PROLOGUE
    In one of  the outlying spiral  arms of the  Milky Way Galaxy,  an
inconspicuous, solitary yellow star slowly orbits the galactic  center
thirty thousand light-years away. This stable star, the Sun, takes two
hundred and twenty-five  million years to  complete one revolution  in
its galactic orbit. The last time the Sun was in its present position,
giant reptiles of  fearsome power  had just begun  to establish  their
dominion on  the  Earth,  a small  blue  planet  that is  one  of  the
satellites of the Sun.
    Among the planets and other bodies in the family of the Sun, it is
only on this Earth that any complex, enduring life has ever developed.
Only on this special world did chemicals evolve into consciousness and
then ask, as they  began to understand the  wonders and dimensions  of
the universe, if miracles similar to  the ones that had produced  them
had indeed occurred elsewhere.
    After all, these sentient Earthlings  argued, there are a  hundred
billion stars in our galaxy alone. We are fairly
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    certain that at least twenty percent of these stars have  orbiting
planets, and that a small but significant number of these planets have
had, at some time in their history, atmospheric and thermal conditions
conducive to the formation of amino acids and other organic  chemicals
that  are  the  sine  qua  non  for  any  biology  we  can  reasonably
hypothesize. At  least once  in history,  here on  Earth, these  amino
acids discovered self-replication, and  the evolutionary miracle  that
eventually produced  human beings  was  set into  motion. How  can  we
presume that  this sequence  occurred  only that  single time  in  all
history? The heavier atoms necessary to create us have been forged  in
the stellar cataclysms exploding across this universe for billions  of
years. Is it  likely that only  here, in this  one place, these  atoms
have  concatenated  into  special   molecules  and  evolved  into   an
intelligent being capable of asking the question, "Are we alone?"
    The humans on Earth began their search for cosmic companions first
by building  telescopes  with which  they  could see  their  immediate
planetary neighbors. Later, when their  technology had developed to  a
higher level, sophisticated  robotic spacecraft were  sent to  examine
these other planets  and to ascertain  whether or not  there were  any
signs of biology. These explorations  proved that no intelligent  life
has ever existed .on any other body  in our solar system. If there  is
anyone out there,  the human  scientists concluded,  any peer  species
with whom we might eventually  communicate, they must be found  beyond
the void that separates our solar system from ail the other stars.
    At the end of the twentieth century in the human time system,  the
great antennae  of the  Earth began  to search  the sky  for  coherent
signals, to  determine if  perhaps some  other intelligence  might  be
sending us  a radio  message.  For over  a  hundred years  the  search
continued, intensifying  during  the  halcyon  days  of  international
science in the early twenty-first century, and then diminishing later,
in the final decades of the century, after the fourth separate set  of
systematic listening  techniques  still  failed to  locate  any  alien
signals.
    In 2130, an  unusual cylindrical object  was observed  approaching
our solar system from the reaches of interstellar space. By that time,
most thoughtful  humans  had concluded  mat  life was  scarce  in  the
universe and  that  intelligence, if  it  existed anywhere  except  on
Earth, was exceedingly rare. How  else, the scientists contended,  can
we possibly explain the lack of positive results from all our  careful
extraterrestrial search efforts of the last century?
    The Earth was therefore stunned when, upon closer inspection,  the
object entering our solar system in 2130 was identified  unambiguously
as an  artifact  of  alien  origin. Here  was  undeniable  proof  that
advanced intelligence existed, or at  least had existed at some  prior
epoch, in another part of the universe. When an ongoing space  mission
was diverted to rendezvous with  the drab cylindrical behemoth,  which
turned out  to have  dimensions  greater than  the largest  cities  on
Earth, the investigating cosmonauts  found mystery after mystery.  But
they were unable to  answer the most  fundamental questions about  the
enigmatic alien spacecraft.  The intruder from  the stars provided  no
definitive clues about its origin or purpose.
    That first group of human explorers not only cataloged the wonders
of Rama (the name chosen for the gigantic cylindrical object before it
was known to be an  extraterrestrial artifact), but also explored  and
mapped its  interior. After  the exploration  team left  Rama and  the
alien spaceship dove around the  Sun, departing from the solar  system
at hyperbolic velocity,  scientists thoroughly analyzed  all the  data
that had been gathered during the mission. Everyone acknowledged  that
the human visitors to Rama  had never encountered the actual  creators
of the mysterious spacecraft. However, the careful postflight analysis
did reveal one inescapable principle of Raman redundancy  engineering.
Every critical system and  subsystem in the  vehicle had two  backups.
The Ramans designed everything in threes. The scientists considered it
very likely that two more similar spacecraft would soon follow.
    The years immediately  after the visit  from Rama I  in 2130  were
full of expectation on the Earth. Scholars and
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    politicians alike proclaimed that a  new era in human history  had
begun. The International Space Agency (ISA), working with the  Council
of Governments (COG),  developed careful procedures  for handling  the
next visit  from  the  Ramans.  All telescopes  were  trained  on  the
heavens, competing with each other for the acclaim that would come  to
the  individual  or  observatory  who  first  located  the  next  Rama
spacecraft. But there were no additional sightings.
    In the second half of the 2130s an economic boom, fueled partially
during its last  stages by  worldwide reactions  to Kama,  came to  an
abrupt halt. The world was plunged into the deepest depression in  its
history, known as the Great Chaos, which was accompanied by widespread
anarchy and destitution.  Virtually all  scientific research  activity
was abandoned during this sorrowful era, and after several decades  in
which they were forced to address more mundane problems, people on the
Earth had nearly forgotten the unexplained visitor from the stars.
    In 2200 a second cylindrical intruder arrived in the solar system.
The citizens of  Earth dusted  off the  old procedures  that had  been
developed  after  the  first  Rama  had  departed,  and  prepared   to
rendezvous with Rama II. A crew of twelve was chosen for the  mission.
Soon after the  rendezvous, the  dozen reported that  the second  Rama
spacecraft  was  nearly  identical  to  its  predecessor.  The  humans
encountered new mysteries  and wonders, including  some alien  beings,
but were still unable to answer questions about the origin and purpose
of Rama.
    Three strange deaths among the crew created great concern back  on
the Earth, where all aspects of the historic mission were followed  on
television. When  the giant  cylinder underwent  a midcourse  maneuver
that placed  it on  a trajectory  that would  impact the  Earth,  this
concern  changed  to  alarm  and  fear.  The  leaders  of  the   world
reluctantly concluded that, in the  absence of any other  information,
they had no  choice except to  assume that Rama  II was hostile.  They
could not allow the alien spacecraft  to impact the Earth, or to  come
close enough that it might deploy any
    advanced weapons it might possess. A decision was made to .destroy
Rama II while it was still a safe distance away.
    The exploration crew was ordered  home, but three of its  members,
two men  and a  woman, were  still on  board Rama  II when  the  alien
spaceship avoided  a nuclear  phalanx launched  from the  Earth.  Rama
maneuvered away from the hostile Earth and departed at high speed from
the solar system, carrying both its intact secrets and the three human
passengers.
    It took thirteen years at  relativistic velocities for Rama II  to
travel from  the neighborhood  of  Earth to  its destination,  a  huge
engineering complex  called the  Node that  was located  in a  distant
orbit around the  star Sirius.  The three  humans on  board the  giant
cylinder  added  five  children  and  grew  into  a  family.  As  they
investigated the  marvels of  their home  in space,  the family  again
encountered  the  extraterrestrial  species  they  had  met   earlier.
However, by the  time they reached  the Node, the  humans had  already
convinced themselves that  these other  aliens were,  like them,  only
passengers in Rama.
    The human family  remained at the  Node for slightly  more than  a
year. During  this  time  the  Rama  spacecraft  was  refurbished  and
outfitted for its  third and final  journey to the  solar system.  The
family learned from the Eagle, a nonbio-logical creation of the  Nodal
Intelligence, that the purpose of the Rama series of spacecraft was to
acquire and catalog as much information as possible about  spacefarers
in the galaxy. The Eagle, who had the head, beak, and eyes of an eagle
plus the  body of  a human,  also informed  them that  the final  Rama
spacecraft, Rama III, would contain a carefully designed Earth habitat
that could accommodate two thousand people.
    A video was transmitted from the Node to the "Earth
    I announcing the imminent return of the third Rama space-
    ! ship. This video explained that an advanced extraterrestrial
    species wished to observe and study human activity over an
    lextended period of time and requested that two thousand
    representative humans be sent to rendezvous with Rama III
    in orbit around Mars.
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Rama III made the voyage from Sirius back to the solar system at a
velocity more than  half the  speed of light.  Inside the  spacecraft,
sleeping in special berths, were most of the human family who had been
at the Node. In Mars orbit  this family greeted the other humans  from
Earth and the pristine  habitat inside Rama  was quickly settled.  The
resultant colony, which was called  New Eden, was completely  enclosed
and separated from the rest of the alien spacecraft by thick walls.
    Almost immediately  Rama  III accelerated  again  to  relativistic
velocities, blasting out of the solar  system in the direction of  the
yellow  star  Tau  Ceti.  Three  years  passed  without  any   outside
interference in  human affairs.  The citizens  of New  Eden became  so
involved with their everyday lives  that they paid scant attention  to
the universe outside their settlement.
    When a  set of  crises  stressed the  fledgling democracy  in  the
paradise that  had been  created  for the  humans  by the  Romans,  an
opportunistic  tycoon  seized  power  in  the  colony  and  began   to
ruthlessly suppress  all  opposition.  One of  the  original  Rama  II
explorers fled from New Eden  at this time, eventually making  contact
with a symbiotic pair of alien species living in the adjacent enclosed
habitat.  His   wife  remained   in  the   human  colony   and   tried
unsuccessfully  to  be  a  conscience  for  the  community.  She   was
imprisoned after a  few months, convicted  of treason, and  eventually
scheduled for execution.
    As  the  environmental  and  living  conditions  inside  New  Eden
continued to deteriorate,  'human troops invaded  the adjacent  living
area in the  Northern Hemicylinder  of Rama and  engaged in  a war  of
annihilation against the symbiotic  pair of alien species.  Meanwhile,
the  mysterious  Ramans,  known  only  through  the  genius  of  their
engineering creations, continued their detailed observation from afar,
aware that it was  only a matter  of time until  the humans came  into
contact with the advanced species  inhabiting the region to the  south
of the Cylindrical Sea. . . .
    ESCAPE
    1
    I icole."
    At first  the soft,  mechanical voice  seemed to  be part  of  her
dream. But when she heard  her name repeated, slightly louder,  Nicole
awakened with a start.
    A wave of intense fear swept  through her. They have come for  me,
Nicole thought immediately. It is morning. I am going to die in a  few
hours.
    She took  a slow,  deep breath  and tried  to quell  her  mounting
panic. A few seconds later Nicole  opened her eyes. It was  completely
dark in her cell. Puzzled, Nicole looked around for the person who had
called her.
    "We are here, on your cot, beside your right ear," the voice  said
very softly. "Richard sent us to help you escape ... but we must  move
quickly."
    For an instant Nicole thought that perhaps she was still dreaming.
Then she  heard  a  second  voice,  very  similar  to  the  first  but
nevertheless distinct.  "Roll over  on  your right  side and  we  will
illuminate ourselves."
    10
    ARTHUR C. CLARICE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    11
    Nicole rolled over. Standing on the  cot next to her head she  saw
two tiny figures, no more than eight or ten centimeters high, each  in
the shape of a woman. They were glowing momentarily from some internal
light source. One had  short hair and  was dressed in  the armor of  a
fifteenth century European knight. The second figure was wearing  both
a crown upon her head and the full, pleated dress of a medieval queen.
    "I am Joan of Arc," the first figure said.
    "And I am Eleanor of Aquitaine."
    Nicole laughed nervously  and stared  in astonishment  at die  two
figures. Several seconds later, when the robots' internal lights  were
extinguished, Nicole had finally composed herself enough to speak. "So
Richard sent you to help me escape?" she said in a whisper. "Just  how
do you propose to do that?"
    "We've already sabotaged  the monitoring system,"  tiny Joan  said
proudly. "And reprogrammed a Garcia biot. . . . It should be here in a
few minutes to let you out."
    "We have a nominal escape plan, along with several contingencies,"
Eleanor added. "Richard has been  working on it for months-ever  since
he finished making us."
    Nicole laughed again. She was still absolutely stunned.  "Really?"
she said. "And may I ask just where my genius of a husband is at  this
moment?"
    "Richard is in your old  lair underneath New York," Joan  replied.
"He said to tell you that  nothing has changed there. He is  following
our progress with  a navigation  beacon. . .  . Incidentally,  Richard
sends his love. He hasn't forgotten-"
    "Be still for  a moment,  please," Eleanor  interrupted as  Nicole
automatically scratched  at the  tickling sensation  behind her  right
ear. "I'm  deploying your  personal beacon  right now,  and it's  very
heavy for me."
    Moments later Nicole touched the  tiny instrument package next  to
her ear and shook her head. "And can he hear us also?" she asked.
    "Richard decided we  couldn't risk  voice transmissions,"  Eleanor
answered. "They could  be too easily  intercepted by Nakamura.  . .  .
However, he will be monitoring our physical location."
    "You may get up now," Joan said, "and put on your clothes. We want
to be ready when the Garcia arrives."
    Will wonders never cease? Nicole thought while she was washing her
face in  the dark  in the  primitive basin.  For a  few brief  seconds
Nicole imagined that the two robots might be part of a clever New Eden
government plot and that she was going to be killed trying to  escape.
Impossible, she  told herself  a few  moments later.  Even if  one  of
Nakamura's minions could create robots like these, only Richard  would
know enough  about  me to  make  a Joan  of  sArc and  an  Eleanor  of
Aquitaine. . . . Anyway, what differ-<ettee does it make if I'm killed
while trying  to  escape?  My electrocution  is  scheduled  for  eight
o'clock this morning.
    There was the sound of a biot approaching outside her cell. Nicole
tensed, still not completely convinced that her two tiny friends  were
indeed telling her the  truth. "Sit back down  on the cot," she  heard
Joan say behind her, "so Eleanor  and I can climb into your  pockets."
Nicole felt the two robots scrambling  up the front of her shirt.  She
smiled. You are amazing, Richard, she thought.
    The Garcia biot was carrying a flashlight. It strode into Nicole's
cell with an air of authority. "Come with me, Mrs. Wakefield," it said
in a loud voice. "I have orders to move you to the preparations room."
    Again Nicole  was frightened.  The  biot certainly  wasn't  acting
friendly. What if .  . . But  she had very little  time to think.  The
Garcia led Nicole  through the corridor  outside her cell  at a  rapid
pace. Twenty meters later,  they passed both the  regular set of  biot
guards and a human  command-mg officer, a young  man Nicole had  never
seen before. "Wait," the  man yelled from behind  them just as  Nicole
and (he Garcia were about to climb the stairs. Nicole froze.
    "You forgot to sign  the transfer papers,"  the man said,  holding
out a document to die  Garcia. ,;..:"' "Certainly," the biot  replied,
entering its identification f'fflimber on the papers with a  flourish.
£. After less than a minute Nicole was outside the large faouse  where
she had been  imprisoned for  months. She took  a deep  breath of  the
fresh air and started to follow the Garcia •down a padi toward Central
City.
    12
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "No," Nicole heard Eleanor call from her pocket. "We're not  going
with the biot. Go  west. Toward that windmill  with the light on  top.
And you must run. We must arrive at Max Puckett's before dawn."
    Her prison  was almost  five kilometers  from Max's  farm.  Nicole
jogged down the small road at a steady pace, urged on periodically  by
one of the two robots, who were keeping careful track of the time.  It
was not long  until dawn. Unlike  on the Earth,  where the  transition
from night  to  day  was gradual,  in  New  Eden dawn  was  a  sudden,
discontinuous event. One moment it would be dark and then, in the next
instant, the artificial sun would ignite and begin its mini-arc across
the ceiling of the colony habitat.
    'Twelve more minutes  until light," Joan  said, as Nicole  reached
the bicycle path that led the final two hundred meters to the  Puckett
farmhouse. Nicole  was nearly  exhausted, but  she kept  running.  Two
separate times during her run across the farmland she had felt a  dull
ache in  her  chest.  /  am definitely  out  of  shape,  she  thought,
chastising herself for  not having exercised  regularly in her  prison
cell. -45 well as sixty years old, more or less.
    The farmhouse was dark. Nicole stopped on the porch, catching  her
breath, and the door opened a few seconds later. "I have been  waiting
for  you,"  Max   said,  his  earnest   expression  underscoring   the
seriousness of the situation. He gave Nicole a quick hug. "Follow me,"
he said, moving quickly off toward the barn.
    "There have been no  police cars yet on  the road," Max said  when
they were inside the bam. "They probably have not yet discovered  that
you're gone. But it's only a matter of minutes now."
    The chickens were all kept on the  far side of the barn. The  hens
had a separate enclosure, sealed off from the roosters and the rest of
the building. When  Max and Nicole  entered the henhouse,  mere was  a
huge commotion.  Animals  scurried  in all  directions,  clucking  and
squawking and beating their wings.  The stench in the henhouse  nearly
overpowered Nicole.
    RAMA REVEALED
    13
    Max smiled.  "I guess  I forget  how bad  chicken shit  smells  to
everyone else," he said, "I've grown so used to it myself." He slapped
Nicole lightly on the back. "Anyway, it's another level of  protection
for you, and I don't think you'll be able to smell the shit from  your
hideout."
    Max walked over to a corner  of the henhouse, chased several  hens
out of the way, and bent down  on his knees. "When those weird  little
robots of Richard's first  appeared," he said,  pushing aside hay  and
chicken feed, "I couldn't  decide where I  should build your  hideout.
Then I thought about this place." Max pulled up a couple of boards  to
expose a rectangular hole in  the floor of the  barn. "I sure as  hell
hope I was right."
    He motioned for  Nicole to follow  him and then  crawled into  the
hole. They  were  both on  their  hands and  knees  in the  dirt.  The
passageway, which ran parallel to the floor for a few meters and  then
turned downward at a steep  angle, was extremely cramped. Nicole  kept
bumping up against Max in front of her and the dirt walls and  ceiling
all around her. The only light  was the small flashlight that Max  was
carrying in  his right  hand. After  fifteen meters  the small  tunnel
opened into a dark room. Max stepped carefully down a rope ladder  and
then turned to  help Nicole  descend. A  few seconds  later they  both
walked into the center of the room, where Max reached up and  switched
on a solitary electric light.
    "It's not a  palace," he  said as  Nicole glanced  around, "but  I
suspect it's a damn sight better than that prison of yours."
    The room  contained a  bed, a  chair, two  shelves full  of  food,
another shelf with electronic bookdiscs,  a few clothes hanging in  an
open closet, basic toiletries,  a large drum of  water that must  have
barely fit through the passageway, and  a deep, square latrine in  the
far corner.
    "Did you do all this yourself?' Nicole asked.
    "Yep," Max replied. "At night . . . during the last several weeks.
I didn't dare ask anybody to help."
    Nicole was touched. "How can I ever thank you?" she said.
    "Don't get caught."  Max grinned. "I  don't want to  die any  more
than you do. ... Oh, by the way," he added,
    14
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    15
    handing Nicole an electronic reader into which she could place the
bookdiscs, "I  hope the  reading  material is  all right.  Manuals  on
raising pigs and chickens  are not the same  as your father's  novels,
but I  didn't want  to attract  too  much attention  by going  to  the
bookstore."
    Nicole crossed the room  and kissed him on  the cheek. "Max,"  she
said lightly, "you are such a dear friend. I can't imagine how you-"
    "It's dawn outside  now," Joan  of Arc  interrupted from  Nicole's
pocket. "According  to  our  timeline, we  are  behind  schedule.  Mr.
Puckett, we must inspect our egress route before you leave us."
    "Shit," said Max. "Here I go again, taking orders from a robot  no
longer than a cigarette." He lifted  Joan and Eleanor out of  Nicole's
pockets and placed them on the top shelf behind a can of peas. "Do you
see that little door?" he said. "There's a pipe on the other side.  It
comes out just beyond  the pig trough.  . . . Why  don't you check  it
out?"
    During the minute or two that the robots were gone,. Max explained
the situation to  Nicole. "The  police will  searching everywhere  for
you," he said. "Particularly hei since they know that I am a friend of
the family. So going to seal the entrance to your hideout. You  should
hi everything you need to last for at least several weeks.
    "The robots  can come  and go  freely, unless  they eaten  by  the
pigs," Max continued with a laugh. "They be your only contact with the
outside world.  They'll let  yc know  when it's  time to  move to  the
second phase of escape plan."
    "So I won't see you again?" Nicole asked.
    "Not for at least a few weeks," Max answered. "It's too dangerous.
. . , One more thing: if there are police on the premises, I will  cut
off your power. That will be your signal to stay especially quiet."
    Eleanor of Aquitaine had  returned and was  standing on the  shelf
next to  the  can  of  peas. "Our  egress  route  is  excellent,"  she
announced. "Joan has departed for a few days. She intends to leave the
habitat and communicate with Richard."
    "Now I must leave also," Max said  to Nicole. He was silent for  a
few seconds. "But not before I tell you one thing, my lady friend. ...
As you probably know, I have been  a fucking cynic all my life.  There
are not very  many people who  impress me. But  you have convinced  me
that maybe some of us are superior to chickens and pigs." Max  smiled.
"Not many of us," he added quickly, "but at least some."
    "Thank you, Max," Nicole said.
    Max walked over to the ladder.  He turned around and waved  before
he began his climb.
    Nicole sat down  in the  chair and took  a deep  breath. From  the
sounds in the direction of the tunnel, she surmised correctly that Max
was sealing the  entrance to her  hideout by placing  the big bags  of
chicken feed directly over the hole.
    So what happens now? Nicole  asked herself. She realized that  she
had thought about very little except her approaching death during  the
five days since the conclusion of  her trial. Without the fear of  her
imminent execution to structure her thought patterns, Nicole was  able
to let her mind drift freely.
    She thought first of Richard,  her husband and partner, from  whom
she had  been separated  now  for almost  two years.  Nicole  recalled
vividly their  last evening  together,  a horrible  Walpurgisnacht  of
murder and  destruction that  had begun  on a  hopeful note  with  her
daughter Ellie's marriage  to Dr. Robert  Turner. Richard was  certain
that we,  like Kenji  .and  Pyotr, were  also  marked for  death,  she
remembered. And he was probably  right. Because he escaped, they  made
him the enemy and left me alone for a while,
    I thought you were  dead, Richard, Nicole  thought. / should  have
had more faith. . . . But how in the world did you end up in New  York
again?
    As she sat in  the only chair in  the underground room, her  heart
ached for the company  of her husband. A  montage of memories  paraded
through her mind.  She first saw  herself again in  the avian lair  in
Rama II, years and years earlier, temporarily a captive of the strange
birdlike creatures whose language was jabbers and shrieks. It had been
Richard who
    16
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    17
    had found her there. He had risked  his own life to return to  New
York to determine if Nicole was still alive. If Richard had not  come,
Nicole would have been marooned on the island of New York forever.
    Richard and Nicole  had become  lovers during the  time that  they
were struggling to  figure out how  to cross the  Cylindrical Sea  and
return to  their  cosmonaut  colleagues from  the  Newton  spacecraft.
Nicole was both surprised  and amused by  die strong stirrings  inside
her caused  by  her recollection  of  their  early days  of  love.  We
survived the  nuclear missile  attack together.  We even  survived  my
wrongheaded attempt to produce genetic  variation in our offspring  by
steeping with another man.
    Nicole winced at  the memory  of her  own naivete"  so many  years
before. You forgave me,  Richard, which could not  have been easy  for
you. And  then we  grew even  closer  at the  Node during  our  design
sessions with the Eagle.
    What was the  Eagle really?  Nicole mused, shifting  her train  of
thought. And who or what created him? In her mind was a vivid  picture
of the bizarre creature who had been their only contact while they had
stayed at the Node during the refurbishing of the Rama spaceship.  The
alien being, who had had the face of an eagle and a body similar to  a
man's, had  informed them  that he  was an  advancement in  artificial
intelligence designed especially as a  companion for humans. His  eyes
were incredible, almost mystical, Nicole remembered. And they were  as
intense as Omeh 's.
    Her great-grandfather Omeh had worn  the green robe of the  tribal
shaman of the Senoufo when he had come to see Nicole in Rome two weeks
before the launch of die Newton spacecraft. Nicole had met Omeh  twice
before, both times in her mother's native village in the Ivory  Coast:
once during the Poro  ceremony when Nicole was  seven, and then  again
three  years  later  at  her  mother's  funeral.  During  those  brief
encounters Omeh had started preparing  Nicole for what the old  shaman
had assured her would be an  extraordinary life. It had been Omeh  who
had  insisted  that^Nicole  was  indeed  the  woman  who  the  Senoufo
chronicles had predicted would scatter their tribal seed "even to  the
stars."
    Omeh, the Eagle, even Richard,  Nicole thought. Quite a group,  to
say the least. The  face of Henry, Prince  of Wales, joined the  other
three men and Nicole remembered for  a moment die powerful passion  of
their brief love affair in die days immediately after she had won  her
Olympic gold medal. She  recalled sharply the  pain of rejection.  But
without Henry,  she reminded  herself,  there would  not have  been  a
Genevieve.
    While Nic6le  was remembering  the love  she had  shared with  her
daughter on Earth, she glanced across the room at (he shelf containing
the electronic  bookdiscs. Suddenly  distracted,  she crossed  to  the
shelf and started reading titles. Sure  enough, Max had left her  some
manuals on raising pigs and chickens. But that was not all. It  looked
as if he had given Nicole his entire private library.
    Nicole smiled as she pulled out a book of fairy tales and inserted
it into her reader. She flipped  through the pages and stopped at  the
story of  Sleeping Beauty.  The phrase  "and they  lived happily  ever
after" summoned another vivid memory, this  one of herself as a  small
child, maybe six or seven, sitting on her father's lap in their  house
in the Parisian suburb of Chilly-Mazarin.
    / longed as a little girl to  be a princess and live happily  ever
after, she thought. There was no way  I could have known then that  my
life would make even the fairy tales seem ordinary.
    Nicole replaced  the bookdisc  on the  shelf and  returned to  her
chair. And now, she thought, idly  surveying the room, when I  thought
this incredible life was over, I seem  to have .been given at least  a
few more days.
    She thought again of  Richard and her intense  longing to see  him
returned. We have  shared much, my  Richard. I hope  I can again  feel
your touch, hear your laughter, and see your face. But if not, I  will
try not to complain. My life has already seen its share of miracles.
    2
    E
    : leaner  Wakefield  Turner arrived  at  the large  auditorium  in
Central City at  seven-thirty in the  morning. Although the  execution
was not  scheduled  to take  place  until eight  o'clock,  there  were
already about thirty  people in  the front seats,  some talking,  most
just sitting quietly. A television  crew wandered around the  electric
chair on the stage.  The execution was being  broadcast live, but  the
policemen in the auditorium were nevertheless expecting a full  house,
for the government had encouraged the citizens of New Eden to  witness
personally the death of their former governor.
    Ellie had  argued  with  her  husband  the  night  before.  "Spare
yourself this pain,  Ellie," Robert had  said, when she  had told  him
that she intended  to attend  the execution. "Seeing  your mother  one
last time cannot be worth the horror of watching her die."
    But Ellie had  known something that  Robert gid not  know. As  she
took her seat in die auditorium,  Ellie tried to control the  powerful
feelings inside her. There can be
    RAMA REVEALED
    19
    nothing on  my face,  she told  herself, and  nothing in  my  body
language. Not  the slightest  hint. Nobody  must suspect  that I  know
anything about  the  escape. Several  pairs  of eyes  suddenly  turned
around to look at her. Ellie  felt her heart skip before she  realized
that someone had recognized her and that it was completely natural for
the curious to stare at her.
    Ellie had first encountered her father's little robots Joan of Arc
and Eleanor of Aquitaine only six  weeks before, when she was  outside
of the main habitat, over in the quarantine village of Avalon  helping
her physician husband Robert take care of the patients who were doomed
by the RV-41 retrovirus inside their bodies. Ellie had just finished a
pleasant and encouraging late evening visit with her friend and former
teacher Eponine. She had left Eponine's  room and was walking along  a
dirt lane, expecting to see Robert at any moment. All of a sudden  she
had heard two strange voices calling her name. Ellie had searched  the
area around her before  finally locating the pair  of tiny figures  on
the roof of a nearby building.
    After crossing the lane so that she could see and hear the  robots
better, the stunned Ellie had been  informed by Joan and Eleanor  that
her father Richard was still alive. It had taken her a few moments  to
recover from the shock. Then Ellie  had begun to question the  robots.
She had become quickly  convinced that Joan  and Eleanor were  telling
the truth; however, before  Ellie had ascertained  why her father  had
sent the robots to  her, she had seen  her husband approaching in  the
distance. The figures on the rooftop had then told her hurriedly  that
they would return  soon. They  had also  cautioned Ellie  not to  tell
anyone of their existence, not even Robert, at least not yet,
    Ellie had been overjoyed that her  father was still alive. It  had
been almost impossible for her to keep the news a secret, even  though
she was well aware of  the political significance of her  information.
When, almost  two weeks  later,  Ellie had  been again  confronted  in
Avalon by the  little robots,  she had been  ready with  a torrent  of
questions. However, on that occasion Joan and Eleanor had been
    20
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    programmed  to  discuss  another  subject-a  possible  forthcoming
attempt to break Nicole  out of prison. The  robots told Ellie  during
this second meeting that Richard acknowledged such an escape would  be
a dangerous  endeavor. "We  would never  attempt it,"  the robot  Joan
said, "unless your mother's execution were absolutely certain. But  if
we are not prepared ahead  of time, there can  be no possibility of  a
last-minute escape."
    "What can I do to help?" Ellie had asked.
    Joan and Eleanor had handed her  a sheet of paper, on which  there
was a list  of items including  food, water, and  clothing. Ellie  had
trembled when she recognized her father's handwriting.
    "Cache these things at the following location," the robot  Eleanor
had said, handing Ellie a  map. "No later than  ten days from now."  A
moment later another colonist had come  into sight and the two  robots
had vanished.
    Enclosed inside the  map had been  a short note  from her  father.
"Dearest Ellie," it had said, "I apologize for the brevity. I am  safe
and healthy, but  deeply concerned about  your mother. Please,  please
gather up  these items  and take  them to  the indicated  spot in  the
Central Plain. If you cannot  accomplish the task by yourself,  please
limit your support to a single  person. And make certain that  whoever
you pick is as loyal and dedicated to Nicole as we are. I love you."
    Ellie had quickly determined  that she would  need help. But  whom
should she  select as  an accomplice?  Her husband  Robert was  a  bad
choice  for  two  reasons.  First,  he  had  already  shown  that  his
dedication to his  patients and  the New  Eden hospital  was a  higher
priority in his  mind than  taking a political  stand. Second,  anyone
caught helping Nicole  escape would  certainly be  executed. If  Ellie
were to involve Robert in the  escape plan, then meir daughter  Nicole
might be left without both her parents.
    What about Nai Watanabe? There was no question about her  loyalty,
but Nai was a single parent  with twin four-year-old sons. It was  not
fair to ask  her to take  the chancy.  That left Eponine  as the  only
reasonable choice. Any  worries that  Ellie might have  had about  her
afflicted friend had been
    RAMA REVEALED
    21
    quickly dispelled. "Of course I'll help you," Eponine had  replied
immediately. "I have nothing to lose. According to your husband,  this
RV-41 is going to kill me in another year or two anyway."
    Eponine and Ellie had  clandestinely gathered the required  items,
one at a time, over a period of a week. They had wrapped them securely
in a small sheet  that was hidden in  the comer of Eponine's  normally
cluttered room in Avalon. On the  appointed day, Ellie had signed  out
of New  Eden  and walked  across  to Avalon,  ostensibly  to  "monitor
carefully" a full twelve hours  of Eponine's biometry data.  Actually,
explaining to Robert why  she wanted to spend  the night with  Eponine
had been much more  difficult than convincing  the single human  guard
and the Garcia biot at the habitat exit of the legitimacy of her  need
for an overnight pass.
    Just after midnight Ellie  and Eponine had  picked up their  sheet
and crept cautiously into the streets of Avalon. Being very careful to
avoid the  roving biots  that Nakamu-ra's  police used  to patrol  the
small outside village at night, the two women had sneaked through  the
outskirts of the town and into the Central Plain. They had then  hiked
for several  kilometers  and deposited  the  cache in  the  designated
location. A Tiasso  biot had  confronted them  outside Eponine's  room
upon their return and had asked what they were doing wandering  around
at such an absurd hour.
    "This woman has RV-41," Ellie had said quickly, sensing the  panic
in her  friend. "She  is one  of  my husband's  patients. She  was  in
extreme pain and could not sleep, so we thought that an early  morning
walk might help. . . . Now, if you'll excuse us . . ."
    The Tiasso  had let  them  pass. Ellie  and  Eponine had  been  so
frightened that neither of them had spoken for ten minutes.
    Ellie had not seen  the robots again. She  had no idea whether  or
not an actual escape had been attempted. As the time for her  mother's
execution now drew near and the  auditorium seats around her began  to
fill, Ellie's  heart  was  pounding furiously.  What  if  nothing  has
happened? she
    22
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    thought. What if  Mother is  really going  to die  in twenty  more
minutes?
    Ellie glanced up at the  stage. A two-meter stack of  electronics,
metallic gray, stood next to the large chair. The only other object on
the stage was a digital clock  that currently read 0742. Ellie  stared
at the chair. Hanging from the top was a hood that would fit over  the
victim's  head.  Ellie  shuddered  and  fought  against  nausea.   How
barbaric, she thought.  How could  any species  that considers  itself
advanced tolerate this kind of gruesome spectacle?
    Her mind had just cleared away the execution images when there was
a tap  on  her  shoulder.  Ellie  turned  around.  A  large,  frowning
policeman was leaning  across the  aisle in her  direction. *'Are  you
Eleanor Wakefield Turner?" he asked,
    Ellie was so frightened she  could barely respond. She nodded  her
head. "Will you come with me, please?"  he said. "I need to ask you  a
couple of questions."
    On shaky  legs, Ellie  edged  past three  people  in her  row  and
entered the aisle. Something's gone wrong, she thought. The escape has
been foiled.  They 've  found the  cache and  somehow- know  that  I'm
involved.
    The policeman took her to a  small conference room on the side  of
the auditorium. "I'm Captain Franz  Bauer, Mrs. Turner," he said.  "It
is my  job  to  dispose of  your  mother's  body after  she  has  been
executed. We have,  of course,  arranged for  the customary  cremation
with the undertaker. However . . ."At this point Captain Bauer paused,
as if he were carefully selecting his words.". . . in view of the past
services that  your mother  has  rendered for  the colony,  I  thought
perhaps that you, or  some member of your  family, might like to  take
care of the final procedures."
    "Yes, of course, Captain Bauer," Ellie replied, weak with  relief.
"Certainly. Thank you very much," she added quickly.
    "That will be all, Mrs.  Turner," the policeman said^'You may  now
return to the auditorium."
    Ellie stood up and discovered that she was still shaky.
    RAMA REVEALED
    23
    She put one hand on  the table in the  middle of the room.  "Sir?"
she said to Captain Bauer.
    "Yes?" he replied.
    "Would it be possible for me to  see my mother alone, just for  an
instant, before . . . ?"
    The policeman  studied Ellie  at length.  "I don't  think so,"  he
said, "but I will ask on your behalf."
    "Thank you very-"
    • Ellie was interrupted by the ring of the telephone. She  delayed
her departure from the conference room long enough to see the  shocked
expression on Captain Bauer's face. "Are you absolutely certain?"  she
heard him say as she left the room.
    The big digital clock on the  stage read OSM. "Come on, come  on,"
the man behind Ellie grumbled. "Let's get on with it."
    Ellie forced  herself to  stay  calm. She  glanced around  at  the
restive crowd. Captain Bauer had informed everyone at five past  eight
that the "activities"  would be delayed  "a few minutes,"  but in  the
last half hour there had been no additional announcements. In the  row
in  front  of   Ellie,  a   wild  rumor  was   circulating  that   the
extraterrestrials had rescued Nicole from her cell.
    Some of  the people  had already  started to  leave when  Governor
Macmillan walked onto the stage. He  looked harried and upset, but  he
broke quickly into his  official open smile  when he began  addressing
the crowd.
    "Ladies and  gentlemen," he  said, "the  execution of  Nicole  des
Jardins Wakefield has  been postponed. The  government has  discovered
some  small  irregularities  in  the  paperwork  associated  with  her
case-nothing really  important, of  course-but  we felt  these  issues
should be cleared
    •up first, so that  there can be no  question of any  impropriety.
The execution will be rescheduled in the near future. All the citizens
of New Eden will be informed of the details."
    Ellie sat in her seat until  the auditorium was nearly empty.  She
half expected to be detained by the police when
    24
    ARTHUR C. CLARICE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    25
    she tried to leave, but nobody  stopped her. Once outside, it  was
difficult for her not to scream with joy.
    She suddenly  noticed that  several people  were looking  at  her.
Uh-oh, Ellie thought. Am I giving myself away? She met the other  eyes
with a polite smile.  Now, Ellie, comes  your greatest challenge.  You
cannot under any circumstances behave as if you expected this.
    As usual, Robert, Ellie,  and little Nicole  stopped in Avalon  to
visit with Nai Watanabe  and the twins  after completing their  weekly
calls on  the seventy-seven  remaining RV-41  sufferers. It  was  just
before dinner. Both Galileo and Kepler were playing in the dirt street
in front of the  ramshackle house. When the  Turners arrived, the  two
little boys were involved in an argument.
    "She is too," the four-year-old Galileo said heatedly.
    "Is not," Kepler replied with much less passion.
    Ellie bent down  beside the  twins. "Boys,  boys," she  said in  a
friendly voice. "What are you fighting about?"
    "Oh, hi, Mrs. Turner," Kepler answered with an embarrassed  smile.
"It's really nothing. Galileo and I-"
    "I  say  that  Governor   Wakefield  is  already  dead,"   Galileo
interrupted forcefully. "One of the boys at the center told me, and he
should know. His daddy is a policeman."
    For a moment  Ellie was taken  aback. Then she  realized that  the
twins had not  made the  connection between  Nicole and  her. "Do  you
remember that Governor  Wakefield is  my mother,  and little  Nicole's
grandmother?" Ellie said softly. "You and Kepler met her several times
before she went to prison."
    Galileo wrinkled his brow and then shook his head.
    "I remember her ... I think," Kepler said solemnly. "Is she  dead,
Mrs. Turner?" the ingenuous youngster then added after a brief pause.
    "We don't know for certain, but  we hope not," Ellie replied.  She
had almost slipped. It would have been so easy to tell these children.
But it would only take one  mistake. There was probably a biot  within
earshot.
    As Ellie picked up Kepler and gave him a hug, she
    remembered  her  chance  encounter  with  Max  Puckett  at  the  ,
electronic supermarket  three days  earlier, in  the middle  of  their
ordinary conversation, Max had  suddenly said, "Oh,  by the way,  Joan
and Eleanor are fine and asked me to give you their regards."
    Without thinking, Ellie had asked Max a leading question about the
two little robots. He had ignored it completely. A few seconds  later,
just as Ellie was about to  repeat her question, she noticed that  the
Garcia biot who was in charge of  the market had moved over closer  to
them and was probably listening to their conversation.
    "Hello, Ellie. Hello, Robert,"  Nai said now  from the doorway  of
her house. She extended her arms and took Nicole from her father. "And
how are you, my little beauty? I haven't seen you since your  birthday
party last week."
    The adults went inside the house. After Nai checked to ensure that
there were no  spy biots in  the area,  she drew close  to Robert  and
Ellie. "The police interrogated me again last night," she whispered to
her friends. "I'm starting to believe  there may be some truth in  the
rumor."
    "Which rumor?" Ellie said. "There are so many."
    "One of the  women who  works at our  factory," Nai  said, "has  a
brother in Nakamura's special service. He told her, one night after he
had been drinking, that when the police showed up at Nicole's cell  on
the morning of the  execution, the cell was  empty. A Garcia biot  had
signed her out. They mink it  was the same Garcia that was  reportedly
destroyed in that explosion outside the munitions factory."
    Ellie smiled,  but  her  eyes  saidjiothing  in  response  to  the
intense, inquiring  gaze  from  her  friend.  "The  police  have  also
questioned me,  Nai," she  said matter-of-factly.  "Several  different
times. According to them, the questions  are all designed to clear  up
what they call the  'irregularities' in ••  Mother's case. Even  Katie
has had a  visit from the  police. >She dropped  by unexpectedly  last
week and  remarked that  the postponement  of Mother's  execution  was
certainly f peculiar."
    "My friend's brother," Nai said after a short silence, "says  that
Nakamura suspects a conspiracy."
    26
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "That's  ridiculous,"  Robert   scoffed.  "There   is  no   active
opposition to the government anywhere in the colony."
    Nai drew even  closer to Ellie.  "So what do  you think is  really
happening?" she  whispered. "Do  you think  your mother  has  actually
escaped? Or did Nakamura change his mind and execute her in private to
stop her from becoming a public martyr?"
    Ellie looked first at her husband and then at her friend. "I  have
no idea,"  Ellie  forced  herself  to  answer.  "I  have,  of  course,
considered all the possibilities you have mentioned. As well as a  few
others. But  we have  no  way of  knowing.  . .  .  Even though  I  am
certainly not what  you would  call a  religious person,  I have  been
praying in my own way that Mother is all right"
    3
    N,
    Iicole finished her dried  apricots and crossed  the room to  drop
the package in  the wastebasket. It  was nearly full.  • She tried  to
compress the waste with her foot, but the level barely changed.
    My time  is  running  out,  she  thought,  her  eyes  mechanically
scanning the food  remaining on the  shelf. / can  last .: maybe  five
more days. Then I must have  some new supplies. Both Joan and  Eleanor
had been gone  for forty-eight hours.  During the first  two weeks  of
Nicole's stay in the  room underneath Max Puckett's  barn, one of  the
two robots had been with her all the time. Talking with them had  been
almost like talking  with her husband,  Richard, at least  originally,
before Nicole  had exhausted  all  the topics  the little  robots  had
stored in their memories.
    These two  robots  are  his greatest  creations,  Nicole  said  to
herself, sitting down in the chair. He must have spent months on them.
She remembered Richard's  Shakespearean robots from  the Newton  days.
Joan and Eleanor are far
    28
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    29
    more sophisticated than Prince Hal and Falstaff. Richard must have
learned a lot from the engineering of the human biots in New Eden.
    Joan and Eleanor had kept  Nicole informed about the major  events
occurring in the habitat. It was an easy task for them. Part of  their
programmed instruction  was  to observe  and  to report  by  radio  to
Richard during their  periodic sorties  outside of New  Eden, so  they
passed the same information on to Nicole. She knew, for example,  that
Nakamura's  special  police  had   searched  every  building  in   the
settlement, ostensibly looking for anyone hoarding critical resources,
in the first two  weeks after her  escape. They had  also come to  the
Puckett farm, of course, and for  four hours Nicole had sat  perfectly
still in total  darkness in  her hideout.  She had  heard some  noises
above her, but  whoever had conducted  the search had  not spent  much
time in the barn.
    More recently,  it had  often  been necessary  for both  Joan  and
Eleanor to be outside of the hideout  at the same time. They told  her
that they were busy coordinating the  next phase of her escape.  Once,
Nicole had asked the robots how they managed to pass so easily through
the checkpoint at the entrance to New Eden. "It's really very simple,"
Joan had said.  "Cargo trucks pass  through the gate  a dozen times  a
day, most  carrying items  to  and from  the troops  and  construction
personnel over in the other habitat,  some going out to Avalon.  We're
almost impossible to notice in any large load."
    Joan and Eleanor  had also brought  Nicole up to  date on all  the
colony history since she had been imprisoned. Nicole now knew that the
humans had invaded  the avian/sessile habitat  and essentially  routed
its occupants. Richard had  not wasted robot memory  space or his  own
time by supplying Joan and Eleanor with too many of the details  about
the avians and  sessiles; however,  Nicole did know  that Richard  had
managed to escape to New York  with two avian eggs, four manna  melons
containing embryos  of the  bizarre sessile  species, and  a  critical
slice of an actual adult sessile.
    She also knew that  the two avian hatchlings  had been born a  few
months earlier and that Richard was being kept extremely busy  tending
to their needs.
    It was  difficult  for Nicole  to  imagine her  husband,  Richard,
playing both mother  and father to  a pair of  aliens. She  remembered
that when their  own children had  been small, Richard  had not  shown
much interest in their development, and he had often been  insensitive
to the children's emotional needs. Of course he had been marvel-ous at
teaching them facts, especially abstract concepts from mathematics and
science. But Nicole  and Michael  O'Toole had remarked  to each  other
several times during their long voyage on Rama II that Richard did not
seem to be capable of dealing with children on their own level.
    His own childhood  was so painful,  Nicole thought, recalling  her
conversations with  Richard about  his abusive  father. He  must  have
grown up with  no capability to  love or trust  other people. All  his
friends were fantasies  or robots he  had created himself.  . . .  She
paused for a moment in her thinking. But during our years in New  Eden
he definitely changed. ... 7 never had a chance to tell him how  proud
1 was of him. That was why I wanted to leave the special letter. . . .
    The solitary light in  her room suddenly went  out and Nicole  was
surrounded by darkness. She sat quite still in her chair and  listened
carefully for any sounds.  Although Nicole knew  that the police  were
again on the  premises, she  could hear  nothing. As  she became  more
frightened, Nicole realized how important Joan and Eleanor had  become
to her. During  the first  visit to the  Puckett farm  by the  special
police, both the little robots had been in the room to comfort her.
    Time passed  very slowly.  Nicole could  hear the  beating of  her
heart. After what seemed like an eternity, she heard noises above her.
It sounded as if  there were many  people in the  barn. Nicole took  a
deep breath and  tried to  steady herself. Seconds  later, she  nearly
jumped out of her skin when she heard a soft voice beside her reciting
a poem.
    30
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    31
    Invade me now, my ruthless friend,
    And make me cower in the dark.
    Remind me that I'm all alone
    And draw upon my face your mark.
    How is it that you capture me,
    When all my thoughts deny your force?
    Is it the reptile in my brain
    That lets your terror run its course?
    Baseless Fear undoes us all Despite our quest for lofty goals.  We
would-be Galahads don't die, Fear just freezes all our souls. It keeps
us mute when feeling love, Reminding us what we might lose. And if  by
chance we meet success, Fear tells us which safe route to choose.
    Nicole recognized eventually that the voice belonged to the  robot
Joan, and that she was reciting Benita Garcia's famous pair of stanzas
about fear, written  after Benita had  been thoroughly politicized  by
the poverty and destitution of the Great Chaos. The friendly voice  of
the robot and  the familiar  lines of the  poem temporarily  mitigated
Nicole's panic. For a while she listened more calmly despite the  fact
that the noises above her were growing in amplitude.
    When Nicole heard the sound of  the movement of the large bags  of
chicken feed stored above  the entrance to  her hideout, however,  her
fright was suddenly renewed. This is it, Nicole said to herself. /  am
going to be captured.
    Nicole wondered briefly if  the special police  would kill her  as
soon as they found her. Then  she heard loud metallic pounding at  the
end of the passage to her room and was unable to remain seated. As she
rose, Nicole  felt two  sharp pains  in her  chest and  her  breathing
became labored. What's wrong with me? she was thinking when Joan spoke
up from beside her.a,
    "After the first search," the robot  said, "Max was afraid mat  he
had not camouflaged your entrance well enough.
    One night while you  were asleep he inserted  into the top of  the
hole a full drainage system for the henhouse, with the discharge pipes
running out above your  hideout. That pounding  you heard was  someone
beating on the pipes."
    Nicole held her breath while a muffled conversation took place  on
the surface above her. After a minute, she again heard the movement of
the bags  of chicken  feed.  Good old  Max, Nicole  thought,  relaxing
somewhat. The pain in her  chest subsided. After several more  minutes
the noises above her ceased altogether.  Nicole heaved a sigh and  sat
down in the chair. But she did  not fall asleep until the lights  were
on again.
    The robot Eleanor had  returned by die  time Nicole awakened.  She
explained to  Nicole that  Max  was going  to  start ripping  out  the
drainage system in  the next  few hours  and that  Nicole was  finally
going to leave her hideout. Nicole was surprised when, after  crawling
through the tunnel, she encountered Eponine standing beside Max.
    The two women embraced, "fa va bien? Je ne t'ai pas vue depuis  si
longtemps," Eponine said to Nicole.
    "Mais mon amie, pourquol es-tu id? J'aipense que-"
    "All right, you two," Max interrupted. "You'll have plenty of time
later to  become  reacquainted. Right  now  we need  to  hurry.  We're
already behind schedule because  I took too long  to remove that  damn
drain. Ep, take Nicole inside and dress her. You can explain the  plan
while you're putting on your domes. I need to shower and shave."
    As the two women walked in the dark from the barn to Max's  house,
Eponine informed Nicole  mat everything  was in place  for her  escape
from the habitat. "During the last four days Max has hidden the diving
gear piece by piece around the shore of Lake Shakespeare. He also  has
another full set stored  in a warehouse in  Beauvois, in case  someone
has removed your mask or air tanks from their hiding places. While you
and I are  at the party,  Max will  make sure that  everything is  all
right."
    "What party?" a confused Nicole asked.
    Eponine laughed as they entered the house. "Of course,"
    32
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    she said. "I forgot that you haven't been following the  calendar.
Tonight is Mardi Gras. There is  a big party in Beauvois, and  another
over in Positano. Almost everyone will be out tonight. The  government
has been encouraging people  to attend, probably  to keep their  minds
off the other colony problems."
    Nicole looked very  strangely at her  friend, and Eponine  laughed
again. "Don't you understand? Our biggest difficulty was figuring  out
how to  get you  all the  way across  the colony  to Lake  Shakespeare
without being seen. Everyone in New Eden knows your face. Even Richard
agreed that this  was our  only reasonable opportunity.  You'll be  in
costume, and wearing a mask-"
    "Have you  talked to  Richard, then?"  Nicole asked,  starting  to
comprehend at least the outline of the plan.
    "Not directly," replied  Eponine. "But Max  has communicated  with
him through  the  little  robots.  Richard  was  responsible  for  the
drainage system idea that misled the police on their last visit to the
farm. He was worried that you would be discovered."
    The women entered the bedroom, where a magnificent white dress was
spread out upon the bed.  "You will attend the  party as the queen  of
England," Eponine said. "I have been working on your dress nonstop all
week. With this full  mask and diese long  white gloves and  leggings,
none of your hair or skin will show. We shouldn't need to stay at  die
party for more than an hour or so, and you won't say much to  anybody,
but if anyone should  ask, simply tell them  that you're Ellie.  She's
staying home tonight with your granddaughter."
    "Does Ellie  know I  have  escaped?" Nicole  asked a  few  seconds
later. She was experiencing a strong yearning to see both her daughter
and little Nicole, whom she had never even met.
    "Probably," said Eponine. "At least  she knew that an attempt  was
likely. It was Ellie who first involved me in your escape. Ellie and I
cached your supplies oukon the Central Plain."
    "So you haven't seen her since I've been out of prison?"
    RAMA REVEALED
    33
    "Oh, yes. But we  haven't said anything. Right  now Ellie must  be
very careful. Nakamura is watching her like a hawk."
    "Is anyone else involved?" Nicole  asked, holding up the dress  to
see how it would fit.
    "No," answered Eponine. "Just Max, Ellie, and I. ... And of course
Richard and the little robots."
    Nicole stood in front of the mirror for several seconds. So here I
am, finally the queen of England, at least for an hour or two. She was
certain that the  idea for  the specific  costume had  also come  from
Richard. Nobody else could have  made a choice so appropriate.  Nicole
adjusted the crown upon her head.  With this white face, she  thought,
Henry might have even made me queen.
    Nicole was deep  in a memory  of many years  earlier when Max  and
Eponine emerged from the bedroom.  Nicole began to laugh  immediately.
Max was dressed in a scanty  green outfit and was carrying a  trident.
He was Neptune,  king of  the sea, and  Eponine was  his sexy  mermaid
princess.
    "You both look great!" Queen Nicole said, wifo a wink at  Eponine.
"Wow, Max," she added  a second later  in a teasing  voice, "I had  no
idea you had such an imposing body."
    "It's ridiculous," Max grumbled. "I have hair everywhere-all  over
my chest, down my back, in my ears, even-"
    "Except it's a  little thin  up here," Eponine  said, patting  his
head after removing his crown.
    "Shit," said Max. "Now I know why I've never lived with a woman. .
. . Come on, you two, let's get going. And by the way, the weather  is
wacky again tonight. You'll both need  a shawl or a jacket during  our
ride in the buggy."
    "The buggy?" Nicole said, glancing at Eponine.
    Her friend smiled. "You'll see in a minute," Eponine said.
    When the New Eden government  had requisitioned all the trains  to
convert the lightweight extraterrestrial alloys
    34
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    35
    into war planes  and other weaponry,  the colony of  New Eden  had
been left without a comprehensive transportation system. Luckily  most
of the citizens  had purchased  bicycles, and  a full  set of  bicycle
paths had  been  developed during  the  first three  years  after  the
initial settlement. Otherwise, it would  have been very difficult  for
people to move about in
    the colony.
    By the time of Nicole's escape, the old train tracks had all  been
removed and roads had been laid where the tracks had once been.  These
roads were used by the electric cars (restricted to government leaders
and key military personnel), the  transport trucks (which also ran  on
stored electricity), and the creative and varied other  transportation
devices constructed by  individual citizens of  New Eden. Max's  buggy
was such a device. In front it was a bicycle. The back half,  however,
was a large pair of soft seats, almost a couch, resting on two  wheels
and a strong axle, much  like the horse-drawn buggies three  centuries
earlier on the Earth.
    King Neptune struggled with the pedals as the costumed trio  eased
onto the road toward Central City. "Shit," Max said as he strained  to
accelerate, "why did I ever agree to this absurd plan?"
    Nicole and Eponine laughed in the seat behind him. "Because you're
a wonderful  man,"  Eponine  said,  "and you  wanted  us  both  to  be
comfortable. Besides, can  you imagine  a queen riding  a bicycle  for
almost ten kilometers?"
    The temperature was indeed on the  cool side. Eponine spent a  few
minutes explaining to Nicole  how the weather  continued to grow  more
and more  unstable. "There  was a  recent report  on television,"  she
said, "that the government intends to settle many of the colonists  in
the second habitat. Its environment is still unspoiled. Nobody has any
confidence that we will  ever fix the problems  here in New Eden."  As
they neared  Central  City,  Nicole  worried  that  Max  was  becoming
chilled. She offered him  the shawl Eponine had  loaned her, which  he
eventually accepted. "You could have picked a wanner costume,"  Nicole
said teasiagly.
    "Having Max  be King  Neptune was  also Richard's  idea,"  Eponine
said. "That way, if he needs to carry any of
    your diving equipment tonight, he will look perfectly natural."
    Nicole was  surprisingly  emotional as  the  buggy slowed  in  the
growing traffic and wound its way through the colony's main  buildings
in Central City. She  remembered a night, years  before, when she  had
been the  only human  awake in  New Eden.  On that  same night,  after
checking her family one last time, an apprehensive Nicole had  climbed
into her berth and  prepared to sleep for  the many-year trip back  to
the solar system.
    An image  of  the  Eagle,  that  strange  manifestation  of  alien
intelligence who had  been their guide  at the Node,  appeared in  her
mind's eye.  Could  you  have predicted  all  this?  Nicole  wondered,
synthesizing quickly  the  entire  colony  history  since  that  first
rendezvous with the passengers from Earth onboard the Pinta. And  what
do you  think  of  us  now? Nicole  grimly  shook  her  head,  acutely
embarrassed by the behavior of her fellow humans.
    "They never replaced it," Eponine was saying from the seat  beside
her. They had entered the main plaza.
    "I'm sorry," Nicole said. "I'm afraid I was daydreaming."
    "That wonderful monument your husband designed, the one that  kept
track of  where  Rama was  in  the galaxy.  .  . .  Remember,  it  was
destroyed the night the mob wanted to lynch Martinez. . . . Anyway, it
was never replaced."
    Again Nicole was deep in her  memory. Maybe that's what being  old
is, she thought. Too  many memories always  crowding out the  present.
She recalled the unruly mob and the red-haired boy who hollered, "Kill
the nigger bitch."
    "What ever happened to Martinez?" Nicole asked softly, fearful  of
the answer.
    "He was electrocuted soon after Nakamura and Mac-millan took  over
the government. The trial dominated the news for several days."
    They had passed  through Central  City and  were continuing  south
toward Beauvois, the village where Nicole and Richard and their family
had lived before Nakamura's coup. It could have been so different, she
thought, looking
    36
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    at Mount Olympus towering over them on her left. We could have had
paradise here. If only we had tried harder. . . .
    It was a train of thought that Nicole had followed a hundred times
since that terrible night, the  same night that Richard had  hurriedly
departed from New Eden. Always there  was the same profound sorrow  in
her heart, the same burning tears in her eyes.
    We humans, she remembered  saying once to the  Eagle at the  Node,
are capable  of such  dichotomous behavior.  At times,  when there  is
caring and compassion, we truly seem little lower than the angels. But
more often, our  greed and  selfishness overwhelm our  virtues and  we
become indistinguishable from the basest creatures from which we  have
evolved.
    4
    M:
    I ax  had been  gone from  the party  for almost  two hours.  Both
Eponine and Nicole were  becoming alarmed. As the  two women tried  to
cross the crowded dance floor together, a pair of men dressed as Robin
Hood and Friar Tuck stopped them.
    "You are  not  Maid Marian,"  Robin  Hood said  to  Eponine,  "but
Maid-Mer is nearly  the same." He  laughed heartily at  his own  joke,
extended his arms, and began to dance with Eponine.
    "May a lowly priest enjoy a dance with Her Majesty?" the other man
said. Nicole smiled  to herself. What  harm can there  be in a  single
dance? she thought. She slipped into Friar Tuck's arms and they  began
moving slowly around the floor.
    Friar Tuck was a talkative fellow. After every several bars of the
music, toe would pull away from Nicole and ask a question. As planned,
Nicole would indicate her response with a head movement or a  gesture.
Toward the end of the
    38
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    song, the priest in costume began to laugh. "Verily," he said,  "I
believe I  am dancing  with a  mute.  A graceful  one, no  doubt,  but
nevertheless a mute."
    "I have a bad  cold," Nicole said softly,  trying to disguise  her
voice.
    After she had  spoken, Nicole  detected a definite  change in  the
friar's manner. Her concern increased when, after the dance was  over,
the man continued to hold  her hands and to  stare at her for  several
seconds.
    "I've heard your voice somewhere before," he said seriously. "It's
very distinctive. I wonder if  we've met. I'm Wallace Michaelson,  the
senator from the western section of Beauvois."
    Nicole vaguely  remembered  the  man.  She did  not  dare  to  say
anything else. Fortunately,  Eponine and Robin  Hood returned to  join
Nicole and Friar Tuck before the silence had become dangerously  long.
Eponine sensed what had occurred and acted quickly. "The queen and I,"
she said, taking Nicole by  the hand, "were on  our way to the  powder
room when you  Sherwood Forest outlaws  ambushed us. If  you will  now
excuse us, with  thanks for  the dance,  we will  continue toward  our
original destination."
    As the women  walked away, the  two men dressed  in green  watched
them carefully. Once inside the ladies' room, Eponine first opened all
the stalls  to ensure  that she  and Nicole  were alone.  "Something's
happened," Eponine  then whispered.  "Probably Max  had to  go to  the
warehouse to replace your equipment."
    "Friar Tuck is a senator  from Beauvois," Nicole said. "He  almost
recognized my voice. I don't think I'm safe here."
    "All right," said Eponine  nervously after a moment's  hesitation.
"We will  follow the  alternate  plan. We'll  go  out front  and  wait
underneath the big tree."
    Both women saw the small ceiling camera at the same time. It  made
just the slightest sound as it changed its orientation to follow  them
around the  room. Nicolejried  to  remember every  word that  she  and
Eponine had said. Was there anything  that suggested who we were?  she
wondered.
    RAMA REVEALED
    39
    Nicole was  worried especially  about  Eponine, since  her  friend
would continue to live in the  colony after Nicole had either  escaped
or was captured.
    When Nicole and Eponine returned  to the ballroom, Robin Hood  and
his favorite priest gestured  for the ladies to  come toward them.  In
response Eponine motioned toward  the front door,  put her fingers  to
her lips to  indicate that she  was going outside  to smoke, and  then
crossed the room with Nicole. Eponine glanced over her shoulder as she
opened the  outside  door.  "The  green men  are  following  us,"  she
whispered to Nicole.
    About twenty meters away from the entrance to the ballroom,  which
was in reality the gymnasium for  Beauvois Middle School, there was  a
large elm  tree that  had  been one  of  the few  already-grown  trees
transported to Rama originally from the Earth. When Eponine and  Queen
Nicole reached the tree, Eponine reached into her purse, pulled out  a
cigarette, and lit it  quickly. She blew the  smoke away from  Nicole.
"I'm sorry," she whispered to her friend.
    "I understand," Nicole  had just finished  saying when Robin  Hood
and Friar Tuck walked up beside them.
    "Well, well,"  Robin Hood  said,  "so our  mermaid princess  is  a
smoker. Don't you know that you're taking years off your life?"
    Eponine started to give her standard  reply, to tell the man  that
RV-41 would kill her long before  smoking would, but she decided  that
any conversation  might encourage  the men  to stay.  She just  smiled
wanly, inhaled deeply on her cigarette, and blew smoke above her  head
into the branches of the tree.
    "Both the friar here and I were hoping that you ladies would  join
us for  a drink,"  Robin Hood  said, ignoring  the fact  that  neither
Eponine nor Nicole had responded to his earlier comment.
    "Yes," added Friar Tuck, "we would  like to know who you are."  He
stared at Nicole.  "I'm certain  we've met  before, your  voice is  so
familiar."
    Nicole faked a cough and looked around. There were
    40
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    three policemen within  a radius  of fifty meters.  Not here,  she
thought. Not now. Not when I am so close.
    "The queen is not feeling well," Eponine said. "We may be  leaving
early. If not, we'll find you when we come back inside."
    "I'm a doctor," Robin Hood  interrupted, moving closer to  Nicole.
"Maybe I can help."
    Nicole could feel the tension in  her heart. Again her breath  was
short and labored. She coughed again and turned away from the two men.
    "That's a  terrible cough,  Your Majesty,"  she heard  a  familiar
voice say. "We'd better take you home."
    Nicole glanced up  at another  man dressed in  green. Max,  a.k.a.
King Neptune, was smiling broadly at her. Behind him Nicole could  see
the buggy parked no more than  ten meters away. Nicole was joyful  and
relieved. She gave  Max a huge  hug and almost  forgot the danger  all
around her. "Max," she said, before he put his finger to her lips.
    "I know both you ladies are  just delighted that King Neptune  has
finished his business for the evening," he then said with a  flourish,
"and can now  squire you  away to his  castle, away  from outlaws  and
other unsavory elements."
    Max looked at the other two men, who were enjoying his performance
even though he  had foiled their  plans for the  evening. "Thank  you,
Robin. Thank you, Friar Tuck," Max  said as he helped the ladies  into
the  buggy  seat.  "Your  kind   attention  to  my  friends  is   most
appreciated."
    Friar Tuck  approached  the  buggy,  obviously  to  ask  one  more
question, but  Max  pedaled away.  "It  is  a night  of  costumes  and
mystery," he said, waving  at the man. "But  we cannot tarry, for  the
sea is calling us."
    "You were fantastic," Eponine said, giving Max another kiss.
    Nicole nodded her head.  "You may have  missed your calling,"  she
said. "Maybe you should have been a/i actor instead of a farmer."
    "I played Marc Antony in our high school play in
    RAMA REVEALED
    41
    Arkansas," Max said, handing  Nicole the diving  mask for a  final
adjustment. "The  pigs loved  my rehearsals.  . .  . Friends,  Romans,
Countrymen. Lend me your  ears. I come to  bury Caesar, not to  praise
him."
    The three of them laughed. They were standing in a small  clearing
about five meters from  the shore of Lake  Shakespeare. The trees  and
tall underbrush concealed them from the nearby road and bicycle  path.
Max lifted up the air tank and helped Nicole adjust it on her back.
    "Is everything ready, then?" he asked.
    Nicole nodded.
    'The robots will meet you at  the cache," Max said. "They told  me
to remind you not to descend too rapidly. You have not done any diving
in a long time."
    Nicole stood in silence for several seconds. "I don't know how  to
thank you two,"  she said awkwardly.  "Nothing I can  think of to  say
seems adequate."
    Eponine walked over  to Nicole and  gave her a  hug. "Be safe,  my
friend," she said. "We love you very much."
    "Me too," Max said a moment later, choking slightly as he embraced
her. They both waved to Nicole as she backed into the lake.
    Tears were  running out  of Nicole's  eyes and  collecting on  the
bottom of her mask. She waved one  last time when the water was up  to
her waist.
    The water was colder than Nicole  had expected. She knew that  the
temperature variations in  New Eden  had been much  greater since  the
colonists had taken over management of their own weather, but she  had
not considered that the changes in weather patterns would have altered
the temperature of the lake.
    Nicole changed the amount of air in her vest to slow her  descent.
Don't hurry, she counseled herself. And stay relaxed. You have a  long
swim ahead of you.
    Joan and Eleanor  had drilled Nicole  repeatedly on the  procedure
she should follow to locate the long tunnel that ran under the habitat
wall. She switched on her flashlight and studied the aquaculture  farm
off to her left. Three
    42
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    hundred  meters   toward  the   center  of   the  lake,   directly
perpendicular to  the  back  wall  of  the  salmon-feeding  area,  she
remembered. Stay  at  a depth  of  twenty  meters until  you  see  the
concrete platform below you.
    Nicole swam easily, but she  was tiring quickly nevertheless.  She
found the concrete  platform, descended another  fifteen meters  while
carefully watching all her gauges,  and eventually located one of  the
eight large pumping stations that were scattered on the bottom of  the
lake to  keep  the water  continuously  circulating. Now,  the  tunnel
entrance is supposed to be hidden just under one of these big  motors.
Nicole did not find  it easily. She kept  swimming past it because  of
all the new growth around the pumping complex.
    The tunnel was a  four-meter-diameter circular pipe, •  completely
full of water. It  had been included as  an emergency escape route  in
the original  habitat  design  at the  insistence  of  Richard,  whose
engineering background had taught him  always to allow for  unforeseen
contingencies. From the entrance in Lake Shakespeare to the exit,  out
in the Central Plain beyond  the walls of the  habitat, was a swim  of
slightly over one kilometer.  It had taken  Nicole ten minutes  longer
than planned to find the entrance. She was already a very tired  woman
as she began her final swim.
    During her two years  in prison, Nicole's  only exercise had  been
the walking,  sit-ups, and  push-ups that  she had  done at  irregular
intervals. Her aging  muscles were  no longer able  to endure  extreme
fatigue without  cramping. Three  times during  her swim  through  the
tunnel,  Nicole's  leg  muscles  cramped.  Each  time  she  struggled,
treading water, and forced herself to relax until die cramp completely
dissipated. Her forward progress was very slow. Toward the end of  her
swim Nicole became frightened that she would run out of air before she
reached the tunnel exit.
    In the last hundred meters Nicole's body ached all over. Her  arms
did not want to push  through the water and  her legs had no  strength
left to kick. It was then that the ache began in her chest. The  dull,
disconcerting  pain  stayed  with  her  even  after  her  depth  gauge
indicated that the tunnel had turned slightly upward.
    RAMA REVEALED
    43
    When she finally reached the end of the passage and stood up in  a
small underground room with only half  a meter of water on the  floor,
Nicole almost collapsed. For several minutes she tried  unsuccessfully
to regain an equilibrium level in her breathing and pulse rate. Nicole
did not even  have enough  strength left to  lift off  the metal  exit
cover above her head. Worried that she had pushed herself beyond  safe
physical limits, Nicole  decided to remain  in the tunnel  and take  a
short nap.
    She  awakened  two   hours  later   when  she   heard  a   bizarre
pitter-patter above  her. Nicole  stood directly  under me  cover  and
listened carefully. She could hear voices, but could not isolate  what
was being said.  What's going on?  she asked herself,  her heart  rate
suddenly accelerating.  If I've  been discovered  by the  police,  why
don't they just open the cover?
    Nicole moved  quietly in  the darkness  over to  her diving  gear,
which was sitting against the wall on the opposite side of the tunnel.
Suddenly there was a  sharp knock on the  cover. "Are you down  there,
Nicole?" the robot Joan asked. "If so, identify yourself  immediately.
We have some  warm clothes  up here  for you,  but we  are not  strong
enough to remove the cover."
    "Yes, it's me," Nicole cried with relief. "I'll climb out as  soon
as I can."
    In her  wet suit  Nicole  became quickly  chilled in  the  bracing
outside air of  Rama, where  the temperature  was only  a few  degrees
above freezing. Her  teeth chattered during  the eighty-meter walk  in
the dark to where her food and dry clothing were cached.
    When the trio  reached the supplies,  Joan and Eleanor  instructed
Nicole to put on the army uniform that Ellie and Eponine had left  for
her. When Nicole  asked why, the  robots explained that  to reach  New
York, it was necessary  for them to pass  through the second  habitat.
"In case we are discovered," Eleanor said when she was safely  sitting
in Nicole's shirt pocket, "it  will be easier to  talk our way out  of
trouble if you are wearing a soldier's uniform."
    Nicole put on the long underwear and the uniform.
    44
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    45
    When she was no longer cold,  she realized that she was  extremely
hungry. While she was eating the food Eponine had packed in the cache,
Nicole placed all the other items  that had been wrapped in the  sheet
into the backpack she had been carrying under her diving vest.
    There was a problem  entering the second  habitat. Nicole and  the
two robots in her pocket had not encountered any humans at all in  the
Central Plain, but the entrance to what had once been the home of  the
avians and sessiles was guarded by a sentry. Eleanor had gone  forward
to scout and had  reported the difficulty. The  trio stopped three  to
four hundred meters away from the  main traffic route between the  two
habitats.
    "This must be a new security precaution, added since your escape,"
Joan said  to Nicole.  "We've never  had any  difficulties coming  and
going."
    "Are there no other routes that lead to the inside?" Nicole asked.
    "No," Eleanor answered. "The original probe site was here. It  has
since been considerably  widened, of  course, and a  bridge was  built
across the moat so that the troops can move quickly. But there are  no
other entrances."
    "And must we absolutely go  through this habitat to reach  Richard
and New York?"
    "Yes," Joan replied. "That huge gray barrier to the south, the one
that forms  the  wall  of  the second  habitat  for  many  kilometers,
prevents movement in  and out  of the Northern  Hemicylinder of  Rama.
It's possible that we could  fly over it, if  we had an airplane  that
could reach an altitude  of two kilometers, and  a very clever  pilot,
but we don't.  Besides, Richard is  expecting us to  come through  the
habitat."
    They waited and waited in the  dark and cold. Periodically one  of
the two robots would check the entrance, but there was always a sentry
present. Nicole became tired and  frustrated. "Look," she said at  one
point, "we can't stay here forever. There must be some other plan." *"
    "We have no knowledge of any alternate or contingency
    plans in this situation," Eleanor said, reminding Nicole for  once
that they were only robots.
    During a  brief nap  the  exhausted Nicole  dreamed that  she  was
lying, naked, on the top of a very large and very flat
    ;ice cube. Avians were striking at her from the sky, and  hundreds
of little  robots like  Joan and  Eleanor had  surrounded her  on  the
surface of the ice. They were chanting something in unison.
    When Nicole awakened, she felt somewhat refreshed. She talked with
the two robots and they worked out a new
    '-.iplan. The three of them decided not to move until there was
    ,-a break  in  the traffic  through  the entrance  to  the  second
habitat. At  that time,  the robots  would decoy  the sentry  so  that
Nicole could proceed inside. Joan and Eleanor in-structed Nicole  then
to walk cautiously  to the  other side of  the bridge  and turn  right
along the shore of the moat. "Wait
    ;ft>r us," Eleanor said, "in the small cove about three hundred
    .meters from the bridge."
    Twenty minutes later, Joan and  Eleanor made a terrible  commotion
along the  far wall,  about  fifty meters  from the  entrance.  Nicole
walked unmolested into  the interior  of the habitat  when the  sentry
left his post to investigate the noise. On the inside, a long stairway
wound back and  forth, dropping  the several hundred  meters from  the
entrance altitude to the level of the wide moat that circumscribed the
entire habitat. There were lights on the stairway at periodic
    .intervals, and  Nicole could  see more  lights on  the bridge  in
front of her, but  the overall illumination  was quite sparse.  Nicole
tensed when  she saw  a pair  of construction  workers coming  up  the
stairs in her  direction. But they  climbed right past  her with  only
minimal acknowledgment.  Nicole  was  thankful  she  was  wearing  the
uniform.
    As she waited beside the moat, Nicole stared toward the center  of
die alien habitat and tried to  make out the fascinating features  the
little robots  had  described  to  her:  the  huge  brown  cylindrical
structure, rising fifteen  hundred meters straight  up, that had  once
housed both the avian and sessile colonies; the great hooded ball that
hung from the  habitat ceiling  and provided  light; and  the ring  of
mysteri-
    46
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    ous  white  buildings,  alongside  a  canal,  that  encircled  the
cylinder.
    The hooded ball had not been illuminated for months, not since the
first human incursion into the  avian/sessile domain. The only  lights
that Nicole  could  see were  small  and widely  scattered,  obviously
placed in  the habitat  by  the human  invaders.  Thus all  she  could
discern was a vague silhouette of  the great cylinder, a shadow  whose
edges were very fuzzy. It must  have been glorious when Richard  first
entered, Nicole  thought, moved  by  the thought  that  she was  in  a
location that had recently been the home of another sentient  species.
So here also, her  mind continued, we  extend our hegemony,  trampling
underfoot all life-forms that are not as powerful as we.
    Eleanor and Joan took longer  than expected to rejoin Nicole.  The
threesome then made slow progress along  the side of the moat. One  of
the robots  was  always  out  front,  scouting,  making  certain  that
contacts with other  humans were avoided.  Twice, in the  part of  the
habitat that  was very  much like  a jungle  on Earth,  Nicole  waited
quietly while a group of soldiers or workmen passed by on the road  to
their left  Both times  she  studied the  new and  interesting  plants
around her  with fascination.  Nicole even  found a  creature  halfway
between a  leech and  an earthworm  trying to  enter her  right  boot.
Curious, she picked it up and put  it in her pocket so that she  could
examine it later.
    When Nicole and the  two robots finally  arrived at the  specified
spot for the rendezvous, it had been almost thirty-two hours since she
had backed into  Lake Shakespeare. They  were on the  far side of  the
second habitat, away from  the entrance, where  the normal density  of
human beings was at  its lowest. A  submarine surfaced within  minutes
after their  arrival. The  side of  the submarine  opened and  Richard
Wakefield, a  gigantic smile  upon his  bearded face,  rushed  forward
toward his beloved wife.  Nicole's body shook with  joy when she  felt
his arms around her.
    5 E;
    :verything  was  so  familiar.   Except  for  Richard's   clutter,
accumulated during his months alone, and the conversion of the nursery
into the bedroom of the two avian hatchlings, the lair underneath  New
Yoric was  exactly the  same  as it  had  been when  Richard,  Nicole,
Michael O'Toole,  and  their children  had  departed from  Rama  years
before.
    Richard had parked the submarine at a natural harbor on the  south
side of the island, in a place he had called the Port.
    "Where did you get the sub?" Nicole had asked him while they  were
walking together toward the lair.
    "It was a gift," Richard  had said. "Or at  least I think it  was.
After the superchief of the avians showed me how to operate it, he  or
she disappeared, leaving the submarine here."
    Walking in New York had been an eerie experience for Nicole.  Even
in the dark the skyscrapers reminded her vividly of the years that she
had lived on this mysterious island  in the middle of the  Cylindrical
Sea.
    48 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "How many years has  it been since we  left New York?" Nicole  had
asked as they entered their lair.
    "I can't give you an accurate answer," Richard had answered with a
shrug. "We've  taken two  long  interstellar voyages  at  relativistic
speeds. Unless we know our exact velocity profiles, we can't make  the
proper time corrections."
    "The only changes made in the Rama spacecraft on each visit to the
Node," Richard had said sometime later, while Nicole was still  musing
about the wonders of relativity,  "are those necessary to  accommodate
the next mission. So nothing has changed in here. The black screen  is
still there  in the  White Room,  as  well as  our old  keyboard.  The
procedures for making requests from the Ramans, or whatever our  hosts
should be called, are still intact also."
    "And what  about the  other lairs?"  Nicole had  asked. "Have  you
visited them also?"
    "The avian lair is  a tomb," Richard had  replied. "I've been  all
through  it  several  times.  Once,  1  entered  the  octospider  lair
cautiously, but I  went only as  far as that  cathedral room with  the
four tunnels leading away-"
    Nicole had interrupted him, laughing.  "The ones we called  Eenie,
Meenie, Mynie, and Moe."
    "Yes," Richard had continued. "Anyway, I wasn't comfortable there.
I had the feeling,  although I could  not identify anything  specific,
mat the lair  was still  inhabited. And  that the  octos, or  whatever
might be living there, were watching my every step." This time it  was
his turn to laugh. "Believe it or  not, I was also worried about  what
would happen to Tammy and Timmy if I didn't return for any reason."
    Nicole's first introduction to Tammy and Timmy, the pair of  avian
hatchlings that  Richard  had  raised  from  infancy,  was  priceless.
Richard had buUt a half-door to the nursery and had closed it securely
when he had left  to meet Nicole inside  the second habitat Since  the
birdlike creatures couldn't yet fly,  they had remained safely  inside
th* nursery during Richard's absence. As soon as they heard his  voice
in the lair, however, the hatehfa«gs began to shriek and jabber.
    RAMA REVEALED
    49
    They did not even  stop squawking when  Richard opened their  door
and cradled both of them in his arms.
    "They're  telling  me,"  Richard  shouted  to  Nicole  above   the
frightful noise, "that I shouldn't have left them alone."
    Nicole couldn't stop  laughing as she  watched the two  hatchlings
extend then- long necks toward Richard's face. They interrupted  their
jabbers and shrieks only to rub  the undersides of their beaks  softly
against Richard's bearded  cheek. The avians  were still small,  about
seventy centimeters tall when standing on their legs, but their  necks
were so long that they appeared to be much larger.
    Nicole watched with admiration as her husband tended to his  alien
wards. He cleaned up  their wastes, made certain  that they had  fresh
food and water, and even checked the softness of their haylike beds in
the corner of  the nursery. You  have come a  long, long way,  Richard
Wakefield, Nicole thought, remembering his reluctance years earlier to
deal with any of  the more mundane  duties associated with  parenting.
She was  deeply  touched  by  his obvious  affection  for  the  gangly
hatchlings. Is it possible, Nicole asked herself, that each of us  has
inside this  kind of  selfless love?  And that  we must  somehow  work
through all  the  problems  that both  heredity  and  environment,have
created before we can find it?
    Richard had stored the  four manna melons and  the slice from  the
sessile in one corner of the  White Room. He explained to Nicole  that
he hadn't noticed  any changes  in either  the melons  or the  sessile
material since he had arrived in New York. "Maybe the melons can  rest
dormant for a long time,  like seeds," Nicole offered after  listening
to Richard's  explanation of  the complex  life cycle  of the  sessile
species.
    "That's what I was thinking," Richard  said. "Of course I have  no
idea at  all under  what conditions  the melons  might germinate.  The
species is so strange and so  complicated, I wouldn't be surprised  if
the process is controlled somehow by that small piece of the sessile."
    On their first  evening together, Richard  had difficulty  getting
the hatchlings to go to sleep. "They're afraid I'm
    50
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    51
    going to leave them again," Richard explained when he returned  to
the White Room after the third  time that Tammy's and Timmy's  furious
squawks had interrupted  his dinner  with Nicole.  At length,  Richard
programmed Joan and Eleanor to amuse  the avians. It was the only  way
he could keep his alien  wards quiet so that  he could have some  time
alone with Nicole.
    They made love slowly and tenderly. Richard had admitted while  he
was undressing that he wasn't  certain how well .  . . But Nicole  had
informed him that his performance, or lack thereof, was of  absolutely
no consequence. She insisted that it  would be a delight just to  hold
his body next to hers and that any actual sexual stimulation would  be
a marvelous bonus. They were, of course, compatible, as they had  been
since the first time they had slept together.
    After their easy  lovemaking, Richard  and Nicole  held hands  and
said nothing. Nicole fell asleep gloriously happy.
    For the first time ever, there was no hurry in their lives.  Every
night they talked easily, sometimes even while they were making  love.
Richard told Nicole more about  his childhood and adolescence than  he
ever had before. He included his most painful memories of his father's
abuse, as  well  as the  harrowing  details of  his  disastrous  first
marriage to Sarah Tydings.
    "I now realize  that Sarah  and Dad had  something fundamental  in
common," Richard said late one  evening. "They were both incapable  of
granting me the approval I so desperately sought-and somehow they both
knew that I would continue to try to obtain that approval, even if  it
meant abandoning everything else in my life."
    Nicole shared with Richard for the first time all the drama of her
forty-eight-hour affair with the Prince  of Wales right after she  had
won her Olympic gold medal. She even admitted to Richard that she  had
yearned to marry  Henry and  that she had  been completely  devastated
whe% she  had  realized that  the  prince  had excluded  Nicole  as  a
candidate to be the queen of England primarily because of her skin
    color. Richard was fascinated by  the story that Nicole told.  But
never once did he seem even the least bit threatened or jealous.
    He has  become more  mature, Nicole  was thinking  several  nights
later, while her husband was finishing his nightly task of tucking the
hatchlings into bed. "Darling," Nicole said when Richard joined her in
their bedroom in the lair, "there's something that I want to tell you.
I have been wailing for the right time. . . ."
    "Uh-oh." Richard feigned a frown. "This sounds serious. ... I hope
it won't  take long,  for I  had  some plans  of my  own for  us  this
evening."
    He crossed the room and started to kiss her. "Please, Richard, not
now," she said, pushing  him away gently. "This  is very important  to
me."
    Richard backed up a couple of  steps. "When I thought I was  going
to be executed," Nicole said slowly, "I realized that all my  personal
affairs were in order, except for two. There were still things that  I
wanted to say, both to  you and to Katie.  I even asked the  policeman
who explained the execution  procedure to me if  he would give me  pen
and paper so that I could write two final letters."
    Nicole paused a moment, as if  she were searching for exactly  the
right words.  "During  those  terrifying days,  I  couldn't  remember,
Richard," she continued, "if I had ever told you, explicitly, how glad
I was that we had been husband and wife. ... I also didn't want to die
without . . ."
    She paused a  second time,  glanced briefly around  the room,  and
then looked directly into  Richard's eyes again.  "There was one  more
thing I wanted to accomplish with  that last letter," Nicole said.  "I
believed at the time that it was 0 necessary to make my life complete,
so that I could depart from this  world without any loose ends. . .  .
Richard, I wanted to apologize for my insensitivity back when you  and
Michael and I ... I  made a mistake then  by going to MichaelVbed  too
soon when I feared .  . ." Nicole took a  deep breath. "I should  have
had more  faith," she  said. "Not  that I  would for  a minute  remove
either Patrick or Benjy
    52
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    53
    from the world, but I realize  now that I surrendered too  quickly
to my loneliness. I wish . . ."
    Richard touched his ringer to her lips. "No apology is  necessary,
Nicole," he said softly. "I know that you have loved me well."
    They settled into an easy rhythm in their simple existence. In the
mornings they  would  walk  around  New  York,  usually  arm  in  arm,
exploring anew every comer of the  island domain they had called  home
once before. Because  it was  always dark, the  city looked  different
now. Only their flashlight beams illuminated the enigmatic skyscrapers
whose details were indelibly imprinted in their memories.
    Often they walked along the ramparts  of the city, looking out  at
the waters  of the  Cylindrical Sea.  One morning  they spent  several
hours standing in one  place, the very spot  where they had  entrusted
their lives to the three avians years and years before. Together  they
recalled both their fear and their  excitement at the moment when  the
great bird creatures  had lifted  them off  the ground  to carry  them
across the sea.
    Every day after  lunch Nicole,  who had always  needed more  sleep
than her  husband, would  take  a short  nap.  Richard would  use  the
keyboard to order more food or  supplies from the Romans, or take  the
hatchlings topside for  some exercise, or  work on one  of his  myriad
projects scattered around the lair. In the evening, after a  leisurely
dinner, they would  lie together,  side by  side, and  talk for  hours
before  making  love  or  just  falling  asleep.  They  talked   about
everything: the Eagle, the Ramans, the existence of God, the  politics
in New Eden, books of all kinds, and most of all, their children.
    Although  they  could   converse  enthusiastically  about   Ellie,
Patrick, Benjy, or even Simone, whom they had not seen for many years,
it was difficult  for Richard to  talk about Katie  for any length  of
time. He regularly  castigated himself  for not  having been  stricter
with his  favorite  daughter  during her  childhood,  and  blamed  her
irresponsible behavior as an adult on his permissiveness. Nicole
    tried to console  and reassure him,  reminding Richard that  their
circumstances in Rama had been unusual and that, after all, nothing in
his background had prepared him for the proper discipline required  of
a parent.
    One afternoon when Nicole  awakened from her  nap, she could  hear
Richard mumbling  to himself  down  the hall.  Curious, she  stood  up
quietly and  walked  down  to  the room  mat  had  once  been  Michael
O'Toole's bedroom. Nicole stood  at the door  and watched Richard  put
the final touches on a large model that occupied most of the room.
    "Voila," he said, turning around to acknowledge that he had  heard
Nicole's footsteps. "It won't win any aesthetic awards," Richard  said
with a grin,  motioning in  the direction of  the model,  "but it's  a
reasonable  representation  of  our  part  of  the  universe,  and  it
certainly has provided me with plenty of food for thought."
    A flat  rectangular  platform  covered most  of  the  floor.  Thin
vertical rods of varying heights had been inserted at twenty locations
around the platform.  At the  top end  of each  rod was  at least  one
colored sphere, representing a star.
    The vertical rod in  the center of the  model, which had a  yellow
sphere attached to  its top, rose  about a  meter and a  half off  the
platform. "This, of course," Richard said to Nicole, "is our Sun.  And
here we  are-or I  should say  Rama is-over  in this  quadrant,  about
one-fourth of the way  between the Sun and  our closest similar  star,
Tau Ceti. Sinus, where  we were when  we stayed at  the Node, is  back
over there. . . ."
    Nicole  walked  around   in  the  model   depicting  the   stellar
neighborhood of the Sun. 'There are twenty star systems within  twelve
and a half light-years of our home," Richard explained, "including six
binary systems  and  one triplet  group,  our nearest  neighbors,  the
Centauris, over  here. Note  that  the Centauris  are the  only  stars
inside the five-light-year sphere."
    Richard pointed  at  the  three separate  balls  representing  the
Centauris. Each was a different size and color. The trio, attached  to
each other with tiny wires, were resting on top
    54
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    of the same vertical rod, just inside an open wire sphere centered
at the Sun and marked with a large number 5.
    "During my many days of solitude down here," Richard continued, "I
often found  myself wondering  why Rama  is going  in this  particular
direction. Do we have a specific destination? It would seem so,  since
our path has not varied since our initial acceleration. And if we  are
going to Tau Ceti, what will  we find there? Another complex like  the
Node? Or will the same Node perhaps have moved during the  intervening
time?"
    Richard stopped. Nicole had walked over  to the edge of the  model
and was stretching her arms up to a pair of red stars at the end of  a
three-meter rod. "I  assume you  varied the  length of  these rods  to
demonstrate the  full  three-dimensional  relationship  of  all  these
stars," she said.
    "Yes. That particular binary group you are touching, incidentally,
is called Struve 2398,"  Richard replied in  his human catalog  voice.
"They  have  a  very  high  declination  and  are  slightly  over  ten
light-years away from the Sun."
    Seeing the slight  grimace on  Nicole's face,  Richard laughed  at
himself and crossed the  room to take her  hand. "Come over here  with
me," he said, "and I will show you something really interesting."
    They walked to the  other side of the  model and stood facing  die
Sun, halfway between the  stars Sirius and Tau  Ceti. "Wouldn't it  be
fantastic if our Node really has moved," Richard said excitedly,  "and
we will see it  again, over here,  on the opposite  side of our  solar
system?"
    Nicole laughed. "Of course," she said, "but we have absolutely  no
evidence-"
    "But we do  have brains, and  imaginations," Richard  interrupted.
"And the Eagle did tell us that the entire Node was capable of moving.
It just seems  to me .  . ."  Richard stopped in  midsentence and  men
changed the subject  slightly. "Haven't you  ever asked yourself,"  he
said, "where our Rama spacecraft went, after we left the Node,  during
all those years that  we were asleep? Suppose,  for example, that  the
avians and the sessiles were picked up over here somewhere, around the
Procyon binaries, perhaps, or maybe
    RAMA REVEALED
    55
    even over here,  around Epsilon Eridani,  which easily could  have
been on our trajectory. We know that there are planets around Eridani.
At a  significant fraction  of the  speed of  light, Rama  could  have
easily doubled back to the Sun-"
    "Hold it, Richard," Nicole said. "You're  way ahead of me on  this
subject. Why don't  we start at  the beginning?" She  sat down on  the
platform in the  interior of the  model, next to  a red ball  elevated
only a few centimeters by a very short rod, and crossed her legs.  "If
I understand  your hypothesis,  our  current voyage  will end  at  Tau
Ceti?"
    Richard nodded. "The  trajectory is  too perfect  for it  to be  a
coincidence. We will reach  Tau Ceti in another  fifteen years or  so,
and I believe our experiment will be concluded."
    Nicole groaned. "I'm already old," she said. "By then, if I'm even
still alive,  Til be  as  withered as  a  prune. .  .  . Just  out  of
curiosity, what do you think will  happen to us after our  'experiment
is concluded,' as you put it?*'
    "That's where we need  our imaginations. I  suspect that we'll  be
unloaded from Rama, but what happens to us next is completely unknown.
... I suppose our fate will be dependent in some way on what has  been
observed all this time."
    "So you definitely agree  with me that the  Eagle and his  buddies
back at the Node have been watching us?"
    "Absolutely. They  have  made  such  a  huge  investment  in  this
project. I'm  certain they're  monitoring everything  that's going  on
here in  Rama. I  must admit  I'm  surprised that  they have  left  us
completely to  our  own  devices  and have  never  interfered  in  our
affairs, but that must be their method."
    Nicole was silent  for a few  seconds. She played  absent-mindedly
with the red ball beside  her, which Richard informed her  represented
the star Epsilon Indi.  "The judge in me,"  she said somberly,  "fears
what any reasonable extraterrestrial would conclude about us, based on
our behavior in New Eden."
    Richard shrugged. "We've been no worse  in Rama than we have  been
for centuries  on  Earth.  Besides,  I can't  accept  that  any  truly
advanced aliens would be making such
    56
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    subjective judgments. If  this process  of observing  spacefar-ers
has been  going  on for  tens  of thousands  of  years, as  the  Eagle
suggested, then the  Ramans must have  developed quantitative  metrics
for assessing all  aspects of the  civilizations they encounter.  They
are almost certainly more  interested in our  exact natures, and  what
this means in some larger sense, than whether we are bad or good."
    "I  suppose  you're  right,"  Nicole  said  wistfully.  "But  it's
depressing that we, as a species, behave so barbarically, even when we
are fairly certain  we're being observed."  She paused and  reflected.
"So in your opinion  our long interaction  with the Ramans,  beginning
with that first spaceship over a hundred years ago, is almost over?"
    "I think so," Richard replied. "Somewhere in the future,  possibly
when we reach Tau Ceti, our part of this experiment will be concluded.
My guess is that after all the data on the creatures currently  inside
Rama are  entered  in the  Great  Galactic  Data Base,  Rama  will  be
emptied. Who  knows,  maybe  soon thereafter  this  great  cylindrical
spacecraft will appear in another  planetary system where a  different
spacefarer is living, and another cycle will begin."
    "And that brings us back to my earlier question, which you  really
did not answer. What will happen to us then?"
    "Maybe we, or our offspring, will  be sent on a slow journey  back
to the Earth.  Or maybe we  will be deemed  expendable and  terminated
once all the data have been collected."
    "Neither of those outcomes is very appealing," Nicole said. "And I
must say that although I  agree with you that  we are heading for  Tau
Ceti, all the rest of your hypothesis strikes me as pure conjecture."
    Richard  grinned.  "I  have  learned  a  lot  from  you,   Nicole.
Everything else in my hypothesis is  intuitive. It feels right to  me,
based on everything I have learned about the Ramans."
    "But wouldn't  it  be more  straightforward  to imagine  that  the
Ramans simply have  waystations scattered throughout  the galaxy,  and
that the two nearest to us are at Ships and Tau Ceti?"
    "Yes," Richard replied, "but my gut feel is that it's
    RAMA REVEALED
    57
    unlikely. The Node  was such an  awesome engineering creation.  If
similar facilities exist every twenty or so light-years in the galaxy,
there would be billions  of them altogether. .  . . And remember,  the
Eagle definitely said the Node could move."
    Nicole acknowledged  to  herself  that  it  was  unlikely  that  a
facility as astonishing as  the Node had  been duplicated billions  of
times in some great cosmic assembly process. Richard's hypothesis  did
make some sense. But how sad,  Nicole thought briefly, that our  entry
in the galactic data base will contain so much negative information.
    "So where  do  the  avians,  sessiles, and  our  old  friends  the
octospiders fit into your scenario?" Nicole asked a minute later. "Are
they just part of  the same experiment,  with us? And  if so, are  you
suggesting that there is  also a colony of  octos onboard and that  we
just haven't met them yet?"
    Richard nodded  again. "That  conclusion  is inescapable.  If  the
final phase of each experiment is observing a representative sample of
the spacefarers under controlled conditions,  it makes sense that  the
octos are here also." He laughed nervously. 'There may even be some of
our same friends from Rama II on  the spacecraft with us at this  very
moment."
    "What a  lovely set  of  ideas to  think about  before  sleeping,"
Nicole said with  a smile. "If  you're right, you  and I have  fifteen
more years  to spend  on a  spacecraft that's  inhabited not  only  by
humans who want  to capture and  kill us, but  also by huge,  possibly
intelligent arachnids whose nature we do not understand."
    "Remember," Richard said with a grin, "I could be wrong."
    Nicole stood up and walked toward the door.
    "Where are you going?" Richard asked.
    'To my bed," Nicole replied with a laugh. "I think I'm  developing
a headache. I can only contemplate the infinite for a finite period of
time."
    6
    T:
    I he  next  meaning  when  Nicole opened  her  eyes,  Richard  was
standing over her holding two full backpacks. "We're going to  explore
and look  for  octospiders,"  he said  excitedly,  "behind  the  black
screen. I've left enough  food and water to  last Tammy and Timmy  for
two days and I've programmed Joan and  Eleanor to find us if there  is
an emergency."
    Nicole watched  her  husband  closely while  she  was  eating  her
breakfast. His eyes were full of energy and life. This is the  Richard
I remember the best, Nicole said to herself happily.
    "I've been back  here twice,"  Richard said  as soon  as they  had
ducked under the  raised screen. "But  I've never reached  the end  of
this first passageway."
    The screen had closed behind  them, leaving Richard and Nicole  in
the dark. "There's no problem with being trapped here on this side, is
there?" Nicole asked while they both checked their flashlights.
    "Not at all," Richard replied. "The screen will not raise
    RAMA REVEALED
    59
    or lower more often than once every minute or so. But if anyone or
anything is still in this general  area a minute from now, the  screen
will automatically lift again."
    "Now, I should warn you before  we start walking," he continued  a
few seconds later, "this is a very long passageway. I have followed it
before, for at least a kilometer, and I have never found anything. Not
even a tumoff.  And there is  absolutely no fight.  So the first  part
will be very boring-but it must eventually lead to something, for  the
biots bringing our supplies must be coming along this path."
    Nicole took his hand in  hers. "Just remember, Richard," she  said
easily. "We're not as young as we once were."
    Richard shone his flashlight first on Nicole's hair, which was now
completely gray, and then on his own  gray beard. "We are a couple  of
old farts, aren't we?" he said gaily.
    "Speak for yourself," Nicole rejoined, squeezing his hand.
    The passageway was much  longer than a  kilometer. As Richard  and
Nicole  trudged  along,  they  talked  mostly  about  his  astonishing
experiences in the  second habitat. "I  was absolutely terrified  when
the elevator door opened and I saw the myrmicats for the first  time,"
Richard said.
    He had already  finished describing  to Nicole his  stay with  the
avians and had just reached the  point in his chronology where he  had
descended to the bottom of the cylinder. "I was literally frozen  with
fear. They were  only three  or four meters  away. Both  of them  were
staring at me.  The creamy  fluid in their  huge oval  lower eyes  was
moving from side to side, and the pairs of eyes up on the stalks  were
bending around  to  see  me  from  another  point  of  view."  Richard
shuddered. "I will never forget that moment."
    "Now, let me  make certain  I have the  biology straight,"  Nicole
said a few  minutes later, as  they approached what  appeared to be  a
branching in the underground corridor.  "The myrmicats develop in  the
manna melons, live fairly short but highly active lives, and then  die
inside a sessile, where their  entire life experiences, you  theorize,
are somehow added  to the  neural net's  base of  knowledge. The  life
cycle completes when new manna melons grow in the
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    interior of  the  sessiles.  These fledgling  creatures  are  then
harvested at the appropriate time by the active myrmicat population."
    Richard nodded. "That may not be exactly right," he said, "but  it
must be close."
    "So what we're missing is only the necessary set of conditions for
the manna melons to begin the germination process?"
    "I was hoping you would help  me with that puzzle," Richard  said.
"After all,  Doctor,  you are  the  only one  of  us with  any  formal
biological training."
    The corridor became a  Y, each of the  two continuations making  a
forty-five-degree angle with the long, straight passageway from  their
lair. "Which way, Cosmonaut des Jardins?" Richard asked with a  smile,
shining his flashlight in both directions. Neither of the two  tunnels
had a single distinguishing characteristic.
    "Let's go to  the left  first," Nicole  said a  few seconds  later
after Richard had created an outline map in his portable computer. The
left pathway started to  change after only a  few hundred meters.  The
corridor widened into a descending ramp that wound around an extremely
thick pole and dropped at least a hundred meters deeper into the shell
of Rama. As  they climbed down,  Richard and Nicole  could see  lights
below them. At the  bottom, they encountered a  long, wide canal  with
broad, flat  banks. To  their left,  they  saw a  pair of  crab  biots
scuttling away from them on the opposite side of the canal, as well as
a bridge in the  distance, beyond the biots.  To then- right, a  barge
was moving down the canal, carrying a full load of diverse but unknown
objects,  gray  and  black  and  white  in  color,  to  some  ultimate
destination in the underground world,
    Richard and Nicole surveyed the scene around them and then  looked
at each other. "We're back in wonderland, Alice," Richard said with  a
short laugh. "Why don't we  have a snack white  I enter all this  real
estate in my trusty computer?"
    While they were eating, a centipede biot approached on their  side
of the canal, stopped briefly as if to study them,
    RAMA REVEALED
    61
    and then passed on by. It climbed the ramp Richard and Nicole  had
just descended. "Did you see any crab or centipede biots in the second
habitat?" Nicole asked.
    "No," said Richard.
    "And we purposely  designed them out  of the plans  for New  Eden,
didn't we?"
    Richard laughed. "Indeed we did. You convinced both the Eagle  and
me that ordinary humans would not be able to deal easily with them."
    "So does  their  presence here  imply  the existence  of  a  third
habitat?" Nicole asked.
    "Possibly. After all, we have no  idea what's now in the  Southern
Hemicylinder. We  have not  seen it  since Rama  was refurbished.  But
there's another explanation  as well. Suppose  the crabs,  centipedes,
and other Raman biots just go with  the territory, if you know what  I
mean. Maybe they are functioning in all parts of Rama, on all voyages,
unless specifically proscribed by a given spacefarer."
    As Richard and Nicole finished lunch, another barge came into view
on their left.  Like its  predecessor, it  was loaded  with stacks  of
white, black, and gray  objects. "These are  different from the  first
ones," Nicole remarked. 'These piles remind me of the spare  centipede
biot parts that were stored in my pit."
    "You could be right," Richard said, standing up. "Let's follow the
canal and see  where it  leads us." He  glanced around,  first at  the
arched ceiling ten meters above their heads and then back at the  ramp
behind them. "Unless I have made  an error in my computations, or  the
Cylindrical Sea is  much deeper  than I  think, this  canal runs  from
south to north under the sea itself."
    "So following  the barge  will  take us  back under  the  Northern
Hemicylinder?" Nicole asked.
    "I believe so," Richard replied.
    They followed the canal for more than two hours. Except for  three
spider biots,  moving  quickly as  a  team along  the  opposite  bank,
Richard and Nicole did  not see anything else  that was new. Two  more
barges passed them,
    62
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    63
    carrying the  same  general  kind of  load  downstream,  and  they
intermittently encountered both centipede  and crab biots without  any
interactions. They walked by one more bridge over the canal.
    Richard and Nicole rested twice, drinking water or eating a  snack
while they  talked. At  the  second rest  stop Nicole  suggested  that
perhaps they should turn back. Richard checked his watch. "Let's  give
it another hour,"  he said. "If  my sense of  position is correct,  we
should be under the Northern Hemicylinder already. Sooner or later  we
must find where the barges are taking all that stuff."
    He was right. After another  kilometer of hiking along the  canal,
Richard and Nicole saw a  large pentagonal structure in the  distance.
As they drew  closer, they could  see that the  canal flowed  directly
into the center of the pentagon. The building itself, which  straddled
the canal, was six meters tall. It had a flat roof, no windows, and  a
creamy white exterior. Each of its five sections or wings extended out
twenty or thirty meters from the center of the structure.
    The walkway along the  canal ended in some  stairs that rose to  a
perimeter lane  that  ran around  the  entire pentagon.  There  was  a
similar configuration on the other side of the canal; a centipede biot
was at that moment using the perimeter lane as a bridge to change from
one side of the canal to the other.
    "Where do you suppose it's going?" Nicole asked as the two of them
stood aside to permit the biot to trundle by.
    "Maybe to New York,"  Richard answered. "On  my long walks  before
the avians hatched I sometimes saw one of them in the distance."
    They paused together outside  the only door  to the pentagon  that
was on  the canal  side of  the building.  "I guess  we're going  in?"
Nicole said.
    Richard nodded and pushed  open the small  door. Nicole bent  down
and entered the building. Surrounding them was a large room, well lit,
perhaps a thousand cubic meters altogether, with a ceiling five meters
above the floor. Their walkway was elevated above the floor by two  or
three meters, so Richard and Nicole could watch most of the
    activities taking place  below them. Biot  robot workers they  had
never  seen  before,  each  designed  for  a  specialized  task,  were
unloading the  two  barges  in  the  room  and  separating  the  cargo
according to some predefined plan. Many of the individual pieces  from
the stacks were loaded onto truck biots, which disappeared through one
of the back doors once they were full.
    After a few minutes of  observation, Richard and Nicole  continued
along the walkway to where it intersected another path just above  the
center of  the  room. Richard  stopped  and  made some  notes  in  his
computer. "I presume this layout is as simple as it looks," he said to
Nicole. "We can go  either left or right-each  way we go into  another
wing of the pentagon."
    Nicole chose the right  walkway because the  truck biots that  she
had thought were  carrying parts for  the centipede biot  had gone  in
that direction. Her observations had been accurate. Soon after Richard
and Nicole entered the second room, which was exactly the same size as
the first, they realized  that both a centipede  and a crab biot  were
being manufactured on the floor below them. Richard and Nicole stopped
to watch the process for several minutes.
    "Absolutely fascinating,"  Richard  said, finishing  his  computer
diagram of the biot factory. "Are you ready to
    go?"
    As Richard turned to face Nicole,  she saw his eyes widen.  "Don't
look now," he said quietly a second later, "but we have company."
    Nicole wheeled  around and  looked behind  her. Across  the  room,
forty meters behind  them on the  walkway, a pair  of octospiders  was
slowly approaching  them.  Richard  and Nicole  had  not  heard  their
distinguishing sound, similar to dragging metallic brushes, because of
the noise from the biot factory.
    The octospiders stopped  when they  realized that  the humans  had
noticed them.  Nicole's heart  was pumping  furiously. She  remembered
clearly her last encounter  with an octpspider,  when she had  rescued
Katie from the octo lair
    64
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    in Rama II.  Then, as now,  her overwhelming impulse  had been  to
run.
    She grabbed  Richard's hand  as they  both stared  at the  aliens.
"Let's go," Nicole said under her breath.
    "I'm as scared as you are," he replied, "but let's not leave  just
yet. They aren't moving. I want to see what they are going to do."
    Richard concentrated on  the lead  octospider and  drew a  careful
picture in his mind. Its nearly spherical main body was charcoal gray,
with a diameter  of about a  meter, and was  featureless except for  a
vertical slit twenty or twenty-five centimeters wide that ran from the
top to the bottom, where the body broke into the eight black and  gold
tentacles, each two  meters long,  that spread out  across the  floor.
Inside the vertical slit were  many unknown knobs and  wrinkles-Almost
certainly sensors,  Richard thought-the  largest of  which was  a  big
rectangular lens structure containing some kind of fluid.
    As the two pairs of beings gazed at each other across the room,  a
broad band of bright  purple coloring swept around  the "head" of  the
lead octospider. This band originated on one of the parallel edges  of
the vertical slit.  It moved  around the head,  disappearing into  the
opposite edge  of the  slit  almost three  hundred and  sixty  degrees
later. It was  followed in  a few  seconds by  a complicated  sequence
containing some red bands, some  green, and some that were  apparently
blank. This sequence made an identical journey around the head of  the
octospider.
    "That's exactly  what  happened when  that  octospider  confronted
Katie and me,"  Nicole said  nervously to  Richard. "She  said it  was
talking to us."
    "But we have no way of knowing what it's saying," Richard replied.
"Just because it can talk does not mean that it won't hurt us." As the
lead  octospider  continued  to   talk  in  color,  Richard   suddenly
remembered an episode from years  earlier, during his odyssey in  Rama
II. At the time he  had been lying on a  table, surrounded by five  or
six oqfos, all with colored patterns on their heads. Richard  recalled
clearly the powerful terror that he had felt as he had watched
    RAMA REVEALED
    65
    some very small  creatures, apparently  under the  control of  the
octospiders, crawl into his nose.
    Richard's head began to  throb with pain.  "They weren't all  that
nice to me before," he said to Nicole. "When they-"
    At that  moment the  far door  to the  room opened  and four  more
octospiders entered.  "That's enough,"  said Richard,  feeling  Nicole
tense beside him. "I think it's time for us to make an exit."
    Richard and Nicole walked quickly to the center of the room, where
the walkway, as in the previous room, joined with the path leading  to
the outside  of  the building.  They  turned toward  the  outside  but
stopped after taking a  few steps. Four  more octospiders were  coming
through this door as well.
    They didn't  need  to  confer. Richard  and  Nicole  spun  around,
returned to the main interior walkway, and bolted in the direction  of
the third  wing of  the pentagon.  This time  they raced  on,  without
turning to the outside, until they were inside the fourth wing. It was
completely dark in this section. They slowed as Richard pulled out his
flashlight    to    examine    their    surroundings.    There     was
sophisticated-looking equipment  on  the  floor  below  them,  but  no
activity of any kind.
    "Should we try the outside again?" Richard asked as he was putting
his flashlight back in his shirt pocket. Seeing her nod, Richard  took
Nicole's hand and  they ran  together toward  the intersection,  where
they turned right and headed out of the pentagon altogether.
    A few minutes  later they  were jogging  down a  dark corridor  in
completely unknown territory. Both of  them were fatigued. Nicole  was
having difficulty breathing. "Richard," she  said, "I need to rest.  I
can't keep running like this."
    Richard and  Nicole walked  down the  empty corridor  for  another
fifty meters. They saw a door on their left. Richard cautiously opened
the door, peered  in, and scanned  the room with  his flashlight.  "It
must be a  storage room of  some kind," he  said. "But it's  currently
empty."
    66
    ARTHUR C, CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Richard walked into the room,  glanced through its back door  into
another empty chamber,  and then  returned for Nicole.  They sat  down
with their  backs against  the  wall. "When  we  return to  our  lair,
darling," Nicole said  a few  seconds later, "I  want you  to help  me
check my heart. I have been having some strange pains lately."
    "Are you all right now?"  Richard asked, concern reflected in  his
voice.
    "Yes," Nicole  replied. She  smiled  in the  dark and  kissed  her
husband. "As well as  can be expected after  narrowly escaping from  a
gaggle of octospiders."
    7
    icole slept fitfully with her I back against the wall and her head
resting on Richard's  shoulder. She had  one nightmare after  another,
always waking  with a  start  before dozing  off  again. In  the  last
nightmare Nicole was on an island by the ocean with all her  children.
A huge tidal wave headed toward  them on her dream screen. Nicole  was
frantic because her children were  scattered all over the island.  How
could she possibly save all of them? She awakened with a shudder.
    She nudged her husband in the dark. "Richard," Nicole said,  "wake
up. Something's not right."
    At first Richard did  not move. When Nicole  touched him a  second
time, he  slowly opened  his eyes.  "What's the  matter?" he  said  at
length.
    "I have the feeling  we're not safe here,"  she said. "I think  we
should go."
    Richard switched  on  his flashlight  and  moved the  beam  slowly
around the room. "There's nobody here," he said
    68
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    softly. "And  1 don't  hear anything  either. Don't  you think  we
should rest some more?"
    Nicole's fears  increased  as  they sat  HI  silence.  "I'm  still
feeling a sense of  danger, Richard," she said  finally. "I know  that
you don't believe in anything you can't analyze, but I have learned to
trust my premonitions."
    "All right,"  Richard said  unenthusiastically.  He stood  up  and
walked across the room, opening the back door, which led to a similar,
adjacent area. He glanced inside. "Nothing here either," he said after
several seconds. Richard next came back across the room and opened the
door to the corridor  they had used to  escape from the pentagon.  The
moment the door was  open, Nicole and he  both heard the  unmistakable
sound of dragging brushes.
    Nicole jumped to her feet. Richard closed the door without a sound
and hurried over beside her. "Come on," he said in a whisper. "We have
to find another way out of here."
    They walked through the next  room, then another and another.  All
were dark and empty. They lost their sense of direction as they  raced
through the  unfamiliar territory.  Eventually they  came to  a  large
double door  at the  far side  of  one of  the many  identical  rooms.
Richard told Nicole  to stand back  as he cautiously  pushed open  the
door. "Holy shit!" he  exclaimed as soon as  he looked into the  room.
"What in the world is this?"
    Nicole came up beside Richard and her eyes followed his flashlight
beam as it fell on the bizarre contents of the adjoining chamber.  The
room was cluttered  with large objects.  The one closest  to the  door
looked like  a large  amoeba on  a  skateboard, the  next one  like  a
gigantic ball of twine with two  antennae sticking out of its  center.
There was no sound in the  room and nothing moved. Richard lifted  his
beam higher and  let it move  quickly around the  rest of the  crowded
room.
    "Go back," Nicole said excitedly, catching a glimpse of  something
familiar. "Over there. A few meters to the left of the other door." *"
    Seconds later the beam illuminated four humanlike
    RAMA REVEALED
    69
    figures, dressed in  helmets and  space suits,  that were  sitting
against the far wall. "It's  the human biots," Nicole said  excitedly,
"the ones we saw in Rama II out on the Central Plain."
    "Norton and  company?" Richard  asked incredulously,  a shiver  of
fear running down his spine.
    "I bet it is," Nicole responded.
    They  entered  the  room  slowly  and  tiptoed  around  the   many
objects'as they made their  way toward the  figures in question.  Both
Richard and Nicole knelt down  beside the four apparent humans.  "This
must be a biot  dump," Nicole said, after  they had verified that  the
face behind the transparent helmet was indeed a copy of the  Commander
Norton who led the first Rama expedition.
    Richard stood up and shook his head. "Absolutely unbelievable," he
said. "What are they  doing here?" He let  his flashlight beam  wander
around the room.
    A second later Nicole screamed. No more than four meters away from
her, an  octospider  was moving,  or  at least  so  it seemed  in  the
peculiar light. Richard rushed  to her side. The  two of them  quickly
verified that what they were seeing  was only an octospider biot,  and
then they both laughed for several minutes.
    "Richard Wakefield," Nicole  said when she  could finally  contain
her nervous laughter, "may I go home now? I've had enough."
    "I guess so," Richard said with a  smile. "As long as we can  find
the way."
    As they penetrated deeper  and deeper into the  maze of rooms  and
tunnels in the area around the pentagon, Nicole became convinced  that
they would never  find their  way out. Eventually  Richard slowed  the
pace  and  started  storing  information  in  his  portable  computer.
Afterward he was at least able to prevent their going in circles,  but
Richard never connected his growing map  to any of the landmarks  they
had seen before they fled from the octospiders.
    When both Richard and Nicole were starting to feel desperate, they
chanced upon a small truck biot carrying an
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    odd collection of  small objects down  a narrow corridor.  Richard
became  more  relaxed.  'Those  things  look  as  if  they  have  been
custom-made to someone's specifications," he said to Nicole, "like the
objects delivered  to us  in the  White Room.  If we  go back  in  the
direction from which the  biot came, then maybe  we will locate  where
all our objects  are manufactured. From  there, it should  be easy  to
find the path to our lair."
    It was a long  hike. They were both  worn out several hours  later
when their corridor widened into a huge factory area with a very  high
ceiling. At the center of the  factory were twelve fat cylinders  that
looked like old-fashioned boilers on the Earth. Each was four or  five
meters high and a meter and a half wide. The boilers were arranged  in
four rows of three.
    Conveyor belts, or at least the Rama equivalent, led into and  out
of each of the boilers, two of which were in operation at the  moment.
Richard was fascinated. "Look over there," he said, pointing at a vast
warehouse floor  covered  with stacks  of  objects of  all  sizes  and
descriptions. "That must be all the raw material. A request arrives at
the central  computer,  which  is  probably in  that  hut  behind  the
boilers, where it is processed and allocated to one of these machines.
Biots go  out, gather  up the  proper  items, and  place them  on  the
conveyor belts. Inside  the boilers  these raw  materials are  altered
significantly, for what comes  out is the  object ordered by  whatever
intelligent species  is  using  the  keyboard  or  its  equivalent  to
communicate with the Ramans."
    Richard approached  the  closest  active  boiler.  "But  the  real
question," he  said, overflowing  with excitement,  "is what  kind  of
process takes  place  inside these  boilers?  Is it  chemical?  Is  it
perhaps nuclear, involving element transmutations? Or have the  Ramans
some orner technology for manufacturing completely beyond our ken?"
    He knocked several times  very hard on the  outside of the  active
boiler. "The walls are  very thick," he  announced. Richard then  bent
down where the conveyor belt entered the
    R-AMA REVEALED
    71
    boiler and started  to stick  his hand  inside. "Richard,"  Nicole
yelled, "don't you think that's foolish?"
    Richard glanced up at his wife and shrugged. As he bent down again
to study the belt/boiler interface, a bizarre biot that looked like  a
camera box with legs scurried over from the back of the large room. It
quickly wedged itself between Richard and the active conveyor belt and
then expanded in size, forcing Richard away from the active process.
    "Nice move,"  Richard said  appreciatively. He  turned to  Nicole.
"The system has excellent fault protection."
    "Richard," Nicole  now said,  "if you  don't mind,  can we  please
return to our major task?  Or have you forgotten  that we do not  know
the way back to our lair?"
    "Just a little  while longer,"  Richard answered. "I  want to  see
what comes out of the active boiler closest to us. Maybe by seeing the
output, after having already seen the  input, I can infer the kind  of
intervening process."
    Nicole shook her head.  "I had forgotten  what a knowledge  junkie
you are. You're the only human I have ever met who would stop to study
a new plant or animal while he was completely lost in a forest."
    Nicole found another long passageway  on the opposite side of  the
huge room. An hour  later she finally convinced  Richard to leave  the
fascinating alien factory. They had no  way of knowing where this  new
passageway led, but  it was  their only  hope. Again  they walked  and
walked. Each  time  Nicole  started to  become  tired  or  despondent,
Richard would lift her spirits  by extolling the wonder of  everything
they had seen since they had left their lair.
    "This place is  absolutely amazing,  stupendous," he  said at  one
point, barely able to contain himself,  "I can't begin to assess  what
it all means. . . . Not only are humans not alone in this universe, we
are not even near the top of the pyramid in terms of capability. ..."
    Richard's enthusiasm sustained them until finally, when they  were
both close to exhaustion,  they saw ahead of  them a branching in  the
corridor. Because of the  angles, Richard felt  certain that they  had
returned to the original Y no more
    72
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    than two  kilometers from  their lair.  "Yippee," Richard  yelled,
picking up his pace. "Look"-he shouted over at Nicole, his  flashlight
pointed in front of him-"we're almost home."
    Something Nicole heard at  that moment made her  stop dead in  her
tracks. "Richard," she cried, "turn off the light."
    He spun  quickly  around, nearly  falling,  and switched  off  his
flashlight. In the next few seconds  there was no doubt. The sound  of
dragging brushes was growing louder.
    "Run for it," yelled  Nicole, bolting past her  husband in a  full
sprint. Richard reached the intersection no more than fifteen  seconds
before the first of  the octospiders. The aliens  were coming up  from
the canal. As he was running away from them, Richard turned around and
shone his flashlight behind him. In that brief instant he could see at
least four colored patterns moving in the darkness.
    They brought all the furniture they could find into the White Room
and created  a barrier  across the  bottom of  the black  screen.  For
several hours Richard and Nicole watched and waited, expecting that at
any moment the screen would lift up and their lair would be invaded by
the octospiders. But nothing  happened. At length  they left Joan  and
Eleanor in  the White  Room as  sentries and  spent the  night in  the
nursery with Tammy and Timmy.
    "Why didn't the  octospiders follow  us?" Richard  said to  Nicole
early the next morning. "They almost certainly know the screen  raises
automatically. If they had come to the end of the corridor-"
    "Maybe they didn't want to frighten us again," Nicole  interrupted
gently. Richard's brow furrowed and  he gave Nicole a quizzical  look.
"We still have  no hard  evidence that the  octospiders are  hostile,"
Nicole continued, "despite your feelings  that you were mistreated  as
their prisoner during your odyssey years ago. They did not harm  Katie
or me when  they easily  could have.  And they  did return  you to  us
eventually."
    "By that time I was in a deep coma," Richard replied. "And no good
to them anymore as a test subject. Besides,
    RAMA REVEALED
    73
    how do you  explain Takagishi?  Or, for that  matter, the  attacks
that were made on Prince Hal and Falstaff?"
    "Each of those incidents has a plausible, nonhostile  explanation.
That's what is so confusing. Suppose Takagishi died of a heart attack.
Suppose also that the octos preserved  and stuffed his body to use  as
some sort of exhibit, for teaching other octospiders. We might do  the
same thing." t
    "I'm puzzled," Richard said after a moment's hesitation. "Here you
are; defending the octospiders. But  you ran away from them  yesterday
even faster than I did."
    "Yes," Nicole  answered  contemplatively.  "I  admit  that  I  was
terrified. My animal instinct was to assume hostility and flee.  Today
I'm disappointed in myself. We humans  are supposed to use our  brains
to overcome instinctive reactions. . .  . Especially you and I.  After
everything we  have  seen  in Rama  and  at  the Node,  we  should  be
completely immune from xenophobia."
    Richard smiled and nodded. "So  are you suggesting now that  maybe
the octospiders were just  trying to establish  some kind of  peaceful
contact?"
    "Perhaps," Nicole answered. "I don't know what they want. But I do
know that I have never seen them do anything unambiguously hostile."
    Richard stared distractedly  at the  walls for a  few seconds  and
then rubbed his forehead. "I wish I could remember more of the details
about my time with them. I still have these blinding headaches when  I
try to concentrate on that period  of my life-only while I was  inside
the sessile were my memories of the octos not accompanied by pain."
    "Your odyssey was long ago,"  Nicole said. "Maybe the  octospiders
also are capable  of learning  and have adopted  a different  attitude
toward us now."
    Richard stood up. "All  right," he said.  "You have convinced  me.
The next time we  see an octospider, we  won't run away." He  laughed.
"At least not immediately."
    Another month passed.  Richard and  Nicole did not  go behind  the
black screen again and they did not have any
    74
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    more encounters with the octospiders. They passed the days tending
to the hatchlings (who were learning to fly) and enjoying each  other.
During much of their conversation they talked about their children and
reminisced about the past.
    "I guess  we are  now old,"  Nicole said  one morning  as she  and
Richard were walking through  one of the three  central plazas of  New
York.
    "How can you say that?"  Richard replied with a mischievous  grin.
"Just because we spend  most of our time  talking about what  happened
long ago,  and our  everyday  bathroom functions  occupy more  of  our
attention and energy than sex, does that mean we're old?"
    Nicole laughed. "Is it as bad as that?" she said.
    "Not quite," Richard  said in a  kidding tone. "I  still love  you
like a schoolboy. But every now and then that love is pushed aside  by
aches and pains  that I  never had  before. .  . .  Which reminds  me,
wasn't I supposed to help you examine your heart?"
    "Yes." Nicole nodded. "But there's really nothing you can do.  The
only instruments I brought with me  in my medicine kit when I  escaped
were the stethoscope and the  spnygmomanometer. I have used them  both
several times  to examine  myself. ...  I haven't  been able  to  find
anything unusual except an occasional leaky valve, and my shortness of
breath has  not  recurred."  She  smiled. "It  was  probably  all  the
excitement . . . and age."
    "If our  son-in-law the  cardiologist  were here,"  Richard  said,
"then he could give you a complete examination."
    They walked together in silence for several minutes. "You miss the
children a lot, don't you?" Richard said.
    "Yes," Nicole replied with a sigh.  "But I try not to think  about
them too much. I am happy to be alive and here with you-it's certainly
much better  than  those  last  months in  prison.  And  I  have  many
wonderful memories of the children. ..."
    "God grant me the  wisdom to accept the  things I cannot  change,"
Richard quoted. "It is one of your best qualities, Nicole. ... I  have
always been envious of your eqftaiiim-ity."
    RAMA REVEALED
    75
    A few moments later  Richard stopped abruptly  and turned to  face
Nicole. "I love you very much," he said, embracing her vigorously.
    "What is this all about?" Nicole asked, puzzled by his sudden show
of emotion.
    Richard's eyes had a faraway look. "During the last week," he said
excitedly, "a wild and crazy plan  has been developing in my brain.  I
have known from the outset that it was dangerous, and probably insane,
but like all my projects  it has taken hold of  me. Twice I have  even
gotten out  of our  bed in  the middle  of the  night to  work on  the
details. I have wanted to tell you  about it before now, but I  needed
to convince myself that it was indeed possible."
    "I have no idea  at all what you  are talking about," Nicole  said
impatiently.
    "The children," Richard said with a  flourish. "I have a plan  for
them to escape,  to join us  here in New  York. I have  even begun  to
reprogram Joan and Eleanor."
    Nicole stared at  her husband,  her emotions  struggling with  her
reason. He  started  to  explain  his escape  plan.  "Wait  a  minute,
Richard,"  Nicole  interrupted  after  several  seconds.  "There's  an
important question  we must  answer first.  What makes  you think  the
children would even want to escape?  They are not under indictment  in
New Eden, or in prison. Granted, Nakamura is a tyrant and life in  the
colony is difficult and depressing, but as far as I know, the children
are as free as any of the other  citizens. And if they were to try  to
join us  and  fail, their  lives  would  be in  danger.  Besides,  our
existence here, although  fine for  us, would hardly  be considered  a
paradise for them."
    "I know ...  I know," Richard  replied, "and perhaps  I have  been
carried away by my desire to see them. But what do we risk by  sending
Joan and Eleanor to talk to them? Patrick and Ellie are adults and can
make up their own minds."
    "And what about Benjy and Katie?" Nicole asked.
    A frown creased Richard's face. "Obviously Benjy could not come by
himself, so his  participation depends on  whether or not  any of  the
others decide to help him. As for
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Katie, she  is so  unstable  and unpredictable  .  . .  she  might
conceivably even decide to  tell Nakamura. I think  we have no  choice
except to leave her out."
    "A parent never  gives up hope,"  Nicole said softly,  as much  to
herself as to Richard. "By the way," she added, "does your scheme also
include Max and Eponine? They are virtually members of the family."
    "Max is realty the  perfect choice to  coordinate the escape  from
inside the colony,"  Richard said,  growing excited again.  "He did  a
fantastic job  hiding you  and then  getting you  to Lake  Shakespeare
without being detected. Patrick and Ellie will need someone mature and
levelheaded to guide them  through all the details.  In my plan,  Joan
and Eleanor approach Max first. Not  only is he already familiar  with
the robots, but also he will give his honest assessment as to  whether
or not the plan can work. If  he tells us through the robots that  the
whole idea is preposterous, then we'll drop it."
    Nicole tried to imagine  the joy she would  feel at the moment  of
embracing any of  her children  again. It was  impossible. "AH  right,
Richard," she said,  finally smiling.  "I admit  that I'm  interested.
Let's talk about it.  But we must promise  ourselves that we won't  do
anything unless we are certain that  we are not going to endanger  the
children."
    8
    I ax Puckett  and Ellie  Turner excused  themselves from  Eponine,
Robert, and little Nicole shortly  after dinner and walked outside  at
Max's farmhouse in New Eden. As soon as they were out of earshot,  Max
began telling Ellie about  his recent visits  from the little  robots.
Ellie  could  not  believe  what  she  was  hearing.  "Surely   you're
mistaken," she said in a loud voice to Max. "They can't be  suggesting
that we just leave-"
    Max put a finger to his lips  as they walked the final few  meters
to the barn. "You can  talk to them yourself,"  he said in a  whisper.
"But according to these little characters, there is plenty of room for
all of us in that lair you lived in the first few years after you were
born."
    It was dark  inside the barn.  Before Max switched  on the  light,
Ellie had already glimpsed the tiny  glowing robots beside her on  one
of the  windowsills. "Hello  again, Ellie,"  said little  Joan,  still
dressed in her armor. "Your mother  and father are both fine and  send
their greetings."
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    79
    "We have  come  to see  you  tonight," the  robot  Eleanor  added,
"because Max thought  it was necessary  for you to  hear for  yourself
what we have  to say.  Richard and Nicole  are inviting  you and  your
friends to join them in your old lair in New York, where your  parents
are living a Spartan but peaceful existence."
    "Everything about your lair,"  Joan now said, "is  the same as  it
was when you were a small child. Food, clothing, and other objects are
still supplied by  the Ramans  after requests  are made  by using  the
keyboard in  the White  Room. Unlimited  supplies of  fresh water  are
available at the cistern near the bottom of the entry staircase."
    Ellie listened, fascinated, while Joan reminded her of the  living
conditions under the island  city on the southern  side of the  second
habitat. Ellie  tried to  recall the  lair from  her memory,  but  the
picture that came to her mind  was surprisingly vague. What she  could
remember clearly from that period of  her life were the last few  days
in Rama, including the spectacular  rings of color emanating from  the
Big Horn and drifting slowly toward  the north of the giant  cylinder.
