Arthur Clarke - Rama Revealed

Friar Tuck was a talkative fellow. After every several bars of the music, toe would pull away from Nicole and ask a question. As planned, Nicole would indicate her response with a head movement or a gesture. Toward the end of the song, the priest in costume began to laugh. “Verily,” he said, “I believe I am dancing with a mute. A graceful one, no doubt, but nevertheless a mute.”

“I have a bad cold,” Nicole said softly, trying to disguise her voice.

After she had spoken, Nicole detected a definite change in the friar’s manner. Her concern increased when, after the dance was over, the man continued to hold her hands and to stare at her for several seconds.

“I’ve heard your voice somewhere before,” he said seriously. “It’s very distinctive. I wonder if we’ve met. I’m Wallace Michaelson, the senator from the western section of Beauvois.”

Nicole vaguely remembered the man. She did not dare to say anything else. Fortunately, Eponine and Robin Hood returned to join Nicole and Friar Tuck before the silence had become dangerously long. Eponine sensed what had occurred and acted quickly. “The queen and I,” she said, taking Nicole by the hand, “were on our way to the powder room when you Sherwood Forest outlaws ambushed us. If you will now excuse us, with thanks for the dance, we will continue toward our original destination.”

As the women walked away, the two men dressed in green watched them carefully. Once inside the ladies’ room, Eponine first opened all the stalls to ensure that she and Nicole were alone. “Something’s happened,” Eponine then whispered. “Probably Max had to go to the warehouse to replace your equipment.”

“Friar Tuck is a senator from Beauvois,” Nicole said. “He almost recognized my voice. I don’t think I’m safe here.”

“All right,” said Eponine nervously after a moment’s hesitation. “We will follow the alternate plan. We’ll go out front and wait underneath the big tree.”

Both women saw the small ceiling camera at the same time. It made just the slightest sound as it changed its orientation to follow them around the room. Nicole tried to remember every word that she and Eponine had said. Was there anything that suggested who we were? she wondered.

Nicole was worried especially about Eponine, since her friend would continue to live in the colony after Nicole had either escaped or was captured.

When Nicole and Eponine returned to the ballroom, Robin Hood and his favorite priest gestured for the ladies to come toward them. In response Eponine motioned toward the front door, put her fingers to her lips to indicate that she was going outside to smoke, and then crossed the room with Nicole. Eponine glanced over her shoulder as she opened the outside door. “The green men are following us,” she whispered to Nicole.

About twenty meters away from the entrance to the ballroom, which was in reality the gymnasium for Beauvois Middle School, there was a large elm tree that had been one of the few already-grown trees transported to Rama originally from the Earth. When Eponine and Queen Nicole reached the tree, Eponine reached into her purse, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it quickly. She blew the smoke away from Nicole. “I’m sorry,” she whispered to her friend.

“I understand,” Nicole had just finished saying when Robin Hood and Friar Tuck walked up beside them.

“Well, well,” Robin Hood said, “so our mermaid princess is a smoker. Don’t you know that you’re taking years off your life?”

Eponine started to give her standard reply, to tell the man that RV-41 would kill her long before smoking would, but she decided that any conversation might encourage the men to stay. She just smiled wanly, inhaled deeply on her cigarette, and blew smoke above her head into the branches of the tree.

“Both the friar here and I were hoping that you ladies would join us for a drink,” Robin Hood said, ignoring the fact that neither Eponine nor Nicole had responded to his earlier comment.

“Yes,” added Friar Tuck, “we would like to know who you are.” He stared at Nicole. “I’m certain we’ve met before, your voice is so familiar.”

Nicole faked a cough and looked around. There were three policemen within a radius of fifty meters. Not here, she thought. Not now. Not when I am so close.

“The queen is not feeling well,” Eponine said. “We may be leaving early. If not, we’ll find you when we come back inside.”

“I’m a doctor,” Robin Hood interrupted, moving closer to Nicole. “Maybe I can help.”

Nicole could feel the tension in her heart. Again her breath was short and labored. She coughed again and turned away from the two men.

“That’s a terrible cough, Your Majesty,” she heard a familiar voice say. “We’d better take you home.”

Nicole glanced up at another man dressed in green. Max, a.k.a. King Neptune, was smiling broadly at her. Behind him Nicole could see the buggy parked no more than ten meters away. Nicole was joyful and relieved. She gave Max a huge hug and almost forgot the danger all around her. “Max,” she said, before he put his finger to her lips.

“I know both you ladies are just delighted that King Neptune has finished his business for the evening,” he then said with a flourish, “and can now squire you away to his castle, away from outlaws and other unsavory elements.”

Max looked at the other two men, who were enjoying his performance even though he had foiled their plans for the evening. “Thank you, Robin. Thank you, Friar Tuck,” Max said as he helped the ladies into the buggy seat. “Your kind attention to my friends is most appreciated.”

Friar Tuck approached the buggy, obviously to ask one more question, but Max pedaled away. “It is a night of costumes and mystery,” he said, waving at the man. “But we cannot tarry, for the sea is calling us.”

“You were fantastic,” Eponine said, giving Max another kiss.

Nicole nodded her head. “You may have missed your calling,” she said. “Maybe you should have been an actor instead of a farmer.”

“I played Marc Antony in our high school play in Arkansas,” Max said, handing Nicole the diving mask for a final adjustment. “The pigs loved my rehearsals… Friends, Romans, Countrymen. Lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.”

The three of them laughed. They were standing in a small clearing about five meters from the shore of Lake Shakespeare. The trees and tall underbrush concealed them from the nearby road and bicycle path. Max lifted up the air tank and helped Nicole adjust it on her back.

“Is everything ready, then?” he asked. Nicole nodded.

“The robots will meet you at the cache,” Max said. “They told me to remind you not to descend too rapidly. You have not done any diving in a long time.”

Nicole stood in silence for several seconds. “I don’t know how to thank you two,” she said awkwardly. “Nothing I can think of to say seems adequate.”

Eponine walked over to Nicole and gave her a hug. “Be safe, my friend,” she said. “We love you very much.”

“Me too,” Max said a moment later, choking slightly as he embraced her. They both waved to Nicole as she backed into the lake.

Tears were running out of Nicole’s eyes and collecting on the bottom of her mask. She waved one last time when the water was up to her waist.

The water was colder than Nicole had expected. She knew that the temperature variations in New Eden had been much greater since the colonists had taken over management of their own weather, but she had not considered that the changes in weather patterns would have altered the temperature of the lake.

Nicole changed the amount of air in her vest to slow her descent. Don’t hurry, she counseled herself. And stay relaxed. You have a long swim ahead of you.