Rama Revealed

8

Nicole had watched the video twice before. Despite her swollen eyes and utter emotional exhaustion, she asked if she could see it one more time. Beside her Dr. Blue handed her a cup of water. “Are you certain?” the octospider asked.

She nodded. “Please start at the hearing,” Nicole requested. “Normal speed until the biots enter the cellblock. Then slow it down to one-eighth.”

Richard never wanted to be a hero, Nicole was thinking as the video replayed the scene at the hearing. That wasn’t his style. He only went with Archie so that it wouldn’t be necessary for me. She winced when the guard struck Richard and he tumbled to the floor. The plan was hopeless from the beginning, she told herself as the New Eden policemen led Richard and Archie out of Nakamura’s palace. The octospiders all knew it. I knew it. Why didn’t I speak up after my premonition?

Nicole asked Dr. Blue to fast-forward the video to the final minutes. At least they had each other at the end, she thought as Richard and Archie were sharing their final conversation. And Archie tried to protect him. The four biots appeared on the screen and the video slowed. Nicole saw surprise change to fear in Richard’s eyes as the biots entered the cell.

When the lights were extinguished, the picture quality changed. The infrared images taken by the quadroids were more like photo negatives, highlighting the heat levels in each frame. The biots looked eerie. Their eyes bulged out of their heads in the infrared pictures.

The instant the cell was dark, one of the Garcias grabbed Richard by the throat. The other three took off their gloves, exposing sharp, pointed fingers and knife-edged hands. Four of Archie’s powerful tentacles enwrapped the Garcia trying to strangle Richard. As the Garcia’s frame crumbled and the biot collapsed in a heap on the floor of the cell, the other three biots attacked Archie furiously. Richard tried to help in the battle. A Lincoln caught Archie’s neck with a savage blow from its hand and nearly decapitated the octospider. Richard screamed as he was drenched by Archie’s internal body fluid. With Archie out of the fight, the remaining biots devastated Richard, puncturing his body over and over with jabs from their fingers. He fell against the front of the cell and slipped down onto the floor. His blood and Archie’s, which were different colors in the infrared image, ran together and formed a pool on the floor of the cell.

The video continued, but Nicole was no longer seeing anything. Now, for the first time, she understood that her husband, Richard, the only really close friend she had ever had in her adult life, was actually dead. On the screen Franz led the sobbing Katie down the corridor and then the monitor went blank. Nicole did not move. She sat perfectly still, staring forward where the images had been just seconds before. There were no tears in her eyes, her body was not trembling, she seemed completely in control. Yet she could not move.

A low level of light came on in the viewing room. Dr. Blue was still sitting beside her. “I don’t think,” Nicole said slowly, surprised that her voice sounded so far away, “that I realized the first two times… I mean, I must have been in shock… maybe I still am.” She couldn’t continue. Nicole was having trouble breathing.

“You need a drink of water and some rest,” Dr. Blue said.

Richard has been killed. Richard is dead. “Yes, please,” Nicole said faintly. I will never see him again. I will never talk to him again. “Cold water, if you have any.” I saw him die. Once. Twice. Three times. Richard is dead.

There was another octospider in the viewing room. They were talking, but Nicole could not follow their colors. Richard is gone forever. I am alone. Dr. Blue held the water up to Nicole’s lips, but she could not drink. Richard has been killed. There was nothing but blackness.

Someone was holding her hand. It was a warm, pleasant hand, gently caressing hers. She opened her eyes.

“Hello, Mother,” Patrick said softly. “Are you feeling any better?”

Nicole closed her eyes again. Where am I? she thought. Then she remembered. Richard is dead. I must have fainted.

“Ummm,” she said.

“Would you like some water?” Patrick asked.

“Yes, please,” she whispered. Her voice sounded strange.

Nicole tried to sit up and drink the water. She could not make it.

“Take it easy,” Patrick said. “There’s no hurry.”

Her mind began to work. I must tell them that Richard and Archie are dead. The helicopters are coming. We must be very careful and protect the children. “Richard,” she managed to say.

“We know, Mother,” Patrick replied.

How do they know? Nicole thought. I’m the only one left here who can read colors.

“The octospiders went to a lot of trouble to write everything down. It wasn’t perfect English, but we certainly understood what they were telling us. They told us about the war too.”

Good, Nicole thought. They know, I can sleep. From somewhere in her head there was still an echo. Richard is dead.

“From time to time I can hear the bombs, but as far as I can tell none of them yet has hit the dome.” It was Max’s voice. “Maybe they haven’t figured out where the city is.”

“It would be completely dark from the outside,” Patrick said. “They have thickened the canopy and there are no lights on the streets.”

