Rama Revealed r-4

by Arthur C. Clarke

  Nikki had started whimpering when Robert had first raised his voice. She did not understand what the disagreement between her parents was about, but she could tell that everything was not all right. She began to cry and to cling to her mother’s leg.

  “It’s all right, Nikki,” Ellie said soothingly. “Your father and I are just talking.”

  When Ellie glanced up, Robert had taken a transparent skullcap out of a drawer and was holding it in his hand. “So you’re going to give me an EEG,” she said nervously, “to make certain that I haven’t become one of them?”

  “It’s not funny, Ellie,” Robert replied. “My EEGs have all been weird since I returned to New Eden. I can’t explain it, nor can the neurologist on my staff. He says he has never seen such radical changes in an individual’s brain activity, except in the case of severe injury.”

  “Robert,” Ellie said, taking his hand again. “The octospiders planted a microbiological block in your memory when you departed. To protect themselves. That could be part of the explanation for your peculiar brain waves.”

  Robert looked at Ellie for a long time without speaking. “They kidnapped you,” he said. “They tampered with my brain. Who knows what they may have done to our daughter? How can you possibly defend them?”

  Ellie submitted to the EEG and the results showed neither irregularities nor major differences from the routine brain testing that she had undergone during the early days of the colony. Robert seemed genuinely relieved. He then told Ellie that Nakamura and the government were prepared to drop all charges against her and would let her return home with Nikki-under house arrest temporarily, of course — if she would provide information about the octospiders. Ellie thought about the request for a few minutes and then agreed.

  Robert smiled and gave her a brisk hug. “Good,” he said. “You’ll start tomorrow. I’ll tell them right away.”

  Richard had warned Ellie during the ride on the ostrichsaur that Nakamura might try to use her in some way, most likely to justify his continued prosecution of the war. Ellie knew that by agreeing ostensibly to help the New Eden government she was committing herself to a very dangerous course.

  Nikki was unfamiliar with her old bedroom at first, but after an hour or so of playing with some of her toys, she seemed quite content. She came into the bathroom, where Ellie was taking a bath, and stood next to the tub. “When will Daddy be home?” she asked her mother.

  “He’ll be late, darling,” Ellie replied. “After you’ve gone to bed.”

  “I like my room, Mommy,” Nikki said. “It’s much better than that old basement.”

  “I’m glad,” Ellie replied. The little girl smiled and left the bathroom. Ellie took a deep breath. It would have served no purpose, she rationalized, if I had refused and we had been returned to confinement.

  4

  Katie had not finished with her makeup when she heard the buzzer sound. She took a drag on the cigarette burning in the ashtray beside her and pushed the TALK button. “Who is it?” she said.

  “It’s me,” came the reply.

  “What are you doing here in the middle of the day?”

  “I have some important news,” Captain Franz Bauer said. “Buzz me up.”

  Katie inhaled deeply on the cigarette and stubbed it out. She stood up and looked at herself in the full-length mirror. She adjusted her hair slightly just before the knock on her door.

  “This had better be important, Franz,” Katie said, letting him into the room, “or your ass is mud. You know I have a disciplinary meeting with two of the girls in a few minutes and I hate to be late.”

  Franz grinned. “You caught them skimming again? Jesus, Katie, I’d hate for you to be my boss.”

  Katie looked at Franz impatiently. “Well?” she said. “What was too important for the telephone?”

  Franz had begun to walk around the living room. The room was tastefully decorated, with a black and white sofa and loveseat, two matching chairs, and several interesting objects d’art on both the end tables and the coffee table. “There’s not any chance that your apartment is bugged, is there?”

  “You tell me, Mr. Police Captain,” Katie said. “Now, really, Franz,” she added, glancing at her watch, “I don’t have—”

  “There is a reliable report,” Franz said, “that your father is in New Eden at this very moment.”

  “Whaat?” said Katie. “How is that possible?” She was stunned. She sat down on the couch and reached for another cigarette from the coffee table.

  “A lieutenant of mine is close friends with one of your father’s guards. He was told that Richard and one of those octospider creatures are being held in the basement of a private residence not far from here.”

  Katie crossed the room and picked up the telephone. “Darla,” she said, “tell Lauren and Atsuko that the meeting today is off. Something has come up. Reschedule for two o’clock tomorrow afternoon… Oh, that’s right, I forgot. Dammit… All right, make it eleven in the morning. No, eleven-thirty. I don’t want to wake up too early.”

  Katie returned to the couch and picked up her cigarette. She took a huge drag and blew smoke rings into the air over her head. “I want to know everything that you have heard about my father.”

  Franz informed Katie that, according to his sources, her father, her sister Ellie, her niece, and an octospider had suddenly appeared, carrying a white flag, at the troop encampment on the southern edge of the Cylindrical Sea about two months ago. They had been quite relaxed and had even joked with the soldiers, Franz said. Her father and sister had told the troops that they had come forward with an octospider representative to see if an armed conflict between the two species could be avoided through negotiation.

  Nakamura had ordered that the entire affair be kept secret and had taken them.