But her  memory of  the inside  of the  lair was  foggy. Why  can't  I
remember at least the nursery more clearly? she wondered. Because  too
much has happened since? And made deeper impressions in my memory?
    A montage  of images  from her  early childhood  streamed  through
Ellie's mental vision. Some of the pictures were indeed from Rama, but
far more  of them  were from  the family  apartment at  the Node.  The
indelible features of the Eagle, a godlike figure to the child  Ellie,
seemed to preside over the montage.
    Eleanor of  Aquitaine had  asked Ellie  something, but,.the  young
woman had not been paying attention. "I'm sorry, Eleanor," Ellie said,
"please repeat your question. I'm afraid I was temporarily lost in  my
childhood."
    "Your mother asked  about Benjy. Is  he still in  the ward out  in
Avalon?"
    "Yes," Ellie replied. "And doing as  well as can be expected.  His
best friend  in the  whole world  is now  Nai Watanabe.  When the  war
ended, she volunteered to work
    with those who had  been assigned, for one  reason or another,  to
the Avalon Ward. She spends time  with Benjy almost every day and  has
helped him immensely. Her twins Kepler  and Galileo love to play  with
him-Benjy is essentially just a big child himself-although Galileo  is
sometimes unkind and causes Nai considerable heartache."
    "As I told you," Max said, turning the conversation back to  their
primary  business,  "Nicole  and  Richard  have  left  it  up  to  our
discretion to decide who  should be involved if  we do attempt a  mass
exodus. Will Benjy follow directions?"
    "I think so," Ellie said. "As long as he trusts the person  giving
them. But there is no way we could tell him about the escape ahead  of
time. We couldn't possibly expect him  not to say something about  it.
Secrecy and guile  are not  part of  Benjy's personality.  He will  be
overjoyed, but-"
    "Mr. Puckett,"  Joan  of  Arc interrupted,  "what  should  I  tell
Richard and Nicole?"
    "Shit, Joanie,"  Max replied,  "have  a little  patience..  Better
still, come back again in a week, after Ellie, Eponine, and I have had
more time to talk  this thing through, and  I'll give you a  tentative
answer. And tell Richard I find the whole damn thing intriguing,  even
if it is certifiably insane."
    Max placed  the two  robots on  the  floor of  the barn  and  they
scampered away. When Max and Ellie were back outside in the fresh air,
Max pulled a cigarette  out of his pocket.  "I assume that it  doesn't
offend you too much if I smoke out here?" he said with a grin.
    Ellie smiled, "You don't  want to tell Robert,  do you, Max?"  she
then said quietly  a moment later,  as Max blew  smoke rings into  the
night air.
    Max shook his head.  "Not yet," he replied.  "Maybe not until  the
last moment." He put  his arm around Ellie,  "Young lady, I like  your
doctor husband, I really do, but  sometimes I think his attitudes  and
priorities are  a little  strange. I  can't say  for certain  that  he
wouldn't tell someone."
    "Do you think,  Max," Ellie said,  "that maybe Robert  has made  a
private vow of  some kind never  to act against  authority again?  And
that he is afraid?"
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    81
    "Shit, Ellie, I'm no psychologist. I don't think either of us  can
possibly understand what killing two people in cold blood did to  him.
But I can say that there is a finite chance that he would not keep our
secret-to avoid a  painful personal  decision, if  nothing else."  Max
inhaled deeply on his cigarette and stared at his young friend.
    "You don't think he'll come, do you,  Max? Not even if I want  him
to."
    Again Max shook his head. "I don't know, Ellie. It will depend  on
how much he needs you and little Nicole. Robert has made room for  the
two of  you  in his  life,  but he  still  hides his  feelings  behind
continuous work."
    "What about you, Max?" Ellie now asked. "What do you really  think
of this whole scheme?"
    "Eponine and I are  both ready to go,  to have ourselves a  little
ad-ven-toor," Max said with a grin. "It's just a matter of time before
I get into serious trouble with Nakamura anyway."
    "And Patrick?"
    "He'll love the idea. But I'm worried that he might say  something
to Katie. They have a special relationship-"
    Max stopped  in  midsentence when  he  saw that  Robert,  who  was
carrying his tired daughter, had come out onto the front porch.
    "Oh, there you are, Ellie," Robert said. "I thought that maybe you
and Max were lost in the barn. Nicole is tired and I have a very early
morning at the hospital."
    "Of course, darling," Ellie replied. "Max and I were just  sharing
memories of my mother and father."
    It must look  like a perfectly  normal day, Ellie  thought as  she
showed her identification card to the Garcia biot in the atrium of the
Beauvois supermarket. / must do everything exactly as if this were  an
ordinary Thursday.
    "Mrs. Turner," the Garcia said a few seconds later, handing her  a
list printed out  of the computer  agginst the wall  behind the  biot,
"here is your ration allocation for  the week. We are out of  broccoli
and tomatoes again, so we
    have included two extra measures of  rice. You may now proceed  to
the line to pick up your groceries."
    Little Nicole walked beside her as Ellie entered the main part  of
the supermarket. On  the other  side of a  mesh screen,  where in  the
early days of the colony the citizens  of New Eden had done their  own
shopping, five  or six  Tiasso and  Lincoln biots,  all from  the  300
series completely  repro-grammed  by  the  Nakamura  government,  were
moving up and down the aisles filling the orders. Most of the  shelves
were empty.  Even though  the war  had been  over for  some time,  the
unstable weather in New Eden,  as well as the  dislike of most of  the
farmers for Nakamura's heavy-handed ways, had kept food production  at
a minimum level. The government had found it necessary, therefore,  to
supervise the allocation of food. Only the governmental favorites  had
more than the bare essentials to eat.
    There were half a dozen people in the queue in front of Ellie  and
her almost-two-year-old daughter. Ellie  shopped with the same  people
every Thursday afternoon. Most  of them turned  around when Ellie  and
Nicole entered the line.
    "There's that darling  little girl,"  a pleasant  woman with  gray
hair said. "How are you today, Nicole?" she asked.
    Nicole didn't answer.  She just backed  up a couple  of steps  and
fastened herself tightly to one of her mother's legs. "Nicole's  still
in her shy stage," Ellie said. "She only talks to people she knows."
    A Lincoln biot brought out two small boxes of food and handed them
to the father and adolescent son at the head of the supermarket  line.
"We won't be  using a  cart today," the  father said  to the  Lincoln.
"Please make a note of that on our record. Two weeks ago, when we also
hand-carried our groceries, nobody  noted that we  didn't take a  cart
and we were awakened in the middle of the night by a Garcia  demanding
that we return our cart to the store."
    There must be no trivial mistakes, Ellie said to herself. No carts
not returned, nothing that anyone could suspect before morning. As she
waited in the  line, Ellie reviewed  again the details  of the  escape
plan that  she and  Patrick had  discussed with  Max and  Eponine  the
previous day. A
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Thursday had been chosen because that was the day that Robert made
his regular visits to the RV-41  sufferers in Avalon. Max and  Eponine
had applied  for, and  received,  a pass  to  visit Nai  Watanabe  for
dinner. They wouid look after Kepler and Galileo while Nai went to the
ward for Benjy.  Everything was  in order.  There was  only one  major
uncertainty left.
    Ellie had  rehearsed her  speech to  Robert a  hundred times.  His
initial reaction will be negative, she  thought. He will say it's  too
dangerous, that I  am jeopardizing  Nicole's security. And  he 'II  be
angry because I didn 't tell him earlier.
    In her mind she  had already answered all  his objections and  had
carefully described the life they would have in New York in a positive
light. But Ellie was still extremely nervous. She had not been able to
convince herself that Robert would agree to come. And she had no  idea
what he  would do  if she  declared that  she and  little Nicole  were
prepared to leave without him.
    As her groceries were placed in  the small shopping cart that  she
would return  to the  supermarket after  unpacking everything  at  her
home, Ellie squeezed  her daughter's  hand. / must  have courage,  she
thought.
    "How in the world do you expect me to react?-' Robert Turner said.
"I come home from an exceptionally  busy day at the hospital, my  mind
on the hundred things that  I must do tomorrow,  and you tell me  over
dinner that you want us to leave New Eden forever? And to go  tonight1
Ellie, dear Ellie, this whole thing is absurd. Even if it could  work,
I would need time to sort out everything. ... I have projects-•"
    "I know it's sudden, Robert," Ellie said, growing fearful that she
had underestimated the difficulty  of her task,  "but I couldn't  have
told you any earlier.  It would have been  too dangerous. What if  you
had slipped and  said something to  Ed Stafford or  another member  of
your staff, and one of the biots had overheard?"
    "But 1 can't just leave without saying anything to
    RAMA REVEALED
    83
    anybody." Robert shook his head vigorously. "Do you have any  idea
how many years of work would be wasted?"
    "Couldn't you write down what needs  to be done on each  project?"
Ellie  suggested.   ''And   maybe  summarize   what's   already   been
accomplished?"
    "Not in one night," Robert replied emphatically. "No, Ellie,  it's
really out of the question. We  can't go. The long-term health of  the
colony may depend on  the results of my  research. Besides, even if  I
accept that your parents are living comfortably in that bizarre  place
you described, wherever it is, it certainly does not sound like a good
place to raise a  child. And you haven't  even mentioned the  possible
danger to all of us. Our leaving  will be viewed as treason. We  could
both be executed if we were caught. What would happen to Nicole  then?
. . ."
    Ellie listened to Robert's objections for another minute and  then
realized that the time had come for her declaration. Summoning all her
courage, she  walked around  the  table and  took both  her  husband's
hands. "I  have  been thinking  about  this for  almost  three  weeks,
Robert. You must understand how difficult this decision is for me. ...
I love you with  all my heart, but  if we must, Nicole  and I will  go
without you. I know that there is a lot of uncertainty in leaving, but
life here in New Eden is definitely not healthy for any of us."
    "No, no, no," Robert said immediately, freeing himself from  Ellie
and starting to pace wildly around  the room. "I don't believe any  of
this. It's all a bad dream." He  paused and looked across the room  at
Ellie. "You cannot take  Nicole with you," he  said with passion.  "Do
you hear me? I forbid you to take our daughter."
    '''Robert" Ellie  interrupted him  with a  shout. Tears  were  now
streaming down her cheeks. "Look at me ... I am your wife, the  mother
of your  daughter. I  love you.  I  beg you  to listen  to what  I  am
saying."
    Nicole had come running  into the room and  was now crying  beside
her mother. Ellie composed herself before continuing. "I don't believe
that you  are the  only one  in this  family who  is allowed  to  make
decisions. I have that right
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    as well. I can respect  your desire not to  go, but I am  Nicole's
mother. If you and I are to be separated, then I believe that it would
be better for Nicole to come with me."
    Ellie stopped. Robert's  face was  contorted in anger.  He took  a
step toward her and, for the first time in her life, Ellie feared that
Robert was going to hit her.
    "What would be better for me," Robert shouted, with his right hand
raised in a fist, "would be for you to forget this foolishness."
    Ellie  backed  up  slightly.  Nicole  continued  to  cry.   Robert
struggled to control himself. "I swore," he said, his voice  quavering
with emotion, "that  nobody and nothing  would ever cause  me to  hurt
like that again."
    Tears burst from his eyes. "Goddammit," he said, smashing his fist
down on a nearby table. Without saying anything else, Robert sat  down
in the chair and buried his face in his hands.
    Ellie consoled Nicole  and said  nothing for  several seconds.  "I
know how painful it was for you  to lose your first family," she  said
at length.  "But  Robert, this  is  an entirely  different  situation.
Nobody is going to harm Nicole and me."
    She walked over and put her arms around him. "I'm not saying  this
is an easy decision, Robert," Ellie said. "But I'm convinced it's  the
right thing for Nicole and me."
    Robert returned Ellie's hug, but without much enthusiasm. "I  will
not keep  you  and Nicole  from  going," he  said  resignedly  several
seconds later. "But I don't know what  I am going to do. I would  like
to think about all this over  the next several hours, while we're  out
in Avalon."
    "All right, dear,"  Ellie replied, "but  please don't forget  that
Nicole and I need  you even more  than your patients  do. You are  our
only husband and father."
    9
    N,
    Iicole could not contain her excitement. As she put the  finishing
touches on the decorations in the nursery, she imagined what the  room
would be like  when the human  children were sharing  it with the  two
avians. Timmy, who was  now almost as tall  as Nicole, clambered  over
beside her  to inspect  her handiwork.  He uttered  a few  jabbers  of
appreciation.
    "Just think, Timmy," Nicole said, knowing that the avian could not
understand her  exact words  but  could interpret  the timbre  of  her
voice, "when Richard and I return,  we will be bringing you three  new
roommates."
    "Are you ready, Nicole?"  she heard Richard  yell at that  moment.
"It's almost time for us to leave."
    "Yes, darling," she answered. "I'm here in the nursery. Why  don't
you come and take a look?"
    Richard stuck his head in the door and gave the new decorations  a
perfunctory inspection. "Great, just great," he
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    said. "Now  we  need  to move.  This  operation  requires  precise
timing."
    As they walked together to the Port, Richard informed Nicole  that
there had been  no more  reports from the  Northern Hemicylinder.  The
lack of news could  indicate that Joan and  Eleanor were too  involved
with die escape, he said,  or too close to  a possible enemy, or  even
that the  implementation of  the escape  plan was  in trouble.  Nicole
could not remember seeing Richard so nervous before. She tried to calm
him.
    "We still don't  know if  Robert is  coming?" Nicole  asked a  few
minutes later as they approached the submarine.
    "No. Nor anything at all about how he reacted when Ellie told  him
the plan. They did show up together in Avalon, as scheduled, but  they
were busy with his patients. Joan and Eleanor did not have a chance to
talk to Ellie after they helped Nai pick up Benjy at the ward."
    Richard had  checked out  the  submarine at  least twice  the  day
before. Nevertheless, he issued  a sigh of  relief when the  operating
system engaged  and the  craft slid  into the  water. When  they  were
submerged in  the waters  of  the Cylindrical  Sea, both  Richard  and
Nicole were quiet. Each of them was anticipating the emotional reunion
that would take place in less than an hour.
    Images of all six of her children filed slowly into Nicole's mind.
She saw Genevieve, her first child, bora on the Earth after her  union
with Prince Henry.  Next in line  was serene Simone,  whom Nicole  had
left at the Node with a husband almost sixty years her senior. The two
oldest girls  were  followed in  the  mental procession  by  the  four
children still  living  in  Rama,  her  wayward  daughter  Katie,  her
precious Ellie, and her two sons  by Michael O'Toole, Patrick and  the
mentally handicapped Benjy. They are all so different, Nicole thought.
Each a miracle in his or her own way.
    I do  not  believe  in  universal  truths,  Nicole  mused  as  the
submarine drew closer to  the tunnel under the  wall of what was  once
the avian/sessile habitat, but  there cannot be  many humans who  have
lived through the singular experience of
    RAMA REVEALED
    87
    parenting without being irrevocably changed by the process. We all
wonder, as our children  grow into adults, what  we have done, or  not
done, that has  contributed to,  or detracted from,  the happiness  of
these special beings we have brought into existence.
    The excitement inside Nicole was overwhelming. Richard checked his
watch and  began  to maneuver  the  submarine into  position  for  the
rendezvous. When their ship  broke through the  surface of the  water,
they could see eight  figures standing on the  shore at the  appointed
location. When  the  water stopped  running  down the  window,  Nicole
recognized Ellie,  her husband  Robert, Eponine,  Nai holding  Benjy's
hand, and the  three small children,  including her granddaughter  and
namesake, whom Nicole  had never  seen before.  Nicole's eyes  brimmed
with tears. She pounded on the window, knowing that it was  senseless,
and that none of the  people on the shore  could possibly hear or  see
her.
    Richard and Nicole heard the gunshots  as soon as they opened  the
door. A  worried Robert  Turner  glanced behind  him and  then  lifted
little Nicole quickly off the ground. Ellie and Eponine each picked up
one of  the  Watanabe twins.  Galileo  struggled against  Eponine  and
received a reprimand  from his  mother Nai,  who was  trying to  guide
Benjy into the submarine.
    Another round  of  gunfire,  much closer,  occurred  just  as  the
boarding party  was crossing  into the  ship. There  was no  time  for
embraces. "Max said to leave as soon  as we were all on board,"  Ellie
said hurriedly to  her parents. "He  and Patrick are  holding off  the
platoon that was sent to capture us."
    Richard was preparing to  close the door  when two armed  figures,
one clutching at his side, burst from the nearby bushes. "Get ready to
go," Patrick yelled, shouldering and firing his rifle twice. "They are
right behind us."
    Max stumbled,  but Patrick  half carried  his wounded  friend  the
final fifty  meters to  the submarine.  Three of  the colony  soldiers
fired upon the ship as it submerged  in the moat. For a brief  moment,
none of the people on board the submarine said anything. Then the tiny
compart-
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    89
    ment exploded in a cacophony  of sound. Everyone was shouting  and
weeping. Both Nicole and  Robert bent down over  Max, who was  sitting
with his back against a wall.
    "Are you seriously hurt?" Nicole asked.
    "Hell, no," Max  replied with  passion. "There's  just a  solitary
bullet in my gut somewhere. It takes much more firepower than that  to
kill a son of a bitch like me."
    When Nicole stood  up and  turned around, Benjy  was right  behind
her. "Mama," he said, his arms outstretched and his big body trembling
with joy. Nicole and  Benjy exchanged a long  and powerful embrace  in
the center of the compartment. Benjy's sobs of happiness reflected the
sentiment of every person on the ship.
    While they were on board the submarine, the newcomers  essentially
suspended between  two  alien worlds,  most  of the  conversation  was
personal. Nicole spent some private moments with each of her  children
and held her granddaughter for the  first time. Little Nicole did  not
know what to make of this woman  with the gray hair who wanted to  hug
and kiss  her.  "This is  your  grandmother," Ellie  said,  trying  to
persuade the child to  return Nicole's affection.  "She is my  mother,
Nikki, and she has die same name that you have."
    Nicole knew enough about children to understand that it would take
some time  for  the  girl to  accept  her.  At first  there  was  some
confusion about  tiieir  common  name, and  every  time  someone  said
"Nicole," both the grandmother and the little girl would turn  around.
But after Ellie and Robert both  started using "Nikki" for the  child,
the rest of the group quickly followed suit.
    Before the submarine even reached New York, Benjy was showing  his
mother that his reading  had significantly improved.  Nai had been  an
excellent teacher. Benjy had brought two books in his backpack, one  a
collection of  the  tales of  Hans  Christian Andersen  written  three
centuries earlier.  Benjy's favorite  story was  "The Ugly  Duckling,"
which he read in  its entirety as both  his delighted^motfaer and  his
teacher sat beside him. There was a wonderful,
    ingenuous excitement in his voice when the spumed duckling  turned
into a beautiful swan.
    "I am very  proud of  you, darling,"  Nicole said  when Benjy  was
finished reading. "And  I thank  you, Nai,"  she said  to her  friend,
"from the bottom of my heart."
    "It's been  a lot  of  fun working  with  Benjy," the  Thai  woman
replied. "I had forgotten what a thrill it was to teach an  interested
and appreciative pupil."
    Robert Turner cleaned Max Puckett's wound and removed the  bullet.
His procedure  was closely  monitored  by the  five-year-old  Watanabe
twins, both of whom were fascinated  by the inside of Max's body.  The
aggressive Galileo was always pushing for the better view; Nai had  to
adjudicate two brotherly disputes in favor of Kepler.
    Dr. Turner confirmed Max's statement mat the wound was not serious
and prescribed a short period of convalescence.
    "I guess I'll  just have to  take it easy,"  Max said, winking  at
Eponine. "Which is  what I was  planning to do  anyway. I don't  think
there will  be  too  many pigs  or  chickens  in this  alien  city  of
skyscrapers. And I don't know a goddamn thing about bi-ots"
    Nicole had  a brief  conversation with  Eponine, just  before  the
submarine arrived at the Port, in which she thanked Ellie's  erstwhile
teacher profusely for everything she and Max had done for the  family.
Eponine accepted the  thanks graciously and  told Nicole that  Patrick
had been "absolutely fantastic"  in helping them  with all aspects  of
the escape. "He has grown into a superb young man," Eponine said.
    "How is your health, then?" Nicole asked Eponine delicately a  few
moments later.
    The Frenchwoman shrugged. "The good doctor says the RV-41 virus is
still there, poised  and waiting  for an opportunity  to overwhelm  my
immune system. Whenever that happens, I should have between six months
and a year more to live."
    Patrick informed Richard that Joan and Eleanor had tried to  decoy
the Nakamura platoon by making a lot of
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
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    91
    noise, as they had been programmed to do, and had almost certainly
been captured and destroyed.
    "I'm sorry about Joan and Eleanor," Nicole said to Richard  during
a rare private moment  on board the submarine.  "I know how much  your
little robots mean to you."
    "They served their purpose," Richard  replied. He forced a  smile.
"After all, wasn't it  you who told  me once they're  not the same  as
people?"
    Nicole reached up and kissed her husband.
    None of the new escapees  had ever been in  New York as an  adult.
Nicole's three children had all been born on the island and had  lived
there in their early childhood, but a child has a much different sense
of place than an adult. Even Ellie, Patrick, and Benjy were  awestruck
when  they  first  stepped  on  the  shore  and  saw  the  tall,  thin
silhouettes reaching toward the Rama sky in the near darkness.
    Max Puckett was uncharacteristically  speechless. He stood  beside
Eponine, holding her  hand, and  gawked at the  thin, towering  spires
rising over two  hundred meters above  the island. "This  is too  damn
much for an Arkansas farm boy,"  he said at length, shaking his  head.
Max and Eponine walked at the  end of the procession that was  winding
its way toward the lair which Richard and Nicole had converted into  a
multifamily apartment for all of them to share.
    "Who built all this?"  Robert Turner asked  Richard as the  troupe
paused briefly  in front  of a  giant polyhedron.  Robert was  growing
increasingly apprehensive. He  had been reluctant  to come with  Ellie
and Nikki  in  the  first  place, and  he  was  now  rapidly  becoming
convinced that he had indeed made a big mistake.
    "Probably the engineers at the Node," Richard  an-swereoV'Although
we can't know for  certain. We humans have  added new construction  in
our habitat. It's possible that whoever, or whatever, lived here  long
ago might have built a few or even all of these amazing buildings."
    "Where are  they  now?" Robert  asked  next, mdre  than  a  little
frightened at the prospect of encountering beings with
    the technological expertise  necessary to  create such  impressive
edifices.
    "We have no  way of  knowing. According  to the  Eagle, this  Rama
spacecraft has been making voyages to discover spacefaring species for
thousands of years.  Somewhere in our  part of the  galaxy is  another
spacefarer who  would have  been comfortable  in an  environment  like
this. What that creature was, or is, and why it wanted to live in  and
among these incredible skyscrapers is a riddle we will probably  never
answer."
    "What about  the  avians  and  the  octospiders,  Uncle  Richard?"
Patrick asked. "Are they still living here in New York?"
    "I have not seen any avians on the island since I arrived,  except
of course for the hatchlings that we are raising. But there are  still
octospiders around. Your mother and I encountered some of them when we
were exploring behind the black screen."
    At that moment a centipede  biot approached the procession from  a
side alley.  Richard shone  his flashlight  in its  direction.  Robert
Turner  momentarily  froze  with  fear,  but  he  followed   Richard's
instructions and moved out of the way as the biot trundled by.
    "Skyscrapers  built  by  ghosts,  octospiders,  centipede  biots,"
Robert grumbled. "What a lovely place!"
    "In my opinion it's a hell of a lot better than living under  that
tyrant Nakamura," Richard said. "At least here we're free and can make
our own decisions."
    "Wakefield," Max Puckett shouted from the back of the line.  "What
would happen  if  we didn't  move  out of  the  way of  one  of  those
centipede biots?"
    "I don't  know for  sure,  Max," Richard  replied. "But  it  would
probably go  over or  around you  just  as if  you were  an  inanimate
object."
    It was Nicole's turn to be the tour guide when they arrived at the
lair. She personally showed each person his or her quarters. There was
one room for Max and Eponine, another for Ellie and Robert, and a room
divided by a
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    93
    partition  for  Patrick  and  Nai.  The  large  nursery  had  been
subdivided to provide space and privacy for Benjy, the three children,
and the two  avians. Richard and  Nicole had also  decided to use  the
small area adjacent to their bedroom  as a common dining room for  the
entire group.
    While the adults  unpacked the meager  belongings they had  loaded
into backpacks, the children had their first experience with Tammy and
Timmy. The avians  did not  know what to  make of  the little  humans,
especially Galileo, who  insisted on pulling  or tweaking anything  he
could touch. After about  an hour of  such treatment, Timmy  scratched
Galileo lightjy  with one  of his  talons as  a warning,  and the  boy
raised an incredible din.
    "I just don't understand it," Richard said to Nai in apology. "The
avians are really very gentle creatures."
    "I do understand," Nai replied.  "Galileo was almost certainly  up
to some mischief." She sighed. "It's amazing, you know. You raise  two
children exactly  the same  way,  and they  turn out  so  differently.
Kepler is  so good  he's almost  an angel-I  can hardly  teach him  to
defend himself. And  Galileo pays  almost no attention  to anything  I
tell him."
    When everyone had finished  unpacking, Nicole completed the  tour,
including the two bathrooms, the corridors, the suspension tanks where
the family had stayed during  the period of high acceleration  between
the Earth and  the Node, and  finally the White  Room, with the  black
screen and  keyboard, which  was also  Richard and  Nicole's  bedroom.
Richard demonstrated how  the black screen  worked by requesting,  and
receiving about  an hour  later,  some new  and  simple toys  for  the
children. He also gave Robert and Max  each a copy of a short  command
dictionary that would allow them to use the keyboard.
    The children  were  all  asleep  soon  after  dinner.  The  adults
gathered in the White Room. Max asked questions about the octospiders.
In the course of describing their adventures behind the black  screen,
Nicole  mentioned  her  heart   irregularities.  Robert  insisted   on
examining her right away.
    Ellie helped Robert with the examination. Robert had
    brought as much practical medical equipment as he could fit in his
backpack, including  all  the miniaturized  instruments  and  monitors
necessary to do a full electrocardiogram, or EKG. The results were not
good, but not as  bad as Nicole had  privately feared. Before  bedtime
Robert informed the rest of the  family that the years had  definitely
taken their toll on Nicole's heart, but that he didn't think she would
require surgery in the immediate future. Robert advised Nicole to take
it easy, even  though he  knew that his  mother-in-law would  probably
ignore his prescription.
    When everyone was asleep, Richard  and Nicole moved the  furniture
to make room  for their mats.  They lay side  by side, holding  hands.
"Are you happy?" Richard asked.
    "Yes," Nicole answered, "very. It's  really wonderful to have  all
the children here."  She leaned over  and gave Richard  a kiss. "I  am
also exhausted,  husband of  mine, but  Fm not  about to  go to  sleep
without first thanking you for arranging all of this."
    "They're my children too, you know," he said.
    "Yes, darling," Nicole said, lying down on her back again. "But  I
know that you would never have done all this if it weren't for me. You
would have been  content to stay  here with the  hatchlings, all  your
gadgets, and the extraterrestrial mysteries."
    "Maybe," Richard said. "But I  also am delighted to have  everyone
in our lair. ... By the way, did you have a chance to talk to  Patrick
about Katie?"
    "Only briefly," Nicole replied. She sighed. "I could tell from his
eyes that he is still very worried about her."
    "Aren't we all?" Richard  said softly. They lay  in silence for  a
couple of minutes before  Richard propped himself up  on an elbow.  "I
want you  to  know," he  said,  "that  I think  our  granddaughter  is
absolutely precious."
    "So do I," Nicole replied with a laugh, "but there's not a  chance
that we could be considered unbiased on the subject."
    "Hey, does having Nikki with us mean that I can no longer call you
Nikki, not even at special moments?"
    Nicole turned her head to look at Richard. He was
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    95
    grinning. She had seen that particular expression on his face many
times before. "Go  to sleep,"  Nicole said with  another short  laugh.
"I'm too emotionally exhausted for anything else tonight."
    In the beginning time  passed very quickly. There  was so much  to
do, so  much fascinating  territory  to explore.  Even though  it  was
perpetually dark in the  mysterious city above  them, the family  made
regular excursions into New York. Virtually every place on the  island
had a special story that Richard or Nicote could tell. "It was  here,"
Nicole said one afternoon, shining her flashlight at the huge  lattice
that hung suspended between two skyscrapers like a spider web, "that I
rescued the trapped avian, who subsequently invited me into its lair."
    "Down there," she said on another occasion, when they were in  the
large barn with its peculiar pits and spheres, "I was trapped for many
days and thought I was going to die."
    The extended family developed a set of rules to keep the  children
from getting into trouble. The rules were not needed for little Nikki,
who hardly ever wandered far  from her mother and doting  grandfather,
but the  boys Kepler  and  Galileo were  difficult to  constrain.  The
Watanabe twins seemed to possess infinite energy. Once they were found
bouncing on the hammocks in the  suspension tanks, as if the  hammocks
were trampolines.  Another  time  Galileo and  Kepler  "borrowed"  the
family flashlights  and went  topside, without  adult supervision,  to
explore New  York. It  was  ten nervous  hours  before the  boys  were
located in the  maze of  alleys and  streets on  the far  side of  the
island.
    The  avians  practiced  flying  almost  every  day.  The  children
delighted in accompanying their birdlike friends to the plazas,  where
there was more room  for Tammy and Timmy  to display their  developing
skills. Richard always took Nikki to watch the avians fly. In fact, he
took his granddaughter with him everywhere he went. From time to  time
Nikki would  walk, but  mostly Richard  carrie^ her  in a  comfortable
papooselike contraption that he affixed to his back. The unlikely pair
were inseparable. Richard became
    Nikki's main teacher as well. Very early he announced to  everyone
that his granddaughter was a mathematical genius.
    At night he would regale Nicole with Nikki's latest exploits.  "Do
you know what she did today?" he would say, usually when he and Nicole
were alone in bed.
    "No, dear," was Nicole's standard  reply; she knew very well  that
neither she nor Richard would sleep until he told her.
    "I asked her how  many black balls she  would have if she  already
had three and I gave her two  more." Here there was a dramatic  pause.
"And do you know  what she answered?"  Another dramatic pause.  "Five!
She said five. And this little girl just had her second birthday  last
week."
    Nicole was thrilled by Richard's  interest in Nikki. For both  the
little girl and the aging  man, it was a  perfect match. As a  parent,
Richard had  never  been  able  to overcome  both  his  own  repressed
emotional problems and his acute sense of responsibility, so this  was
the first time in his  life that he had  experienced the joy of  truly
innocent love. Nikki's father, Robert, on the other hand, was a  great
doctor, but  he was  not  a very  warm person  and  he did  not  fully
appreciate the purposeless time periods  that parents must spend  with
their children.
    Patrick and  Nicole had  several long  talks about  Katie, all  of
which left Nicole  feeling extremely depressed.  Patrick did not  hide
from his mother  the fact  that Katie was  deeply involved  in all  of
Nakamura's machinations, that she drank  often and too much, and  that
she had been sexually promiscuous. He  did not tell Nicole that  Katie
was managing Nakamura's  prostitution business, or  that he  suspected
his sister had become a drug addict.
    10
    T;
    heir near perfect existence in New York continued until early  one
morning, when  Richard  and  Nikki were  topside  together  along  the
northern ramparts of the island. Actually  it was the little girl  who
first saw the  silhouettes of the  ships in the  dim Raman light.  She
pointed out across the  dark water. "Look,  Boobah," she said,  "Nikki
sees something."
    Richard's weakened eyes could not detect anything in the darkness,
and his flashlight beam did not travel far enough to reach whatever it
was that Nikki was seeing. Richard pulled out the powerful  binoculars
that he always carried with him  and confirmed that there were  indeed
two vessels in the middle of the Cylindrical Sea. Richard placed Nikki
in the carrier on his back and hurried home to the lair.
    The rest  of the  family was  just waking  up and  had  difficulty
initially understanding  why Richard  was so  alarmed. "But  who  else
could it be in a boat?" he said. "Especially on the northern side.  It
has to be an exploration party sent by Nakamura."
    RAMA REVEALED
    97
    A family council  was held  over breakfast.  Everyone agreed  that
they were facing a serious crisis. When Patrick confessed that he  had
seen Katie on the day of  the escape, primarily because he had  wanted
to tell  his sister  good-bye, and  that  he had  made a  few  unusual
comments which had caused Katie to start asking questions, Nicole  and
the others became silent.
    "I didn't  say anything  specific," Patrick  said  apologetically,
"but it was still a  dumb thing to do. Katie  is very smart. After  we
all disappeared, she must have put all the pieces together."
    "But  what  do  we  do  now?"  Robert  Turner  voiced   everyone's
apprehension. "Katie  knows  New  York  very  well-she  was  almost  a
teenager when she left here-and  she can lead Nakamura's men  directly
to this lair. We'll be sitting ducks for them down here."
    "Is there any other place we can go?" Max asked.
    "Not really," Richard replied. "The old avian lair is empty, but I
don't know how we would feed ourselves down there. The octospider lair
was also vacant when  I visited it several  months ago, but I  haven't
been inside their domain  again since Nicole arrived  in New York.  We
must assume, of course, based on what happened when Nicole and I  went
exploring, that  our friends  with the  black and  gold tentacles  are
still around. Even if they aren't living in their old lair anymore, we
would still have the same problem of obtaining food if we were to move
over there."
    "What about the  area behind the  screen, Uncle Richard?"  Patrick
asked. "You said that's where our food is manufactured. Maybe we could
find a couple of rooms there."
    "I'm not very optimistic," Richard said after a short pause,  "but
your suggestion is probably our only reasonable option at this point."
    The  family  decided   that  Richard,  Max,   and  Patrick   would
reconnoiter the  region behind  the  black screen,  both to  find  out
exactly where the human  food was being produced  and to determine  if
another suitable living  area existed. Robert,  Benjy, the women,  and
the children would
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    stay in the  lair. Their  assignment was to  start developing  the
procedures for a rapid  evacuation of their  living quarters, in  case
such action ever became necessary.
    Before going, Richard finished testing a new radio system that  he
had designed  in  his  spare  time. It  was  strong  enough  that  the
explorers and the rest of the family would be able to remain in  radio
contact during the entir£ time that they were separated. The existence
of the radio link  made it easier for  Richard and Nicole to  convince
Max Puckett to leave his rifle in the lair.
    The three men  had no  difficulty following the  map in  Richard's
computer and  reaching the  boiler room  that Richard  and Nicole  had
visited on their previous exploration. Max and Patrick both stared  in
wonder at the twelve  huge boilers, the vast  area of neatly  arranged
raw materials, and the  many varieties of  biots scurrying about.  The
factory was  active. In  fact, every  single one  of the  boilers  was
involved in some kind of manufacturing process.
    "All right," Richard  said into his  radio to Nicole  back in  the
lair. "We're here and  we're ready. Place the  dinner order and  we'll
see what happens."
    Less than a minute later one  of the boilers closest to the  three
men terminated whatever it was doing. Meanwhile, not far from the  hut
behind the boilers, three  biots that looked  like boxcars with  hands
moved out into the  arrays of raw material,  quickly picking up  small
quantities of many different items.  These three biots next  converged
on the inactive boiler  system near Richard,  Max, and Patrick,  where
they emptied  their containers  onto the  conveyor belt  entering  the
boiler. Immediately  the  men  heard  the  boiler  surge  into  active
operation.  A  long,  skinny  biot,  resembling  three  crickets  tied
together in a row, each with a bowl-shaped carapace, crawled up on the
conveyor belt system when the  short manufacturing process was  almost
finished. Moments later,  the boiler stopped  again and the  processed
material came out  on the  conveyor belt. The  segmented cricket  biot
deployed a scoop from its rear end, placed all
    RAMA REVEALED
    99
    the human food upon its backs, and scampered quickly away.
    "Well, I'll be  goddamned," Max  said, watching  the cricket  biot
disappear down the  corridor behind  the hut.  Before any  of the  men
could say anything else, another set of boxcars with hands loaded  the
conveyor belts with thick,  long rods, and in  less than a minute  the
boiler that had made their food was operating for another purpose.
    "What a  fantastic system,"  Richard exclaimed.  "It must  have  a
complex interrupt process, with food orders at the top of the priority
queue. I can't believe-"
    "Hold on just a  damn minute," Max  interrupted, "and repeat  what
you just said in normal English."
    "We have  automatic translation  subroutines  back at  the  lair-I
designed them originally when  we were here  years ago," Richard  said
excitedly. "When Nicole  entered chicken, potatoes,  and spinach  into
her own computer, a listing  of keyboard commands which represent  the
complex chemicals in those particular foods was printed on her  output
buffer. After I signaled that we were ready, she typed that string  of
commands on the keyboard. They were immediately received here and what
we saw was the response. At the time, all the processing systems  were
active; however,  the Raman  equivalent  of a  computer here  in  this
factory recognized that the incoming request was for food, and made it
the highest priority."
    "Are  you  saying,  Uncle   Richard,"  Patrick  said,  "that   the
controlling computer here shut down  that operating boiler so that  it
could make our food?"
    "Yes, indeed," said Richard.
    Max had moved  some distance  away and  was staring  at the  other
boilers in the huge  factory. Richard and  Patrick walked over  beside
him.
    "When I was  a little  boy, about eight  or nine,"  Max said,  "my
father and  I went  on our  first overnight  camping trip,  up in  the
Ozarks several hours from our farm. It was a magnificent night and the
sky was full of stars. I remember lying on my back on my sleeping  bag
and staring at all those tiny twinkling lights in the sky. That  night
I had a big, big
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    thought for  an  Arkansas farm  boy.  I wondered  how  many  alien
children, out there somewhere in the universe, were looking up at  the
stars at exactly that  moment and realizing, for  the first time,  how
very small their tiny domain was in the overall scheme of the cosmos."
    Max turned around and  smiled at his two  friends. "That's one  of
the reasons  I remained  a farmer,"  he said  with a  laugh. "With  my
chickens and pigs, I was always important. I brought them their  food.
It was a major event when ole Max showed up at their pen. . . ."
    He paused for a moment. Neither Richard nor Patrick said anything.
"I think that  deep down  I always wanted  to be  an astronomer,"  Max
continued, "to  see  if  I  could  understand  the  mysteries  of  the
universe. But  every  time  I  thought about  billions  of  years  and
trillions of  kilometers, I  became depressed.  I couldn't  stand  the
feeling of complete and total insignificance mat came over me. It  was
as if a voice inside my head was saying, over and over, 'Puckett,  you
aren't shit. You are absolutely zero.'"
    "But knowing that insignificance, especially being able to measure
it, makes us humans very special," Richard said quietly.
    "Now we're talking philosophy,"  Max replied, "and I'm  completely
out of my  element. I'm  comfortable with farm  animals, tequila,  and
even wild midwestern  thunderstorms. All this,"  Max said, waving  his
arms at the boilers and the factory, "scares the shit out of me. If  I
had known, when  I signed up  for that Martian  colony,, that I  would
meet machines that are smarter than people-"
    "Richard, Richard," they all heard  Nicole's anxious voice on  the
radio. "We  have  an  emergency.  Ellie has  just  returned  from  the
northern shore. Four large boats are  about to land. Ellie says  she's
positive she spotted a police uniform on one of the men. Also, she has
reported some kind  of large rainbow  in the south.  Can you get  back
here in a few minutes?"
    "No we can't," Richard  answered. "We're still  tlown in the  room
with the boilers. We must be at least three and a
    RAMA REVEALED
    101
    half kilometers away. Did  Ellie say how many  people might be  on
each boat?"
    "I would guess about ten or twelve, Dad," Ellie replied. "I didn't
stay around to  count them. But  the boats were  not the only  unusual
thing I saw while I was topside.  During my run back to the lair,  the
southern sky lit up with wild bursts of color that eventually became a
giant rainbow. It's near where you told us the Big Horn should be."
    Ten seconds later Richard shouted  into the radio. "Listen to  me,
Nicole, Ellie, all  of you.  Evacuate our lair  immediately. Take  the
children, the hatchlings,  the melons, the  sessile material, the  two
rifles, all  the food,  and as  many personal  belongings as  you  can
comfortably carry. Leave our stuff  alone-we have enough on our  backs
to survive in  an emergency. Go  directly to the  octospider lair  and
wait for us in  that large room  that was a  photo gallery years  ago.
Nakamura's troops will come  to our lair first.  When they don't  find
us, if Katie's with them, they may go to the octospider lair as  well,
but I don't believe they will go into the tunnels there."
    "What about you and Max and Patrick?" Nicole asked.
    "We'll come back as  fast as we  can. If there  is nobody- By  the
way, Nicole, leave  a transmitter,  with the  volume on  high, in  the
White Room, and another in the nursery. That way we'll know if anybody
is in our lair.  . . . Anyway,  as I was saying,  if our home has  not
been invaded,  we' II  join  you right  away.  If Nakamura's  men  are
occupying our living quarters, we'll  try to find another entrance  to
the octospider lair from down here. There must be one."
    "All right," Nicole  interrupted. "We  must get  started with  the
packing. I'll leave the receiver on in case you need us."
    "So you think we'll  be safest in the  octospider lair?" Max  said
after Richard had switched off his transmitter.
    "It's a choice,"  Richard said with  a wan smile.  "There are  too
many unknowns here behind the screen. And we know for certain we won't
be safe if Nakamura's police and  troops find us. The octospiders  may
not even be living in their lair anymore. Besides, as Nicole has  said
many times,
    102
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    we have no unambiguous evidence that the octos are hostile."
    The men moved as quickly as  they could. At one point they  halted
briefly while Patrick  transferred some  of the  weight off  Richard's
pack into his own. Both Richard and Max were sweating profusely by the
time they reached the Y in the corridor.
    "We must stop for a minute," Max  said to Patrick, who was out  in
front of his two older companions. "Your Uncle Richard needs a rest."
    Patrick pulled a water bottle from his pack and passed it  around.
Richard  drank  eagerly  from  the  bottle,  wiped  his  brow  with  a
handkerchief, and after a minute's rest began jogging again toward the
lair.
    About five hundred meters away from the small platform behind  the
black screen, Richard's  receiver began picking  up indistinct  noises
from the  inside of  the lair.  "Maybe someone  in the  family  forgot
something important," Richard said, slowing down to listen, "and  came
back to retrieve it."
    A short time  later the  three men heard  a voice  they could  not
identify. They stopped and waited. "It looks as if some kind of animal
has been living back here," the voice said. "Why don't you come take a
look?"
    "Damn," said  a  second voice.  "They  have definitely  been  here
recently. I wonder how long ago they left."
    "Captain Bauer," someone shouted. "What do you want me to do  with
all this electronic gear?"
    "Leave it for now,"  the second voice answered.  'The rest of  the
troops should be down in a few minutes. We'll decide what to do then."
    Richard, Max,  and Patrick  sat quietly  in the  dark tunnel.  For
about a minute they didn't  hear anything on the receiver.  Apparently
none of the members of the search  party was in the White Room or  the
nursery during that time. Then the three men heard Franz Bauer's voice
again.
    "What's that, Morgan?" Bauer said. "I  can barely hear you. . .  .
There's some kind of racket. . . . What? Fire-
    RAMA REVEALED
    105
    works? Colors? . . . What in the world are you talking about?  All
right. All right. We'll come up immediately."
    For another fifteen seconds the receiver was quiet. "Ah, here  you
are, Pfeiffer," they then heard  Captain Bauer say plainly. "Round  up
the other  men and  let's go  back upstairs.  Morgan says  there's  an
amazing fireworks  demonstration  in the  southern  sky. Most  of  the
troops were already spooked by the skyscrapers and the dark. I'm going
up to calm everyone's nerves."
    "This is our chance," Richard whispered, rising to his feet. "They
will certainly be out of  the lair for a  few minutes." He started  to
run and then stopped himself. "We may need to separate. Do both of you
remember how to find the octospider lair?"
    Max shook his head. "I've never been over-"
    "Here," Richard said, handing Max his portable computer. "Enter an
M and a P for an overview  of New York. The octospider lair is  marked
with a red circle. If you touch L, followed by another L, a map of the
inside of their lair will be  displayed. Now let's go, while we  still
have some time."
    Richard, Max, and Patrick encountered no troops inside their lair.
A pair of guards were stationed,  however, a few meters away from  the
exit to New York.  Fortunately, the guards were  so transfixed by  the
fireworks in the Rama sky above their heads that they didn't hear  the
three men  slipping  up  the  stairs  behind  them.  For  safety,  the
threesome split up, each  taking a different  route to the  octospider
lair.
    Richard and Patrick arrived at  their destination within a  minute
of each other, but Max was delayed.  As luck would have it, the  route
he had chosen led through one of  the plazas where five or six of  the
colony troops had  gathered for a  better view of  the fireworks.  Max
raced down  an alley  and huddled  against one  of the  buildings.  He
pulled out the computer and studied the map on the monitor, trying  to
figure out an alternate path to the octospider lair.
    Meanwhile, the spectacular fireworks show continued overhead.  Max
glanced up and  was dazzled as  a great blue  ball exploded,  throwing
hundreds of rays of blue light in all
    104
    ARTHUR C. CURKE AND GENTRY LEE
    directions. For almost a minute, Max watched the hypnotic display.
It was grander than anything he had ever seen on Earth.
    When Max finally  reached the  octospider lair,  he descended  the
ramp quickly  and  entered the  cathedral  room from  which  the  four
tunnels led into the other  parts of the lair.  Max entered two Ls  on
the computer and the map of the octospider domain appeared on the tiny
monitor. Max was so engrossed in the map that at first he did not hear
the sound  of  dragging  mechanical brushes  accompanied  by  a  soft,
high-pitched whine.
    He did not  look up until  the sound became  quite loud. When  Max
finally raised his  head, the  large octospider was  standing no  more
than five  meters  away from  him.  The  sight of  the  creature  sent
powerful shivers down  Max's spine.  He stood quite  still and  fought
against his  desire to  flee. The  creamy liquid  in the  octospider's
single lens moved from side to side, but the alien did not advance any
closer to Max.
    Out of one of the parallel indentations on both sides of the  lens
came a burst of purple  color, which circumnavigated the  octospider's
spherical head,  followed  by bands  of  other colors,  all  of  which
disappeared into the second of the  two parallel slits. When the  same
color pattern repeated, Max, whose  heart was pounding so fiercely  he
could feel  it  in  his  jaw,  shook  his  head  and  said,  "I  don't
understand." The octospider hesitated for a moment and then lifted two
of its tentacles off the ground, clearly pointing in the direction  of
one of  the four  tunnels. As  if to  underscore its  point, the  octo
shuffled in that general direction and then repeated the gesture.
    Max stood up and walked slowly toward the indicated tunnel,  being
careful not to come too close  to the octospider. When he reached  the
entrance, another series of  color splashes raced  around the head  of
the alien. "Thank you very much,"  Max said politely as he turned  and
walked into the passageway.
    He didn't even stop to look at his map until he was three or  four
hundred meters into the tunnel. As Max walked along, die lights always
came on automatically in front of
    RAMA REVEALED
    105
    him and were extinguished in the tunnel segments through which  he
had already passed. When he did finally examine the map carefully, Max
discovered that he was not far from the designated, room.
    A few minutes later Max entered the chamber where the rest of  the
family was gathered.  He had  a big grin  on his  face. "You'll  never
guess who I just  met," Max said only  moments before Eponine  greeted
him with an embrace.
    Soon after Max  finished entertaining everyone  with the story  of
his encounter  with the  octospider,  Richard and  Patrick  cautiously
backtracked to the cathedral room, stopping every hundred meters or so
and listening carefully for  the telltale sounds  of the aliens.  They
heard nothing. Nor did  they hear or see  anything that indicated  the
forces dispatched from New Eden were  in the vicinity. After about  an
hour, Richard and Patrick returned to the rest of the group and joined
in the discussion of what they should do next.
    The extended family had  enough food for five  days, maybe six  if
each portion  was  carefully  rationed. Water  was  available  at  the
cistern near  the cathedral  room. Everyone  quickly agreed  that  the
search party from New  Eden, at (east this  first one, would  probably
not stay in New York too long. There was a short debate about  whether
or not Katie might have told Captain Bauer and his men the location of
the octospider lair. On one critical point there was no argument:  The
next day  or two  was  the most  likely time  period  for them  to  be
discovered by  the other  humans.  As a  result, except  for  physical
necessities, none of the family left the large room in which they were
staying for the next thirty-six hours.
    At the end of that time the whole group, especially the hatchlings
and the twins, had  a bad case  of cabin fever.  Richard and Nai  took
Tammy, Timmy, Benjy, and the  small children out into the  passageway,
trying unsuccessfully to keep them quiet,  and led them away from  the
cathedral room,  toward  the  vertical corridor  with  the  protruding
spikes that descended  deeper into the  octospider lair. Richard,  who
had Nikki on his back most of the time, warned
    106
    ARTHUR C. .CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Nai and the twins several times about the dangers of the area they
were approaching. Even so, very soon after the tunnel widened and they
arrived at the vertical corridor,  the impetuous Galileo climbed  into
the barrel-shaped hole before  his mother could  stop him. He  quickly
became frozen with  fright. Richard  had to  rescue the  boy from  his
precarious perch on two spikes just a short distance-be low the  level
of the walkway  that encircled the  top of the  huge abyss. The  young
avians, delighted to be  able to fly again,  soared freely around  the
area and twice dropped  several meters into the  dark chasm, but  they
never went deep enough to trigger the next lower bank of lights.
    Before returning to  the rest  of the family,  Richard took  Benjy
with him for a quick inspection of what Richard and Nicole had  always
called the octospider museum. This large room, located several hundred
meters from the vertical corridor, was still completely empty. Several
hours later,  following Richard's  suggestion,  half of  the  extended
family moved into the museum to give everyone more living space.
    On the third day of their stay in the octospider lair, Richard and
Max decided that someone should try  to discover if the colony  troops
were still  in New  York. Patrick  was the  logical choice  to be  the
family  scout.  Richard's  and  Max's  instructions  to  Patrick  were
straightforward-he was to proceed cautiously to the cathedral room and
then up the ramp into New  York. From there, using his flashlight  and
portable computer  as  little as  possible,  he should  cross  to  the
northern shore of the  island and see if  the boats were still  there.
Whatever the result of his investigation, he should return directly to
the lair and give them a full report.
    "There is one  other thing  to remember," Richard  said, "that  is
extremely important. If at any time you hear either an octospider or a
soldier, you are to turn around  immediately and come back to us.  But
with this one added proviso:  Under no circumstances should any  human
see you  descend into  this lair.  You cannot  do anything  that  will
endanger the rest of us."
    Max insisted  that Patrick  should  take one  of (he  two  rifles.
Richard and Nicole did not argue. After receiving best
    RAMA REVEALED
    107
    wishes from everybody, Patrick set out on his scouting mission. He
had only walked five hundred meters down the tunnel, however, when  he
heard a noise in  front of him.  He stopped to  listen, but could  not
identify what he was hearing. After another hundred meters some of the
sounds began to resolve themselves. Patrick definitely heard the sound
of dragging brushes several times. There was some clanging as well, as
if metal objects were hitting against  each other, or against a  wall.
He  listened   for  several   minutes   and  then,   remembering   his
instructions, he returned to his family and friends.
    After a long discussion  Patrick was sent out  again. He was  told
this time to approach as close to  the octospiders as he dared and  to
watch them  quietly  for as  long  as he  could.  Again he  heard  the
dragging brush sound as he drew close to the cathedral room. But  when
Patrick actually reached the large chamber at the bottom of the  ramp,
there were no octospiders  around. Where had  they gone? he  wondered.
Patrick's first  impulse  was  to  turn around  and  go  back  in  the
direction  from  which  he  had  come.  However,  since  he  had   not
encountered any actual octospiders  yet, he decided  that he might  as
well go up the ramp, out into New York, and carry out the remainder of
his earlier assignment.
    Patrick was shocked to  discover, about a  minute later, that  the
exit from  the octospider  lair had  been sealed  tight with  a  thick
combination of metal rods and  a cementlike material. He could  barely
see through the cover,  and it was  certainly sufficiently heavy  that
all the humans together would not be able to budge it. The octospiders
have done this, he thought immediately,  but why have they trapped  us
here?
    Before  returning  to  give  his  report,  Patrick  inspected  the
cathedral room and found that one of the four egress tunnels had  also
been sealed with what appeared to be  a thick door or gate. That  must
have been  the tunnel  that  led to  the  canal, he  thought.  Patrick
remained in the area for another ten minutes, listening for the sounds
of the octospiders, but heard nothing more.
    I
    11
    S:
    jO the octospjders  have never  'done anything  hostile?" Max  was
saying angrily. "Then what  the hell do you  call this? We're  fucking
trapped." He shook his  head vigorously. "I thought  it was stupid  to
come here in the first place."
    "Please, Max,"  Eponine said.  "Let's  not argue.  Fighting  among
ourselves is not going to help."
    .All the adults except Nai and Benjy had trekked the one kilometer
down the  passageway  to  the  cathedral  room  to  examine  what  the
octospiders had done. The humans  were indeed sealed inside the  lair.
Two of the three open tunnels leading  out of the chamber went to  the
vertical corridor and  the third,  they quickly discovered,  led to  a
large, empty storeroom from which there was no exit.
    "Well, we'd better think  of something fast,"  Max said. "We  have
only four days worth of food and  absolutely no idea where to get  any
more."
    "I'm sorry,  Max,"  Nicole  said, "but  I  still  think^Rich-ard's
initial decision was correct. If we had stayed in our
    RAMA REVEALED
    109
    lair, we would  have been  captured and  taken back  to New  Eden,
where we almost certainly would have been executed."
    "Maybe," Max interrupted. "And  maybe not. At  least in that  case
the children would have been spared. And I don't think either Benjy or
the doctor would have been killed."
    'This is all academic," Richard  said, "and doesn't deal with  our
main problem, which is, what do we do now?"
    "All right, genius," Max said with a sting in his voice. "This has
been your show so far. What do you suggest?"
    Again Eponine  interceded. "You're  being  unfair, Max.  It's  not
Richard's fault we're in  this predicament. And as  I said before,  it
doesn't help."
    "Okay, okay," Max said. He walked  toward the passage that led  to
the storeroom. "I'm going in this tunnel  to calm down and to smoke  a
cigarette." He glanced back at Eponine. "Do you want to share? We have
exactly twenty-nine left after we smoke this one."
    Eponine smiled faintly at Nicole and Eflie. "He's still pissed off
at me for not taking all  our cigarettes when we evacuated the  lair,"
she said quietly. "Don't worry. Max has a bad temper, but he gets over
it fast. We'H be back in a few minutes."
    "What is your plan, darling?" Nicole said to Richard a few seconds
after Max and Eponine had left.
    "We don't have much choice," Richard said grimly. "A bare  minimum
number of adults should stay with Benjy, the children, and the avians,
while the rest of us explore this lair as quickly as possible. I  have
a hard time  believing that the  octospiders really intend  for us  to
starve to death."
    "Excuse me, Richard,"  Robert Turner  now said,  speaking for  the
first time since Patrick  had reported that the  exit to New York  was
sealed, "but  aren't  you  again assuming  that  the  octospiders  are
friendly? Suppose they're not, or  more likely in my opinion,  suppose
our survival is insignificant  to mem one way  or the other, and  that
they simply sealed off  this lair to protect  themselves from all  the
humans who have recently appeared. . . ."
    Robert stopped, apparently having lost his train of
    110
    ARTHUR C. CLARICE AND GENTRY LEE
    thought. "What I was  trying to say," he  continued a few  seconds
later, "is that  the children,  including your  granddaughter, are  in
considerable jeopardy-psychological  as  well  as  physical,  I  might
add-in our current  situation, and I  would be against  any plan  that
left them unprotected and vulnerable-"
    "You're right,  Robert,"  Richard  interrupted.  "Several  adults,
including at least one man, must stay with Benjy and the children.  In
fact, Nai must have her hands  full right this minute. Why don't  you,
Patrick, and Ellie return to the children now? Nicole and I will  wait
for Max and Eponine and join you shortly."
    Richard and Nicole  were alone after  the others departed.  "Ellie
says that Robert is angry most of the time now," Nicole said  quietly,
"but he doesn't know how to express his anger constructively. He  told
her he  thinks  the whole  enterprise  has  been a  mistake  from  the
beginning, and he  spends hours  brooding about it.  Ellie says  she's
even worried about his stability."
    Richard shook his head. "Maybe it was a mistake," he said.  "Maybe
you and I should have  lived the rest of our  life here alone, I  just
thought-"
    At that moment Max and Eponine came back into the chamber. "I want
to apologize," Max said, extending his hand, "to both of you. I  guess
I let my fear and frustration get the best of me."
    "Thank you, Max,"  Nicole answered. "But  an apology really  isn't
necessary. It  would be  ridiculous to  assume that  this many  people
could go through an experience like this without any disagreements."
    Everyone was together in  the museum. "Let's  review the plan  one
more time," Richard said. "The five  of us will climb down the  spikes
and explore the area  around the subway  platform. We will  thoroughly
investigate every tunnel we can find. Then, if we have not found  aijy
means of escape  and the large  subway is indeed  there waiting,  Max,
Eponine, Nicole, and I will go on board. At that point
    RAMA REVEALED
    111
    Patrick will climb back up and rejoin you here in the museum." i
    "Don't you  think  having  all  four  of  you  on  the  subway  is
reckless?" Robert asked. "Why not just two of you at first? . . . What
if the subway leaves and never comes back?"
    'Time is  our enemy,  Robert," Richard  answered. "If  we  weren't
running so low on food, then we could follow a more conservative plan.
In that case maybe only two of us would enter the subway. But what  if
the subway leads to more than one place? Since we have already decided
that for safety we will explore only in pairs, it could take us a long
time to find  the escape  route with just  a single  couple doing  the
searching."
    There was a protracted  silence in'the room  until Timmy began  to
jabber at his  sister. Nikki  wandered over  and began  to stroke  the
avian's velvet  underside.  "I  don't  pretend that  I  have  all  the
answers," Richard said. "Nor do I underestimate the seriousness of our
situation. But if there  is a way  out of here-and  both Nicole and  I
believe that there must be-then the sooner we find it, the better."
    "Assuming that all four  of you do take  the subway," Patrick  now
asked, "how long do we wait for you here in the museum?"
    "That's a difficult question,"  Richard replied. "You have  enough
food for four more days, and the plentiful water at the cistern should
keep you alive for some period after that. ... I don't know,  Patrick.
I guess you should  stay here for  at least two  or three days.  After
that, you have to make  your own decision. If  it is at all  possible,
one or more of us will return."
    Benjy had been following the conversation with rapt attention.  He
obviously understood more or less what was happening, for he began  to
cry softly. Nicole went over to  comfort him. "Don't worry, son,"  she
said. "Everything is going to be all right."
    The child-man looked  up at his  mother. "I hope  so, Mom-ma,"  he
said, "but I'm scared."
    Galileo Watanabe suddenly jumped up and ran across
    112
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    the room to where  the two rifles were  leaning against the  wall.
"If one of those octospider things  comes in here," he said,  touching
the closest rifle for a few seconds  before Max lifted it free of  the
boy's grasp, "then I'll shoot it. Bang! Bang!"
    His shouts caused the  avians to shriek and  little Nikki to  cry.
After  Ellie  wiped  away  her  daughter's  tears,  Max  and   Patrick
shouldered the  rifles  and  all  five of  the  explorers  said  their
good-byes. Ellie walked out into the tunnel with them. "I didn't  want
to say this in front of the  children," she said, "but what should  we
do if we see an octospider while you're gone?"
    "Try not to panic," Richard answered.
    "And don't do anything aggressive," Nicole added.
    "Grab Nikki and run like hell," Max said with a wink.
    Nothing unusual happened while they climbed down the spikes.  Just
as they had years earlier, the  lights at the next lower level  always
turned on when anyone descending approached an unlit area. All five of
the explorers were on the subway  platform in less than an hour.  "Now
we'll find  out if  those mysterious  vehicles are  still  operating,"
Richard said.
    In the center of the circular  platform there was a smaller  hole,
also round  and with  metal  spikes protruding  from its  sides,  that
descended deeper into the darkness. On opposite ends of the  platform,
ninety degrees away to the left and right from where the five of  them
were standing, two dark tunnels were cut into the rock and metal.  One
of the tunnels was large, five or six meters from top to bottom, while
the opposite tunnel was almost exactly an order of magnitude  smaller.
When Richard approached to within twenty degrees of the large  tunnel,
it suddenly became illuminated and its interior could be clearly seen.
The tunnel looked like a large sewer pipe back on Earth.
    The rest of the exploration  party hurried over beside Richard  as
soon as the first  whooshing sound waj heard  coming from the  tunnel.
Less than a  minute later a  subway sped around  a distant corner  and
headed rapidly toward
    RAMA REVEALEQ
    113
    them, stopping with its front end a  meter or so shy of where  the
spiked corridor continued to descend.
    The inside  of the  subway  was also  illuminated. There  were  no
seats, but there  were vertical rods  from the ceiling  to the  floor,
scattered in the car in seemingly  random fashion. The door slid  open
about fifteen seconds after the  subway arrived. On the opposite  side
of the  platform an  identical vehicle,  exactly one-tenth  as  large,
pulled up and stopped no more than five seconds later.
    Even though Max, Patrick, and Eponine had all heard stories  about
the two ghost subways  many times, actually  seeing the vehicles  left
all three of them  full of apprehension. "Are  you really serious,  my
friend?" Max said to  Richard after the two  men quickly examined  the
outside of the larger subway. "Do you really intend to board that damn
thing if we find no other way out?"
    Richard nodded.
    "But it could go anywhere," Max said. "We don't have the  foggiest
fucking idea what it is, or who built it, or what the hell it's  doing
here. And once we're on board, we're completely helpless."
    'That's right," Richard said. He  smiled wanly. "Max, you have  an
excellent grasp of our situation."
    Max shook his head. "Well, we'd better find something down in this
damn hole, because I don't know if Eponine and I-"
    "All right," Patrick said, approaching the other two men. "I guess
it's time for the next phase of this operation. Come on, Max, are  you
ready for some more spike climbing?"
    Richard did not  have any  of his clever  robots to  place in  the
smaller subway. He did,  however, have in  his possession a  miniature
camera with a crude mobility system  that he hoped would weigh  enough
to activate the smaller subway. "Under any circumstances," he told the
others, "the small tunnel does not  provide a possible exit for us.  I
just want to determine for myself if anything significant has  changed
during these years. Besides, there does not seem to be any
    114
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    115
    reason, at least not yet, for more  than two of us to descend  any
farther."
    While Max and  Patrick were  climbing slowly  down the  additional
spikes and Richard was  absorbed with a final  checkout of his  mobile
camera, Nicole and  Eponine strolled  around the  platform. "How's  it
going, farmer?" Eponine said to Max on the radio.
    "Fine so far," he replied. "But we're only about ten meters  below
you. These spikes  are not  as close together  as the  ones above,  so
we're being more cautious."
    "Your relationship with Max must have really blossomed while I was
in prison," Nicole commented a few moments later.
    "Yes,  it  did,"  Eponine  replied  easily.  "Quite  frankly,   it
surprised me. I  didn't think a  man was capable  of having a  serious
affair with someone who . . .  you know ... but I underestimated  Max.
He is  really  an  unusual  person.  Underneath  that  brusque,  macho
exterior . . ."
    Eponine stopped. Nicole  was smiling broadly.  "I don't think  Max
really fools  anybody-at least  not  those who  know him.  The  tough,
foul-mouthed Max  is  an  act, developed  for  some  reason,  probably
self-protection, back on that farm in Arkansas."
    The two women were silent for several seconds. "But I don't  think
I have ever  given him  full credit either,"  Nicole added.  "It is  a
tribute to him that  he adores you so  completely even though you  two
have never been able to really-"
    "Oh, Nicole,"  Eponine said,  suddenly emotional.  "Don't think  I
haven't wanted to, haven't dreamed about  it. And Dr. Turner has  told
us many times  that the odds  are very small  that Max would  contract
RV-41 if we used protection. But  'very small' is not good enough  for
me. What if somehow, some way,  I passed to Max this horrible  scourge
that is killing me? How could I ever forgive myself for condemning the
man I love to death?"
    Tears filled Eponine's  eyes. "We  are intimate,  of course,"  she
said. "In our own safe way. . . . And Max has never
    once complained. But I can tell from his eyes that he misses-"
    "All right, now," they heard Max say on the radio. "We can see the
bottom. It looks like a normal floor, maybe five more meters below us.
There are two tunnels leading away, one the size of the smaller tunnel
up at your level, and another that is really tiny. We're going on down
for a closer inspection."
    The time had come for the explorers to enter the subway. Richard's
mobile camera had not found  anything substantively new and there  was
definitely no exit the humans could  use on the only level below  them
in the lair. Richard  and Patrick finished  a private conversation  in
which they reviewed,  in detail, what  the young man  was going to  do
when he returned to  the others. Then they  rejoined Max, Nicole,  and
Eponine, and the five of them walked slowly around the platform to the
waiting subway.
    Eponine had butterflies in her  stomach. She remembered a  similar
feeling, when she was  fourteen, just before  her first one-woman  art
exhibit opened at her orphanage in Limoges. She took a deep breath.
    "I don't mind saying it," Eponine said. "I'm scared."
    "Shit," said Max, "that's an  understatement. . . . Say,  Richard,
how do we know this thing is  not going to hurtle over that cliff  you
told us about, with us inside?"
    Richard smiled  but didn't  reply. They  reached the  side of  the
subway. "All right," he  said, "since we don't  know exactly how  this
thing is activated, we want to be very careful. We will all enter more
or less simultaneously.  That will preclude  the possibility that  the
doors will close and the subway will take off when we are not all  yet
on board."
    Nobody said  anything for  almost  a minute.  They lined  up  four
abreast, Max and Eponine on the  side closest to the tunnel. "Now  I'm
going to count," Richard  said. "When I say  three, we'll all step  on
together."
    "May I close my eyes?" Max asked with a grin. "That made it easier
for me on roller coasters when I was a little boy."
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "If you like," Nicole answered.
    They stepped into the subway and  each of them grabbed a  vertical
rod. Nothing happened. Patrick stood staring at them on the other side
of the  open door.  "Maybe  it's waiting  for Patrick,"  Richard  said
quietly.
    "I don't know," Max  mumbled, "but if  this fucking train  doesn't
move in a few seconds, I'm going to jump off."
    The door closed slowly only moments after Max's comment. There was
time for  two breaths  each  before the  subway lurched  into  motion,
accelerating rapidly into the illuminated tunnel.
    Patrick waved  and followed  the  subway with  his eyes  until  it
disappeared around the  first corner.  Then he  put his  rifle on  his
shoulder and began climbing up  the spikes. Please come back  quickly,
he was thinking, before  the uncertainty becomes too  much for all  of
us.
    He returned to their  living level in  less than fifteen  minutes.
After taking a short drink from his water bottle, he hurried down  the
tunnel to the museum. While he was walking, he was thinking about what
he was going to say to everybody.
    Patrick did not even notice that the room was dark when he crossed
the threshold. When he  entered, however, and the  lights came on,  he
was momentarily disoriented. I'm  not in the  right place, he  thought
first. / have  taken the wrong  tunnel. But no,  his jumbled mind  now
said, as he  glanced quickly around  the room, this  must be the  room
after all. I see a  couple of feathers over  there in the corner,  and
one of Nikki 's funny diapers. . . .
    With each passing second  his heart beat  faster. Where are  they?
Patrick said to himself, his  eyes now darting frantically around  the
room for a second time. What  could have happened to them? The  longer
he stared at the empty walls, carefully recalling all the conversation
before he had departed, the more Patrick realized that his sister  and
friends could not  possibly have  left of their  own volition.  Unless
there was a note!  Patrick spent two minutes  searching every nook  in
the room. There were no messages. So someone, or something, must  have
forced them to leave, he thought.
    RAMA REVEALED
    117
    Patrick tried to think rationally, but it was impossible. His mind
kept jumping back and forth between  what he ought to do and  terrible
pictures of  what might  have happened  to the  others. At  length  he
concluded that perhaps they had all  moved back to the original  room,
the one his mother and Richard called the photo gallery, maybe because
the lights in the museum were malfunctioning or for some other equally
trivial reason. Buoyed by  this thought, Patrick  dashed out into  the
tunnel.
    He reached  the photo  gallery three  minutes later.  It was  also
empty. Patrick  sat  down  against  the  wall.  There  were  only  two
directions his companions could have taken. Since Patrick had not seen
anyone on his climb,  the others must have  gone toward the  cathedral
room and the  sealed exit. As  he walked down  the long corridor,  his
hand tight  around  the  rifle, Patrick  convinced  himself  that  the
Nakamura troops had  not left  the island  and that  they had  somehow
broken into the lair and captured everybody else.
    Just before he  entered the  cathedral room,  Patrick heard  Nikki
crying. "Mom-my, Mom-my," she  screamed, and then  let out a  mournful
wail. Patrick charged  into the  large room, not  seeing anybody,  and
then turned up the ramp in the direction of his niece's cry.
    On the landing beneath the still-sealed exit was a chaotic  scene.
In addition to  Nikki's continued wailing,  Robert Turner was  walking
around in a daze, his arms outstretched and his eyes upward, repeating
over and over, "No,  God, no." Benjy was  quietly sobbing in a  corner
while Nai was trying, without much success, to comfort her twin sons.
    When Nai  saw Patrick,  she jumped  up and  ran toward  him.  "Oh,
Patrick," she  said, tears  running  from her  eyes, "Ellie  has  been
kidnapped by the octospiders."
    12
    It was  several hours  before I  Patrick put  together a  coherent
story about what had happened after his exploration party had left the
museum room.  Nai was  still near  shock from  the experience,  Robert
could not talk for more than a minute without breaking into tears, and
the children and  Benjy frequently interrupted,  often without  making
any sense.  At  first  all  Patrick knew  for  certain  was  that  the
octospiders had come  and not only  had kidnapped EHie,  but also  had
taken away the  avians, the  manna melons, and  the sessile  material.
Eventually, however, after  repeated questioning,  Patrick thought  he
understood most of the details of what had occurred.
    Apparently about an  hour after the  five explorers had  departed,
which would have been during the  time that Richard, Patrick, and  the
others were down on the subway  platform, the humans who had  remained
in the rguseum room heard the  dragging brush sound outside the  door.
When Ellie went out to investigate, she saw octospiders
    RAMA REVEALED
    119
    approaching from both  directions. She returned  to the room  with
her news and tried to calm Benjy and the children.
    When the first octospider appeared in the doorway, all the  humans
moved as far  away as they  could, making  space for the  nine or  ten
octos who came  inside. At  first the  creatures stood  together in  a
group, their heads bright with the moving, colored messages that  they
used to communicate. After a few minutes, one of the octospiders  came
slightly forward,  pointed directly  at Ellie  by lifting  one of  its
black and gold tentacles off the  floor, and then went through a  long
sequence of colors that was quickly repeated. Ellie guessed (according
to Nai-Robert, on  the other  hand, insisted that  somehow Ellie  knew
what the octospider was  saying) that the aliens  were asking for  the
manna melons and  the sessile  material. She retrieved  them from  the
corner and handed mem to the  lead octospider. It took the objects  in
three of its tentacles  ("A sight to  behold," Robert exclaimed,  "the
way they use  those trunklike  things and the  cifia underneath")  and
passed them to its subordinates.
    Ellie and  the  others thought  that  the octospiders  would  then
leave, but they were sadly mistaken.  The lead octo continued to  face
Ellie and  flash his  colored messages.  Another pair  of  octospiders
started moving slowly in the direction of Tammy and Timmy. "No," E!lie
said. "No, you can't."
    But it was  too late. The  pair of octospiders  wrapped many  arms
each around  the hatchlings  and then,  oblivious of  the jabbers  and
shrieks, carried the two avians  away. Galileo Watanabe raced out  and
attacked the octospider that had three of its tentacles wrapped around
Timmy. The octo simply used a fourth tentacle to lift the boy off  the
ground and hand him to one of its colleagues. Galileo was passed among
them until he was put down, unhurt, in the far corner of the room. The
intruders allowed Nai to rush over to comfort her son.
    By this time three or four octospiders, the avians, the melons/and
the sessile material had all  disappeared out into the hallway.  There
were still six of the aliens in  the room. For about ten minutes  they
talked among themselves. All
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    during this  time, according  to Robert  ("I wasn't  paying  close
attention," Nai said. "I was too frightened and too concerned about my
children"), Ellie was  watching the colored  messages the  octospiders
were exchanging. At one point Ellie  brought Nikki over to Robert  and
put their daughter in his arms. "I think I understand a little of what
they're saying," Ellie  said (again,  according to  Robert), her  face
absolutely white. "They intend to take me as well."
    Again the lead octospider moved  toward them and started  speaking
in color, seemingly  focusing on Ellie.  Exactly what happened  during
the next ten minutes  was a subject  of considerable argument  between
Nai and Robert, with Benjy siding mostly with Nai. In Nai's version of
the story, Ellie tried to protect  everyone else in the room, to  make
some kind of bargain with the octospiders. With repeated hand gestures
as well as speech, Ellie told the aliens that she would go with  them,
provided that the octospiders guaranteed that all the other humans  in
the room would be allowed to leave the lair safely.
    "Ellie was explicit,"  Nai insisted. "She  explained that we  were
trapped and did not have enough food. Unfortunately, they grabbed  her
before she was certain that they understood the bargain."
    "You're naive, Nai," Robert said, his eyes wild with confusion and
pain. "You don't understand how  really sinister those creatures  are.
They hypnotized Ellie. Yes, they did.  During the early part of  their
visit, when she was  watching their colors  so carefully. I'm  telling
you, she  was  not  herself.  All  that  malarkey  about  guaranteeing
everyone safe passage was  a subterfuge. She wanted  to go with  them.
They altered her personality right there on the spot with those  crazy
colored patterns. And nobody saw it but me."
    Patrick discounted Robert's  account considerably because  Ellie's
husband was so  distraught. Nai,  however, agreed with  Robert on  two
final points:  Ellie  did not  struggle  or protest  after  the  first
octospider enwrapped her,  and before she  disappeared from the  room,
she calmly recited to  them a long list  of minutiae about caring  for
Nikki.
    RAMA REVEALED
    121
    "How can anyone  in her  right mind," Robert  said, "after  having
been seized by an alien, calmly rattle off what blankets her  daughter
hugs while she is sleeping, when Nikki last had a bowel movement,  and
other such  things?  She  was obviously  hypnotized,  or  drugged,  or
something."
    The tale of how everyone happened to be on the landing beneath the
sealed exit was relatively straightforward. After the octospiders left
with Ellie, Benjy ran out into the corridor, screaming and yelling and
vainly attacking the rear  guard of the octos.  Robert joined him  and
the two of them followed Ellie and the alien contingent all the way to
the cathedral  room. The  gate  was open  to  the fourth  tunnel.  One
octospider held Benjy and  Robert off with  four long tentacles  while
the others departed. The final octospider then locked the gate  behind
itself.
    The subway ride  was exhilarating for  Max. It reminded  him of  a
trip he had made to a large amusement park outside of Little Rock when
he was ten years old. The train was suspended above what looked like a
metal tape and touched nothing as it sped through the tunnel.  Richard
conjectured that it was powered in some way by magnetism.
    The subway stopped after  about two minutes  and the door  quickly
opened. The  four explorers  looked out  at a  plain platform,  creamy
white in color, behind which was  an archway about three meters  high.
"I guess, according to Plan A,"  Max said, "Eponine and I should  exit
here."
    "Yes," said Richard. "Of course, if the subway doesn't move again,
then Nicole and I will join you shortly."
    Max took Eponine's hand and stepped gingerly down on the platform.
As soon as  they were clear  of the subway,  the door closed.  Several
seconds later the train sped away.
    "Well, isn't this  romantic?" Max  said after he  and Eponine  had
waved good-bye to Richard  and Nicole. "Here we  are, just the two  of
us, finally all alone." He put his arms around Eponine and kissed her.
"I just want you to  know, Frenchie, that I love  you. I have no  idea
where in the fuck we are, but wherever it is, I'm glad to be here with
you."
    Eponine laughed. "I had a girlfriend at the orphanage
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    whose fantasy was to be all alone on a desert island with a famous
French actor named Marcel  du Bois, who had  a mammoth chest and  arms
like tree trunks. I wonder how she would have felt in this place." She
looked around. "I guess we're supposed to go under the archway."
    Max shrugged.  "Unless a  white  rabbit comes  along that  we  can
follow into some kind of a hole."
    On the other side of the archway was a large rectangular room with
blue walls. The room was absolutely empty and there was only one exit,
through an open doorway into  a narrow, illuminated corridor that  ran
parallel to the subway tunnel. All  the walls in this corridor,  which
continued in both directions for as far as Max and Eponine could  see,
were the same blue color as in the room behind the archway.
    "Which way do we go?" Max asked.
    "In this direction  I can see  what looks like  two doors  leading
away from the subway," Eponine said, pointing to her right.
    "And there are two more this way as well," Max said, looking left.
"Why don't we walk to the first doorway, look into it, and then decide
on a strategy?"
    Arm in arm they walked fifty  meters down the blue corridor.  What
they saw when  they came to  the next doorway  dismayed them.  Another
identical blue corridor,  with occasional doorways  along its  length,
stretched in front of them for many meters.
    "Shit," said Max. "We are about to  enter some kind of a maze.  We
damn sure don't want to get lost."
    "So what do you think we should do?" Eponine asked.
    "I think . . ." Max said,  hesitating, "I think we should smoke  a
cigarette and talk this over."
    Eponine laughed. "I couldn't agree with you more," she said.
    They proceeded very carefully. Each time they turned into  another
blue corridor, Max  made marks  with Eponine's lipstick  on the  wall,
indicating the entire  path back to  the room behind  the archway.  He
also insisted that Eftonine, who was more adroit with a computer  than
he was, keep
    RAMA REVEALED
    123
    duplicate records on her  portable-"In case something comes  along
that removes my marks," Max said.
    In the beginning their adventure was fun, and the first two  times
they backtracked to the archway, just  to prove they could do it,  Max
and Eponine felt a certain sense of accomplishment. But after an  hour
or so, when every  turn kept producing  another identical blue  scene,
their excitement began to wane. At length Max and Eponine stopped, sat
down on the floor, and shared another cigarette.
    "Now, why would any intelligent creature," Max said, blowing smoke
rings into  the  air,  "create  a  place  like  this?  Either  we  are
unwittingly undergoing a test of some kind-"
    "Or there's something here  that they don't  want anybody to  find
easily," Eponine finished. She took the cigarette from Max and inhaled
deeply. "Now, if that's the case," she continued, "then there must  be
some simple code  that defines the  location of the  special place  or
thing, a  code like  one of  those ancient  combination locks,  second
right, fourth left, and-"
    "Straight on  until  morning," Max  interrupted  with a  grin.  He
kissed Eponine briefly  and then stood  up. "So what  we should do  is
assume we're looking  for something  special and  organize our  search
logically."
    When Eponine was on  her feet, she looked  at Max with a  furrowed
brow. "Just exactly what did that last statement of yours mean?"
    "I'm not certain," Max replied with a laugh, "but it sure as  hell
sounded intelligent."
    Max and Eponine had  been walking up and  down blue corridors  for
almost four hours when they decided it was time to eat. They had  just
started their lunch of Raman  food when off to  their left, at a  full
intersection of corridors, they saw something pass. Max jumped to  his
feet and  ran to  the intersection.  He arrived  not more  than a  few
seconds before  a tiny  vehicle, maybe  ten centimeters  high, made  a
right turn into the next nearby hallway. Max scrambled forward and was
barely able to see the vehicle disappear under a small
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    archway, cut into the wall of another blue corridor, about  twenty
meters away.
    "Come here," he yelled at Eponine. "I've found something."
    Eponine was quickly beside  him. The top of  the small archway  in
the wall was only  about twenty-five centimeters  above the floor,  so
both of them had to drop down on their knees, and then bend over  some
more, to see where the vehicle had gone. What they saw first was fifty
or sixty tiny creatures, about the  size of ants, climbing out of  the
buslike vehicle and then scattering in all directions.
    "What the hell is this?" Max exclaimed.
    "Look, Max," Eponine said excitedly. "Look carefully. . . .  Those
little creatures are octospiders. . . . You see. . . . They look  just
like the one you described to me."
    "Well, I'll be damned," Max said. "You're right. They must be baby
octospiders."
    "I don't think so," Eponine  replied. "The way they're going  into
those little hives, or houses, or  whatever. Look, there's a canal  of
some kind, and a boat- "
    "The camera," Max shouted. "Go back and get the camera. There's an
entire miniature city here."
    Max and  Eponine had  taken off  their backpacks  and other  gear,
including Eponine's camera,  when they had  sat down on  the floor  to
eat. Eponine jumped up and raced back for the camera. Max continued to
be fascinated by the complex miniature world he saw on the other  side
of the archway.  A minute later  he heard  a faint scream  and a  cold
shiver of fear coursed through him.
    Max immediately  cursed himself  for having  left his  rifle  back
where they had been eating. He jumped  up and ran in the direction  of
Eponine's scream. When Max turned the last comer, he stopped  sharply.
Five octospiders  were  in front  of  him  in the  corridor.  One  had
enwrapped Eponine  with three  of its  tentacles, another  had  seized
Max's rifle. A third  octospider was holding Eponine's  backpack,*into
which all her personal items had been neatly placed.
    RAMA REVEALED
    125
    The look  on her  face  was sheer  terror. "Help  me,  Max .  .  .
please," Eponine entreated.
    Max stepped forward but was blocked by two of the octospiders. One
of them  sent a  stream of  colored bands  around its  head. "1  don't
understand  what  the  fuck  you're   telling  me,"  Max  shouted   in
frustration. "But you must let her go."
    Like  a  football  halfback,  Max   darted  past  the  first   two
octospiders and  had almost  reached Eponine  when he  felt  tentacles
coiling around  him,  pinning his  arms  to his  chest.  Struggle  was
useless. The creature was unbelievably strong.
    Three of  the  octospiders, including  the  one who  had  captured
Eponine, began to move down the blue corridor away from him. "Max .  .
. Max,"  the  terrified Eponine  cried.  He could  do  nothing.  After
another minute Max could no longer hear Eponine's cries.
    Max was enwrapped for  about ten more minutes  before he felt  the
powerful muscles that were holding  him relax. "So what happens  now?"
Max said when he was free. "What are you bastards going to do next?"
    One of the octos pointed toward his pack, which was still  leaning
against the wall where Max had left it. He slumped down beside it  and
pulled out some food and water.  The octospiders talked to each  other
in color  while  Max, who  understood  very  well that  he  was  being
guarded, ate a few bites of his food.
    These corridors are too narrow, he thought, thinking about  trying
to escape. And those goddamn things are too big, especially with their
long tentacles.
    The two octospiders  did not move  from their post  for hours.  At
length Max fell asleep on the floor between them.
    When he woke up, Max was alone. He walked cautiously to the  first
corner and looked both  ways down the blue  corridor. He saw  nothing.
After spending a minute  studying the lipstick marks  on the wall  and
adding a few scribbles describing the location of the city of the tiny
octospiders, Max returned to the room behind the subway platform.
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    ARTHUR C, CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    He had no clear idea of what he should do next. Max spent  several
minutes wandering  the  blue  corridors  and  yelling  Eponine's  name
periodically, but his effort was wasted. He eventually decided to  sit
on the platform and wait for the subway. After more than an hour,  Max
was almost ready to  return to the miniature  octospider city when  he
heard the whoosh  of the approaching  subway. It was  coming from  the
direction opposite the spiked vertical corridors.
    As the subway  drew near, he  saw Richard and  Nicole through  the
windows. "Max!"  they  yelled  simultaneously, even  before  the  door
opened.
    Both Richard and Nicole were  wildly excited. "We have found  it,"
Richard exclaimed as he jumped down onto the platform. "A large  room,
with a dome maybe  forty meters high, in  rainbow colors. It's on  the
other side of the  Cylindrical Sea-the subway  goes right through  the
sea in a transparent tunnel. . .  ." He paused as the subway  whooshed
away.
    "It has  bathrooms  and  beds and  running  water,"  Nicole  added
rapidly.
    "And fresh food, believe it or not. Some weird kinds of fruits and
vegetables, but they're really great for all-"
    "Where's Eponine?" Nicole said  suddenly, interrupting Richard  in
the middle of his sentence.
    "She's gone," Max replied tersely.
    "Gone?" said Richard. "But how? Where?"
    "Your nonhostile friends have kidnapped her," Max said dryly.
    "Whaaat?" said Richard.
    Max  told  the  story  slowly  and  accurately,  without  omitting
anything important. Both Richard and Nicole listened attentively until
he was finished. "They outsmarted  us," Richard commented at the  end,
shaking his head.
    "Not us,"  Max  said in  frustration.  "They outsmarted  me.  They
lulled Ep and me into believing we were solving some kind of puzzle in
that maze of blue corridors. . . . Shit. Just shit."
    "Don't be too hard on yourself," Nicole said quietly,
    RAMA REVEALED
    127
    touching Max on the shoulder. "You had no way of knowing."
    "But what colossal  stupidity," Max  said, raising  his voice.  "I
bring along a rifle for protection,  and where is that rifle when  our
eight-legged monster  friends show  up?  Leaning against  the  fucking
wall."
    "We were initially in a similar place," Richard said, "except  all
our corridors were  red instead  of blue.  Nicole and  I explored  for
about an hour and then returned to the platform. The subway picked  us
up again in ten minutes and then took us through the Cylindrical Sea."
    "Have you looked any for Eponine?" Nicole asked.
    Max nodded. "Sort of. I wandered around and shouted her name a few
times."
    "Maybe we should give it another try," Nicole suggested.
    The three friends  returned to  the world of  the blue  corridors.
When they came to the  first intersection, Max explained his  lipstick
marks on the wall to Richard and Nicole. "I guess we should split up,"
Max said. "That would probably be  a more efficient way to search  for
her. Why don't we meet at the room behind the archway in, say, half an
hour?"
    At the  second  corner Max,  who  was  now by  himself,  found  no
lipstick map. Puzzled, he tried to remember if he could possibly  have
failed to make a map at every turn. Or maybe, he never even came  this
way. While he was deep in thought, he felt a hand on his shoulder  and
nearly jumped out of his skin.
    "Whoa," said Richard,  seeing his  friend's face.  "It's only  me.
Didn't you hear me calling your name?"
    "No," said Max, shaking his head.
    "I was only two corridors  away. There must be fantastic  acoustic
attenuation in this place. Anyway, neither  Nicole nor I found one  of
your maps when we made our second turn. So we weren't certain-"
    "Shit," said Max emphatically. "Those clever bastards have cleaned
the walls. Don't you see? They have planned
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    this entire affair from  the beginning, and  we have done  exactly
what they expected."
    "But  Max,"  Richard  said,  "there's  no  way  they  could   have
accurately predicted everything we  were going to  do. We didn't  even
know our strategy completely. So how could they?"
    "I can't explain it,"  Max said. "But I  feel it. Those  creatures
deliberately waited until Eponine and I were eating before they let us
see that vehicle. They  knew we would give  chase and that they  would
have a chance to seize Eponine. And somehow they were watching us  all
the time."
    Even Max  agreed mat  it  was useless  to  search any  longer  for
Eponine in the  maze of  blue corridors. "She's  almost certainly  not
here anymore," he said dejectedly.
    While the trio waited on the platform for the subway, Richard  and
Nicole told Max  more details about  the large room  with the  rainbow
dome on the  southern side of  the Cylindrical Sea.  "Okay," said  Max
when they  were  finished, "one  connection  is clear,  even  to  this
Arkansas farm boy. The rainbow in the dome is obviously connected with
the rainbow  in the  sky  that distracted  Nakamura's troops.  So  the
rainbow people, whoever they are, don't  want us to get captured.  And
they don't want us to starve  to death. They're probably the ones  who
built the subway-or at least that makes some sense to me. But what  is
the relationship between the rainbow people and the octospiders?"
    "Before you told me about Eponine's kidnapping," Richard  replied,
"I was virtually certain they were one and the same. Now I don't know.
It's difficult to  interpret what  you experienced  as anything  other
than a hostile act."
    Max laughed. "Richard, you have such a way with words. Why do  you
keep giving those ugly bastards the benefit of the doubt? I would have
expected it  from  Nicole,  ..but  those  octospiders  once  kept  you
prisoner for mgnths, sent little creatures up your nose, and  probably
even tampered with your brain."
    RAMA REVEALED
    129
    "We don't know that for sure," Richard said quietly, for what felt
like the hundredth time.
    "AH right," said  Max. "But I  think you're discounting  a lot  of
evidence-"
    Max stopped when he heard the familiar whoosh. The subway arrived,
heading in the direction of the octospider lair. "Now why is it,"  Max
said with a trace of sarcasm just before they stepped into the  train,
"that this subway always happens to be going in the right direction?"
    Patrick had  managed  eventually  to  talk  Robert  and  Nai  into
returning to the museum  room. It had not  been easy. Both the  adults
and the  children had  been severely  trauma-tized by  die  octospider
attack. Robert could not sleep at  all, and the twins were plagued  by
dreams from which they  would awaken screaming.  By the time  Richard,
Nicole, and Max  showed up,  the remaining  food was  almost gone  and
Patrick had already started formulating contingency plans.
    It was a subdued reunion.  Both the kidnappings were discussed  at
length, leaving all the adults, even Nicole, acutely depressed.  There
was very little excitement  about the rainbow dome  in the south.  But
there was no question  about what they  should do. Richard  summarized
their situation succinctly. "At least mere's food under the dome,"  he
said.
    They packed  all  their belongings  in  silence. Patrick  and  Max
carried the children  down die  spiked vertical  corridor. The  subway
appeared soon after everyone was on  the platform. It did not stop  at
either of  the  two  intermediate  stations, just  as  Max  had  wryly
predicted, but instead hurtled on into the transparent tunnel  through
the Cylindrical Sea. The^ strange  and wonderful sea creatures on  the
other sides of the tunnel wall, almost certainly all biots, fascinated
the children and  reminded Richard  of his  voyage to  New York  years
earlier, when he had come to look for Nicole.
    The large chamber under  the dome at the  other end of the  subway
line was indeed staggering. Although Benjy and the children were  more
interested initially in the variety of
    130
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    fresh new food that was spread out along a long table on one  side
of the room,  the adults all  wandered around in  amazement, not  only
staring at the brilliant colors of the rainbow far above their  heads,
but also examining all the alcoves off the back of the platform, where
bathrooms and individual sleeping suites were located.
    Max marched off the dimensions of  the main floor. It was  roughly
fifty meters wide, and  forty meters from the  subway platform to  the
alcove entrances. A  few minutes later  Patrick came over  to talk  to
Max, who was now  standing beside the slot  cut into the platform  for
the subway.  Everyone  else  was  discussing  the  allocation  of  the
sleeping suites.
    "I'm sorry about Eponine," Patrick  said, putting his hand on  his
friend's shoulder.
    Max shrugged. "In a way it's worse that EHie is gone. I don't know
if Robert or Nikki will ever recover completely."
    The two men stood side by side and stared at the long, dark, empty
tunnel. "You know, Patrick," Max said grimly, "I wish I could convince
the farmer  in me  that our  troubles are  over and  that the  rainbow
people are going to take care of us."
    Kepler came running up  with a long vegetable  that looked like  a
green carrot. "Mr.  Puckett," he said,  "you must try  this. It's  the
best."
    Max accepted the little boy's gift and placed the vegetable in his
mouth. He took a bite. "This  is good, Kepler," he said, tousling  the
boy's hair. "Thank you very much."
    Kepler raced back to the others. Max chewed the vegetable  slowly.
"I always took  excellent care of  my pigs and  chickens," he said  to
Patrick. "They  had  good  food  and  great  living  conditions."  Max
gestured with his right hand toward the dome and the table laden  with
food. "But I also  removed the animals,  a few at a  time, when I  was
ready to slaughter them or sell them at the market." *.
    THE RAINBOW CONNECTION
    1
    N
    Iicole was lying  on her back,  awake again in  the middle of  the
night. In  the  dim light  of  their  bedroom she  could  see  Richard
sleeping soundlessly  beside  her.  At length  she  rose  quietly  and
crossed the  room,  exiting  into  the large  main  chamber  of  their
temporary home.
    The intelligence that controlled the illumination made it easy for
the humans to sleep, always sharply reducing the light shining through
the rainbow  dome for  roughly eight  hours in  each  twenty-four-hour
period. During these  "night" intervals, the  main chamber  underneath
the dome was only softly lit, and the individual bedrooms cut into the
walls, which had no tights of their own, were dark enough for  restful
sleep.
    For  several  consecutive  nights   Nicole  had  slept   fitfully,
awakening often  from  disquieting dreams  that  she could  not  quite
remember. This particular  night, as she  struggled unsuccessfully  to
recapture the images that had disturbed her rest, Nicole walked slowly
around the perimeter of the
    134
    ARTHUR C. CLARICE AND GENTRY LEE
    large circular room in which her family and friends spent most  of
their time. On  the far  side of the  chamber, near  the empty  subway
platform, she stopped and stared into the dark tunnel that led through
the Cylindrical Sea.
    What is  really going  on  here? Nicole  wondered. What  power  or
intelligence is providing for us now?
    It had been four weeks since the small human contingent had  first
reached this magnificent  cavern constructed  underneath the  Southern
Hemicylinder of  Rama.  The new  living  quarters had  obviously  been
designed, at considerable effort, specifically for them. The  bedrooms
and the bathrooms in the alcoves were indistinguishable from those  in
New Eden. The  first subway to  return after they  had arrived at  the
dome had brought more food and water, plus couches, chairs, and tables
to furnish their living areas. The humans had even been supplied  with
dishes, glasses, and eating utensils. Who, or what, knew enough  about
everyday human activity to provide such detailed implements?
    It is obviously someone who has observed us very carefully, Nicole
was thinking.  Her mind  conjured up  an image  of the  Eagle and  she
realized that she was engaging in wishful thinking. But who else could
it be?  Only  the  Ramans  and  the  Nodal  Intelligence  have  enough
information . . .
    Her thoughts were broken by a sound behind her. Nicole turned  and
saw Max Puckett approaching from across the chamber. "You can't  sleep
either?" he said as he drew near.
    Nicole shook her head. "These last few nights I've been having bad
dreams."
    "I keep worrying about  Eponine," Max said. "I  can still see  the
terror in her eyes as she was dragged away." He turned away in silence
and faced the subway tunnel.
    And what about you, Ellie?  Nicole wondered, feeling a sharp  pang
of anxiety. Are you safe with the octospiders? Or is Max correct about
them? Are Richard and I deluding  ourselves by believing the octos  do
not intend to harm us?
    "I can't just sit here any longer," Max said quietly to Nicole. "I
must do something to help Eponine. Or at least to convince myself  I'm
trying."
    RAMA REVEALED
    135
    "But what can you do, Max?" Nicole asked after a short pause.
    "Our only contact with the outside world is that damn subway," Max
said. '.The  next time  it comes  to bring  us food  and water,  which
should be either tonight or tomorrow,  I intend to climb on board  and
stay there. When it leaves,  I will ride until  it stops. Then I  will
try to find an octospider and have myself captured."
    Nicole recognized the  desperation in her  friend's face.  "You're
grasping at  straws, Max,"  she said  softly. "You  will not  find  an
octospider unless they are willing. Besides, we need you."
    "Shit, Nicole, I'm  not needed  here." Max had  raised his  voice.
"And there's absolutely nothing to do,  except talk to each other  and
play with the  children. At least  in your lair  there was always  the
option of taking a  walk in the dark  of New York. Meanwhile,  Eponine
and Ellie  may  be  dead, or  wishing  they  were. It's  time  we  did
something."
    As he was  talking, they both  saw lights flicker  in the  distant
reaches of the subway tunnel. "Here  it comes again," Max said.  "I'll
help you unload after I finish packing  my things." He ran off in  the
direction of his bedroom.
    Nicole stayed to watch the  approaching subway. As always,  lights
came-on in front of the train as  it rushed through the tunnel. A  few
minutes later the  subway pulled  into its  slot, an  incision in  the
circular floor  of the  room, and  stopped abruptly.  After the  doors
opened, Nicole went over to examine the inside of the car.
    In addition to four large jugs of water, the subway contained  the
usual collection of fresh produce that  the humans had learned to  eat
and enjoy, plus a large squeeze tube of a sticky substance that tasted
like a mixture of oranges and honey. But where is all this food  grown
? Nicole asked herself for the  hundredth time as she began  unloading
the food. She recalled the many family discussions of the subject. The
consensus conclusion  was  always  that  there  must  be  large  farms
somewhere in the Southern Hemicylinder.
    About who was feeding them there was less agreement.
    136
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Richard was certain that  they were being  fed by the  octospiders
themselves,  primarily  because  all  their  supplies  passed  through
territory he considered to be octospider domain. It was hard to  argue
with his logic. Max agreed that what they were eating was indeed being
supplied by the octospiders.  However, he attributed sinister  motives
to all octospider actions. If they were being fed by the  octospiders,
he asserted, then it was not for humanitarian purposes.
    Why would the octospiders be  our benefactors? Nicole wondered.  /
agree with Max that feeding us is inconsistent with kidnapping Eponine
andEUie. Isn't it just possible  that some other species is  involved?
One that  has chosen  to intercede  on our  behalf? Despite  Richard's
gentle ridicule in the privacy of their own bedroom, a part of  Nicole
clung stubbornly  to the  hope that  there were  indeed some  "rainbow
people," higher in the development hierarchy than the octospiders, who
were somehow interested in the  preservation of the vulnerable  humans
and were ordering the octospiders to feed them.
    The contents of the subway always included a surprise. At the back
of the car this time were six balls of various sizes, each a different
bright color.
    "Look, Max," Nicole said.  He had returned with  his pack and  was
helping her unload.  "They have even  sent balls for  the children  to
play with."
    "Wonderful," Max said sarcastically. "Now we can all listen to the
children argue about which ball belongs to whom."
    When they had finished emptying  the subway, Max climbed into  the
car and sat down on the floor. "How long will you wait?" Nicole asked.
    "As long as it takes," Max said grimly.
    "Did you  discuss  what you're  doing  with anyone  else?"  Nicole
inquired.
    "Hell, no,"  Max  replied vehemently.  "Why  should I?  We're  not
operating a  democracy  here."  Max  leaned  forward  in  his  sitting
position. "Sorry, Nicole, but I'm just generally pissed off right now.
Eponine has been gone tor a month, I've run out of cigarettes, and I'm
easily annoyed."
    RAMA REVEALED
    137
    He forced a smile. "Clyde and Winona  used to tell me, when I  was
acting like this, that I had a burr up my ass."
    "It's all right, Max," Nicole said. She hugged him briefly  before
leaving. "I just hope you'll be safe, wherever you go."
    The subway did  not depart.  Max stubbornly refused  to leave  the
train, not even to go to  the bathroom. His friends brought Max  food,
water, and the necessary materials for him to keep the train clean. By
the end of the third day, the food supply was dwindling rapidly.
    "Someone must talk to Max soon,"  Robert said to the other  adults
after the children  were asleep. "It's  clear that the  subway is  not
going to move as long as he is on board."
    "I plan to discuss the situation with him in the morning,"  Nicole
said.
    "But we're running  out of  food now," Robert  protested. "And  we
don't know how long it takes."
    "We can ration what we have left," Richard interrupted, "and  make
it last at  least two  more days. Look,  Robert, we're  all tense  and
tired. It will be better to talk to Max after a good night's sleep."
    "What do  we do  if  Max does  not  willingly leave  the  subway?"
Richard asked Nicole when they were alone.
    "I don't know," Nicole said.  "Patrick asked me the same  question
diis afternoon. He's afraid of what will happen if we try to force Max
out of the train. Patrick says that Max is very tired and very angry."
    When Nicole  finally fell  asleep, she  was exhausted.  Again  her
dreams were troubled. In her first dream, the villa at Beauvois was on
fire and she could  not find Genevieve. Then  the dream venue  changed
abruptly  and  Nicole  was  again   seven  years  old  in  the   Ivory
Coast^participating in the Poro ceremony. She was swimming half  naked
in the little pond  in the center  of the oasis. On  the banks of  the
pond the lioness was  on the prowl, searching  for the human girl  who
had disturbed her cub. Nicole submerged to avoid the sharp eyes of the
lioness. When she came up for a breath, the
    138
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    lioness was gone,  but three octospiders  were now patrolling  the
pond.
    "Mother, Mother," Nicole heard Elite's voice say.
    As  she  was  treading  water,  Nicole's  eyes  raced  around  the
perimeter of  the  pond.  "We're all  right.  Mother,"  Ellie's  voice
distinctly said. "Don't worry about us."
    But where was  Ellie in the  scene? Dreaming, Nicole  saw a  human
silhouette in the woods behind  the three octospiders and called  out,
"Ellie, is that you, Ellie?"
    The dark figure said "Yes" in Ellie's voice and then walked out to
where he could be seen in the moonlight. Nicole recognized the  bright
white teeth immediately. "Omeh," she shouted, a wave of terror running
down her spine. "Omeh-"
    Nicole was awakened by a  persistent nudging. Richard was  sitting
beside her in  the bed. "Are  you all right,  darling?" he said.  "You
were shouting Ellie's name . . . and then Omeh."
    "I had another one  of my vivid dreams,"  Nicole said, rising  and
putting on her clothes. "I was  told that Eponine and Ellie are  safe,
wherever they are."
    Nicole finished  dressing. "Where  are you  going at  this  hour?"
Richard asked.
    'To talk to Max," Nicole replied.
    She hurried  out  of  their  bedroom and  into  the  main  chamber
underneath the dome. For some reason, Nicole glanced up at the ceiling
just when she  entered the chamber.  She saw something  she had  never
noticed. There appeared to be a landing or platform cut several meters
beneath the dome. Nicole wondered why she had never seen it before.
    Max was sleeping  in a ball  in the corner  of the subway.  Nicole
entered very  quietly.  A few  seconds  before she  touched  him,  Max
murmured Eponine's name twice. Then  his head jerked. "Yes, dear,"  he
said quite distinctly.
    "Max," Nicole whispered in his ear. "Wake up, Max."
    When Max awakened, he looked as if he had seen a ghost. "I've  had
the most amazing dream, Max," Nicole said. "I now know that Ellie  and
Eponine are all right. . . .
    RAMA REVEALED
    139
    I've come to ask you to leave the subway, so it can bring us  more
food. I know how much you want to do something-"
    Nicole stopped. Max  had risen to  his feet and  was preparing  to
descend from  the  subway.  He  -still  had  a  completely  bewildered
expression on his face. "Let's go," he said.
    "Just like that?" Nicole said, astonished that she had encountered
so little resistance.
    "Yes," said Max, stepping down from the train. Only a few  moments
after Nicole  had also  left  the subway,  the  doors closed  and  the
vehicle accelerated swiftly away from them.
    "When you  woke me  up," Max  said as  Nicole and  he watched  the
subway disappear, "I was in  the middle of a  dream. I was talking  to
Eponine. The instant before I Tieard  your voice she told me you  were
going to bring me an important message."
    Max  shuddered,  then  laughed  and  started  walking  toward  the
alcoves. "Of course I don't  believe in any of  that ESP shit, but  it
certainly was a remarkable coincidence."
    The subway returned before it was dark again. This time there were
two cars on the train. The front  car was bright and open and full  of
food and  water as  it had  always  been before.  The second  car  was
totally dark. Its doors did not open and its windows were covered.
    "Well, well," Max said, walking to the edge of the subway slot and
trying unsuccessfully to open the second car, "what have we here?"
    After the food and water had been unloaded from the front car, the
subway did not depart as usual. The humans waited, but the  mysterious
second car refused  to yield  its secrets.  At length  Nicole and  her
friends decided to  proceed with dinner.  The conversation during  the
meal was subdued and full of wary speculation about their intruder.
    When little Kepler innocently  suggested that perhaps Eponine  and
Ellie might be  inside the dark  car, Nicole told  the story again  of
finding Richard in a coma after his long
    140
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    sojourn with the octospiders. A  sense of foreboding spread  among
the humans.
    "We should keep a watch throughout the night," Max suggested after
dinner, "so that there  can be no possibility  of any kind of  devious
trick while we're asleep. I'll take the first four-hour shift."
    Patrick and  Richard  also volunteered  to  help with  the  watch.
Before going  to  bed,  the  whole family,  including  Benjy  and  the
children, marched  to the  edge  of the  platform  and stared  at  the
subway. "What could be inside, Mama?" Benjy asked.
    "I don't  know, darling,"  Nicole answered,  hugging her  son.  "I
really have no idea at all."
    An hour before the lights in the dome brightened the next morning,
Richard and Nicole were awakened by Patrick and Max. "Come," Max  said
to them excitedly, "you've got to see this."
    In the center of the main chamber were four large black  segmented
creatures that were antlike in shape  and structure. To each of  their
three body segments were attached both a pair of legs and another pair
of prehensile  appendages that  were, as  the humans  watched,  busily
stacking material in  piles. The  creatures were a  wonder to  behold.
Each of  the  long,  snake  like "arms"  had  the  versatility  of  an
elephant's trunk, with one additional capability. When any  particular
arm was  not being  used, either  to lift  something or  to balance  a
weight being carried by its  opposite member, that arm would  withdraw
into its  "case" in  the side  of  the being,  where it  would  remain
tightly coiled until needed  again. Thus, when  the alien beings  were
not performing any  task, their  arms were out  of sight  and did  not
impede their movement.
    The stunned humans continued to  watch with rapt attention as  the
bizarre creatures, almost two  meters long and  a meter tall,  quickly
emptied the contents of  the dark subway  car, briefly surveyed  their
stacks, and then departed  with the train. As  soon as the aliens  had
disappeared,  Max,  Patrick,  Richard,  and  Nicole  walked  over   to
examine*the piles. There were objects of all shapes and sizes in the
    RAMA REVEALED
    141
    stacks, but the dominant  single part was a  long flat piece  that
resembled a conventional stairstep.
    "If I had to  guess," Richard said, picking  up a small item  that
was shaped  like a  fountain pen,  "I  would say  that this  stuff  is
between cement and steel in bearing strength."
    "But what is it for, Uncle Richard?" Patrick asked.
    "They are going to build something, I would assume."
    "And who are theyT Max said.
    Richard shrugged and  shook his head.  "These creatures that  just
left struck me  as advanced domestic  animals, capable of  complicated
sequential tasks but not real thinking."
    "So they are not Mama's rainbow people?" Patrick said.
    "Certainly not," Nicole answered with a wan smile.
    The rest of  the humans, including  the children, were  thoroughly
briefed about  the  new creatures  during  breakfast. All  the  adults
agreed that if the  aliens returned, as expected,  there should be  no
interference with  whatever  task  they  were  doing,  unless  it  was
determined that the  creatures' activities constituted  some' kind  of
serious threat.
    When the subway pulled into its slot three hours later, two of the
new beings clambered out of the front car and hurried into the  center
of the main  chamber. Each  was carrying a  small pot,  into which  it
dipped one of its  arms frequently as it  made bright red markings  on
the  floor.  Eventually  these   red  lines  circumscribed  a   region
containing the subway platform, all the material that had been  placed
in stacks, and about half the area of the room.
    Moments later, another dozen of me huge animals with the trunklike
appendages poured forth from the two subway cars, several carrying  on
their backs large and heavy curvilinear structures. They were followed
by two octospiders with unusually bright colors streaming around their
spherical heads. The two octospiders sauntered into the center of  the
chamber, where they inspected the  piles of material and then  ordered
the antlike creatures to begin some kind of construction task.
    "So the plot thickens," Max said to Patrick as the two
    142
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    men watched together from a distance. "It is indeed our octospider
friends who are in control here, but  just what in the world are  they
doing?"
    "Who knows?" Patrick replied, mesmerized by what he was seeing.
    "Look, Nicole," Richard said  a few minutes  later, "over by  that
large stack. That  ant thing  is definitely  reading the  octospider's
colors."
    "So what do we do now?" Nicole said in a low voice.
    "I guess we just watch and wait," Richard answered.
    All the construction activity took place inside the red lines that
had been  painted on  the floor.  Several hours  later, after  another
subway load  of the  large curvilinear  components was  delivered  and
unloaded, the overall shape of what  was being built became clear.  On
one side of the room a vertical cylinder, four meters in diameter, was
being erected. Its top segment was eventually positioned even with the
bottom of the dome. Inside the cylinder, the stairsteps were placed so
that they wound up and around the center of the structure.
    The work continued unabated  for thirty-six hours. The  octospider
architects supervised the giant ants with the versatile arms. The only
significant break in the  activity came when  Kepler and Galileo,  who
tired  of  watching  the  alien  construction  after  several   hours,
inadvertently allowed a ball to bounce  across the red paint and  into
one of  the  antlike  creatures.  All work  halted  instantly  and  an
octospider hurried over, both  to retrieve the  ball and seemingly  to
reassure the worker. With  an adroit motion of  two of its  tentacles,
the octospider  threw the  ball  back to  the  children and  the  work
resumed.
    Everyone except Max and Nicole was asleep when the aliens finished
their staircase, picked up their  residual materials, and departed  in
the subway. Max walked over to the cylinder and stuck his head inside.
"Pretty impressive," he said coyly, "but what is it for?"
    "Come on, Max," Nicole replied, "be serious* It's obvious that  we
are supposed to climb the stairs."
    RAMA REVEALED
    143
    "Shit, Nicole," Max said.  "I know that. But  H>/iy? Why do  those
octospiders  want  us  to  climb  out  of  here?  You  know,   they've
manipulated us  since the  moment  we entered  their lair.  They  have
kidnapped Eponine and Ellie, moved us into the Southern  Hemicylinder,
and refused to let  me go back  to New York. What  would happen if  we
decided not to go along with their plan?"
    Nicole stared at her friend. "Max, would it be all right with  you
if we  postponed this  conversation until  we're all  together in  the
morning? I'm very tired."
    "Certainly," Max said. "But tell that husband of yours I think  we
should do something completely unpredictable, like maybe even  walking
back through  the tunnel  to the  octospider lair.  I have  an  uneasy
feeling about where all this is leading us."
    "We don't know  all the  answers, Max,"  Nicole answered  wearily,
"but I really  don't see where  we have much  choice except to  comply
with their wishes  as long  as the  octospiders control  our food  and
water supply. Maybe in this situation we must simply have some faith."
    "Faith?" said Max. "That's just another word for not thinking." He
walked back over to the cylinder. "And this amazing staircase could be
taking us to hell as easily as heaven."
    2
    In the morning the subway I returned with new food and
    water. After  it  had  departed and  everyone  had  inspected  the
enclosed cylindrical structure, Max argued that the time had come  for
the humans to show  that they were "tired  of being pushed around"  by
the octospiders. Max suggested  that he, and anyone  who wanted to  go
with him, should take the single remaining rifle and trek back through
the tunnel under the Cylindrical Sea.
    "But what exactly are you trying to accomplish?" Richard asked.
    "I want them to capture me and  take me to where they are  holding
Eponine and Ellie. Then  I will know for  certain they are all  right.
Nicole's dreams are really not sufficient."
    "But Max," Richard  countered, "your  plan is  not logical.  Think
about it. Even assuming that you are not run over by the subway  while
you're in the tunnel, how  are you gojng to  explain what you want  to
the octospiders?"
    "I was hoping for some help from you, Richard," Max
    RAMA REVEALED
    145
    said. "I remember how you and Nicole communicated with the avians.
Maybe you could use your computer skills to make a graphics picture of
Eponine for me.  Then I  could show it  to the  octospiders, using  my
monitor."
    Nicole sensed the entreaty in  Max's voice. She touched  Richard's
hand. "Why not?" she said. "Someone could explore where the  staircase
leads while  you create  computer pictures  of Eponine  and Ellie  for
Max."
    "I would like to  go with Max," Robert  Turner said suddenly.  "If
there's any chance at all  of finding Ellie, then  I want to take  it.
Nikki will be all right as long as she is here with her grandparents."
    Although Richard and  Nicole were both  concerned about what  they
were hearing, they chose  not to express their  anxieties in front  of
everyone else. Patrick was  asked to climb the  staircase and do  some
minimal exploring while Richard  was performing his computer  graphics
wizardry. Max and Robert went to  their bedrooms to prepare for  their
trek. Meanwhile, Nicole  and Nai were  left alone with  Benjy and  the
children in the main chamber.
    "You think it's  a mistake for  Max and Robert  to go back,  don't
you, Nicole?" Nai's question was asked, as always, in the gentle  tone
that characterized her personality.
    "Yes," said  Nicole. "But  I'm not  certain that  my thoughts  are
relevant in this situation. Both men feel bereft and frustrated. It is
important to mem that some action be taken that is aimed at  reuniting
them with their partners. . . . Even if the action doesn't make a  lot
of logical sense."
    "What do you think will happen to them?" Nai asked.
    "I don't know," Nicole replied. "But I don't think Max and  Robert
will find Eponine and Ellie. In  my opinion, each woman was  kidnapped
for a specific  reason. Although  I have  no idea  what those  reasons
were, I believe the  octospiders will not harm  Eponine and Ellie  and
will eventually return them both to us."
    "You are very trusting," Nai said.
    "Not really," said  Nicole. "My experiences  with the  octospiders
lead me to believe that  we are dealing with  a species with a  highly
developed sense of morality. I admit
    146
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    that the  kidnappings do  not  seem to  be  in concert  with  that
picture-and I don't  fault either Max  or Robert for  coming to  their
own, very different conclusions about the octo-spiders-but I would bet
that we will,  in die  long run, understand  even the  purpose of  the
kidnappings."
    "In die meantime," Nai  said, "we face  a difficult situation.  If
Max and Robert both leave and never return . . ."
    "I know," said Nicole, "but there's nothing we can really do about
it. They have decided, Max especially,  that they must make some  kind
of  statement  now.  It's   a  little  old-fashioned-macho,   even-but
understandable. The rest of us must accommodate tfreir needs, even  if
in our opinion their actions seem capricious."
    Patrick returned  in  less than  an  hour. He  reported  that  the
staircase ended on a landing that  narrowed into a hallway behind  the
dome. That hallway eventually led to another, smaller staircase  which
climbed another ten  meters and  came out inside  an igloo-shaped  hut
about fifty meters south of the cliff overlooking the Cylindrical Sea.
    "And what was it like, outside in Rama?" Richard asked.
    "The same as in  the north," Patrick  answered. "Cold- about  five
degrees Celsius,  I  would  estimate-and dark,  with  only  traces  of
background light. The igloo  hut is warm and  well lighted. There  are
beds and a single badiroom, certainly designed for us, but  altogether
not much living space."
    "Are there no other corridors or passages?" Max asked.
    "No," said Patrick, shaking his head.
    "Uncle Richard  has made  great pictures  of Ellie  and  Eponine,"
Benjy said to his brother at this juncture. "You should see them."
    Max pushed two buttons on  his portable computer and an  excellent
rendition of Eponine's  face appeared. "Richard  didn't have her  eyes
right the first time,"  Max said, "but I  straightened him out.  Ellie
was a much easier pictujp for him."
    "So are you all ready to go, then?" Patrick asked Max.
    RAMA REVEALED
    147
    "Just about. We're going to wait  until morning so that the  light
from this room will illuminate more of the tunnel."
    "How long do you think it will take to reach the other side?"
    "An hour or so at a brisk pace," Max said. "I hope Robert can push
himself that hard."
    "And what will you do if you hear a subway coming?" Patrick said.
    "There's not much  we can do,"  Max replied with  a shrug.  "We've
already surveyed the  tunnel and there's  very little clearance.  Your
Uncle Richard  says we  must rely  on the  subway's 'fault  protection
system.'"
    There was an argument at dinner about the rifle. Both Richard  and
Nicole were strongly opposed  to Max's taking  the rifle, not  because
they particularly  wanted the  weapon to  stay with  the rest  of  the
family, but  rarner  because  they feared  an  "incident"  that  might
ultimately affect  everyone. Richard  was not  very tactful  with  his
remarks and angered Max.
    "So, Mr.  Expert,"  Max replied  at  one point,  "would  you  mind
telling me  just how  you know  that  my rifle  will be  'useless'  in
finding Eponine."
    "Max," Richard said stridently, "the octospiders must-"
    "Let me, please, dear,"  Nicole interceded. "Max,"  she said in  a
softer tone, "I  cannot imagine  a scenario in  which the  rifle is  a
valuable asset for you on this trip. If you need it in any way to deal
with the octospiders, then they must be hostile, and the fates of both
Eponine and Ellie  would have  been decided  long ago.  We just  don't
want-"
    "What   if   we   encounter   some   other   hostile    creatures,
nonoctospiders," Max said stubbornly, "and we must protect  ourselves?
Or what if I need to use the rifle to signal Robert in some way? I can
think of many situations. . . ."
    The group  was unable  to  resolve the  issue. Richard  was  still
frustrated when  Nicole and  he were  undressing for  bed. "Can't  Max
understand," Richard said, "that  the real reason he  wants to have  a
gun is to give himself a feeling  of security? And a false feeling  at
that? What if he does
    148
    ARTHUR C. CLARICE AND GENTRY LEE
    something hotheaded  and the  octospiders  withdraw our  food  and
water?"
    "We can't worry about  that now, Richard,"  Nicole said. "At  this
stage I don't think there's  anything we can do  except ask Max to  be
careful and remind  him that he  is our representative.  No amount  of
talking is going to change his mind."
    "Then maybe we  should call  for a vote  about whether  or not  he
should take the rifle," Richard said.  "And show Max that everyone  is
opposed to what he is doing."
    "My instinct tells me," Nicole replied quickly, "that any kind  of
vote would  be absolutely  the wrong  way to  handle Max.  He  already
senses what everyone is feeling. A coordinated censure would  alienate
Max and could make an 'incident' more likely to occur. No, darling, in
this case we must just hope that nothing untoward happens."
    Richard was quiet for almost a minute. "I guess you're right,"  he
said finally.
    "We will wait  here together for  forty-eight hours," Richard  was
saying to Max and Robert. "After that time some of us may begin moving
our things up to the igloo."
    "All right," said Max, tightening  the straps on his backpack.  He
grinned. "And  don't  worry. I  won't  shoot one  of  your  octospider
friends unless it's absolutely necessary." He turned to Robert. "Well,
mi amigo, are you ready for an adventure?"
    Robert did not look comfortable wearing his backpack. He bent down
awkwardly and picked up his daughter. "Daddy will only be gone a short
while, Nikki," he said.  "Nonni and Boobah will  both be staying  here
with you."
    Just before the two men departed, Galileo came running across  the
chamber with a small pack on his back. "I'm going too," he shouted. "I
want to fight the octospiders."
    Everyone laughed while Nai explained to Galileo why he couldn't go
with Max and Robert. Patrick softened the little boy's  disappointment
by telling him that he co,uld be  the first one up the staircase  when
the family moved to the igloo.
    RAMA REVEALED
    149
    The two men  marched quickly into  the tunnel. For  the first  few
hundred meters they walked in silence, entertained by the  fascinating
sea creatures on the other side  of the transparent plastic or  glass.
Twice Max  had to  slow  down to  wait for  Robert,  who was  in  poor
physical shape.  The two  men  did not  encounter any  subways.  After
slightly more than  an hour,  their flashlight  beams illuminated  the
first station on the other side  of the Cylindrical Sea. When Max  and
Robert were  within fifty  meters  of the  station platform,  all  the
lights switched on and they could see where they were going.
    "Richard and Nicole  visited this  place," Max  said. "Behind  the
archway there is a kind of atrium, and then a maze of red corridors."
    "What will we do  here?" Robert asked. He  was out of his  element
and completely content to follow Max's lead.
    "I haven't  decided exactly,"  Max said.  "I guess  we'll  explore
awhile and hope we find some octospiders."
    Much to Max's surprise, beyond the station platform, in the middle
of the atrium floor, was a large blue painted circle, out of which ran
a thick blue line that  turned right at the  beginning of the maze  of
red corridors. "Richard and Nicole  never mentioned a blue line,"  Max
said to Robert.
    "It's obviously an idiot-proof set of directions," Robert said. He
laughed nervously.  "Following  the thick  blue  line is  as  easy  as
following the yellow brick road."
    They walked into the first corridor.  The blue line in the  center
of the floor  stretched a  hundred meters in  front of  them and  then
turned left at a distant intersection.
    "You think we  should follow  the line,  don't you?"  Max said  to
Robert.
    "Why not?" Robert answered, taking a few steps along the corridor.
    "It's too  obvious,"  said Max,  as  much  to himself  as  to  his
companion. He clutched his rifle  and followed Robert. "Say"-he  spoke
again after they made their first left turn-"you don't think this line
was put here specifically for us, do you?"
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "No," Robert replied,  stopping for  a moment.  "How could  anyone
have known we were coming?"
    "That's just what I asked myself," Max mumbled.
    Max and  Robert walked  on  in silence,  making three  more  turns
following the blue line before coming to an archway that rose a  meter
and a half above the  floor. They bent down  and entered a large  room
with dark red ceilings and walls. The thick blue line ended in a large
blue circle that was in the middle of the room.
    Less than  a second  after they  were both  standing in  the  blue
circle, the  lights in  the  room went  out.  A crude,  silent  motion
picture, whose image was about one meter square, immediately  appeared
on the wall directly in front of Max and Robert. In the center of  the
image were  Eponine  and Eilie,  both  dressed in  strange,  smocklike
yellow outfits. They were  talking to each other  and to some  unknown
person or thing who was off to the right, but of course Max and Robert
could not hear anything they were saying. A few moments later, the two
women moved  a few  meters to  their right,  past an  octospider,  and
appeared beside a strange fat  animal, vaguely resembling a cow,  that
had a flat white  underbelly. Ellie held a  snakelike pen against  the
white surface, squeezed  it multiple  times, and  wrote the  following
message: Don't  worry. We're  fine. Both  women smiled  and the  image
abruptly terminated one second later.
    As  Max  and   Robert  stood  in   the  room  thunderstruck,   the
ninety-second motion picture  repeated twice in  its entirety. By  the
time of  the  second  repetition,  the  men  had  managed  to  collect
themselves enough that they were able to pay careful attention to  the
details. Lights  flooded  the  red  room  again  when  the  movie  was
finished.
    "Jesus Christ," Max said, shaking his head.
    Robert was joyful.  "She's alive!" he  exclaimed. "Ellie is  still
alive."
    "If we can believe what we've seen," Max said.
    "Come on, Max," Robert said several seconds later. "What  possible
reason could  the octospiders  have for  making a  film like  that  to
deceive us? Wouldn't it be much easier for them to do nothing?"
    RAMA REVEALED
    151
    "I don't know," Max  replied. "But you answer  a question for  me.
How did they know  that the two  of us, coming  here together at  this
time, were  worried  about  Ellie  and Eponine?  There  are  only  two
possible explanations. Either  they have been  watching everything  we
have been doing and saying since we entered their lair, or someone- "
    "-from  our   group  has   been  providing   information  to   the
octospiders. Max, surely you  don't think for  an instant that  either
Richard or Nicole-"
    "No, of course not," Max interrupted. "But I'm having a damn  hard
time understanding how we  could have been  observed so carefully.  We
have not seen  any suggestion  of eavesdropping  devices. Unless  some
pretty sophisticated transmitters are planted on us, or in us, none of
this makes any sense."
    "But how could they have done that without our knowledge?"
    "Beats the shit  out of  me," Max  replied, bending  down to  walk
through the archway. He stood up  in the red corridor on the  opposite
side of the arch. "Now, unless I miss my guess, that damn subway  will
be waiting for us when we arrive at the station and we'll be  expected
to return peacefully to  the others. Everything is  just too nice  and
neat."
    Max was correct.  The subway was  parked with its  door open  when
Robert and he turned into the  atrium from the maze of red  corridors.
Max stopped. He had a wild gleam in his eyes,
    "I'm not going to board the damn train," he said in a low voice.
    "What are you going to do?" asked Robert, a little frightened.
    "I'm going to go back into the maze," Max said.
    He clutched  his  rifle, spun  around,  and raced  back  into  the
corridor. Max  turned away  from the  blue line  and ran  about  fifty
meters before the first  octospider appeared in front  of him. It  was
quickly joined by several more octos, which spread across the corridor
from one side to the other. They began to move toward Max.
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Max stopped, looked at the advancing octospiders, and then glanced
behind  him.  At  the  far  end  of  the  corridor  another  group  of
octospiders was moving in his direction.
    "Wait just a damn minute," Max shouted. "I have something to  say.
You guys must understand  at least part of  our language or you  could
never have  figured out  that  we were  coming here.  .  . .  I'm  not
satisfied. I want proof that Eponine is alive."
    The octospiders, their heads rippling with color, were almost upon
him. A wave of fear  swept through Max and he  fired the rifle in  the
air as a warning. No more than two seconds later he felt a sharp sting
in the back of his neck. Max collapsed immediately on the floor.
    Robert, whose indecision  had kept  him standing  in the  station,
raced across the platform at the sound of the gunfire. When he arrived
in the red corridor, he saw two octospiders lifting Max off the floor.
Robert stood  aside  as the  extraterrestrials  carried Max  into  the
subway and  gently  deposited  him  in the  corner  of  the  car.  The
octospiders then gestured at the  open subway door and Robert  climbed
inside. Less than ten  minutes later the two  men had returned to  the
chamber underneath the rainbow dome.
    3
    ax did not awaken for ten hours. During that time both Robert  and
Nicole examined him thoroughly and found  no evidence of any wound  or
injury.  Meanwhile,  Robert  repeatedly   told  the  story  of   their
adventure, except of course what  happened during the critical  minute
when Max was by himself in the red corridor.
    Most of the questions from the  family were about what Robert  and
Max had seen  in the  motion picture.  Were there  any indications  of
stress in Ellie or  Eponine, suggesting that  perhaps they might  have
been coerced into making  the film? Did they  appear to have lost  any
weight? Did they look rested?
    "I believe we now know much  more about the nature of our  hosts,"
Richard said near  the end  of the  family's second  and more  lengthy
discussion of Robert's story.  "First and foremost,  it is clear  that
the octospiders, or whatever species  is in charge here, both  observe
us regularly and are able to understand our conversations. There is no
other possible
    154
    ARTHUR C. ClARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    explanation for the fact  that the film showed  to Max and  Robert
featured Ellie and Eponine.
    "Second, their technological level, at least where motion pictures
are concerned, is  either several  hundred years behind  ours, or,  if
Robert is  right when  he insists  that there  could not  have been  a
projecting device either in the room  or behind the wall, they are  so
far advanced that their technology appears like magic to us. Third-"
    "But Uncle Richard," Patrick  interrupted. "Why didn't the  motion
picture have sound? Wouldn't it have been much easier for Eponine  and
Ellie just to say they were all  right? Isn't it more likely that  the
octospiders are  deaf  than  it  is  that  their  technology  has  not
developed beyond silent movies?"
    "What an  interesting  idea, Patrick,"  Richard  replied.  "That's
something we have never even considered. And of course they don't need
to hear to communicate."
    "Creatures that have spent most  of their evolutionary lives  deep
in the ocean are often  deaf," Nicole offered. "Their primary  sensory
needs for survival are at other  wavelengths, and with only a  limited
number of cells available for  both the sensors and their  processing,
the ability to hear simply never develops."
