Jupiter's Reef (38 page)

Initially the tunnel looked the same as any other; roughly circular and about five hundred meters wide with ragged mossy sides. Initially Alex concluded that this was going to be nothing more than another obstacle course, but after they had progressed into it about a quarter kilometer he noticed that the tunnel was following a nearly straight line.

“Interesting,” said Alex. “I’ve never seen a tunnel this straight before.”

Johnny turned the forward floodlights so they illuminated the sides of the cave. “This isn’t like the other tunnels, Alex,” he said. “There are struts supporting the sides.”

When Alex looked closely he could see what Johnny was talking about. Buried in amongst the leafy tendrils that clung to the walls of the cave were regularly spaced arches that looked almost like curving ribs of a huge snake. It was difficult to see whether the ribs were attached to anything. They were dark and seemed to be part of the superstructure that supported the walls.

“This is an entrance,” said Johnny. “I’m sure of it.”

“An entrance to what?” asked Tony.

“I presume we’ll find out,” said Johnny.

Mary made no comment. She just looked at Alex blankly.

“Do you hear anything?” Alex asked her.

Mary shook her head. “The usual chatter.”

Alex kept
Diver
moving forward slowly and on a straight heading while Johnny moved the floodlights around, studying the walls more closely. He activated a forward camera and projected the image on part of the hologram. The circle of detail hovered above and to Alex’s left where Johnny could watch it without it interfering with Alex’s view.

The Professor zoomed in tightly on each rib as it passed by.

“They are uniform,” announced Johnny. “I’ve no doubt that they’re artificial. And they look like bone fiber.”

Alex had to agree. Each rib was perhaps a meter wide and was made of intertwining dark blue fibers arranged in a tubular pattern, like sponge or bone. And as they passed by the lights glinted off a thin shiny membrane that was wrapped around each rib.

“This is spooky,” said Tony.

“We’ve seen constructed shapes before, Tony,” said Alex. “This could just be another kind of growth.”

“Look at the tunnel,” said Mary. “It’s dead straight. This is where all those clicker men came from.”

Alex didn’t like the idea. It reminded him too much of his dreams of the clicker men’s city at the hub of the reef. But as he watched rib after rib pass by he had to agree with Johnny. The support beams reminded him of a mine shaft.

“We could be going down the gullet of some huge animal, too,” observed Tony.

“A couple of differences,” said Johnny. “The tunnel’s a straight line. Very little air flow. Almost static. I’m guessing that we’re entering a city.”

“Great,” said Alex, under his breath.

Mary looked at him sympathetically, but didn’t comment. She read his mind and saw what he feared; a place where dreams and reality merged. Mary wanted to tell him that things like that didn’t happen, but here in the heart of Jupiter’s reef anything was possible. After all, on their last visit she had experienced reactions and feelings associated with the clicker men that left her frightened and disoriented.

Alex’s eyes were glued to the deep tunnel ahead, looking for some clue as to what lay ahead. He wanted to speed up the ship and get it over with. But he didn’t know what
it
was.

Just ahead, he saw that the tunnel ended. About ten meters ahead of the ship was a wall. At first Alex was relieved, thinking that they could now turn around and perhaps leave this place, but as the lights played on the wall ahead he saw that they had come to an intersection with another tunnel that looked exactly like the one they were in; ribs and all.

“Dingers,” said Alex. “Pick a direction, Johnny.”

“Doesn’t matter,” said Professor Baltadonis.

Alex pulled the drive stick to the left and the ship began rounding the curve. But their momentum caused them to bounce off the wall, knocking loose some of the leafy material that seemed to be growing there. The ship tipped slightly and the entire tunnel moved from the impact. A shower of reef debris rained down on
Diver
and several small winged animals scurried for cover, but otherwise no damage had been done to the ship or to the tunnel.

Alex checked the instruments on the dash, but everything looked fine. He looked over at Mary, about to make a comment, but she was staring straight ahead.

When his eyes returned to the tunnel he saw what caught Mary’s attention. It was a light. But this one was different from the other lights they’d seen in the reef. This was bright, white, and it was flickering.

4
“A light at the end of the tunnel,” said Tony. “Is it possible we’re near the surface?”

