Rama Revealed

8

Max Puckett and Ellie Turner excused themselves from Eponine, Robert, and little Nicole shortly after dinner and walked outside at Max’s farmhouse in New Eden. As soon as they were out of earshot, Max began telling Ellie about his recent visits from the little robots. Ellie could not believe what she was hearing. “Surely you’re mistaken,” she said in a loud voice to Max. “They can’t be suggesting that we just leave—”

Max put a finger to his lips as they walked the final few meters to the barn. “You can talk to them yourself,” he said in a whisper. “But according to these little characters, there is plenty of room for all of us in that lair you lived in the first few years after you were born.”

It was dark inside the barn. Before Max switched on the light, Ellie had already glimpsed the tiny glowing robots beside her on one of the windowsills. “Hello again, Ellie,” said little Joan, still dressed in her armor. “Your mother and father are both fine and send their greetings.”

“We have come to see you tonight,” the robot Eleanor added, “because Max thought it was necessary for you to hear for yourself what we have to say. Richard and Nicole are inviting you and your friends to join them in your old lair in New York, where your parents are living a Spartan but peaceful existence.”

“Everything about your lair,” Joan now said, “is the same as it was when you were a small child. Food, clothing, and other objects are still supplied by the Ramans after requests are made by using the keyboard in the White Room. Unlimited supplies of fresh water are available at the cistern near the bottom of the entry staircase.”

Ellie listened, fascinated, while Joan reminded her of the living conditions under the island city on the southern side of the second habitat. Ellie tried to recall the lair from her memory, but the picture that came to her mind was surprisingly vague. What she could remember clearly from that period of her life were the last few days in Rama, including the spectacular rings of color emanating from the Big Horn and drifting slowly toward the north of the giant cylinder. But her memory of the inside of the lair was foggy. Why can’t I remember at least the nursery more clearly? she wondered. Because too much has happened since? And made deeper impressions in my memory?

A montage of images from her early childhood streamed through Ellie’s mental vision. Some of the pictures were indeed from Rama, but far more of them were from the family apartment at the Node. The indelible features of the Eagle, a godlike figure to the child Ellie, seemed to preside over the montage.

Eleanor of Aquitaine had asked Ellie something, but the young woman had not been paying attention. “I’m sorry, Eleanor,” Ellie said, “please repeat your question. I’m afraid I was temporarily lost in my childhood.”

“Your mother asked about Benjy. Is he still in the ward out in Avalon?”

“Yes,” Ellie replied. “And doing as well as can be expected. His best friend in the whole world is now Nai Watanabe. When the war ended, she volunteered to work

with those who had been assigned, for one reason or another, to the Avalon Ward. She spends time with Benjy almost every day and has helped him immensely. Her twins Kepler and Galileo love to play with him-Benjy is essentially just a big child himself-although Galileo is sometimes unkind and causes Nai considerable heartache.”

“As I told you,” Max said, turning the conversation back to their primary business, “Nicole and Richard have left it up to our discretion to decide who should be involved if we do attempt a mass exodus. Will Benjy follow directions?”

“I think so,” Ellie said. “As long as he trusts the person giving them. But there is no way we could tell him about the escape ahead of time. We couldn’t possibly expect him not to say something about it. Secrecy and guile are not part of Benjy’s personality. He will be overjoyed, but—”

“Mr. Puckett,” Joan of Arc interrupted, “what should I tell Richard and Nicole?”

“Shit, Joanie,” Max replied, “have a little patience.. Better still, come back again in a week, after Ellie, Eponine, and I have had more time to talk this thing through, and I’ll give you a tentative answer. And tell Richard I find the whole damn thing intriguing, even if it is certifiably insane.”

Max placed the two robots on the floor of the barn and they scampered away. When Max and Ellie were back outside in the fresh air, Max pulled a cigarette out of his pocket. “I assume that it doesn’t offend you too much if I smoke out here?” he said with a grin.

Ellie smiled, “You don’t want to tell Robert, do you, Max?” she then said quietly a moment later, as Max blew smoke rings into the night air.

Max shook his head. “Not yet,” he replied. “Maybe not until the last moment.” He put his arm around Ellie, “Young lady, I like your doctor husband, I really do, but sometimes I think his attitudes and priorities are a little strange. I can’t say for certain that he wouldn’t tell someone.”

