Jupiter's Reef (15 page)

The driver, a military attaché named Bob, told them that a medical officer was on duty at the hotel. He began to explain that Mary could be airlifted, when she stopped gasping and said: “I’m okay. I just ... I just ...”

“Just take slow breaths, lady. You’re okay.” said Bob, looking at Mary through the driver’s mirror. “I’ve seen others do that, ma’am,” he added. “Not to worry. There’s a fancy name for it but it’s just a panic reaction, right? From Mars, right? You looked up at the stars, I bet.”

Mary nodded and unbuttoned the top button of her blouse. Her hands shook violently. “I just needed to get my breath. God. I thought we ...”

When Alex helped Mary from the car at the front of the hotel, she kept her head and eyes lowered. She had gotten herself together enough to realize that she’d had an involuntary reaction.

“I guess he was right,” she said, then fainted into his arms.

5
Mary was happy to see Alex’s face when she opened her eyes. She was in Johnny’s suite at the hotel, and Alex was looming over her, holding something.

“Johnny had a surprise for you, my love,” he said. “It’s up to you to give it a name.”

When Mary’s eyes adjusted to the light, she raised up on an elbow and looked around the room. Johnny was seated on a bar stool and Alex was standing next to her holding a ball of fur.

“What’s that?” she said, squinting at his hand.

“Our fifth passenger,” said Alex. “Your own zero gee kitty.”

Alex handed Mary the smallest kitten she’d ever seen. It had a big head and relatively large paws, and was chocolate brown with a jet black tail.

When she took it from him, Alex felt mixed emotions. On one hand he had delighted her, but on the other hand he had turned Mary into a mother. There were overtones already and her reactions confirmed it. There was a maternal Mary lurking just beneath his lover’s skin and it was already coming out.

Mary cuddled the little thing in her hands and pouted her lips to it. The kitten’s huge blue eyes searched hers, and then it let out the softest of ‘mews’ and won Mary’s heart over completely.

“Your poosty was a Mrs Poosty,” said Johnny. “There’s a litter of zero-gee kittens infesting the hotel atrium as we speak.”

“I can’t,” she said. “What will it eat?”

“It won’t eat that much. There’s a food program already in
Diver
’s processors and the thing is space ready. Born and raised in low-gee. I realized that you needed a cat a long time ago. I knew you wouldn’t get one yourself.”

“He’s so beautiful,” whispered Mary, cuddling the little orphan in her palms, “He could sleep in my hands!”

The cat returned her gaze as if it knew her. It licked its lips as it purred, making a funny gurgling sound. Then it mewed to her.

“It’s at least a few weeks old. Nobody can figure out how the cat originally got in the hotel’s zero gee atrium. But it’s an even bigger mystery how she got pregnant. This wing is isolated from the rest of the hotel, and since there are quarantined suites everything that goes in or out is checked.”

“So a virgin birth is the only answer,” said Alex. “Shall we call him Son o’ God?”

“There were four in the litter,” said Johnny. “All different colors, the steward said. This one is the strongest.”

“We’re
not
going to name you that, are we, babies?” said Mary through pouting lips. She was nose to nose with his little face. The kitten reached out with its paws and touched Mary’s face.

“What will you name him?” asked Alex, sitting down next to her and petting the kitten.

“He’s my babies,” said Mary. “Babies,” she repeated. “Why not?”

“A fifth crewman named Babies?” said Professor Baltadonis. “That’s going to get nauseating.”

6
The next morning Babies yowled and complained the whole way to the ship. Before that there had been a problem in the hotel restaurant concerning the kitten that poked from between Mary’s breasts. But, as with most situations of late, having military guards watching over things helped expedite matters. Johnny helped smooth the waters by telling the headwaiter that they were the couple that discovered Jupiter’s Reef. To Mary’s surprise, the man had actually heard about it. The head waiter and several important members of the restaurant staff lined up to kiss Mary’s hand and pet the little beast nestled between her breasts, then took their orders.

But this all took time and the restaurant was at Earth gravity in the regular part of the hotel. While Mary had built up strength, Babies had not. Mary was worried. For the first time in her life a living thing was in her care, and though it slept blissfully through the meal, she worried about it until they got to the car.

