Jupiter's Reef (19 page)

Alex smiled. “That’s okay, go on.”

“Anyway,” she continued, “When there’s some time, we want to talk about the mission. Before you go.”

“Wow,” said Alex. “Sure. Whatever. But you’ve seen the disk of our trip, right?”

“Oh yes,” said Jeanne, the assistant. “You did very well for a person with no training.”

Alex looked around the cabin. “Thanks, I guess,” he said softly.

Tony and Matt were absorbed in their machines and the Professor still had his head in virtual space. Alex figured it was safe to talk frankly if the girls wanted to. So for the next few minutes they discussed the return trip and the Ganny situation. Finally, Tsu felt comfortable enough to express her concerns about Matt. “Do you think we’ll have a problem?”

“I think Tony will be to us as Matt will be to you,” said Alex.

“Meaning what?” asked Tsu.

“They’re a couple of characters, all right, but Stubbs says they’re the best. We’ll see,” he said.

Part 5

1
Mary continued broadcasting to the Ganny ships orbiting Jupiter. For a long time they were either unwilling or unable to respond to
Diver
’s hails. Since Mary’s biomechanical Sensor abilities allowed her to broadcast without speaking, she could do her duties in the background and only bother Alex when it mattered.

For the moment the Gannys were claiming that contracts and pay were still pending for the use of their ship. They admitted, at least, that the Corp had indeed hired one of them – though they wouldn’t say which one – and that the equipment for the mission had been put aboard. Mary was glad to report that at least.

But, after she tried for a while without success to enlist the Gannys’ cooperation, Alex decided to try for himself.

“It’s time to play ball, my love,” he said jokingly. “Put on yer ganny waders I gin try n’gotiate, meself!”

Alex touched the dash and spoke clearly. “Yo outerrim boys.
Diver
here. Gi’tcher Ganny asses in gear. We gotta git below asap. Wuzaluz about?”

He switched the radio to the cabin speakers and found them full of outer rim slang. It took some time but, using his ethnic jargon, Alex was able to convince them contracts could be worked out.

As he suspected, the Gannys responded positively to his slang. So he decided to stretch his luck a bit with a request.

“I know a bit o’ Ganny,” he said. “But the folks here don’t know it and they need to talk to you. We got two ladies and a gent to put on your ship. The plan is to follow us down as we go, from orbit. You know where we’re goin’. Right?”

The radio crackled with static as the first wave of solar radiation reacted with Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field. Alex knew that the plasma torus – a ring of flowing ions that travels from the moon Io to the poles of the mighty planet – would be charging in a big way when the full energy of the solar storm hit. Half the mining colonies on Io were run on electrical power extracted from the torus. If it didn’t blow any circuits, the storm might even prove to be a boon for IoCorp. But for ships above planet the storm was a barrier to good reception between the Great Red Spot and any ship in orbit. Filtering static caused by Jupiter’s lightning was problem enough. As the crackling in the cabin speakers increased, he wondered if he’d be able to finish his negotiations with the Gannys.

Alex was pondering this when the
Houston
, whose image still loomed on the large viewscreen, began to power up its plasma boosters. Blue white light pulsed inside the flower-like petals of its aft section. Alex guessed the ship might choose to slingshot around Ganymede and use the moon’s gravity to gain some speed.

Finally a Ganny pilot’s voice crackled on the cabin speakers.

“Alex Rose, yer monker? Might you be the one who broke the clouds?”

“I guess so,” said Alex. “If you mean Jupiter’s clouds. I found the reef they’ve been talking about on the news.
Diver
is going back. You know that, right?”

“Ya ...
Diver
’s yer ship. You a miner?” asked the Ganny.

“Not now, icy. Are you the ship EarthCorp boxed for us?”

“Ya ...
Cornwall
,” said the man. “I’m Cap’n Hoy. Ice fleet two.”

“I’m a gasser, ’til I nicked a whiz,” said Alex, winking at Mary. She understood him but only because she could read his thoughts. She wanted to caution him about claiming to have ‘nicked’ a ship but thought better of it and kept her mouth shut.

“I’m right in this room with you, Alex,” said Tony. “But I haven’t any idea what you’re talking about.”

“Suits me,” said Alex. “But that Ganny speak got your friend an orbiter.”

“You mean, finished the deal, don’t you?” asked Tony.

