Jupiter's Reef (29 page)

Alex looked at the instruments on the dash. Indeed, the nitrogen and oxygen levels outside had risen sharply. And as he watched, the numbers continued to climb until they Alex brought
Diver
to a stop, a few meters from the roof of the place. There, to everyone’s astonishment, the air temperature, pressure, and mixture of gases matched Earth’s exactly.

“Are you sure you want to stay here?” said Tony. Again he was out of his seat, staring out of the forward windows. “This is too damned spooky.”

Alex told Johnny to turn off the illusion that surrounded the com. “I want to see this for real, even if it’s only through glass,” he said to Johnny.

Alex felt relief the moment the hologram vanished. The hologram was making him feel exposed. Now he was seeing through real polycer glass and it helped give him a greater sense of reality.

Unfortunately, nothing else made sense. How could the reef just happen to have an atmosphere perfect for human life? No one actually came out and said it. But Mary knew everyone aboard thought that the reef creatures had put out a welcome mat.

4
Diver
’s balloons came softly to rest against the reef material that formed the dome of the great cavern. There,
Diver
sat motionless, like a fly on cathedral ceiling.

Alex shut down the motors but left the null gee set to 1/2 gee.

They sat in silence, looking at each other. It was minutes before anyone spoke.

“Do you hear anything, Mary?” asked Johnny. “I see some activity ... pretty far away ... no telling what it might be.”

“No.” Mary shook her head and stared out the cabin window. “Nothing.”

She could make out the surface of the reef material as it reflected light from the ship’s running lights. It was like a mossy wall and here, like elsewhere, the reef glowed and things moved in it. Her excellent vision saw more than anyone else aboard ship. And she saw details that would revolt researchers when
Diver
’s improved optical recordings were reviewed. Now she didn’t want to look at it, let alone bring it to anyone’s attention. What she saw was reef material that had been flattened and heated. It reminded her of a kind of shell.

Johnny saw that, of course, but her eyes saw what had been done to the reef. This was a layer of dead reef. A crust of debris composed of ruin. Broken, dead carcasses of unknown things, all pressed into a gel that coated the reef.

Mary was debating whether to describe what she saw, when the clicking began. It tapped in her head so loudly that it seemed to be aimed directly at her.

“The clicking,” said Mary.

Alex wasted no time in switching on the exterior microphones. There were two voices or tones to the clicking sound. Johnny had his head out of the bubble. “Sounds almost like crickets,” he said.

At that moment,
Cornwall
called in. “Hello,
Diver
. You there, Johnny? Alex?”

Alex switched on the microphone. “Hearing this, Matt?”

After a moment of silence Matt answered. “Is that them?”

“We’re in a cavern,” began Johnny. There was a loud thump on the cabin roof that caused everyone to jump in their seats. Alex glanced at the outside camera monitors on
Diver
’s console. A top rear camera showed the balloons nestling into the collapsed ceiling of the reef. A grey fog fell away from the reef and with it a shower of skittering animals who dove for safety in various undisturbed portions of the reef material.

Alex tried to swivel the cameras but all cameras were locked and in use by Johnny’s virtual monitor. He was about to complain but realized that Johnny’s view was for the moment preferable to a pair of cabin windows that pointed only in one direction. Alex wanted to be able to see everywhere at once, so he asked Johnny to switch them back to the holographic display. Without comment, Johnny complied.

Suddenly Alex was the fly on their balloon bundle that pressed rudely into the reef. He could see that the uppermost balloons had penetrated at least a half-meter into it, punching a sizeable hole in the reef.

Around them the reef stretched outward, smooth and unbroken, in all directions. It might have looked like a field of lush vegetation but for its strange black netting that pulsed with lights from thousands of tiny sources. But what caught Alex’s eye at the moment the scene switched on was a ring of light that moved outward through the reef from the crater left by the balloons, outward until it disappeared into the haze, perhaps thirty meters away from the ship.

Before Alex and Mary could blink, another ring of light fanned outward through the fabric of the reef.

“Check that,” said Alex. “Looks like we’re broadcasting.”

