.
Finally the computer brought
Diver
to a stop. Before them a large domed canopy covered the site of the alien impact. At the apex of the dome was the hole. “I guess this is where we stay,” said Johnny’s voice over the intercom. “No need for me to stay in here until we launch,” he added. With a hiss the black cowl that had covered the Professor’s chair lifted to the cabin ceiling. “Maybe some coffee is in order.”
“That’s a ding,” said Tsu, peering out the forward window at the billowy structure below them. “Can’t be without our vites.” She turned as Johnny drifted out of his chair in the direction of the food panel. “If you’re takin’ orders, Profy, make mine coffee. Black.”
“Make that two,” said Alex. “Mary?”
“Juice blend,” Mary answered. Inky lay contented in her lap, apparently enjoying the weightless environment of the cabin and Mary’s soft stroking of his fur. Inky had spent many hours as part of
Diver’s
crew. His favorite haunt was the ceiling over Mary’s head.
The drinks weren’t a problem for the Professor to handle in zero gee. Instead of floating around the cabin delivering drinks, Johnny fired the hot squeezers of coffee and tea like missiles across the cabin.
Alex caught his coffee and broke the seal.
“Some music while we’re waiting?” asked Tsu, looking around.
“What have you in mind, Connie?” asked the Professor, returning to his chair.
“Hawkwind,” she said and leaned toward her console.
“Ah, a little twentieth century space rock, eh,” said Matt Howarth. “Not bad. But only if you follow it with some King Crimson.”
“Don’t know it,” said Alex and Johnny at the same time.
10
The ethereal throbbing of Hawkwind’s ancient rock sounds wasn’t discordant to Alex, but he did find it more melancholy than invigorating. He was still worried about Mary. It seemed that everything she did gave him reason to assess her well-being. The music seemed to enhance that worry, and he was relieved when it was interrupted remotely so that Commander Stubbs could speak to the crew. “We have a holdup,” said Stubbs, sounding stressed. “We had to double check the pressure seal. The construction was slightly ... ah, why am I explaining this? What you need to know is that the clock is now set. We launch in ten minutes. The computer will orient you and regulate your chase. Should anything unusual happen you are authorized to chase it. Well, I don’t want you to chase it as much as track it to see where it goes.”
“Even if it returns to the surface of Bubba?” Johnny asked in surprise.
“Possibly,” said Stubbs. “Are all of you strapped tight?”
Johnny glanced around the room, looking a bit forlorn. “As requested, sir.”
“Good,” answered the Commander. His voice sounded strained. “The computer will take control any second to get you on your way before the launch.”
Alex hung his head in disappointment. He’d been looking forward to seeing the strange missile burst from the ship.
“Can’t fly my ship. Can’t even watch the launch. I’ll bet there’s some reason for me to be here, but at the moment I haven’t a clue.”
“Pilot versus computer,” said Johnny. “Eh, Alex?”
“It takes a pilot to bring us home,” offered Connie. She eyed Johnny coldly.
Diver’s engines came on full. Moments later the computer’s voice began a countdown for the launch of the sphere.
“Thirty seconds.” The viewscreen switched to a telescopic shot of the blister on
Goddard’s
hull, steadily magnifying the image as
Diver
sped away at ever increasing speed.
Johnny brought down his bubble as the whine of the ship’s power diminished, then stopped.
“LAUNCH!” shouted Stubbs’ voice.
The viewscreen was tight on the hole as a streak of silver flashed out of it, followed by a cone shaped puff of steam. The camera almost instantly caught up with and tracked the projectile into space. “Damn fine camera work, eh?” crowed Matt.
The cylinder tumbled as the camera followed it, then it suddenly popped open, showering pieces in all directions. The sphere, still encased in white aerogel, continued its journey into space.
“Looks like everything worked fine,” said Johnny.
“Was it supposed to blow up like that?” asked Connie.
“Correct, Connie,” said Johnny. “I thought everyone knew the plan was to seal the thing until it got into space. The canister was designed to release the sphere.”
“Any second now, people,” cautioned the voice of Stubbs. “The sphere’s getting close to you.”
“Here we go,” said Mary.
Diver’s motors went to full power. “And we’re off ...” shouted Johnny.
Despite the change in speed, Matt’s cameras tracked the sphere precisely as it continued on a dead straight course.
“Radar’s tracking the sphere,” he announced proudly. “Now it’s driving the cameras.”
