Arthur Clarke - Rama Revealed

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.

Katie dropped the syringe in the sink and looked at herself in the mirror. “There,” she said out loud, “that’s much better. I’m not trembling anymore.” She was wearing the same dress she had worn to her father’s hearing. Katie had made that decision also the week before, when she had told Franz what she was planning to do.

She turned around, watching her reflection critically. What is that swelling on my forearm? she wondered. Katie had not noticed it before. On her right arm, halfway between her elbow and her wrist, there was a lump the size of a golf ball. She rubbed it. The swelling felt tender when she pressed it, but it neither hurt nor itched unless she touched it directly.

Katie shrugged and walked into her living room. The papers she had prepared were lying on the coffee table. She smoked a cigarette while she organized the document. Then she placed the papers in a large envelope.

The phone call from Nakamura’s office had come that morning. The sweet female voice had told Katie that Nakamura could see her at five o’clock in the afternoon. When she had put down the phone, Katie had hardly been able to contain herself. She had almost given up hope that she would be able to see him at all. Three days earlier, when she had called to make an appointment “to talk about their mutual business,” Nakamura’s receptionist had told her that he was extremely busy with the war effort and was not scheduling unrelated meetings.

Katie checked her watch again. It was fifteen minutes until five. To walk from her apartment to the palace would take ten minutes. She picked up the envelope and opened the door to her apartment.

The wait was destroying her self-confidence. It was already six o’clock and Katie had not even been admitted yet to the inner sanctum, the Japanese part of the palace where Nakamura worked and lived. Twice she had gone to the rest room, both times inquiring on her way back to her seat if the wait would be much longer. The girl at the desk next to the door had twice responded with a vague, unknowing gesture.

Katie was struggling with herself. The kokomo was starting to wear off, and she was having doubts. While smoking a cigarette in the rest room, she had tried to forget her anxieties by thinking about Franz. She remembered the last time that they had made love. His eyes had been heavy with sadness when he had departed. He does love me, Katie thought, in his own way.

The Japanese girl was standing at the door. “You may go in now,” she said. Katie crossed back through the waiting room and entered the main part of the palace. She took off her shoes, placed them on a shelf, and walked on the tatami in her stocking feet. An escort, a policewoman named

Marge, greeted her and instructed Katie to follow her.

Clutching her envelope of papers in her hand, Katie walked behind the policewoman for ten or fifteen meters until a screen opened on their right. “Please go in,” Marge said. Another policewoman, Oriental but not Japanese, was waiting in the room. She was wearing a gun in a holster on her hip. “Security around Nakamura-san is especially tight right now,” Marge explained. “Please take off all your clothes and jewelry.”