Rama: The Omnibus

by Arthur C. Clarke

  Yes, Johann said to himself, turning around. It’s exactly as I expected. We are prisoners here. But why? What do these maskets want?

  Scarface scurried around Johann and led him to a far corner of the room, where he pointed to a deep hole. No, Johann thought, I don’t need to use the bathroom. At least not yet. But thank you anyway.

  Two warrior maskets entered the room, carrying Johann’s and Maria’s sleeping mats, while Scarface was showing him the toilet. Johann walked over beside the girl. Maria showed a brave face. “At least we’re together,” she said. “And it’s not nearly as dark as where I was yesterday.”

  TWO LARGE WOODEN bowls full of fruit were brought into the room by a quartet of colorless maskets. After they set the bowls down in front of Johann and Maria, they respectfully retreated to the other side of the room beside Scarface, where, after exchanging a few comments with Johann’s masket companion, they watched and waited. They all growled and whistled simultaneously when Johann pulled out his pocket knife and opened the . Scarface barked something to the others and then crossed the room slowly, stopping next to the fruit bowl and extending its right foreleg in Johann’s direction.

  “What does he want?” Maria asked, her face registering her displeasure. She had already started eating an oval red fruit that had no hard outer covering. Johann thought for a moment and then smiled. Holding the knife by the blade, he offered it to Scarface. The masket turned sideways, hooted, and the other four maskets scurried over to have a closer look. Maria looked at Johann as if he had lost his mind.

  Scarface was very entertaining. Wielding the knife from either of his forelegs, and once, for effect, from his right middle leg, Scarface peeled several pieces of fruit, sliced them into portions, and distributed the slices both to Johann and Maria and the four fascinated maskets. Near the end of the performance, Scarface singled out one of the onlookers and gestured for it to come forward and try the knife. This shy masket crawled forward a few centimeters on its stomach, and reached out to touch the knife blade with one finger of its right foreleg. It would not, however, take the knife when Scarface offered it.

  Johann, Maria, and the maskets all thoroughly enjoyed Scarface’s show. The other maskets mixed hoots, growls, and whistles throughout the meal. Johann and Maria laughed out loud several times at Scarface’s antics. Now if Maria’s idea is correct, Johann was thinking, and the warriors are males and the colorless maskets are females, then old Scarface has just made a significant improvement in his social status.

  Near the end of the meal, before the maskets removed the bowls and the fruit that had not been eaten, a contingent of a dozen maskets came through the portal and busied themselves on the opposite side of the room. They stuck four skinny wood pieces about half a meter tall in the ground, forming a rectangle, and then spent several minutes stomping and smoothing the area marked off by the stakes. When this activity was completed, two warrior maskets with small, sharp sticks in their forelegs began to draw a complex, detailed pattern on the smoothed dirt.

  Johann, curious about what was happening, stood up in a crouch and started to cross the room, but it was obvious from Scarface’s response that he was to remain where he was and not disturb the working maskets. Soon after the wooden fruit bowls had been removed, the masket leader, two warriors carrying the blue sphere in its box, and a host of colorless acolytes came into the room and inspected the design inside the stakes. The leader made a few growl-and-whistle comments to the two artists and some changes were made. The sphere-carrying warriors then went out the portal, the acolytes all sat down against the back wall, and the leader motioned for Scarface to bring Johann and Maria across the room.

  What had been drawn on the dirt was very neatly done, but Johann had no idea what, if anything, it represented. Maria had just asked him a question when the two warriors who had carried the blue sphere returned to the room behind a new, smaller masket with a wide, brilliant yellow stripe that started at the top of its forehead, just above the indentations, and ran across its head and then down its back. This yellow masket was cradling a yellow sphere the size of a large marble in its forelegs. Each of the two accompanying warriors had one of the handles of a huge wooden bowl filled with wrapped objects.

