Free Farthest Reef by Karl Kofoed

as her beautiful face disappeared into his lap.
    Their lovemaking ended in the tub under the waterfall. Only then did it occur to Alex that there might be cameras everywhere. “I hope there aren’t cameras in here.”
    Mary quickly wrapped herself in a towel and peered at every corner of the room. She tilted her head and listened for a moment. “Nope,” she said, slipping back under the waterfall to rinse her soapy white hair. “No cameras … no bugs. And best of all, my headache’s gone.”
    2 While the entire house was wired for sound so they could address the computer at any time, there proved to be no cameras anywhere, except in the communications room.
    Soon after Alex and Mary had dressed, Johnny called and invited himself, Tony, and Connie Tsu over to their house for a meeting. They gathered in the upstairs communications room where Baltadonis immediately told them that Stubbs was acting as if they were, as he put it, “going to blast off to Lalande tomorrow.”
    “He’s a driven man,” admitted Johnny. “But Stubbs isn’t the only one calling the shots.” He looked at Alex gravely. “We were walking on eggs around you, Alex, because this mission simply can’t fail. You have no idea how much of humanity is focusing on this mission … and on you.”
    “I found the reef,” said Alex. “But I’m not responsible for everything that comes of it.”
    Johnny looked down at his coffee. “Do you want to do this, Alex?”
    Mary was sitting next to Alex on the sofa. She held up her hand before he could answer. “What exactly is the question that is burning to get answered by this mission, Professor Baltadonis?”
    “Where did we come from?” offered Sciarra. “We know life’s on Earth. And on Jupiter. But where did it come from?” He looked at Johnny.
    Professor Baltadonis nodded. “There are many questions we hope to answer. A lot of the life you saw on Jupiter, Mary, looked similar to terrestrial forms. We know that the Earth has been blasted by asteroids all through its history. Some of its early life might have migrated on their debris to other planets. They’re still arguing where the microbes native to Mars originally came from. And the debate has simply increased since you discovered Jupiter’s reef.”
    “You think all life might have originated on Earth?” asked Tony. “I would have thought it was the other way. Stuff falls in, not out of the sun’s gravity well.”
    “Generally true, but impacts can send debris everywhere,” Johnny explained. “Earth life could have migrated to all the planets, even other stars. We won’t know until we check another star system. Now we have the ship to do it.”
    “So. Do you want to do this or not?” asked Tsu, glaring at Alex. “Not to be rude, but I’m ready to do this mission even if you’re not. And, by the way, there’s a thousand or so other folks on this ship who’d like to get on with it.”
    “You’re acting like I’m holding this up,” said Alex. “Okay, let’s do it.”
    The Professor smiled. “Which brings us to our plan.” He took a chair by the window and faced it to the screen on the wall over the communication console. “Computer,” he said in a loud voice, “Please display Reef Program 1A.” The computer responded, displaying on the wall screen what looked to Alex like an oval contour map. He guessed that it was Jupiter’s reef.
    Johnny continued his discourse. “Since you last visited the reef, there has been unprecedented analysis of Diver’s recordings. I don’t think any data in history has been more thoroughly scrutinized.” He looked at the image on the screen. “You’ll be pleased to know that we won’t be relying on luck to find the clicks. We’ve been able to construct not only a three dimensional map of the reef structure, but also where pockets of reef populations are located. It should be a relatively simple operation once you get a fix on the structure. We hope we’ll be able match your