Jupiter's Reef Read Free Page B

then, What about our friends out there? They’re bristling with weapons and some of them are pretty powerful, I’ll bet.”
    “Right,” she said. “The terraformers don’t trust anyone. Those are special clones running the scouts. They’ve been ... altered.”

3 Isidis beacons nabbed Diver ’s circuitry and guided her to a landing, so once more Alex and Mary found themselves sequestered at a spaceport on Mars.
    The base, like Cydonia, was largely underground. Near it two kilometer tall Terraform towers loomed on the horizon. Each was sending up a huge plume of white cloud that dissipated in the thin Martian air.
    Alex and Mary, dressed in quarantine suits, sat in an observation deck and looked out at the landscape. In the distance Alex thought he saw a patch of greenery. He pointed to it but Mary’s sharper eyes saw that it was a greenhouse covered with a barely visible aerogel canopy. She told him it was just one of thousands of surface nurseries that held Mars’ future forests waiting in the wings. The flat water-rich plains of the northern 40th parallel had proven more bounteous than the terraformers expected, but they were still far from releasing the forests.
    “Oh,” said Alex. “Greenhouses. Well, nice to see some green out there anyway.”
    A Com-Bot flew up to Alex and hovered an arm’s length away from him.
    “MESSAGE FOR ... ALEX ROSE.”
    Alex examined the tiny machine. Its spherical shell gave no clue to its workings. For all he could see it was just a wire mesh ball. But Alex knew them from Io. They were personal pagers owned and operated by MarsCorp.
    “Sent to do a man’s job, eh, bud?” said Alex with a slight sneer. “Okay, I’m Alex Rose. What’s the message?”
    There was a soft whirring sound as the globe slowly rolled over. Then it froze in the air and said: “PROFESSOR JOHN BALTADONIS SENDS HIS REGARDS AND CONGRATS ON YOUR SAFE LANDING. HE’S ON HIS WAY FROM THARSIS BIO CENTER AND WILL ARRIVE WITHIN THE HOUR.”
    “Good news travels fast. But bad news ... that moves at the speed of light.” said Alex.
    “WILL THERE BE A RETURN MESSAGE? IF SO A ... FOUR CREDIT POINT ... CHARGE WILL BE ADDED TO YOUR SPACEPORT BILL ... ALEX ROSE.”
    “No ... well, okay ...” Alex stammered. His mind raced as he searched for the words.
    “Tell Professor Baltadonis thanks ... and that we’d be glad to meet him,” said Mary.
    The metal ball moved to in front of Mary. It seemed to be scanning her in some fashion.
    “Tell the Professor what she said,” quipped Alex.
    “WILL YOU BE ADDING MORE TO THE MESSAGE ... ALEX ROSE?”
    “What she said is fine,” said Alex.
    “MINIMUM CHARGE ALLOWS THIRTY SECOND MESSAGE TIME ... YOU HAVE USED ... SEVEN SECONDS. IS THERE MORE YOU WISH TO ADD?”
    “That’s it,” said Alex. “And reverse the charges!”
    “THERE IS A FOUR CREDIT CHARGE TO YOUR ACCOUNT ... ALEX ROSE.”
    A sudden wind gust from tiny unseen engines tossed Mary’s white hair as the ball accelerated and vanished around a corner.
    “Dingers, I hate those things,” said Alex. “Why not just call us?”
    “Radio is monitored,” answered Mary.
    “And those things are secure? You must be kidding.”
    Mary nodded. “They have no radio. Or so I’m told,” she added with a smile.
    Alex put an arm around Mary, and they leaned back in the lounge chair together and stared out at the rusty landscape. The sun sank in a pale purple sky. A few kilometers away, the lights came on in Isidis Spaceport’s western launch complex. A moment later a brilliant ruby beam of light extended from it. The beam played back and forth at high speed.
    “Cool,” said Alex. “We’ll get to see a launch.”
    “They’re powering the mass driver. The light’s a warning.”
    As they watched, the beam continued to project its narrow fan into the sky. A minute or so passed before they finally saw a blue-white dot of light move up from the ground and follow the red beam into space. Alex reckoned Diver looked