  The masket leader greeted the newcomers. After the blue sphere was removed from its box and placed beside the yellow sphere at the edge of the rectangular design, the warrior maskets began uncovering the objects in the bowl and bringing them to the leader, who carefully placed each one at a specific location inside the rectangle. One of the pieces was a wooden representation of a six-legged animal with something growing out of its forehead.

  “That must be a tusker,” Maria whispered to Johann.

  The possible tusker was set down on the design and two new objects were handed to the leader. Both resembled maskets. One had a piece of yellow fruit rind affixed to its head, the other some red and blue coloring on parts of its body They were placed at nearly opposite ends of the rectangle.

  At this juncture Scarface crossed in front of Johann to where Maria was sitting. The masket made a gesture as if it were taking something out of its stomach.

  Johann understood. “A figurine, Maria,” he said.

  The girl looked blankly at him. “Scarface wants one of your figurines,” Johann explained. “Give it to him, please.”

  Maria reluctantly removed Yasin from the pocket in her dress and handed the figurine to the masket. Scarface deftly tossed the figurine to the leader, who permitted his yellow colleague to examine it carefully, and then placed Yasin in a specific location on the floor.

  “It’s a map!” Johann suddenly exclaimed in a loud voice. “Look, Maria,” he said. “That must be the bay, there’s the pool where we swim, over there is the forest where we are now—”

  Johann stopped himself. Every creature in the room, including Scarface, was staring at him. I must have violated the protocol, Johann told himself After a few seconds of silence, the alien leader stood up, there was another short speech and chant, and then the procedure resumed.

  The final object in the wooden bowl, by far the largest, looked like a giant anteater with six legs. The piece was heavy and ungainly The masket leader nearly lost its balance while positioning this new creature on the map.

  Now it was the yellow masket’s turn to speak. In an excited voice with a much higher pitch than its cousins, it told a story that drew noisy responses from the gathering. Near the end, the yellow masket stepped gingerly onto the map, still talking, and pushed the giant anteater creature across the design until it was virtually on top of the masket figurine with the yellow fruit rind. It then sat down, softly wailing, and listened to the concluding speech of the host masket leader.

  During the final speech the leader pointed several times at Scarface, Johann, and Maria. Then a whistle sounded and all the visitors filed through the portal. One of the warriors gave the Yasin figurine to Scarface, who returned it to Maria.

  JOHANN HAD GROWN accustomed to the darkness of night in the alien worldlet, but he had never experienced a blackness as complete as it was in their room in the mound after the day was over. He heard Maria moving restlessly on her mat and considered using some of his precious supply of fuel to light his hand torch. Johann quickly dismissed the idea, however, as soon as he remembered the way Scarface had reacted to his knife. Lighting the torch would bring every masket in the mound in here, Johann mused. And I wouldn’t be able to extinguish it until all the fuel was gone.

  He put his head down on his mat and closed his eyes. “Are you awake, Johann?” Maria asked him a minute or two later.

  “Yes, I am,” he answered.

  “Will we be able to leave tomorrow?” she said.

  She understands our situation, Johann thought quickly. “I don’t know,” he replied. Probably not, he said to himself. There must have been some reason for that ceremony with the yellow masket.

  Johann found her hand in the dark and squeezed it gently. “I don’t think the maskets are
going to hurt us,” he said. “They could have done that already… I believe we’re here for some other purpose. But I don’t yet know what it is?”

  They were both silent for several seconds. “Johann.” Maria then said, holding his hand more tightly. “I’m sorry I ran away. I just couldn’t face Beatrice and Keiko after what they said about my father.”

  “I can imagine how you must have felt,” Johann said. “And I’m sorry that I was in any way responsible. But you can’t run away from problems, Maria. We are your friends and family. You can talk to us about what you’re feeling.”

  “No, I can’t,” Maria answered with bitterness in her voice. “The others laugh, and you’re always too busy with Vivien to have time to talk to me.”

  Johann felt as if he had been stabbed. “I’m sorry it seems that way, Maria,” he said carefully, making certain he wasn’t discounting her feelings. “But it’s not true. I will always make time for you if it’s important.”

