Jupiter's Reef (41 page)

Once
Diver
had negotiated the turn the white clicker men were off again, headed down the alley. From the left and the right about a dozen black ones joined their white brothers and they all flew slowly toward a soft golden light in the distance.

Part 11

1
“They could be leading us to our doom,” said Sciarra.

“It is rather trusting of us to tag along behind them like a puppy,” said Johnny. “But we couldn’t stay where we were. And besides, as you have pointed out yourself, we are the dangerous ones here. The real mystery is why are they escorting us around like this? I had the impression they were afraid of us.”

“They are,” said Mary. “I’m sure of it.”

Alex watched the spheres pass slowly by on either side of the ship as they cruised slowly down the corridor between them toward whatever waited in the distance. He had the impression that the orbs were indeed full of stored materials, as the Professor had supposed. But without being able to see inside them, he figured their contents would probably remain a mystery forever. The one view they did get revealed little.

“What makes you so sure they fear us, Mary?” asked Johnny.

“Their behavior. They tried to evict us the first time Alex and I visited the reef. This time they’ve avoided us, until now.”

Alex looked at Mary and nodded. “We’ve discovered something important,” he said.

“That was obvious when they blocked our path,” said Johnny, his voice muffled by the virtual bubble that enclosed his upper body. Earlier in the mission he had been regularly raising and lowering the enclosure, but the mechanism stuck a few times. He didn’t want to risk it getting permanently frozen to the ceiling so he left it in the down position.

“I wonder if they’d have risked their lives resisting us?” said Tony.

“Seemed that way,” replied Alex. “But they’re fast little dingers ... probably would have bailed at the last minute.”

“I’ve been wondering about our gravity field. It doesn’t seem to bother them too much.”

“We’re up to one gee,” observed Sciarra. “Maybe with the field set that low they can tolerate it. Also, we’re passing close to the large spheres and the gee field isn’t affecting them like it does the regular reef material.”

“Good point,” boomed the Professor’s voice. “Everything here seems more solid.”

“Everything’s shiny, like glass.” said Mary. “Like it’s been coated with something.”

“Probably those Zamboni bugs,” said Tony.

“Zamboni bugs?” said Alex. “What do you mean by that?”

“Ice rink cleaners, called Zambonis,” said Tony. “But that’s what those cleaning bugs remind me of.”

Alex shook his head. “Dingers,” he said. “Never heard that one.”

“Not important,” replied Tony. “But what I think
is
important is the fact that they can make solid objects with extremely low mass. EarthCorp would want us to get a lot more samples than we have. Especially of that crystalline stuff. The materials engineers will kill us if we don’t get some of it for them.”

“Screw ’em. That means going out there again,” said Alex. “You up for that, Tony?”

“Not me,” said Tony. “Been there, did that.”

Johnny dipped his head out of his bubble and looked at Alex. “What about you, Alex?”

“Right. Who’ll fly the ship if I get lost out there?”

“Mary can fly it,” said Tony. “You assured us of that. Right?”

“I don’t remember assuring you of that.”

“I don’t either,” added Mary with a tone of indignation.

“Well, if not Mary, then the computer can get us out of here,” said Johnny. “But I agree with Tony.”

The corridor that led between the spheres seemed endless but, being free of obstacles, it was at least easy to negotiate. Alex just held the stick steady and kept his eyes on the clicker men. As they passed each sphere Alex considered what it would take to stop and chip off a sample. But as he pondered the idea he saw Mary looking at him.

“What?” he said.

“I would take the sample from the cavern wall. Not those spheres,” she said. “They might be precious to the clicker men.”

“That’s a good suggestion,” said Johnny. “I keep forgetting that everything we are seeing here is either living or might be alive. It’s not like exploring a cold dead moon where you know that if you pick up an interesting rock it’s just a rock. We have to be ambassadors every step of the way.”

“I flunked that course in school,” said Alex sarcastically.

Diver
was approaching the end of the long alley that led to the center of the cavern. Around them the huge mysterious spheres were more brightly lit by a golden glow that came from myriad small globules that were attached to the tethers that held the spheres in place. Like the pockets of light that dotted the walls of the cavern, the golden globules also throbbed with tumbling glowing lights. The effect of the lighting gave motion to the whole scene.