    "I worked with the hearing impaired in Thailand," Nai added,  "and
I was  fascinated by  the fact  that being  unable to  hear is  not  a
significant drawback in an advanced culture. The sign language of  the
deaf has extraordinary range and is quite complex. Humans on Earth  no
longer need to hear to  hunt or to escape  animals that might prey  on
them. The  octospider language  of colors  is more  than adequate  for
communication."
    "Hold on just a minute," Robert said. "Aren't we overlooking  some
pretty strong evidence that the  octospiders can hear? How could  they
have known that Max and I were going out to find Ellie and Eponine  if
they didn't overhear our conversation?"
    There was silence for  several seconds. "They  might have had  the
two women translate what was being* said," Richard suggested.
    RAMA REVEALED
    155
    "But mat would require two unlikely events," Patrick said. "First,
if the  octospiders  are  deaf,  why  would  they  have  sophisticated
miniaturized equipment  available that  would  record sounds  at  all?
Second, having  Eponine  and Ellie  translate  what we  said  for  the
octospiders implies a  level of communication  interaction that  could
hardly have developed in a month's time. . . . No, in my opinion,  the
octos probably determined the purpose of Max and Robert's trip on  the
basis of  visual  evidence-the  portraits  of the  two  women  on  the
portable computer monitors."
    "Bravo," shouted Richard. "That's excellent thinking."
    "Are you guys going  to yak about this  shit all night long?"  Max
said as he walked into the middle of the group.
    Everyone jumped up. "Are you all right?" Nicole asked.
    "Sure," said Max. "I even feel well rested."
    "Tell us what happened," Robert  interrupted. "I heard your  rifle
fire, but by the time I came around the corner, a pair of  octospiders
was already carrying your body."
    "I don't know myself," Max said. "Just before I passed out I  felt
a stinging hot pain in the back of my neck. . . . That was it. One  of
the octos  behind me  must have  hit  me with  their equivalent  of  a
tranquilizing dart."
    Max rubbed the back of his  neck. Nicole came over to inspect.  "I
cannot even find a small hole now," she said. "They must use very thin
darts."
    Max glanced at Robert. "I don't suppose you retrieved the rifle."
    "I'm sorry,  Max," Robert  said. "I  never even  thought about  it
until after we were on the train."
    Max looked at  his friends.  "Well, guys, I  want you  to know  my
rebellion is over. I'm convinced  we cannot fight these creatures.  So
we might as well try to follow their1 plan."
    Nicole put a hand on her  friend's shoulder. "This is the new  Max
Puckett," she said with a smile.
    "I may be stubborn," Max replied with  a smile of his own, "but  I
don't believe I'm stupid."
    156
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "I don't think we're all  supposed to move into Patrick's  igloo,"
Max  said  the  next  morning  after  another  subway  had  come   and
replenished their food and water.
    "Why do you say that?" Richard  asked. "Look at the evidence.  The
igloo was definitely  designed for  human habitation.  Why else  would
they have built the staircase?"
    "It just doesn't  make sense,"  Max replied.  "Especially for  the
children. There's not enough  room to live for  any period of time.  I
think the igloo is some kind  of way-station-a cabin in the woods,  if
you like."
    Nicole tried to  imagine the  ten of  them living  in the  cramped
quarters that Patrick had described. "I can see your point, Max,"  she
said, "but what do you suggest?"
    "Why don't  a  few of  us  return to  the  igloo and  look  around
carefully? Patrick's  quick  reconnoiter may  have  missed  something.
Anyway, whatever we're supposed to  do should be obvious. It  wouldn't
be like the  octospiders, or whatever  is guiding us,  to leave us  in
uncertainty."
    Richard, Max, and Patrick were selected for the scouting  mission.
Their departure was delayed, however,  so that Patrick could keep  his
promise to Galileo.  Patrick followed the  five-year-old up the  long,
winding staircase and  down the hallway  to the bottom  of the  second
stairs. The boy  was too exhausted  to climb any  more. In fact,  when
they were coming down  from the dome, the  little boy's legs gave  out
and Patrick  had to  carry  Galileo the  final  twelve meters  of  the
descent.
    "Can you make it up a second time?" Richard asked Patrick.
    "I believe so," said Patrick, adjusting his pack.
    "At least now he won't be waiting for us old farts all the  time,"
Max said with a grin.
    The three men stopped to admire  the view from the landing at  the
top of the  cylindrical stairs. "Sometimes,"  Max said, as  he took  a
long look at the magnificent colors of the rainbow strips in the  dome
only a  few  meters above  him,  "I  think that  everything  that  has
happened to me  since I boarded  the Pinta  is a dream.  How do  pigs,
chicken's, and  even Arkansas  fit into  this picture?  It's just  too
much."
    RAMA REVEALED
    157
    "It must be difficult," Patrick said while they were walking along
the hallway, "to reconcile  all this with your  normal life on  Earth.
But  consider  my  situation.  I  was  born  on  an   extraterrestrial
spacecraft headed  for  an  artificial world  located  near  the  star
Sirius. I have spent  more than half  my life asleep.  I have no  idea
what normal means."
    "Shit, Patrick," Max said, putting  his arm around the young  man,
"if I were you I would be as crazy as a bedbug."
    Later, when they were climbing the second stairs, Max stopped  and
turned to Richard below him. "I hope you realize, Wakefield," he  said
in a  warm tone,  "that I'm  just an  ornery bastard  and didn't  mean
anything personal during our arguments the last few days."
    Richard smiled.  "I  understand, Max.  I  also know  that  I'm  as
arrogant as you are ornery. I will accept your oblique apology if  you
will accept mine."
    Max feigned indignation.  "That wasn't a  damn apology," he  said,
walking up to the next step.
    The igloo hut was just as Patrick had described it. The three  men
pulled on their jackets and prepared  to go outside. Richard, who  was
the first one out the door, saw the other igloo before Max and Patrick
had even taken their first breath of the bracing Rama air.
    "That other igioo wasn't there, Uncle Richard," Patrick  insisted.
"I walked completely around the area."
    The second igloo, which was  almost exactly one-tenth the size  of
the larger hut, was  about thirty meters farther  away from the  cliff
bordering the Cylindrical Sea. It was glowing in the Rama dark. As the
men started walking toward  it, the door of  the smaller igloo  opened
and two tiny  human figures came  out. The figures  were about  twenty
centimeters high and were illuminated from the inside.
    "What the hell . . . ?" Max exclaimed.
    "Look," said Patrick excitedly, "it's Mother and Uncle Richard!"
    The two figures turned south in the darkness, away from the  cliff
and the sea. Richard, Max, and Patrick scrambled up beside them for  a
better view. The figures were dressed in exactly the same clothes that
Richard and Nicole had
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    worn the previous day. The attention to detail was  extraordinary.
The hair, faces, skin coloring, even the shape and color of  Richard's
beard, were a perfect match for the Wakefields. The figures were  also
wearing backpacks.
    Max stooped down to pick up  the figure of Nicole but received  an
electrical jolt  when  he  touched  it. The  figure  turned  in  Max's
direction and shook her head  emphatically. The men followed the  pair
for another hundred meters and then stopped.
    "There's not much  doubt about  what we're supposed  to do  next,"
Richard said.
    "Nope," said  Max.  "It looks  as  if  you and  Nicole  are  being
summoned."
    The next afternoon Richard and Nicole packed several days worth of
food and water into  their packs and said  good-bye to their  extended
family. Nikki  had  slept  between  them  the  night  before  and  was
especially tearful when her grandparents departed.
    It was quite a  climb up the staircase.  "I should have taken  the
stairs more slowly," Nicole  said, breathing hard  as she and  Richard
stood on the  landing beneath  the dome and  waved one  final time  to
everybody. Nicole could feel her  heart beating arrhythmically in  her
chest. She waited patiently for the palpitations to subside.
    Richard was also  out of breath.  "We're not as  young as we  were
those many years ago in New York,"  he said after a short silence.  He
smiled and put his arms around Nicole. "Are you ready to continue  our
adventure?" he asked.
    Nicole nodded. They  walked slowly,  hand in hand,  down the  long
hallway. When  they  reached  the  second  stairs,  Nicole  turned  to
Richard. "Darling," she said with sudden intensity, "isn't it great to
be alone again, just the two of us, even if it's only for a few hours?
I love all the others, but it's  a pain being so damn responsible  all
the time." %
    Richard laughed easily. "It's a role you chose, Nicole," he  said,
"not one that was forced on you."
    RAMA REVEALED
    159
    He leaned down to  kiss her on the  cheek. Nicole turned her  face
toward him and kissed him strongly on the lips.
    "Were you suggesting  with that kiss,"  Richard asked  immediately
with a wide grin, "that we should spend tonight in the igloo and begin
our journey tomorrow?"
    "I think  that you  have  been reading  my mind,  Mr.  Wakefield,"
Nicole said with  a coquettish  smile. "Actually, I  was thinking  how
much fun it  would be  to imagine tonight  that we  were young  lovers
again." She laughed. "At least our imaginations should still work  all
right."
    When they  were three  hundred  meters south  of the  two  igloos,
Richard and Nicole could no  longer see anything except whatever  they
illuminated with their flashlights.  Although the floor beneath  them,
mostly  dirt  with  an  occasional  collection  of  small  rocks,  was
generally smooth, from time to time one or both of them would  stumble
when not paying careful attention.
    "This may be a very long and tiring walk in the dark," Nicole said
when they stopped for some water.
    "And cold  too,"  Richard said,  taking  a drink.  "Are  you  warm
enough?"
    "As long as we're moving," Nicole said. She stretched out her arms
and adjusted her backpack.
    It was almost an hour  before they saw a light  in the sky to  the
south. The light was moving toward them and was growing larger.
    "What do you think it is?" Nicole asked.
    "Maybe the Blue Fairy?" Richard replied.  " "When you wish upon  a
star, makes no difference who you are. . . .'"
    Nicole laughed. "You're impossible," she said.
    "After last night," Richard said as the light continued to move in
their direction, "I feel like a boy again."
    Nicole chuckled and  shook her  head. They held  hands in  silence
while the ball of light continued to  grow in size. A minute later  it
stopped twenty to  thirty meters  in front  of them  and about  twenty
meters above  their  heads.  Richard and  Nicole  switched  off  their
flashlights, for they could now
    160
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    see the terrain around them for a distance of more than a  hundred
meters.
    Richard shaded his eyes and tried  to determine the source of  the
illumination, but the light was too bright. He could not look directly
at it. "Whatever it  is," Nicole said after  they were walking  again,
"it appears to know where we're supposed to go."
    Two hours later, Richard and Nicole encountered a path heading  to
the southwest, with  fields of growing  plants on either  side of  the
path. When they stopped for lunch,  they wandered into the fields  and
discovered that one of their staple foods under the dome, a  vegetable
with a taste similar to a green bean but with the physical  appearance
of a  yellow  squash,  was  the  principal  crop  being  grown.  These
vegetables were interspersed with  rows of a  short, bright red  plant
that they had never seen before. Richard pulled one of the red  plants
out of the ground and dropped it immediately when the green,  leathery
sphere that had been beneath the surface began to writhe at the bottom
of its red stalk. When it hit the ground, the creature scooted the few
centimeters back  to its  original hole  and buried  its green  sphere
again in the same place.
    Richard laughed. "I guess I'll  think twice before I do  something
like that again."
    "Look over there," Nicole said a moment later. "Isn't that one  of
the animals that built the staircase?"
    They moved down the path and then back into the field itself for a
better view. Coming toward them was  indeed one of the large,  antlike
creatures with the  six long  arms. It was  harvesting the  vegetables
with amazing efficiency,  handling the  three rows on  either side  of
where its main body was located. Each arm, or trunk, was stripping the
vegetables in  a single  row  and stacking  them  in piles  that  were
between the rows  and about two  meters apart. It  was an  astonishing
sight, the six arms all  operating simultaneously on different  tasks,
and at different distances from its main body.
    When the creature reached the path, its arms qujckly recoiled.  It
then moved six rows down the line  and entered the field going in  the
opposite direction. The field was being
    RAMA REVEALED
    161
    harvested from south to north, so when Richard and Nicole  started
walking again, they  passed through  the part  of the  field that  the
giant ant thing had already finished. There they saw swift  rodentlike
creatures picking up the scattered piles and scampering away with them
to the west.
    Richard and Nicole came to  several intersections while they  were
walking along the path  among the fields, and  each time the  hovering
light indicated which route they should take. The fields extended  for
many kilometers. They came upon  several different crops, but  Richard
and Nicole, who were becoming hungry  and weary, no longer stopped  to
examine each new vegetable.
    At length they reached  a flat open area  covered with soft  dirt.
The light above  them circled three  times and then  hovered over  the
center of the area. "I'm guessing that this is where we're supposed to
spend the night," Richard said.
    "Gladly," said Nicole,  accepting Richard's help  in removing  her
backpack. "I don't think I'll have any trouble sleeping, even on  this
hard ground."
    They ate  dinner and  found a  comfortable spot  where they  could
sleep nestled  together. When  Richard  and Nicole  were both  in  the
twilight zone between waking and sleeping, the light above them  began
to dim a little and then drop in altitude.
    "Look," Richard whispered, "it's going to land."
    Nicole opened her  eyes and  watched as the  light, continuing  to
dim, made a graceful arc and landed  on the opposite side of the  open
area. It was still glowing slightly  even after it was already on  the
ground. Although Richard and  Nicole could not  see the creature  very
well, they could tell that it was  long and skinny and had wings  more
than twice as large as its body.
    "It's a  giant  firefly," Richard  exclaimed  when they  could  no
longer see its outline.
    4
    Bi
    Iiology for lights, biology for farm and construction equipment-do
you have  the  impression  that our  octospider  friends,  or  perhaps
whatever is above them  in some amazing  symbiotic hierarchy, are  the
great biologists of the galaxy?"
    "I  don't  know,  Richard,"  Nicole  said  as  she  finished   her
breakfast. "But it certainly looks as if their technological evolution
has followed a markedly different path than ours."
    They had  both watched  with  wonder as  the giant  firefly,  upon
hearing their first movements after  sleeping, had ignited itself  and
taken its  accustomed  hovering position  above  them. A  few  minutes
later, a second, similar creature had approached them from the  south.
The two lights  now combined  to provide local  illumination that  was
equivalent to daylight in New Eden.
    Richard and Nicole had both slept well and were fluite  refreshed.
Their two guides led them along paths through several more  kilometers
of fields, including one that was
    RAMA REVEALED
    163
    characterized by  grasses  over  three meters  tall.  One  hundred
meters after making a sharp left turn in the tall grasses, Richard and
Nicole found themselves at the edge  of a vast array of shallow  water
tanks that stretched in front of them as far as they could see.
    They walked to  the left for  several minutes until  they came  to
what Richard properly identified as the northeast corner of the array.
The system consisted of  a series of  long, narrow, rectangular  tanks
that were metallic gray in color. Each of the individual tanks in  the
array was about  twenty meters  wide and  as much  as several  hundred
meters long.  The  tanks were  as  tall  as Nicole's  waist  and  were
three-quarters filled with a liquid that appeared to be water. At each
tank corner was  a thick, bright-red  cylinder, twice as  high as  the
tank, that was topped with a white sphere.
    Richard and Nicole walked  beside the long edge  of the array  for
several minutes, peering inside each individual tank and examining the
thick cylindrical  poles marking  where adjacent  tanks shared  common
sides. They saw  nothing in the  tanks except the  water. "So is  this
some kind of purification plant?" Nicole asked.
    "I doubt it," Richard answered. They stopped at the western  edge.
"Look at that mass of small, detailed parts affixed to the inside wall
of this tank, just in front of the cylinder. I would guess that  those
are complicated electronic components of some kind. There would be  no
need for all that in a simple water purification system."
    Nicole looked askance  at her husband.  "Come on, Richard,  that's
quite a leap of faith. How can you possibly claim to know the function
of a bunch of  three-dimensional squiggles on the  inside of an  alien
water tank?"
    "I said I was  guessing," Richard responded with  a laugh. "I  was
only trying to make the point- that it looks too complex to be a place
to purify water."
    The guide lights  above them were  urging them to  the sourn.  The
second bank of narrow tanks also contained nothing but water; however,
when they reached the third  set of rectangular tanks and  cylindrical
poles, Richard and Nicole discovered that  the water was full of  tiny
fuzzy balls
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    of many colors. Richard  rolled up his sleeve  and stuck his  hand
into the water, pulling out several hundred of the objects.
    'Those are eggs," Nicole said firmly.  "I know that fact with  the
same certainty that you  knew those little gadgets  on the insides  of
the tank wall were electronic components."
    Richard laughed  again.  "Look," he  said,  putting his  mound  of
little objects in front of Nicole's eyes, "there are really only  five
different kinds, if you study them closely."
    "Five different kinds  of what!" Nicole  asked. Richard shook  his
head and shrugged as he replaced the eggs in the tank.
    The egglike things filled  the entire length of  the third set  of
tanks. By the time Richard and Nicole were approaching the fourth  row
of cylinders and another set of tanks, which were several more hundred
meters to the south, both of them were growing tired. "If we don't see
anything new here," she said, "how about lunch?"
    "You're on," he answered.
    But they could discern something new already when they were  still
fifty meters  away  from the  fourth  row  of tanks.  A  square  robot
vehicle, perhaps thirty  centimeters in length  and width and  another
ten centimeters high, was  moving swiftly back  and forth between  the
cylindrical poles.  "I  knew  those  were  tracks  for  some  kind  of
vehicle," Nicole said, kidding Richard,
    Richard  was  too  fascinated  to  respond.  In  addition  to  the
scurrying robot, which made a full cycle across the array from east to
west every three  minutes or so,  there were several  more wonders  to
observe. Each of the individual tanks here was further subdivided into
two long pieces by a  mesh fence parallel to  the walls that was  only
slightly higher than the water level. On  one side of the mesh was  an
absolute swarm of tiny swimming creatures in five different colors. On
the other  side,  gleaming  circles,  resembling  sand  dollars,  were
scattered the complete length of the tank. The fence was positioned so
that three-fourths of the  tank volume was  available to the  gleaming
circles, giving them
    RAMA REVEALED
    165
    far more room to maneuver than the densely packed swimmers.
    Richard and  Nicole bent  over  to study  the activity.  The  sand
dollars were moving in all  directions. Because the water was  teeming
with so many creatures and so  much activity, it took several  minutes
for Richard and Nicole  to perceive the  common pattern. At  irregular
intervals each of  the sand dollars  would propel itself  over to  the
mesh fence using the whiplike cilia underneath its flat body and then,
while anchored  to the  fence,  would use  another  pair of  cilia  to
capture a tiny swimmer  and pull it  through one of  the holes in  the
mesh. While the  sand dollar was  against the fence,  its light  would
dim. If it stayed  long enough and caught  several of the swimmers  to
eat, then its gleam would fade altogether.
    "Watch what happens now when it leaves the fence," Richard said to
Nicole, pointing out  one specific sand  dollar just underneath  them.
"As it  swims along  with its  companions, its  light will  be  slowly
replenished."
    Richard hurried back to the nearest cylindrical pole and bent down
on his knees on the ground. He dug into the soil with one of the tools
from his pack. "There's much more to this system underground," he said
excitedly. "I  bet this  entire  array is  part  of a  gigantic  power
generator."
    He took  three  large, measured  steps  to the  south,  noted  his
position carefully, and leaned over the tank to count the sand dollars
in the region between the cylindrical pole and him. It was a difficult
count because of the constant motion of the gleaming circles.
    "Roughly three hundred  of them  in three meters  of tank  length,
making approximately twenty-five  thousand per complete  tank, or  two
hundred thousand in a complete row," Richard said.
    "Are you assuming,  then," Nicole asked,  "that these  cylindrical
poles are some sort of storage system? Like batteries?"
    "Probably," said Richard.  "What a  fabulous idea!  Find a  living
creature that generates electricity internally. Force it
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    to give up its accumulated charge  in order to eat. What could  be
better?"
    "And that robot vehicle, moving back and forth between the  poles,
what is its purpose?"
    "I would guess it's a monitor of some kind," Richard replied.
    Richard and  Nicole  ate  their  lunch  and  then  finished  their
inspection of the  putative power plant.  Altogether there were  eight
columns and eight rows in the array, for a total of sixty-four  tanks.
Only twenty  were active  at the  time. "Plenty  of excess  capacity,"
Richard commented. "Their engineers clearly understand the concepts of
growth and margin."
    The giant fireflies now headed due east, along what appeared to be
some kind of major highway. Twice Richard and Nicole encountered small
herds of the large antlike creatures going in the opposite  direction,
but there  were  no  interactions. "Are  those  creatures  intelligent
enough to operate without supervision?" Nicole asked Richard. "Or  are
we  just  not  being  allowed   to  see  whatever  beings  give   them
instructions?"
    'That's an  interesting  question," Richard  said.  "Remember  how
quickly the octospider came over to  the ant thing when it was  struck
by the ball? Perhaps they  have some limited intelligence, but  cannot
function well in new or unknown environments."
    "Like some people we have known," Nicole said with a laugh.
    Their long march to the east  ended when their two guiding  lights
hovered over a large dirt field just off the road. The field was empty
except for what  looked at  a distance like  forty football  goalposts
covered with ivy, arranged in five rows of eight posts each.
    "Will you check the guidebook, please?" Richard said. "It's easier
to understand what we're seeing if we read about it first."
    Nicole smiled. "We really are being given some kind of
    RAMA REVEALED
    167
    tour, aren't we? Why do you suppose  our hosts want us to see  all
this?"
    Richard was silent for a moment. "I'm fairly certain that it's the
octospiders who are the lords of all this territory," he said finally,
"or at least they are the dominant species in a complicated hierarchy.
Whoever it was that  picked us personally for  this tour must  believe
that  informing  us   about  their  capabilities   will  make   future
interactions easier."
    "But if it really  is the octospiders,"  Nicole said, "why  didn't
they simply kidnap all of us as they did Ellie and Eponine?"
    "I don't know," Richard replied. "Maybe their sense of morality is
far more complicated than we have imagined."
    Both of  the giant  fireflies were  dancing in  the air  over  the
collection of  ivy-covered goalposts.  "I think  our tour  guides  are
becoming impatient," Nicole said.
    If Richard and Nicole had not been so fatigued from their two days
of arduous hiking, and if they  had not already seen so many  fabulous
sights in this alien world  that existed in the Southern  Hemicylinder
of Rama, they would have been  both captivated and overwhelmed by  the
complex symbiosis they discovered in the next several hours.
    What was all over the goalposts was not ivy at all. What  appeared
to be  individual  leaves  from  a distance  were  in  reality  little
cone-shaped nests, made of thousands of tiny creatures that  resembled
aphids. The creatures  were glued  together to  form the  nest by  the
sweet, sticky, honeylike substance the humans had enjoyed eating under
the dome.  The  alien  aphids manufactured  large  quantities  of  the
substance as part of their normal activity.
    During the time that Richard and Nicole were watching, convoys  of
snout-nosed  beetles,  who  lived   in  mounds  several  meters   high
surrounding the entire  enclave, burst  from their  homes every  forty
minutes or so and  crawled all over the  posts, harvesting the  excess
goo from  the  nests.  The  beetle creatures,  which  were  about  ten
centimeters long  when empty,  swelled to  three or  four times  their
normal size before  completing their harvest  cycle and  regurgitating
the
    168
    ARTHUR C. CLARICE AND GENTRY LEE
    contents of their swollen bodies in sunken vats at the base of the
posts.
    Richard and Nicole did not talk much while they were watching  the
activity. The overall biological system displayed in front of them was
both intricate  and  wonderful-  another example  of  the  astonishing
advancements in symbiosis that had been made by their hosts. "I  bet,"
said a weary Richard as he and  Nicole prepared to sleep not far  from
one of the beetle mounds, "that if we wait long enough, some beast  of
burden will show up to lift the vats of this honey, or whatever it is,
out of the ground and then carry them to another site."
    As they were lying side by side on the dirt, they observed the two
fireflies landing in the distance. Then it was suddenly dark. "I don't
believe all this just happened," Nicole said. "Not on another  planet.
Not anywhere. Natural evolution simply does not result in the kind  of
interspecies harmony we have witnessed the last two days."
    "What  are  you  suggesting?"  Richard  asked.  'That  all   these
creatures were  somehow  designed,  like machines,  to  perform  their
functions?"
    "It is  the only  explanation  I can  accept," Nicole  said,  "The
octospiders, or somebody, must have  reached the level of  advancement
where they can manipulate the genes to produce a plant or animal  that
does exactly what they  want, Why do those  beetle things deposit  the
honey substance in the vats? What is their biological payoff for  that
action?"
    "They must  be  compensated in  some  way  that we  have  not  yet
discovered," Richard said.
    "Of course," Nicole  said. "And behind  that compensation is  some
incredible biological systems architect or engineer who is tuning  all
the interrelationships,  not  only  so that  each  species  is  happy,
however we choose to define that word, but also so that the architects
themselves reap some profit-namely, food in the form of excess  honey.
Now, do  you believe  that kind  of optimization  could possibly  take
place without some sophisticated genetic engineering involved?"
    Richard was silent for almost a minute. "Imagine," he
    RAMA REVEALED
    169
    finally said slowly,  "a master biological  engineer sitting at  a
keyboard,  designing  a  living   organism  to  meet  certain   system
specifications. It is a mind-boggling concept."
    Once more the beetles swarmed out of their mounds, barely  missing
the sleeping  humans  as  they  rushed for  the  goalposts  and  their
harvesting task. Nicole watched the beetles until they disappeared  in
the dark. Then she yawned  and curled up on  her side. We humans  have
entered a new era, she thought  before she fell asleep. In the  future
ail history  will  be noted  as  BC,  before contact,  and  AC,  after
contact. For from that  first moment when  we knew unambiguously  that
simple chemicals had risen to consciousness and intelligence somewhere
else in the vastness of our universe, the past history of our  species
became  only   an  isolated   paradigm,  one   small  and   relatively
insignificant fragment  in  the  infinite tapestry  that  depicts  the
astonishing variety of sentient life.
    After breakfast the next  morning Richard and  Nicole had a  brief
discussion about their dwindling food supply and then decided to  take
some of the honey substance  from one of the  vats. "I guess if  we're
not supposed to do this," Nicole  said, glancing around while she  was
filling a small container, "then some alien policeman will come  along
and stop us."
    Their guide lights moved directly south at first, leading  Richard
and Nicole toward a thick forest  of very tall trees that extended  as
far as they could see in the east-west direction. The fireflies turned
to the right and moved parallel to  the edge of the trees. The  forest
on their left was dark and  foreboding. From time to time Richard  and
Nicole heard strange, loud sounds coming from its interior.
    Once Richard stopped  and walked  over to where  the thick  growth
began. Between the trees were  many smaller plants, with large  leaves
in green, red, and brown, as  well as several different kinds of  vine
that laced  together  the middle  and  upper branches  of  the  trees.
Richard jumped back when he heard a  sharp howl that sounded as if  it
were only a few
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    meters away. His eyes searched the  forest, but he could not  find
the source of the howl.
    "There's something weird about this forest," he said, turning back
to Nicole. "It feels out of place, as if it doesn't belong here."
    For over an hour the fireflies continued in a westerly  direction.
The bizarre sounds became more frequent as Richard and Nicole  trudged
slowly along in silence. Nicole agreed with Richard about the  forest.
Its undisciplined growth, especially when compared to the order of the
fields on her right, was both surprising and disquieting.
    They took  a brief  rest in  the middle  of the  morning.  Richard
calculated that  they had  already walked  more than  five  kilometers
since waking. Nicole  asked for some  of the fresh  honey that was  in
Richard's backpack.
    "My feet hurt,"  she said,  after eating  and then  taking a  long
drink of water. "And my legs  never stopped aching last night. I  hope
we reach wherever we're going before too much longer."
    "I'm tired too," Richard  said. "But we're not  doing badly for  a
couple in their early sixties."
    "I feel older than that right now," Nicole said. She stood up  and
stretched. "You know, our hearts must  be almost ninety. They may  not
have done much work all  those years we were  asleep, but they had  to
keep pumping nevertheless."
    As they were  talking, a  strange little spherical  animal with  a
solitary eye, white fuzzy hair, and a dozen spindly legs darted out of
the nearby forest and  snatched the container  of honey. The  creature
and the food were gone in an instant.
    "What was that?" Nicole asked, startled.
    "Something with a sweet tooth,"  Richard said. He stared off  into
the forest,  where the  animal had  disappeared. 'That  is  definitely
another world over there."
    Half an hour later,  the pair of fireflies  moved off to the  left
and hovered over  a path leading  into the forest.  The path was  five
meters wide and  was lined  on both  sides by  dense growth.  Nicole's
intuition told her not to follow the fireflies,
    RAMA REVEALED
    171
    but she  said  nothing.  Her apprehension  increased  when,  after
Richard and she had  taken a couple of  steps into the forest,  noises
erupted from the trees all around them. They stopped, held hands,  and
listened.
    "It sounds like birds, monkeys, and frogs," Richard said.
    "They must be  signaling our  presence," Nicole  said. She  turned
around and looked  behind her.  "Are you  sure we're  doing the  right
thing?"
    Richard pointed  at  the lights  in  front of  them.  "We've  been
following those big bugs for two and a half days. It doesn't make much
sense to lose faith in them now."
    They started walking  down the  path again. The  caws, howls,  and
croaking sounds  accompanied  them. From  time  to time  the  kind  of
foliage on both  sides of them  would change a  little, but it  always
remained dense and dark.
    "There must be a  group of alien gardeners,"  Richard said at  one
point, "who work the area around this path several times a week.  Look
how perfectly  trimmed  all  the  bushes and  trees  are.  They  don't
protrude one iota into the air space above our heads."
    "Richard," Nicole  said a  little  later, "if  the sounds  we  are
hearing are coming from alien animals, why don't we ever see one?  Not
a single creature has ever  come out on the  path." She bent down  and
examined the dirt at her feet. "And there is no visible evidence  here
of any life, not now and not ever. Not even an ant."
    "We must be walking on a magical path," Richard said with a  grin.
"Perhaps it leads to a gingerbread house and a wicked old witch. . . .
Let us sing, Gretel, and perhaps we will feel better."
    The path,  which  had  been  absolutely  straight  for  the  first
kilometer or  so, began  to  meander. Because  of its  wandering,  the
sounds of the forest creatures surrounded Richard and Nicole.  Richard
sang popular songs from his adolescent years in England. Nicole joined
him some of the time, when she knew the song, but mostly she spent her
energy trying to contain her growing anxiety. She told herself not  to
think about what  an easy  target they would  be for  any large  alien
animal that might be lurking in the forest.
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Richard suddenly  stopped.  He  pulled two  deep  breaths  of  air
through his nose into his lungs. "Do you smell that?" he asked Nicole.
    She sniffed the air.  "Yes," she said, "I  do. It's a little  like
gardenias."
    "Only much much better," Richard said. "It's positively divine."
    Ahead of them, the path turned abruptly to the right. At the  turn
there was a  large bush  beside die path  that was  covered with  huge
yellow flowers, the first flowers they had seen since they entered the
forest. Each  individual  flower was  the  size of  a  basketball.  As
Richard and  Nicole  drew  nearer  to the  bush,  the  enticing  smell
intensified.
    Richard could  not  restrain  himself.  Before  Nicole  could  say
anything, he stepped the  few meters off the  path, stuck his face  in
one  of  the  huge  flowers,   and  inhaled  deeply.  The  smell   was
magnificent. Meanwhile, one of  the two fireflies  flew back in  their
direction and began zigging and zagging in the sky over their heads.
    "I don't think our guides approved of your sortie," Nicole said.
    "Probably not," Richard  replied, returning to  the path. "But  it
was worth it."
    As they continued to walk, more flowers, of all shapes, sizes, and
colors, surrounded them on both sides.  Neither of them had ever  seen
such a profusion of color. At the same time, the sounds they had  been
hearing abated. A little  later, when Richard and  Nicole were in  the
middle of me flower region, the noises disappeared altogether.
    The path narrowed to  a couple of meters,  barely wide enough  for
them to  walk side  by side  and not  brush the  plants on  which  the
flowers were growing. Richard left the trail several times to  inspect
and smell  one  of  me  amazing flowers.  Each  excursion  caused  the
fireflies  to  swoop  back  in  their  direction.  Despite   Richard's
enthusiasm for his trips into the forest, Nicole heeded the guides and
remained on the path.
    Richard was about eight meters off to the left, trying to obtain a
closer look at a gigantic flower that looked like an
    RAMA REVEALED
    173
    Oriental carpet, when he  disappeared suddenly from view.  "Ouch,"
Nicole heard him yell as he fell to the ground.
    "Are you all right?" she said immediately.
    "Yes," he said. "I  just tripped over some  vines and fell into  a
bunch of thorns.  The bush surrounding  me has red  leaves as well  as
tiny,  bizarre  flowers  that  look  like  bullets.  They  smell  like
cinnamon, incidentally."
    "Do you need any help?" Nicole asked.
    "Nope. I'll just climb out of here in a jiffy."
    Nicole glanced up and  noticed that one of  the two fireflies  was
racing off  in the  distance.  Now, what's  that  all about?  she  was
wondering when she heard Richard again.
    "I may need some help after all," he said. "I seem to be stuck."
    Nicole took a cautious  step off die  path. The remaining  firefly
went crazy, zooming down almost into her face. Nicole was  temporarily
blinded.
    "Don't come  over  here,  Nicole," Richard  said  abruptly  a  few
seconds later. "Unless I  am losing my mind,  I believe this plant  is
preparing to eat me."
    "What?" Nicole said, now frightened. "Are you serious?" She waited
impatiently for her eyes to recover from the overdose of fight.
    "Yes, I am,"  Richard said. "Get  back on the  path. This  bizarre
bush has wrapped yellow tendrils  around my arms and  legs . . .  some
crawling bugs are already drinking the blood caused by the thorns .  .
. and there is an opening in the bush, toward which I am slowly  being
pulled, that  looks  like  a  distant  cousin  of  some  of  the  more
unpleasant mouths I have seen in zoos. I can even see some teeth."
    Nicole could hear the panic  in Richard's voice. She took  another
step in his direction, but again the firefly blinded her.
    "I can't  see  anything,"  she yelled.  "Richard,  are  you  still
there?"
    "Yes," he answered. "But I don't know for how much longer."
    They heard the sound of animals moving quickly through the forest,
along with a high-pitched whine. Sud-
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    denly  three  octospiders  appeared,  brandishing  peculiar  long,
skinny weapons. The octos fired a liquid spray at the carnivorous bush
and within seconds  the bush  released Richard.  The aggressive  plant
immediately hid its mouth again behind its many branches.
    Richard stumbled over and hugged  Nicole. They both yelled  'Thank
you" as the trio of octospiders vanished into the forest as swiftly as
they had appeared.  Neither Richard  nor Nicole noticed  that the  two
fireflies were again hovering over their heads.
    Nicole examined Richard  carefully but found  nothing except  cuts
and scratches.  "I think  I'll  stay on  the  path awhile,"  he  said,
smiling wanly.
    "That's probably not a bad idea," Nicole replied.
    They talked  about what  had happened  as they  continued to  walk
through the forest. Richard was  still shaken. "The branches close  to
my left shoulder  pulled apart," he  said, "and there  was this  hole,
initially about the size of a baseball. But as the wave action of  the
tendrils carried  me in  that  direction, the  hole grew  larger."  He
shuddered.  'That's  when  I  saw   the  little  teeth,  ringing   the
circumference. I had just started thinking about how it would feel  to
be eaten when our friends the octospiders arrived."
    "So what's going on  here?" Nicole said a  little later. They  had
left the flower region and were  again surrounded by trees and  jungle
growth and intermittent animal noises.
    "Damned if I know," Richard replied.
    The forest ended abruptly just as Richard and Nicole were becoming
unbearably hungry. They stepped out upon  an empty plain. In front  of
them, perhaps two  kilometers away,  a great green  dome filled  their
view.
    "Now what is-"
    "It's the  Emerald City,  darling," Richard  said. "Certainly  you
recognize it from the old movie. And inside is the Wizard of Oz, ready
to grant all our wishes."
    Nicole smiled and kissed her husband. "The wizard was a fake,  you
know," she said. "He didn't really have any power."
    RAMA REVEALED
    175
    "That's open to some question," Richard said with a grin.
    While they were talking, the two lights that had been guiding them
sped away toward the  green dome, leaving Richard  and Nicole in  near
darkness. They pulled their flashlights out of their packs. "Something
tells me  we're near  the end  of our  hike," Richard  said,  striding
across the ground in the direction of the Emerald City.
    They could see the gates through their binoculars from a  distance
of more than a kilometer. Both Richard and Nicole were becoming  quite
excited. "Do  you think  that's  the home  city of  the  octospiders?"
Nicole asked.
    "Yes, indeed," Richard said. "It must be quite a place. The top of
that green dome is at least  three hundred meters above the ground.  I
would guess that the area underneath exceeds ten square kilometers."
    "Richard," Nicole  asked when  they were  only about  six  hundred
meters away, "what is our plan? Are we just going to walk up and knock
on the gate?"
    "Why not?" Richard answered, his pace quickening.
    When they were  two hundred meters  from the gate,  it opened  and
three figures emerged. Richard and Nicole  heard a yell as one of  the
figures began moving rapidly toward mem. Richard stopped and used  his
binoculars again.  "It's  Ellie," he  shouted.  "And Eponine.  .  .  .
They're with an octospider."
    Nicole had already  dropped her  pack and was  jogging across  the
plain. She grabbed her beloved daughter in her arms and lifted her off
the ground with the strength of  her embrace, "Oh, Ellie, Ellie,"  she
said, the tears cascading down her cheeks.
    5
    Ti
    his is our friend Archie.  He has been a big  help to us while  we
have been staying here. Archie, meet my mother and father."
    The octospider  responded  with  a  sequence  that  began  with  a
brilliant crimson and was  followed by a teal  green, a lavender,  two
different yellows (one a saffron and the other a lemon, tending toward
chartreuse), and a  final purple.  The band of  colors ran  completely
around the octospider's spherical head and then disappeared back  into
the  left  side  of  the  slit  formed  by  the  two  long,   parallel
indentations in the middle of its face.
    "Archie says it's a pleasure to meet you, especially after hearing
so much about you," Ellie said.
    "You can read their colors?" Nicole asked, quite shocked.
    "Ellie's great,"  said Eponine.  "She's picked  up their  language
very quickly."t
    "But how do you speak to them?" Nicole asked.
    "Their eyesight is incredibly keen," Ellie replied, "and
    RAMA REVEALED
    177
    they are remarkably  intelligent. Archie and  a dozen others  have
already learned to read  lips. But we can  talk about all that  later,
Mother. First tell me about Nikki and Robert. Are they all right?"
    "Your daughter grows more adorable  every day; and she misses  you
terribly. But I'm  afraid Robert  has never  completely recovered.  He
still blames himself for not having protected you better."
    The octospider Archie politely followed the personal  conversation
for several  minutes before  tapping Ellie  on the  shoulder and  then
reminding her that her parents were probably tired and cold.
    "Thanks, Archie," Ellie said. "Okay,  here's the plan. The two  of
you are to come  inside the city for  at least tonight and  tomorrow-a
kind of hotel suite has been set up just inside the gate for the  four
of us-and the day after tomorrow, or whenever you are properly rested,
we will all return to the others. Archie will go with us."
    "Why didn't the three of you simply  come to where we were in  the
first place?" Richard said after a brief silence.
    "I asked the same question, Dad . . . and never did receive what I
considered a satisfactory answer."
    The bands of  color on  Archie's head interrupted  what Ellie  was
saying. "All right," she said to the octospider before turning back to
her parents. "Archie says the octos wanted you two especially to  have
a clear idea  of what they  are all about-anyway,  we can discuss  all
this after we settle in our suite."
    The great gates of the Emerald City were thrown open when the four
humans and  their octospider  companion were  about ten  meters  away.
Richard and Nicole  were unprepared  for the  overwhelming variety  of
strange sights  that greeted  their  eyes as  they entered  the  city.
Directly in front  of them  was a  broad avenue,  with continuous  low
structures  on  either  side,  leading  to  a  tall,  pink  and  blue,
pyramid-shaped building several hundred meters in the distance.
    Richard and Nicole were virtually in a trance when they took their
initial steps into the octospider city. Neither of
    178
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    them would ever  forget that  incredible first  moment. They  were
surrounded by  a kaleidoscope  of color.  Every element  of the  city,
including the streets, the buildings, the unexplained decorations  mat
lined the avenue, the plants in the garden (if that's indeed what they
were), and  the wide  range  of animal  creatures  that seemed  to  be
scurrying in  all directions,  was emblazoned  with bright  colors.  A
group of four large worms, or snakes, resembling wriggling candy canes
except much more profusely colored,  were coiled just inside the  gate
on the  ground to  Richard and  Nicole's left.  They had  their  heads
lifted high, apparently straining to get a view of the alien visitors.
Bright red and yellow  animals with eight  legs and lobsterlike  claws
were carrying thick green rods across an intersection fifty meters  in
front of Richard and Nicole.
    Of course there were dozens,  maybe hundreds of octo-spiders,  all
of whom had come to the gate area to catch a glimpse of the two newest
humans to visit their  city. They were sitting  in groups in front  of
the buildings,  standing  beside  the  avenue,  even  walking  on  the
rooftops. And they  were all  talking simultaneously  in then-  bright
bands of color, accenting the  static decorations of the street  scene
with dynamic bursts of various hues.
    Nicole looked around, glancing  only for a moment  at each of  the
bizarre creatures staring at  her. Then she leaned  her head back  and
gazed at  the  green dome  far  above her  head.  Some kind  of  thin,
flexible ribbing could be  seen in isolated spots,  but it was  mostly
covered over by a thick green canopy.
    'The ceiling is all growing vines and other plants, along with the
insectlike animals that  harvest the useful  fruits and flowers,"  she
heard Ellie say beside  her. "It is a  complete living ecosystem  that
has the additional advantage  of being an  excellent covering for  the
city, sealing out the Raman cold  and atmosphere. After the gates  are
closed, you'll  see  how  comfortable the  temperatures  are  normally
inside the city."
    Scattered around  under the  dome were  about Jwenty  very  bright
sources of light,  considerably larger than  the individual  fireflies
that had guided Richard and Nicole
    RAMA REVEALED
    179
    through the octospider domain.  Nicole tried to  study one of  the
lights, but quickly gave  up because it was  too bright for her  eyes.
The illumination  seemed  to  be  provided by  clusters  of  the  same
fireflies that had led them to the Emerald City.
    Was it fatigue or excitement or a combination of both that  caused
Nicole to lose  her equilibrium?  Whatever the reason,  while she  was
gazing at the green  dome above her,  Nicole began to  feel as if  she
were spinning around. She stumbled and reached out a hand for Richard.
The burst of adrenaline that accompanied her dizziness and sudden fear
caused her heart rate to surge.
    "What is it, Mother?" Ellie said, alarmed at her mother's pallor.
    "Nothing," said Nicole, breathing  slowly and deliberately.  "It's
nothing. ... I was just dizzy for a moment."
    Nicole glanced down at  the ground to  steady herself. The  street
was paved with  brightly colored  squares that  looked like  ceramics.
Sitting on the street no more  than fifty centimeters in front of  her
were three of the strangest creatures that Nicole had ever seen.  They
were about  the size  of basketballs.  Their hemispherical  tops  were
royal blue  undulating material  that resembled,  in some  ways,  both
human brains and the  part of a  jellyfish that floats  on top of  the
water. In the center of this constantly moving mass was a dark,  round
hole, out of which were poking two long, thin antennae, perhaps twenty
centimeters  long,  with  ganglia  or  knots  roughly  two  or   three
centimeters apart. When Nicole  involuntarily recoiled, stepping  back
because she felt  instinctively threatened by  these bizarre  animals,
their antennae spun around and the trio scampered quickly to the  side
of the avenue.
    Nicole glanced quickly around her.  Bands of color were  streaming
around the heads  of all the  octospiders she could  see. Nicole  knew
that they  were  dissecting her  latest  reaction. She  suddenly  felt
naked, lost, and  completely overwhelmed. From  somewhere deep  inside
her came an
    L
    ancient and powerful  signal of distress.  Nicole was afraid  that
she was about to scream.
    180
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    181
    "Ellie," she said quietly, "I think I've had enough for today. . .
. Can we go inside soon?"
    Ellie took her mother by the  arm and guided her toward a  doorway
in the second structure  to the right of  the avenue. "The octos  have
been working day and night to convert these quarters. I hope they  are
satisfactory."
    Nicole continued to stare fixedly at the octospider street  scene,
but what  she was  seeing  was no  longer  penetrating deep  into  her
cognitive mind. This is a dream, she thought, as a group of thin green
creatures that looked like bowling balls on stilts walked through  her
field of view. There cannot really be a place like this anywhere.
    "I too was feeling a little overwrought," Richard was saying.  "We
had that scare in the forest. And  we have walked a long way in  three
days, especially for old folks.  It's not surprising that your  mother
became disoriented- that scene outside was weird."
    "Before  he  left,"  Ellie  said,  "Archie  apologized  in   three
different ways.  He tried  to  explain that  they had  permitted  free
access to  the  gate area,  thinking  that  you and  Mother  would  be
fascinated. He hadn't thought about the fact that it might be a little
too much."
    Nicole sat up slowly in her  bed. "Don't worry, Ellie," she  said.
"I haven't really become that fragile. I guess I just wasn't prepared,
especially after so much exercise and emotion."
    "So would you like to rest some more, Mother, or would you  prefer
to have something to eat?"
    "I'm fine, really," Nicole reiterated. "Let's go on with  whatever
you have  planned. By  the way,  Eponine," she  said, turning  to  the
Frenchwoman, who had  said very little  since their initial  greetings
outside the city, "I  must apologize for our  rudeness. Richard and  I
have been  so busy  talking with  Ellie and  seeing everything  ...  I
forgot to tell you that Max sends his love. He made me promise that if
I saw you, I would tell you that he misses you terribly."
    "Thanks, Nicole," Eponine replied. "I have thought of Max and  the
rest of you every day since the octospiders brought us here."
    "Have you been learning the octospider language too, like  Ellie?"
Nicole asked.
    "No,"  Eponine  answered  slowly,   "I've  been  doing   something
altogether different." She glanced around  for Ellie, who had  stepped
out momentarily,  presumably to  arrange  dinner. "In  fact,"  Eponine
continued, "I had  hardly seen Ellie  for two weeks  until we  started
making plans for your arrival."
    There was a  strange silence  for several seconds.  "Have you  and
Ellie been prisoners here?"  Richard then asked in  a low voice.  "And
have you figured out why they kidnapped you?"
    "No, not  exactly," Eponine  replied. She  stood up  in the  small
room. "Ellie," she shouted, "are you out there? Your father is  asking
questions. . . ."
    "Just a minute," they  all heard Ellie yell.  A few moments  later
she returned to the room with the octospider Archie behind her.  Ellie
read the look on her father's face. "Archie is all right," Ellie said.
"And we agreed that when we told you everything, he could be here  ...
to explain and clarify and maybe answer questions that we can't."
    The octospider sat  down among  the humans and  there was  another
temporary silence. "Why do I have  the feeling that this entire  scene
has been rehearsed?" Richard asked at length.
    A worried  Nicole leaned  forward and  took her  daughter's  hand.
'There's not any bad news, is there,  Ellie? You did tell us that  you
would be coming back with us."
    "No, Mother,"  Ellie  said. "There  are  just a  few  things  that
Eponine and I want to tell you. . . . Ep, why don't you go first?"
    Bands  of  color  were  streaming  around  Archie's  head  as  the
octospider, who had obviously been following the conversation closely,
changed his  position  to be  more  directly opposite  Eponine.  Ellie
watched the bands carefully.
    "What is he-or it-saying?" Nicole asked. She was still stunned  by
her daughter's proficiency with the alien language.
    182
    ARTHUR C. CLARICE AND GENTRY LEE
    " 'It' would be strictly proper, I guess," Ellie said with a short
laugh. "At least that's what Archie told me when I explained pronouns.
But Ep and  I have been  using 'he' and  'him* when we  refer to  both
Archie and Dr. Blue. . . . Anyway, Archie wants us to inform you  that
both Eponine and I  have been cared  for very well,  that we have  not
suffered  in  any  way,  and  that  we  were  only  kidnapped  by  the
octospiders because  they had  not  been able  to  figure out  how  to
establish a nonhostile and communicative interaction with us-"
    "Kidnapping is  not  exactly the  proper  way to  begin,"  Richard
interrupted.
    "I have explained all that to Archie and the others, Daddy," Ellie
continued, "which is why he wants  me to set the record straight  now.
They have treated us magnificently, and I have seen no indication that
their species is even capable of hostile acts."
    "AH right," Richard said, "your  mother and I understand the  gist
of this preamble."
    They were  delayed  momentarily by  some  comments in  color  from
Archie. After Ellie explained to the octospider the meanings of "gist"
and "preamble," she looked across at her parents. "Their  intelligence
is really  staggering," Ellie  said. "Archie  has never  asked me  the
meaning of any word more than once."
    "When I arrived here," Eponine began, "Ellie was just beginning to
understand the octospider language.  At first everything was  terribly
confusing. But  after  a few  days  Elfie  and I  understood  why  the
octospiders had kidnapped me."
    "We talked about  it an  entire evening,"  Ellie interjected.  "We
were both  flabbergasted.  We  couldn't  figure  out  how  they  could
possibly have known."
    "Known whatT  Richard said.  "I'm sorry,  ladies, but  I'm  having
trouble following."
    "They knew that I had RV-41,"  Eponine said. "And both Archie  and
Dr. Blue-he's another  octospider, a  physician-we call  him Dr.  Blue
because when he's talking his cobalt blue band spills way outside  the
normal boundaries-"
    "Wait a minute," Nicole said now, shaking her head
    RAMA REVEALED
    183
    vigorously. "Let  me  get this  straight.  You're telling  us  the
octospiders knew that  Eponine had  the RV-41  virus. How  can mat  be
possible?"
    Archie went through a long color sequence that Ellie asked him  to
repeat. "He says  that they  have been monitoring  all our  activities
very closely ever since we left  New Eden. The octos deduced from  our
actions, he says, that Eponine had an incurable disease of some kind."
    Richard began to pace. "That is one of the most amazing statements
that I have ever  heard," he said with  passion. He turned toward  the
wall, temporarily lost in his thoughts. Archie reminded Ellie that  he
could not understand anything unless Richard was facing him. At length
Richard spun  around. "How  could they  possibly .  . .  Look,  Ellie,
aren't the octospiders deaf?"
    When Ellie nodded affirmatively, Richard and Nicole learned  their
first little bit of  the octospider language.  Archie flashed a  broad
crimson   band-indicating    the   following    sentence   would    be
declarative-followed by a magnificent aquamarine.
    "Well, if  they're deaf,"  Richard exclaimed,  "how in  the  world
could they  have figured  out  that you  had  RV-41, unless  they  are
masters of mind reading, or have a record of every . . . No, even then
it's not possible."
    He sat back down. There was another period of silence.
    "Should I continue?" Eponine asked eventually. Richard nodded.
    "As I was saying,  Dr. Blue and Archie  explained to Ellie and  me
that they were really very advanced in biology and medicine . . .  and
if we would try to cooperate with them, they would see if perhaps they
had techniques that could cure me-assuming, of course, that I would be
willing to submit to all the procedures."
    "When we asked them why they wanted to cure Eponine," Ellie  said,
"Dr. Blue told  us that the  octospiders were trying  to make a  grand
gesture  of  friendship,  something  that  would  pave  the  way   for
harmonious interactions between our two species."
    Richard and Nicole were both absolutely astounded by
    184
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    what they were hearing. They looked at each other in disbelief  as
Ellie continued.
    "Because I was still a beginner at the language," Ellie said,  "it
was  very  difficult  to  communicate   what  we  knew  about   RV-41.
Eventually, after many long, intense  language sessions, we were  able
to tell the octospiders what we knew."
    "Both Ellie and  I tried  to remember everything  Robert had  ever
said about the disease. All along,  Dr. Blue, Archie, and a couple  of
the other octospiders were  around us. They never  took a single  note
that we could see. But we  never, ever told them the same  information
twice."
    "In  fact,"  Ellie  added,  "whenever  we  inadvertently  repeated
ourselves, they reminded us that we had told them that before."
    "About three  weeks  ago,"  Eponine  continued,  "the  octospiders
informed us that their information-gathering process was over and that
they were now ready to subject  me to some tests. They explained  that
the tests might be  painful at times and  were extraordinary by  human
standards."
    "Most of  the  tests,"  Ellie  said,  "involved  inserting  living
creatures, some microscopic and some that Eponine could actually  see,
into her body-either by injection-"
    "Or by allowing the creatures to enter through my, uh, I guess the
best word would be orifices."
    Archie  interrupted   here  and   asked   for  the   meanings   of
"inadvertently" and  "orifices." While  Ellie was  explaining,  Nicole
leaned over to Richard. "Sound familiar?" she asked.
    Richard nodded. "But I never had any kind of interaction, at least
not that I can remember. ... I was isolated."
    "I have experienced some weird  feelings in my life," Eponine  was
saying, "but nothing quite like I felt the day five or six tiny worms,
no bigger than a  pin, crawled into  the lower part  of my body."  She
shivered. "I told  myself that  if I survived  the days  of having  my
insides invaded,  I  would never  again  complain about  any  physical
discomfort."
    "Did you believe  that the octospiders  were going to  be able  to
cure you?" Nicole asked.
    RAMA REVEALED
    185
    "Not at first," Eponine replied. "But as the days passed, I  began
to think  that  it was  possible.  I  certainly could  see  that  they
possessed medical capabilities altogether  different from ours. And  I
had the feeling they were making progress.
    'Then one day, after the testing  was over, Ellie showed up in  my
room-throughout this  time I  was  kept somewhere  else in  the  city,
probably in  their  equivalent of  a  hospital-and told  me  that  the
octospiders had  isolated  the  RV-41  virus  and  understood  how  it
operated on its  host, namely, me.  They had Ellie  tell me then  that
they were going to  insert a 'biological agent'  into my system  which
would seek out the  RV-41 virus and destroy  it completely. The  agent
would not be  able to  reduce the damage  already done  by the  virus,
which they assured me through Ellie was not that severe, but it  would
absolutely cleanse my system of RV-41."
    "I was told to explain to  Eponine also," Ellie said, "that  there
could be some side  effects from the agent.  They didn't know  exactly
what to expect, for of course they had never used the agent in  humans
before, but their 'models' predicted nausea and possibly headaches."
    "They were correct about  the nausea," Eponine  said. "I threw  up
every three or four  hours for a  couple of days. At  the end of  that
time, Dr. Blue, Archie, Ellie, and the other octospiders all  gathered
beside my bed to tell me that I was cured."
    "Whaaat?" said Richard, jumping to his feet again.
    "Qh, Eponine," Nicole  said immediately, "I'm  so happy for  you."
She stood up and hugged her friend.
    "And you believe this?" Richard said to Nicole. "You believe  that
the octospider doctors,  who can't possibly  yet understand very  well
how the human body works, could  accomplish in several days what  your
brilliant son-in-law and  his staff at  the hospital could  not do  in
four years?"
    'Why not, Richard?" Nicole said. "If it had been done by the Eagle
at the Node,  you would have  accepted it immediately.  Why can't  the
octospiders be much  more advanced  than we  are in  biology? Look  at
everything we saw."
    186
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "All right," said Richard. He shook his head a few times and  then
turned to Eponine. "I'm sorry," he said, "but it's just difficult  for
me to ... Congratulations.  I too am  delighted." He embraced  Eponine
awkwardly.
    While they had been talking, someone had noiselessly stacked fresh
vegetables and water just outside their door. Nicole saw the materials
for their feast when she went to use the bathroom.
    "That must  have  been an  astonishing  experience," she  said  to
Eponine when she returned to where everyone else was sitting.
    "That's an understatement," Eponine said. She smiled. "Even though
I feel in my heart that I'm  cured, I can't wait to have it  confirmed
by you and Dr. Turner."
    Both Richard and Nicole were bone tired after their large  dinner.
Ellie told her parents that there was more to talk about, but that she
could wait until after Richard and Nicole had slept.
    "I wish I could remember more about my period with the octospiders
before we reached  the Node," Richard  said, when he  and Nicole  were
lying together on the large bed their hosts had provided. "Then  maybe
I would understand better  what I feel about  the story that ElHe  and
Eponine told."
    "Do you still doubt that she's cured?" Nicole asked.
    "I don't know," Richard said. "But  I will admit that I am  rather
puzzled by the  difference in behavior  between these octospiders  and
the ones who  examined and tested  me years before.  I cannot  believe
that the octos in Rama II would ever have rescued me from a  voracious
plant."
    "Maybe octospiders are capable of widely varying behavior.  That's
certainly  true  for  human  beings.  In  fact,  it's  true  for   all
higher-order mammals on Earth. Why  should you expect all  octospiders
to be the same?"
    "I know you're going  to say that  I'm being xenophobic,"  Richard
said, "but it's difficult  for me to  accept thesb 'new'  octospiders.
They seem too good to be true. As a biologist,
    RAMA REVEALED
    187
    what do you  think is their  payoff, to use  your word, for  being
nice to us?"
    "It's a  legitimate question,  darling,"  Nicole replied,  "and  I
don't know the answer. The idealist  in me, however, wants to  believe
that we have encountered a species that behaves, most of the time,  in
a moral fashion because doing good is its own reward."
    Richard laughed. "I  should have  known you'd  say something  like
that. It's consistent  with your comments  about Sisyphus during  that
discussion we had in New Eden long ago."
    6
    V;
    ou would find their language fascinating, Daddy," Ellie was saying
when Nicole finally awakened after sleeping for eleven hours.  Richard
and Ellie were already eating breakfast. "It's extremely mathematical.
They use sixty-four colors altogether, but only fifty-one are what  we
would call alphabetical.  The other thirteen  are clarifiers-they  are
used  to  specify  tenses,  or  as  counters,  or  even  to   identify
comparatives  and  superlatives.  Their   language  is  really   quite
elegant."
    "I can't imagine how a language can be elegant-your mother is  the
linguist in the  family," Richard said.  "I managed to  learn to  read
German, but my speaking skills were atrocious."
    "Good morning,  everybody," Nicole  said, stretching  in her  bed.
"What's for breakfast?"
    "Some new and different vegetables," Ellie replied. "Or maybe they
are fruits, for  there's really  no equivalence in  our world.  Almost
everything the octospiders eat is what we
    RAMA REVEALED
    189
    would probably call a plant, deriving its energy from light. Worms
are about the only thing the  octospiders eat regularly that does  not
get its primary energy from photons."
    "So all the plants in the fields  that we passed are powered by  a
kind of photosynthesis?"
    "Something similar," Ellie replied, "if I understood properly what
Archie told me. Very little is wasted in the octospider society. Those
creatures that you and  Daddy call 'giant  fireflies' hover over  each
field for precisely scheduled periods of time each week or month.  And
all the water is managed as carefully as the photons."
    "Where's Eponine?" Nicole asked while  she surveyed the food  laid
out on the table in the middle of the room.
    "She's off packing her things," Ellie said. "Besides, she  thought
that she really shouldn't participate in this mom-ing's conversation."
    "Are we going to be shocked again, like last night?" Nicole  asked
lightly.
    "Perhaps," Ellie said  slowly. "I  really don't know  how you  are
going to react.  ... Do you  want to finish  your breakfast before  we
start, or should I tell Archie we're ready?"
    "You mean the octospider is going  to be part of the  conversation
and Eponine is not?" Richard asked.
    "It was her choice," Ellie said. "Besides, Archie, at least in his
capacity as a representative of the octospiders, is far more  involved
in the subject matter than Eponine."
    Richard and Nicole looked at each other. "Do you have any idea  at
all what this is about?" Richard said.
    Nicole shook her head. "But we might as well begin," she said.
    Archie spread out his tentacles on die floor so that his head  was
about the  same height  as those  of the  sitting humans.  Ellie  then
informed her  parents, and  everyone laughed,  that this  time  Archie
would provide the "preamble."  Ellie translated, at times  hesitantly,
as Archie began  with an apology  to Richard for  the way Richard  had
been treated by Archie's "cousins" years previously. Archie  explained
that those octospiders, die  ones die humans  had encountered in  Rama
prior to arriving at the Node, were
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    from a separate,  splinter colony,  only remotely  related to  the
octospiders that were currently on board Rama. Archie emphasized  that
it was not  until Rama  came into their  sphere of  influence for  the
third time  that the  octospiders, as  a species,  concluded that  the
great cylindrical spacecraft were important.
    A few of the survivors  of that other octospider colony-a  'Vastly
inferior group," according to Archie (this was one of the places where
Ellie asked him to repeat what he was saying)-were still passengers on
Rama when the spacecraft was intercepted, early in its trajectory,  by
the current octospider colony that  had been specifically selected  to
represent their  species. The  splinter group  survivors were  removed
from Rama, but all their records were preserved. Archie and the others
in his colony learned the details  of what had happened to Richard  at
that time and they now wished to make amends for that treatment.
    "So all this  preamble, in  addition to  being fascinating,"  said
Richard, "is an elaborate apology to me?"
    Ellie nodded and Archie flashed the broad crimson followed by  the
brilliant aquamarine.
    "May I ask a question before we continue?" Nicole said. She turned
toward the octospider. "I assume, from what you told us, that you  and
your colony boarded Rama  during the period that  we were all  asleep.
Did you know we were there?"
    Archie answered that the octospiders had presumed the humans  were
living inside the far northern habitat in Rama, but had not known  for
certain until the external seal of the human habitat was first broken.
By that time, according to  Archie, the octospider colony had  already
been in place for twelve human years.
    "Archie insisted that he make  this apology himself," Ellie  said,
glancing at her father and then waiting for him to respond.
    "Okay, I accept, I  guess," Richard replied.  "Although I have  no
idea what the proper protocol should be. ..."
    Archie  asked  Ellie   to  define   "protocol."  Nicole   laughed.
"Richard," she said, "sometimes you are so stiff."
    RAMA REVEALED
    191
    "Anyway," Ellie said again, "in the interest of time, I will  tell
you everything else myself. According to Archie, the records from  the
splinter colony show that  they conducted a  number of experiments  on
you, most of which  are outlawed in  those octospider colonies  Archie
refers to as 'highly  developed.' One experiment,  Daddy, as you  have
often suggested,  involved  inserting  into your  brain  a  series  of
specialized microbes to void  all your memory of  the time period  you
stayed with the octospiders. I have reported to Archie and the  others
that the memory experiment was mostly but not completely successful.
    "The most complex experiment  they conducted on  your body was  an
attempt to alter your sperm.  The splinter colony of octospiders  knew
no more about where Rama was  going than our family did. They  thought
that perhaps the humans and  octospiders on board would be  coexisting
for centuries, maybe even eons, and the octospiders determined that it
was absolutely essential for the two species to communicate.
    "What they attempted to do was  to change the chromosomes in  your
sperm so  that  your  offspring  would  have  both  expanded  language
capability and greater  visual resolution  of colors.  In short,  they
tried to engineer me genetically- for I was the only child born to you
and Mother  after  your  long  odyssey-so that  I  would  be  able  to
communicate with them  without undue difficulty.  To accomplish  this,
they introduced a set of special creatures into your body."
    Ellie stopped. Both Richard and Nicole  were staring at her as  if
they were in shock.
    "So you are some kind of hybrid?" Richard asked finally.
    "Maybe a little," said Ellie, laughing to defuse the tension.  "If
I understand  correctly, only  a  few thousand  of the  three  billion
kilobases that define my genome have been altered. . . . And  speaking
of that,  Archie and  the octospiders  would like  to invalidate,  for
their scientific research, that I am  indeed the result of an  altered
sperm. They would like blood and other cell samples from both of  you,
so that they  can conclude unequivocally  that I could  not have  come
from a 'normal'  union of the  two of  you. Then they  would know  for
certain that my facility with  their language was indeed  'engineered'
and not just incredible good luck."
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "What difference does it  make at this  point?" Richard asked.  "I
would think that all that matters is that you can communicate."
    "I'm surprised  at you,  Father-you who  have always  been such  a
knowledge junkie. The octospider society places information at the top
of the value scale. They are already virtually certain, as a result of
the tests  they have  performed on  me plus  the records  kept by  the
splinter group,  that I  am indeed  the result  of an  altered  sperm.
Looking at both your genomes in  detail, however, would allow them  to
confirm it."
    "AH right,"  said  Nicole  after only  a  brief  hesitation.  "I'm
willing." She walked over  and hugged Ellie.  "Whatever caused you  to
be, you are  my daughter and  I love  you with all  my heart."  Nicole
glanced back at Richard.  "And I'm certain your  father will agree  as
soon as he has had time to think about it."
    Nicole smiled at Archie. The octospider flashed the broad crimson,
followed by  a  more narrow  cobalt  blue  and a  bright  yellow.  The
sentence meant "Thank you" in the octospider language.
    The next  morning Nicole  wished that  she had  asked a  few  more
questions before  volunteering to  help  the octospi-ders  with  their
scientific  research.  Just  after  breakfast,  their  constant  alien
companion Archie was joined  by two other  octospiders in the  humans'
small suite. One of the newcomers, introduced by Ellie as "Dr.  Blue-a
most distinguished  medical  scholar,"  explained what  was  going  to
occur.  Richard's  procedure  would  be  simple  and  straightforward.
Essentially,  the  octos  only  wanted  enough  data  on  Richard   to
corroborate the historical record of his visit to the splinter  colony
years before.
    As for  Nicole,  since  the  octospider  data  base  contained  no
physiological information on  her, and the  octos had already  learned
from their detailed examination of Ellie  that the way in which  human
genetic characteristics fire  expressed is dominated  by the  mother's
contribution to the offspring, a  much more elaborate procedure  would
be
    RAMA REVEALED
    193
    required. Dr. Blue proposed to  perform a complex series of  tests
on Nicole, the most important of which involved data gathering  inside
her body  by  a dozen  tiny,  coiled  creatures that  were  about  two
centimeters long and the width of  a pin. Nicole recoiled with  horror
when the octospider doctor held up an equivalent of a plastic bag  and
Nicole first saw the writhing, slimy  creatures that were going to  be
inside her.
    "But I thought all you needed  was my genetic code," Nicole  said,
"and that's  contained  in  each  and  every  cell.  It  shouldn't  be
necessary-"
    Bright  colors  circled   Dr.  Blue's  head   as  the   octospider
interrupted before Nicole  had a  chance to finish  her protest.  "Our
techniques of  extracting  your  genome information,"  Dr.  Blue  said
through Ellie, "are not yet very advanced. Our methods work best if we
have many cells, chosen from  several different organs and  biological
subsystems."
    The doctor then politely thanked Nicole again for her cooperation,
finishing with the sequence of cobalt blue and bright yellow bands she
had already learned  to interpret. The  blue part of  the "Thank  you"
spilled down the side of Dr. Blue's head, producing a beautiful visual
effect that momentarily distracted the linguist in Nicole. So  keeping
those color bands regular must be a learned behavior, she thought. And
our doctor has a kind of speech impediment.
    Nicole's attention was forcibly returned to the pending  procedure
a few moments later when Dr. Blue explained that the coiled  creatures
would burrow through her skin into her body and then remain inside her
for half an hour. Yuch, thought Nicole immediately, they remind me  of
leeches.
    One was placed on her forearm.  Nicole raised her arm up in  front
of her face  and watched  the tiny animal  screw its  way through  her
skin. Nicole felt  nothing while  the creature was  invading her,  but
when it had disappeared she shuddered involuntarily.
    Nicole was asked to lie down on her back. Dr. Blue then showed her
two small eight-legged creatures, one red and one blue, each the  size
of a fruit fly. "You may feel some discomfort soon," Dr. Blue said  to
Nicole through  Ellie, "as  the colters  reach your  internal  organs.
These little guys can
    194
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    be used for  anesthesia if  you would  like some  relief from  the
pain."
    Less than  a  minute later  Nicole  experienced a  sharp  stabbing
sensation in her chest. Nicole's first thought was that something  was
cutting into  one of  the chambers  of her  heart. When  Dr. Blue  saw
Nicole's face wrenched in pain, he  placed the two anesthetic bugs  on
Nicole's neck.  In only  seconds Nicole  was suspended  in a  peculiar
state between waking and dreaming. She could still hear Ellie's voice,
continuing to  explain what  was  happening, but  she could  not  feel
anything occurring inside her body.
    Nicole found her gaze fixed on the front of the head of Dr.  Blue,
who was supervising  the entire procedure.  Much to her  astonishment,
Nicole  thought  that  she   was  beginning  to  recognize   emotional
expressions in the subtle surface  wrinkles of the octospider's  face.
She remembered once as a child being certain that she had seen her pet
dog smile. There's so  much to seeing, her  floating mind thought,  so
much more than we ever use.
    She felt astonishingly  peaceful. Nicole closed  her eyes  briefly
and when she opened  them again she was  a ten-year-old girl,  weeping
beside her father  as her mother's  bier was consumed  by flames in  a
burial  ceremony  befitting  the  Senoufo  queen.  The  old  man,  her
great-grandfather Omeh, dressed in a frightening mask to scare off any
demons that might try to  accompany Nicole's mother to the  afterlife,
came over  beside her  and took  her hand.  "It is  as the  chronicles
prophesied, Ronata," he said, using Nicole's Senoufo name, "our  blood
has been scattered to the stars."
    The variegated mask of the shaman disappeared into another set  of
colors, these in bands streaking around Dr. Blue's head. Again  Nicole
heard Ellie's voice. My daughter is  a hybrid, she thought to  herself
without emotion. /  have given birth  to something that  is more  than
human. A new kind of evolution has begun.
    Her mind drifted again and she was a great bird/plane flying  high
in the dark above  the savannas of the^  Ivory Coast. Nicole had  left
the Earth,  turned her  back on  the Sun,  and blasted  like a  rocket
toward the blackness and void
    RAMA REVEALED
    195
    beyond the solar system. In  her-mind's eye she could clearly  see
Omeh's face.  "Ronata," he  called into  the night  sky in  the  Ivory
Coast, "do not forget.  You are the chosen  one." And could he  really
have known, Nicole thought, still in the twilight zone between  waking
and sleeping, all  those years ago,  in Africa, on  Earth? And if  so,
how? Or is there still another  dimension to seeing that we have  only
just begun to understand?
    Richard and Nicole  were sitting  together in  the near  darkness.
They were temporarily alone. Ellie  and Eponine were out with  Archie,
making all the arrangements for the departure the next morning.
    "You've been very quiet all day," Richard said.
    "Yes, I  have,"  Nicole answered.  "I  have felt  strange,  almost
drugged, ever since that last procedure this morning. . . . My  memory
is unusually active. I've  been thinking about  my parents. And  Omeh.
And visions I had years ago."
    "Were you surprised at  the results of  the tests?" Richard  asked
after a short silence.
    "Not really. I guess so much has happened to us. ... And you know,
Richard, I can still remember when  Ellie was conceived. You were  not
really yourself again yet."
    "I talked to Ellie and Archie quite a bit this afternoon while you
were napping.  The  changes  the  octospiders  induced  in  Ellie  are
permanent, like  mutations.  Nikki  probably  has  some  of  the  same
characteristics-it depends  on the  exact genetic  mixture. Of  course
hers will be diluted by another generation. . . ."
    Richard didn't finish  his thought.  He yawned,  and then  reached
over for Nicole's hand. They sat quietly together for several  minutes
before Nicole broke the silence.
    "Richard, do  you  remember  my  telling  you  about  the  Senoufo
chronicles? About the woman from the  tribe, the daughter of a  queen,
who was prophesied to carry the Senoufo blood 'even unto the stars'?"
    "Vaguely," Richard answered. "We haven't spoken about it fora long
time."
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "Omeh was certain that  I was the  woman in the  chronicles . .  .
'the woman without companion,' he called her. Do you believe there  is
any possible way that we can have knowledge of the future?"
    Richard laughed. "Everything in nature follows certain laws. Those
laws can be expressed  as differential equations in  time. If we  know
precisely the initial conditions of the system at any given epoch, and
the  exact   equations  representing   the   laws  of   nature,   then
theoretically we  can  predict  all outcomes.  We  can't,  of  course,
because our  knowledge is  always imperfect,  and the  rules of  chaos
limit the applicability of our estimation techniques."
    "Suppose," Nicole said,  propping herself up  on an elbow,  "there
were individuals  or even  groups who  did not  know mathematics,  but
could somehow see or feel both the laws and the initial conditions you
mentioned. Couldn't they  perhaps intuitively solve  at least part  of
the equations  and predict  the future  using insight  that we  cannot
model or quantify?"
    "It's possible," said Richard. "But remember, extraordinary claims
require-"
    "-extraordinary evidence. I know," said  Nicole. She paused for  a
moment. "I wonder  what destiny is,  then. Is it  something we  humans
make up after the fact? Or is it real? And if destiny really exists as
a concept, how can it be explained by the laws of physics?"
    "I'm not following you, darling," Richard said.
    "It's confusing even to me," Nicole said. "Am I who I am  because,
as Omeh insisted when I was a little girl, it was always my destiny to
travel in space? Or am I the person I am because of all the choices  I
have personally made and the skills I have consciously developed?"
    Richard laughed  again.  "Now you're  very  close to  one  of  the
fundamental  philosophical  conundrums,   the  debate  between   God's
omniscience and man's free will."
    "I didn't mean  to be,"  said Nicole reflectively.  "I just  can't
shake the  notion that  nothing  that has  happened in  my  absolutely
incredible life would have been a surprise to Omeh."
    7
    T;
    I heir departure breakfast was  a feast. The octospiders  provided
more than a dozen different fruits  and vegetables, as well as a  hot,
thick cereal made, according to Archie  and Ellie, from the very  tall
grasses just north of the power plant. While they were eating, Richard
asked the octospider what had  happened to the avian hatchlings  Tammy
and Timmy, as well  as the manna melons  and the sessile material.  He
was not satisfied  with the translated,  somewhat vague response  that
all the other species were fine.
    "Look, Archie," Richard said in his characteristic brusque manner.
He was now comfortable  enough with his alien  host that he no  longer
felt it necessary to be overly polite. "I have far more than a  casual
interest in those creatures. I rescued them and raised them from birth
by myself. I would like to see them, even if only briefly. . . . Under
any circumstances, I think  I deserve a more  definitive answer to  my
question."
    Archie stood up, ambled out the door of the suite, and
    198
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    returned in a few  minutes. "We have arranged  for you to see  the
avians for yourself  later on today  during our journey  back to  your
friends," he said.  "As for the  other species, two  of the eggs  have
just completed germination and are in the infant myrmicat stage. Their
development is being closely monitored on the other side of our domain
and it is not possible for you to visit them."
    Richard's face brightened.  'Two of them  germinated! How did  you
accomplish that?"
    "Eggs of  the  sessile  species  must be  placed  in  a  thermally
controlled liquid  for  a month  of  your time  before  the  embryonic
development process  will  even  begin,"  Ellie  interpreted  Archie's
colors very  slowly. 'The  temperature must  be maintained  within  an
extremely small range,  less than a  degree by your  measures, at  the
same value  that is  optimal  for the  myrmicat manifestation  of  the
species. Otherwise the growth and development process does not occur."
    Richard was on his feet. "So  that's the secret," he said,  nearly
shouting. "Dammit,  I should  have  figured it  out. I  certainly  had
plenty of clues,  both from  the conditions inside  their habitat  and
those murals they showed me." He  began to pace around the room.  "But
how did the octospi-ders know?" he said, with his back to Archie.
    Archie  replied  quickly  after   Ellie's  translation.  "We   had
information from the other octospider colony. Their records  explained
the entire metamorphosis of the sessiles."
    It seemed too  simple to  Richard. He suspected  that maybe  their
alien colleague was not telling him the whole truth. Richard was ready
to ask some more questions when Dr. Blue came into the suite, followed
by three  other  octospiders,  two  of  whom  were  carrying  a  large
hexagonal object wrapped in a paperlike material.
    "What's this?" Richard asked.
    'This is -bur official farewell party," Ellie answered.  'Together
with a present from the residents of the city."
    One of the new  octos asked Ellie if  all the human^ could  gather
outside on the avenue for the departure ceremony. The humans picked up
their belongings and walked through
    RAMA REVEALED
    199
    the hallway out into the brighter lights. Nicole was surprised  by
what she saw. Except for the octospiders who filed out of their  suite
behind them, the avenue was deserted.  Even the colors of the  gardens
seemed more muted, as if they had somehow been temporarily  brightened
by all  the surrounding  activity two  days earlier  when Richard  and
Nicole had arrived.
    "Where is everyone?" Nicole asked Ellie.
    "It's very quiet  on purpose,"  her daughter  replied. "The  octos
didn't want to overwhelm you again."
    The five octospiders arranged themselves  in a line in the  middle
of the avenue, with the pyramid-shaped building directly behind  them.
The two octos on the right side balanced the hexagonal package between
them. It was  larger than  they were. The  four humans  were lined  up
opposite the octospiders, just in front of the gates to the city.  The
octospider  in  the  center,  whom  Ellie  introduced  as  the  "Chief
Optimizer" (based  on  Archie's  description  of  the  duties  of  the
octospider leader), then stepped forward to speak.
    The Chief Optimizer  expressed its gratitude  to Richard,  Nicole,
Ellie, and Eponine, including a personal note with each thank-you, and
said that it hoped this brief interaction would be the "first of many"
that would lead  to more  understanding between the  two species.  The
octospider then indicated  that Archie  was going to  return with  the
humans, not  only  so that  the  interaction could  be  continued  and
expanded, but also to  demonstrate to the other  humans that a  mutual
trust between the two species now existed.
    During a brief pause Archie shuffled forward into the zone between
the two lines and Ellie  symbolically welcomed him to their  traveling
party. The two octos on the right then unveiled the present, which was
a magnificent detailed painting of  the sight that Richard and  Nicole
had seen at the  moment of their entrance  into the Emerald City.  The
painting was so lifelike  that Nicole was  momentarily stunned. A  few
moments later the humans all moved closer to the painting to study its
details. All the weird  creatures were in  the picture, including  the
three royal blue undula-
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    tors, whose two long, upright, knobby antennae thrust upward  from
a teeming body mass reminded Nicole  how disoriented she had been  the
previous day.
    As she examined the painting and  wondered how it could have  been
created, Nicole  recalled  the near  swoon  that had  accompanied  her
actual viewing of  the scene.  Was I  having a  premonition of  danger
then? she mused. Or was it  something else? She glanced away from  the
painting and watched the octospiders talking among themselves. Perhaps
it was an epiphany,  she thought, an instant  burst of recognition  of
something way  beyond  my understanding.  Some  force or  power  never
before experienced by any  human being. A chill  ran down her back  as
the gates of the Emerald City began to open.
    Richard was always concerned about naming things. After less  than
a minute of inspection  of the creatures they  were going to ride,  he
called them "ostnchsaurs."
    'That's not very imaginative, darling," Nicole chided him.
    "Maybe not," he said, "but it  is a perfect description. They  are
just like a  giant ostrich  with the  face and  neck of  one of  those
herbivorous dinosaurs."
    The creature had four  birdlike legs, a  soft, feathery main  body
with an indented  bowl in the  middle where four  humans could  easily
sit, and  a long  neck that  could  be extended  three meters  in  any
direction. Since the legs were about  two meters long, the neck  could
reach die surrounding ground without difficulty.
    The two ostnchsaurs  were surprisingly swift.  Archie, Bllie,  and
Eponine rode  on  one  of  the creatures,  on  whose  side  the  large
hexagonal painting had  been tied  with a  kind of  twine. Nicole  and
Richard were by  themselves on  the other ostrichsaur.  There were  no
reins or other  obvious means of  controlling the creatures;  however,
before the group departed from  the Emerald City, Archie spent  almost
ten minutes "talking" to the ostrichsaurs.
    "He's  explaining  the  entire  route,"  Ellie  said.  "And   also
outlining what to do in case of an accident."
    RAMA REVEALED
    201
    "What kind  of  an  accident?" Richard  asked,  but  Ellie  simply
shrugged in reply.
    At first both Richard  and Nicole hung on  to the "feathers"  that
surrounded the  bowl in  which they  were -sitting,  but after  a  few
minutes they  relaxed. The  ride  was very  smooth, with  very  little
jostling up and down.  "Now, do you suppose,"  Richard said after  the
Emerald City faded  from view, "these  animals naturally evolved  this
way, with this near perfect bowl in the middle of their backs? Or  did
the   octospider   genetic   engineers   somehow   breed   them    for
transportation?"
    "There's no doubt in my mind  at all," Nicole replied. "I  believe
that  most  of  the  living  things  we  have  encountered,  certainly
including those dark, wriggling coiled things that crawled through  my
skin, have been designed for  a specific function by the  octospiders.
How could it be otherwise?"
    "But you can't believe these animals were designed from  scratch,"
Richard said. 'That would suggest an incredible technology, far beyond
anything we can even imagine."
    "I don't know, darling," Nicole said. "Maybe the octospiders  have
traveled to many  different planetary systems,  in each place  finding
life-forms that  could be  slightly altered  to fit  into their  grand
symbiotic schemes. But I can't accept for a minute the idea that  this
harmonious biology just happened by natural evolution."
    The two ostnchsaurs and their five riders were guided by three  of
the giant fireflies. After a couple  of hours, the group approached  a
vast lake  stretching to  the south  and west.  Both the  ostrichsaurs
squatted on  the ground  so  that Archie  and  the four  humans  could
descend.
    "We're going to have lunch and a drink of water here," Archie said
to the others. He handed Ellie  a container filled with food and  then
led the two ostrichsaurs over to  the lake. Nicole and Eponine  walked
off in the direction of  some blue plants growing  at the edge of  the
water, leaving Richard and Ellie by themselves.
    "Your proficiency in their language is very impressive, to say the
least," Richard said in between bites of food.
    Ellie laughed. "I'm afraid I'm not as good as you think.
    202
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    The octos purposely keep their  sentences very simple for me.  And
they speak slowly, with  broad bands. But  I am improving.  . . .  You
realize, don't you, that they are  not using their true language  when
speaking to us? It's just a derivative form."
    "What do you mean?" Richard asked.
    "I explained it to  Mother back at the  Emerald City. I guess  she
didn't have a chance to tell you." Ellie swallowed before  continuing.
"Their  true  language  has  sixty-four  color  symbols,  just  as   I
mentioned, but eleven of them are  not accessible to us. Eight lie  in
the  infrared  part  of  the  spectrum,  and  another  three  in   the
ultraviolet. So we can only  distinguish clearly fifty-three of  their
symbols. This was quite a problem  in the beginning. Luckily, five  of
the eleven outside  symbols are  clarifiers. Anyway,  for our  benefit
they have developed what amounts to  a new dialect of their  language,
using only the  color wavelengths that  we can see.  Archie says  that
this new dialect  is already being  taught in some  of their  advanced
classes."
    "Amazing," Richard  said.  "You  mean  they  have  adjusted  their
language to accommodate our physical limitations?"
    "Not exactly,  Father. They  still use  their true  language  when
talking to each other. That's why I cannot always understand what they
are saying. However, this new dialect  has been developed, and is  now
being expanded,  just  to  make  communications with  us  as  easy  as
possible."
    Richard finished  his lunch.  He was  about to  ask Ellie  another
question about  the octospider  language when  he heard  Nicole  yell.
"Richard," she shouted from  fifty meters away,  "look over there,  in
the air, toward the forest."
    Richard craned his neck  and shaded his eyes.  In the distance  he
could  see  two  birds  flying  toward  them.  For  some  reason   his
recognition was delayed until he  heard the familiar shrieking  sound.
Then he jumped up and  ran in the direction  of the avians. Tammy  and
Timmy, now full-grown, swooped down out  of the sky and landed  beside
him. Richard was ecstatic. His wards jabbered incessantly and  pressed
their velvet underbellies against him for a rub.
    RAMA REVEALED
    203
    They looked perfectly healthy. There was not a trace of sadness in
their huge expressive eyes. A few minutes later Timmy suddenly stepped
away, shrieked something in  a very loud  voice, and became  airborne.
Within a few  minutes the avian  returned with a  companion, a  female
with an  orange velvet  covering  unlike any  Richard had  ever  seen.
Richard was  a little  confused, but  he did  realize that  Timmy  was
trying to introduce him to his mate.
    The remainder of the  reunion with the avians  lasted only ten  or
fifteen minutes. Archie  insisted, after he  first explained that  the
vast lake  system supplied  almost  half of  the  fresh water  in  the
octospider domain,  that  the  entourage needed  to  continue  on  its
journey. Richard and Nicole  were already in the  bowl on the back  of
their ostrichsaur when the three  avians departed. Tammy hovered  over
them for a good-bye jabber, obviously disturbing the creature on which
they were riding. At length she  followed her brother and his mate  in
their flight toward the forest.
    Richard was strangely quiet as  their mounts also headed north  in
the direction of  the forest. "They  really mean a  lot to you,  don't
they?" Nicole said.
    "Absolutely," her husband replied. "I was at) alone except for the
hatchlings for a long time. Timmy  and Tammy depended on me for  their
survival. . . .  Committing myself to rescuing  them was probably  the
first selfless act  of my life.  It opened up  new dimensions of  both
anxiety and happiness for me."
    Nicole reached over and took Richard's hand. "Your emotional  life
has had an odyssey of its own," she said softly, "every bit as diverse
as the physical journey you have experienced."
    Richard kissed her. "I  still have a few  demons that are not  yet
exorcised," he said. "Maybe, with your help, in another ten years I'll
be a decent human being."
    "You don't give yourself enough credit," Nicole said.
    "My brain I  give plenty  of credit,"  Richard said  with a  grin,
changing the tone  of the conversation.  "And do you  know what it  is
thinking right now? Where  did that avian  with the orange  underbelly
come from?"
    204
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Nicole looked  puzzled. "From  the second  habitat/' she  replied.
"You yourself told us that there must have been a population of almost
a thousand before Nakamura's troops invaded. The octospiders must have
rescued a few also."
    "But I lived there  for months," Richard  protested. "And I  never
ever saw an  avian with an  orange underbelly. Not  one. I would  have
remembered."
    "What are you suggesting?"
    "Nothing. Your explanation is  definitely consistent with  Occam's
Razor. But I'm starting to wonder if maybe our octospider buddies have
some secrets they have not yet discussed with us."
    They reached the large igloo hut not far from the Cylindrical  Sea
after several more hours. The tiny glowing igloo that had been  beside
it was gone. Archie and the four humans dismounted. The octospider and
Richard untied the hexagonal painting  and stored it against the  side
of the igloo.  Then Archie led  the ostrichsaurs aside  and gave  them
directions for their homeward trek.
    "Can't they  stay a  little while?"  Nicole asked.  "The  children
would be absolutely delighted with them."
    "Unfortunately, no," Archie replied. "We have only a few and  they
are very much in demand."
    Although Eponine, EHie,  Richard, and Nicole  were all tired  from
their journey, they were still extremely excited about the forthcoming
reunion. Before leaving the  igloo hut, first  Eponine and theft  EHie
used the  mirror and  freshened  their faces.  "Please, all  of  you,"
Eponine said, "I ask  one favor. Don't say  anything about my cure  to
anybody until I have had a chance to tell Max in private. I want it to
be my surprise."
    "I hope Nikki still  recognizes me," EHie  said nervously as  they
descended the first staircase and entered the corridor that led to the
landing. When the group walked out  onto the landing and gazed at  the
circular floor below them, the twins Kepler and Galileo were playing a
game of tag,  with little Nikki  watching them and  laughing. Nai  and
Max* were unloading food from a subway that had apparently recently
    RAMA REVEALED
    205
    arrived. Eponine could not  restrain herself. "Max," she  shouted,
"Max!"
    Max reacted as if  he had been  shot. He dropped  the food he  was
carrying and turned toward the landing.  He saw Eponine waving at  him
and broke like a thoroughbred for the cylindrical staircase. It  could
not have been more than two minutes before he emerged onto die landing
and threw his arms around Eponine.
    "Oh, Frenchie," he said, lifting her  half a meter off the  ground
and hugging her fiercely, "how I have missed you!"
    8
    A;
    irchie could do all  kinds of tricks with  the colored balls.  The
octospider could  catch two  bails  at once  and  then throw  them  in
distinctly different directions. Archie could  even juggle all six  of
the balls simultaneously, using four tentacles, for he needed only the
other four  tentacles  on the  ground  to maintain  his  balance.  The
children loved for him to  swing all three of  them at the same  time.
Archie never seemed to tire of playing with the smaller humans.
    In the beginning, of course, the children had been afraid of then-
alien visitor. Little Nikki, despite Ellie's repeated assurances  that
Archie was friendly, was especially wary because of her memory of  the
terror of  her mother's  kidnapping.  Benjy was  the first  to  accept
Archie as a playmate. The  Watanabe twins were not coordinated  enough
to play complicated  games, so  Benjy was delighted  to discover  that
Archie would gladly join him for  an^ active game of catch or  Benjy's
version of dodgeball.
    Max and Robert were both disturbed by Archie's pres-
    RAMA REVEALED
    207
    ence. Within an hour after the arrival of the four humans and  the
octospider, in fact, Max  had confronted Richard  and Nicole in  their
bedroom. "Eponine  tells me,"  Max had  said angrily,  "that the  damn
octospider is  going to  live with  us here.  Have you  all lost  your
minds?"
    "Think of Archie  as an  ambassador, Max," Nicole  had said.  "The
octos want to establish regular communications with us."
    "But  these  same  octospiders  kidnapped  your  daughter  and  my
girlfriend and held them against their will for over a month. Are  you
telling me that we are to ignore their actions altogether?"
    "There were extenuating reasons  for the kidnappings," Nicole  had
replied, exchanging a brief glance  with Richard. "And the women  were
treated very well. Why don't you talk to Eponine about it?"
    "Eponine has  nothing but  praise for  the octospiders,"  Max  had
said. "It's almost as if she  has been brainwashed. I thought you  two
would be more reasonable."
    Even after Eponine had informed Max that the octospiders had cured
her of RV-41,  he was still  skeptical. "If it's  true," he had  said,
"then it's the most  wonderful news I've  received since those  little
robots showed up  at the  farm and  confirmed that  Nicole had  safely
reached New  York. But  I am  having  a very  hard time  seeing  those
eight-legged monsters as our benefactors- I want Doc Turner to examine
you very carefully.  If he tells  me you're cured,  then I'll  believe
it."
    Robert Turner was  overtly hostile to  Archie from the  beginning.
Nothing Nicole or even Ellie could say could neutralize the anger that
he still felt over Ellie's forcible kidnapping. His professional pride
was also severely wounded by the apparent ease with which Eponine  had
been purportedly cured.
    "You're expecting too much, Ellie, as always," Robert said on  the
second night  they were  together.  "You come  in  here, all  full  of
glowing reports about these  aliens who snatched  you away from  Nikki
and me, and  you expect  me to  embrace them  immediately. That's  not
fair. I need time to
    208
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    209
    understand and to synthesize  everything you're telling me.  Don't
you realize that both Nikki and I were traumatized by your kidnapping?
I can't change my opinion overnight."
    Ellie's revelation about the genetic changes made in her  father's
sperm also disturbed Robert, even though it did explain why his wife's
genome had  defied  classification  in  the  tests  his  colleague  Ed
Stafford had conducted back in New Eden.
    "How can you be so calm  about discovering that you're a  hybrid?"
he said  to Ellie.  "Don't  you understand  what  it means?  When  the
octospiders altered your DNA to improve your visual resolution and  to
make learning  their  language easier,  they  tampered with  a  robust
genetic code that has  evolved naturally over  millions of years.  Who
knows what  disease susceptibilities,  infirmities, or  even  negative
changes in fertility may show up in you or subsequent generations? The
octos may have unwittingly doomed all our grandchildren."
    Ellie was  not able  to  mollify her  husband. When  Nicole  began
working with Robert to ascertain whether Eponine had indeed been cured
of RV-41, she noticed  that Robert bristled every  time Nicole made  a
favorable statement about Archie or the octospiders.
    "We must give Robert more  time," Nicole counseled her daughter  a
week after their return. "He still feels that the octospiders violated
him, not only by kidnapping you,  but also by contaminating the  genes
of his daughter."
    "Mother, there  is another  problem as  well. I  almost feel  that
Robert is jealous  in some peculiar  way. He thinks  that I spend  too
much time with Archie. He doesn't seem to accept the fact that  Archie
cannot communicate with anyone else unless I am there to interpret."
    "As I said, we must be patient. Eventually Robert will accept  the
situation."
    But in private  Nicole had  her doubts. Robert  was determined  to
find some remnant of the RV-41  virus in Eponine and, when test  after
test with his relatively unsophisticated portable equipment showed  no
evidence of  the  pathogen in  her  system, he  continued  to  request
additional procedures. In Nicole's professional opinion, there was
    nothing to be gained from  more testing. Although there existed  a
very small probability that  the virus had eluded  them and did  still
dwell somewhere in Eponine, Nicole felt that it was virtually  certain
that Eponine had been cured.
    The two doctors clashed  the day after Ellie  had confided to  her
mother that Robert was jealous  of Archie. When Nicole suggested  that
they terminate the tests on Eponine and pronounce her healthy, she was
shocked to  hear  her son-in-law  say  that  he proposed  to  open  up
Eponine's chest  cavity and  take  a direct  sample from  the  tissues
around her heart.
    "But Robert," Nicole said, "have you ever had a case where so many
other tests  have  been  virus-negative but  the  pathogen  was  still
locally active in the cardiac region?"
    "Only  when  death  was  imminent   and  the  heart  had   already
deteriorated," he admitted. "But that  doesn't preclude that the  same
situation could occur earlier in the cycle of the disease."
    Nicole was staggered. She did not argue with Robert, for she could
tell from the rigid set of his muscles that he had already decided  on
his next course of action. But  Nicole knew full well that  open-heart
surgery of any kind was risky,  even when performed by skilled  hands.
She also realized that if Robert didn't come to his senses, she  would
be forced to oppose him on Eponine's behalf.
    Max asked  to talk  to  Nicole privately  very soon  after  Robert
recommended  that  the  heart   surgery  be  performed.  "Eponine   is
frightened," Max  confided, "and  I am  too. She  came back  from  the
Emerald City  more full  of life  than I  have ever  seen her.  Robert
originally told me that the tests would  be over in a couple of  days.
They have dragged on for almost two weeks and now he says he wants  to
take a tissue sample from her heart."
    "I know," said Nicole grimly. "He told me last night he was  going
to recommend the open-heart procedure."
    "Help me,  please," Max  said.  "I want  to  make certain  that  I
understand the facts properly. You and Robert have examined her  blood
many times, as well as several other
    210
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    211
    bodily tissues that sometimes show minute quantities of the virus,
and all the specimens have been unambiguously negative?"
    "That's correct," Nicole said.
    "Isn't it true also  that every other time  that Eponine has  been
examined, ever since she was  first diagnosed as RV-41-positive  years
ago, her blood samples have indicated the presence of the virus?"
    "Yes," Nicole replied.
    "Then why does Robert want to operate? Does he simply not want  to
believe that she is cured? Or is he just being extra careful?"
    "I cannot answer for him," Nicole said.
    She looked searchingly at her friend  and knew both what his  next
question would be and how she would answer it.
    "If you were the doctor in charge, Nicole," Max asked, "would  you
operate on Eponine?"
    "No, I would not," Nicole replied carefully. "I believe that it is
almost certain that Eponine  was indeed cured  by the octospiders  and
that the risk of the operation cannot be justified."
    Max smiled and kissed his friend on the forehead. "Thank you,"  he
said.
    Robert was outraged.  He reminded everyone  that he had  dedicated
more than four years of his life to studying this particular  disease,
as well as  trying to find  a cure,  and that he  certainly knew  more
about RV-41 than  all of them  put together. How  could they  possibly
trust an alien cure more than  his surgical talent? How could his  own
mother-in-law, whose knowledge of RV-41 was limited to what he himself
had taught her, have dared to offer an opinion different from his?  He
could not be placated by any of the group, not even by Ellie, whom  he
eventually  banished  from  his  presence  after  several   unpleasant
exchanges.
    For two days Robert  refused to come out  of Ijjs room. He  didn't
even reply when his  daughter Nikki wished  him "Sweet dreams,  Daddy"
before her naps and bedtime. His
    family and friends were deeply  troubled by Robert's torment,  but
could not figure out  how to ease his  pain. The question of  Robert's
mental stability came up in several discussions. Everyone agreed  that
Robert had seemed out of place ever since the escape from New Eden and
that his behavior had become even more erratic and unpredictable after
Ellie's kidnapping.
    Ellie confided to her mother that Robert had been "peculiar"  with
her since their recent reunion. "He  has not approached me even  once,
as a woman," she said  sorrowfully. "It has been as  if he felt I  was
contaminated by  my experience.  He keeps  saying weird  things  like,
'Ellie, did you want to be kidnapped?'"
    "I feel sorry  for him," Nicole  replied. "He is  carrying such  a
heavy emotional burden, going all the way back to Texas. This has  all
been simply too much. We should have-"
    "But what can we do for him now?" Ellie interrupted.
    "I don't know, darling," Nicole said. "I just don't know."
    Ellie  tried  to  pass  the  difficult  time  helping  Benjy  with
octospider  language  lessons.   Her  half   brother  was   absolutely
fascinated by  everything about  the aliens,  including the  hexagonal
octospider painting mat had been  brought back from the Emerald  City.
Benjy stared at the  picture several times a  day and never missed  an
opportunity to ask questions about  the amazing creatures depicted  in
the painting. Through Ellie, Archie always patiently answered whatever
Benjy asked.
    Benjy had  decided, soon  after he  began playing  regularly  with
Archie, that he wanted to learn to recognize at least a few phrases in
the octospider lexicon. Benjy knew that  Archie was able to read  lips
and he wanted  to show  the octospider that  even a  "slow human,"  if
properly  motivated,  could  pick  up  enough  understanding  of   the
octospider language for a simple conversation.
    Ellie and Archie started Benjy  with the fundamentals. He  learned
the octospider  colors  for "yes,"  "no,"  "please," and  "thank  you"
without any difficulty. The numbers were
    212
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    213
    fairly easy as well, because  both the cardinals and the  ordinals
were essentially combination sequences of two basic colors, blood  red
and malachite green, that were used in a binary fashion and marked  in
the flow of the  sentence by a salmon  clarifier. What gave Benjy  the
most  trouble  was  comprehending   that  the  individual  colors   by
themselves did not have any meaning. A burnt sienna band, for example,
represented the verb "to understand" if followed by a mauve and then a
clarifier; however, if the burnt sienna/mauve combination was followed
by a vermilion, the three-band symbol meant "flowering plant."
    Nor were  the individual  colors  members of  an alphabet  in  the
strictest sense. Sometimes the width of the colors, when compared with
others in  the  longer sequence  defining  a single  word,  completely
changed the meaning. The burnt sienna/mauve combination only meant "to
understand" if the two  bands were of  approximately equal width.  The
word defined by a narrow burnt  sienna followed by a mauve of  roughly
double the width was "capacity."
    Benjy  struggled  with  the  language,  doing  all  the   required
repetitions, with  an uncommon  zeal. His  ardor for  learning  wanned
Ellie's heart at a  time when she was  deeply concerned about how  the
crisis with Robert would be resolved.
    At the beginning of the  third day of Robert's self-imposed  exile
in his room, the subway pulled into its slot, as expected, with  their
semiweekly supply of food and water. Only this time there were two new
octospiders on board. They disembarked and had a detailed conversation
with Archie.  The family  gathered  together, expecting  some  unusual
news.
    "Human troops are again in  New York," Archie reported, "and  they
are in the  process of  breaking the  seal to  our lair.  It's just  a
matter of time until they discover the subway tunnels."
    "So what should we do now?" Nicole asked. ±
    "We would like you to come and live with us in the Emerald  City,"
Archie said. "My colleagues anticipated this
    possibility and  have already  finished the  design of  a  special
section in the  city just for  you. It could  be ready in  a few  more
days."
    "And what if we don't want to go?" Max asked.
    Archie conferred briefly with the other two octospiders. "Then you
can stay here and wait for the  troops," he said. "We will provide  as
much food as we can, but we will begin dismantling the subway as  soon
as we have evacuated  all our associates on  the northern side of  the
Cylindrical Sea."
    Archie continued  speaking,  but Ellie  stopped  translating.  She
asked the octospider to  repeat his next  few sentences several  times
before turning, a little pale, to her friends and family.
    "Unfortunately," she translated, "we octospiders must be concerned
for our own welfare. Therefore, any of you who decide not to come with
us will have your short-term memories blocked and wilt not be able  to
recall in detail any events from the last several weeks."
    Max whistled. "So much for friendship and communication," he said.
"When push comes to shove, all of the species use power."
    He walked over  to Eponine and  took her hand.  She looked at  him
quizzically as Max pulled her over in front of Nicole. "Will you marry
us, please?" he said.
    Nicole was flustered. "Right now?" she asked.
    "Right this very goddamn minute," Max answered. "I love this woman
beside me and I  want to have an  orgy of a honeymoon  with her up  in
that igloo hut before all hell breaks loose."
    "But I'm not qualified-" Nicole protested.
    "You're the best available," Max  interrupted. "Come on, at  least
do a good approximation." The speechless bride was beaming.
    "Do you,  Max  Puckett, take  this  woman, Eponine,"  Nicole  said
hesitantly, "to be your wife?"
    "I do and should have done months ago," Max replied.
    "And do  you, Eponine,  take this  man, Max  Puckett, to  be  your
husband?"
    "Oh, yes, Nicole, with pleasure."
    214
    ARTHUR C. ClARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    215
    Max pulled Eponine toward him  and kissed her passionately.  "Now,
Ar-chi-bald," he said as he and Eponine headed for the staircase,  "in
case you're wondering, Frenchie  and I intend to  go with you to  that
Emerald City she talks so much about.  But we'll be gone for the  next
twenty-four hours or so, maybe  longer if Eponine's energy holds  out,
and we do not want to be disturbed."
    Max and Eponine walked briskly  over to the cylindrical  staircase
and disappeared. Ellie had almost  finished explaining to Archie  what
was going on with  Max and Eponine when  the newlyweds emerged on  the
landing and waved. Everyone laughed as Max pulled Eponine back  toward
the corridor.
    Ellie sat by herself against the  wall in the dim light. It's  now
or never, she thought. / have to try one more time.
    She recalled the angry scene several hours earlier. "Of course you
want to go with  your friend Archie the  octospider," Robert had  said
bitterly. "And you expect to take Nikki with you."
    "Everyone else  is  going to  accept  the invitation,"  Ellie  had
replied, not even attempting to hide her tears. "Please come with  us,
Robert. They are a very gentle, very moral species."
    "They have brainwashed all of you," Robert had said. "Somehow they
have seduced you into  believing that they are  even better than  your
own kind." Robert  had then looked  at Ellie with  disgust. "Your  own
kind," he had repeated. "What a joke.  Why, I guess you're as much  an
octospider as you are a human."
    "That's not true, darling," Ellie had said. "I've told you several
times that only  very small  changes were made.  I'm as  human as  you
are."
    "Why, why, whyT Robert  had suddenly shouted. "Why  did I let  you
talk me into  coming to New  York in  the first place?  I should  have
stayed behind, where I was surrounded by dungs I understood." t.
    Despite her pleas, Robert had been adamant He was not going to the
Emerald City. He had even seemed strangely
    pleased that  his  short-term  memory  would  be  blocked  by  the
octosptders. "Perhaps," he had said, laughing harshly, "I will have no
memory at all  of your  return. I  will not  recall that  my wife  and
daughter are both hybrids and that my closest friends have no  respect
for my professional abilities. Yes," he had continued, "I will be able
to forget this nightmare of the last few weeks and remember only  that
you were stolen  away from me,  as my  first wife was,  while I  still
loved you desperately."
    Robert had stalked around  the room in anger.  Ellie had tried  to
soothe and comfort him. "No, no,"  he had shouted, recoiling from  her
touch. "It's  too late.  There is  too much  pain. I  can't stand  any
more."
    In the early hours  of the evening Ellie  had sought counsel  from
her mother. Nicole had not been able to provide Ellie with any relief.
Nicole had agreed that Ellie should not give up, but had cautioned her
daughter that nothing  in Robert's  behavior suggested  that he  might
change his mind.
    At Nicole's suggestion, Ellie approached Archie and asked a  favor
of the octospider. If  Robert insisted on not  going with them,  Ellie
entreated, would  it be  possible  for Archie,  or  one of  the  other
octospiders, to take Robert back to the lair, where he would be  found
quickly by the other humans? Archie had reluctantly agreed.
    / love you, Robert, Ellie said to herself as she finally stood up.
And Nikki  does too.  We want  you to  come with  us, for  you are  my
husband and  her father.  Ellie took  a deep  breath and  entered  her
bedroom.
    Even Richard had tears  in his eyes as  a mumbling Robert  Turner,
after exchanging a final  hug with his wife  and daughter, walked  off
haltingly behind Archie  toward the  subway only  twenty meters  away.
Nikki was crying  softly, but  the girl couldn't  have realized  fully
what was occurring. She was still too young.
    Robert turned, waved  slightly, and  entered the train.  In a  few
seconds it accelerated into the tunnel. Less than a
    216
    ARTHUR C. CLARICE AND GENTRY LEE
    minute later the somber mood was  broken by cries of joy from  the
landing above them.
    "All right, down there," Max shouted, "you'd better be ready for a
big party."
    Nicole looked up under the dome, and even at that distance, in the
dim light, she could see the  radiant smiles of the newlyweds. And  so
it is, she thought,  her heart still heavy  from her daughter's  loss.
Sorrow and joy. Joy and sorrow.  Wherever there are humans. On  Earth.
In new worlds beyond the stars. Now and forever.
    THE EMERALD CITY
    1
    T;
    he small driverless  transport stopped  at a  circular plaza  from
which streets extended  in five  directions. A daric  woman with  gray
hair and her  octospider companion  descended together  from the  car,
leaving it empty. As the octospider  and the human walked slowly  away
from the plaza, the  transport departed with  its interior lights  now
extinguished.
    A solitary  giant firefly  preceded Nicole  and Dr.  Blue as  they
continued their conversation in the near darkness. Nicole was  careful
to exaggerate  each  word so  that  her  alien friend  would  have  no
difficulty reading  her lips.  Dr.  Blue replied  in broad  swaths  of
color, using simple sentences that he knew Nicole understood.
    When they  reached the  first  of four  cream-white,  single-story
dwellings at the end of the  cul-de-sac, the octospider lifted one  of
his tentacles  from the  street  and shook  hands with  Nicole.  "Good
night," she replied with a wan smile. "It was quite a day. . . . Thank
you for everything."
    After Dr. Blue went inside his house, Nicole walked
    220 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    over to the decorative fountain forming an island in the center of
the street and  drank from  one of the  four spigots  jetting forth  a
continuous stream of  water at  waist level.  Some of  the water  that
touched Nicole's face fell  back into the basin,  causing a flurry  of
activity in the shallow pool. Even  in the dim light Nicole could  see
the  swimming  creatures  darting  to   and  fro.  The  cleaners   are
everywhere, she thought, especially when we're around. The water  that
touched my face will be purified 7n seconds.
    She turned  and  approached the  largest  of the  three  remaining
dwellings in the cul-de-sac. When Nicole crossed the threshold of  her
house, the outside firefly flew quickly down the street to the  plaza.
In the atrium, Nicole tapped the wall  lightly one time, and in a  few
seconds a smaller firefly, barely glowing, appeared in the hallway  in
front of her.  She stopped in  one of the  family's two bathrooms  and
then paused at  the doorway of  Benjy's room. He  was snoring  loudly.
Nicole watched  her  son sleep  for  almost  a full  minute  and  then
continued down the hallway to the  master bedroom she shared with  her
husband.
    Richard was  also asleep.  He  did not  respond to  Nicole's  soft
greeting. She  took off  her  shoes and  left  the bedroom.  When  she
reached the  study, Nicole  tapped  on the  wall  twice more  and  the
illumination  increased.  The  study  was  cluttered  with   Richard's
electronic components, which he had had the octospiders gather for him
over a period  of several  months. Nicole  laughed to  herself as  she
picked her way through the mess to her desk. He always has a  project,
she thought. At least the translator will be very useful.
    Nicole sat in the chair at her desk and opened the middle  drawer.
She pulled out her  portable computer, for  which the octospiders  had
finally provided acceptable  new power and  storage subsystems.  After
calling up  her journal  from the  menu, Nicole  began typing  on  the
keyboard, intermittently glancing  at the small  monitor to read  what
she was writing.
    Day 221
    I have arrived at home very  late and, as I expected, everyone  is
asleep. I was tempted to take off my
    RAMA REVEALED
    221
    clothes and snuggle into bed beside Richard, but this day has been
so extraordinary that I feel compelled to write while my thoughts  and
feelings are still fresh in my mind.
    I had breakfast, as always, with our entire human clan here  about
one hour after dawn. Nai talked about what the children were going  to
do in school  before their long  nap, Eponine reported  that both  her
heartburn and morning sickness had abated, and Richard complained that
the "biological  wizards"  (our  octospi-der hosts,  of  course)  were
mediocre  electrical  engineers.  I   tried  to  participate  in   the
conversation, but  my  growing  anticipation and  anxiety  about  this
morning's meetings  with  the  octospider doctors  kept  occupying  my
thoughts.
    My  stomach  was  full  of  butterflies  when  I  arrived  at  the
conference room in the pyramid just after breakfast. Dr. Blue and  his
medical colleagues  were prompt,  and the  octos launched  immediately
into a lengthy discussion of what they had learned from Benjy's tests.
Medical jargon  is  hard enough  to  understand in  one's  own  native
language-it was nearly impossible for me at times to follow what  they
were saying with their colors. Often I had to ask them to repeat.
    It did not  take long for  their answer to  be apparent. Yes,  the
octospiders could definitely see, by comparison, where Benjy's  genome
was different from everyone else's. Yes, they agreed mat the  specific
string of genes on  chromosome 14 was almost  certainly the source  of
Whittingham's syndrome. But no, they  were sorry, they didn't see  any
way-not even using something I  interpreted as a gene  transplant-that
they could cure his problem. It was too complex, the octospiders said,
involving too  many  amino  acid  chains,  they  had  not  had  enough
experience with  human  beings,  there  were  too  many  chances  that
something might go terribly wrong. . . .
    I cried  when  I understood  what  they  were telling  me.  Had  I
expected otherwise? Had I thought that some-
    222 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    how the same miraculous medical capability that had freed  Eponine
from the  curse of  the  RV-41 virus  might  be successful  in  curing
Benjy's birth defect?  I realized, in  my despair, that  I had  indeed
been hoping  for  a miracle,  even  though my  brain  recognized  very
clearly the significant difference between a congenital ailment and an
acquired virus.  Dr. Blue  tried his  best  to console  me. I  let  my
mother's tears flow there, in front of the octospiders, knowing that I
would need my strength when I returned home to tell the others.
    Nai and Eponine both knew the results as soon as they saw my face.
Nai adores Benjy and never  stops praising his determination to  learn
in spite of the obstacles. Benjy is amazing. He spends hours and hours
in his room, working laboriously  through all his lessons,  struggling
for days to  grasp a concept  in fractions or  decimals that a  gifted
nine-year-old might learn in half an hour. Only last week Benjy beamed
with  pride  when  he  showed  me  he  could  find  the  least  common
denominator to add the fractions 1/4, 1/5, and 1/6.
    Nai has been his  main teacher. Eponine has  been Benjy's pal.  Ep
probably felt worse than anybody  this morning. She had been  certain,
because the  octospiders  had  healed her  so  quickly,  that  Benjy's
problem as well would  succumb to (heir medical  magic. It was not  to
be. Eponine sobbed  so hard  and so long  this morning  that I  became
concerned about the welfare of her baby. She patted her swollen  belly
and told me not to worry. Ep laughed and said, through her tears, that
her reaction was probably mostly due to her overactive hormones.
    All three of the men were clearly upset, but they didn't show much
emotion. Patrick left  the room quickly  without saying anything.  Max
expressed  his  disappointment  with  an  unusually  colorful  set  of
four-letter words. Richard just grimaced and shook his head.
    We had  all  agreed, before  the  examination began,  not  to  say
anything to  Benjy about  the  actual purpose  of  all the  tests  the
octospiders were  conducting.  Could  he have  known?  Might  he  have
surmised what was
    RAMA REVEALED
    223
    going on? Perhaps.  But this  morning, when  I told  him that  the
octospiders had  concluded that  he was  a healthy  young man,  I  saw
nothing in Benjy's  eyes that  even hinted he  was aware  of what  had
taken place. After I hugged him hard, fighting against another set  of
tears threatening to  destroy my  facade, I  returned to  my room  and
allowed the sorrow of my son's handicap to overcome me one more time.
    I'm certain that Richard and  Dr. Blue conspired together to  keep
my mind busy the rest of the day.  I had not been in my room for  more
than twenty minutes when there was  a soft knock on the door.  Richard
explained that  Dr.  Blue  was  in  the  atrium  and  that  two  other
octospider scientists were waiting for me in the conference room.  Had
I forgotten that a detailed  presentation on the octospider  digestive
system had been scheduled for me today?
    The  discussion  with  the  octospiders   turned  out  to  be   so
fascinating that I was indeed able temporarily to forget that my son's
handicap was beyond their medical magic. Dr. Blue's colleagues  showed
me complex anatomical drawings of octospider insides, identifying  all
the major organs of their  digestive sequence. The drawings were  made
on some kind of parchment or hide and were spread out across the large
table. The octospiders explained to me, in their wonderful language of
colors, absolutely everything that happens to food inside their body.
    The most unusual  feature of the  octospider digestive process  is
the two large sacs, or buffers, at both ends of the system. Everything
they eat goes directly into an intake buffer, where it can sit for  as
long as  thirty  days. The  octospider's  body itself,  based  on  the
activity level of the individual, automatically determines the rate at
which the  food in  the bottom  of the  sac is  accessed, broken  down
chemically, and distributed to the cells for energy.
    At the other end is a  waste buffer, into which is discharged  all
the material that cannot be converted
    224 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTR-Y LEE
    into  useful  energy  by  the  octospider's  body.  Every  healthy
octospider, I learned, has a  small animal permanently living in  this
buffer. They showed me one  of the tiny, centipedelike creatures  that
begins life as a minuscule egg deposited by its predecessor inside the
host octospider. The "waster"  is essentially omnivorous. It  consumes
ninety-nine percent of the  waste deposited in  the buffer during  the
two human months that  it takes to grow  to maturity. When the  waster
reaches adulthood, it deposits a pair  of new eggs, only one of  which
will germinate, and then leaves forever the octospider in which it has
been living.
    The intake buffer is located just behind and below the mouth.  The
octospiders eat very rarely; however, they absolutely gorge themselves
when they do have meals. We  had a long discussion about their  eating
habits. Two  of  the  facts  that Dr.  Blue  told  me  were  extremely
surprising-first, that an empty octo intake buffer leads to  immediate
death, in less than a minute, and second, that a baby octospider  must
be taught to monitor the status  of its food supply. Imagine! It  does
not know  instinctively when  it  is hungry!  When  Dr. Blue  saw  the
astonishment on my  face, he  laughed-a jumbled-up  sequence of  short
color bursts-and then hastened to assure me that unexpected starvation
is not a leading cause of death among the octospiders.
    After my three-hour nap (I still  cannot make it through the  long
octospider day without some sleep-of our group only Richard is capable
of forgoing the nap  on a regular basis),  Dr. Blue informed me  that,
because  of  my  keen  interest   in  their  digestive  process,   the
octospiders  had  decided  to  show  me  a  couple  of  other  unusual
characteristics of their biology.
    I boarded a transport with the three octos, passed through one  of
the two gates out of our zone, and crossed the Emerald City. I suspect
that   this   field   trip   was   also   planned   to   mitigate   my
disappointment#bout  Benjy.  Dr.  Blue  reminded  me  while  we   were
traveling (it was hard for me to pay close attention to what he
    RAMA REVEALED
    225
    was saying-once we were outside our zone, there were all kinds  of
fascinating creatures beside our car  and along the street,  including
many of  the same  species that  I  saw briefly  during my  first  few
moments in the Emerald City)  that the octospiders were a  polymorphic
genus and that  there were  six separate adult  manifestations of  the
particular octo  species  that  had  colonized  our  Rama  spacecraft.
"Remember," he told me in color,  "that one of the possible  parameter
variations is size."
    There is no way  that I could  have been prepared  for what I  saw
about twenty minutes later. We descended from the transport outside  a
large warehouse.  At each  end  of the  windowless building  were  two
mammoth, drooling  octospiders,  with heads  at  least ten  meters  in
diameter, bodies that  looked like  small blimps,  and long  tentacles
that were slate-gray  instead of the  usual black and  gold. Dr.  Blue
informed me  that  this  particular  morph  had  one,  and  only  one,
function: to serve as a food repository for the colony.
    "Each 'replete' [my translation of Dr. Blue's colors] can store up
to several hundred  full buffers  worth of  food for  a regular  adult
octospider," Dr. Blue said. "Since our individual intake buffers  hold
thirty days worth of normal sustenance, forty-five on a reduced-energy
diet, you can  see what a  vast storehouse a  dozen of these  repletes
represent."
    As I  watched,  five  octospiders approached  one  of  their  huge
brothers and  said something  in color.  Within seconds  the  creature
leaned forward, bent its head down almost to the ground, and ejected a
thick slurry from the  enlarged mouth just below  its milky lens.  The
five normal-sized octos gathered  around the mound  of slurry and  fed
themselves with their tentacles.
    "We practice this  several times every  day, with every  replete,"
Dr. Blue said. "These morphs must have practice, for they are not very
smart. You might have noticed that  none of them spoke in color.  They
do not have any language transmission capability, and their
    226 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    mobility is extremely limited. Their genomes have been designed so
that they can efficiently store food, preserve it for long periods  of
time, and regurgitate it to feed the colony upon request."
    I was still thinking  about the huge  repletes when our  transport
arrived at what  1 was  told was  an octospider  school. I  commented,
while we were  crossing the  grounds, that the  large facility  seemed
deserted. One of the other doctors said something about the colony not
having had  a  "recent replenishment,"  if  I interpreted  the  colors
correctly, but I never received a  clear explanation of just what  was
meant by his remark.
    At one end  of the school  facility, we entered  a small  building
that had no furnishings. Inside  were two adult octospiders and  about
twenty juveniles, maybe one-half the size of their larger  companions.
From the activity it was obvious that a repetitive drill of some  kind
was under way. I could  not, however, follow the conversation  between
the juveniles and  their teachers, both  because the octospiders  were
using their full alphabet, including the ultraviolet and the infrared,
and because the  juvenile "talk"  did not  flow in  the neat,  regular
bands that I have learned to read.
    Dr. Blue explained that  we were witnessing  part of a  "measuring
class," where the juveniles were being trained to perform  assessments
of their  own  health,  including estimating  the  magnitude  of  food
contained in  their  intake  buffers.  After Dr.  Blue  told  me  that
"measuring" was an integral part of the early learning curriculum  for
their juveniles, I  inquired about  the irregularity  of the  juvenile
colors. Dr. Blue  informed me  that these particular  octos were  very
young,  not  much  past  "first  color,"  and  were  barely  able   to
communicate distinct ideas.
    After we returned  to the conference  room, I was  asked a set  of
questions about human digestive systems. The questions were  extremely
sophisticated (we went  through the  Krebs citric acid  cycle step  by
step, for example, and discussed other elements of human
    RAMA REVEALED
    227
    biochemistry that I could barely remember), and I was struck again
by how much  more the  octospiders know about  us than  we know  about
them. As always, it was never necessary for me to repeat an answer.
    What a  day!  It began  with  the  pain of  discovering  that  the
octospiders were not going to  be able to help  Benjy. Later on I  was
reminded of how  resilient the  human psyche  is when  I was  actually
lifted out of my despondency by the stimulation of learning more about
the octospiders.  I remain  astonished  by the  range of  emotions  we
humans possess-and how very quickly we can change and adapt.
    Eponine and I were talking last  night about our life here in  the
Emerald City and  how our  unusual living conditions  will affect  the
attitudes of the child she is carrying. At one point Ep shook her head
and smiled. "You know what's so  amazing?" she said. "Here we are,  an
isolated  human  contingent  living  in  an  alien  domain  inside   a
gargantuan spacecraft hurtling  toward an unknown  destination. . .  .
Yet our  days  here  are  full  of  laughter,  elation,  sadness,  and
disappointment, just as they would be if we were still back on Earth."
    "This may look like a waffle," Max  said, "and it may feel like  a
waffle when you first put it in  your mouth, but it damn sure  doesn't
taste like a waffle."
    "Put more  syrup on  it," Eponine  said, laughing.  "And pass  the
plate over here."
    Max handed  the  waffles across  the  table to  his  wife.  "Shit,
Frenchie,"  he  said,  "these  last  few  weeks  you've  been   eating
everything in sight. If I didn't  know better, I would think that  you
and that unborn child of ours  both had one of those 'intake  buffers'
Nicole was telling us about."
    "It would be handy, though," Richard said distractedly. "You could
load up on food and  not have to stop  work just because your  stomach
was calling."
    "This cereal is the best yet,"  little Kepler said from the  other
end of the table. "I bet even Hercules would like it- "
    "Speaking of whom," Max interrupted in a lower voice,
    228
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    229
    glancing from one end of the table to the other, "what is his,  or
its, purpose? That damn  octospider shows up  every morning two  hours
after dawn and just  hangs around. If the  children are having  school
with Nai, he sits in the back of the room-"
    "He plays  with  us, Uncle  Max,"  Galileo shouted.  "Hercules  is
really a lot of fun.  He does everything we  ask. Yesterday he let  me
use the back of his head as a punching bag."
    "According to Archie," Nicole said between bites, "Hercules is the
official observer. The octospiders are curious about everything.  They
want to know all about us, even the most mundane details."
    "That's great," Max replied, "but  we have a slight problem.  When
you and Ellie and  Richard are gone, nobody  here can understand  what
Hercules is saying.  Oh, sure,  Nai knows  a few  simple phrases,  but
nothing that's involved. Yesterday,  for example, while everyone  else
was taking the  long nap, that  damned Hercules followed  me into  the
crapper. Now, I don't know  about you, but it's hard  for me to do  my
business even with Eponine within earshot. With an alien staring at me
from a few meters away, my sphincter was absolutely paralyzed."
    "Why didn't you tell Hercules to go away?" Patrick said, laughing.
    "I did,"  Max answered.  "But  he just  stared  at me  with  fluid
running around in his lens and  kept repeating the same color  pattern
that was totally unintelligible to me."
    "Can you remember the pattern?" Ellie said. "Maybe I can tell  you
what Hercules was saying."
    "Hell, no, I can't remember it," Max replied. "Besides, it doesn't
make any difference now-I'm not sitting here trying to shit."
    The Watanabe  twins  broke  into howls  of  laughter  and  Eponine
frowned at  her  husband.  Benjy,  who had  said  very  little  during
breakfast, asked to be excused.
    "Are you all right, dear?" Nicole asked.
    Benjy nodded and  left die  dining room  in the  direction of  his
bedroom.
    "Does he know anything?" Nai said quietly.
    Nicole shook her  head quickly  and turned  to her  granddaughter.
"Are you finished with your breakfast, Nikki?"
    "Yes, Nonni," the  little girl  replied. She  excused herself  and
moments later was joined by Kepler and Galileo.
    "I think that  Benjy knows  more than any  of us  give him  credit
for," Max said as soon as the children were gone.
    "You could be right,"  Nicole said softly.  "But yesterday when  I
talked to  him,  I saw  no  indication  that he-"  Nicole  stopped  in
midsentence and turned to  Eponine. "By the way,"  she said, "how  are
you feeling this morning?"
    "Great," Eponine replied. "The baby  was very active before  dawn.
He kicked hard for almost an  hour-I could even watch his feet  moving
around on my tummy. I tried to get  Max to feel one of his kicks,  but
he was too squeamish."
    "Now, why do you call that baby 'he,' Frenchie, when you know damn
well that I want a little girl who looks just like you."
    "I  don't  believe  you  for  a  moment,  Max  Puckett,"   Eponine
interrupted. "You  only say  you want  a  girl so  that you  won't  be
disappointed. Nothing would please you more  than a boy you can  raise
to be your buddy. Besides, as  you know, it's customary in English  to
use the pronoun 'he' when the sex is not known or specified."
    "Which brings me to another question for our octospider ex-perts,"
Max said after taking a sip of quasi-coffee. He glanced first at Ellie
and then at  Nicole. "Do  either of  you know  what sex,  if any,  our
octospider friends might  be?" He laughed.  "I certainly haven't  seen
anything on their naked bodies that gives me a clue."
    Ellie shook her head. "I don't  really know, Max. Archie did  tell
me that Jamie is not  his child, and not  Dr. Blue's either, at  least
not in the strictest biological sense."
    "So Jamie must be adopted," Max  said. "But is Archie the man  and
Dr. Blue the woman?  Or vice versa? Or  are our next-door neighbors  a
gay couple raising a child?"
    "Maybe the octospiders don't have what we call sex," Patrick said.
    230
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "Then where  do  new  octospiders come  from?"  Max  asked.  "They
certainly don't just materialize out of thin air."
    "The octospiders  are  so advanced  biologically,"  Richard  said,
"they may have a  reproduction process that would  seem like magic  to
us."
    "I have asked  Dr. Blue about  their reproduction several  times,"
Nicole said. "He says it's a complicated subject, especially since the
octospiders are polymorphic, and that they'll explain it to me after I
understand the other aspects of their biology."
    "Now, if I  were an octospider,"  Max said with  a grin, "I  would
want to be one of those fat slobs Nicole saw yesterday. Wouldn't it be
great if your only function in life  was to eat and eat, storing  food
for all your brethren?  What an existence! I  knew a pig farmer's  son
back in Arkansas who was  like a re-plete. Only  he kept all the  food
for himself. Wouldn't even share it with the pigs. I think he  weighed
almost three hundred kilograms when he died at the age of thirty."
    Eponine finished  her  waffle.  "Fat  jokes  in  the  presence  of
pregnant women  show  a  lack  of  sensitivity,"  she  said,  feigning
indignation.
    "Oh, shit, Ep,"  Max replied,  "you know  that none  of that  crap
applies anymore. We're zoo animals here in the Emerald City, and we're
stuck with each other. Humans only worry about what they look like  if
they're worried about being compared with someone else."
    Nai  excused  herself  from  the   table.  "I  have  a  few   more
preparations to complete for today's school lessons," she said. "Nikki
will be starting on consonant  sounds-she has already breezed  through
the alphabet drills."
    "Like mother, like  daughter," Max  said. After  Patrick left  the
dining room, leaving only the two couples and Ellie at the table,  Max
leaned forward with  a mischievous  smile on  his face.  "Are my  eyes
deceiving me," he said, "or is young Patrick spending a lot more  time
with Nai than he did when we first arrived?"^
    "I think you're right, Max," Ellie said. "I have noticed the  same
thing. He told me he feels useful helping Nai with
    RAMA REVEALED
    231
    Benjy and the children. After  all, you and Eponine are  engrossed
with each other  and the baby  that is coming,  my time is  completely
occupied between  Nikki and  the octospiders,  Mother and  Father  are
always busy-"
    "You're missing the point, young  lady," Max said. "I'm  wondering
if we have another cup-el forming in our midst."
