Jupiter's Reef (30 page)

Alex raised an eyebrow as Johnny stuck his head into the bubble with Mary. They mumbled for a moment before Alex heard Mary say: “Okay!”

Johnny stretched as he slid into the co-pilot’s seat.

“You never saw those things on the reef before?” he asked. He looked at the illusion that surrounded them. “Actually I like the view from here, although you have to kind of figure out what’s lights on the dash and what’s lights on the reef.”

“We manage to sort it out,” said Alex as he returned to his seat with a squeezer of hot coffee.

“There they are!” said Mary, her voice resonating inside the bubble.

“What is it, Mary?” asked Alex.

“They’re out there in the fog,” said Mary. “Maybe thirty of them. I tuned the radar to see them but they’re such low mass things.” Mary looked out at Alex. “They’re there. Maybe a hundred to two hundred meters away. And they’re circling us.”

Johnny looked at the horizon but, seeing nothing but haze, his attention went back to the spiders.

“You haven’t used the flood lights, have you?” asked Johnny.

“We agreed it would be ... uh ...”

“Intrusive? Perhaps. But I have to see what the spiders are doing.”

Alex flicked a switch and two dazzling shafts of light blasted into the gloom of the reef. He had to adjust the pitch of the lights for a moment before Johnny got a look at the spiders.

“I thought so,” he said, slapping the arm of the chair. “Those bugs are full of concrete. Well, some goo they use to patch the reef. They’re repairmen.”

The spiders didn’t seem to notice the light. They went about their work; fluffing the dark reef material with legs that looked designed for that purpose. Another set of legs sprayed a liquid. Tony announced that
Diver
’s outside atmospheric analyzer was detecting large concentrations of alcohol.

The spiders worked quickly, filling the crater from the outside in, staying at equal distances from each other. Even when Alex moved the lights, they didn’t stop their work. A small cloud of black reef debris churned in front of each one. The spiders were building new reef.

“They are like spiders in a way,” said Johnny. “They spin reef instead of web.”

“They’re watching us,” said Mary, her voice resonating inside Johnny’s bubble.

“The spiders?” asked Tony.

“No,” said Mary. “There are more than thirty out there. I can hear them. Maybe we can see them. I’ve got this tuned to their frequency. If they weren’t talking to one another I doubt if they’d be as visible.”

Mary Seventeen was excited. She took a deep breath. “I wish we had this chair when we were here the first time, Alex. Jeeps, this is cool!”

“I donno,” said Professor Baltadonis, looking askance at the chair. “I was getting leg cramps.”

“There they are,” said Alex, pointing at the virtual image.

Superimposed over their misty surroundings were several dark shapes. Nothing discernable, just shadows. They were moving swiftly, left to right and one behind the other, orbiting the ship. Alex switched the radio signals to the cabin speakers. Softly, in the background, the radio clicks that everyone took to be the language of the clicker men could be heard.

Alex looked back at the spiders. Nothing had changed except that they were getting closer together. But Mary’s adjustments to the virtual display compelled his eye as shadows whirled around them. They seemed to be getting closer.

“I’m not sure what to do,” said Alex. “This is your dime, Johnny, and I’m all ears.”

“We can let our neighbors tell us what to do, can’t we?” asked Johnny. “In a hurry to get somewhere, Alex?”

“I don’t think they know we can see them,” said Mary. “The mist, I think, is to blind us.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” said Johnny, shaking his head. “I think the atmosphere ... the clouds and Earth-like gasses ... They’re trying to draw us out.”

“Wait a minute,” said Tony in a disgusted tone. “You’re assuming a lot, do you think? How would they know that we’re in here at all, or that we’re in a ship?”

“Or even if they know we’re in here, how do they know the kind of air we breathe?” asked Alex.

“They made this cloud. The oxygen,” said Johnny. “It’s obvious. We could just put out the flaps and walk outside. We can camp here and watch the reef ... whatever...”

“Coincidence,” said Tony. “Get a grip. Forget the oxygen. Maybe they like it. And the clouds. They live in the air. It follows that they can make clouds. It’s deception. They put in water vapor and cool air. Clouds.”

“Okay. But the cool air brought us in here too,” said Johnny. “The clouds could be accidental, the result of our being brought in.”

“Or,” said Tony, “they were making cloud for some purpose and we got sucked in by accident.”