Inside the hovercar was a different story. Somehow the motion or the noise alarmed the cat and it panicked. They all found out that kitten claws are sharper than razors.

Johnny was mentally kicking himself in the ass for not bringing a pet carrier as they entered
Diver
. There were several technicians at the ship’s console, and the screen that covered the cockpit windows was alive with light.

A techy Alex didn’t know looked at them as they entered. He seemed to recognize Alex because he smiled and gestured toward the pilot’s chair. Tony sat pensively on the arm of the co-pilot’s seat and stood up immediately when he saw Alex, Mary and Johnny enter the hatch.

“You’ll love this, Alex. You too, Mary,” He pointed to their seats. “Sit.”

Alex noticed that a third chair had been added behind the two command chairs. Alex guessed it was a science station that he’d heard Johnny mutter to Stubbs about. It had control panels on each arm and an overhanging hood extending down from the ceiling.

“What the hell is that?” asked Alex.

“My station, Alex,” said Johnny. “But you can try it out, any time.”

“But sit here first,” said Tony, pointing to Alex’s pilot seat. “You’ve got to see this new com display. It’s as good as the new one on the
Houston
.”

They both gave the Professor’s science chair a dubious inspection as they walked by it, but they followed Tony’s instructions. Mary held her cat tightly and sat in her co-pilot’s seat.

As they sat down, an illusion took shape before their eyes.

Alex and Mary found themselves strangely transported back in time.
Diver
was following a herd of creatures beneath Jupiter’s Reef.

Alex remembered the images, taken by
Diver
’s outside cameras, from the electronic log, but this view hovered unobstructed all around him.

The viewpoint was from outside the ship, creating the illusion that their eyes were the cameras. Johnny said that it was created using views from several cameras all merged into one virtual environment.

“Full three dimensions. With traces that correspond to radar. See those lines in the background?” said Tony. “Of course this is just playback. The real stuff, the stuff we’ll get on Jupiter, will be better. Now
Diver
can see without lights, Alex,” said Tony. “As pilot, you’ll see it all!”

“And I’ll be behind you in the Biochair,” said Johnny. “It’s a special set-up like the one you’re seeing now, but it’s isolated and won’t interfere with your view. That way you can fly
Diver
while I make my observations.”

Alex pointed to the image surrounding him. “Are the outside cameras operational now?” Then he looked at the console. “Hell, I know this setup. I can find that out for myself.”

Alex reached out and activated
Diver
’s outside cameras. The shutters that sealed the ship’s cockpit windows darkened, then the entire cockpit seemed to become transparent. The tall pines and blue sky rose above them while all around the ship military workers carted away the last of the scaffolding and loaded it onto flatbed trucks.

“Dingers,” said Alex, “It’s like there’s no hull at all. Amazing. Can you see it, Mary?”

Mary looked around in wonder. “This is amazing,” she said. Her grip loosened on her kitten and it leapt from her lap.

Mary recovered the cat immediately, but a moment latter it wet on her. She stiffened in her chair and looked over at Alex.

“Oh, Alex,” she said in alarm. “Where will my kitty poo?”

Alex looked at her blankly. “Huh? Didn’t anyone think of that?” He looked over his shoulder at Professor Baltadonis. “The cat was your idea, as I recall, Johnny.”

Johnny cleared his throat. “Actually we did think about that. We asked a veterinarian who suggested gathering some atrium soil from the Hotel,” he said. “Then we put it in a box. The kitty should, on her own, choose to use it. It’s familiar turf.” Johnny pointed toward the back of the cabin. “One’s already in the back, bolted down.”

“A little soil is going to last three months?” said Alex.

“No,” said Johnny. “Just until the cat gets the idea. The dirt is just to attract the cat. A familiar smell. His stuff will be removed by a sifter and desiccator. Part of the box. You just put special ultralight litter in a chute. It fills the padded walls of the box. It is constantly agitated, cleaned and recycled.”

“You invented all this since you decided to give me a cat?” said Mary.

“No,” said Johnny, laughing. “Spacers have pets. Tourists, too, you know.”

Tony looked at the cat in Mary’s lap and shook his head.

“At least we’ll have some meat to offer to the clicker men if we need a live sacrifice,” he said, grinning.

Mary kissed the cat’s head, then stroked it gently, pretending to ignore Tony.