“Good, Matt,” said Johnny. “So far there seems to be no course deviation.”
“Should there be? How could it change course?” Tsu challenged. “If you ask me, this is a silly mission.
Goddard’s
onboards can track it, can’t they?”
“Is there something you’d rather do?” asked Stubbs.
Tsu frowned. “No, sir.”
“What makes us think the sphere could change course, sealed in gel and all?” Alex said, winking at Connie.
“If we don’t know what it is, or how it penetrated our ship, then we can’t predict what it can do,” answered Stubbs, his voice sounding subdued. “Ready for anything, as they say.”
“I get it,” said Alex darkly.
“Aren’t you having a good time, either, Alex?” asked Stubbs. His voice dripped with condescension.
“Time o’ me’ life, cap’,” was Alex’s knee-jerk Ganny reply.
“It’s changing course!” shouted Johnny.
The computer guiding Alex’s ship responded accordingly. “Course adjustment ... point one degrees ... point two ...”
Connie Tsu read the numbers and Matt confirmed them each time. “We have significant deviation,” added Matt.
“What do you think of this, Commander?” asked Johnny.
“First, I’d look for gravitational or magnetic reasons, Johnny,” answered the calm voice of the Commander. “We’re checking that now. Thank you,
Diver
.”
Tsu continued to announce each decimal in the sphere’s course deviation, and the camera remained solidly fixed the dim blue ball so seemingly static against the background of stars that it might have been painted there.
11
If it was rotating, Alex couldn’t tell. The lighting provided by the tiny red sun was too dim to render the alien orb as it cruised deeper into space. A hundred kilometers behind it followed
Diver
, still guided by the ship’s radar. It had been a half hour, and there seemed little doubt that the sphere was doing nothing more than finding its gravitational orbit.
Despite Connie’s calculation that the sphere wouldn’t arrive ‘home’ on Bubba for another fifteen hundred years, Stubbs hadn’t called off the chase. As minutes became hours, boredom forced the crew to seek unexpected amusements. Johnny remained at his station and watched as Mary and Matt played ‘catch the cat’ with Inky. From an observer’s viewpoint it seemed fairly ruthless, but the animal loved it. Even when Mary fast-balled it off Alex’s seat by accident, Inky just grunted and sprang toward the rear galley, then back into Mary’s arms, ready for more.
All the while, Johnny fiddled with his console, glancing every so often at the viewscreen and at the antics with the cat.
Suspecting that the Professor was up to something, Alex kept his eyes on the viewscreen. Soon the image of the ball began to look more detailed. He could see the lumpy texture of the insulating foam that covered the sphere. The starry background brightened and clouds of interstellar gas began to appear in the darkness. The brighter sky silhouetted the sphere, making it even easier to see.
“Adjusting the image, Professor Baltadonis?” asked Tsu. “Or is the universe ending?”
Mary hadn’t been paying attention to the conversation or the viewscreen. Hearing Tsu, she let go of the cat and looked at the viewscreen in horror. “Did someone say the universe is ending?” Mary’s reaction caught Inky off guard, and he ended up clinging to the cabin ceiling, looking confused. “Fun’s over, Inky,” said Mary, looking up at the cat. “Time to get serious.”
She looked around at the rest of the crew.
Everyone else was watching the screen. The camera was set at maximum magnification, but the sphere was still disappointingly small on the screen. Still, the image Johnny had produced was detailed enough to see changes in the sphere’s surface.
Mary leaned forward and squinted at the screen. “The surface is cracking, isn’t it? The casing was smoother before, wasn’t it?”
“Well, heck,” he said, “I’ll find it in the visual record and put it on the screen, for comparison.” Delighted to suddenly have a task to perform, Johnny attacked his console with new zest.
A second image of the sphere suddenly appeared next to the first. Even out of focus, it was clear that the sphere had changed radically. As Mary had said, the aerogel coating was cracking. As they watched, a big piece of it broke off and drifted slowly out of frame.
“Well, I guess we don’t need comparisons, do we?” said Johnny.
“What have we got, Johnny?” asked the voice of Commander Stubbs. “Changes in the sphere?”
“I was about to call you,” began Johnny. “Are you receiving these images?”
“Is that your best magnification? Can’t you get closer?”
“Your orders were for stealth ... not to get close ...”
“I want to see this,” interrupted Stubbs. “Get closer immediately!”