But what transfixed Alex and the rest of the crew was a huge sphere that appeared to be located in the very center of the cavern. It was easily two or three times as large as others and it had large regularly spaced openings in its shell. Inside the sphere more glowing orbs defined a strange shape that resembled a star with many blunt points.

In a move that surprised Alex, the clicker men immediately went inside the sphere and each one wrapped its body around one of the points.

As
Diver
drew closer to the sphere he could see that the blunt pointed star was covered with white clicker men, each one with its wings enclosed around a point.

“Dingers,” said Alex. “Will you look at that.”

Alex brought the ship to a stop. Then he told the computer to hold their position.

Diver
hovered before the great sphere with its lifters blowing streams of warm air in all directions stabilizing the ship. Several nearby spheres rocked back and forth a bit in the breeze created by the lifters but otherwise there seemed to be no adverse effect on them.

Mary reached over and touched Alex’s arm.

“Change the frequency of the ship’s radio,” she said. “The clicker men have changed their song.”

2
“Well,” said Johnny. “Here’s the scoop. The interior of that sphere has high concentrations of chlorine. And the sphere is pumping out more radio power than our ship can muster.”

“Chlorine. That’s poisonous,” said Alex.

“Very,” said Johnny. “At least to us it is.”

Alex found the frequency Mary was talking about. Had it not been for Mary’s special sensitivity, neither Johnny nor Alex would have listened to the wavelength. They would have passed it by, searching for more clicks. The sound wasn’t clicking. Rather it resembled a deep moan.

It was very loud, and the longer they listened to it, the louder it seemed to get. Soon, the interior of the ship began to rattle. Cabinetry, seats, everything was vibrating.

“Jesus!” said Johnny. “That’s them!”

The clicker men had wrapped themselves around some mechanism that was enlarging their voices. The entire cavern had become one giant resonating ball with the great sphere and
Diver
in the center.

Mary was noticeably perspiring as she bent over her seat to find her filtering com tabs. Alex wasted no time cutting off the signal to the cabin speakers.

But while it got quieter inside the ship, the vibrating continued. It felt like the ship was beginning to come apart.

Then, suddenly it stopped.

Johnny shouted again from the inside of his electronic bubble.

“There’s more, guys. They’re coming. Jesus ... thousands of them.”

It was true. Alex had noticed that it was getting dark outside; as though a cloud’s shadow had eclipsed the sun. But there was no sun. The light, he remembered, was coming from the walls of the sphere. That meant that the dark was coming from there too.

Alex looked at the camera monitors. Down the corridor and from between the spheres; everywhere he looked, the sky was black with the undulating black wings of the clicker men.

Alex turned back on the radio. He kept his finger on the volume control. But there was no familiar clicking sound. They were coming in silence.

“Dingers,” said Alex. “This could be raw.”

“This could mean anything,” cautioned Johnny. “No need to panic.”

Sciarra laughed nervously. “If they mess with us we can scorch them,” he said, pointing at the white ones inside the great sphere. “I hope they know that.”

“We’ve been screwing up their reef every chance we got,” snarled Alex. “They know that. These boys may not be Einsteins, but they know what
Diver
can do. I’ll bet they’re feeling our null-gee field.”

Mary, tabs in place on her temples, was out of her seat and headed to the back of the cabin to get her kitten. She found it cowering inside its low-gee litter box. It wouldn’t come out when she called to it so Mary had to remove a panel on the top to get at it.

“Poor Babies,” she cooed as she lifted the kitten from its hiding place. She put a cheek to it’s little head. “Don’t be afraid. It’s just some noisy old clicker boys. Just tune ’em out if they do that again.”

But the kitten wasn’t having any. It hissed at Mary and scratched her cheek with a razor sharp claw. Mary screamed in pain and dropped the kitten.

“All right,” she said angrily. “Hide in your freaking box! Jeeps!” Then she disappeared into the bathroom.

Alex watched it all in complete amazement. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the white ones move.

They unfolded their great white wings in unison and, as a group, came out of the sphere toward the ship. But now there weren’t just five; there were dozens of them. And they were out of their sphere at the same moment the horde of black clicker men arrived and surrounded the ship.