“No,” said Johnny and Alex simultaneously.

“We’re in the center of the reef, as far as I can tell,” added Johnny. “At least fifty kilometers below the clouds.”

“Why is the light flickering?” asked Alex.

“Something moving,” said the Professor. “But there’s nothing on the radar.”

Alex held the drive stick steady and squinted at the light. It wasn’t nearly as bright as sunlight but it had a similar effect on his eyes.

“Maybe we’ve found the solarium,” said Tony. “Anyone for a tanning session?”

Alex looked at Tony in surprise. He didn’t expect such a cavalier reaction from Sciarra, especially when he himself was beginning to become frightened.

“Aren’t you the least bit nervous?” asked Mary.

“Nervous doesn’t quite cover it,” answered Tony. He was still standing behind Alex’s chair, leaning on the headrest for support. “More like terrified,” he added with a slight smile.

“I’d like you back with your instruments, Tony, if you don’t mind,” said Professor Baltadonis. “We should be ready for anything.”

“Good point,” said Tony, following Johnny’s suggestion.

As
Diver
moved down the tunnel Alex kept the ship as close to its center as possible, avoiding the walls in case any unexpected surprises were lurking there. But he was focused on the flickering of the light and as they neared the end of the long corridor he saw the reason. Hovering at the end of the tunnel were several clicker men whose undulating silhouettes cast long shadows deep into the tunnel.

Alex looked back at Johnny.

“What now? Should we slow it down?” he asked.

“Stop the ship when you get near those things,” said Johnny. “Maybe we can convince them that we aren’t a threat.”

Alex shook his head doubtfully. “After all the damage we’ve done? I doubt we’ll ever convince them of that.” He pulled the stick back and the ship slowed to a creep. He tried to use the ship’s reverse thrusters as little as possible to avoid blowing hot exhaust toward the clicker men.

About ten meters from the clicker men
Diver
came to a stop and floated in front of the creatures that seemed to guard the entrance to the cavern.

“Let’s just sit here, Alex,” said Johnny. “Mary. Any clues to what we’re dealing with?”

“I can hear them,” she said. “They sound upset.”

“Upset?” said Tony. “How can you tell?”

“I can’t,” said Mary. “It’s just a guess, based on what I’ve heard before. Even the word upset is a big assumption,” she added. “I have no idea what they are feeling.”

“Ummm,” said Johnny, thoughtfully. “We know they have some kind of intelligence. Even the humblest critters on our planet have a sense of survival. I doubt if these boys are any different.”

Tony was leaning out of his seat, looking past Alex at the clicker men. “They’re just hanging there,” he said. “What do they want?”

Johnny didn’t answer. He just watched from his virtual bubble while
Diver
and the clicker men hovered twenty meters apart facing each other in a kind of stalemate.

Finally the Professor cleared his throat and looked out of his bubble at Alex. “Move us forward a bit if you can,” he said softly.

Alex complied and the ship moved toward the cave opening at less than half a meter per second. The clicker men reacted immediately. They moved toward
Diver
with blanket-like wings outstretched as though bidding the ship to stop.

“Don’t stop, Alex,” said Johnny. “Let’s see what they do.”

5
As
Diver
inched forward, the creatures hovered just inside the end of the cave. Alex squinted, trying to see what lay beyond them. Gradually, as his eyes adjusted to the light, he could see a few slender golden threads cris-crossing through the deep recesses of the cavern behind the clicker men. The details revealed nothing of what the clicker men were bravely protecting.

Johnny said the radar showed a huge spherical cavern with strange geometric traces inside. But whatever was causing the pattern was, like the rest of the reef, too low in mass to give a clear picture.

Now as they neared the entrance to the vast opening more detail presented itself to Alex’s view. The threads appeared to be part of a much larger superstructure that supported large bubbles or sacks that Alex guessed to be at least as large as
Diver
. Hundreds of them filled the cavern like glass marbles suspended in a mammoth bowl.

Several clicker men flew off into the cavern as
Diver
inched relentlessly forward. Only three creatures remained, frantically waving their blanket arms at their massive adversary.

“Look at them,” said Mary. “Their resolve is amazing.”

