Rama Revealed

3

The days passed very slowly.

Richard, Ellie, and Nikki were without a time reference at first, but they soon learned that octospiders had a wonderfully precise inner clock that is calibrated and enhanced during their juvenile education. After they converted Archie to using human time measurements (Richard used his oft-quoted “When in Rome…” to convince Archie to abandon, at least temporarily, his tens, wodens, fengs, and nillets), they discovered, by sneaking glances at their guard’s digital watch when he brought food and water, that Archie’s internal timing accuracy was better than ten seconds out of every twenty-four hours.

Nikki amused herself by constantly asking Archie the time. As a result, after repeated observation, Richard and even Nikki learned how to read Archie’s colors for time references and small numbers. In fact, as the days passed, the regular conversation in the basement significantly improved Richard’s overall comprehension of the octospider language. Although his skill in understanding the color strips was still not as advanced as Ellie’s, after a week Richard could comfortably converse with Archie without needing Ellie as an interpreter.

The humans slept on futons on the floor. Archie curled up behind them for the few hours each night that he slept. One or the other of the two Oriental men replenished their supplies once each day. Richard never failed to remind the guards that they were still waiting for their backpacks and for their audience with Nakamura.

After eight days the daily sponge baths in the washbasin adjoining the basement toilet were no longer satisfactory. Richard asked if they could have access to a shower and some soap. Several hours later a large laundry tub was carried down the stairs. Each of the humans bathed, although Nikki was at first surprisingly reluctant to be naked in front of Archie. Richard and Ellie felt enough better after bathing that they managed to share some optimism. “There’s no way he can keep our existence a secret forever,” Richard said. “Too many of the troops saw us… and it would not be possible for them not to say anything, no matter what Nakamura ordered.”

“I’m certain they will come for us soon,” Ellie added brightly.

By the end of their second week of imprisonment, however, their temporary optimism had waned. Richard and Ellie were beginning to lose hope. It didn’t help that Nikki had become a complete brat, announcing regularly that she was bored and complaining about not having anything to do. Archie began to tell Nikki stories to keep her occupied. His octospider “legends” (he had a long discussion with Ellie about the exact meaning of the word before he finally accepted the term) delighted the little girl.

It helped that Ellie’s translations rang with the resonant phrases the girl already associated with bedtime fairy tales. “Once upon a time, back in the days of the Precursors…” Archie would begin a story, and Nikki would squeal with anticipation.

“What did the Precursors look like, Archie?” the little girl asked after one such story.

“The legends never say,” Archie replied. “So I guess you can create whatever picture of them you want in your imagination.”

“Is that story true?” Nikki asked Archie on another occasion. “Would the octospiders really never have left their own planet if the Precursors had not taken them into space first?”

“So the legends indicate,” Archie replied. “They say that almost everything we knew until about fifty thousand years ago was taught to us originally by the Precursors.”

One night, after Nikki was asleep, Richard and Ellie asked Archie about the origin of the legends. “They have been around for tens of thousands of your years,” the octospider said. “The earliest documented records from our genus contain many of the stories I have shared with you these last few days. There are several different opinions about how factual the legends are. Dr. Blue believes that they are basically accurate and probably the work of some master storyteller-an alternate, of course-whose genius was not recognized in his or her lifetime.

“If the legends can be believed,” Archie said in answer to another of Richard’s questions, “many, many years ago we octospiders were simple seafaring creatures whose natural evolution had produced only minimal intelligence and awareness. It was the Precursors who discovered our potential by mapping our genetic structure, and they who altered us over many generations into what we had become when the Great Calamity occurred.”

“What exactly happened to the Precursors?” Ellie asked.

“There are many stories, some contradictory. Most or all of the Precursors living on the primary planet we shared with them were probably killed in the Calamity. Some of the legends suggest that their remote colonial outposts around nearby stars survived for several hundred years, but ultimately succumbed as well. One legend says that the Precursors continued to thrive in other, more favorable star systems and became the dominant form of intelligence in the galaxy. We do not know. All that is known for certain is that the land portion of our primary planet was uninhabitable for many, many years and that when the octospider civilization again ventured out of the water, none of the Precursors were alive.”

The group of four in the basement developed their own diurnal rhythm as the days stretched into weeks. Each morning, before Nikki and Ellie awakened, Archie and Richard would talk about a wide range of topics of mutual interest. By this time, Archie’s lip-reading was nearly flawless, and Richard’s comprehension of the octospider colors was good enough that the octospider was only rarely asked to repeat what he had said.

