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

“Let’s play catch first,” Benjy replied. He took the

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baseball equipment out of the picnic bag and handed a glove tp Ellie. “Let’s go,” he said, running out into the meadow.

While her two children were throwing the baseball back and forth, Nicole cleaned up the remains of their lunch. She was about to join Eilie and Benjy when she heard the alarm on her wrist radio. She pressed the receive button and the digital time display was replaced with a television picture. Nicole turned up the volume so that she could hear what Kenji Watanabe had to say.

“I’m sorry to bother you, Nicole,” Kenji said, “but we have an emergency. A rape complaint has been filed and the family wants an indictment immediately. It’s a sensitive case, in your jurisdiction, and I think it should be handled now. … I don’t want to say anything else on the line.”

“I’ll be there in half an hour,” Nicole responded.

At first Benjy was crestfallen that his picnic was going to be cut short. However, Ellie convinced her mother that it was all right for her to stay in the forest with Benjy for another couple of hours. Just as she departed from the meadow, Nicole handed the map of Sherwood Forest to Ellie. At that moment anotiier, larger cloud moved in front of the artificial New Eden sun.

There was no sign of any life at Katie’s apartment. Patrick was temporarily stymied. Where should he look for her? None of his university friends lived in Vegas, so he really didn’t know where to start.

He called Max Puckett from a public phone. Max gave Patrick the names, addresses, and phone numbers of three individuals he knew in Vegas. “None of these people is the kind you would want to invite home to dinner with your parents, if you know what I mean,” Max said with a laugh, “but they are all good-hearted and will probably help you find your sister.”

The only name Patrick recognized was Samantha Porter, whose apartment was just a few hundred meters from the phone booth. Even though it was the early afternoon, Samantha was still in her robe when she finally answered the door. “I thought that was you, when I looked on the

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monitor,” she said with a sexy smile. “You’re Patrick O’Toole, aren’t you?”

Patrick nodded and then shifted his feet uncomfortably during a long silence. “Miss Porter,” he said at length, “I have a problem—”

“You’re much too young to have a problem,” Sama> tha interrupted. She laughed heartily. “Why don’t you come inside and we’ll talk about it?”

Patrick blushed. “No, ma’am,” he said, “it’s not that kind of a problem. … I just can’t find my sister Katie and I thought maybe you could help me.”

Samantha, who had half turned to lead Patrick into her apartment, turned back to stare at the young man. “That’s why you’ve come to see me?” she said. She shook her head and laughed again. “What a disappointment! I thought that you had come to fool around. Then I could tell everybody, once and for all, whether or not you really are an alien.”

Patrick continued to fidget in the entry way. After several seconds Samantha shrugged. “I believe that Katie spends most of her time in the palace,” she said. “Go to the casino and ask for Sherry. She’ll know how to find your sister.”

“Yes, yes, Mr. Kobayashi, I understand. Wakari-mojM,” Nicole was saying to the Japanese gentlemajn in her office. “I can appreciate what you must be feeling. You can be sure that justice will be done.”

She escorted the man into the waiting room, where he joined his wife. Mrs. Kobayashi’s eyes were still swollen from her tears. Their sixteen-year-old daughter Mariko was in the New Eden Hospital, undergoing a fuJI medical examination. She had been badly beaten, but was not in critical condition.

Nicole called Dr. Turner after she finished talking to the Kobayashis. “There’s fresh semen in the girl’s vagina,” the doctor said, “and bruises on almost every square centimeter of her body. She’s an emotional wreck as well—rape is definitely a possibility.”

Nicole sighed. Mariko Kobayashi had named Pedro Martinez, the young man who had starred with Ellie in

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the school play, as the rapist. Could it be possible? Nicole rolled her chair across the floor of her office and accessed the colony data base through her computer.

