Rama II Part 26

"Yes," Nicole answered.

"But for what purpose?" asked the general. "If the Ramans just wanted to make contact with us, why did they go to such elaborate lengths? And why are they risking our misinterpretation of their intent?"

"I don't know," Nicole said. "Maybe they're testing us in some way. To find out what we're like."

"Goodness," O'Toole replied, "what a terrible thought. We may be catalogued as the creatures who launch nuclear attacks against visitors."

"Exactly," said Nicole.

Nicole showed O'Toole the bam with the pits, the lattice where she had rescued the avian, the stunning polyhedrons, and the entrances to the other two lairs. She was becoming very tired, but she knew that she would not sleep until everything was resolved.

"Should we head back?" O'Toole said after he and Nicole had walked down to the Cylindrical Sea and verified that the sailboat was still intact where they had left it.

"All right," Nicole answered wearily. She checked her watch. It was exactly three hours and eighteen minutes until the first nuclear missile would arrive at Rama.

62 THE FINAL HOUR.

n.o.body had spoken for five minutes. Each of the three cosmonauts sat enmeshed in his own private world, aware that the first missile was now less than an hour away. Richard raced through all the sensor outputs hurriedly, searching vainly for any indication that Rama was taking some protective action. "s.h.i.t," he muttered, looking again at the close-up radar picture that showed the lead missile drawing closer and closer.

Richard walked over to where Nicole was sitting in the corner. "We must have failed," he said quietly. "Nothing has changed."

Nicole rubbed her eyes. "I wish I weren't so tired," she said.

"Then maybe we could do something interesting for our last fifty minutes." She smiled grimly. "Now I know what it must be like to be on Death Row."

General O'Toole approached from the other side of the room. He was holding two of the small black b.a.l.l.s in his left hand. "You know," be said, "often I have wondered what I would do if I ever had a specified, finite time before I died. Now here I am, and my mind keeps focusing on a single thing."

"What's that?" Nicole asked.

"Have either of you ever been baptized?" he replied tentatively.

"Whaaat?" exclaimed Richard with a laugh of surprise.

"I thought not," said General O'Toole. "What about you, Nicole?"

"No, Michael," she answered. "My father's Catholicism was more tradition than ceremony."

"Well," persisted the general. "I'm offering to baptize you both."

"Here? Now?" inquired the astounded Wakefield. "Are my ears deceiving me, Nikki, or did I just hear this gentleman suggest that we spend the last hour of our life being baptized?"

"It won't take-" O'Toole started to say.

"Why not, Richard?" Nicole interrupted. She stood up with a bright smile on her face. "What else do we have to do? And it's a h.e.l.l of a lot better than morbidly sitting around here waiting for the great fireball."

Richard almost cackled. "This is wonderful!" he exclaimed.

"I, Richard Wakefield, lifelong atheist, am considering being baptized on an extraterrestrial s.p.a.ceship as the final action of my life. I love it!"

"Remember what Pascal wrote," Nicole teased.

"Ah, yes," Richard replied. "A simple matrix from one of the world's great thinkers. "There may or may not be a G.o.d; I may or may not believe in Him. The only way I can lose is if there is a G.o.d and I do not believe in Him. Therefore I shall believe in Him to minimize my downside risk.'" Richard chuckled. "But I did not agree to believe in G.o.d, only to being baptized."

"So you'll do it," Nicole said.

"Why not?" he replied, parroting her earlier comment.

"Maybe that way I don't have to stay in Limbo with the virtuous pagans and unbaptized children." He grinned at O'Toole. "All right, General, we're all yours. Do your thing."

"Now you listen closely to this, TB," Richard said. "You're probably the only robot ever to be in a human's pocket during a baptism."

Nicole nudged Richard in the ribs. The patient General O'Toole waited a few moments and then began the ceremony.

At Richard's insistence, they had left the lair and walked out into the open plaza. Richard had wanted the sky of Rama overhead and neither of the other two had objected. Nicole had gone over to the Cylindrical Sea to fill the baptismal flask with water while General O'Toole completed his preparations. The American general was taking the baptism seriously but was apparently not offended by Richard's lighthearted banter.

