"Shit, Nicole," Max said. "I know that. But why? Why do those octospiders want us to climb out of here? You know, they've manipulated us since the moment we entered their lair. They have kidnapped Eponine and Ellie, moved us into the Southern Hemicylinder, and refused to let me go back to New York. What would happen if we decided not to go along with their plan?"
Nicole stared at her friend. "Max, would it be all right with you if we postponed this conversation until we're all together in the morning? I'm very tired."
"Certainly," Max said. "But tell that husband of yours I think we should do something completely unpredictable, like maybe even walking back through the tunnel to the octospider lair. I have an uneasy feeling about where all this is leading us."
"We don't know all the answers, Max," Nicole answered wearily, "but I really don't see where we have much choice except to comply with their wishes as long as the octospiders control our food and water supply. Maybe in this situation we must simply have some faith."
"Faith?" said Max. "That's just another word for not thinking." He walked back over to the cylinder. "And this amazing staircase could be taking us to hell as easily as heaven."
2
In the morning the subway returned with new food and water. After it had departed and everyone had inspected the enclosed cylindrical structure, Max argued that the time had come for the humans to show that they were "tired of being pushed around" by the octospiders. Max suggested that he, and anyone who wanted to go with him, should take the single remaining rifle and trek back through the tunnel under the Cylindrical Sea.
"But what exactly are you trying to accomplish?" Richard asked.
"I want them to capture me and take me to where they are holding Eponine and Ellie. Then I will know for certain they are all right. Nicole's dreams are really not sufficient."
"But Max," Richard countered, "your plan is not logical. Think about it. Even assuming that you are not run over by the subway while you're in the tunnel, how are you going to explain what you want to the octospiders?"
"I was hoping for some help from you, Richard," Max said. "I remember how you and Nicole communicated with the avians. Maybe you could use your computer skills to make a graphics picture of Eponine for me. Then I could show it to the octospiders, using my monitor."
Nicole sensed the entreaty in Max's voice. She touched Richard's hand. "Why not?" she said. "Someone could explore where the staircase leads while you create computer pictures of Eponine and Ellie for Max."
"I would like to go with Max," Robert Turner said suddenly. "If there's any chance at all of finding Ellie, then I want to take it. Nikki will be all right as long as she is here with her grandparents."
Although Richard and Nicole were both concerned about what they were hearing, they chose not to express their anxieties in front of everyone else. Patrick was asked to climb the staircase and do some minimal exploring while Richard was performing his computer graphics wizardry. Max and Robert went to their bedrooms to prepare for their trek. Meanwhile, Nicole and Nai were left alone with Benjy and the children in the main chamber.
"You think it's a mistake for Max and Robert to go back, don't you, Nicole?" Nai's question was asked, as always, in the gentle tone that characterized her personality.
"Yes," said Nicole. "But I'm not certain that my thoughts are relevant in this situation. Both men feel bereft and frustrated. It is important to them that some action be taken that is aimed at reuniting them with their partners… Even if the action doesn't make a lot of logical sense."
"What do you think will happen to them?" Nai asked.
"I don't know," Nicole replied. "But I don't think Max and Robert will find Eponine and Ellie. In my opinion, each woman was kidnapped for a specific reason. Although I have no idea what those reasons were, I believe the octospiders will not harm Eponine and Ellie and will eventually return them both to us."
"You are very trusting," Nai said.
"Not really," said Nicole. "My experiences with the octospiders lead me to believe that we are dealing with a species with a highly developed sense of morality. I admit that the kidnappings do not seem to be in concert with that picture—and I don't fault either Max or Robert for coming to their own, very different conclusions about the octospiders—but I would bet that we will, in the long run, understand even the purpose of the kidnappings."
"In the meantime," Nai said, "we face a difficult situation. If Max and Robert both leave and never return…"
"I know," said Nicole, "but there's nothing we can really do about it. They have decided, Max especially, that they must make some kind of statement now. It's a little old-fashioned—macho, even—but understandable. The rest of us must accommodate their needs, even if in our opinion their actions seem capricious."
Patrick returned in less than an hour. He reported that the staircase ended on a landing that narrowed into a hallway behind the dome. That hallway eventually led to another, smaller staircase which climbed another ten meters and came out inside an igloo-shaped hut about fifty meters south of the cliff overlooking the Cylindrical Sea.
"And what was it like, outside in Rama?" Richard asked.
"The same as in the north," Patrick answered. "Cold—about five degrees Celsius, I would estimate—and dark, with only traces of background light. The igloo hut is warm and well lighted. There are beds and a single bathroom, certainly designed for us, but altogether not much living space."
