Arthur Clarke - Rama Revealed

“We can’t worry about that now, Richard,” Nicole said. “At this stage I don’t think there’s anything we can do except ask Max to be careful and remind him that he is our representative. No amount of talking is going to change his mind.”

“Then maybe we should call for a vote about whether or not he should take the rifle,” Richard said. “And show Max that everyone is opposed to what he is doing.”

“My instinct tells me,” Nicole replied quickly, “that any kind of vote would be absolutely the wrong way to handle Max. He already senses what everyone is feeling. A coordinated censure would alienate Max and could make an ‘incident’ more likely to occur. No, darling, in this case we must just hope that nothing untoward happens.”

Richard was quiet for almost a minute. “I guess you’re right,” he said finally.

“We will wait here together for forty-eight hours,” Richard was saying to Max and Robert. “After that time some of us may begin moving our things up to the igloo.”

“All right,” said Max, tightening the straps on his backpack. He grinned. “And don’t worry. I won’t shoot one of your octospider friends unless it’s absolutely necessary.” He turned to Robert. “Well, mi amigo, are you ready for an adventure?”

Robert did not look comfortable wearing his backpack. He bent down awkwardly and picked up his daughter. “Daddy will only be gone a short while, Nikki,” he said. “Nonni and Boobah will both be staying here with you.”

Just before the two men departed, Galileo came running across the chamber with a small pack on his back. “I’m going too,” he shouted. “I want to fight the octospiders.”

Everyone laughed while Nai explained to Galileo why he couldn’t go with Max and Robert. Patrick softened the little boy’s disappointment by telling him that he could be the first one up the staircase when the family moved to the igloo.

The two men marched quickly into the tunnel. For the first few hundred meters they walked in silence, entertained by the fascinating sea creatures on the other side of the transparent plastic or glass. Twice Max had to slow down to wait for Robert, who was in poor physical shape. The two men did not encounter any subways. After slightly more than an hour, their flashlight beams illuminated the first station on the other side of the Cylindrical Sea. When Max and Robert were within fifty meters of the station platform, all the lights switched on and they could see where they were going.

“Richard and Nicole visited this place,” Max said. “Behind the archway there is a kind of atrium, and then a maze of red corridors.”

“What will we do here?” Robert asked. He was out of his element and completely content to follow Max’s lead.

“I haven’t decided exactly,” Max said. “I guess we’ll explore awhile and hope we find some octospiders.”

Much to Max’s surprise, beyond the station platform, in the middle of the atrium floor, was a large blue painted circle, out of which ran a thick blue line that turned right at the beginning of the maze of red corridors. “Richard and Nicole never mentioned a blue line,” Max said to Robert.

“It’s obviously an idiot-proof set of directions,” Robert said. He laughed nervously. “Following the thick blue line is as easy as following the yellow brick road.”

They walked into the first corridor. The blue line in the center of the floor stretched a hundred meters in front of them and then turned left at a distant intersection.

“You think we should follow the line, don’t you?” Max said to Robert.

“Why not?” Robert answered, taking a few steps along the corridor.

“It’s too obvious,” said Max, as much to himself as to his companion. He clutched his rifle and followed Robert. “Say”-he spoke again after they made their first left turn—” you don’t think this line was put here specifically for us, do you?”

“No,” Robert replied, stopping for a moment. “How could anyone have known we were coming?”

“That’s just what I asked myself,” Max mumbled.

Max and Robert walked on in silence, making three more turns following the blue line before coming to an archway that rose a meter and a half above the floor. They bent down and entered a large room with dark red ceilings and walls. The thick blue line ended in a large blue circle that was in the middle of the room.

Less than a second after they were both standing in the blue circle, the lights in the room went out. A crude, silent motion picture, whose image was about one meter square, immediately appeared on the wall directly in front of Max and Robert. In the center of the image were Eponine and Ellie, both dressed in strange, smock like yellow outfits. They were talking to each other and to some unknown person or thing who was off to the right, but of course Max and Robert could not hear anything they were saying. A few moments later, the two women moved a few meters to their right, past an octospider, and appeared beside a strange fat animal, vaguely resembling a cow, that had a flat white underbelly. Ellie held a snakelike pen against the white surface, squeezed it multiple times, and wrote the following message: Don’t worry. We’re fine. Both women smiled and the image abruptly terminated one second later.

As Max and Robert stood in the room thunderstruck, the ninety-second motion picture repeated twice in its entirety. By the time of the second repetition, the men had managed to collect themselves enough that they were able to pay careful attention to the details. Lights flooded the red room again when the movie was finished.

“Jesus Christ,” Max said, shaking his head.

Robert was joyful. “She’s alive!” he exclaimed. “Ellie is still alive.”

“If we can believe what we’ve seen,” Max said.

“Come on, Max,” Robert said several seconds later. “What possible reason could the octospiders have for making a film like that to deceive us? Wouldn’t it be much easier for them to do nothing?”

“I don’t know,” Max replied. “But you answer a question for me. How did they know that the two of us, coming here together at this time, were worried about Ellie and Eponine? There are only two possible explanations. Either they have been watching everything we have been doing and saying since we entered their lair, or someone- “

“-from our group has been providing information to the octospiders. Max, surely you don’t think for an instant that either Richard or Nicole—”

“No, of course not,” Max interrupted. “But I’m having a damn hard time understanding how we could have been observed so carefully. We have not seen any suggestion of eavesdropping devices. Unless some pretty sophisticated transmitters are planted on us, or in us, none of this makes any sense.”

“But how could they have done that without our knowledge?”

“Beats the shit out of me,” Max replied, bending down to walk through the archway. He stood up in the red corridor on the opposite side of the arch. “Now, unless I miss my guess, that damn subway will be waiting for us when we arrive at the station and we’ll be expected to return peacefully to the others. Everything is just too nice and neat.”

Max was correct. The subway was parked with its door open when Robert and he turned into the atrium from the maze of red corridors. Max stopped. He had a wild gleam in his eyes,

“I’m not going to board the damn train,” he said in a low voice.

“What are you going to do?” asked Robert, a little frightened.

“I’m going to go back into the maze,” Max said.

He clutched his rifle, spun around, and raced back into the corridor. Max turned away from the blue line and ran about fifty meters before the first octospider appeared in front of him. It was quickly joined by several more octos, which spread across the corridor from one side to the other. They began to move toward Max.