Jupiter's Reef (16 page)

“Significance?” asked Alex.

“Head for L-5, Alex,” said Tony. “I’d say; punch it.”

Alex had been hoping for something to do.

“You got it,” he said. “Computer.”

“Instructions, Pilot Rose,” said the computer.

“Priority navigation to L-5 station,” said Alex. “Allowing maximum expenditure of consumables, using minimal time.”

“Priority navigation to L-5 station,” repeated the computer. “maximum expenditure of consumables. minimal time. BURN LEVEL SEVEN. COURSE PLOTTED. READY”

“The null-gee system is all that can save us,” Alex said, looking at Johnny. “And we’re probably violating Spaceguard protocol.”

“I’d go with my gut feeling on this, Alex,” said Johnny, nodding. “Do it.”

“The sooner the better,” echoed Tony.

“Computer. Execute,” said Alex.

It took Spaceguard only seconds to inquire about
Diver
’s new course and speed. Alex told them he was still on track. “Just a different, quicker track,” he added, then reminded them, “I’m still on course for the
Houston
. Same destination, just a different flight plan.”

Diver
was exceeding fifty thousand kilometers per hour when Spaceguard authorized their new flight plan to L-5.

Farther from Earth now, Alex felt safe to switch on the holoview again. “Hide your eyes Mary, if you want to, but I want to see what it looks like.”

Mary didn’t protest, so he punched the blue button on the console. A moment later he could see stars and the moon, but he could still see the console and the windows.

“This isn’t too impressive,” said Alex, turning off the system.

“Not without the hood,” said Johnny. “When we get to the reef you’ll need that system. It’ll be a boon. But in space, with the cabin lights on, it’s no good. Shut off the lights and it’ll work fine.”

“Well, I’m not going to have us stumble around in the dark just to see some stars.” Alex knew it would be hours until their rendezvous with the
Houston
. He unsnapped his seatbelt and moved to the Professor’s chair. “Okay,” he said, tapping his nails on the hood covering Johnny’s head. “Enough of the bragging about this Biochair. Let’s see.”

Johnny peered out from under the hood and grinned at Alex. He scratched his chin and gave Alex a doubtful look. “Are you sure your heart can take this, lad?”

Alex punched the man’s arm and catapulted backwards in the weightless cabin. Johnny laughed and hauled himself out of his micromesh seat. “It’s all yours, Captain. As soon as you can stumble over here.”

“So I’m flying this thing, am I?” asked Mary, staring at the drive stick in front of her.

“No, the cat is, Miz Seventeen,” said Tony scornfully. We’re on autopilot. I should think a co-pilot would know that.”

Mary slumped in her chair. “I know
that
!” she shouted, glaring straight ahead. “I’m not prepared if Spaceguard asks us to change our heading.”

Alex had just settled into the Biochair.

“Just a second, Mary,” he said. But he was merely following through with an answer. The view inside Johnny’s bubble was astonishing; as if his head had become the ship. He could see Earth looming behind them and the Moon far ahead. The sun was a mottled blue disk belching streamers in all directions. Alex noticed that one streamer was heading directly toward them.

“Dingers!” he exclaimed. Alex was startled by the loudness of his own voice. The illusion of space was so convincing that he forgot where he was.

Alex looked back at the Earth. He could see the Moon’s shadow traversing Earth’s broad face. “This is a dinger of a view, Johnny,” said Alex, not really believing the man could hear him. The cabin seemed so far away. The view was compelling and he wanted to stay for a while, but he forced himself to get out of the chair.

He looked at Johnny in astonishment. “How can you deal with that view?”

“You think that I’m used to it?” said Johnny. “I’m not sure I’ll ever accomplish that, Alex. That’s why I’m spending so much time under the hood.”

Mary seemed to relax as Alex went back to his seat and strapped in. Her eyes returned to her kitten, asleep in her lap.

“Babies is having a nice snooze,” she said with a smile. “I think she likes me.”

“So do I,” said Alex. “If I was as small as her, your lap is where I’d want to sleep.”

Sciarra groaned as if nauseated, but Alex ignored him.