“Is everyone strapped in?” Johnny asked looking around at the crew. His eyes fell on Alex. “Let’s get closer, Alex.”
Mary stood up and plucked Inky from the ceiling, then ducked quickly back into her seat. She did it exquisitely, never losing her grip on the cat. “I’m ready,” she said.
Chapter 3
1
“It’s 100 meters ahead of us, Commander. I suspect it’s growing, or expanding,” Johnny said for Stubbs’ benefit. “Maybe 30% of the gel is has been shed.”
“You’re about to be eclipsed by Bubba, Johnny,” said the garbled voice of the Commander. “Keep up the chase. We’ll pick you up on the go-round. Remember that ...” Stubbs’ voice faded into static.
Mary glanced back at Johnny and shook her head. “They’re gone.”
As
Diver
moved into the shadow of Bubba, Alex eased back on the stick, slowing their approach to the sphere. Below them, the frigid gas giant rippled with faint flashes of lightning beneath the veil of icy clouds. The soft glow helped Johnny’s enhanced imaging render the sphere as it continued to shed bits of shell. One chunk bounced gently off
Diver’s
windshield.
“Looks like it’s coming apart fast,” said Alex.
“We should get this on camera,” the Professor announced. “I recommend using floodlights.”
“There goes our stealth,” offered Howarth with a raised eyebrow.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Matt,” Johnny laughed. “We lost that when we moved in close. If it’s a sensor of some kind, and can see at all, you can bet it can see us. Now that it’s losing the shell we’ve no choice. Hit the floods, Connie. Light her up.”
He folded his arms resolutely and glared at the screen.
“Roger that,” replied Tsu. “Floods on.”
Suddenly the sphere and its fractured shell became glaringly visible. The shell was still largely intact, but pieces were coming off more quickly.
In the next few minutes the sphere lost the last of its shell. Now all that remained to describe the jet black sphere on the viewscreen were the reflections of
Diver’s
lights and a faint background of stars.
Matt unbuckled his belt. “A coffee for me,” he said. He rose and floated across the cabin, pausing a moment to scratch Inky behind the ear. He looked up at the screen. “You know, it hasn’t changed in size. Not since we moved into the shadow of the planet,” he said.
Matt reached over to the co-pilot seat and tapped Connie on the shoulder. “What’s your take on it, Connie?”
Tsu’s eyebrow arched. “How should I know?”
“Come on. Tell me what you think,” coaxed Matt, he floated over to her seat and planted a kiss on her cheek.
Connie brushed away Matt like a bug. “Not paid to think! Slide off n’ get us a joe, will ya?”
Alex laughed. “Your opinion’s as good as any, Tsu. You were stuck down inside that egg.”
“I guess,” replied Connie, looking up at the screen. In the enhanced version of their surroundings, the star filled universe was cleaved by the gas giant, but all that defined the planet were flashes of lightning under its clouded surface. “There’s lots of power down there on Bubba,” Connie said. “If somebody down there’s usin’ it ...”
“It’s gone!” Johnny said with a gasp, staring wide-eyed at the screen. “Look! It’s not there.”
Alex looked at the screen, then out the cockpit window. There was nothing there.
Forgetting his thirst, Howarth dove back to his radar station as Alex reflexively grabbed the stick.
“Engines engaged,”
announced the computer, sensing Alex’s hand on the drive.
“Computer! Do a spin scan. Do it now!” shouted Matt as he jabbed angry fingers at his console.
“Good move,” commented Johnny. “Buckle up, everyone.”
Alex glanced at Mary. “Hold Inky tight,” he said as the ship began its sweep of the skies. The computer automatically swiveled the seats so everyone faced the center of the cabin. In the next few seconds anything in the cabin that wasn’t secured went flying through the air. Squeezers of coffee, Howarth’s datastrator and a dozen other items were suddenly thrown to the walls of the cabin by the centrifugal force of the spin.
Watching the flying debris in horror, Mary clutched the cat to her chest. “I think I really hate this trip,” she hissed through clenched teeth. She kept saying that over and over as the spin reached its maximum speed.
“The sphere has been located,” announced the computer.
“Point seven five kilometers behind our trajectory.”
The retro engines fired, stopping the spin. The ship came to rest facing in the direction of the sphere.
“Behind us?” gasped the Professor, out of breath and staring at the ceiling. “Dammit, Howarth, how the hell did you miss something like that on radar?”
