The robot Eleanor had returned by die time Nicole awakened. She explained to Nicole that Max was going to start ripping out the drainage system in the next few hours and that Nicole was finally going to leave her hideout. Nicole was surprised when, after crawling through the tunnel, she encountered Eponine standing beside Max.
The two women embraced, “fa va bien? Je ne t’ai pas vue depuis si longtemps,” Eponine said to Nicole.
“Mais mon amie, pourquol es-tu id? J’aipense que—”
“All right, you two,” Max interrupted. “You’ll have plenty of time later to become reacquainted. Right now we need to hurry. We’re already behind schedule because I took too long to remove that damn drain. Ep, take Nicole inside and dress her. You can explain the plan while you’re putting on your domes. I need to shower and shave.”
As the two women walked in the dark from the barn to Max’s house, Eponine informed Nicole mat everything was in place for her escape from the habitat. “During the last four days Max has hidden the diving gear piece by piece around the shore of Lake Shakespeare. He also has another full set stored in a warehouse in Beauvois, in case someone has removed your mask or air tanks from their hiding places. While you and I are at the party, Max will make sure that everything is all right.”
“What party?” a confused Nicole asked.
Eponine laughed as they entered the house. “Of course,”
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she said. “I forgot that you haven’t been following the calendar. Tonight is Mardi Gras. There is a big party in Beauvois, and another over in Positano. Almost everyone will be out tonight. The government has been encouraging people to attend, probably to keep their minds off the other colony problems.”
Nicole looked very strangely at her friend, and Eponine laughed again. “Don’t you understand? Our biggest difficulty was figuring out how to get you all the way across the colony to Lake Shakespeare without being seen. Everyone in New Eden knows your face. Even Richard agreed that this was our only reasonable opportunity. You’ll be in costume, and wearing a mask—”
“Have you talked to Richard, then?” Nicole asked, starting to comprehend at least the outline of the plan.
“Not directly,” replied Eponine. “But Max has communicated with him through the little robots. Richard was responsible for the drainage system idea that misled the police on their last visit to the farm. He was worried that you would be discovered.”
The women entered the bedroom, where a magnificent white dress was spread out upon the bed. “You will attend the party as the queen of England,” Eponine said. “I have been working on your dress nonstop all week. With this full mask and diese long white gloves and leggings, none of your hair or skin will show. We shouldn’t need to stay at die party for more than an hour or so, and you won’t say much to anybody, but if anyone should ask, simply tell them that you’re Ellie. She’s staying home tonight with your granddaughter.”
“Does Ellie know I have escaped?” Nicole asked a few seconds later. She was experiencing a strong yearning to see both her daughter and little Nicole, whom she had never even met.
“Probably,” said Eponine. “At least she knew that an attempt was likely. It was Ellie who first involved me in your escape. Ellie and I cached your supplies oukon the Central Plain.”
“So you haven’t seen her since I’ve been out of prison?”
RAMA REVEALED
33
“Oh, yes. But we haven’t said anything. Right now Ellie must be very careful. Nakamura is watching her like a hawk.”
“Is anyone else involved?” Nicole asked, holding up the dress to see how it would fit.
“No,” answered Eponine. “Just Max, Ellie, and I. … And of course Richard and the little robots.”
Nicole stood in front of the mirror for several seconds. So here I am, finally the queen of England, at least for an hour or two. She was certain that the idea for the specific costume had also come from Richard. Nobody else could have made a choice so appropriate. Nicole adjusted the crown upon her head. With this white face, she thought, Henry might have even made me queen.
Nicole was deep in a memory of many years earlier when Max and Eponine emerged from the bedroom. Nicole began to laugh immediately. Max was dressed in a scanty green outfit and was carrying a trident. He was Neptune, king of the sea, and Eponine was his sexy mermaid princess.
“You both look great!” Queen Nicole said, wifo a wink at Eponine. “Wow, Max,” she added a second later in a teasing voice, “I had no idea you had such an imposing body.”
“It’s ridiculous,” Max grumbled. “I have hair everywhere—all over my chest, down my back, in my ears, even—”
“Except it’s a little thin up here,” Eponine said, patting his head after removing his crown.
“Shit,” said Max. “Now I know why I’ve never lived with a woman. . . . Come on, you two, let’s get going. And by the way, the weather is wacky again tonight. You’ll both need a shawl or a jacket during our ride in the buggy.”
“The buggy?” Nicole said, glancing at Eponine.
Her friend smiled. “You’ll see in a minute,” Eponine said.
When the New Eden government had requisitioned all the trains to convert the lightweight extraterrestrial alloys
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RAMA REVEALED
35
into war planes and other weaponry, the colony of New Eden had been left without a comprehensive transportation system. Luckily most of the citizens had purchased bicycles, and a full set of bicycle paths had been developed during the first three years after the initial settlement. Otherwise, it would have been very difficult for people to move about in
the colony.
By the time of Nicole’s escape, the old train tracks had all been removed and roads had been laid where the tracks had once been. These roads were used by the electric cars (restricted to government leaders and key military personnel), the transport trucks (which also ran on stored electricity), and the creative and varied other transportation devices constructed by individual citizens of New Eden. Max’s buggy was such a device. In front it was a bicycle. The back half, however, was a large pair of soft seats, almost a couch, resting on two wheels and a strong axle, much like the horse-drawn buggies three centuries earlier on the Earth.
King Neptune struggled with the pedals as the costumed trio eased onto the road toward Central City. “Shit,” Max said as he strained to accelerate, “why did I ever agree to this absurd plan?”
Nicole and Eponine laughed in the seat behind him. “Because you’re a wonderful man,” Eponine said, “and you wanted us both to be comfortable. Besides, can you imagine a queen riding a bicycle for almost ten kilometers?”
The temperature was indeed on the cool side. Eponine spent a few minutes explaining to Nicole how the weather continued to grow more and more unstable. “There was a recent report on television,” she said, “that the government intends to settle many of the colonists in the second habitat. Its environment is still unspoiled. Nobody has any confidence that we will ever fix the problems here in New Eden.” As they neared Central City, Nicole worried that Max was becoming chilled. She offered him the shawl Eponine had loaned her, which he eventually accepted. “You could have picked a wanner costume,” Nicole said teasiagly.
“Having Max be King Neptune was also Richard’s idea,” Eponine said. “That way, if he needs to carry any of
your diving equipment tonight, he will look perfectly natural.”
Nicole was surprisingly emotional as the buggy slowed in the growing traffic and wound its way through the colony’s main buildings in Central City. She remembered a night, years before, when she had been the only human awake in New Eden. On that same night, after checking her family one last time, an apprehensive Nicole had climbed into her berth and prepared to sleep for the many-year trip back to the solar system.
An image of the Eagle, that strange manifestation of alien intelligence who had been their guide at the Node, appeared in her mind’s eye. Could you have predicted all this? Nicole wondered, synthesizing quickly the entire colony history since that first rendezvous with the passengers from Earth onboard the Pinta. And what do you think of us now? Nicole grimly shook her head, acutely embarrassed by the behavior of her fellow humans.
“They never replaced it,” Eponine was saying from the seat beside her. They had entered the main plaza.
“I’m sorry,” Nicole said. “I’m afraid I was daydreaming.”
“That wonderful monument your husband designed, the one that kept track of where Rama was in the galaxy. . . . Remember, it was destroyed the night the mob wanted to lynch Martinez. . . . Anyway, it was never replaced.”