    "Patrick and Nai?" Richard asked, as if the idea had just occurred
to him for the first time.
    "Yes, dear," Nicole  said. She laughed.  "Richard belongs to  that
category of genius with very selective observational skills. No detail
from one of his projects, no matter how small, goes unnoticed. Yet  he
misses obvious changes in  people's behavior. I  remember once in  New
Eden when Katie started wearing low-cut dresses-"
    Nicole stopped herself.  It was  still difficult for  her to  talk
about Katie without becoming emotional.
    "Kepler and Galileo have both noticed that Patrick is around every
day," Eponine said. "Nai says that Galileo has become quite jealous."
    "And what does Nai say  about Patrick's attention?" Nicole  asked.
"Is she happy with it?"
    "You know Nai," Eponine replied. "Always gracious, always thinking
of others. 1 think she's concerned about how any possible relationship
between Patrick and her might affect the twins."
    All eyes turned toward  the visitor who  appeared in the  doorway.
"Well, well. Good morning, Hercules,"  Max said, standing up from  his
chair. "What  a  pleasant  surprise!  What can  we  do  for  you  this
morning?"
    The octospider stepped into the dining room as the colors streamed
around his head. "He says  that he has come  to help Richard with  his
automatic translator," Ellie said.  "Especially the parts outside  our
visible spectrum."
    2
    N
    Iicole was dreaming.  She was  also dancing to  an African  rhythm
around a campfire in an Ivory Coast grove. Omeh was leading the dance.
He was dressed in the green robe he had been wearing when he had  come
to visit her in Rome a few  days before the launch of the Newton.  All
of her human  friends in  the Emerald  City, plus  their four  closest
octospider acquaintances, were also dancing  in the circle around  the
campfire. Kepler  and  Galileo were  fighting.  Ellie and  Nikki  were
holding hands. Hercules the octospider was dressed in a bright  purple
African costume.  Eponine was  very pregnant  and heavy  on her  feet.
Nicole heard her  name being called  from outside the  circle. Was  it
Katie? Her heart raced as she strained to recognize the voice.
    "Nicole," Eponine said beside her bed. "I'm having contractions."
    Qfc
    Nicole sat up and shook the dream from her head. 'Tfow often?" she
asked automatically.
    RAMA REVEALED
    233
    "They're irregular," Eponine  replied. "I'll have  a couple  about
five minutes apart, and then nothing for half an hour."
    "Most likely they're Braxton  Hicks contractions," Nicole said  to
her friend after she put on  her robe. "You're still five weeks  short
of full term."
    "What's a Braxton Hicks contraction?" Eponine asked.
    "Fake labor, essentially. It's as if your body is practicing. Come
lie down on the couch, and I'll take a look."
    Max was  waiting in  the  living room  with Eponine  after  Nicole
finished washing her hands. "Is she going to have the baby?" he asked.
    "Someday," Nicole  said,  smiling  at  the  nervous  father.  "But
probably not  now." She  began putting  slight pressure  on  Eponine's
midsection, trying  to  locate  the  baby.  'Tell  me  when  the  next
contraction begins," she said.
    Meanwhile, Max paced fitfully around the room. "I would absolutely
kill for a cigarette right now," he mumbled.
    When Eponine had  another contraction, Nicole  noticed that  there
was some  slight pressure  on the  undilated cervix.  She was  worried
because she wasn't absolutely certain where the baby was. "I'm  sorry,
Ep," Nicole said after another contraction six minutes later. "I think
this is all Braxton Hicks, but I could be wrong. I've never dealt with
a pregnancy  at this  stage  before without  some kind  of  monitoring
equipment to help me."
    "Some women do have babies this early, don't they?" Eponine asked.
    "Yes. But it's rare. Only about one percent of first-time  mothers
deliver more than four  weeks before their due  date. And it's  almost
always due to some kind of  complication. Or heredity. Do you know  by
any chance if you or any of your siblings were premature?"
    Eponine shook her  head. "I never  knew anything at  all about  my
natural family," she said.
    Nicole told  Eponine to  dress and  return to  her home.  "Keep  a
record of  your  contractions. What  is  especially important  is  the
interval between them. If they  start occurring regularly, every  four
minutes or so without significant gaps, then come and get me again."
    234
    ARTHUR C. ClARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "Might there be a problem?" Max whispered to Nicole while  Eponine
was dressing.
    "Unlikely, Max, but there is always that possibility."
    "What do you think about asking our friends the biological wizards
for some help?" Max asked. "Please  forgive me if I am offending  you,
it's just-"
    "I'm ahead of you,  Max," Nicole said. "I  had already decided  to
consult with Dr. Blue in the morning."
    Max was nervous  long before  Dr. Blue  started to  open what  Max
called the "bug  jar." "Hold on,  Doc," Max said,  gently putting  his
hands on the tentacle holding the  jar. "Would you mind explaining  to
me just what you're doing before you let those creatures out?"
    Eponine was lying down on the sofa in the Puckett living room. She
was naked, but  mostly covered  by a pair  of sheets  provided by  the
octospiders. Nicole had been holding Eponine's hand during most of the
several minutes that  the three  octospiders had been  setting up  the
portable laboratory. Now  Nicole walked  over beside Max  so that  she
could translate what Dr. Blue was saying.
    "Dr. Blue is not an expert in this field," Nicole interpreted. "He
says that one of  the other two octospiders  will have to explain  the
details of the process."
    After a short conversation among  the three octospiders, Dr.  Blue
moved aside and another  alien stood directly in  front of Nicole  and
Max. Dr. Blue then informed Nicole that this particular octo, whom  he
called the "image  engineer," had only  recently started learning  the
simpler octospider dialect used to communicate with humans. "He  might
be a little difficult to understand," Dr. Blue told her.
    "The tiny beings in the jar," Nicole said several seconds later as
the colors began streaming around the engineer's head, "are called . .
. image  quadroids,  I  guess would  be  a  satisfactory  translation.
Anyway, they  are  living miniature  cameras  that will  crawl  inside
Eponine  and  take  pictures  of  the  baby.  Each  quadroid  has  the
capability of ... several  million photographic picture elements  that
can be allocated  to as  many as five  hundred and  twelve images  per
octosfcider nillet.  They can  even  create a  moving picture  if  you
choose."
    RAMA REVEALED
    235
    She hesitated and  turned to  Max. "I'm simplifying  all this,  if
that's all  right.  It's highly  technical,  and all  in  their  octal
mathematics. The  engineer was  explaining there  at the  end all  the
different ways in  which the user  can specify pictures-Richard  would
have absolutely loved it."
    "Remind me again how long a nillet is?" Max said.
    "About twenty-eight seconds," Nicole  replied. "Richard named  all
the time terms. The  nillet is the shortest  unit in octospider  time:
Eight nillets in a  feng, eight fengs  in a woden,  eight wodens in  a
tert, and eight terts in  an octospider day. Richard calculates  their
day at thirty-two hours, fourteen minutes, and a little more than  six
seconds."
    "I'm glad somebody understands all this," Max said quietly.
    Nicole  faced  the  image  engineer  again  and  the  conversation
continued. "Each image quadroid,"  she translated slowly, "enters  the
specified target  area, takes  its pictures,  and then  returns to  me
image processor-that's the  gray box  over against  the wall-where  it
'dumps' its images, receives its reward, and returns to the queue."
    "What?" said Max. "What kind of reward?"
    "Later, Max,"  Nicole said.  She was  struggling to  understand  a
sentence that she had already  asked the octospider to repeat.  Nicole
was silent for a few seconds before  she shook her head and turned  to
Dr. Blue. "I'm sorry,"  she said, "but I  still don't understand  that
last sentence."
    The two octospiders had a rapid exchange in their natural  dialect
and then the image  engineer faced Nicole again.  "Okay," she said  at
length, "I think I've got it now. . . . Max, the gray box is some kind
of a programmable data manager, both storing the data in living  cells
and preparing the  outputs from  the quadroids for  projection on  the
wall, or wherever we want to see the image, according to the  protocol
selected-"
    "I have an idea," Max interrupted. "This is all way beyond me.  If
you're satisfied that this contraption is not going to hurt Ep in  any
way, why don't we get on with it?"
    Dr. Blue understood what Max said. At a signal from Nicole, he and
the other octospiders walked outside the
    236
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Puckett home and retrieved what looked like a covered drawer  from
the parked transport. "In  this container," Dr.  Blue said to  Nicole,
"are a  group of  twenty or  thirty  of the  smallest members  of  our
species, morphs whose primary function is to communicate directly with
the quadroids and the other tiny creatures that make this system work.
The morphs will actually manage the procedure."
    "Well, I'll be goddamned," said Max when the drawer opened and the
tiny octospiders, only  a couple of  centimeters tall, scampered  into
the middle of the  room. "Those . .  ." Max stammered excitedly,  "are
what Eponine and I saw back in the blue maze, in the lair on the other
side of the Cylindrical Sea."
    'The midget morphs," Dr. Blue explained, "take our directions  and
then organize the entire process. It is they who will actually program
the gray box. Now all we need to start is a few specifications on what
kind of images you want and where you want to see them."
    The large colored picture on the  wall in the Puckett living  room
showed a perfectly formed,  handsome boy fetus  filling almost all  of
his mother's womb. Max and Eponine  had been celebrating for an  hour,
ever since they had first been  able to distinguish that their  unborn
child was indeed a boy. As the afternoon had progressed and Nicole had
learned better how to specify what  she wanted to see, the quality  of
the pictures had improved markedly. Now, the twice-life-size image  on
the wall was stunning for its clarity.
    "Can I watch him kick one more time?" Eponine asked.
    The image engineer said something to the lead midget morph and  in
less than a nillet there was a replay of young master Puckett  kicking
upward against his mother's tummy.
    "Look at the strength of those  legs," Max exclaimed. He was  more
relaxed now. After  he had  recovered from  the shock  of the  initial
images, Max  had  become  concerned  about  all  the  "paraphre-nalia"
surrounding his  son in  the womb.  Nicole had  calmed the  first-time
father by identifying  the umbilical  cord and the  placenta and  then
assuring Max that everything was normal.
    RAMA REVEALED
    237
    "So I'm not going to deliver  my son anytime soon?" Eponine  asked
when the replay of the movie was over.
    "No," Nicole answered.  "My guess  is you  have five  or six  more
weeks. Often first babies are a  little late. You may still have  some
of those  intermittent contractions  between now  and the  birth,  but
don't worry about them."
    Nicole thanked Dr. Blue  profusely, as did  Max and Eponine.  Then
the octospiders gathered  up all the  components, both biological  and
nonbiological, of  their  portable  laboratory.  When  the  octos  had
departed, Nicole  crossed the  room and  took Eponine's  hand.  "Es-tu
heureuse?" she asked her friend.
    "Absolument," Eponine replied.  "And relieved as  well. I  thought
that something had gone wrong."
    "No," Nicole said. "It was just a simple false alarm."
    Max crossed  the room  and gave  Eponine a  hug. He  was  beaming.
Nicole withdrew  slightly and  watched the  tender scene  between  her
friends. She started to  leave the house. "Wait  a minute," said  Max.
"Don't you want to know what we're going to name him?"
    "Of course," Nicole replied.
    "Marius Clyde Puckett," Max said proudly.
    "Marius," Eponine added, "because he was the waif Eponine's  dream
lover in  Les Miserables-I  longed for  a Marius  during my  long  and
lonely nights at the orphanage. And Clyde, after Max's brother back in
Arkansas."
    "It's an excellent name," Nicole  said, smiling to herself as  she
turned to leave. "An excellent name," she repeated.
    Richard could not contain his  excitement when he came home  later
that afternoon. "I  have just spent  two absolutely fascinating  hours
over in the conference  room with Archie  and the other  octospiders,"
lie said to Nicole  in his loudest voice.  "They showed me the  entire
apparatus they used with you and Eponine earlier today. Amazing.  What
incredible genius! No, wizardry is a better term-I've said it from the
beginning, the damn octospiders are biological wizards.
    "Just imagine.  They  have  living  creatures  that  are  cameras,
another set of microscopic bugs that read the
    238
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    images and  carefully  store  each  individual  pixel,  a  special
genetic warping of themselves that controls the process, and a limited
amount of electronics,  where necessary, to  perform the mundane  data
management tasks. How many thousands of years did it take for all this
to occur?  Who engineered  it in  the first  place? It  is  absolutely
mind-boggling!"
    Nicole smiled at her  husband. "Did you see  Marius? What did  you
think?"
    "I saw all the pictures from this afternoon," Richard continued to
shout. "Do you know how the  midget morphs communicate with the  image
quadroids?  They  use  a  special  •  wavelength  range  in  the   far
ultraviolet part of the spectrum.  That's right. Archie told me  those
little  bugs  and  the  midget  octospiders  actually  have  a  common
language. And that's not all. Some of the morphs know as many as eight
different microspecies languages. Even Archie himself can  communicate
with forty other species, fifteen using their basic octospider  colors
and the rest in a range  of languages that includes signs,  chemicals,
and other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum."
    Richard stood still for a moment in the middle of the room.  'This
is incredible, Nicole, simply incredible."
    He was about to  launch into another  monologue when Nicole  asked
him how the regular octos and the midget morphs communicated. "I never
saw any color patterns on the heads of the morphs today," she said.
    "All their  conversation is  in  the ultraviolet,"  Richard  said,
starting to pace again. Suddenly he  turned and pointed at the  center
of his forehead. "Nicole," he said, "that lens thing in the middle  of
their slit is a  veritable telescope, able  to receive information  at
practically  any  wavelength.  It's  staggering.  Somehow  they   have
organized all  these  life-forms  into a  grand  symbiotic  system  of
complexity far beyond anything we could ever conceive of."
    Richard sat down  on the couch  next to Nicole.  "Look," he  said,
showing his arms to her, "I still  have goose bumps. I am in  absolute
awe of these creatures.  . . .  Jesus, it's a  good thing they  aren't
hostile."
    RAMA REVEALED
    239
    Nicole looked at her husband with a furrowed brow. "Why do you say
that?"
    "They could command an army  of billions, maybe even trillions.  I
bet they even talk  to their plants] You  saw how quickly they  scared
off that thing in the  forest. Imagine what it  would be like if  your
enemy could control all the bacteria, even the viruses, and make  them
do their bidding. What a frightening concept!"
    Nicole laughed. "Don't you think you're getting carried away? Just
because they have genetically engineered  a set of living cameras,  it
does not follow-"
    "I know," said Richard,  jumping up from the  couch. "But I  can't
help thinking about the  logical extension of what  we have seen  here
today. Nicole, Archie  admitted to  me that  the sole  purpose of  the
midget morphs is to be  able to deal with the  world of the tiny.  The
midgets can see things as small as a micrometer-that's  one-thousandth
of a  millimeter.  Now extend  that  idea another  several  orders  of
magnitude.  Imagine  a  species  whose   morphs  span  four  or   five
relationships similar  to the  one between  the normal  octos and  the
midgets. Communication  with bacteria  might not  be impossible  after
all."
    "Richard," Nicole said at this juncture, "don't you have  anything
at all to say about the fact that Max and Eponine are going to have  a
son? And that the boy looks perfectly healthy?"
    Richard stood silent for a few seconds. "It is wonderful," he said
a little sheepishly. "I guess I  should go next door and  congratulate
them."
    "You can probably wait until after dinner," Nicole said,  glancing
at one of  the special watches  Richard had made  for them. The  watch
kept human time in an octospider frame of reference.
    "Patrick, Ellie,  Nikki,  and Benjy  have  been over  at  Max  and
Eponine's for the last hour,"  Nicole continued, "ever since Dr.  Blue
stopped by with  some parchment  photographs of little  Marius in  die
womb." She smiled. "As you would say,  they should be home in about  a
feng."
    3
    icole finished brushing her teeth  and gazed at her reflection  in
the mirror. Galileo was right, she thought. / am an old woman.
    She  began  rubbing  her  face  with  her  fingers,   methodically
massaging the wrinkles that seemed  to be everywhere. She heard  Benjy
and the twins playing  outside and then both  Nai and Patrick  calling
them to school. / was not always old, she said to herself. There was a
time when I too went to school.
    Nicole closed her eyes, attempting to remember what she had looked
like as a young girl. She was unable to conjure up a clear picture  of
herself as a child. Too many other pictures from the intervening years
blurred and distorted Nicole's image of herself as a schoolgirl.
    At length she  reopened her eyes  and stared at  the image in  the
mirror. In her mind she painted out  all the bag$ and wrinkles on  her
face. She changed the color  of her hair and  eyebrows from gray to  a
deep black. Finally she managed to
    RAMA REVEALED
    241
    see herself  as a  beautiful woman  of twenty-one.  Nicole felt  a
brief but intense yearning  for those days of  her youth. For we  were
young, and we knew that we would never die, she remembered.
    Richard stuck his  head around the  corner. "Ellie and  I will  be
working with Hercules in the study," he said. "Why don't you join us?"
    "In a  few minutes,"  Nicole answered.  While she  touched up  her
hair, Nicole reflected on the daily patterns of the human clan in  the
Emerald  City.  They  usually  all  gathered  for  breakfast  in   the
Wakefields' dining  room. School  ended  before lunch.  Then  everyone
except Richard napped,  their accommodation  to the  eight-hour-longer
day. Most  afternoons  Nicole and  Ellie  and Richard  were  with  the
octospi-ders, learning more about  their hosts or sharing  experiences
from the planet Earth.  The other four adults  spent almost all  their
time with Benjy and the  children in their enclave  at the end of  the
cul-de-sac.
    And where does all this take us? Nicole suddenly wondered. For how
many years will  we be the  guests of the  octospiders? And what  will
happen if and when Rama reaches its destination?
    They were  all questions  for which  Nicole had  no answers.  Even
Richard had  apparently  stopped  worrying about  what  was  going  on
outside  the  Emerald  City.  He   was  completely  absorbed  by   the
octospiders and his translator project.  Now he only asked Archie  for
celestial navigation data every  two months or  so. Each time  Richard
would report to the others,  without editorial comment, that Rama  was
still headed in the general direction of the star Tan Ceti.
    Like little Marius,  Nicole thought,  we are content  here in  our
womb. As long as the outside world  does not force itself upon us,  we
do not ask the overwhelming questions.
    Nicole left the bathroom  and walked down the  hall to (he  study.
Richard was sitting on the floor between Hercules and Ellie. "The easy
part is tracking the color pattern  and having the sequence stored  in
the processor," he was saying. "The hardest part of the translation is
automatically converting  that  pattern into  a  recognizable  English
sentence."
    242
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Richard faced  Hercules  and  spoke  very  slowly.  "Because  your
language is so  mathematical, with  every color  having an  acceptable
angstrom range defined a priori, all the sensor has to do is  identify
the stream  of  colors  and  the  widths  of  the  bands.  The  entire
information content has then been  captured. Because the rules are  so
precise, it's not  even difficult  to code a  simple fault  protection
algorithm, for use with  juveniles or careless  speakers, in case  any
single color errs to the left or the right in the spectrum.
    "Changing what an octospider has said into our language,  however,
is a much more complex process. The dictionary for the translation  is
straightforward enough. Each word  and the appropriate clarifiers  can
be readily identified. But it's damn near impossible to make the  next
step, into sentences, without some human intervention."
    "That's because the octospider language is fundamentally different
from ours," Ellie commented. "Everything is specified and  quantified,
to minimize the possibility of misunderstanding. There is no  subtlety
or nuance. Look how they use the pronouns 'we,' 'they,' and 'you.' The
pronouns are always marked with numerical clarifiers, including ranges
when there are uncertainties. An octospider never says 'a few  wodens'
or 'several nillets'-always a number, or a numerical range, is used to
specify the length of time more precisely."
    "From our point of view," Hercules  said in color, "there are  two
aspects to human  language that  are extremely difficult.  One is  the
lack of precise  specification, which leads  to a massive  vocabulary.
The other is  your use of  indirectness to communicate.  I still  have
trouble understanding Max because often what he says is not  literally
what he means."
    "1 don't know how to do this in your computer," Nicole now said to
Richard, "but somehow  all the quantitative  information contained  in
each octospider statement must be reflected by the translation. Almost
every verb or adjective they use has a connected numerical  clarifier.
How, for example,  did Ellie just  translate "extremely difficult  and
'massive vocabulary'? What Hercules said, in octospider,
    RAMA REVEALED
    243
    was 'difficult,' with the number five used to clarify it, and 'big
vocabulary,' with  the  number  six  as a  clarifier  for  'big.'  All
comparative clarifiers address  the question  of the  strength of  the
adjective. Since their base number system is octal, the range for  the
comparatives is between one and seven. If Hercules had used a seven to
clarify the word 'difficult,' Ellie  would have translated the  phrase
as 'impossibly difficult.' If he had used a two as a clarifier in  the
same phrase, she might have said 'slightly difficult.'"
    "Mistakes in the strengths of the adjectives, although important,"
Richard said  as he  fiddled absentmindedly  with a  small  processor,
"almost never lead to misunderstandings. Failure to interpret properly
the verb clarifiers,  however, is  another issue altogether  ... as  I
have learned  recently  from my  preliminary  tests. Take  the  simple
octospider verb 'to go,'  which means, as you  know, to move  unaided,
without a transport. The maroon-purple-lemon yellow strip, each  color
the same width, covers several dozen words in English, everything from
'walk' to 'stroll,' 'saunter,' 'run,' and even 'sprint.'"
    "That's the same point I was  just making," Ellie said. "There  is
no translation without full interpretation of the clarifiers. For that
particular verb, the octos use a double clarifier to address the issue
of 'how fast.' In a sense,  there are sixty-three different speeds  at
which they 'go.'  To make matters  even more complex,  they may use  a
range clarifier as well, so their  statement 'Let's go' is subject  to
many, many possible translations."
    Richard grimaced and shook his head.
    "What's the matter, Father?" Ellie asked.
    "I'm just  disappointed," he  answered.  "I had  hoped to  have  a
simplified version of the translator completed by now. But I made  the
assumption that the gist  of what was being  said could be  determined
without tracking all the clarifiers. To include all those short  color
strips will both increase the storage required and significantly  slow
down the translation. I may  have trouble ever designing a  translator
that works in real time."
    "So what?" Hercules asked. "Why are you so concerned
    244
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    245
    about this  translator? Ellie  and Nicole  already understand  our
language very well."
    "Not really," Nicole  said. "Ellie is  the only one  of us who  is
truly fluent with your colors. I am still learning daily."
    "Although I originally began this project both as a challenge  and
as a means  to force myself  to become familiar  with your  language,"
Richard replied  to Hercules,  "Nicole and  I were  talking last  week
about how important the translator has  become. She says, and I  agree
with her, that  our human clan  here in the  Emerald City is  dividing
into two  groups.  Ellie,  Nicole,  and I  have  made  our  life  more
interesting because of our increasing interactions with your  species.
The rest of  die humans,  including the  children, remain  essentially
isolated.  Eventually,  if   the  others  don't   have  some  way   of
communicating with you, they will become dissatisfied and/or  unhappy.
A good automatic translator is the  key that will open up their  lives
here."
    The map was wrinkled and torn in a few places. Patrick helped  Nai
unroll it slowly and  tack it to  the wall of  her dining room,  which
doubled as the schoolroom for the children.
    "Nikki, do you remember what this is?" Nai asked.
    "Of course, Mrs. Watanabe," the little girl replied. "It's our map
of the Earth."
    "Benjy, can you show us  where your parents and grandparents  were
born?"
    "Not again," Galileo muttered audibly to Kepler. "He'll never  get
it right. He's too dumb."
    "Galileo Watanabe." The response was  swift. "Go to your room  and
sit on your bed for fifteen minutes."
    "That's all right, Nai,"  Benjy said as he  walked up to the  map.
"I'm used to it by now."
    Galileo, almost seven  years old by  human accounting, stopped  at
the door to  see if  his sentence would  be reprieved.  "What are  you
waiting for?" his mother scolded. "I said for you to go to your room."
    Benjy stood quietly in front of the map for about twenty
    seconds. "My  mother,"  he  said  at length,  "was  born  here  in
France." He backed away  from the map briefly  and located the  United
States on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean.
    * "My father," Benjy said, "was born here in Boston, in America."
    Benjy started to  sit down.  "What about  your grandparents?"  Nai
prompted. "Where were they born?"
    "My mother's morner,  my grandmother," Benjy  said I slowly,  "was
bom in Africa." He stared  at the map for  several seconds. "But I  do
not remember where that is."
    "I know, Mrs.  Watanabe," said  little Nikki  immediately. "May  I
show Benjy?"
    Benjy turned  and looked  at the  pretty girl  with the  jet-black
hair. He smiled. "You can tell me, Nikki."
    The girl rose from her chair and crossed the room. She placed  her
finger on  the western  section of  Africa. "Nonni's  mother was  born
here," she said proudly, "in this green country. It's called the Ivory
Coast." : "That's very good, Nikki," Nai said.
    "I'm sorry, Nai," Benjy now said. "I've been working so
    hard on fractions I haven't had any time for geography." His
    eyes followed his three-year-old niece back to her seat.
    When he turned to face Nai again, Benjy's cheeks were
    , wet with tears. "Nai," he said, "I don't feel like school
    ; today. ... I think I'll go back to my own house."
    "Okay, Benjy,"  Nai  said softly.  Benjy  moved toward  the  door.
Patrick started to come over to his brother, but Nai waved him away.
    • The schoolroom was uncomfortably quiet for almost a minute.  "Is
it my turn now?" Kepler finally asked.
    Nai nodded and the boy walked up  to the map. "My mother was  born
here, in Thailand, in the town of Lamphun. That's where her father was
also born. My grandmother on
    t ' my mother's side was also born in Thailand, but in another
    - city called Chiang  Saen. Here it  is, next to  the Chinese ,  .
border." i Kepler took one step to the east and pointed at Japan.
    J. "My father, Kenji  Watanabe, and both his  parents were born  1
m'~ in the Japanese city of Kyoto."
    246
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    The boy backed away  from the map. He  seemed to be struggling  to
say something. "What is it, Kepler?" Nai 'asked.
    "Mother," the  small boy  said after  an agonizing  silence,  "was
Daddy a bad man?"
    "Whaat?" said Nai, completely stunned. She bent down to her  son's
level and  looked  him  straight  in the  eyes.  "Your  father  was  a
wonderful  human  being.  He   was  intelligent,  sensitive,   loving,
humorous-an absolute prince of a person. He . . ."
    Nai had to stop herself. She could feel her own emotions ready  to
erupt. She stood  up, gazed  at the ceiling  for a  brief moment,  and
regained her composure. "Kepler," she  then said, "why are you  asking
such a question? You adored your father. How could you have possibly-"
    "Uncle Max told us that Mr. Nakamura came from Japan. We know that
he is a  bad man. Galileo  says that  since Daddy came  from the  same
place-"
    "Galileo," Nai's voice thundered, scaring all the children.  "Come
here immediately."
    The boy scampered  into the  room and  gave his  mother a  puzzled
look.
    "What have you been saying to your brother about your father?"
    "What do you mean?" Galileo said, trying to look innocent.
    "You told me that  Daddy may have  been a bad  man, since he  came
from Japan like Mr. Nakamura."
    "Well, I don't remember  Daddy very clearly. All  I said was  that
maybe-"
    It took  all  of Nai's  self-control  to keep  her  from  slapping
Galileo. She grabbed the  boy by both of  his shoulders. "Young  man,"
she said, "if I ever hear you say one word against your father again .
. ."
    Nai could  not finish  her  sentence. She  did  not know  what  to
threaten, or  even what  to  say next.  She suddenly  felt  completely
overwhelmed by everyming in her life. %
    "Sit down, please,"  she said  at length  to her  twin sons,  "and
listen very carefully." Nai took a deep breath. "This
    j?AMA REVEALED
    247
    map on the wall," she said, pointing, "shows all the countries  on
the planet Earth. In every nation there are all kinds of people,  some
good, some bad, most a complex mixture of good and bad. No country has
only good people, or bad people. Your father grew up in Japan. So  did
Mr. Nakamura. I agree with Uncle Max that Mr. Nakamura is a very  evil
man. But the  fact that he  is bad has  nothing to do  with his  being
Japanese. Your father, Mr. Kenji Watanabe, who was also Japanese,  was
as good a man as  ever lived. I'm sorry  that you cannot remember  him
and never really knew what he was like. . . ."
    Nai paused for a  moment. "I will never  forget your father,"  she
said in  a softer  voice, almost  to  herself. "I  can still  see  him
returning to our home in  New Eden in the  late afternoon. The two  of
you always shouted together, 'Hi Daddy,  Hi Daddy,' as he entered  the
house. He would kiss me,  lift both of you in  his arms, and take  you
out to the swing set in the backyard. Always, no matter how trying his
day had been, he was patient and caring. . . ."
    Her voice trailed off. Tears flooded  Nai's eyes and she felt  her
body beginning to  tremble. She  turned her  back and  faced the  map.
"Class dismissed for today," she said.
    Patrick stood beside Nai as the two of them watched the twins  and
Nikki playing with a big blue ball  in the cul-de-sac. It was half  an
hour later. "I'm sorry, Patrick," Nai said. "I didn't expect to become
. . ."
    "You have nothing to be sorry for," the young man replied.
    "Yes, I do," Nai said. "Years  ago I promised myself that I  would
never show such feelings  in front of Kepler  and Galileo. They  can't
possibly understand."
    "They've  forgotten  it  already,"  Patrick  said  after  a  brief
silence. "Look at them. They're totally engrossed in their game."
    At that  moment  the  twins  were  having  one  of  their  typical
arguments. As  usual, Galileo  was  trying to  gain an  advantage  for
himself in a game that did not have rigorous
    248
    ARTHUR C. CLARICE AND GENTRY LEE
    rules. Nikki stood beside the boys, following every word of  their
dispute.
    "Boys, boys," Nai called out. "Stop it. If you can't play  without
arguing, then you'll have to come inside."
    A few seconds  later die blue  ball was bouncing  down the  street
toward the plaza and all  three children were running gleefully  after
it. "Would you like something to drink?" Nai asked Patrick.
    "Yes, I would.  . . .  Do you have  any more of  that light  green
melon juice that Hercules brought last week? It was really tasty."
    "Yes," answered Nai, bending  down to the  small cabinet in  which
they kept cool drinks. "By the way, where is Hercules? I haven't  seen
him for several days."
    Patrick  laughed.  "Uncle  Richard  has  recruited  him  to   work
full-time on the translator. Ellie and Archie are even there with them
every afternoon." He thanked Nai for the glass of juice.
    Nai took a sip of  her own drink and  walked back into the  living
room. "I know you wanted to comfort Benjy this morning," she said.  "I
only stopped  you because  I know  your brother  so well.  He is  very
proud. He does not want anyone's pity."
    "I understood," Patrick said.
    "Benjy realized  this morning,  at some  level, that  even  little
Nikki-whom he still thinks  of as a baby-will  quickly surpass him  in
school. The discovery shocked him, and  reminded him again of his  own
limitations."
    Nai was standing  in front of  the map of  Earth, which was  still
affixed to the wall. "Nothing  on this map means anything  significant
to you, does it?" she said.
    "Not really," Patrick replied. "I  have seen many photographs  and
movies, of course, and when I was about the twins' age my father  used
to tell me about Boston,  and the color of  the leaves in New  England
during the autumn, and  the trip he took  to Ireland with his  father.
But my memories are  of other places.  The lair in  New York is  quite
vivid, as well as the astonishing year we spent at the Node." He was
    RAMA REVEALED
    249
    silent for a moment. "And the  Eagle! What a creature! I  remember
him even more clearly than my father."
    "So do you consider yourself to be an Earthling?" Nai asked.
    "That's an interesting question," Patrick replied. He finished his
drink. "You know, I've never really thought about it. ... Certainly  I
consider myself to be a human. But an Earthling? I guess not."
    Nai reached out and touched the  map. "My hometown of Lamphun,  if
it were larger, would  have appeared here, just  south of Chiang  Mai.
Sometimes it doesn't seem possible to  me that I actually lived  there
as a child."
    Nai's fingers  ran  over the  outline  of Thailand  as  she  stood
quietly beside  Patrick.  "The  other  night,"  she  said  at  length,
"Galileo threw a cup of water on my head while I was bathing the boys,
and I suddenly  had an  incredibly vivid memory  of the  three days  I
spent in Chiang Mai with my cousins when I was fourteen years old.  It
was the time of  the Songkran Festival in  April, and everyone in  the
city was  celebrating  the  Thai  New Year.  There  were  parades  and
speeches-the usual  stuff about  how all  the Chakri  kings since  the
first Rama had prepared  the Thai people for  their important role  in
the world-but what I remember most clearly was riding around the  city
at night in the back of an electric pickup with my cousin Oni and  her
friends. Everywhere we went  we threw a bucket  of water on  somebody-
and they threw one on us. We laughed and laughed."
    "Why was everyone throwing water?" Patrick asked.
    "I've forgotten now," Nai said with a shrug. "It had something  to
do with the ceremony. But the experience itself, the shared  laughter,
and even what it felt like  to have my clothes absolutely soaked,  and
suddenly to be hit by another burst of water-all that I can recall  in
detail."
    They were again silent as Nai reached  up to take the map off  the
wall. "So I guess Kepler and  Galileo will not consider themselves  to
be  Earthlings  either,"  she  mused.  She  rolled  up  the  map  very
carefully. "Maybe even studying the geography and history of the Earth
is a waste of time."
    "I don't think so," Patrick said. "What else are the
    250
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    children going to study? And besides, all of us need to understand
where we came from."
    Three young faces peered into the living room from the atrium. "Is
it lunchtime yet?" asked Galileo.
    "Almost," Nai replied. "Go wash up first . . . one at a time," she
said, as the young feet pounded down the hallway.
    Nai turned around abruptly and caught Patrick staring at her in an
unusual way. She smiled.  "I'm glad you spend  the mornings with  us,"
she said.
    Nai extended both her arms and took Patrick's hands in hers.  "You
have been a big help to me with Benjy and the children these last  two
months," she said, her eyes meeting  his. "And it would be foolish  of
me not to acknowledge that I have not felt nearly as lonely since  you
began coming over here every morning."
    Patrick made an awkward  step toward Nai, but  she held his  hands
firmly in place. "Not yet," she said gently. "It's still too early."
    4
    i.
    Less than a minute after the great firefly clusters in the
    Emerald City dome  announced that  another day  had begun,  little
Nikki was in her  grandparents' room. "It's  light, Nonni," she  said.
"They'll be coming for us soon."
    Nicole rolled over  and gave  her granddaughter a  hug. "We  still
have a couple of hours, Nikki," she said to the excited girl.  "Boobah
is still sleeping. . . . Why don't  you go back to your room and  play
with your toys while we take a shower?"
    When the disappointed girl finally  left, Richard was sitting  up,
rubbing his eyes. "Nikki has talked about nothing but this day for the
last week,"  Nicole said  to  him. "She  is  always in  Benjy's  room,
looking at the painting. Nikki and the twins have even given names  to
all those bizarre animals."
    Nicole reached  unconsciously for  the hairbrush  beside the  bed.
"Why is it that small children have such difficulty understanding  the
concept of time? Even though Ellie has
    252
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    made her a calendar and has been counting off the days one by one,
Nikki has asked me every morning if 'today's the day.1"
    "She's just excited. Everybody is," Richard said, rising from  the
bed. "I hope that we're not all disappointed."
    "How could we be?" Nicole replied. "Dr. Blue says that we will see
sights even more amazing than those you and I saw when we entered  the
city for the first time."
    "I guess the whole menagerie will be out in force," Richard  said.
"By the way, do you understand what the octospiders are celebrating?"
    "Sort of. ... I guess the closest equivalent holiday I know  about
would be the American Thanksgiving. The octos call this 'Bounty  Day."
They set aside a day  to celebrate the quality  of their life. ...  At
least that's the way Dr. Blue explained it to me."
    Richard started to go to the shower but stuck his head back in the
room. "Do you think they invited  us to participate today because  you
told them about our family discussion at breakfast two weeks ago?"
    "You mean when Patrick and Max said they wished they could  return
to New Eden?"
    Richard nodded.
    "Yes, I  do,"  Nicole  answered.  "I  think  the  octospiders  had
convinced themselves that we were all completely content here.  Having
us attend their celebration is part  of their attempt to integrate  us
more into their society."
    "I wish I had  all the damn  translators finished," Richard  said.
"As it is, I only have two ... and they're not completely checked out.
Should I give the second one to Max?"
    "That would be a good idea," Nicole said, crowding her husband  in
the doorway.
    "What are you doing?" Richard said.
    "I'm joining you  in the  shower," Nicole answered  with a  laugh,
"unless, of course, you're too old to have company."
    a» Jamie came over from next door to tell them that the
    transport was ready. He was the youngest of their three
    RAMA REVEALED
    253
    octospider neighbors (Hercules lived by himself just on the  other
side of the plaza), and the humans had had the least contact with him.
Jamie's "guardians," Archie  and Dr.  Blue, explained  that Jamie  was
very much  involved  with his  studies  and was  approaching  a  major
milestone in his life.  Although at first  glance Jamie looked  almost
exactly like the three  adult octospiders the  clan saw regularly,  he
was a little smaller than the older octos and the gold stripes in  his
tentacles were slightly brighter.
    The humans had briefly been in  a quandary about what to wear  for
the octospider  celebration, but  they had  soon realized  that  their
clothing was of absolutely no significance. None of the alien  species
in the Emerald City  wore any coverings, a  fact that the  octospiders
had often commented upon. When Richard had once suggested, only partly
in jest, that  perhaps the  humans too should  dispense with  clothing
while they  were in  the Emerald  City-"When in  Rome .  . ."  he  had
said-the group had quickly understood how fundamental clothing was  to
human psychological comfort. "I could not be naked, even among you, my
closest friends, without being extremely self-conscious," Eponine  had
said, summarizing all their feelings.
    The motley contingent of eleven  humans and their four  octospider
colleagues traipsed down the  street to the  plaza. The very  pregnant
Eponine was at the back of  the group, walking slowly and keeping  one
hand on her stomach. The women had all chosen to dress up a little-Nai
was even wearing her colorful Thai silk dress with the blue and  green
flowers-but the  men and  children, except  for Max  (who had  on  the
outrageous Hawaiian shirt he saved for special occasions), were in the
T-shirts and jeans that had been their regular costume since the first
day they had arrived at the Emerald City.
    At least all their clothes were clean. In the beginning, finding a
way to  do the  laundry had  been  an acute  problem for  the  humans.
However, once they had  explained their difficulty  to Archie, it  was
only a few days before he introduced them to the drornos, insect-sized
beings that automatically cleaned their clothes.
    254
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    The group boarded the transport at the plaza. Just before the gate
marking  the  end  of  their  zone,  the  transport  stopped  and  two
octospiders they had never seen  before climbed into the car.  Richard
practiced using his translator during the ensuing conversation between
Dr. Blue and the newcomers. Ellie  read her father's monitor over  his
shoulder and congratulated him on the accuracy of the translation. The
fidelity of the translation was fairly  good, but the speed, at  least
at the normal  octospider conversation  rate, was much  too slow.  One
sentence would  be  translated  while  three  were  "spoken,"  causing
Richard to reset the system  regularly. He couldn't, of course,  glean
much from  a  conversation  in  which  he  missed  two  out  of  three
sentences.
    Once on the other  side of the gate,  the view from the  transport
was a mosaic of strange shapes and bright colors. Nikki's eyes  stayed
open at their widest  levels as she, Benjy,  and the twins, with  much
shouting, identified most of the animals from the octospider painting.
The broad  streets were  full of  traffic. There  were not  only  many
transports, which  moved  in both  directions  on rails  like  a  city
trolley, but  also pedestrians  of all  species and  sizes,  creatures
riding wheeled vehicles like unicycles and bicycles, and an occasional
mixed group of beings on an ostrichsaur.
    Max, who had  never once  been outside  the human  zone since  his
arrival, punctuated his observations  with "shits," "damns," and  some
of the  other words  Eponine had  requested that  he remove  from  his
vocabulary before the birth of their child. Max did not start to worry
about Eponine's safety until,  at the first  transport stop after  the
gate, some strange new creatures crowded  onto their car. Four of  the
newcomers headed  immediately in  Eponine's direction  to examine  the
special seat the octospiders had installed in the transport because of
her advanced pregnancy. Max stood protectively beside her, holding  on
to one  of  the vertical  rails  that were  scattered  throughout  the
ten-meter length of the car.
    A pair  of  the  new  passengers were  what  the  children  called
"striped crabs," eight-legged  red-and-yeilow creatures about  Nikki's
size, with round bodies covered with a
    RAMA REVEALED
    255
    hard  shell  and  fearsome-looking  claws.  Both  of  them   began
immediately rubbing their antennae against one of Eponine's bare  legs
below her dress. They were only being curious, but the combination  of
the peculiar sensation and the bizarre appearance of the aliens caused
Eponine to recoil from fright. Archie,  who was standing on the  other
side of Eponine, reached down quickly  with a tentacle and pushed  the
aliens gently away.  One of the  striped crabs then  reared up on  its
back four legs, its claws snapping the air in front of Eponine's face,
and apparently said something  threatening with its rapidly  vibrating
antennae. An instant later Archie  extended two tentacles, lifted  the
hostile striped crab off the floor of the transport, and deposited the
creature on the street outside.
    The scene  dramatically altered  the mood  of all  the humans.  As
Ellie translated Archie's explanation of what had occurred for Max and
Eponine, the  Watanabe  twins  huddled  up close  to  Nai,  and  Nikki
stretched out her arms for her grandfather to pick her up.
    "That species  is not  very intelligent,"  Archie told  his  human
friends, "and we  have had difficulty  engineering out its  aggressive
tendencies. The particular creature that I threw off the bus has  been
a troublemaker before. The optimizer  responsible for the species  had
already marked it-you may have  noticed-with the two small green  dots
at the rear of the carapace. This latest transgression will  certainly
result in termination."
    When Ellie finished with the translation, the humans  methodically
inspected the other  aliens on  the transport, checking  for any  more
green dots. Relieved that all the other creatures on board were  safe,
the adults relaxed a little.
    "What did that thing say?"  Richard asked Archie as the  transport
approached another stop.
    "It was a standard threat  response," Archie replied, "typical  of
animals with constrained intelligence capability. Its antenna patterns
conveyed a crude message, with very little real information content."
    "Shit," said Max.
    256
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    The transport  continued down  the avenue  for eight  or ten  more
nillets, stopping twice  to receive  additional passengers,  including
half a dozen octospiders and about twenty other creatures representing
five different species. Four of the royal blue animals, the ones  with
the hemispherical  tops that  looked  like they  contained  undulating
brains, squatted right opposite Richard, who was still holding  Nikki.
Their collective assortment of eight knotted antennae extended  upward
toward  Nikki's  feet  and  became   intertwined,  as  if  they   were
communicating. When  the  human  girl moved  her  feet  slightly,  the
antennae were quickly retracted back into the strange mass that formed
the bulk of the bodies of the alien creatures.
    By this time it was very  crowded in the transport. An animal  the
humans had never seen before, which Max later described accurately  as
a Polish sausage with a long nose and six short legs, raised itself up
on one of the vertical bars and grabbed Nai's small purse with its two
front paws. Jamie interceded before any damage was done to either  the
purse or Nai, but a few seconds later Galileo kicked the sausage hard,
causing it to lose its grip on the bar. The boy explained that he  had
thought the sausage was preparing for  another grab at the purse.  The
creature backed  away  into  another section  of  the  transport,  its
solitary eye fixed warily on Galileo.
    "You'd better  be careful,"  Max said  with a  grin, tousling  the
boy's hair. "Or the octos will place two green dots on your behind."
    The avenue was lined with one- and two-story buildings, almost all
painted with  geometric patterns  in  brilliant colors.  Garlands  and
wreaths of brightly colored flowers and leaves festooned the  doorways
and the roofs. On one long wall, which Hercules told Nai was the  back
of the main hospital, a huge  rectangular mural, four meters high  and
twenty meters long, depicted the octospider physicians ministering  to
their own injured,  as well as  helping rn^ny of  the other  creatures
that lived in the Emerald City.
    The transport slowed slightly and began to ascend a
    RAMA REVEALED
    257
    ramp. The  ramp led  to  a bridge  hundreds  of meters  long  that
spanned a  wide  river  or  canal  that  contained  boats,  frolicking
octospiders, and other unknown marine creatures. Archie explained that
they were entering the heart of  the Emerald City, where all the  main
ceremonies took place  and the "most  important" optimizers lived  and
worked. "Over there," he said, pointing at an octagonal building about
thirty meters tall, "is our library and information center."
    In response to Richard's question, Archie said that the canal,  or
moat, completely  encircled the  "administrative center."  "Except  on
special occasions like today, or for some official purpose approved by
the optimizers," Archie said, "only octospiders are allowed access  to
this area."
    The transport  parked  in  a  large, flat  plain  beside  an  oval
structure  that  looked  like  a   stadium,  or  perhaps  an   outdoor
auditorium. Nai told Patrick, after they descended from the car,  that
she had felt more claustrophobic during the last part of the ride than
at any time since she had been on the Kyoto subway at rush hour during
her trip to meet Kenji's family.
    "At least in Japan," Patrick said with a brief shudder, "you  were
surrounded by other human beings. . .  . Here it was so weird. 1  felt
as if I were being scrutinized by all of them. I had to close my  eyes
or I would have gone crazy."
    As they  disembarked  and began  moving  toward the  stadium,  the
humans walked in a group, surrounded by their four octospider  friends
and the other two  octos who had boarded  the transport before it  had
left the human zone.  These six octospiders  protected Nicole and  the
others from the  teeming hordes  of living creatures  swarming in  all
directions.  Eponine  started   feeling  faint,  as   much  from   the
combination of  sights  and smells  as  from the  walking,  so  Archie
stopped their  procession about  every fifty  meters. Eventually  they
entered one of the gates and  the octospiders led the humans to  their
assigned section.
    There was only one seat in the section that had been reserved  for
the humans.  In  fact, Eponine  may  have had  the  only seat  in  the
stadium. Looking around  the upper  deck of the  arena with  Richard's
binoculars, Max  and  Patrick  saw many  beings  leaning  against,  or
holding on to, the sturdy
    258
    ARTHUR C, CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    vertical poles scattered  throughout the  terraced bleachers,  but
nowhere else could they find any seats.
    Benjy was intrigued by the cloth bags that Archie and a few of the
other octospiders were carrying. The off-white bags, all of which were
identical, were about the size of  a woman's purse. They hung at  what
might be called octospi-der hip level,  attached over the head with  a
simple strap. Never before had any of the humans seen an octo with  an
accessory. Benjy had noticed the bags immediately and had asked Archie
about them while they had been  standing together at the plaza.  Benjy
had assumed that Archie had not understood his question at that  time,
and Benjy had  in fact  forgotten it  himself until  they reached  the
stadium and he saw the other similar bags.
    Archie was uncharacteristically  vague in his  explanation of  the
purpose of the  bag. Nicole had  to ask the  octospider to repeat  his
colors before she  told Benjy what  had been said.  "Archie says  it's
equipment he might need to protect us in an emergency."
    "What kind  of equipment?"  Benjy asked,  but Archie  had  already
moved several meters  away and was  talking with an  octospider in  an
adjacent section.
    The humans  were separated  from  the other  species both  by  two
strips'of taut metal rope around the tops and bottoms of the  vertical
poles on  the  outside  of  their enclave,  and  by  their  octospider
protectors (or "guards," as Max called them), who stationed themselves
in the empty area between the different species. Beside the humans  on
the right was a group  of several hundred of  the aliens with the  six
flexible arms, the same  creatures who had  built the staircase  under
the rainbow dome. On the left and  below the human clan, on the  other
side of a large empty area, were as many as a thousand brown,  chunky,
iguanalike animals with long, tapered tails and protruding teeth.  The
iguanas were the size of domestic cats.
    What was  immediately  obvious was  that  the entire  stadium  was
rigidly segregated. Each species was^sitting with its own kind. What's
more, except for the "guards," there were no octospiders on the  upper
deck. All fifteen
    RAMA REVEALED
    259
    thousand of the  octos (Richard's  estimate) who  were present  as
spectators were sitting in the lower deck.
    "There are several reasons for the segregation," Archie explained,
with Ellie  translating  for everyone  else.  "First, what  the  Chief
Optimizer says is going to be  broadcast in thirty or forty  languages
simultaneously. If you  look carefully, you'll  see that each  special
section has an apparatus-here's yours, for example, what Richard calls
a speaker-that  presents what's  being said  in the  language of  that
species. We  have been  working with  the Chief  Optimizer's text  for
days,  preparing  the  proper  translations.  Since  all  the   octos,
including the various morphs, can understand our standard language  of
color, they're all down on the  lower deck, where there is no  special
translation equipment.
    "Let me show you what I'm talking about. Look over there."  Archie
extended a tentacle. "Do you see that group of striped crabs? See  the
two large vertical wires on that table at the front of their  section?
When the Chief Optimizer  starts to speak,  those wires will  activate
and present what is being said in their antenna language."
    Far below them,  over the  top of what  would have  been a  sunken
field in  an Earth  stadium, a  vast cover  with colored  stripes  was
suspended from stanchions attached to the bottom sections of the lower
deck.
    "Can you read what it says?" Ellie asked her. father.
    "What?" said  Richard,  still  stunned by  the  magnitude  of  the
spectacle.
    "There's a message on the  cover," Ellie said, pointing  downward.
"Read the colors."
    "So there  is."  Richard read  very  slowly. "Bounty  means  food,
water, energy, information, balance, and . . . What's the last word?"
    "I would translate it as 'diversity,'" Ellie said.
    "What does the message mean?" Eponine asked.
    "I guess we're going to find out."
    A few minutes later, after Archie had told the humans that another
reason for the  species segregation  was to  confirm the  octospiders'
census statistics, the field cover
    260
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    was rolled up on two long, thick poles by two pairs of giant black
animals. The pairs  started on  opposite sides  of the  middle of  the
arena and then  moved toward  the ends  of the  stadium, wrapping  the
cover around their poles to unveil the entire field.
    Simultaneously, an additional cluster of fireflies descended  from
far above the stadium so that all the spectators could clearly see not
only the  abundance  of  fruits, vegetables,  and  grains  stacked  in
hundreds of  piles  on  both ends  of  the  field, but  also  the  two
collections of diverse  beings that  were in separate  regions on  the
floor of the arena, on either side  of its middle. The first group  of
aliens was walking around in a large circle on a normal dirt  surface.
They were attached to each  other by some kind  of rope. Next to  them
was a large pool of water,  in which another thirty or forty  species,
also connected to each other, were swimming in a second large circle.
    In the absolute center of the  field was a raised platform,  empty
except for some scattered  black boxes, with  ramps descending in  the
direction of  me  two  adjacent regions.  As  everyone  watched,  four
octospiders broke from the circle in the swimming pool and climbed the
ramp onto  the  platform.  Another four  octospiders  left  the  group
walking on the dirt surface and joined their colleagues. One of  these
eight octos then stood up on a  box in the middle of the platform  and
began to speak in color.
    "We have gathered  here today .  . ." The  voice from the  speaker
startled the  humans. Little  Nikki  began to  cry.  At first  it  was
extremely difficult for them to understand what they were hearing, for
each syllable was  stressed exactly the  same and, although  carefully
pronounced, the sounds were not quite  right, as if they were made  by
someone who had never heard a human speak. Richard was  flabbergasted.
He  immediately  abandoned  his  attempt  to  use  his  own  real-time
translator and bent down to study the octospider device.
    Ellie borrowed Richard's binoculars so  that she could follow  the
colors more readily. Even though she had to guess at some of the words
because of the strip pieces outside  her visible range, it was  easier
for her to watch than
    RAMA REVEALED
    261
    to concentrate  fully on  what was  coming out  of the  octospider
audio equipment.
    Eventually the adults tuned their ears somewhat to the cadence and
pronunciation of the  alien voice and  caught most of  what was  being
said. The octospider Chief  Optimizer indicated that  all was well  in
their bountiful realm and that the continued success of their  complex
and diverse society was reflected in the variety of foods found on the
field. "None  of this  bounty,"  the speaker  said, "could  have  been
produced without strong interspecies cooperation."
    Later in his brief  message the Chief  Optimizer handed out  kudos
for exceptional  performance. Several  specific species  were  singled
out-for example, production of the honeylike substance had  apparently
been outstanding,  for  a  dozen hovering  fireflies  spotlighted  the
snout-nosed beetle section for a  few moments. About three fengs  into
the speech, the humans  grew tired of the  strain of listening to  the
strange voice and stopped following  the speech altogether. The  group
was therefore surprised when the  fireflies appeared over their  heads
and they were introduced to the alien multitudes. Thousands of strange
eyes were aimed in their direction for half a nillet.
    "What did he say about us?" Max asked Ellie, who had continued  to
translate the colors. Max had been talking to Eponine during the  most
recent part of the Chief Optimizer's speech.
    "Just that we  were new  in the domain  and that  they were  still
learning about our  capabilities. Then  there were  some numbers  that
must have been  some way of  describing us. I  didn't understand  that
part."
    After another  two  species  were briefly  introduced,  the  Chief
Optimizer started summarizing the main  points of his speech.  "Mommy,
Mommy." Nikki's terrified scream suddenly overpowered the alien voice.
Somehow, while the adult humans were absorbed with the speech and  the
spectacle surrounding them, Nikki had  climbed over the lower  barrier
around their section and  entered the open  space separating mem  from
the iguana creatures. The octospider Hercules, who had been patrolling
that area, had apparently not
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    noticed her either, for he was unaware that one of the iguanas had
stuck its  head in  the gap  between the  two metal  ropes around  its
section and grabbed Nikki's dress with its sharp teeth.
    The terror in the child's voice momentarily paralyzed everyone but
Benjy. He  acted  instantly,  leaping over  the  barrier,  rushing  to
Nikki's aid, and smashing the iguana creature in the head with all his
strength. The  startled alien  let go  of Nikki's  dress.  Pandemonium
ensued. Nikki raced back to her mother's arms, but before Hercules and
Archie could reach Benjy, the enraged alien had forced itself  through
the gap and  jumped upon Benjy's  back. He screamed  from the  intense
pain of the iguana's teeth in  his shoulder and began to flail  about,
trying to shake  die creature off.  A few seconds  later the  creature
dropped to the  ground, completely unconscious.  Two green spots  were
clearly visible where the creature's tail joined the rest of its body.
    The entire incident had occurred in less than a minute. The speech
had  not  been  interrupted.  Except  in  the  immediate   surrounding
sections, there  had  been no  notice  of  the event.  But  Nikki  was
hopelessly frightened, Benjy  was seriously injured,  and Eponine  had
started having  a  contraction. Below  them,  the angry  iguanas  were
straining against their metal ropes,  disregarding the threats of  the
ten octospi-ders who  had now  moved into  the space  between the  two
species.
    Archie told the humans that it  was time for them to leave.  There
was no argument. Archie escorted them  out of the stadium in a  hurry,
with Ellie  carrying  her  sobbing  daughter  and  Nicote  frantically
rubbing antiseptic taken from her medical bag into Benjy's wound.
    Richard rose up on his elbows  when Nicole came into the  bedroom.
"Is he all right?" Richard asked.
    "I believe so," Nicole said with a heavy sigh. "I'm still  worried
that there may be poisonous  chemicals in that creature's saliva.  Dr.
Blue has been very  helpful. He has explained  to me that the  iguanas
have no toxic venom, but he agrees we must watch out for some kind  of
allergic
    RAMA REVEALED
    263
    reaction in Benjy. The next day or two will tell us whether or not
we have a problem."
    "And the pain? Has it subsided?"
    "Benjy refuses  to complain.  I think  that he  is actually  quite
proud of himself-as well he should be-and doesn't want to say anything
that would detract from his moment as the hero of the family."
    "What about Eponine?" Richard said after a brief silence. "Is  she
still having contractions?"
    "No, they've stopped temporarily. But if she delivers in the  next
day or so, Marius will not be  the first baby whose birth was  induced
by adrenaline."
    Nicole started to  undress. "Ellie's  taking it  the hardest.  She
says that she  is a terrible  mother and that  she will never  forgive
herself for not keeping a closer eye  on Nikki. A few minutes ago  she
even sounded like Max and Patrick. She was wondering aloud if maybe we
should all go  back to New  Eden and take  our chances with  Nakamura.
'For the children's sake,' she said."
    Nicole finished  undressing  and  climbed  into  bed.  She  kissed
Richard lightly  and put  her hands  behind her  head. "Richard,"  she
said,  "there  is  a  very  serious  issue  here.  Do  you  think  the
octospiders would even permit us to return to New Eden?"
    "No," he said after a pause. "At least not all of us."
    "I'm afraid I agree with you,"  Nicole said. "But I don't want  to
say so to the others. Maybe I should bring the question up with Archie
again."
    "He'll try to evade it, as he did the first time."
    They lay together holding hands for several minutes. "What are you
thinking about, darling?" Nicole asked when she noticed that Richard's
eyes were still open.
    'Today," he said. "Everything that happened today. I'm going  back
over it in my mind, scene by incredible scene. Now that I'm old and my
memory isn't as good as it once was, I try to use refresh techniques."
    Nicole laughed. "You're  impossible," she  said. "But  I love  you
anyway."
    5
    M
    I ax was agitated. "I, for one, do not want to stay in this  place
one minute  longer  than necessary.  I  no longer  trust  them.  Look,
Richard, you know  damn well I'm  right. Did you  see how fast  Archie
took that tube thing out  of his bag when  the alien iguana jumped  on
Benjy's back? And he didn't hesitate a second to use it. Pffft was all
I heard, and  presto, that  lizard was  either dead  or paralyzed.  He
would have done the same thing to one of us if we had misbehaved."
    "Max, I think you're overreacting," Richard said.
    "Am I?  And  is it  another  overreaction that  the  entire  scene
yesterday reinforced in my mind just how powerless we are?"
    "Max," Nicole interrupted, "don't you  think this is a  discussion
that we should have at another time, when we're not so emotional?"
    "No," Max replied emphatically. "I do not. I want to have it  now,
this morning. That's why I asked  Nai tft feed the children  breakfast
in her house."
    RAMA REVEALED
    265
    "But surely you're  not suggesting  that we should  leave at  this
moment, when Eponine is due any minute," Nicole said.
    "Of course not," Max  said. "But I think  we should get our  butts
out of here as soon as she is able to travel. Jesus, Nicole, what kind
of life can we have  here anyway? Nikki and  the twins are now  scared
shitless. I bet  they won't  be willing to  leave our  zone again  for
weeks, maybe  not  ever. And  that  doesn't even  address  the  bigger
question of why  the octospiders  have brought  us here  in the  first
place. Did  you see  all those  creatures in  that stadium  yesterday?
Didn't  you  get  the  impression  that  all  of  them  work  for  the
octospiders in one way  or another? Isn't it  likely that we too  will
soon be occupying some niche in their system?"
    Ellie spoke for the first time since the conversation started.  "I
have always trusted the octospiders," she said. "I still do. I do  not
believe they have some  kind of diabolical plot  to integrate us  into
their overall scheme in a  way that is unacceptable  to us. But I  did
learn something yesterday, or I should say I relearned something. As a
mother, it  is  my  responsibility  to  provide  for  my  daughter  an
environment in which she can flourish and have a chance to be happy. I
no longer think that's possible here in the Emerald City."
    Nicole looked at Ellie with surprise. "So you would like to  leave
too?" she said.
    "Yes, Mother."
    Nicole glanced around the table. She could tell from Eponine's and
Patrick's expressions  that  they agreed  with  Max and  Ellie.  "Does
anyone know how Nai feels about this subject?" she inquired.
    Patrick blushed slightly when Max and Eponine looked at him, as if
he were expected to answer. "We  talked about it last night," he  said
at length. "Nai has been convinced,  for some time, that the  children
have too narrow a life isolated here in our own zone. But she is  also
worried, especially  after what  happened  yesterday, that  there  are
significant dangers to the  children if we try  to live freely in  the
octospider society."
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "I guess that settles it," Nicole said with a shrug. "I will  talk
to Archie about our leaving at the first opportunity."
    Nai was a  good storyteller.  The children loved  the school  days
when she would dispense  with the planned  activities and simply  tell
them stories instead. She had been telling the children both Greek and
Chinese myths, in fact,  the first day that  Hercules had appeared  to
observe them. The children had given the octospider his name after  he
had helped  Nai  move the  furniture  in  the room  into  a  different
configuration.
    Most of the  stories that Nai  told had a  hero. Since even  Nikki
still had some  memory of the  human biots in  New Eden, the  children
were  more  interested  in  stories  about  Albert  Einstein,  Abraham
Lincoln, and  Benita Garcia  than they  were in  historic or  mythical
characters with whom they had had no personal involvement.
    On the morning  after Bounty  Day, Nai explained  how, during  the
last phases of the  Great Chaos, Benita  Garcia used her  considerable
fame to help  the millions of  poor people in  Mexico. Nikki, who  had
inherited the compassion of her  mother and grandmother, was moved  by
the story of Benita's courageous defiance of the Mexican oligarchy and
the American multinational  corporations. The  little girl  proclaimed
that Benita Garcia was her hero.
    "Heroine," the always  precise Kepler corrected.  "And what  about
you, Mother?" the boy said a few  seconds later. "Did you have a  hero
or heroine when you were a little girl?"
    Despite  the  fact  that   she  was  in  an   alien  city  on   an
extraterrestrial spacecraft at an unbelievable distance away from  her
hometown of  Lamphun  in Thailand,  for  an extraordinary  fifteen  or
twenty seconds Nai's memory transported her back to her childhood, and
she saw herself clearly,  in a simple  cotton dress, walking  barefoot
into the Buddhist temple to pay  homage to Queen Chamatevi. Nai  could
also see the monks in their saffron robes, and she believed that for a
moment she could even  smell the joss  in the viharn  in front of  the
temple's principal Buddha.
    RAMA REVEALED
    267
    "Yes," she said, quite moved by the power of her flashback, "I did
have a heroine . . . Queen Chamatevi of the Haripunchai."
    "Who was she,  Mrs. Watanabe?"  Nikki said. "Was  she like  Benita
Garcia?"
    "Not exactly," Nai began. "Chamatevi  was a beautiful young  woman
who lived  in  the Mons  kingdom  in the  south  of Indochina  over  a
thousand years ago. Her family was  rich and closely connected to  the
king of the Mons. But Chamatevi, who was exceedingly well educated for
a woman of that  time, longed to do  something different and  unusual.
Once upon a time, when Chamatevi  was nineteen or twenty years old,  a
soothsayer visited-"
    "What's a soothsayer, Mother?" Kepler asked.
    Nai smiled. "Someone who  predicts the future,  or at least  tries
to," she answered.
    "Anyway, this soothsayer told the  king that there was an  ancient
legend saying that a beautiful young  Mons woman of noble birth  would
go north through  the jungles  to the  valley of  the Haripunchai  and
unite all the  warring tribes  of the  region. This  young woman,  the
soothsayer continued,  would create  a  kingdom whose  splendor  would
equal the  Mons',  and  she would  be  known  in many  lands  for  her
outstanding leadership. The soothsayer told this story during a  feast
at the  court,  and  Chamatevi  was  listening.  When  the  story  was
completed, the young woman  came forward to the  king of the Mons  and
told him that she must be the woman in the legend.
    "Despite her father's  opposition, Chamatevi  accepted the  king's
offer of money  and provisions  and elephants, even  though there  was
only enough  food to  last the  five months  of trekking  through  the
jungle to the land of the Haripunchai. She knew that if the tribes  of
the north did not accept  her as their queen,  she would be forced  to
sell herself as a slave. But never for a moment was Chamatevi afraid.
    "Of course the  legend was fulfilled,  the valley tribes  embraced
her as then- queen, and she reigned for many years in what is known in
Thai history as the Golden Age of the Haripunchai. When Chamatevi  was
very old, she carefully
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    269
    divided her kingdom into  two equal parts, which  she gave to  her
twin sons. She then retired to  a Buddhist monastery to thank God  for
His love and  protection. Chamatevi remained  alert and healthy  until
she died  at  the  age  of  ninety-nine."  For  reasons  she  did  not
completely understand, Nai felt herself becoming very emotional  while
she was telling the story. When she was finished, Nai couid still see,
in her  mind's eye,  the wall  panels in  the temple  in Lamphun  that
illustrated Chamatevi's story. Nai had been so engrossed in her  story
that she had not even noticed that Patrick, Nicole, and Archie had all
come into the  schoolroom and  were sitting  on the  floor behind  the
children.
    "We have many similar stories,"  Archie said a few minutes  later,
with Nicole translating, "which we also tell to our juveniles. Most of
them are very, very old. Are they true? It doesn't really matter to an
octospider. The stories entertain, they instruct, and they inspire."
    "I'm sure the children  would love to hear  one of your  stories,"
Nai said to Archie. "In fact, all of us would."
    Archie did not say  anything for almost a  nillet. His lens  fluid
was very  active, moving  back  and forth,  as  if he  were  carefully
studying the human beings staring at him. At length the colored strips
began to roll  out of his  slit and circumnavigate  his gray head.  "A
long, long  time ago,"  he began,  "on a  faraway world  blessed  with
bounteous resources and beauty beyond description, all the octospiders
lived in a vast ocean. On the  land there were many creatures, one  of
which, the . . ."
    "I'm sorry," Nicole said both to  Archie and the others, "I  don't
know how to translate the next color pattern."
    Archie used several  new sentences to  try to define  the word  in
other terms.  "Those that  have gone  before  . .  ." Nicole  said  to
herself. "Oh, well,  it's probably  not essential for  the story  that
every word be exactly correct. I'll simply call them the Precursors.
    "On the land portions of this beautiful planet," Nicole  continued
for Archie, "were many creatures, of whom" by far the most intelligent
were the Precursors. They had built
    vehicles that could fly  into the air, they  had explored all  the
neighboring planets and  stars, they  had even learned  how to  create
life from simple chemicals, where there had been no life before.  They
had changed  the nature  of the  land  and of  (he oceans  with  their
incredible knowledge.
    "It happened that  the Precursors determined  that the  octospider
species had enormous untapped  potential, capabilities that had  never
been expressed during their many, many years of aquatic existence, and
they began to show the octospiders how to develop and use their latent
abilities. As the years passed, the octospider species, thanks to  the
Precursors, became  the  second most  intelligent  on the  planet  and
evolved a very complicated and close relationship with the Precursors.
    "During this time the Precursors  helped the octospiders learn  to
live outside the water by taking  oxygen directly from the air of  the
beautiful planet. Entire colonies of octos began to spend their  whole
lives on  land. One  day,  after a  major  meeting between  the  chief
optimizers of the  Precursors and  the octospiders,  it was  announced
that alt octospiders  would become  land creatures and  give up  their
colonies in the oceans.
    "Down at  great  depths  in  the  sea  was  one  small  colony  of
octospiders, no more than a thousand altogether, that was managed by a
local optimizer who  did not  think the  chief optimizers  of the  two
species had come to a correct decision. This local optimizer  resisted
the announcement and, although he  and his colony were ostracized  t>y
the others and did not share in the bounty offered by the  Precursors,
he and  many generations  that followed  him continued  to live  their
isolated, uncomplicated life on the bottom of the ocean.
    "It happened  that a  great  calamity struck  the planet,  and  it
became impossible to survive on  the land. Many millions of  creatures
died and  only those  octospiders who  could live  comfortably in  the
water survived the thousands of years that the planet was laid waste.
    "When eventually  the planet  recovered  and a  few of  the  ocean
octospiders ventured out on land, they found none of
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    ARTHUR C. ClARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REV
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    271
    their kindred-and  none  of  the  Precursors  either.  That  local
optimizer who had lived thousands of years before had been  visionary.
Without his action, every single  octospider might have perished.  And
that's why, even today, smart octospi-ders retain their capability  to
live either on land or in water."
    Nicole had recognized, early in the story, that Archie was sharing
with them something  altogether different  from anything  he had  ever
told them before. Was it  because of their conversation that  morning,
when she had told Archie that they  wanted to return to New Eden  soon
after the Puckett child was bom? She wasn't certain. But she did  know
that the  legend  Archie  had  related  told  them  things  about  the
octospiders that the humans could never have figured out in any  other
way.
    "That was truly marvelous," Nicole said, touching Archie  lightly.
"I don't know if the children enjoyed it-"
    "I thought it  was neat,"  Kepler said.  "I didn't  know you  guys
could breathe water."
    "Just like an unborn  baby," Nai was saying,  when an excited  Max
Puckett raced through the door.
    "Come quickly, Nicole," Max said. 'The contractions are only  four
minutes apart."
    As Nicole rose,  she turned to  Archie. "Please tell  Dr. Blue  to
bring the image engineer and the quadroid system. And hurry!"
    It  was  amazing   to  watch   a  birth  from   the  outside   and
inside'simultaneously. Nicole was  giving directions  to both  Eponine
and the octospider image engineer through Dr. Blue. "Breathe-you  must
breathe through your contractions," she would shout at Eponine.  "Move
them closer, lower in the birth canal, with a little more light,"  she
would say to Dr. Blue.
    Richard was absolutely fascinated. He  stood out of the way,  over
to one side of the bedroom, his  eyes darting back and forth from  the
pictures on the wall to the two octospiders and their equipment.  What
was being shown in the images  was delayed an entire contraction  from
what was happening on the bed. At the end of each contraction, Dr.
    Blue would hand  Nicole a  small round patch,  which Nicole  would
stick on the inside of Eponine's upper thigh. Within seconds the  tiny
quadroids that had been inside Eponine for the last contraction  would
race to the patch, and the new  ones would then scramble up the  birth
canal. After  a twenty-or  thirty-second  delay for  data  processing,
another set of pictures would appear on the wall.
    Max was driving everybody crazy.  When he heard Eponine scream  or
moan, as she occasionally  did near the peak  of each contraction,  he
would rush over  to her  side and grab  her hand.  "She's in  terrible
pain," he would say to Nicole. "You must do something to help her."
    Between contractions, when  at Nicole's  suggestion Eponine  would
stand up beside the  bed to let the  artificial gravity help with  the
birthing process, Max  was even  worse. The  image of  his unborn  son
wedged tightly in the birth canal, struggling with discomfort from the
pressure of the previous  contraction, would send  him into a  tirade.
"Oh, my  God,  look,  look,"  Max said  after  a  particularly  severe
contraction. "His head is squashed. Oh, fuck. There's not enough room.
He's not going to make it."
    Nicole made  a couple  of  major decisions  a few  minutes  before
Marius Clyde Puckett entered the  universe. First, she concluded  that
the baby boy was not going to  be born without some help. It would  be
necessary, she decided, for her  to perform an episiotomy to  mitigate
the pain and tearing of the  actual birth. Nicole also concluded  that
Max should be  removed from  the bedroom before  he became  hysterical
and/or did something that might interfere with the birthing process.
    Ellie sterilized the  scalpel at Nicole's  request. Max looked  at
the scalpel with wild eyes.  "What are you going  to do with thatT  he
asked Nicole.
    "Max," Nicole said calmly  as Eponine felt  the advent of  another
contraction, "I love  you dearly, but  I want you  to leave the  room.
Please. What I am  about to do  will make it easier  for Marius to  be
bora, but it won't look pretty."
    Max didn't move. Patrick, who was  standing in the doorway, put  a
hand on his friend's shoulder as Eponine
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    273
    began to moan again. The baby's head was clearly pressing  against
the vaginal opening. Nicole  began to cut.  Eponine screamed in  pain.
"No," a frantic Max cried at the first  sight of blood. "No . . .  Oh,
shit ... oh, shit."
    "Now . . . leave now," Nicole yelled imperiously as she  concluded
the episiotomy. Ellie was swabbing up the blood as fast as she  could.
Patrick turned Max around, gave him a hug, and led him into the living
room.
    Nicole checked  the  picture  on  the  wall  as  soon  as  it  was
available. Little Marius  was in  perfect position.  What a  fantastic
technology,  she  thought   fleetingly.  //   would  change   birthing
altogether.
    She  had  no  more  time  to  reflect.  Another  contraction   was
beginning. Nicole reached up and  took Eponine's hand. "This could  be
it," she said. "I want  you to push with all  your might. All the  way
through the  whole contraction."  Nicole told  Dr. Blue  that no  more
images would be needed.
    "Push," Nicole and Ellie yelled together.
    The baby crowned. They could see swatches of light brown hair.
    "Again," Nicole said. "Push again."
    "I can't," Eponine wailed.
    "Yes, you can. . . . Push."
    Eponine arched her  back, took  a deep breath,  and moments  later
baby Marius squirted  into Nicole's  hands. Ellie was  ready with  the
scissors to cut the umbilical  cord. The boy cried naturally,  without
needing to be incited. Max rushed into the room.
    "Your son has arrived," Nicole  said. She finished wiping off  the
excess fluid, tied  off the  umbilical, and-  handed the  baby to  the
proud father.
    "Oh my ... oh  my ... What  do I do now?"  said the flustered  but
beaming Max, who was holding the child as if Marius were as fragile as
glass and as precious as diamonds.
    "You could kiss him," Nicole said  with a smile. "That would be  a
good start."
    Max lowered his head and kissed Marius very gently. "And you might
bring him over to meet his mother," Eponine said.
    Tears of joy were streaming down the new mother's cheeks when  she
looked at her baby boy close up for the first time. Nicole helped  Max
lay the child across Eponine's  chest. "Oh, Frenchie," Max then  said,
squeezing Eponine's hand, "how I love you  . . . how very much I  love
you."
    Marius, who  had  been crying  steadily  since moments  after  his
birth, quieted down in his new position on his mother's chest. Eponine
reached down  with the  hand that  Max was  not holding  and  tenderly
caressed her new son. Suddenly Max's eyes exploded with tears.  'Thank
you, honey," he said to Eponine. "Thank you, Nicole. Thanks, Ellie."
    Max thanked everybody  in the room  multiple times, including  the
two octospiders. For the  next five minutes Max  was also a  veritable
hugging machine. Not  even the octospiders  escaped from his  grateful
embraces.
    RAMA REVEALED
    275
    6
    M
    i icole knocked lightly on  the I M door  and then stuck her  head
into the room. "Excuse me," she said. "Is anybody awake?"
    Eponine and Max both stirred, but no eyes opened to greet  Nicole.
Little Marius was nestled  between his parents, sleeping  contentedly.
At length Max mumbled, "What time is it?"
    "Fifteen minutes after the scheduled  time for our examination  of
Marius," Nicole said. "Dr. Blue wilt be back in a little while."
    Max groaned and nudged Eponine. "Come  on in," he said to  Nicole.
Max looked terrible. His eyes were red and puffy and both of them  had
double bags underneath.  "Why do babies  not sleep for  more than  two
hours at a time?" he asked with a yawn.
    Nicole stood in  the doorway.  "Some do,  Max. But  every baby  is
different. Just  after  they're born,  they  usually follow  the  same
routine they were comfortable with in the womb."
    "What are you complaining about anyway?" Eponine
    said, struggling to sit up. "All you have to do is listen to  some
cries, change a diaper occasionally, and  go back to sleep. I have  to
stay awake while he nurses. Have you ever tried to fall asleep while a
little munchkin is sucking on your nipples?"
    "What's this?" said Nicole, laughing.  "Have our new parents  lost
their neophyte aura in only four days?"
    "Not really," said  Eponine, forcing  a smile  as she  put on  her
clothes. "But Jesus, I am so tired!"
    "That's normal,"  Nicole  said.  "Your body  has  been  through  a
trauma. You need rest. As I told you and Max the day after Marius  was
born when you insisted that we have  a party, the only way you'll  get
enough sleep in the first two weeks  is if you adapt your schedule  to
conform with his."
    "I believe  you," Max  said. He  stumbled out  the door  with  his
clothes and headed for the bathroom.
    Eponine glanced at the light blue rectangular pad that Nicole  had
just taken out of her bag. "Is that one of the new diapers?" she said.
    "Yes," Nicole answered. "The  octospider engineers have made  some
more improvements. By the way, their offer about the special waster is
still open. They don't have anything yet for Marius's urine, but  they
calculate that with the waster he would only poop-"
    "Max is completely  against the idea,"  "Eponine interrupted.  "He
says that his  little boy is  not going  to be an  experiment for  the
octospiders."
    "I wouldn't  exactly call  it an  experiment," Nicole  said.  "The
special  waster  species   they  have  designed   is  only  a   slight
modification from the ones that have been cleaning our toilets for six
months now. And think of the trouble you would avoid-"
    "No," Eponine said firmly. "But thank the octospiders anyway."
    When Max  returned, he  was dressed  for the  day, although  still
unshaven. "I wanted to tell you.  Max," Nicole said, "before Dr.  Blue
comes back, that I  did finally have a  long conversation with  Archie
about our leaving  New Eden. When  I explained to  Archie that we  all
wanted to go, and
    276
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    277
    tried to give him some of the  reasons why, he told me it was  not
in his power to approve our leaving."
    "What does that mean?" Max asked.
    "Archie said it was an issue for the Chief Optimizer."
    "Ah-ha! So I must have been right all along," Max said. "We really
are prisoners here, and not guests."
    "No, not if I  understood correctly what Archie  said. He told  me
that it 'can be arranged, if necessary,' but only the Chief  Optimizer
understands  'all  the  factors'  well  enough  to  make  an  informed
decision."
    "More goddamn octospider gobbledygook," Max grumbled.
    "I don't think  so," Nicole replied.  "I was actually  encouraged.
But Archie said we  will not be  able to schedule  a meeting with  the
Chief Optimizer  until after  the Matriculation  is over.  That's  the
process that has been taking all  of Jamie's time. Apparently it  only
happens every two years or so and involves the whole colony."
    "How long does this Matriculation thing last?" Max asked.
    "Only another week.  Richard, Ellie,  and I have  been invited  to
participate  in  some  facet  of   the  process  tonight.  It   sounds
intriguing."
    "Marius and I won't  be able to leave  for several weeks  anyway,"
Eponine said to Max. "So waiting a week is certainly no problem."
    At that  moment  Dr. Blue  knocked  on the  door.  The  octospider
entered the bedroom with the  specialized equipment that was going  to
be used in the examination of Marius. Max looked askance at a pair  of
plastic bags  containing writhing  creatures  that looked  like  black
pasta.
    "What are those damn things?" Max asked with a scowl.
    Nicole finished laying out her own instruments on the table beside
the bed. "Max," she said with a smile, "why don't you go next door for
the next fifteen minutes or so?"
    Max's brow furrowed. "What are you  going to do to my little  boy?
Boil him in oil?" ^
    "No." Nicole laughed. "But  from time to time  it may sound as  if
that's what we're doing."
    Ellie picked  up  Nikki  and  gave her  a  hug.  The  little  girl
momentarily stopped crying. "Mommy is going out with Nonni and  Boobah
and Archie and Dr. Blue," she said. "We'll be back after your bedtime.
You'll be fine here with Mrs. Watanabe, Benjy, and the twins."
    "I don't want  to stay here,"  Nikki said in  her most  unpleasant
voice. "I want to go with Mommy."  She kissed Ellie on the cheek.  The
little girl's face was expectant.
    When Ellie put  the child  back down on  the floor  a few  seconds
later, Nikki's beautiful face scrunched up  and she began to wail.  "I
don't want to," she screamed as her mother walked out the door.
    Ellie shook  her head  as the  five of  them strolled  toward  the
plaza. "I wish I  knew what to  do for her,"  Ellie said. "Ever  since
that incident in the stadium, she has been clinging to me."
    "It could be just a  normal phase," Nicole said. "Children  change
very rapidly  at  her  age.  And  Nikki's  no  longer  the  center  of
attention, now that Marius is here."
    "I think  the  problem's deeper  than  that," Ellie  said  several
seconds later. She turned to Nicole. "I'm sorry, Mother, but I believe
Nikki's insecurity has more to do with Robert than with Marius."
    "But Robert has been gone for over a year," Richard said.
    "I don't think that matters," Ellie replied. "At some level  Nikki
must still remember what it  was like to have  two parents. To her  it
probably seems like first I abandoned her, then Robert. No wonder  she
is insecure."
    Nicole touched her daughter gently.  "But Ellie, if you're  right,
why is she just now reacting so strongly?"
    "I can't say for certain,"  Ellie said. "Maybe the encounter  with
the iguana thing reminded her how vulnerable she was ... and how  much
she misses the protection of her father."
    They heard Nikki's loud wail  behind them. "Whatever is  bothering
her," Ellie said with a sigh, "I hope she outgrows
    278
    ARTHUR C, CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    it soon. When she cries like that,  I feel as if a hot knife  were
cutting into my stomach."
    There was no transport at the  plaza. Archie and Dr. Blue kept  on
walking, heading for the pyramid, where the octospiders and the humans
usually held their conferences. "This is a very special evening,"  Dr.
Blue explained,  "and there  are many  things that  we must  tell  you
before we leave your zone."
    "Where is Jamie?" Nicole asked as they were entering the building.
"I thought originally he was going with us. And while I'm at it,  what
ever happened to Hercules? We haven't seen him since Bounty Day."
    While they walked together up the ramp to the second floor of  the
pyramid, Dr.  Blue  informed  them  that Jamie  was  with  his  fellow
matriculating octospiders  that evening  and  that Hercules  had  been
"reassigned."
    "Goodness," said  Richard  jokingly,  "Hercules  didn't  even  say
good-bye."
    The octospiders, who still hadn't learned to recognize human humor
very well,  apologized  for  Hercules'  lack  of  manners.  They  then
mentioned that there would no longer be an octospider among the humans
as a daily observer.
    "Was Hercules fired for  some reason?" Richard  asked, still in  a
lighter vein. The two octospiders ignored the question altogether.
    They entered the  same conference  room where  Nicole had  learned
about the digestive process of  the octospiders. Several large  sheets
of the parchment or  hide on which the  octos made their drawings  and
diagrams were  over in  the corner  facing the  wall. Dr.  Blue  asked
Richard, Nicole, and Ellie to sit down.
    "What you are going to see later tonight," Archie then said,  "has
never been witnessed by  a nonoctospider since  our colony was  formed
here in Rama. We are taking you with us in an attempt to increase  the
quality of communication  between our  two species.  It is  imperative
that you  understand,  before we  leave  this room  and  head^for  the
Alternate Domain, not only what you are going to see, but also how you
are expected to behave."
    RAMA REVEALED
    279
    "Under no circumstances," Dr. Blue added, "are you to disturb  the
proceedings or try to interact with anyone or anything along the  way,
either coming or  going. You  are to  follow our  instructions at  all
times. If you cannot or do  not want to accept these conditions,  then
you must tell us now and we will not take you with us."
    The three humans  looked at each  other with alarm.  "You know  us
well," Nicole said  at length.  "I trust that  we're not  going to  be
asked to  do  something  that  is inconsistent  with  our  values  and
principles. We could not-"
    'That's not  our  concern,"  Archie interrupted.  "We  are  simply
asking you  to  be  passive  observers, no  matter  what  you  see  or
experience. If you become confused  or frightened and for some  reason
cannot locate one of us, sit  down, wherever you are, with your  hands
at your sides, and wait for us to come."
    There was  a  brief pause.  "I  cannot stress  too  much,"  Archie
continued, "how important your behavior  is this evening. Most of  the
other optimizers  objected when  I requested  that you  be allowed  to
attend. Dr. Blue and I have personally vouched for your ability not to
do anything untoward."
    "Are our lives in danger?" Richard asked.
    "Probably not," Archie replied. "But they could be. And if tonight
were to turn into some kind of a fiasco because of something that  one
of you did, I'm  not certain . .  ." In a very  unusual action for  an
octospider, Archie did not finish his sentence.
    "Are you telling us," Nicole now said, "that our request to return
to New Eden is somehow tied up in all this?"
    "Our mutual relationship,"  Archie said, "has  reached a cusp.  By
sharing a critical portion of  our Matriculation process with you,  we
are attempting to attain a new level of understanding. In that  sense,
the answer to your question is yes."
    They spent almost half a tert, two human hours, in the  conference
room.  Archie  began  by  explaining  what  the  entire  Matriculation
activity was all about. Jamie and his
    280
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    compatriots,  the  octospider  told   them,  had  finished   their
adolescence and were  about to  make the transition  to adulthood.  As
juveniles, their lives had  been mostly controlled,  and they had  not
been allowed to make any decisions  of great significance. At the  end
of the Matriculation,  Jamie and the  other young octos  would make  a
single monumental decision, one mat would fundamentally alter the rest
of their lives. It was the purpose of the Matriculation, and even much
of the final year prior to  the transition, to provide the  adolescent
octospiders with information that would help them make that  important
decision.
    "Tonight," Archie said,  "the juveniles  will all be  taken, as  a
group, over to the Alternate Domain to see a .. ."
    Neither Ellie  nor  Nicole  could  figure  out  at  first  how  to
translate into English what the  young octospiders were going to  see.
Eventually, after some discussion  between them and several  sentences
of clarification from Dr. Blue and Archie, the women decided that  the
best interpretation for what  Archie had said  in color was  "morality
play."
    For the next  several minutes  the conversation  digressed as  Dr.
Blue and Archie explained, in  response to questions from the  humans,
that the Alternate  Domain was  a specific section  of the  octospider
realm that was not under the dome. "South of the Emerald City," Archie
said,  "there  is  another  settlement  with  a  decidedly   different
life-style from  ours.  About two  thousand  octospiders live  in  the
Alternate Domain  at  the  present  time,  along  with  another  three
thousand  or  four  thousand  other  creatures  representing  a  dozen
different species.  Their  lives  are chaotic  and  unstructured.  The
alternate octospiders have no dome  over their heads to protect  them,
no  assigned  tasks,  no  planned  entertainment,  no  access  to  the
information in  the  library, no  roads  or homes  except  those  they
collectively  build  for  themselves,  and  a  life  expectancy  about
one-tenth that of the average octospider in the Emerald City."
    Ellie thought  about  how the  Avalon  area had  been  created  by
Nakamura to deal  with the  problems that  the colonists  in New  Eden
wanted to forget. She thouglit that perhaps the Alternate Domain was a
similar settlement.
    RAMA REVEALED
    281
    "Why," she asked, "have so many of your kindred-over ten  percent,
if my math is accurate-been forced to live outside the dome?"
    "No normal octospider  has been  forced to live  in the  Alternate
Domain," Dr. Blue said. "They are  living there because of a  personal
choice."
    "But whyT all three humans said, almost in unison.
    Dr. Blue  went over  to the  corner  and retrieved  a few  of  the
charts. The two octospiders used  the diagrams extensively during  the
long discussion that followed. First  they explained that hundreds  of
generations earlier  their  biologists had  correctly  identified  the
connection  between  sexuality  in   their  species  and  many   other
behavioral characteristics, including  personal ambition,  aggression,
territoriality, and aging, to name the most important. This  discovery
had  been  made  during  a  period  of  octospider  history  when  the
transition to  Optimization  was  first  occurring.  But  despite  the
supposedly universal acceptance  of a  theoretically better  structure
for octospider society, the transition was severely impeded by regular
outbreaks of warfare,  tribal dissension, and  other mayhem. The  octo
biologists at the time speculated that only a sexless society, or  one
in which only a small fraction of the population was sexual, would  be
able to abide by the principles of Optimization, in which the  desires
of the individual were subordinated to the welfare of the colony as  a
whole.
    A seemingly endless succession of  conflicts convinced all of  the
forward-looking octospiders of the period that Optimization was only a
foolish dream unless some method or technique could be found to combat
the individualism that inevitably blocked acceptance of the new  order
But what  could be  done? It  was several  more generations  before  a
brilliant discovery was made. Research found that special chemicals in
a sugarcane-like product called  barrican actually slowed down  sexual
maturation in the octospiders. Within  several hundred years the  octo
genetic engineers had succeeded in designing and producing a variation
of this barrican which, if  ingested regularly, stopped the advent  of
sexual maturity altogether.
    282
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Test cases and test colonies  succeeded beyond the wildest  dreams
of both  the  biologists  and the  progressive  political  scientists.
Sexually immature octos were more responsive to the group concepts  of
Optimization. In addition,  aging was also  somehow retarded in  those
octos who ate barrican. Aging, the octospider scientists then  learned
very quickly,  was  tied  to  the same  internal  clock  mechanism  as
puberty, and in fact  the enzymes causing the  cells not to  replenish
properly in older octospiders did not even activate until a  specified
time period after sexual maturity.
    • Octospider society underwent rapid changes, Archie and Dr.  Blue
both asserted, after these  colossal discoveries. Optimization took  a
firm hold everywhere. Octospider social scientists began to envision a
society in which the individual octos would be nearly immortal,  dying
only from accidents  or the  sudden failure  of a  major and  critical
organ. Sexless  octospiders populated  all the  colonies and,  as  the
biologists had  predicted,  personal ambition  and  aggression  became
almost nonexistent.
    "All this history took place many generations -ago," Archie  said,
"and is primarily background information  to help you understand  what
the Matriculation  is  all  about.  Without  going  into  the  complex
intervening history, Dr. Blue will summarize where we are today in our
particular colony."
    "Every octospider  that you  have encountered  so far,"  Dr.  Blue
said, "except for the midget morphs and the repletes, both of whom are
permanently sexless,  is a  creature whose  sexual maturity  has  been
retarded by the  barrican. Many  years ago, before  a rogue  biologist
showed  how  a  different  kind  of  sexuality  could  be  genetically
engineered into our  species, only an  octospider queen could  produce
offspring.
    "Among the  normal  adult  octospider population  there  were  two
sexes, but the only significant differentiation between them was  that
one of  the two  had the  ability, if  mature, to  fertilize a  queen.
Sexual adults copulated for pleasure,  but because there was no  issue
from this contact,  the distinctions between  the sexes were  blurred.
In* fact, long-term bonding in the colony was more frequent among
    RAMA REVEALED
    283
    members of the same  sex, because of  similar feelings and  common
points of view.
    "Now the situation is vastly  more complicated. In our  octospider
species, thanks to the genetic engineering genius of our predecessors,
an adult  female octo  is capable  of producing,  as the  result of  a
sexual union  with  a  mature male  octospider,  a  single,  infertile
juvenile of limited life  expectancy and somewhat reduced  capability.
You have not yet seen one of these morphs because all of them live, by
decree, in the Alternate Domain."
    Dr. Blue paused and Archie continued. "Right after  Matriculation,
each juvenile citizen of our colony  decides whether he or she  wishes
to become sexually mature. If the  answer is no, then the octo  places
his or her sexuality in trust with the optimizers and the colony as  a
whole. That's what Dr. Blue, who is a female, and I each did long ago.
Under octospider law, it is only immediately after Matriculation  that
an individual  can make  his  or her  own  sexual choice  without  any
consequences. The optimizers are not  lenient toward those who  decide
to undergo a sexual metamorphosis, without explicit colony permission,
after their careers have been carefully structured and planned."
    Again Dr. Blue spoke. "As we  have presented it tonight, it  might
seem unlikely that a juvenile octospider would ever make the  decision
for early sexual  maturity. However,  in the interest  of fairness  we
should point out that  there are compelling reasons,  at least in  the
minds of some  young octospiders, for  choosing to become  alternates.
First and  foremost, a  female octo  knows that  her chances  of  ever
bearing offspring  are  significantly  diminished if  she  chooses  to
remain nonsexual after Matriculation.  Our history suggests that  only
in an emergency will  a large number of  these females ever be  called
upon  to  produce  juvenile  octospiders.  In  general,  the   reduced
capability and infertility of this  kind of offspring makes them  less
desirable, from the point of view of the colony as a whole, unless  of
course more  octos are  needed to  support the  infrastructure of  the
society.
    "Some of the  young octospiders don't  like the regimentation  and
predictability of our life in the Emerald City and
    284
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    want an existence in which they can make all their own  decisions.
Others fear that the optimizers will place them in an improper career.
All of those choosing  early sexuality see the  Alternate Domain as  a
free and exciting place, full  of glamor and adventure. They  discount
what they are  giving up ...  and in their  momentary exuberance,  the
quality of their life is more important than its likely duration. .  .
."
    Throughout the long conversation, Richard, Nicole, and Ellie asked
many questions. As  the evening  progressed, all three  of the  humans
started feeling overwhelmed.  There was just  too much information  to
digest in a single discussion.
    "Wait a minute,"  Richard said abruptly  when Archie indicated  it
was past time for them  to leave. "I'm sorry  . . . there's  something
fundamental about  this that  I still  don't understand.  Why is  this
choice permitted at all? Why do the optimizers not simply decree  that
all the octospiders will  always eat the  barrican and remain  sexless
until the colony has a requirement for reproduction?"
    "That's a very  good question,"  Archie replied,  "with a  complex
answer. Let me oversimplify, in the interests of time, by saying  that
our species believes in permitting some free choice. Also, as you will
see tonight, there  are some  functions for which  the alternates  are
uniquely suited and from which the whole colony derives benefits."
    7
    fter leaving their zone, the transport followed a different  route
from the one that had taken the  humans to the stadium on Bounty  Day.
This time it stayed on dimly lit streets on the periphery of the city.
The party encountered none of the busy, colorful scenes that they  had
seen in their  previous excursion. After  several fengs the  transport
approached a large closed  gate very much like  the one through  which
they had initially entered the Emerald City.
    Two octospiders  came over  and  peered in  the car.  Archie  said
something to them  in color, and  one of the  octospiders returned  to
what must have been their equivalent of a guardhouse. In the  distance
Richard could see colors flashing on a flat wall. "She's checking with
the authorities,"  Dr.  Blue  told  the  humans.  "We're  outside  our
expected arrival interval, so our exit code is no longer valid."
    During a  wait  of several  more  nillets, the  other  octospi-der
entered the transport and inspected it thoroughly. None of the  humans
had ever experienced such stringent security
    286
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    287
    precautions in the Emerald City, not even at the stadium.  Eliie's
discomfort  was  heightened  when  the  octospider  security  officer,
without saying  anything  to her,  opened  up  her purse  to  see  its
contents.  Eventually  the  inspector   returned  Ellie's  purse   and
disembarked. The gate swung open,  the transport moved out from  under
the green dome,  and then it  parked in  the dark less  than a  minute
later.
    The transport was surrounded in the parking lot by thirty or forty
other vehicles. "This area," Dr. Blue explained as they descended from
the car  and a  pair of  fireflies joined  them, "is  called the  Arts
District. It and the zoo, which is not too far from here, are the only
two sections of the  Alternate Domain visited  with any regularity  by
the octospiders who live  in the Emerald City.  The optimizers do  not
approve many visitation  requests to the  alternate living areas  that
are  farther   south-in  fact,   for   most  octospiders,   the   only
comprehensive view of the Alternate Domain that they ever have is  the
tour during the last week of Matriculation."
    The air was  much colder  than it had  been in  the Emerald  City.
Archie and Dr. Blue  both started walking faster  than the humans  had
ever seen an octospider  move before. "We  must hurry," Archie  turned
and said, "or we will be late." The human trio ran to keep up with the
fast pace.
    As they neared an illuminated area about three hundred meters from
their transport, Archie and Dr. Blue  moved to either end of the  line
of humans  so that  they were  walking five  abreast. "We're  entering
Artisan's Square," Dr. Blue said, "which is where the alternates offer
their artistic works for transfer."
    "What do you mean, 'transfer'?" Nicole asked.
    "The artists  need credits  for food  and other  essentials.  They
offer their works of art to  an Emerald City resident who has  credits
to spare," Dr. Blue replied.
    As much as Nicole  might have wanted  to pursue the  conversation,
she was  immediately  sidetracked by  the  dazzling array  of  unusual
objects, makeshift stalls, octospiders, and other animals that greeted
her eyes in  Artisan's Squaje. The  square, a large  plaza seventy  or
eighty meters on a side, was  directly across a broad avenue from  the
theater that was
    their destination. Archie and Dr. Blue, at the ends of their line,
each extended  a single  tentacle along  the collective  backs of  the
humans so  that the  five of  them moved  as one  across the  bustling
square.
    The group  was  confronted  by  several  octospiders  holding  out
objects to transfer.  Richard, Nicole, and  Ellie ; quickly  confirmed
what Archie had  told them during  the long meeting,  namely that  the
alternates did not conform to the official language specification used
by the octospiders in the Emerald City. There were no neat color bands
sweeping around the heads of these octospiders, only sloppy  sequences
of colored blotches of widely variable heights. One of the hawkers who
accosted them was small,  obviously a juvenile, and  he or she,  after
being waved away by Archie, gave  Ellie a sudden fright by wrapping  a
tentacle around Eliie's arm  for a few fractions  of a second.  Archie
seized the offender  with three of  his own tentacles  and hurled  him
roughly out of  the way, in  the direction of  one of the  octospiders
with a cloth bag  over its shoulder. Dr.  Blue explained that the  bag
identified the octo as a policeman.
    Nicole was walking so  fast, and there was  so much around her  to
see, that she found  herself holding her breath.  Although she had  no
idea what to make of many of the objects being offered for transfer in
the  square,  she  could  recognize  and  appreciate  the   occasional
painting, or piece  of sculpture,  or those  tiny representations,  in
wood or some similar medium, of all the different animals who lived in
the Emerald City. In one section of the square there were displays  of
colored  patterns  pressed  upon   the  parchment  material-Dr.   Blue
explained  later,  when  they  were  inside  the  theater,  that   the
particular art form represented by the patterns was a combination,  as
she understood the human terms, of both poetry and calligraphy.
    Just before they crossed the street, Nicole caught sight, •*- on a
wall twenty meters  away on  her left,  of a  large mural  i that  was
astonishingly beautiful. The  colors were bold  and 3|;  eye-catching,
the composition the work  of an artist  who understood both  structure
and optical appeal. The technical skill was also extremely impressive,
but it was the emotions
    288
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    rendered in  the bodies  and faces  of the  octospiders and  other
creatures in the mural that fascinated Nicole.
    "The Triumph of  Optimization," Nicole mumbled  to herself as  she
craned her neck to read the  title in colors across the upper  portion
of the mural. The painting had a spacecraft against a star  background
in one section, an  ocean teeming with living  things in another,  and
both a jungle  and a desert  in opposite corners.  The central  image,
however, was a giant  octospider, carrying a stave  and standing on  a
pile of  thirty disparate  animals,  who were  squirming in  the  dust
underneath its tentacles. Nicole's heart nearly jumped out of her body
when she saw that one of the  trampled beings was a young human  woman
with brown skin, piercing eyes, and short curly hair.
    "Look," she yelled  suddenly to  the others,  "over there-at  that
mural."
    At that  moment some  kind of  small animal  was making  itself  a
nuisance around  their feet.  It succeeded  in distracting  everyone's
attention. The two octospiders  dealt with the  animal and pulled  the
line again toward the  theater. As she moved  into the street,  Nicole
glanced back at the  mural to make certain  that she had not  imagined
the presence of a young woman in the picture. From the added  distance
the face of  the woman  and her features  were vague,  but Nicole  was
nevertheless convinced that she had  definitely seen a human being  in
the artwork. But how  is that possible? Nicole  was asking herself  as
they entered the theater.
    Preoccupied with her discovery, Nicole listened with only half  an
ear to Richard's discussion with Archie  about how he intended to  use
his translator during the play. She didn't even look when, after  they
took  their   standing   positions   in  the   fifth   row   above   a
theater-in-the-round, Dr. Blue pointed out  with one of her  tentacles
the sector  to  the  left  of them  containing  Jamie  and  the  other
matriculating octospiders. / must have made a mistake, Nicole thought.
She was seized by  a powerful impulse  to run back  to the square  and
verify what she  had seen. Then  she remembered what  Archie had  told
them about the importance of carefully following instructions on  this
particular evening. / know I
    RAMA REVEALED
    289
    saw a woman in that painting,  Nicole told herself as three  large
fireflies flew down and  hovered over the stage  in the center of  the
theater. But if I did, what does it mean?
    There were no  intermissions in  the play,  which lasted  slightly
more than an hour. The action was continuous, with one or more of  the
octospider actors occupying the lit stage at all times. No props  were
used and no  costumes. At  the beginning of  the play  the seven  main
"characters"  came  forward  and  briefly  introduced   themselves-two
matriculating octos, one of either sex, a pair of adoptive parents for
each, and one alternate male whose bright and beautiful colors  spread
all the way to the end of his tentacles when he spoke.
    The first several minutes of the actual play established that  the
two matriculating juveniles had been best friends for years and  that,
despite the good and sound advice of their assigned parents, they  had
selected early sexual maturity together. "My desire," the young female
octospider said in her first monologue,  "is to produce a baby from  a
union with my  cherished companion."  Or at least  that's how  Richard
translated what she  said. He was  gleeful at the  performance of  his
much-improved translator and, after  remembering that the  octospiders
were deaf, he talked intermittently throughout the performance.
    The four octo parents came together in the center of the stage and
expressed anxiety  about  what would  happen  when the  "powerful  new
emotions"  that  accompanied  the  sexual  transformation  were  first
encountered by their adopted  children. They did,  however, try to  be
fair, and all four of the  adults admitted that their own choices  not
to become sexually  mature after Matriculation  meant that they  could
not give advice based on any actual experience.
    In the middle of the play the two young octospiders were  isolated
at opposite corners of the stage, and the audience concluded from  the
pyrotechnics of the fireflies,  plus a few  brief statements from  the
octospider actors, that each of  them had stopped eating the  barrican
and was alone in some kind of Transition Domain.
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    When later the two transformed octospiders walked across the stage
and met in the  center, the color patterns  in their conversation  had
already altered. It was a powerful effect, however it was achieved  by
the actors, because not only were the individual colors brighter  than
they had  been  before the  transition,  but also  the  rigid,  nearly
perfect strips that had characterized the early conversations  between
the  two  juveniles  were  already  marked  with  some  different  and
interesting individual designs. Around them on the stage at this point
were half a dozen other octospiders-all alternates, judging from their
language-and a couple of Polish sausage animals chasing anything  they
could find. The pair were now clearly in the Alternate Domain.
    Enter  from  the  darkness  off  the  stage  the  alternate   male
introduced at the beginning  of the play.  The octospider actor  first
made a brilliant display of horizontal and vertical patterns moving in
both directions  and  then  created advanced  wave  action,  geometric
structures, and even  fire-workslike explosions of  color starting  at
random locations around his  head. The newcomer's Technicolor  display
mesmerized the young female octo and won her away from the best friend
of her childhood. Soon after, the interloper with the amazing  colors,
who had obviously parented the baby octo being carried in the  frontal
pouch of the female, left her  sitting forlorn and alone in the  comer
of  the  stage,  sending  out   pulse  after  unstructured  pulse   of
meaningless colors.
    At this point in the play the male octospider who had matriculated
in the earlier  scenes stormed into  the light, saw  his true love  in
despair with her baby,  and jumped off  into the darkness  surrounding
the stage.  Moments  later he  returned  with the  alternate  who  had
corrupted his girlfriend, and the two male octos engaged in a horrible
but fascinating fight in the middle  of the stage. Their heads a  riot
of expletive color, they beat, twisted, choked, and battled each other
for an entire feng.  The younger male octo  eventually won the  fight,
for the  alternate lay  motionless on  the*stage when  the action  was
over. The sadness expressed in the closing remarks of the hero and the
heroine made certain
    RAMA REVEALED
    291
    that the  moral of  the play  was very  clear. When  the play  was
finished, Richard glanced at Nicole  and Ellie and commented, with  an
irreverent grin, "This  is one  of those downer  plays, like  Othello,
where everyone dies in the end."
    Under the supervision of the octospider ushers, all with bags, the
matriculating youngsters  left the  theater  first, followed  next  by
Archie, Dr. Blue, and their  human companions. The orderly  procession
stopped just outside  a few minutes  later and formed  a crowded  ring
around three other octospiders who were  in the middle of the  avenue.
Richard, Nicole,  and  Ellie  felt  the  presence  of  their  friends'
powerful tentacles across their backs  as they moved into position  to
see what was taking place. Two of the octospiders in the center of the
street were holding staves and wearing bags, while the third octo, who
was crouching between  them, was  transmitting the  color message,  in
broad and unstructured bands, "Please, help me."
    "This octospider," one  of the policemen  said in crisp,  measured
strips, "has consistently failed to  earn her credits since coming  to
the Alternate Domain  after her  Matriculation four  cycles ago.  Last
cycle she was warned  that she had become  an unacceptable drain  upon
our common resources, and  recently, two days  before Bounty Day,  she
was told  to report  for termination.  Since that  time she  has  been
hiding among friends in the Alternate Domain."
    The crouching  octospider  suddenly  bolted and  leaped  into  the
audience near where the  humans were standing.  The crowd sagged  back
from the impact and Ellie, who was nearest the point where the  escape
attempt occurred, was knocked to the ground in the melee that  ensued.
In less than a nillet the police, with help from Archie and several of
the matriculating juveniles, again had the fugitive under control.
    "Failure to report for a scheduled termination is one of the worst
crimes an  octospider can  commit," the  policeman then  said. "It  is
punishable by  immediate termination  upon apprehension."  One of  the
policemen  pulled  several  wriggling,  wormlike  creatures  from  its
shoulder bag. The outlaw
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    octo struggled  hard the  first time  the two  policemen tried  to
force the wormlike creatures  into her mouth.  However, after each  of
the policemen  hit  the  renegade  twice  with  a  stave,  the  doomed
octospider collapsed between her captors. Ellie, who had regained  her
footing by this time, was unable to suppress a scream of terror as the
creatures entered  the octo's  mouth, and  she began  to  regurgitate.
Death came quickly.
    None of the  humans said a  word as  they walked arm  in arm  with
Archie and Dr. Blue across the square and into the parking area  where
their transport was  wailing. Nicole was  so stunned by  what she  had
witnessed that she did not even remember to look for the painting that
she thought had included a human face.
    In the middle of the night Nicole, who had not been able to sleep,
heard a noise in the  living room. She rose  from her bed quietly  and
slipped into  a robe.  Ellie was  sitting on  the couch  in the  dark.
Nicole sat down beside her daughter and took her hand.
    "I couldn't sleep, Mother,"  Ellie said. "I  have been going  over
everything in my mind and  it doesn't make any sense.  I feel as if  I
have been betrayed."
    "I know, Ellie," Nicole said. "I feel the same way."
    "I thought I knew the  octospiders," Ellie said. "I trusted  them.
In many ways I thought they were superior to us, but after what I  saw
tonight ..."
    "None of  us  is comfortable  with  killing," Nicole  said.  "Even
Richard was horrified at first. But after  we were in bed, he told  me
that he was  certain the  street scene  was carefully  staged for  the
benefit of the matriculators. He also  said that we should be  careful
not to jump to too many conclusions or let ourselves react emotionally
to one isolated incident."
    "I have never before watched an intelligent being murdered  before
my  very  eyes.  And  what  was  her  crime?  Failure  to  report  for
termination?" fc
    "We cannot  judge  them  as  we  would  judge  human  beings.  The
octospiders are an entirely different species,
    RAMA REVEALED
    293
    with a completely  separate social organization,  one that may  be
even more complex than ours. We are only beginning to understand them.
Have you  already forgotten  that  they cured  Eponine of  RV-41?  And
allowed us to use their technology when we were worried about Marius's
birth?"
    "No, I  haven't,"  Ellie  replied.  She  was  silent  for  several
seconds. "You know,  Mother, I'm feeling  as frustrated now  as I  did
often in New  Eden, when I  kept wondering how  human beings, who  are
capable of so much that is good, could possibly tolerate a tyrant like
Nakamura. Now it looks  as if the  octospiders can be  just as bad  in
their own way. There is so much inconsistency everywhere."
    Nicole tried to console her daughter with a hug. In her mind's eye
Nicole again  saw  a  highlight  montage  of  the  night's  incredible
activities, including the fleeting glimpse  in which she believed  she
had seen an unknown human woman  in an octospider mural. And what  was
that about, old woman?  she asked herself. Was  it really there,  that
face, or did  your tired and  imaginative brain create  it to  confuse
you?
    8
    I ax finished shaving and washed the rest of the approximation  of
shaving cream off his face. Moments  later he pulled the plug and  the
water  disappeared  from  the  stone  basin.  After  wiping  his  face
thoroughly with a small towel, Max turned to Eponine, who was  sitting
on the bed behind him nursing Marius.
    "Well, Frenchie," he  said with a  laugh, "I must  admit I'm  damn
nervous. I've  never met  a Chief  Optimizer before."  He walked  over
beside  her.  "Once,  when  I  was  in  Little  Rock  for  a  farmers'
convention, I sat next to the governor of Arkansas during a banquet. I
was a little nervous then too."
    Eponine smiled. "It's hard for  me to imagine you being  nervous,"
she said.
    Max stood  silently for  several seconds,  watching his  wife  and
infant son. The baby  made soft cooing sounds  as he ate. "You  really
enjoy this nursing business, don't you?"
    Eponine nodded. "It's a pleasure unlike any I have ever
    RAMA REVEALED
    295
    experienced. The sense of  ... I don't  know the exact  word-maybe
'communion' would be close-is indescribable."
    Max shook his head. "Ours is an amazing existence, isn't it?  Last
night, when  I  was changing  Marius,  I  thought of  how  similar  we
probably were to millions of other human couples, doting on our  first
child ... yet just outside that door is an alien city run by a species
. . ." He did not finish his thought.
    "Ellie has been different since  last week," Eponine said.  "She's
lost her spark and talks about Robert more."
    "She was horrified by the execution," Max commented. "I wonder  if
women are naturally more sensitive to violence. I remember after Clyde
and Winona got  married, when  he brought her  back to  the farm,  the
first time she watched us slaughter a couple of pigs, her face  became
white as a ghost. She didn't say anything, but she never came to watch
again."
    "Elite won't talk much about that night," Eponine said,  switching
Marius over to the other breast. "And that's not like her at all."
    "Richard asked  Archie  about  the  incident  yesterday,  when  he
requested the  components to  build translators  for the  rest of  us.
According to Richard,  the damn octo  was real foxy  and did not  give
many straight answers.  Archie would  not even confirm  what Dr.  Blue
told Nicole about their basic termination policy."
    "It's pretty scary, isn't it?"  she said. Eponine grimaced  before
continuing. "Nicole insisted that she made Dr. Blue repeat the  policy
to her several times, and she even tried several different versions in
English, in  Dr.  Blue's  presence,  to  make  certain  that  she  had
understood it correctly."
    "It's simple enough,"  Max said with  a forced grin,  "even for  a
fanner. 'Any adult octospider whose  total contribution to the  colony
over a defined period of  time is not at least  equal in worth to  the
resources necessary to  sustain that individual  will be entered  onto
the termination list. If  the negative account is  not corrected in  a
prescribed amount of time, the octospider will then be terminated.'"
    296
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "According to Dr. Blue," Eponine said after a short silence, "it's
the optimizers  who interpret  the  policies. They  are the  ones  who
decide what everything is worth."
    "I know," Max  said, reaching  down and caressing  his baby  son's
back, "and I think  that's one of the  reasons Nicole and Richard  are
anxious about today. Nobody  has said anything  explicit, but we  have
been using a  lot of resources  for a long  time-and it's pretty  damn
hard to see what we've been contributing."
    "Are you ready, Max?" Nicole stuck her head in the door. "Everyone
else is out here by the fountain."
    Max bent down to  kiss Eponine. "Will you  and Patrick be able  to
handle Benjy and the children?" he asked.
    "Certainly," Eponine replied. "Benjy's no effort, and Patrick  has
been spending so much time with the children that he's become a  child
care specialist."
    "I love you, Frenchie," Max said, waving good-bye.
    There were  five chairs  for them  outside the  Chief  Optimizer's
operating area. Even when Nicole explained the word "office" to Archie
and Dr.  Blue a  second time,  their two  octospider colleagues  still
insisted that "operating area" was  a better translation into  English
for the place where the Chief Optimizer worked.
    "The Chief  Optimizer is  sometimes a  little late,"  Archie  said
apologetically. "Unexpected  events in  the colony  can force  her  to
deviate from the planned schedule."
    'There must be something really unusual going on," Richard said to
Max. "Punctuality is one of the hallmarks of the octospider species."
    The five humans waited silently for their meeting, each  engrossed
in his or her own thoughts. Nai's heart was pounding rapidly. She  was
both apprehensive and  excited. She  remembered having  had a  similar
feeling as a schoolgirl when she was waiting for her audience with the
king of Thailand's daughter,  the Princess Suri, after  Nai had won  a
top prize in a nationwide academic competition. fc
    A few minutes later an octospider  bade them enter the next  room,
where they were informed they would be joined
    RAMA REVEALED
    297
    in a moment by the Chief Optimizer and a few of her advisers.  The
new room had transparent windows.  They could see activity all  around
them. Where they were sitting reminded Richard of a control area for a
nuclear power plant, or perhaps for a manned space flight.  Octospider
computers and  visual monitors  were  everywhere, as  were  octospider
technicians. Richard asked a question  about something happening in  a
distant area,  but  before  Archie  could  answer,  three  octospiders
entered the room.
    All five humans  rose in  a reflex action.  Archie introduced  the
Chief Optimizer, the Deputy Chief Optimizer for the Emerald City,  and
the Optimizer Security Chief. The three octos each extended a tentacle
to the humans and handshakes  were exchanged. Archie motioned for  the
humans to sit down and the Chief Optimizer began speaking immediately.
    "We are aware," she  said, "that you  have requested, through  our
representative, that you be  allowed to return to  New Eden to  rejoin
the other members  of your  species in  Rama. We  were not  completely
surprised by this  request because our  historical data indicate  that
most intelligent species with strong emotions, after a period of  time
living in an  alien community,  develop a sense  of disconnection  and
yearn to return to  a more familiar  world. What we  would like to  do
this morning is provide some additional information to you that  could
influence your request that we permit you to return to New Eden."
    Archie asked all  the humans  to follow the  Chief Optimizer.  The
group passed through a room similar to the two in which they had  been
sitting and then entered a rectangular area with a dozen wall  screens
spread around the sides at octospider eye level.
    "We  have  been  monitoring  closely  the  developments  in   your
habitat," the Chief Optimizer said when they were all together,  "ever
since long before your escape. This morning we want to share with  you
some of the events that we have recently observed."
    An instant later all the wall screens switched on. Each  contained
a motion picture segment from the daily life
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    among the humans remaining in New Eden. The quality of the  videos
was not perfect and  no segment was continuous  for longer than a  few
nillets, but mere  was no mistaking  what was being  presented on  the
screens.
    For several seconds  the humans  were all  speechless. They  stood
transfixed, glued to  the images on  the wall. On  one of the  screens
Nakamura, dressed as a Japanese shogun, was making a speech to a large
crowd in  the  square in  Central  City. He  was  holding up  a  large
hand-drawn picture of an octospider. Although the videos were  silent,
it was apparent from his gestures  and the pictures of the crowd  that
Nakamura was exhorting everyone to action against the octospiders.
    "Well, I'll  be goddamned,"  Max said,  his eyes  moving from  one
screen to another.
    "Look over here," Nicole said. "It's El Mercado in San Miguel."
    In the poorest of the four villages of New Eden, a dozen white and
yellow toughs with  karate bands  around their heads  were beating  up
four black  and brown  youths  in full  view of  a  pair of  New  Eden
policemen and a  sorrowful crowd of  perhaps twenty villagers.  Tiasso
and Lincoln  biots picked  up die  broken, bloodied  bodies after  the
beatings and placed them in a large tricycle carriage.
    On another screen  a segment showed  a well-dressed crowd,  mostly
white and Oriental, arriving for a  party or a festival in  Nakamura's
Vegas. Bright lights beckoned  them to the casino,  over which a  huge
sign proclaimed  CITIZEN APPRECIATION  DAY  and announced  that  every
partygoer would receive a dozen free lottery tickets to celebrate  the
occasion. Two  large  posters of  Nakamura,  chest shots  showing  him
smiling and wearing a white shirt and tie, flanked the sign.
    A monitor  on  the wall  behind  the Chief  Optimizer  showed  the
interior of  the Central  City jail.  A  new felon,  a female  with  a
multicolored hairdo, was being placed in a cell that already contained
two other convicts. It  appeared as if  the newcomer were  complaining
about the crowded conditions, but  the policeman just pushed her  into
the cell and laughed. When the policeman returned to his desk, the
    RAMA REVEALED
    299
    video revealed  two photographs  on the  wall behind  him, one  of
Richard and the other of Nicole,  under both of which the word  REWARD
was written in large block letters.
    The octospiders waited  patiently as the  humans' eyes moved  from
screen to screen. "How in the world?" Richard kept asking, shaking his
head. Then the screens went suddenly blank.
    "We have put together a total of forty-eight segments to show  you
today," the Chief  Optimizer said, "all  taken from observations  made
the last eight days  in New Eden. The  optimizer you call Archie  will
have a catalog of the  segments, which have been classified  according
to location, time, and event description.  You may spend as much  time
here as you like, looking  at the segments, talking among  yourselves,
and asking questions of the two octospiders who accompanied you  here.
I, unfortunately, have other tasks to perform. If, at the end of  your
viewing, you wish  to communicate with  me again, I  will make  myself
available."
    The Chief Optimizer then departed, followed by her two assistants.
Nicole sat down in one of the chairs. She looked pale and weak.  Ellie
walked over beside her.
    "Are you ail right, Mother?" Ellie asked.
    "I think so,"  Nicole replied.  "Right after the  videos began  to
play, I felt a sharp pain  in my chest-probably from the surprise  and
excitement-but it has subsided now."
    "Do you want to go home and rest?" Richard asked.
    "Are you kidding?" said Nicole  with her characteristic smile.  "I
wouldn't miss seeing this show even if there was a chance that I would
drop dead in the middle."
    They watched  the silent  movies for  almost three  hours. It  was
clear from the  videos both that  there was no  longer any  individual
freedom in New Eden and that most of the colonists were struggling  to
sustain even a meager existence. Nakamura had consolidated his hold on
the colony and crushed all the opposition. But the colony he ruled was
peopled mostly by gloomy and unhappy citizens.
    At first all the humans watched the same segment
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    together, but  after  three  or  four  had  been  played,  Richard
suggested that  it was  terribly  inefficient for  them to  watch  the
segments one at a time. "Spoken like a true optimizer," said Max,  who
nevertheless agreed with Richard.
    There was one segment  in which Katie briefly  appeared. It was  a
late-night scene from Vegas. The street prostitutes were plying  their
trade outside one of the clubs. Katie approached one of the women, had
a brief conversation about some unknown subject, and then  disappeared
from view.  Richard and  Nicole couldn't  help but  notice that  Katie
looked terribly  thin, even  gaunt.  They asked  Archie to  rerun  the
segment several times.
    Another sequence was entirely devoted  to the hospital in  Central
City. No words were  needed for the viewers  to understand that  there
were shortages of  critical medicines, not  enough staff members,  and
problems with  equipment  falling  into  disrepair.  One  particularly
poignant scene  snowed  a  young woman  of  Mediterranean  extraction,
possibly Greek, dying after a painful breech childbirth. Her  delivery
room was lit with  candles while the  monitoring equipment that  might
have identified her difficulties and  saved her life lay  inexplicably
unpowered beside the bed.
    Robert Turner was  everywhere in the  hospital segment. The  first
time Ellie saw him  walking through the halls,  she burst into  tears.
She sobbed throughout  the segment  and then  immediately requested  a
replay. Only when she was watching for  a third time did she make  any
comment. "He looks haggard," she  said, "and overworked. He has  never
learned to take care of himself."
    When they were all emotionally exhausted and nobody requested  the
replay of another segment, Archie asked  the humans if they wished  to
visit  again  with  the  Chief  Optimizer.  "Not  now,"  Nicole  said,
reflecting everyone's opinion.  "We haven't  had time  to digest  what
we've seen."
    Nai asked if perhaps they could take some of the segments back  to
their homes in the Emerald City. "I would like to see them again," she
said, "at a  more leisurelv^pace. And  it would be  great if we  could
show them to Patrick and Eponine."  Archie replied that he was  sorry,
but the segments
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    301
    could only  be  viewed  in one  of  the  octospider  communication
centers.
    On the ride back to their zone, Richard showed Archie how well his
real-time translator was working. Richard had just finished his  final
tests the  day prior  to the  meeting with  the Chief  Optimizer.  The
translator could translate either the octospiders' natural dialect  or
the language  specifically  tailored to  the  visual spectrum  of  the
humans. Archie acknowledged that he was impressed.
    "By the way,"  Richard added  in a louder  voice, so  mat all  his
compatriots could  hear him,  "I guess  there's not  much chance  that
you'd tell us how you managed to obtain all those video segments  from
New Eden, is there?"
    Archie did not hesitate to  answer. "Flying image quad-roids,"  he
said. "More advanced genus. Much smaller."
    Nicole translated for Max and  Nai. "Fuck me," Max muttered  under
his breath. He rose and walked  to the opposite end of the  transport,
shaking his head vigorously.
    "I have never  seen Max so  solemn or so  tense," Richard said  to
Nicole.
    "Nor have I," she answered. They  were taking an exercise walk  an
hour after having finished dinner wim their family and friends. A lone
firefly kept pace above Richard  and Nicole as they repeated  multiple
times the walk from the  end of their cul-de-sac  to the plaza at  the
other end of the street.
    "Do you think  Max will  change his mind  about leaving?"  Richard
asked as they circled the fountain again.
    "I don't know," Nicole replied. "I think he's still in shock, in a
way. He  detests the  fact  that the  octospiders  are able  to  watch
everything we do. That's  why he insists that  he and his family  will
return to New Eden, even if everyone else stays here."
    "Have you had a chance to talk with Eponine alone?"
    "The day  before  yesterday she  brought  Marius over  just  after
naptime. While I was putting some  medication on his diaper rash,  she
asked me if I had mentioned to  Archie that they wanted to leave.  She
seemed frightened."
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    They marched  briskly into  the plaza.  Without stopping,  Richard
pulled  out  a  small  cloth  and  wiped  the  sweat  from  his  brow.
"Everything has changed," he said, as much to himself as to Nicole.
    "I'm certain  it's  all  part  of  the  octospider  plan,"  Nicole
replied. "They didn't show  us those videos  only to demonstrate  that
all is not well in New Eden. They knew how we would react after we had
had time to assess the real significance of what we had seen."
    The pair walked silently back in the direction of their  temporary
home. On the next swing around the fountain, Richard said, "So do they
observe everything we do, including even this conversation?"
    "Of course," Nicole  replied. "That  was the  primary message  the
octospiders transmitted to us by allowing us to see the videos. We can
have no secrets. Escape is out  of the question. We are completely  in
their power. I may be  the only one, but 1  still do not believe  that
they intend to harm us. And they might even allow us to return to  New
Eden. . . . Eventually."
    "It will never happen," Richard said. 'Then they would have wasted
a lot of resources  for no measurable  return, a decidedly  nonoptimal
situation. No, I'm certain the octospiders are still trying to  figure
out our proper placement in their overall system."
    Richard and Nicole walked  at top speed on  their final lap.  They
finished at the fountain  and both of them  drank some water. "How  do
you feel?" Richard asked.
    "Fine," Nicole answered. "No pains,  no shortness of breath.  When
Dr. Blue examined me yesterday, she  found no new pathology. My  heart
is just old and weak. I should expect intermittent problems."
    "I wonder  what  niche  we'll occupy  in  the  octospider  world,"
Richard said a few moments later when they were washing their faces.
    Nicole glanced at  her husband.  "Aren't you  the^one," she  said,
"who laughed at me some months  ago for making inferences about  their
motives? How can you be so certain
    RAMA REVEALED
    503
    now that  you  understand  what  the  octospiders  are  trying  to
accomplish?"
    "I'm not." Richard  grinned. "But  it's natural to  assume that  a
superior species would at least be logical."
    Richard woke Nicole up in the  middle of the night, "I'm sorry  to
bother you, darling, but I have a problem."
    "What is it?" Nicole asked, sitting up in bed.
    "It's embarrassing," Richard said. "That's why I haven't mentioned
it earlier. ... It started right after Bounty Day. I thought it  would
go away, but this last week the pain has become unbearable."
    "Come on, Richard," Nicole said, a little irritated at having  her
sleep disturbed, "get to the point. What pain are you talking about?"
    "Every time I urinate, I have this burning sensation. . . ."
    Nicole tried to stifle  a yawn while she  was thinking. "And  have
you been urinating more frequently?" she asked.
    "Yes . . . how did you know?"
    "Achilles should have been held by his prostate when he was dipped
in the River Styx," she said.  "It is certainly the weakest  structure
in the male  anatomy. Roll  over on your  stomach and  let me  examine
you."
    "Now?" said Richard.
    "If you  can wake  me from  a deep  sleep because  of your  pain,"
Nicole said with  a laugh, "then  the least  you can do  is grit  your
teeth while I try to verify my instant diagnosis."
    Dr. Blue and  Nicole were  sitting together  in the  octospi-der's
house. On one of the wails  four quadroid frames were projected.  'The
image on the far left," Dr. Blue said, "shows the growth as it  looked
that first morning, ten  days ago, when you  asked me to confirm  your
diagnosis. The second frame is a  much magnified picture of a pair  of
cells taken  from  the tumor.  The  cell abnormalities-what  you  call
cancer-are marked with the blue stain."
    Nicole smiled wanly. "I'm  having a little difficulty  reorienting
my thinking," she said. "You never  use the colors for 'disease'  when
you describe Richard's problem-
    304 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    only the word which in your language I define as 'abnormality.'"
    'To us," Dr. Blue responded, "a disease is a malfunction caused by
an outside  agent,  such  as  a  bacterium  or  a  hostile  virus.  An
irregularity in  the  cell chemistry  leading  to the  manufacture  of
improper cells  is a  completely  different kind  of problem.  In  our
medicine the treatment regimens are  completely different for the  two
cases. This cancer in your husband  is more closely related to  aging,
generically,  than  it  is  to  a  disease  like  your  pneumonia   or
gastroenteritis."
    Dr. Blue  extended  a tentacle  toward  the third  picture.  "This
image," she said, "shows the tumor  three days ago, after the  special
chemicals carried  by our  microbiological agents  had been  carefully
dispersed at the site of the abnormality. The growth has already begun
to shrink because the production  of the malignant cells has  stopped.
In the final image, taken this morning, Richard's prostate again looks
normal. By this time all the  original cancer cells have died, and  no
new ones have been produced."
    "So will he be all right now?" Nicole asked.
    "Probably," Dr.  Blue answered.  "We can't  be absolutely  certain
because we still do not have as much data as we would like on the life
cycle of your cells. There are a few unique characteristics about your
cells-as there always are in  species who have undergone an  evolution
distinct from any of our previously examined beings-that might  permit
a recurrence of the abnormality. However, based on our experience with
many other living creatures, I would have to say that the  development
of another prostate tumor is unlikely."
    Nicole  thanked   her  octospider   colleague.  "This   has   been
incredible," she  said. "How  wonderful it  would be  if your  medical
knowledge could somehow be transported back to Earth."
    The images vanished  from the  wall. 'There would  be many  social
problems created  as  well," Dr.  Blue  said, "assuming  that  I  have
properly understood our discussions of your home planet. If individual
members  of  your  species   did  not  die   from  diseases  or   cell
abnormalities, life expec-
    RAMA REVEALED
    305
    tancy would increase markedly. Our species went through a  similar
upheaval after our Golden Age  of Biology, when octospider life  spans
doubled in just a few generations. It wasn't until optimization became
firmly implanted as our governing structure that any kind of  societal
equilibrium was reached. We have plenty of evidence that without sound
termination and replenishment  policies, a colony  of nearly  immortal
beings undergoes chaos in a relatively short period of time."
