Rama Revealed(Rama IV)

RETURN TO THE NODE Chapter 2
Nicole 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?"

"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 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 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.

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.

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.

"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 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 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 makeup. She was not able to mitigate her anxiety. I 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.

"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.

"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.

Their 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 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.