Jupiter's Reef (31 page)

Tony walked to the panel opposite the ship’s head and opened a tall, thin locker door. “Thanks for the weather report, Professor, just keep your eyes on our clicky boys.” He pulled one of the environmental suits out of the locker. It was white with sparkling gold inlays.

EarthCorp made a fuss about the brand new EV suits they’d put aboard
Diver
. “State-of-the-art,” they’d told Alex. The suits were outfitted with a micro-gasser air pack instead of compressed air. Tony lifted the packs up to the light and inspected them. He noted that the micro-gasser was calibrated to work in Jupiter’s atmosphere and at about this depth. He added that the calibrations were based on
Diver
’s logs. “It’s good for a sixteen hour stint. I should be out there and back inside in less than five minutes. I’ll bring a specimen canister with me, fill it with reef debris laying around out there, then hop back in.”

Alex frowned. “I don’t like it, Tony,” he said. “We just got here. Why not settle in a while.”

“What’s your prob, Alex? What’s to wait for?” said Tony. Then he called to Johnny. “What say, Professor?”

“Everything looks okay outside.”

“Good,” said Tony. “That clears the air a little.”

“Computer, stabilize the ship,” commanded Alex. The ship’s engines could be heard coming on line. Suddenly the ship felt steadier underfoot.

Mary looked worried. When Alex asked what was wrong, she pointed to the cabin speakers. They had been on all the while and the clicking sound had been a continuous patter of radio bursts that filled the cabin that sounded to Alex like meaningless static.

“Their tone has changed,” said Mary. “Didn’t you notice?”

Alex listened for a moment, then shook his head. “Not really. I’ve been ignoring them.”

“I think ... I think they’re calling us out,” she said.

7
Dressed in his EV suit, Tony looked into the cabin through the diamond-shaped window in the airlock door. He waved at them to get their attention.

“Testing, testing...” said Tony’s voice on the cabin speakers. Alex, standing in front of the sealed airlock door, gave him the thumbs up. “We hear you, Tony.”

Alex and Johnny had assisted Tony in getting outfitted for the EVA. Johnny secured the seals on the suit and helmet, while Alex rigged a safety line.

They had decided fairly quickly on a basic plan. Tony, carrying a canister, would step out of the airlock after it opened. The first thing he would do would be to attach his safety tether to a tie ring just outside the airlock door. At first Johnny wanted to tether to the inside of the airlock but he realized that would prevent the outer door from closing.

Tony dismissed all cautionary talk as depressing. This brought a lecture from Baltadonis and Alex that nearly drove Mary crazy. She had untied her kitten from its leash and brought it to her chair, with the leash looped a few times around her arm. As she stroked the kitten one of the clicker men moved close to the window, opposite Mary’s chair. It seemed to be watching her pet the cat. Mary looked at it dubiously.

“Those things really spook me,” she said.

Alex and Johnny laughed. They both waved to Tony and went to their respective chairs. Once in place they both spoke to Tony over the radio.

Finally they came to the moment of truth.

“I never went outside, myself, you know, Tony,” said Alex. “You’re a pioneer, I guess. You can do the door any time, I guess.”

“Go, Tony!” shouted Mary, holding her kitten in the air with both hands. “Cheer him, Babies,” she said.

The kitten squeaked a quiet protest. Satisfied and smiling, she gave it a kiss. “There you go,” she said.

There was a loud ‘pop’ and the ship tipped slightly, then righted itself.

Tony was screaming.

Part 8

1
“No. That didn’t happen,” said Johnny. “Tell me it didn’t happen.”

“We never tested the outer seal,” said Alex, through gritted teeth. “We should have ...”

Tony was still screaming as he fell. He stopped only to take a breath. Then the screaming continued. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the yelling stopped.

Now two sounds could be heard over the cabin speakers. One, Johnny said, was unmistakably the EV suit’s gasser module at work. The other sound was Tony’s steady breathing.

Mary had her face buried in her hands. She suddenly looked up at the window, wide-eyed in disbelief.

“The clicker men are gone,” she said. Her kitten, tucked in her lap, mewed a protest.

“Dingers! It just keeps gettin’ better, doesn’t it?” said Alex. “Shitfire! I don’t believe this. Can you track him, Johnny? Please tell me you can track him.”

“He’s below us. Beneath the bottom of the cavern. He’s ... he’s stationary. Looks like he’s stuck in the reef.”

“But he should have punched through,” said Alex. “His weight ...”

They all looked at the cabin speakers.