  Katie was pacing around the room. “My father is not only alive,” she said excitedly, “he is here, in New Eden. Have I ever told you, Franz,” she said, “that my father is absolutely the smartest human being who ever lived?”

  “About a dozen times,” Franz said. He laughed. “I can’t imagine how anyone could be smarter than you.”

  Katie waved her hand. “He makes me look like an absolute idiot. He was always such a dear. I could get away with anything.” She stopped her pacing and inhaled on her cigarette. Her eyes sparkled as she exhaled the smoke. “Franz,” she said. “I must see him. I absolutely must.”

  “That’s impossible, Katie,” he said. “Nobody is even supposed to know that he’s here. I could be fired, or worse, if anyone ever found out that I told you.”

  “I’m pleading with you, Franz,” Katie said, crossing the room and grabbing him by the shoulders. “You know how I hate asking anyone for favors… but this is very important to me.”

  Franz was delighted that for once, Katie was requesting something from him. Nevertheless, he told her the truth. “Katie,” he said, “you still don’t understand. There is an armed guard around the house at all times. The entire basement is bugged with audio and video monitors. There is just no way.”

  “There’s always a way,” Katie said emphatically, “if something is important enough.” She reached inside his shirt and began tweaking his right nipple. “You do love me, don’t you, Franz?” She kissed him, a full open-mouthed kiss, with her tongue darting teasingly across his. Katie pulled away slightly, continuing to play with his nipple.

  “Of course I love you, Katie,” Franz said, already very much aroused. “But I’m not crazy.”

  Katie marched off into her bedroom and returned less than a minute later with two stacks of bills. “I am going to see my father, Franz,” she said, throwing the money on the coffee table. “And you are going to help me. You can bribe anyone you want with this money.”

  Franz was impressed. The money was more than adequate. “And what are you going to do for me?” he said almost jokingly,

  “What am I going to do for you?” Katie said. “What am I going to do for you?” Katie took him by the
hand and led him to the bedroom. “Now, Captain Bauer,” she said in an accented voice, “you just take off all your clothes and lie here on your back. You’ll see what I am going to do for you.”

  Katie’s apartment had a dressing room adjacent to her bedroom. She walked into the smaller room and closed the door. With a key she unlocked a large decorated box on the top of the counter and pulled out one of the full syringes she had prepared earlier in the day. Katie lifted her dress and tied a tight tourniquet around her upper thigh with a piece of small black tubing. She waited momentarily until she could clearly identify a blood vessel in the mass of bruises on her thigh, and then she deftly inserted the syringe. After pressing all the fluid into her bloodstream, Katie waited a few seconds for the fantastic rush and then removed the tourniquet.

  “What am I supposed to do while I’m waiting?”

  “Rilke is in my electronic reader, darling,” she said, “both in German and English. I’ll only be a few more minutes.”

  Katie was flying. She started humming a dance tune while she threw the syringe away and returned the tourniquet to the box. She took off all her clothes, stopping twice to admire her body in the mirror, and put them in a pile upon the vanity stool. Then she opened a large drawer in the vanity and pulled out a blindfold.

  She paraded into the bedroom. Franz’s eyes feasted admiringly upon her lithe body. “Look carefully,” Katie said, “‘cause this is all you’re going to see this afternoon.”

  Katie draped her naked body casually across his and kissed him intermittently while she attached the blindfold. She made certain that the blindfold was snug and (hen jumped down from the bed. “What happens now?” Franz asked.

  “You’ll just have to wait and see,” Katie said teasingly as she rummaged through a large drawer at the bottom of her dresser. The drawer contained a smorgasbord of sexual paraphernalia, including electronic aids of all kinds, lotions, ropes and other bondage equipment, masks, and assorted models of genitalia. Katie selected a small bottle of lotion, a vial of white powder, and some beads strung along a piece of thin cord.

  Still humming and laughing to herself, Katie rejoined Franz on the bed and began to run her fingers over his chest. She kissed him provocatively with her body pressed against his and then sat up. After pouring the lotion on her hands and rubbing them together vigorously, Katie spread his legs, crawled onto his stomach with her back toward Franz’s face, and began to apply the lotion to his most sensitive parts.

  “Ummm,” Franz murmured as the warm lotion began to take effect. “That’s wonderful.”

  Katie dusted his genitalia with the white powder and then mounted him very slowly. Franz was in ecstasy. Katie rocked back and forth in an easy rhythm for a few minutes. When she could tell that Franz was nearing a climax, she halted her motion temporarily and reached under him to insert the beads. She rocked two or three more times and then halted again.

  “Don’t stop now,” Franz shouted.

  “Repeat after me,” Katie said with a chuckle, moving slowly back and forth one more time. “I promise—”

  “Anything,” Franz yelled, “just don’t stop again.”

  “I promise,” she continued, “mat Katie Wakefield will see her father sometime in the next few days.”

  Franz repeated the promise and Katie rewarded him. When she pulled the cord just after he started his climax, Franz screamed at the top of his lungs like an animal in the forest.

  Ellie did not like her two interrogators. They were both dry, humorless individuals who treated her with complete disdain. “This isn’t going to work, gentlemen,” she said in an exasperated tone at one point during the first day of questioning, “if you insist on asking the same questions over and over. I understood that I was being asked to supply some information about the octospiders. Thus far the questions, which you are now repeating, have all been about my mother and my father.”

