Rama 2 by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee

“Cosmonaut Tabori and I were having a conversation about General Borzov and we started speculating about what might have caused his pain/’ Nicole said blandly. “After all, his appendix was perfectly healthy, so some­thing else must have been responsible for his acute discomfort. In the course of our conversation, I mentioned to Janos that an adverse drug reaction should be considered as one possible cause. It was not a very strong state­ment.”

Dr. Brown seemed relieved and immediately changed the subject. How­ever, Nicole’s statement had not satisfied Francesca. Unless I am mistaken, our lady journalist has more questions, Nicole mused. But she isn’t going to ask them right now. She watched Francesca and could tell that the Italian woman was not paying attention to Dr. Brown’s monologue in the backseat. While he was discussing the reaction on Earth to Wilson’s death, Francesca was deep in thought-There was a momentary quiet after Brown finished his commentary. Ni­cole glanced around her at the miles of ice, the imposing cliffs on the sides of the Cylindrical Sea, and the skyscrapers of New York in front of her. Rama was a glorious world. She had a momentary pang of guilt about her distrust of Francesca and Dr. Brown. It’s a shame that we humans are never able to pull in the same direction, Nicole said to herself. Not even when confronted by infinity.

“I can’t imagine how you have managed it,” Francesca said, suddenly breaking the silence. She had turned to address Nicole. “Even after all this time, not even the tabloid videos have a legitimate lead. And it doesn’t take a genius to figure out when it must have occurred.”

Dr. Brown was completely lost. “What in the world are you talking about?” he asked.

“Our famous life science officer,” Francesca replied. “Don’t you find it fascinating that after all this time, the identity of her daughter’s father is still unknown to the public?”

“Signora Sabatini,” Nicole said immediately, switching to Italian, “as I told you once before, this subject is none of your business. I will not tolerate this kind of intrusion into my private affairs—”

“I just wanted to remind you, Nicole/’ Francesca interrupted quickly, also in Italian, “that you have secrets you might not want exposed.”

David Brown stared blankly at the two women. He had not understood a word in the last exchange and was confused by the obvious tension. “So, David,” Francesca said in a patronizing tone, “you were telling us about the mood on Earth. Do you think we’re going to be ordered home? Or are we merely going to abort this particular sortie?”

“The COG Executive Council has been called into special session for later this week,” he answered after a puzzled hesitation. “Dr. Maxwell’s current guess is that we will be told to abandon the project.”

“That would be a typical overreaction from a group of government offi­cials whose primary objective has always been to minimize the downside risk. For the first time in history, adequately prepared human beings are exploring the interior of a vehicle built by another intelligence. Yet on Earth, the politicians continue to act as if nothing unusual has happened. They are incapable of vision. It’s amazing.”

Nicole des Jardins did not listen to the rest of Francesca’s conversation with Dr. Brown. Her mind was still focused on their earlier exchange. She must think I have proof about the drugs in Borzov, Nicole said to herself. There’s no other possible explanation for the threat

When they reached the edge of the ice, Francesca spent ten minutes setting up the robot camera and sound equipment for a sequence showing the three of them preparing to search the alien city for their missing col­league. Nicole’s complaints to Dr. Brown about the waste of time went unheeded. She did, however, make the fact that she was annoyed obvious by refusing to participate in the video sequence. While Francesca was complet­ing her preparations, Nicole climbed the nearby stairway and studied the amazing city of skyscrapers. Behind and below her, Nicole could hear Fran­cesca invoking the drama of the moment for the millions of viewers back on Earth.

“Here I stand on the outskirts of the mysterious island city of New York. It was near this very spot that Dr. Takagishi, Cosmonaut Wakefield, and I heard some strange sounds earlier this week. We have reason to suspect that New York may have been the professor’s destination when he took off from Beta campsite last night to do some solitary and unauthorized explora­tion. . . .