“The bombs must be hitting the Alternate Domain. There would be no way the octos could hide its existence,” Max said.

“What are the octospiders doing?” Patrick asked. “Do we even know if they’re counterattacking?”

“Not for certain,” Max replied, “but I can’t believe they’re still sitting around doing nothing.”

Nicole heard soft footsteps in the hallway. “The boys are really developing a bad case of cabin fever,” Nai said. “Do you think it would be all right if I let them play outside? The all-clear flares were half an hour ago.”

“I don’t see why not,” Patrick said. “But tell them to come in if they see a flare or hear any bombs.”

“I’ll be out there with them,” Nai said.

“What’s my wife doing?” Max asked.

“Reading with Benjy,” Nai replied. “Marius is asleep.”

“Why don’t you ask her to come over for a few minutes?”

Nicole rolled over on her other side. She thought about trying to sit up, but she felt so tired. She began daydreaming, remembering her childhood. What does it take to be a princess? little Nicole asked her father. Either a king for a father, or a prince for a husband, he answered. He smiled and kissed her. Then I’m already a princess, she told him. For you ‘re a king to me…

“How is Nicole?” Eponine asked.

“She stirred again this morning,” Patrick replied. “Dr. Blue’s note said that she may be able to sit up tonight or tomorrow. It also said they have verified that the attack was not severe, that the heart was not permanently damaged, and that she is responding well to the treatment.”

“Can I see her now?” Benjy asked.

“No, Benjy, not yet,” said Eponine, “she’s still resting.”

“The octospiders have really been great, haven’t they?” Patrick said. “Even in the middle of this war, they have taken time to write us such complete messages.”

“They’ve even made a believer out of me,” Max said. “And I never thought that was possible.”

So I had a heart attack, Nicole thought. I didn’t just collapse because Richard… she could not complete the sentence at first. Because he is gone.

She drifted in the twilight zone between waking and sleeping until she heard a familiar voice calling her name. Is that you, Richard? Nicole said excitedly. Yes, Nicole, he answered. Where are you? I want to see you, she said, and his face appeared in a cloud in the middle of her dream screen. You look great, she said, are you all right? Yes, Richard answered, but I must talk to you.

What is it, darling? Nicole asked. You must go on without me, he said. You must set an example for the others. His face began to alter as the shapes of the clouds changed. Of course, Nicole said, but where are you going? She could not see him anymore. Good-bye, his voice said. Good-bye, Richard, Nicole answered.

When she woke up the next time, her mind was clear. Nicole sat up in bed and looked around her. It was dark, but she could tell she was in her own room in the house in the Emerald City.

Nicole could hear no sounds. She assumed it was night. She pushed off the covers and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. So far, so good, she thought. Nicole eased herself off the bed and stood up very slowly. Her legs were wobbly.

There was a glass of juice on the end table beside the bed. Nicole took two cautious steps, holding on to the bed with her right hand, and picked up the glass. The juice was delicious. Pleased with herself, Nicole started toward the closet to find some clothes. She became woozy after a few steps, however, and headed back toward the bed.

“Mother,” she heard Patrick say, “is that you?” She could see his silhouette in the doorway.

“Yes, Patrick,” she answered.

“Here,” he said, “why don’t we have some light?” He knocked on the wall and a firefly flew into the middle of the room. “Goodness,” he said, “what are you doing up?”

“I can’t stay in bed forever,” Nicole answered.

“But you should take it easy at first,” Patrick said, coming over beside her and helping her the rest of the way to bed.

She grabbed his arm. “Listen to me, son,” Nicole said. “I have no intention of being an invalid, nor do I want to be treated like one. I expect to be my old self in a few days, a week at the most.”

“Yes, Mother,” Patrick said with a concerned smile.

Dr. Blue was delighted with her recovery. After four more days Nicole walked, albeit slowly, and, with a little help from Benjy, all the way to the transport stop and back to the house.

“Don’t push yourself too hard,” Dr. Blue told Nicole during an evening examination. “You’re doing great, but I worry.”

When the octospider was finished and was preparing to leave the room. Max entered and announced that two more octospiders were waiting at the front door. Dr. Blue hurried out, returning a few minutes later with the Chief Optimizer and one of the members of her staff.

The Chief Optimizer first apologized, both for coming unexpectedly and for not waiting until Nicole had completely recovered. “However,” the octospider leader then said, “we are now in an emergency situation and we felt that we needed to communicate with you immediately.”

Nicole felt her pulse rate rise and tried to calm herself. “What has happened?” she said.

