Jupiter's Reef (18 page)

Everyone looked at him blankly for a moment then burst out laughing.

“I’m serious,” he said.

“You can get to your plasma drive any time,” said Captain Piersall. “I’m sending Lieutenant Danziger here to oversee your departure. You’ll want to pick up Howarth and two more of the Earth team who are also in their cribs down on deck two.”

The Captain swiveled back to face the screen again as the lieutenant got out of her chair and slipped on a small helmet. The rest of the crew was busy with several tasks that Alex couldn’t make sense of. He decided, then and there, he was not a G-pulse advocate.

Mary read Alex’s thoughts easily, but she could just as easily read the look on his face as he surveyed the helm. They both got up but waited for the lieutenant to lead the way.

“Call me Muffy,” said the woman to Alex as she floated toward the door.

9
Alex felt glad to get back aboard
Diver
, even though they’d only been gone an hour and a fair portion of that time was spent being carted through the
Houston
on a cable. Muffy had grabbed the lead strap on the conveyor and told Alex to grab the next. Then, with him directly behind her, she made small talk and giggled at Alex’s comments all the way to the elevator.

On deck two they moved by cable down a short bleak corridor until they came to two doors. The lieutenant knocked on one, and Matt Howarth appeared wearing fatigues, sunglasses, a vest and a sour expression. He joined them in the hall without comment.

Muffy started introductions until Alex informed her that they all knew each other. She seemed relieved. “Good,” she said. “I’m terrible at names, anyway.”

The second door opened a moment later and two women in grey coveralls exited their quarters carrying bags. One was a short blond and the other a slender, somewhat taller, oriental woman of uncertain age. It took a few moments to get their bags out of the room and hooked onto the conveyer cable. That accomplished, they turned to face the group.

The oriental woman spoke up. She held out an eager hand to Matt and said, “I’m Doctor Connie Tzu, from Tokyo University, and this is my assistant, Jeanne Warren. Glad to meet you.”

But Matt didn’t seem to be listening. He was having difficulty hooking his bags onto the conveyor and was swearing under his breath.

Alex was surprised that the two had never met. After all, they were slated to spend a fair amount of time together. He decided that some explanation was warranted, so he briefly reviewed the mission parameters to bring everyone up to speed.

When he finished, Muffy applauded. “You did that very well.”

Alex ignored her comment.

“Time to move this party to my ship,” he said, grabbing a strap on the conveyor. “The Captain seemed to be in a hurry for us to leave.”

Muffy smiled. “He’s got his own agenda,” she said. “And he’s worried about the solar storm.”

Before he knew it, Alex found himself caught up in a conversation with the lieutenant, and he found himself noticing things like her brunette hair, her tiny pearl earring and the subtle scent of some exotic perfume.

Mary had her first real taste of jealousy watching a woman of Danziger’s beauty and rank come on so pointedly to Alex. The woman had apparently ignored the fact that she and Alex had stayed together during their entire time aboard
Houston
.

Finally, when they got to the ship, Muffy told Alex that, if he ever got back to Earth, he should look her up. “You won’t be disappointed,” she whispered in his ear. “I have a place in Hawaii.”

Despite the whisper Mary heard the lieutenant clearly. She was confused by the mixed signals she was picking up from Alex. He seemed to like the woman and dislike her at the same time. Mary vowed to ask him about it when the opportunity arose.

Alex was sure that Mary’s sensitive ears had heard Muffy’s invitation, and it disturbed him. He found the lieutenant attractive but terribly annoying. And he knew that Mary was probably sensing the wrong one. So, even though the man in him was being called out to play, he chose not to respond with anything more than a polite smile.

When they reached
Houston
’s hold the lieutenant told them that she’d be overseeing their launch.

“It’s my first,” she said.

“Be gentle,” said Alex, which made Muffy giggle again. She grabbed a conveyor strap and sailed out of sight, waving to Alex.

Diver
’s door slid open and Mary was first to enter. “Where are you, Babies?” she called into the cabin. “Come on lil’ Babies, show yourself, kitty.”

Mary detected movement above her head and looked up. The little kitten was clinging to the cabin ceiling, apparently waiting for Mary to return. When she spoke to it the cat sprang to her and landed on her shoulder.

