‘And if I don’t?’ he had asked. ‘Then you’ll have to go back and try again.’ Something slapped him across the feet – hard, but not viciously. A million slimy hands were tearing at his body; even though his eyes were tightly closed, he could tell that darkness was falling as he arrowed down into the depths of the Cylindrical Sea.
With all his strength, he started to swim upwards towards the fading light. He could not open his, eyes for more than a single blink; the poisonous water felt like acid when he did so. He seemed to have been struggling for ages, and more than once he had a nightmare fear that he had lost his orientation and was really swimming downwards. Then he would risk another quick glimpse, and every time the light was stronger.
His eyes were still clenched tightly shut when he broke water. He gulped a precious mouthful of air, rolled over on his back, and looked around.
Resolution was heading towards him at top speed; within seconds, eager hands had grabbed him and dragged him aboard.
‘Did you swallow any water?’ was the Commander’s anxious question.
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Rinse out with this, anyway. That’s fine. How do you feel?’
‘I’m not really sure. I’ll let you know in a minute. Oh … thanks, everybody.’ The minute was barely up when Jimmy was only too sure how lie felt.
‘I’m going to be sick,’ he confessed miserably. His res-cuers were incredulous.
‘In a dead calm – on a flat sea?’ protested Sergeant Barnes, who seemed to regard Jimmy’s plight as a direct reflection on her skill.
‘I’d hardly call it flat,’ said the Commander, waving his arm around the band of water that circled the sky. ‘But don’t be ashamed – you may have swallowed some of that stuff. Get rid of it as quickly as you can.
Jimmy was still straining, unheroically and unsuccessfully, when there was a sudden flicker of light in the sky behind them. All eyes turned towards the South Pole, and Jimmy instantly forgot his sickness. The Horns had started their firework display again.
There were the kilometre-long streamers of fire, dancing from the central spike to its smaller companions. Once again they began their stately rotation, as if invisible dancers were winding their ribbons around an electric maypole. But now they began to accelerate, moving faster and faster until they blurred into a flickering cone of light.
It was a spectacle more awe-inspiring than any they had yet seen here, and it brought with it a distant crackling roar which added to the impression of overwhelming power. The display lasted for about five minutes; then it stopped as abruptly as if someone had turned a switch.
‘I’d like to know what the Rama Committee make of that,’ Norton muttered to no one in particular. ‘Has any-one here got any theories?’
There was no time for an answer, because at that mo-ment Hub Control called in great excitement.
‘Resolution! Are you OK? Did you feel that?’
‘Feel what?’
‘We think it was an earthquake – it must have happened the minute those fireworks stopped.’
‘Any damage?’
‘I don’t think so. It wasn’t really violent – but it shook us up a bit.’
‘We felt nothing at all. But we wouldn’t, out here in the Sea.’
‘Of course, silly of me. Anyway, everything seems quiet now … until next time.’ ‘Yes, until the next time,’ Norton echoed. The mystery of Rama was steadily growing; the more they discovered about it, the less they understood.
There was a sudden shout from the helm.
‘Skipper – look – up there in the sky!’
Norton lifted his eyes, swiftly scanning the circuit of the Sea. He saw nothing, until his gaze had almost reached the zenith, and he was staring at the other side of the world. –
‘My God,’ he whispered slowly, as he realized that the ‘next time’ was already almost here.
A tidal wave was racing towards them, down the eternal curve of the Cylindrical Sea.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO – The Wave
Yet even in that moment of shock, Norton’s first concern was for his ship.
‘Endeavour!’ he called. ‘Situation report!’
‘All OK, Skipper,’ was the reassuring answer from the Exec. ‘We felt a slight tremor, but nothing that could cause any damage. There’s been a small change of attitude – the bridge says about point two degrees. They also think the spin rate has altered slightly – we’ll have an accurate reading on that in a couple of minutes.’
So it’s beginning to happen, Norton told himself, and a lot earlier than we expected; we’re still a long way from perihelion, and the logical time for an orbit change. But some kind of trim was undoubtedly taking place – and there might be more shocks to come.
Meanwhile, the effects of this first one were all too obvious, up there on the curving sheet of water which seemed perpetually falling from the sky. The wave was still about ten kilometres away, and stretched the full width of the Sea from northern to southern shore. Near the land, it was a foaming wall of white, but in deeper water it was a barely visible blue line, moving much faster than the breakers on either flank. The drag of the shoreward shallows was already bending it into a bow, with the central portion getting further and further ahead.
‘Sergeant,’ said Norton urgently. ‘This is your job. What can we do?’
Sergeant Barnes had brought the raft completely to rest and was studying the situation intently. Her expression, Norton was relieved to see, showed no trace of alarm – rather a certain zestful excitement, like a skilled athlete about to accept a challenge.
‘I wish we had some soundings,’ she said. ‘If we’re in deep water, there’s nothing to worry about.’
‘Then we’re all right. We’re still four kilometres from shore.’
‘I hope so, but I want to study the situation.’
She applied power again, and swung Resolution around until it was just under way, heading directly towards the approaching wave. Norton judged that the swiftly moving central portion would reach them in less than five minutes, but he could also see that it presented no serious danger. It was only a racing ripple a fraction of a metre high, and would scarcely rock the boat. The walls of foam lagging far behind it were the real menace.
Suddenly, in the very centre of the Sea, a line of breakers appeared. The wave had. clearly hit a submerged wall, several kilometres in length, not far below the surface. At the same time; the breakers on the two flanks collapsed, as they ran into deeper water.
Anti-slosh plates, Norton told himself. Exactly the same as in Endeavour’s own propellant tanks – but on a thousand-fold greater scale. There must be a complex pattern of them all around the Sea, to damp out any waves as quickly as possible. The only thing that matters now is: are we right on top of one?
Sergeant Barnes was one jump ahead of him. She brought Resolution to a full stop and threw out the an-chor. It hit bottom at only five metres.
‘Haul it up!’ she called to her crewmates. ‘We’ve got to get away from here!’
Norton agreed heartily; but in which direction? The Sergeant was headed full speed towards the wave, which was now only five kilometres away. For the first time, he could hear the sound of its approach – a distant, unmistakable roar which he had never expected to hear inside Rama. Then it changed in intensity; the central portion was collapsing once more – and the flanks were building up again.
He tried to estimate the distance between the submerged baffles, assuming that they were spaced at equal intervals. If he was right, there should be one more to come; if they could station the raft in the deep water between them, they would be perfectly safe.
Sergeant Barnes cut the motor, and threw out the an-chor again. It went down thirty metres without hitting bottom.
“We’re OK,’ she said, with a sigh of relief. ‘But I’ll keep the motor running.’
Now there were only the lagging walls of foam along the coast; out here in the central Sea it was calm again, apart from the inconspicuous blue ripple still speeding towards them. The Sergeant was just holding Resolution on course towards the disturbance, ready to pour on full power at a moment’s notice.
Then, only two kilometres ahead of them, the Sea started to foam once more. It humped up in white-maned fury, and now its roaring seemed to fill the world. Upon the sixteen-kilometre-high wave of the Cylindrical Sea, a smaller ripple was superimposed, like an avalanche thundering down a mountain slope. And that ripple was quite large enough to kill them.
Sergeant Barnes must have seen the expressions on the faces of her crewmates. She shouted above the roar: ‘What are you scared about? I’ve ridden bigger ones than this.’ That was not quite true; nor did she add that her earlier experience had been in a well-built surf-boat, not an improvised raft. ‘But if we have to jump, wait until I tell you. Check your life-jackets.’