    Nicole's interest  was  piqued.  "I  can  appreciate  what  you're
saying,  at  least  intellectually,"  she  said.  "If  everyone  lives
forever, or nearly so,  and the resources  are finite, the  population
will soon overwhelm the  available food and living  space. But I  must
admit,  especially  as  an  old  person,  that  even  the  idea  of  a
'termination policy' frightens me."
    "In our early history," Dr. Blue said, "our society was structured
much like yours, with almost all of the decision-making power  resting
with the  older members  of the  species. It  was easier  to  restrict
replenishment,   therefore,   after   life   expectancy   dramatically
increased, than it  was to deal  with the difficult  issue of  planned
terminations. After a comparatively brief period of time, however, die
aging society began to stagnate. As Archie or any good optimizer would
explain, the  'ossification' coefficient  of  our colonies  became  so
large that eventually  all new  ideas were  rejected. These  geriatric
colonies collapsed, basically because they were not able to deal  with
the changing conditions of the universe around them."
    "So that's where optimization comes in?"
    "Yes," said Dr.  Blue. "If every  individual embraces the  precept
that the welfare of the overall  colony should be awarded the  highest
weight in the master objective function, then it quickly becomes clear
that planned  terminations  are  a critical  element  of  the  optimal
solution.  Archie  would  be  able  to  show  you  quantitatively  how
disastrous it is, from the point of view of the colony as a whole,  to
spend huge  amounts of  collective resource  on those  citizens  whose
integrated remaining  contribution is  comparatively low.  The  colony
benefits most by investing in those members who
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    have a long, healthy lifetime still available and therefore a high
probability of repaying the investment."
    Nicole repeated back  to Dr.  Blue some of  the octospi-der's  key
sentences, just to make certain that she had understood properly. Then
she was silent  for two  or three  nillets. "I  suppose," Nicole  said
eventually, "that even though your aging is delayed both by postponing
sexual maturity and by your amazing medical capability, at some  point
preserving  the  life  of  an  old  octospider  becomes  prohibitively
expensive, by some measure."
    "Exactly," Dr.  Blue  replied.  "We  can extend  the  life  of  an
individual almost forever. However, there are three major factors that
make extra life extension decidedly nonoptimal for the colony.  First,
as you mentioned,  the cost  of the  effort to  extend life  increases
dramatically as each biological subsystem, or organ, begins to operate
at less than  peak efficiency. Second,  as an individual  octospider's
time becomes more and more consumed with the process of simply staying
alive, the amount of energy that he or she might have to contribute to
the colony's welfare lessens considerably. Third, and the sociological
optimizers proved this controversial point many years ago-although for
some number of years after mental quickness and learning ability start
to drop, accumulated wisdom more than compensates-in terms of value to
the colony, for the diminished brainpower,  there comes a time in  the
life of every  octospider when  the sheer weight  of his  or her  past
experience makes any additional learning extremely difficult. Even  in
a healthy octospider this phase of  life, called the Onset of  Limited
Flexibility by our optimizers, signals a reduced ability to contribute
to the colony."
    "So the optimizers determine when it is termination time?"
    "Yes," said Dr. Blue,  "but I don't know  exactly how they do  it.
There is a probationary period first, during which time the individual
octospider is  entered  on the  termination  list and  given  time  to
improve his or  her net balance*  This balance, if  I have  understood
Archie's explanation, is calculated  for each octospider by  comparing
its contribu-
    RAMA REVEALED
    307
    tions made with the resources necessary to sustain that particular
individual. If  the  balance does  not  improve, then  termination  is
scheduled."
    "And how do those selected  for termination react?" Nicole  asked,
involuntarily shuddering as she remembered facing her own execution.
    "In different ways," Dr. Blue replied. "Some, especially those who
have been unhealthy,  accept that  they are not  going to  be able  to
redress the unsatisfactory  balance and  plan for their  deaths in  an
organized fashion. Others ask for optimizer counseling and request new
assignments that have a  higher probability of  allowing them to  meet
their contribution quotas. . . . That's what Hercules did just  before
your arrival."
    Nicole was momentarily speechless. A chill ran down her back. "Are
you going to  tell me what  happened to Hercules?"  she said,  finally
summoning her courage.
    "He was severely reprimanded  for not providing proper  protection
for Nikki on Bounty Day," Dr. Blue said. "Hercules was then reassigned
and informed by the Termination Optimizer that there was virtually  no
way he could recover from the  high negative assessment of his  recent
work. Hercules requested early and immediate termination."
    Nicole gasped. In her mind's  eye she saw the friendly  octospider
standing in the cul-de-sac, juggling many balls to the delight of  the
children. She  tried to  tell  herself that  she should  be  rejoicing
because Richard's prostate cancer  had been cured,  and should not  be
concerned about the death of a relatively meaningless octospider.  But
the image of Hercules continued to  haunt her. They are an  altogether
different species,  she  told herself.  Do  not judge  them  by  human
standards.
    As she was about to leave Dr. Blue's house, Nicole suddenly had an
overpowering desire to know more about Katie. She remembered that  one
recent night, after an especially vivid dream involving Katie, she had
awakened and wondered  if perhaps the  octospider records might  allow
her to see more of Katie's life in New Eden.
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "Dr. Blue," Nicole said as she was standing in the door, "I  would
like to ask  a favor. I  don't know whether  to ask you  or Archie.  I
don't even know if what I'm asking is possible."
    The octospider asked her what the favor was.
    "As you know," Nicole said, "I have another daughter who is  still
living in New Eden. I  saw her very briefly in  one of the videos  the
Chief Optimizer showed us last month. . . . I would like very much  to
know what is happening in her life."
    9
    D:
    Iuring a conversation the  next day, Archie  told Nicole that  her
request to see  videos of  Katie could not  be granted.  Nevertheless,
Nicole persisted, taking advantage of  every opportunity when she  was
alone with  Archie  or Dr.  Blue  to reiterate  her  request.  Because
neither of the  octospiders ever  indicated that  images from  Katie's
life in New Eden did not exist in their files, Nicole was certain that
the video data were available. Viewing these data became an  obsession
with her.
    "Dr. Blue and 1  talked today about Jamie,"  Nicole said late  one
night after she  and Richard  were in bed.  "He has  decided to  enter
optimizer training."
    "That's good," said Richard sleepily.
    "I told Dr. Blue that  she was lucky, as a  parent, to be able  to
participate in the events in her child's life. I then expressed  again
our concern about knowing so little about what's happened to Katie.  .
. . Richard," Nicole  said in a slightly  louder voice, "Dr. Blue  did
not say today that I
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    would be unable  to see  the videos of  Katie. Do  you think  that
signals  a  change  in  their  attitude?  Am  I  wearing  down   their
resistance?"
    Richard did not respond at first. After some prompting, he sat  up
in bed. "Can't  we go  to sleep just  this one  night without  another
discussion of Katie  and the damn  octospi-der videos? Jesus,  Nicole,
you've talked about  nothing else  for over two  weeks. You're  losing
your balance-"
    "I am not" Nicole  interrupted defensively. "I'm simply  concerned
about what  has  happened  to  our  daughter.  I'm  certain  that  the
octospiders have many many  segments they could  put together to  show
us. Don't you want to know?"
    "Of course I do,"  Richard said, sighing  heavily. "But we've  had
this same conversation  several times  already. What is  to be  gained
from having it again at this hour?"
    "I told you," Nicole said. "I  sensed a change in- their  attitude
today. Dr. Blue didn't-"
    "I heard you," Richard interrupted crossly, "and I don't think  it
means anything.  Dr.  Blue is  probably  as tired  of  discussing  the
subject as I am."  Richard shook his head.  "Look, Nicole, our  little
group is coming apart  at the seams. We  desperately need some  wisdom
and sanity from  you. Max  grumbles every day  about the  octospiders'
invasion of his privacy, Ellie  is downright lugubrious except  during
the rare  moments when  Nikki causes  her to  smile, and  now, in  the
middle of everything, Patrick  has announced that he  and Nai want  to
get married. But you  are so obsessed with  Katie and the videos  that
you aren't even able to give advice to anybody else."
    Nicole gave Richard a harsh glance  and lay down on her back.  She
didn't reply to his last comment.
    "Please don't  be sullen,  Nicole," Richard  said about  a  minute
later. "I'm only asking you to be as objective about your own behavior
as you usually are about the actions of others."
    "I'm not  being sullen,"  Nicole replied,  "and I'm  not  ignoring
everyone else. Anyway, why must I always oe the one who is responsible
for the happiness of our little family?
    RAMA REVEALED
    311
    Why  can't  somebody   else  play   the  role   of  group   mother
occasionally?"
    "Because nobody else is you," Richard said. "You have always  been
everyone's best friend."
    "Well, now I'm tired,"  Nicole said. "And I  have a problem of  my
own, an'obsession,'according to you.  . . . By  the way, Richard,  I'm
disappointed in your apparent lack of interest. I always thought Katie
was your favorite."
    "That's unfair,  Nicole,"  Richard said  quickly.  "Nothing  would
please me more than to  know that Katie was all  right. But I do  have
other things on my mind."
    Neither of  them  said  anything  for about  a  minute.  'Tell  me
something, dear," Richard said then in  a softer tone. "Why has  Katie
become so  important  all of  a  sudden?  What has  changed?  I  don't
remember your being so incredibly concerned about Katie before."
    "I have asked myself the same question," Nicole said. "And I don't
have a straightforward  answer. I do  know that Katie  has been in  my
dreams a lot lately, since  even before we saw  her in the video,  and
that I have been having an intense  desire to talk with her. Also,  my
first thought after Dr. Blue told me about Hercules' death was that  I
had to see Katie again before I  died. I don't really know why, and  I
don't know either  what I  want to say  to her,  but the  relationship
still seems terribly incomplete to me."
    Again there was a long silence  in the bedroom. "I'm sorry that  I
was a little insensitive just now," Richard said.
    Nicole reached  over  and caressed  her  husband. "I  accept  your
apology," she said, kissing him on the cheek.
    Nicole was  surprised  to see  Archie  so early  in  the  morning.
Patrick, Nai, Benjy, and the children had just left to go next door to
the schoolroom.  The  rest  of  the  adults  had  still  not  finished
breakfast when the octospider appeared in the Wakefield dining room.
    Max was  rude.  "Sorry, Archie,"  he  said, "but  we  don't  allow
visitors-at least not those we  can see-before our morning coffee,  or
whatever this shit is that we drink with breakfast each day."
    312
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    313
    Nicole rose  from the  table as  the octospider  turned to  leave.
"Don't pay any attention to Max," she said. "He is in a permanent  bad
mood."
    Max now jumped up from his chair, holding one of the mostly  empty
packages in which there was a little cereal remaining. He swooped  the
container through the air,  first in one  direction, then in  another,
before sealing it tight and handing the package to Archie. "Have a few
quad-raids," Max said in a loud  voice. "Or did they move too  quickly
for me?"
    Archie did not  reply. The  rest of  the humans  felt awkward  and
embarrassed. Max returned to his place at the table beside Eponine and
Marius. "Shit,  Archie,"  he said,  facing  the octospider,  "I  guess
pretty soon you'll be marking me with  a pair of those green dots.  Or
will you just terminate me instead?"
    "Max," Richard shouted.  "You're out  of line. At  least think  of
your wife and son."
    "That's all  I've  been thinking  about,  friend," he  said,  "for
almost a month now. And you know what, Richard? This Arkansas farm boy
cannot figure  out anything  he can  do to  change .  . ."  His  voice
trailed off. Suddenly Max slammed his fist against one of the  chairs.
"Goddammit!" he yelled. "I feel so useless."
    Marius began to cry. Eponine scooted away from the table with  the
baby and Ellie went to help her. Nicole took Archie with her into  the
atrium, leaving  Richard  and Max  alone.  Richard leaned  across  the
table. "I think I know what you're feeling, Max," he said gently, "and
I empathize  with you.  But  we don't  improve  our situation  any  by
insulting the octospiders."
    "What difference does it make?"  Max said, looking up at  Richard.
"We are prisoners here,  that's obvious. I have  allowed my son to  be
born into a world where he will  always be a prisoner. What kind of  a
father does that make me?"
    While Richard was trying to soothe Max, Nicole was receiving  from
Archie the  message that  she had  been seeking  for weeks.  "We  have
obtained permission," the
    octospider said, "for you to use  the data library today. We  have
compiled videos  featuring your  daughter  Katie from  our  historical
files."
    Nicole made Archie repeat his colors to make certain that she  had
not misunderstood.
    Archie and Nicole did not converse as the transport carried  them,
without stopping, across the  Emerald City to  the tall building  that
housed the octospider library.  Nor did Nicole  pay much attention  to
the street scenes outside the  transport. She was completely  immersed
in her own emotions and her thoughts  of Katie. In her mind's eye  she
recalled, one after another, key moments from her life when Katie  was
a child. In the longest memory segment, Nicole relived both the terror
and the joy of her descent  into the octospider lair years earlier  to
find her missing four-year-old  daughter. You've always been  missing,
Katie, Nicole thought. In one way  or another. I have never been  able
to keep you safe.
    Nicole could feel her heart pounding furiously when Archie finally
led her into a room that was  empty except for a chair, a large  desk,
and a wall screen. Archie indicated that Nicole should sit down in the
chair. "Before I show  you how to use  the equipment," the  octospider
said, "there are two things that I want to tell you. First, I want  to
respond officially, as the optimizer for your group, to the request by
some of you to rejoin the others of your species in New Eden."
    Archie paused. Nicole collected herself. It was difficult for  her
to put Katie  temporarily out of  her mind,  but she knew  she had  to
concentrate completely  on what  Archie  was about  to tell  her.  The
others in the group would expect a verbatim report.
    "I'm afraid," Archie continued a few moments later, 4.I4 "that  it
is not possible for any of you to  leave in the near future. I am  not
at liberty  to  tell  you  anything  more  than  that  the  issue  was
considered by the Chief Optimizer  herself, in a major staff  meeting,
and that your request was denied for security reasons."
    314
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    315
    Nicole was stunned. She had not expected this news, certainly  not
at this time.  She had told  everyone that she  thought they would  be
allowed-
    "So Max  is  right,"  she  said,  fighting  the  tears  that  were
threatening to flow. "We are your prisoners."
    "You must interpret the decision for yourself," Archie said.  "But
I will tell you  that insofar as I  understand your language, I  think
the term 'prisoner,' which Max has often used lately, is not correct."
    "Then give me a  better word, and  some more explanation,"  Nicole
said angrily, rising from  her chair. "You know  what the others  will
say."
    "I  cannot,"  Archie  replied.  "I  have  transmitted  our  entire
message."
    Nicole paced around  the room, her  emotions swinging wildly  from
rage to depression. She  knew how Max would  react. Everyone would  be
angry. Even Richard  and Patrick would  remind her that  she had  been
wrong. But why won't  they explain? she thought.  It's not like  them.
Nicole felt a slight pain in her heart and slumped into her chair.
    "And what's the second thing you want to tell me?" Nicole said  at
length.
    "I have personally worked with  the data engineers," Archie  said,
"to prepare the video files you are about to access. From what I  know
about human beings, and you specifically, 1 think that if you see this
material, it will cause you extreme distress. I would like to ask  you
to consider not looking at the files at all."
    Archie had chosen carefully what he had said, doubtless because he
understood how important the  videos were to  Nicole. His message  was
clear. What I am about  to see will cause  me grief, she thought.  But
what choice do I have? "Between nothing and grief," she remembered, "/
will choose grief."
    After Nicole  thanked  Archie for  his  concern and  informed  the
octospider that she wanted to see the videos anyway, Archie pushed the
chair in which she was  sitting over in front  of the desk and  showed
her how to control the data access. The time code had been  translated
by the
    octospiders into  human  numbers,  in terms  of  days  before  the
present, and  there were  four speeds  at which  the images  could  be
shown, covering four octal orders  of magnitude, from one-eighth  real
time to sixty-four times normal speed.
    "The data on Katie are  nearly complete," Archie said, "for  about
the last six  months of your  time. It is  our normal data  management
process to filter and  compress older data,  based on its  importance.
The extended files on Katie show most  of the key events for the  past
two years, but are fairly scarce before that."
    Nicole reached out  for the controls.  As she dialed  up the  most
recent data entry and saw Katie's face appear on the screen, she  felt
Archie tapping on her shoulder. "You may use this facility the rest of
today," the octospider said to her  when she turned around, "but  that
is all. Since the amount of data available is enormous, I suggest  you
use the high speeds to locate events of interest."
    Nicole took a deep breath and turned back around to the screen.
    She felt as  if she could  not cry anymore.  Her eyes were  nearly
swollen shut from  the constant  stream of tears.  Nicole had  watched
Katie inject herself with the drug kokomo at least half a dozen  times
already, but as she  saw her daughter tie  the rubber cord around  her
upper arm and plunge the needle into  a bulging vein again, a new  set
of burning tears found their way into Nicole's eyes.
    What she had seen in almost ten  hours was so much worse than  her
most horrible imaginings  that Nicole was  utterly destroyed.  Despite
the fact that there was no sound with any of the pictures, it had been
easy for Nicole to understand what Katie's life was all about.  First,
her daughter  was  a hopeless  drug  addict.  At least  four  times  a
day-more if life  was not going  well for her-Katie  retreated to  her
fancy apartment,  either by  herself  or with  friends, and  used  the
elegant drug paraphernalia that she kept in a Jarge locked box in  her
dressing room.
    Katie was  charming  immediately  after the  drug  rush.  She  was
friendly, funny, and full of both energy and
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    apparent self-confidence. But if the drugs wore off while she  was
still partying,  Katie  was  quickly  transformed  into  a  screaming,
hostile bitch who  ended many evenings  alone with her  needle in  her
apartment.
    Katie's official job was the management of the Vegas  prostitutes.
In that position Katie was also responsible for recruiting new talent.
At first Nicole's broken heart  was unwilling to acknowledge what  her
eyes were telling her. But one long, sordid sequence, which began with
Katie befriending a lovely but poor teenage Hispanic in San Miguel and
ended with the girl, now magnificently dressed and bejeweled, becoming
a temporary concubine for one of Nakamura's zaibatsu chiefs a few days
later, forced  Nicole  to  admit  to herself  that  her  daughter  had
absolutely no morals or scruples.
    After Nicole had been watching  the videos for many hours,  Archie
entered the room and  offered her something  to eat. Nicole  declined.
She knew that in her  agitated state there was  no way she could  have
retained any food in her stomach.
    Why did Nicole  keep watching  for so  long? Why  didn't she  just
switch off  the controls  and  leave the  room?  Later she  would  ask
herself the same questions. Nicole  concluded, when she thought  about
it later, that  after the first  few hours of  watching she began,  at
least subconsciously, to  search for  the existence of  some signs  of
hope in  Katie's life.  It was  not in  her nature  to accept  without
argument that her  daughter was fundamentally  corrupt. Nicole  longed
desperately to see something in the  videos that would suggest to  her
that Katie's future might be different.
    Nicole eventually found two elements in Katie's unhappy life  that
Nicole somehow convinced  herself were signs  that her daughter  might
someday break  out of  her  self-destructive pattern.  During  Katie's
terrible bouts  of  depression, which  occurred  most often  when  her
supply of drugs was low, Katie would often fly into a frenzy, smashing
everything she  could find  in her  apartment. Except  for her  framed
photographs of Richard and Patrick.  Toward the end of these  frenetic
tantrums, when her energy
    RAMA REVEALED
    317
    was exhausted, Katie would always take those two pictures off  her
dresser and lay them gently on her bed. She would then lie beside  the
photographs and  sob for  twenty to  thirty minutes.  To Nicole,  this
recurrent behavior indicated that Katie  still retained some love  for
her family.
    The other hopeful element, in Nicole's mind, was Franz Bauer,  the
police captain who was Katie's regular consort. Nicole did not pretend
to understand their bizarre relationship-one night the pair would have
a terrible, obscene  fight, and the  next Franz would  read Katie  the
poems of Rainer Maria Rilke as a prelude to several hours of  endless,
energetic sex-but she thought she could tell from the videos both that
Franz loved Katie in his own strange  way and that he did not  approve
of her drug  addiction. During  one of  their fights,  in fact,  Franz
picked up Katie's  drug supply  and threatened  to flush  it down  the
toilet. Katie went completely berserk and attacked Franz wildly with a
hairbrush.
    Hour after  hour,  Nicole continued  to  watch in  an  attempt  to
comprehend her daughter's tragic life. As the long day progressed  and
Nicole scanned through the earlier videos, some as early as the  first
days of Katie's drug addiction, Nicole discovered that Katie had  even
had a sordid affair with Nakamura himself and that the New Eden tyrant
had regularly  provided Katie  with drugs  during the  time they  were
sexual partners.
    By this time Nicole was numb. She was also so emotionally  drained
that she  did not  have  the strength  to  move. When  Nicole  finally
switched off the controls,  she put her head  down on the desk,  cried
for a few  more minutes, and  then fell asleep.  Archie woke her  four
hours later and told her it was time to return home.
    It was dark. The  transport had been parked  at the plaza for  ten
minutes, but Nicole  had still  not disembarked.  Archie was  standing
beside her.
    "There is no way that  I can tell Richard  about what I have  seen
today,"  she  said,  glancing  up  at  the  octospider.  "He  will  be
absolutely destroyed."
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "I understand," Archie  said sympathetically. "Now  you see why  I
suggested that you not watch the videos."
    "You were right," Nicole said,  slowly releasing her grasp on  the
vertical bar and  resignedly extending one  leg out of  the car,  "but
it's too late now. I can't erase the horrible pictures that are in  my
mind."
    "You told me earlier,"  Archie said as soon  as they were  outside
the transport, "that it  was obvious from me  videos that Patrick  had
known something about the life Katie was leading before his escape. He
elected not  to  tell you  and  Richard the  worst  details. Is  it  a
violation of your personal principles to do something similar?"
    'Thanks, Archie,"  Nicole  said,  patting the  octospider  on  the
shoulder and almost smiling, "for reading my mind. You're beginning to
know us too well."
    "We have a difficult time with truth in our society also,"  Archie
commented. "One of our fundamental guidelines for new optimizers is to
tell the truth at all times. It is acceptable to withhold information,
the policy says, but not  to pass falsehoods. The youngest  optimizers
are very  zealous about  tellirig the  truth, without  regard for  the
consequences. Sometimes truth and compassion are not compatible."
    "I agree with you, my wise alien friend," Nicole said with a heavy
sigh. "And now, after what I can  definitely say was one of the  worst
days of my life, I face not one, but two very difficult tasks. I  must
tell Max that he  will not be  able to leave the  Emerald City, and  I
must inform my husband, Richard, that his favorite daughter is a  dope
addict and a manager of whores. I hope that somewhere in this old  and
exhausted human is the strength  necessary to handle those two  duties
properly."
    10
    RJ
    ' tchard  was asleep  when  b, Nicole  arrived  at home.  She  was
thankful that she did not need to explain anything right away.  Nicole
slipped into her nightgown and climbed gently into bed. But she  could
not fall asleep.  Her mind  kept jumping  back and  forth between  the
horrible images she had  seen during the day  and thoughts about  what
she was going to tell Richard and the others.
    In her twilight state Nicole  suddenly saw herself sitting in  the
bleachers in Rouen beside her father, in the square where Joan of  Arc
had been burned  to death eight  hundred years earlier.  Nicole was  a
teenager again, as she had been when her father had actually taken her
to Rouen to see the conclusion of the Joan of Arc pageant. The  oxcart
carrying Joan was coming into the square and the people were shouting.
    "Daddy," the teenage Nicole  said, yelling to  be heard above  the
din, "what can I do to help Katie?"
    Her father had not heard the question. His attention was
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    321
    completely focused on the  Maid of Orleans,  or rather the  French
girl who was  playing Joan. Nicole  watched as the  girt, who had  the
same clear  and piercing  eyes attributed  to Joan,  was tied  to  the
stake. The girl began to  pray softly as one  of the bishops read  her
death sentence.
    "What about Katie?" Nicole said again. There was no response.  The
audience around  her in  the bleachers  gasped as  the piles  of  wood
surrounding Joan were set on fire.  Nicole stood up with the crowd  as
the flames spread quickly  around the base of  the huge wooden  stake.
She could clearly hear the prayers of St. Joan, invoking the  blessing
of Jesus.
    The flames moved closer to the girl. Nicole looked at the face  of
the teenager who had changed history  and a cold shudder ran down  her
back. "Katie," she screamed. "No! No!"
    Nicole tried desperately to  find some way  out of the  bleachers,
but she was blocked on all sides. There was no way she could save  her
burning daughter.  "Katie!  Katie!" Nicole  screamed  again,  flailing
wildly at the people around her.
    She felt arms around her chest.  It took a few seconds for  Nicole
to realize that she had been dreaming. Richard was staring at her with
alarm. Before Nicole could speak, Ellie walked into the bedroom in her
robe.
    "Are you all  right. Mother?"  she asked.  "I was  up checking  on
Nikki and I heard you scream Katie's name."
    Nicole glanced  first at  Robert, then  at Ellie.  She closed  her
eyes. She could still see  Katie's anguished face, contorted in  pain,
just above the flames. Nicole opened her eyes again and looked at  her
husband and daughter. "Katie is very unhappy," she said, and then  she
burst into tears.
    Nicole could not be  consoled. Each time she  would start to  tell
Richard and Ellie the details about what she had seen, she would start
crying again. "I feel  so frustrated, so  helpless," Nicole said  when
she could finally control herself. "Katie is in dire straits and there
is absolutely nothing any of us can do to help her."
    Summarizing Katie's life without omitting anything except some  of
the more kinky sexual escapades, Nicole
    abandoned her tentative  plan to soften  her report. Both  Richard
and Ellie were stunned and saddened by the news.
    "I don't know how you managed to sit there and watch for all those
hours," Richard said at one point. "I would have been out of there  in
a few minutes."
    "Katie's so lost, so utterly lost," said Ellie, shaking her  head.
A few minutes later little Nikki wandered into the bedroom looking for
her mother. Ellie embraced Nicole and took Nikki back to their room.
    "I'm sorry  I  was so  distraught,  Richard," Nicole  said  a  few
minutes later, just before they went back to sleep.
    "It's understandable,"  Richard  said.  "The day  must  have  been
absolutely horrible."
    Nicole wiped her eyes for the umpteenth time. "I can only remember
one other time in my life when I cried like this," she said,  managing
a tiny smile. "Back when I was fifteen. My father told me one day that
he was thinking about proposing to thi» Englishwoman he was dating.  I
didn't like her-she was a cold and distant woman-but I didn't think it
was proper for me to say anything negative to my father. Anyway, I was
devastated. I picked up  my pet mallard Dunois  and raced down to  our
pond at Beauvois. I rowed out into the middle of the pond, brought the
oars into the boat, and cried for several hours."
    They lay  in  silence  for  a few  minutes.  "Oh,  Jesus,"  Nicole
suddenly said, "I almost forgot. Archie  also told me today that  none
of us would  be permitted  to return  to New Eden.  He said  it was  a
security issue. Max will be furious."
    "Don't worry about it now," Richard said softly. 'Try to get  some
sleep. We'll talk about'it in the morning."
    Nicole snuggled into Richard's arms and fell asleep.
    "For see-cur-i-tee reasons?" Max yelled. "Now, just what the  fuck
does that mean?"
    Patrick and Nai both  rose from the  breakfast table. "Just  leave
your food," Nai said, motioning for the children to / follow her.  "We
can have some fruit and cereal in the |: schoolroom."
    Both Kepler and Galileo were reluctant to leave. They
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    ARTHUR C. CLARtCE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    523
    sensed that something  important was going  to be discussed.  Only
when Patrick came  around the  table toward  them did  they push  back
their chairs and rise.
    Benjy was allowed to remain after he promised Nicole he would  not
repeat any of the conversation to the children. Eponine left the table
to nurse the waking Marius in one of the comers of the room.
    "I don't  know  what it  means,"  Nicole  said to  Max  after  the
children had departed. "Archie would not elaborate."
    "Well, this  is  just god-damn  wonderful,"  Max said.  "We  can't
leave, but those slimy  friends of yours won't  even tell us why.  Why
didn't you demand to see the Chief Optimizer right there on the  spot?
Don't you think they owe us some kind of explanation?"
    "Yes, I do," Nicole  replied. "And perhaps we  should all ask  for
another audience  with the  Chief  Optimizer. I'm  sorry, Max,  but  I
didn't handle the  situation very well.  I was prepared  to watch  the
videos of Katie and, quite  frankly, Archie's pronouncement caught  me
off guard."
    "Shit, Nicole," Max said, "I  don't blame you personally.  Anyway,
since Ep, Marius, and I are the only ones who still want to return  to
New Eden, it's our job to appeal  this decision. I doubt if the  Chief
Optimizer has ever seen a two-month-old baby human in the flesh."
    The rest of the breakfast conversation was mostly about Katie  and
what Nicole  had  seen  the  day before  in  the  videos.  The  family
explained the gist of Katie's unhappy life without too many specifics.
    When Patrick returned, he reported that the children were  already
busy with their lessons. "Nai and I  have been talking about a lot  of
things," he said, addressing  everyone at the  table. "First, Max,  we
would like to  ask you to  be a little  more careful in  front of  the
children with your negative comments  about the octospiders. They  are
now quite  fearful when  Archie  or Dr.  Blue  are around,  and  their
reactions  must  be  based  on   what  they  have  overheard  in   our
conversations." ,
    Max bridled and  started to  reply. "Please,  Max," Patrick  added
quickly, "you know that I'm your friend. Let's not
    argue about it. Just think about what I've said and remember  that
we may all be staying here with the octospiders for a long time.
    "Second," he continued, "Nai and  I both feel, especially in  view
of what we learned this morning, that the children should be  learning
the octospider language. We want them to start as soon as possible. We
think we need Ellie or Mother, plus an octospider or two ... not  just
to teach, but also to familiarize the children again with their  alien
hosts. Hercules has been gone for a couple of months now. Mother, will
you talk to Archie about this, please?"
    Nicole nodded and Patrick excused  himself, saying that he  needed
to return to the classroom. "Patrick has become a good teacher," Benjy
volunteered. "He is very patient with me and the children."
    Nicole smiled to herself and looked across the breakfast table  at
her daughter. Considering everything,  she thought, our children  have
turned out fine. I should be  thankful for Patrick, Ellie, and  Benjy.
And not worry myself sick about Katie.
    In one of the  corners of her bedroom,  Nai Watanabe finished  her
meditation and said the Buddhist morning prayers that had been part of
her daily routine since she was a small child in Thailand. She crossed
into the living room, heading for the other bedroom to wake the twins,
and found, much to her surprise, that Patrick was asleep on the couch.
He was  still dressed  and  her electronic  reader  was lying  on  his
stomach.
    She shook him gently. "Wake up, Patrick," she said. "It's morning.
. . . You've slept the whole night here."
    Patrick awakened quickly and apologized to Nai. As he was leaving,
he told  Nai that  he had  several issues  to discuss  with  her-about
Buddhism, of course-but he guessed that f they could wait until a more
convenient time. Nai smiled and kissed him lightly on the cheek before
telling him that she and the boys would be over for breakfast in  half
an hour.
    He is so young and earnest, Nai said to herself as she
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    watched him walk away. And I do enjoy his company. But can  anyone
ever replace Kenji as my husband?
    Nai recalled  the  previous  night. After  the  twins  had  fallen
asleep, Patrick and she had had  a long and serious talk. Patrick  had
pressed for an early marriage. She  had replied that she would not  be
hurried, that she would  agree to a specific  date only when she  fell
entirely  comfortable  with  the  idea.  Patrick  had  then  awkwardly
inquired about  the  possibility  of what  he  called  "more  physical
involvement" while they  were waiting. Nai  had reminded Patrick  that
she had told him  from the beginning that  there would be nothing  but
kisses until their wedding. To assuage his feelings, Nai had reassured
Patrick  that  she  found  him  very  attractive  physically  and  was
definitely looking forward to lovemaking after they were married,  but
for all the  reasons they had  discussed a dozen  times, Nai  insisted
that their  "physical involvement"  remain  constrained for  the  time
being.
    Most of the rest of the  evening the pair had talked about  either
the twins or Buddhism. Nai  had expressed concern that their  marriage
might have a  bad impact on  Galileo, especially since  the boy  often
cast himself in the role of  his mother's protector. Patrick told  Nai
that he did  not believe that  his frequent clashes  with Galileo  had
anything to do with  jealousy. 'The boy  just resents all  authority,"
Patrick had said, "and resists  discipline. Kepler, on the other  hand
..."
    How many times in the past  seven years, Nai thought, has  someone
started a comment  with the phrase  "Kepler, on the  other hand"?  She
remembered when Kenji was still alive and the boys were just  starting
to walk. Galileo was constantly falling down and running into  things.
Kepler, on the other  hand, was careful and  precise in his steps.  He
almost never fell.
    The giant  fireflies had  still not  brought dawn  to the  Emerald
City. Nai continued  to let  her mind roam  freely, as  she often  did
after a peaceful meditation.  She no^ed to herself  that she had  been
making a lot of comparisons recently between Kenji and Patrick. That's
unfair of me, she
    RAMA REVEALED
    325
    told herself.  /  cannot  marry Patrick  until  that  process  has
completely stopped.
    Again she  thought of  the  previous night.  Nai smiled  when  she
recalled their ardent  discussion about  the life  of Buddha.  Patrick
still has a  child's naivete, a  pure idealism, Nai  said to  herself.
It's one of the things about him I love the most.
    "I admire  both  Buddha's  basic  philosophy  and  his  approach,"
Patrick had said. "I really do. But I have a few problems. How can you
worship a man, for example, who leaves  his wife and son and goes  off
to be a beggar? What about his responsibility to his family?"
    "You're taking Buddha's action out of its historical context," Nai
had replied.  "First,  twenty-seven  hundred years  ago,  in  northern
India, being  a wandering  mendicant was  an acceptable  way of  life.
There were some in every village, many in the towns. When a man wanted
to seek 'the truth,' his normal first step was to disavow all material
comforts. Besides, you  have forgotten  that Buddha came  from a  very
wealthy family. There was never any question about whether or not  his
wife and  child  would have  food,  shelter, clothing,  or  any  other
essential . . ."
    They had talked for two hours or  so, and then kissed for a  while
before Nai had gone alone to her bedroom. Patrick had already returned
to his reading about Buddhism by the time Nai had whispered good night
from her doorway.
    How difficult it is, Nai mused as the firefly dawn burst upon  the
octospider city, to explain the  relevance of Buddhism to someone  who
has never seen the Earth. Yet  even here, in this strange alien  world
among the stars, desire still causes suffering and human beings  still
search for spiritual peace.
    11
    R:
    'ichard bounced out of  bed .with more  than his usual  enthusiasm
and began jabbering at Nicole. "Wish me luck," he said as he  dressed.
"Archie said that we'll be gone all day."
    Nicole, who  always woke  up very  slowly and  intensely  disliked
frenetic activity of any kind in the early morning hours, rolled  over
and tried to enjoy the  last few moments of  her rest. She opened  one
eye slightly, saw that it was still dark, and closed it again.
    "I haven't  been  this  excited  since  I  made  those  two  final
breakthroughs on  The  translator," Richard  said.  "I know  that  the
octospiders are serious about putting me to work. They're just  trying
to find the right task for me."
    Richard left the bedroom for  several minutes. From the noises  in
the kitchen,  the  half-asleep  Nicole could  tell  that  Richard  was
preparing breakfast for himself. He  returned eating one of the  large
pink fruits that  had become his  favorite. He stood  beside the  bed,
chewing noisily.
    RAMA REVEALED
    327
    Nicole opened  her  eyes slowly  and  looked at  her  husband.  "I
assume," she said with  a sigh, "that  you are waiting  for me to  say
something."
    "Yes," he  said. "It  would be  nice if  we could  exchange a  few
pleasantries before  I  leave.  After  all, this  could  be  the  most
important day for me since we arrived in the Emerald City."
    "You're certain," Nicole said, "that Archie intends to find a  job
for you?"
    "Absolutely," Richard replied. "That's the whole purpose of today.
He is going to show me some of their more complex engineering  systems
and try  to ascertain  where my  talents can  best be  used. At  least
that's what he told me yesterday afternoon."
    "But why are you leaving so early?" Nicole asked.
    "Because there's so much to see, I guess. Anyway, give me a  kiss.
He'll be here in a few minutes."
    Nicole kissed Richard dutifully and closed her eyes again.
    The Embryo Bank was  a large rectangular  building located far  to
the south of the Emerald City,  very close to where the Central  Plain
ended. Less than a kilometer from where the bank had been built, a set
of three staircases, each with tens of thousands of individual  steps,
ascended the south  polar bowl.  Above the  Embryo Bank,  in the  near
darkness of Rama,  loomed the imposing,  buttressed structures of  the
Big Horn and its  six sharply pointed acolytes,  each larger than  any
single engineering construction on the planet Earth.
    Richard and Archie had mounted an ostrichsaur on the outskirts  of
the Emerald City.  Together with an  escort and a  trio of  fireflies,
they had  passed through  the Alternate  Domain in  only a  matter  of
minutes. Out. in the  southern reaches of  the octospider realm  there
were very few buildings. Despite the occasional fields of grain,  most
of the territory through which  diey traveled on their southerly  trek
reminded Richard, even in the dim light, of the Northern
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    329
    Hemicylinder in Rama II, before the two habitats had been built.
    Richard and his octospider friend entered the Embryo Bank  through
a pair  of extra-thick  doors that  took them  directly into  a  targe
conference  room.  There  Richard  was  introduced  to  several  other
octospiders, who were obviously expecting his visit. Richard used  his
translator and  the octos  read his  lips, although  he had  to  speak
slowly and distinctly because they were  not nearly as skilled in  the
human language as Archie.
    After some brief formalities, one of the octospiders led the  pair
to a series of control panels housing the equivalent of keyboards made
from octo color  strips. "We  have almost ten  million embryos  stored
here," the  lead octospider  said in  her introduction,  "representing
over a hundred  thousand distinct  species and three  times that  many
hybrids. Their natural life spans range  in duration from half a  tert
to several million days,  or about ten thousand  of your human  years.
Their adult sizes range  from a fraction of  a nanometer to  behemoths
nearly as large as  this building. Each embryo  is stored in what  are
believed to be near-optimal conditions for its preservation. In  fact,
however, only about a thousand distinct environments, combinations  of
temperature, pressure, and ambient chemicals,  are needed to span  the
range of required conditions.
    "This  building  also  houses  an  immense  data  management   and
monitoring system. This system automatically tracks the conditions  in
each of the distinct environments  and monitors the early  development
of the several thousand embryos that are always in active germination.
The system  has  some  automatic fault  detection  and  correction,  a
dual-parameter warning structure, and  also drives the displays  which
can exhibit status and/or catalog information, both on the walls  here
or in any of the research areas on the upper floors."
    Richard's brain went into overdrive as he began to understand more
clearly the purpose of the Embryo  Bank. What a fantastic concept,  he
thought. The octospiders store
    here all the seeds  of other plant and  animal species that  might
ever he needed for any purpose.
    ". . .  Testing is  continuous," the lead  octospider was  saying,
"both to ensure the integrity of the storage and preservation  systems
and to provide  specimens for the  genetic engineering activities.  At
any given  time approximately  two hundred  octospider biologists  are
actively engaged in genetic experiments  here. The goal of these  many
experiments is to  produce altered  life-forms that  will improve  the
efficiency of our society-"
    "Can you  show me  an example,"  Richard interrupted,  "of such  a
genetic experiment?"
    "Certainly," the  octospider replied.  She  shuffled over  to  the
control panel and used three of  her tentacles to press a sequence  of
colored buttons. "I believe you are  familiar with one of our  primary
methods of power  generation," she said,  as a video  appeared on  the
wall. 'The basic principle is quite simple, as you know. The  circular
marine creatures generate and store  electric charge in their  bodies.
We capture this charge  along a wire mesh,  against which the  animals
must press to reach their food  supply. Although this system is  quite
satisfactory, our engineers have pointed out that it could be improved
substantially if  the  behavior  of  the  creature  could  be  altered
somewhat.
    "Look at this fast-motion close-up of  half a dozen of the  marine
creatures that  generate  the power.  Notice  that during  this  brief
motion picture  each of  the animals  will go  through three  or  four
charge-discharge cycles.  What feature  of these  cycles would  be  of
primary interest to a system engineer?"
    Richard watched  the video  carefully. The  sand dollars  are  dim
after their discharge,  he thought, hut  regain their full  glow in  a
comparatively short period of time.
    "Assuming that  the  glow is  a  measure of  the  stored  charge,"
Richard said, suddenly wondering if he  was undergoing some kind of  a
test, "the  system could  be  made more  efficient by  increasing  the
feeding frequency."
    "Exactly," the lead octospider  responded. Archie flashed a  quick
message to the host  octo that was completed  before Richard had  even
had a chance to aim the telescope on his
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    331
    translator. Meanwhile, a different  picture appeared on the  wall.
"Here are three genetic variants of the circular marine creature  that
are currently  under  test  and evaluation.  The  leading  replacement
candidate is the one on the left. This prototype eats roughly twice as
frequently  as  the  component  currently  being  used;  however,  the
prototype has a metabolic  imbalance that increases significantly  its
susceptibility to communicable diseases. All factors are being weighed
in the current evaluation."
    Richard was  taken  from  one  demonstration  to  another.  Archie
accompanied him at  all times, but  at each venue  a different set  of
octospider specialists joined  them for the  prepared minilecture  and
the group discussion  that always followed.  One of the  presentations
was focused on the  relationships between the  Embryo Bank, the  large
zoo that occupied considerable territory in the Alternate Domain,  and
die barrier  forest  that  formed  a  complete  annulus  around  Rama,
slightly less than a kilometer north of the Emerald City. "All  living
species in  our realm,"  the  presenter said,  "are either  in  active
symbiosis, temporary observation in an isolated domain-in the zoo, the
forest, or,  in your  specific  case, in  the Emerald  City  itself-or
undergoing experimentation here at the Embryo Bank."
    After a long walk down many corridors, Richard and Archie attended
a meeting of half a  dozen octospiders evaluating a recommendation  to
replace an entire symbiotic chain of four different species. The chain
was responsible for the production of a gelatin that cured a  specific
octospider lens malady. Richard listened with fascination as the  test
parameters  of   the   proposed  new   symbiosis-resources   consumed,
reproduction   rates,   octospider   interactions   required,    fault
coefficients,  and  behavior  predictability-were  compared  with  the
existing system. The  outcome of the  meeting was that  in one of  the
three manufacturing "zones," the new symbiosis would be installed  for
several hundred operational days, after which time the decision  would
ag^in be reviewed.
    In the middle of the workday Archie and Richard were
    scheduled to be alone for half a tert. At Richard's request,  they
packed  their  lunches   and  drinks,   remounted  the   ostrich-saur,
commandeered a pair of fireflies, and  wandered out into the cold  and
dark of  the Central  Plain. When  he eventually  dismounted,  Richard
walked around  with  his  arms  outstretched and  gazed  up  into  the
vastness of Rama.
    "Who among you,"  Richard asked  Archie, "worries  about, or  even
tries to figure out, the significance of all this?" He waved his  arms
in a circular motion.
    The octospider  replied that  he didn't  understand the  question.
"Yes, you did,  you sly  thing," Richard said,  smiling. "Except  that
this time period  was obviously  set aside  by your  optimizers for  a
different kind of  conversation between  us. What I  want to  discuss,
Archie, is not in which specific engineering department in your Embryo
Bank I would like to  work so that I  can make my 'contribution'  that
will justify the 'resources' necessary to  sustain me ... what I  want
to talk  to  you about  is  what is  really  going on  here?  Why  are
we-humans, sessiles, avians, and you  with all your menagerie-on  this
huge, mysterious  spacecraft bound  for the  star we  humans call  Tau
Ceti?"
    Archie did not respond for almost thirty seconds. "Members of  our
genus were told while they  were at the Node,  just as you were,  that
some higher intelligence is cataloging life-forms in the galaxy,  with
a special emphasis on spacefarers.  We assembled a typical colony,  as
requested, and established  it inside  this Rama vehicle  so that  the
required detailed observations of our species could take place."
    "So you octospiders don't know anything more about who or what  is
behind this grand scheme than we humans do?"
    "No," Archie replied. "In fact, we probably know less. None of the
octospiders who spent time at the Node is still , part of our  colony.
As I told you, that octospider contingent on Rama II was a  different,
inferior species. The only firsthand  information about the Node  that
exists on  board this  spacecraft  comes from  you, your  family,  and
whatever
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    333
    compressed data may  reside inside  that small  volume of  sessile
material we are still keeping in our zoo."
    "And that's  it?"  Richard  said.  "None  of  you  asks  any  more
questions?"
    "We are trained as juveniles," Archie answered, "not to waste time
on issues for which we are unable to obtain any significant data."
    Richard was momentarily silent. "How do you know so much about the
avians and the sessiles?" he then asked abruptly.
    "I'm sorry,  Richard," Archie  said after  a brief  pause, "but  I
cannot talk with you  about that subject now.  My assignment for  this
lunch period, as  you surmised,  is to  ascertain whether  or not  you
would be pleased  to accept  an engineering assignment  in the  Embryo
Bank and, if so,  which of the  many areas you  have seen today  seems
most interesting to you."
    "It's a hell of a commute," Richard said, laughing. "Yes, Archie,"
he then added, "everything is fascinating, especially what I call  the
encyclopedia department. I think I would like to work there-that way I
could expand my meager knowledge of biology. But why are you asking me
this question now? Aren't we going to have more 'demonstrations' after
lunch?"
    "Yes," Archie  said.  "But  this  afternoon's  schedule  has  been
included primarily for completeness. Almost half of the Embryo Bank is
devoted to microbiology. Management of  that activity is more  complex
and involves communication with the midget morphs. It is difficult for
us to imagine your working in any of those departments."
    Underneath the primary microbiological  laboratory was a  basement
that could  only  be entered  with  special credentials.  When  Archie
mentioned  that  large  quantities  of  flying  image  quadroids  were
produced in that  Embryo Bank  basement, Richard  virtually begged  to
observe the process. His  official tour was  halted and Richard  stood
idlv around for  several fengs  while Archie  obtained permission  for
them to visit the quadroid "nursery."
    Two other octospiders guided them down a sequence of long ramps to
the subterranean area. "The nursery has been purposely built far below
ground  level,"  Archie  told   Richard,  "for  extra  isolation   and
protection. We have  three other similar  facilities scattered  around
our domain."
    Holy  shit,  Richard  said  to  himself  when  he  and  his  three
octospider companions walked  out on  a platform  overlooking a  large
rectangular floor. His recognition  was instant. Several meters  below
them,  about  a  hundred  midget  morphs  were  scattered  around  the
facility, performing unknown functions. Hanging down from the  ceiling
were eight rectangular lattices, each  about five meters long and  two
meters wide, that were symmetrically placed around the room.  Directly
underneath each  of  the lattices  was  a  large oval  object  with  a
hardened exterior. These  eight objects resembled  huge nuts and  were
surrounded by thick viny growths or webbing.
    "I have seen  a similar  layout before, many  years ago,"  Richard
said excitedly.  "Underneath New  York. It  was just  before my  first
personal encounter with one  of your cousins. Nicole  and I were  both
scared out of our wits."
    "I think I  read something about  that incident," Archie  replied.
"Prior to  our bringing  Ellie  and Eponine  to  the Emerald  City,  I
studied all  the old  files on  your species.  Some of  the data  were
compressed, so there were not many specifics-"
    "I remember  that  incident  as if  it  were  yesterday,"  Richard
interrupted. "I had  placed a couple  of miniature robots  on a  small
subway and they had disappeared into a tunnel. They came into an  area
like this one and, after climbing  through some of that webbing,  were
chased and captured by one of your cousins."
    "Doubtless the robots had stumbled into a quadroid nursery.  Those
octos acted to protect it.  It's really very simple." Archie  signaled
their guide engineer that it was time for his explanation.
    "The quadroid  queens spend  their  gestation periods  in  special
compartments that  are just  off the  main floor,"  the octo  engineer
said. "Each queen lays thousands of eggs. When
    334
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    335
    several million eggs have been  laid, they are collected  together
and placed  in  one  of  those oval  containers.  The  inside  of  the
containers is maintained  at a very  high temperature, which  markedly
reduces the  development  time of  the  quadroids. The  thick  webbing
around the  containers absorbs  the excess  heat so  that the  working
conditions are  acceptable  for  the midget  morphs  who  oversee  the
nursery. ..."
    Richard was  partially listening,  but  his real  focus was  on  a
moment many years earlier.  Now it is all  clear, he said to  himself.
And that tiny subway was for the midget morphs.
    ". . .  monitoring probes inside  the containers identify  exactly
when the quadroids are ready to  swarm. The lattices above are  soaked
with the proper  chemical agents a  few fengs prior  to the  automatic
opening of  the ovals.  The new  queens fly  first, attracted  to  the
lattice elements. The frenzied hordes of males follow, making  visible
black clouds despite their minuscule size. The quadroids are harvested
from the lattice and go immediately into mass training."
    "Very elegant," Richard said. "But  I have a simple question.  Why
do the quadroids take all those pictures for you?"
    "The short  answer,"  Archie  replied, "is  that  they  have  been
genetically engineered over thousands of years to be receptive to  our
direction.  We-or  rather  our  midget  morph  specialists-speak   the
chemical language the quadroids use to communicate with each other. If
they do what is asked of them,  the quadroids are given food. If  they
perform satisfactorily over a  long period of  time, they are  allowed
the pleasures of sex."
    "Out of a given litter, or swarm, what percentage of the quadroids
follow your directions?"
    'The failure rate  for first  picture is about  ten percent,"  the
octospider engineer answered. "Once  the pattern has been  established
and the reward cycle reinforced, the failure rate drops dramatically."
    "Pretty damn  impressive,"  Richard  said  appreciatively.  "Maybe
there's more to this biology stuff than I ever consid-. ered."
    On the ride back to the Emerald City, Richard and Archie discussed
the  comparative   strengths   and  weaknesses   of   biological   and
nonbiological  engineering  systems.  It   was  mostly  an   esoteric,
philosophical conversation with few  definitive conclusions. They  did
agree, however, that  the encyclopedia function,  which was  primarily
the  storage,  manipulation,  and  presentation  of  vast  amounts  of
information, was more optimally handled by nonbiological systems.
    As they drew near to the  domed city, the green glow was  suddenly
extinguished. Night had  come again  to the center  of the  octospider
domain. Soon thereafter, an additional  pair of fireflies appeared  to
give their ostrichsaur extra light.
    It had been a  long day and Richard  was tired. When they  entered
the  outskirts  of  the  Alternate  Domain,  Richard  thought  he  saw
something flying in the darkness off to his right. "What has  happened
to Tammy and Timmy?" he asked.
    "They  have  both  mated,"  Archie  replied,  "and  have   several
offspring. Their young hatchlings are cared for in the zoo."
    "Could I see them?" Richard said. "You told me once, a few  months
ago, that someday it might be possible."
    "I guess so," Archie replied  after a short silence. "Even  though
the zoo is a restricted zone, the avian compound is
    • very close to the entrance."
    When they reached the first large structure of the
    •  Alternate  Domain,  Archie  dismounted  and  went  inside   the
building. When he returned, the octospider said something
    • to the  ostrichsaur. "We are  only cleared for  a brief  visit,"
Archie said as their  mount turned off  the main path  and ^ began  to
thread its way through the smaller lanes of the community.
    Richard was introduced to the zookeeper, who drove them in a  cart
to a compound  only about a  hundred meters inside  the zoo  entrance.
Both  Tammy  and  Timmy  were  |  present.  They  recognized   Richard
immediately, and their |  jabbers and shrieks  of pleasure filled  the
darkened skies. Tammy and Timmy introduced Richard to a new group of
    336
    ARTHUR C. CLARICE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    337
    avian hatchlings  in the  compound. The  juveniles were  very  shy
around Richard, and would not let  him touch them. However, Tammy  and
Timmy still loved to have their  soft underbellies stroked by the  man
who had raised them from infancy. Richard felt powerful emotions as he
recalled the days when  he had been their  sole protector in the  lair
underneath New York. '
    He said good-bye to his wards and boarded the cart with Archie and
the zookeeper. Halfway back to the zoo entrance he heard a sound  that
jolted him into alertness and made his skin crawl with goose bumps. He
sat perfectly still and concentrated.  The sound repeated just  before
the silent cart came to a stop.
    "I could not possibly be mistaken," Richard insisted to Nicole. "I
heard it  twice. There  is no  other sound  like the  cry of  a  human
child."
    "I'm not doubting you, Richard," Nicole said. "I'm just trying  to
exclude logically all other possible sources for the sound you  heard.
Juvenile avians do have  a particular shriek that  can sound a  little
like a baby crying . . . and  you were, after all, in a zoo. It  could
have been another animal."
    "No," said Richard. "I know what I heard. I have lived with enough
children and heard enough cries in my life."
    Nicole smiled.  "Now the  shoe is  on the  other foot,  isn't  it,
darling? Do you remember your  response when I told  you I had seen  a
woman's face in  that mural the  night we went  to see the  octospider
play? You scoffed at me and told me that I was 'absurd,' if I remember
correctly."
    "So what's  the explanation?  Did the  octospiders somehow  kidnap
some other humans from  Avalon? And the  incident was never  reported?
But how could they have-"
    "Did you say anything to Archie?" Nicole asked.
    "No. I was too stunned. At first I was amazed that neither he  nor
the zookeeper  made  any  comment,  and then  I  remembered  that  the
octospiders are deaf."
    They were both silent  for several seconds. "You^weren't  supposed
to hear  that cry,  Richard," Nicole  then said.  "Our nearly  perfect
hosts have made a nonoptimal slipup."
    Richard laughed. "Of course, they are recording this conversation.
By tomorrow they will know that we know."
    "Let's not  say anything  just yet  to the  others," Nicole  said.
"Maybe the octos  will decide to  share their secret  with us. By  the
way, when do you start to work?"
    "Whenever I want,"  Richard replied. "I  told Archie I  had a  few
tasks of my own to finish first."
    "Sounds as if you had a fascinating day," Nicole said. "Everything
was mostly quiet around  here. Except for one  thing. Patrick and  Nai
have set a date for their wedding. Three weeks from tomorrow."
    "What?" Richard said. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
    Nicole laughed. "I didn't have a chance. You came in here  talking
nonstop about cries  in the zoo,  and avians, and  quadroids, and  the
Embryo Bank. ...  I knew from  experience that my  news would have  to
wait until you wound down."
    "Well, mother of  the groom,"  Richard said a  few seconds  later,
"how do you feel?"
    "Considering everything," Nicole said, "I'm very pleased. You know
how I feel about Nai. It just  strikes me as a strange time and  place
to start a marriage."
    RAMA REVEALED
    339
    12
    Ts
    hey were sitting  in the  Wake-field living room  waiting for  the
appearance of the bride. Patrick was nervously wringing his hands. "Be
patient, young man," Max said, crossing  the room and putting his  arm
around Patrick. "She'll be here. A  woman wants to look her finest  on
her wedding day."
    "I didn't look my  finest," Eponine said. "In  fact, I don't  even
remember what I was wearing on my wedding day."
    "I remember it well, Frenchie," Max said with a grin,  "especially
up in the igloo. As I recall,  most of the time you were wearing  your
birthday suit."
    Everyone laughed. Nicole entered  the room. "She'll  be here in  a
few more minutes. Ellie is helping  Nai with the final arrangement  of
her dress." She glanced around. "Where  are Archie and Dr. Blue?"  she
asked.
    'They went to their house for a minute," Ellie said. "They have  a
special present for the bride."
    "I don't like having those octospiders around,"*Galileo said in  a
nasty voice. "They give me the creeps."
    "Starting next week, Galileo," Ellie  said gently, "there will  be
an octospider with you in school nearly all the time. She'll help  you
learn their language."
    "I don't want to learn their language," the boy said defiantly.
    Max walked  over next  to Richard.  "So how  is the  work  .going,
amigo? We haven't seen much of you these last two weeks."
    "It's completely absorbing,  Max," Richard said  enthusiastically.
"I'm working on an encyclopedia project, helping them design a new set
of software to display all the critical information about the hundreds
of thousands of species in the Embryo Bank. The octospiders accumulate
such an  enormous  wealth of  data  in  their testing,  yet  they  are
surprisingly  limited  in  their  knowledge   of  how  to  manage   it
efficiently. Just yesterday,  I began  working with  some recent  test
data on a set  of microbiological agents that  are classified, in  the
octospider taxonomy, by the range of plants and animals for which they
are lethal-"
    Richard stopped as Archie and Dr. Blue entered together carrying a
box about a  meter tall  that was  wrapped with  their parchment.  The
octospiders set their present down in  a corner and stood at the  side
of the  room.  Ellie arrived  a  moment later,  humming  Mendelssohn's
Wedding March. Nai followed her.
    Patrick's bride was wearing her Thai silk dress. It was adorned by
the brilliant yellow and black flowers that the octospiders had  given
to Ellie. She  had pinned them  to the dress  at strategic  locations.
Patrick rose to stand  beside Nai in front  of his mother. The  couple
held hands.
    Nicole had been asked to perform  the ceremony, and to keep it  as
simple as possible.  As she  prepared to- begin  her brief  statement,
Nicole's mind was suddenly flooded  by memories of other wedding  days
in her life. She saw Max and Eponine, Michael O'Toole and her daughter
Simone, Robert and Ellie. . . . Nicole shuddered involuntarily as  the
memory of the sound  of gunshots intruded into  her mind. Once  again,
Nicole thought,  forcing herself  to return  to the  present, we  have
gathered here together.
    340
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    She could barely  speak. Nicole was  overwhelmed by her  feelings.
This is my last wedding, she realized, almost thinking out loud. There
will not be another.
    A tear ran down her left  cheek. "Are you all right, Nicole?"  the
always sensitive bride asked quietly. Nicole nodded and smiled.
    "Friends," Nicole said, "we have joined together today to  witness
and celebrate  the wedding  of  Patrick Ryan  OToole and  Nai  Buatong
Watanabe. Let us form a circle  around them, locking arms to show  our
love and support for their marriage."
    Nicole gestured to the two  octospiders as the circle was  forming
and they too put their tentacles around the humans beside them.
    "Do you, Patrick,"  Nicole said,  her voice  cracking, "take  this
woman, Nai, to love and cherish as your wife and partner in life?"
    "I do," said Patrick.
    "And do you, Nai," Nicole  continued, "take this man, Patrick,  to
love and cherish as your husband and partner in life?"
    "I do," said Nai.
    "Then I announce that you are  husband and wife." Patrick and  Nai
embraced, and  everyone  shouted^  The newlyweds  shared  their  first
married hug with Nicole.
    "Did you ever  talk to  Patrick about sex?"  Nicole asked  Richard
after the party was over and the crowd had dispersed.
    "No,"  said  Richard.  "Max  volunteered.  But  it  shouldn't   be
necessary. After all, Nai has been married before. . . . Goodness, you
were certainly emotional tonight. What was that all about?"
    Nicole smiled.  "I was  thinking  about other  weddings,  Richard.
Simone and Michael's, Ellie and Robert's . . ."
    "That's one  I would  like  to forget,"  Richard said.  "For  many
reasons."
    "I thought, during the  ceremony, that I  was crying because  this
was probably the last wedding I would ever
    RAMA REVEALED
    341
    attend. But later, during the party, I thought of something  else.
Has it ever bothered you, Richard, that we have never had an  official
ceremony?"
    "No," Richard  said, shaking  his  head. "I  had a  ceremony  with
Sarah, and that was enough."
    "But you have had a wedding,  Richard. I never have. I have  given
birth to children from three different fathers, but I have never  once
been a bride."
    Richard was silent for several seconds. "And you think that's  why
you were crying?"
    "Maybe," Nicole said. "I don't know for certain."
    Nicole walked around  while Richard was  in deep thought.  "Wasn't
that a magnificent statue of Buddha the octospiders gave to Nai?"  she
said. 'The artistry was superb. I  really thought both Archie and  Dr.
Blue were enjoying themselves. I wonder why Jamie came to get them  so
early-"
    "Would you  like  to  have  a  wedding  ceremony?"  Richard  asked
suddenly.
    "At our age?" Nicole laughed. "We're already grandparents."
    "Still, if it would make you happy . . ."
    "Are you proposing to me, Richard Wakefield?"
    "I guess so," he said. "I wouldn't want you to be unhappy  because
you've never been a bride."
    Nicole crossed the room and kissed her husband. "It might be fun,"
she said.  "But let's  not plan  anything until  Patrick and  Nai  are
settled. I wouldn't want to steal their limelight."
    Richard and  Nicole  walked toward  the  bedroom with  their  arms
around each other. They were startled to find their passage blocked by
Archie and Dr. Blue.
    "You must  come with  us right  away," Archie  said. 'This  is  an
emergency."
    ""Now?" Nicole replied. "At this hour?"
    "Yes," said Dr. Blue. "Only the two of you. The Chief Optimizer is
waiting. She'll explain everything."
    Nicole felt her heart rate surge as the adrenaline poured
    342
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    into her system. "Do I need a coat?" she said. "Will we be leaving
the city?"
    For some reason, Nicole's first thought had been that the  summons
was related to the child's cry that Richard had heard after his  first
visit to the Embryo Bank. Was the child sick? Perhaps dying? Then  why
weren't they going directly to the zoo, which was outside the dome, in
the Alternate Domain?
    The Chief Optimizer and her staff were indeed waiting. Two  chairs
were in  the room.  As soon  as Richard  and Nicole  were seated,  the
octospider leader started speaking in color.
    "We have a  major crisis  under way,"  she said,  "one that  could
unfortunately lead  to  war between  our  two species."  She  waved  a
tentacle and video images began to  appear on the wall. "Early  today,
two helicopters began  ferrying human  troops from the  island of  New
York to the  northernmost section  of our  domain, right  next to  the
Cylindrical Sea. Our quadroid data indicate not only that your species
is preparing  to launch  an assault  against us,  but also  that  your
leader Nakamura  has convinced  the human  populace that  we are  your
enemy. He has obtained  the support of the  senate for the war  effort
and, in a comparatively short period  of time, has created an  arsenal
that could inflict substantial damage on our colony."
    The Chief Optimizer stopped while Richard and Nicole watched video
snapshots snowing bombs, bazookas, and machine guns being manufactured
in New Eden.
    "Investigative forays have been carried  out during the last  four
days by  small  groups  of  humans  on the  ground  and  the  pair  of
helicopters in the air. These reconnaissance missions have  penetrated
as far  south  as the  barrier  forest  and have  covered  the  entire
cylindrical range of our territory. Almost thirty percent of our food,
power, and water  supply is contained  in the region  that the  humans
have reconnoitered.
    'There has been no  combat, for we have  offered no resistance  to
the exploration  activities. We  have, hqwever,  placed signs  in  key
places, using  what we  know  of your  language, informing  the  human
troops that the entire South-
    RAMA REVEALED
    343
    ern Hemicylinder is the realm  of another advanced, but  peaceful,
species, and requesting that  the humans return  to their own  region.
Our signs have been ignored.
    "Two days  ago  a troublesome  incident  occurred. While  we  were
harvesting grain from one of our large fields, there was a  helicopter
overflight. The  vehicle made  a nearby  landing and  dispatched  four
soldiers. Without  any provocation,  these humans  executed the  three
animals doing the harvesting-the same  six-armed creatures the two  of
you saw on your initial tour of  our domain-and set fire to the  grain
field. Since that incident, the content of our signs has changed,  and
we have  made  it  clear  that any  other  similar  behavior  will  be
considered an act of war.
    "Nevertheless, it is apparent from actions earlier today that  our
warnings have not  been heeded and  that your species  is planning  to
start a  conflict it  cannot  possibly win.  I was  today  considering
announcing a  declaration  of war,  an  extremely grave  event  in  an
octospider colony, with ramifications at  every level of our  society.
Before I took the irreversible action, however, I consulted with those
other optimizers whose opinions I most respected.
    "The majority of my staff  favored the war declaration, seeing  no
way of convincing your fellow humans that a conflict with us would  be
a disaster for them. The octospider  you call Archie, however, made  a
proposal to  my staff  that we  think has  some small  probability  of
working. Even though  our statistical  analysts say war  is still  the
most likely  outcome,  our principles  demand  that we  do  everything
possible  to  avoid  war.   Since  Archie's  proposal  requires   your
involvement and cooperation, we have called you here tonight."
    The Chief Optimizer stopped speaking in colors and shuffled to the
side of the room. Richard and  Nicoteglanced at each other. "Did  your
translator follow atf that?" she asked.
    "Most of it," Richard replied. "I certainly understand the gist of
the situation. Do you  have any questions? Or  should we suggest  they
proceed with Archie's proposal?"
    When Nicole didn't say anything Archie moved to the
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    center of the room. "I have volunteered," their octospider  friend
said, "to negotiate personally with the human leaders in an attempt to
stop this  conflict  before  it  escalates  into  full-scale  war.  To
accomplish this,  however,  I must  Obviously  have some  help.  If  I
suddenly appear in the camp of the human soldiers, they will kill  me.
Even if they do not, they will have no way of understanding what I  am
telling  them.  So  some  human  who  understands  our  language  must
accompany me  to  translate  my  colors  or  there's  no  way  that  a
meaningful dialogue can be started."
    After Richard and Nicole told the Chief Optimizer that they had no
disagreement with the basic concept proposed by Archie, the two humans
and their octospider colleague were left alone to discuss the details.
.Archie's idea was straightforward. Nicole  and he would approach  the
camp near the  Cylindrical Sea  together and would  request a  meeting
with Nakamura and the other human leaders. At that meeting Archie  and
Nicole would explain that the octospiders were a peace-loving  species
who had no  territorial claims on  the north side  of the  Cylindrical
Sea. Archie would request that the humans withdraw from their camp and
cease their overflights. If necessary, as  a token of the goodwill  of
the octospiders, Archie would offer  to supply quantities of food  and
water to  help  the  humans  through  their  current  difficulties.  A
permanent relationship between  the two species  would be  established
and a treaty drafted to codify the agreement.
    "Jesus," Richard  said  after  he  finished  translating  Archie's
comments. "And I thought Nicole was an idealist!"
    Archie did  not  understand  Richard's  remark.  Nicole  patiently
explained to the  octospider that  the leaders  of New  Eden were  not
likely to be  as reasonable as  Archie was assuming.  "It is  entirely
possible," Nicole  said,  to stress  the  danger of  what  Archie  was
proposing, "that they will kill us both before we are ever allowed  to
say anything."
    Archie kept insisting that what he  was proposing was bound to  be
accepted eventually because it  was clearly in  the best interests  of
the humans living in New Eden.
    RAMA REVEALED
    345
    "Look, Archie," Richard responded  in frustration, "what you  said
is just not correct. There are many human beings, including  Nakamura,
who do not  give a  shit what  is good for  the colony.  In fact,  the
common welfare  is not  even a  factor in  the subconscious  objective
function, to use your  terms-, that governs  their behavior. All  they
care about  is  themselves. Every  decision  is weighed  in  terms  of
whether or not it will increase their own personal power or influence.
In our history, leaders  have often destroyed  their own countries  or
colonies in attempts to retain their power."
    The octospider was stubborn. "What you are describing just  cannot
be true in  an advanced  species," Archie  insisted. "The  fundamental
laws of evolution  clearly indicate that  those species whose  primary
value is the  welfare of  the group will  outlast those  in which  the
individual is supreme.  Are you  suggesting that human  beings are  an
aberration of some kind, a freak of nature violating a fundamental-"
    Nicole interrupted. 'This is all  very interesting, you two,"  she
said, "but we have some more pressing business. We must design a  plan
of action that  has no  pitfalls. .  . .  Richard, if  you don't  like
Archie's plan, what do you suggest?"
    Richard reflected for several seconds before speaking. "I  believe
that Nakamura  has  committed New  Eden  to this  action  against  the
octospiders for many reasons, one of which is to preclude criticism of
the domestic failures  by his government.  I do not  think he will  be
dissuaded from  his  course  unless the  citizens  are  overwhelmingly
against the war, and, I'm sorry to say, I don't think that will happen
unless the colonists are convinced the war will be a disaster."
    "So you think threats are necessary?" Nicole said.
    "As a minimum. What would be  perfect would be a demonstration  of
military might by the octospiders," Richard said.
    "I'm afraid that's impossible," Archie commented, "at least  under
the current circumstances."
    "Why?" Richard asked. 'The Chief Optimizer spoke
    346
    ARTHUR C. CtARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    with confidence about  winning any  war that might  occur. If  you
were to attack and utterly destroy that camp-"
    "Now it is you  who do not understand  us," Archie said.  "Because
war, or any conflict that can  result in deliberate deaths, is such  a
nonoptimal way  of  resolving disputes,  our  colony has  very  strict
regulations governing concerted  hostile actions.  Controls are  built
into our  society to  make war  absolutely the  solution of  the  last
resort. We have  no standing  army and  no stockpile  of weapons,  for
example. And  there  are  other restraints  as  well.  All  optimizers
participating in a decision to declare war, as well as all octospiders
engaging in an  armed conflict, are  immediately terminated after  the
war."
    "Whaaat?" said Richard, not believing his translator. "That's  not
possible."
    "Yes, it  is," Archie  said. "As  you can  imagine, these  factors
significantly deter our participation in nondefensive hostilities. The
Chief Optimizer knows that she signed her own death warrant two  weeks
ago when she authorized the beginning of war preparations. All  eighty
of the octospiders now  living and working in  the War Domain will  be
terminated when this war is either concluded or the threat of war  has
officially passed. ... I myself, since  I was part of the  discussions
today, will be placed on the termination lists if war is declared."
    Richard  and   Nicole   were  speechless.   "The   only   possible
justification for  war to  an octospider,"  Archie continued,  "is  an
unambiguous threat  to the  very  survival of  the colony.  Once  that
threat  is  identified  and  acknowledged,  our  species  undergoes  a
metamorphosis and prosecutes die war, without mercy, until either  the
threat is obliterated  or our colony  has been destroyed.  Generations
ago,  some  very  wise  optimizers  realized  that  those   individual
octospiders who were engaged  in killing, and  the design of  killing,
were so psychologically altered by their experiences that they  became
a significant detriment to the operation of a peaceful colony.  That's
why the termination codicils were enapted."
    Richard and  Nicole  were  still  silent  even  after  Archie  had
finished talking. At length Richard started to ask Archie
    RAMA REVEALED
    347
    to leave the room  so that he could  speak privately to his  wife,
but he quickly remembered the ubiquitous quadroids. "Nicole, darling,"
he said  finally, "I  don't think  Archie's plan  is quite  right  for
several reasons. For one thing, I should be going with him instead  of
you-"
    When Nicole started to interrupt, Richard gestured with his  hands
for her to remain quiet, "Now  hear me out," he said. "Throughout  our
marriage, especially since we left the Node, you have always been  the
one out front, giving of your time  and energy for the benefit of  the
family or the colony. Now it's my turn. In tiiis particular  instance,
I believe that I  am also better  suited to the  proposed task. I  can
more easily scare our fellow humans by conjuring up images of doomsday
blows delivered by the octospiders."
    "But you  don't  speak  (heir language  well,"  Nicole  protested.
"Without your translator-"
    "I've thought about that," Richard  said. "And I think that  Ellie
and Nikki should go with Archie and me. First, with a child among  us,
the probability  that  we will  be  killed  by the  advance  force  is
significantly reduced.  Second,  Ellie  is completely  fluent  in  the
octospider language and can back me up if my translator is either  not
available or inadequate.  Third, and  this may be  the most  important
reason, the only crime that Nakamura  and his minions can possibly  be
attributing to the octospiders is Ellie's kidnapping. If she shows up,
healthy and praising  the alien  enemy, then  the war  effort will  be
undermined."
    Nicole frowned. "I don't like the idea of Nikki going along.  It's
much too dangerous. I would never forgive myself if something happened
to that child."
    "Nor would I,"  Richard said.  "But I  don't think  Ellie will  go
without her. . . . Nicole, there are no good plans. We will be  forced
to choose the least unsatisfactory option."
    During a brief pause  in the conversation  Archie spoke in  color.
"Richard's points are all excellent,"  the octospider said to  Nicole.
"And there is one additional reason why it might be better for you  to
remain here in the Emerald City-die rest of the humans who stay behind
will need your leadership in the difficult days ahead."
    348
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Nicole's mind was racing. She had not been prepared for Richard to
volunteer to go.  "Are you telling  me, Archie," she  said, "that  you
endorse Richard's suggestions,  including taking EHie  and Nikki  with
you?"
    "Yes," the octospider replied.
    "But Richard," Nicole then said, turning to her husband, "you know
how you hate what  you call political crap.  Are you certain you  have
thought this through?"
    Richard nodded.  Nicole shrugged.  "All  right, then,"  she  said.
"We'll talk to EHie. If she agrees, we have a plan."
    The Chief Optimizer  thought that  the amended  proposal had  some
chance of success, but felt  compelled to remind everyone that,  based
on the detailed octospider analysis  of the likely outcome, there  was
still a high probability that both Archie and Richard would be killed,
and a nonzero chance that Ellie  and Nikki would not survive as  well.
Nicole's heart  skipped  a beat  when  she translated  the  octospider
leader's reminder. The  Chief Optimizer was  not telling her  anything
that Nicole did not already know; however, Nicole had been so involved
in the planning and discussions that she had not yet confronted any of
the likely outcomes of their decisions.
    Nicole said very  little while  the principals all  agreed upon  a
baseline timetable. When  she heard  Richard say that  Archie and  he,
with or without Ellie and Nikki, would leave the Emerald City one tert
after dawn the next day,  Nicole shuddered. Tomorrow, flashed  quickly
through her mind. Tomorrow our lives will change again.
    She remained quiet on the transport ride back to their zone. While
Richard and Archie talked about many different subjects, Nicole  tried
to wrestle with the growing fear inside her. An inner voice, one  that
she had not heard for years, was telling her that she would never  see
Richard again after tomorrow. Is  this perhaps some peculiar  reaction
on my part? she asked herself critically. Am I having trouble  letting
Richard be the hero?
    The strength of the premonition grew, despite Nioele's attempts to
combat it. She remembered a terrible night
    RAMA REVEALED
    349
    many, many years earlier, when she had been in her bedroom in  the
little house in Chilly-Mazarin. Nicole  had awakened screaming from  a
violent and vivid  nightmare. "Mommy is  dead," the ten-year-old  girl
had cried.
    Her father had  tried to console  her and had  explained that  her
mother was just away on a trip visiting her family in the Ivory Coast.
The telegram announcing her  mother's death had  arrived at the  house
seven hours later.
    "If  you  don't  have  any  weapons  stockpiled  and  no   trained
soldiers," Richard was now saying, "how  in the world can you  prepare
for a war fast enough to defend yourself?"
    "I cannot tell you that," Archie replied. "But believe me, I  know
for a fact that a conflict at this time between our two species  could
result in the total annihilation of the human civilization in Rama."
    Nicole could not calm her tormented soul. No matter how many times
she told herself she  was overreacting, the  premonitory fear did  not
diminish. She reached  over and  took Richard's hand.  He wrapped  his
fingers through hers and continued his conversation with Archie.
    Nicole gazed intently  at him.  / am  proud of  you, Richard,  she
thought, but I am also scared. And I am not yet ready to say good-bye,
    It was very late when Nicole  went to bed. She had awakened  Ellie
gently, without  disturbing Nikki  and the  Watanabe twins,  who  were
sleeping in the  Wakefield house so  that Patrick and  Nai could  have
their wedding night alone. Ellie,  of course, had had many  questions.
Richard and  Nicole  had  explained  the  plan,  including  everything
important they had learned from Archie and the Chief Optimizer earlier
in the evening. Ellie  had been fearful, but  had finally agreed  that
Nikki and she would accompany Richard and Archie the next day.
    Nicole could not fall into a deep sleep. After tossing and turning
for an hour,  she began a  sequence of short,  chaotic dreams. In  her
final dream Nicole was again seven years old back in the Ivory  Coast,
in the middle of her Poro ceremony.
    550
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    She was half  naked out in  the water, with  the lioness  prowling
around the perimeter of the pond. Little Nicole took a deep breath and
dove under the water. When she  surfaced, Richard was standing on  the
shore where the lioness  had been. It was  a young Richard smiling  at
her initially, but as Nicole watched,  he aged rapidly and became  the
same Richard who  was beside  her that moment  in the  bed. She  heard
Omeh's voice in  her ear.  "Look carefully, Ronata,"  the voice  said.
"And remember. ..."
    Nicole woke up. Richard was sleeping peacefully. She sat up in the
bed and tapped on  the wall one time.  A solitary firefly appeared  in
the doorway, shining some light into the bedroom. Nicole stared at her
husband. She  looked  at  his  hair and  beard,  gray  from  age,  and
remembered them  when they  had been  black. She  recalled fondly  his
ardor and humor during their  courtship in New York. Nicole  grimaced,
took a deep breath, and kissed her index finger. She placed the finger
on Richard's lips.  He did not  stir. Nicole sat  quietly for  several
more minutes, studying every feature of her husband's face. Soft tears
flowed down her cheeks and dropped  from her chin onto the sheets.  "I
love you, Richard," she said.
    WAR IN RAMA
    1
    REPORT #319
    Time of Transmission: 156 307 872 574.2009 Time Since  First-Stage
Alert: 111.9766 References: Node 23-419 Spacecraft 947 Spacefarers  47
249 (A & B) 32806 2666
    During  the  last  interval  the   structure  and  order  in   the
spacefaring  communities  inside  the  spacecraft  have  continued  to
disintegrate. Despite the warnings of the octospiders (Spacefarers  #2
666) and rneir laudable  attempts to avoid a  broad conflict with  the
humans (#32 806),  it is now  even more likely  that a disastrous  war
between the two species, which could  leave only a few survivors,  may
take place  in the  next several  intervals. The  situation  therefore
meets all the prerequisite conditions for a Stage 2 intercession.
    554
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Prior  intercessionary  activity  has  been  declared  a  failure,
primarily because the more aggressive of the two species, the  humans,
are  fundamentally  insensitive   to  the  entire   range  of   subtle
intercessionary techniques. Only a few of the humans have responded to
the many attempts to alter their  hostile behavior, and those who  did
react were unable to stop the genocide of the avians and sessiles (#47
249, A & B) perpetrated by their rulers.
    The humans are organized in  the rigid, hierarchical manner  often
observed in prespacefaring species. They continue to be dominated by a
leadership whose focus is the retention of personal power. The welfare
of the human community and even  its survival are subordinated in  the
implicit objective  function  of  the current  human  leaders  to  the
continuation  of  a  political   system  which  gives  them   absolute
authority. There is consequently little likelihood that the threatened
expanded conflict  between  the  humans and  the  octospiders  can  be
avoided by any logical appeals.
    A small cadre of humans, including  almost all of the family  that
lived at the Node for  over a year, remains  in residence in the  main
octospider city. Their interaction  with their hosts has  demonstrated
that it is possible for the  two species to live together in  harmony.
Recently a mixed delegation  of those humans  and one octospider  have
decided  to  make   a  concerted  effort   to  prevent  a   full-scale
interspecies war  by  contacting  the  leaders  of  the  human  colony
directly. However,  the  probability  that  this  delegation  will  be
successful is very low.
    Thus far  the  octospiders have  taken  no overt  hostile  action.
Nevertheless, they  have begun  the  process of  preparing for  a  war
against the humans. Although  they will fight  only if they  determine
that the  survival of  their community  is in  jeopardy, the  advanced
biological capabilities of the octospiders makes the outcome of such a
war a foregone conclusion.
    What is not certain is how the humans will react once the conflict
escalates and they suffer  heavy losses. It is  possible that the  war
might terminate quickly  and, in time,  the two surviving  communities
might again reach a near
    RAMA REVEALED
    355
    equilibrium status. Based on  the available observational data  on
the humans,  however,  there is  a  nontrivial probability  that  this
species will continue  the battle until  most or all  of them  perish.
Such an outcome would destroy all the vestiges of at least one of  the
two spacefaring  societies remaining  in the  spacecraft. To  preclude
such a  disadvantageous result  for the  project, consideration  of  a
Stage 2 intercession is recommended.
    2
    Iicole was awakened by the sound of the three children playing  in
the living room. As she  was slipping on her  robe, Ellie came to  the
door of the bedroom and asked  if she had seen Nikki's favorite  doll.
"I think it's under her bed," Nicole replied.
    Ellie returned to her  packing, Nicole could  hear Richard in  the
bathroom.  //  won't  be   long  now,  she   was  thinking  when   her
granddaughter suddenly  appeared  in the  doorway.  "Mommy and  I  are
leaving, Nonni," the little  girl said with a  smile. "We're going  to
see Daddy."
    Nicole opened her arms and the little girl ran over for a hug.  "I
know, darling," Nicole said. She held the girl tightly in her arms and
then began to stroke her hair. "I will miss you, Nikki," she said.
    A few seconds later the Watanabe twins both bounded into the room.
"I'm hungry, Mrs. Wakefield," Galileo said.
    "Me too," Kepler added.*"
    Nicole reluctantly released her granddaughter and started
    RAMA REVEALED
    357
    walking across the  bedroom. "All  right, boys,"  she said.  "I'll
have your breakfast in a few minutes."
    When the three children were almost finished eating, Max, Eponine,
and Marius arrived at  the door. "Guess what,  Uncle Max," Nikki  said
before Nicole had even had a chance to greet the Pucketts. "I'm  going
to see my daddy."
    The four  hours  flew by  quickly.  Richard and  Nicole  explained
everything twice, first to Max and Eponine and then to the  newlyweds,
both of whom were  still radiant from the  pleasures of their  wedding
night. As the  time neared for  the departure of  Richard, Ellie,  and
Nikki, the excitement  and energy that  had characterized the  morning
conversation began to wane. Butterflies started fluttering in Nicole's
stomach.
    Max was the first to say good-bye. "Come over here, Princess,"  he
said to Nikki, "and give your  Uncle Max a kiss." The girl  obediently
followed directions. Max then stood up  and crossed the room to  where
Ellie was talking  with her mother.  'Take care of  that little  girl,
Ellie," he said, embracing her, "and  don't let the bastards get  away
with anything."  Max shook  hands  with Richard  and then  called  the
Watanabe twins to join him outside.
    The mood in the room was  swiftly altered. Despite her promise  to
herself thai she would  remain calm, Nicole felt  a surge of panic  as
she suddenly realized that she had only a few minutes to complete  her
farewells. Patrick, Nai, Benjy, and Eponine had followed Max's cue and
were hugging the departing trio.
    Nicole tried to embrace Nikki again, but the little girl  scurried
away, running outside to  play with the  twins. Ellie finished  saying
good-bye to Eponine and turned to  Nicole. "I will miss you,  Mother,"
she said brightly. "I love you very much."
    Nicole  struggled  to  maintain  her  emotional  equilibrium.   "I
couldn't have asked for  a better daughter," she  said. While the  two
women hugged, Nicole spoke softly in her daughter's ear. "Be careful,"
she said. 'There's a lot at stake."
    Ellie pulled away and looked in her mother's eyes. She
    358
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    took a deep breath. "I know,  Mother," she said somberly, "and  it
frightens me, I hope I don't disappoint-"
    "You  won't,"  Nicole   said  lightly,   patting  her   daughter's
shoulders. "Just remember what the cricket said in Pinoc-chio."
    Ellie smiled. "And always let your conscience be your guide."
    "Archie's here!" Nicole heard Nikki  shout. She looked around  for
her husband. Where's Richard? she thought in a fright. / haven't  said
good-bye. Ellie passed by  her quickly, headed  for the door  carrying
two packs on her back.
    Nicole could hardly breathe. She heard Patrick say, "Where's Uncle
Richard?" and a voice from the study reply, "I'm back here."
    She ran down  the hall to  the study. Richard  was sitting on  the
floor amid electronic  components and  his own  open backpack.  Nicole
stood in the doorway for a second, catching her breath.
    Richard heard her behind him and turned around. "Oh, hi, darling,"
he said nonchalantly. "I'm still trying to figure out how many  backup
components I should take for my translators."
    "Archie's here," Nicole said quietly.
    Richard glanced at his watch. "I guess it's time to go," he  said.
He picked up a handful of  electronic parts and stuffed them into  his
backpack. Then he stood up and walked toward Nicole.
    "Uncle Richard," Patrick yelled.
    "I'm coming," Richard shouted. "Just a minute."
    Nicole began to  tremble the  moment Richard put  his arms  around
her. "Hey," he said, "it's all right. . . . We've been apart before."
    The fear inside  Nicole had become  so strong that  she could  not
speak. She tried desperately to be  brave, but it was impossible.  She
knew that this was the last time she would ever touch her husband.
    She put one hand behind Richard's head and pulled away slightly so
that she could kiss him. Nicole wanted to stop time, to make this  one
moment last an eternity. Her
    RAMA REVEALED
    359
    eyes took  a photograph  of  Richard's face,  and she  kissed  him
gently on the lips.
    "I love you, Nicole," he said.
    For an instant she didn't think she was going to be able to reply.
"I love you too," she finally managed to say.
    He hoisted his backpack  and gave a little  wave. Nicole stood  in
the doorway and watched him walk toward the door. Remember, she  heard
Omeh's voice say inside her head.
    Nikki could hardly  believe her  good fortune. There  in front  of
her, barely outside the gates of the Emerald City, an ostrichsaur  was
waiting for them, just as Archie had said. She moved about impatiently
as her mother zipped her coat. "Can I feed it, Mother?" she said. "Can
I? Can I?"
    Even with the ostrichsaur  sitting on the  ground, Richard had  to
help Nikki mount the animal. "Thank  you, Boobah," the girl said  when
she was comfortably nestled in the bowl.
    'The timing  has  been worked  out  very carefully,"  Archie  told
Richard and Ellie while  they were moving along  the path through  the
forest. "We will arrive at the  camp when all the troops are  starting
breakfast. That way everyone will see us."
    "How will we know precisely when to appear?" Richard asked.
    "Some of the  quadroids are  being managed from  the far  northern
fields. Soon after the first soldiers are awake and are moving  around
outside their  tents,  your avian  friend  Timmy, carrying  a  written
announcement of our imminent arrival, will fly over their heads in the
dark. Our  message will  indicate  that we  will  be preceded  by  the
fireflies and that we will be waving a white flag, as you suggested."
    Nikki noticed some strange eyes looking out at them from the  dark
of the forest. "Isn't this fun?" she said to her mother. Ellie did not
respond.
    Archie stopped  the ostrichsaur  about a  kilometer south  of  the
human camp. The lanterns and other lights outside the distant tents in
front of them looked like stars twinkling in
    360
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    361
    the night. "Timmy should be dropping our message just about  now,"
Archie said.
    They had been moving cautiously in the dark for several hours, not
wanting to  use the  fireflies because  of the  possibility that  they
might be noticed too early. Nikki was sleeping peacefully, her head in
her mother's lap.  Both Richard  and Ellie  were tense.  "What are  we
going to do," Richard had inquired before they stopped, "if the troops
fire on us before we can say anything?"
    "We'll turn around  and retreat  as fast  as we  can," Archie  had
replied.
    "And what happens if they come  after us with the helicopters  and
the searchlights?" Ellie had asked.
    "At full speed it will take the ostrichsaur almost four wodens  to
reach the forest," Archie had said.
    Timmy returned to the  group and reported, in  a brief jabber  and
color conversation with Archie, that he had accomplished his  mission.
Richard and Timmy then said farewell to each other. The avian's  large
eyes expressed  an emotion  Richard  had not  seen before  as  Richard
rubbed his underbelly. A few moments later, as Timmy flew away in  the
direction of the Emerald City, a pair of fireflies ignited beside  the
path and then headed in the  direction of the human camp. Richard  led
the procession,  clutching  the white  flag  in his  right  hand.  The
ostrichsaur followed about fifty meters behind carrying Ellie, Archie,
and the sleeping child.
    Richard could  see the  soldiers with  his binoculars  when  their
party was about  four hundred  meters away. The  troops were  standing
around, looking in their general direction. Richard counted twenty-six
of them altogether,  including three  with rifles  poised and  another
pair scanning the darkness with binoculars.
    As planned, Ellie,  Nikki, and  Archie dismounted  when they  were
about two hundred meters from the camp. The ostrichsaur was sent  back
while the four of them w^alked  toward the human soldiers. Nikki,  who
had not been  ready to awaken,  complained at first  but became  quiet
when she
    sensed the importance of her mother's request to remain
    silent.
    Archie walked between the  two adult humans.  Nikki ; was  holding
her mother's hand and scampering to keep up
    with the pace. "Hello, there," Richard shouted when he
    thought he was within earshot. "This is Richard Wakefield.
    We come in peace." He waved the white flag vigorously. "I
    am with my daughter Ellie, my granddaughter Nikki, and an
    octospider representative."
    They must have been an amazing sight for the soldiers,
    none of whom had ever seen an octospider before. With the
    fireflies hovering over the heads of the troops, Richard and
    his party emerged from the Raman dark.
    One of  the  soldiers stepped  forward.  "I am  Captain  ;  Enrico
Pioggi," he said,  "the commanding officer  of this £  camp. I  accept
your surrender on behalf of the armed forces f of New Eden."
    \
    ;; Because the announcement of their impending arrival
    f had been delivered to the camp less than half an hour earlier,
    . the New Eden chain of command had not had time to
    | formulate a plan of what to do with the prisoners. As soon
    ; as he had confirmed that a party of a man, a woman, a child,
    and an alien octospider were indeed approaching his camp,
    Captain Pioggi had again radioed the front headquarters in
    ;, New York and requested instructions on how to proceed.
    • The colonel in charge of the campaign told him to "secure
    l the prisoners" and "stand by for further orders."
    Richard had  anticipated that  none  of the  officers would  v  be
willing to take  any definitive  action until Nakamura  I himself  had
been consulted. He had  told Archie, during their  f long ride on  the
ostrichsaur, that  it would  be important  to use  whatever time  they
might have with  the soldiers  in the >  camp to  start rebutting  the
propaganda that the New Eden government was spreading.
    'This creature," Richard said in a loud voice after the  prisoners
had been searched and the curious troops were milling around them, "is
what we call  an octospider. All  octospiders are very  intelligent-in
some ways more intel-
    362
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    ligent than we are-and about fifteen thousand of them live in  the
Southern HemicyUnder, which extends from here to the base of the south
polar bowl. My family and I have been living in their realm for over a
year-of our own choice, I might add-and we have found the  octospiders
to be  moral and  peace-loving.  My daughter  Ellie  and I  have  come
forward with this octospider representative,  whom we call Archie,  to
try to find some way of stopping a military confrontation between  our
two species."
    "Aren't you Dr. Robert Turner's wife?"  said one of the troops  to
Ellie. "The one who was kidnapped by the octospiders?"
    "Yes, I am," Ellie  said in a clear  voice. "Except that I  wasn't
kidnapped in the truest sense of  the word. The octospiders wanted  to
establish communications with us and had  been unable to do so. I  was
taken because they  believed that I  had the capacity  to learn  their
language."
    "That thing talks!" another soldier said with disbelief.
    Until that moment Archie, as planned, had been silent. The  troops
all stared dumbfounded as colors began  pouring out of the right  side
of his slit  and circumnavigating his  head. "Archie says  greetings,"
Ellie translated. "He asks each of  you to understand that neither  he
nor any member of his species  wishes you any harm. Archie also  wants
me to inform you that he can read lips and will be happy to answer any
questions you might have."
    "Is this for real?" a soldier said.
    Meanwhile, a frustrated  Captain Pioggi  was standing  off to  the
side, providing an eyewitness account by  radio to the colonel in  New
York. "Yes, sir," he was saying, "colors on its head ... all different
colors,  sir,  red,  blue,  yellow  .  .  .  like  rectangles,  moving
rectangles, they go around its head, and then more of them follow. . .
. What's that, sir? . . . The woman, the doctor's wife, sir. . . . She
apparently knows what the colors mean. . . . No, sir, there aren't any
colored letters, just the colored strips. ...
    "Right now, sir, the alien  is talking to the  soldiery . . .  No,
sir, they are not using colors. . . . According to the woman, sir, the
octospider can read lips . . . like a hearing
    RAMA REVEALED
    363
    impaired person, sir ... same technique I guess. . . . Anyway,  it
then answers in color and the doctor's wife translates. . . .
    "No weapons  of any  kind, sir.  . .  . Plenty  of toys,  clothes,
weird-looking  objects   prisoner   Wakefield  says   are   electronic
components. . . . Toys, sir, I said  toys . . . the little girl had  a
lot of toys  in her backpack.  . . .  No, we don't  have a scanner  up
here. . . . Right, sir. . . .  Do you have any idea how long we  might
be waiting, sir?"
    By the time  Captain Pioggi  finally received orders  to send  the
prisoners to New York in one of the helicopters, Archie had thoroughly
impressed all the soldiers at the  camp. The octospider had begun  the
demonstration of his prodigious mental abilities by multiplying  five-
and six-place numbers in his head.
    "Now, how do we know that the octospider thing is really coming up
with the right answer?" one of the younger soldiers had asked. "All it
does is show a string of colors."
    "My man,"  Richard had  replied  with a  laugh, "didn't  you  just
verify on the lieutenant's calculator that the number my daughter gave
was correct? Do you think she computed the product in her head?"
    "Oh, yeah," the youth said. "I see what you mean."
    What really  overwhelmed  the  soldiers  was  Archie's  phenomenal
memory. At Richard's urging,  one of the troops  listed a sequence  of
several hundred numbers on a sheet of paper and then read the sequence
to Archie, a  single number at  a time. The  octospider repeated  them
back through Ellie, without any  errors. Some of the soldiers  thought
that there had been a trick involved, that maybe Richard was  flashing
coded signals  to Archie.  However, when  Archie duplicated  his  feat
under  carefully  controlled   conditions,  all   the  doubters   were
convinced.
    The atmosphere in the camp was relaxed and amiable by the time the
orders were received to transport the prisoners to New York. The first
part of  their plan  had succeeded  beyond their  wildest  imaginings.
Nevertheless, Richard was
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    nervous as they climbed on board the helicopter to cross a portion
of the Cylindrical Sea.
    They only stayed in New York  for about an hour. Armed guards  met
the prisoners at the helicopter pad in the western plaza,  confiscated
their backpacks over Richard's and Nik-ki's loud protests, and marched
them to the  Port. Richard carried  Nikki in his  arms. He barely  had
time to admire his favorite skyscrapers looming overhead in the dark.
    The yacht  that  carried them  across  the northern  half  of  the
Cylindrical Sea was similar  to the pleasure  boats that Nakamura  and
his cronies used on Lake Shakespeare.  At no time during the  crossing
did any of  the guards  speak to  them. "Boobah,"  Nikki whispered  to
Richard after several of her questions had gone unheeded, "don't these
men know how to talk?" She giggled.
    A rover was  waiting for  them on a  dock that  had been  recently
constructed to support the new activities in New York and the Southern
Hemicylinder. At considerable effort and  expense, the humans had  cut
an opening through the  southern barrier wall  in-an area adjacent  to
the avian/sessile habitat and had built a targe docking facility.
    Richard wondered at first why he  and his companions had not  been
flown directly back to New Eden  in the helicopter. After a few  quick
mental calculations, however, he  correctly concluded that because  of
the enormous height of the barrier  wall, which extended well up  into
the region where the  artificial gravity caused  by the spinning  Rama
spacecraft began to drop substantially,  as well as the probable  lack
of skilled pilots, there was an upper limit placed on the altitude  at
which the hastily built helicopters  were allowed to fly. That  means,
Richard was thinking  as he boarded  the rover, that  the humans  must
move all their equipment and personnel either through this dock or  by
means of the moat and tunnel underneath the second habitat.
    Their rover was driven by a Garcia biot. In frqpt and behind  them
were two other rovers,  both with armed humans.  They sped across  the
darkness to the Central Plain.
    RAMA REVEALED
    365
    Richard sat  in the  front seat  beside the  driver, with  Archie,
Ellie, and Nikki in  the back. Richard had  turned around in his  seat
and was reminding Archie of the five  kinds of biots in New Eden  when
the Garcia interrupted him. "The prisoner Wakefield is to face forward
and remain silent," the biot said.
    "Isn't that just a little bit ridiculous?" Richard said lightly.
    The Garcia pulled its right arm off the steering wheel and  struck
Richard hard in the face with the back of its hand. "Face forward  and
remain silent," the biot repeated, as Richard recoiled from the  force
of the slap.
    Nikki started crying after the  sudden display of violence.  Ellie
tried both to  quiet and  to comfort her.  "I don't  like the  driver,
Mommy," the little girl said. "I really don't."
    It was night inside New Eden  after they were ushered through  the
checkpoint at the entrance to the habitat. Archie and the three humans
were placed into an open electric  car driven by another Garcia  biot.
Richard noticed immediately that it was almost as cold in New Eden  as
it had been in Rama.  The car bounced down the  road, which was in  an
acute state of disrepair, and turned  north at what had once been  the
train station for the  village of Positano.  Fifteen or twenty  people
were huddled around  campfires on the  concrete areas surrounding  the
old station, and another three or four were stretched out and sleeping
underneath cardboard boxes and old clothing.
    "What are those people doing,  Mommy?" Nikki asked. Ellie did  not
answer because the Garcia turned around quickly with a hostile stare.
    The neon lights of  Vegas could already be  seen in front of  them
when the car  took a  sharp left  turn onto  a residential  lane in  a
wooded section that  had once been  part of Sherwood  Forest. The  car
came to an abrupt halt in front of a large, rambling ranch house.  Two
Oriental men, armed with both pistols and daggers, approached the car.
They gestured for  the passengers  to climb out  of the  car and  then
dismissed the biot. "Come with us," said one of the men.
    Archie and his human companions entered the house
    366
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    and were taken down a long  flight of stairs into a basement  with
no windows. "There  is food and  water on the  table," the second  man
said. He turned and started to climb the stairs.
    "Wait a minute,"  Richard said. "Our  backpacks . .  . we need  to
have our backpacks."
    "They will be returned," the man said impatiently, "as soon as all
the contents have been carefully checked."
    "And when do we see Nakamura?" Richard inquired.
    The man shrugged. His face  was expressionless. He walked  quickly
up the stairs.
    3
    Ti
    he days passed very slowly.
    Richard, Ellie, and Nikki were without a time reference at  first,
but they soon learned that octospiders had a wonderfully precise inner
clock that is calibrated and enhanced during their juvenile education.
After they converted Archie to using human time measurements  (Richard
used his  oft-quoted  "When in  Rome  . .  ,"  to convince  Archie  to
abandon, at least temporarily, his tens, wodens, fengs, and  nillets),
they discovered, by  sneaking glances at  their guard's digital  watch
when he brought food and water, that Archie's internal timing accuracy
was better than ten seconds out of every twenty-four hours.
    Nikki amused herself by  constantly asking Archie  the time. As  a
result, after repeated observation, Richard and even Nikki learned how
to read  Archie's colors  for time  references and  small numbers.  In
fact, as the  days passed,  the regular conversation  in the  basement
significantly  improved   Richard's  overall   comprehension  of   the
octospider
    368
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    language. Although his skill in understanding the color strips was
still  not  as  advanced  as  Ellie's,  after  a  week  Richard  could
comfortably  converse  with  Archie   without  needing  Ellie  as   an
interpreter.
    The humans slept on futons on  the floor. Archie curled up  behind
them for the few hours each night  that he slept. One or the other  of
the two Oriental men replenished their supplies once each day. Richard
never failed to  remind the guards  that they were  still waiting  for
their backpacks and for their audience with Nakamura.
    After eight days the daily sponge baths in the washbasin adjoining
the basement toilet were no longer satisfactory. Richard asked if they
could have access  to a shower  and some soap.  Several hours later  a
large laundry tub  was carried  down the  stairs. Each  of the  humans
bathed, although Nikki was at first surprisingly reluctant to be naked
in front of Archie. Richard and Ellie felt enough better after bathing
that they managed to share some optimism. "There's no way he can  keep
our existence a secret forever," Richard said. "Too many of the troops
saw us  . .  .  and it  would  not be  possible  for them  not  to'say
anything, no matter what Nakamura ordered."
    "I'm certain they will come for us soon," Ellie added brightly.
    By the end of  their second week  of imprisonment, however,  their
temporary optimism had waned. Richard and Ellie were beginning to lose
hope. It didn't help that Nikki had become a complete brat, announcing
regularly that she was bored and complaining about not having anything
to do. Archie began  to tell Nikki stories  to keep her occupied.  His
octospider "legends" (he had  a long discussion  with Ellie about  the
exact meaning  of  the  word  before he  finally  accepted  the  term)
delighted the little girl.
    It helped that Ellie's translations rang with the resonant phrases
the girl already  associated with  bedtime fairy tales.  "Once upon  a
time, back in the days of the  Precursors . . ." Archie would begin  a
story, and Nikki would squeal with anticipation.
    RAMA REVEALED
    369
    "What did  the Precursors  look like,  Archie?'' the  little  girl
asked after one such story.
    "The legends  never say,"  Archie  replied. "So  I guess  you  can
create whatever picture of them you want in your imagination."
    "Is that  story true?"  Nikki asked  Archie on  another  occasion.
"Would the octospiders really never have left their own planet if  the
Precursors had not taken them into space first?"
    "So the legends indicate," Archie  replied. "They say that  almost
everything we knew until about fifty thousand years ago was taught  to
us originally by the Precursors."
    One night, after Nikki was asleep, Richard and Ellie asked  Archie
about the origin of  the legends. "They have  been around for tens  of
thousands  of  your  years,"   the  octospider  said.  "The   earliest
documented records from our genus contain  many of the stories I  have
shared with  you these  last  few days.  There are  several  different
opinions about how  factual the  legends are. Dr.  Blue believes  that
they are  basically accurate  and  probably the  work of  some  master
storyteller-an alternate, of course-whose genius was not recognized in
his or her lifetime.
    "If the legends can be believed," Archie said in answer to another
of Richard's  questions, "many,  many years  ago we  octospiders  were
simple seafaring creatures whose  natural evolution had produced  only
minimal  intelligence  and  awareness.  It  was  the  Precursors   who
discovered our potential  by mapping our  genetic structure, and  they
who altered us over many generations into what we had become when  the
Great Calamity occurred."
    "What exactly happened to the Precursors?" Ellie asked.
    "There are many stories,  some contradictory. Most  or all of  the
Precursors living  on the  primary  planet we  shared with  them  were
probably killed  in the  Calamity. Some  of the  legends suggest  that
their remote  colonial  outposts  around  nearby  stars  survived  for
several hundred years,  but ultimately succumbed  as well. One  legend
says that the Precursors continued to thrive in other, more  favorable
star systems and became the dominant form of intelligence in
    370
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    the galaxy. We do not know. All that is known for certain is  that
the land portion  of our  primary planet was  uninhabitable for  many,
many years and  that when the  octospider civilization again  ventured
out of the water, none of the Precursors were alive."
    The group  of four  in the  basement developed  their own  diurnal
rhythm as the days  stretched into weeks.  Each morning, before  Nikki
and Ellie awakened, Archie and Richard  would talk about a wide  range
of topics of mutual interest.  By this time, Archie's lip-reading  was
nearly flawless, and Richard's comprehension of the octospider  colors
was good enough that  the octospider was only  rarely asked to  repeat
what he had said.
    Many  of  the  conversations   were  about  science.  Archie   was
especially fascinated by the history of science in the human  species.
He wanted to know what discoveries  were made when, what prompted  the
key investigations  or  experiments  in  the  first  place,  and  what
inaccurate or competing models explaining the phenomena were discarded
as a result of each new understanding.
    "So it was actually war  that accelerated the development of  both
aeronautics and  nuclear physics  in your  species," Archie  said  one
morning.  "What  an  amazing  concept!  .  .  .  You  cannot  possibly
appreciate," the octospider added a few seconds later, "how staggering
it is for me to experience, even vicariously, your incremental process
of learning about  nature. Our  history is totally  different. In  the
beginning our species  was completely ignorant.  Shortly thereafter  a
new kind of octospider was created, one that could not only think, but
also observe the world and understand what it was seeing.^ Our mentors
and creators, the Precursors, already had explanations for everything.
Our task as a species was quite simple. We learned what we could  from
our teachers. Naturally, we did not have any concept of the trial  and
error that is involved in science. For that matter, we had no idea  at
all  of  how  any  component  in  a  culture  evolves.  The  brilliant
engineering of the Precursors allowed us to skip hundreds of  millions
of years of evolution.
    RAMA REVEALED
    371
    "Needless to say, we were  woefully unprepared for taking care  of
ourselves after the  Great Calamity  occurred. According  to the  more
historical of our legends, our  primary intellectual activity for  the
next several hundred years was to accumulate and understand as much of
the Precursor information  as we  could find and/or  remember. In  the
meantime, with our  benefactors no  longer around  to provide  ethical
guidelines, we  regressed  sociologically.  We entered  a  long,  long
period  in  which  it  was  questionable  whether  or  not  the   new,
intelligent  octospiders  created  by  the  Precursors  would   indeed
survive."
    Richard  was  overwhelmed  by  the  idea  of  what  he  called   a
"derivative technological species."  "I had never  imagined," he  told
Archie one morning with his usual excitement of discovery, "that there
might exist a spacefaring species that had never worked out on its own
the laws  of gravity  and had  never derived,  in a  long sequence  of
experiments, the essentials of physics, such as the characteristics of
the electromagnetic spectrum. It is  a mind-boggling thought. But  now
that I understand what you are telling me, it seems quite natural.  If
species  A,  who  are  advanced  spacefarers,  encounters  species  B,
intelligent but somewhere  lower on -the  technological ladder, it  is
perfectly logical to assume that, after contact, species B would  skip
the rungs between."
    "Our case, of course," Archie  explained, "was even more  unusual.
The paradigm that you are describing  is indeed quite natural and  has
happened, according to both  our history and  die legends, with  great
frequency. More spacefarers  are derivative,  to use  your word,  than
naturally evolved.  Take the  avians and  the sessiles,  for  example.
Their symbiosis, which developed without any outside interference, had
already existed in  a star  system not far  from our  home planet  for
thousands of  years when  they were  first visited  on an  exploratory
mission by  the  Precursors.  The avians  and  sessiles  would  almost
certainly never have developed a spacefaring capability of their  own.
However,  after  meeting  the   Precursors  and  seeing  their   first
spacecraft, they asked  for and received  the technology necessary  to
achieve spacefiight.
    372
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "Our situation is generically different, and definitely much  more
derivative. If  our  legends are  true,  the Precursors  were  already
spacefarers when we octospiders were still totally insentient. At that
epoch we were not even capable of conceiving of the idea of a  planet,
much less of  the space surrounding  it. Our fate  was decided by  the
advanced  beings  with  whom  we  shared  our  world.  The  Precursors
recognized  the  potential  in  our  genetic  structure.  Using  their
engineering skills,  they improved  us, gave  us minds,  shared  their
information with us, and created an advanced culture where none  would
probably have ever existed." .
    A deep bonding developed between Richard and Archie as a result of
the  regular  early   morning  conversations.   Unencumbered  by   any
distractions, the two were  able to share  their fundamental love  for
knowledge. Each  expanded  the  understanding of  the  other,  thereby
enriching their mutual appreciation for the wonders of the universe.
    Nikki almost always woke up before Ellie. Soon after the girl  had
finished her breakfast, the group entered the second segment of  their
daily schedule. Although Nikki occasionally played games with  Archie,
she spent  most  of what  might  be  called her  morning  in  informal
classes. She had three teachers. With Ellie, Nikki read a little,  and
did elementary addition and subtraction. She talked to her grandfather
about science and nature,  and had lessons with  Archie on morals  and
ethics. She  also learned  the octospider  alphabet and  a few  simple
phrases. Nikki was very quick with the language of color, a fact  that
the others attributed  both to her  altered genes and  to her  natural
intelligence.
    "Our juveniles spend a significant amount of their schooling  time
discussing and  interpreting case  studies that  raise critical  moral
problems,"  Archie  told  Richard  and  Ellie  one  morning  during  a
discussion  of  education.   "Real-life  situations   are  chosen   as
examples-although the actual facts may be slightly altered to  sharpen
the  issues-and  the  young  octospiders  are  asked  to  assess   the
acceptability of  various possible  responses. They  do this  in  open
discussion."
    RAMA REVEALED
    373
    "Is this to expose the juveniles at an early age to the concept of
optimization?" Richard asked.
    "Not really," Archie  replied. "What  we are  trying to  do is  to
prepare the young for the real task of living, which involves  regular
interaction with others, with  many behavioral choices. Each  juvenile
is strongly encouraged to use the  case studies to develop his or  her
own value system. Our species  believes that knowledge does not  exist
in a vacuum.  Only when  knowledge is  an integral  part of  a way  of
living does it achieve any real significance."
    Archie's case  studies presented  Nikki  with simple  but  elegant
ethical problems. The basic issues of lying, fairness, prejudice,  and
selfishness were all covered  in the first  eight lessons. The  girl's
responses to  the situations  often drew  upon examples  from her  own
life.
    "Galileo will always say or do  whatever he thinks will allow  him
to have his own way," Nikki remarked during one lesson. 'To him,  what
he wants is more important than anything else. Kepler is different. He
never makes me cry."
    Nikki napped in  the afternoon. While  she was sleeping,  Richard,
Ellie,  and  Archie  often   exchanged  comments  and  insights   that
highlighted the similarities and differences between the two  species.
"If I have understood  correctly," Ellie said one  day after a  lively
conversation about  how intelligent,  sensitive beings  should  handle
members of  their community  who  exhibit antisocial  behavior,  "your
society is much less tolerant than ours. There is clearly a 'preferred
way of living' that is advanced by your communities. Those octospiders
who do not embrace that preferred model are not only ostracized early,
but also  denied  participation  in  many  of  life's  more  rewarding
activities and 'terminated' after a shorter than normal life span."
    "In our society,"  Archie said  in reply, "what  is acceptable  is
always clear-there is  no confusion, as  there is in  yours. Thus  our
individuals  make   their  choices   with   full  knowledge   of   the
consequences. Incidentally, the  Alternate Domain is  not like one  of
your prisons. It is  a place where octospiders,  and other species  as
well, can live  without the regimentation  and optimization  necessary
for the continued
    374
    ARTHUR C- CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    375
    development and survival  of the  colony. Some  of the  alternates
live to be very old and are quite happy.
    "Your society, at least what I  have observed of it, seems not  to
understand the  fundamental inconsistency  between individual  freedom
and the common welfare. The two  must be carefully balanced. No  group
can survive, let  alone thrive, unless  what is good  for the  overall
community  is  more  important  than  individual  freedom.  Take,  for
example, resource  allocation. How  can anyone  with any  intelligence
possibly justify, in terms of the overall community, the  accumulation
and hoarding of  enormous material  assets by a  few individuals  when
others do not even have food, clothing, and other essentials?"
    In the basement Archie was not  as reticent and evasive as he  had
sometimes been in the Emerald City. He spoke openly about all  aspects
of his civilization, as if the common mission he was undertaking  with
his human colleagues had somehow  freed him from all constraints.  Was
Archie consciously  sending a  message to  the other  humans who  were
almost certainly monitoring the conversation? Perhaps. But how much of
the conversation could Nakamura's men have understood, since they knew
nothing of the language of color? No, it was more likely that  Archie,
better than any of  the humans, realized that  his death was  imminent
and wanted  his final  days to  be as  meaningful and  stimulating  as
possible.
    One night before Richard and Ellie went to sleep, Archie said that
he had something  "personal" to  tell them. "I  do not  want to  alarm
you," the octospider  said, "but  I have  consumed almost  all of  the
supply of barrican that is in my  intake buffer. If we stay here  much
longer and my barrican runs out, as  you know I will begin to  undergo
sexual maturity. According to our files, I will become more aggressive
and possessive at that time."
    "Don't worry about it," Richard said  with a laugh. "I have  dealt
with teenagers before.  Certainly I  can handle an  octospider who  no
longer has a perfect temperarnenl"
    One morning the guard bringing their food and water told Ellie  to
prepare herself and the girl to leave. "When?" Ellie said.
    'Ten minutes," the guard replied.
    "Where are we going?" Ellie inquired.
    The guard said nothing and disappeared up the stairway.
    While Ellie was doing her best  to freshen herself and Nikki,  she
reviewed with Richard and Archie what she would say if she was able to
meet with Nakamura or any of the other colony leaders.
    "Don't forget," her father stressed in a rapid whisper over in one
corner of  the  room,  "although it  is  all  right to  say  that  the
octospiders are a peace-loving  species, we will not  be able to  stop
any war unless  we convince Nakamura  that he cannot  possibly win  an
armed conflict.  The point  must  be made  that their  technology  has
advanced far beyond ours."
    "But what if they ask for specifics?"
    "You wouldn't be expected  to know any details.  Tell them that  I
can supply all the specifics."
    Ellie and Nikki were taken by electric car to the colony  hospital
in Central City. They were whisked through the emergency entrance  and
into a small, sterile office with two chairs, a couch or bed used  for
examinations, and some complex  electronic equipment. Ellie and  Nikki
sat alone for  ten minutes before  Dr. Robert Turner  walked into  the
room.
    He looked very old.  "Hi, Nikki," he  said, smiling and  squatting
down with his arms outstretched. "Come give your daddy a hug."
    The girl hesitated for  a moment and then  ran across the room  to
her father. Robert  picked her up  and swung her  around in his  arms.
"It's so good to see you, Nikki," he said.
    Ellie stood up and  waited. After several  seconds Robert put  his
daughter back down on the floor and looked at his wife. "How are  you,
Ellie?" he asked.
    "Fine," Ellie  replied, suddenly  feeling awkward.  "How are  you,
Robert?"
    "About the same," he said.
    They met in the  middle of the room  and embraced. Ellie tried  to
kiss him tenderly, but their lips merely brushed
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    ARTHUR C, CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    before Robert  turned away.  She could  sense the  tension in  his
body.
    "What is it, Robert?" Ellie said softly. "What's wrong?"
    "I've just been working too hard, as usual," he replied. He  moved
over beside the examination bed. "Would you take off your clothes  and
lie down  here, please,  Ellie?  I want  to  make certain  you're  all
right."
    "Right this minute?" an incredulous  Ellie asked. "Before we  even
talk about what has happened to  us during the months that we've  been
apart?"
    "I'm sorry, Ellie/* Robert said with a trace of a smile. "I'm very
busy tonight. The  hospital is  terribly understaffed.  I talked  them
into releasing you by promising-"
    Ellie had walked around the bed and was standing very close to her
husband. She  reached  down and  took  his hand.  "Robert,"  she  said
gently, "I am your wife. I love  you. We have not seen each other  for
over a year. Surely you can take a minute . . ."
    Tears formed  in Robert's  eyes. "What  is it,  Robert? Tell  me."
Ellie had a sudden fright. He's  married someone else, she thought  in
panic. .
    "What has happened  to you,  Ellie?" he  said suddenly  in a  loud
voice. "How could you possibly tell  those soldiers that you were  not
kidnapped, and that the octospiders were not hostile? You have made me
a laughingstock. Every  single citizen  in New  Eden has  heard me  on
television describing that terrible moment that you were abducted. . .
. My memories are so horribly clear."
    Ellie backed up at  first when Robert began  his outburst. As  she
stood there  listening,  still  holding  his  hand,  his  anguish  was
obvious. "I made those comments, Robert, because I was, and am, trying
to do whatever I can to stop any conflict between the octospiders  and
us. I am sorry if my remarks caused you pain."
    "The  octospiders  have  brainwashed  you,  Ellie,"  Robert   said
bitterly. "I knew it as soon as Nakamura's men showed me the  reports.
Somehow they have tampered with your mind so that you are no longer in
touch with reality."
    Nikki had started whimpering when Robert had first
    RAMA REVEALED
    377
    raised his voice.  She did  not understand  what the  disagreement
between her parents was about, but she could tell that everything  was
not all right. She began to cry and to cling to her mother's leg.
    "It's all right, Nikki," Ellie said soothingly. "Your father and I
are just talking."
    When Ellie glanced up, Robert had taken a transparent skullcap out
of a drawer and was holding it  in his hand. "So you're going to  give
me an EEG," she said nervously, "to make certain that I haven't become
one of them?"
    "It's not funny, Ellie,"  Robert replied. "My  EEGs have all  been
weird since I returned to  New Eden. I can't  explain it, nor can  the
neurologist on  my staff.  He  says he  has  never seen  such  radical
changes in  an individual's  brain  activity, except  in the  case  of
severe injury."
    "Robert," Ellie  said, taking  his  hand again.  "The  octospiders
planted a microbiological block in  your memory when you departed.  To
protect themselves. That  could be  part of the  explanation for  your
peculiar brain waves."
    Robert looked at  Ellie for  a long time  without speaking.  "They
kidnapped you," he said. "They tampered with my brain. Who knows  what
they may have done to our daughter? How can you possibly defend them?"
    Ellie  submitted  to  the  EEG  and  the  results  showed  neither
irregularities nor major  differences from the  routine brain  testing
that she had  undergone during the  early days of  the colony.  Robert
seemed genuinely relieved. He  then told Ellie  that Nakamura and  the
government were prepared to drop all charges against her and would let
her  return  home  with  Nikki-under  house  arrest  temporarily,   of
course-if she would provide  information about the octospiders.  Ellie
thought about the request for a few minutes and then agreed.
    Robert smiled and gave her a  brisk hug. "Good," he said.  "You'll
start tomorrow. I'll tell them right away."
    Richard had warned Ellie during the ride on the ostrich-saur  that
Nakamura might try to use her in some way, most likely to justify  his
continued  prosecution  of  the  war.  Ellie  knew  that  by  agreeing
ostensibly to help the New Eden
    378
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    government she was committing herself to a very dangerous course.
    Nikki was unfamiliar with her old  bedroom at first, but after  an
hour or so of playing with some of her toys, she seemed quite content.
She came into the bathroom, where  Ellie was taking a bath, and  stood
next to the tub. "When will Daddy be home?" she asked her mother.
    "He'1! be late,  darling," Ellie  replied. "After  you've gone  to
bed."
    "I like my room, Mommy," Nikki  said. "It's much better than  that
old basement."
    "I'm glad," Ellie  replied. The  little girl smiled  and left  the
bathroom. Ellie took a deep breath.  It would have served no  purpose,
she rationalized,  if  I had  refused  and  we had  been  returned  to
confinement.
    4
    K;
    katie had not finished with her  makeup when she heard the  buzzer
sound. She took a drag on the cigarette burning in the ashtray  beside
her and pushed the TALK button. "Who is it?" she said.
    "It's me," came the reply.
    "What are you doing here in the middle of the day?"
    "I have some important news,"  Captain Franz Bauer said. "Buzz  me
up."
    Katie inhaled  deeply on  the cigarette  and stubbed  it out.  She
stood up and looked at herself in the full-length mirror. She adjusted
her hair slightly just before the knock on her door.
    "This had better  be important,  Franz," Katie  said, letting  him
into the room, "or  your ass is  mud. You know  I have a  disciplinary
meeting with two of the girls in a few minutes and I hate to be late."
    Franz grinned. "You caught them skimming again? Jesus, Katie,  I'd
hate for you to be my boss."
    380
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Katie looked at Franz impatiently. "Well?" she said. "What was too
important for the telephone?"
    Franz had  begun to  walk around  the living  room. The  room  was
tastefully decorated, with a  black and white  sofa and loveseat,  two
matching chairs, and several interesting objets d'art on both the  end
tables and  the  coffee  table.  "There's not  any  chance  that  your
apartment is bugged, is there?"
    "You tell  me,  Mr. Police  Captain,"  Katie said.  "Now,  really,
Franz," she added, glancing at her watch, "I don't have-"
    'There is a reliable report," Franz said, "that your father is  in
New Eden at this very moment."
    "Whaat?" said Katie. "How is that possible?" She was stunned.  She
sat down  on the  couch and  reached for  another cigarette  from  the
coffee table.
    "A lieutenant of mine is close  friends with one of your  father's
guards. He was told that Richard and one of those octospider creatures
are being held  in the basement  of a private  residence not far  from
here."
    Katie crossed the room and  picked up the telephone. "Darla,"  she
said, "tell Lauren and Atsuko that the meeting today is off. Something
has come up. Reschedule  for two o'clock  tomorrow afternoon. ...  Oh,
that's right, I forgot. Dammit. ...  All right, make it eleven in  the
morning. No, eleven-thirty. I don't want to wake up too early."
    Katie returned to the couch and picked up her cigarette. She  took
a huge drag and blew smoke rings  into the air over her head. "I  want
to know everything that you have heard about my father."
    Franz informed Katie that, according  to his sources, her  father,
her sister Ellie, her niece, and an octospider had suddenly  appeared,
carrying a white flag, at the troop encampment on the southern edge of
the Cylindrical Sea about two months ago. They had been quite  relaxed
and had even joked wim the soldiers, Franz said. Her father and sister
had told the  troops that  they had  come forward  with an  octospider
representative to see  if an  armed conflict between  the two  species
could be avoided through negotiation.
    RAMA REVEALED
    381
    Nakamura had ordered that the entire affair be kept secret and had
taken them.
    Katie was pacing around the room.  "My father is not only  alive,"
she said excitedly, "he is  here, in New Eden.  Have I ever told  you,
Franz," she said,  "that my  father is absolutely  the smartest  human
being who ever lived?"
    "About a dozen times,"  Franz said. He  laughed. "I can't  imagine
how anyone could be smarter than you."
    Katie waved her hand. "He makes me look like an absolute idiot. He
was always such a dear. I  could get away with anything." She  stopped
her pacing and  inhaled on  her cigarette.  Her eyes  sparkled as  she
exhaled the smoke. "Franz,"  she said. "I must  see him. I  absolutely
must."
    'That's impossible, Katie," he said.  "Nobody is even supposed  to
know that he's here. I could be fired, or worse, if anyone ever  found
out that I told you."
    "I'm pleading with you, Franz," Katie said, crossing the room  and
grabbing him by the shoulders. "You know how I hate asking anyone  for
favors ... but this is very important to me."
    Franz was delighted that for once, Katie was requesting  something
from him. Nevertheless, he told her the truth. "Katie," he said,  "you
still don't understand. There  is an armed guard  around the house  at
all times.  The  entire  basement  is  bugged  with  audio  and  video
monitors. There is just no way."
    "There's always a way," Katie said emphatically, "if something  is
important enough." She reached inside his shirt and began tweaking his
right nipple. "You do  love me, don't you,  Franz?" She kissed him,  a
full open-mouthed kiss, with her tongue darting teasingly across  his.
Katie pulled away slightly, continuing to play with his nipple.
    "Of course  I love  you,  Katie," Franz  said, already  very  much
aroused. "But I'm not crazy."
    Katie marched off into her bedroom and returned less than a minute
later with two stacks of bills. "I am going to see my father,  Franz,"
she said, throwing the money on  the coffee table. "And you are  going
to help me. You can bribe anyone you want with this money."
    382
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Franz was impressed. The money  was more than adequate. "And  what
are you going to do for me?" he said almost jokingly,
    "What am I going to do for youT Katie said. "What am I going to do
for you?" Katie took him by the hand and led him to the bedroom. "Now,
Captain Bauer," she said in an accented voice, "you just take off  all
your clothes and lie here on your back. You'll see what I am going  to
do for you."
    Katie's apartment had a dressing room adjacent to her bedroom. She
walked into  the smaller  room and  closed the  door. With  a key  she
unlocked a large decorated  box on the top  of the counter and  pulled
out one of  the full  syringes she had  prepared earlier  in the  day.
Katie lifted her dress  and tied a tight  tourniquet around her  upper
thigh with a piece of small black tubing. She waited momentarily until
she could clearly identify  a blood vessel in  the mass of bruises  on
her thigh, and then  she deftly inserted  the syringe. After  pressing
all the fluid into her bloodstream, Katie waited a few seconds for the
fantastic rush and then removed the tourniquet.
    "What am I supposed to do while I'm waiting?"
    "Rilke is in my  electronic reader, darling,"  she said, "both  in
German and English. I'll only be a few more minutes."
    Katie was flying. She started humming a dance tune while she threw
the syringe away and returned the tourniquet to the box. She took  off
all her clothes, stopping twice to admire her body in the mirror,  and
put them in  a pile upon  the vanity  stool. Then she  opened a  large
drawer in the vanity and pulled out a blindfold.
    She paraded into the bedroom. Franz's eyes feasted admiringly upon
her lithe  body. "Look  carefully," Katie  said, "'cause  this is  all
you're going to see this afternoon."
    Katie draped her  naked body  casually across his  and kissed  him
intermittently while she attached the blindfold. She made certain that
the blindfold  was snug  and  (hen jumped  down  from the  bed.  "What
happens now?" Franz asked.
    RAMA REVEALED
    383
    "You'll just have to  wait and see," Katie  said teasingly as  she
rummaged through a  large drawer  at the  bottom of  her dresser.  The
drawer contained  a  smorgasbord of  sexual  paraphernalia,  including
electronic aids  of  all  kinds,  lotions,  ropes  and  other  bondage
equipment, masks, and assorted models  of genitalia. Katie selected  a
small bottle of lotion, a vial of white powder, and some beads  strung
along a piece of thin cord.
    Still humming and laughing to herself, Katie rejoined Franz on the
bed and  began to  run her  fingers  over his  chest. She  kissed  him
provocatively with her body pressed against his and then sat up. After
pouring the lotion on her hands and rubbing them together  vigorously,
Katie spread his legs, crawled onto  his stomach with her back  toward
Franz's face, and  began to  apply the  lotion to  his most  sensitive
parts.
    "Ummm," Franz murmured as  the warm lotion  began to take  effect.
"That's wonderful."
    Katie dusted his genitalia with the white powder and then  mounted
him very slowly. Franz was in ecstasy. Katie rocked back and forth  in
an easy rhythm for a few minutes.  When she could tell that Franz  was
nearing a climax, she halted her motion temporarily and reached  under
him to insert the beads. She rocked  two or three more times and  then
halted again.
    "Don't stop now," Franz shouted.
    "Repeat after me," Katie said  with a chuckle, moving slowly  back
and forth one more time. "I promise-"
    "Anything," Franz yelled, "just don't stop again."
    "I promise,"  she continued,  "mat Katie  Wakefield will  see  her
father sometime in the next few days."
    Franz repeated the promise and Katie rewarded him. When she pulled
the cord just after he started  his climax, Franz screamed at the  top
of his lungs like an animal in the forest.
    Ellie did  not like  her two  interrogators. They  were both  dry,
humorless individuals  who treated  her with  complete disdain.  "This
isn't going to work,  gentlemen," she said in  an exasperated tone  at
one point during the first day of
    384
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    questioning, "if you insist on asking the same questions over  and
over. I understood that I was  being asked to supply some  information
about the  octospiders. Thus  far  the questions,  which you  are  now
repeating, have all been about my mother and my father."
    "Mrs. Turner," the first  man said, "the  government is trying  to
gather all  possible  information about  this  case. Your  mother  and
father have both been fugitives for many-"
    "Look," Ellie interrupted, "I  have already told  you that I  know
nothing whatsoever about how, when, or  even why either of my  parents
left New Eden. Nor do I have any knowledge of whether they were helped
to escape,  in  any way,  by  the  octospiders. Now,  unless  you  are
prepared to change the line of questioning-"
    "It is  not  you, young  lady,"  the  second man  said,  his  eyes
flashing, "who decides what are appropriate questions in this inquiry.