MARTINEZ, PEDRO ESCOBAR . . . born 26 May 2228, Managua, Nicaragua . . . mother unwed, Maria Escobar, maid, domestic, often unemployed . . . father probably Ramon Martinez, black dockworker from Haiti … six half brothers and sisters, all younger . . . convicted for selling kokomo, 2241, 2242 . . . rape, 2243 . . . eight months Managua Correction Home . . . model prisoner . . . transfer to Covenant House in Mexico City, 2244 … IE 1.86, SC 52.

Nicole read the short computer entry twice before calling Pedro into her office. He sat down, as Nicole suggested, and then stared at the floor. A Lincoln biot stood in the corner throughout the interview and carefully recorded the conversation.

“Pedro,” Nicole said softly. There was no response. He did not even look up. “Pedro Martinez,” she repeated more forcefully, “do you understand that you have been accused of raping Mariko Kobayashi last night? I’m sure I don’t need to explain to you that this is a very serious accusation. . . . You are being given a chance now to respond to her charges.”

Pedro still did not say anything. “In New Eden,” Nicole continued at length, “we have a judicial system that may be different from the one you experienced in Nicaragua. Here criminal cases cannot proceed to indictment unless a judge, after examining the facts, believes that there is sufficient reason for indictment. That is why I am talking to you.”

After a long silence the young man, without looking up at all, mumbled something that was inaudible.

“What?” Nicole asked.

“She’s lying,” Pedro said, much louder. “I don’t know why, but Mariko’s lying.”

“Would you like to tell me your version of what happened?”

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“What difference would it make? Nobody is going to believe me anyway.”

“Pedro, listen to me. If, on the basis of an initial investigation, my court concludes that there is insufficient reason to proceed with the prosecution, your case can be dismissed. Of course, the seriousness of this charge demands a very thorough investigation, which means you will have to make a complete statement and answer some very tough questions.”

Pedro Martinez lifted his head and stared at Nicole with sorrowful eyes. “Judge Wakefield,” he said quietly, “Mariko and I did have sex last night … but it was her idea. She thought it would be fun to go into the forest—” The young man stopped talking and looked back down at the floor.

“Had you had intercourse with Mariko before?” Nicole asked after several seconds.

“Only once—about ten days ago,” Pedro answered.

“Pedro, was your lovemaking last night . . . was it extremely physical?”

Tears eased out of Pedro’s eyes and rolled onto his cheeks. “I did not beat her,” he said passionately. “I would never have hurt her.”

As he spoke there was a strange sound in the distance, like the cracking of a long whip, except much deeper in tone.

“What was that?” Nicole wondered out loud.

“Sounded like thunder,” Pedro remarked.

The thunder could also be heard in the village of Ha-kone, where Patrick was sitting in a luxurious suite in Nakamura’s palace, talking to his sister Katie. She was dressed in an expensive blue silk lounging outfit.

Patrick ignored the unexplained noise. He was angry. “Are you telling me that you won’t even try to make it to Benjy’s party tonight? What am I supposed to tell Mother?”

“Tell her anything you want,” Katie said. She took a cigarette from her case and placed it in her mouth. “Tell her you couldn’t find me.” She lit the cigarette with a

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gold lighter and blew the smoke in her brother’s direction. He tried to wave it away with his hand.

“Come on, baby brother,” Katie said with a laugh. “It won’t kill you.”

“Not immediately, anyway,” he answered.

“Look, Patrick,” Katie said, standing up and starting to pace around the suite, “Benjy’s an idiot, a moron. We’ve never been very close. He won’t even realize mat I’m not there unless someone mentions it to him.”

“You’re wrong, Katie. He’s more intelligent than you think. He asks about you all the time.”

“That’s crap, baby brother,” Katie replied. “You’re just saying it to make me feel guilty. . . . Look, I’m not coming. I mean, I might consider it if it were just you and Benjy and Ellie—although she’s been a pain in the ass ever since her ‘wonderful’ speech. But you know what it’s like for me around Mother. She’s on my case all the time.”