Many of the conversations were about science. Archie was especially fascinated by the history of science in the human species. He wanted to know what discoveries were made when, what prompted the key investigations or experiments in the first place, and what inaccurate or competing models explaining the phenomena were discarded as a result of each new understanding.

“So it was actually war that accelerated the development of both aeronautics and nuclear physics in your species,” Archie said one morning. “What an amazing concept!.. You cannot possibly appreciate,” the octospider added a few seconds later, “how staggering it is for me to experience, even vicariously, your incremental process of learning about nature. Our history is totally different. In the beginning our species was completely ignorant. Shortly thereafter a new kind of octospider was created, one that could not only think, but also observe the world and understand what it was seeing. Our mentors and creators, the Precursors, already had explanations for everything. Our task as a species was quite simple. We learned what we could from our teachers. Naturally, we did not have any concept of the trial and error that is involved in science. For that matter, we had no idea at all of how any component in a culture evolves. The brilliant engineering of the Precursors allowed us to skip hundreds of millions of years of evolution.

“Needless to say, we were woefully unprepared for taking care of ourselves after the Great Calamity occurred. According to the more historical of our legends, our primary intellectual activity for the next several hundred years was to accumulate and understand as much of the Precursor information as we could find and/or remember. In the meantime, with our benefactors no longer around to provide ethical guidelines, we regressed sociologically. We entered a long, long period in which it was questionable whether or not the new, intelligent octospiders created by the Precursors would indeed survive.”

Richard was overwhelmed by the idea of what he called a “derivative technological species.” “I had never imagined,” he told Archie one morning with his usual excitement of discovery, “that there might exist a spacefaring species that had never worked out on its own the laws of gravity and had never derived, in a long sequence of experiments, the essentials of physics, such as the characteristics of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is a mind-boggling thought. But now that I understand what you are telling me, it seems quite natural. If species A, who are advanced spacefarers, encounters species B, intelligent but somewhere lower on — the technological ladder, it is perfectly logical to assume that, after contact, species B would skip the rungs between.”

“Our case, of course,” Archie explained, “was even more unusual. The paradigm that you are describing is indeed quite natural and has happened, according to both our history and the legends, with great frequency. More spacefarers are derivative, to use your word, than naturally evolved. Take the avians and the sessiles, for example. Their symbiosis, which developed without any outside interference, had already existed in a star system not far from our home planet for thousands of years when they were first visited on an exploratory mission by the Precursors. The avians and sessiles would almost certainly never have developed a spacefaring capability of their own. However, after meeting the Precursors and seeing their first spacecraft, they asked for and received the technology necessary to achieve spaceflight.

“Our situation is generically different, and definitely much more derivative. If our legends are true, the Precursors were already spacefarers when we octospiders were still totally insentient. At that epoch we were not even capable of conceiving of the idea of a planet, much less of the space surrounding it. Our fate was decided by the advanced beings with whom we shared our world. The Precursors recognized the potential in our genetic structure. Using their engineering skills, they improved us, gave us minds, shared their information with us, and created an advanced culture where none would probably have ever existed.”.

A deep bonding developed between Richard and Archie as a result of the regular early morning conversations. Unencumbered by any distractions, the two were able to share their fundamental love for knowledge. Each expanded the understanding of the other, thereby enriching their mutual appreciation for the wonders of the universe.

Nikki almost always woke up before Ellie. Soon after the girl had finished her breakfast, the group entered the second segment of their daily schedule. Although Nikki occasionally played games with Archie, she spent most of what might be called her morning in informal classes. She had three teachers. With Ellie, Nikki read a little, and did elementary addition and subtraction. She talked to her grandfather about science and nature, and had lessons with Archie on morals and ethics. She also learned the octospider alphabet and a few simple phrases. Nikki was very quick with the language of color, a fact that the others attributed both to her altered genes and to her natural intelligence.

“Our juveniles spend a significant amount of their schooling time discussing and interpreting case studies that raise critical moral problems,” Archie told Richard and Ellie one morning during a discussion of education. “Real-life situations are chosen as examples-although the actual facts may be slightly altered to sharpen the issues-and the young octospiders are asked to assess the acceptability of various possible responses. They do this in open discussion.”

“Is this to expose the juveniles at an early age to the concept of optimization?” Richard asked.