The two women who were with Matt entered cautiously when they saw the cat but were soon fawning over it with Mary.

With seven aboard
Diver
seemed like a much smaller ship. “It’s going to get close in here, but I’m glad to be home. That ship made me sick,” said Alex, buckling into his seat. “Like a hospital. I hate dingin’ hospitals. Heave-ho houses, I call ’em.”

“Too clean for a miner, I guess?” asked Matt as he perused
Diver
’s cabin. He moved unerringly toward Tony’s seat with all its jury-rigged instrumentation. “I guess this is your seat?” he said, looking at Sciarra. “Cozy.”

“I hate hospitals because I spent time in them on Io,” said Alex, responding to Matt’s question.

“Victim or visitor?” asked Matt.

“Spend time on the sulphur moon and you’ll be both,” said Alex. “A nut cruncher Corpy got me assigned to scrape-up duty for a year.”

“They made him clean up after wrecks – accidents,” explained Mary.

Matt looked at Alex darkly, then let his eyes wander to Mary, then around the cabin. “Well, not a bad ship you have here, Captain Rose.”

Sciarra laughed.

“It’s a small ship with seven on board. Time to see what’s doing with the Gannys,” said Alex. “They’re supposed to have a ship.”

On both sides of
Diver
’s cabin were a row of seats that folded flat to the wall. Tony, his equipment, and Matt filled one set of seats so the women from Tokyo U. chose two seats on the other side after stowing their bags in the back of the cabin. One of them ended up with the kitten in her lap.

Mary didn’t seem to mind. Besides, now that they were in the Jovian system, her work had begun. As soon as she got to her seat and the ship powered up, Mary was working the radio. She immediately located two ships orbiting Ganymede that identified themselves as science vessels studying Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.

Mary told Alex that neither was actually applied to the task. “They’re sending other messages, on covert channels, all in Ganny,” she said. “I can’t make out a word of it. How did they ever get that dialect?”

“I told you,” said Alex. “The original colony was founded by a British family who’d settled on the moon. I think the original dialect was called ‘Cockeye’ or something.

“That’s Cockney,” said Johnny. “One of the thickest dialects in Britain.”

Everyone listened to the Ganny talk when Mary put it on the cabin speakers. She told them it was a conversation between three Ganny shuttle pilots; two orbiting the planet while the other orbited Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede.

Alex said he could understand some of what they said. They were discussing a gathering of some kind when the Captain of the
Houston
cut in. “We’re ready to open the hold, Mr. Rose, if you’d care to power up your engines.”

“Not without a rendezvous,” said Matt. “EarthCorp said they’d have an orbiter, a ship assigned to our mission.”

Mary contacted the
Houston
and explained their situation. But the Captain insisted on talking to Alex. Alex pushed a touch pad on the dash in front of him and said loudly, “I’m listening, Captain Piersall.”

What’s your status?”

“High and dry in your hold,” said Alex. “EarthCorp was to have arranged for a ship but I think they let us down. We had to leave a week sooner than planned because of the solar storm. I thought you knew that.”

“You’re assuming I get told anything,” said Piersall.

Alex laughed. “I guess we were. Silly of us, I guess, huh?”

He went on to outline the situation briefly until the Captain stopped him. “I know your situation. It’s EarthCorp that has us flying blind.”

“Well, if you’re flying blind we all are,” said Alex.

“I was told before we left that we’d drop you off, then go back almost immediately. They want
Houston
on a strict timetable during the solar storm so we can arrive in a sheltered location. There’s a margin of error when we surf. By that I mean that we can only pinpoint our arrival point by a few hundred kilometers at best. The storm hasn’t reached here yet but will within a few hours. If we’re going to have time to execute another jump and get back to Earth, we have until then to get you out of our hold now.”

“I assume you don’t have an ejection system in this hold?” asked Alex.

“Not yet.”

Alex breathed a big sigh of relief and looked around at Johnny. “Well it’s not all bad news, anyway, is it, Professor?”

“I’ll have them install one before we do another run, though,” added Piersall.

“We may have to make a trip to Ganymede,” said Johnny.

Alex nodded. “Prepared for launch, Captain Piersall. Have your lovely lewwy pull the plug.”

