Infinite Reef by Karl Kofoed Read Free Book Online

already at the site. They, too, carried weapons.
    When Alex reached the crater, a tall officer walked over to him, reached into a pack, and pulled out a smaller version of the headgear he was wearing. “’re ’tis, Alex,” he said. “Put ’er on.” Though muffled by the headgear, Alex recognized the voice as Captain Wysor’s.
    “Dingers, Cap’,” said Alex, still out of breath, “What’s the deal?”
    “Save yer oxygen, Alex, an’ pu’ this on ya’ now,” insisted Wysor, his beard moving beneath the mask. “This might be an attack o’ some kin’.”
    Alex took the gear and slipped it on over his head. To his surprise the helmet’s microelectronics approximated normal vision. A further ability, realized as soon as he looked at the Captain, was that it allowed him to see into the other helmets.
    “This is amazing,” he said. “I can see your face, cap’. Does everyone have one of these?”
    “Polarized int’ference glass ... only fo’ th’ crew, lad,” said Wysor, looking at the sky.
    A few more vehicles arrived with more men and guns. Almost simultaneously Alex’s wrist bracelet came alive. “ Status check ,” it said, then fell silent. But he hardly noticed; his attention was on the black sphere.
    “Whatcha’ make of it, lad?” asked Wysor.
    “I was going to ask you, sir,” replied Alex. The Captain was still examining the far wall of the cylinder. Looking past the glaring lights of the core column, Alex could see a plume of gray smoke. “Did it punch through from space?”
    “That’s th’ word.” The Captain looked at Alex and then at the black sphere, still seated implacably in the crater of its own making. “We’ve been shot.”
    “Shot.” Alex studied the glassy black object. The Captain’s statement made him see it with new eyes. He compared it mentally to every bullet or bomb image he’d ever seen, but despite its ominous entrance the thing looked benign, almost beautiful.
    Someone ran up to Alex from behind. He recognized the light rhythmic steps of his wife seconds before Mary’s arms wrapped around him. “Oh ... I was looking everywhere ...” she breathed into his helmeted ear. “Can you hear me in there?”
    Mary tapped her knuckles on his faceplate. “Why are you all wearing those? Are we being gassed?”
    The Captain managed to scare up another helmet for Mary. Like Alex, once properly suited, she found the experience less than claustrophobic. “These helmets are amazing,” she said.
    Alex faced Mary and hugged her. “Your dolphin friends said ...” But Mary grabbed the Captain’s arm and began asking questions about the sphere, full of curiosity and excitement.
    Only a few more minutes transpired before Stubbs and an entourage of officials arrived at the scene. By then Alex and Mary had been told what had happened.
    It had come out of nowhere, unseen by Goddard’s sensors. An oblong jet black object had hit the ship at a relatively low speed. The impact was barely felt and did no damage, but then the object fired a black projectile through the hull. There was 20 no loss of air because the original object remained fixed to the hull providing a perfect, if ugly, seal. Stubbs told Alex and Mary that it looked like a blob of engine grease flattened against the hull.
    Inside the ship, the damage was more difficult to assess. Reports were coming in to Stubbs and Captain Wysor level by level and room by room. So far few casualties had been reported, none of them fatalities.
    If that wasn’t miracle enough, the projectile had curved in its flight across the inside of the cylinder, apparently avoiding the inner column. All in all, Stubbs reluctantly admitted as he assessed the crater, the damage to Goddard had been minimal.
    What disturbed him was that the thing had expertly penetrated a hull built to repel meteors. After all, polyceramic plating was the material credited with making space travel possible.
    Stubbs made a complete circuit of the crater with his