Nicole and Richard knelt down in front of O'Toole. He sprinkled water on Richard's head. "Richard Colin Wakefield, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

When O'Toole had finished baptizing Nicole in the same simple way, Richard stood up and grinned. "I don't feel any different," he said. "I'm just like I was before-scared s.h.i.tless about dying in the next thirty minutes,"

General O'Toole had not moved. "Richard," he said softly, "could I ask you to kneel again? I would like to say a short prayer."

"What's this?" Richard asked. "First a baptism, now a prayer?" Nicole looked up at him. Her eyes asked him to accede. "All right," he said, "I guess I might as well go all the way."

"Almighty G.o.d, please hear our prayer," the general said in a strong voice. He also was kneeling now. His eyes were closed and his hands were clasped in front of him. "We three have gathered here in what may be our final hour to pay homage to Thee. We beseech Thee to consider how we may serve Thee if we continue to live and, if it be Thy will, we ask Thee to spare us a painful and horrible death. If we are to die, we pray that we may be accepted into Thy heavenly kingdom. Amen."

General O'Toole stopped for just a moment and then began to recite the Lord's prayer. After he had said, "Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name-" the lights in the great s.p.a.ceship were abruptly extinguished. Another Raman day was over. Richard and Nicole waited respectfully until their friend had finished the prayer before pulling out their flashlights.

Nicole thanked the general and gave him a small hug. "Well, here we are," Richard jabbered nervously. "Twenty-seven minutes and counting. We've had a baptism and a prayer. What should we do now? Who has an idea for the last, and I mean the very last, amus.e.m.e.nt? Should we sing? Dance?

Play some kind of game?"

"I would prefer to remain up here by myself," General O'Toole said solemnly, "and face my death in atonement and prayer. And I imagine the two of you would like to be alone together."

"All right, Nikki," Richard said. "Where shall we share our final kiss? On the sh.o.r.e of the Cylindrical Sea or back in the White Room?"

Nicole had been awake for thirty-two consecutive hours and was absolutely exhausted. She fell into Richard's arms and closed her eyes. At that moment scattered flashes of light intruded upon the new blackness of the Raman night.

"What's that?" General O'Toole asked anxiously.

"It must be the horns," Richard answered excitedly. "Come on, let's go."

They ran to the south edge of the island and stared at the ma.s.sive, enigmatic structures in the southern bowl. Filaments of light were darting between different pairs of the six spires surrounding the great monolith in the center. The yellow arcs seemed to sizzle in the air, undulating gently back and forth in the middle while remaining connected to one of the little horns at each end. A distant cracking sound accompanied the spectacular sight.

"Amazing," said O'Toole, overcome with awe. "Absolutely amazing."

"So Rama is going to maneuver," Richard said. He could hardly contain himself. He hugged Nicole, then O'Toole, and finally kissed Nicole on the lips. "Whoopee!" he yelled as he danced along the wall.

"But Richard/' Nicole shouted after him, "isn't it too late?

How can Rama move out of the way in such a short time?" Richard ran back to his colleagues. "You're right," he said breathlessly. "And those d.a.m.n missiles probably have terminal guidance anyway." He started running again, this time heading back toward the plaza. "I'm going to watch on the radar."

Nicole glanced over at General O'Toole. "I'm coming," he said. "But I've already run enough for one day. I want to watch this show for another few seconds. You can go on without me if you want."

Nicole waited. As the two of them walked briskly toward the plaza, General O'Toole thanked Nicole for allowing him to baptize her. "Don't be silly," she replied. "I'm the one who should thank you." She put her hand on his shoulder. The baptism itself wasn't that important, she continued in her private thoughts. It was obvious that you were concerned about our souls. We agreed primarily to show our affection for you. Nicole smiled to herself. At least I think that was the reason. . . .

The ground underneath them began to shake vigorously and General O'Toole stopped, momentarily frightened. "That's apparently what happened during the last maneuver," Nicole said, steadying both of them by taking the general's hand, "although I was personally lying unconscious at the bottom of a pit and missed the entire event."

