The doorbell interrupted their conversation. Katie went to the door and returned a few moments later with the Eagle. “I hope I’m not disturbing your breakfast,” the birdman apologized, “but we have much to accomplish today. 1 will need for Mrs. Wakefield to come with me.”
Nicole took the final sip of her coffee and looked quizzically at the Eagle. “Alone?” she said. She was aware of a vague fear inside her. She had never left the apartment by herself with the Eagle during their sixteen-month stay at the Node.
“Yes,” the Eagle replied. “You’ll be coming with me alone. There is a special task that only you can perform.”
“Do I have ten minutes to get ready?”
“Certainly,” the Eagle replied.
While Nicole was out of the room, Richard peppered the Eagle with questions. “Okay,” Richard said at one juncture, “I understand that as a result of all these tests, you are confident now that we can safely remain asjeep throughout the acceleration and deceleration periods. But
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what about during normal cruise? Will we be awake or asleep?”
“Mostly asleep,” the Eagle replied, “because that way we can both retard the aging process and ensure your good health. But there are many uncertainties in the schedule. It may be necessary to awaken you several times en route.”
“Why have you not told us this before?”
“Because it wasn’t yet decided. The scenario for your mission is quite complicated and the baseline plan has only recently been defined.”
“I don’t want my aging process to ‘be retarded,’ ” Katie said. “I want to be a grown woman when we meet other people from the Earth.”
“As I told your mother and father yesterday,” the Eagle said to Katie, “it is important that we have the ability to slow the aging process while you and your family are asleep. We do not know exactly when you will return to your solar system. If you were to sleep for fifty years, for example—”
“Whaaat?” Richard interrupted in consternation. “Who said anything about fifty years? We reached here in twelve or thirteen. Why wouldn’t—”
“I’ll be older than Mama,” Katie said, a frightened look on her face.
Nicole entered from the next room. “What’s this I heard about fifty years? Why will it take so long? Are we going someplace else first?”
“Obviously,” Richard said. He was angry. “Why were we not told all this before we made the ‘allocation’ decision? We might have done something differently. . . . My God, if it take fifty years, Nicole and I will be a hundred years old!”
“No, you won’t,” the Eagle replied without emotion. “We estimate that you and Mrs. Wakefield will only age one year in five or six while we have you ‘suspended.’ For the children, the ratio will be closer to one year in two, at least until their growth subsides. We are wary of tampering too much with the growth hormones. And besides, the fifty years is an upper bound, what a human engineer would call a three-sigma number.”
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“Now I’m completely confused,” Katie said, walking over and directly confronting the Eagle. “How old will I be when I meet up with a human being who is not part of my family?”
“I can’t answer that question exactly, because there are statistical uncertainties involved,” their alien colleague replied. “But your body should be at the equivalent development level of your early to mid-twenties. At least that’s a most likely answer.” The Eagle motioned to Nicole. “Now that’s all I’m going to say. I have business with your mother. We should return before dinner tonight.”
“As usual,” Richard grumbled, “we’re told almost nothing. Sometimes I wish that we had not been so cooperative.”
“You could have been more difficult,” the Eagle remarked as he and Nicole were leaving the room, “and in fact our predictions, based on our observational data, were for less cooperation than we have had. In the end, though, there would have been no substantive difference in the outcome. This way it has been more pleasant for you.”
“Good-bye,” Nicole said.
“Good-bye,” said Benjy, waving to his mother after the door was already closed.
It was a long document. Nicole calculated that it would take her at least ten, maybe fifteen minutes to read the entire text out loud.
“Are you almost finished with your study?” the Eagle inquired again. “We’d like to begin the shooting, as you call it, as soon as possible.”
“Explain to me again what happens to this video after I make it,” Nicole requested.
“We broadcast it toward the Earth several years before you arrive in your solar system. That gives your fellow human beings ample time to respond.”
“How do you know if they have actually heard it?” ‘ ‘We have requested a simple return signal acknowledging receipt.”
“And what if you don’t ever receive this return signal?”
“That’s what contingency plans are for.”
Nicole had serious misgivings about reading the mes-
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sage. She asked if she could have some time to discuss the document with Richard and Michael.
“What is it that you are worried about?” the Eagle asked.
“Everything,” Nicole replied. “It just doesn’t seem right. I feel as if I’m being used to further your purpose— and since I don’t know exactly what your purpose is, I’m afraid that I’m being a traitor to the human species.”
The Eagle brought Nicole a glass of water and sat down beside her in the alien studio. “Let’s look at this logically,” the Eagle said. “We have very clearly told you that our primary objective is to gather detailed information about spacefaring species in the galaxy. Right?”
Nicole nodded.
“We have also constructed a habitat inside Rama for two thousand Earthlings and are sending you and your family back to gather those humans for an observational voyage. All you’re doing, with that video, is informing the Earth that we are on our way and that the two thousand members of your species, along with the supporting artifacts of your culture, should meet us in Mars orbit. What could be wrong with that?”
“The text of this document,” Nicole protested, pointing at the electronic notebook the Eagle had given her, “is extremely vague. I never indicate, for example, what will be the eventual fate of all these humans—only that they will be ‘cared for’ and ‘observed’ during some kind of a journey. There is also no mention of why the humans are being studied, or anything at all about the Node and its controlling intelligence. In addition, the tone is definitely threatening. I am telling the people on Earth who receive this transmission that if a contingent of humans does not rendezvous with Rama in Mars orbit, then the spaceship will approach closer to the Earth and ‘acquire its specimens in a less organized way.’ That is clearly a hostile statement.”
“You may edit the remarks, if you would like, just as long as the intent is not changed,” the Eagle replied. “But I should tell you that we have a great deal of experience with this type of communication. With species similar to
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yours, we have always been more successful when the message has not been too specific.”
“But why won’t you let me take the document back to the apartment? I could discuss it with Richard and Michael and we could jointly edit it to soften the tone.”
“Because the video must be prepared by you today,” the Eagle said stubbornly. “We are open to discussing modifications to the content and will work with you as long as necessary. But the sequence must be completed before you return to your family.”
The voice sounded friendly but the meaning was absolutely clear. / have no choice, Nicole thought. / am being ordered to do the video. She stared for several seconds at the strange creature sitting beside her. This Eagle is just a machine, Nicole said to herself, feeling her anger rise. He is carrying out his programmed instructions. . . . My quarrel is not with him.
“No,” she said abruptly, astonishing even herself. She shook her head. “I won’t do it.”
The Eagle was not prepared for Nicole’s response. There was a long silence. Despite her emotional agitation, Nicole was fascinated by her companion. What’s going on with him now? she wondered. Are complicated new logic loops being exercised in his equivalent of a brain? Or is he perhaps receiving signals from somewhere else?
At length the Eagle stood up. “Well,” he said, “this is quite a surprise. . . . We never expected you to refuse to do the video.”
“Then you haven’t been paying attention to what I’ve been saying. … I feel as if you, or whoever is commanding you, are using me … and purposely telling me as little as possible. If you want me to do something for you, then at least some of my questions should be answered.”
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