“You have probably noticed that there have been no bombings for the last several days,” the Chief Optimizer said. “The humans temporarily stopped the helicopter attacks while they were evaluating our ultimatum. Five days ago we took the same written message to each of three troop encampments. The message said that we could no longer tolerate the bombings and that we would use our superior technology to launch a decisive attack if the hostilities were not ceased immediately. As an illustration of our technological capabilities, we included in the message a nillet-by-nillet chronology of everything both Nakamura and Macmillan had done during two workdays last week.

“The human leaders were frantic. They suspected that we had somehow bribed some high official of the government and now knew all of their war plans as well. Macmillan recommended accepting our cease-fire and withdrawing from our territory. Nakamura was furious. He banished Macmillan from his presence and reorganized his command structure. Privately, he admitted to his security chief that any retreat would ruin his position in the colony.

“The day before yesterday someone suggested to Nakamura that perhaps your daughter Ellie might have some knowledge of how we had obtained our information. She was taken to the palace and interrogated by Nakamura himself. At first slightly cooperative, Ellie acknowledged that in certain fields we were more advanced than the humans. She also said that she believed it was entirely within our capabilities to obtain information about events in New Eden without using any spies or other conventional means of gathering intelligence.

“Because she was so forthright, Nakamura became convinced that Ellie knew more than she was telling. He asked her questions for hours, about many subjects, including our military capabilities and the geography of our domain. Ellie astutely avoided giving away any critical information-she never mentioned the Emerald City, for example-and repeatedly answered that she had never seen any weapons or even any soldiers. Nakamura did not believe her. At length he had her thrown in prison and beaten. Since then Ellie has remained defiantly silent, despite additional rough treatment.”

The Chief Optimizer paused. Nicole had paled during his description of Ellie’s mistreatment. The octospider leader turned to Dr. Blue. “Should I continue?” she said.

Max and Patrick were standing in the doorway. They could not, of course, understand what the Chief Optimizer was saying, but they could see the pallor on Nicole’s face. Patrick walked into the room. “My mother has been quite ill…” he said.

“It’s all right,” Nicole said, waving him away. She took a deep breath. “Please go on,” she said to the Chief Optimizer.

“Nakamura,” the Chief Optimizer continued, “has now convinced himself and his main lieutenants that our threat is a bluff. He believes that even though our technology is very advanced in some areas, we possess no military capabilities. In his last staff meeting, only a few terts ago, he agreed to a plan to bomb us into submission, using all available firepower. The first of the massive raids will come in the morning.

“We have therefore reluctantly concluded that we must now fight back. Failure to act could put the survival of our colony in jeopardy. Before coming to see you, I authorized the implementation of War Plan Number Forty-one, one of our intermediate-strength responses. This plan does not result in the total annihilation of all the colonists in New Eden, but should be devastating enough to bring the war to a quick end. Our analysts estimate that between twenty and thirty percent of the humans will die.”

The Chief Optimizer stopped when she saw the pained expression on Nicole’s face. Nicole asked for something to drink. “Are we allowed to know any more details about your attack?” Nicole said slowly after she finished drinking the glass of water.

“We have chosen a microbiological agent, chemically much like an enzyme, that interferes with cell reproduction in your species. Young, healthy humans below the age of forty or so have sufficiently strong natural defenses that they will withstand the onslaught of the agent. Older or unhealthy humans will succumb quickly. Their cells will not be able to reproduce properly and their bodies will simply stop functioning. We have used blood, skin, and other cells taken from all of you here in the Emerald City to verify our theoretical predictions. We are quite certain that the young will be unharmed.”

“Our species regards biological warfare as immoral,” Nicole said after a brief pause.

“We are aware,” the Chief Optimizer said, “that within your system of values, some kinds of warfare are more acceptable than others. To us, ail war is unacceptable. We fight only if we absolutely must. We can’t imagine it makes any difference to the dead being if it has been killed by a gun, a bomb, a nuclear weapon, or a biological agent. Besides, we must fight back with whatever weapons we possess.”

There was a long silence. Nicole sighed and shook her head. “I guess,” she said at length, “I should be thankful that you have told us what is happening in this stupid war, even though the specter of so many deaths is very frightening. I wish there could have been some other outcome.”

The three octospiders prepared to leave the room. Max and Patrick were asking Nicole questions before the visitors had even departed from the house. “Hold it,” Nicole said wearily. “Call the others in here first. I only want to explain what the octospiders told me a single time.”

Nicole could not sleep. No matter how hard she tried, she could not stop thinking about the people who were going to die in New Eden. Faces-older faces, mostly, faces of people that Nicole had known and worked with during her active days in the colony-swam in and out of her mind.

And what about Katie and Ellie? Nicole thought. What if the octospiders have made a mistake? She pictured Ellie as she had last seen her, in her house with her husband and her daughter. Nicole recalled the arguments that she had witnessed between Ellie and Robert. His tired, worn visage remained fixed in her mental image. And Robert, she thought. Oh, my God. He’s older, and doesn’t take care of himself at all.