"Then the light show was just an announcement of the maneuver?"

"Probably. That's why Richard was so elated." They had barely opened the lair covering when Richard bolted up the stairs. "They've done it!" he exclaimed.

"They've done it!"

O'Toole and Nicole stared at him as he caught his breath.

"They've deployed some kind of mesh or net-I don't know exactly what it is-about six, maybe eight hundred meters thick-all around the s.p.a.cecraft." He turned around. "Come on," he said, dashing down the steps three at a time. Despite her fatigue, Nicole responded to his excitement with a final burst of adrenaline. She bounded down the stairs after Richard and ran to the White Room. He was standing in front of the black screen, flipping back and forth from the exterior image that showed the new material around the vehicle to the radar view that depicted the incoming missiles.

"They must have understood our warning," he said to Nicole. Richard jubilantly picked her up off the ground, gave her a kiss, and held her in the air. "It worked, darling," he shouted. "Thank you, oh thank you."

Nicole too was excited. But she was not yet convinced that Rama's action would prevent the destruction of the vehicle. After General O'Toole came in and Richard explained to him what they were seeing on the screen, there were only nine minutes left. Nicole had b.u.t.terflies the size of basketb.a.l.l.s in her stomach. The ground continued to shake as Rama extended its maneuver.

The nuclear missiles obviously had terminal guidance, for despite the fact that Rama was definitely changing its trajectory, the missiles continued to approach along a straight line. The close-up radar picture showed that the sixteen attackers were quite spread out. Their estimated impact times ranged over a period slightly less than an hour.

Richard's frenetic activity increased. He paced wildly around the room. At one point he pulled TB out of his pocket, put him down on the floor, and began talking rapidly to the little robot as if TB were his closest friend. What Richard said was barely coherent. One moment Richard was telling TB to prepare for the coming explosion; a second later he was explaining to him how Rama was going to miraculously evade the oncoming missiles.

General O'Toole was trying to remain calm, but it was impossible with Richard flying around the room like a Tasmanian devil. He started to say something to Richard, but decided instead to step outside into the tunnel for some quiet.

During one of the rare moments that Richard was not moving, Nicole walked over to him and grabbed his hands.

"Darling," she said, "relax. There's nothing we can do." Richard looked down for a second at his friend and lover and then threw his arms around her. He kissed her wildly and then sat down on the shaking floor, pulling her down beside him. "I'm scared, Nicole," he said, his body trembling. "I'm really scared. I hate not being able to do anything."

"I'm frightened too," she replied gently, taking his hands again. "And so is Michael."

"But neither of you act scared," Richard said. "I feel like an idiot, bouncing around here like Tigger in Winnie the Pooh,"

"Every person confronts death in a different way," Nicole said. "All of us feel fear. We just deal with it in our own individual fashion,"

Richard was calming down. He glanced over at the big monitor and then at his watch. "Three more minutes until the first impact," he said.

Nicole put her hands on his cheeks and kissed him softly on the lips. "I love you, Richard Wakefield," she said.

"And I love you," he answered.

Richard and Nicole were sitting quietly on the floor, holding hands and watching the black screen, when the first missile reached the edge of the dense mesh that surrounded Rama. General O'Toole was standing behind them in the doorwayhe had returned to the room about thirty seconds earlier. At the moment the missile made contact, the impacted part of the mesh yielded, cushioning the blow but allowing the missile to penetrate deeper into the netting. Simultaneously, other pieces of the mesh wrapped themselves rapidly about the missile, spinning a thick coc.o.o.n with amazing speed. It was all over in a fraction of a second. The missile was about two hundred meters from the outer sh.e.l.l of Rama, already enclosed in a thick wrapping, when its nuclear warhead detonated. The mesh on the screen flew around a little, but there was only a barely perceptible nudge inside the White Room.

"Wow!" said Richard first. "Did you see that?" He jumped up and approached the screen. "It happened so fast," Nicole commented, coming up beside him. General O'Toole mumbled a very short prayer of thanks and joined his colleagues in front of the screen. "How do you think it did that?" he asked Richard.

