Farthest Reef by Karl Kofoed Read Free Book Online Page A

weightlessness. “I assume we’re out of the cylinder?” he posited.
    The two girls nodded and smiled excessively. “That was the cross-over to the weightless …”
    “I get it,” interrupted Alex. He was becoming very uncomfortable with all the female scrutiny. “Will I be able to visit my shuttle?”
    Almost sadly the guides informed him that he couldn’t enter his ship until they reached Jupiter. “Dingers,” he said disappointedly. “I’m not asking to fly her.”
    But it was no use. Despite an obviously overwhelming desire to please Alex, Suzy and Marie were under orders. The tubeway trip amounted to little more than a stopover at the shuttle bay and a brief strap ride to visit his shuttle.
    As the protocol officers had said, Diver’s sleek delta shape had been transformed. Added to her belly was a streamlined yet bulging white pod. “Dingers,” cried Alex when he saw her. “You made her look … pregnant!”
    Some time later, encased in the jump pod built into the wall of his stateroom, he wondered if he ever wanted to fly Diver again. It had looked like a trussed bloated animal inside Goddard’s bay. Did he want to handle the same controls that had brought him to this situation? Did he want to dive again into the clouds of Jupiter and snatch clicker men, to shanghai them on a voyage to a star? To date, no one had asked him how he felt about it. Not Stubbs, nor even his ‘friend’ Professor Baltadonis. He could refuse. He could bail.
    The pod they had assigned him for the jump to Jupiter was located below decks in the cylinder. All Alex knew was that his current location had been a short tubecar ride from the shuttle bay. His quarters were small and equipped with all the comforts of home, chief among them a capsule shaped pod that would serve as his bed and his cocoon during the jump.
    Perhaps more important, at the moment, was a refreshment dispenser. The room was more confining than he would have liked, but despite missing Mary and feeling claustrophobic as he lay in the pod, he kept his mind on the orientation data the guides had given him. The vid panel was built into the curving roof of the module, so all he had to do was lie there and watch.
    An hour or so into the briefing the open side of the pod closed. A moment later the first shudder of weightlessness reverberated through the ship. Alex felt another, then another, then he noticed a sweet smell in the air. He knew it was the medication that was supposed to help him endure the flight. As expected, he began to feel drowsy. His eyes were on the briefing but his mind was wondering if Mary could see him now, and if she would be able to reach him in jump space. Another more powerful ripple went through the ship. He felt slightly nauseous and closed his eyes. A sensor over his head saw his eyes close, waited a few seconds, and stopped the program.
    5 There had been no announcement of the jump, no countdown or other dramatics. Alex sat up when the pod cover shooshed open. His head swam and his jaw ached for some reason. “Ow,” he said, lying back down. He lay still a moment, testing his arms and legs to be sure everything was working, then he sat up again, holding the side of the pod for support.
    “ Good morning, Captain Rose, shall we resume the briefing? We were discussing the general modifications to your shuttle’s Null-Gee systems … specifically, focusing the field. ”
    “Dingers.”
    The computer fell silent, perhaps attempting to interpret his response as a command. He stretched his muscles and groaned as pain rippled through his stiff joints. “I’m hurting a bit at the moment, so stow the lecture for a while. Pause for a while, computer.”
    “ Stipulate duration of pause, please. ”
    “End program! Point me to the painkillers.”
    “ Goddard’s medical technicians have been notified of your discomfort. ”
    In only a few minutes two medical personnel came into Alex’s quarters armed with gear he didn’t recognize.