Rama 3 – The Garden of Rama by Clarke, Arthur C.

achieved her goal of creating a design for everyday living that was neither uniform nor sterile.

Richard and the Eagle agreed on the New Eden transportation and communication systems, both external and internal, in just a few hours. They had more difficulty with the overall environmental control and biot designs. The Eagle’s original concept, on which the infrastructure supporting New Eden was based, assumed twelve hours of light and twelve hours of darkness every day. Periods of sunlight, clouds, and rain were to be regular and predictable. There was to be virtually no variation in the temperature as a function of place and time.

When Richard requested seasonal changes in the length of the day and more variability in all the weather parameters, the Eagle stressed that allowing those “significant variations” in the enormous volume of air in the habitat would result in the use of much more “critical computational resource” than had originally been allocated during the infrastructure design. The Eagle also indicated that the major control algorithms would have to be restructured and retested, and that the departure date would be delayed as a result. Nicole supported Richard on the weather issue and the seasons, explaining to the Eagle that true human behavior (“which you and the Nodal Intelligence apparently want to observe”) was definitely dependent on both these factors.

In the end a compromise was reached. The length of day and night throughout a year would match a location at thirty degrees latitude on the Earth. The weather in New Eden would be allowed to evolve naturally within specified limits, the master controller only acting when conditions reached the edge of the “design box.” Thus the temperature, wind, and rainfall could freely fluctuate inside tolerances. The Eagle was adamant about two items, however. There could be no lightning and no ice. If either of those conditions (both of which introduced “new complexities” into his computational model) were imminent, even if the rest of the parameters were still within the design box, then the control system would take over automatically and regularize the weather.

THE GARDEN OF RAMA

169

It had been the Eagle’s original intention to retain the same kind of biots that had been in the first two.Rama craft. Richard and Nicole both, however, stressed to him that the Raman biots, especially the ones like the centipedes, mantises, crabs, and spiders, were not at all appropriate.

“The cosmonauts that have boarded the two Rama craft,” Nicole explained, “would not be considered average humans. Far from it, in fact. We were especially trained to deal with sophisticated machines—and even some of us were frightened by a few of your biots. The more ordinary humans who will probably form the bulk of the New Eden inhabitants will not be at all comfortable with these bizarre mechanical contraptions scurrying all over their realm.”

After several’hours of discussion the Eagle agreed to redesign the biot maintenance staff. For example, garbage would be collected by robots that looked like typical garbage trucks on Earth–there just wouldn’t be any drivers. Construction work, when required, would be done by robots whose shapes were the same as vehicles performing similar functions on Earth. Thus the strange machines would be familiar in appearance to the colonists, and their xenophobic fears should be mitigated.

“What about the performance of routine, everyday activities?” the Eagle asked at the end of one long meeting. “We had thought we would use human biots, voice responsive, deployed in large numbers, to free your colonists of all drudgery. We’ve spent considerable time since you arrived perfecting the design.”

Richard liked the idea of having robot assistants, but Nicole was leery. “It is imperative,” she said, “that these human biots be absolutely identifiable. There should be no chance that anyone, not even a small child, could mistake one for a real human being.”

Richard chuckled. “You’ve read too much science fiction,” he said.

“But this is a real worry,” Nicole protested. “I can well imagine the quality of the human biots that would be made here at the Node. We’re not talking about those

170 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE

vacant imitations we saw inside Rama. People would be terrified if they couldn’t tell the difference between a human and a machine.”

“So we’ll limit the number of varieties,” Richard responded. “And they’ll be easily classified by primary function. Does that satisfy your concern? It would be a shame not to take advantage of this incredible technology.”

“That might work,” Nicole said, “providing that one short briefing could easily familiarize everyone with the different types. We must absolutely ensure that there are no problems of misidentification.”

After several weeks of intense effort, most of the critical design decisions had been made and the work load dropped for Richard and Nicole. They were able to resume a more or less normal life with the children and Michael. One evening the Eagle dropped by and informed the family that New Eden was in its final test period, primarily verifying the ability of the new algorithms to monitor and control the environment over the wide range of possible conditions.

“Incidentally,” the Eagle continued, “we’ve inserted gas exchange devices, or GEDs, in all the places—Sherwood Forest, the parks, along the shores of the lake and the sides of the mountain—where plants coming from Earth wiil eventually be growing. The GEDs act like plants, absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen, and are quantitatively equivalent as well. They prevent the buildup of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which over a long period of time would undermine the efficacy of the weather algorithms. Operating the GEDs requires some power, so we’ve slightly reduced the wattage available for human consumption during the early days of the colony. However, once the plants are flourishing the GEDs can be removed and there will be abundant power for any reasonable purpose.”

“Okay, Mr. Eagle,” Katie said when he was finished. “What we all want to know is when we are going to depart.”

“I was going to tell you on Christmas,” the Eagle replied, the small wrinkle that passed for a smile forming

THE GARDEN OF RAMA

1 71

at the corner of his mouth, “and that’s still two days away.”

“Tell us now, oh, please, Mr. Eagle,” Patrick said.

“Well … all right,” their alien companion replied. “Our target date for finishing with Rama in the Hangar is January 11. We expect to load you in the shuttle and depart from the Node two days later, on the morning of January 13.”

That’s only three weeks, Nicole thought, her heart skipping a beat as the reality of their departure sunk in. There is still so much to do. She glanced across the room, where Michael and Simone were sitting beside each other on the couch. Among other things, my beautiful daughter, I must prepare you for your wedding.

“So we’ll be married on your birthday, Mama,” Simone said. “We’ve always said the ceremony would be one week before the rest of the family left.”

Tears crept involuntarily into Nicole’s eyes. She lowered her head so that the children would not see. / am not ready to say good-bye, Nicole thought. / cannot bear to think that I will never see Simone again.

Nicole had chosen to leave the family parlor game that was going on in the living room. She had given, as her excuse, that she had some final design data to develop for the Eagle, but in reality she desperately needed a few moments alone to organize the last three weeks of her life at the Node. All during dinner she had been thinking of all the things she needed to do. She had been close to panic. Nicole feared that there wasn’t enough time, or that she would forget something critica! altogether. Once she had made a thorough list of her remaining tasks, however, along with a timetable for accomplishing them, Nicole relaxed somewhat. It was not an impossible list.

One of the items that Nicole had entered in her electronic notebook, in all capital letters, was “BENJY??” As she sat on the side of her bed, thinking about her retarded eldest son and chastising herself for not having addressed the issue earlier, Nicole heard a loud knock on her open door. It was an astonishing coincidence.

172 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE

“Mom-my,” Benjy said very slowly with his wide, innocent smile, “can I talk to you?” He thought for a moment. “Now?” he added.

“Of course, darling,” Nicole answered. “Come in and sit beside me on the bed.”

Benjy came over next to his mother and gave her a big hug. He looked down at his lap and spoke haltingly. His emotional struggle was obvious. “You and Rich-ard and the other chil-dren are go-ing a-way soon for a ve-ry long time,” he said.

“That’s right,” Nicole replied, trying to be cheerful.

“Dad-dy and Si-mone will stay here and be mar-ried?”

This was more of a question. Benjy had lifted his head and was waiting for Nicole to corroborate his statement. When she nodded, tears rushed instantly into his eyes and his face contorted. “What about Ben-jy?” he said. “What will hap-pen to Ben-jy?”