Alex had been ignoring Tony’s attitude, dismissing it as the man’s style. But that was easier to do with Howarth around. Without Matt, Tony’s sour retorts seemed little more than the grousing of a curmudgeon. Alex resisted, with all his might, crossing swords with Tony or even evaluating him. It was early in the mission, and everyone, except Mary’s cat, was on edge.

Diver
’s speed had maxed some time ago and now they were waiting for the signal to brake for L-5 insertion. It came right on schedule.

The computer announced the burn and everyone dutifully buckled their harnesses. It came as a jolt, nevertheless, waking the kitten who wailed a tiny protest. Alex had powered up the null-gee boosters to minimize their deceleration time, but the burn went on for quite a while.

Finally the engines cut off and they drifted toward a dot of light in the distance that Johnny, on his special monitor, saw to be the L-5 station.

An hour later they were docking at a giant construction module attached to the central hub of a vast wheel whose spin provided the station with gravity. The module, part of the wheel’s static hub, remained at zero-gee.

As
Diver
moved closer to its assigned docking bay everyone inside watched the flurry of activity in the space dock. It seemed everyone was moving as fast as they could.

Alex sat in his chair waiting to take control if the computer failed. But he knew it wouldn’t. He said as much to Tony and the Professor, who remained at their work stations watching the activity outside through
Diver
’s windows.

Even though she was assigned the duty of ship’s radio operator, Mary still wore the special tabs Harold Stubbs had given her. Alex knew they afforded her relief from the radio static that inundated the airwaves on Earth, but he wondered why she didn’t use her regular tabs while on duty. He elected not to question her about it. Such choices were hers alone to make.

She wore wireless com phones like any other radio operator, saying that she had to use its microphone anyway. It seemed archaic for a Sensor, whose thoughts alone could do the job, to use traditional radio gear. The question wouldn’t leave his mind.

Diver
hovered motionless at its docking berth waiting for insertion instructions. Alex stretched and looked around.

“How’s the kitty, Mary?” he asked.

“I’m wearing the tabs because they make me feel normal,” she said. “You of all people should know that.”

Every time Mary read Alex’s thoughts, it surprised him. He burst out laughing.

Mary studied him for a second then looked away, adding, “The cat is fine.”

One reason Alex never felt threatened by Mary’s psi abilities is that he loved her and knew that whatever she picked up from him, that message would be part of it.

If pressed, Alex would have admitted that his only uncertainties about her strange ability were that he didn’t fully understand how and why it worked and whether Mary picked up only superficial thoughts. He’d learned, at the Marys’ Compound on Mars, that their psi ability was the Sensor’s big secret, a secret that was kept even from the biotech boys who had engineered them.

It was common knowledge that clones were considered a threat to what some called normal human existence. Alex had never thought much of people who wanted things to be normal. His parents had had social problems, and he had hated them for it. But experience taught Alex that everyone had social problems. And politics and wealth were key to pretending such problems didn’t exist.

Everyone told him that Sensors, like all clones, weren’t real people. They were things. But people said his father was a useless drunk, too. And, little by little, Alex had allowed those labels to cloud his memories of anything good that had ever happened in the Rose family. All that had driven him through his youth were resentment and anger until, by the time Alex had worked his way to Io, his family had become little more than a distant memory.

Jupiter consumed him, replacing his yearnings for home and hearth; and it drove him to achievements that few men ever experienced, but all of it was an attempt to fill his emptiness. Then Mary arrived in his life.

Now there seemed to be a pattern to it all, as though his life and his achievements were only material for some unseen force to use for its own purpose.

His dad had told him that God was real. But to Alex only the stars were real and pursuing them was all mankind needed for motivation. The church hadn’t helped his dad. It was something useless, archaic, and part of a different world from the one he knew.

His was the modern realm that his teachers called the era of Post Millennial Ultra-Tech. All that mattered was mankind’s future and the works he was about to attempt: the healing of the mother planet and the terraforming of Mars. What did God have to do with all that? Alex trusted only his own resources, and they had served him well.

Now that view was changing. Now he wasn’t so sure about anything, including his resources.