“Not really,” Archie replied. “What we are trying to do is to prepare the young for the real task of living, which involves regular interaction with others, with many behavioral choices. Each juvenile is strongly encouraged to use the case studies to develop his or her own value system. Our species believes that knowledge does not exist in a vacuum. Only when knowledge is an integral part of a way of living does it achieve any real significance.”

Archie’s case studies presented Nikki with simple but elegant ethical problems. The basic issues of lying, fairness, prejudice, and selfishness were all covered in the first eight lessons. The girl’s responses to the situations often drew upon examples from her own life.

“Galileo will always say or do whatever he thinks will allow him to have his own way,” Nikki remarked during one lesson. “To him, what he wants is more important than anything else. Kepler is different. He never makes me cry.”

Nikki napped in the afternoon. While she was sleeping, Richard, Ellie, and Archie often exchanged comments and insights that highlighted the similarities and differences between the two species. “If I have understood correctly,” Ellie said one day after a lively conversation about how intelligent, sensitive beings should handle members of their community who exhibit antisocial behavior, “your society is much less tolerant than ours. There is clearly a ‘preferred way of living’ that is advanced by your communities. Those octospiders who do not embrace that preferred model are not only ostracized early, but also denied participation in many of life’s more rewarding activities and ‘terminated’ after a shorter than normal life span.”

“In our society,” Archie said in reply, “what is acceptable is always clear-there is no confusion, as there is in yours. Thus our individuals make their choices with full knowledge of the consequences. Incidentally, the Alternate Domain is not like one of your prisons. It is a place where octospiders, and other species as well, can live without the regimentation and optimization necessary for the continued development and survival of the colony. Some of the alternates live to be very old and are quite happy.

“Your society, at least what I have observed of it, seems not to understand the fundamental inconsistency between individual freedom and the common welfare. The two must be carefully balanced. No group can survive, let alone thrive, unless what is good for the overall community is more important than individual freedom. Take, for example, resource allocation. How can anyone with any intelligence possibly justify, in terms of the overall community, the accumulation and hoarding of enormous material assets by a few individuals when others do not even have food, clothing, and other essentials?”

In the basement Archie was not as reticent and evasive as he had sometimes been in the Emerald City. He spoke openly about all aspects of his civilization, as if the common mission he was undertaking with his human colleagues had somehow freed him from all constraints. Was Archie consciously sending a message to the other humans who were almost certainly monitoring the conversation? Perhaps. But how much of the conversation could Nakamura’s men have understood, since they knew nothing of the language of color? No, it was more likely that Archie, better than any of the humans, realized that his death was imminent and wanted his final days to be as meaningful and stimulating as possible.

One night before Richard and Ellie went to sleep, Archie said that he had something “personal” to tell them. “I do not want to alarm you,” the octospider said, “but I have consumed almost all of the supply of barrican that is in my intake buffer. If we stay here much longer and my barrican runs out, as you know I will begin to undergo sexual maturity. According to our files, I will become more aggressive and possessive at that time.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Richard said with a laugh. “I have dealt with teenagers before. Certainly I can handle an octospider who no longer has a perfect temperament.”

One morning the guard bringing their food and water told Ellie to prepare herself and the girl to leave. “When?” Ellie said.

“Ten minutes,” the guard replied.

“Where are we going?” Ellie inquired.

The guard said nothing and disappeared up the stairway.

While Ellie was doing her best to freshen herself and Nikki, she reviewed with Richard and Archie what she would say if she was able to meet with Nakamura or any of the other colony leaders.

“Don’t forget,” her father stressed in a rapid whisper over in one corner of the room, “although it is all right to say that the octospiders are a peace-loving species, we will not be able to stop any war unless we convince Nakamura that he cannot possibly win an armed conflict. The point must be made that their technology has advanced far beyond ours.”

“But what if they ask for specifics?”

“You wouldn’t be expected to know any details. Tell them that I can supply all the specifics.”

Ellie and Nikki were taken by electric car to the colony hospital in Central City. They were whisked through the emergency entrance and into a small, sterile office with two chairs, a couch or bed used for examinations, and some complex electronic equipment. Ellie and Nikki sat alone for ten minutes before Dr. Robert Turner walked into the room.

He looked very old. “Hi, Nikki,” he said, smiling and squatting down with his arms outstretched. “Come give your daddy a hug.”

The girl hesitated for a moment and then ran across the room to her father. Robert picked her up and swung her around in his arms. “It’s so good to see you, Nikki,” he said.