“And they are coming to meet us,” said Johnny. “I’ll switch you on the radar imager. I’m seeing a group ... four objects, maybe a hundred meters out. No, five of them ... off our bow. They’re walking on the reef, I think.”

“I’m doing the floater skirts,” announced Tony. “Unless anyone objects. They’ll help us stay here. The lift ...”

“Eighty meters,” continued Johnny. “They aren’t in a hurry.”

“Why not belay that ... skirts thing until we’re sure what’s coming in?”

Mary sat staring at the false scene around her. She had her arms folded across her chest defensively. Alex asked her if she heard anything. But she shook her head and pointed at the cabin speakers. “Nothing that you don’t.”

A soft rhythmic clicking could be heard on the loudspeakers. It reminded Johnny of Spanish castanets. The sound was subtle and blended with the humming of the null-gee generators.

“Whatever’s walking toward us is still closing,” said Johnny. “Fifty meters.”

“We’re about to have a first contact, here, Johnny,” said Alex urgently. “Shouldn’t I at least power up?”

“I think we owe it to ourselves to see what happens,” said Johnny, “Don’t you?”

“Maybe electrify the hull?”

“Never thought that electricity was much of a defense, Alex,” said Johnny. “We left it on the ship because you put it there.”

“Thirty meters,” said Tony. “I can see them, I think.”

Out in the mist, five shadows came toward
Diver
. Alex squinted to make out their shape. They were round, shiny bulbous objects with a large number of moving appendages. Thin spike-like legs deftly picked their way among reef creatures, apparently without disturbing them.

“Spiders,” said Johnny. “Or at least they look like ...”

When the critters were less than ten meters away Johnny ordered Alex to engage the motors and release from the reef. Alex was already holding the stick. With a sharp jerk of his hand
Diver
’s engines to come to life. “Glad to oblige you, Johnny,” said Alex. “I thought you’d never ask.”

The spiders never hesitated when the ship’s engines came to life. They crossed the remaining stretch of reef in only a few seconds and descended on the ship before it lifted off. Everyone watched in horror as they scrambled onto
Diver
’s balloons and headed for the hull; their feet pushed into the balloons, like pins. But the balloons’ skins withstood the apparent assault.

“Alex,” said Mary. “Pull away from the reef.”

Acting from experience Alex hesitated while the critters swarmed over its surface. He’d learned long ago not to react to emergency situations impulsively.

To Alex’s surprise, Johnny yelled out praise. “Good, Alex. That’s great. We’ll be fine. I think they’re just looking us over.”

The spiders were walking on the hull. Their feet made a peculiar popping sound.

Johnny pointed out that the spiders had been walking upside down, countering the force of gravity. “When they jumped aboard
Diver
,” he observed, “their load didn’t shift. Whatever they’re carrying in those bodies, it doesn’t weigh much.”

Tony offered a mechanical evaluation based on some nimble computer work. He said that the body size dictated that they were filled with gas. He also pointed out that the spiders seemed oblivious to the null-gee field that surrounded the ship.

“You’re right,” said Johnny. “I forgot about that.”

All five spider-things scrambled over the hull. The impacts of their feet resounded inside the cabin. Mary’s kitten moved its head, following the sounds. It obviously found the sounds alarming since its tail was fluffed and its eyes were wide open.

Finally one of the spiders stopped close to a camera. It looked like a purplish-brown bubble of oil that was about to pop. Beneath the distended abdomen was a small pod that radiated a cluster of legs. Alex thought the legs looked much too thin to support the weight of the creature even if it was full of gas.

Between its two front legs, front being determined by the direction the spider was traveling, dangled a small white organ, also bubble-like, that was pulsating as though the beast was smelling the ship. The organ appeared and disappeared beneath the creature as it moved. Its actions made Alex wonder if the spider was trying to find a way to get into the ship.

Mary squirmed in her seat as the things scurried everywhere on
Diver
’s hull.

“We never saw those things before, Alex,” she said.

One of the spiders stopped as it crossed the cabin window. In the center of a double fan of legs, the central white organ pressed rudely against the glass. Long hairs writhed wetly against the glass, then it withdrew and the creature moved quickly out of sight.

“I suspect there’s lots you haven’t seen, Mary” said Johnny.