The response from the
Houston
was instant. Claxons sounded somewhere in the ship as the gantry that held
Diver
began moving. Alex reflexively turned on the main viewer, which displayed the rear of the
Houston
’s cargo bay. “That’s right, we’re facing in,” said Alex. He switched to the rear cameras in time to see the panels that formed the pointed rear of the
Houston
open.

“Glad we didn’t have a window open,” said Johnny.

Everyone aboard
Diver
buckled into their seats and Mary held her cat firmly in her lap. She looked down into its helpless eyes and pursed her lips.

Oh, poor Babies,” she said. “You don’t know what’s going on, do you? That’s okay, you’re better off for it.”

Diver
’s systems powered up smoothly. When the doors to the hold had fully opened, Captain Piersall hailed them for the last time. “Off you go,
Diver
, and good luck.”

There was no time for a response from Alex. The ship catapulted into space backward and began a dangerous spin. He had to engage the engines to stabilize the ship.

“Yo,
Houston
,” he yelled. “Lousy ejection system. Try a little finesse next time.”

There was no response.
Diver
stabilized its spin in time to see the
Houston
depart. It still looked like a glittering silver football whose end had blown open. They watched as machinery from inside the hold moved in to fill the hole.

“What are they doing?” asked Mary.

“The
Houston
has the ability to get up speed for a G-pulse,” explained Johnny. “That’s what all that other stuff in the hold was. Plasma engines. But they couldn’t meet the weight requirements with enough fuel for a two way trip. That’s the reason for the gantry launch back at Earth.”

“It’s been written up in the media. Especially since we decided to hitch it back to Jupiter,” said Tony.

“I haven’t really seen any news,” said Alex.

“Well, you missed a big ego boost,” said Matt.

“Of course,” said Johnny. “The discoverer of life on Jupiter is no small item. You’ve been profiled in two reports.”

“Profiled?” said Alex.

Johnny shook his head.

“Well, you could call it that,” said Tony. “Nobody knows much about mystery man Alex.”

“Suits me,” said Alex.

Mary’s kitten floated in front of the viewscreen playing with a used water squeezer. It noticed the moon Io, a dark red dot on the viewscreen, and made a grab for it. Alex looked at Mary and frowned. “That’s got to stop, Mary,” he said.

The women from Tokyo U. giggled as Mary Seventeen retrieved her Babies.

Matt and Tony ignored the kitten and kept an eye on the
Houston
. The plasma thrusters were solidly in place and the outer doors closed to a straight-back position. Alex surmised that the outer doors were set that way to act as a shield for the engine.

The Professor popped his head into the hood over his chair, saying: “I have to see this from outside.”

“Not until I do a camera sweep of
Diver
,” said Alex. “I want to make sure our balloon package is still in place. It won’t take long.”

Alex was right. A moment later they were examining the top of
Diver
as seen by one of its many external cameras. The view options had doubled since he’d visited Earth. Realizing that made Alex take stock of his ship’s capabilities. And the more he thought about it, the more he was actually looking forward to their return to Jupiter.

At the same time he knew that the ship and Mary were all he really wanted. For a moment he wondered what they might do after Jupiter.

Mary looked at him and smiled. “Babies,” she said with a wink. Then she looked at her kitten.

“Babies. More forbidden fruit,” he thought.

Mary giggled. And Alex looked around to see if anyone noticed their silent conversation.

The girls from Tokyo smiled at him. The blond leaned forward and spoke to Mary. “That’s a wonderful kitten you have. Have you always had kittens?”

Mary shook her head. “I’ve never had a pet. I used to think it wasn’t right to keep an animal. But it depends on how you keep them, I guess. Someday maybe I’ll have a real baby.”

Jeanne Warren smiled, but Tsu, the oriental, seemed more subdued. Alex asked her if she was okay and she nodded. “I’m nervous about the Ganny situation, I guess. I’d like to settle into the mission. Get to work.”

She looked at Matt to see if he was listening, then, content that he was absorbed in a pow-wow with Tony, she continued. “We wanted to meet with Matt about the mission, but all our correspondence has been via papers. Stubbs contacted us based on a study we did on deep sea ecologies in subterranean hot springs. Figured we did our homework if we took rides in a submersible, I guess. Shit like that impresses men. Er ... no offense.”