Rama: The Omnibus

by Arthur C. Clarke

  "What about you and Max and Patrick?" Nicole asked.

  "We'll come back as fast as we can. If there is nobody—By the way, Nicole, leave a transmitter, with the volume on high, in the White Room, and another in the nursery. That way we'll know if anybody is in our lair… Anyway, as I was saying, if our home has not been invaded, we'll join you right away. If Nakamura's men are occupying our living quarters, we'll try to find another entrance to the octospider lair from down here. There must be one."

  "All right," Nicole interrupted. "We must get started with the packing. I'll leave the receiver on in case you need us."

  "So you think we'll be safest in the octospider lair?" Max said after Richard had switched off his transmitter.

  "It's a choice," Richard said with a wan smile. "There are too many unknowns here behind the screen. And we know for certain we won't be safe if Nakamura's police and troops find us. The octospiders may not even be living in their lair anymore. Besides, as Nicole has said many times, we have no unambiguous evidence that the octos are hostile."

  The men moved as quickly as they could. At one point they halted briefly while Patrick transferred some of the weight off Richard's pack into his own. Both Richard and Max were sweating profusely by the time they reached the Y in the corridor.

  "We must stop for a minute," Max said to Patrick, who was out in front of his two older companions. "Your Uncle Richard needs a rest."

  Patrick pulled a water bottle from his pack and passed it around. Richard drank eagerly from the bottle, wiped his brow with a handkerchief, and after a minute's rest began jogging again toward the lair.

  About five hundred meters away from the small platform behind the black screen, Richard's receiver began picking up indistinct noises from the inside of the lair. "Maybe someone in the family forgot something important," Richard said, slowing down to listen, "and came back to retrieve it."

  A short time later the three men heard a voice they could not identify. They stopped and waited. "It looks as if some kind of animal has been living back here," the voice said. "Why don't you come take a look?"

  "Damn," said a second voice. "They have definitely been here recently. I wonder how long ago they left."

  "Captain Bauer," someone shouted. "What do you want me to do with all this electronic gear?"

  "Leave it for now," the second voice answered. 'The rest of the troops should be down in a few minutes. We'll decide what to do then."

  Richard, Max, and Patrick sat quietly in the dark tunnel. For about a minute they didn't hear anything on the receiver. Apparently none of the members of the search party was in the White Room or the nursery during that time. Then the three men heard Franz Bauer's voice again.

  "What's that, Morgan?" Bauer said. "I can barely hear you… There's some kind of racket… What? Fireworks? Colors?… What in the world are you talking about? All right. All right. We'll come up immediately."

  For another fifteen seconds the receiver was quiet. "Ah, here you are, Pfeiffer," they then heard Captain Bauer say plainly. "Round up the other men and let's go back upstairs. Morgan says there's an amazing fireworks demonstration in the southern sky. Most of the troops were already spooked by the skyscrapers and the dark. I'm going up to calm everyone's nerves."

  "This is our chance," Richard whispered, rising to his feet. "They will certainly be out of the lair for a few minutes." He started to run and then stopped himself. "We may need to separate. Do both of you remember how to find the octospider lair?"

  Max shook his head. "I've never been over—"

  "Here," Richard said, handing Max his portable computer. "Enter an M and a P for an overview of New York. The octospider lair is marked with a red circle. If you touch L, followed by another L, a map of the inside of their lair will be displayed. Now let's go, while we still have some time."

  Richard, Max, and Patrick encountered no troops inside their lair. A pair of guards were stationed, however, a few meters away from the exit to New York. Fortunately, the guards were so transfixed by the fireworks in the Rama sky above their heads that they didn't hear the three men slipping up the stairs behind them. For safety, the threesome split up, each taking a different route to the octospider lair.

  Richard and Patrick arrived at their destination within a minute of each other, but Max was delayed. As luck would have it, the route he had chosen led through one of the plazas where five or six of the colony troops had gathered for a better view of the fireworks. Max raced down an alley and huddled against one of the buildings. He pulled out the computer and studied the map on the monitor, trying to figure out an alternate path to the octospider lair.

  Meanwhile, the spectacular fireworks show continued overhead. Max glanced up and was dazzled as a great blue ball exploded, throwing hundreds of rays of blue light in all directions. For almost a minute, Max watched the hypnotic display. It was grander than anything he had ever seen on Earth.

  When Max finally reached the octospider lair, he descended the ramp quickly and entered the cathedral room from which the four tunnels led into the other parts of the lair. Max entered two Ls on the computer and the map of the octospider domain appeared on the tiny monitor. Max was so engrossed in the map that at first he did not hear the sound of dragging mechanical brushes accompanied by a soft, high-pitched whine.

  He did not look up until the sound became quite loud. When Max finally raised his head, the large octospider was standing no more than five meters away from him. The sight of the creature sent powerful shivers down Max's spine. He stood quite still and fought against his desire to flee. The creamy liquid in the octospider's single lens moved from side to side, but the alien did not advance any closer to Max.