Matt stared at Johnny blankly. “It didn’t move! We ... we were all looking right at it!”
“He’s right, sir,” offered Connie. “It was there, and then ...”
Johnny laughed. “Are you serious?”
Still following its mission parameters, the computer aligned the ship and set the cameras for a good look at the sphere.
Matt looked up from his radar screen. He raised a finger and looked at Johnny. “We’ll ask the puter what happened,” he said.
And without waiting for a response Matt said: “Computer. How did the sphere change position? What course did it take?”
“Insufficient data.”
Matt hung his head briefly. “I should have guessed it would say that. Okay, computer, was there any movement detected on the part of the sphere?”
“Yes, Matt, there was movement ... recorded by optical sensors 4, 7, and 9, sequentially.”
“How long did it take to change position?” Johnny asked.
“Exact time unknown.”
“An estimate will do.”
“Two to three seconds, Professor Baltadonis.”
“Can you speculate, computer, as to the cause of the change in position?” Johnny rolled his eyes, as though he didn’t expect an answer.
The computer was silent for a moment, then, when Johnny was about to give up, it answered him.
“Speculation based on
known variables. Possible magnetic anomaly. Possible planetary origin.”
The chairs were still facing the center of the cabin, giving it the look of a conference room with Johnny at the center.
“Thank you, computer,” the Professor said loudly. “That makes sense ... I guess.” His eyes scanned the crew, finally coming to rest on Alex. “Our people have been reporting some interesting stuff relating to Bubba’s magnetic field. There’s every possibility that the sphere is somehow driven magnetically.”
“Somehow,” said Alex, folding his arms and looking back at the screen.
“Computer,” said Johnny, “Keep track ... I mean, fix our sensors and cameras on the sphere. If it shows signs of moving ...”
The sphere was suddenly gone from the screen again. Johnny was watching when it happened. “Jesus! It’s gone again,” he shouted. “Crap!”
“What?” asked Mary, swiveling her chair around. When she saw the empty screen she reached out and grabbed Inky, who protested with a hiss. “Not again,” she moaned, clutching the angry cat. Alex smiled when she caught his eye. He could hear her silent curses.
“Wide radar scan, slow rotation!” shouted Johnny. “At once.” He chuckled at the worried expressions around him.
“Don’t worry ... I’m not ordering a spin scan. It’s probably behind us again.” Johnny leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. “We’ll be out of the planet’s shadow soon.
Goddard
will be wanting answers and I have no idea what to tell them.”
Alex suddenly had a terrible idea. “Professor, we shouldn’t waste time searching. We should get back to the ship.”
“What?” growled Johnny. “Break off the search? We have to find that sphere.”
“I don’t think it’s out there. What if it’s returning to
Goddard
?” said Alex ominously. He took the drive stick in hand, disengaging the computer, and quickly let go as the ship began to wobble. “Sorry about that,” he said. “But I have the strongest feeling there’s danger for
Goddard
.”
Alex,” said Mary. “What are you talking about?”
Alex shook his head in frustration. “It’s clear to me. If the sphere IS a probe, a mobile one, and it has a mission ...”
Johnny stared wide-eyed at Alex. “Computer,” he almost shouted. “Take us back to
Goddard
. As fast as possible ... now!”
The chairs had barely returned to their normal positions when the ship launched at top speed. Alex looked out the side window. In the totality of the shadow of the great planet he could see lightning leaping from cloud to cloud. It looked hostile and foreboding, certainly not a place one might call home.
He wondered if the sphere had gone there. As
Diver
accelerated and he watched the seething clouds below, the notion seemed unlikely. Yet the idea that the sphere had gone back to the
Goddard
also seemed farfetched. It could have gone anywhere. Perhaps it was still out there somewhere, invisible to the radar.
But he knew that if there was a chance that he was right and their home away from home was in danger, they had to act in her defense. Only
Diver
and one other shuttle carried weapons.
2
As the red sun rose above Bubba’s dark hazy horizon,
Diver’s
engines were still firing at full throttle. Alex and Connie both gripped the sticks in front of them, but they were testing the weapons systems, not piloting the ship.
Johnny had ordered both of them into their military helmets and assigned each of them one of the ship’s two weapons systems. Alex controlled the lasers while Connie used the pulser.
“I hope to heck we’re wrong,” breathed Alex as he squinted at the crosshairs before his eyes. “I hope this is just a panic attack.”