Perhaps you do not understand  the seriousness of your situation.  You
will be granted freedom from  prosecution-on a very serious charge,  I
might add-only if you cooperate totally with us."
    "Just what is the charge against me?" Ellie asked. "I'm curious. I
have never been a criminal before."
    "You can  be charged  with first-degree  treason," the  first  man
said. "Deliberately aiding and abetting  the enemy during a period  of
declared hostilities."
    "That's absurd," Ellie replied,  frightened nevertheless. "I  have
no idea what you're talking about."
    "Do you deny that during the period of time that you were  staying
with the aliens you freely gave  them information about New Eden  that
could be useful during a war?"
    "Of course I did," Ellie said, laughing nervously. "I told them as
much  as  I  could  about  our  colony.  And  they  reciprocated.  The
octospiders shared all the same information with us."
    Both men scribbled furiously on their pads. How did they get  like
this? Ellie wondered. How can a laughing, curious child be transformed
into such a grim and Hostile adult?
    RAMA REVEALED
    385
    "Look, gentlemen," Ellie  said when the  next question was  asked,
"this is not going well for me.  I would like to declare a recess  and
organize my  thoughts. Maybe  I'll even  make a  few notes  before  we
reconvene. I had envisioned an altogether different process, something
much more relaxed."
    The two men agreed to the break. Ellie walked down the hallway  to
where a government  sitter was staying  with Nikki. "You  can go  now,
Mrs. Adams," Ellie said. "We're taking time off for lunch."
    Nikki could read the worried look on Ellie's face. "Are those  men
being mean to you, Mommy?" she asked.
    At length Ellie  smiled. "You  could say that,  Nikki," she  said.
"You certainly could say that."
    Richard completed the last of his walking laps around the basement
and headed for  the washbasin in  the corner of  the room. He  stopped
first at  the  table for  a  quick  drink of  water.  Archie  remained
motionless on  the floor  behind Richard's  mattress. "Good  morning,"
Richard said as he  wiped his sweat with  a washcloth. "Are you  ready
for some breakfast?"
    "I'm not hungry," the octospider replied in color.
    "You have to  eat something,"  Richard said  cheerfully. "I  agree
with you that  the food is  terrible, but you  can't survive on  water
alone."
    Archie did not move  or say anything. For  the last several  days,
ever since the supply of his  stored barrican had been exhausted,  the
octospider had not been very good company. Richard had been unable  to
engage Archie in their usual  stimulating conversation and had  become
concerned about the octospider's health.  Richard put some grain in  a
bowl, sprinkled  water on  it, and  carried it  "over to  his  friend.
"Here," he said gently, "try to eat a little."
    Archie lifted a pair of tentacles  and took the bowl. As he  began
to eat, a bright orange burst came  out of his slit and moved  halfway
down one of his other tentacles before fading away.
    "What was that?" Richard asked.
    386
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "An  emotional   expression,"   Archie  answered,   his   response
accompanied by more irregular color bursts.
    Richard smiled. "Okay," he said, "but what kind of emotion?"
    After a long pause, Archie's colored strips were more  regimented.
"I guess you would call it depression," the octospider said.
    "Is that what happens when the barrican is gone?" Richard asked.
    Archie did not reply. At length Richard returned to the table  and
prepared himself a big bowl of grain. Then he came back and sat beside
Archie on the floor. "You might  as well talk about it," Richard  said
softly. "We have nothing else to do."
    From the motion in Archie's lens Richard could tell that the  octo
was studying  him carefully.  Richard took  several spoonfuls  of  his
breakfast before Archie began to speak.
    "In our society," Archie  said, "the young  males and females  who
are undergoing sexual  maturation are taken  away from their  everyday
lives  and  placed  in  a   highly  appropriate  environment  _   with
individuals who  have  been  through  the  process  before.  They  are
encouraged to describe what  they are feeling  and are reassured  that
the new  and complex  emotions they  are experiencing  are  completely
normal. Now I understand  why such a program  of intense attention  is
necessary."
    Archie paused  for a  moment and  Richard smiled  sympathetically.
"These last few days," the  octospider continued, "for the first  time
since I was a very young  juvenile, my emotions have not accepted  the
domination of  my  mind.  During optimizer  training  we  learned  how
important it  was,  whenever  a  decision was  to  be  made,  to  sift
carefully through all the available evidence and remove all  prejudice
that might be due to personal emotional responses. With the  intensity
of the feelings I am having presently, it would be quite impossible to
relegate them to a low priority."
    Richard laughed. "Please  don't misunderstand  me, Archie-I'm  not
laughing at  you-but  you  just desctibed,  in  a  typical  octospider
phrase, what most humans feel all the
    RAMA REVEALED
    387
    time. Very few  of us ever  achieve the control  of our  'personal
emotional responses' that we  would like. This may  be the first  time
that you have ever been able to really understand us, if you know what
I mean."
    "It's terrible," Archie said. "I am feeling both an acute sense of
loss-I miss Dr. Blue and Jamie-and powerful anger toward Nakamura  for
holding us prisoner. I fear that my outrage will cause me to take some
action that is nonoptimal."
    "But the emotions you are describing are not usually connected, at
least in humans,  with sexuality,"  Richard said.  "Does the  barrican
also act as some kind of tranquilizer, subduing all feelings?"
    Archie finished his  breakfast before responding.  "You and I  are
very different  creatures  and, as  I  have mentioned  before,  it  is
dangerous to  project from  one  species to  another. I  remember  our
initial discussions about humans at the optimizers' meeting just after
you had breached the integrity of  your habitat. In the middle of  the
meeting, the Chief Optimizer  stressed that we must  not look at  your
species in  our terms.  We must  observe carefully,  she said,  obtain
data, and correlate  it consistently, without  coloring the data  with
our own experience.
    "I suppose this  ail amounts to  a disclaimer, in  some sense,  of
what 1 am about to tell you. Nevertheless, it is my personal  opinion,
based on my observations of humans, that sexual desire is the  driving
force behind all the strong  emotions in your species. We  octospiders
undergo a  step discontinuity  at sexual  maturation. We  change  from
being completely sexless to sexual in a very short period of time.  In
humans the process is much slower and more subtle. Sexual hormones are
present in varying quantities from early in your fetal development.  I
contend, and have told the Chief  Optimizer this, that it is  possible
that all your uncontrollable  emotions can be  traced to these  sexual
hormones. A human without any sexuality  might be capable of the  same
optimized thought as an octospider."
    "What an interesting  idea!" Richard said  excitedly, standing  up
and beginning to pace. "So are you suggesting
    588
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    that even such things as a  child's unwillingness to share a  toy,
for example, might be linked in some way to our sexuality?"
    "Perhaps,"  Archie  replied.  "Maybe  Galileo  is  practicing  the
possessiveness of his adult sexuality when he refuses to share one  of
his toys  with Kepler.  Certainly the  human child's  devotion to  the
parent of the opposite sex is a precursor of adult attitudes."
    Archie stopped, for Richard had turned his back and had  increased
his pacing. "I'm sorry,"  he said, returning a  few moments later  and
again sitting on the floor beside the octospider. "Something  occurred
to me just now, something I thought about briefly earlier this morning
when we were talking about  controlling our emotions. Do you  remember
an earlier  conversation  in which  you  dismissed the  concept  of  a
personal  God  as  an  'evolutionary  aberration'  necessary  for  all
developing species as  a temporary bridge  during transition from  the
first awareness phase to the Information Era? Have the recent  changes
in you altered in any way your attitude about God?"
    A broad burst of multicolored strips, which Richard recognized  as
laughter, spilled  over  most of  the  octospider's upper  body.  "You
humans," Archie said, "are absolutely preoccupied with this notion  of
God. Even those like you, Richard,  who profess not to believe,  still
spend an inordinate amount  of time thinking  about or discussing  the
subject. As  I  explained to  you  months ago,  we  octospiders  value
information foremost, as we were taught by the Precursors. There is no
verifiable information available about any God, especially not one who
is involved in any way with the daily affairs of the universe-"
    "You didn't exactly understand my question," Richard  interrupted,
"or maybe I didn't phrase it precisely enough. What I want to know is,
in your  new,  more emotional  state,  can you  understand  why  other
intelligent beings might  create a personal  God as a  device to  give
them comfort and  also to explain  all those things  that they  cannot
comprehend?" *>
    Archie laughed again with bursts of color. "You're very
    RAMA REVEALED
    389
    clever, Richard," the  octospider said.  "You want  me to  confirm
what you think, namely that God also is an emotional concept, born out
of a yearning not unlike sexual  desire. Therefore God too is  derived
from sexual  hormones. I  cannot go  that far.  I do  not have  enough
information. But I can say, based on the turmoil inside me these  last
few days,  that  I  now  understand this  word  'yearning'  which  was
meaningless to me before."
    Archie seemed like his old  self this morning. Richard smiled.  He
was pleased. Their exchanges had been like this daily before  Archie's
buffer had become empty of barrican. "It would be great, wouldn't it,"
Richard said suddenly, "if  we could still talk  with all our  friends
back in the Emerald City?"
    Archie knew what Richard was suggesting. The two of them had  been
careful never  to mention  the  quadroids or  even  to hint  that  the
octospiders had an intelligence-gathering system. They did not want to
alert Nakamura and  their guards.  Now, as  Richard watched  silently,
bands of color streamed around Archie's head. Although the  octospider
was no longer using  the derivative language  that had been  developed
for communication with the humans, Richard was able to understand  the
gist of the transmission.
    After formally greeting  the Chief Optimizer  and apologizing  for
the lack  of  success  of  their mission,  Archie  sent  two  personal
messages, a short one to  Jamie and a longer  one to Dr. Blue.  During
the transmission to his  life partner Dr.  Blue, variegated bursts  of
color broke out of the measured pattern of Archie's message.  Richard,
who had grown to know his basement companion well in their two  months
together, was both fascinated and touched by this beautiful display of
uninhibited emotion.
    When Archie was finished, Richard came over and put a hand on  the
octospider's back. "Do you feel better now?" he asked.
    "In some ways," Archie replied. "But I also feel worse at the same
time. I am more aware now than I  was before that I may never see  Dr.
Blue or Jamie again."
    "Sometimes I imagine what I would say to Nicole,"
    390
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE.
    RAMA REVEALED
    391
    Richard interrupted, "if I could talk to her on the telephone." He
spoke his  words very  correctly, exaggerating  the movements  of  his
mouth. "I miss you very much, Nicole,"  he said, "and I love you  with
all my heart."
    Richard did not have very vivid dreams. Therefore, external sounds
were not likely  to be  incorporated into  an ongoing  dream. When  he
heard what he thought was a shuffling of feet above him in the  middle
of the night, he awakened quickly.
    Archie was sleeping. Richard looked  around and realized that  the
night light in the toilet area was extinguished. Alarmed, he  awakened
his octospider companion.
    "What is it?" Archie asked in color.
    "I heard something unusual upstairs," Richard whispered.
    There was  a sound  of the  door to  the basement  stairs  opening
slowly. Richard heard a soft footstep, then another, on the top of the
stairs. He strained  his eyes, but  Richard could see  nothing in  the
near darkness.
    "It's a woman and a policeman,"  Archie said, his lens picking  up
the infrared heat of the intruders. "They have stopped for the  moment
on the third step."
    We 're going to be killed, Richard thought. A powerful fear  swept
through him and he drew closer to Archie. He heard the slow closing of
the basement door and then the footsteps descending the stairs.
    "Where are they now?" he whispered.
    "At the bottom," Archie said. "They are coming. I think the  woman
is-"
    "Dad." Richard heard a voice from his past. "Where are you, Dad?"
    "Holy shit! It's Katie," Richard said. "Over here," he added,  too
loud, trying to contain his excitement.
    A very small flashlight beam  wandered around the wall behind  his
mattress and  eventually landed  on his  bearded face.  A few  seconds
later Katie tripped over Archie  and literally fell into her  father's
arms.fc
    She kissed and hugged him, tears running down her
    cheeks. Richard was so startled by the entire event that he was at
first unable to respond to any of  Katie's questions. "Yes . . .  yes,
I'm fine," he said eventually. "I can't believe it's you. . . . Katie,
oh, Katie. .  . .  Oh, yes,  that gray mass  over there,  the one  you
kicked a moment  ago, is  my friend  and fellow  prisoner, Archie  the
octospider."
    Several seconds later  Richard exchanged a  firm handshake in  the
dark with a man Katie introduced only as her "friend." "We don't  have
much time," Katie said hurriedly after several minutes of conversation
about the family.  "We've short-circuited  the power  systems in  this
entire residential area, and they  should be repaired before too  much
longer."
    "Are we going to escape, then?" Richard asked.
    "No," Katie said. "They would certainly catch and kill you. . .  .
I just wanted to see you. When  I heard the rumor that you were  being
held somewhere in New Eden . . .  Oh, Daddy, how I have missed you!  I
love you so very much."
    Richard put  his arms  around his  daughter and  held her  as  she
cried. She felt  so thin and  fragile in  his arms. "I  love you  too,
Katie," Richard said. "Here," he added, pulling away slightly,  "shine
the light on your face. . . . Let me see your beautiful eyes."
    "No, Daddy," Katie said, burying herself again in his embrace.  "I
look old and  used. ... I  want you to  remember me as  I was. I  have
lived a hard-"
    "It's unlikely that they will be keeping you here much longer, Mr.
Wakefield," the male voice in  the dark interrupted. "Almost  everyone
in the colony has heard the story of your appearance at the  soldiers'
camp."
    "Are you all right, Daddy?" Katie said after a short silence. "Are
they feeding you properly?"
    "I'm fine, Katie ... but what have you been doing? Are you happy?"
    "I've had another  promotion," she  said rapidly. "And  ' .my  new
apartment is beautiful. You should see it. . . . And ; I have a friend
who cares about me." .%• "I'm so glad," Richard said as Franz reminded
Katie that
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    they needed to  be going.  "You were  always the  smartest of  the
children. . . . You deserve some happiness.'v
    Katie suddenly  began sobbing  and lowered  her head  against  her
father's chest.  "Daddy,  oh,  Daddy," she  said  through  her  tears,
"please hold me."
    Richard put his arms around his daughter. "What is it, Katie?"  he
said softly.
    "I don't want to  lie to you," Katie  said. "I work for  Nakamura,
managing prostitutes. And I'm a drug addict . . . a complete and total
drug addict."
    Katie cried for a long time.  Richard held her tightly and  patted
her on the  back. "But  I do  love you,  Daddy," Katie  said when  she
finally raised her head. "I always have, and I always will. . . .  I'm
terribly sorry that I have disappointed you."
    "Katie, we must be leaving now," Franz said firmly. "If the  power
is restored while we are still in the house, we'll be in deep shit."
    Katie kissed  her father  hurriedly on  the lips  and stroked  his
beard affectionately with her  fingers one final  time. 'Take care  of
yourself, Daddy," she said. "And don't give up hope."
    The flashlight  beam was  a  thin finger  of light  preceding  the
visiting pair as they  quickly crossed the room  to the bottom of  the
stairs. "Good-bye, Daddy," Katie said.
    "I love you too, Katie," Richard said as he heard the sound of his
daughter's feet running up the stairs.
    5 T:
    :K octospider on the table was inconscious. Nicole handed Dr. Blue
the small plastic container that the alien physician had requested and
watched as  the tiny  creatures were  dumped onto  the greenish  black
fluid that covered the open wound. In less than a minute the fluid was
gone and her octospider colleague  deftly sewed up the incision  using
the forward five centimeters of three of her tentacles.
    "That's the  last one  for today,"  Dr. Blue  said in  color.  "As
always, Nicole, we thank you for your help."
    The two of them walked together out of the operating area into  an
adjacent room. Nicole had not  yet accustomed herself to the  cleaning
process. She took a  deep breath before  removing her protective  gown
and  placing  her  arms  in  a  large  bowl  filled  with  dozens   of
silverfishlike animals. Nicole fought  against her personal  revulsion
as the slimy things clambered all over her arms and hands.
    "I know this part is not pleasant for you," Dr. Blue said, "but we
really have no choice now that the forward water
    394
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    395
    supply has been contaminated by the  bombing. And we can't take  a
chance that anything here might be toxic for you."
    "Is everything destroyed north of the forest?" Nicole asked  while
Dr. Blue finished cleaning herself up.
    "Almost," the octospider replied.  "And it looks  as if the  human
engineers have now  finished their modifications  to the  helicopters.
The Chief Optimizer fears that they will make their first flights over
the forest in another week or two."
    "And there have been no replies to the messages you have sent?"
    "None at all. We know  that Nakamura has read them  . . . but  the
humans  captured  and  killed  the  last  messenger  near  the   power
plant-despite the fact that our octospider was carrying a white flag."
    Nicole sighed. She  remembered something  Max had  said the  night
before when she had expressed bewilderment that Nakamura was  ignoring
all the messages. "Of  course he is," Max  had shouted angrily.  "That
man understands nothing but  force. All those  stupid messages say  is
that the octos want peace and  will be forced to defend themselves  if
the humans don't desist. The threats that follow are meaningless. What
is Nakamura  to think  when  his troops  and helicopters  move  around
unimpeded, destroying everything in sight? Hasn't the Chief  Optimizer
learned anything about humans? The octospiders must engage  Nakamura's
army in some kind of battle."
    "That's not their way," Nicole  had replied. 'They do not  involve
themselves in skirmishes or limited  wars. They only fight when  their
survival is threatened. The  messages have spelled  this all out  very
carefully and have repeatedly  urged Nakamura to  talk to Richard  and
Archie."
    In the hospital, Dr. Blue was flashing colors at Nicole. She shook
her head and returned to the present. "Are you going to wait today for
Benjy?" the octospider  asked. "Or will  you go directly  over to  the
administrative center?"
    Nicole checked her watch. "I think  I'll go now. It usually  takes
me a couple  of hours to  digest all  the qyadroid data  from the  day
before. So much  is happening. Please  tell Benjy to  tell the  others
that I'll be home for dinner."
    She walked out of the hospital a few minutes later and headed  for
the administrative center. Even though it was daytime, the streets  of
the  Emerald   City  were   nearly  deserted.   Nicole  passed   three
octospiders, all hurrying on the other side of the road, and a pair of
crab biots,  who looked  strangely out  of place.  Dr. Blue  had  told
Nicole that the crab biots had been recruited for Emerald City garbage
duty.
    The city has  changed so  much since the  decree, Nicole  thought.
Most of the older octos are now  over in the war domain. And we  never
saw a single biot here  until a month ago,  after most of the  support
creatures had supposedly  been moved to  another location. Max  thinks
many of them might have been terminated because of the shortages.  Max
always thinks the worst of the octospiders.
    Often after work  Nicole would  accompany Benjy  to the  transport
stop. Her son was also helping the shorthanded staff at the  hospital.
As Benjy had become  more aware of what  was occurring in the  Emerald
City, it  had grown  increasingly  difficult for  Nicole to  hide  the
seriousness of their situation.
    "Why are our people fighting  against the octospiders?" Benjy  had
asked the previous week. "Don't they  know that -the octos don't  want
to hurt anybody?"
    'The colonists  in New  Eden  don't understand  the  octospiders,"
Nicole had  replied. "And  they  won't let  Archie and  Uncle  Richard
explain anything."
    "Then they're stupider than I am," Benjy had said gruffly.
    Dr. Blue and the other  members of the octospider .hospital  staff
who had not been reassigned because of the war were all very impressed
with Benjy. In  the beginning, when  he had volunteered  to help,  the
octospiders had  had reservations  about  what he  could do  with  his
limited capabilities. Once a simple task had been explained to him  by
Nicole, however, and he had repeated it back to her, Benjy never  made
a mistake. With his strong,  youthful body, he was especially  helpful
performing heavy labor, a ? valuable attribute now that so many of the
larger creatures
    were no  longer around.  ;  While Nicole  was walking  toward  the
administrative
    396
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    397
    center, she found herself thinking about both Benjy and Katie.  In
her mind's eye Nicole glanced back  and forth between pictures of  the
two children. As parents, she said to herself, we often spend too much
time focusing on  intellectual potential instead  of more  substantive
qualities. What matters most is not how much intellect the child  has,
but rather what he or she decides  to do with it. Benjy has  succeeded
beyond our wildest imaginings, primarily because of who he is  inside.
As for Katie, never, in my worst nightmares . . .
    Nicole broke her train of thought as she entered the building.  An
octospider guard waved  at her and  she smiled. When  she reached  her
usual viewing room, Nicole was  surprised to find the Chief  Optimizer
waiting for  her.  "I  wanted  to take  this  opportunity,"  the  head
octospider said,  "both to  thank  you for  the contribution  you  are
making in this  difficult period  and to  reassure you  that all  your
family and friends here in  the Emerald City will  be cared for as  if
they were members of our species,  no matter what happens in the  next
few weeks."
    The Chief Optimizer started to  leave the room. "The situation  is
deteriorating, then?" Nicole asked.
    "Yes," the octospider replied. "As soon as the humans fly over the
forest, we will be forced to retaliate."
    When the Chief Optimizer was gone, Nicole sat down in front of her
console to scan through the quadroid data from the day before. She was
not allowed access to all the  information from New Eden, but she  was
permitted to call  up the images  of the daily  activities of all  the
members of her family. Nicole could see each day what was happening in
the basement  with  Richard  and  Archie, how  Ellie  and  Nikki  were
adjusting to being back in New Eden, and what was occurring in Katie's
world.
    As time passed, Nicole watched Katie less and less. It was  simply
too painful for her. Observing  her granddaughter Nikki, by  contrast,
was pure delight.  Nicole especially enjoyed  watching Nikki on  those
afternoons when (jie little  girl went to  the Beauvois playground  to
play with the other children of the village. Although the images  were
soundless,
    Nicole could almost hear the squeals of mirthful delight as  Nikki
and the  others tumbled  over one  another in  pursuit of  an  elusive
soccer ball.
    Nicole's heart  ached for  Ellie.  Despite her  daughter's  heroic
efforts, Ellie was  not having  any luck  resuscitating her  marriage.
Robert had remained  withdrawn in  his workaholic  pattern, using  the
demands of  the  hospital  to  keep  him  from  facing  all  emotions,
including his own. He was a dutiful but restrained parent with  Nikki,
only rarely showing any true delight. He did not make love with  Ellie
and would not talk  about it, except  to say that  he was "not  ready"
when she tearfully brought up the  subject three weeks after they  had
been reunited.
    She always saved  Richard for last.  Although Nicole never  really
shook the premonition that she would not touch her husband again,  she
did  not  let  that  feeling  detract  from  the  daily  pleasure  she
experienced sharing  his  life  in  the  basement  in  New  Eden.  She
especially enjoyed his conversations with  Archie, even though it  was
often difficult for her to  read his lips. Their discussions  reminded
Nicole of earlier  days, after her  escape from prison  and New  Eden,
when Richard and she  would talk and  talk about everything.  Watching
Richard always left Nicole feeling uplifted and much more able to deal
with her own loneliness.
    The reunion between Richard and Katie caught her by surprise.  She
had not been following  Katie's life closely enough  to know that  her
daughter and Franz had success-folly designed a plan to secure a short
visit with Richard. Because the  quadroid images covered the  infrared
portion of the spectrum as well as the visible, Nicole actually had  a
better view of the reunion than the participants. She was deeply moved
by Katie's action, and  even more by  Katie's sudden admission  (which
Nicole watched over and  over, in super slow  motion, to make  certain
she was properly leading Katie's lips) that she was a drug addict. The
first step to overcoming a problem, Nicole remembered from  somewhere,
is to admit to someone you love that the problem exists.
    There were happy tears in Nicole's eyes as she rode the
    398
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    399
    nearly empty transport back  to the human  enclave in the  Emerald
City.  Despite  the  fact  that  the  bizarre  world  around  her  was
deteriorating into chaos, for once Nicole was optimistic about Katie.
    Patrick and the  twins were  outside when Nicole  stepped off  the
transport at the end of the street. As she drew closer, she could tell
that Patrick was  trying to  adjudicate one of  the boys'  innumerable
disputes.
    "He always cheats," Kepler was saying.  "I told him that I  wasn't
going to play with him anymore and he hit me."
    'That's a lie," Galileo replied. "I hit him because he made a face
at me. Kepler's  a sore loser.  If he  can't win, he  thinks it's  all
right to quit."
    Patrick separated the two  boys and sent  them, as punishment,  to
sit against opposite corners of the house. He then greeted his  mother
with a kiss and a hug.
    "I have some big news," Nicole said, smiling at her son.  "Richard
had a surprise visitor today-Katie!"
    Of course Patrick  wanted to  know all  the details  of the  visit
between his sister and Richard.  Nicole summarized what she had  seen,
admitting that she was  encouraged by Katie's  confession of her  drug
habit. "Don't read too much into her action," Patrick admonished. "The
Katie I knew would rather die than be without her precious kokomo."
    Patrick had turned around and was  almost ready to tell the  twins
that they could resume playing, when a pair of rockets raced  skyward,
bursting into  bright red  balls of  light just  underneath the  dome.
Moments later the  city was  plunged into darkness.  "Come on,  boys,"
Patrick said. "We must go inside."
    "That's the third time today," Patrick commented to Nicole as they
followed Kepler and Galileo into the house.
    "Dr. Blue  said they  extinguish the  city lights  the moment  any
helicopter rises to  within twenty  meters of  the top  of the  forest
canopy. Under no circumstances do the octospiders want to risk showing
the location of the Emerald C^y."
    "Do you think Archie and Uncle Richard will ever have a chance  to
meet with Nakamura?" Patrick asked.
    "I doubt it," Nicole  replied. "If he were  going to see them,  it
should have happened before now."
    Eponine and Nai greeted Nicole  and embraced her. The three  women
talked briefly about the blackout.  Eponine was holding little  Marius
on her hip. The boy was a fat, happy baby with a major drooling habit.
She wiped off his face with a cloth so that Nicole could kiss him,
    "Ah-ha," she heard Max say behind her, "the Queen of Frowns is now
kissing the Prince of Drools."
    Nicole turned around  and gave Max  a hug. "What's  this Queen  of
Frowns bit?" she said lightly.
    Max handed  her  a  glass containing  some  clear  liquid.  "Here,
Nicole, I want you to drink this. It's not tequila, but it's the  best
substitute the octospiders could make  from my description. We're  all
hoping that maybe you'll  find your sense of  humor before you  finish
the drink."
    "Come on, Max," Eponine said. "Don't make Nicole think that  we're
all somehow involved. This  was your idea, after  all. The only  thing
that Patrick, Nai, and I did was agree with you that she has been very
serious lately."
    "Now, my lady," Max said to Nicole, raising his glass and clinking
it against hers, "I want  to propose a toast. To  all of us, who  have
absolutely no control  over our  future. May  we love  each other  and
share laughter until the end, whenever and however it might come."
    Nicole had not seen Max drunk since before she went to prison.  At
his insistence she took a small drink. Her throat and esophagus burned
and her eyes watered. The drink contained a lot of alcohol.*
    "Before dinner  tonight," Max  now  said, opening  his arms  in  a
dramatic flourish, "we are going to tell farm jokes. This will provide
us some much-needed comic relief.  You, Nicole des Jardins  Wakefield,
as our  leader by  example if  not by  election, will  have the  floor
first."
    Nicole managed a  smile. "But I  don't know any  farm jokes,"  she
protested.
    . Eponine was  relieved to  see that  Nicole was  not offended  by
Max's behavior. 'That's all right, Nicole," Epo-
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    401
    nine said, "none of us do. Max knows enough farm jokes for all  of
us."
    "Once upon a time,"  Max began a few  moments later, "there was  a
farmer from Oklahoma who had a fat wife named Whistle. She was  called
Whistle because, at the climax of her lovemaking, she would close  her
eyes, screw up her mouth, and make a long whistling sound."
    Max belched. The twins giggled.  Nicole worried that maybe it  was
not appropriate for  the children  to hear  Max's story,  but Nai  was
sitting behind  her  boys,  laughing with  them.  Relax,  Nicole  told
herself. You really have become the Queen of Frowns.
    "Now, one night," Max  continued, "this farmer  and Whistle had  a
big brouhaha-that's a fight, to you,  boys- and she went to bed  early
and fuming. The fanner sat by himself at the table, drinking some fine
tequila. As the evening progressed, he  became sorry that he had  been
such an ornery son of a bitch and began to apologize in a loud voice.
    "Meanwhile, ole Whistle, who was now angry all over again  because
the farmer had awakened her, knew that when he finished drinking,  her
husband was going  to enter the  bedroom and try  to seal his  apology
with some  wild lovemaking.  While the  farmer emptied  the bottle  of
tequila, Whistle slipped out  of the house, went  over to the  pigpen,
and carried the  youngest and  smallest of  the sows  back into  their
bedroom.
    "When the drunken  farmer staggered  into the  dark bedroom  later
that night, singing one  of his favorite  hymns, Whistle was  watching
from the corner and the  sow was in the bed.  The farmer took all  his
clothes off and  jumped under the  sheets. He grabbed  the sow by  the
ears and kissed her on me lips. The sow squealed and the fanner pulled
back. 'Whistle, my love,' he said, 'did you forget to brush your teeth
tonight?'
    "His wife bolted from the corner  and began beating the farmer  on
the head with a broom."
    Everyone was laughing. Max was so  amused by his own joke that  he
could not sit  upright. When  he ^finished laughing,  he took  another
drink of the octospider alcohol.
    "My brother Clyde," Max said, "knew more farm jokes than anyone  I
ever met. He courted Winona with them, or so he claimed. Clyde used to
tell me that a 'laughing woman  already has one hand on her  panties.'
When we would go duck hunting with the guys, we'd never shoot a single
goddamn duck. Clyde would start telling stories, and we'd be  laughing
and drinking. After a while we'd forget why we got up at five ayem  to
go and sit in the cold."
    Max stopped talking and there was  a momentary quiet in the  room.
"Damn," he said  after the  brief silence. "For  a while  there I  was
imagining I was back in Arkansas." He stood up. "I don't even know now
which way Arkansas is  from here, or how  many billions of  kilometers
away it is."  Max shook his  head. "Sometimes, when  I'm dreaming  and
it's real lifelike, I think the  dream is reality. I believe I'm  back
in Arkansas. Then  when I wake  up I am  lost, and I  think for a  few
seconds that this life  we're living here in  the Emerald City is  the
dream."
    "The same  thing happens  to  me," Nai  said.  'Two nights  ago  I
dreamed I  was doing  my morning  meditation in  the hawng  pro in  my
family home in Lamphun. As I was reciting my mantra, Patrick  awakened
me. He told  me that I  was talking in  my sleep. For  a few  seconds,
however, I didn't know who he was. It was frightening."
    "All right," Max  said after  a protracted silence.  He turned  to
Nicole. "I guess we're ready for the news of the day. What do you have
to tell us?"
    "The quadroid videos today were  very peculiar," a smiling  Nicole
replied. "For the first few minutes,  I was certain I had entered  the
wrong data base. Image after  image showed a pig,  or a chicken, or  a
drunken Oklahoma farm boy trying to court a sweet young thing. In  the
last series of  pictures a  fanner was  trying to  drink tequila,  eat
fried chicken,  and make  love with  his sweetheart  all at  the  same
time-which reminds me, that chicken  sure looked good. Is anyone  else
hungry?"
    6
    I think they were somewhat reassured by what the Chief
    Optimizer told me," Nicole said to Dr. Blue. "Max, of course,  had
his doubts. He doesn't believe taking care  of us will be a very  high
priority if the situation really becomes
    desperate."
    'That's very  unlikely,"  the  octospider  replied.  "Any  further
escalation of hostilities will be  met by a massive retaliation.  Many
octospiders have been working on our war plans for almost two months."
    "Have I  understood correctly,  then," Nicole  asked, "that  every
individual member of your species who has been involved in the  design
and prosecution of this war will be terminated when it is over?"
    "Yes,"  Dr.  Blue  replied,  "although  they  will  not  all   die
immediately. They will be notified that  they have been placed on  the
termination list.  The  new  Chief Optimizer  will  define  the  exact
schedule for the terminations,  depending on the  needs of the  colony
and the pace of replenishment."
    RAMA REVEALED
    403
    Nicole and  her octospider  colleague were  sharing lunch  at  the
hospital. They had spent the morning trying unsuccessfully to save the
lives of two of the six-armed  utility creatures who had been  blasted
by human troops while  they were working in  one of the few  remaining
grain fields on the north side of the forest.
    During their  lunch, a  centipede  biot trundled  by in  the  hall
beside them. Dr. Blue noticed that  Nicole followed the biot with  her
eyes for  several  seconds. "When  we  first came  inside  Rama,"  the
octospider said, "before we  had developed our  full cadre of  support
animals,  we  used  the  available  biots  for  routine  tasks,   like
maintenance. Now we need their help again."
    "But how do you  give them instructions?"  Nicole asked. "We  were
never able to communicate with them at all."
    "Their programming  is done  in  firmware, at  the time  of  their
manufacture. What we did in the  early days, using a kind of  keyboard
analogous to the one you had in your lair, was ask the Ramans to alter
the programming for our specific uses.  That's what all the biots  are
here for ... to  be turned into useful  servants by the passengers  on
board."
    Well, Richard,  Nicole thought,  that's at  least one  concept  we
missed altogether. In fact, I don't think the idea ever even  occurred
to us.
    "We wanted our  settlement here  in Rama  to be  indistinguishable
from any of our other colonies," Dr. Blue continued, "so as soon as we
no longer needed the biots, we requested that they be removed from our
domain in Rama."
    "And since then  you have had  no direct contact  at all with  the
Ramans?"
    "Not  much,"  Dr.  Blue  replied.  "But  we  have  maintained  the
capability  to   communicate   with  the   high-technology   factories
underneath  the  surface,  primarily  so  that  we  can  request   the
manufacture of  certain raw  materials  that we  do  not have  in  our
warehouses."
    A door  opened from  the corridor  and an  octospider entered.  It
talked rapidly  with Dr.  Blue in  their language,  using very  narrow
color bands.  Nicole  recognized  the  words  "permission"  and  "this
afternoon," but very little else.
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    After the visitor had departed, Dr. Blue told Nicole that she  had
a surprise for her. "Today one of our queens is going to have her  egg
rush. Her attendants are estimating it will take place in half a tert.
The Chief Optimizer has approved my request for you to observe. To  my
knowledge, you  are  the  only alien-except  for  the  Precursors,  of
course-who has ever  had the privilege  of witnessing an  egg rush.  I
think you will find it very interesting."
    During the transport ride  to the Queen's Domain,  which was in  a
part of the  Emerald City that  Nicole had never  visited before,  Dr.
Blue reminded Nicole of some of the more unusual aspects of octospider
reproduction. "In normal times, each of the three queens in our colony
is fertilized  once  every three  to  five  years, and  only  a  small
fraction of  the fertilized  eggs is  permitted to  grow to  maturity.
Because of the war preparations, however, the Chief Optimizer recently
declared a  Replenishment  Event. All  three  of our  queens  are  now
producing a full  set of eggs.  They have been  fertilized by the  new
warrior males, those octospiders selected for the war effort who  have
recently passed  through sexual,  transition.  This activity  is  very
important, for it ensures, at  least symbolically, that each of  these
octospiders will  have continued  genetic involvement  in the  colony.
Remember, they know, as soon as they are designated as warriors,  that
their termination time is not too far away."
    Whenever  I  think  that  we  have  a  lot  in  common  with   the
octospiders, Nicole was thinking, I see something so bizarre that I am
reminded how very  different we are.  But, as Richard  would say,  how
could it be otherwise? They are the product of a process totally alien
to us.
    "Don't be alarmed at  the size of me  queen," Dr. Blue  continued,
"and please, under  no circumstances should  you express anything  but
delight at what you  see. When I first  suggested that you attend  the
egg rush, one of the Chief Optimizer's staff members objected,  saying
that there was no way you could fully appreciate what you were seeing.
Some of the other staff members  were worried th*at you might  display
discomfort or even disgust and thereby
    RAMA REVEALED
    405
    detract  from  the  experience  for  the  otiier  octospiders   in
attendance."
    Nicole assured Dr. Blue that she would do nothing untoward  during
the ceremony. She was indeed flattered  that she had been included  in
the  activity,  and  was  feeling  considerable  excitement  when  the
transport deposited  them  outside  the thick  walls  of  the  Queen's
Domain.
    The building  Nicole entered  with Dr.  Blue was  dome-shaped  and
built of blocks of white rock. It was about ten meters tall inside and
covered a ground  area of roughly  thirty-five hundred square  meters.
There was a large map just inside  the door in the atrium area, and  a
written message in  color identifying  where the egg  rush would  take
place. Nicole followed  Dr. Blue  and several other  octospiders up  a
pair of ramps and then down a long corridor. At the end of the hallway
they turned  right  and  entered  a balcony  area  that  overlooked  a
rectangular floor fifteen meters long and five or six meters wide.
    Dr. Blue took  Nicole to the  front row, where  a railing a  meter
high protected the audience  from falling onto  the floor four  meters
below. Behind them the  five elevated rows  filled up quickly.  Across
the way, there was another, similar viewing area that would hold about
sixty octospiders.
    Looking down, Nicole could see a pool of water resembling a  canal
that ran the length of the floor and then disappeared under an arch on
the right. There were narrow walkways  on either side of the pool.  On
the opposite side, however, the walkway expanded into a broad platform
three meters or so before it encountered the rock wall that formed the
entire left  side of  the large  room. This  wall, painted  with  many
different colors and  designs, contained  a hundred  or so  protruding
silver rods or  spikes, each standing  out a meter  from where it  was
embedded in  the  wall.  Nicole  noticed  immediately  the  similarity
between the wall and the vertical corridor, shaped like a barrel, that
she and her friends had  descended inside the octospider lair  beneath
New York.
    Less than ten minutes after the two balcony areas were filled, the
Chief Optimizer shuffled dirough a doorway on
    406
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    the lower level, stood on the walkway beside the pool, and made  a
short speech. Dr. Blue helped Nicole translate as the Chief  Optimizer
reminded the onlookers that although the  exact timing of an egg  rush
was never known, it was likely the  queen would be ready to enter  the
room in several  more fengs.  After making  a few  comments about  the
critical importance of replenishment in the continuity of the  colony,
the Chief Optimizer made her exit.
    After what seemed like  a long wait, the  great doors at the  left
end of the far walkway opened  and the massive queen lumbered in.  She
was huge, at least six meters tall, with a gigantic swollen body above
her eight  long  tentacles.  She  stopped on  the  platform  and  said
something to the audience. Bright colors spilled in profusion all over
her body, creating a vivid spectacle. Nicole could not understand what
the queen was saying because she  could not follow the exact  sequence
of colors pouring out of the slit.
    The queen slowly turned toward  the wall, extended her  tentacles,
and began the laborious process of pulling herself up onto the spikes.
Throughout the climb, disordered bursts of color decorated her  .body.
Nicole assumed these were emotional expressions of some kind,  perhaps
pain  and  fatigue.  Looking  around  her,  Nicole  noticed  that  the
octospi-ders in the  audience were  all silent, their  heads dark  and
devoid of color.
    When the queen had finally positioned herself in the center of the
wall, she wrapped all  eight tentacles around  the spikes and  exposed
her cream-colored  underbelly.  While  she had  been  working  in  the
hospital, Nicole had  become quite familiar  with octospider  anatomy,
but she  had never  imagined  that the  soft tissue  underneath  their
bellies could be distended so much. As Nicole watched, the queen began
rocking slightly, moving forward and backward, gently bouncing off the
rock wall with each motion. The emotional color display continued. The
colors reached their peak  intensity when a  geyser of greenish  black
fluid spewed forth from the queen's underside, followed immediately by
an immense outpouring of white objects of different sizes contained in
a thick, viscous fluid.
    RAMA REVEALED
    407
    Nicole was stupefied.  Below her,  a dozen or  so octospi-ders  on
either side of  the pool were  hurriedly brushing into  the water  the
eggs and fluid that  had landed on the  walkways. Another eight  octos
were pouring the unknown  contents of huge  containers into the  pool.
The water  was  now  teeming  with octospider  blood,  eggs,  and  the
high-viscosity fluid that  was ejected  along with the  eggs. In  less
than a minute the entire  slurry in the pool  moved under the arch  to
the right.
    The queen had not yet changed  position. Once the pool below  them
was clear running water again, all  lenses turned to watch the  queen.
Nicole was staggered by  how much the  octospider had already  shrunk.
She estimated that the  queen must have lost  half her body weight  in
the fraction of a second it took the egg mass and accompanying  fluids
to pour forth  from her body.  The queen was  bleeding still, and  two
normal-sized octospiders had climbed up  the wall to minister to  her.
At this point Dr.  Blue tapped Nicole on  the shoulder, indicating  it
was time to leave.
    Sitting by herself  in one of  the small rooms  in the  octospider
hospital, Nicole played the egg rush scene over and over in her  mind.
She had not expected that the  event would affect her so  emotionally.
Nicole had only half  watched while Dr. Blue  explained to her,  after
they had returned to  the hospital, that  the containers emptied  into
the slurry were  full of  tiny animals that  would seek  out and  kill
specific embryos. In  that way the  octospiders controlled, she  said,
the exact composition of the next generation, including the number  of
queens, repletes, midget morphs, and all the other variations.
    The mother in Nicole  was struggling to  understand what it  would
feel like  to be  an octospider  queen  during an  egg rush.  In  some
undefinable way, Nicole felt deeply connected to that mammoth creature
that had crawled  up onto the  spikes. During the  instant of the  egg
rush, Nicole's loins had contracted, and she had recalled bom the pain
and the exhilaration of her own six births. What is there about the
    408
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    birth process, she wondered briefly, that unites all creatures who
have ever experienced it?
    Nicole was overwhelmed by a  desire to communicate with the  queen
octospider, to  know  what  that other  intelligent  mother  had  been
thinking and feeling just  prior to and during  the egg rush. Had  the
queen, amid  the pain  and wonder  of the  moment, felt  an  epiphanic
serenity, a vision of her own offspring and their offspring continuing
into the unforeseen future,  the miraculous cycle  of life? Had  there
been a deep and ineffable peace in the seconds just after the rush,  a
peace unlike any the  creature had ever known  at any time other  than
immediately after birth?
    Nicole knew that  the imaginary conversation  she was having  with
the  queen  could  never  take  place.  Again  she  closed  her  eyes,
attempting to reconstruct the  exact bursts of color  she had seen  on
the queen's body  immediately before  and after the  event. Had  those
surges of color told the other octospiders what the queen was feeling?
Were they somehow able, Nicole  wondered, with their rich language  of
color, to  communicate  complex  feelings  like  ecstasy  better  than
humans, with their, limited language of words?
    There were  no  answers. Nicole  realized  that there  were  tasks
waiting for her outside the room, in the octospider hospital, but  she
was not ready for  her solitude to  end. She did  not want the  strong
emotions she was feeling to be  diminished by the demands of  everyday
life.
    Nicole had also begun to experience a profound loneliness. She did
not at first connect her loneliness  directly to the egg rush.  Nicole
was, however, quite aware that she was having a strong desire to  talk
to a  close  friend, preferably  Richard.  She wanted  to  share  with
someone what  she had  seen and  felt in  the Queen's  Domain. In  her
isolation Nicole suddenly remembered a few lines from a relevant  poem
by Benita Garcia, She opened her portable computer and, after a  short
search, found the entire poem.
    In moments of deep doubt or intense pain, When I am overpowered by
my life, I search around me everywhere I can
    RAMA REVEALED 409
    For kindred souls who know what I know not, For those who have the
strength to mitigate  What makes  me tremble, weep,  and often  brood.
They tell me that I cannot live  my way Where all my feelings rule  my
conscious mind. I must control myself  before the act, Or else  accept
what I have long endured, The brutal days of feeling lost and blind.
    There have  been times,  not  many but  a  few, When  someone  has
possessed the soothing balm, Providing surcease for my angst or  pain.
But age has taught me  now one simple rule.  Inside myself I must  the
screams contain, Whatever devils must  be wrestled there. The  lessons
learned will not be lost again. We walk alone upon our final trip.  No
hand can help us on [hat day of death, ft's best we learn, while  time
is still our friend, To trust ourselves, and save our precious breath.
    Nicole read the words several times. Then, realizing that she  was
completely exhausted, she put her head  down on the only table in  the
room and fell asleep.
    Dr. Blue  tapped  gently on  Nicole's  shoulder with  one  of  her
tentacles. Nicole stirred and opened her eyes. "You've been asleep for
almost two hours," the octospider said. "They have been expecting  you
over at the administrative center."
    "What's going on?" Nicole asked, rubbing her eyes. "Why is  anyone
waiting for me?"
    "Nakamura has made a major speech in New Eden. The Chief Optimizer
wants to discuss it with you."
    Nicole jumped up quickly and then  reached out to touch the  desk.
In a few seconds her dizziness  was gone. "Thank you again, Dr.  Blue,
for everything," she said. "I'll be on my way in another minute."
    7
    I really  don't think  Nikki  should I  be  allowed to  watch  the
speech," Robert said. "It wili certainly scare her."
    "What Nakamura says will affect her life as much as it will ours,"
Ellie replied. "If  she wants  to watch, I  think we  should let  her.
After all, Robert, she has lived with the octospiders."
    "But she can't possibly understand what any of this really means,"
Robert argued. "She's not even four years old yet."
    The issue remained unresolved until  a few minutes before the  New
Eden dictator  was scheduled  to appear  on television.  At that  time
Nikki approached her  mother in  the living  room. "I'm  not going  to
watch," the  little girl  said with  astonishing insight,  "because  I
don't want you and Daddy to fight."
    One of the rooms  in Nakamura's palace had  been converted into  a
television studio. It  was from  this ^tudio that  the tyrant  usually
addressed the citizens  of New Eden.  His last speech  had been  three
months earlier, when he had
    RAMA REVEALED
    411
    announced that troops were  going to be  deployed in the  Southern
Hemicylinder  to   confront   the   "alien   menace."   Although   the
government-controlled newspapers  and  television had  regularly  been
featuring news  items from  the front,  many of  them fabricating  the
"intense resistance" being offered by  the octospiders, this would  be
Nakamura's first public comment on  the progress and direction of  the
war in the south.
    For the address, Nakamura  had ordered his tailors  to make him  a
new shogun's outfit, complete with ornamented sword and dagger. He was
appearing in Japanese martial dress, he told his aides, to stress  his
role as the "lead warrior and protector" of the colonists. On the  day
of the broadcast  Nakamura's attendants helped  him put on  a pair  of
heavy, constraining girdles so that he would project the "powerful and
menacing" look of the warrior.
    Mr. Nakamura spoke  standing up, staring  directly at the  camera.
His scowl never changed during his entire speech.
    "We have all sacrificed in  recent months," he began, "to  support
our valiant soldiers doing battle south of the Cylindrical Sea with  a
heinous and ruthless alien enemy. Our intelligence now informs us that
these octospiders, who were described to  you in detail by Dr.  Robert
Turner after his brave escape, are planning a major attack against New
Eden in the very near future. At this critical moment in our  history,
we must  redouble  our resolve  and  stand united  against  the  alien
aggressor.
    "Our generals  at the  front have  recommended that  we  penetrate
beyond the barrier forest protecting most of the octospider domain and
interdict their supplies and war materiel before they can launch their
attack. Our engineers, working night and  day for the survival of  the
colony, have  made modifications  to our  helicopter fleet  that  will
permit this interdiction  to take place.  We will strike  in the  near
future. We will convince  the aliens that they  cannot attack us  with
impunity.
    "Meanwhile, our warriors have finished securing the entire area of
Rama between the Cylindrical  Sea and the  barrier forest. During  the
fierce battles, we have destroyed
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    many hundreds of the enemy, as well as water and power facilities.
Our casualties  have  been modest,  primarily  because of  our  superb
battle plans and  the heroism of  our troops. But  we must not  become
overconfident. On die contrary, we  have every reason to believe  that
we have not  yet even engaged  the elite Death  Corps that Dr.  Turner
heard mentioned while  he was  being held  captive. It  is this  Death
Corps, we are certain, that will be in the alien vanguard if we do not
move quickly to preclude an attack on New Eden. Remember, time is  our
enemy. We  must  strike  now and  totally  demolish  their  war-making
capability.
    "There is one  other brief item  I would like  to report  tonight.
Recently the  traitor Richard  Wakefield and  an octospider  companion
surrendered to  our  troops in  the  south.  They say  that  they  are
representing the alien military command and have come forward to  talk
about peace. I suspect a trick here, a Trojan horse of some kind,  but
it is my duty as your leader to conduct a hearing into this matter  in
the next few  days. Rest assured  that I will  not negotiate away  our
security. I will report the outcome of this hearing very soon after it
is completed."
    "But Robert," Ellie said, "you know that much of what he is saying
is a  lie. There  is no  Death  Corps, and  the octospiders  have  not
offered any resistance. How can you  say nothing? How can you let  him
attribute statements to you that you never made?"
    "It's all politics, Ellie," Robert replied. "Everybody knows that.
Nobody really believes-"
    "But that's even worse. Don't you see what is happening?"
    Robert started  to leave  the house.  "Where are  you going  now?"
Ellie asked.
    "Back to the hospital," Robert replied. "I have rounds to make."
    Ellie couldn't  believe it.  She stood  there for  a few  seconds,
staring at her husband. Then she erupted. "That's your response,"  she
shouted. "Business as usual. A lunatic announces a plan that will most
likely result in all. of us being killed, and for you it's business as
usual. . . . Robert, who are you? Don't you care about anything?"
    RAMA REVEALED
    413
    Robert moved  toward her  angrily. "Don't  start again  with  that
'holier than  thou' attitude,"  he said.  "You arc  not always  right,
Ellie, and you do not know for certain that we'll all be killed. Maybe
Nakamura's plan will work."
    "You're kidding yourself, Robert. You turn tiie other way and tell
yourself that as long as your little world is not affected, maybe it's
okay. You're wrong, Robert. Dead wrong.  And if you won't do  anything
about it, then I will."
    "And what will you do?" Robert  said, his voice rising. 'Tell  the
world that your  husband is  a liar ?  Try to  convince everyone  that
those slimy octospiders are peaceful? No one will believe you,  Ellie.
And I'll tell  you one  more thing: The  minute you  open your  mouth,
you'll be arrested  and tried  for treason. They'll  kill you,  Ellie,
just like they're going  to kill your father.  Is that what you  want?
Never to see your daughter again?"
    Ellie recognized the mixture of pain and anger in Robert's eyes. /
don't know him, flashed through her mind, followed by How can this  be
the same  man  who has  spent  thousands  of hours  caring  for  dying
patients? It doesn't make any sense.
    Ellie chose not to say anything more. "I'm going now," Robert said
at length. "I'll be home around midnight."
    She walked  to the  back of  the house  and opened  Nikki's  door.
Luckily the  girl had  slept through  the argument.  Ellie was  deeply
depressed when she returned to the  living room. She wished more  than
ever that she had stayed in the Emerald City. But she hadn't, so  what
was she going to do now? It would be so easy if I didn't have Nikki to
think about, Ellie said  to herself. She shook  her head slowly,  back
and forth, and finally allowed herself to shed the tears she had  been
restraining.
    "So how do I look?" Katie said, pirouetting in front of Franz.
    "Beautiful, ravishing," he replied. "Better than I have ever  seen
you look."
    She was wearing a  simple black dress,  custom-fitted to her  thin
body. The dress had a defining white stripe running
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    down both sides.  It was cut  low in the  front, highlighting  her
necklace of diamonds and  gold, but was  not so low  that it would  be
considered improper.
    Katie glanced  at  her watch.  "Good,"  she said.  "For  once  I'm
early." She crossed the room to the table and lit a cigarette.
    Franz's uniform was newly pressed and his shoes perfectly  shined.
"Then I guess we  have time," he said,  following Katie to the  couch,
"for my surprise." He handed her a small velvet box.
    "What's this?" Katie asked.
    "Open it," Franz said.
    Inside was  a  diamond  ring, a  solitaire.  "Katie,"  Franz  said
awkwardly, "will you marry me?"
    Katie glanced at Franz and then looked away. She inhaled slowly on
her cigarette  and  blew  the  smoke into  the  air  above  her.  "I'm
flattered, Franz," she said, standing up and kissing him on the cheek,
"I really am ... but  it just wouldn't work."  She closed the box  and
handed him back the ring.
    "Why not?" Franz asked. "Don't you love me?"
    "Yes, I do ... I guess ... if I'm capable of such an emotion.  But
Franz, we've been through this before. I'm just not the kind of  woman
you should marry."
    "Why can't you let me decide that, Katie?" Franz said. "How do you
know what 'kind of woman' I need?"
    "Look, Franz," Katie said, showing some agitation, "I'd rather not
talk about this now. As I said, I'm very flattered ... but I'm already
nervous about this  hearing for my  father and you  know I don't  deal
well with too much shit at once."
    "You'll always have some reason for not wanting to talk about it,"
Franz said angrily.  "If you love  me, I  think I deserve  more of  an
explanation. And now."
    Katie's eyes flashed. "You want an explanation now, Captain Bauer?
All right, I'll give you one. Follow me, if you please." Katie led him
into her  dressing  room. "Now  stand  there, Franz,  and  watch  very
closely."
    Katie reached into her dresser. She pulled out a syringe
    RAMA REVEALED
    415
    and a  piece of  black tubing.  She placed  her right  leg on  the
vanity stool and hiked  her dress up above  the bruises on her  thigh.
Franz instinctively turned his head away.
    "No," Katie said, reaching out with one hand and turning his  head
back to face her. "You cannot look  away, Franz. You must see me as  I
am."
    She pulled down her panty hose  and tied the tube in place.  Katie
glanced up to make certain Franz was still watching. There was pain in
her eyes.  "Don't you  see,  Franz?" she  said.  "I cannot  marry  you
because I'm  already  married  ...  to  this  magic  drug  that  never
disappoints me. Don't you  understand? There's no  way that you  could
ever compete with kokomo."
    Katie plunged the syringe into  a vein and waited several  seconds
for the rush. "You  might be fine  for a few  weeks, or even  months,"
Katie said now, speaking more rapidly, "but sooner or later you'd come
up short.  And I  would replace  you  in my  heart with  old  reliable
again."
    She wiped off the two drops of blood with a tissue and placed  the
syringe in the sink. Franz looked distraught. "Cheer up," Katie  said,
patting him lightly on the cheek. "You haven't lost your bed  partner.
I'll still  be  here  for  whatever  kinky  things  we  can  dream  up
together."
    Franz turned away  and placed the  velvet box back  in one of  the
pockets of his uniform.  Katie walked over to  the table and took  one
final drag  from the  cigarette  that had  been  left burning  in  the
ashtray. "Now,  Captain Bauer,"  Katie  said, *Ve  have a  hearing  to
attend."
    The hearing  was  held  in  the ballroom  on  the  main  floor  of
Nakamura's palace. About  sixty chairs had  been set up  in four  rows
along the walls  for "special guests."  Nakamura himself, wearing  the
same Japanese costume in which he had appeared on television two  days
earlier, sat in a large, embroidered chair above a raised platform  at
one end  of the  room. Two  bodyguards, also  in samurai  dress,  were
beside liim.  The ballroom  was completely  decorated in  a  sixteenth
century Japanese motif, adding to the image Nakamura was
    416
    ARTHUR C, CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    417
    trying to  create of  himself as  the all-powerful  shogun of  New
Eden.
    Richard and Archie, who had only  been told the hearing was  going
to occur four hours before they left the basement, were brought in  by
three policemen and instructed  to sit on small  pillows on the  floor
twenty meters  in front  of Nakamura.  Katie noticed  that her  father
looked tired and very old. She resisted an impulse to run out and talk
to him.
    A functionary announced  that the  hearing was now  under way  and
reminded all  the  spectators  that  they  were  to  say  nothing  and
interfere in no way with the proceedings. As soon as the  announcement
was completed,  Nakamura stood  up and  swaggered down  the two  broad
steps connecting his chair to the raised platform.
    'This hearing has been  convened by the  New Eden government,"  he
said gruffly, walking back and forth, "to determine if the alien enemy
representative is prepared, on  behalf of his  species, to accept  the
unconditional surrender that we demand as a necessary prerequisite for
ceasing the hostilities  between us. If  ex-citizen Wakefield, who  is
able to communicate  with the  alien, has  been able  to convince  the
alien of the wisdom of accepting our demands, including  relinquishing
all weapons of war and preparing for our occupation and administration
of all alien lands, then we are  prepared to be merciful. As a  reward
for his services in ending this terrible conflict, we would be willing
to commute Mr. Wakefield's execution sentence to life imprisonment.
    "If,  however"-Nakamura  now  raised  his  voice-"this   convicted
traitor and his alien accomplice surrendered to our victorious  troops
as part of some treacherous plot  to undermine our collective will  to
punish the aliens  for their  aggressive attacks against  us, then  we
will use these two as examples  to send an unambiguous message to  our
enemy. We want the alien leaders to know that the citizens of New Eden
stand steadfast against their expansionist aims."
    Up until  this  moment Nakamura  had  been addressing  the  entire
audience. Now he  turned to  face the  two prisoners  isolated in  the
middle of the ballroom floor. "Mr. Wake-
    field," he said, "does the alien beside you have the authority  to
speak for his species?"
    Richard stood up. 'To the best of my knowledge, yes," he answered.
    "And is  the  alien  then  prepared  to  ratify  the  document  of
unconditional surrender that you have been shown?"
    "We only received the document a few hours ago and / have not  yet
had time to  talk about all  its contents. I  have explained the  most
important parts to Archie, but I don't yet know."
    "They are stalling," Nakamura  thundered, addressing the  audience
and waving a piece  of paper in the  air. "This single sheet  contains
all the terms of the surrender."  He turned again to face Richard  and
Archie. "The question requires only  a simple answer," Nakamura  said.
"Is it yes or no?"
    Color bands rolled around Archie's head and there was a murmur  in
the audience.  Richard watched  Archie, whispered  a question  to  his
octospider colleague,  and  then  interpreted  Archie's  response.  He
looked at  Nakamura. "The  octospider wants  to know,"  Richard  said,
"exactly what happens if the document is ratified. What are the events
that take place then, and in what  order? None of this is spelled  out
in the agreement."
    Nakamura paused briefly. "First, all the alien soldiers must  come
forward with their  weapons and  surrender to  our troops  now in  the
south. Second, the  alien government, or  whatever is its  equivalent,
must turn over to us a complete inventory of everything that exists in
their domain.  Third,  they must  announce  to all  members  of  their
species that we are going to  occupy their colony and that all  aliens
are to cooperate in every way with our soldiers and citizens."
    Richard and  Archie had  another  brief conversation.  "What  will
happen to all the octospiders and  the other animals who support  this
society?" Richard asked.
    "They will be permitted to resume their normal lives, s' with some
constraints, of course. Our laws and  our citizens .-" will be put  in
place as the acting government of the c occupied lands."
    "And will you, then," Richard said, "write an amend-
    418
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    \
    ment or an appendix to  this surrender document, guaranteeing  the
lives and safety  of the octospiders,  as well as  the other  animals,
providing they  do not  violate any  of the  laws promulgated  in  the
occupied territory?"
    Nakamura's eyes narrowed. "Except for those individual aliens  who
are found to  have been responsible  for the aggressive  war that  has
been launched against us,  I will personally  guarantee the safety  of
those octospiders  who obey  the  laws of  occupation. But  these  are
details. They do not need to be written in the surrender document."
    This time Richard and  Archie engaged in  a long discussion.  From
the side of  the room, Katie  watched her father's  face closely.  She
thought in the beginning mat  he was disagreeing with the  octospider,
but later in the conversation Richard seemed subdued, almost resigned.
It looked as if her father were memorizing something.
    The long pause  in the proceedings  was irritating Naka-mura.  The
special guests  were starting  to  whisper among  themselves.  Finally
Nakamura spoke again. "All right," he said. "That's enough time.  What
is your answer?"
    Colors were still streaking around  Archie's head. At length,  the
patterns stopped  and Richard  took a  step forward  toward  Nakamura.
Richard hesitated a moment before speaking.
    "The octospiders want peace," he  said slowly, "and would like  to
find a way to  end this conflict.  If they were  not a moral  species,
they might agree to  ratify this surrender document  just to buy  some
time. But the octospiders  are not like that.  My alien friend,  whose
name is Archie, would not make an agreement for his species unless  he
was certain both that  the treaty was proper  for his colony and  that
his fellow octospiders would honor it."
    Richard  paused.  "We  do  not  need  a  speech,"  Nakamura   said
impatiently, "just answer the question."
    "The octospiders," Richard  said in a  louder voice, "sent  Archie
and  me   to  negotiate   an  honorable   peace,  not   to   surrender
unconditionally. If New Eden is not  willing to negotiate and to  make
an agreement that  respects the  integrity of  the octospider  domain,
then they hav*e no choice. Please," Richard now shouted, looking  back
and
    RAMA REVEALED
    419
    forth at die guests  on both sides of  the room, "understand  that
you cannot win if the octospiders  really fight. So far they have  put
up no resistance at all. You must convince your leaders to enter  into
balanced discussions-"
    "Seize the prisoners," Nakamura ordered.
    "-or you will all perish.  The octospiders are much more  advanced
than we are. Believe me. I know. I have been living with them for more
than-"
    One of the policemen struck Richard on the back of the head and he
fell to the floor, bleeding. Katie jumped up, but Franz restrained her
with both arms. Richard was holding the side of his head as Archie and
he were ushered out of the room.
    Richard and Archie were in a small jail cell at the police station
in Hakone, not far from Nakamura's  palace. "Is your head all  right?"
Archie asked in color.
    "I think so," Richard answered, "although it is still swelling."
    "They'll kiil us now, won't they?" Archie asked.
    "Probably," Richard said grimly.
    "Thanks for trying," Archie said after a short silence.
    Richard shrugged. "I  didn't do  much good. Anyway,  it's you  who
should be thanked. If you hadn't volunteered, you would still be  safe
and sound in the Emerald City."
    Richard walked over to  the washbasin in the  corner to clean  the
cloth he was holding against his head wound. "Didn't you tell me  that
most humans believe in life  after death?" Archie asked after  Richard
had rejoined him in the front of the cell.
    "Yes," Richard replied.  "Some people  believe we're  reincarnated
and return  to live  again, as  another human  or even  as some  other
animal. Many others believe that if a good life has been lived,  there
is a reward, an eternal life  in a beautiful, stressless place  called
heaven."
    "And you,  Richard," Archie's  colors  interrupted. "What  do  you
personally believe?"
    Richard smiled and thought  for several seconds before  answering.
"I've always believed that whatever there was in
    420
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    us that was unique and defined our special, individual personality
disappeared at the  moment of death.  Oh, sure, our  chemicals may  be
recycled into other living creatures, but there is no real continuity,
not in terms of what some humans call the soul."
    He laughed. "Right now, however, when my logical mind says I could
not possibly have much more time to live, a voice inside is begging me
to embrace one of those fairy  tales about the afterlife. It would  be
easy, I admit. But such a last-minute conversion would be inconsistent
with the way I have lived all these years."
    Richard walked slowly over to the front of their cell. He put  his
hands on the  bars and stared  down the corridor  for several  seconds
without saying anything. "And what do octospiders think happens  after
death?" he asked softly, turning around to face his cellmate.
    "The Precursors taught  us that  each life is  a finite  interval,
with a  beginning and  an  end. Any  individual creature,  although  a
miracle, is not that important in  the overall scheme of things.  What
matters, the Precursors said, is continuity and renewal. In their view
each of us  is immortal, not  because anything related  to a  specific
individual lives forever,  but because  each life  becomes a  critical
link, either culturally  or genetically or  both, in the  never-ending
chain of life. When the Precursors engineered us out of our ignorance,
they taught us not to  fear death, but to  go willingly in support  of
the renewal that would follow."
    "So  you  experience  no  sorrow   and  no  fear  as  your   death
approaches?"
    "Ideally," Archie  replied.  'That  is the  accepted  way  in  our
society to face death. It is far easier, however, if an individual  is
surrounded, at  the time  of termination,  by friends  and others  who
represent the renewal that his death will enable."
    Richard walked over and put his arm around Archie. "You and I have
only each other, my friend," he said. "Plus the knowledge that we have
tried, together,  to stop  a war  that will  probably end  up  killing
thousands. There caift be many causes-"
    RAMA REVEALED
    421
    He stopped when he heard the door to the cellblock open. The local
police captain, along with one of his  men, stood to the side as  four
biots-two Garcias and two Lincolns-all  wearing gloves, came down  the
hallway to their  cell. None of  the biots spoke.  One of the  Garcias
opened the door and all four biots crowded into the cell with  Richard
and Archie. The captain closed  the cellblock door. Moments later  the
lights went out, there was the sound of a scuffle for several seconds,
Richard screamed, and a body fell  against the bars of the cell.  Then
it was quiet.
    "Now, Franz," Katie  said as they  opened the door  to the  police
station, "don't be  afraid to pull  rank. He's just  a local  captain.
He's not going to tell you that you can't see the prisoners."
    They walked inside only a second or two after the cell-block  door
closed behind the biots.  "Captain Miyazawa," Franz  said in his  most
official tone, "I  am Captain  Franz Bauer from  headquarters. I  have
come to visit the prisoners."
    "I have strict orders from the highest authority, Captain  Bauer,"
the policeman replied, "not to allow anyone into that cellblock."
    The room was  suddenly plunged into  darkness. "What's going  on?"
Franz said.
    "We  must   have  blown   a  fuse,"   Captain  Miyazawa   replied.
"Westermark, go outside and check the circuit breakers."
    Franz and  Katie  heard a  scream.  After  what seemed  to  be  an
eternity, they  heard  the  cellblock  door  open  and  the  sound  of
footsteps. Three biots disappeared out  the front door of the  station
as the lights flickered on again.
    Katie ran to the door. "Look, Franz," she yelled. "Blood-they have
blood on their  clothes." She spun  around, frantic. "We  must see  my
father."
    Katie outran the  three police  officers down  the corridor.  "Oh,
God," she screamed as she neared the cell and saw her father lying  on
the floor against the  bars. There was  blood everywhere. "He's  dead,
Franz," Katie wailed. "Daddy's dead!"
    8
    N,
    Iicole had watched  the video  twice before.  Despite her  swollen
eyes and utter emotional exhaustion, she asked if she could see it one
more time. Beside her  Dr. Blue handed  her a cup  of water. "Are  you
certain?" the octospider asked.
    She nodded.  "Please  start  at the  hearing,"  Nicole  requested.
"Normal speed until the biots enter  the cellblock. Then slow it  down
to one-eighth."
    Richard never wanted  to be  a hero,  Nicole was  thinking as  the
video replayed the  scene at the  hearing. That wasn't  his style.  He
only went with  Archie so that  it wouldn't be  necessary for me.  She
winced when the guard struck Richard and he tumbled to the floor.  The
plan was hopeless from the beginning, she told herself as the New Eden
policemen led  Richard  and  Archie  out  of  Nakamura's  palace.  The
octospiders all knew it. I  knew it. Why didn 't  I speak up after  my
premonition?
    Nicole asked  Dr. Blue  to fast-forward  the video  tt> the  final
minutes. At least they had each other at the end, she
    RAMA REVEALED
    423
    thought  as   Richard  and   Archie  were   sharing  their   final
conversation. And Archie tried to protect him. The four biots appeared
on the screen and the video slowed. Nicole saw surprise change to fear
in Richard's eyes as the biots entered the cell.
    When the lights  were extinguished, the  picture quality  changed.
The infrared  images  taken by  the  quadroids were  more  like  photo
negatives, highlighting  the  heat levels  in  each frame.  The  biots
looked eerie. Their  eyes bulged out  of their heads  in the  infrared
pictures.
    The instant the cell was dark, one of the Garcias grabbed  Richard
by the throat. The other three took off their gloves, exposing  sharp,
pointed fingers  and  knife-edged  hands. Four  of  Archie's  powerful
tentacles enwrapped  the Garcia  trying to  strangle Richard.  As  the
Garcia's frame crumbled and the biot collapsed in a heap on the  floor
of the cell, the other three biots attacked Archie furiously.  Richard
tried to help  in the battle.  A Lincoln caught  Archie's neck with  a
savage blow  from  its hand  and  nearly decapitated  the  octospider.
Richard screamed as he was  drenched by Archie's internal body  fluid.
With Archie out of the fight, the remaining biots devastated  Richard,
puncturing his body  over and over  with jabs from  their fingers.  He
fell against the front  of the cell and  slipped down onto the  floor.
His blood and Archie's,  which were different  colors in the  infrared
image, ran together and formed a pool on the floor of the cell.
    The video continued,  but Nicole  was no  longer seeing  anything.
Now, for the first time, she understood that her husband, Richard, the
only really  close friend  she had  ever had  in her  adult life,  was
actually dead. On  the screen  Franz led  the sobbing  Katie down  the
corridor and then the monitor went blank. Nicole did not move. She sat
perfectly still,  staring  forward  where the  images  had  been  just
seconds before. There  were no  tears in her  eyes, her  body was  not
trembling, she seemed completely in control. Yet she could not move.
    A low level of  light came on  in the viewing  room. Dr. Blue  was
still sitting beside her. "I don't think," Nicole said
    424
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    slowly, surprised  that her  voice sounded  so far  away,-"that  I
realized the first two times ... I mean, I must have been in shock . .
. maybe I still am." She couldn't continue. Nicole was having  trouble
breathing.
    "You need a drink of water and some rest," Dr. Blue said.
    Richard has been  killed. Richard is  dead. "Yes, please,"  Nicole
said faintly. / will  never see him  again. I will  never talk to  him
again. "Cold water,  if you  have any." /  saw him  die. Once.  Twice.
Three times. Richard is dead.
    There was  another  octospider  in the  viewing  room.  They  were
talking, but Nicole  could not  follow their colors.  Richard is  gone
forever. I am alone. Dr. Blue held the water up to Nicole's lips,  but
she could not drink.  Richard has been killed.  There was nothing  but
blackness.
    Someone was holding her hand. It was a warm, pleasant hand, gently
caressing hers. She opened her eyes.
    "Hello,  Mother,"  Patrick  said  softly.  "Are  you  feeling  any
better?"
    Nicole closed her eyes  again. Where am I?  she thought. Then  she
remembered. Richard is dead. I must have fainted.
    "Ummm," she said.
    "Would you like some water?" Patrick asked.
    "Yes, please," she whispered. Her voice sounded strange.
    Nicole tried to sit up and drink the water. She could not make it.
    'Take it easy," Patrick said. "There's no hurry."
    Her mind began to work. /  must tell them that Richard and  Archie
are dead. The  helicopters are  coming. We  must be  very careful  and
protect the children. "Richard," she managed to say.
    "We know, Mother," Patrick replied.
    How do they know? Nicole thought.  I'm the only one left here  who
can read colors.
    "The octospiders  went to  a lot  of trouble  to write  everything
down. It wasn't perfect English, but we certainly understood what they
were telling us. They told us about the war too."
    RAMA REVEALED
    425
    Good, Nicole thought. They  know, I can  sleep. From somewhere  in
her head there was still an echo. Richard is dead.
    "From time to time I can hear die bombs, but as far as I can  tell
none of them yet has  hit the dome." It  was Max's voice. "Maybe  they
haven't figured out where the city is."
    "It would  be completely  dark from  die outside,"  Patrick  said.
"They have  thickened  the canopy  and  there  are no  lights  on  the
streets."
    'The bombs must be hitting the Alternate Domain. There would be no
way the octos could hide its existence," Max said.
    "What are the octospiders doing?" Patrick asked. "Do we even  know
if they're counterattacking?"
    "Not for certain," Max replied, "but I can't believe they're still
sitting around doing nothing."
    Nicole heard soft footsteps in  the hallway. "The boys are  really
developing a bad  case of  cabin fever," Nai  said. "Do  you think  it
would be all right  if I let them  play outside? The all-clear  flares
were half an hour ago."
    "I don't see why not," Patrick said. "But tell them to come in  if
they see a flare or hear any bombs."
    "I'll be out there with them," Nai said.
    "What's my wife doing?" Max asked.
    "Reading with Benjy," Nai replied. "Marius is asleep."
    "Why don't you ask her to come over for a few minutes?"
    Nicole rolled over on her other side. She thought about trying  to
sit up, but she felt so tired. She began daydreaming, remembering  her
childhood. What does it take to be a princess? little Nicole asked her
father. Either a  king for a  father, or  a prince for  a husband,  he
answered. He smiled and kissed her.  Then I'm already a princess,  she
told him. For you 're a king to me. ...
    "How is Nicole?" Eponine asked.
    "She stirred  again this  morning," Patrick  replied. "Dr.  Blue's
note said that she may be able to sit up tonight or tomorrow. It  also
said they have verified that the attack was
    426
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    not severe, that the heart  was not permanently damaged, and  that
she is responding well to the treatment."
    "Can I see her now?" Benjy asked.
    "No, Benjy, not yet," said Eponine, "she's still resting."
    'The octospiders have  really been great,  haven't they?"  Patrick
said. "Even in the middle of this  war, they have taken time to  write
us such complete messages."
    "They've even made a believer out  of me," Max said. "And I  never
thought that was possible."
    So I had a heart attack,  Nicole thought. / didn 't just  collapse
because Richard . .  . she could not  complete the sentence at  first.
Because he is gone.
    She drifted in the twilight zone between waking and sleeping until
she heard a  familiar voice calling  her name. Is  that you,  Richard?
Nicole said excitedly. Yes, Nicole, he answered. Where are you? I want
to see you, she said, and his  face appeared in a cloud in the  middle
of her dream screen. You look great, she said, are you all right? Yes,
Richard answered, but I must talk to you.
    What is it, darling? Nicole asked.  You must go on without me,  he
said. You must set an example for the others. His face began to  alter
as the shapes of the clouds changed. Of course, Nicole said, but where
are you going?  She could  not see  him anymore.  Good-bye, his  voice
said. Good-bye, Richard, Nicole answered.
    When she woke up the next time, her mind was clear. Nicole sat  up
in bed and looked around her. It was dark, but she could tell she  was
in her own room in the house in the Emerald City.
    Nicole could hear no sounds. She assumed it was night. She  pushed
off the covers and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. So far, so
good, she thought. Nicole eased herself off the bed and stood up  very
slowly. Her legs were wobbly.
    There was a glass of juice on the end table beside the bed. Nicole
took two cautious steps, holding on  to tlje bed with her right  hand,
and picked  up  the  glass.  The juice  was  delicious.  Pleased  with
herself, Nicole started toward the
    RAMA REVEALED
    427
    closet to find some clothes. She  became woozy after a few  steps,
however, and headed back toward the bed.
    "Mother," she heard Patrick say, "is that you?" She could see  his
silhouette in the doorway.
    "Yes, Patrick," she answered.
    "Here," he said, "why don't we have some light?" He knocked on the
wall and a firefly  flew into the middle  of the room. "Goodness,"  he
said, "what are you doing up?"
    "I can't stay in bed forever," Nicole answered.
    "But you should take it easy at first," Patrick said, coming  over
beside her and helping her the rest of the way to bed.
    She grabbed his arm. "Listen to me, son," Nicole said. "I have  no
intention of being an invalid, nor do I want to be treated like one. I
expect to be my old self in a few days, a week at the most."
    "Yes, Mother," Patrick said with a concerned smile.
    Dr. Blue was  delighted with  her recovery. After  four more  days
Nicole walked, albeit slowly, and, with a little help from Benjy,  all
the way to the transport stop and back to the house.
    "Don't push yourself  too hard,"  Dr. Blue told  Nicole during  an
evening examination. "You're doing great, but I worry."
    When the octospider was  finished and was  preparing to leave  the
room. Max entered and announced that two more octospiders were waiting
at the front door. Dr. Blue hurried out, returning a few minutes later
with the Chief Optimizer and one of the members of her staff.
    The Chief Optimizer first apologized, both for coming unexpectedly
and for not waiting until Nicole had completely recovered.  "However,"
the octospider leader then said, "we are now in an emergency situation
and we felt that we needed to communicate with you immediately."
    Nicole felt her pulse rate rise  and tried to calm herself.  "What
has happened?" she said.
    "You have probably noticed  that there have  been no bombings  for
the last several days," the Chief Optimizer
    428
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    said. "The humans temporarily stopped the helicopter attacks while
they were evaluating  our ultimatum. Five  days ago we  took the  same
written message to each of  three troop encampments. The message  said
that we could no  longer tolerate the bombings  and that we would  use
our superior technology to launch a decisive attack if the hostilities
were not ceased immediately. As  an illustration of our  technological
capabilities, we included in the message a nillet-by-nillet chronology
of everything both Nakamura and Macmillan had done during two workdays
last week.
    "The human  leaders  were  frantic. They  suspected  that  we  had
somehow bribed some high official of  the government and now knew  all
of their  war  plans  as well.  Macmillan  recommended  accepting  our
cease-fire and withdrawing from  our territory. Nakamura was  furious.
He banished Macmillan  from his presence  and reorganized his  command
structure. Privately,  he  admitted to  his  security chief  that  any
retreat would ruin his position in the colony.
    "The day  before  yesterday  someone suggested  to  Nakamura  that
perhaps your daughter Ellie  might have some knowledge  of how we  had
obtained our information. She was taken to the palace and interrogated
by Nakamura himself. At first slightly cooperative, Ellie acknowledged
that in certain fields we were more advanced than the humans. She also
said that  she believed  it was  entirely within  our capabilities  to
obtain information about events in New Eden without using any spies or
other conventional means of gathering intelligence.
    "Because she was  so forthright, Nakarnura  became convinced  that
Ellie knew  more than  she was  telling. He  asked her  questions  for
hours, about many  subjects, including our  military capabilities  and
the geography of our  domain. Ellie astutely  avoided giving away  any
critical  information-she  never  mentioned  the  Emerald  City,   for
example-and repeatedly answered that she had never seen any weapons or
even any soldiers. Nakamura did not believe her. At length he had  her
thrown in prisgn and beaten.  Since then Ellie has remained  defiantly
silent, despite additional rough treatment."
    RAMA REVEALED
    429
    The  Chief  Optimizer   paused.  Nicole  had   paled  during   his
description of Ellie's mistreatment.  The octospider leader turned  to
Dr. Blue. "Should I continue?" she said.
    Max and Patrick were standing in  the doorway. They could not,  of
course, understand what the Chief Optimizer was saying, but they could
see the pallor  on Nicole's face.  Patrick walked into  the room.  "My
mother has been quite ill . . ." he said.
    "It's all right," Nicole  said, waving him away.  She took a  deep
breath. "Please go on," she said to the Chief Optimizer.
    "Nakamura," the  Chief  Optimizer continued,  "has  now  convinced
himself and  his main  lieutenants  that our  threat  is a  bluff.  He
believes that  even though  our technology  is very  advanced in  some
areas, we possess no military capabilities. In his last staff meeting,
only a few terts ago, he agreed to a plan to bomb us into  submission,
using all available  firepower. The  first of the  massive raids  will
come in the morning.
    "We have therefore  reluctantly concluded that  we must now  fight
back. Failure to act could put the survival of our colony in jeopardy.
Before coming to see you, I authorized the implementation of War  Plan
Number Forty-one,  one of  our intermediate-strength  responses.  This
plan does not result in the total annihilation of all the colonists in
New Eden, but should be devastating enough to bring the war to a quick
end. Our analysts estimate that  between twenty and thirty percent  of
the humans will die."
    The Chief Optimizer stopped when she saw the pained expression  on
Nicole's face. Nicole asked for something to drink. "Are we allowed to
know any more details about your attack?" Nicole said slowly after she
finished drinking the glass of water.
    "We have chosen a microbiological  agent, chemically much like  an
enzyme, that interferes with cell reproduction in your species. Young,
healthy humans below the age of  forty or so have sufficiently  strong
natural defenses that they will withstand the onslaught of the  agent.
Older or unhealthy humans will succumb quickly. Their cells will not
    430
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    be able to reproduce  properly and their  bodies will simply  stop
functioning. We have used blood, skin, and other cells taken from  all
of you here in the Emerald City to verify our theoretical predictions.
We are quite certain that the young will be unharmed."
    "Our species regards biological  warfare as immoral," Nicole  said
after a brief pause.
    "We are aware," the Chief Optimizer said, "that within your system
of values, some kinds of warfare  are more acceptable than others.  To
us, ail war is unacceptable. We  fight only if we absolutely must.  We
can't imagine it makes any difference to the dead being if it has been
killed by a  gun, a  bomb, a nuclear  weapon, or  a biological  agent.
Besides, we must fight back with whatever weapons we possess."
    There was a  long silence. Nicole  sighed and shook  her head.  "I
guess," she said at length, "I  should be thankful that you have  told
us what is happening in this stupid war, even though the specter of so
many deaths is  very frightening. I  wish there could  have been  some
other outcome."
    The three octospiders prepared to leave the room. Max and  Patrick
were asking Nicole  questions before  the visitors  had even  departed
from the house. "Hold  it," Nicole said wearily.  "Call the others  in
here first. I  only want  to explain what  the octospiders  told me  a
single time."
    Nicole could not sleep.  No matter how hard  she tried, she  could
not stop thinking about the people who were going to die in New  Eden.
Faces-older faces, mostly, faces of  people that Nicole had known  and
worked with during her  active days in the  colony-swam in and out  of
her mind.
    And what  about  Katie and  Ellie?  Nicole thought.  What  if  the
octospiders have made a  mistake? She pictured Ellie  as she had  last
seen her,  in her  house with  her husband  and her  daughter.  Nicole
recalled the  arguments  that  she had  witnessed  between  Ellie  and
Robert. His tired, worn visage remained fixed in her mental image. And
Robert, she
    RAMA REVEALED
    431
    thought. Oh, my God. He's older, and doesn 't take care of himself
at all.
    Nicole squirmed  in her  bed, frustrated  by her  inability to  do
anything. Finally she decided to sit  up in the darkness. / wonder  if
it's too late, Nicole  asked herself. Again she  thought of Robert.  /
don't agree with  him. I'm not  even certain he's  a good husband  for
Ellie. But he is still Nikki's father.
    A plan had begun to develop in her mind. Nicole gingerly slid  out
of bed and walked across  to the closet. She  put on some clothes  and
tiptoed into the hall. She  did not want to  wake Patrick or Nai,  who
had been sleeping in Ellie's room  since her heart attack. They  would
just make me go back to bed.
    Outside, in the Emerald City, it was almost as dark as it had been
inside the house. Nicole  stood at the doorway,  hoping that her  eyes
would  adjust  enough  that  she  could  find  the  house  next  door.
Eventually she could make out some shadows. She stepped off the porch,
heading to the right.
    Her progress was slow. She would take half a dozen steps and  then
stop to look around. It took  her several minutes to reach the  atrium
of Dr. Blue's house.
    When she entered the octospider's sleeping quarters, Nicole tapped
lightly on the wall. A firefly dimly illuminated a pair of octospiders
in a single heap. Dr. Blue  and Jamie were sleeping with their  bodies
pressed together and their tentacles  tangled in a confusing  pattern.
Nicole walked over and touched Dr. Blue on the top of the head.  There
was no response. She  tapped a little harder  the second time and  Dr.
Blue's lens material began to move around.
    "What are you doing  here?" Dr. Blue said  in color a few  seconds
later.
    "I need your help," Nicole answered. "It's important."
    The octospider moved very slowly, trying to untangle her tentacles
without disturbing Jamie. She  was unsuccessful; the young  octospider
awakened anyway. Dr. Blue told Jamie to go back to sleep and  shuffled
into the atrium with Nicole.
    432
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "You should be in bed," Dr. Blue said.
    "I know," Nicole  replied. "But this  is an emergency.  I need  to
talk to the Chief Optimizer, and I would like for you to go with me."
    "At this time of night?"
    "I don't know how much time we have," Nicole said. "I must see the
Chief Optimizer before those biological agents start killing people in
New Eden. I'm worried about Katie, and all of Ellie's family as well."
    "Nikki and Ellie will not be harmed. Katie should be young  enough
too, if I understood-"
    "But Katie's  system  is screwed  up  by all  the  drugs,"  Nicole
interrupted the colors. "Her body probably acts as if it's old ... and
Robert is all worn-out from working all the time."
    "I'm not certain I understand what  you are telling me," said  Dr.
Blue. "Why is it that you want to see the Chief Optimizer?"
    'To plead for special treatment for Katie and Robert, assuming  of
course that Ellie  and Nikki are  all right. There  must be some  way,
witty your biological magic, that they can be singled out and  spared.
That's why I want you to come with me-to support my case."
    The octospider  didn't  say  anything for  several  seconds.  "All
right, Nicole," she said finally, "I  will go with you. Even though  I
think you should  be resting  in bed.  . . .  And 1  doubt if  there's
anything that can be done."
    'Thank you  very  much," Nicole  said,  forgetting herself  for  a
moment and hugging Dr. Blue.
    "You must promise  me one  thing," Dr.  Blue said  as they  walked
together out the  front door.  "You must  not push  yourself too  hard
tonight. Tell me if you are feeling weak."
    "I'll even lean on you as we walk," Nicole said with a smile.
    They moved slowly into the street,  the unlikely pair. Two of  Dr.
Blue's tentacles were  supporting Nicole at  all times.  Nevertheless,
the day's activities and emotions had taken a toll on Nicole's  meager
energy supply.  She  was  feeling  fatigue  before  they  reached  the
transport stop.
    RAMA REVEALED
    433
    She stopped to rest. The distant sounds she had been hearing,  but
not noticing, became more prominent. "Bombs," Nicole said to Dr. Blue.
"A lot of them."
    "We were told  to expect helicopter  raids," the octospider  said.
"But I wonder why there were no flares."
    Suddenly part of the domed canopy  over their heads exploded in  a
great fireball. Moments later Nicole heard a deafening sound. She held
tightly to Dr. Blue and stared at the inferno above her. In the flames
she thought she could see the remnants of a helicopter. Burning pieces
of the dome were  falling from the  sky, some landing  no more than  a
kilometer away.
    Nicole could not catch her breath.  Dr. Blue could see the  strain
on her  face. "I'll  never make  it," Nicole  said. She  clutched  the
octospider with all the strength she  had remaining. "You must go  see
the Chief Optimizer without me," she said. "As my friend. Ask  her-no,
beg her to do something for Katie and Robert. Tell her it's a personal
favor. ... For me."
    "I'll do what I  can," Dr. Blue replied.  "But first we must  take
you back."
    "Mother, " Nicole heard  Patrick yell behind  her. He was  running
down the street toward  them. When he reached  them, Dr. Blue  boarded
the transport.  Nicole Jooked  up at  the dome  just as  a  helicopter
blade, wrapped in burning foliage, fell out of the sky and crashed  in
the distance.
    9
    K;
    atie dropped the syringe in Uhe sink and looked at herself in  the
mirror. "There,"  she said  out  loud, "that's  much better.  I'm  not
trembling anymore." She was wearing the same dress she had worn to her
father's hearing. Katie had made  that decision also the week  before,
when she had told Franz what she was planning to do.
    She turned  around, watching  her reflection  critically. What  is
that swelling on my  forearm? she wondered. Katie  had not noticed  it
before. On her  right arm, halfway  between her elbow  and her  wrist,
there was a lump the size of a golf ball. She rubbed it. The  swelling
felt tender when she pressed it, but it neither hurt nor itched unless
she touched it directly.
    Katie shrugged and walked into her living room. The papers she had
prepared were lying on the coffee table. She smoked a cigarette  while
she organized the  document. Then  she placed  the papers  in a  large
envelope.
    The phone call from Nakamura's office had come that
    RAMA REVEALED
    435
    morning. The sweet female voice had told Katie that Nakamura could
see her at five o'clock  in the afternoon. When  she had put down  the
phone, Katie had hardly been able  to contain herself. She had  almost
given up hope that  she would be  able to see him  at all. Three  days
earlier, when she  had called to  make an appointment  "to talk  about
their mutual business," Nakamura's receptionist  had told her that  he
was extremely  busy  with  the  war  effort  and  was  not  scheduling
unrelated meetings.
    Katie checked her watch again. It was fifteen minutes until  five.
To walk from her apartment to  the palace would take ten minutes.  She
picked up the envelope and opened the door to her apartment.
    The wait was  destroying her self-confidence.  It was already  six
o'clock and Katie had not even been admitted yet to the inner sanctum,
the Japanese part of the palace where Nakamura worked and lived. Twice
she had gone to the rest room, both times inquiring on her way back to
her seat if the wait would be  much longer. The girl at the desk  next
to the door had twice responded with a vague, unknowing gesture.
    Katie was struggling with herself. The kokomo was starting to wear
off, and she was having doubts. While smoking a cigarette in the  rest
room, she had tried to forget  her anxieties by thinking about  Franz.
She remembered the  last time that  they had made  love. His eyes  had
been heavy with sadness when he  had departed. He does love me,  Katie
thought, in his own way.
    The Japanese girl was standing at the door. "You may go
    in now," she said. Katie crossed back through the waiting
    room and entered the main part of the palace. She took off
    her shoes, placed them on a shelf, and walked on the tatami
    in her stocking feet. An escort, a policewoman named
    Marge, greeted her and instructed Katie to follow her.
    Clutching her envelope of papers in her hand, Katie walked
    'behind the policewoman for ten or fifteen meters until a
    .screen opened on their right. "Please go in," Marge said.
    : Another policewoman, Oriental but not Japanese, was
    436
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    437
    waiting in the room.  She was wearing  a gun in  a holster on  her
hip. "Security  around Nakamura-san  is especially  tight right  now,"
Marge explained. "Please take off all your clothes and jewelry."
    "All my clothes?" Katie asked. "Even my panties?"
    "Everything," the other woman said.
    Her clothes were all folded neatly  and placed in a basket  marked
with her name. The  jewelry went into a  special box. While Katie  was
naked, Marge checked her everywhere, including her private parts.  She
even inspected  the  inside  of  Katie's  mouth,  holding  her  tongue
depressed for almost thirty seconds. Katie was then handed a blue  and
white yukata and  a pair of  Japanese slippers. "You  may now go  with
Bangorn to the last waiting room," Marge said.
    Katie picked up her  envelope and started  to leave. The  Oriental
policewoman stopped her. "Everything stays here," she said.
    "But this is a business meeting," Katie protested. "What I want to
discuss with Mr. Nakamura is in this envelope."
    The two women opened  the envelope and took  out the papers.  They
held each individual paper up to  the light and then passed them,  one
at a  time,  through some  kind  of screening  machine.  Finally  they
replaced the  papers  in the  envelope  and the  woman  named  Bangorn
motioned for Katie to follow her.
    The final waiting room was  another fifteen meters down the  hall.
Again Katie had to  sit and wait. She  could feel herself starting  to
shake. It isn 't going to work, she said to herself. What a fool I am!
    As she sat, Katie began to yearn desperately for some kokomo.  She
could not recall ever wanting anything  so much. Fearful that she  was
going to start crying, she asked Bangorn if she could go again to  the
rest room. The policewoman accompanied her. At least Katie was able to
wash her face.
    When the two of  them returned, Nakamura  himself was standing  in
the waiting room. Katie  thought her he^art was  going to jump out  of
her chest. Nakamura was wearing a yellow and black kimono covered with
bright flowers.
    "Hello, Katie," he said with a leering smile. "I have not seen you
for a long time."
    "Hello, Toshio-san," she replied, her voice breaking.
    Katie followed him into his office and sat down, cross-legged,  at
a low table. Nakamura  was opposite her. Bangorn  stayed in the  room,
standing unobtrusively over in a corner. Oh, no, Katie said to herself
when the policewoman did not leave. What do 1 do now?
    "I thought," Katie said to Nakamura a moment later,
    trying to sound normal, "that a report on our business was
    long overdue." She pulled the papers out of the envelope.
    "Despite the poor economy, we have managed to increase
    our profits by ten percent. In this summary sheet," she said,
    handing a page to Nakamura, "you can see that although the
    Vegas revenues are down, the local take, where the prices
    are cheaper, is up substantially. Even in San Miguel-"
    > He glanced at the paper quickly and then put it down on
    the table. "You don't need to show me any data," Nakamura
    . said. "Everyone knows what a superb businesswoman you
    ''. are." He reached over to his left and retrieved a large
    black-lacquer box. "Your performance has been outstand-
    , .ing," he said. "If times were not so tough, you would
    definitely merit a large raise. As it is, I would like to offer
    you this gift as a token of my appreciation."
    Nakamura pushed the box across the table to Katie.
    - "Thank you," she said, admiring the mountains and snow inlaid on
its top. It was indeed beautiful.
    "Open it," he said, reaching for one of the wrapped candies in the
bowl on the table.
    Katie opened the box. It was full of kokomo. A genuine
    - ,. smile of delight crossed  her face. 'Thank you,  Toshio-san,"
she said. "You are most generous."
    . "You may sample  it," he said, now  grinning. "You won't  insult
me."
    Katie put a small amount of the powder on her tongue.
    .: It was top quality. Without hesitation, she pinched a chunk
    ;|^<of powder out of the box and held it against her left nostril
    Ihwith her little finger. Closing off the right nostril, Katie
    ttnhaled deeply. She took slow, deep breaths while the rush
    438
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    439
    took effect. Then she laughed. "Whewee," Katie said uninhibitedly.
'That's great stuff!"
    "I thought you would like it,"  Nakamura said. He idly tossed  his
candy wrapper in the small wastebasket  next to the table. It will  be
in there  somewhere,  Katie  remembered Franz  telling  her.  In  some
inconspicuous  spot.  Look  in  the  wastebaskets.  Look  behind   the
curtains.
    The New Eden dictator  was smiling at her  from across the  table.
"Was there anything else?" he asked.
    Katie took a deep breath as she smiled. "Only this," she said. She
stretched forward, put her elbows on the table, and kissed him on  die
lips. She felt the policewoman's rough hands on her shoulders  moments
later. 'That's a small token of my thanks for the kokomo."
    She had not misjudged him. The lust in his eyes was  unmistakable.
Nakamura waved  Bangorn away.  "You  may leave  us,"  he said  to  the
policewoman as he  rose from  his sitting position.  "Come over  here,
Katie. Give me a real kiss."
    Katie checked  the  small wastebasket  as  she danced  around  the
table. There was nothing except candy  wrappers in it. Of course,  she
thought. That would  be too obvious.  Now I must  make this good.  She
teased Nakamura first with one kiss and then with another. Her  tongue
tickled his  lips and  tongue.  Then she  pulled away  quickly,  still
laughing. Nakamura started to follow her.
    "No," she said,  backing up toward  the door. "Not  yet ...  we're
just getting started."
    Nakamura stood still  and grinned. "I  had forgotten how  talented
you are," he said. "Those girls are lucky to have you as a mentor."
    "It takes an exceptional man to  bring out the best in me,"  Katie
said, locking and bolting the door. Her eyes roamed quickly around the
office and  landed  on another  small  wastebasket, over  in  the  far
corner.  That  would  be  the  perfect  place,  she  said  to  herself
excitedly.
    "Are you just going to stand  there, Toshio," £atie said now,  "or
are you going to get me a drink?"
    "Of course," Nakamura said, moving toward the hand-
    carved  liquor  cabinet  under  the  solitary  window.   "Straight
whiskey, wasn't it?"
    "Your memory is phenomenal," Katie said.
    "I remember  you very  well,"  Nakamura said  as he  prepared  two
drinks. "How  could  I  ever forget  all  those  games-especially  the
princess and the slave, that  was my favorite. . .  . We had such  fun
there for a while."
    Until you insisted on bringing in others. And even more disgusting
things, Katie thought.  You made  it clear that  I was  not enough  by
myself. "Boy,"  she  barked  suddenly  in an  imperious  tone,  "I  am
thirsty. Where is my drink?"
    A quick frown crossed Nakamura's face before he broke into a  wide
smile. "Yes, Your Highness,"  he said, bringing her  a drink with  his
head held low. He bowed. "Is  there anything else, Your Highness?"  he
said obsequiously.
    "Yes," Katie responded, taking  the drink with  her left hand  and
reaching aggressively  under Nakamura's  kimono "with  her right.  She
watched him close his eyes. Katie kissed him hard whiie continuing  to
arouse him.
    She pulled away abruptly. While he was watching her, Katie  slowly
took off  her yukata.  Nakamura advanced.  Katie stuck  out her  arms.
"Now, boy," she ordered, "turn down those lights and lie over there on
the mat, on your back, next to the table."
    Nakamura dutifully complied.  Katie walked  over to  where he  was
lying. "Now," she said in a  gentler tone, "you do remember what  your
princess needs, don't  you? Slowly, very  slowly, without any  hurry."
She reached down and fondled him. "I do believe that Musashi is almost
ready."
    Katie kissed  Nakamura,  caressing  his face  and  neck  with  her
fingers. "Now close your eyes," she  whispered in his ear, "and  count
to ten, very slowly."
    "Ichi, ni, san . . ." he said breathlessly.
    With astonishing celerity, Katie  swept across the  room ; to  the
other wastebasket. She pushed aside some papers and ifound the gun.
    . . shi, go, ryoku ..."
    Her heart  pounding  furiously,  Katie picked  up  the  gun,  tied
around, and headed back toward Nakamura.
    440
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    441
    ". . . shichi, hachi, kyu ..."
    "This is for what you did to my father," Katie said, sticking  the
barrel of the gun against his forehead. She pulled the trigger just as
the astonished Nakamura opened his eyes.
    "And this  is for  what you  did to  me," she  said, firing  three
bullets into his genitals in rapid succession.
    The guards broke down the door in seconds. But she was too  quick.
"And this, Katie Wakefield,"  she said in a  loud voice, sticking  the
gun in her mouth, "is for what you did to yourself."
    Ellie awakened when she heard the keys rustling in the lock on her
cell. She rubbed her eyes. "Is that you, Robert?" she asked.
    "Yes, Ellie," he said. He came into the cell just as she stood up.
Robert put his arms around Ellie and hugged her fiercely. "I'm so glad
to see you," he said.  "I came as soon as  Herbert told me the  guards
had abandoned the station."
    Robert kissed his  puzzled wife. "I'm  terribly sorry, Ellie,"  he
said. "I was very, very wrong."
    It took  Ellie  a  few  seconds  to  gather  her  bearings.  'They
abandoned the station?" she said. "Why, Robert? What's going on?"
    "Complete and total  chaos," he  said heavily.  He looked  utterly
defeated.
    "What do you mean, Robert?" Ellie said, suddenly afraid.  "Nikki's
all right, isn't she?"
    "She's fine, Ellie. But people are  dying in droves. And we  don't
know why. Ed  Stafford collapsed  an hour ago  and was  dead before  I
could even examine him. It's some kind of monstrous plague."
    The octospiders,  Ellie  thought immediately.  They  have  finally
fought back. She  held her husband  against her while  he wept.  After
several seconds he pulled away and spoke. "I'm sorry, Ellie. There has
been so much turmoil. Are you all right?"v
    "I'm okay,  Robert.  No one  has  questioned or  tortured  me  for
several days. But where's Nikki?"
    "She's  with  Brian  Walsh  at  our  house.  You  remember  Brian,
Patrick's computer friend?  He's been  helping me take  care of  Nikki
since you've been gone. Poor guy,  he found both his parents dead  the
day before yesterday when he woke up."
    Ellie walked out of the police station with Robert. He was talking
continuously, rambling from subject to subject, but Ellie was able  to
comprehend a few things from his almost incoherent chatter.  According
to Robert, there had been over three hundred unexplained deaths in New
Eden in just  the last two  days. And  the end was  nowhere in  sight.
"It's strange," he  muttered. "Only one  child has died.  Most of  the
victims have been old."
    In front of the Beauvois police station, a desperate woman in  her
mid-thirties recognized and then grabbed  Robert. "You must come  with
me, Doctor,  immediately," the  woman yelled  in a  shrill voice.  "My
husband is unconscious. He was sitting there with me eating lunch  and
he began to complain of a headache. When I came back from the kitchen,
he was lying on the floor. I'm afraid he's dead."
    "You see," Robert said, turning to Ellie.
    "Go with her," Ellie said, "and then to the hospital if you  must.
I'll go home and take  care of Nikki. We'll  be waiting for you."  She
leaned over and kissed him. Ellie  started to say something to  Robert
about the octospiders but decided against it.
    "Mommy, Mommy," Nikki  yelled. She  ran down the  hall and  jumped
into Ellie's arms. "I've missed you, Mommy."
    "And I have missed you, my angel," Ellie said. "What have you been
doing?"
    ^ "I've been playing with Brian,"  Nikki answered. "He's " a  very
nice man. He reads to me and teaches me all about numbers."
    Brian Walsh, who  was in  his early  twenties, came  £ around  the
corner holding a children's book.  "Hello, Mrs. j|. Turner," he  said.
"I don't know if you remember me .  . ." 'm>" "Of course I do,  Brian.
And I'm just Ellie.  I really do  want to thank  you for helping  with
Nikki."
    442
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "I'm glad to do it, Ellie. She's  a great kid. She's kept my  mind
off a lot of painful thoughts-"
    "Robert told  me  about  your parents,"  Ellie  interrupted.  "I'm
terribly sorry."
    Brian shook his head. "It was  so weird. They were both  perfectly
fine the night  before, when they  went to bed."  Tears came into  his
eyes. "They looked so peaceful. . . ."
    He turned away  and pulled out  a handkerchief to  wipe his  eyes.
"Several of my friends say this plague, or whatever it is, was  caused
by the octospiders. Do you think that maybe-"
    "Possibly," Ellie said. "We may have pushed them too far."
    "Are we all going to die?" Brian asked.
    "I don't know," Ellie answered. "I really don't."
    They stood in awkward silence for several seconds. "Well, at least
your sister got rid of Nakamura," Brian said suddenly.
    Ellie was certain she had not heard the sentence correctly.  "What
are you talking about, Brian?" she asked.
    "You didn't  hear  about  it? Four  days  ago  Katie  assassinated
Nakamura . . . and then killed herself."
    Ellie was stunned. She stared at Brian in utter disbelief.  "Daddy
told me about  Aunt Katie yesterday,"  Nikki said to  her mother.  "He
said he wanted to be the one to tell me."
    Ellie could not say anything.  Her head was spinning. She  managed
to say good-bye to Brian and to thank him again. Then she sat down  on
the couch. Nikki  crawled up  beside her mother  and put  her head  on
Ellie's lap. They sat together quietly for a long time.
    "And how has your father been while I've been gone?" Ellie finally
asked.
    "Mostly fine," the little girl replied. "Except for the lump."
    "What lump?" Ellie said.
    "On his shoulder," Nikki said. "As big as my fist. I saw it  there
when he was shaving, three days ago. Heisaid it must be a spider  bite
or something."
    10
    B;
    Ienjy and I are leaving for the hospital," Nicole announced.
    The others  were  still  finishing  their  breakfast.  "Sit  down,
Nicole, please," said Eponine. "At least finish your coffee."
    "Thanks anyway," she replied.  "But I promised  Dr. Blue we  would
come in early  today. There were  a lot of  casualties in  yesterday's
raid."
    "But you've been  working very hard,  Mother," Patrick said.  "And
not sleeping nearly enough."
    "It helps to stay busy," Nicole  said. "That way I don't have  any
time to think."
    "Let's go, Mama,"  Benjy said,  coming into the  room and  handing
Nicole her coat. While he was standing beside his mother, Benjy smiled
and waved  at  the twins,  who  had been  uncharacteristically  quiet.
Galileo made a bizarre face and both Benjy and Kepler laughed.
    "She hasn't yet allowed herself to grieve over Katie's
    444
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    death," Nai said  softly a  minute later,  as soon  as Nicole  had
left. "That worries me. Sooner or later . . ."
    "She's afraid, Nai," Eponine said. "Maybe of another heart attack.
Maybe even for her sanity. Nicole is still in denial."
    "There you go,  Frenchie, with  that damn  psychology again,"  Max
said. "Don't worry about Nicole. She's stronger than any of us. She'll
weep for Katie when she's ready."
    "Mother hasn't been to  the viewing room  since her heart  attack.
When Dr. Blue told her about the assassination and Katie's suicide,  I
felt certain Mother would want  to see some of  the videos ... to  see
Katie one last time ... or at least to see how Ellie was doing."
    "Best goddamn thing your sister ever did, Patrick," Max commented,
"killing that bastard. Whatever else anybody could say about her,  she
had courage."
    "Katie had a  lot of outstanding  qualities," Patrick said  sadly.
"She was brilliant, she could be charming ... she just had that  other
side."
    There was a brief silence around the breakfast table. Eponine  was
about to say something  when there was  a glow of  light at the  front
door. "Uh-oh," she said, standing up.  "I'm going to move Marius  next
door. The raids are starting again."
    Nai turned to Galileo and Kepler. "Finish up quickly, boys.  We're
going back into that special house Uncle Max made for us."
    Galileo screwed up his face. "Not again," he complained.
    Nicole and Benjy had  barely reached the  hospital when the  first
bombs started falling through the  tattered dome. The heavy raids  had
been occurring daily. More than half  of the Emerald City ceiling  was
now gone. Bombs had fallen on almost every section of the city.
    Dr. Blue  greeted them  and  immediately sent  Benjy down  to  the
receiving area.  "It's terrible,"  the  octospider physician  said  to
Nicole. "Over two hundred dead from yesterday alone." *.
    "What is  happening in  New  Eden?" Nicole  asked. "I  would  have
thought that by now-"
    RAMA REVEALED
    445
    "The micro-agents are working somewhat slower than predicted," Dr.
Blue replied.  "But  they are  finally  having an  impact.  The  Chief
Optimizer says the raids  should cease in another  day or two, at  the
most. She and her staff are drawing up plans for the next phase."
    "Surely the colonists  will not  continue the  war," Nicole  said,
forcing herself not to think too much about what was occurring in  New
Eden, "especially not with Nakamura dead."
    "We feel we must be prepared for any contingency," Dr. Blue  said.
"But I certainly hope you're right."
    As  they  were  moving  down  the  corridor  together,  they  were
approached by another octospider doctor, the one that Benjy had  named
Penny because of the round mark,  resembling a New Eden coin, just  to
the right of her slit. Penny described to Dr. Blue the terrible scenes
she had witnessed earlier  that morning out  in the Alternate  Domain.
Nicole was  able to  understand  most of  what  Penny said,  not  only
because the  octospider  repeated  herself  several  times,  but  also
because Penny used very simple sentences in their language of color.
    Penny informed Dr. Blue that  medical personnel and supplies  were
desperately needed  immediately  to  help  with  the  wounded  in  the
Alternate Domain. Dr. Blue tried to  explain to Penny that there  were
not even enough staff members available to handle all the patients  in
the hospital.
    "I could  go with  Penny for  a few  hours this  morning,"  Nicole
suggested, "if that would be any help."
    Dr. Blue glanced at her human friend. "Are you certain you feel up
to it,  Nicole?"  the  octospider asked.  "I  understand  it's  pretty
gruesome out there."
    "I have been getting stronger  every day," Nicole replied. "And  I
want to be where I'm most needed."
    Dr. Blue told Penny that Nicole would be able to assist her in the
Alternate Domain for a  maximum of a tert,  as long as Penny  accepted
the responsibility for  escorting Nicole back  to the hospital.  Penny
agreed and thanked Nicole for volunteering to help.
    Soon after they boarded the  transport, Penny explained to  Nicole
what was happening in the Alternate Domain.
    446
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "The wounded are taken  to any building  that is still  undamaged,
where  they  are  examined,   treated  with  emergency  medicines   if
necessary, and  scheduled  for  transportation to  the  hospital.  The
situation has been getting worse each day. Many of the alternates have
already given up hope."
    The rest  of the  transport ride  was equally  depressing. In  the
light from the few scattered  fireflies, Nicole could see  destruction
everywhere. To open the south gate,  the guards had to push aside  two
dozen alternates, a few of them  wounded, who were clamoring to  enter
the city. After the transport passed the gate, the devastation  around
them increased. The theater where Nicole and her friends had  attended
the morality play was  in shambles. More than  half of the  structures
near the  Arts District  had been  flattened. Nicole  started  feeling
sick. Suddenly a bomb exploded on top of the transport.
    Nicole was  thrown out  of the  car onto  the street.  Dazed,  she
struggled slowly to her feet. The transport had been severed into  two
twisted pieces. Penny and the  other octospider doctor were buried  in
the debris. Nicole attempted for  several minutes to reach Penny,  but
eventually realized  it was  hopeless. Another  bomb exploded  nearby.
Nicole grabbed her small medical bag,  which had been thrown into  the
street beside  her, and  staggered down  a side  lane in  search of  a
shelter.
    A solitary octospider was  lying motionless in  the middle of  the
lane. Nicole bent down and pulled  her flashlight from her bag.  There
was no activity in the octospider's lens. She rolled the octo over  on
its side and  immediately saw the  wound in  the back of  its head.  A
large mass of  white corrugated material  had oozed out  of the  wound
onto the  street.  Nicole shuddered  and  almost gagged.  She  glanced
around her quickly for something to cover the dead octospider. A  bomb
hit a building not more than two hundred meters away. Nicole stood  up
and walked on.
    She found a small shed on the  right side of the lane, but it  was
already occupied by five or six of the little Polish sausage  animals.
They chased her away, one of them snapping at her heels for twenty  or
twenty-five meters. At
    RAMA REVEALED
    447
    length the animal was gone and Nicole stopped to catch her breath.
She spent a few minutes examining herself and discovered, much to  her
amazement, that she had no  significant injuries, only a few  isolated
bruises.
    There was a hiatus in the bombing. The Alternate Domain was eerily
quiet. In front of Nicole, about  a hundred meters down the street,  a
firefly was hovering over  a building that  appeared to be  undamaged.
Nicole saw a pair of octospiders,  one of whom was obviously  wounded,
enter the building. That must be  one of the temporary hospitals,  she
said to herself. She started to walk in that direction.
    A few seconds later, Nicole  heard a peculiar sound, barely  above
the threshold of her hearing. At  first the sound did not register  in
her mind,  but the  second  time she  heard  the cry,  Nicole  stopped
abruptly in the street. A chill ran down her spine. That was a  baby's
cry, she thought,  standing completely  still. She  heard nothing  for
several seconds. Could I have imagined it? Nicole asked herself.
    Nicole strained her  eyes and  looked in the  semidarkness to  her
right, in what she  perceived had been the  direction of the cry.  She
could make out  a wire fence,  lying mostly on  its side, about  forty
meters down a crossing lane. She glanced again at the nearby building,
knowing the octospiders needed  her inside. The  cry resounded in  the
night, clearer this  time, rising  and falling in  amplitude like  the
typical wail of a desperate human baby.
    She walked hurriedly over to the  toppled fence. A broken sign  in
color was lying on the  ground in front of  it. Nicole knelt down  and
picked up a  piece of  the sign.  When she  recognized the  octospider
colors for "zoo," her heart rate surged. Richard heard the cry when he
was at the zoo, she remembered.
    There was an  explosion about a  kilometer away to  her left,  and
then another, much  closer. The helicopters  had returned for  another
sortie. The baby's wail became continuous. Nicole tried to keep moving
in the  direction  of the  cry,  but her  progress  was slow.  It  was
difficult to isolate the wail amid the noise from the explosions.
    A bomb burst in front of her less than a hundred meters
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    away. In the silence that followed, Nicole heard nothing. Oh,  no,
her heart cried  out, not now.  Not when  I am this  close. There  was
another explosion  in  the distance,  followed  by another  period  of
quiet. It might be some other  kind of animal, she remembered  telling
Richard. Somewhere in the universe there may be a creature that sounds
like a human baby.
    Her thoughts were interrupted by the return of the piercing  wail.
Nicole moved as fast as she dared. No, she kept saying to herself, her
mother's heart torn  apart by  the desperate  cry, it's  unmistakable.
There cannot be any other sound like that. A battered fence ran  along
the right side  of the  narrow lane. She  crossed through  it. In  the
shadows ahead of her Nicole saw some movement.
    The crying baby  was sitting on  the ground next  to the  lifeless
form of an  adult human, presumably  its mother. The  woman was  lying
facedown on the  dirt. Blood  covered the  lower half  of the  adult's
body. After quickly determining that the woman was indeed dead, Nicole
reached down gingerly and picked up the dark-haired child.  Astonished
by the action, the baby fought against her and split the night with  a
powerful bawl. Nicole put the child against her shoulder and patted it
lightly on the back. 'There, there," she said as the baby continued to
shriek, "everything is going to be all right."
    In the  dim  light  Nicole  could see  that  the  child's  bizarre
clothes, which were little  more than two layers  of heavy sacks  with
holes cut in appropriate places, were smeared with blood. Despite  the
baby's  protests  and  thrashing,  Nicole  gave  the  child  a   quick
examination. Except for a  flesh wound in the  leg and the filth  that
covered her entire  body, the little  girl appeared to  be all  right.
Nicole estimated that she was about a year old.
    Ever so gently, Nicole laid the  girl down on a small fresh  cloth
taken from the medical  bag. While Nicole was  cleaning up the  child,
she felt the giri  jerk and recoil  each time a  bomb exploded in  the
vicinity. Nicole tried to soothe her by singing Brahms's Lullaby. Once
during the  time that  Nicole was  dressing the  leg wound,  the  girl
stopped crying  temporarily  and  stared  at  Nicole  with  her  huge,
surprisingly
    RAMA REVEALED
    449
    blue eyes. She  offered no protest  even when Nicole  took a  damp
cleansing pad and began to wipe the dirt off her skin. A little later,
however, when  Nicole was  cleaning underneath  the girl's  shirts  of
sackcloth and  found,  to  her astonishment,  a  small  rope  necklace
against the baby's tiny chest, the child started howling again.
    Nicole gathered the crying baby in  her arms and stood up. She  is
undoubtedly hungry, Nicole thought, looking  around the area for  some
kind of hut or shelter. There must  be some food nearby. Under a  deep
overhanging rock about fifteen meters away, which had clearly been  an
enclosed area before the bombing raids began, Nicole found a large pan
of water, some small objects of  unknown purpose, a sleeping pad,  and
several more of the sacks out of which the clothing of both the  woman
and the  child  were  made.  But  there  was  no  food.  Nicole  tried
unsuccessfully to get  the girl to  drink from the  pan. Then she  had
another idea.
    Returning to the body of  the dead mother, Nicole determined  that
there was still  some good  milk left in  her breasts.  The woman  had
obviously died recently. Nicole lifted the mother's torso and slid  in
behind her on  the ground.  Supporting the mother's  body against  her
own, Nicole  held  the baby  girl  against her  mother's  breasts  and
watched her suck.
    The child ate hungrily. In the middle of the feeding, a bomb blast
illuminated the dead woman's features. It was the same face Nicole had
seen in the  octospider painting  in Artisan's  Square. So  I did  not
imagine it, Nicole thought.
    The baby girl fell  asleep when she  was finished nursing.  Nicole
wrapped her in one  of the extra  sacks and placed  her softly on  the
ground. Nicole now examined the  dead mother thoroughly for the  first
time. Based on the gaping wounds  in the woman's lower midsection  and
right thigh, Nicole surmised  that two large pieces  of a single  bomb
had torn through  her and  that she  had subsequently  bled to  death.
While she was inspecting the thigh wound, Nicole felt a strange  bulge
in the woman's  right buttock.  Curious, she lifted  the woman's  body
slightly off the ground and ran her
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    fingers over and around the bulge. It felt as if some hard  object
had been implanted underneath the skin.
    Nicole  retrieved  her  medical  bag  and  then,  with  her  small
scissors, made an incision just to  one side of the bulge. She  pulled
out an object that appeared to be silver in the dim light. It was  the
size and shape  of a  small cigar,  twelve to  fifteen centimeters  in
length, and  about  two  centimeters in  diameter.  A  puzzled  Nicole
twirled the object around in her right hand and tried to imagine  what
it could  be. It  was incredibly  smooth, with  no discernible  breaks
anywhere. Probably this is  some kind of identifier  for the zoo,  she
was thinking when a bomb exploded nearby, waking the sleeping girl.
    Over in the direction of the Emerald City, bombs were falling with
increasing intensity. While  Nicole comforted the  child, she  thought
about what she should do next.  A large fireball raced toward the  sky
as one of  the falling bombs  caused an even  larger explosion on  the
ground. In the  temporary light,  Nicole could  see that  she and  the
child were on the top of a small  hill, very close to the edge of  the
developed part of  the Alternate  Domain. The Central  Plain began  no
more than a hundred meters to the west.
    Nicole stood  up with  the  girl on  her  shoulder. She  was  near
exhaustion. "We're going out there, away from the bombs," she said out
loud to the  baby, motioning in  the direction of  the Central  Plain.
Nicole tossed die cylindrical object in her medical bag and grabbed  a
pair of  the clean  sacks. These  may be  useful in  the cold,  Nicole
thought, throwing the heavy sacks over her shoulders.
    It took an hour for her to trudge with the baby and the sacks to a
spot in the Central Plain that Nicole thought was far enough away from
the bombs. She lay down on her  back, the child cradled on her  chest,
and wrapped  the sacks  around  both of  them.  Nicole was  asleep  in
seconds.
    Nicole was awakened  by the  movement of  the girl.  She had  been
having a conversation with  Katie in her dream,  but Nicole could  not
recall what they had been saying to each other. She sat up and changed
the baby, using a clean cloth
    RAMA REVEALED
    451
    from her medical bag.  The child stared  at Nicole curiously  with
her wide  blue eyes.  "Good morning,  little girl,  whoever you  are,"
Nicole said brightly. The child smiled for the first time.
    It was no longer completely dark. Firefly clusters illuminated the
Emerald City in the distance, and the gaping holes in the dome allowed
the light to shine on the surrounding area of Rama. The war must  have
ended, Nicole thought, seeing  the light, or at  least the raids  have
been suspended.
    "Well, my newest friend," Nicole said, standing up and  stretching
after placing the baby carefully on one of the clean sacks, "let's see
what adventures are in store for us today."
    The girl quickly crawled off the sack into the dirt of the Central
Plain. Nicole picked  her up  and replaced her  in the  middle of  the
sack. Again she crawled  toward the dirt.  "Whoa, there, little  one,"
Nicole said with a laugh, picking the girl up a second time.
    It was difficult for  Nicole to gather  up their belongings  while
she was holding the  child in her arms.  Eventually she succeeded  and
began walking  slowly  toward  civilization.  They  were  about  three
hundred meters from  the closest  buildings of  the Alternate  Domain.
During her  walk,  Nicole decided  that  she  would go  first  to  the
hospital to find Dr. Blue.  Assuming that she had correctly  concluded
that the war was over or at least had been temporarily halted,  Nicole
planned to spend the  morning finding out  everything she could  about
the child. Who were  her parents, Nicole formed  the questions in  her
mind, and how  long ago  were they kidnapped  from New  Eden? She  was
angry with the octospiders.  Why didn'/ you tell  me there were  other
human beings in  the Emerald City?  Nicole intended to  ask the  Chief
Optimizer. And how can you defend  the way you treated this child  and
her mother?
    The girl, who  was wide  awake, would  not sit  still in  Nicole's
arms. Nicole became  uncomfortable. She  decided to stop  for a  rest.
While the  child  was  playing  in the  dirt,  Nicole  stared  at  the
destruction in front of her, both in the Alternate Domain and, in  the
distance, in the part of the
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Emerald City that  she could see.  Nicole suddenly felt-very  sad.
What is it all for? she asked  herself. An image of Katie entered  her
mind, but Nicole pushed it aside, choosing instead to sit down in  the
dirt and  entertain  the child.  Five  minutes later  they  heard  the
whistle.
    The sound was coming from the sky, from Rama itself. Nicole jumped
to her feet,  her pulse  immediately skyrocketing. She  felt a  slight
pain in her chest, but nothing could diminish her excitement.  "Look,"
she shouted to the baby girl, "look over there, in the south!"
    In the  distant southern  bowl, streamers  of colored  light  were
playing around the tip of the Big Horn, the massive spire that  thrust
upward  along  the  spin  axis  of  the  cylindrical  spacecraft.  The
streamers coalesced and formed a red ring near the tip of the spire. A
few moments later  this huge red  ring sailed slowly  north along  the
axis of  Rama. Around  the Big  Horn, more  colors danced  until  they
formed into a second ring, orange in color, which eventually  followed
the red ring, also in a northerly direction in the sky of Rama.
    The whistle continued. It  was not a harsh  or shrill whistle.  To
Nicole it  almost  sounded  musical. "Something's  going  to  happen,"
Nicole said exultantly to the girl, "something good!"
    The little girl had  no idea what was  occurring, but she  laughed
heartily when the woman picked her up and tossed her skyward. And  for
her the rings were  definitely eyecatching. Now a  yellow and a  green
ring were both crossing the black sky of Rama, and the red one in  the
front of the procession had just reached the Cylindrical Sea.
    Again Nicole tossed the child a foot or two in the air. This  time
the girl's necklace escaped from under her shirts and nearly flew  off
her head. Nicole caught  the girl and  gave her a  hug. "I had  almost
forgotten about your necklace,"  Nicole said. "Now  that we have  some
decent light, may I take a look at it?"
    The girl giggled as Nicole pulled the rope necklace over her head.
At the bottom of the necklace, carved  on a round piece of wood  about
four centimeters  in diameter,  was the  outline of  a man  with  arms
upraised, surrounded on all sides
    RAMA REVEALED
    453
    by what appeared  to be  a fire. Nicole  had seen  a similar  wood
carving many  years before,  on  Michael O'Toole's  desk in  his  room
inside the Newton.  Saint Michael  of Siena, Nicole  said to  herself,
turning the carving over.
    On the  back the  word MARIA  was carefully  printed in  lowercase
letters. "That must be your name," Nicole said to the girl. "Maria . .
. Maria." There was no indication of recognition. The child started to
frown just before Nicole laughed and tossed her into the air one  more
time.
    A few minutes  later Nicole  put the squirming  child down  again.
Maria immediately crawled into the dirt. Nicole kept one eye on  Maria
and one eye  on the colored  rings in  the Rama sky.  All eight  rings
could now be seen, the blue, brown, pink, and purple over the Southern
Hemicyl-inder and the  first four  in the line  in the  sky above  the
north. As the red ring vanished in the northern bowl, another red ring
formed at the tip of the Big Horn.
    Just like all those  years ago, Nicole thought.  But her mind  was
not really focused  on the rings  yet. She was  searching her  memory,
trying to remember  every missing  persons report that  had ever  been
filed in New Eden.  There had been a  handful of boating accidents  on
Lake Shakespeare, she  recalled, and  every now  and then  one of  the
patients in the  mental hospital  at Avalon had  disappeared. But  how
could a couple vanish like that?  And where was Maria's father?  There
were many questions that Nicole wanted to ask the octospiders.
    The dazzling  rings  continued to  float  above her  head.  Nicole
remembered that day long ago when Katie,  as a girl of ten or  eleven,
had been  so thrilled  by  the huge  rings in  the  sky that  she  had
screamed with joy. She  was always my  most uninhibited child,  Nicole
thought, unable  to  stop  herself.  Her laugh  was  so  complete,  so
genuine. . . . Katie had so much potential.
    With great effort Nicole forced  herself to concentrate on  Maria.
The child was sitting down, merrily  eating the dirt from the  Central
Plain. "No, Maria,"  Nicole said, gently  touching the child's  hands.
"That's dirty."
    The girl screwed up her beautiful face and began to cry.
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    455
    Like Katie, Nicole thought immediately. She couldn 't stand for me
to tell her no.  Memories of Katie now  flooded into her mind.  Nicole
saw her  daughter  first  as  a baby,  thefl  as  a  precocious  early
adolescent at the Node, and finally as a young woman in New Eden.  The
deep heartache  that  accompanied  the images  of  her  lost  daughter
completely overwhelmed Nicole. Tears ran down her cheeks and her  body
began to shake with sobs. "Oh,  Katie," Nicole yelled out loud.  "Why?
Why? Why?"
    She buried her face in her hands. Maria had stopped crying and was
looking at Nicole with a quizzical look.
    "It's all right, Nicole," a voice behind her said. "It will all be
over soon."
    Nicole thought  her mind  was playing  tricks. She  turned  around
slowly. The Eagle was approaching with outstretched arms.
    The third red ring had reached the northern bowl and there were no
more colored lights around the Big Horn. "So will all the lights  come
on when the rings are finished?" Nicole asked the Eagle.
    "What a good memory," he said. "You might be right."
    Nicole was again holding Maria in  her arms. She kissed the  child
gently on the cheek and Maria smiled. "Thank you for the girl," Nicole
said. "She is  wonderful . .  . and I  understand what you're  telling
me."
    The Eagle faced Nicole. "What are you talking about?" he said. "We
didn't have anything to do with the child."
    Nicole searched the alien's mystical  blue eyes with her own.  She
had never  seen  a  pair  of  eyes that  had  such  a  wide  range  of
expression. But Nicole  had had  no recent practice  reading what  the
Eagle was saying with his eyes. Was he teasing her about Maria? Or was
he serious? Surely it wasn't just chance that she discovered the child
so soon after Katie killed herself.
    You 're being too rigid in your thinking, Nicole recalled  Richard
saying to her at  the Node. Just because  the eagle is not  biological
like you and me does not mean that he's not
    alive. He's a robot, all right, but he's much smarter than we are.
. . . And much more subtle.
    "So have you  been hiding  in Rama  all this  time?" Nicole  asked
several seconds later.
    "No," the  Eagle replied.  He did  not elaborate.  Nicole  smiled.
"You've already  told  me that  we  haven't  reached the  Node  or  an
equivalent place, and I'm certain that  you didn't just drop by for  a
social visit. Are you going to tell me why you are here?"
    "This is  a Stage  Two  intercession," the  Eagle said.  "We  have
decided to interrupt the observation process."
    "Okay," Nicole said,  placing Maria  back down on  the ground,  "I
understand the concept. But what exactly will happen now?"
    "Everyone will  go to  sleep,"  the Eagle  said. "And  after  they
awaken . . .  ?" Nicole asked.  "All I can tell  you is that  everyone
will go to sleep." Nicole stepped away in the direction of the Emerald
. City and  raised her arms  to the  sky. Only three  colored rings  :
remained now, and  they were  all far  away, over  above the  Northern
Hemicylinder.  "Just  out  of   curiosity-I'm  not  complaining,   you
understand . . ." Nicole said with a trace of sarcasm. She paused  and
turned around to face the Eagle. "Why didn't you intercede a long time
ago? Before all this ; occurred? Before there were so many deaths?"
    The Eagle didn't answer immediately. "You can't have it both ways,
Nicole," he  said at  length. "You  can't have  both free  will and  a
benevolent higher power who protects you from yourself."
    "Excuse me," Nicole said with a  puzzled look on her face. "Did  I
mistakenly ask a religious question?"
    "Not really," the Eagle replied. "What you must understand is that
our  objective  is  to  develop  a  complete  catalog  .  on  all  the
spacefarers in this region of the Galaxy. We are vflot judgmental.  We
are scientists. We do not care if it is -iyour natural predilection to
destroy yourself. We do  care, ^however, if  the likely future  return
from our project no iger  justifies the significant resources we  have
assigned."
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEEV
    "Huh?"  said  Nicole.  "Are  you   telling  me  that  you're   not
interceding to stop the bloodshed, but for some other reason?"
    "Yes," said the Eagle. "However,  I'm going to change the  subject
because our time is extremely limited. The lights will be coming on in
two more minutes. You will be asleep a minute after that. If you  have
anything you wish to communicate to the girl child-"
    "Are we going to die?' Nicole said, suddenly frightened.