“Jeeps,” said Mary. “Any one of you could be right. But no need to jump to conclusions. I think we have to wait it out.”

“Wait what out?” asked Tony.

“It,” said Mary.

“Oh,” said Sciarra, and he turned back to face his instruments. “Accurate enough, I guess.”

The shapes in the mist stopped moving. The sudden stillness caught everyone’s attention. Over the speakers the clicking got louder, then louder still. It sounded like more and more sources were coming on. The sounds of a city pulsed throughout the cabin.

“The reef is back,” said Mary. “That’s what it sounded like.” She had to shout until Alex reduced the volume on the speakers.

6
Only moments before they had been phantoms; constructs of Mary’s tampering with Johnny’s sensor array. Now two clicker men were at the window, looking inside the cabin.

At the com, reality overlapped virtual reality as two images hung outside the ship’s windows. The dual images confused Alex.

“This is like a dream,” said Mary, pulling her head out of Johnny’s bubble chair. “Or maybe a nightmare. This is too weird.”

“I wonder if the clicker men can see the image ... the virtual image,” said Johnny.

“Not from their vantage point,” said Tony. “The effect only works when you’re sitting at the com.”

Johnny stood up and waved at the clicker men who hovered at the window. But they didn’t react. Alex remembered the first time he saw their velvety blanket-like arms floating outside
Diver
’s windows. He recalled the pale bowling pin bodies, inside the undulating wings.

“They look like animated black flowers,” said Johnny. “Or some undersea creature ... a jet-black jellyfish, perhaps.”

Mary wasted no time installing her protective tabs. She pressed them to her temples saying, “If you’re going to listen to it on the speakers.”

Johnny apologized but he added that he thought they should all, as he put it, “listen to what the clicker men are saying”.

“We’re all strangers here,” he said. “Listening to other viewpoints. Well, I realize that we know nothing. I came here with preconceived notions about the reef, I guess. About the clicker men. But there they are, outside the window. This is like a dream.”

“I recommend shutting off your visual toys for a while,” muttered Mary. “The others are still circling out there,” Mary had returned to the bubble. Whatever she was seeing compelled her but didn’t seem to be frightening her.

“Shut us down, Mary Seventeen,” said Alex, “if it’s all right with you, Professor.”

“I want to watch the others, too,” said Johnny.

“You can have the bubble back,” said Mary, unfastening herself from Johnny’s chair. “I want my co-pilot’s seat back. With no illusions. This is too strange already.”

While Mary and the Professor slowly changed places, and Alex shut off the virtual projector, everyone kept an eye on the clicker men at the window.

But the clicker men simply hovered at the window, their white bodies appearing and disappearing behind flowing velveteen arms. They showed no signs of reacting to what the humans were doing. Johnny said he wondered if the clicker men could actually see.

Alex was quick to point out that it wasn’t coincidence that brought the things to the window. “They’re watching us,” he said. “You can bet on that. What they see is another question.”

Johnny cleared his throat. “If these things are sentient, then this is a sticky spot for me,” said Johnny, “ Earth Corp has given me free reign here, but they did specify some protocols I have to follow.”

“What are you talking about, Professor?” said Alex.

“For the sake of the mission, and the official log, I’m duty bound to say that as of now we are in the unique position of being ambassadors from Earth.”

“I’m from Mars,” said Mary.

“I’m more of a local boy,” said Alex.

Johnny looked around the cabin. “Okay. But we’re on duty representing mankind, here.” he said, driving home his point. “Is that understood by everyone? Remember, Alex,” he added, “You two were
unauthorized
representatives of the human race when you were here last time. Did you know that you broke interplanetary law when you did that?”

“I do now, thanks,” said Alex. “I never considered for a second that it might be illegal to discover something.” He laughed. “Allow me to point out that you wouldn’t be sitting here, if I’d known about or obeyed that law.”

“You could have pointed the way for legitimate scientific inquiry,” said Johnny. “But ....”

Mary laughed. “You’re forgetting Alex’s letters to Stubbs. The ones that Stubbs dismissed out of hand, on many occasions.”

Alex pointed to the clicker men who still hovered at the window. “What does science tell us to do, once we’re face to face with a possible sentient life form?”

“Jesus, Alex.” said Johnny angrily. “There’s no book on this.”

Mary looked back at the Professor. “I wouldn’t get upset with Alex, Professor. By now you must know how Alex feels about rules.”