“What has happened to the professor? Why does he not respond when called on the commpak? Yesterday we witnessed a terrible tragedy when journalist Reggie Wilson, risking his own life to save this reporter, was trapped inside the rover and was unable to escape the powerful claws of the crab biots. Has a similar fate befallen our Rama expert? Did the extraterres­trials who built this amazing vehicle eons ago perhaps create a sophisticated trap designed to subdue and ultimately destroy any unsuspecting visitors? We don’t know for certain. But we . . .”

From her vantage point on top of the wall, Nicole tried to ignore Fran­cesca and imagine in what direction Dr. Takagishi might have gone. She consulted the maps stored in her pocket computer. He would have gone toward the exact geometrical center of the city, she concluded. He was certain there was meaning in the geometry.

35 INTO THE PIT

They had walked the bewildering maze of streets for only twenty minutes, but they would have already been hopelessly lost without their personal navigators. They had no thorough plan for the search. They simply wandered up and down streets in a quasi-random pattern. Every three or four minutes there would be another transmission from Admiral Heilmann to Dr. Brown and the search party would have to look for a location where the signal strength was satisfactory.

“At this rate,” Nicole remarked as once again they faintly heard Otto Heilmann’s voice on the communicator, “our search is going to take forever Dr. Brown, why don’t you just stay in one spot? Then Francesca and I—”

“Break break,” they heard Otto more clearly as David Brown moved into a space between two tall buildings. “Did you copy that last transmission?”

“Afraid not, Otto,” Dr. Brown replied. “Would you please repeat it.”

“Yamanaka, Wakefield, and Turgenyev have covered the bottom third of the Northern Hemicylinder. No sign of Takagishi. It’s unlikely that he could have gone farther north, unless he went to one of the cities. In that case we should have seen his footprints somewhere, So you’re probably on the right track.

“Meanwhile we have big news here, Our captured crab biot started to move about two minutes ago. It is trying to escape, but so far its tools have barely dented the cage. Tabori is working feverishly to build a larger, stronger cage that will go around the entire apparatus. I’m bringing Yamanaka’s ‘copter back to Beta so he can give Tabori a hand. He should be here in a minute—Wait. . . . There’s an urgent coming through from WakeBeld. . . . I’ll put him on.”

Richard Wakefield’s British accent was unmistakable, though he could barely be heard by the trio in New York. “Spiders,” he shouted in response to a question from Admiral Heilmann. “You remember the spider biot dis­sected by Laura Ernst? Well, we can see six of them just beyond the south­ern cliff. They’re all over that temporary hut we built. And something has apparently repaired those two dead crab biots, for our prisoner’s brothers are trundling toward the south pole—”

“Pictures!” Francesca Sabatini screamed into the radio. “Are you taking pictures?”

“What’s that? Sorry, I did not copy.”

“Francesca wants to know if you’re taking pictures,” Admiral Heilmann clarified.

“Of course, love,” Richard Wakefield said. “Both the automatic imaging system in the helicopter and the hand camera you gave me this morning have been running without interruption. The spider biots are amazing. I’ve never seen anything move so fast. … By the way, any sign of our Japanese professor?”

“Not yet,” David Brown hollered from New York. “It’s slow going in this maze. I feel as if I’m looking for a needle in a haystack.”

Admiral Heilmann repeated the status of the missing person search for Wakefield and Turgenyev in the helicopter. Richard then said that they were coming back to Beta to refuel. “What about you, David?” Heilmann asked. “In view of everything, including the need to keep those bastards on Earth informed, don’t you think you should return to Beta yourself? Cosmonauts Sabatini and des Jardins can continue the search for Dr, Takagishi. If neces­sary we can send someone to replace you when the helicopter picks you up.”

“I don’t know, Otto, I haven’t—” Francesca turned off the transmit switch on David Brown’s radio in the middle of his reply. He shot her an angry glance that quickly softened.

“We need to talk about this,” she said firmly. “Tell him you’ll call him back in a couple of minutes.”