“Do you think, Max,” Ellie said, “that maybe Robert has made a private vow of some kind never to act against authority again? And that he is afraid?”

“Shit, Ellie, I’m no psychologist. I don’t think either of us can possibly understand what killing two people in cold blood did to him. But I can say that there is a finite chance that he would not keep our secret-to avoid a painful personal decision, if nothing else.” Max inhaled deeply on his cigarette and stared at his young friend.

“You don’t think he’ll come, do you, Max? Not even if I want him to.”

Again Max shook his head. “I don’t know, Ellie. It will depend on how much he needs you and little Nicole. Robert has made room for the two of you in his life, but he still hides his feelings behind continuous work.”

“What about you, Max?” Ellie now asked. “What do you really think of this whole scheme?”

“Eponine and I are both ready to go, to have ourselves a little ad-ven-toor,” Max said with a grin. “It’s just a matter of time before I get into serious trouble with Nakamura anyway.”

“And Patrick?”

“He’ll love the idea. But I’m worried that he might say something to Katie. They have a special relationship—”

Max stopped in midsentence when he saw that Robert, who was carrying his tired daughter, had come out onto the front porch.

“Oh, there you are, Ellie,” Robert said. “I thought that maybe you and Max were lost in the barn. Nicole is tired and I have a very early morning at the hospital.”

“Of course, darling,” Ellie replied. “Max and I were just sharing memories of my mother and father.”

It must look like a perfectly normal day, Ellie thought as she showed her identification card to the Garcia biot in the atrium of the Beauvois supermarket. I must do everything exactly as if this were an ordinary Thursday.

“Mrs. Turner,” the Garcia said a few seconds later, handing her a list printed out of the computer against the wall behind the biot, “here is your ration allocation for the week. We are out of broccoli and tomatoes again, so we have included two extra measures of rice. You may now proceed to the line to pick up your groceries.”

Little Nicole walked beside her as Ellie entered the main part of the supermarket. On the other side of a mesh screen, where in the early days of the colony the citizens of New Eden had done their own shopping, five or six Tiasso and Lincoln biots, all from the 300 series completely reprogrammed by the Nakamura government, were moving up and down the aisles filling the orders. Most of the shelves were empty. Even though the war had been over for some time, the unstable weather in New Eden, as well as the dislike of most of the farmers for Nakamura’s heavy-handed ways, had kept food production at a minimum level. The government had found it necessary, therefore, to supervise the allocation of food. Only the governmental favorites had more than the bare essentials to eat.

There were half a dozen people in the queue in front of Ellie and her almost-two-year-old daughter. Ellie shopped with the same people every Thursday afternoon. Most of them turned around when Ellie and Nicole entered the line.

“There’s that darling little girl,” a pleasant woman with gray hair said. “How are you today, Nicole?” she asked.

Nicole didn’t answer. She just backed up a couple of steps and fastened herself tightly to one of her mother’s legs. “Nicole’s still in her shy stage,” Ellie said. “She only talks to people she knows.”

A Lincoln biot brought out two small boxes of food and handed them to the father and adolescent son at the head of the supermarket line. “We won’t be using a cart today,” the father said to the Lincoln. “Please make a note of that on our record. Two weeks ago, when we also hand-carried our groceries, nobody noted that we didn’t take a cart and we were awakened in the middle of the night by a Garcia demanding that we return our cart to the store.”

There must be no trivial mistakes, Ellie said to herself. No carts not returned, nothing that anyone could suspect before morning. As she waited in the line, Ellie reviewed again the details of the escape plan that she and Patrick had discussed with Max and Eponine the previous day. A Thursday had been chosen because that was the day that Robert made his regular visits to the RV-41 sufferers in Avalon. Max and Eponine had applied for, and received, a pass to visit Nai Watanabe for dinner. They would look after Kepler and Galileo while Nai went to the ward for Benjy. Everything was in order. There was only one major uncertainty left.

Ellie had rehearsed her speech to Robert a hundred times. His initial reaction will be negative, she thought. He will say it’s too dangerous, that I am jeopardizing Nicole’s security. And he ‘II be angry because I didn’t tell him earlier.