"Are there no other corridors or passages?" Max asked.
"No," said Patrick, shaking his head.
"Uncle Richard has made great pictures of Ellie and Eponine," Benjy said to his brother at this juncture. "You should see them."
Max pushed two buttons on his portable computer and an excellent rendition of Eponine's face appeared. "Richard didn't have her eyes right the first time," Max said, "but I straightened him out. Ellie was a much easier picture for him."
"So are you all ready to go, then?" Patrick asked Max.
"Just about. We're going to wait until morning so that the light from this room will illuminate more of the tunnel."
"How long do you think it will take to reach the other side?"
"An hour or so at a brisk pace," Max said. "I hope Robert can push himself that hard."
"And what will you do if you hear a subway coming?" Patrick said.
"There's not much we can do," Max replied with a shrug. "We've already surveyed the tunnel and there's very little clearance. Your Uncle Richard says we must rely on the subway's 'fault protection system.'"
There was an argument at dinner about the rifle. Both Richard and Nicole were strongly opposed to Max's taking the rifle, not because they particularly wanted the weapon to stay with the rest of the family, but rather because they feared an "incident" that might ultimately affect everyone. Richard was not very tactful with his remarks and angered Max.
"So, Mr. Expert," Max replied at one point, "would you mind telling me just how you know that my rifle will be 'useless' in finding Eponine."
"Max," Richard said stridently, "the octospiders must—"
"Let me, please, dear," Nicole interceded. "Max," she said in a softer tone, "I cannot imagine a scenario in which the rifle is a valuable asset for you on this trip. If you need it in any way to deal with the octospiders, then they must be hostile, and the fates of both Eponine and Ellie would have been decided long ago. We just don't want—"
"What if we encounter some other hostile creatures, nonoctospiders," Max said stubbornly, "and we must protect ourselves? Or what if I need to use the rifle to signal Robert in some way? I can think of many situations…"
The group was unable to resolve the issue. Richard was still frustrated when Nicole and he were undressing for bed. "Can't Max understand," Richard said, "that the real reason he wants to have a gun is to give himself a feeling of security? And a false feeling at that? What if he does something hotheaded and the octospiders withdraw our food and water?"
"We can't worry about that now, R
ichard," 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, smocklike 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.
Max stopped, looked at the advancing octospiders, and then glanced behind him. At the far end of the corridor another group of octospiders was moving in his direction.
"Wait just a damn minute," Max shouted. "I have something to say. You guys must understand at least part of our language or you could never have figured out that we were coming here… I'm not satisfied. I want proof that Eponine is alive."
The octospiders, their heads rippling with color, were almost upon him. A wave of fear swept through Max and he fired the rifle in the air as a warning. No more than
two seconds later he felt a sharp sting in the back of his neck. Max collapsed immediately on the floor.
Robert, whose indecision had kept him standing in the station, raced across the platform at the sound of the gunfire. When he arrived in the red corridor, he saw two octospiders lifting Max off the floor. Robert stood aside as the extraterrestrials carried Max into the subway and gently deposited him in the corner of the car. The octospiders then gestured at the open subway door and Robert climbed inside. Less than ten minutes later the two men had returned to the chamber underneath the rainbow dome.
3
Max did not awaken for ten hours. During that time both Robert and Nicole examined him thoroughly and found no evidence of any wound or injury. Meanwhile, Robert repeatedly told the story of their adventure, except of course what happened during the critical minute when Max was by himself in the red corridor.
Most of the questions from the family were about what Robert and Max had seen in the motion picture. Were there any indications of stress in Ellie or Eponine, suggesting that perhaps they might have been coerced into making the film? Did they appear to have lost any weight? Did they look rested?
"I believe we now know much more about the nature of our hosts," Richard said near the end of the family's second and more lengthy discussion of Robert's story. "First and foremost, it is clear that the octospiders, or whatever species is in charge here, both observe us regularly and are able to understand our conversations. There is no other possible explanation for the fact that the film showed to Max and Robert featured Ellie and Eponine.
"Second, their technological level, at least where motion pictures are concerned, is either several hundred years behind ours, or, if Robert is right when he insists that there could not have been a projecting device either in the room or behind the wall, they are so far advanced that their technology appears like magic to us. Third—"
"But Uncle Richard," Patrick interrupted. "Why didn't the motion picture have sound? Wouldn't it have been much easier for Eponine and Ellie just to say they were all right? Isn't it more likely that the octospiders are deaf than it is that their technology has not developed beyond silent movies?"
Rama: The Omnibus Page 134