  She squeezed his hand but didn’t respond. A few minutes later Maria fell asleep. Johann stayed awake another half hour, creating a mental list of the alterations he would make in his daily routine, if and when they returned safely to the others, so that there would be ample time for him to spend with Maria. He then slept dreamlessly until he was awakened by a touch on his shoulder.

  Scarface was standing beside Johann. In the dim light Johann could tell from Scarface’s gesture that the masket was attempting to communicate something to him. Johann sat up and started to awaken Maria, but Scarface stopped him with a constraining foreleg.

  The masket pushed a water tureen and some fruit over closer to Johann and waited impatiently while Johann ate breakfast. The moment he was finished, Scarface touched Johann again and then scurried over toward the portal. Johann followed in a crouch, then dropped to his hands and knees in the corridor that led to the outside.

  Near the mound the masket leader, the yellow masket, and several dozen others were standing in a clearing next to a pile of tree trunks of varying thickness and color that had been assembled during the night. Most were about a meter in length. On a signal from the leader, four of the colorless maskets picked up one of the thicker poles and carried it over to Johann. He took the pole and then looked quizzically at Scarface.

  His companion masket grabbed a branch that was on the ground and swung it back and forth through the air before pointing at Johann. At first, Johann had no idea what he was supposed to do. However, when he eventually gripped the pole as if it were a baseball bat, and swung it around like a club, he heard a chorus of approving noises from his audience.

  During the next fifteen minutes Johann was brought eight or nine more clubs of differing thicknesses, lengths, and weights. He swung each one of them two or three times before a pair of masket warriors came over and took it out of his hands. Following each sample, a discussion ensued among Scarface, the masket leader, and its yellow cousin. Two of the clubs were eventually set aside. The rest were taken back into the woods.

  When this procedure was completed, Scarface approached Johann and touched his pocket. Johann pulled out his knife and handed it to the masket. While Scarface sharpened the end of a small branch, new maskets, both warriors and colorless, came out from inside the mound carrying the blue sphere and its box. From the demeanor of the alien leader and the yellow masket, Johann surmised correctly that another ceremony was about to take place.

  Johann heard Maria’s protesting voice as she was led out of the mound. She was attached by rope or twine to two of the warrior maskets. The masket Johann immediately recognized as Hattie was walking beside her. Maria was brought over beside Johann and Scarface, who were opposite the rest of the assembled creatures.

  “What are they doing now?” Maria asked querulously. “And why am I not free to walk on my own?”

  Before Johann could answer, Scarface approached them. Using foreleg gestures and an occasional punctuating growl, he communicated to Johann that the maskets wanted Maria’s figurines again. Maria protested mildly but handed them to Johann after he reminded her that her treasures would undoubtedly be returned to her later, just as they had been after the ceremony the preceding evening.

  Scarface gave the figurines to its mound leader. Then the yellow masket, using a loud, shrill combination of noises, told a story that culminated with the large anteater representation from the night before repeatedly smashing its snout into the wooden replica of the yellow masket. The host masket leader was next on the agenda. It walked into the middle of the group holding both the Yasin and Beatrice figurines in its forelegs. Speaking in more measured growls and barks, it held the Beatrice figurine aloft before placing it on the ground next to the red and blue masket representation. Then the masket leader lifted the Yasin figurine high above its head while Scarface and two other warriors came forward. The warriors were carrying the giant anteater figurine and Scarface had a sharpened branch and a miniature club in its forelegs. These three objects were placed on the ground near the leader.

  The masket chief picked up the club and spear in its middle legs while still holding the Yasin figurine above its head in its forelegs. Then it began to hoot and snarl, as it struck the anteater object repeatedly with the miniature club, eventually causing the replica to topple over on its side. With all the gathered maskets shouting, the leader transferred the Yasin figure to its middle legs and thrust the tiny spear against the anteater’s side.

