Rama Revealed(Rama IV)

RETURN TO THE NODE Chapter 11
"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.

"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 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.

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 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 eventually 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 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 emotions that were threatening to overwhelm her. This is not what I wanted to feel right now, she said to herself with difficulty. I 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 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. I want to go there, she said to herself- I 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, I 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 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.