In her mind she had already answered all his objections and had carefully described the life they would have in New York in a positive light. But Ellie was still extremely nervous. She had not been able to convince herself that Robert would agree to come. And she had no idea what he would do if she declared that she and little Nicole were prepared to leave without him.

As her groceries were placed in the small shopping cart that she would return to the supermarket after unpacking everything at her home, Ellie squeezed her daughter’s hand. I must have courage, she thought.

“How in the world do you expect me to react? — ’ Robert Turner said. “I come home from an exceptionally busy day at the hospital, my mind on the hundred things that I must do tomorrow, and you tell me over dinner that you want us to leave New Eden forever? And to go tonight! Ellie, dear Ellie, this whole thing is absurd. Even if it could work, I would need time to sort out everything… I have projects—”

“I know it’s sudden, Robert,” Ellie said, growing fearful that she had underestimated the difficulty of her task, “but I couldn’t have told you any earlier. It would have been too dangerous. What if you had slipped and said something to Ed Stafford or another member of your staff, and one of the biots had overheard?”

“But I can’t just leave without saying anything to anybody.” Robert shook his head vigorously. “Do you have any idea how many years of work would be wasted?”

“Couldn’t you write down what needs to be done on each project?” Ellie suggested. And maybe summarize what’s already been accomplished?”

“Not in one night,” Robert replied emphatically. “No, Ellie, it’s really out of the question. We can’t go. The long-term health of the colony may depend on the results of my research. Besides, even if I accept that your parents are living comfortably in that bizarre place you described, wherever it is, it certainly does not sound like a good place to raise a child. And you haven’t even mentioned the possible danger to all of us. Our leaving will be viewed as treason. We could both be executed if we were caught. What would happen to Nicole then?…”

Ellie listened to Robert’s objections for another minute and then realized that the time had come for her declaration. Summoning all her courage, she walked around the table and took both her husband’s hands. “I have been thinking about this for almost three weeks, Robert. You must understand how difficult this decision is for me… I love you with all my heart, but if we must, Nicole and I will go without you. I know that there is a lot of uncertainty in leaving, but life here in New Eden is definitely not healthy for any of us.”

“No, no, no,” Robert said immediately, freeing himself from Ellie and starting to pace wildly around the room. “I don’t believe any of this. It’s all a bad dream.” He paused and looked across the room at Ellie. “You cannot take Nicole with you,” he said with passion. “Do you hear me? I forbid you to take our daughter.”

“Robert” Ellie interrupted him with a shout. Tears were now streaming down her cheeks. “Look at me… I am your wife, the mother of your daughter. I love you. I beg you to listen to what I am saying.”

Nicole had come running into the room and was now crying beside her mother. Ellie composed herself before continuing. “I don’t believe that you are the only one in this family who is allowed to make decisions. I have that right as well. I can respect your desire not to go, but I am Nicole’s mother. If you and I are to be separated, then I believe that it would be better for Nicole to come with me.”

Ellie stopped. Robert’s face was contorted in anger. He took a step toward her and, for the first time in her life, Ellie feared that Robert was going to hit her.

“What would be better for me,” Robert shouted, with his right hand raised in a fist, “would be for you to forget this foolishness.”

Ellie backed up slightly. Nicole continued to cry. Robert struggled to control himself. “I swore,” he said, his voice quavering with emotion, “that nobody and nothing would ever cause me to hurt like that again.”

Tears burst from his eyes. “Goddammit,” he said, smashing his fist down on a nearby table. Without saying anything else, Robert sat down in the chair and buried his face in his hands.

Ellie consoled Nicole and said nothing for several seconds. “I know how painful it was for you to lose your first family,” she said at length. “But Robert, this is an entirely different situation. Nobody is going to harm Nicole and me.”

She walked over and put her arms around him. “I’m not saying this is an easy decision, Robert,” Ellie said. “But I’m convinced it’s the right thing for Nicole and me.”

Robert returned Ellie’s hug, but without much enthusiasm. “I will not keep you and Nicole from going,” he said resignedly several seconds later. “But I don’t know what I am going to do. I would like to think about all this over the next several hours, while we’re out in Avalon.”

“All right, dear,” Ellie replied, “but please don’t forget that Nicole and I need you even more than your patients do. You are our only husband and father.”