Read Online Leviathans of Jupiter by Ben Bova - Free Book Online

ship? Taking them out to the Gold station.”
    â€œDolphins.” Dorn seemed incredulous.
    â€œIt’s part of my work,” Corvus explained. “I’m brain-linking with the dolphins as a sort of preliminary test, to see if I can make contact with the leviathans.”
    â€œAnd we’re carrying dolphins on this ship all the way out to Jupiter?”
    Corvus nodded enthusiastically. “We sure are. Four whole decks have been converted into an aquarium for them.”
    Dorn shook his head in disbelief.
    â€œI was going to try to make contact with them later today, but if I can’t get my transceiver into the volume they’ve allowed for their skulls…”
    â€œYou’ll have to make smaller components,” Dorn said, quite matter-of-factly. Then he added, “Or make more room in the dolphins’ skulls.”
    *   *   *
    Deidre had slept poorly, her dreams filled with scenes of war and bloodshed. Dorn—Dorik Harbin—didn’t appear in those dreams; at least she didn’t remember his presence. But the dreams were horrifying, people being slaughtered, villages burned to the ground. And the old Chrysalis habitat methodically destroyed, slashing laser beams ripping its components apart, people blasted into the vacuum of space, not even able to scream as their lifeblood spewed out of them.
    She was glad that Dorn wasn’t in the dining room when she came down for breakfast. But as she slid her tray along the dispenser tables she saw Max Yeager sitting off in a corner by himself, as if he’d been waiting for her.
    As soon as he saw Deirdre the burly engineer got up from his solitary table and buzzed over to her.
    â€œGood morning,” he said, smiling widely. “I hope you slept well.”
    â€œNot very,” Deirdre replied.
    She filled her tray with a plate of eggs, a mug of fruit juice, and a dish of melon balls, Yeager beside her every step of the way. She found an empty table and Yeager immediately pulled out a chair in his meaty hands and held it for her.
    â€œI didn’t sleep all that well, either,” he said as he sat across the table from her. “Strange surroundings, eh? Have you done much traveling?”
    With a shake of her head, Deirdre admitted, “This is my first trip away from home.”
    â€œI’ve traveled a lot,” Yeager said. “Been to Mercury twice, helping Yamagata Corporation design those big solar energy satellites they’re putting up out there. Rumor is, they want to use some of ’em to power lasers that’ll propel lightsail ships out to Alpha Centauri.”
    â€œAlpha Centauri?” she marveled.
    Before Yeager could respond, Deirdre’s pocketphone buzzed. She fished it from the pocket of her slacks and saw the text message on its minuscule screen: “DEIRDRE AMBROSE, PLEASE REPORT TO DR. POHAN IN THE INFIRMARY. AT ONCE.”
    Staring at her, Yeager wondered aloud, “What’s that all about?”
    Deirdre pushed her chair away from the table and got to her feet. “I have to go,” she said.
    â€œYou haven’t had any breakfast!”
    â€œI’m not that hungry, really.” And she hurried out of the dining room, glad to leave Yeager standing there alone.
    *   *   *
    Wrinkled, bald, mustachioed Dr. Pohan smiled at her as Deirdre stepped into his office, but somehow his smile seemed tense to her, forced. The wall screens showed images of medical scans, slices through her body, circles of intestines, interiors of lungs like budding, branching flowers, pulsing, beating organs.
    That’s what I look like inside, Deirdre said to herself as she sat, staring fascinatedly, in front of the doctor’s desk.
    Without preamble, Dr. Pohan said, “We have a puzzlement on our hands, young lady.”
    â€œA puzzlement?”
    â€œYou have rabies.”
    Shocked, Deirdre gasped, “Rabies? That’s