Arthur Clarke - Rama Revealed

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.”