“Tony,” said Johnny. “Can you hear me?” But there was no reply.

Alex grabbed the drive stick. “Computer .... um .... plot a course to intercept Tony’s position,” said Alex.

“LOCATE TONY.” said the computer.

“Well ... check the radar. Johnny, can you help me here?”

“I’ll have to feed it some data, I guess, but I’m not sure how,” said Johnny.

“What?”

“Well, that’s Tony’s department,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “But I’m working on it.”

“Computer!” shouted Alex. “Can you track and locate the object that fell from the ship?”

“DEFINE OBJECT”

“Tony!” shouted Alex.

“TONY ... ANTHONY SCIARRA. LOGGED ABOARD THIS SHIP. ” Alex slammed his fist on his armrest in frustration.

Computer,” said Mary. “Anthony Sciarra just fell out of the ship. His EV suit has a tracking device. It is broadcasting at 233334 megacycles. Track that frequency ... locate its source ... compute a course to intercept.”

“TRACKING ... POSITION LOCKED ... EXECUTE ON YOUR COMMAND,” said the monotonous voice.

Alex looked at Mary with wonder in his eyes. “Go Mary, my love!” he said. “Give the word.”

Mary smiled charmingly. “Computer, execute.”

Diver
dipped into the mist with Alex holding the drive stick mainly for form. Eventually he got tired of it jerking his hand around so he let go and tightened his seatbelt.

The ride was fast and direct, straight down through the cloud filled chamber to the place where Tony hit the reef. There, with searchlights playing on the small hole in the reef, it stopped.

“ALPHA OVERRIDE,” said the computer. “PROTOCOL. FURTHER INSTRUCTION NEEDED.”

“What now?” said Alex.

“Better than just barging in, I guess,” said Johnny. He looked out of his bubble at Alex and Mary, “Somewhere down there, a hundred or so meters, actually, is Sciarra. As far as I can tell he’s just passed out. After a fright like that I’ll bet his suit stinks a bit.”

“Well, the gasser unit filters out internal odors,” said Alex, staring at the hole in the softly glowing reef. Suddenly he thought of the spiders.

“Dingers,” he shouted in alarm. “What about the spiders? Will they come along and seal him in?”

“Good Lord,” said Johnny. “I didn’t think of that.”

“Now it’s getting gruesome,” said Mary.

They could still hear Tony breathing. Suddenly he snorted and groaned. Then the steady breathing continued.

Johnny looked out at the scene. “Doesn’t look like spiders spend much time here,” he said.

Alex and Mary looked out at the reef. Johnny was right. The bottom of the cavern was uneven and lumpy compared to the glossy crusted ceiling a kilometer above them. It was so uneven that without the aid of radar and the computer, they would never have found the hole that Tony’s falling body had made in the reef.
Diver
was hovering in position, its nose tilted slightly downward, with its forward cameras and lights trained on the reef a few meters in front of them.

Mary, Alex, and Johnny all stared at the hole through the ship’s cockpit window. Johnny had climbed out of his chair to examine the reef first hand. It was alive with crawling things, small fly-like creatures that reminded Johnny of dark red crickets living in carbonized grasses and foliage. It was easy to imagine that it had all burned a short time ago and the embers were still glowing in the smoky haze. The embers here, however, glowed blue-green and sometimes yellow, but never orange or red. On the reef the color red was reserved for the sky that reddened whenever a Jovian superbolt of lightning made its way down this far. Now, as a soft glow of red light filled the depths of the ragged hole in the reef, Alex wondered about Tony. How badly was he hurt? Had his suit been ripped? Was his breathing apparatus still working?

All they knew for sure was that Tony was still alive.

“If we can find a way to get to him,” said Johnny, “there’s a real good chance we can save him.”

Alex looked at Johnny in disgust. “Ya think?”

“Don’t give me that look,” said the Professor. “You know what I mean. Hey, I’m grasping at straws, here.”

“How do you think we should get to him?”

“Well, first I need to know exactly how deep he is,” said Johnny, walking back to his chair.

Alex looked at the window. Something darted by the ship and was gone before Alex could react. He had the impression of a group of large bodied fish.

“Did you see that?” he said, pointing to the window.

Mary wasn’t looking and Johnny was strapping in his chair. “See what?” said the Professor.

“Some major reef life, I think. Anything on radar?”

“As a matter of fact there’s a ... a squadron of clicker boys out there in the mist. They’re moving in a long arc. Orbiting us, I guess. Keepin’ tabs on us.”

