“Whaaat?” said Richard, not believing his translator. “That’s not possible.”
“Yes, it is,” Archie said. “As you can imagine, these factors significantly deter our participation in nondefensive hostilities. The Chief Optimizer knows that she signed her own death warrant two weeks ago when she authorized the beginning of war preparations. All eighty of the octospiders now living and working in the War Domain will be terminated when this war is either concluded or the threat of war has officially passed. … I myself, since I was part of the discussions today, will be placed on the termination lists if war is declared.”
Richard and Nicole were speechless. “The only possible justification for war to an octospider,” Archie continued, “is an unambiguous threat to the very survival of the colony. Once that threat is identified and acknowledged, our species undergoes a metamorphosis and prosecutes die war, without mercy, until either the threat is obliterated or our colony has been destroyed. Generations ago, some very wise optimizers realized that those individual octospiders who were engaged in killing, and the design of killing, were so psychologically altered by their experiences that they became a significant detriment to the operation of a peaceful colony. That’s why the termination codicils were enapted.”
Richard and Nicole were still silent even after Archie had finished talking. At length Richard started to ask Archie
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to leave the room so that he could speak privately to his wife, but he quickly remembered the ubiquitous quadroids. “Nicole, darling,” he said finally, “I don’t think Archie’s plan is quite right for several reasons. For one thing, I should be going with him instead of you—”
When Nicole started to interrupt, Richard gestured with his hands for her to remain quiet, “Now hear me out,” he said. “Throughout our marriage, especially since we left the Node, you have always been the one out front, giving of your time and energy for the benefit of the family or the colony. Now it’s my turn. In tiiis particular instance, I believe that I am also better suited to the proposed task. I can more easily scare our fellow humans by conjuring up images of doomsday blows delivered by the octospiders.”
“But you don’t speak (heir language well,” Nicole protested. “Without your translator—”
“I’ve thought about that,” Richard said. “And I think that Ellie and Nikki should go with Archie and me. First, with a child among us, the probability that we will be killed by the advance force is significantly reduced. Second, Ellie is completely fluent in the octospider language and can back me up if my translator is either not available or inadequate. Third, and this may be the most important reason, the only crime that Nakamura and his minions can possibly be attributing to the octospiders is Ellie’s kidnapping. If she shows up, healthy and praising the alien enemy, then the war effort will be undermined.”
Nicole frowned. “I don’t like the idea of Nikki going along. It’s much too dangerous. I would never forgive myself if something happened to that child.”
“Nor would I,” Richard said. “But I don’t think Ellie will go without her. . . . Nicole, there are no good plans. We will be forced to choose the least unsatisfactory option.”
During a brief pause in the conversation Archie spoke in color. “Richard’s points are all excellent,” the octospider said to Nicole. “And there is one additional reason why it might be better for you to remain here in the Emerald City—die rest of the humans who stay behind will need your leadership in the difficult days ahead.”
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Nicole’s mind was racing. She had not been prepared for Richard to volunteer to go. “Are you telling me, Archie,” she said, “that you endorse Richard’s suggestions, including taking EHie and Nikki with you?”
“Yes,” the octospider replied.
“But Richard,” Nicole then said, turning to her husband, “you know how you hate what you call political crap. Are you certain you have thought this through?”
Richard nodded. Nicole shrugged. “All right, then,” she said. “We’ll talk to EHie. If she agrees, we have a plan.”
The Chief Optimizer thought that the amended proposal had some chance of success, but felt compelled to remind everyone that, based on the detailed octospider analysis of the likely outcome, there was still a high probability that both Archie and Richard would be killed, and a nonzero chance that Ellie and Nikki would not survive as well. Nicole’s heart skipped a beat when she translated the octospider leader’s reminder. The Chief Optimizer was not telling her anything that Nicole did not already know; however, Nicole had been so involved in the planning and discussions that she had not yet confronted any of the likely outcomes of their decisions.
Nicole said very little while the principals all agreed upon a baseline timetable. When she heard Richard say that Archie and he, with or without Ellie and Nikki, would leave the Emerald City one tert after dawn the next day, Nicole shuddered. Tomorrow, flashed quickly through her mind. Tomorrow our lives will change again.
She remained quiet on the transport ride back to their zone. While Richard and Archie talked about many different subjects, Nicole tried to wrestle with the growing fear inside her. An inner voice, one that she had not heard for years, was telling her that she would never see Richard again after tomorrow. Is this perhaps some peculiar reaction on my part? she asked herself critically. Am I having trouble letting Richard be the hero?
The strength of the premonition grew, despite Nioele’s attempts to combat it. She remembered a terrible night
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many, many years earlier, when she had been in her bedroom in the little house in Chilly-Mazarin. Nicole had awakened screaming from a violent and vivid nightmare. “Mommy is dead,” the ten-year-old girl had cried.
Her father had tried to console her and had explained that her mother was just away on a trip visiting her family in the Ivory Coast. The telegram announcing her mother’s death had arrived at the house seven hours later.
“If you don’t have any weapons stockpiled and no trained soldiers,” Richard was now saying, “how in the world can you prepare for a war fast enough to defend yourself?”
“I cannot tell you that,” Archie replied. “But believe me, I know for a fact that a conflict at this time between our two species could result in the total annihilation of the human civilization in Rama.”
Nicole could not calm her tormented soul. No matter how many times she told herself she was overreacting, the premonitory fear did not diminish. She reached over and took Richard’s hand. He wrapped his fingers through hers and continued his conversation with Archie.
Nicole gazed intently at him. / am proud of you, Richard, she thought, but I am also scared. And I am not yet ready to say good-bye,
It was very late when Nicole went to bed. She had awakened Ellie gently, without disturbing Nikki and the Watanabe twins, who were sleeping in the Wakefield house so that Patrick and Nai could have their wedding night alone. Ellie, of course, had had many questions. Richard and Nicole had explained the plan, including everything important they had learned from Archie and the Chief Optimizer earlier in the evening. Ellie had been fearful, but had finally agreed that Nikki and she would accompany Richard and Archie the next day.
Nicole could not fall into a deep sleep. After tossing and turning for an hour, she began a sequence of short, chaotic dreams. In her final dream Nicole was again seven years old back in the Ivory Coast, in the middle of her Poro ceremony.
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She was half naked out in the water, with the lioness prowling around the perimeter of the pond. Little Nicole took a deep breath and dove under the water. When she surfaced, Richard was standing on the shore where the lioness had been. It was a young Richard smiling at her initially, but as Nicole watched, he aged rapidly and became the same Richard who was beside her that moment in the bed. She heard Omeh’s voice in her ear. “Look carefully, Ronata,” the voice said. “And remember. …”
Nicole woke up. Richard was sleeping peacefully. She sat up in the bed and tapped on the wall one time. A solitary firefly appeared in the doorway, shining some light into the bedroom. Nicole stared at her husband. She looked at his hair and beard, gray from age, and remembered them when they had been black. She recalled fondly his ardor and humor during their courtship in New York. Nicole grimaced, took a deep breath, and kissed her index finger. She placed the finger on Richard’s lips. He did not stir. Nicole sat quietly for several more minutes, studying every feature of her husband’s face. Soft tears flowed down her cheeks and dropped from her chin onto the sheets. “I love you, Richard,” she said.