Ellie stood up and waited. After several seconds Robert put his daughter back down on the floor and looked at his wife. “How are you, Ellie?” he asked.

“Fine,” Ellie replied, suddenly feeling awkward. “How are you, Robert?”

“About the same,” he said.

They met in the middle of the room and embraced. Ellie tried to kiss him tenderly, but their lips merely brushed before Robert turned away. She could sense the tension in his body.

“What is it, Robert?” Ellie said softly. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ve just been working too hard, as usual,” he replied. He moved over beside the examination bed. “Would you take off your clothes and lie down here, please, Ellie? I want to make certain you’re all right.”

“Right this minute?” an incredulous Ellie asked. “Before we even talk about what has happened to us during the months that we’ve been apart?”

“I’m sorry, Ellie,” Robert said with a trace of a smile. “I’m very busy tonight. The hospital is terribly understaffed. I talked them into releasing you by promising—”

Ellie had walked around the bed and was standing very close to her husband. She reached down and took his hand. “Robert,” she said gently, “I am your wife. I love you. We have not seen each other for over a year. Surely you can take a minute…”

Tears formed in Robert’s eyes. “What is it, Robert? Tell me.” Ellie had a sudden fright. He’s married someone else, she thought in panic.

“What has happened to you, Ellie?” he said suddenly in a loud voice. “How could you possibly tell those soldiers that you were not kidnapped, and that the octospiders were not hostile? You have made me a laughingstock. Every single citizen in New Eden has heard me on television describing that terrible moment that you were abducted… My memories are so horribly clear.”

Ellie backed up at first when Robert began his outburst. As she stood there listening, still holding his hand, his anguish was obvious. “I made those comments, Robert, because I was, and am, trying to do whatever I can to stop any conflict between the octospiders and us. I am sorry if my remarks caused you pain.”

“The octospiders have brainwashed you, Ellie,” Robert said bitterly. “I knew it as soon as Nakamura’s men showed me the reports. Somehow they have tampered with your mind so that you are no longer in touch with reality.”

Nikki had started whimpering when Robert had first raised his voice. She did not understand what the disagreement between her parents was about, but she could tell that everything was not all right. She began to cry and to cling to her mother’s leg.

“It’s all right, Nikki,” Ellie said soothingly. “Your father and I are just talking.”

When Ellie glanced up, Robert had taken a transparent skullcap out of a drawer and was holding it in his hand. “So you’re going to give me an EEG,” she said nervously, “to make certain that I haven’t become one of them?”

“It’s not funny, Ellie,” Robert replied. “My EEGs have all been weird since I returned to New Eden. I can’t explain it, nor can the neurologist on my staff. He says he has never seen such radical changes in an individual’s brain activity, except in the case of severe injury.”

“Robert,” Ellie said, taking his hand again. “The octospiders planted a microbiological block in your memory when you departed. To protect themselves. That could be part of the explanation for your peculiar brain waves.”

Robert looked at Ellie for a long time without speaking. “They kidnapped you,” he said. “They tampered with my brain. Who knows what they may have done to our daughter? How can you possibly defend them?”

Ellie submitted to the EEG and the results showed neither irregularities nor major differences from the routine brain testing that she had undergone during the early days of the colony. Robert seemed genuinely relieved. He then told Ellie that Nakamura and the government were prepared to drop all charges against her and would let her return home with Nikki-under house arrest temporarily, of course — if she would provide information about the octospiders. Ellie thought about the request for a few minutes and then agreed.

Robert smiled and gave her a brisk hug. “Good,” he said. “You’ll start tomorrow. I’ll tell them right away.”

Richard had warned Ellie during the ride on the ostrichsaur that Nakamura might try to use her in some way, most likely to justify his continued prosecution of the war. Ellie knew that by agreeing ostensibly to help the New Eden government she was committing herself to a very dangerous course.

Nikki was unfamiliar with her old bedroom at first, but after an hour or so of playing with some of her toys, she seemed quite content. She came into the bathroom, where Ellie was taking a bath, and stood next to the tub. “When will Daddy be home?” she asked her mother.

“He’ll be late, darling,” Ellie replied. “After you’ve gone to bed.”

“I like my room, Mommy,” Nikki said. “It’s much better than that old basement.”

“I’m glad,” Ellie replied. The little girl smiled and left the bathroom. Ellie took a deep breath. It would have served no purpose, she rationalized, if I had refused and we had been returned to confinement.