“Time to electrify the hull. That’s you, Alex,” Tony said adamantly. “Don’t you think, Johnny?”

Alex felt adrenaline coursing through his body. He looked at Sciarra wordlessly then glanced at the outside camera monitors. He hadn’t thought of taking defensive action.

“We’re not in danger,” answered Johnny. “Not yet, anyway.”

Alex pondered Tony’s suggestion and was about to ask the Professor for his opinion when, one by one, the monitors went black.

Clicker men’s bodies slithered along the hull and crossed over the cabin windows. Though the creatures’ body density was very slight they could be heard moving outside – a soft whispering sound, like rain on a heavy roof.

Mary emerged from the head with a new patch of instant skin on her cheek. She looked briefly toward the litter box but there was no sign of her kitten.

“What’s that sound?” she said. “Why is it dark?”

“We’re surrounded,” said Johnny. “Clicker men, thousands.”

“What happened to the white ones?”

“We could see them a second ago,” said Alex. “They came out. but ...”

“I say we should assert ourselves,” said Sciarra. “Turn up the null-gee. Something.”

Alex raised an eyebrow as he considered their options. The suggestion of reducing the gravity had worked before to affect changes in the reef. But it had also been harmful to reef creatures. Its effects had caused living things to disintegrate. But he couldn’t imagine why. He decided it was time to pick Johnny’s brain about that.

“It’s time to tell us what you know about the clicker men’s make-up,” said Alex. “Why, do you think, are the creatures here weakened by
Diver
’s null gee?”

“That seems extraordinary, doesn’t it?” said Johnny. “I’ve pondered that one a lot.”

“And ...?”

“There’s a lot of carbon in the reef. Sulphur, too. But only a little. The reef material seems to be made of stiff carbon constructs and long polymerized hydrocarbon chains. The air is 64% nitrogen and 22% carbon dioxide.”

“Oxygen?” asked Tony, watching the bodies of the clicker men slithering across the cabin window.

“Some. A few percent, but not enough to sustain us. And there’s other stuff. Cyanide. Ammonia. Phosphoric acid. But it’s mostly carbon. Maybe the null-gee weakens the carbon constructs.”

Silence descended on the humans as they pondered what the Professor said.

Mary looked at Alex and frowned. “I had no idea a kitten’s claws could be that sharp.”

“You okay?” asked Alex.

“Of course. It’s a scratch.”

“We’re covered with clicker men,” said Alex.

“They’re tasting us, Alex.” said Mary. “They’ll be done soon.”

“Really?” said Johnny. “How do you know that?”

“I don’t, Johnny. I’m kidding, of course,” said Mary. “Sort of.”

3
Mary’s prediction proved to be uncannily correct. Two minutes passed while the clicker men swarmed the ship, then quite suddenly they pulled clear of the ship.

The camera monitors showed the black clicker men retreating to a distance of perhaps twenty meters and forming a kind of wall around the ship. The entire scene was now lit by the white clicker men’s massive sphere. Its glow filled the cabin with an eerie yellow light.

Mary looked out at the flowing arms of the white ones.

“They look like they are calling to us,” she said.

“The balloons are okay,” said Johnny. “I was afraid we might lose them.”

“They won’t hurt us,” said Mary.

Johnny seemed to lose his temper.

“Jesus, Miss Seventeen,” he shouted. “Why are you so suddenly glib about all this?”

Mary blinked, surprised at the Professor’s sudden outburst.

“You said so yourself,” she replied. “They can’t hurt us. We’re too massive.”

“Well, we don’t know what dangers are lurking out there, do we?” said Johnny.

“Don’t forget the chemical spray that ate through the hull and forced our detour to Mars,” said Alex.

Mary sighed. “I’m just trying to raise spirits a bit. What do you, any of you, care what I think, anyway?”

“Dingers, Mary, my love. It’s okay,” said Alex. “Don’t mind Johnny. He’s just a damn ship-jacking Martian.”

“Ship-jacking Martian?” protested Johnny. “Thanks a lot!”

Mary pointed to the window. In front of
Diver
was a single white clicker man. The others had gone back to their sphere. As they watched the lone creature, it undulated and rotated like a ballerina in slow motion. Each undulation brought it closer to the window until, finally, it hovered only a meter from the glass.