    "Not immediately," said  the Eagle. "But  I cannot guarantee  that
everyone will live through the sleeping period."
    Nicole dropped down in the dirt beside the girl. Maria had another
clod in her mouth and wet dirt  lined her lips. Nicole wiped her  face
off very gently and offered the child a drink of water from a cup.  To
Nicole's surprise, Maria  sipped at  the water, spilling  it down  her
chin.
    Nicole smiled and Maria giggled. Nicole stuck her finger under the
girl's chin and  tickled her. Maria's  giggles erupted into  laughter,
the pure, uninhibited, magical laughter of the small child. The  sound
was incredibly beautiful. Nicole's eyes filled with tears.
    Suddenly all of  Rama was  filled with  light. It  was an  awesome
spectacle. The Big Horn and its six surrounding acolytes, attached  by
massive flying buttresses, dominated  the sky above them.  "Forty-five
seconds?" Nicole said to the Eagle.
    The alien birdman nodded.  Nicole reached over  and picked up  the
girl. "I know that nothing that has happened to you recently makes any
sense, Maria," Nicole said, holding the child in her lap, "but I  want
you to know that you have  already been terribly important in my  life
and I love you very much."
    There was a look of astonishing wisdom in the little girl's  eyes.
She leaned forward and  put her head on  Nicole's shoulder. For a  few
seconds Nicole did not know what  to do. Then she began patting  Maria
on the back. And singing softly. "Lay thee down . . . Now and rest . .
. May thy slumber be Blessed ..." *>
    RETURN TO THE NODE
    1
    T
    IH
    !ie dreams came  before the ight.  They were disconnected  dreams,
random images  sometimes expanding  into short,  unified sets  without
apparent purpose or direction. Colors and geometric patterns were  the
earliest dreams she remembered. Nicole could not recall when they  had
started. At  some point  she had  thought  for the  first time,  /  am
Nicole. I must still be alive, but that had been long ago. Since  then
she had seen, in her mind's eye, entire scenes, including the faces of
other people. Some she  had recognized. That's Omeh,  she had said  to
herself. That's my father.  She had felt sadness  as she had  awakened
more each  time. Richard  had been  in her  last several  dreams.  And
Katie. They're both dead,  Nicole had remembered.  They died before  I
went to sleep.
    When she opened her eyes, she could still see nothing.
    The darkness was complete. Slowly Nicole became more
    aware of her surroundings. She dropped her hands beside
    her and felt the soft texture of the foam with her fingers. She
    |;turned over on her side with very little effort. / must be
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    weightless, Nicole thought, her  mind beginning to function  after
years of  being dormant.  But where  am I?  she asked  herself  before
falling asleep again. *
    The next  time she  awakened, Nicole  could see  a solitary  light
source at  the other  end of  the closed  container in  which she  was
lying. She wiggled her feet free of the white foam and held them up in
front of the light.  They were both covered  with clear slippers.  She
stretched out to  see if  she could touch  the light  source with  her
toes, but it was too far away.
    Nicole put her hands in  front of her eyes.  The light was so  dim
that she  could  not  see  any  details,  only  a  dark  outline  that
silhouetted all  the  fingers.  There  was  not  enough  room  in  the
container for her to  sit up, but  she could manage  to reach the  top
with one  hand, if  she  propped herself  up  with the  other.  Nicole
pressed her fingers against the soft foam. Behind the foam was a  hard
surface, wood or possibly even metal.
    The slight activity wore  her out. She  was breathing rapidly  and
her heart  rate had  increased.  Her mind  became more  alert.  Nicole
remembered clearly the last  moments before she had  gone to sleep  in
Rama. The Eagle came, she thought,  just after I found that baby  girl
in the Alternate Domain. So where am I now? And how long have I slept?
    She heard a gentle knocking on the container and lay back down  in
the foam. Someone has  come. My questions will  be answered soon.  The
lid of the container was slowly raised. Nicole shielded her eyes  from
the light. She saw the Eagle's face and heard his voice.
    The two of them were sitting together in a large room.  Everything
was white. The walls, the ceiling,  the small round table in front  of
them, even the chairs,  the cup, the bowl,  and the spoon were  white.
Nicole took  another sip  of the  warm soup.  It tasted  like  chicken
broth. Over to  her left  the white container  in which  she had  been
lying rested against  the wall.  There were  no other  objects in  Uje
room.
    ". . . About sixteen years altogether-traveler's time, of course,"
the Eagle was saying. Traveler's time, Nicole
    RAMA REVEALED
    461
    thought. That's the same term that Richard used. ". . . We did not
retard your aging  nearly as efficiently  as before. Our  preparations
were somewhat hurried."
    Despite  the  weightlessness,  it  seemed  to  Nicole  that  every
physical act was a  monumental effort. Her  muscles had been  inactive
for too long. The Eagle had  helped her shuffle the few steps  between
the container and the table. Her hands had trembled some while she had
drunk the water and eaten the soup.
    "So am  I about  eighty?" she  now asked  the Eagle  in a  halting
voice, one that she barely recognized.
    "More or less," the alien replied. "It would be impossible to give
you a meaningful age."
    Nicole stared across the table at her companion. The Eagle  looked
just the same as  always. The powder-blue eyes  on either side of  his
protruding gray beak had  lost none of  their mystical intensity.  The
feathers on the  top of his  head were still  pure white,  contrasting
sharply with the dark gray feathers  of his face, neck, and back.  The
four fingers  on each  hand,  creamy white  and featherless,  were  as
smooth as a child's.
    Nicole studied  her  own  hands  for the  first  time.  They  were
wrinkled and discolored from age spots. She turned them over and  from
somewhere in  her memory  she  heard a  laugh. Phthisic,  Richard  was
saying.  Isn't  that  a  great  word?  It  means  more  withered  than
'withered.' . . . I wonder if I'll ever have a chance to use it. . . .
The memory faded. My hands are phthisic, Nicole thought.
    "Don't you ever age?" she asked the Eagle.
    "No," he replied.  "At least  not in the  sense that  you use  the
word. I am  regularly maintained  and subsystems  that are  exhibiting
performance degradation are replaced."
    "So you never die either?"
    He hesitated for a moment.  "That's not completely accurate,"  the
Eagle said.  "Like  all members  of  my group,  I  was created  for  a
specific purpose. If there is no longer  a need for me to exist and  I
cannot be  readily  programmed  to  'accomplish  some  new,  necessary
function, then I will be unpowered."
    462
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    465
    Nicole started to laugh but caught herself. "I'm sorry," she said,
"I know it's  not funny  ... but  your choice  of words  struck me  as
peculiar. 'Unpowered' is such a-"
    "It's also  the correct  word,"  the Eagle  said. "Inside  me  are
several  tiny  power  sources,  as  well  as  a  sophisticated   power
distribution system. All  the power elements  are essentially  modular
and therefore  transferable from  one of  us to  another. If  I am  no
longer needed, the elements can be removed and used in another being."
    "Like an organ transplant," Nicole said, finishing her water.
    "Somewhat," the Eagle replied. "Which brings me to another  issue.
. . .  During your  long sleep,  your heart  actually stopped  beating
twice, the second  time just  after we arrived  here in  the Tau  Ceti
system. We have managed  to keep you alive  with drugs and  mechanical
stimulation, but your heart is now extremely weak. If you want to have
an active life for any appreciable additional period, you will need to
consider replacing your heart."
    "Is  that  why  you  left  me  in  there"-Nicole  pointed  at  the
container-"for so long?" she asked.
    "Partially," said the  Eagle. He had  already explained to  Nicole
that most of the others from  Rama had awakened much earlier, some  as
long as a year ago, and that they were living in crowded conditions in
another venue not very far away. "But we were also concerned about how
comfortable  you  might  be  over   in  the  converted  starfish.   We
refurbished that  spacecraft  in  a  hurry,  so  there  are  not  many
amenities. We were also  concerned because you are  by far our  oldest
human survivor."
    That's right, Nicole said to herself. The octospider attack  wiped
out everyone over forty or so. I am the only old person left.
    The Eagle had stopped talking for a moment. When Nicole looked  at
the alien  again, his  mesmerizing  eyes seemed  to be  expressing  an
emotion. "Besides, you are special to  us. You have played a key  role
in this endqavor."
    Is it  possible, Nicole  thought suddenly,  still staring  at  the
Eagle's fascinating eyes, that this electronic creature actu-
    ally has feelings? Could Richard have been right when he  insisted
that there are no aspects of our humanity that could not be eventually
duplicated by engineering?
    "We waited as long as we could to wake you," the Eagle
    continued, "to minimize the length of time that you would
    have to spend in less than ideal conditions. Now, however,
    we are preparing to enter another phase of our operations.
    As you can see, this room was emptied, except for you, long
    ago. In another eight to ten days we will begin dismantling
    the walls. By then you should have recuperated enough."
    Nicole asked again about her family and friends. "As 1
    told you before," the Eagle said, "everyone survived the
    long sleep. However, the adjustment to living in what your
    friend Max calls the Grand Hotel has not been easy for
    anybody. All of those who were with you in the Emerald
    .<£ City, plus the girl Maria and Ellie's husband, Robert, were
    originally assigned to two large rooms, side by side, in one
    section of the starfish. Everyone was told that the living
    &•• arrangements were only temporary, and that eventually they
    '-; -  would  be  transferred to  better  quarters.  Nevertheless,
Robert
    - , and Galileo  were not able  to adapt successfully  to the  !':
unusual conditions in the Grand Hotel."
    • "What happened to them?" Nicole asked with alarm. i- 'They  were
both transferred, for sociological reasons, to > another, more  highly
regulated area of the spacecraft. Robert was moved first. He went into
a severe depression shortly after he awakened from the long sleep  and
was never able to break out  of it. Unfortunately, he died about  four
months ago. Galileo is all  right physically, although his  antisocial
behavior has continued."
    Nicole felt a deep sorrow upon hearing the news of Robert's death.
She was sad for Nikki, who had never really i had a chance to know her
father, and for her  daughter Ellie. .-..- Nicole  had hoped that  the
marriage . . . She shook her  & head. Nicole admitted to herself  that
she had  never  really  understood  Robert. He  was  so  complex,  she
thought. Talented,  dedicated,  yet surprisingly  dysjunctional  on  a
personal level.
    "I guess," she commented to the Eagle, "that the energy
    464
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    I expended to save Katie and Robert from the octospider agents was
wasted effort."
    "Not really," the Eagle replied  simply. "It was impojtant to  you
at the time."
    Nicole  smiled  and  thought  how  wise  the  Eagle  was  in   his
understanding of humans. She stifled a yawn.
    "Let me  help you  back to  bed," he  said. "You've  been up  long
enough for the first time."
    Nicole was very pleased  with herself. She  had finally managed  a
full lap around the perimeter of the room without stopping.
    "Bravo," the Eagle  said, coming  up beside her.  "You are  making
fabulous progress. We  never thought that  you would walk  so well  in
such a short period of time."
    "I definitely need some water  now," she said, smiling. 'This  old
body is sweating furiously."
    The Eagle retrieved a glass of water from the table. When she  was
finished drinking, Nicole  turned to  her alien friend.  "Now are  you
going to keep  your part of  the bargain?"  she said. "Do  you have  a
mirror and a change of clothes in that suitcase over there?"
    "Yes, I do," the Eagle answered. "And I even brought the cosmetics
you requested. But first I want to  examine you to see how your  heart
responded to the exercise." He held  a small black device in front  of
her and  watched some  markings  appear on  the tiny  screen.  'That's
good," he said. "No, that's  excellent. ... No irregularities at  all.
Just an indication that your heart  is working very hard, which  would
be expected in a human your age."
    "May I see that?" Nicole asked, pointing at the monitoring device.
The Eagle handed it to her. "I suppose," she said, "that this thing is
receiving signals from  inside my body  ... but what  exactly are  all
those squiggles and strange symbols on the screen?"
    "You have over a thousand tiny probes inside your body, more  than
half in  the  cardiac  region.  They not  only  measure  the  critical
performance of your  heart and  other organs, but  also regulate  such
important parameters as blood flow and
    RAMA REVEALED
    465
    oxygen allocation. Some of the  probes even supplement the  normal
biological functions. What  you are  seeing on the  screen is  summary
data from the  time interval  when you  were exercising.  It has  been
compressed and telemetered by the processor inside you."
    Nicole frowned. "Maybe I shouldn't have asked. Somehow the idea of
all that electronic junk inside me is not very comforting."
    "The probes are not really electronic," the Eagle said, "at  least
not in  the  way  you humans  use  the  word. And  they  are  entirely
necessary at  this point  in your  life. If  they weren't  there,  you
wouldn't survive even one day."
    Nicole stared at the Eagle. "Why didn't you just let me die?"  she
asked. "Do you have  some purpose for me  yet that justifies all  this
effort? Some function I must still perform?"
    "Perhaps," the Eagle said. "But perhaps we thought you might  like
to see your family and friends one more time."
    "I find it difficult  to believe," Nicole  said, "that my  desires
play any significant role in your hierarchy of values."
    The Eagle did not respond. He  walked over to the suitcase,  which
was sitting on the floor beside the table, and returned with a mirror,
a damp cloth, a simple blue dress, and a cosmetics bag. Nicole slipped
out of the  white nightgown she  had been wearing,  wiped herself  all
over with the cloth, and put on  the dress. She took a deep breath  as
the Eagle handed her the mirror. "I'm not certain I'm ready for this,"
she said with a wan smile.
    Nicole would not have recognized the face in the mirror if she had
not mentally prepared  herself first. Her  face looked to  her like  a
crazy quilt of bags and wrinkles. All her hair, including her eyebrows
and eyelashes, was now  either white or  gray. Nicole's first  impulse
was to cry, but she gamely fought back the tears.
    She searched the features in the mirror, guided by her memory, for
vestiges of the lovely  young woman she had  been. Here and there  she
could see the outlines of what  was once considered to be a  beautiful
face, but the eye had to
    466
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    467
    know where to look. Her heart ached as Nicole suddenly  remembered
a simple incident years earlier, when she was a teenager walking along
a country road with her father'near her home in Beauvois. An old woman
using a cane  had been  coming toward them  and Nicole  had asked  her
father if they could cross over the road to avoid her.
    "Why?" her father had asked.
    "Because I don't want to see her up close," Nicole had said.  "She
is old and ugly. She makes me shiver."
    "You too will be old  someday," her father had answered,  refusing
to cross the road.
    / am old and ugly, Nicole thought. / even make myself shiver.  She
handed the  mirror  back to  the  Eagle.  "You warned  me,"  she  said
wistfully. "Maybe I should have listened."
    "Of course you're  shocked," the  Eagle said. "You  have not  seen
yourself for sixteen years. Most humans have a difficult time with the
aging process even  if they  follow it day  by day."  He extended  the
cosmetics bag in her direction.
    "No, thank you," Nicole said despondently, refusing the bag. "It's
a hopeless situation.  Not even  Michelangelo could  do anything  with
this face."
    "Suit yourself," the Eagle said. "But I thought you might want  to
use the cosmetics before your visitor arrives."
    "A visitor!" Nicole  said, with  both alarm  and excitement.  "I'm
going to have a visitor?  Who is it?" She  reached out for the  mirror
and the cosmetics.
    "I think  I'll leave  it as  a surprise,"  the Eagle  said.  "Your
visitor will be here in a few minutes."
    Nicole put  on lipstick  and powder,  brushed her  gray hair,  and
straightened out and plucked her eyebrows. When she was finished,  she
cast a disapproving look in the  mirror. "That's about all I can  do,"
she said, as much to herself as to the Eagle.
    A few minutes later the Eagle opened the door on the other side of
the room and  went outside. When  he returned mere  was an  octospider
with him. **
    From across the room Nicole saw the royal blue color
    •* spill out  of its  boundaries. "Hello,  Nicole. How  are you  ;
feeling?" the octospider said.
    "Dr. Blue!" Nicole yelled excitedly.
    Dr. Blue held the monitoring device in front of Nicole. > "I  will
be staying here with you until you are ready to be . transferred," the
octospider physician said. 'The Eagle has ; other duties at present."
    Bands  of  color  raced  across  the  tiny  screen.  "I  don't  ;;
understand," Nicole said, looking at the device upside down. "When the
Eagle used that thing,  the readout was all  , in squiggles and  other
funny symbols."
    - "That's their special-purpose technological language," :;-•  Dr.
Blue said. "It's incredibly efficient, much better than our _, colors.
But of course I can't read any of it. This device
    * actually is polylingual. There's even an English mode."
    "So what do you speak when you communicate with the ;Eagle and I'm
not around?" Nicole asked.
    "We both use colors," Dr.  Blue responded. "They run .-;';  across
his forehead from left  to right." J.  "You're kidding," Nicole  said,
trying to picture the ,V Eagle with colors on his forehead.
    ~ "Not at all," the octospider answered. "The Eagle is ;  amazing.
He jabbers and shrieks with the avians, squeals .;, 'and whistles with
the myrmicats."
    > Nicole had never seen the word "myrmicat" in the
    ; language of color before. When she asked about the word,
    Dr. Blue explained that six of the strange creatures were
    now living in the Grand Hotel and that another four were
    . about to burst forth from germinating manna melons.
    : "Although all the octospiders and humans slept during the
    Vtong voyage," Dr. Blue said, "the manna melons were
    £• allowed to develop into myrmicats and then sessile material.
    They are already  into their  next generation."  :.£:'•{ Dr.  Blue
replaced the device on the table. "So what's the || verdict for today,
Doctor?" Nicole asked.
    "You're gaining  strength," Dr.  Blue replied.  "But you're  alive
because of all the supplemental probes that have :n inserted. At  some
time you should consider-"
    468
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    469
    "-replacing my heart. I know," said Nicole. "It may seem peculiar,
but the idea does not appeal to me very much. I don't know exactly why
I'm against it. Maybe I haven't yet  seen what remains to live for.  I
know that if Richard were still alive . . ."
    She stopped herself. For an  instant Nicole imagined she was  back
in the  viewing room,  watching  the slow-motion  frames of  the  last
seconds of Richard's life. She had not thought about that moment since
she awakened.
    "Do you mind if I ask you something very personal?" Nicole said to
Dr. Blue.
    "Not at all," the octospider said.
    "We watched the  deaths of  Richard and  Archie together,"  Nicole
said, "and I was so distraught  that I could not function- Archie  was
murdered at the same time, and  he was your lifelong partner. Yet  you
sat beside me and gave me comfort. Did you not feel any sense of  loss
or sadness at Archie's death?"
    Dr. Blue did not respond immediately. "All octospiders are trained
from birth to control what  you humans call emotions. The  alternates,
of course, are quite susceptible to feelings. But those of us who-"
    "With all due  respect," Nicole interrupted  softly, touching  her
octospider colleague, "I wasn't asking you a clinical question, doctor
to doctor. It was a question from one friend to another."
    A short burst of crimson, then another of blue, unrelated,  slowly
flowed around Dr. Blue's head. "Yes, I felt a sense of loss," Dr. Blue
said. "But I  knew it was  coming. Either then  or later. When  Archie
joined the war effort, his termination became certain. And besides, my
duty at that moment was to help you."
    The door to the room opened  and the Eagle entered. The alien  was
carrying a  large  box  full  of  food,  clothing,  and  miscellaneous
equipment. He informed Nicole that he  had brought her space suit  and
that she was going to venture out of her controlled environment in the
very near future.
    "Dr.  Blue  says  that  you  can  speak  in  color,"  Nicole  said
playfully. "I want you to show me."
    "What do you want me to say?" the Eagle replied in orderly  narrow
color bands that started on the left side of his forehead and scrolled
to the right.
    "That's  enough,"  Nicole  said  with  a  laugh.  "You  are  truly
amazing."
    Nicole stood on the  floor of the gigantic  factory and stared  at
the pyramid in front of her. Off  to her right, less than a  kilometer
away, a group of  special-purpose biots, including  a pair of  mammoth
bulldozers, were  building a  tall mountain.  "Why are  you doing  all
this?" Nicole said into the tiny microphone inside her helmet.
    "It's part  of  the  next  cycle," the  Eagle  replied.  "We  have
determined that these particular constructions enhance the  likelihood
of obtaining what we want from the experiment."
    "So you already know something about the new space-farers?"
    "I don't know  the answer  to that," the  Eagle said.  "I have  no
assignment associated with the future of Rama."
    "But you told  us before,"  Nicole said, not  satisfied, "that  no
changes were made unless they were necessary."
    "I can't help you," the Eagle  said. "Come, get in the rover.  Dr.
Blue wants to have a closer look at the mountain."
    The octospider looked peculiar in her space suit. In fact,  Nicole
had laughed  out  loud when  she  had first  seen  Dr. Blue  with  the
glove-fitting white fabric  covering her charcoal  body and her  eight
tentacles. Dr. Blue  also had  a transparent helmet  around her  head,
through which it was easy to read her colors.
    "I was  astonished," Nicole  said  to Dr.  Blue, who  was  sitting
beside her as the open rover moved across the flat .terrain toward the
mountain, "when we first came outside. .  . . No, that's not a  strong
enough word. You and the *pagfe had  both told me that we were in  the
factory and that a was being prepared for another voyage, but I  never
pected all this."
    "The pyramid was built  around you," the  Eagle interred from  the
driver's seat in  front of them,  "while you sleeping.  If we had  not
been able to build without
    470
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    471
    disturbing your  environment, it  would  have beei)  necessary  to
awaken you much earlier."
    "Doesn't this entire business just amaze you?" Nicole continued to
face Dr. Blue. "Don't you wonder what kind of beings conceived of this
grand  project  in  the  first  place?  And  also  created  artificial
intelligence like the Eagle? It is almost impossible to imagine."
    "It's not as difficult for us," the octospider said. "Remember, we
have known about superior beings from the beginning. We only exist  as
intelligent creatures  because the  Precursors altered  our genes.  We
have never had a period in our history when we thought we were at  the
apex of life."
    "Nor will we, ever again," mused Nicole. "Human history,  whatever
it turns out to be, has now been profoundly and irrevocably altered."
    "Maybe not," the Eagle  said from the front  seat. "Our data  base
indicates that some species are not significantly impacted by  contact
with us. Our experiments are  designed to allow for that  possibility.
Our contact  occurs  during  a  finite interval,  with  only  a  small
percentage of  the  population.  There is  no  continuous  interaction
unless the species  under study  takes overt  action to  create it.  I
doubt if life on Earth at this  very moment is much different than  it
would have been  if no  Rama spacecraft  had ever  visited your  solar
system."
    Nicole leaned forward in her seat. "Do you know that for a  fact?"
she said. "Or are you just guessing?"
    The Eagle's answer was vague. "Certainly your history was  changed
by Rama's  appearance," he  said. "Many  major events  would not  have
occurred if there had not been  any contact. But a hundred more  years
from now, or five hundred. . . . How different will Earth be then from
what it would have been?"
    "But the human point  of view must  have changed," Nicole  argued.
"Surely the knowledge that there exists  in the universe, or at  least
existed in  some earlier  epoch, an  intelligence advanced  enough  to
build an interstellayobotic spacecraft  larger than our greatest  city
cannot be  cast  aside  as insignificant  information.  It  creates  a
different perspec-
    tive for the entire  human experience. Religion, philosophy,  even
the fundamentals of biology must be revised in the presence-"
    "I am glad  to see," the  Eagle interrupted, "that  at least  some
small measure of  your optimism  and idealism has  survived all  these
years. Recall, however, that in New Eden the humans knew that mey were
living  inside   a  domain   especially   constructed  for   them   by
extraterrestrials. And they were  told, by you  and others, that  they
were being continually observed. Even so, when it became apparent that
the aliens, whoever  they were,  did not  intend to  interfere in  the
daily activities of the humans, the existence of those advanced beings
became irrelevant."
    The rover arrived at the base  of the mountain. "I wanted to  come
over here," Dr.  Blue said,  "out of curiosity.  We did  not have  any
mountains, as you  know, in  our realm  on Rama.  And not  many in  my
region of our home planet when I was a juvenile. I thought it would be
nice to stand on the top."
    "I have commandeered one of the large bulldozers," the Eagle said.
"Our journey to  the summit  will only take  ten minutes.  You may  be
frightened in spots because of the  steepness of the climb, but it  is
perfectly safe, as long as you wear your seat belts."
    Nicole was  not  too  old  to enjoy  the  spectacular  climb.  The
bulldozer,  as  large  as  an  office  building,  did  not  have  very
comfortable seats  for passengers  and some  of the  bumps were  quite
violent, but  the vistas  that opened  up as  the trio  ascended  were
definitely worth the trouble.
    The mountain was over  a kilometer high  and about ten  kilometers
around its approximately round circumference. Nicole could clearly see
the pyramid in which she had been staying when the bulldozer was  only
a quarter of the way up the mountain. Farther away, in all directions,
the horizon was dotted with isolated construction projects of  Unknown
purpose.
    So now it all begins again, Nicole mought. This rebuilt Rama  will
soon enter another set of star systems. And what
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    will it find? Who  are the spacefarers  who will'next walk  across
this ground? Or climb this mountain?
    The bulldozer halted  on a plateau  very near the  summit and  the
three passengers  disembarked. The  view was  breathtaking. As  Nicole
surveyed the scene, she  recalled her wonder on  that very first  trip
into Rama, when she  had been riding down  the chairlift and the  vast
alien world had stretched out in front of her. Thank you, she thought,
addressing the  Eagle in  her mind,  for keeping  me alive.  You  were
right. This experience  alone and  the memories it  triggers are  more
than enough reason to continue.
    Nicole turned around  to face the  rest of the  mountain. She  saw
something small flying in and  out of some bushy-looking growths,  red
in color, that were no more  than twenty meters away. She walked  over
and captured one of the  flying objects in her  hand. It was the  size
and shape of a butterfly. Its  wings were decorated with a  variegated
pattern without symmetry  or any  other design  principle that  Nicole
could discern. She let one go  and then captured another. The  pattern
on the second Raman butterfly was altogether different, but'still rich
in both color and decoration.
    The Eagle and Dr.  Blue walked up beside  her. Nicole showed  them
what she  was holding  in her  hand. "Flying  biots," the  Eagle  said
without additional comment.
    Nicole marveled again at the tiny creature. Something  astonishing
happens every  day, she  remembered Richard  saying. And  we are  then
always reminded of what a joy it is to be alive.
    2
    N
    Iicole had barely finished her bath when the two biots entered the
room. One was a crab and the other looked like a small truck. The crab
used a combination of its powerful pincers and its formidable array of
ancillary gadgetry to cut Nicole's sleeping container into  manageable
pieces. The pieces were then stacked in  the bed of the truck. On  its
way out of the  room less than  a minute later,  the crab grabbed  the
white bathtub and all  the remaining chairs and  piled them on top  of
the stacks in the truck bed. It then put the table on its own back and
disappeared from the empty room behind the truck biot.
    Nicole straightened her dress. "I'll never forget the first time I
saw a crab biot," she commented to her two companions. "It was on  the
huge screen in the Newton control center, years and years ago. We were
all terrified."
    "So today's  the day,"  Dr.  Blue said  in color  several  seconds
later. "Are you ready to check into the Grand Hotel?"
    474
    ARTHUR C. CLARICE AND GENTRY LEE
    "Probably not," Nicole said with a  smile. "From what you and  the
Eagle have said, I guess I have enjoyed my last moment of solitude."
    "Your family and friends are  very excited about seeing you,"  the
Eagle said.  "I visited  them yesterday  and told  them you  would  be
coming. You'll  stay  with Max,  Eponine,  Ellie, Marius,  and  Nikki.
Patrick, Nai, Benjy, Kepler, and Maria  are next door. As I  explained
to you last week,  Patrick and Nai have  been treating Maria as  their
own daughter  since shortly  after everyone  awakened. They  know  the
whole story of how you rescued Maria during the bombing."
    "I don't know if  'rescued' is exactly  the correct word,"  Nicole
said, remembering clearly her last  hours in the old Rama  spacecraft.
"I picked her up because there was  no one to look after her.  Anybody
would have done the same thing."
    "You saved her life," the Eagle said. "Not more than an hour after
you left  the zoo  with the  girl, three  large bombs  devastated  her
compound and the  two adjacent  sections. Maria  certainly would  have
been killed if you hadn't found her."
    "She is now  a beautiful  and intelligent young  woman," Dr.  Blue
said. "I met her once briefly  several weeks ago. Ellie says Maria  is
incredibly energetic. According to  Ellie, the girl  is the first  one
awake in the morning and the last one in bed at night."
    Like Katie, Nicole couldn't  help but think.  Who are you,  Maria?
she wondered. And why were you sent into my life at just that moment?
    "Ellie also told  me that  Maria and Nikki  are inseparable,"  Dr.
Blue  continued.  "They  study   together,  eat  together,  and   talk
incessantly about everything. Nikki has told Maria all about you.",
    "How is that possible?" Nicole said  with a smile. "Nikki was  not
yet four years old the last time that I saw her. Human children  don't
retain memories from that eariy."
    "They definitely do if they sleep through the next fifteen years,"
the Eagle said. "Kepler and Galileo also have very
    RAMA REVEALED
    475
    clear recollections of  their early days.  . . .  But we can  talk
while we travel. It's time for us to leave now."
    The Eagle helped  Nicole and Dr.  Blue put on  their space  suits.
Then he picked up the suitcase of Nicole's belongings. "I've put  your
medical bag in here with your clothes, as well as the cosmetics you've
been using these last several days," he said.
    "My medical  bag?"  Nicole said.  She  laughed. "Goodness,  I  had
almost forgotten. I  had it  with me, didn't  I, when  I found  Maria?
Thank you."
    The trio walked out of the room, which was on the bottom floor  of
the large pyramid. A  few minutes later they  moved through the  great
arched entrance to the building. Outside,  in the bright light of  the
factory, the rover was waiting for  them. "It will take us about  half
an hour  to reach  the  high-speed elevators,"  the Eagle  said.  "Our
shuttle is parked at the Dock, on the uppermost level."
    As the rover moved  away, Nicole turned  around and looked  behind
her. Beyond the pyramid was the  tall mountain they had climbed  three
days before. "So you really have  no idea why the butterfly biots  are
there?" Nicole said into the microphone in her space helmet.
    "No," said the Eagle. "My assignment covers only your cycle."
    Nicole continued to stare  behind her. The rover  passed a set  of
tall poles, ten or twelve altogether,  connected by wires at the  top,
middle, and  bottom. All  this will  be pan  of the  new Rama,  Nicole
thought. Suddenly it occurred to her  that she was about to leave  the
world of Rama for  the very last time.  A powerful feeling of  sadness
swept over her. This has been my  home, she said to herself, and I  am
going away forever.
    "Would it be possible," Nicole  said to the Eagle without  turning
around, "for me to see any of the other parts of Rama before we  leave
for good?"
    "What for?" the Eagle asked.
    "I'm not exactly certain," Nicole  answered. "Maybe just so I  can
linger for an extra hour in my memories."
    "The two bowls and the Southern Hemicylinder have
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    already been completely remodeled.  You would not recognize  them.
The Cylindrical Sea has been drained and removed. Even New York is  in
the process <?f being dismantled."
    "But it's not completely destroyed yet, is it?" Nicole asked.
    "No, not yet," replied the Eagle.
    "Then can we go there, please, just for a short while?"
    Please indulge an old woman, Nicole thought. Even though she doesn
't understand why herself.
    "All right," the Eagle said, "but we'll be delayed. New York is in
another part of the factory."
    They were standing on a  parapet near the top  of one of the  tall
skyscrapers. Most of New York  was gone, the buildings bulldozed  into
heaps by  the awesome  power of  the large  biots. What  was left  was
twenty or thirty buildings around one plaza.
    "There  were  three  lairs   underneath  the  city,"  Nicole   was
explaining to Dr. Blue. "One for us,  one for the avians, and a  third
occupied by  your cousins.  I  was down  inside  the avian  lair  when
Richard came to-rescue me-" She stopped. Nicole realized that she  had
told Dr.  Blue the  story  before and  that octospiders  never  forgot
anything. "Do you mind?" she asked.
    "Please continue," the octospider said.
    "During the  whole time  that we  were here,  none of  us on  this
island knew  that there  were entrances  to some  of these  buildings.
Isn't that amazing? Oh, how I wish that Richard were still alive and I
could have  seen  his face  when  the Eagle  opened  the door  to  the
octahedron. He would have been so shocked.
    "Anyway," Nicole said, "Richard came back inside Rama to find  me.
And then we fell in love and figured out how to escape from the island
using the avians. It was such a glorious time, so many years ago. .  .
."
    Nicole stepped  forward, grabbed  the  rail with^both  hands,  and
gazed around her. In her mind's eye  she could see New York as it  had
been. Over there were the ramparts.
    RAMA REVEALED
    477
    Out beyond was the Cylindrical Sea. And somewhere in the middle of
those ugly heaps of metal was the  barn and the pit in which I  nearly
died.
    The tears  came  suddenly,  surprising her.  They  poured  out  of
Nicole's eyes and ran down her  cheeks. She did not turn around.  Five
of my six children  were born over  there, Nicole thought,  underneath
that ground. Just outside our lair we found Richard after he had  been
gone for two years. He was comatose.
    The memories came tumbling into her mind, one after another,  each
bringing a vague heartache and a  new flow of tears. Nicole could  not
stop them. At one moment she was again descending into the  octospider
lair to  save her  daughter  Katie, at  another  she was  feeling  the
excitement and  exhilaration  of  soaring over  the  Cylindrical  Sea,
attached by a harness to three avians. We must eventually die,  Nicole
thought, wiping her eyes with the  back of her hand, because there  is
not any room left in our brains for more memories.
    As Nicole  gazed out  across  the broken  landscape of  New  York,
transforming it in her mind's eye into what it had been years  before,
she had a sharp recollection of an even earlier epoch in her life. She
remembered a cold late autumn evening at Beauvois during her last days
on Earth, just  before Genevieve  and she  had gone  skiing at  Davos.
Nicole was sitting with  her father and her  daughter in front of  the
fireplace in  their  villa.  Pierre  had  been  very  reflective  that
evening. He had shared with Nicole and Genevieve many special  moments
from his courtship with Nicole's mother.
    Later, at bedtime, Genevieve had asked her mother a question. "Why
does Grampa talk so much about  what happened long ago?" the  teenager
had said.
    "Because that is what is important to him," Nicole had answered.
    Forgive me, Nicole thought, still  staring out at the  skyscrapers
in front of her.  Forgive me, all you  elderly people whose stories  f
ignored. I did not mean  to be rude or  condescending. I just did  not
understand what it meant to be old.
    478
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Nicole sighed, took a deep breath, and turned around. "Are you all
right?" Dr. Blue asked. She nodded. "Thank you for this," Nicole said*
to the Eagle, her voice breaking. "I'm ready to go now."
    She saw the  lights as  soon as  their small  shuttle cleared  the
hangar. Even though the  lights were still  over a hundred  kilometers
away, they were already a magnificent sight against the background  of
blackness and distant stars.
    'This Node  has  an extra  vertex,"  the Eagle  said,  "forming  a
perfect tetrahedron. The Node  you visited near Sinus  did not have  a
Knowledge Module."
    Nicole stared out the window of their shuttle, holding her breath.
It looked unreal, like a figment of her imagination, this  illuminated
construction turning slowly  in the  distance. There  were four  large
spheres at  the  vertices,  connected  to each  other  by  six  linear
transportation corridors. Each  of the  spheres was  exactly the  same
size. Each of the six long thin lines connecting them was exactly  the
same length.  At  this  distance, the  individual  lights  inside  the
transparent Node blurred together, so the entire facility appeared  to
be a great tetrahedral torch in the darkness of space.
    "It's beautiful," Nicole said, unable  to find any other words  to
express the awe she was feeling.
    "You should  see  it  from  the observation  deck  of  our  living
quarters," Dr. Blue  said from  beside her.  "It is  dazzling. We  are
close enough that we can see  the different lights inside the  spheres
and even  follow  the  vehicles  zooming  back  and  forth  along  the
transportation corridors. Many  of the  residents at  the Grand  Hotel
stay on deck for hours at a time, amusing themselves by making guesses
about the  activities  represented  by  the  movement  of  the  lights
inside."
    Nicole felt goose bumps rising on  her arm as she stared  silently
at the Node. She  heard a faraway  voice, Fraqcesca Sabatini's  voice,
and a poem that Nicole had first memorized as a schoolgirl.
    RAMA REVEALED 479
    "Tyger! Tyger! burning bright, In  the forests of the night,  What
immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"
    "Did he  who made  the  Lamb make  thee?"  Nicole thought  as  the
tetrahedron of light  continued to turn.  She remembered a  late-night
conversation with Michael O'Toole while they were staying at the  Node
near Sinus. "We must unfetter God after this experience," he had said.
"And remove our homocentric  limitations on Him.  The God who  created
the architects  of the  Node must  surely be  amused by  our  pathetic
attempts to define Him in terms we humans can readily understand."
    Nicole was fascinated by the Node. Even from this distance, as  it
turned  slowly  around,  the   different  aspects  presented  by   the
tetrahedron were hypnotizing. As she watched, the facility moved  into
a position where  one of  the four equilateral  triangles forming  its
empty faces was  in a plane  perpendicular to the  flight path of  the
shuttle. The Node looked  entirely different, as if  it had no  depth.
The fourth vertex, which was in reality some thirty kilometers  beyond
the plane on the  other side from  Nicole, appeared to  be a nexus  of
light in the center of the facing triangle.
    When the  shuttle  abruptly changed  direction,  the Node  was  no
longer visible.  Instead, off  in  the distance,  Nicole could  see  a
solitary light yellow star. "That's Tau Ceti," the Eagle said to  her,
"a star very much like your sun."
    "And why, if I may ask," Nicole  said, "is this Node here, in  the
neighborhood of Tau Ceti?"
    "It is an  optimum temporary placement,"  the Eagle answered,  "to
support our data-acquisition activities in this part of the galaxy."
    Nicole  nudged  Dr.  Blue.  "Do  your  engineers  sometimes  speak
meaningless gobbledygook in color?" she  said with a smile. "Our  host
just gave us a nonanswer."
    "We are more  humble as a  species than you  are," the  octospider
replied. "Again, it's probably because of our
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    relationship with the Precursors. We don't pretend that we  should
be able to understand everything."
    "We have spoken very  little about your  species, during the  time
since  I  awakened,"  Nicole  said  to  Dr.  Blue,  suddenly   feeling
self-centered and apologetic, "although I do remember your telling  me
that your  former  Chief  Optimizer,  her staff,  and  all  those  who
prosecuted the war had  all been terminated in  an orderly manner.  Is
the new leadership working out all right?"
    "More or less," Dr. Blue answered, "considering the difficulty  of
our living situation.  Jamie works  at the  lower echelon  of the  new
staff, and he  is busy almost  every waking hour.  We have not  really
been able to reach anything like an equilibrium in our colony  because
there is constant outside friction."
    "Most of which is caused by the humans on board," the Eagle added.
"We haven't discussed this subject before, Nicole," he continued, "but
now is probably a good time. We have been surprised by the failure  of
your fellow beings to adapt to interspecies living. Only a very few of
them are  comfortable with  the  idea that  other  species may  be  as
important and capable as they are."
    "I told you  that soon after  we met years  ago," Nicole said.  "I
pointed out to you that for  a variety of historical and  sociological
reasons, there is a vast range in  the way that humans respond to  new
ideas and concepts."
    "I know you did," the Eagle replied, "but our experience with  you
and your family misled us. Until we woke up all the survivors, we  had
reached the tentative conclusion that what happened in New Eden,  with
the aggressive and territorial humans seizing control, was an anomaly,
to be explained by the  particular composition of the colonists.  Now,
after watching a  year of  interactions at  the Grand  Hotel, we  have
concluded that  we did  indeed  have a  typical collection  of  humans
inside Rama."
    "It sounds  as if  I  may be  entering an  unpleasant  situation,"
Nicole said. "Are  there other things  that I need  to know before  we
arrive?"
    "Not really," the Eagle said. "We now have everything
    RAMA REVEALED
    481
    under control. I'm certain your colleagues will share with you the
most important details  from their experiences.  Besides, the  current
situation is only temporary, and this phase is almost over."
    "At first,"  Dr. Blue  said,  "all the  survivors from  Rama  were
scattered throughout the starfish. In each ray there were some humans,
some octospiders, and a few of our support animals that were permitted
to survive because  of their  critical role in  our social  structure.
That was all  changed a  few months  later, primarily  because of  the
continued aggressive hostility of the humans. Now die living  quarters
for each species are concentrated in a single region."
    "Segregation," Nicole said  ruefully. "It is  one of the  defining
characteristics of my species."
    "Interspecies interaction  occurs now  only in  the cafeteria  and
other common rooms  in the center  of the starfish,"  said the  Eagle.
"More than half the humans, however,  never leave their ray except  to
eat, and they studiously avoid  interaction even then. From our  point
of view, human beings are astonishingly xenophobic. There are not many
examples in our  data base  of spacefarers who  are as  sociologically
backward as your species."
    The shuttle turned in  a new direction  and again the  magnificent
tetrahedron filled  their  view.  They  were  much  closer  now.  Many
individual light sources  could be resolved,  both inside the  spheres
and in the  long, slender  transportation lines  that connected  them.
Nicole gazed at  the beauty in  front of her  and sighed heavily.  The
conversation with  Dr. Blue  and the  Eagle had  depressed her.  Maybe
Richard was right, Nicole thought to herself. Maybe humanity cannot be
changed unless its entire memory is wiped clean and we begin anew,  in
afresh environment, with an upgraded operating system.
    Nicole's stomach  was  churning  as  the  shuttle  approached  the
starfish. She told herself  not to worry about  silly things, but  she
nevertheless felt uncomfortable about her appearance. Nicole looked in
the mirror as she touched up her
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    makeup. She was not  able to mitigate her  anxiety. / am old,  she
thought. The children will think I'm ugly.
    The starfish was not nearly as large as Rama had been. It was easy
for Nicole to understand why it  was so crowded inside. The Eagle  had
explained to her that the intercession had been a contingency plan and
that Rama had arrived at the Node, as a result, several years  earlier
than originally  scheduled.  This  particular  starfish,  an  obsolete
spacecraft that had  somehow been  spared the  recycling process,  had
been remodeled into a temporary hotel  to house the occupants of  Rama
until they could be moved elsewhere.
    "We have given strict  orders," the Eagle  said, "that your  entry
should be as smooth as possible.  We don't want your system taxed  any
more than necessary. Big Block and his army have cleared the halls and
common areas leading from the shuttle station to your room."
    "So you will not be going with me?" Nicole asked the Eagle.
    "No," he replied. "I have work to do over at the Node."
    "I will accompany you through the observation deck, as far as  the
entrance to the,human ray," Dr. Blue  said. "Then you will be on  your
own. Luckily your quarters are not far from the ray entrance."
    The Eagle  remained  in the  shuttle  while Nicole  and  Dr.  Blue
disembarked. The alien birdman waved good-bye to them as they  entered
die air  lock. When,  a few  minutes later,  they moved  into a  large
dressing room on the other side of  the air lock, Nicole and Dr.  Blue
were greeted by the robot known as Big Block.
    "Welcome, Nicole des Jardins Wakefield," the giant robot said. "We
are glad that you have finally arrived. Please put your space suit  on
the bench to your right."
    Big Block, who was just under three meters tall, almost two meters
wide, and constructed  of rectangular blocks  similar to those  played
with by  human  children,  looked  exactly like  the  robot  that  had
supervised the engineering tests Nicole  and her family had  undergone
at the Node  near Sirius  years earlier,  before their  return to  the
solar  system.  The  robot  hovered   over  Nicole  and  the   smaller
octospider.
    RAMA REVEALED
    483
    "Although I am certain," Big  Block said in his mechanical  voice,
"that you will not cause any problems,  I want to remind you that  all
commands given by me or one of  the similar, smaller robots are to  be
followed without hesitation. It is our  purpose to keep order in  this
spaceship. Now follow me, please."
    Big Block turned around, pivoting on the joints in its midsection,
and rolled forward on its single cylindrical foot. "This large room is
called the observation deck,"  the robot said.  "Ordinarily it is  the
most popular  of our  common  rooms. We  have emptied  it  temporarily
tonight to make it easier for you to reach your living quarters."
    Dr. Blue and  Nicole stopped  for a minute  in front  of the  huge
window facing the Node.  The view was  indeed spectacular, but  Nicole
could not focus her  attention on the beauty  and order of the  superb
extraterrestrial architecture. She was anxious  to see her family  and
friends.
    Big Block remained on  the observation deck  while Nicole and  her
octospider companion walked along the wide hallway that encircled  the
spacecraft. Dr. Blue explained  to Nicole how  to locate and  identify
the places where the small trams stopped. The octospider also informed
Nicole that  the  humans were  in  the  third ray,  moving  in  either
direction from the shuttle station,  with the octospi-ders in the  two
rays immediately clockwise  from the  station. 'The  fourth and  fifth
rays," Dr.  Blue said  in color,  "are designed  differently. All  the
other creatures live there,  as well as  those humans and  octospiders
who have been placed under guard."
    "Is Galileo, then, in some kind of prison?" Nicole asked.
    "Not exactly," Dr. Blue replied. "There are just many more of  the
smaller block robots in that part of the starfish."
    They stepped off the tram together after traveling halfway  around
the starfish. When  they reached the  entrance to the  human ray,  Dr.
Blue held the monitoring device in front of Nicole and read the output
colors on the  screen. Based  on the initial  data that  she saw,  the
octospider used the cilia underneath  one of her tentacles to  request
more ^information.
    484
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "Is something wrong?" Nicole asked.
    "Your heart has undergone  a few palpitations  in the last  hour,"
Dr. Blue said. "I just wanted to check the amplitude and frequency  of
the irregularities."
    "I'm very  excited,"  Nicole  said. "It's  normal  in  humans  for
excitement to cause-"
    "I know," Dr. Blue said, "but  the Eagle instructed me to be  very
careful." There were no  colors on the  octospider's head for  several
seconds while Dr. Blue studied the  data on her screen. "I guess  it's
all right," she  said finally,  "but if you  experience the  slightest
chest pain or surprising shortness of breath, do not hesitate to  push
the emergency button in your room."
    Nicole gave Dr. Blue a hug. "Thank you very much," she said.  "You
have been wonderful."
    "It has been my pleasure," Dr. Blue said. "I hope everything  goes
all right. Your room is number forty-one, down that hallway, about the
twentieth door on the left. The tram stops every five rooms."
    Nicole took a deep breath and turned around. The smaller tram  was
waiting for  her. She  shuffled toward  it, sliding  her feet  on  the
floor, and boarded after a farewell wave to Dr. Blue. A minute or  two
later Nicole was standing in front of an ordinary door with the number
forty-one painted on it.
    She knocked. The  door opened immediately  and five smiling  faces
greeted her. "Welcome to the Grand Hotel," said Max, with a wide  grin
and his arms open wide. "Come in and give an Arkansas farm boy a hug."
    Nicole felt a hand on hers as  soon as she stepped into the  room.
"Hello, Mother," Ellie said. Nicole turned and looked at her  youngest
daughter. Ellie was graying at the temples, but her eyes were as clear
and sparkling as ever.
    "Hello, Ellie," Nicole said, breaking  into tears. They would  not
be the  last tears  she would  shed during  the several  hours of  the
reunion.
    T:
    heir room  was a  square, approximately  seven meters  on a  side.
Along the back  wall was  an enclosed  bathroom, with  a washbasin,  a
shower, and a  toilet. Next to  the bathroom was  a large open  closet
that contained all their clothes and other belongings. At bedtime  the
sleeping mats, which were  rolled up each day,  were removed from  the
closet and placed upon the floor.
    The first night Nicole  slept between Ellie  and Nikki, with  Max,
Eponine, and Marius on the other side of the room beside the table and
six chairs  that were  the only  furniture in  their living  quarters.
Nicole had been so  exhausted that she had  fallen asleep even  before
the lights  had  been switched  off  and everyone  else  had  finished
preparing for bed.  After sleeping  for about five  hours, Nicole  had
awakened abruptly, temporarily uncertain where she was.
    As she lay in the dark  and the silence, Nicole thought about  the
events of the previous evening. During the reunion
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    487
    she had  been so  overwhelmed by  her emotions  that she  had  not
really had time to sort out her  reactions to what she was seeing  and
hearing. Immediately after Nicole had entered the room, Nikki had gone
next door for the others. For the next two hours there had been eleven
people in the crowded room, at least three or four of them talking all
the  time.  Nicole  had  had  brief  conversations  with  each  person
individually during those two  hours, but it  had been impossible  for
her to discuss anything in depth.
    The four  young people-Kepler,  Marius, Nikki,  and Maria-had  all
been very shy. Maria, whose stunning  blue eyes stood out in  contrast
to her copper skin and long  black hair, had dutifully thanked  Nicole
for rescuing her. She had also  politely acknowledged that she had  no
memories of any kind  from the time period  before she went to  sleep.
Nikki had been nervous and diffident in her brief tete-a-tete with her
grandmother. Nicole  thought she  had detected  some fear  in  Nikki's
eyes; however, Ellie  told Nicole  later that  what she  had seen  had
probably been awe,  that so many  stories had been  told about  Nicole
that Nikki felt she was meeting a legend.
    The two  young men  had  been polite,  but not  forthcoming.  Once
during the evening Nicole had seen  Kepler staring at her from  across
the room with great  intensity. Nicole reminded  herself that she  was
the first  really old  human the  boys  had ever  seen. Young  men  in
particular, Nicole thought, have difficulty with women who are old and
phthisic. It shatters  their fantasies about  members of the  opposite
sex.
    Benjy had  welcomed Nicole  with an  uninhibited embrace.  He  had
lifted her off  the floor with  his strong arms  and yelled with  joy.
"Mama, Mama," he  had said,  turning around in  circles with  Nicole's
head above his. Benjy had seemed quite well. Nicole had been  startled
to discover  that his  hairline had  receded and  that he  now  looked
decidedly  avuncular.  Later  she   had  told  herself  that   Benjy's
appearance was really not  that surprising, since  he was about  forty
years old.
    Her greetings from Patrick and Ellie had been very
    warm. Ellie had looked tired, but she had said it was because  she
had had a full day. Ellie had  explained to Nicole that she had  taken
it upon herself to stimulate interspecies social activity at the Grand
Hotel. "It's the least I can do,"  Ellie had said, "since I speak  the
octospider language. I'm hoping that you'll give me a hand as soon  as
you have your strength."
    Patrick had spoken quietly  to Nicole about  his concern for  Nai.
'This Galileo situation  is tearing  her apart, Mother,"  her son  had
said. "She is furious because the blockheads, as we call them, removed
Galileo from  the normal  living areas  without much  explanation  and
without anything that we would call  'due process.' She is also  angry
because she is not  allowed to spend  more than two  hours a day  with
him. I'm certain she is going to ask you for assistance."
    Nai had changed. The  spark and softness were  gone from her  eyes
and she was uncharacteristically negative, even in her first  remarks.
"We are living in  the worst kind of  police state here, Nicole,"  Nai
had said. "Far  worse than under  Nakamura. After you  are settled,  I
have many things to tell you."
    Max Puckett and his adorable French wife, Eponine, had both  aged,
like everyone else, but  it was clear that  their love for each  other
and for  their son,  Marius,  sustained them  on a  day-to-day  basis.
Eponine had  shrugged when  Nicole  asked her  if the  crowded  living
conditions bothered her. "Not really,"  she had replied. "Remember,  I
lived in  the orphanage  in  Limoges as  a  child. Besides,  I'm  just
delighted to be alive  and have Max  and Marius. For  years I never  |
thought I would live long enough to have any gray hair."
    As for Max, he had remained his ornery, irrepressible
    self. His hair too was mostly gray, and he had tost a little of
    the bounce in his step. But Nicole could tell from his eyes
    that he was enjoying his life. 'There's this fellow I see
    regularly in the smoking lounge," Max had told Nicole during
    the evening, "who is a big admirer of yours. He somehow
    ^escaped the plague, although his wife didn't. Anyway"-
    iMax had then grinned-"I thought I'd fix you two up as
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    489
    soon as you have  some free time. He's  a little younger than  you
are, but I doubt if that will be a problem."
    Nicole had asked Max about the problems between the humans and the
octospiders. "You know," Max had said,  "the war may have taken  place
fifteen or  sixteen  years  ago,  but  none  of  the  humans  has  any
intervening memories to soften his anger. Everyone here lost somebody,
a friend or  a relative or  a neighbor, in  that horrible plague.  And
they can't quickly forget that it was the octospiders who caused it."
    "In response to the  aggression of the  human armies," Nicole  had
said.
    "But most of the humans don't see it that way. Maybe they  believe
the propaganda Nakamura told them and not the 'official' war  history,
presented by your friend the Eagle soon after we were moved here.  The
truth is that most of the  humans hate and fear the octospiders.  Only
about twenty  percent of  the  people have  made  any attempt  to  mix
socially, despite  Ellie's courageous  efforts, or  to learn  anything
about the octos. Most  of the humans stay  in our ray.  Unfortunately,
the cramped living quarters do not help to alleviate the problem."
    Nicole now  rolled  over  on  her side.  Her  daughter  Ellie  was
sleeping facing  her. Ellie's  eyes  were twitching.  She's  dreaming,
Nicole thought. / hope not about  Robert. She thought again about  her
reunion with her family  and friends. I guess  the Eagle knew what  he
was doing  in keeping  me alive.  Even if  he doesn  't have  anything
specific for me  to do.  As long  as I don't  become an  invalid or  a
burden, I can be helpful here.
    "This will be your first  major Grand Hotel experience," Max  said
to Nicole. "Every time 1 go to  the cafeteria during open hours, I  am
reminded of Bounty  Day in  the Emerald City.  Those weird  creatures'
that came along  with the octospiders  may be fascinating,  but I'm  a
damn sight more comfortable when they're not around." *.
    "Can't we wait  until it's  our period, Dad?"  Marius asked.  'The
iguanas frighten Nikki. They gawk at us with
    their yellow eyes  and make such  repulsive clucking noises  while
they are eating."
    "Son," Max said, "you and Nikki can wait with the others until our
segregated lunchtime, if you  want. Nicole wants to  eat with all  the
residents. It's a matter  of principle to her.  Your mother and I  are
going to  accompany  her  to  ensure that  she  learns  the  cafeteria
routine."
    "Don't worry  about me,"  Nicole  said. "I'm  sure that  Ellie  or
Patrick-"
    "Nonsense," Max interrupted. "Eponine and I are delighted to  join
you. Besides, Patrick has gone with Nai to see Galileo, Ellie is  over
in the recreation room, and Benjy is reading with Kepler and Maria."
    "I appreciate  your  understanding,  Max,"  Nicole  said.  "It  is
important for me to  make the right kind  of statement, especially  at
the beginning. The Eagle  and Dr. Blue didn't  tell me much about  the
details of the trouble . . ."
    "You don't need  to explain,"  Max replied. "In  fact, last  night
after you fell asleep,  I told Frenchie I  was certain that you  would
want to mix." He laughed. "Don't forget, we know you very well."
    After Eponine joined them, they walked out in the hallway. It  was
mostly empty. A few people were walking in the corridor on their left,
away from the  center of  the starfish,  and a  man and  a woman  were
standing together at the entrance to the ray.
    The trio waited two  or three minutes for  the tram to arrive.  As
they drew near to  the final stop, Max  leaned over to Nicole.  'Those
two people  standing at  the ray  entrance," he  said, "are  not  just
passing  time.  They're  both  big  activists  on  the  Council.  Very
opinionated and very pushy."
    Nicole took  the arm  that Max  offered her  as they  disembarked.
"What do they want?" she whispered as the pair started walking  toward
them.
    "I don't  know," Max  mumbled quickly,  "but we'll  find out  soon
enough."
    "Good day, Max. Hello, Eponine," the man said. He was a portly man
in his  early forties.  He looked  at  Nicole and  broke into  a  wide
politician's smile. "You must be Nicole
    490
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Wakefield," he said, reaching out to shake hands. "We've all heard
so very much  about you.  . .  . Welcome .  . .  welcome. I'm  Stephen
Kowalski."
    "And I'm  Renee  du Pont,"  the  woman said,  advancing  and  also
extending her hand in Nicole's direction.
    After exchanging a few pleasantries,  Mr. Kowalski asked Max  what
the three of them were doing. "We're taking Mrs. Wakefield to  lunch,"
Max replied simply.
    "It's still common time," the man said with another big smile.  He
checked his watch.  "Why don't  you wait forty-five  minutes more  and
Renee and I  will join you?  We're on  the Council, you  know, and  we
would like very much to speak to Mrs. Wakefield about our  activities.
Certainly the Council  will want  to hear from  her in  the very  near
future."
    'Thanks for the offer, Stephen," Max said. "But we're all  hungry.
We want to eat now."
    Mr. Kowalski's brow furrowed. "I wouldn't  do that if I were  you,
Max," he said.  "There's a lot  of tension at  the moment. After  that
incident yesterday in the swimming pool, the Council voted unanimously
to boycott all collective activities for the next two days. Emily  was
especially incensed that Big Block  put Garland on probation and  took
no disciplinary action of any  kind against the offending  octospider.
That's the  fourth consecutive  time that  the blockheads  have  ruled
against us."
    "Come on, Stephen," Max  said. "I heard the  story at dinner  last
night. Garland was still in the pool fifteen minutes after our special
time had expired. He grabbed the octo first."
    "It was a deliberate provocation," Renee du Pont said. 'There were
only three octospiders  in the pool.  There was no  reason for one  of
them to be in the lane where Garland was swimming laps."
    "Besides," Stephen  said, "as  we discussed  in the  Council  last
night, the specifics of this  particular incident are not our  primary
concern. It is essential that we send a message to both the blockheads
and the octospiders, so that they know we are united as a species. The
Council is going to
    RAMA REVEALED
    491
    meet in  special  session again  tonight  to  draw up  a  list  of
grievances."
    Max was  becoming  angry.  'Thank you  for  keeping  us  informed,
Stephen," he said brusquely. "Now if you'll just step aside, we  would
like to go to lunch."
    "You're making a  mistake," Mr.  Kowalski said. "You  will be  the
only humans  in  the  cafeteria.  We  will,  of  course,  report  this
conversation at the meeting of the Council tonight."
    "Go ahead," said Max.
    ' Max, Eponine, and Nicole walked out into the main corridor  that
formed an annulus around the central core of the starfish. "What's the
Council?" Nicole asked.
    "A group-self-appointed, I  might add-that  pretends to  represent
all the humans," Max replied. "At first they were just a nuisance, but
in the last few months they  have actually begun to wield some  power.
They've even recruited poor Nai into  their ranks by offering to  help
solve the Galileo problem."
    The big tram stopped about twenty meters to their right and a pair
of the iguanas  disembarked. Two  of the  block robots,  who had  been
standing unobtrusively off to the  side, walked out into the  corridor
between the humans and the strange animals with the fearsome teeth. As
the iguanas passed around  them back along  the wall, Nicole  recalled
the attack on Nikki at the Bounty Day ceremony.
    "Why are they here?" Nicole asked Max. "I would have thought  that
they were too disruptive."
    "Big Block  and  the  Eagle  have both  explained  to  full  human
assemblies, on two separate occasions, that the iguanas are  essential
for the  production of  that barrican  plant, without  which the  octo
society would be all  screwed up. I didn't  follow all the details  of
the biological explanation, but I  do remember that fresh iguana  eggs
were a vital link in the  process. The Eagle stressed repeatedly  that
only the bare minimum number of iguanas were being maintained here  in
the Grand Hotel."
    The trio was near the entrance to the cafeteria. "Have the iguanas
caused much trouble?" Nicole asked.
    492
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "Not really," Max said. "They can  be dangerous, as you know,  but
if you cut through all the crap  put out by the Council, you  conclude
that there  have  only been  a  few  incidents in  which  the  iguanas
launched an  unprovoked attack.  Most of  the altercations  have  been
started by humans. Our boy Galileo killed two of them one night in the
cafeteria during one of his violent outbursts."
    Max noticed Nicole's strong reaction to his last comment. "I don't
want to be telling  tales out of school,"  he said, shaking his  head,
"but this Galileo business has really torn our little family apart.  I
promised Eponine I would let you talk to Nai about it first."
    The smaller  block robots  were constructed  in the  same  general
pattern as  Big  Block. A  dozen  of them  were  serving food  in  the
cafeteria, and six  or eight  others were standing  around the  eating
area. When  Nicole  and her  friends  entered, four  or  five  hundred
octospiders, including  two giant  repletes and  eighty or  so  midget
morphs eating  on  the  floor  in the  corner,  were  sitting  in  the
cafeteria. Many of them  turned to watch as  Max, Eponine, and  Nicole
passed through the  line. A  dozen iguanas,  seated not  far from  the
serving line, stopped eating and eyed the humans warily.
    Nicole was surprised at  the large variety of  things to eat.  She
chose some fish and  potatoes, as well as  some octospi-der fruit  and
their orange-tasting honey for her bread.
    "Where does all this fresh food come from?" she asked Max as  they
sat at a long empty table.
    Max pointed up. 'There's a second level to this starfish. All  the
food for everybody is raised up there. We eat very well, although  the
Council has complained about the lack of meat."
    Nicole took a couple  of bites of  her food. "I  think I ought  to
tell you," Max said quietly, leaning across the table, "that a pair of
octospiders is headed in your direction."
    She turned around. Two octospiders were indeed approaching. Out of
the corner of her eye Nicole also gaw Big Block hurrying toward  their
table. "Hello, Nicole," the first octospider said in color. "I was one
of Dr. Blue's assistants
    RAMA REVEALED
    493
    in the Emerald  City Hospital. I  just wanted to  welcome you  and
thank you again for helping us out."
    Nicole  searched  vainly   for  a  distinguishing   mark  on   the
octospider. "I'm sorry," she said in  a friendly tone, "I can't  place
you exactly."
    "You called me Milky," the octospider said, "because at the time I
was recovering from a lens operation and I had excess white fluid .  .
."
    "Ah, yes," Nicole said with a  smile. "I remember you now,  Milky.
Didn't we have a long discussion at lunch one day about old age? As  I
recall, you had a hard time  believing that we humans remained  alive,
whether we were useful or not, until we died of natural causes."
    'That's right," Milky  answered. "Well,  I don't  want to  disturb
your lunch, but my friend very much wanted to meet you."
    "And to thank  you also,"  said Miiky's companion,  "for being  so
fair about everything. Dr. Blue says that you have been an example for
all of us."
    Other octospiders began to  rise from where  they were sitting  in
the cafeteria and to  line up behind the  first two octos. The  colors
for "thank you" were visible on most of their heads. Nicole was deeply
moved. At Max's  suggestion, she  stood up and  spoke to  the line  of
octospiders. "Thank  you all,"  she said,  "for your  warm welcome.  I
realiy do appreciate it. 1 hope I have a chance to visit with each  of
you while we are living here together."
    Nicole's eyes drifted to  the right of the  line Of octos and  she
saw her daughter Ellie with Nikki standing beside her. "I came as soon
as I could,"  Ellie said, coming  over and kissing  her mother on  the
cheek. "I should have known," she added with a slight smile. She  gave
Nicole a vigorous hug. "I love  you, Mother," Ellie said. "And I  have
missed you so very much."
    "I explained to the Council," Nai said, "that you had just arrived
and did  not  fully understand  the  significance of  the  boycott.  I
believe they were satisfied."
    Nai opened the door and Nicole followed her into the
    494
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    laundry area. Using the  washers and dryers they  had seen in  New
Eden as a basis,  the aliens who  had outfitted the  Grand Hotel in  a
hurry had built the free laundry room not far from the cafeteria.  Two
other women were  in the large  room. Nai purposely  chose to use  the
machines at the  far opposite side,  so mat she  could have a  private
conversation with Nicole.
    "I asked you to come with me today," Nai said as she began to sort
the clothing, "because  I wanted to  talk to you  about Galileo."  She
paused, struggling. "Forgive me, Nicole,  my feelings on this  subject
are so strong. I'm not certain-"
    "It's  all  right,  Nai,"  Nicole  said  softly.  "I   understand.
Remember, I'm a mother too."
    "I'm desperate, Nicole," Nai continued. "I need your help. Nothing
that has  ever happened  in  my life,  not  even Kenji's  murder,  has
affected me like this situation. I am consumed by anxiety for my  son.
Even meditation does not give me any peace."
    Nai had divided the  clothes into three piles.  She put them  into
three washing machines and returned to Nicole's side.
    "Look," she  said, "I'll  be  the first  to admit  that  Galileo's
behavior has not  been perfect.  After the  long sleep,  when we  were
moved over here, he was very slow to become involved with the  others.
He would not participate in the classes Patrick, Ellie, Eponine, and I
set up  for  the children,  and  when he  did,  he would  not  do  any
homework. Galileo  was surly,  difficult, and  unpleasant to  everyone
except Maria.
    "He never would  talk to me  about what he  was feeling. The  only
thing he seemed  to enjoy was  going over to  the recreation room  for
muscle-building exercises. He has, incidentally, become very proud  of
his physical strength."
    Nai paused for a  moment. "Galileo is not  a bad person,  Nicole,"
she said apologetically. "He is just  confused. He went to sleep as  a
six-year-old and woke up at the  age of twenty-one, with the body  and
desires of a young man."
    She stopped. Tears had formed in her eyes. "How could he have been
expected to know how to act?" Nai said with difficulty. Nicole reached
out with her arms, but Nai did not
    RAMA REVEALED
    495
    accept her offer. "I have tried,  but I haven't been able to  help
him," Nai continued. "I don't know what to do. And I'm afraid now it's
too late."
    Nicole recalled her own sleepless nights in New Eden when she  had
often wept out of  frustration about Katie.  "I understand, Nai,"  she
said softly. "I really do."
    "One time, only  one time," Nai  said after a  pause, "did I  ever
have a glimpse beneath that cold exterior Galileo wears so proudly. It
was in the middle of the night after the business with Maria, when  he
returned from his session with Big Block. We were out in the  corridor
together, only the two of  us, and he was  wailing and beating on  the
wall. 'I  wasn't going  to hurt  her, Mom,  you must  believe me,'  he
yelled. 'I love Maria. I just couldn't stop myself.'"
    "What happened  with Galileo  and Maria?"  Nicole asked  when  Nai
stopped again for a few seconds. "I haven't heard the story."
    "Oh," Nai said, surprised, "I was certain that someone would  have
told you about it by  now." She hesitated for  a moment. "Max said  at
the time that Galileo had tried to  rape Maria and that he might  have
succeeded if Benjy had not come back  to the room and dragged him  off
the girl. Later Max admitted to me that he might have overreacted when
he used the word 'rape/ but  that Galileo had definitely been 'out  of
line.'
    "My son told me that Maria had encouraged him, at least initially,
and that they had  dropped to the floor  while kissing. She was  still
enthusiastically participating, according to Galileo, until he started
pulling down her pants. That was when the struggle began."
    Nai tried to calm herself. "The  rest of the story, no matter  who
tells it, is not very pleasant. . . . Galileo admits that he hit Maria
several times after she  started screaming and that  he held her  down
and continued to  pull off her  pants. He had  locked the door.  Benjy
broke it down with his shoulder and threw himself at Galileo with  all
his force. Because of the noise and the property damage, Big Block was
there, as well as many onlookers."
    496
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    There were more tears in Nai's eyes. "It must have been horrible,"
Nicole said.
    "That night my life was shattered," Nai said. "Everyone  condemned
Galileo. When Big Block put him  on probation and returned Galileo  to
the family  unit, Max,  Patrick,  and even  Kepler, his  own  brother,
thought the punishment was too light. And if I ever hinted that maybe,
just  maybe,  beautiful  little   Maria  might  have  been   partially
responsible for what  occurred, I  was told  by everybody  that I  was
'unbalanced' and 'blind to the facts.'
    "Maria  played   "her  part   perfectly,"  Nai   continued,   with
undisguised acrimony in her  voice. "She admitted  later that she  had
willingly kissed Galileo-they  had kissed twice  before, she  said-but
insisted that she had started saying  no before he pulled her down  on
the floor. Maria wept for an hour immediately after the incident.  She
could barely  talk.  All  the  men tried  to  comfort  her,  including
Patrick. They were all  convinced before she  even said anything  that
Maria was blameless."
    Soft  bells  sounded,  indicating  that  the  washing  cycle   was
complete. Nai rose slowly,  walked over to the  machines, and put  the
clothes in a pair of dryers.
    "We all agreed that Maria should move next door with Max, Eponine,
and Ellie,"  Nai began  again. "I  thought that  time would  heal  the
wounds. I was wrong. Galileo was ostracized by everyone in the family,
except for me. Kepler would not even speak to his brother. Patrick was
civil, but distant.  Galileo withdrew deeper  into his shell,  stopped
attending classes altogether, and  spent most of  his waking hours  by
himself in the weight room.
    "About five months ago I approached Maria and basically begged her
to help Galileo. It was humiliating, Nicole," Nai said, tears entering
her eyes again. "There I was, an adult woman, pleading for favors from
a teenage girl. I  had first asked Patrick,  Eponine, and then  Ellie,
each in turn, if they would talk to Maria for me. Only Ellie had  made
an effort to intercede, and she  informed me, after her attempt,  that
the appeal would have to come directry from me.
    RAMA REVEALED
    497
    "Maria finally agreed to talk to Galileo," Nai said bitterly, "but
only after forcing me to listen to a harangue about how she still felt
'violated' by  Galileo's  attack.  She also  stipulated  both  that  a
sincere, written apology from Galileo  should precede the meeting  and
that I  should  be  personally  present  during  their  discussion  to
preclude any unpleasantness."
    Nai shook her head.  "Now, I ask you,  Nicole," she said, "how  in
the world could a  sixteen-year-old girl who has  been awake for  only
two years in her  entire life have  possibly become so  sophisticated?
Somebody-and my guess is  Max and Eponine-had  been counseling her  on
how to behave. Maria wanted to humiliate me and to make Galileo suffer
as much as possible. She certainly succeeded."
    "I know it seems  unlikely," Nicole said, "but  I have met  people
with incredible natural gifts who know intuitively at a very early age
how to deal with any possible situation. Maria may be one of them."
    Nai ignored  her comment.  'The meeting  went very  well.  Galileo
cooperated. Maria accepted the apology that he wrote for her. For  the
next few weeks she seemed to go  out of her way to include Galileo  in
whatever the young people were doing.  But he was still a stranger  in
their group, an outsider. 1 could see it. And I suspect that he  could
too.
    "Then one  day in  the  cafeteria, while  the  five of  them  were
sitting together-the  rest  of us  had  eaten early  and  had  already
returned to our rooms-a pair of iguanas  sat down at the other end  of
their  table.  According  to   Kepler,  the  iguanas  were   purposely
repulsive. They lowered their heads into their bowls, noisily  sucking
up those wriggling  worms they love  so much, and  then stared at  the
girls, especially Maria, with their beady yellow eyes. Nikki made some
comment about not being hungry anymore and Maria agreed with her.
    "At that point Galileo rose from his seat, took a couple of  steps
toward the iguanas, and  said "Shoo, go  away,' or something  similar.
When they didn't move, he took another step in their direction. One of
the iguanas jumped at him.
    498
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Galileo grabbed  that  first  iguana  by the  neck  and  shook  it
ferociously. It  died  of  a  broken  neck.  The  second  iguana  also
attacked, seizing Galileo's  forearm with its  powerful teeth.  Before
the blockheads arrived to break up the fracas, Galileo had beaten  the
iguana to death against the top of the table."
    Nai seemed surprisingly calm as she finished the story. 'They took
Galileo away.  Three hours  later  Big Block  came  to our  rooms  and
informed us that Galileo would be permanently detained in another part
of the spacecraft. When I asked  why, the super blockhead told me  the
same thing that he has told me every time since when I have asked  the
question:  'We  have  determined  that  your  son's  behavior  is  not
acceptable.'"
    Another sequence of  short bells announced  that the drying  cycle
was complete. Nicole helped  Nai fold the clothes  on the long  table.
"I'm allowed to see him only two hours each day," Nai said.  "Although
Galileo is too proud to complain, I can tell that he is suffering. The
Council has  listed Galileo  as one  of the  five human  beings  being
'retained' without proper justification,  but I do  not know if  their
grievances are being seriously heard by the blockheads."
    Nai stopped folding clothes and put her hand on Nicole's  forearm.
"That's why  I'm  asking  you  for help,"  she  said.  "In  the  alien
hierarchy, the Eagle ranks  even higher than  Big Block. It's  obvious
that the Eagle  pays careful  attention to  what you  say. Would  you,
please, for my sake, talk to him about Galileo?"
    "It's  the  right  thing,"  Nicole  said  to  Ellie,  taking   her
belongings from the closet. "I should have been in the other room from
the beginning."
    "We talked about it  before you came," Ellie  said. "But both  Nai
and Maria said it was all right for the girl to move back next door so
that you could be here with Nikki and me."
    "Nevertheless . . ." Nicole said. She put her clothes on the table
and looked at her daughter. "You know, Ellie, I've
    RAMA REVEALED
    499
    only been here a few days, but it strikes me as terribly  peculiar
how absorbed everyone is in the day-to-day trivia of life. And I'm not
talking only about Nai and her  concerns. The people with whom I  have
chatted in  the cafeteria,  or in  the other  common rooms,  spend  an
astonishingly small percentage of their time discussing what's  really
going on  here. Only  two people  have asked  me questions  about  the
Eagle. And up at the observation deck last night, while a dozen of  us
were staring  out at  that staggering  tetrahedron, nobody  wanted  to
discuss who might have built it, and for • what purpose."
    Ellie laughed. "Everyone else  has been here  for a year  already,
Mother. They asked all those questions  long ago, for many weeks,  but
they did not receive any satisfactory answers. It's human nature, when
we cannot answer  an infinite question,  to dismiss it  until we  have
some new information."
    She picked up all her mother's things. "Now, we have told everyone
to leave you  alone and let  you take  a nap today.  Nobody should  be
coming in the room  for the next two  hours. Please, Mother, use  this
opportunity to rest. When Dr. Blue  left last night, she told me  that
your heart was showing signs of fatigue, despite all the  supplemental
probes."
    "Mr. Kowalski was certainly  not happy," Nicole commented,  "about
having an octospider in our ray."
    "I explained it to him. So did Big Block. Don't worry about it."
    "Thank you, Ellie," Nicole  said. She kissed  her daughter on  the
cheek.
    4
    A;
    re you ready, Mother?" Ellie L asked, coming in the door.
    "I guess so," Nicole answered. "Although I certainly feel foolish.
Except for the game  yesterday with you, Max,  and Eponine, I  haven't
played bridge for years."
    Ellie smiled. "It  doesn't matter  how well you  play, Mother.  We
talked about that last night."
    Max and Eponine  were waiting  in the  hallway at  the tram  stop.
'Today will be very interesting,"  Max said after greeting Nicole.  "I
wonder how many others will show up."
    The Council had voted the night before to extend the boycott again
for three additional  days. Although  Big Block had  responded to  the
list of grievances and even persuaded the octospiders, who outnumbered
the humans eight to one,  to yield more time  in the common areas  for
the exclusive use of the humans, the Council had felt that many of the
responses were still not adequate.
    There had also been a  discussion at the Council'Weting about  how
to enforce the boycott. Some of the more vocal
    RAMA REVEALED
    501
    attendees at the meeting had  wanted to establish punishments  for
those who ignored  the boycott resolution.  The meeting had  concluded
with an agreement that Council officers would "actively engage"  those
humans who  continued to  disregard the  Council's recommendations  to
avoid interactions with all other species.
    The tram  in the  main corridor  was nearly  empty. A  half  dozen
octospiders were in the first car, and three or four more octos plus a
pair of iguanas  were sitting in  the second. Nicole  and her  friends
were the only humans on board.
    'Three weeks  ago, before  this latest  round of  tension  began,"
Ellie  said,  "we  had  twenty-three  tables  for  our  weekly  bridge
tournament. I  thought we  were  making a  lot  of progress.  We  were
averaging five or six new human attendees each week."
    "How in the world,  Ellie," Nicole asked as  the tram stopped  and
another pair of octospiders boarded their car, "did you ever think  up
the idea  for  these  bridge tournaments?  When  you  first  mentioned
playing cards with the  octospiders to me, I  thought you were out  of
your mind."
    Ellie laughed. "In the  beginning, soon after  we had all  settled
here, 1 knew  that it would  take some kind  of organized activity  to
encourage interaction. People  were just not  going to walk  up to  an
octospider and begin a conversation, not  even with a blockhead or  me
along as  an interpreter.  Games  seemed like  a  pretty good  way  to
stimulate mixing.  That worked  for  a little  while, but  it  quickly
became obvious that  there was no  game at which  the most  proficient
human could match any of the octospiders. Even with handicaps."
    "Late in the first month," Max broke in, "I played chess with your
buddy Dr. Blue. She gave me a rook and two pawn advantage to start the
game, and still cleaned my plow. It was very demoralizing."
    'The  final  blow  was  our  first  Scrabble  tournament,"   Ellie
continued. "All of the prizes went to the octospiders, even though all
the words used were in English! That was when I realized that IJiad to
come up  with a  game in  which humans  and octospiders  did not  play
against each other.
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    503
    "Bridge turned out to be perfect. Each pair consists of one  human
and one octospider. It  is not necessary for  the partners to talk  to
each other. I have  prepared convention cards  in both languages,  and
even the dullest human can learn in one session the octo numbers  from
one to  seven and  then- symbols  for the  four suits.  It has  worked
fabulously well."
    Nicole shook her  head. "I still  think you are  crazy," she  said
with a smile. "Although  I will acknowledge a  touch of brilliance  as
well."
    There were only  fourteen other  people in  die card  room of  the
recreation complex at the time the bridge tournament was scheduled  to
start. Ellie adapted well,  deciding to have  two separate games,  one
for the "mixed pairs," as she called them, and another contest  solely
for the octospiders.
    Dr. Blue was Nicole's  partner. They agreed  on a five-card  major
bidding approach, one  of six  codified by Ellie,  and sat  down at  a
table near the door. Because the seats for the octospiders were higher
dian those for the humans, Nicole and her partner were sitting eye  to
eye-or, more appropriately, eye to lens.
    Nicole had  never  been  an exceptional  bridge  player.  She  had
learned to play originally  as a student at  the University of  Tours,
when her father, concerned that she  did not have enough friends,  had
encouraged her  to  become  involved  in  extracurricular  activities.
Nicole had also played some bridge in New Eden, where the game was the
social rage during the first  year after settlement. However,  despite
some natural flair for the game, Nicole had always thought that bridge
consumed too  much time  and  that there  were  too many  other,  more
important things to do.
    It was apparent to Nicole from  the outset that Dr. Blue, as  well
as the  other octospiders  who  came to  the  table with  their  human
partners to  play  in die  duplicate  tournament, was  a  superb  card
player. On the second hand Dr. Blue played a "three no trump" contract
that was exceedingly difficult, using finesses and a terminal  squeeze
like a human bridge professional.
    "Well done," Nicole said to her octospider partn%r after Dr.  Blue
made the contract plus one overtrick.
    "It's very simple once you know where all the cards are," Dr. Blue
answered in color.
    It was fascinating to watch  the octospiders handle the  mechanics
of the game. They removed the cards from the traveling boards with the
two last joints of a solitary tentacle, aided by the cilia, of course,
and then  held  their  hands  in front  of  their  lenses  with  three
tentacles, one on either side and a third one in the middle. To  place
a card on the table, an octospider used whichever tentacle was closest
to the  card in  question, balancing  it among  the cilia  during  iis
descent.
    Nicole and Dr.  Blue engaged  in their  usual lively  conversation
between hands.  Dr. Blue  had  just told  Nicole  that the  new  Chief
Optimizer had been puzzled by the latest action from the Council, when
the door to the card room opened and in walked three humans,  followed
by Big Block .and one of the smaller blockheads.
    The woman in the  lead, whom Nicole  recognized as Emily  Bronson,
the president of the Council, glanced around the room and then  headed
for Nicole's table. A  move had just been  called, and Nicole and  Dr.
Blue had  been joined  by  the octospider  Milky  and her  partner,  a
pleasant-looking middle-aged woman named Margaret.
    "Why, Margaret  Young,  I'm astonished  to  see you  here,"  Emily
Bronson said. "You must not have  heard that the Council extended  the
boycott last night."
    The two men who had entered the room with Ms. Bronson, one of whom
was Garland of the  swimming pool incident, had  followed her over  to
Nicole's table. All three of them were standing over Margaret.
    "Emily . . . I'm sorry," Margaret replied with her eyes  downcast.
"But you know how I love bridge."
    'There's a lot more than games at stake here," Ms. Bronson said.
    Ellie had risen from a nearby table and now made an appeal to  Big
Block to stop the disruption. But Emily Bronson was too quick. "All of
you," she said in a loud voice, "are showing your disloyalty by  being
here. If you
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    505
    leave now, the Council will not hold it against you. If you  stay,
however, after having been warned-"
    Big Block now intervened and informed Ms. Bronson that she and her
friends were indeed disrupting the game. As the trio turned to  leave,
more than half of the humans rose from their chairs to follow.
    "This is preposterous," a voice with astonishing clarity and power
said. Nicole was standing iii her place, leaning on the table with one
hand. "Sit  back down,"  she said  in  the same  tone. "Do  not  allow
yourself to be bullied by a hatemonger."
    All the  bridge players  returned to  their seats.  "Shut up,  old
woman," Emily Bronson  said in anger  from across the  room. 'This  is
none of your concern." Big Block  escorted her and her companions  out
the door.
    "You don't have any idea, do you, Mrs. Wakefield, what any of  the
objects are?"
    "Your guess is  as good  as mine, Maria,"  Nicole answered.  'They
probably had special meaning, in some way, for your mother. I  thought
at the time  that the  silver cylinder implanted  under your  mother's
skin was some kind of zoo identifier, but since none of the zookeeping
staff survived the bombing  and very few of  the records remain,  it's
unlikely that we will ever be able to verify my hypothesis."
    "What's a 'hypothesis'?" the girl asked.
    "It's a tentative assumption  or explanation for what's  happened,
when there's really not  sufficient evidence to  come to any  definite
answers," Nicole said. "By  the way, 1 must  say that your English  is
quite impressive."
    "Thank you, Mrs. Wakefield."
    They were sitting  together in  the communal lounge  just off  the
observation deck. Nicole  and Maria  were both  drinking fruit  juice.
Although Nicole had been in the  Grand Hotel for a week already,  this
was the first time she had had a private moment with the girl she  had
found amid the octospider zoo ruins sixteen years earlier.
    "Was my mother really pretty?" Maria asked.
    "She was striking, I remember  that," Nicole sai8, "even though  I
couldn't see her very well in the dim light. She
    appeared to have your same  coloring, maybe a little lighter,  and
was of medium build.  I would have guessed  she was thirty-five  years
old or maybe slightly less."
    "And there were no signs of my father?" Maria asked.
    "None  that  I   saw,"  Nicole   said.  "Of   course,  under   die
circumstances I did  not make  a very thorough  search. It's  possible
that he might have  been wandering somewhere  in the Alternate  Domain
looking for  help. The  fence  that enclosed  your compound  had  been
flattened in the bombing. I worried, when we woke up the next morning,
mat your  'father  might  have  been looking  for  you,  but  I  later
convinced myself, based on what I  had seen in your shelter, that  you
and your mother lived alone."
    "So is it your hypothesis that my father had already died?"  Maria
said.
    "Very good," Nicole replied. "No,  not necessarily. I wouldn't  be
that specific. It just did not look as if anyone else had lived  there
in your enclosure for some time."
    Maria took a drink of her juice and there was a momentary  silence
at the table. "You told me the other night, Mrs. Wakefield," the  girl
said, "when we were talking with Max and Eponine, that you presumed my
mother, or maybe both my parents,  had been kidnapped much earlier  by
the octospiders,  from  a place  called  Avalon. I  didn't  understand
completely what you were saying."
    Nicole smiled at Maria. "I appreciate your politeness, Maria," she
said. "But  you're certainly  part  of the  family-  you can  call  me
Nicole." Her mind drifted back to  New Eden-it seemed so long  ago-and
then Nicole realized that  the girl was waiting  for an answer to  her
comment.
    "Avalon was a settlement  outside of New  Eden," Nicole said,  "in
the dark and cold of the  Central Plain. It was originally created  by
the government of  the colony  to quarantine  those people  who had  a
deadly virus called RV-41. After Avalon was built, the dictator of New
Eden, a man named Nakamura, convinced the Senate that Avalon was  also
a perfect  place  for other  'abnormal'  humans, including  those  who
protested against the government  and those who  were mentally ill  or
retarded."
    506
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "It doesn't sound tike a very nice place," Maria commented.
    Benjy was  therefor over  a year,  Nicole was  thinking. He  never
talks about it. She began feeling guilty about not having spent enough
private time with Benjy since she had awakened. But he has never  once
complained. '
    Again Nicole  had  to  force  herself  to  pay  attention  to  her
conversation with Maria.  We old  people have  drifting thoughts,  she
said to herself. Because so many things  we see and hear remind us  of
memories.
    "I have done some checking already," Nicole said.  "Unfortunately,
all the administrative personnel from Ava-lon died in the war. I  have
described your mother to  a few of the  people who spent  considerable
time in Avalon, but none of them remember her."
    "Do you think she was a mental patient?" Maria asked.
    'That's possible," Nicole replied. "We may never know for certain.
Your necklace,  incidentally,  is  our  best  clue  to  your  mother's
identity. She  was clearly  a devotee  of the  order of  the  Catholic
church started  by  Saint  Michael  of Siena.  There  are  some  other
Michaelites on board, Ellie  says. I intend to  talk with them when  I
have the time."
    Nicole stopped and  turned toward  the observation  deck, where  a
commotion had started. A few humans  and a large group of  octospiders
were pointing out  the window  and gesticulating wildly.  A couple  of
people raced off toward  the main corridor,  presumably to bring  back
others to observe whatever it was they were seeing.
    Nicole and Maria  left their  table, walked  up the  steps to  the
deck, and looked  out the large  window. In the  distance, beyond  the
tetrahedron of lights, a  huge, flat-topped spacecraft that  resembled
an aircraft carrier was approaching the Node. Nicole and Maria watched
for several  minutes without  speaking as  the new  spacecraft  loomed
larger and larger.
    "What is it?" Maria asked.
    "I have no idea," Nicole answered.
    t*
    The observation  deck filled  rapidly. The  doors were  constantly
opening as more humans, octospiders, iguanas,
    RAMA REVEALED
    507
    and even a pair of avians came  into the room. The crowd began  to
press against Nicole and Maria.
    The flat-topped vehicle was extremely  long, longer even than  the
transportation corridors connecting the  spheres of the Node.  Several
dozen big transparent "bubbles" were scattered around its surface. The
carrier stopped near  one of the  spherical vertices of  the Node  and
extended a long transparent tube that fit neatly into the side of  the
sphere.
    The deck  was in  turmoil. All  kinds of  creatures were  pushing,
pressing to move  closer to  the window. A  pair of  ' iguanas  leaped
upward against  the  window in  the  weightlessness and  were  quickly
joined by ten to  twenty humans. Nicole  began to feel  claustrophobic
and tried to move out of the  way. There was no room through the  mob.
Nicole was pushed in  all directions. She lost  contact with Maria.  A
strong wave caught Nicole  from the side and  smacked her against  the
wall. Nicole felt a  sharp pain in  her left hip  upon impact. In  the
ensuing melee,  she might  have been  trampled and  injured even  more
except that  Big Block  and  the blockheads  swept  into the  mob  and
restored order.
    Nicole was badly shaken  when Big Block reached  her. The pain  in
her hip was unbearable. She could not walk.
    "It's just part of being old,"  the Eagle said. "You must be  more
careful." He and Nicole were alone  in her apartment. The others  were
eating breakfast.
    "I do not  like being fragile,"  Nicole said. "Nor  do I like  not
doing things because I'm afraid of injuring myself."
    "Your hip will heal," the Eagle  said. "But it will take a  while.
You're lucky it's  only badly bruised  and not broken.  At your age  a
broken hip can make a human a permanent invalid."
    'Thanks for the  words of  reassurance," Nicole said.  She took  a
small sip of her coffee. She was lying on her mat with her head lifted
up slightly by several pillows. "But enough about me. Let's move on to
more important things. What is that flat spacecraft all about?"
    "The other humans  have already started  calling it the  Carrier,"
the Eagle said. "That's a very appropriate name."
    508
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    There was a short  silence. "Come on, come  on," Nicole said in  a
cranky voice, "don't  play coy with  me. I'm lying  here doped up  and
still  in  pain.  It  shouldn't  be  necessary  for  me  to  drag  the
information out of you."
    "This phase of the operation will  soon be over," the alien  said.
"Some of you will be transferred to  the Carrier, and the rest of  you
will move over to the Node."
    "And what happens then?" Nicole asked. "And how is it decided  who
goes where?"
    "I can't tell you that yet," the Eagle said. "But I will tell  you
that you will be  going to the Node-although  if you tell anyone  else
what I have just shared  with you, I will not  in the future give  you
any more advance information. We want the transition to be orderly."
    "You always want things to be orderly . . . Ouch," Nicole said  as
she changed positions slightly. "And I must say you have not given  me
very significant information."
    "You know more than anyone else."
    "Big deal," Nicole grumped, taking another sip of coffee. "By  the
way, do you have any fancy doctors over there in the Node who can wave
a magic wand over this bruise and make it go away?"
    "No," said the Eagle, "but we can give you a new hip if you  like.
Or a pseudo-hip, as I guess you would call it."
    Nicole shook her  head. She winced  as she jostled  her hip  while
putting her coffee cup on the floor. "Being old is shit," she said.
    "I'm sorry," the Eagle said. He started to leave. "I'll look in on
you whenever I can."
    "Before you go," Nicole said, "I have one other item of  business.
Nai wanted me to ask you  to intercede on Galileo's behalf. She  would
like him returned to the family."
    "It's irrelevant now," the Eagle  said as he was leaving.  "You'll
all be out of here in four  or five days. Good-bye, Nicole. Don't  try
to walk-use the wheelchair I brought  you. Your hip won't heal  unless
you keep your weight off of it."
    5
    It was early in the morning, I before most of the humans
    had awakened. Nicole had been out in the long hallway for half  an
hour experimenting with the controls on the arm of her wheelchair. She
had been surprised that the chair  could move so swiftly and  quietly.
As she raced  past the  series of  conference rooms  halfway down  the
kilometer-long  corridor,  Nicole  wondered  what  kind  of   advanced
technology was  contained  inside the  sealed  metal box  beneath  her
chair. Richard  would  have loved  this  wheelchair, she  thought.  He
probably would have tried to take it apart.
    She passed a few humans out  in the hallway, most shuffling  along
in an attempt at a morning exercise walk. Nicole laughed to herself as
a pair of shufflers  moved quickly out  of her way.  / must look  very
strange, she thought, a gray-haired old woman zooming down the hall in
a wheelchair.
    She turned around just  after she drove by  the small tram,  which
was carrying a handful of passengers toward the
    510
    ARTHUR C. CLARICE AND GENTRY LEE
    common areas for an early breakfast. Nicole continued to press the
acceleration button on her chair until  she was going faster than  the
tram. The people in  the tram stared at  her with astonishment as  she
passed them. Nicole waved and  grinned. A few moments later,  however,
when a door a hundred meters in front of her opened abruptly and  ,two
women walked out into  the corridor, Nicole realized  that it was  not
safe for her to be driving  so fast. She slowed down, still  chuckling
to herself at the thrill the speed had given her.
    As she  drew near  to  her own  apartment,  Nicole saw  the  Eagle
standing at  the end  of the  ray  where it  merged with  the  annulus
encircling the starfish. She drove over beside him.
    "You look like you're having fun," the Eagle said.
    "I am," Nicole said with a laugh. 'This chair is a fantastic  toy.
It has almost made me forget about the pain in my hip."
    The Eagle waved toward a lounge on the other side of the  annulus.
"Let's go over there, please," the  alien said. "I would like to  talk
to you in private."
    Nicole drove her chair across  the main annulus until she  reached
the ramp leading to the lounge. The Eagle, who was walking behind her,
motioned for her to continue. A dozen octospiders were sitting  around
the room. The Eagle and  Nicole chose a spot  off to the right,  where
they could be alone.
    "The Carrier has almost finished its tasks over at the Node,"  the
Eagle said. "Twelve hours from now it will make a short stop near this
vehicle to pick up some more  passengers. 1 will announce after  lunch
who will be moving to the Carrier."
    The alien turned and  looked directly at  Nicole with his  intense
blue  eyes.  "Some  of  the  humans   may  not  be  pleased  with   my
announcement. After the decision was  made to split your species  into
two separate groups, it was immediately  apparent to me that it  would
be impossible to achieve  a division that would  not make some  people
unhappy. I would  like some help  from you in  making this process  as
siftooth as possible."
    RAM-A REVEALED
    511
    Nicole  studied  the  remarkable  face  and  eyes  of  her   alien
companion. She thought she remembered  seeing, once before, a  similar
look from the Eagle. Back at the Node, she recalled, when I was  asked
to do the video.
    "What is it that you want me to do?" Nicole asked.
    "We have decided to allow a degree of flexibility in this process.
Although all the individuals on the  list for transfer to the  Carrier
must accept their assignments,  we will permit some  of those who  are
assigned to the Node to  request reconsideration. Since there will  be
no interaction  between  the  two  vehicles, in  the  case  of  strong
emotional attachments, for example, we would not want to force-"
    "Are you telling  me," Nicole  interrupted, "that  this split  may
permanently break up families?"
    "Yes, it may," the Eagle replied.  "In a few instances, a  husband
or a wife has been assigned to the Carrier, while the spouse is on the
list for the Node. Similarly, there  are some cases where parents  and
their children will be separated."
    "Jesus," exclaimed Nicole. "How in  the world can you, or  anyone,
arbitrarily decide to separate a husband and a wife who have chosen to
live together, and expect them to  be happy? You'll be lucky if  there
is not a widespread revolt after you make your announcement."
    The  Eagle  hesitated  for  a  few  seconds.  "There  was  nothing
arbitrary in our process," the alien  said at length. "For months  now
we have  been  carefully  studying voluminous  data  on  every  single
creature  currently  living  in  the  starfish.  The  records  include
complete information from  all the years  in Rama as  well. Those  who
have been assigned to the Carrier do not, in one way or another,  meet
our necessary criteria for transfer to the Node."
    "And what exactly are those criteria?" Nicole asked quickly.
    "All I  can  tell  you  now  is that  the  Node  will  feature  an
interspecies living environment.  Those individuals  who have  limited
adaptability have been assigned to the Carrier," the Eagle replied.
    "It sounds to me," Nicole said after a few seconds, "as
    512 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    if some subset of the humans in the Grand Hotel has been rejected,
for some reason, and  not found 'acceptable'-"  "If I understand  your
choice of words," the Eagle  now interrupted, "you are inferring  that
this split divides the two groups on  the basis of merit. That is  not
exactly the case. It is our belief that most of those in either  group
will,,in the long  run, be happier  in the environment  to which  they
have been assigned."
    "Even  without  their  spouses  or  children?"  Nicole  said.  She
frowned.  "Sometimes  I  wonder  if  you  have  really  observed  what
motivates the  human species.  'Emotional  attachments,' to  use  your
words, are  usually  the  most  essential  component  in  any  human's
happiness."
    "We know that," the Eagle said. "We had a special review of  every
single case where families will be  broken apart by the split, and  we
made some accommodations as a  result. In our judgment, the  remaining
family divisions, which are not  as numerous as this discussion  might
suggest, are all supported by the observational data."
    Nicole stared at the Eagle and shook her head vigorously. "Why was
this split never mentioned before?  Never once in all the  discussions
of the impending transfer did you ever even suggest that we were going
to be divided into two groups."
    "We hadn't decided  ourselves until fairly  recently. Recall  that
our intercession with the affairs on  Rama took us into a  contingency
regime in our planning matrix. Once it became clear that some kind  of
split would be necessary, we didn't want to upset the status quo."
    "Bullshit," Nicole  said suddenly.  "I don't  believe that  for  a
moment. You knew what you were going  to do long ago. You just  didn't
want to listen to any objections."
    Using the controls on the arm  of her chair, Nicole turned  around
and faced away  from her alien  companion. "No," she  said firmly,  "I
will not be your accomplice  in this matter. And  I am angry that  you
have compromised my integrity by not telling me the truth before now."
    She pushed the  acceleration button  and started  toward the  main
corridor.
    RAMA REVEALED
    513
    "Is there nothing I can do  to change your mind?" the Eagle  said,
following her.
    Nicole stopped. "I can only imagine one scenario in which I  would
help you. Why don't you explain the differences between the two living
environments and  let each  individual from  each species  decide  for
himself or herself?"
    "I'm afraid we can't do that," the Eagle said.
    "Then count  me  out,"  Nicole said,  activating  her  wheel-chair
again.
    Nicole was in a foul mood by the time she reached the door to  her
apartment. She leaned forward in her chair and entered the combination
sequence on the panel in the middle of the door.
    "Hello, Mrs. Wakefield," Kepler said  as Nicole entered the  room.
"Patrick and Mother are  out looking for you.  They were worried  when
they didn't find you in the hallway."
    Nicole drove past the young man and into the room. Benjy came  out
of the bathroom with only a  towel wrapped around him. "Hello,  Mama,"
he said  with a  big smile.  He  noticed the  look of  displeasure  on
Nicole's face and hurried over  beside her. "What's wrong?" he  asked.
"You haven't hurt yourself again . . . ?"
    "No, Benjy,"  Nicole said.  "I'm  fine. I  just had  a  disturbing
conversation with the Eagle."
    "What about?" Benjy said, taking her hand.
    "I'll tell  you  later," Nicole  said  after a  brief  hesitation.
"After you dry off and get dressed."
    Benjy  smiled  and  kissed  his  mother  on  the  forehead  before
returning to the  bathroom. The  sinking feeling in  her stomach  that
Nicole had  experienced during  her conversation  with the  Eagle  now
returned. Oh,  my God,  she thought  suddenly. Not  Benjy. Surely  the
Eagle was not trying to tell me that we are going to be separated from
Benjy. She remembered the Eagle's comment about "limited capabilities"
and started to  panic. Not  now. Please not  now. Not  after alt  this
time.
    Nicole thought about a special moment from years
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    earlier, when the family had been at the Node for the first  time.
She had been alone  in her bedroom. Benjy  had entered tentatively  to
find out if he was welcome to join the family on its trip back to  the
solar system. He had been immensely  relieved to discover that he  was
not going to  be separated  from his  mother. He  has suffered  enough
already, Nicole  said  to  herself, recalling  Benjy's  assignment  to
Avalon while she was in prison in New Eden. The Eagle must know  that,
if he has really studied all the data.
    Despite her conscious  attempts to remain  calm, Nicole could  not
stifle the combination of fear and frustration that was rising  inside
her. / would have preferred to die in my sleep, she thought  bitterly,
fearing the worst. / cannot say  good-bye to Benjy now. It will  break
his heart. And mine too.
    The door  to  the  apartment  opened.  Patrick  and  Nai  entered,
followed by the Eagle. "We found this friend of yours in the  hallway,
Mother," Patrick said, greeting her with a kiss. "He told us that  the
two of you had been having a conference. Nai and I were worried."
    The Eagle walked over beside Nicole. 'There was another subject  I
wanted to  talk to  you about  as well,"  the Eagle  said. "Could  you
please join me outside for another couple of minutes?"
    "I guess I have_ no choice," Nicole answered. "But I am not  going
to change my mind."
    A full tram passed the Eagle  and Nicole just as they exited  from
the apartment. "What is it?" Nicole asked impatiently.
    "I wanted to inform you  that all the different manifestations  of
the sessile species, as well as  the remaining avians, will be in  the
group that is transferred  to the Carrier this  evening. If you  still
have any desire,  as you indicated  to me once  during a  conversation
shortly after you first  awakened here, to  interact with the  sessile
and to experience what Richard described-"
    'Tell me something else first," Nicole interflipted, grabbing  the
Eagle by the forearm with surprising strength.
    RAMA REVEALED
    515
    "Will Benjy  and I  be separated  by this  split you're  going  to
announce this afternoon?"
    The -Eagle hesitated for several  seconds. "No, you will not,"  he
said eventually. "But I shouldn't be telling you any of the details."
    Nicole heaved  a sigh  of relief.  'Thank you,"  she said  simply,
managing a smile.
    There was a protracted silence. "The sessiles," the Eagle  started
again, "will not be available to you after-"
    "Yes, yes," Nicole said.  'That's a great idea.  Thank you •  very
much. I  would like  to pay  my respects  to a  sessile. After  I  eat
breakfast, of course."
    The smaller block  robots were very  much in evidence  in the  ray
that housed the  avians and  the sessiles.  The ray  was divided  into
several separate  regions by  walls that  ran from  the floor  to  the
ceiling. The blockheads  policed the  entrances and  exits from  these
regions and were also stationed at each of the tram stops.
    The avians and sessiles lived at the back of the ray,- in the last
of the separate compounds. Both a blockhead and an avian were guarding
the entrance when the Eagle and Nicole arrived. The Eagle jabbered and
shrieked in response to  a series of questions  from the avian.  After
they entered the  compound, a  myrmicat approached them.  It began  to
communicate with  the Eagle  in bursts  of high-frequency  sound  that
originated from the small circular orifice below its dark brown, milky
oval eyes. Nicole marveled  at the fidelity  of the Eagle's  whistling
response. She  also  watched in  fascination  as the  second  pair  of
myrmicat eyes, attached  to stalks  raised ten  to twelve  centimeters
above its forehead,  continued to pivot  and survey the  surroundings.
When the Eagle had  finished his conversation  with the myrmicat,  the
six-legged creature, who  resembled a giant  ant when standing  still,
raced down the hall with the speed and grace of a cat.
    'They know who you are," the Eagle said. "They are delighted  that
you have come for a visit."
    Nicole glanced up at her companion. "How do they
    516
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    know me?" she said. "I have  only occasionally seen a few of  them
in the common areas, and I have never actually interacted."
    "Your husband is a god to this species. None of them would be here
if it were  not for  him. They  know you  from your  images that  were
inside his memory."
    "How is that possible?" Nicole asked. "Richard died sixteen  years
ago."
    "But the record of  his stay with them  is carefully preserved  in
their collective memory," the Eagle said. "Every myrmicat emerges from
its manna melon with  significant knowledge of  the key components  of
its own culture and history.  The embryonic process mat occurs  inside
the melon not only provides  physical nourishment for the growing  and
developing being, but also  passes critical information directly  into
the brain-or its equivalent, anyway-of the fledgling myrmicat."
    "Are you telling  me," Nicole  said, "that  these creatures  begin
their education  before  they  are  born? And  that  there  is  stored
knowledge inside those  manna melons  I used  to eat  that is  somehow
implanted in the minds of the unborn myrmicats?"
    "Exactly," the Eagle replied.  "I don't see why  you should be  so
astounded. Physically, these creatures are nowhere near as complex  as
your species. The embryonic development process for a human is  vastly
more subtle and complicated  man theirs. Your  newborns arrive in  the
world with a staggering array of physical attributes and capabilities.
Your infants, however,  are still  dependent on other  members of  the
species for both their survival and their education. The myrmicats are
born 'smarter' and therefore more independent, but they have much less
potential for total intellectual development."
    They both heard a shrill sound coming from a myrmicat fifty meters
or so down the corridor. "It is calling us," the Eagle said.
    Nicole moved her wheelchair slowly forward and "Settled at a speed
consistent with the Eagle's walking pace. "Rich-
    RAMA REVEALED
    517
    ard never told me that  these creatures preserve information  from
generation to generation."
    "He didn't  know,"  the  Eagle  said. "He  did  figure  out  their
metamorphic cycle, and  that the myrmicats  passed information to  the
neural net  or  web or  whatever  the final  manifestation  should  be
called. But he didn't even suspect that the most important elements of
that collective information were also  stored in the manna melons  and
passed to the  next generation. Needless  to say, it's  a very  strong
survival mechanism."
    i Nicole was intrigued by what the Eagle was telling her. Imagine,
she was  thinking, (/  somehow human  children could  be born  already
knowing the essentials of our  culture and history. Suppose  something
like the placenta contained,  in compressed form, enough  information.
It sounds impossible, but it must not be. If at least one creature can
do it, then eventually . . .
    "How much data are passed through the manna melons to the newborns
of the  species?" Nicole  asked as  they drew  near to  the  beckoning
myrmicat.
    "About one-thousandth of one percent of the information present in
a fully mature  specimen like the  one in which  Richard resided.  The
primary function  of the  final  manifestation of  the species  is  to
manipulate,  process,  and  compress  the  data  into  a  package  for
inclusion in the manna melons.  Just how this data management  process
works is something we have been studying.
    "The neural  net  you will  encounter  in the  next  few  minutes,
incidentally," the  Eagle  continued,  "was originally  just  a  small
sliver of  material, containing  critical data  compressed using  what
must be a brilliant  algorithm. We have estimated  that in that  small
cylinder Richard  carried to  New York  years ago  was an  information
content equivalent to  the memory  capacity of a  hundred adult  human
brains."
    "Amazing," Nicole said, shaking her head.
    "That's only the  beginning," the  Eagle said. "Each  of the  four
manna melons carried by Richard had its own special set of  compressed
data. They all germinated  into myrmicats in  the octospider zoo.  The
neural net now contains all those
    518
    ARTHUR C, CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    well. I expect that you're in for quite an
    RAMA REVEALED
    519
    expeences as adventure."
    Nicole stopped her wheelchair.  "Why didn't you  tell me all  this
earlier? I might have spent more time - "
    "I doubt it," the Eagle  interrupted. "Your first priority was  to
reestablish your connections to  your own species.  I don't think  you
were ready for this until now."
    "You have  been manipulating  me  by controlling  what I  see  and
experience," Nicole said without rancor.
    "Perhaps," the Eagle answered.
    Nicole was surprisingly fearful  when she finally encountered  the
neural net up close.  The Eagle and  she were together  in a room  not
unlike the  apartment  Nicole shared  in  the  human ray.  A  pair  of
myrmicats was sitting behind them, against the wall The sessile net or
web occupied about  fifteen percent  of the  room, back  in the  right
corner. There  was  a gap  in  the center  of  the dense,  soft  white
material that was  just large  enough for Nicole  and her  wheelchair.
Nicole complied with the Eagle's  request to roll up her  shirtsleeves
and lift her dress above her knees.
    "I suppose," she then said with some trepidation, "that it expects
me to drive into that space and that it will wrap its filaments around
my body."
    "Yes," said  the  Eagle. "And  it  has been  told  by one  of  the
myrmicats to release you at your request. I will stay here the  entire
time, if that's any comfort to you."
    "Richard," Nicole said, still delaying her entrance, "told me that
it took a long time for any real communication to develop."
    "That will not be a problem now," responded the Eagle.  "Certainly
part of the information stored in  the original sliver was data  about
methods that  could  be used  to  communicate efficiently  with  human
beings."
    "All right, then," Nicole said, passing her hand nervously through
her hair, "here I go. Wish me luck."
    She drove into the gap in  the cottony network and turned off  the
power in  her wheelchair.  In less  than a  miftute the  creature  had
surrounded her and Nicole could not even see
    the outline of the Eagle across the room. Nicole tried to reassure
herself as she felt first hundreds and then thousands of tiny  threads
attaching themselves  to  her  arms,  legs, neck,  and  head.  As  she
expected, the  density of  threads was  highest around  her head.  She
recalled  Richard's   description:  The   individual  filaments   were
incredibly thin, but they must have had very sharp parts underneath. I
didn 't even  realize that they  were inserted well  inside the  outer
layers of my skin until I tried to pull one off.
    Nicole stared at a particular clump of threads about a meter  away
from her face.  As this ganglion  eased slowly toward  her, the  other
elements in the delicate mesh shifted position. A shiver ran down  her
spine. Her mind accepted, finally, that the net surrounding her was  a
living creature. It was only moments later that the images began.
    She realized immediately  that the  sessile was  reading from  her
memory. Pictures from  earlier in  her life  flashed through  Nicole's
mind at a fantastic rate, none  lingering long enough even to  provoke
an emotion. There was no order  to the images-a childhood memory  from
the woods behind  her home  in the Parisian  suburb of  Chilly-Mazarin
would be followed by  a picture of Maria  laughing heartily at one  of
Max's stories.
    This is  the  data  transfer stage,  Nicole  thought,  remembering
Richard's analysis of the time he had spent inside the neural net. The
creature is copying my memory into its  own. At a very high rate.  She
wondered briefly what in the world  the sessile would do with all  the
images from her memory. Then suddenly in her mind's eye Nicole vividly
saw Richard himself  in a large  chamber that had  a vast,  incomplete
mural on its walls. The image became a full motion picture set in  the
chamber. The clarity of the individual frames was overwhelming. Nicole
felt as if she were watching a color television set located  somewhere
inside her brain.  She could  even see the  details of  the mural.  As
Nicole watched, a  myrmicat directed Richard's  attention to  specific
items in the wall paintings. Around  the room a dozen other  myrmicats
were sketching or painting the ; unfinished sections of the mural.
    520
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE.AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    521
    The artwork was superb.  It had all been  created to give  Richard
information about what he could do to help the alien species  survive.
Part of the mural was a textbook about their biology, which  explained
in pictures the  three manifestations of  their species (manna  melon,
myrmicat, and sessile  or neural  net) and  the relationships  between
diem. The images Nicole saw were so  sharp that she felt she had  been
transported to  the room  where Richard  had been.  She was  therefore
startled when the internal film she was watching suddenly underwent  a
jump discontinuity  and  presented  a picture  of  the  last  good-bye
between Richard and his guide myrmicat.
    Richard and the  myrmicat were in  a tunnel at  the bottom of  the
brown cylinder. The motion picture  lingered lovingly on every  detail
of this  final  farewell.  The  bearded  Richard  looked  overburdened
carrying the four heavy manna melons, two leathery avian eggs, and the
cylinder of web  material in the  pack on his  back. But even  Nicole,
seeing the determination  in Richard's  eyes as he  departed from  the
doomed myrmicat habitat, could  understand why he was  such a hero  to
their species. He risked his life, she reminded herself, to save  them
from extinction.
    More images flooded  her mind,  pictures from  the octospider  zoo
recording events after the germination of the manna melons Richard had
originally carried to New York. Despite their clarity, Nicole couldn't
bring herself to concentrate on the images very closely. She was still
thinking about Richard. Not since f awakened have I allowed myself  to
miss your  company, Nicole  said to  herself, because  I thought  such
behavior showed weakness. Now, seeing  your face again so clearly  and
remembering how much  we shared,  I realize  how ridiculous  it is  to
force myself not to think about you.
    A fleeting image of three human beings-a man, a woman, and a  tiny
baby-raced through Nicole's mind, catching her attention. Wait, Nicole
almost screamed out loud. Back up.  There was something that I  wanted
to see. The neural net did not read her message. It continued with the
progression of pictures. Nicole suspended her dioughts
    about Richard and focused intently on the images appearing on  the
television inside her brain.
    Less than a minute later she saw the trio again, walking with  the
octospider zookeeper past the front of the area housing the myrmicats.
Maria was in her  mother's arms. Her father,  a dark and handsome  man
with gray at his temples, was dragging  one of his legs as if it  were
broken. / have  never seen that  man before, Nicole  thought. /  would
have remembered him.
    There were no more images of  Maria or her parents. The stream  of
pictures racing  through  Nicole's mind  showed  the transfer  of  the
myrmicats to another venue,  away from the zoo  and the Emerald  City,
sometime before  the  bombing began.  Nicole  presumed that  the  last
sequence of images she was shown  took place during the time that  all
the humans and octospiders in  Rama were asleep. Not long  thereafter,
Nicole thought, if I understand  their life cycle correctly, the  four
myrmicats resulting from  Richard's melons became  net material.  With
all these memories intact.
    The pictures in her mind  became altogether different. Now  Nicole
was seeing some images of scenes that she believed were from the  home
planet of the sessiles, ones that Richard had once excitedly described
to her.
    Nicole had purposely positioned her right hand next to the control
panel of her  wheelchair when she  had entered the  web. When she  now
pressed the power button  and then reverse, the  slight motion of  the
chair immediately  registered with  the  sessile. The  images  stopped
instantly,  and  the  threads   of  the  creature  were   subsequently
withdrawn.
    RAMA REVEALED
    523
    6
    T:
    he next day, an hour before  the beginning of the lunch period,  a
part of one wall in each  starfish apartment transformed into a  large
television screen. The residents were then informed that an  important
announcement was forthcoming in thirty minutes.
    'This is only  the third time,"  Max told Nicole  as they  waited,
"that we have  had any  kind of  general transmission.  The first  was
immediately after  we arrived  here and  the second  was when  it  was
decided to segregate our living quarters."
    "What's going to happen now?" Marius asked.
    "I suspect we're going to find  out the details of our move,"  Max
answered. "At least that's the leading rumor."
    At the appointed time, the  Eagle's face appeared on the  monitor.
"Last year, when you were all awakened and moved from Rama," the Eagle
said, simultaneously giving the same message in colored strips  moving
across his forehead, "we told you that this vehicle would not be your
    permanent home.  We  are  now  ready  to  transfer  you  to  other
locations, where your living conditions will be markedly better."
    The Eagle paused a few seconds before continuing. "All of you will
not be transferred to the same  place. About one-third of the  current
starfish  residents  will  move  to  the  Carrier,  that  huge,   flat
spacecraft that has been stationed near the Node for most of the  last
week. During the next few hours, the Carrier will finish its  business
over at the  Node and move  in this  direction. Those of  you who  are
transferring to the Carrier will do so after dinner tonight.
    'The rest of you  will be moved  to the Node  in another three  or
four days. Nobody will be left here  on the starfish. I would like  to
stress again that the accommodations in both places will be  excellent
and far superior to those in this vehicle."
    The Eagle stopped for almost half a minute, as if he were allowing
time for his audience to react to what he had already said. "When this
meeting is  over,"  the  Eagle  then  said,  "each  of  the  apartment
television screens  will  repeatedly cycle  through  the list  of  all
creatures on  board,  ordered by  apartment  number, and  display  the
transfer assignments. Reading  the displays  is very  simple. If  your
name and/or  identification  code  appears on  the  monitor  in  black
letters against a  white background,  you will be  transferred to  the
Carrier. If your  name is  written in  white letters  against a  black
background, you  will remain  here  for the  next  few days  and  will
eventually be moved over to the Node.
    "For your information, on the  Carrier each species will have  its
own self-contained living area. There will be no interspecies  mixing,
except  of  course  for   the  required  symbiotic  arrangements.   By
contrast-;"
    'That ought to please the  leaders of the Council," Max  commented
quickly.  "They  have  been  agitating  for  complete  separation  for
months."
    "-the  living  situation   at  the  Node   will  involve   regular
interspecies  communication  and  activity.  We  have  attempted,   in
assigning individuals to the  two locations, to place  each of you  in
the environment best suited for his personality.
    524
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    525
    Our selections were  done carefully, based  upon our  observations
both here at the starfish and during the years on Rama.
    "It is important  that all of  you realize that  there will be  no
interaction between the  two groups after  the ^transfers take  place.
Let me  say  that  in  another  way,  to  make  certain  there  is  no
misunderstanding. Those moving to the Carrier tonight will never again
see any of the residents who are going to be transferred to the Node.
    "If you have been assigned  to the Carrier," the Eagle  continued,
"you should begin packing immediately  and should be completely  ready
to move before you  come to dinner.  If you are  among those who  have
been designated  to move  to the  Node and  do not  believe that  your
assignment is appropriate,  you may  request that  your assignment  be
reconsidered. Tonight, after all  residents currently assigned to  the
Carrier have completed their transfers,  I will meet in the  cafeteria
with those who think they want to switch from the Node to the Carrier.
    "If any of you have  questions, I will be at  the big desk in  the
lounge for the next hour."
    "What did the Eagle say to you?" Max asked Nicole.
    "The same thing he said to  the twenty other people in the  lounge
who were asking the  same question," Nicole  replied. "No changes  are
possible  for  those   who  have   been  assigned   to  the   Carrier.
Reconsideration will only be given to those scheduled for transfer  to
the Node."
    "Was that when Nai . . . uh, broke down?" Eponine asked.
    "Yes," Nicole  said. "Until  then she  had held  herself  together
fairly well. When she initially came over to our apartment, after  the
lists had been shown for the first time, I thought she was  remarkably
calm.  She  obviously  must  have  convinced  herself  initially  that
Galileo's assignment was some kind of clerical mistake." fc
    "I can understand how  she must feel,"  Eponine said. "I'll  admit
that my heart skipped a few beats until I saw that
    all the rest of us were together on the list to be transferred  to
the Node."
    "I bet that Nai is not the only one upset by the assignments," Max
said. He stood up and started to walk around the room. "This is really
a mess," he said, shaking his head.  "What in the world would we  have
done if Marius had been assigned to the Carrier?"
    "That's easy," Eponine  answered quickly.  "You and  I would  both
have applied to go with our son."
    "Yep," said Max after a momentary pause. "I suspect you're right."
    "That's what Patrick and Nai are now discussing next door," Nicole
said. 'They asked  the young  people to leave  so they  could talk  in
private."
    "Do you think Nai  can handle all this  additional stress so  soon
after the ... incident?" Eponine asked.
    "She really has  no choice," Max  said. 'They only  have a  couple
more hours to make a decision."
    "She seemed much better  to me twenty  minutes ago," Nicole  said.
'The light  sedative had  definitely taken  effect. Both  Patrick  and
Kepler were being very gentle with her. I think Nai frightened herself
most of all with her outburst."
    "Did she actually attack the Eagle?" Eponine asked.
    "No. One  of the  blockheads restrained  her.immediately when  she
screamed," Nicole said.  "But she  was out of  control-she might  have
done anything."
    "Shit," said Max, "if you had told me while we were living in  the
Emerald City that Nai even had the capacity for violence, I would have
told you-"
    "Only someone who  has been  a parent,"  Nicole interrupted,  "can
possibly understand the powerful feelings that a mother has where  her
children are concerned. Nai  has been frustrated  for months. I  can't
condone her reaction, but I can certainly understand-"
    Nicole stopped. The  knock on the  door repeated. Patrick  entered
the room a few seconds later. His face betrayed his anxiety. "Mother,"
he said, "I need to talk to you."
    "Eponine and I  can go  out in the  hallway," Max  said. "If  that
would help."
    526
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "Thanks, Max.  Yes,  I would  appreciate  it," Patrick  said  with
difficulty. Nicole had never seen him so upset.
    "I don't know what to  do," Patrick said as  soon as he was  alone
with Nicole. "Everything is  happening so fast. I  don't think Nai  is
being rational, but I don't seem to  be able . . ." His voice  trailed
off. "Mother, she wants us all to apply for reconsideration. Everyone.
You, me, Kepler, Maria, Max ... all of us. She says otherwise  Galileo
will feel abandoned."
    Nicole looked at  her son.  He was close  to tears.  He ham't  had
enough life to deal with a crisis like this, she thought quickly. He's
only been awake for a little more than ten years.
    "What is Nai doing now?" Nicole said softly.
    "She's meditating," Patrick answered. "She said it would calm  and
heal her spirit . . . and give her strength."
    "And are you supposed to convince the rest of us?"
    "Yes, I guess. But Mother, Nai has not even considered that anyone
might not agree with what she is proposing. She believes that what  we
should all do is absolutely clear."
    Patrick's pain was  obvious. Nicole  wished that  she could  reach
out, touch him,  and make his  agony go  away. "What do  you think  we
should do?" Nicole asked after a period of silence.
    "I don't know," Patrick  said, starting to  pace around the  room.
"Like everyone else, I noticed as soon as the list was posted that all
the active Council members were  being transferred to the Carrier,  as
well as most of the humans who had been removed from the normal living
quarters. The people we  like and respect, as  well as almost all  the
octo-spiders except some of the alternates, are going to the Node. But
I sympathize with Nai. She can't bear the thought that Galileo will be
isolated, permanently cut off from the only support system he has ever
known."
    What would you do, a voice inside Nicole's head asked her, if  you
were Nai? Didn't you panic earlier today when you were afraid that you
might be separated from Benjy?
    "Will you talk to her, Mother," Patrick entreated, "as
    RAMA REVEALED
    527
    soon as she has finished meditating?  She will listen to you.  Nai
has always said how much she respects your wisdom."
    "And is there anything particular that you want me to say to her?"
Nicole asked.
    'Tell her . . ." Patrick said, wringing his hands, "tell her  it's
not her place to decide what would be best for everyone in our  group.
She should focus on her own decision."
    "That's good advice," Nicole said. She gazed at her son. 'Tell me,
Patrick," she said several seconds  later, "have you decided what  you
are going to do if Nai switches to the Carrier and none of the rest of
us do?"
    "Yes, I have, Mother," Patrick said  quietly. "I will go with  Nai
and Galileo."
    Nicole  parked  her  wheelchair  in  a  corner  in  front  of  the
observation window. She was alone, as she had requested. The afternoon
had been so  emotional that  she felt completely  drained. Nicole  had
thought initially that her meeting with  Nai had gone quite well.  Nai
had listened  carefully  to  Nicole's advice,  without  much  comment.
Nicole had therefore  been quite  astonished an hour  later when  Nai,
seething with anger, had confronted  her along with Max, Eponine,  and
Ellie.
    "Patrick tells me that none of you are going to come with us," Nai
had said.  "Now I  see what  rewards I  have earned  for my  steadfast
devotion all these years. I dragged  my twin boys away from their  own
home out of loyalty to you, my friends, i deprived Galileo and  Kepler
of  ever  knowing  a  normal  childhood  because  of  my  respect  and
admiration for you, Nicole,  my role model. And  now, when for once  I
ask a favor ..."
    "You're being unfair, Nai,"  Ellie had said  softly. "We all  love
you and are  appalled at  the thought of  being separated  permanently
from you and Galileo. Believe me, if it weren't so clear that the Node
is preferable for all of us-"
    "Ellie, Ellie," Nai  had said,  dropping on her  knees beside  her
friend and bursting into  tears. "Have you forgotten  all the hours  I
spent with Benjy out in Avalon?
    528
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Yes, I admit that I  did it of my own  volition, but would I  have
given so much of myself  to Benjy if he was  not your brother and  you
were not  my best  friend? 1  love you,  Ellie. I  need your  support.
Please, please come with us. You and Nikki, at least."
    Ellie had also wept. Before the confrontation was over, there  was
not a dry eye in the room. In the end Nai had apologized profusely  to
everyone.
    Nicole took a deep breath and stared out the window. She knew that
she needed a break  from all the emotional  turmoil. Twice during  the
afternoon she had felt  twinges of pain in  her chest. Even all  those
magical probes, she thought, cannot protect  me if I do not take  care
of myself.
    The huge Carrier  was now  stationed only  several hundred  meters
away. It was an awesome engineering construction, far larger even than
it had seemed when it was over by the Node. The spacecraft was  parked
sideways, so only a part of it could be seen from the window. The  top
of the Carrier was a long  flat plane broken only by small,  scattered
equipment complexes and die transparent domes-or bubbles, as they  had
originally  been  called-that  were  located  in  an  orderly  pattern
throughout the length and breadth of the plane. Some of the domes were
quite large.  One, directly  in front  of the  window, rose  over  two
hundred meters  above the  flat plane.  Other domes  were very  small.
Parts of  eleven of  the  transparent bubbles  were visible  from  the
observation window. During the approach of the Carrier earlier in  the
afternoon, when  the  entire spacecraft  could  be seen,  a  total  of
seventy-eight domes had been counted.
    The underbelly of die Carrier had an external surface of  metallic
gray. It  extended below  the  plane about  a kilometer,  with  gently
sloping sides and  a rounded  bottom. From a  distance the  underbelly
looked insignificant compared to  the vast flat  surface which was  at
least forty kilometers long and  fifteen kilometers wide. However,  up
close it was clear that an  enormous volume was contained inside  that
drab structure.
    As Nicole watched in fascination, a small indentation in the  side
of the gray exterior, just below the surface,
    RAMA REVEALED
    529
    expanded and  grew  into a  round  tube moving  outward  from  the
Carrier. The tube drew near to the starfish and then, after some minor
vernier corrections, was affixed to the main air lock.
    She felt a touch  on her arm  and turned to the  side. It was  Dr.
Blue. "How are you feeling?" the octospider said in color.
    "Better now," Nicole replied. "But I had some bad moments  earlier
this afternoon."
    Dr. Blue scanned Nicole with the monitoring device. "There were at
least two major irregularities," Nicole  told her doctor. "I  remember
both of them quite clearly."
    The octospider doctor  studied the  colors flashing  on the  small
monitor. "Why didn't you call me?" she said.
    "I thought about it," Nicole answered. "But so much was going  on.
And I figured you were busy with your own-"
    Dr. Blue  handed Nicole  a  small flask  containing a  light  blue
liquid. "Drink this," the octospider said. "It will limit your cardiac
response to emotional stress over the next twelve hours."
    "And will we still be together,  you and I," Nicole asked,  "after
the Carrier  departs?  I didn't  study  your  part of  the  list  very
carefully."
    "Yes," Dr. Blue answered. "Eighty-five percent of our species will
be transferred to the Node. More  than half the octospiders moving  to
the Carrier are alternates."
    "So, my friend," Nicole said  after drinking the liquid, "what  do
you make of all this transfer business?"
    "Our best guess," Dr. Blue  said, "is that this entire  experiment
has reached a significant branch point and that the two groups will be
involved in radically different activities."
    Nicole laughed. "That's not very specific," she said.
    "No, it's not," the octospider calmly agreed.
    There were eighty-two humans and  nine octospiders present in  the
cafeteria when  the Eagle  convened the  reconsideration meeting  five
minutes after the last starfish
    530 ARTHUR C. CLARICE AND GENTRY LEE
    resident originally  scheduled for  transfer  to the  Carrier  had
departed through the air lock. Only those who had officially requested
reconsideration were  permitted  to  attend the  meeting.  Many  other
members of all species  were still lingering  on the observation  deck
and in the common areas, talking about the departure procession and/or
waiting to learn the outcome of the Eagle's meeting.
    Nicole had returned to her post at the observation window. She was
sitting in her wheelchair, staring  out at the Carrier and  reflecting
on the scenes  she had  witnessed during the  last hour.  Most of  the
departing humans had  been in  a festive mood,  openly delighted  that
they would no longer be living  among aliens. There had been some  sad
farewells at the door to the air lock, but actually surprisingly
    few.
    Galileo had been allowed to spend ten minutes with his family  and
friends in the common area. Patrick and Nai had assured the young man,
who had demonstrated very  little emotion of any  kind, that they  and
his brother, Kepler, who  was still packing, would  be joining him  in
the Carrier before the evening was over.
    Galileo had been one of the last humans to leave the starfish.  He
had been followed by the small contingent of avians and myrmicats. The
neural net material and, the remaining manna melons had been packed in
large crates and had been carried by a contingent of the block robots.
/'// probably never see any of your kind again, Nicole had thought  as
the trailing avian had turned and  issued a shriek of good-bye to  the
onlookers.
    "Each of  you," the  Eagle said  as he  began the  meeting in  the
cafeteria, "has  requested that  your assignment  be reconsidered  and
that you be allowed to  switch your future home  from the Node to  the
Carrier. At this  time I  want to explain  two additional  differences
between the living environments in the Carrier and the Node. If, after
weighing this new information, you still wish to have your  assignment
changed, then we will accommodate you.
