Yeager countered, “Been popping probes into this atmosphere for almost half a century. No predators have been identified.”

Corvus remained unconvinced. “Still…”

“A world without predators,” Deirdre said. “Like heaven. Every creature is safe, content.”

Without looking up from his screens, Dorn said dryly, “Let’s hope there aren’t any predators that like to eat little round metal ships.”

If he had meant it to be lighthearted, the humor fell flat. Nobody laughed.

INTO THE OCEAN

“We’d better strap down now,” said Dorn. “We’ll be entering the ocean in five minutes.”

Deirdre was still watching the panorama of medusas and spider-kites and long-winged birds that glided effortlessly through Jupiter’s clear hydrogen atmosphere. Endlessly fascinating, she thought. A whole extraterrestrial ecology adapted to living in this wild, airborne environment. She had expected the medusas to be big, and they were, dwarfing the puny Faraday. But the spider-kites were almost as big, wide expanses of gossamer floating out there on winds that were shaking this ship like a leaf in a hurricane.

Faraday was buffeting heavily now. The four of them swayed and lurched in their liquid surroundings. Deirdre thought that if they hadn’t secured themselves to the deck with the foot loops they would all be bouncing off the bridge’s spherical bulkhead.

Corvus touched her shoulder. “Come on, Dee, time to strap in.”

Andy looks tense, she thought. I suppose I do, too. But she gazed once again at the shimmering, coruscating medusas gliding placidly through the hurricane winds, their long slender tendrils swaying gently, almost hypnotically. They’re so beautiful, Deirdre thought.

She pulled her bare feet free of the deck loops and floated to the bulkhead. It took an effort; the ship was shaking so hard that she missed the safety harness attached to the bulkhead and bumped painfully against the curving metal instead.

“Are you okay?” Corvus asked.

Nodding, Deirdre muttered, “Clumsy.” She clutched the safety harness and pulled it over her shoulders, then reached down for the straps that secured her thighs.

Looking up, she saw that Andy and Max were doing the same. For once Max was strictly business: no leering innuendos, no offer to help her with her straps. Deirdre smiled inwardly. Max is just as uptight as the rest of us, she realized.

Dorn’s harness was different, looser, dangling from the overhead so that he could remain facing the control panel. He turned his head and checked the rest of them.

“Ocean entry in three minutes,” he announced.

Deirdre was still watching the medusas on the display screens that circled the bridge.

“The cameras are saving this imagery, aren’t they?” she asked, knowing that it was so but wanting Dorn or Max to confirm it.

“Everything’s being recorded,” Yeager said.

“Good,” Deirdre murmured. Those medusas are works of art, she thought. When we get back I’m going to beam this imagery to every art museum in the Earth/Moon system. They’re too beautiful for only the scientists to look at.

“Two minutes to entry,” said Dorn.

The ship’s buffeting was getting worse. Deirdre felt the harness straps cutting into her as Faraday shuddered and jittered down through the lowest levels of the atmosphere.

“What’s that?” Corvus yelped, pointing a shaking finger at the display screens on Deirdre’s console.

She turned and saw one of those huge birdlike creatures, its wings outstretched, its long sword-thin beak dipping into the frothing surface of the ocean.

“Skimmer,” Yeager hollered. “Like on Earth.”

“Look at the numbers on the data bar!” Corvus cried. “It’s big enough to wrap us up in its wings.”

“They grow ’em big on this planet,” Yeager said, with grudging admiration.

As if it could hear them, the skimmer lifted its beak out of the water and seemed to look straight into the camera. Then, with a single flap of its enormous wings, it soared up and out of the camera’s view.

“Had its fill of fish,” Yeager muttered.

“It doesn’t eat the manna,” Dorn said. “There are predators in this world after all.”

“I’m glad it doesn’t eat round metal objects,” said Corvus, remembering Dorn’s earlier attempt at humor.

“Didn’t show any curiosity about us.”

Deirdre said, “Maybe we frightened it.”

Corvus grinned and replied, “Well, it sure as hell frightened me.”

“There are bugs that eat metal in the clouds of Venus,” Yeager said.

“Not here, though,” Corvus said.

“Thank goodness,” said Deirdre.

“One minute,” Dorn announced.

The view outside grew misty as they neared the surface of the ocean. Spray from the waves, Deirdre realized. The boundary between atmosphere and ocean isn’t as distinct as it is on Earth. She wondered if Jupiter’s incredible spin rate had something to do with that. The planet’s more than ten times bigger than Earth, yet its day is less than ten hours long. That must whip up tremendous currents in the ocean.

“Retroburn in ten seconds,” Dorn called out.

Deirdre felt her body surge against the restraining harness, but it was a gentle push, more like being pressed forward by a partner on a dance floor than being slammed by a hard blast of retrorockets.

The display screens went blank, then turned dark. She felt another jolt, harder this time, and then the ship’s buffeting eased into a soft rocking motion, like a baby’s cradle. It was soothing, almost, after the hard bumps through the atmosphere.

“We are in the ocean,” Dorn told them. “Thirty meters deep and heading deeper.”

“Great entry,” Yeager congratulated. “Smooth as a baby’s butt.”

“Thank you,” said Dorn. “Your control systems did most of the work.”

“Can we unstrap now?” Corvus asked.

“What happened to the screens?” Deirdre asked.

“Not much visible light penetrates the water,” Yeager replied before Dorn could. “It gets a lot darker as we go deeper.”

“Switching to infrared,” Dorn said.

It wasn’t much better. Deirdre couldn’t make out much of anything on the screens. Just darkness, with the vague hint of wavering forms that might have been simply her imagination. But then she saw something drifting by.

“Snow?” she called out.

“Manna,” said Yeager.

Corvus explained needlessly, “It’s a stream of organic particles. They form in the clouds and fall down into the ocean. The leviathans feed on them.”

We know that, Deirdre thought. Andy’s just reciting facts to hide his nervousness.

“We have entered the ocean approximately twelve kilometers from the spot that the mission plan called for,” said Dorn. “Now we follow this stream of organic particles down to the level where the leviathans feed.”

For once, the cyborg’s deep voice sounded satisfied, almost pleased.

We’re where we ought to be, Deirdre said to herself. Close enough, anyway. Now all we’ve got to do is find those giant creatures.

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