"I have no idea," Richard replied. "But somehow that coc.o.o.n contained the explosion. It must be a fantastic material." He flipped back to the radar image. "Let's watch this next one more closely. It should be here in a few-"

There was a brilliant flash of light and the screen went blank. Less than a second later a sharp lateral force hit them hard, knocking them to the floor. The lights went out in the White Room and the ground stopped shaking. "Is everyone all right?" Richard asked, groping for Nicole's hand in the dark.

"I think so," O'Toole replied. "I hit the wall, but only with my back and elbow."

"I'm fine, darling," Nicole answered. "What happened?"

"Obviously that one exploded early, before it reached the net. We were hit by the shock wave."

"I don't understand," O'Toole said. "The bomb exploded in a vacuum. How could there be a shock wave?"

"It wasn't technically just a shock wave," Richard replied, standing up as the lights came back on and the ground began to shake again. "Hey, how about that!" he interrupted himself. "The famous Raman redundancy scores again. You okay?" he said to Nicole, who looked unsteady as she was standing up.

"I bruised my knee," she answered, "but it's not serious."

"The bomb destroyed the rest of its own missile," Richard said, now answering O'Toole's question as he searched through the sensor list for the redundant imaging and radar outputs, "vaporizing most of the casing and reducing the rest to fragments. The gas and debris moved outward at enormous speeds, creating the wave that hit us. The mesh attenuated the size of the shock."

Nicole moved over against the wall and sat down. "I want to be ready for the next one," she said.

"I wonder how many b.u.mps like that Rama can survive," Richard said.

General O'Toole came over and sat down beside Nicole.

"Two down and fourteen to go," he said. They all smiled. At least they weren't dead yet.

Richard located the redundant sensors a few minutes later.

"Uh-oh," he said as he surveyed the remaining blips on the screen. "Unless I'm mistaken, the last bomb that exploded was many kilometers away. We were lucky. We'd better hope one doesn't detonate just outside the mesh." The trio watched while two more missiles were trapped and wrapped in the material surrounding Rama. Richard stood up. "We have a brief respite now/' he said. "It will be three minutes or so before our next impact-then we'll have four more missiles in a hurry."

Nicole rose to her feet also. She saw that General O'Toole was holding his back. "Are you sure you're all right, Michael?" she asked. He nodded, still watching the screen. Richard came over beside Nicole and took her hand. A minute later they sat down together against the wall to wait for the next impacts.

They didn't wait long. A second lateral force, much stronger than the 6rst one, hit them within twenty seconds. Again the lights went out and the floor stopped shaking. Nicole could hear O'Toole's labored breathing in the dark.

"Michael," she said, "are you hurt?" When there was no immediate reply, Nicole started crawling in his direction. That was a mistake. She was not braced against anything when the powerful third blast hit. Nicole was thrown savagely into the wall, hitting it with the side of her head.

General O'Toole stayed beside Nicole while Richard went up into New York to survey the city. The men spoke quietly when Richard returned. He reported only minor damage. Thirty minutes after the final missile had been trapped, the lights came back on and the ground started shaking again.

"You see," Richard said with a grin, "I told you we'd be all right. They always do everything important in threes." Nicole remained unconscious for almost another hour. During the last few minutes she was vaguely aware of both the vibration of the floor and the conversation on the opposite side of the room. Nicole opened her eyes very slowly, "The net effect," she heard Richard say, "is to increase our velocity along the hyperbola. So we will cross the Earth's...o...b..t much earlier than previously, long before the planet itself has arrived."

"How close will we come to the Earth?"

"Not too close. It depends on when this maneuver ends. If it stopped now we would miss by a million kilometers or so, more than twice the distance to the Moon."

Nicole sat up and smiled. "Good morning," she said cheerfully.

The two men came over beside her. "Are you all right, darling?" Richard asked.

"I think so," Nicole said, feeling the b.u.mp on the side of her head. "I may have occasional headaches for a while." She looked at the two men. "What about you, Michael? I seem to remember being worried about you right before the big blast."

"The second one knocked the wind out of me," O'Toole replied. "Luckily I was better prepared for the third bomb. And my back seems fine now."