  Out of one of the parallel indentations on both sides of the lens came a burst of purple color, which circumnavigated the octospider's spherical head, followed by bands of other colors, all of which disappeared into the second of the two parallel slits. When the same color pattern repeated, Max, whose heart was pounding so fiercely he could feel it in his jaw, shook his head and said, "I don't understand." The octospider hesitated for a moment and then lifted two of its tentacles off the ground, clearly pointing in the direction of one of the four tunnels. As if to underscore its point, the octo shuffled in that general direction and then repeated the gesture.

  Max stood up and walked slowly toward the indicated tunnel, being careful not to come too close to the octospider. When he reached the entrance, another series of color splashes raced around the head of the alien. "Thank you very much," Max said politely as he turned and walked into the passageway.

  He didn't even stop to look at his map until he was three or four hundred meters into the tunnel. As Max walked along, the lights always came on automatically in front of him and were extinguished in the tunnel segments through which he had already passed. When he did finally examine the map carefully, Max discovered that he was not far from the designated, room.

  A few minutes later Max entered the chamber where the rest of the family was gathered. He had a big grin on his face. "You'll never guess who I just met," Max said only moments before Eponine greeted him with an embrace.

  Soon after Max finished entertaining everyone with the story of his encounter with the octospider, Richard and Patrick cautiously backtracked to the cathedral room, stopping every hundred meters or so and listening carefully for the telltale sounds of the aliens. They heard nothing. Nor did they hear or see anything that indicated the forces dispatched from New Eden were in the vicinity. After about an hour, Richard and Patrick returned to the rest of the group and joined in the discussion of what they should do next.

  The extended family had enough food for five days, maybe six if each portion was carefully rationed. Water was available at the cistern near the cathedral room. Everyone quickly agreed that the search party from New Eden, at (east this first one, would probably not stay in New York too long. There was a short debate about whether or not Katie might have told Captain Bauer and his men the location of the oc
tospider lair. On one critical point there was no argument: The next day or two was the most likely time period for them to be discovered by the other humans. As a result, except for physical necessities, none of the family left the large room in which they were staying for the next thirty-six hours.

  At the end of that time the whole group, especially the hatchlings and the twins, had a bad case of cabin fever. Richard and Nai took Tammy, Timmy, Benjy, and the small children out into the passageway, trying unsuccessfully to keep them quiet, and led them away from the cathedral room, toward the vertical corridor with the protruding spikes that descended deeper into the octospider lair. Richard, who had Nikki on his back most of the time, warned Nai and the twins several times about the dangers of the area they were approaching. Even so, very soon after the tunnel widened and they arrived at the vertical corridor, the impetuous Galileo climbed into the barrel-shaped hole before his mother could stop him. He quickly became frozen with fright. Richard had to rescue the boy from his precarious perch on two spikes just a short distance below the level of the walkway that encircled the top of the huge abyss. The young avians, delighted to be able to fly again, soared freely around the area and twice dropped several meters into the dark chasm, but they never went deep enough to trigger the next lower bank of lights.

  Before returning to the rest of the family, Richard took Benjy with him for a quick inspection of what Richard and Nicole had always called the octospider museum. This large room, located several hundred meters from the vertical corridor, was still completely empty. Several hours later, following Richard's suggestion, half of the extended family moved into the museum to give everyone more living space.

  On the third day of their stay in the octospider lair, Richard and Max decided that someone should try to discover if the colony troops were still in New York. Patrick was the logical choice to be the family scout. Richard's and Max's instructions to Patrick were straightforward—he was to proceed cautiously to the cathedral room and then up the ramp into New York. From there, using his flashlight and portable computer as little as possible, he should cross to the northern shore of the island and see if the boats were still there. Whatever the result of his investigation, he should return directly to the lair and give them a full report.

  "There is one other thing to remember," Richard said, "that is extremely important. If at any time you hear either an octospider or a soldier, you are to turn around immediately and come back to us. But with this one added proviso: Under no circumstances should any human see you descend into this lair. You cannot do anything that will endanger the rest of us."

  Max insisted that Patrick should take one of the two rifles. Richard and Nicole did not argue. After receiving best wishes from everybody, Patrick set out on his scouting mission. He had only walked five hundred meters down the tunnel, however, when he heard a noise in front of him. He stopped to listen, but could not identify what he was hearing. After another hundred meters some of the sounds began to resolve themselves. Patrick definitely heard the sound of dragging brushes several times. There was some clanging as well, as if metal objects were hitting against each other, or against a wall. He listened for several minutes and then, remembering his instructions, he returned to his family and friends.

  After a long discussion Patrick was sent out again. He was told this time to approach as close to the octospiders as he dared and to watch them quietly for as long as he could. Again he heard the dragging brush sound as he drew close to the cathedral room. But when Patrick actually reached the large chamber at the bottom of the ramp, there were no octospiders around. Where had they gone? he wondered. Patrick's first impulse was to turn around and go back in the direction from which he had come. However, since he had not encountered any actual octospiders yet, he decided that he might as well go up the ramp, out into New York, and carry out the remainder of his earlier assignment.