“I wonder what they think of this?” said Mary. “I mean the clicker men.”

“Good question, Mary. You’ve listened to them longer than anyone. Any ideas?”

“No, Professor,” said Mary. “I hear them. I even feel them sometimes. But I don’t talk to them.”

“Any help we can get, Mary,” said Alex.

“I can only think of two ways to get to him,” said the Professor. “I can see his ping. He’s not as deep as I thought. Maybe eighty meters?”

Tony’s voice groaned again over the loudspeakers. Everyone froze and listened closely. But all they heard was the sound of the clicker men, the whistling of lightning, and Tony’s steady breathing. Alex began to wonder if Tony had suffered a head injury.

Mary heard Alex’s thoughts. It did sound like Tony could be in a coma, or just plain unconscious. But she decided that nothing she could say would help matters.

As time slipped by, Alex grew more frustrated. He hoped that Johnny would have some ideas as to how to get to Tony, but the Professor had nothing to offer.

Finally Alex exploded. “This sucks!” he said angrily. “We should just punch through and get him, “I say we have the right to go get one of our own. He fell, okay? It was an accident.”

“Hold on, Alex,” said Johnny. “We have to explore every option. It’s not going to be too long before the
Cornwall
will be overhead. I’d like to consult.”

“Great,” said Alex. “You want to wait. What if Tony wakes up and starts thrashing around? He could just drop through the reef and fall forever.”

“You want to consult with Matt?” asked Mary. “Not to be rude, Professor, but what help can he be? It all happened while they were ...”

The Professor interrupted. “Okay, okay. I guess you’re right. I just thought somebody upstairs might have some bright idea.”

“Now we should get as close as we can to his position. If we need help we can ask for it later. Now, I recommend you use the radar to build a picture of the reef that surrounds Tony’s position. There might be a tube or something that leads to him.”

“I’ve looked,” said Johnny, his voice barely audible in his plastic bubble. “No access. He’s embedded deep in the reef. There are some pockets around him but no, there’s nothing I can see.”

While they hovered in position over the reef,
Diver
’s lifters stirred up reef material. It billowed like a cloud around the ship and began settling on the ledges outside. The foggy air was becoming filled with black debris and small angry lifeforms and several dead ones. Alex pointed to the window. “Look,” he said, “We can barely see the hole anymore. We’re tearin’ up the reef.”

At that moment, Tony regained consciousness. First he wheezed and coughed. Then he said in a strained voice; “Where ... where are you people? I can’t see you.” His voice sounded weak.

“Tony we hear you,” shouted the Professor. “You fell. You’re in your EV suit. Don’t make any sudden moves. Think back. Do you remember? The seal popped. You were blown out of the hatch into the reef. How do you feel?”

The breathing quickened but Sciarra didn’t respond.

“Tony? Did you hear me?”

“Yeah.”

“We see you on radar,” said Professor Baltadonis. “You’re in the reef. Fairly deep, actually.”

“How the hell?” said Tony.

“We’re coming to get you,” said Alex. “We should have checked the seal when the Gannys closed the door. My fault, I guess.”

“Fuck you, Alex,” said Tony. “I should sue your ass. Are there lawyers on Jupiter?”

Alex hung his head. “Okay, I deserved that. I guess you’re okay or you wouldn’t be joking.”

“Joking? You don’t know that,” said Tony. “I don’t know that.”

“Are you hurt?” asked Mary.

“Mary,” said Tony. “I don’t know. My legs. They’re asleep. I can’t feel them. It’s like I’m being pushed. Pushed up.”

“The gravity,” said Johnny. “You weigh about six hundred pounds out of the null-gee field. Don’t try moving. You might dislodge yourself.”

“Jesus,” said Sciarra. “This is just great. I tried to move. Pain ... sharp pain. I think it’s busted.”

“Anything else?”

“I shit myself.”

2
Alex’s statement about EV suits getting rid of odors was overly optimistic. Every few seconds Tony would cough or groan in disgust.

“I get a waft of stink and that pushing sensation every few seconds,” he said, weakly. “This is ... if I could just see something ... there it goes again.

After some questioning, Alex got a picture of Tony’s disposition at the bottom of the hole. He was in a standing position. His suit and helmet were intact as evidenced by the fact that Tony was able to breathe, albeit reluctantly due to the stink in his EV suit. There were no medical sensors in the suit other than pulse and respiration monitors, so they had no idea if Tony was injured if it was someplace he couldn’t feel.