Free Farthest Reef by Karl Kofoed Page B

and began fumbling with the keyboard. The image of the Great Red Spot vanished and so did the dark superimposed reef matter. Now all that remained were the tracings that represented the clicker men colonies. Seeing them more clearly made the map look far less complicated. Johnny looked at Alex and smiled, then he tapped a few more keys and the image zoomed in tenfold. Now just a few details of the original map were visible.
    He swiveled his chair to face Alex. “When dealing with Jupiter, or its reef, it’s easy to forget how damned big it is. What we’re looking at now is an area measuring only a few hundred kilometers. Even this area is pretty large. Those pockets you see on the map are spaced widely apart. I have a hunch they might be hard to find.”
    Alex took a deep breath. “When do we go?”
    “Soon,” answered the Professor.
    “What do you think, Professor Baltadonis?” asked Tsu. “Who’s piloting the shuttle?”
    “I still think you should drive,” offered Alex.
    “I think I’ll go sit under the waterfall until this game is over,” said Mary, getting up.
    “Before you go, Mary,” said the Professor. “I wanted to speak to you about the tapes. The language tapes.”
    Mary sat politely down. “I’m sorry,” she said, peeling a med patch off her neck. “I had a headache. I’m usually more rational, I assure you.”
    “Have you listened to the language tapes?” asked Johnny, ignoring her apology.
    “A bit.”
    “And …?
    “I’ll have to listen to them more.” Mary squinted at the screen behind Johnny. “Are you expecting me to talk to them?”
    “It might help.” Johnny looked hopefully at Alex but found little solace in his dubious expression.
    “I expected that,” Mary offered. “I’ve even given it some thought.”
    Johnny smiled. “That’s terrific.”
    Mary leaned forward with elbows on her knees and hands clasped together. “What exactly do you want me to tell them?”
    The Professor blinked. “Well, I …”
    At that moment Inky entered the room. Spotting Mary, he bounded into her lap and folded into a ball. Mary stroked him happily. “Maybe I’ll say come here, clicker person. We want to suck you into our hold and take you to another star, and then you can go visit an alien whirly-pool.” She looked up at the Professor. “Something like that?”
    The Professor looked at Mary darkly.
    Mary got up and walked to the door. “It’s the drugs, I guess. Sorry, Professor. I’m a bitch, I know. They made me that way. Blame it on your bioengineers.”
    3 It was nighttime aboard the great starship Goddard , and the central light was dark. Work was continuing, of course. Alex and Mary had seen the lights on the opposite side of the cylinder, tiny moving vehicles weaving their way amid a twinkling network of lights. Watching them from their bedroom window, the flickering patterns on the skin of the great cylinder reminded them of the clicker men’s centers on Johnny’s maps.
    Mary had gone to bed while Alex watched a selection from the computer’s movie archives. Mary wore earphones so she could review her language tapes. She lay in perfect repose, eyes open, absorbing the sounds of clicker men voices. From the bed she could see the moving lights out the window. They made a perfect backdrop to what she was hearing.
    The tapes had begun with basic facts about Jupiter’s reef and how clicker men’s language functioned within it. “It is a world of semi-darkness, not unlike that of the deep sea. Many creatures use light or bioluminescence to attract or find food. Others use sound for communication and echolocation of food. In the crowded reef there is a lot of sound, but it doesn’t carry very far. It is dampened and absorbed by the fibrous reef material, a polymerized carbon fiber matting, the presumed residue of previous lifeforms.
    “Since the reef does not allow its citizens long distance communication, another method is necessary. We have found that the so called