“Don’t go into the cavern,” said the Professor. “Just get us to where we can see what’s inside.”

“That’s fine with me,” said Alex as he handled the drive stick gingerly. He looked at the monitors on the dash to see what damage the ship’s lifters were doing to the cave around them.

Mary knew what Alex meant by his response to Johnny’s order. She could feel his trepidation with their intrusion into the inner sanctum of the clicker men, but she also knew that curiosity burned inside him.

Mary could feel the emotions growing in Tony and the Professor as well, although her sensitivity to them was less defined. She could read most people but Alex was an open book. Some women might have been put off by that, but Mary knew that Alex’s openness to her revealed his heart.

Her love for him swelled within her as she watched his concern for the clicker men grow. He was thinking that they were nothing more than invaders, and it was his hand that had brought them there.

They had finally come to the edge of the abyssal cavern. Alex could see that the soft white light came from points dotting the cavern’s smooth walls. The dots of light must have been in the millions, each one being no brighter than a dim house bulb.

As the ship moved slightly out of the cave entrance Alex could examine the walls of the cavern, and he could see one of the lights nearby. It was a translucent blister filled with clusters of glowing red, green, and blue objects that tumbled around inside. Their combined colors produced an odd light with an opalescent quality.

The entire cavern was lit by these blisters in the walls, and each one seemed to be at the end or terminus of the thick yellowish cables that crisscrossed the open space like a vast golden cobweb that supported thousands of globes.

As soon as the ship reached the cave edge the clicker men had been joined by others who arrived in groups of threes, fours, or fives. Within a minute
Diver
’s way was barred by over a hundred black clicker men who hovered like a cloud of crows, blocking Alex’s view.

He pulled the stick back and the ship moved slowly back into the tunnel, only moving the ship enough to give the clicker men a good impression. He righted the stick and
Diver
stopped precisely at the cave entrance.

“Computer,” said Alex. “Command Alpha one, hold our position.”

“PRIORITY ALPHA ONE,” repeated the computer. “EXECUTING COMMAND.”

Alex released the drive stick, and took a deep breath. His hand was wet with perspiration. Then he unhitched his seat belt and stood up.

“What are you doing?” asked the Professor, sounding somewhat annoyed. “If we’re going to hold position can’t we make it inside the cavern so I can use my instruments?”

Alex almost sat down but he changed his mind and looked at Mary.

“I need some coffee,” he said. “Can you kill our hologram?” he added, turning to face the Professor. “Let’s turn on the cabin lights. We can see fine through the windows.”

“Sure, Alex,” said Johnny, and a moment later the illusion surrounding Alex and Mary disappeared. “But they’ll be seeing us through those windows, too, you know.”

Alex bent over and pushed a button on the dash and the cabin lights came on. “I guess that’s my idea,” he said. “Let ’em know who’s home.” Then he walked to food panel.

“This is a funny time for coffee,” said Mary. As she watched Alex walk away she saw that her kitten was standing up, looking at the window and pulling hard at its leash.

“Poor Babies,” she said. And then she too got up and went to join Alex. “I should have fed him hours ago.”

Johnny poked his head out of his bubble. “What are you two doing?” he said. “What’s going on outside? Isn’t that of any interest to you?”

Alex was acting very casual as he activated the food panel. “Do you want something while I’m up?” he asked, smiling at Johnny. “A greebrew or a scotch? I was thinking maybe we could toast the clicker men.”

“A greebrew is good for me, Alex,” said Tony, getting up.

Alex looked at Johnny’s perplexed expression and laughed. “The clicker boys have seen us before. They should know us by now. But in case they don’t, maybe we could put a face on ourselves. Maybe if they see us in here, doing what we do, they’ll ... I don’t know ...”

“Accept us?” asked Mary.

Professor Baltadonis swung his feet out of his chair and looked toward the window. Already three clicker men were at the window. their featureless milk white bodies revealed behind flowing wings, like dancers in magnificent gowns. Johnny got up and walked to the window. The clicker men obviously saw him because they moved as a unit a bit farther from the window.

“They’re not too bothered by the null-gee field, it seems,” said the Professor. “And they definitely can see me. They don’t seem to have eyes.”