  Patrick was shocked to discover, about a minute later, that the exit from the octospider lair had been sealed tight with a thick combination of metal rods and a cementlike material. He could barely see through the cover, and it was certainly sufficiently heavy that all the humans together would not be able to budge it. The octospiders have done this, he thought immediately, but why have they trapped us here?

  Before returning to give his report, Patrick inspected the cathedral room and found that one of the four egress tunnels had also been sealed with what appeared to be a thick door or gate. That must have been the tunnel that led to the canal, he thought. Patrick remained in the area for another ten minutes, listening for the sounds of the octospiders, but heard nothing more.

  11

  So the octospiders have never done anything hostile?" Max was saying angrily. "Then what the hell do you call this? We're fucking trapped." He shook his head vigorously. "I thought it was stupid to come here in the first place."

  "Please, Max," Eponine said. "Let's not argue. Fighting among ourselves is not going to help."

  All the adults except Nai and Benjy had trekked the one kilometer down the passageway to the cathedral room to examine what the octospiders had done. The humans were indeed sealed inside the lair. Two of the three open tunnels leading out of the chamber went to the vertical corridor and the third, they quickly discovered, led to a large, empty storeroom from which there was no exit.

  "Well, we'd better think of something fast," Max said. "We have only four days worth of food and absolutely no idea where to get any more."

  "I'm sorry, Max," Nicole said, "but I still think Richard's initial decision was correct. If we had stayed in our lair, we would have been captured and taken back to New Eden, where we almost certainly would have been executed."

  "Maybe," Max interrupted. "And maybe not. At least in that case the children would have been spared. And I don't think either Benjy or the doctor would have been killed."

  'This is all academic," Richard said, "and doesn't deal with our main problem, which is, what do we do now?"

  "All right, genius," Max said with a sting in his voice. "This has been your show so far. What do you suggest?"

  Again Eponine interceded. "You're being unfair, Max. It's not Richard's fault we're in this predicament. And as I said before, it doesn't help."

  "Okay, okay," Max said. He walked toward the passage that led to the storeroom. "I'm going in this tunnel to calm down and to smoke a cigarette." He glanced back at Eponine. "Do you want to share? We have exactly twenty-nine left after we smoke this one."

  Eponine smiled faintly at Nicole and Ellie. "He's still pissed off at me for not taking all our cigarettes when we evacuated the lair," she said quietly. "Don't worry. Max has a bad temper, but he gets over it fast. We'll be back in a few minutes."

  "What is your plan, darling?" Nicole said to Richard a few seconds after Max and Eponine had left.

  "We don't have much choice," Richard said grimly. "A bare minimum number of adults should stay with Benjy, the children, and the avians, while the rest of us explore this lair as quickly as possible. I have a hard time believing that the octospiders really intend for us to starve to death."

  "Excuse me, Richard," Robert Turner now said, speaking for the first time since Patrick had reported that the exit to New York was sealed, "but aren't you again assuming that the octospiders are friendly? Suppose they're not, or more likely in my opinion, suppose our survival is insignificant to them one way or the other, and that they simply sealed off this lair to protect themselves from all the humans who have recently appeared…"

  Robert stopped, apparently having lost his train of thought. "What I was trying to say," he continued a few seconds later, "is that the children, including your granddaughter, are in considerable jeopardy—psychological as well as physical, I might add—in our current situation, and I would be against any plan that left them unprotected and vulnerable—"

  "You're right, Robert," Richard interrupted. "Several adults, including at least one man, must stay with Benjy and the children. In fact, Nai must have her hands full right
this minute. Why don't you, Patrick, and Ellie return to the children now? Nicole and I will wait for Max and Eponine and join you shortly."

  Richard and Nicole were alone after the others departed. "Ellie says that Robert is angry most of the time now," Nicole said quietly, "but he doesn't know how to express his anger constructively. He told her he thinks the whole enterprise has been a mistake from the beginning, and he spends hours brooding about it. Ellie says she's even worried about his stability."

  Richard shook his head. "Maybe it was a mistake," he said. "Maybe you and I should have lived the rest of our life here alone, I just thought—"

  At that moment Max and Eponine came back into the chamber. "I want to apologize," Max said, extending his hand, "to both of you. I guess I let my fear and frustration get the best of me."

  "Thank you, Max," Nicole answered. "But an apology really isn't necessary. It would be ridiculous to assume that this many people could go through an experience like this without any disagreements."

  Everyone was together in the museum. "Let's review the plan one more time," Richard said. "The five of us will climb down the spikes and explore the area around the subway platform. We will thoroughly investigate every tunnel we can find. Then, if we have not found any means of escape and the large subway is indeed there waiting, Max, Eponine, Nicole, and I will go on board. At that point Patrick will climb back up and rejoin you here in the museum."

  "Don't you think having all four of you on the subway is reckless?" Robert asked. "Why not just two of you at first?… What if the subway leaves and never comes back?"

  "Time is our enemy, Robert," Richard answered. "If we weren't running so low on food, then we could follow a more conservative plan. In that case maybe only two of us would enter the subway. But what if the subway leads to more than one place? Since we have already decided that for safety we will explore only in pairs, it could take us a long time to find the escape route with just a single couple doing the searching."