    "As I  told you  this afternoon,  there will  be no  interspe-cies
mixing in the Carrier. Not only will each species be
    RAMA REVEALED ^31
    isolated  in  its  own  habitat,   but  also  there  will  be   no
interference of any kind by any other intelligence, including the  one
I represent, in the affairs of  each species. Not now, not ever.  Each
species in the Carrier will  be on its own.  By contrast, life in  the
interspecies world at the Node will  be supervised. Not as heavily  as
it has  been here  on the  starfish, but  supervised nevertheless.  We
believe that  oversight and  monitoring are  essential when  different
species are living together.
    "The second additional factor  may be the  most important of  all.
There will be no reproduction in  the Carrier. All of the  individuals
who inhabit the Carrier,  of every species,  will be rendered  forever
sterile. Every element  necessary for a  long and happy  life will  be
provided for those living in the  Carrier, but nobody will be  allowed
to reproduce. By contrast, there  will be no reproduction  constraints
imposed at the Node.
    "Please let me finish," the Eagle  said as several members of  the
audience tried to interrupt  with questions. "You  each have two  more
hours to decide. If you still want to transfer to the Carrier,  simply
bring the bags you have already  packed and request Big Block to  open
the air lock."
    Nicole was not surprised that Kepler no longer wanted to switch to
the Carrier. The young man had clearly had a difficult time making  up
his mind in the first place and had only requested reconsideration out
of loyalty to his mother.  Since that time, he  had spent most of  the
afternoon with Maria, whom he obviously adored.
    Kepler enlisted everyone in the extended family in case there  was
an argument with his mother, but no dispute developed. Nai agreed that
Kepler should not be deprived of  the pleasure of being a father.  Nai
even magnanimously suggested that Patrick might want to reevaluate his
own decision, but her husband was quick to point out that she was past
her childbearing years and, besides, he had already been a father,  in
many ways, to Galileo and Kepler.
    Nicole, Patrick, Nai,  and Kepler were  left alone in  one of  the
apartments for the very final good-byes. It had been
    53?
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    a day  of  tears  and  raging emotions.  All  four  of  them  were
emotionally exhausted.  Two mothers  said  good-bye, forever,  to  two
sons. There  was  a  touching  symmetry in  the  final  comments.  Nai
requested that Nicole guide Kepler  with her wisdom; Nicole asked  Nai
to continue to give Patrick her unselfish, unconditional love.
    Patrick then lifted both  the heavy bags and  threw them over  his
shoulders. As Nai  and he  walked out  the door,  Kepler stood  beside
Nicole's wheelchair, holding  her phthisic hand.  Only after the  door
closed did  the  river of  tears  run from  Nicole's  eyes.  Good-bye,
Patrick, she thought with  a heartache. Good-bye, Genevieve,  Sitnone,
and Katie. Goodbye, Richard.
    7
    I
    he dreams came  one after  another, sometimes  without any  break,
Henry laughed at her  for being black,  then a supercilious  colleague
from medical school  stopped her from  making a bad  mistake during  a
routine tonsillectomy. Later Nicote walked on a sandy beach with  dark
clouds hovering  overhead.  A  silent caped  figure  beckoned  in  the
distance. That's death, Nicole  said to herself in  the dream. But  it
was a  cruel  joke.  When  she reached  the  figure  and  touched  its
outstretched hand, Max Puckett removed his cape and laughed.
    She was crawling on  her bare knees in  a dark underground  cement
pipe. Her knees had begun to bleed. I'm over here, Katie's voice said.
Where are you? Nicole asked,  frustrated. I'm behind you, Mama,  Benjy
said. Water began to fill  up the pipe. /  cannot find them. I  cannot
help them.
    Nicole was swimming, with difficulty.  There was a strong  current
in the pipe. It swept her away, carried her outside, became a creek in
a forest. Nicole's clothes caught
    534
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    on a  bush that  overhung  the creek.  She  stood up  and  brushed
herself off. She began walking on a path.
    It was night. Nicole could hear a few birds and see the moon above
her through the occasional  breaks in the tall  trees. The path  wound
back and forth. She came to a junction. Which way should I go?  Nicole
aske'd herself in the  dream. Come with  me, Genevieve said,  emerging
from the forest and taking her hand,
    What are you doing here?  Nicole said. Genevieve laughed. /  could
ask you the same thing.
    A young Katie was coming toward  them on the path. Hello,  Mother,
she said, reaching out for Nicole's other hand. Do you mind if 1  walk
with you? Not at all, answered Nicole.
    The forest thickened  around them. Nicole  heard footsteps  behind
her and turned around while she was still walking. Patrick and  Simone
returned her smiles.  We're almost  there, Simone said.  Where are  we
going? Nicole asked.  You must know,  Mrs. Wakefield, Maria  answered.
You told  us to  come. The  girl was  now walking  beside Patrick  and
Simone.
    Nicole and the five young people entered a small clearing. In  the
middle was a burning campfire. Omeh walked around from the other  side
of the fire and  greeted them. After they  formed a new circle  around
the fire,  the  shaman threw  his  head back  and  began to  chant  in
Senoufo. As Nicole watched, Omeh's face began to peel away,  revealing
his frightening skull. Still the chant continued. No, no, said Nicole.
No. No.
    "Mama," Benjy said. "Wake up, Mama. You're having a bad dream."
    Nicole rubbed her eyes. She could see a light on the other side of
the room. "What time is it, Benjy?" she said.
    "It's late, Mama," he answered with  a smile. "Kepler has gone  to
breakfast with the others. We wanted to let you sleep."
    'Thank you, Benjy," Nicole said,  moving slightly on her mat.  She
felt the pain in her hip.  She glanced around the room and  remembered
that Patrick and Nai were gone.
    RAMA REVEALED
    535
    Forever, Nicole  thought  briefly,  fighting  the  return  of  her
sorrow.
    "Would you like to take a shower?" -Benjy asked. "I could help you
undress and carry you over to the stall."
    Nicole looked up at  her balding son. /  was wrong to worry  about
you, she thought. You woulddofine without me. "Why, thank you, Benjy,"
she said. "That would be very nice."
    "I'll try to be gentle,"  he said, unbuttoning his mother's  gown.
"But please tell me if I hurt you."
    When Nicole was completely naked, Benjy picked her up in his  arms
and started to walk toward the  shower. He stopped after he had  taken
two steps. "What's wrong, Benjy?" Nicole asked.
    Benjy grinned sheepishly.  "I didn't think  the plan through  very
well, Mama," he said. "I should have adjusted the water first."
    He turned around, set Nicole back down on her mat, and crossed  me
room to the shower. Nicole heard the water running.
    "You like it medium hot, don't you?" he called out.
    'That's right," Nicole answered.
    Benjy returned and picked her up  a few seconds later. "I put  two
towels down on the floor," he said, "so it wouldn't be too hard or too
cold for you."
    "Thank you, son," Nicole said.
    Benjy talked to her while Nicole sat on the towels on the floor of
the shower and let the refreshing water pour over her body. He brought
her soap and shampoo when she  requested them. When she was  finished,
Benjy helped his mother dry off and dress. Then he carried her over to
her wheelchair. -
    "Bend down  here, please,"  Nicole said  as she  settled into  her
chair. She kissed him on the  cheek and squeezed his hand. "Thank  you
for everything, Benjy," she said, unable  to stop the tears that  were
forming in her eyes. "You have been a marvelous help."
    Benjy stood beside  his mother,  beaming. "I love  you, Mama,"  he
said. "It makes me happy to help you."
    536
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "And I love you too, son," Nicole said, squeezing his hand  again.
"Now, are you  going to join  me for breakfast?"  "That was my  plan,"
said Benjy, still smiling.
    Before they were finished  eating, the Eagle  walked up to  Nicole
and Benjy in the cafeteria. "Dr. Blue and F will be waiting for you in
your room," the Eagle said. "We  want to give you a thorough  physical
examination."
    Sophisticated medical equipment  had already  been set  up in  the
apartment when Nicole and Benjy returned. Dr. Blue injected additional
microprobes directly into Nicole's chest and later sent another set of
probes into her kidney region. The Eagle and Dr. Blue conversed in the
octospi-der's  native   color   language  throughout   the   half-hour
examination. Benjy assisted his mother when she was asked to stand  or
move around. He was  completely fascinated by  the Eagle's ability  to
speak in color.
    "How did you learn to do that?" Benjy asked the Eagle at one point
in the examination.
    'Technically  speaking,"  the  Eagle  replied,  "I  didn't   learn
anything. My designers added  a pair of  specialized subsystems to  my
structure, one that would allow me to interpret the octospider  colors
and the other to make the color patterns on my forehead."
    "Didn't you have to go to school or anything?" Benjy persisted.
    "No," the Eagle said simply.
    • "Could  your  designers do  that  for meT  Benjy  asked  several
seconds  later,  when  the  Eagle  and  Dr.  Blue  had  resumed  their
discussion of Nicole's condition.
    The Eagle turned  around and  looked at  Benjy. "I'm  a very  slow
learner," Benjy said. "It would be wonderful if someone could just put
everything into my brain."
    "We don't quite know how to do that yet," the Eagle said.
    Whfen the examination was over, the Eagle asked Benjy to pack  all
of Nicole's things. "Where are we^going?" Nicole asked.
    "We're going for a ride in the shuttle," the Eagle said. "I
    RAMA REVEALED
    557
    want to discuss your  physical condition with  you in some  detail
and take you where any emergency could be quickly handled."
    "I thought the  blue liquid and  all those probes  inside me  were
enough-"
    "We'll talk about it later," the Eagie said, interrupting her.  He
took Nicole's bag from Benjy. "Thank you for all your help," the alien
said.
    "Let me make certain that I have understood this last half hour of
discussion," Nicole  said into  the microphone  of her  helmet as  the
shuttle neared the halfway  point between the  starfish and the  Node.
"My heart will not last more than  ten days at most, despite all  your
medical magic; my kidneys  are currently undergoing terminal  failure;
and my liver is  showing signs of severe  degradation. Is that a  fair
summary?"
    "It is indeed," said the Eagle.
    Nicole forced a smile. "Is there any good news?"
    "Your mind is still functioning admirably, and the bruise on  your
hip will eventually heal, provided  the other ailments don't kill  you
first."
    "And what  you are  suggesting," Nicole  said, "is  that I  should
check into your equivalent  of a hospital today  over at the Node  and
have my heart, kidneys,  and liver all  replaced by advanced  machines
that can perform the same functions?"
    "There may be some other organs that need to be replaced as well,"
the Eagle said, "as long as we are performing a major operation.  Your
pancreas has  been  malfunctioning  intermittently,  and  your  entire
sexual system  is  out of  spec.  A complete  hysterectomy  should  be
considered."
    Nicole was  shaking her  head. "At  what point  does all  of  this
become senseless? No  matter what you  do now, it's  only a matter  of
time until some other  organ fails. What would  be next? My lungs?  Or
maybe my eyes? Would you even give me a brain transplant if I could no
longer think?"
    "We could," the Eagle replied.
    538
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Nicole was quiet for almost a minute. "It may not make much  sense
to you,"  she said,  "because it  certainly isn't  what I  would  call
logical . . . but I am not very comfortable with the idea of  becoming
a hybrid being."
    "What do you mean?" the Eagle asked.
    "At what point do I stop being Nicole des Jardins Wakefield?"  she
said. "If my heart, brain, eyes, and ears are replaced by machines, am
I still Nicole? Or am I someone, or something, else?"
    "The question has no relevance," the Eagle said. "You're a doctor,
Nicole. Consider  the case  of  a schizophrenic  who must  take  drugs
regularly to alter the  functions of the brain.  Is that person  still
who he  or she  was?  It's the  same  philosophical question,  just  a
different degree of change."
    "I can see your point,"  Nicole said after another brief  silence.
"But it doesn't change my feelings. I'm sorry. If I have a choice, and
you have led me to  believe that I do, then  I will decline. At  least
for today anyway."
    The Eagle stared at Nicole for several seconds. Then he entered  a
different set of parameters into  the c.ontrol system of the  shuttle.
The vehicle changed its heading.
    "So are we going back to the starfish?" Nicole asked.
    "Not immediately," the Eagle said.  "I want to show you  something
else first." The  alien reached into  the pouch around  his waist  and
pulled out  a small  tube  containing a  blue  liquid and  an  unknown
device. "Please give me your arm. I don't want you to die before  this
afternoon is over."
    As they  approached  the Habitation  Module  of the  Node,  Nicole
complained to  the Eagle  about  the "less  than forthright"  way  the
dividing of the starfish residents  into two groups had been  handled.
"As usual," Nicole said, "you cannot be accused of telling a  lie-just
of withholding critical information."
    "Sometimes," the Eagle  said, "there are  no good ways  for us  to
complete a task.  In those  cases we choose  the least  unsatisfactory
course of action. What did you expect us to do? Tell the residents  in
the  beginning  that  we  couldn't  take  care  of  everyone  forever,
generation after generation? There
    RAMA REVEALED
    539
    would have been chaos. Besides, I  don't think you give us  enough
credit. We  rescued  thousands  of  beings from  Rama,  most  of  whom
probably would  have  died in  an  interspecies conflict  without  our
intervention. Remember that everyone, including those assigned to  the
Carrier, will be allowed to complete his or her life."
    Nicole was silent. She was trying to imagine what life
    on the Carrier would be like without any reproduction. Her
    mind carried the scenario into its likely distant future, when
    t there would be only a few individuals left. "I wouldn't want
    to be the last human left alive in the Carrier," she said.
    "There was  a species  in  this part  of  the galaxy  about  three
million years ago," the Eagle  said, "that flourished as a  spacefarer
for almost a million  years. They were  brilliant engineers and  built
some of  the  most  amazing  buildings  ever  seen.  Their  sphere  of
influence spread rapidly until they  dominated a region covering  more
than twenty star systems. This species was learned, compassionate, and
wise. But they made one fatal error."
    "What was that?" Nicole asked on cue.
    'Their equivalent to your genome  contained an order of  magnitude
more information than yours.  It had been the  result of four  billion
years of  natural  evolution  and  was  extremely  complicated.  Their
initial experiments with  genetic engineering, both  on other  species
and on  themselves, were  an unqualified  success. They  thought  they
understood what  they were  doing. However,  without their  knowledge,
slowly but  surely  the  robustness  of  the  genes  that  were  being
transferred from generation to generation was deteriorating. When they
finally understood what they had done to themselves, it was too  late.
They had preserved no pristine  specimens from the early days,  before
they had begun  to modify  their own genes.  They could  not go  back.
There was nothing they could do.
    "Imagine," the Eagle said, "not just being the last member of your
group on an isolated spaceship like the Carrier, but being one of  the
terminal survivors of a species  rich in history, art, and  knowledge.
Our encyclopedia
    540
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    contains many such  stories, each containing  at least one  object
lesson."
    The shuttle  moved  through  an  open port  in  the  side  of  the
spherical module and came to a  gentle stop against a wall.  Automatic
gantries on each side were deployed to keep the vehicle from drifting.
There was a ramp from the passenger side of the shuttle to a  walkway,
which in turn led toward the hub of the transportation complex.
    Nicole laughed.  "I was  so engrossed  in our  conversation,"  she
said, "that I didn't even look at this module from the outside."
    "You wouldn't have seen much that was new," the Eagle said.
    The alien then turned to Nicole and did something very unusual. He
reached across the shuttle and took both of her gloved hands. "In less
than an hour," he  said, "you are going  to experience something  that
will astound you  and also  arouse your emotions.  Originally, we  had
planned that this  excursion would  be a complete  surprise. But  with
your weakened  condition,  we can't  risk  the possibility  that  your
system might be  overpowered by  emotional input.  Therefore, we  have
decided to tell you first what we're about to do."
    Nicote felt her heart rate increase. What is he talking about? she
thought. What could be so unusual?
    "We will board  a small  car that will  travel several  kilometers
into this  module.  At the  end  of this  short  journey you  will  be
reunited with your daughter Simone and Michael O'Toole."
    "What?" Nicole shouted, tearing her hands away from the Eagle  and
placing them on the side of her helmet. "Did I hear you correctly? Did
you say that I was going to see Simone and Michael?"
    "Yes," the Eagle replied. "Nicole, please try to relax."
    "My God!"  Nicole  exclaimed,  ignoring  his  comment.  "I  cannot
believe it. I just cannot believe it. ... I hqpe that this is not some
kind of cruel trick."
    "I assure you that it is not."
    RAMA REVEALED
    541
    "But how can Michael still be alive?" Nicole asked. "He must be at
least a hundred and twenty years old."
    "We have helped him with our medical magic, as you call it."
    "Oh, Simone, Si-mone\n  Nicole cried.  "Can it be?  Can it  really
be?"
    Despite the pain in her hip and the unwieldy space helmet,  Nicole
almost jumped across the seat to give the Eagle a hug. "Thank you, oh,
thank you," she said. "I cannot tell you how much this means to me."
    The Eagle steadied  Nicole's wheelchair on  the escalator as  they
descended into  the center  of the  main transportation  complex.  She
looked around  briefly.  The station  was  identical to  the  one  she
remembered from the Node near Sirius. It was about twenty meters  tall
and laid out in a circle. Half a dozen moving sidewalks surrounded the
central display, each running into  a different arched tunnel  leading
away from the complex. Above the tunnels, to the right, were a pair of
multilevel structures.
    "Do the intermodule  trains depart from  up there?" Nicole  asked,
remembering a ride  with Katie  and Simone  when the  girls were  both
young.
    The Eagle nodded. He pushed her wheelchair onto one of the  moving
sidewalks and  they left  the  center of  the station.  They  traveled
several hundred meters in a tunnel before the moving sidewalk stopped.
"Our car should  be just  to the right,  in the  first corridor,"  the
Eagle said.
    The small car, which opened from the top, had two seats. The Eagle
lifted Nicole into the passenger  seat and then folded the  wheelchair
into a compressed configuration no  larger than a briefcase, which  he
stored in a pocket  area inside the  vehicle. Shortly thereafter,  the
car  moved  forward  through  the  maze  of  light  cream   windowless
passageways. Nicole  was  extraordinarily  quiet. She  was  trying  to
convince herself that she  was indeed about to  see the daughter  whom
she had left in another star system years and years ago.
    The ride through the Habitation Module seemed interminable. At one
point they stopped and the Eagle told
    542
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Nicole she could remove her helmet. "Are we close?" she asked.
    "Not yet," he answered, "but  we are already in their  atmospheric
zone."
    Twice they encountered  fascinating aliens in  vehicles moving  in
the opposite direction, but Nicole was too excited to pay attention to
anything except what was going on inside her head. She was barely even
listening to the Eagle. Calm down, one of Nicole's inner voices  said.
Don't be absurd, another voice replied, I'm about to see a daughter  I
haven't seen for forty years. There's no way I could remain calm.
    "In its own way,"  the Eagle was saying,  "their life has been  as
extraordinary as yours.  Different, of  course, altogether  different.
When we took Patrick over to see them very early this morning-"
    "What did  you say?"  Nicole  asked abruptly.  "Did you  say  that
Patrick saw them this morning? You took Patrick to see his father?"
    "Yes," said the Eagle. "We had always planned for this reunion, as
long as everything went according to schedule. Ideally neither you nor
Patrick would have seen Simone and Michael and their children-"
    "Children!" Nicole exclaimed. "I have more grandchildren!"
    "-until after  you were  settled  at the  Node, but  when  Patrick
requested reconsideration . . . well, it would have been heartless  to
let him leave forever without ever seeing his natural father."
    Nicole could  no  longer contain  herself.  She reached  over  and
kissed the  Eagle on  his  feathered cheek.  "And  Max said  you  were
nothing but a cold  machine. How wrong  he was! Thank you.  . . .  For
Patrick's sake, I thank you."
    She was trembling from excitement. A moment later Nicole could not
breathe. The Eagle quickly stopped the small car.
    "Where am I?" Nicole said, emerging from a de^ep fog.
    "We are parked just inside the enclosed area where
    Michael, Simone, and their family live," the Eagle said.
    RAMA REVEALED
    543
    "We have been here for about four hours. You have been sleeping."
    "Did I have a heart attack?" Nicoie asked.
    "Not exactly. . . .  Just a significant malfunction. I  considered
taking you immediately  back to the  hospital, but I  decided to  wait
until you awakened. Besides, I have most of the same medications  here
with me."
    The Eagle looked at her with  his intense blue eyes. "What do  you
want to  do, Nicole?"  he  said. "Visit  with  Simone and  Michael  as
planned,  or  go  back  to   the  hospital?  It's  your  choice,   but
understand-"
    "I know," Nicole interrupted him with  a sigh, "I must be  careful
not to become too excited." She glanced  at the Eagle. "I want to  see
Simone, even  if  it's the  last  act of  my  life. Can  you  give  me
something that wil! calm me  but will not make me  goofy or put me  to
sieep?"
    "A mild  tranquilizer will  only help,"  the Eagle  said, "if  you
consciously work to contain your excitement."
    "All right," Nicole said. "I'll do my best."
    The Eagle eased the car onto  a paved road lined with tall  trees.
As they drove, Nicole  was reminded of the  autumn in New England  she
spent with her father when she was a teenager. The leaves on the trees
were red, gold, and brown.
    "It's beautiful," Nicole said.
    The car rounded a curve and  drove past a white fence enclosing  a
grassy area. There were four horses in the enclosure. A pair of  human
teenagers were walking among them. "The children are real," the  Eagle
said. 'The horses are simulations."
    At the top of a gentle hill was a large two-story white house with
a sloped black  roof. The  Eagle pulled  into the  circular drive  and
stopped the car. The front door  of the house opened an instant  later
and a tall, beautiful, jet-black woman with graying hair came outside.
    "Mother!" Simone yelled as she raced for the car.
    Nicole barely  had  time to  open  her door  before  Simone  flung
herself into  her mother's  arms.  The two  women hugged  and  kissed,
weeping profusely. Neither of them could speak.
    8
    11 was a bittersweet visit  with I Patrick," Simone said,  putting
down her coffee cup. "He  was here for over  two hours, but it  seemed
like only a few minutes."
    The three of them were sitting at  a table that looked out on  the
rolling farmland  that surrounded  the house.  Nicole was  temporarily
staring out the window at the bucolic scene. "It's mostly an illusion,
of course,"  Michael said.  "But  a very  good  one. Unless  you  knew
better,  you  would  think  you  were  in  Massachusetts  or  southern
Vermont."
    "This whole dinner has seemed like a dream," Nicole said. "I  have
not yet accepted that any of this is really happening."
    "We felt that  way last night,"  Simone said, "when  we were  told
that we were going to see Patrick this morning. Neither Michael nor  I
slept a wink."  She laughed.  "At one point  during the  night we  had
convinced ourselves mat we were going to meet a 'fake' Patrick, and we
thought of
    RAMA REVEALED
    545
    questions we could ask that  nobody except the real Patrick  could
answer."
    "Their technological skills are  awesome," Michael said. "If  they
wanted to  create a  robot Patrick  and pass  him off  as the  genuine
article, it would be very difficult for us to ascertain the truth."
    "But they didn't," Simone said. "I knew within minutes that it was
really Patrick."
    "How did he seem to you?" Nicole asked. "In all the (confusion  of
the last day, I didn't have a chance to talk to him very much."
    "Resigned, mostly," Simone said, "but certain that he had made the
correct decision. He  said it would  probably be weeks  before he  had
sorted through  all  the  emotions  he had  experienced  in  the  last
twenty-four hours."
    "That must be true for all of us," Nicole said.
    There was a brief silence at  the table. "Are you tired,  Mother?"
Simone asked. "Patrick told us about your health problems, and when we
received the message this afternoon that you had been delayed . . ."
    "Yes, I'm a little tired," Nicole said. "But I certainly  couldn't
sleep. At least not immediately." She backed her wheelchair away  from
the table and  lowered her seat.  "I would, however,  like to use  the
powder room."
    "Certainly," Simone said, jumping up. "I'll come with you."
    Simone accompanied her mother  down a long  hall with a  simulated
wooden floor. "So you have six children living with you here,"  Nicole
said, "including three that you carried?"
    'That's right," Simone said. "Michael and  I had two boys and  two
girls by the  'natural method,'  as you called  it. The  first of  the
boys, Darren, died when he  was seven. It's a  long story. If we  have
time, I'll tell it to you tomorrow. All the rest of the children  were
developed from embryos in the laboratories."
    They had reached  the door to  the powder room.  "Do you know  how
many children the Eagle  and his colleagues  have developed from  your
eggs?" Nicole asked.
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "No," Simone answered. "But they did  tell me that they took  more
than a thousand healthy eggs from my ovaries."
    On the way back to the dining room, Simone explained that all  the
children who had  been bom  by the  "natural method"  had lived  their
whole lives with Michael  and her. Their spouses,  who were of  course
also the product of Michael's sperm and her eggs, had been selected as
the result of a comprehensive genetic matching technique developed  by
the aliens.
    "So these were arranged marriages?" Nicole asked.
    "Not exactly," Simone said. She  laughed. "Each natural child  was
introduced to  several possible  mates,  all of  whom had  passed  the
genetic screening."
    "And you've had no problems with your grandchildren?"
    "Nothing that  is 'statistically  significant,' to  use  Michael's
term," Simone replied.
    When they reached the  dining room, the  table was empty.  Michael
told them that  he had moved  the coffeepot and  cups into the  study.
Nicole activated  her wheelchair  controls and  followed them  into  a
large, masculine study with dark wood bookshelves, and a fire  burning
in the fireplace.
    "Is the fire real?" Nicole asked.
    "Indeed it is," Michael said. He leaned forward in his soft chair.
"You have been asking about the children," he said, "and we  certainly
want you to meet them, but we didn't want to overwhelm you."
    "I understand," Nicole  said, taking  a sip  from a  fresh cup  of
coffee, "and I agree with you. You certainly could not have had such a
leisurely, informative dinner if there had been six more people."
    "And don't forget the fourteen grandchildren," Simone said.
    Nicole looked at  Michael and  smiled. "I'm  sorry, Michael,"  she
said, "but you are the part of  this evening that is the most  unreal.
Whenever I look at you, my mind  balks. You must be forty years  older
than I am, but you look not a
    RAMA REVEALED
    547
    day over sixty, and  definitely younger than when  we left you  at
the Node. How is this possible?"
    "Their technology is absolute magic," he said. "They have reworked
virtually every part of me.  My heart, lungs, liver, entire  digestive
and excretory systems, and most of  my endocrine glands have all  been
replaced, some several  times, by smaller,  more efficient  functional
equivalents. My  bones, muscles,  nerves, and  blood vessels  are  all
buttressed by millions  of microscopic implants  that not only  ensure
the critical  functions are  accomplished, but  also, in  many  cases,
biochemically rejuvenate the aged cells. My skin is a special material
they only recently  perfected, which  has all the  good properties  of
real human skin but never ages or develops warts «r moles. Once a year
I go over to their hospital. I'm unconscious for two days, and when  I
emerge I am literally a new man."
    "Would you mind coming  over here," Nicole  said, "and letting  me
touch you?" She laughed. "I don't  need to put my fingers through  the
holes in your  hands, or  anything like  that, but  you can  certainly
understand that what you are telling me is difficult to believe."
    Michael O'Toole crossed the room and knelt beside the  wheelchair.
Nicole reached out and touched the skin on his face. It was smooth and
supple, like a young man's. His  eyes were fresh and clear. "And  your
brain, Michael," Nicole  asked softly.  "What have they  done to  your
brain?"
    He smiled.  Nicole noticed  that  there were  no wrinkles  in  his
forehead. "Many things,"  he said.  "When my memory  started to  slip,
they reconditioned my  hippocampus. They even  supplemented it with  a
small structure  of their  own-to give  me more  capacity, they  said.
About twenty years ago  they also installed what  they described as  a
'better operating system,' to sharpen my thinking processes."
    Michael was less than  a meter away from  her. The light from  the
fire reflected off his face. Nicole was suddenly swept away by a flood
of memories. She recalled what close friends they had been in Rama, as
well as  their moments  of intimacy  when Richard  had been  gone  and
presumed lost. She touched his face again.
    548
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "And are you still Michael O'Toole?" she asked. "Or
    have you become something else, part human and part alien?"
    He stood up without saying anything and walked back to his  chair.
He moved like an athlete, not like a man who was more than one hundred
and twenty years old. "I don't  know how to answer your question,"  he
said. "I  can remember  clearly all  the details  of my  childhood  in
Boston, and every other important phase of my life. As far as 1  know,
I am still more or less the same."
    "Michael is still extremely interested in religion and creation as
well," Simone added. "But he has changed some-all of us are altered by
our experiences in life."
    "I have remained a  devout Roman Catholic,"  Michael said, "and  I
still say  my daily  prayers. But  naturally my  view of  God, and  of
humanity too, has been drastically changed  by what Simone and I  have
seen. If anything, my faith has  strengthened . . . primarily  because
of my enlightening conversations with . . ."
    He stopped and glanced  across the room at  Simone. "In the  early
years, Mother," she said, "when Michael and I were alone at the  Node,
near Sirius, there were many difficulties.  We had only each other  to
talk with. I was still  just a girl, and Michael  was a mature man.  I
could not discuss physics  or religion or many  of his other  favorite
topics."
    "There were  no major  problems,  you understand,"  Michael  said.
"Still, we were both lonely,  in a peculiar sort  of way. What we  had
together was  remarkable and  enriching.  . .  .  But we  both  needed
something else, something additional.
    "The Nodal Intelligence, or whatever we should call the power that
was taking care of us, sensed our difficulty. It also recognized  that
the Eagle could not fulfill our individual needs. So a  companion-like
the Eagle, in a sense- was created for each of us."
    "It was  a  stroke of  genius,"  Simone said,  "that  removed  the
emotional tension  that was  threatening  our perfect  marriage.  When
Saint Michael-"
    RAMA REVEALED
    549
    "Let me tell it, please," Michael interrupted. "One night,  almost
two years after you and the others had left, Simone was in the bedroom
of the apartment nursing Katya when there  was a knock on our door.  I
assumed that it  was the  Eagle. When I  opened the  door, however,  a
young  man  with   dark,  curly   hair  and  blue   eyes,  a   perfect
reconstruction of  Saint  Michael of  Siena,  was standing  there.  He
informed me that the Eagle would no longer be interacting with us  and
that he would be my  new intermediary with the intelligence  governing
the Node."
    "Saint Michael," Simone said,  "came equipped with  a vast set  of
knowledge of Earth history, and Catholicism, and physics, and all  the
other subjects about which I was totally ignorant."
    "Plus," Michael said, rising  from his chair,  "he was willing  to
answer questions about what  was going on around  us at the Node.  Not
that the  Eagle  wasn't,  but  Saint Michael  was  much  warmer,  more
personal. It was as if he  had been sent by them,  or by God, to be  a
companion for my mind."
    Nicole glanced back  and forth from  Michael to Simone.  Michael's
face was positively radiant. His  religious fervor has not waned,  she
thought. It has only been redirected.
    "And is this Saint Michael character still around?" Nicole  asked,
swallowing the last sip of her coffee.
    "Absolutely," Michael  said.  "We  did not  introduce  Patrick  to
him-the time was too short, as Simone said- but we definitely want you
to meet him." Michael walked  across the room, suddenly bubbling  with
energy. "Do you remember all those infinite questions Richard used  to
ask, about who built the  Node and Rama, and  what was the purpose  of
this and that? Saint  Michael knows all the  answers. And he  explains
everything so eloquently!"
    "Goodness," said Nicole, with  just a slight  trace of sarcasm  in
her voice, "he sounds fantastic. Much too good to be true. When will I
have the privilege of meeting Saint Michael?"
    "Right now, if you would like," Michael O'Toole said expectantly.
    "All right," Nicole said, stifling a yawn. "But remember
    550
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    I'm a  tired,  ailing,  crotchety  old  woman.  I  can't  stay  up
forever."
    Michael walked  briskly  to the  far  door of  the  study.  "Saint
Michael," he  called, "would  you  come in  please and  meet  Simone's
mother, Nicole?"
    A few seconds later what looked  like a young human priest in  his
early twenties, dressed  in a  dark blue  robe, entered  the room  and
crossed to Nicole's wheelchair. "I am delighted," Saint Michael  said,
with a beatific smile. "I have heard about you for years."
    Nicole extended her hand and studied the alien intently. There was
absolutely nothing she could see  that would identify this  individual
as anything other than a human being. My God, Nicole thought  quickly,
not only  is  their  technology  fantastic, but  also  their  rate  of
learning is staggering.
    "Now let's get  one thing  straight at  the outset,"  she said  to
Saint Michael with a wry smile,  "there are too many Michaels here.  I
do not intend to address you  regularly as Saint Michael. It's not  my
style. Do I just call  you Saint, or Mike,  or even Mikey-what do  you
prefer?"
    "When they're both around I  call my husband Big Michael,"  Simone
said. 'That seems to work fine."
    "All right," Nicole said. "As Richard always said, 'When in Rome .
. .' Sit down, Michael, here  close to my wheelchair. Big Michael  has
praised you so highly I don't want my bad hearing to cause me to  miss
any of your pearls of wisdom."
    "Thank you, Nicole," Saint Michael said  with a smile of his  own.
"Michael and  Simone have  extolled  your virtues  as well,  but  they
clearly understated the cleverness of your wit."
    He has  a  personality too,  Nicole  thought. Will  wonders  never
cease?
    An hour later,  after Simone had  helped her to  bed in the  guest
room at the  end of  the hall,  Nicole was  lymg on  her side  staring
toward the windows. Although she was very
    RAMA REVEALED
    551
    i r
    tired, she could not  sleep. Her mind was  too active, going  over
and over the events of the day.
    Maybe I  should  ring  for  something to  help  me  sleep,  Nicole
thought, her hand automatically  feeling for the  button on the  table
beside her bed. Simone said Saint Michael would come if I called.  And
that he could do anything the Eagle could. Having assured herself that
she could indeed summon help if her insomnia persisted, Nicole  turned
back to her most comfortable sleeping position and allowed her mind to
float freely.
    Her thoughts focused on what she had seen and heard since she  had
arrived at this isolated enclave  in which Michael, Simone, and  their
family lived.  Saint  Michael  had  explained  that  tiiis  pseudo-New
England was a small section inside  the Habitation Module of the  Node
and  that  there   were  several  hundred   other  species  who   were
semipermanent residents in the near  vicinity. Why, Nicole had  asked,
had Big Michael and Simone chosen an everyday existence separate  from
all the others?
    "For years,"  Nicole remembered  Michael O'Toole  responding,  "we
lived in a multispecies  environment. In fact,  both during and  after
our four natural children were born, we were whisked, or so it seemed,
from place to place, testing  both our adaptability and  compatibility
with a wide  range of other  plant and animal  species. Saint  Michael
confirmed at the time  what we suspected, namely  that our hosts  were
purposely exposing  us to  a  variety of  environments to  gamer  more
information about us. Each new venue was another challenge."
    Big Michael  paused  for  a  moment,  as  if  he  were  struggling
emotionally. "The psychological hardships were immense in those  early
days. As soon as we adapted to a given set of living conditions,  they
were abruptly changed. I still  believe that Darren's death would  not
have occurred if everything hadn't been so strange in that underground
world. And we nearly lost  Katya when she was only  two or so and  her
curiosity was  mistaken by  a  squidlike sea  creature  as an  act  of
aggression."
    "After we were put to sleep the second time," Simone
    552
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    said, "and  transported to  this  Node, both  Michael and  I  were
exhausted from the years of tests. The children were grown by then and
starting to  have  families  of  their own.  We  requested,  and  were
granted, some privacy."
    "We still go  out into the  other world," Michael  added, "but  we
interact with the exotic beings  from distant star systems because  we
want to,  not because  it  is a  necessity.  Saint Michael  briefs  us
regularly on the comings and  goings of the basketball creatures,  the
sky-hoppers, and the flying turtles.  He is our information window  to
the rest of the Node."
    Saint Michael  is extraordinary,  Nicole  thought, and  much  more
advanced even  than the  Eagle.  He answers  all questions  with  such
certitude. But there's something about  him that makes me wonder.  Are
all those crisp answers  about God and the  origin and destiny of  the
universe really correct? Or has Saint Michael somehow been programmed,
based on Michael's love  of catechismal processes,  to be his  perfect
alien companion ?
    Nicole rolled over in bed and considered her own relationship with
the Eagle. Maybe I'm just jealous, she thought, because Michael  seems
to have learned  so much .  . . and  the Eagle has  been unwilling  or
unable to answer my questions. But who is better off, the child with a
mentor who knows and tells everything  or the one whose teacher  helps
the child find her own answers? I don't  know . . . I don't know.  But
that was one hell of an impressive performance by Saint Michael at the
easel.
    "Don't you see, Nicole?" Big Michael had jumped up from his  chair
for the  umpteenth  time.  "We're all  participating  in  God's  great
experiment. This entire universe, not just our own galaxy, but all the
galaxies that stretch  to the  end of  the heavens,  will provide  one
single data point for God. He, She, or It is searching for perfection,
for that small range of initial parameters which, once the universe is
set into  motion by  the transformation  of energy  into matter,  will
evolve, over billions of years, into one perfect harmony, a  testimony
to the Creator's consummate skill."
    Nicole had had some difficulty following the higher
    RAMA REVEALED
    553
    mathematics, but  she had  certainly understood  the gist  of  the
diagrams that Saint Michael had drawn  on the easel in the study.  "So
at this moment," Nicole had said to the alien with the curly hair  and
the blue eyes,  "there are  countless other  universes evolving,  each
having been started by God with different initial conditions, and  God
has somehow slipped  you, the Eagle,  the Node, and  Rama inside  this
particular evolution process to  acquire information? And the  purpose
of all this  is so  that God  can define  some mathematical  construct
associated  with  creation  that  will  always  produce  a  harmonious
result?"
    "Exactly," Saint Michael  had responded. Again  he had pointed  at
the diagram on the easel. "Imagine that this coordinate system I  have
drawn is a symbolic,  two-dimensional representation of the  available
hypersurface of parameters defining  the creation instant, the  moment
that energy  is  first transformed  into  matter. Any  arrangement  or
vector representing  a  specific set  of  initial conditions  for  the
universe may be depicted as a single point in my diagram. What God is,
and has been, searching for is a very special closed dense set located
on this mathematical hypersurface. This special set He is seeking  has
the property  that any  of its  elements-that is,  any arrangement  of
conditions for  the  instant  of  creation  chosen  from  within  this
set-will produce a universe that will eventually end in harmony."
    "It's a nearly impossible problem," Big Michael said, "to create a
universe that will end up with all living beings proclaiming the glory
of God. If there is not enough matter, the explosion and inflation  of
the creation  instant  results in  a  universe that  expands  forever,
without sufficient  interaction of  the individual  components  during
evolution to I produce and sustain life. If there is too much  matter,
then there is insufficient time  for life and intelligence to  develop
fully before gravity causes the Great Crunch that ends the universe."
    "Chaos confounds God as well," Saint Michael explained. "Chaos  is
an outgrowth of all the physical  laws governing the evolution of  any
created universe. It prevents the accurate prediction of the  outcomes
of large-scale
    554
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    processes, so God cannot, a priori, simply calculate what is going
to happen  in  the future  and  therefore, by  analytical  techniques,
isolate the zones of harmony. Experimentation is the only possible way
for Him to discover what He is seeking."
    "The structure opposing God's design is overwhelming," Big Michael
added.  "In  order  for  God  to  succeed,  not  only  must  life  and
intelligence evolve from  raw subatomic particles  made into atoms  by
stellar cataclysms, bat also this life must reach such a level of both
spiritual self-awareness  and  technological capability  that  it  can
actively transform everything around it."
    So God, Nicole thought in her room, remembering the discussion, is
the ultimate designer, the ultimate engineer.  He or She or It  shapes
the moment of creation  in such a way  that, billions of years  later,
living beings attest to the wonder of creation.
    'There's a part of this I still don't understand," Nicole had said
to the two Michaels and Simone near the end of the evening. "Why  must
God create  so many  universes to  conduct this  experiment? Once  the
existence of a harmonious outcome has been verified, doesn't the  task
become easy? Can't the initial conditions for that universe simply  be
replicated?"
    "That's not a difficult enough problem for God," Saint Michael had
responded. "God wants to know the extent of the zone of harmony in the
hypersurface  of  creation  parameters,  plus  all  the   mathematical
characteristics of the zone. Besides, I don't think you yet appreciate
the scope of God's problem. Only a minuscule fraction of all  possible
universes  can  end  up  harmonious.   The  natural  outcome  of   the
transformation of energy  into matter is  a universe with  no life  at
all, or, at best, aggressive, temporary living creatures who are  more
destructive than constructive. Even a  small region of harmony  inside
an evolving universe is a miracle. That's why the whole  enterprise.is
such a challenge for God." ^
    Big Michael had then jumped up again. "What God is looking  for-is
a universe which, before it dies in the Big
    RAMA REVEALED
    555
    Crunch, has achieved total harmony.  That's not just every  living
species from every  world working  together for the  mutual good,  but
every subatomic  particle of  His creation  actively participating  in
that harmony.  For a  while,  I myself  couldn't comprehend  the  full
grandeur of this concept. Then Saint  Michael told me about a  species
that makes living  beings out of  rock and dirt,  as our biblical  God
did, by  transmuting  and  rearranging  the  elements.  Total  harmony
requires that advanced species like us use our technological tools  to
transform  inanimate  and   nonliving  things   into  creatures   that
contribute to the harmony."
    Nicole remembered that she had  announced, at about this point  in
the conversation, that her mind was overloaded and she wanted to go to
bed. Saint Michael had asked  her to wait just  a few more minutes  so
that he could summarize what he felt had been a slightly  disorganized
discussion. Nicole had agreed.
    "Going back to  your original question,"  Saint Michael had  said,
"each of the Nodes  is part of  a hierarchical intelligence  gathering
information  throughout   this  particular   galaxy.  Most   galaxies,
including the Milky Way, have a single superstation, which we call the
Prime Monitor, located somewhere near  their center. The set of  Prime
Monitors was created by God at the same moment the universe began  and
then was deployed to learn as much as possible about the  evolutionary
process. The  Nodes,  the  Carriers, and  all  the  other  engineering
constructs you have seen were in  turn designed by the Prime  Monitor.
The entire activity, including what has been going on since the  first
Rama spacecraft  entered  your solar  system  years ago,  has  as  its
objective the development  of quantitative  criteria, for  use by  the
Creator, that will enable subsequent universes to conclude in glorious
harmony, despite the chaotic tendencies of the natural laws."
    Nicole had not been able to say anything for over a minute.  "This
conversation has been absolutely mind-boggling," she had finally said,
activating her wheelchair. "And now I am completely exhausted."
    But not so exhausted that I can sleep, she thought. How
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    could anybody sleep after having  had the purpose of the  universe
explained? Nicole  laughed to  herself in  bed. /  can't imagine  what
Richard would have said after that discussion. A good theory, perhaps,
but how does it explain the African dominance in the World Cup between
2140 and 2160? Or  is the meaning  of life no  longer 42? She  laughed
again. Richard would have appreciated Saint Michael, no doubt, but  he
would have had hundreds of questions. We would have made love as  soon
as we returned to the room and then talked all night. . . .
    Nicole turned over on her side. The ramifications of what she  had
heard that night  were overwhelming. But  was any of  it really  true?
Nicole understood  that she  would never  know for  certain. //  is  a
beauti/ul, stirring concept,  she thought.  As Nicole  drifted off  to
sleep, visions of universes exploding into being danced in her  mind's
eye.
    9
    N
    I icole  woke up  refreshed  and I  with  a surprising  amount  of
energy. She started  to push the  button beside her  bed, but  decided
against it. Instead she struggled into her wheelchair. She rolled over
to the windows and pulled the curtains.
    It was a beautiful morning outside.  There was a little creek  off
to her left, and three children, probably between eight and ten  years
of age, were  skipping stones  across a small  pool in  the creek.  As
Nicole gazed out  the windows  at the perfectly  simulated fields  and
trees and rolling hills, she felt temporarily young and full of life.
    Maybe I  should let  them  repair me  after all,  Nicole  thought.
Replace all my  damaged and worn-out  parts. I could  live here,  with
Simone and Michael. Maybe I could even teach my great-grandchildren  a
thing or two.
    The three children left the creek  and raced across a green  field
to where the  horses were enclosed.  The boy ran  the fastest, but  he
barely beat the smaller of the two girls.
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    The trio laughed together and called the horses over to the fence.
    "The boy is Zachary," Big Michael  said from behind her. "The  two
girls  are  Colleen  and  Simone.  Zachary  and  Colleen  are  Katya's
children, Simone is Timothy's oldest."
    Nicole had not heard him enter the room. She turned around in  her
wheelchair. "Good morning, Michael," she said. Nicole glanced back  at
the window. "The children are all gorgeous."
    "Thank you," Michael  said, walking over  to the window.  "I am  a
very lucky man," he said. "God has granted me a fascinating life  with
unbelievable riches."
    They watched in silence as the children played. Zachary mounted  a
white horse  and  began  to show  off.  "I  was sorry  to  hear  about
Richard's death," Michael said. "Patrick told us the story  yesterday.
It must have been horrible for you."
    "It was,"  Nicole replied.  "Richard and  I had  developed such  a
wonderful friendship." They faced each other. "You would have been  so
proud of him, Michael. He was a different man in his last years."
    "I suspected as  much," Michael  said. "The Richard  I knew  would
never have volunteered  to place  himself in  jeopardy, especially  to
save the lives of others."
    "You should have  seen him with  his granddaughter Nikki,  Ellie's
little girl. They were inseparable. He was her 'Boobah.' ... He  found
tenderness so late in life."
    Nicole could not continue. A sudden heartache overwhelmed her. She
drove over to the bedside  table and took a  drink from the bottle  of
blue liquid.
    She returned  to  the  window.  Outside, the  girls  were  now  on
horseback also and some kind of game was under way.
    "Patrick told us that Benjy had grown into a fine adult,"  Michael
said,  "limited  in  some  ways,  of  course,  but  quite   remarkable
considering his basic ability and the  long periods of sleep. He  said
that Benjy was a living tribute to your talents, all of them, and that
you had worked with him tirelessly, never letting him use his handicap
as an excuse."
    It was Michael's turn to choke up. He turned to*Nicole with  tears
easing out of both of his eyes and placed his
    RAMA REVEALED
    559
    hands in hers.  "There's no way  I can ever  thank you enough  for
raising those two boys with such care. Especially Benjy."
    Nicole looked up at him from  her wheelchair. "They are our  sons,
Michael," she said. "I love them very much."
    Michael wiped  his  nose  and eyes  with  a  pocket  handkerchief.
"Simone and I  want you  to meet  our children  and grandchildren,  of
course," he said,  "but we  both agreed  that there  was something  we
should tell  you first.  ...  We didn't  know  exactly how  you  would
respond. However,  it would  not  be fair  not  to tell  you,  because
otherwise you might not understand why the children are reacting-"
    "What is  it, Michael?"  Nicole interrupted.  She smiled.  "You're
certainly having a hard time coming to the point."
    "I am indeed," he said, crossing  the room and pushing the  button
beside Nicole's  bed twice  in rapid  succession. "Nicole,  what I  am
about to say is  a bit delicate.  . . . Remember  last night, when  we
told you that both Simone and I had alien companions?"
    "Yes, Michael," Nicole said.
    "Look outside,"  he said  after  a moment's  hesitation.  "There's
someone I want you to see."
    Michael came over beside Nicole and took her hand. She stared  out
the window. A woman  in her late forties,  athletic, with dark  copper
skin, had left  the house  and was  walking quickly  toward the  horse
compound. Both  the woman's  figure and  her gait  seemed familiar  to
Nicole. The children  saw the  woman, waved,  and came  toward her  on
their horses.
    Nicole watched  Zachary yell  the woman's  name and  suddenly  she
understood. Nicole was thunderstruck.  The woman named around  briefly
and Nicole saw herself, exactly as she had been when she had left  the
Node forty  years  earlier. It  was  difficult  for her  to  keep  her
emotions under control.
    "It  was  you  that  Simone   missed  the  most,"  Michael   said,
acknowledging the look of astonished recognition on Nicole's face. "So
it was only natural that the aliens fashioned a companion for her from
your image. She is a remarkable
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    simulation. Not just  her physical appearance,  which you can  see
for yourself,  but also  her personality.  Simone and  I were  amazed,
especially in the beginning,  at what a  perfect duplication job  they
had done. The  alien talked like  you, walked like  you, even  thought
like you. Within  a week  Simone was calling  her 'Mother'  and I  was
calling her 'Nicole.' She has been with us ever since."
    Nicole gazed at the simulation  of herself without saying a  word.
The facial expressions and even the gestures are correct, she thought.
She continued to stare fixedly as the woman approached the house  with
the three children.
    "Simone thought  you  might  be  a little  upset,  or  maybe  feel
displaced, when you discovered  that this simulation  of you had  been
living with the family for all these years. But I assured her that you
would be fine, that  it would simply  take a little  while for you  to
adjust to the idea. . . . After all, as far as I know, no human  being
has ever been replaced by a robot copy of herself before."
    The alien Nicole picked up one of the girls and twirled her around
in the air. Then all four of them bounded up the steps and across  the
threshold of the house.
    They call  her  Granny, Nicole  thought.  She can  run,  and  ride
horses, and toss them in the air. She is not phthisic and confined  to
a wheelchair. An emotion that Nicole did not like, self-pity, began to
grow inside her. Maybe  Simone has not even  missed me that much,  she
said to herself. Her  'mother' has been here  all these years, at  her
beck and call, never aging, never asking for anything.
    Nicole sensed  that  she was  going  to cry.  She  pulled  herself
together. "Michael," she said, forcing a smile, "why don't you give me
a minute to prepare myself for breakfast?"
    "Are you sure you don't need any help?" he asked.
    "No, no ... I'll be fine. I just want to wash my face and put on a
little makeup."
    The tears came a  few seconds after the  door closed. There is  no
place for me here either, Nicole  said to herself. There is already  a
granny, a better  one than  I could  eter be, even  if she  is only  a
machine.
    RAMA REVEALED
    561
    Nicole said almost nothing on the ride back to the  transportation
center. She was still quiet as die shuttle left the Habitation  Module
and pulled out into space.
    "You don't want to talk about it, do you?" the Eagle said.
    "Not really," Nicole said into the microphone in her helmet.
    "Are you glad you went?" the Eagle inquired several seconds later.
    "Oh, yes . . . absolutely," she  replied. "It was one of the  most
outstanding experiences of my life. Thank you very much."
    The Eagle adjusted  the flight of  the shuttle so  that they  were
moving slowly backward. The huge illuminated tetrahedron dominated the
view out their window.
    "The replacement procedure could be performed this afternoon," the
Eagle said.  "By early  next  week you  would  look younger  than  Big
Michael."
    "No, thanks," said Nicole.
    There was another  long period  of silence. "You  don't seem  very
happy," the Eagle then said.
    Nicole turned to look  at her alien companion.  "I am," she  said.
"And I am especially happy for Simone and Michael. It's wonderful that
their life has been so fulfilling." Nicole took a deep breath.  "Maybe
I'm just  tired," she  said. "So  much has  occurred in  such a  short
period of time."
    'That's probably it," the Eagle said.
    Nicole was deep in thought, methodically reviewing everything that
had happened to her  since she had awakened.  The faces of Simone  and
Michael's six children  and fourteen grandchildren  swept through  her
mind. A handsome lot, she said to herself, but without much variation.
    It was  another face,  one  she remembered  clearly from  her  own
mirror, that returned  to her mind's  eye most often.  She had  agreed
with Simone  and Michael  mat  the other  Nicole was  an  unbelievable
likeness, an absolute triumph of advanced technology. What Nicole  had
not even been able to discuss with them was how strange it was meeting
and
    562
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    carrying on a conversation  with herself as  a younger person.  Or
how peculiar she felt knowing that  a machine had replaced her in  the
hearts and minds of her own family.
    Nicole had watched silently while the other Nicole and Simone  had
laughed about an argument that Simone  had had with her little  sister
Katie years before at the Node. As the alien had recalled the  details
of the story, Nicole's memory too had been refreshed. Even her  memory
is better than mine. What a  perfect solution to the whole problem  of
aging and dying. Capture a person in  the prime of her life, with  all
her powers intact, and preserve her  forever as a legend, at least  in
the eyes of her loved ones.
    "How do I  know for  certain that the  Michael and  Simone that  I
talked with yesterday  and this morning  are the real  humans and  not
just an even higher-fidelity simulation than the other Nicole?" Nicole
asked the Eagle.
    "Saint Michael said you asked several pointed questions about  Big
Michael's early life," the Eagle said. "Weren't you satisfied with the
answers?"
    "But I realized while we were in the car an hour ago that some  of
that information may have been in Michael's biographical file from the
Newton, and I know that you had access to that data."
    "For what purpose would we possibly  have gone to such lengths  to
mislead you?" the Eagle said. "And  have we ever behaved in a  similar
fashion before?"
    "How many more of Simone and Michael's children are still  alive?"
Nicole asked a few minutes later, changing the subject.
    "Thirty-two more are here at this Node," the Eagle answered.  "And
more than a hundred in other places."
    Nicole shook her head. She remembered the Senoufo chronicles.  And
her progeny shall  be spread  among the  stars. .  . .  Omeh would  be
pleased, she thought
    "Have you  perfected, then,  your ex-utero  development of  humans
from fertilized eggs?" Nicole said.
    "More or less," the Eagle replied. *•
    Again they flew in silence for a long time. "Why didn't
    RAMA REVEALED
    563
    you ever tell me about the Prime Monitors?" Nicole asked next.
    "It wasn't permitted, at least  not until you awakened. And  since
then the subject hasn't come up."
    "And is everything Saint  Michael said true?  About God and  chaos
and the many universes?"
    "As far as  we know,"  the Eagle said.  "At least  that's what  is
programmed in our systems.  None of us here  has ever actually seen  a
Prime Monitor."
    "And is it  possible," Nicole asked,  "that the whole  story is  a
myth of  some  kind, created  by  an  intelligence above  you  in  the
hierarchy, as the official explanation to give out to human beings?"
    The Eagle hesitated. "That possibility exists. I would have no way
of knowing."
    "Would you know  if something different,  some other  explanation,
had ever been programmed in your systems before?"
    "Not necessarily," the  Eagle said. "I  am solely responsible  for
what is retained in my memory."
    Nicole's behavior remained unusual. She interrupted her protracted
periods of silence with bursts  of apparently unrelated questions.  At
one point she asked why some Nodes had four modules and others  three.
The Eagle explained  that the Knowledge  Module created a  tetrahedron
out of the Nodal triangle in about every tenth or twelfth Node. Nicole
wanted to know  what was so  special about the  Knowledge Module.  The
Eagle told  her  that  it  was the  repository  of  all  the  acquired
information about this part of the galaxy.
    "It's part library and part  museum, containing a colossal  amount
of information in a variety of forms," he said.
    "Have you ever been inside this Knowledge Module?" Nicole asked.
    "No," the  Eagle  answered,  "but my  current  systems  contain  a
complete description of it."
    "Can J go there?" Nicole said.
    "A  living  being  must  have  special  permission  to  enter  the
Knowledge Module," the Eagle said.
    564
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    When Nicole spoke again, she asked about what was going to  happen
to the humans who would be transferred  to the Node in another day  or
two. The Eagle explained patiently, in response to one short  question
after another, that the people would live in the Habitation Module  in
a test  environment with  several other  species, that  they would  be
closely monitored, and that Simone, Michael, and their family might or
might not be integrated with the humans who were moving to the Node.
    Nicole made her decision several  minutes before they reached  the
starfish. "I want to stay here only for tonight," she said slowly. "So
that I can say good-bye to everybody."
    The  Eagle  looked  at  her  with  a  curious  expression.   "Then
tomorrow," Nicole continued, "if you can obtain permission, I want you
to take me to the Knowledge Module. . . . Once I leave the starfish, I
want all medication  suspended. And  I want  no heroic  efforts if  my
heart goes into distress."
    Nicole looked  straight  ahead, through  the  front of  her  space
helmet and out the window of  the shuttle. /* is definitely the  right
time, she said to herself. If only I have the courage not to waver,
    "Yes,  Mother,"  Ellie  said,  wiping  her  tears  again.  "I   do
understand, I really do. But I'm your daughter. I love you. No  matter
how much logical sense it might make to you, there's just no way I can
be happy about never seeing you again,"
    "So what am I  supposed to do?" Nicole  said. "Let them change  me
into some kind of bionic  woman so I can  hang around forever? And  be
the grande  dame of  the  community, sententious  and puffed  up  with
self-importance? That is certainly not very appealing to me."
    "But everyone admires you, Mother," Ellie said. "Your family  here
loves you, and you could spend years getting to know all of Simone and
Michael's family. You would never be a problem to any of us."
    "That's not  really  the  issue,"  Nicole  said.  She  turned  her
wheelchair around and faced one of the bare walls. "The
    RAMA REVEALED
    565
    universe is in constant renewal," she said, as much to herself  as
to Ellie. "Everything-individuals, planets, stars, even galaxies-has a
life cycle, a  death as well  as a birth.  Nothing lasts forever.  Not
even me universe itself. Change and  renewal are an essential part  of
the overall  process.  The  octospiders know  this  well.  That's  why
planned  terminations   are  an   integral  part   of  their   overall
replenishment concept."
    "But Mother," Ellie said from behind her, "unless there is a  war,
the octospiders only put individuals  on the termination list who  are
no longer making enough of a contribution to their society to  justify
the resources being expended. There is  no cost to us for keeping  you
alive. And your wisdom and experience are still valuable."
    Nicole turned around  and smiled.  "You are a  very bright  woman,
Ellie," she said. "And I will acknowledge that there is truth in  what
you are saying. But you are conveniently ignoring the two key elements
in my  decision, both  of  which I  have  already explained  at  great
length. . . . For reasons neither you nor anybody else may be able  to
understand, it is important to me that I be able to choose my own time
of death. I want to make that decision before i am either a burden  or
out of the mainstream of activity, and while I still have the  respect
of my family and friends. Second, it is my feeling that I do not  have
any defined  niche  in the  post-transfer  world. Therefore  I  cannot
justify, in my own mind,  the massive physiological intervention  that
will be necessary before  I can function without  being a problem  for
others. From so  many different  points of view,  now seems  to be  an
excellent time for me to make my exit."
    "As I told  you at the  very beginning," Ellie  s^id, "your  cold,
rational analysis,  whether correct  or not,  should not  be the  only
consideration. What about the  feeling of loss  that Benjy, Nikki,  I,
and the others will  experience? And our sorrow  will be increased  by
the knowledge that your death at this time could have been avoided."
    "Ellie," Nicole  said, "one  of the  reasons I  came back  to  say
good-bye to you and the others was to try to assuage any
    566
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    feeling of loss that you might have after my death. Again, look at
the octospiders. They do not grieve."
    "Mother," Ellie interrupted, fighting the return of the tears, "we
are not octospiders, we are human beings. We grieve. We feel  desolate
when someone  we love  dies. We  know,  in our  minds, that  death  is
inevitable and  that it  is  all part  of  the universal  scheme,  but
nevertheless we weep and feel an acute sense of loss."
    Ellie paused for a moment. "Have  you forgotten how you felt  when
Richard and Katie died? You were devastated."
    Nicole swallowed slowly and  looked at her  daughter. / knew  this
would not be  easy, she thought.  Maybe I shouldn  't have come  back.
Maybe it really would  have been better  if I had  asked the Eagle  to
tell everyone I had died of a heart attack.
    "I know you were upset," Ellie  said softly, "to find out that  an
alien robot had replaced you in  Michael and Simone's family. But  you
shouldn't overreact.  Sooner  or  later  all  of  their  children  and
grandchildren will learn that there can be no substitute for the  real
Nicole des Jardins Wakefield."
    Nicole sighed.  She  felt  she  was  losing  the  battle.  "I  did
acknowledge to you, Ellie, that  I felt there was  no place for me  in
Michael and Simone's family. But it is unfair for you to imply that my
reaction to the other Nicole is the sole, or even the main reason  for
my decision."
    Nicole was becoming exhausted.  She had planned  to talk first  to
Ellie, then to Benjy, and finally to the rest of the group before  she
went to  sleep.  Ellie had  been  much  more difficult  than  she  had
expected. But were you being realistic? Nicole asked herself. Did  you
really think  Ellie would  say, "Great,  Mother, it  makes sense.  I'm
sorry to see you go, but I understand completely"?
    There was a knock on the  door of the apartment. The Eagle  looked
at the two  women after  the door was  opened. "Am  I intruding?"  the
alien asked.
    Nicole smiled. "I think we are ready for a short*break," she said.
    RAMA REVEALED
    567
    Ellie excused herself to go to  the bathroom and the Eagle  walked
over to Nicole. "How's it going?"  he said, bending down to the  level
of the wheelchair.
    "Not so well," Nicole answered.
    "I thought I'd  drop by," the  Eagle said, "to  tell you mat  your
request to visit the Knowledge Module has been approved. Assuming  the
basic situation you described to me in the shuttle is still valid."
    Nicole brightened. "Good, "  she said. "Now if  1 can just  summon
the courage to finish what I have started."
    The Eagle patted her on the back.  "You can do it," he said.  "You
are the most extraordinary human we have ever encountered."
    Benjy's head was resting on her chest. Nicole was on her back with
her arm wrapped around her  son. So this may be  the last night of  my
life, she thought as she drifted toward sleep. A small tremor of  fear
rushed through her and she forced it aside. / am not afraid of  death,
Nicole said to herself, not after what I have already experienced.
    The  visit  from   the  Eagle  had   refortified  her.  When   her
conversation with Ellie  had resumed, Nicole  admitted that there  was
merit in  all of  Ellie's points  and that  she didn't  mean to  cause
distress for her friends  and family, but that  she was determined  to
proceed with her decision. Nicole had  then pointed out to Ellie  that
Benjy  and  she,  and  to  some  extent  the  others,  would  have  an
opportunity for additional individual  growth in her absence,  because
there would no longer be an authority figure around to whom they could
appeal.
    Ellie had told  Nicole that she  was a "stubborn  old woman,"  but
that, because  of  her  love  and  respect,  Ellie  would  try  to  be
supportive in the few remaining hours. Ellie had also asked Nicole  if
she intended to do anything specific  to hasten her death. Nicole  had
laughed  and  told  her  daughter  that  no  unusual  steps  would  be
necessary, for the  Eagle had assured  her that without  supplementary
medication her heart would fail in a matter of hours.
    The conversation with Benjy had not been that difficult.
    568
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Ellie had volunteered  to help explain  everything and Nicole  had
accepted her offer. Benjy  knew that his mother  was suffering and  in
poor health, and  he had no  knowledge that the  aliens possessed  the
medical ability to fix her problems. Ellie had assured Benjy that Max,
Eponine, Nikki, Kepler, Marius, and Maria  would all still be part  of
his everyday world.
    Of the larger group, only Eponine had had tearful eyes when Nicole
had informed  them  of her  decision.  Max  had said  that  he  wasn't
completely surprised.  Maria had  expressed  sadness that  she  hadn't
spent more  time with  the  woman who  had  "saved my  life."  Kepler,
Marius, and even Nikki  had all been unsure  of themselves and  hadn't
known what to say.
    While she was preparing for bed, Nicole had promised herself  that
she would locate Dr. Blue first thing in the morning and say a  proper
good-bye to her octospider  friend. Just before  she had switched  out
the lights,  Benjy had  approached his  mother and  asked, since  this
would be their last night together, if he could cuddle with her  "like
I did when I was a little boy." Nicole had agreed, and after Benjy had
snuggled up against her  on the mat, tears  had run across her  cheeks
and moistened her ears.
    10
    N
    Iicole awakened  early.  Benjy was  already  up and  dressed,  but
Kepler was still asleep on the  far side of the room. Benjy  patiently
helped Nicole shower and dress, as he had before.
    Max came into the apartment a  few minutes later. After waking  up
Kepler, he walked over  to Nicole's wheelchair and  took her hand.  "I
didn't say much last night, my friend," Max said, "because I  couldn't
find the right words. . . . Even now, they seem so inadequate. ..."
    Max turned his head  away. "Shit, Nicole," he  said in a  breaking
voice, without facing her. "You know how  I feel about you. You are  a
beautiful, beautiful person."
    He stopped. The only sound in  the room was the water running  for
Kepler's shower. Nicole squeezed his hand. "Thank you, Max," she  said
softly, "it means a lot to me."
    "When I was eighteen," Max  said hesitantly, turning back to  look
at Nicole, "my father died  of a rare kind of  cancer. We all knew  it
was coming.  Clyde and  Mom and  I  had watched  him wither  away  for
several months. But I still
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    571
    didn't believe it, even after he was lying in the coffin. We had a
small service at the cemetery,  just our friends from the  neighboring
farms plus an auto mechanic from De Queen, a man named Willie Townsend
who got drunk with Dad every other Saturday night."
    Max smiled and relaxed.  He loved telling  stories. "Willie was  a
good ole son of a bitch, a bachelor, hard as nails on the outside, and
soft as putty underneath.  He was jilted by  the De Queen High  School
homecoming queen  when  he was  a  young man  and  never again  had  a
girlfriend. Anyway, Mom asked me  if I would say  a few words over  my
dad at  the graveside  service, and  I agreed.  I wrote  them  myself,
memorized them carefully, and even practiced once out loud in front of
Clyde.
    "Come the service, I was ready  with my speech. 'My father,  Henry
Allan Puckett, was  a fine  man,' I  began. I  then paused,  as I  had
planned, and  looked  around. Willie  was  already sniffling  and  was
looking down at the  ground. Suddenly I couldn't  remember what I  was
supposed to say next. We all stood  there in the hot Arkansas sun  for
what seemed like forever but was probably only thirty seconds or so. I
never did  remember  the rest  of  my  speech. Finally,  out  of  both
desperation and embarrassment, 1 said 'Aw, fuck,' and Willie chimed in
immediately with a loud 'Amen.'"
    Nicole was laughing.  "Max Puckett,"  she said,  "there cannot  be
anyone like you anywhere in this universe."
    Max grinned. "Last night, when Frenchie and I were in bed, we were
talking about that other Nicole the aliens had created for Simone  and
Michael, and Ep wondered  if they could make  a robot Max Puckett  for
her. She liked  the idea of  having a perfect  husband who always  did
exactly what she asked-even at night. We laughed until our sides  hurt
trying to imagine, well, you know,  what the robot might or might  not
be able to do in bed."
    "Shame on you. Max," Nicole said.
    "Actually it was Frenchie who really got imaginative. Anyway," Max
said, "I was  sent over here  with a^specific purpose,  to inform  you
that we are  having a  catered breakfast  next door,  courtesy of  the
blockheads, as part of
    i
    !
    our attempt to say good-bye, or wish you 'bon voyage,' or whatever
is appropriate. And that it will start in exactly eight more minutes."
    Nicole was delighted to  discover that the  mood at breakfast  was
light and pleasant. She  had stressed several  times the night  before
that her departure should not be a time for sorrow, that it should  be
celebrated as the end of a  wonderful life. Apparently her family  and
friends had taken her remarks to heart, for she saw only an occasional
somber face.
    Ellie and Benjy sat on either side of Nicole at the long table set
up by the block robots. Next to  Ellie was Nikki, then Maria, and  Dr.
Blue. On  the other  side  Max and  Eponine  were beside  Benjy,  then
Marius, Kepler, and  the Eagle.  During the meal  Nicole noticed  with
surprise that Maria was actually  conversing with Dr. Blue. "I  didn't
know  you  could   read  colors,  Maria,"   Nicole  said,  a   clearly
complimentary tone in her voice.
    "Only a  little,"  the  girl said,  slightly  embarrassed  by  the
attention. "Ellie has been teaching me."
    "That's great," Nicole commented.
    "Of course the real  linguist in this group,"  Max said, "is  that
strange birdman at  the end of  the table. We  even saw him  yesterday
talking to the iguanas in bizarre clicks and screeches."
    "Yuch," said Nikki, "I wouldn't want to talk to one of those nasty
creatures."
    "They have an altogether different  way of looking at the  world,"
the Eagle said. "Very simple, very primitive."
    "What I want to know," Eponine said, leaning forward and  directly
addressing the Eagle,  "is what I  have to  do to get  an alien  robot
companion of my own. I'll take one that looks like Max here, except is
not ornery and has certain other improved attributes."
    Everyone laughed. Nicole  smiled to herself  as she looked  around
the table. This is perfect, she  thought. / couldn't have asked for  a
better farewell.
    572
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    Dr. Blue and the Eagle gave her  one last dose of the blue  liquid
while Nicole was  arranging her bag.  She was glad  to have a  private
moment to tell Dr. Blue  good-bye. 'Thank you for everything,"  Nicole
said simply, hugging her octospider colleague.
    "We will all  miss you," Dr.  Blue said in  color. "The new  Chief
Optimizer wanted to organize  a grand send-off, but  I told her I  did
not think it would be appropriate.  She asked me to tell you  good-bye
on behalf of our entire species."
    They all accompanied  her to  the air  lock. There  was one  final
round of smiling  hugs, at wheelchair  level, and then  the Eagle  and
Nicole passed through the air lock.
    Nicole sighed as the Eagle lifted her into her seat in the shuttle
and folded the wheelchair.
    "They were great, weren't they?" Nicole said.
    "They love and respect you very much," the Eagle
    replied.
    Once they left the  starfish, the great  tetrahedron of light  was
again turning  slowly in  their view.  "How do  you feel?"  the  Eagle
asked.
    "Relieved," Nicole said, "and a little frightened."
    "That's to be expected," the Eagle said.
    "How long  do you  think  I have?"  Nicole asked  several  seconds
later. "Before my heart gives out?"
    'That's hard to say exactly."
    "I know,  I know,"  Nicole  said impatiently.  "But you  guys  are
scientists. You must have done some computations."
    "Between six and ten hours," the Eagle said.
    In six to ten hours I will  be dead, Nicole thought. The fear  was
more palpable now. She could not push it completely aside.
    "What's it like to be dead?" Nicole asked.
    "We thought you'd ask that question," the Eagle answered. "We  are
told that it's similar to being unpowered."
    "Nothingness, forever?" Nicole said.
    "I guess so."
    RAMA REVEALED
    573
    "And the  act  of dying  itself?"  she said.  "Is  there  anything
special about that?"
    "We don't know," the  Eagle said. "We were  hoping that you  would
share with us as much as you can.'1
    They flew in silence  for quite a while.  Ahead of them, the  Node
grew quickly  in  size.  At  one  point  the  spacecraft  changed  its
orientation slightly and the Knowledge  Module moved to the center  of
their window. During the final  approach, the other three vertices  of
the Node were below them.
    "Why do you  want to  spend your  final moments  in the  Knowledge
Module?" the  Eagle  asked as  they  drew nearer  to  the  magnificent
tetrahedron.
    Nicole laughed. "Now,  that's a preprogrammed  question if ever  I
heard one," she  said. "I  can already see  my answer  stored in  some
almost endless  file, under  Death: Human  Beings, and  other  related
categories."
    The Eagle did not say anything.
    "When Richard and I were marooned  in New York years ago,"  Nicole
said, "and did not think we had much of a chance to escape, we  talked
about what we would  like to be doing  during the last moments  before
our deaths.  We agreed  that our  first choice  would be  making  love
together. Our second choice  was to be learning  something new, to  be
experiencing the thrill of discovery one last time."
    "That's a very advanced concept," the Eagle said.
    "And a practical one too," Nicole  said. "Unless I miss my  guess,
mis Knowledge Module of  yours will be intriguing  enough that I  will
not even be aware that the last  seconds of my life are ticking  down.
If I am completely involved in something right up until the end, maybe
the fear of death won't overpower me."
    The Knowledge Module  now filled their  entire window. "Before  we
enter," the Eagle  said, "I want  to give you  some information  about
this place. The spherical module is actually three separate concentric
domains, each  with a  specific purpose.  The outermost  and  smallest
region is focused on  knowledge associated with  the present, or  near
present. The next inner region is where all the historical
    574
    ARTHUR C. CURKE AND GENTRY LEE
    information about this  part of  the galaxy has  been stored.  The
large inner sphere contains all the models for predicting the  future,
as well as stochastic scenarios for the next eons."
    "I thought you had- never been inside," Nicole said.
    "I haven't," the Eagle replied. "But my Knowledge Module data base
was updated and expanded last night.*'
    A door in the outer surface  of the sphere opened and the  shuttle
started to enter. "Just a minute," Nicole said. "Do 1 understand  that
I will almost certainly never leave this module alive?"
    "Yes," said the Eagle.
    "Then will you please turn this  vehicle around slowly and let  me
take one last look at the outside world?"
    The shuttle  executed  a slow  yaw  maneuver and  Nicole,  sitting
forward in her seat, gazed fixedly  out the window. She saw the  other
spherical modules of the Node,  the transportation corridors, and,  in
the distance, the starfish, where her family and friends were  packing
their bags for their transfer. In one orientation the yellow star  Tau
Ceti, so much like the Sun, was  the only large object in the  window,
and despite its radiance and die scattered light from the Node, Nicole
could still discern a few other stars against the blackness of space.
    Nothing in this scene will be changed by my death, Nicole thought.
There will just be one less pair of eyes to observe its splendor.  And
one less collection of chemicals risen to consciousness to wonder what
it all means.
    'Thank you," Nicole said  after the full  turn was completed.  "We
may now proceed."
    V;
    ' chicles entering the Knowledge Module from space, as well as the
tubes arriving from the  other three modules, all  ended up at a  long
slender station  located on  one  side of  the midlevel  annulus  that
completely encircled the huge sphere.
    "There are only two entrances, a hundred and eighty degrees apart,
into each of the  three concentric domains  of the Knowledge  Module,"
the Eagle said as Nicole and he were carried swiftly along the annulus
by a moving sidewalk. To their right was the transparent outer surface
of the module. On their left was a cream-colored, windowless wall.
    "Will I be able to take off my suit and helmet soon?" Nicole asked
from her wheelchair.
    "Yes, after we  enter the  exhibits," the  Eagle said.  "I had  to
specify some kind of tour-they  couldn't change the atmosphere of  the
entire module overnight-and  in those  places you will  not need  your
space suit."
    "So you have already selected what we are going to see?"
    576
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "It was unavoidable," the Eagle said. "This place is immense, much
larger than one of the  hemicylinders of Rama, and absolutely  crammed
full of information. I tried to design our tour based on my  knowledge
of your interests and our allocated  time. If it turns out that  there
are other things-"
    "No, no," Nicole said. "I wouldn't have any idea what to  request.
I'm certain that what you did was fine."
    They were approaching  a place where  the moving sidewalk  stopped
and a broad corridor  went off to  the left. "By  the way," the  Eagle
said, "I didn't  explain to  you that our  tour is  restricted to  the
outer two regions. The Predictions Domain is off limits for us."
    "Why is that?" Nicole asked, activating her wheelchair and  moving
along the corridor beside the Eagle.
    "I don't  know  for certain,"  he  said. "But  it  doesn't  really
matter, if I  understand your purpose  here. There will  be more  than
enough to occupy you in the two available domains."
    In front of them was  a high blank wall.  As the Eagle and  Nicole
approached, a wide door  in the wall opened  inward, revealing a  tall
circular room with a ten-meter-diameter sphere in its center. The wall
and ceiling of  the room  were bom  cluttered with  small fixtures  or
equipment and many strange markings. The Eagle told Nicole that he had
no idea what any of it meant.
    "What I have been told," the alien said, "is that the  orientation
for your visit to  this domain is supposed  to take place inside  that
sphere in front of us."
    The gleaming sphere divided in  half at the midsection. The  upper
half of  the hollow  ball lifted  up just  enough that  the Eagle  and
Nicole could pass  underneath into  the interior of  the sphere.  Once
they were inside, the top half of the sphere returned to its  original
position and they were completely enclosed.
    It was only dark for a second or two. Then small scattered  lights
illuminated some of the side of the sphere that was facing them. "It's
decorated with a lot oftletail," Nicole commented.
    RAMA REVEALED
    577
    "What we're  looking at,"  the Eagle  said, "is  a model  of  this
entire domain. Our point of view is from the inside, as if we were  at
the very center of the Knowledge  Module and neither of the two  inner
domains existed. You'll  notice that  the way the  objects are  placed
along and against the surface, not only in front of and behind us, but
also above and below us, nothing intrudes into the empty central space
more than a  fixed distance.  The outer  walj of  the next  concentric
domain is located at that spot in the real module. Now the lights will
show you, on the model, where we will be going in the next few hours."
    A large  sector of  the inner  sphere surface  facing them,  about
thirty percent of the area altogether, was suddenly visible in a  soft
light.
    "Everything in the lit region," the Eagle said, making a  circular
gesture with  his  hand, "is  associated  with spacefar-ing.  We  will
confine our tour to this portion of the domain. The blinking red light
on the surface in front of us is where we are presently."
    As Nicole  watched, a  red line  of lights  moved quickly  up  the
surface, stopping at a point above her head where there was a  picture
of the Milky Way Galaxy. "We will go first to the geography  section,"
the Eagle said,  pointing at the  place where the  line of lights  had
stopped, "then to engineering, and  finally to biology. After a  short
break, we will  continue into  the second domain.  Any more  questions
before we start?"
    They drove up what appeared to be an ascending ramp in a small car
similar to  the one  they had  used in  the Habitation  Module  during
Nicole's visit with Michael and Simone. Although the path in front and
behind them was illuminated, whatever was beside the car was always in
the dark.
    "What's around us?" Nicole asked  after they had been driving  for
almost ten minutes.
    "Data storage mostly, plus a few exhibits," the Eagle said. "It is
dark so that you are not unnecessarily distracted."
    Eventually they stopped beside another tall door. "The
    578
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    room you are about to enter," the Eagle said, setting up  Nicole's
wheelchair, "is the largest single room  in this domain. It is half  a
kilometer across at its widest  point. Inside^currently is a model  of
the Milky Way Galaxy. Once we enter,  we will be standing on a  mobile
platform that we can command to take  us to any point in the room.  It
will be mostly dark inside, and there will be displays and  structures
both above us  and below us.  You might feel  as if you  are going  to
fall, but remember that you are weightless."
    The view from the platform was spectacular. Even before they began
to move toward the  center of the vast  room, Nicole was  overwhelmed.
Lights representing  stars  were  everywhere  in  the  blackness  that
surrounded them. Single stars,  binaries, combination triples.  Small,
stable  yellow  stars,  red  giants,  white  dwarfs-they  even  passed
directly over  an exploding  supernova. In  every location,  in  every
direction, there was something different and fascinating to see.
    After a few  minutes the  Eagle stopped the  platform. "I  thought
we'd start here, where you are familiar with the territory," he said.
    Using a pointer with multiple  light beams, he indicated a  nearby
yellow star. "Do you recognize this place?"
    Nicole was still staring at the endless lights in all  directions.
"Are all hundred billion stars in the galaxy actually modeled in  this
room?" she asked.
    "No," the Eagle replied. "What you are seeing here is only a large
section of the galaxy. I'll explain more to you in a few minutes  when
we go to the top of the room and can look down on the central galactic
plane. I brought you to this particular spot for another purpose."
    Nicole recognized me  Sun, and  the Centauri  triple, its  closest
neighbor, and even Barnard's  star and Sinus.  She could not  remember
the names of most of the other stars in the local neighborhood of  the
Sun. She did, however, manage  to locate another solitary yellow  star
not too far away.
    "Is that Tau Ceti?" she asked. *•
    "Yes, indeed," said the Eagle.
    RAMA REVEALED
    579
    Tau Ceti seems so close to the Sun, Nicole thought, but in reality
it is so very far away. That means the galaxy is larger than any of us
could possibly comprehend.
    "The distance from the Sun to Tau Ceti," the Eagle said, as if  he
were reading her mind, "is  one ten-thousandth of the distance  across
the galaxy."
    Nicole shook her head as the platform began to move away from  the
Sun and Tau Ceti. There is so much more than I had ever imagined,  she
thought. Even my journeys have taken place in an insignificantly small
region of space. Off the moving platform to Nicole's right, the  Eagle
projected  a  three-dimensional  line  drawing  in  the  shape  of   a
rectangular solid.  By  manipulating  the black  device  that  he  was
holding in  his hand,  he made  the volume  of the  solid  alternately
larger and smaller.
    "We have many different ways to control what is projected in  this
room," the Eagle said. "With this  device we can change the scale  and
zoom in  on any  particular region  of the  galaxy. Let  me show  you.
Suppose I put the red light here,  in the middle of the Orion  Nebula.
That marks the desired initial position  of the platform. Then let  me
expand this geometrical shape to enclose about a thousand stars. . . .
Now, presto."
    It was pitch-black in the room  for about a second. Then  suddenly
Nicole was again dazzled, but this time by a different set of  lights.
The clusters and individual stars were much more clearly defined.  The
Eagle explained  that the  entire room  was now  contained inside  the
Orion  Nebula  and  that  the  longest  room  dimension  was  now  the
equivalent of a  few hundred  light-years, instead  of sixty  thousand
light-years as before.
    'This particular  area  is a  stellar  nursery," the  Eagle  said,
"where stars and planets are just  being born." He moved the  platform
toward the right. "Over here, for  example, is an infant star  system,
in the early  stages of  formation, with many  of the  characteristics
that your solar system had four and a half billion years ago."
    He inscribed a small solid figure  around one of the stars, and  a
few seconds later the room was filled with the light of
    580
    ARTHUR C. CURKE AND GENTRY LEE
    a young sun. Nicole watched a gigantic solar storm move across the
moiling surface. A coronal burst arced high above her head, shooting a
finger of orange and red into the blackness of space.
    The Eagle  steered the  platform toward  a much  smaller,  distant
body, one  of  about a  dozen  accumulations  of mass  that  could  be
identified in  the region  closely surrounding  the young  star.  This
particular planet  had  a slightly  reddish  molten surface.  As  they
watched, a  large  projectile crashed  into  the hot  fluid,  ejecting
material from the surface and setting  up vigorous wave motion in  all
directions."
    "According to our statistical data," the Eagle said, "this  planet
has a nontrivial  probability of  producing life after  a few  billion
years of evolution, once this  period of bombardment and formation  is
concluded. It will have .a  solitary, stable host star, an  atmosphere
with sufficient climatic variation, plus all the chemical ingredients.
Here, see for yourself. Keep your eyes  on that planet. I am going  to
activate a special routine that scans quickly through the bottom  half
of the  periodic  chart  and  displays  quantitative  data  about  the
comparative number of atoms  of each kind that  exist in that  boiling
stew."
    A magnificent visual display appeared  in the blackness above  the
infant planet. Each separate atom  contained in the planet's mass  was
indicated both by a specific color  and by its number of neutrons  and
protons. The size of the atom showed its comparative frequency in  the
mix. "Note that there are  significant densities of carbon,  nitrogen,
the halogens,  and iron,"  the  Eagle said.  'These are  the  critical
atoms. They  were all  created  by nearby  supernova  in the  not  too
distant past  and have  enriched the  organizational possibilities  of
this  forming  body.  Without  complex  chemistry,  there  cannot   be
efficient life. If iron were not  available to be the central atom  of
hemoglobin, for  example,  on  your planet,  the  oxygen  distribution
system  of  the   many  advanced   life-forms  would   be  much   more
inefficient."
    So the process continues, Nicole thought, eon after eon. Stars and
planets form out of the cosmic  dust. A few 6fthe planets contain  the
right chemical stuff that might eventu-
    RAMA REVEALED
    581
    ally lead  to  life  and intelligence.  But  what  organizes  this
process? What unseen hand  causes these chemicals  to become more  and
more complex and structured in time,  until they reach even the  state
of self-awareness?  Is  there some  yet-to-be-formulated  natural  law
about matter organizing itself according to specified rules?
    The Eagle was now explaining how  unlikely it was that life  would
evolve in star systems that Contained only simple atoms like  hydrogen
and helium, and none of the more complex, higher-order atoms forged by
dying  stars  in  supernova  explosions.  Nicole  began  to  feel   an
overpowering insignificance.  She  longed  for something  on  a  human
scale.
    "How small can you  shrink this room?"  Nicole said suddenly.  She
laughed at  her own  awkward phraseology.  'To be  more precise,"  she
continued, "what is the ultimate resolution of this system?"
    "The finest level of  detail possible," the Eagle  said, "is at  a
scale of four thousand ninety-six to one. At the other extreme, we can
display an  intergalactic scene  with a  greatest dimension  of  fifty
million light-years. Remember, our interest in activities outside  the
galaxy is limited."
    Nicole was doing some mental  calculations of her own. "Since  the
longest dimension of  this room is  half a kilometer,  at the  highest
level of detail this room  would be filled by  a piece of real  estate
roughly two thousand kilometers long?"
    "That's right," the Eagle said. "But why are you asking?"
    Nicole was becoming more excited. "Could we zoom in on the Earth?"
she asked. "And let me fly over France?"
    "Yes, I guess so,"  the Eagle answered  after a short  hesitation.
"Although that is not what I had planned."
    "It would mean a lot to me."
    "All right," the Eagle said.."It will take a couple of seconds  to
set up, but we can do it."
    The flight began over  the English Channel.  The Eagle and  Nicole
had been sitting on the platform at the top of the
    582v ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    dark room  for  approximately  three seconds  when  there  was  an
explosion of light beneath them. After Nicole's eyes finally adjusted,
she recognized the  blue water underneath  them and the  shape of  the
Normandy coastline. Off  in the  distance the Seine  emptied into  the
Channel.
    She asked the Eagle to station the platform over the mouth of  the
Seine and then to move slowly toward Paris. The sight of the  familiar
geography evoked a strong emotional response in Nicole. She remembered
clearly the  days  of  her  youth,  when  she  had  wandered  carefree
throughout this region with her beloved father.
    The model below  them was  superb. It  was even  three-dimensional
when the sizes of the  geographical features and buildings below  them
were above the limits of resolution of die alien system. In Rouen, the
famous church where Joan  of Arc had temporarily  recanted was half  a
centimeter tall  and two  centimeters long.  Off in  the direction  of
Paris, Nicole could  see the  familiar shape  of the  Arc de  Triomphe
rising from the surface of the model.
    When they reached Paris,  the platform hovered  for a few  seconds
over the sixteenth arrondissement. Nicole's  eyes fell briefly upon  a
particular-building below her.  The sight of  that building, a  modern
convention center, brought back an especially poignant moment from her
adolescence. To my precious daughter, Nicole, and all the young people
of the world, I offer one simple insight, she heard her father's voice
say again.  He was  near the  end  of his  speech accepting  the  Mary
Renault Prize. In my life I have found two things of priceless  worth:
learning and loving. Nothing else-not fame, not power, not achievement
for its own sake-can possibly have the same lasting value.
    An image of her father filled Nicole's mind. Thank you, Papa,  she
thought. Thank you for taking such good care of me after Mother  died.
Thank you for everything you taught me. '
    A powerful, painful yearning brought  a rush of tears to  Nicole's
eyes. For an instant she was again a child, and she wanted desperately
to talk to her father  about her ^coming death. Slowly,  deliberately,
Nicole fought against the emo-
    RAMA REVEALED
    583
    tions that were threatening to overwhelm  her. This is not what  I
wanted to  feel right  now, she  said to  herself with  difficulty.  /
wanted to leave all this behind.
    She turned her face away from the model of France below her.
    "What is it?" the Eagle asked.
    Nicole forced a smile. "I want  to see something else," she  said.
"Something spectacular . . . and new. How about an octospider city?"
    "Are you certain?" the Eagle said.
    Nicole nodded.
    The room became dark immediately.  Two seconds later, when  Nicole
turned around to face the light,  the platform was flying over a  vast
ocean of deep green.
    "Where are we?" she asked. "And where are we going?"
    "We're presently about thirty light-years away from your Sun," the
Eagle  replied,  "on  the  first  oceanic  planet  colonized  by   the
octospiders after the disappearance of the Precursors. We're over  the
sea, obviously, about two hundred kilometers away from the most famous
of the octospider cities."
    Nicole felt a surge  of excitement as  the platform zoomed  across
the sea. In the  distance she could already  see the vague outline  of
some buildings. For a moment she imagined that she was an  adventurous
space traveler arriving at  this planet for the  first time, eager  to
see the  wonders  of  the' fabulous  cities  that  other  interstellar
travelers had described.
    Nicole momentarily turned  her attention to  the ocean below  her.
"Why is this water so green?" she asked the Eagle.
    "The top meter of this  part of the ocean  is a rich ecosystem  of
its own, dominated by a special genus of photosynthesizing plant whose
varied species, all green  in color, provide housing  and food for  as
many as ten million separate creatures. Some of the individual  plants
cover more  than  a  square kilometer  of  territory.  The  Precursors
created this domain originally. The octospiders found it and  improved
upon it."
    When Nicole glanced up, the speeding platform had
    584
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    585
    nearly reached the city. Hundreds  of buildings of various  shapes
and sizes were spread  out below them. Most  of the octospider  city's
buildings were built on the land, but some appeared to be floating  on
the water.  The densest  collection of  these structures  was along  a
narrow peninsula that extended  slightly into the sea.  At the end  of
that peninsula stood three huge green domes, very close together, that
dominated the city skyline.
    At the periphery  of the  city was a  wide outer  circle of  eight
smaller domes, each  of which was  connected by linear  transportation
features to  the  central domes.  Each  of  these outer  domes  was  a
distinct and  different color.  Almost  all of  the buildings  in  the
section of the city  surrounding an outer dome  had been painted  with
the same color. ,Out in the ocean, for example, the brilliant red dome
had eight  long, slender  red  spokes, representing  other  buildings,
extending outward from it in a balanced geometrical pattern.
    All the buildings of the city lay inside the circle defined by the
eight  colored  domes.  Nicole's  immediate  favorite  was  a  strange
brown-colored structure  floating  on the  water.  It appeared  to  be
almost as large as the huge central domes. From above, the rectangular
building looked like twenty layers  of a densely packed lattice,  with
material from birds* nests filling the  open areas inside each of  the
hundreds of cells.
    "What is that?" Nicole asked, pointing from the platform.
    "These particular octospiders are very advanced in  microbiology,"
the Eagle replied. "That structure, which extends incidentally another
ten meters deep  into the  ocean, contains over  a thousand  different
habitats for species in the micrometer size range. What you're looking
at is essentially a supply  station, containing the excess  population
for each  of  these tiny  beings.  Octospiders needing  any  of  these
creatures come to this building to requisition them."
    Nicole's eyes feasted  on the unusual  architecture below her.  In
her mind's eye she could see  herself walking on the streets,  looking
around in amazement at  a ttuiety of creatures  far greater even  than
the menagerie she^had
    encountered in me Emerald  City. / want to  go there, she said  to
herself- / want to see.
    She asked the Eagle to move the platform directly over
    | one of the large green domes. "Is the inside of this dome,"
    Nicole asked, "similar to what was in the Emerald City?"
    "Not  really,"  the  Eagle  replied.  "The  scale  is   altogether
different. The octospider  realm in Rama  was a compressed  microcosm.
Functions which are normally separated on their planets by hundreds of
kilometers of distance were forced,  because of space limitations,  to
be located in more or less the same area. In the advanced colonies  of
the octospider  genus,  for example,  the  alternates do  not  have  a
community just  outside  the  city  gates-they  live  on  an  entirely
different planet."
    Nicole smiled. A planet full of alternates, she thought. Now, that
would be quite a sight.
    "This particular city is the  home for more than eighteen  million
octospiders,  if   we  count   all  the   different  morphor   logical
variations," the Eagle  said. "It is  also the administrative  capital
for this  planet. Within  the gates  of  the city  live close  to  ten
billion individual creatures, representing fifty thousand species. The
extent of the city is roughly equivalent to Los Angeles or any of  the
great urban areas on your Earth."
    The Eagle continued  to tell  her facts and  statistics about  the
octospider city beneath their platform. Nicole, however, was  thinking
about something else. "Did Archie  live here?" she said,  interrupting
her alien companion's encyclopedic monologue. "Or Dr. Blue, or any  of
the octospiders that we met?"
    "No," the Eagle  replied. "In fact,  they did not  even come  from
this planet or star system. The octospiders in Rama came from what  is
known as a 'frontier colony,' one especially designed genetically  for
interaction with other intelligent life-forms."
    Nicole shook her head and smiled. Of course, she said to  herself,
/ should have suspected that they were special.
    She was growing  tired. After another  few minutes Nicole  thanked
the Eagle and said that she had seen enough
    586
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    of the octospider city. In an instant the domes, the brown lattice
structure, and the  deep green  sea vanished. The  Eagle returned  the
platform to the top of the large chamber.
    Below Nicole the Milky  Way was confined to  a small space in  the
center of the  room. "The  universe is an  ever-expanding sequence  of
neighborhoods and voids," the Eagle was saying. "Look how empty it  is
around the  Milky Way.  Except for  the two  Magellanic Clouds,  which
really don't qualify  as galaxies, Andromeda  is our nearest  galactic
neighbor. But it is  very far away. The  distance across the  greatest
dimension of the Milky  Way is only one-twentieth  of the distance  to
Andromeda."
    Nicole was  not  thinking about  Andromeda.  She was  absorbed  in
delightful philosophical musings about life on different worlds, about
cities, and about the likely range of creatures made from simple atoms
who had  evolved, with  or  without help  from superior  beings,  into
consciousness. She savored  the moment, knowing  that very soon  there
would be no more of the  flights of imagination that had enriched  her
life so much.
    12
    W;
    re spent so much  time in that exhibit,"  the Eagle said after  he
finished the scan, "that I think maybe we should revise our tour."
    They were  sitting  side  by  side  in  the  car.  "Is  that  your
diplomatic way of  telling me that  my heart is  failing more  rapidly
than you expected?" Nicole asked, forcing a smile.
    "No, not  really," the  Eagle said.  "We really  did spend  almost
twice as much  time as  I had planned.  I hadn't  even considered  the
overflight of  France, for  example, or  the visit  to the  octospider
city."
    "That part was wonderful," Nicole said.  "I wish I could go  there
again, with Dr. Blue as my guide, and find out more about the way they
live."
    "So you  liked the  octospider city  better than  the  spectacular
views of the stars?"
    "I wouldn't say that," Nicole replied. "It was all fantastic. What
I have seen already has reconfirmed that I chose the right place to  .
. ." She did not finish the
    588
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    sentence. "I realized while  I was on the  platform that death  is
not just the end of thinking and  being aware," she said, "it is  also
the end  of  feeling. I  don't  know why  that  wasn't obvious  to  me
before."
    There was a short silence. "So, my friend," Nicole said  brightly,
"where do we go from here?"
    "I thought we'd go next to  engineering, where you can see  models
of Nodes, Carriers,  and other  spacecraft, after which,  if we  still
have enough time, I plan to lake  you to the biology section. Some  of
your ex-utero grandchildren are living in  that region, in one of  our
better Earthlike  habitats.  Nearby  is  another  compound  housing  a
community  of  those  intriguing  aquatic  eels  or  snakes  that   we
encountered once  together  at the  Node.  And there  is  a  taxonomic
display that compares and  contrasts, physically, all the  spacefarers
that have been studied in this region."
    "It all sounds  great," Nicole  said. She  laughed suddenly.  "The
human brain is amazing. Guess what just popped into my mind? The first
line of Andrew Marvell's poem 'To His Coy Mistress': 'Had we but world
enough, and time, This coyness, lady, were  no crime . . .' Anyway,  I
was going to say that since we do not have forever, let's go first  to
the Carrier  display. I  would like  to see  the spacecraft  in  which
Patrick, Nai,  Galileo, and  the others  will be  living. After  that,
we'll see how much time is left."
    The car began to move. Nicole  noted to herself mat the Eagle  had
not said anything about the results  of his scan. The fear came  back,
stronger now. "The grave's  a fine and  private place," she  recalled.
"But none, I think, do there embrace."
    They were together on the flat surface of the Carrier model. "This
is a one sixty-fourth scale model," the Eagle said, "so you have  some
sense of how large the Carrier really is."
    Nicole  stared  off  into   the  distance  from  her   wheelchair.
"Goodness," she said, "this plane must be ajjnost one kilometer long."
    "That's a decent guess," the Eagle said. "The top of the
    RAMA REVEALE.D
    589
    actual Carrier  is  roughly  forty  kilometers  long  and  fifteen
kilometers wide."
    "And each of these bubbles encloses a different environment?"
    "Yes," the Eagle  said. "The atmosphere  and other conditions  are
controlled by the equipment  that is here on  the surface, as well  as
the additional engineering systems  down below in  the main volume  of
the spacecraft. Each of the habitats  has its own spin rate to  create
the proper gravity. Partitions are  available to separate species,  if
necessary, inside one of the bubbles. The residents from the  starfish
have been placed in  the same domain because  they are Comfortable  in
more or less the  same ambient conditions. However,  they do not  have
any access to each other."
    They were moving down a path among the equipment emplacements  and
the bubbles. "Some of these habitats," Nicole said, examining a  small
oval protrusion rising above the plane no more than five meters, "seem
too small and confining to hold more than just a few individuals."
    'There are  some very  small spacefarers,"  the Eagle  said.  "One
species, from a star system  not too far from  yours, is only about  a
millimeter in length. Their largest spacecraft are not even as big  as
this car."
    Nicole tried to imagine an  intelligent group of ants, or  aphids,
working together  to build  a  spacecraft. She  smiled at  her  mental
picture.
    "And all these Carriers just travel from Node to Node?" she asked,
changing the subject;
    "Primarily," the Eagle said. "When there are no longer any  living
creatures in a particular bubble, that habitat is reconditioned at one
of the Nodes."
    "Like Rama," Nicole said.
    "In  a  way,"   the  Eagle  said,   "but  with  many   significant
differences. We  are always  intently  studying whatever  species  are
inside a Rama-class spacecraft. We try  to place them in as  realistic
an environment as possible, so that we can observe them under 'natural
conditions.' By  contrast, we  do not  need any  more data  about  the
creatures assigned
    590
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    591
    to the  Carrier fleet.  That's  why we  don't intercede  in  their
affairs."
    "Except to preclude reproduction. By the way, in the structure  of
your ethics,  is  preventing  reproduction  somehow  more  humane,  or
whatever your  equivalent  word  is, than  terminating  the  creatures
directly?"
    "We think so," the Eagle replied.
    They had reached a location on the top of the Carrier model  where
a pathway branched off to the left  back to the ramps and hallways  of
the Knowledge Module. "I think I've accomplished what I wanted  here,"
Nicole said. She hesitated for  a moment. "But 1  do have a couple  of
other questions."
    "Go ahead," the Eagle said.
    "Assuming Saint Michael's description of  the purpose of Rama  and
the  Node  and  everything  else  is  correct,  aren't  you   yourself
disturbing and changing the very process you're observing? It seems to
me that just by being here and interacting-"
    "You're right, of course," the Eagle said. "Our presence here does
slightly impact the course of evolution. It's a situation analogous to
the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle  from physics. We cannot  observe
without influencing. Nevertheless, our interactions can be  considered
by the Prime Monitor and taken into account in the overall modeling of
the process. And we do have rules  that minimize the ways in which  we
perturb the natural evolution."
    "I wish  that  Richard could  have  been  with me  to  hear  Saint
Michael's explanation of everything," Nicole said. "He would have been
fascinated, and, I am sure, would have had some excellent questions."
    The Eagle did not reply. Nicole sighed. "So what's next,  Monsieur
le Tour Director?" she said.
    "Lunch," said the Eagle. "There  are a couple of sandwiches,  some
water, and a delicious piece of your favorite octospider fruit in  the
car."
    Nicole laughed and turned her  wheelchair ftnto the pathway.  "You
think of everything," she said.
    "Richard didn't  believe  in heaven,"  Nicole  said as  the  Eagle
completed another  scan. "But  if he  could have  constructed his  own
perfect afterlife,  it would  definitely have  included a  place  like
this."
    The Eagle was studying the weird  squiggles on the monitor in  his
hand. "I  think it  would be  a good  idea," he  said, looking  up  at
Nicole, "to skip some of  the tour . . .  and go directly to the  most
important exhibits in the next domain."
    "That  bad,  huh?"  Nicole  said.  She  was  not  surprised.   The
occasional pain she had been feeling in her chest before the visits to
France and the octospider city had now become continuous.
    The fear was constant  now as well. In  between every word,  every
thought, she was acutely aware that  her death was not very far  away.
So what are you afraid of?  Nicole asked herself. How can  nothingness
be that bad? Still the fear persisted.
    The Eagle  explained  that  there  was  not  enough  time  for  an
orientation to the second domain.  They passed through the gates  into
the second of the concentric spheres and drove for about ten  minutes.
"The emphasis in this  domain," the Eagle said  while driving, "is  on
the way everything changes  in time. There is  a separate section  for
every conceivable  element  in the  galaxy  that is  affected  by,  or
affects, the galaxy's overall evolution. I thought you'd be especially
interested in this first exhibit."
    The room was  similar to the  one where the  Eagle and Nicole  had
first seen the  Milky Way,  except that it  was considerably  smaller.
Again they boarded a moving platform that allowed them to move  around
in the dark room.
    "What you  are going  to watch,"  the Eagle  said, "requires  some
explanation. It is essentially a  time-lapse summary of the  evolution
of spacefaring civilizations in a galactic region containing your  Sun
and about ten million  other star systems.  This is approximately  one
ten-thousandth of  the  entire  galaxy,  but  what  you  will  see  is
representative of the galaxy as a whole.
    592 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    "You  will  not  see  any  stars  or  planets  or  other  physical
structures in this  display, although their  locations are assumed  in
developing the model. What  you will see, once  we begin, are  lights,
each representing  a star  system in  which a  biological species  has
become a spacefarer by at least  putting a spacecraft in orbit  around
its own planet. As long as the star system remains a living center for
active spacefarers, the light in that particular location will stay
    illuminated.
    "I am going to start the display about ten billion years ago, soon
after what has evolved into the current Milky Way Galaxy was initially
formed. Since there was  so much instability and  rapid change at  the
beginning, no spacefarers emerged for a long time. Therefore, for  the
first five billion years or so,  up until the formation of your  solar
system, I will run  the display rapidly, at  a rate of twenty  million
years per  second. For  reference purposes,  the Earth  will begin  to
accrete roughly  four  minutes into  this  process. I  will  stop  the
display at that time."
    They were togedier on the platform in the large chamber. The Eagle
was standing and Nicole was sitting beside him in her wheelchair.  The
only light was a small one on the platform mat allowed the two of them
to see each other. After staring around her at the total darkness  for
more than thirty seconds, Nicole broke the silence. "Did you start the
process?" she asked. "Nothing's happening."
    "Exactly,"  the  Eagle  replied.  "What  we  have  observed,  from
watching other galaxies, some much older  than the Milky Way, is  that
no life  emerges until  the galaxy  settles down  and develops  stable
zones. Life requires both  a few steady stars  in a relatively  benign
environment and stellar  evolution, resulting in  the creation of  the
critical elements on the periodic chart  that are so important in  all
biochemical processes. If  all the matter  is subatomic particles  and
the simplest atoms, the likelihood of the origin of life of any  kind,
much less spacefaring life, is very very small. Not until large  stars
go through their complete life Cycles and manufacture the more complex
elements like nitrogen,
    RAMA REVEALED
    593
    carbon, iron, and magnesium do the probabilities for the emergence
of life become reasonable."
    Below them an occasional light flickered, but in the entire  first
four minutes, no more  than a few  hundred scattered lights  appeared,
and only  one endured  for longer  than three  seconds. "Now  we  have
reached the time of the formation of the Earth and the solar  system,"
the Eagle said, preparing to activate the display again.
    "Wait a moment, please,"  Nicole said. "I want  to make certain  I
understand. Did you just show me  that for the first half of  galactic
history, when  there  was  no  Earth and  no  Sun,  comparatively  few
spacefarers  evolved  in  the  region  around  where  the  Sun   would
eventually form? . .  . And that of  those spacefarers, almost all  of
them had a species  life span of less  than twenty million years,  and
only one managed to survive for as long as sixty million years?"
    "Very good,"  the Eagle  said.  "Now I  am  going to  add  another
parameter to the display. If  a spacefarer has succeeded in  traveling
outside his own star system  and has established a permanent  presence
in another-which  you humans  have  of course  not yet  done-then  the
display acknowledges  that expansion  by illuminating  the other  star
system as well, with the same color light. Therefore we can follow the
spread of  a specific  spacefaring species.  I am  also now  going  to
change the rate  of the display  by a  factor of two,  to ten  million
years per second."
    Only half a minute into the next period, a red light came on  over
in one  corner  of  the room.  Six  to  eight seconds  later,  it  was
surrounded by hundreds of other  red lights. Together they shone  with
such intensity that the rest of the room, with its occasional solitary
or pair of lights,  seemed dark and  uninteresting by comparison.  The
field of red lights then abruptly vanished in a fraction of a  second.
First the  inner core  of the  red pattern  went dark,  leaving  small
groups of  lights scattered  at the  edges  of what  had once  been  a
gigantic region. A blink of the eye later and all the red lights  were
gone.
    Nicole's mind  was operating  at  peak speed  as she  watched  the
lights flashing around her. That must be an
    594 ARTHUR C. ClARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    595
    interesting story,  she thought,  reflecting  on the  red  lights.
Imagine a civilization spread out over a region containing hundreds of
stars. Then  suddenly,  pffi, that  species  is gone.  The  lesson  is
inescapable.  For  everything  there  is  a  beginning  and  an   end.
Immortality exists only as a concept, not as a reality.
    She glanced  around  the room.  A  general recurring  pattern  was
developing as  more  and more  regions  hosted an  occasional  passing
light,  indicating  the   emergence  and   disappearance  of   another
spacefaring civilization. Because  even those beings  that spread  out
and colonized adjoining star systems lived for such a brief time, only
rarely did  they  come into  proximity  with a  companion  spacefaring
civilization.
    There has been intelligence, and  spacefaring, in our part of  the
galaxy since before there was an  Earth, Nicole thought, but very  few
of these  advanced creatures  have ever  had the  thrill of  sustained
contact with their  peers. .  . .  .So loneliness  too is  one of  the
underlying principles of the universe-at least of this universe.
    Eight minutes later the  Eagle again froze  the display. "We  have
now reached a point in time ten million years before the present,"  he
said. "On  the  Earth,  the dinosaurs  have  long  since  disappeared,
destroyed by their inability to adapt to the climate changes caused by
the impact  of a  great asteroid.  Their disappearance,  however,  has
allowed  the  mammals  to  flourish,   and  one  of  those   mammalian
evolutionary lines is starting to show the rudiments of intelligence."
    The Eagle stopped. Nicole was looking  up at him with an  intense,
almost pained expression on her  face. "What's the matter?" the  alien
asked.
    "Will our particular universe end  in harmony?" Nicole asked.  "Or
will we be one of those data  points that helps God define the  region
He is seeking by being outside the desired set?"
    "What prompts you to ask that question right now?" the Eagle said.
*•
    "This whole display," Nicole answered, waving with her
    hand, "is an amazing catalyst.  My mind has dozens of  questions."
She smiled. "But since I don't have time to ask them all, I thought  I
would ask the most important one first.
    "Just look at what has  happened here," she continued, "even  now,
after ten billion years of evolution, the lights are widely scattered.
And none  of  the  groupings  that  exist  have  become  permanent  or
widespread, even  in  this relatively  small  portion of  the  galaxy.
Surely if our  universe is going  to end in  harmony, sooner or  later
lights indicating space-farers and intelligence should be  illuminated
at almost every star system in every galaxy. Or have I  misinterpreted
what Saint Michael meant by harmony?"
    "I don't think so," the Eagle said.
    "Where is our  solar system'in this  current display?" Nicole  now
asked.
    "Right there," the Eagle said, using his light beam pointer.
    Nicole glanced first at the area around the Earth and then quickly
surveyed the rest of the room.  "So ten million years ago, there  were
about sixty spacefaring species living among our closest ten  thousand
stellar neighborhoods. And one of these species, if I understand  that
cluster of dark green lights, originated  not too far from us and  had
spread to include twenty or thirty star systems altogether."
    "That's correct,"  said  the  Eagle. "Should  I  run  the  display
forward again, at a slower rate?" ,
    "In a  little while,"  Nicole  said. "I  want to  appreciate  this
particular configuration  first.  Up  until now  everything  has  been
happening in this display faster than I could possibly absorb it."
    She stared at  the group of  green lights. Its  outer edge was  no
more than  fifteen light-years  from where  the Eagle  had marked  the
solar system. Nicole motioned for the Eagle to start the display again
and he told her the rate would now be only two hundred thousand  years
a second.
    The green lights  moved closer and  closer to the  Earth and  then
they suddenly disappeared. "Stop," yelled Nicole.
    The Eagle halted the display. He looked at Nicole with a quizzical
expression.
    596 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    597
    "What happened to those guys?" Nicole said.
    "I told you  about them  a couple of  days ago,"  the Eagle  said.
"They genetically engineered themselves out of existence."
    They almost reached the Earth,  Nicole thought. And how  different
all history would have  been if they had.  They would have  recognized
immediately the intellectual  potential of the  protohumans in  Africa
and would doubtless have done to  them what the Precursors did to  the
octospiders. Then we . . .
    In her mind's eye, Nicole suddenly had an image of Saint  Michael,
calmly explaining  the  purpose  of  the  universe  in  front  of  the
fireplace in Michael and Simone's study.
    "Could I see the beginning?" Nicole asked the Eagle.
    "The beginning of what?" he replied.
    "The beginning of everything,"  Nicole said eagerly. "The  instant
when this universe began and the  entire process of evolution was  set
in motion." She waved her hand toward the model below them.
    "We can do that," the Eagle said after a brief pause.
    "We have  no knowledge  about anything  before this  universe  was
created," the  Eagle  said a  moment  later  as Nicole  and  he  stood
together on the platform  in total darkness.  "We do assume,  however,
that some kind of energy existed  before the instant of creation,  for
we have been  told that the  matter of this  universe resulted from  a
transformation of energy."
    Nicole looked around her. "Darkness everywhere," she said,  almost
to herself. "And  somewhere in that  darkness-if the word  'somewhere'
even has any  meaning-there was energy.  And a Creator.  Or might  the
energy have been part of the Creator?"
    "We don't know," the Eagle  said after another short pause.  "What
we do know is that  the fate of every  single element in the  universe
was determined in that initial instant.  The way in which that  energy
was transformed into matter defined eighty billion years of  history."
*
    As the Eagle spoke, a blinding light filled the room.
    | Nicole turned away from the source and covered her eyes. "Here,"
said the Eagle, reaching  into his pouch. He  handed Nicole a  special
pair of glasses.
    "Why did you make  the simulation so  bright?" Nicole asked  after
adjusting her glasses.
    'To indicate, at least in some measure, what those initial moments
were like. Look," he  said, pointing below them,  "I have stopped  the
model at 10"40 seconds  after the creation  instant. The universe  has
existed for only an  infinitesimal length of time,  yet already it  is
rich in physical  structure. This  incredible amount of  light is  all
coming from that tiny chunk of cosmic broth below us. All that 'stuff'
forming the early universe  is completely alien  to anything we  could
recognize or understand. There are no atoms, no molecules. The density
of the quarks, leptons, and their friends is so great that a pinch  of
me 'stuff' no  larger than  a hydrogen atom  would weigh  more than  a
large cluster of galaxies in our era."
    "Just out of curiosity," Nicole said, "where are you and I at this
moment?"
    The Eagle hesitated. "Nowhere would  be the best answer," he  said
eventually. "For illustrative purposes we are outside the model of the
universe. But we could be in another dimension. The mathematics of the
early universe do not work unless there were initially more than  four
dimensions. Of course everything in space-time that- will later become
our universe is contained in  that small volume producing the  awesome
light. The temperature over there,  incidentally, if the model were  a
true representation,  would  be ten  trillion  times hotter  than  the
hottest star that will eventually evolve.
    "Our model  here  has also  distorted  the concepts  of  size  and
distance," the Eagle  continued after a  brief pause. "In  a moment  I
will start the simulation of the early universe again, and we will  be
overpowered as that compact blob  of radiation explodes outward at  an
astonishing rate. While the simulation  of what the cosmologists  call
the Inflation Era  is occurring, the  assumed size of  this room  will
also be increasing rapidly. If we did not change the scale, you
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    RAMA REVEALED
    599
    would be unable now to see the structure of the universe at  10"40
seconds without a fantastic microscope."
    Nicole stared below her at the source of light. "So that minuscule
warped globule of hot,  heavy stuff was the  seed of everything?  From
that tiny  stew of  subatomic particles  came die  great galaxies  you
showed me in the other domain? It doesn't seem possible."
    "Not just  those galaxies,"  the Eagle  said. "The  potential  for
everything in the cosmos is stored in that peculiar superheated soup."
    The small globule suddenly  began to expand  at an enormous  rate.
Nicole had the feeling  that the outside of  the globule was going  to
touch her face at  any moment. Millions  of bizarre structures  formed
and disappeared in front of her eyes. Nicole watched in fascination as
the material seemed to change its nature several times, moving through
transitional states as peculiar and foreign as the earlier superheated
globule.
    "I have ran  time forward in  the model," the  Eagle said  several
seconds later. "What you see out there now, approximately one  million
years after creation, would be  recognizable to any dedicated  student
of physics. Some simple atoms have formed-three kinds of hydrogen, two
of helium, for  example. Lithium is  the heaviest known  atom that  is
plentiful. The density of  the universe is  now roughly equivalent  to
the air on Earth,  and the temperature has  fallen to a  comparatively
comfortable one hundred million degrees, or twenty orders of magnitude
less than it was at the time of the hot globule."
    He activated  the platform  and  guided it  among the  lights  and
clumps and filaments. "If we were  really smart," the Eagle said,  "we
would be  able to  look at  all this  early matter  and predict  which
'lumps' would eventually  become galactic  clusters. It  was at  about
this time that  the first  Prime Monitor appeared,  the only  intruder
into this  otherwise natural  evolution process.  No monitoring  could
have been done earlier, because the process is so sensitive. Any  kind
of observation during the first second of creation, ftr example, would
have completely distorted the resultant evolution."
    The Eagle  pointed at  a tiny  metallic sphere  in the  center  of
several huge agglomerations of matter. "That first Prime Monitor,"  he
said, "was sent by  the Creator, from another  dimension of the  early
universe, into  our evolving  space-time system.  Its purpose  was  to
observe what was occurring and to  create, as necessary, with its  own
intelligence, the other observing  systems that would together  gather
all the pertinent information on the overall process."
    "So the  Sun,  the Earth,  and  every human  being,"  Nicole  said
slowly, "resulted  from the  unpredictable natural  evolution of  this
cosmos. The Node, Rama, and even  you and Saint Michael were  produced
from a directed  development designed originally  by that first  Prime
Monitor."
    She paused, glancing  around her,  and then turned  to the  Eagle.
"You could have been predicted  shortly after the moment of  creation.
I, and  even  the  existence  of humanity,  came  from  a  process  so
mathematically perverse that we could  not even have been predicted  a
hundred million years ago, which is only one percent of the time since
the beginning of the universe."
    Nicole shook her head  and then waved her  hand. "All right,"  she
said, "that's enough. I'm overloaded with the infinite/'
    The great room became  dark again except for  the small lights  on
the floor of the platform. "What is it?" the Eagle said, seeing a look
of distress on Nicole's face.
    "I'm not certain," she said.  "I feel a kind  of sadness, as if  I
had experienced a deep personal  loss. If I have-understood all  this,
then humans are far more special than you, or even Rama. The odds  are
very much  against any  creatures  even nearly  like us  ever  arising
again, either in this universe or any  other. We are one of the  fluke
products of  chaos. You,  or  at least  something like  you,  probably
existed in  all  those  other  universes  the  Creator  is  supposedly
observing."
    There was a momentary  silence. "I guess  I had imagined,"  Nicole
continued, "after  listening to  Saint Michael,  that there  would  be
human voices in that harmony God was
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    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    seeking. Now I  realize dial it  is only on  die planet Earth,  in
diis particular universe, that our songs-"
    Nicole felt  a sharp  burst  of pain  in  her chest.  It  remained
intense. She struggled to breathe, convinced for several moments  that
die end was coming immediately.
    The Eagle said  nothing, but  watched her  carefully. When  Nicole
finally caught her breath,  she spoke in  short, broken clauses.  "You
told me ...  at lunch ...  a personal place  . . .  where I could  see
family and friends ..."
    They talked  briefly in  the car  while the  pain was  momentarily
bearable. Both  die Eagle  and  Nicole knew,  widiout either  of  diem
saying anything, that the next attack would be the last.
    They entered another of die exhibit areas in die Knowledge Module.
This room was a perfect circle, with a space in a small floor  section
in the middle where the Eagle could stand next to Nicole's wheelchair.
They crossed  to  their  central location  and  watched  as  humanlike
figures began to replay events from Nicole's adult life in each of the
six separate theater settings that closely surrounded them.
    The verisimilitude of  the replays was  astonishing. Not only  did
all Nicole's family and friends look  exactly as they had at the  time
that die  events  had taken  place,  but  all the  sets  were  perfect
reconstructions as well. In one  of die scenes Katie was  water-skiing
boldly near the shore  of Lake Shakespeare,  laughing and waving  with
the reckless abandon that was her trademark. In another Nicole watched
a re-creation of the party  the little troupe on  Rama II had held  to
celebrate the one thousandth  anniversary of the  death of Eleanor  of
Aquitaine. Seeing  Simone at  age  four and  Katie  at two,  and  both
Richard and herself when they  were still young and vigorous,  brought
tears to Nicole's eyes.
    It has been an  astonishing life, Nicole  thought. She rolled  her
wheelchair into the scene from Rama fl and the action stopped.  Nicole
leaned over and  picked up the  robot TB that  Richard had created  to
amuse die little girls. It felt properly weighted in her hands. *•
    "How in the world did you do this?'. Nicole asked.
    RAMA REVEALED
    601
    "Advanced technology," die Eagle  replied. "I couldn't explain  it
to you."
    "And if I went over mere,  where Katie is skiing, would the  water
feel wet to my touch?"
    "Absolutely."
    Nicole rolled out  of the  scene holding the  pseudo-robot in  her
hands. When  she  was gone,  anodier  TB materialized  and  the  scene
continued. / had forgotten, Richard, Nicole said to herself, all  your
brilliant little creations.
    Her heart granted her  a few more minutes  to enjoy the  vignettes
taken from her life. Nicole thrilled  again to the moment of  Simone's
birth, relived her first night of love with Richard not long after  he
found her in New York, and experienced for a second time the fantastic
array of sights and  creatures that had greeted  Richard and her  when
the gates of me Emerald City had first opened to mem.
    "Can you replay any event from my life that 1 might want?"  Nicole
asked, feeling a sudden constriction in her chest.
    "As long as it happened after you  arrived at Rama and I can  find
it in the archives," the Eagle replied.
    Nicole gasped. The final heart attack was under way. "Please," she
said, "may I see my last conversation with Richard before he left?"
    It won't be  long, a voice  inside Nicole said.  She clenched  her
teeth and  tried  to  concentrate  on the  scene"  that  had  suddenly
appeared in front of her. Richard was explaining to pseudo-Nicole  why
he was the one who should accompany Archie back to New Eden.
    "I understand," pseudo-Nicole said in the scene.
    / understand, die real  Nicole said to herself.  That is the  most
important statement anyone  can ever make.  The whole key  to life  is
understanding. And now I understand that I am a mortal creature  whose
time of death has come.
    Another surge of intense pain was accompanied by a fleeting memory
of a Latin line  from an old  poem: Timor Mortis  conturbat me. But  I
will not be afraid because I understand.
    The Eagle was watching her closely. "I would like to
    602
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
    see Richard and Archie," she said, laboring, "their final  moments
... in the cell . . . just before the biots came."
    / will not be afraid because 1 understand.
    "And my children, if they can somehow be here. And Dr. Blue."
    The room became dark. Seconds ticked by. The pain was terrible.  /
will not be afraid , . .
    The lights came on  again. Richard and Archie  were in their  cell
immediately in front of Nicole's wheelchair. She heard the biots  open
the cellblock door down the hall.
    "Freeze it there,  please," Nicole said  with difficulty. Just  to
the left of the  scene with Richard and  Archie, her children and  Dr.
Blue were lined  up in  a tableau. Nicole  struggled to  her feet  and
walked the few meters to be among them. Tears poured from her eyes  as
she touched one final time the faces that she loved.
    The walls of her heart began to collapse. Nicole stumbled into the
scene in  Richard's  cell  and  embraced  the  representation  of  her
husband. "I understand, Richard," she said.
    Nicole dropped to her knees slowly. She turned to face the  Eagle.
"I understand," she said with a smile.
    And understanding is happiness, she thought.
    ABOUT THE AUTHORS
    ARTHUR C. CLARKE  is a  seminal figure in  modern science  fiction
writing, and winner of all the field's highest honors, including being
named Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America in  1986.
He is the author of more than fifty books with more than fifty million
copies in  print. His  bestsellers include  Childhood's End;  2001:  A
Space Odyssey; 2010: Odyssey Two; 2061: Odyssey Three; The Ghost  from
the Grand Banks; Rendezvous with Rama;  and, with Gentry Lee, Rama  II
and The Garden  of Rama.  He co-broadcast the  Apollo 11,  12, and  15
missions with Walter Cronkite and Captain Wally Schirra and shared  an
Oscar nomination with Stanley Kubrick for the film version of 2001:  A
Space Odyssey.
    GENTRY LEE has been chief engineer on Project Galileo, director of
science analysis and  mission planning  for NASA's  Viking mission  to
Mars, and  partner with  Carl Sagan  in the  design, development,  and
implementation of the  television series  Cosmos. He  is co-author  of
Rama 11 and The Garden of Rama. He lives in Texas, where he is at work
on his first solo novel.
    - -End Text--
    - -Begin Rant---
    Hi there! I'm none,  isn't that nice? And  this THIS is the  500th
book that I have
    scanned and  uploaded, well  to celibrate  this unique  moment  in
history I am doing
    something that I normally NEVER do,  I am cluttering up this  text
file with unrelated
    personal comments. I ask that future correctors leave this section
alone to stand
    for all eternity as a great  momument to my achievement. What?  It
ain't an achievement?
    You try scanning 500 books. I may put a similar comment in when  I
get to 1000,
    it is currently 9:42  A.M., August 28th, 2001  I am wearing  black
socks, I feel that this
    is worth noting as my usual foot  atire is more a sort of  grayish
color, but these
    socks, THESE SOCKS are quite definately black, with a bit of green
as well, they
    leave an interesting shade of lint on my feet after I remove them,
there see? Told
    ya so, but did  you belive me? NO!  Of course not, you  untrusting
soul! I had to actually
    take my socks off  to show you, ME  with a poor dying  grandmother
and three little ones
    on the way, *sob* having to  take my socks off! Oh the  indignity!
Did I mention that
    both my wife and my husband were  lost at sea? Along with my  cat,
who turned out
    to  be  a  member  of  an  international  terrorist  organization,
commonly known as
    "weeowwwwhisss" which translates roughly  as "The Organized  Union
for the
    Abolition of  Human  Fingernails"  a  large  percentage  of  their
membership
    consists of de-clawed cats who want to return the favor. How was I
to know
    that old  Mr. Belizbub  was  wired? And  poor  Mitsy, not  that  I
actually have
    any idea who  Mitsy is mind  you, I am,  however, quite sure  that
someone
    named Mitsy  somewhere is  reading this  and is  quite  definately
poor, either
    in a spiritual or  material sense. Don't  despair Mitsy, there  is
always hope,
    as long as K-Mart employees seven year olds in overseas  factories
at about $.08
    per hour THERE WILL BE HOPE!  Your horoscope says that you  should
stand
    on your  head and  recite the  words to  JFK's three  most  famous
political speeches
    ten times fast and backwards, omiting all occurences of "the, and,
it, or, people"
    this may  make  them intelligable,  but  then again,  it  probably
won't. If that
    doesn't help take  two ounces  of stricknine  and call  me in  the
morning.
    Roooooooolllll CREDITS!
    none - Computer Tech
    none - Scanning
    none - Insane Comical Attitude
    none - Nefarious Poster
    none - Lord of Nothingness
    none - CEO and majority stock holder of the New Barbaros Book Club
    none - Raiser of the finest Welsh Eating Sheep in all the land
    none - Sexually Active at the age of seven
    none - Seriously
    none - You'd be amazed what you can get away with if you're seven
    none -  Yup, those  were the  days if  I tried  any of  that  now,
*shudder*
    none - A.K.A. "Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior" somone  actually
called me this...
    none - For having more problems than you do
    Other persons of note whose name's have been altered to protect me
from them.
    _a_d_o - Nice feller,  perfectionist, supports the  implementation
of mandatory sentancing  in cases  of drunken cab  driver maulings  by
deranged cougars.
    _C_i_o_n_ - The great FAQ  writer himself, ALL HAIL! Ferries  lost
souls in his spare  time. I can say  this because he doesn't  noramlly
break any laws so the  evil men in suits  can't really do anything  to
him anyway.
    ___gui_e - Has cats, we think.
    _a_d_er - Evil poster of .bz.tar.gz and sometimes .zoo, makes  'em
work for the files, despised by newbies for this very reason.
    _a_t_rk - What can one  say, yes in fact  WHAT! There see? I  said
it. Possibly the most senior of the group, in both senses of the word.
    none -  An absolute  genius,  one of  the  true pioneers  of  alt.
binaries.e-book, originator of UC, EB, SS, and several other acronyms,
he also fought for  and won the right  to post uncorrected works.  ALL
HAIR! Er, HAIL!  Yes, that's right,  I meant HAIL!  Not HAIR!  Because
HAIR! doesn't make any sense. Hmmm... ALL HAIR!
    Ed_____ - For living in the same  sort of Friged Hell Hole that  I
do. Yeah I know that might give my hiddy hole away, but what the hell?
I'm out of here in under a month.
    fo_ ___ - Keeper of  the booklist, Organizer of the  Unorganizable
and Arch Fiend of Chaos.
    ___gon7__ - Poster of  further UCs, scanner of  some books that  I
already have and generally maker of greater easieness in my life.
    R R_dn_r -  Five to one  says she still  hasn't gotten laid.  Yes,
this is designed to elicit comment.
    R_n_ - For having an interesting symbol over her (his?) name.
    B_x___ - Flood on man!
    The Insane Avicado Hit Squad - Just for being there when I  needed
you.
    Me - For giving Myself someone to lean on.
    I - For not killing Me when You declared Jihad on I.
    Myself - For not letting Me or I anywhere near My's sword.
    The Men in White Suits - For all the good times.
    Finally
    Erik the Red - For being a distand relative of mine and for giving
me an excuse to label, raping, looting and pillaging as a  "subsitance
right".
    Well gents,  sheep,  fleas,  ticks,  one  celled  organismims  and
ladies, that will be all
    for now, till next we meet  always remember, it only takes one  to
tango, and hobgoblins
    have always been lurking under your bed, you've just never  REALLY
looked before.
    Long live the Dynastical Imperium of Ulkax Four!
    *Ending Theme Music with fade to black*
    Bing Bong Bop Bop, Da Da, Dabop bop, BING! BING!
    BOOONNNNNGGGGGG!!!
    READ THE FAQ!
    http://ebook.ultraslack.net/
    BLANNNNGGGG!
    - -End Rant--
    - -Begin Blank Space--