Alex glanced at Tony, who was looking at Mary with a puzzled expression. Then he realized that she had hinted at having psi abilities. A shiver ran up his spine as he realized that he might have caused her to give away her secret. He tried to think of something he could say to alter Tony’s impressions of their conversation. But he knew Tony would become even more suspicious. Best to just drop it as Mary was doing.

“I wish you wouldn’t keep looking at my tabs. You’re making me self conscious,” she said.

Alex looked at her in surprise and smiled. “I’m doing no such thing. You’re making yourself self conscious.”.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Tony turn away and go back to his cubby. A moment later the Captain of the
Houston
contacted them.

“...
Diver
... are you on line?” a voice was saying as Mary switched on the cabin speakers.

“Alex Rose, Captain of
Diver
, at your service,
Houston
. Go ahead,” said Alex.

“Richard Piersall, Captain of the
Houston
,” said the voice. “Spaceguard wants us to jump to Ganymede in the next hour.”

“The solar storm?” said Alex.

“Yup. Might interfere with the mechanism,” said Piersall. “How soon can you get here?”

As Alex looked out the window all he could see was ships moving into docking bays. He told Mary to ask L-5 control for guidance to the
Houston
. But the tower was overwhelmed.

Alex took
Diver
’s control stick and backed them slowly away from the docking port. “Computer,” he shouted with his radio still linked to the
Houston
, “Locate starship
Houston
.”

“LOCATED.”

“Execute docking procedure.”

Mary looked at Alex wide-eyed. “They could be miles away.”

“It’s an idea, Mary,” said Alex. “It worked every time we needed help before. Just ask the computer. Of course you have to know how to ask.”

The ship began to move more rapidly and turn toward open space. “Have you got a better idea?” he asked. “Anybody?” he said, looking around at everyone. “Before it’s too late?”

“L-5 control,” said Mary. “We are moving to the
Houston
with all due speed. Please advise.”

“Hello,
Diver
,” said the voice of L-5 control. “We have you looking good,
Diver
. Proceed.”

As they lifted away from the great hub, the
Houston
came into view on the opposite side of the L-5 docking complex. Alex expected to see some kind of ship but it appeared to be a cylindrical structure dominated by two great orange-colored rings.

At least a hundred meters wide, the rings appeared to be the structural support for a large array of thrusters, and they encircled something that Alex said reminded him of a chrome plated football. Johnny identified it as the
Houston
.

As they approached, the end of the
Houston
opened like petals of a flower.

“Weird looking ship, I guess,” said Tony. “The shape of the actual ship has to do with the gravitational bubble the G-pulse produces. The rings are just plasma boosters.”

Tony said he’d been following the
Houston
Project since it was conceived ten years earlier. He said Stubbs was part of the idea’s development. “The
Houston
has a neutronium pulser that produces a gravitational bubble that moves faster than light, outside reality,” he said.

As
Diver
moved into position they could see inside its red lit cargo bay. “That’s depending on how fast it’s moving when the coils are activated,” added Johnny.

“You’re looking at the cargo end,” continued Tony. “It’s opening to take us into its hold. We’re the first cargo they’ve ever carried. Or so said Matt.”

“Is he aboard?”

“Let’s ask,” said Johnny.

Mary hailed Captain Piersall who said: “He’s supervising the loading of the science gear. But he’s been hassling with the Gannys over the use of one of their ships. We’re supposed to dock with them, right?”

Alex persuaded Piersall to hail Matt, who was on line by the time they reached the
Houston
’s dock.

“Gannys!” shouted Matt in frustration. “All day I’ve been tying up the
Houston
’s phone lines ...”

“We have plenty of lines, Matt,” said the Captain.

“Well, they have this fleet that isn’t used any more. Now they’re pissed because
they
think
we
think they’re not productive ...”

“The truth is, they’re not.” injected Captain Piersall.

Alex looked around at Tony. “Anything to say?” he asked, politely.

Sciarra gave him a blank stare. “No.”

Matt continued undaunted, complaining bitterly about being assigned some public relations task and getting nowhere. It took Alex to subdue him and convince him to return to his work.