Rama Revealed(Rama IV)

ESCAPE Chapter 7

Nicole 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 softly. "And I 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 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 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 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 beltIboiler 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 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, 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."

"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 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."

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 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. "ALL 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."