“True,” admitted Alex. “Fact is, I owe EarthCorp a lot for the improvements on this ship.”

“Aren’t you grateful for the return trip to Jupiter?” asked Professor Baltadonis, looking out from under his hood.

“That I’m not sure about,” said Alex. “As Stubbs said, it’s something we’ve got to do.”

“Well, you know the territory,” answered Johnny, stretching his arms. “Alex, I’ve been thinking about bio-contamination,” he continued. “It’s something that we haven’t talked about too much. This ship was on Earth for weeks. Isn’t it covered with microbes?”

“The ship is covered in laminated polyceramic,” said Tony. “Nothing sticks to it. Not even bacteria. Simple exposure to space is enough to clean it.”

Alex looked to see if the Professor agreed. “Biological advice from a materials engineer, right, Johnny?”

“I can’t argue the point because Tony is basically right. Contamination is a materials question,” he said.

“I decontaminated for Mars with an aerobraking maneuver,” said Alex. “I’m assuming reentry will do the same on Jupiter.”

Johnny raised a finger then disappeared beneath the hood. A moment later, he pulled his head out from under it and continued. “The radiation levels outside are above critical for biologicals. Earth biologicals, anyway. I think the solar storm and Jupiter’s radiation belts have killed off anything clinging to our hull.”

“Okay,” said Alex, “Speaking of contamination, maybe its time to remind everyone that when we go into the reef none of us can contact it – directly I mean.”

“Of course,” said Matt. “And by the way, Alex, which one of us was that addressed to?”

“You’re right. We all know that. I was just thinking out loud, I guess,” admitted Alex.

“Funny,” said Sciarra, “You almost sound protective of the reef.”

“And of us,” observed Mary, shooting Tony an angry look. “That’s a Captain’s job.”

Alex smiled. “And my first job is to catch up with the
Cornwall
. My instruments show them orbiting Ganymede.”

With a breathtaking snap of acceleration,
Diver
leapt into action. Alex smiled as the drive stick responded to his touch. “You did a hell of a job with this, Tony,” he said, watching the acceleration numbers climb on the monitor.

“Don’t give me credit. I had nothing to do with that,” said Sciarra. “EarthCorp military engineers did it all. I’ll tell you what they told me, though. They were impressed with your work on the power train. The tandem links of the converters floored them. You did some improvements that have just now made it into the manual. They did some work on it, improved it. But they were impressed.”

“Thanks,” said Alex. “Nice of you to say so.”

“Just the truth,” said Tony.

Diver
moved swiftly toward Jupiter’s largest moon. As they all watched it grow on the viewscreen They could see more details of Ganymede’s tortured surface. Alex shook his head as he gazed at the screen. “I guess it takes a special kind of person to work that ice. No wonder the Gannys are so eccentric.”

Tsu and Warren had been watching everything with interest. Connie looked around as though she had something important to say. Alex noticed and nodded to her.

“Connie,” he said. “What is it?”

“Well, I was waiting for an appropriate moment to discuss the mission. Warren and I both feel that the preparations and briefings have been inadequate. Not to place blame but we would like to know what our roles will be.”

Alex looked at Matt. “Well. This is your territory, I believe.”

Matt was leaning forward in his seat, ostensibly looking at Tony’s instruments, but Alex could tell he was listening to their conversation. He suddenly shot Alex a challenging look and said: “You said it yourself, honcho. The mission got pushed forward a week or two. Those weeks would have seen a few confabs, I suppose, don’t you?”

“It shouldn’t take weeks,” said Alex.

Matt took a deep breath and sat back in his chair. “I had to do a lot of homework in a hurry, Alex,” admitted Matt. “Stubbs contacted me a week after he heard from Johnny. Following that, I got a special courier encrypted data plug, your disk, and a once in a lifetime offer. I was working on the Europan bacterial mats ... did a paper for the university press.”

“I thought you worked with Tony,” said Alex.

“Used to. He was on the engineering team the one time I actually got to go to Europa. That’s about it. He happened to be the only qualified, thinking on his feet, engineer I know.”

“And I was sittin’ here the whole time thinking you guys were the best there is,” said Alex, jokingly.

“We are,” said Tony. “Think whatever you fuckin’ want.”

“I stand corrected,” said Alex, still smiling.

“So why are we here?” asked Connie Tsu.

“Decoration,” said Tony with a grin.