  “Mrs. Turner,” the first man said, “the government is trying to gather all possible information about this case. Your mother and father have both been fugitives for many—”

  “Look,” Ellie interrupted, “I have already told you that I know nothing whatsoever about how, when, or even why either of my parents left New Eden. Nor do I have any knowledge of whether they were helped to escape, in any way, by the octospiders. Now, unless you are prepared to change the line of questioning—”

  “It is not you, young lady,” the second man said, his eyes flashing, “who decides what are appropriate questions in this inquiry. Perhaps you do not understand the seriousness of your situation. You will be granted freedom from prosecution-on a very serious charge, I might add-only if you cooperate totally with us.”

  “Just what is the charge against me?” Ellie asked. “I’m curious. I have never been a criminal before.”

  “You can be charged with first-degree treason,” the first man said. “Deliberately aiding and abetting the enemy during a period of declared hostilities.”

  “That’s absurd,” Ellie replied, frightened nevertheless. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Do you deny that during the period of time that you were staying with the aliens you freely gave them information about New Eden that could be useful during a war?”

  “Of course I did,” Ellie said, laughing nervously. “I told them as much as I could about our colony. And they reciprocated. The octospiders shared all the same information with us.”

  Both men scribbled furiously on their pads. How did they get like this? Ellie wondered. How can a laughing, curious child be transformed into such a grim and Hostile adult?

  “Look, gentlemen,” Ellie said when the next question was asked, “this is not going well for me. I would like to declare a recess and organize my thoughts. Maybe I’ll even make a few notes before we reconvene. I had envisioned an altogether different process, something much more relaxed.”

  The two men agreed to the break. Ellie walked down the hallway to where a government sitter was staying with Nikki. “You can go now, Mrs. Adams,” Ellie said. “We’re taking time off for lunch.”

  Nikki could read the worried look on Ellie’s face. “Are those men being mean to you, Mommy?” she asked.

  At length Ellie smiled. “You could say that, Nikki,” she said. “You certainly could say that.”

  Richard completed the last of his walking laps around the basement and headed for the washbasin in the corner of the room. He stopped first at the table for a quick drink of water. Archie remained motionless on the floor behind Richard’s mattress. “Good morning,” Richard said as he wiped his sweat with a washcloth. “Are you ready for some breakfast?”

  “I’m not hungry,” the octospider replied in color.

  “You have to eat something,” Richard said cheerfully. “I agree with you that the food is terrible, but you can’t survive on water alone.”

  Archie did not move or say anything. For the last several days, ever since the supply of his stored barrican had been exhausted, the octospider had not been very good company. Richard had been unable to engage Archie in their usual stimulating conversation and had become concerned about the octospider’s health. Richard put some grain in a bowl, sprinkled water on it, and carried it “over to his friend. “Here,” he said gently, “try to eat a little.”

  Archie lifted a pair of tentacles and took the bowl. As he began to eat, a bright orange burst came out of his slit and moved halfway down one of his other tentacles before fading away.

  “What was that?” Richard asked.

  “An emotional expression,” Archie answered, his response accompanied by more irregular color bursts.

  Richard smiled. “Okay,” he said, “but what kind of emotion?”

  After a long pause, Archie’s colored strips were more regimented. “I guess you would call it depression,” the octospider said.

  “Is that what happens when the barrican is gone?” Richard asked.

  Archie did not reply. At length Richard returned to the table and
prepared himself a big bowl of grain. Then he came back and sat beside Archie on the floor. “You might as well talk about it,” Richard said softly. “We have nothing else to do.”

  From the motion in Archie’s lens Richard could tell that the octo was studying him carefully. Richard took several spoonfuls of his breakfast before Archie began to speak.

  “In our society,” Archie said, “the young males and females who are undergoing sexual maturation are taken away from their everyday lives and placed in a highly appropriate environment with individuals who have been through the process before. They are encouraged to describe what they are feeling and are reassured that the new and complex emotions they are experiencing are completely normal. Now I understand why such a program of intense attention is necessary.”

  Archie paused for a moment and Richard smiled sympathetically. “These last few days,” the octospider continued, “for the first time since I was a very young juvenile, my emotions have not accepted the domination of my mind. During optimizer training we learned how important it was, whenever a decision was to be made, to sift carefully through all the available evidence and remove all prejudice that might be due to personal emotional responses. With the intensity of the feelings I am having presently, it would be quite impossible to relegate them to a low priority.”

  Richard laughed. “Please don’t misunderstand me, Archie-I’m not laughing at you-but you just described, in a typical octospider phrase, what most humans feel all the time. Very few of us ever achieve the control of our ‘personal emotional responses’ that we would like. This may be the first time that you have ever been able to really understand us, if you know what I mean.”

  “It’s terrible,” Archie said. “I am feeling both an acute sense of loss-I miss Dr. Blue and Jamie-and powerful anger toward Nakamura for holding us prisoner. I fear that my outrage will cause me to take some action that is non-optimal.”