She’s magnificent, thought the Commander – obviously enjoying every minute, like a Viking warrior going into battle. And she’s probably right – unless we’ve miscalculated badly.
The wave continued to rise, curving upwards and over. The slope above them probably exaggerated its height, but it looked enormous – an irresistible force of nature that would overwhelm everything in its path.
Then, within seconds, it collapsed, as if its foundations had been pulled out from underneath it. It was over the submerged barrier, in deep water again. When it reached them a minute later Resolution merely bounced up and down a few times before Sergeant Barnes swung the raft around and set off at top speed towards the north.
‘Thanks, Ruby – that was splendid. But will we get home before it comes round for the second time?’
‘Probably not; it will be back in about twenty minutes. But it will have lost all its strength then; we’ll scarcely notice it.’
Now that the Wave had passed, they could relax and enjoy the voyage – though no one would be completely at ease until they were back on land. The disturbance had left the water swirling round in random eddies, and had also stirred up a most peculiar acidic smell – ‘like crushed ants’, as Jimmy aptly put it. Though unpleasant, the odour caused none of the attacks of sea-sickness that might have been expected; it was something so alien that human physiology could not respond to it.
A minute later, the wave front hit the next underwater barrier, as it climbed away from them and up the sky. This time, seen from the rear, the spectacle was unim-pressive and the voyagers felt ashamed of their previous fears. They began to feel themselves masters of the Cylindrical Sea.
The shock was therefore all the greater when, not more than a hundred metres away, something like a slowly rotating wheel began to rear up out of the water. Glittering metallic spokes. five metres long, emerged dripping from the sea, spun for a moment in the fierce Raman glare, and splashed back into the water. It was ‘as if a giant starfish with tubular arms had broken the surface.
At first sight, it was impossible to tell whether it was an animal or a machine. Then it flopped over and lay half-awash, bobbing up and down in the gentle aftermath of the wave.
Now they could see that there were nine arms, apparently jointed, radiating from a central disc. Two of the arms were broken, snapped off at the outer joint. The others ended at a complicated collection of manipulators that reminded Jimmy very strongly of the crab he had encountered. The two creatures came from the same line of evolution – or the same drawing-board.
At the middle of the disc was a small turret, bearing three large eyes. Two were closed, one open – and even that appeared to be blank and unseeing. No one doubted that they were watching the death-throes of some strange monster, tossed up to the surface by the submarine disturbance that had just passed.
Then they saw that it was not alone. Swimming round it, and snapping at its feebly moving limbs, were two small beasts like overgrown lobsters. They were efficiently chopping up the monster, and it did nothing to resist, though its own claws seemed quite capable of dealing with the attackers.
Once again, Jimmy was reminded of the crab that had demolished Dragonfly. He watched intently as the one-sided conflict continued, and quickly confirmed his impression.
‘Look, Skipper,’ he whispered. ‘Do you see – they’re not eating it. They don’t even have any mouths. They’re simply chopping it to pieces. That’s exactly what happened to Dragonfly.’
‘You’re right. They’re dismantling it – like – like a broken machine.’ Norton wrinkled his nose. ‘But no dead machine ever smelled like that!’
Then another thought struck him.
‘My God – suppose they start on us! Ruby, get us back to shore as quickly as you can!’
Resolution surged forward with reckless disregard for the life of her power cells. Behind them, the nine spokes of the great starfish – they could think of no better name for it – were clipped steadily shorter, and presently the weird tableau sank back into the depths of the Sea.
There was no pursuit, but they did not breathe comfortably again until Resolution had drawn up to the landing stage and they had stepped thankfully ashore. As he looked back across that mysterious and now ‘suddenly sinister band of water, Commander Norton grimly determined that no one would ever sail it again. There were too many unknowns, too many dangers…
He looked back upon the towers and ramparts of New York, and the dark cliff of the continent beyond. They were safe now from inquisitive man.
He would not tempt the gods of Rama again.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE – Spider
From now on, Norton had decreed, there would always be at least three people at Camp Alpha, and one of them would always be awake. In addition, all exploring parties would follow the same routine. Potentially dangerous creatures were on the move inside Rama, and though none had shown active hostility, a prudent commander would take no chances.
As an extra safeguard, there was always an observer up on the Hub, keeping watch through a powerful telescope. From this vantage point, the whole interior of Rama could be surveyed, and even the South Pole appeared only a few hundred metres away. The territory round any group of explorers was to be kept under regular observation; in this way, it was hoped to eliminate any possibility of surprise. It was a good plan – and it failed completely.
After the last meal of the day, and just before the 22.00 hour sleep period, Norton, Rodrigo, Calvert and Laura Ernst were watching the regular evening news telecast specially beamed to them from the transmitter at Inferno, Mercury. They had been particularly interested in seeing Jimmy’s film of the Southern continent, and the return across the Cylindrical Sea – an episode which had excited all viewers. Scientists, news commentators, and members of the Rama Committee had given their opin-ions, most of them contradictory. No one could agree whether the crab-like creature Jimmy had encountered was an animal, a machine, a genuine Raman – or something that fitted none of these categories.
They had just watched, with a distinctly queasy feeling, the giant starfish being demolished by its predators when they discovered that they were no longer alone. There was an intruder in the camp.
Laura Ernst noticed it first. She froze in sudden shock, then said: ‘Don’t move, Bill. Now look slowly to the right.’
Norton turned his head. Ten metres away was a slender-legged tripod surmounted by a spherical body no larger than a football. Set around the body were three large, expressionless eyes, apparently giving g6o degrees of vision, and trailing beneath it were three whiplike tendrils. The creature was not quite as tall as a man, and looked far too fragile to be dangerous, but that did not excuse their carelessness in letting it sneak up on them unawares. It reminded Norton of nothing so much as a three-legged spider, or daddy-long-legs, and he wondered how it had solved the problem – never challenged by any creature on Earth – of tripedal locomotion.
‘What do you make of it, Doc?’ he whispered, turning off the voice of the TV newscaster.
‘Usual Raman three-fold symmetry. I don’t see how it could hurt us, though those whips might be unpleasant – and they could be poisonous, like a coelenterate’s. Sit tight and see what it does.’
After regarding them impassively for several minutes, the creature suddenly moved – and now they could understand why they had failed to observe its arrival. It was fast, and it covered the ground with such an extraordinary spinning motion that the human eye and mind had real difficulty in following it.
As far as Norton could judge – and only a high-speed camera could settle the matter – each leg in turn acted as a pivot around which the creature whirled its body. And he was not sure, but it also seemed to him that every few ‘steps’ it reversed its direction of spin, while the three whips flickered over the ground like lightning as it moved. Its top speed – though this also was very hard to estimate – was at least thirty kilometres an hour.
It swept swiftly round the camp, examining every item of equipment, delicately touching the improvised beds and chairs and tables, communication gear, food containers, Electrosans, cameras, water tanks, tools – there seemed to be nothing that it ignored, except the four watchers. Clearly, it was intelligent enough to draw a distinction between humans and their inanimate property; its actions gave the unmistakable impression of an extremely methodical curiosity or inquisitiveness.
‘I wish I could examine it!’ Laura exclaimed in frustration, as the creature continued its swift pirouette. ‘Shall we try to catch it?’