Tsu leapt at Sciarra like a cat, pulling him bodily out of his seat. She obviously knew what she was doing because she moved with the grace of a gymnast. Alex sat dumfounded as Tsu pressed the man to the floor and held him there – all in complete weightlessness.

“I’ve had enough of your shit,” said Connie, spitting the words into his face. “What’s your problem? You’re on the trip of your life. Opportunities like no one’s ever had and all you do is bitch. Are you being paid to fuck us up or something?”

Alex rolled his eyes and unsnapped his seat belt. “Don’t make me get out of this chair, Tsu. You’ve had your say, now back to your seat.”

Connie Tsu hung over Tony for a second and looked at Alex and the rest of the group. Then she got off him and moved toward her seat. As she sat down, she looked at Jeanne and hung her head.

“Sorry,” she said.

To Alex’s surprise Tony said nothing. He smoothed his jumpsuit and climbed back into his seat next to Matt.

Matt watched with amusement and Alex, noticing Howarth’s expression, decided he should say something.

“That was certainly entertaining,” he said. “Thank you for that, Tsu, but next time please okay it with the Captain before you attack someone.” Then he looked at Tony. “Are you okay, Tony?” Tony didn’t answer. He just shook his head and looked at the floor.

Howarth cleared his throat. Alex was going to continue but he decided to give the floor to Matt if he wanted it.

“Yes, Matt?” he said.

“We’re all on edge,” said Matt, “and I think we all feel like we’re unprepared for this mission to one degree or another. It’s all happened so fast.”

“I’m sorry,” said Tsu. “I never did anything like that before.”

Tony looked up at her but still didn’t say anything.

Alex set the autopilot so he could focus on the conversation. He then swiveled his chair to face the group. Mary remained facing forward, as a co-pilot should, and watched the com, while Johnny kept his head snug in his virtual reality bubble.

“Johnny,” said Alex. “Nothing to say?”

“Not at the moment, Alex,” said Johnny, his voice muffled by the bubble. “I’m watching the Great Red Spot at the moment but I’m listening.”

Tony finally looked up.

“Can I say something?” he asked. Alex nodded.

“I guess I owe everybody an apology,” said Tony. “I’m not good at these things. People stuff. But I guess we’re all going to be together for a while. I guess we all have to ... I mean I have to be more positive.”

Matt looked at his friend. “I’ve known Tony a long time,” he said. “Tony gets mean when he’s scared.”

“Scared?” protested Tony. “Who said anything about being scared?”

“You’re saying you’re
not
scared?” asked Matt.

“Well ...” began Tony.

But Alex interrupted. “We’re all scared. Dingers, we’re going into the atmosphere of Jupiter to a place only two of us have visited. You’ve all seen the data but you haven’t been there. I’m guessing that Tony’s engineering mind is way ahead of all of us. Seeing problems before they even happen. Is that right?” Alex looked at Tony for confirmation.

“Yeah,” said Sciarra, “that’s true, I guess.”

“I’m sorry I jumped you, Tony,” said Connie. “I guess I lost it. I don’t know ...”

“Enough, Connie,” interrupted Alex. “It didn’t happen. Pre-flight jitters. We’ve all got reasons to be nervous.”

“That’s no excuse for me,” said Connie. “I’m not going down to the reef.”

Tony looked at her sympathetically. “It’s okay, Tsu. You didn’t hurt me or anything.”

Jeanne Warren put a comforting hand on Tsu’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll be okay.”

Mary received a call from the Ganny ship and signaled Alex.

“It’s the Gannys,” she said. “They want to talk to Captain Rose. The static is worse,” she added.

Alex swiveled his chair back around and touched the com to speak. “Cap’ Rose here,
Cornwall
. Come on.”

The Captain of the
Cornwall
sounded friendlier than before and his accent was thicker, indicating to Alex that his Ganny talk had paid off. But, with the static blanketing their transmissions, Alex had difficulty understanding them.

After a brief, almost unintelligible exchange, Alex turned back to face the group. “Well, that was pretty thick Ganny, but I gather that the Gannys are going to lend us
Cornwall
and a small crew. And I’m pretty sure he said that two ships were coming to meet us; the
Cornwall
and the
Middlesex
.”

“Why two?” asked Mary. Even though she could discern her answer from Alex’s thoughts she wanted to make sure no one knew it. Alex got the feeling Mary was practicing her subterfuge, having nearly given away her secret on two occasions already.