The Professor overheard him. “We can’t let the sphere punch another hole in our only ticket home.”
“I donno. It’d be a nice souvenir, to take back home,” Connie laughed, squinting at the dull red sunrise directly ahead.
“Damn, is that a sorry sight?”
Johnny groaned. “Connie, we can’t go home with contamination aboard. You know that.”
“Sheesh!” Connie looked at Alex in disgust. “Just tryin’ to lighten it up a bit.”
Diver’s computer had calculated a fix on the
Goddard
, and they should soon be seeing the ship silhouetted by the pale red star Lalande. Everyone eyed the viewscreen, watching the artificially added crosshairs that marked the presumed location of the mother ship.
Diver
was throwing out massive bursts of radar, hoping to find the sphere.
Alex squinted at the screen but saw nothing. His hand gripped the drive stick’s handle like a pistol. Indeed, when the ship shifted to military mode, a trigger system extruded from it. His finger fired the weapon, but the computer did the targeting.
All he could do was hold the stick and wait for the computer to find him a target. But so far it had found only the
Goddard
.
Connie Tsu wore a half smile. Her finger was also on the stick, poised to shoot
Diver’s
pulser. Alex remembered how the pulser worked in Bubba’s atmosphere, where it used acoustics to carve a hole in Howarth’s egg, and inside the egg, to excavate the trapped
Tai Chi
, but he had never seen a pulser used in space. From the weapons briefing he knew that it used a plasma stream broken into pulses and ejected magnetically, like bullets. He had heard that it was the weapon favored by EarthCorps’ police ships because a sustained burst could penetrate anything, even polyceramic shielding.
Alex was dubious about using weapons against a race they knew so little about, but he steeled himself with the hope that action might not be needed. “I’m guessing the thing’s gone south to meet its family,” Alex said to whoever was listening. He looked back at Matt. “Seeing anything on radar, Matt?”
Howarth shook his head doubtfully. “I’m not even seeing
Goddard
.”
“I see why, Matt,” said the Professor cheerfully. “We’re seeing
Goddard’s
nose. No, it’s the tail section.” Johnny pulled a lever beside his chair and looked up. “Time to go to work, boys and girls.” The black cowl dropped smoothly, covering his console and chair. The cabin intercom came on with a beep. It was clear the intercom was working because Alex could hear Johnny mumbling, “Where is it? Where are you?” as he tried to find evidence of the sphere.
Alex spotted the ship just as Matt announced his own radar lock. “I have a bearing,” he said happily. “I should have known. It’s right on the cross hairs, ten klicks or so.”
Matt reached over and touched Alex’s arm. “Why’s his screen better than mine? I’m feeling kind of useless here,” he whispered.
“Welcome to the crew,” said Alex. His eyes returned to the screen. “Connie and I get precious little piloting done with the computer runnin’ all the time.”
“Radio contact with
Goddard
, Professor,” Mary announced. “Patching it in,” she added, dutifully. “It’s the Commander.”
“...
Diver
. Do you read?”
“Behind you, Commander,” answered Johnny. “Have you seen the sphere?” Over the intercom Johnny’s bubble made his voice boom strangely.
“Something hit us,” said Stubbs. “Our sensors said so, at least. We suspect it was the sphere.”
Johnny was quiet for a moment. “I’m seeing the aft section. No damage that I can see. Where were you hit?”
“No fears, ya’ Gannys,” said the unexpected voice of Captain Wysor. “We saw ‘er comin’ ‘n I pointed ‘her aft.”
“Yes,” interrupted the Commander. “The Captain deserves high praise, indeed. We had less than two minutes warning, and lucky to get that much. Our illustrious Captain managed to move the ship, smoothly I might add, and the thing glanced off the hull. At least we think it did.”
“So ... then where is it?” asked Alex. “Did you see it leave?”
“Greetin’s, Rose,” said Captain Wysor. “Armed fer war, I see?”
“To answer the first question, it’s ahead of us,” Stubbs interrupted again. “But we lost it on sensors. And, no, we didn’t see it leave.”
“I see no marks on the hull. If it glanced off, it might orbit and return, maybe speed up.” Johnny heaved a sigh.
“Computer? Can you hazard a guess when the sphere will be back?”
The computer didn’t respond.
Alex guessed that the computer was in tactical mode, following stealth procedures. It was now operating silently, trusting no one except the two gunners, under the assumption that the enemy might detect even cabin conversation.