Nicole squirmed in her bed, frustrated by her inability to do anything. Finally she decided to sit up in the darkness. I wonder if it’s too late, Nicole asked herself. Again she thought of Robert. I don’t agree with him. I’m not even certain he’s a good husband for Ellie. But he is still Nikki’s father.

A plan had begun to develop in her mind. Nicole gingerly slid out of bed and walked across to the closet. She put on some clothes and tiptoed into the hall. She did not want to wake Patrick or Nai, who had been sleeping in Ellie’s room since her heart attack. They would just make me go back to bed.

Outside, in the Emerald City, it was almost as dark as it had been inside the house. Nicole stood at the doorway, hoping that her eyes would adjust enough that she could find the house next door. Eventually she could make out some shadows. She stepped off the porch, heading to the right.

Her progress was slow. She would take half a dozen steps and then stop to look around. It took her several minutes to reach the atrium of Dr. Blue’s house.

When she entered the octospider’s sleeping quarters, Nicole tapped lightly on the wall. A firefly dimly illuminated a pair of octospiders in a single heap. Dr. Blue and Jamie were sleeping with their bodies pressed together and their tentacles tangled in a confusing pattern. Nicole walked over and touched Dr. Blue on the top of the head. There was no response. She tapped a little harder the second time and Dr. Blue’s lens material began to move around.

“What are you doing here?” Dr. Blue said in color a few seconds later.

“I need your help,” Nicole answered. “It’s important.”

The octospider moved very slowly, trying to untangle her tentacles without disturbing Jamie. She was unsuccessful; the young octospider awakened anyway. Dr. Blue told Jamie to go back to sleep and shuffled into the atrium with Nicole.

“You should be in bed,” Dr. Blue said.

“I know,” Nicole replied. “But this is an emergency. I need to talk to the Chief Optimizer, and I would like for you to go with me.”

“At this time of night?”

“I don’t know how much time we have,” Nicole said. “I must see the Chief Optimizer before those biological agents start killing people in New Eden. I’m worried about Katie, and all of Ellie’s family as well.”

“Nikki and Ellie will not be harmed. Katie should be young enough too, if I understood—”

“But Katie’s system is screwed up by all the drugs,” Nicole interrupted the colors. “Her body probably acts as if it’s old… and Robert is all worn-out from working all the time.”

“I’m not certain I understand what you are telling me,” said Dr. Blue. “Why is it that you want to see the Chief Optimizer?”

“To plead for special treatment for Katie and Robert, assuming of course that Ellie and Nikki are all right. There must be some way, witty your biological magic, that they can be singled out and spared. That’s why I want you to come with me-to support my case.”

The octospider didn’t say anything for several seconds. “All right, Nicole,” she said finally, “I will go with you. Even though I think you should be resting in bed… And I doubt if there’s anything that can be done.”

“Thank you very much,” Nicole said, forgetting herself for a moment and hugging Dr. Blue.

“You must promise me one thing,” Dr. Blue said as they walked together out the front door. “You must not push yourself too hard tonight. Tell me if you are feeling weak.”

“I’ll even lean on you as we walk,” Nicole said with a smile.

They moved slowly into the street, the unlikely pair. Two of Dr. Blue’s tentacles were supporting Nicole at all times. Nevertheless, the day’s activities and emotions had taken a toll on Nicole’s meager energy supply. She was feeling fatigue before they reached the transport stop.

She stopped to rest. The distant sounds she had been hearing, but not noticing, became more prominent. “Bombs,” Nicole said to Dr. Blue. “A lot of them.”

“We were told to expect helicopter raids,” the octospider said. “But I wonder why there were no flares.”

Suddenly part of the domed canopy over their heads exploded in a great fireball. Moments later Nicole heard a deafening sound. She held tightly to Dr. Blue and stared at the inferno above her. In the flames she thought she could see the remnants of a helicopter. Burning pieces of the dome were falling from the sky, some landing no more than a kilometer away.

Nicole could not catch her breath. Dr. Blue could see the strain on her face. “I’ll never make it,” Nicole said. She clutched the octospider with all the strength she had remaining. “You must go see the Chief Optimizer without me,” she said. “As my friend. Ask her-no, beg her to do something for Katie and Robert. Tell her it’s a personal favor… For me.”

“I’ll do what I can,” Dr. Blue replied. “But first we must take you back.”

“Mother, “ Nicole heard Patrick yell behind her. He was running down the street toward them. When he reached them, Dr. Blue boarded the transport. Nicole looked up at the dome just as a helicopter blade, wrapped in burning foliage, fell out of the sky and crashed in the distance.