“For both those reasons I treasure human life. My word was picked carefully. A treasure is something you value greatly. This man, this incredible doctor who works all day and sometimes all night to keep us healthy, obviously treasures human life as well.
“When he spoke earlier, Dr. Turner didn’t tell you why we should fund his program, only what the disease was and how he would try to combat h. He assumed you all understood why. After listening to Mr. Macmillan,” Ellie said, glancing at the previous speaker, “I have some doubts.
“We must continue to study this horrible disease, until
370 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
we can contain and control it, because a human life is a precious commodity. Each individual person is a unique miracle, an amazing combination of complex chemicals with special talents, dreams, and experiences. Nothing can be more important to the overall colony than an activity aimed at the preservation of human life.
“I understand from the discussion today that Dr. Turner’s program is expensive. If taxes must be raised to pay for it, then perhaps each of us will have to do without some special item that we wanted. It is a small enough price to pay for the treasure of another human’s company.
“My family and friends tell me sometimes that I am hopelessly naive. That may be true. But perhaps my innocence allows me to see things more clearly than other people can. In this case I believe there is only one question that needs to be asked. If you, or some member of your family, had been diagnosed with RV-41, would you support Dr. Turner’s program? . . . Thank you very much.”
There was an eerie silence as Ellie stepped away from the rostrum. Then thunderous applause erupted. Tears flowed in both Nicole’s and Eponine’s eyes. On the Senate floor Dr. Robert Turner reached both his hands out to Ellie.
6
w:
fhen Nicole opened her eyes Richard was sitting beside her on the bed. He was holding a cup of coffee. “You told us to wake you at seven,” he said.
She sat up and took the coffee from him. “Thank you, darling,” Nicole said. “But why didn’t you let Line—”
“I decided to bring your coffee myself. . . . There is news from the Central Plain again. I wanted to discuss it with you, even though I know how you dislike being jabbered at first thing in the morning.”
Nicole took a long, slow sip from her cup. She smiled at her husband. “What’s the news?” she said.
“There were two more leggie incidents last night. That makes almost a dozen this week. Our defense forces reportedly destroyed three leggies who were ‘harassing’ the engineering crew.”
“Did the leggies make any attempts to fight back?”
“No, they didn’t. At the first sound of gunfire they raced for the hole in the other habitat. . . . Most of them escaped, as they did the day before yesterday.”
372 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
“And you still think they’re remote observers, like the spider biots in Ramas I and II?”
Richard nodded. “And you can just imagine what kind of a picture the Others are developing of us. We fire.on unarmed creatures without provocation … we react in a hostile manner to what is certainly an attempt at contact. …”
“I don’t like it either,” Nicole said softly. “But what can we do? The Senate explicitly authorized the exploration teams to defend themselves.”
Richard was about to reply when he noticed Benjy standing in the doorway. The young man was smiling broadly. “May I come in, Mother?” he asked.
“Of course, dear,” Nicole replied. She opened her arms wide. “Come give me a big birthday hug.”
“Happy birthday, Benjy,” Richard said as the boy, who was larger than most men, crawled onto the bed and embraced his mother.
“Thank you, Uncle Richard.”
“Are we still having a picnic in Sherwood Forest today?” Benjy asked slowly.
“Yes, indeed,” his mother answered. “And then tonight we’re having a big party.”
“Hooray,” Benjy said.
It was a Saturday. Patrick and Ellie were both sleeping late because they did not have classes. Line served breakfast to Richard, Nicole, and Benjy while the adults watched the morning news on television. There was a short film of the most recent “leggie confrontation” near the second habitat as well as comments from both of the gubernatorial candidates.
“As I have been saying for weeks now,” lan MacmiUan remarked to the television reporter, “we must dramatically expand our defense preparations. We have finally started to upgrade the weapons available to our forces, but we need to move more boldly in this arena.”
An interview with the weather director concluded the morning news. The woman explained that the unusually dry and windy recent weather had been caused by a “modeling error” in their computer simulation. “All week long,” she said, “we have been trying unsuccessfully to
THE GARDEN OF RAMA
373
create rain. Now, of course, since it’s the weekend, we have programmed sunshine. . . . But we promise it will rain next week.”
“They don’t have the slightest idea what they’re doing,” Richard grumbled, switching off the television. “They’re overcommanding the system and generating chaos.”
“What’s k-oss, Uncle Richard?” Benjy asked.
Richard hesitated for a moment. “I guess the simplest definition is the absence of order. But in mathematics, the word has a more precise meaning. It is used to describe unbounded responses to small perturbations.” Richard laughed. “I’m sorry, Benjy. Sometimes I talk in scientific gobbledygook.”
Benjy smiled. “I like it when you talk to me as if I’m nor-mal,” he said carefully. “And some-times I do un-der-stand a lit-tle.”
Nicole seemed preoccupied while Line was clearing the breakfast dishes off the table. When Benjy left the room to brush his teeth, she leaned toward her husband. “Have you talked to Katie?” she asked. “She didn’t answer her phone yesterday afternoon or last night.” ,
Richard shook his head.
“Benjy will be crushed if she doesn’t show up for his party. I’m going to send Patrick off to find her this morning.”
Richard stood up from his chair and walked around the table. He reached down and took Nicole’s hand. “And what about you, Mrs. Wakefield? Have you scheduled some rest and relaxation anywhere in your busy program? After all, it is the weekend.”
“I’m going by the hospital this morning to help train the two new paramedics. Then Ellie and I will leave here with Benjy at ten. On the way back I’ll stop by the courtroom—I haven’t even read the submitted briefs for the cases on Monday. I have a quick meeting with Kenji at two-thirty and my pathology lecture at three. … I should be home by four-thirty.”
“Which will give you just enough time to organize Ben-jy’s party. Really, darling, you need to slow down. After all, you’re not a biot.”
374 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
Nicole kissed her husband. “You should talk. Aren’t you the one who works twenty or thirty straight hours when you’re involved in an exciting project?” She stopped a moment and became serious. “All this is very important, darling. … I feel we’re at a cusp in the affairs of the colony and that I really am making a difference here.”
“No question, Nicole. You are definitely having an impact. But you never have any time for yourself.”
“That’s a luxury item,” Nicole said, opening the door to Patrick’s room. “To be savored in my later years.”
As they emerged from the trees into the wide meadow, rabbits and squirrels scurried out of their way. On the opposite side of the meadow, quietly eating in the middle of a patch of tall purple flowers, was a young stag. He turned his head of new antlers toward Nicole, Ellie, and Benjy as they approached him, and then bounded away into the forest.
Nicole consulted her map. “There should be some picnic tables here somewhere, right beside the meadow.”
Benjy was kneeling down over a group of yellow flowers that were full of bees. “Ho-ney,” he said with a smile. “Bees make ho-ney in their hives.”
After several mintues they located the tables and spread out a cloth on top of one of them. Line had packed sand: wiches—Benjy liked peanut butter and jelly best—plus fresh oranges and grapefruit from the orchards near San Miguel. While they were eating lunch, another family traipsed through the other side of the meadow. Benjy waved.
“Those peo-ple don’t know it’s my birth-day,” he said.
“But we do,” Ellie said, raising her cupful of lemonade to make a toast. “Congratulations, brother.”
Just before they were finished eating, a small cloud passed overhead and the bright colors of the meadow momentarily dimmed. “That’s an unusually dark cloud,” Nicole commented to Ellie. Moments later it was gone and the grasses and flowers were again bathed in sunlight.
“Do you want your pudding now?” Nicole asked Benjy. “Or do you want to wait?”
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109