“This mission is flown by EarthCorp. Rules are rules,” said Johnny, “and we’re wasting time.”

“Sorry I was holding up science, there, Professor,” said Alex. “By all means proceed.”

There was silence in the cabin. Everyone stared at the fluid motions of the clicker men at the window. Their robe-like appearance reminded Alex of somber gothic figures; phantom priests from an alien sect.

“The point I attempted to explain is that these creatures may be our equivalent. They are the people of Jupiter.”

“Copy that,” said Alex. Mary looked at Alex and smiled. He knew she’d read his mind and agreed with his assessment of the clicker men.

Alex smiled. “Assuming we’ve established that we have a couple of Jupiter’s upper class citizenry standing outside our window, the question is ...”

“Should we let them in?” said Mary.

Alex looked at her with surprise.

“Well, not exactly,” he said raising an eyebrow. “I was wondering what we were supposed to do now?”

“We could go outside and meet them,” said Tony. “The skirts are out. I can put up the cable railings and somebody can suit up.”

“Go and shake hands,” said Alex.

“Two more are coming in,” said Johnny. “And the others are circling closer. The first two are at the sides of the ship.”

“I’m ... I can’t believe they’ll hurt us,” said Tony. “I’ll go out. I’d love it.”

“We’re aliens to them. God knows what they’d do,” said Mary. Her expression was one of horror. “Why would you trust them without at least spending more time observing them?”

“Mary has a point,” said Johnny. “But this opportunity might not come again.”

“To be on the safe side, we can tether Tony with a cable,” said Johnny. “Pull him in if there’s trouble.”

Alex looked back at the window. The clicker men were still there.

“This is nuts. Tony, I wouldn’t do that. We haven’t even stood at the glass making funny faces at them to see if they laugh.”

“What the hell, Alex,” said Tony with a smile. “Sink or swim, right?”

“I wouldn’t say that.” Alex shook his head in disbelief. But he knew their mission. At some point, if it was at all possible, someone would have to walk out on
Diver
’s inflatable deck and grab some flotsam from the reef. Until this moment, he thought the person risking their neck would be him.

But watching Tony get out of his seat and walk slowly to the window, he wondered if Sciarra wasn’t the man for the job. After all, Alex was scared to death, and Tony, for reasons Alex couldn’t fathom, was eager to get outside. He didn’t seem to be alarmed at all as he approached
Diver
’s cockpit glass. Tony stood to the left of Alex and the com, grinning from ear to ear. Only a foot or two from his face was the featureless white knob that everyone presumed was a clicker man’s head. Around it flowed the black cloaklike arms that undulated like swim fins. “It’s treading air, like a fish would in the water,” said Tony. “Look how easily it holds itself up in the air. I’m telling you these things can’t weigh anything. I could sweep them aside with a wave of my hand.”

“That would hardly be a neighborly thing to do,” said Mary.

“Yeah, Tony. Sounds like you want to go out there and punch ’em out,” said Alex.

“I’m saying that there’s no threat is all,” said Tony. He brushed a lock of black hair out of his eye as he leaned closer to the glass. The clicker man glided closer to Tony, moving slowly and gracefully until its rubbery face was only inches from the glass.

“Interesting,” said Johnny. “I’m reminded that we’re running the null gee field. It surrounds the ship to varying degrees in a field of about ... what is it, Tony?”

“Fifty feet or so,” whispered Tony, peering through his thin-rimmed glasses at the clicker man. “You’re right, Professor,” he continued. “These boys are brave ones, eh?”

Sciarra stood up straight and smiled at the Professor. “When do I suit up?”

“Tony,” said Mary. “We have no idea what these creatures might have learned from our first visit. You saw the data from our mission. You saw the way they worked in groups.”

“There’s two on either side of the hull, too,” said Alex. “I have no idea what they’re doing there. I agree with Mary.”

“What do you agree with?” asked Johnny. “That we don’t have enough data? That’s for sure. Speaking of which, if you want to go out now, Tony, it’s your call. I can see all the clicker men outside. They’re not doing anything. And, by the way, my instruments show the air outside is almost the same as it is inside. The air pressure is lower, though. Point seven atmospheres. But the mix is about the same. Twenty percent oxygen, sixty percent nitrogen. Even the water vapor. In fact it’s pretty damp out there.”