Alex made no comment. He just watched the spiders in the virtual display and gritted his teeth.

“Can you pull away slowly, Alex?” asked Johnny. “Try it. Those bugs seem dedicated to some purpose. I’m not sure I want to find out what it is.”

Alex was happy to comply. “You bet,” he snapped.

With a slight nudge on the drive stick, the balloon package slowly pulled free of the crater it had made and began to drop away from the vast ceiling. When
Diver
moved the creatures froze and waved their two forward legs in the air. Alex took the opportunity to inspect the creatures closely on a video monitor.

He tried to count the legs, but there were too many; perhaps a dozen, perhaps more. He found them hard to count because each leg was thin, black, and had jointed parts.

Next Alex looked for a face or a mouth. There was something that looked like a mouth, but after close inspection, looked more like a spigot. It was nestled in among the legs attached to the pulsing white organ and it was colored deep blue.

Suddenly, almost too quick for the eye to follow, the beasts sprang into the air, flipped upside down, and locked their feet firmly into the reef.

At that moment a shower of debris fell away from the uppermost balloons where they had made a dark crater in the reef. It looked devoid of life and was about three meters wide and a meter deep.

The creatures didn’t hesitate when they landed. They ringed the crater, hunkered at its rim and stopped moving. Their dark bodies began to quiver.

“Are they repairing the reef?” asked Tony.

“Maybe. Seems logical,” replied Johnny.

“Earth logic, or Mars logic, Johnny?” asked Alex. “What about Jupiter logic?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” replied the Professor.

Alex laughed. “That’s my point. We don’t know a thing about this place.”

“A good point,” said the voice of Matt Howarth. “That’s why we’re here.”

The Professor was out of his bubble and standing alongside Alex. He looked up at the cabin speakers in surprise.

“Jeeez. Sorry to ignore you, Matt,” he shouted. “In all the excitement ... I guess ...”

“No prob. We were all riveted,” said Matt. “Was that the main feature? I liked the bugs.”

“Where’s the popcorn?” said the snickering voice of Connie Tsu. Jeanne Warren could be heard laughing.

The ship was about ten meters off the reef. Alex let go of the stick and told the computer to hold their position. He unbuckled from his seat and felt the cool sweat on his back. Standing up straight, Alex held out his hand and looked at it. It was trembling.

“Well, look at me,” he said. “What am I afraid of?”

“For one; they looked like they were going to eat us for lunch,” said Tony.

“Or sting us to death,” added the Professor.

Matt could be heard clearing his throat over the speakers. “My guess is that you were in no danger as long as you left the reef. Sure it’s a guess, but this program I’ve run says that the spiders were biots. Biological repair units. You busted their reef. These things fix it. Look at them.”

“I think they are cementing the reef. Structural engineers,” said Tony.

The link to
Cornwall
began to fade. As before, the virtual transmission blinked in and out. Captain Wysor hailed them on the regular radio. “Guess we’re fadin’, mates,” he said.

“We’ll see you on the next go round, Captain,” said Alex.

“N’yall be given’ us a better show, ay hope,” said Wysor, laughing.

“Next time more blood and guts,” said Matt. “You still need to nab us a bug.”

“I’ll bring the soda pop if ...” said Tsu as the link ended for good.

Diver
hovered ten meters below the apex of the great cloudy dome. Alex pointed to the holographic display and shook his head.

“What is this place?” he said. “Okay ... they’ve got themselves a dome. And we’re in it. What is it for? And what about this atmosphere?”

5
Alex walked to the food panel. “Café ... hot. That’s what I need ...” he mumbled as he poked at the buttons.

Johnny had returned to his bubble, but he sat sideways and leaned an elbow on his knee.

“I’m gettin’ really sick of this chair, frankly,” he said. “My ass hurts.”

“Let me try it for a while,” said Mary Seventeen, unsnapping her seat belt. She was out of her chair and pulling at the Professor’s arm before he could get up.

“Jeeez, Mary,” said Johnny. “Okay, but it might get intense for your ... you know ...”

Mary ignored him as they changed places. She slid into Johnny’s virtual bubble enclosure, then looked out at him and smiled.

“Show me how to set the radar and EM tuners,” she said.