  The barks, hoots, growls, and whistles made such a din that Maria put her hands over her ears. Suddenly the masket leader dropped the figurines and placed all six legs on the ground. It then scampered over to the lustrous blue sphere and initiated a solemn chant. A minute later, the chant ended and the maskets dispersed, almost all of them returning to the mound.

  Scarface brought the figurines back to Maria and gestured toward the mound. The two warrior maskets to whom she was attached started moving in the indicated direction. Maria was frightened. “What are they doing, Johann?” she said. “‘why are they taking me back inside?”

  Johann had noticed during the important concluding parts of the ceremony that Maria, like a typical eight-year-old human, had no longer been paying close attention. She had been watching other maskets in the assembly, and even looking out into the woods. Since Johann was fairly certain that he understood the meaning of the ceremony, he thought that it was fortuitous that Maria’s attention had strayed.

  “I think there’s something they want me to do for them,” Johann said evenly. “After I finish, I believe we’ll be free to return to the others.”

  Before Maria reached the mound, Johann hurried over and embraced her. His quick, unexpected movement caused consternation among the maskets. A dozen warriors had encircled the two humans by the time they had finished saying good-bye.

  “I love you, Maria,” Johann said.

  “How long will you be gone?” the girl asked.

  “I don’t know—not long, I don’t think,” he replied.

  She hugged him one last time and then followed her two warrior maskets and Hattie back into the mound.

  SIX

  JOHANN SAT ON a stump in the clearing while the preparations were completed. Scarface supervised a colorless masket artisan who worked continuously with Johann’s knife to fashion a sharp point on the end of one of the two poles. The yellow masket also remained out of the mound, talking with its cousins, and personally brought Johann water and fruit just before his spear was finished.

  The mound leader, accompanied as usual by the warrior pair carrying the box with the blue sphere, came out again a few minutes later. It felt the end of the spear, and then ordered both the club and the spearpoint touched against the surface of the blue sphere. It did not give a speech, but the masket leader did lead the group in a brief chant before returning to the mound.

  Altogether there were eight members of the contingent that set out in the middle of the day. The yellow masket was the leader, followed by Scarface, Johann, and then five colorless maskets
, three carrying the thick club, and a pair responsible for the spear. The group moved at a rapid pace. They stopped for lunch at a stream, where the maskets gathered fruit and Scarface indicated to Johann that he should drink his fill. Late in the day they passed though another forest. Scarface briefly disappeared before returning with replacement maskets who took over the carrying job from their five exhausted comrades.

  The pace did not slow after nightfall. Johann was sweaty and fatigued when they finally stopped on a beach beside the lake on the far side of the island. With the maskets watching him curiously, Johann refreshed himself with an evening swim before dinner and sleep.

  Scarface awakened him before daylight. At dawn they were traveling along the top of a sheer cliff that dropped precipitously to the lake below Johann stopped to admire a beautiful waterfall that cascaded down the cliff, creating a perpetual shower on the narrow beach at the bottom. Scarface signaled to Johann that they needed to keep moving.

  Soon thereafter the yellow masket turned and crossed a meadow, full of flowers and grasses, that extended all the way to the cliff’s edge. On the other side of this meadow was the forest that was the home of the yellow masket tribe. The travelers were met at the edge of the forest, in a secluded glade, by half a dozen members of the yellow clan, two with the bright yellow stripes on their backs and heads, and a quartet of the smaller, colorless variety who were virtually indistinguishable from their cousins on the other side of the island.

  A long conversation ensued between Scarface and all the yellow maskets. The maskets who had been carrying the club and the spear set them against the trunk of a large tree -and listened to the discussion. At length the six maskets who had met them in the glade scampered out into the meadow, each going in a different direction. Scarface came over beside Johann and said something with growls and gestures that Johann did not understand. Then Scarface sat down beside his yellow masket comrade and both of them stared fixedly at the meadow, as if they were waiting for something.