“I’d be happier, I think, if we fed them
him
,” she whispered to the kitten.

7
Houston
orbited at the L-5 Colony -- a space station with a population of 5,000 located at a point in space where gravitational pull of the Sun, Earth and Moon are equal. It was one of seven such colonies that orbited the Earth.

Johnny and Alex had already gone over preflight checklists while Tony, strapped into his own work station to the left and behind the pilot’s chair, ran systems checks. His insistence on having a space of his own resulted in a cubby consisting of two jury rigged walls holding racks of equipment.

Diver
was twice as powerful as when it first arrived on Earth. Now, finally, the moment had arrived that Alex had been anticipating. The call came from EarthCorp that they had a fifteen minute launch window. He would see what it was like to pilot his ship made state-of-the-art.

Alex looked around the cabin to see if everyone was in place. He announced their launch, while outside sirens warned the locals of their take-off.

With a surge of power Alex had never experienced before,
Diver
rose into the sky. Mere seconds later, at ten thousand feet, the main boosters engaged.

Johnny switched on the holoview. “You’ll get a hop out of this, Alex.” he said.

The view before Alex and Mary was as if the front of the ship had vanished. In front and all around them, the landscape and the sky widened as they neared supersonic speeds. One moment they were looking at trees and mountains, then the next they were seeing ocean and sky.

Alex enjoyed the novelty of the new viewpoint but admitted it was dizzying. Several times he had to shut his eyes or look around to be sure the ship was still with him. Mary’s expression told him she was close to having another ‘exposed-to-space’ reaction. So, by the time they reached Earth orbit, Alex requested the special effects be reserved for exploring of the reef. “Let’s just use the ship’s unshuttered windows,” he said. “Maybe I’m old fashioned and maybe we do have more power than a battle cruiser but as captain I say we don’t spend energy ’til we need to. I’m already hoping for a charge-up while we’re in
Houston
’s hold.”

“We can charge up any time,” said Tony. “Besides, that display doesn’t use much juice.”

Alex realized that he was only the pilot this time. From the moment they returned to
Diver
he and Mary were, for the duration of the mission, on someone else’s turf. Now he realized that he’d been too arrogant to get a proper briefing as a pilot. Tony’s retort spoke volumes.

He looked at Tony, who was snuggled into his workstation, and smiled.

“I guess I’m nervous,” he said. “You guys know what you’re doing. I’ll just drive.”

Professor Baltadonis and Sciarra exchanged glances, but said nothing.

Diver
’s computer alerted them with a voice message that orbit had been achieved. But they knew that from the feeling in the pit of their stomachs.

Mary’s kitty floated past her head. She grabbed its little black tail and pulled it to her lap. Alex could hear it purring all the while.

“I thought that was one of the Professor’s gizmos makin’ that noise,” he said.

Johnny was whistling a tune while Sciarra huddled in his crib.

“INSERTION TO LIBRATION FIVE ... TWENTY SEVEN SECONDS.” said the androgynous voice of the computer.

The curvature of Earth was a banded blue arch in front of them. At its lower edge, a line against the black shadow of night, was someone’s sunset. But from orbit it was just the crimson edge of night.

The sun rose beyond the horizon and flared angrily.

Diver
’s photosensitive windows darkened reflexively, but the sun stayed in view; a hot yellow orb that seemed to threaten them.

“That sun might as well be shakin’ a fist at us,” said Tony, looking at a tiny monitor in the wall of his nest. “It’s bombing as we speak. You might take a peek from your bubble-chair, Johnny.”

“Will do, mighty chieftain,” said Johnny, winking at Mary. He flicked a switch on the left arm of his chair and the transparent hood that covered his head and shoulders fogged and glowed with blue light. “It’s a wrinkle, all right,” said Johnny. “And a big one at that. I think we’ll be seeing the first of it way before we arrive.”

The Professor checked to see that
Diver
’s systems were being recorded.

“We’re seeing the magnetic sun, or the sun in magnetic spectrum translated to our screens as a blue image,” he told Alex while he simultaneously sent the picture to one of the ship’s forward screens. “See the blue streamers flowing out from that pit on the sun’s lower left side? That’s the first storm. And those ripples down on the right, toward the edge that’s a shockwave from an even bigger bomb on the other side.”