by Arthur C.
"When we asked them why they wanted to cure Eponine," Ellie said, "Dr. Blue told us that the octospiders were trying to make a grand gesture of friendship, something that would pave the way for harmonious interactions between our two species."
Richard and Nicole were both absolutely astounded by what they were hearing. They looked at each other in disbelief as Ellie continued.
"Because I was still a beginner at the language," Ellie said, "it was very difficult to communicate what we knew about RV-41. Eventually, after many long, intense language sessions, we were able to tell the octospiders what we knew."
"Both Ellie and I tried to remember everything Robert had ever said about the disease. All along, Dr. Blue, Archie, and a couple of the other octospiders were around us. They never took a single note that we could see. But we never, ever told them the same information twice."
"In fact," Ellie added, "whenever we inadvertently repeated ourselves, they reminded us that we had told them that before."
"About three weeks ago," Eponine continued, "the octospiders informed us that their information-gathering process was over and that they were now ready to subject me to some tests. They explained that the tests might be painful at times and were extraordinary by human standards."
"Most of the tests," Ellie said, "involved inserting living creatures, some microscopic and some that Eponine could actually see, into her body—either by injection—"
"Or by allowing the creatures to enter through my, uh, I guess the best word would be orifices."
Archie interrupted here and asked for the meanings of "inadvertently" and "orifices." While Ellie was explaining, Nicole leaned over to Richard. "Sound familiar?" she asked.
Richard nodded. "But I never had any kind of interaction, at least not that I can remember… I was isolated."
"I have experienced some weird feelings in my life," Eponine was saying, "but nothing quite like I felt the day five or six tiny worms, no bigger than a pin, crawled into the lower part of my body." She shivered. "I told myself that if I survived the days of having my insides invaded, I would never again complain about any physical discomfort."
"Did you believe that the octospiders were going to be able to cure you?" Nicole asked.
"Not at first," Eponine replied. "But as the days passed, I began to think that it was possible. I certainly could see that they possessed medical capabilities altogether different from ours. And I had the feeling they were making progress.
'Then one day, after the testing was over, Ellie showed up in my room—throughout this time I was kept somewhere else in the city, probably in their equivalent of a hospital—and told me that the octospiders had isolated the RV-41 virus and understood how it operated on its host, namely, me. They had Ellie tell me then that they were going to insert a 'biological agent' into my system which would seek out the RV-41 virus and destroy it completely. The agent would not be able to reduce the damage already done by the virus, which they assured me through Ellie was not that severe, but it would absolutely cleanse my system of RV-41."
"I was told to explain to Eponine also," Ellie said, "that there could be some side effects from the agent. They didn't know exactly what to expect, for of course they had never used the agent in humans before, but their 'models' predicted nausea and possibly headaches."
"They were correct about the nausea," Eponine said. "I threw up every three or four hours for a couple of days. At the end of that time, Dr. Blue, Archie, Ellie, and the other octospiders all gathered beside my bed to tell me that I was cured."
"Whaaat?" said Richard, jumping to his feet again.
"Oh, Eponine," Nicole said immediately, "I'm so happy for you." She stood up and hugged her friend.
"And you believe this?" Richard said to Nicole. "You believe that the octospider doctors, who can't possibly yet understand very well how the human body works, could accomplish in several days what your brilliant son-in-law and his staff at the hospital could not do in four years?"
'Why not, Richard?" Nicole said. "If it had been done by the Eagle at the Node, you would have accepted it immediately. Why can't the octospiders be much more advanced than we are in biology? Look at everything we saw."
"All right," said Richard. He shook his head a few times and then turned to Eponine. "I'm sorry," he said, "but it's just difficult for me to… Congratulations. I too am delighted." He embraced Eponine awkwardly.
While they had been talking, someone had noiselessly stacked fresh vegetables and water just outside their door. Nicole saw the materials for their feast when she went to use the bathroom.
"That must have been an astonishing experience," she said to Eponine when she returned to where everyone else was sitting.
"That's an understatement," Eponine said. She smiled. "Even though I feel in my heart that I'm cured, I can't wait to have it confirmed by you and Dr. Turner."
Both Richard and Nicole were bone tired after their large dinner. Ellie told her parents that there was more to talk about, but that she could wait until after Richard and Nicole had slept.
"I wish I could remember more about my period with the octospiders before we reached the Node," Richard said, when he and Nicole were lying together on the large bed their hosts had provided. "Then maybe I would understand better what I feel about the story that Ellie and Eponine told."
"Do you still doubt that she's cured?" Nicole asked.
"I don't know," Richard said. "But I will admit that I am rather puzzled by the difference in behavior between these octospiders and the ones who examined and tested me years before. I cannot believe that the octos in Rama II would ever have rescued me from a voracious plant."
"Maybe octospiders are capable of widely varying behavior. That's certainly true for human beings. In fact, it's true for all higher-order mammals on Earth. Why should you expect all octospiders to be the same?"
"I know you're going to say that I'm being xenophobic," Richard said, "but it's difficult for me to accept these 'new' octospiders. They seem too good to be true. As a biologist, what do you think is their payoff, to use your word, for being nice to us?"
"It's a legitimate question, darling," Nicole replied, "and I don't know the answer. The idealist in me, however, wants to believe that we have encountered a species that behaves, most of the time, in a moral fashion because doing good is its own reward."
Richard laughed. "I should have known you'd say something like that. It's consistent with your comments about Sisyphus during that discussion we had in New Eden long ago."
6
"You would find their language fascinating, Daddy," Ellie was saying when Nicole finally awakened after sleeping for eleven hours. Richard and Ellie were already eating breakfast. "It's extremely mathematical. They use sixty-four colors altogether, but only fifty-one are what we would call alphabetical. The other thirteen are clarifiers—they are used to specify tenses, or as counters, or even to identify comparatives and superlatives. Their language is really quite elegant."
"I can't imagine how a language can be elegant—your mother is the linguist in the family," Richard said. "I managed to learn to read German, but my speaking skills were atrocious."
"Good morning, everybody," Nicole said, stretching in her bed. "What's for breakfast?"
"Some new and different vegetables," Ellie replied. "Or maybe they are fruits, for there's really no equivalence in our world. Almost everything the octospiders eat is what we would probably call a plant, deriving its energy from light. Worms are about the only thing the octospiders eat regularly that does not get its primary energy from photons."
"So all the plants in the fields that we passed are powered by a kind of photosynthesis?"
"Something similar," Ellie replied, "if I understood properly what Archie told me. Very little is wasted in the octospider society. Those creatures that you and Daddy call 'giant fireflies' hover over each field for precisely scheduled periods of time each week or month. And all the water is managed as carefully as the photons."
"She's off packing her things," Ellie said. "Besides, she thought that she really shouldn't participate in this morning's conversation."
"Are we going to be shocked again, like last night?" Nicole asked lightly.
"Perhaps," Ellie said slowly. "I really don't know how you are going to react… Do you want to finish your breakfast before we start, or should I tell Archie we're ready?"
"You mean the octospider is going to be part of the conversation and Eponine is not?" Richard asked.
"It was her choice," Ellie said. "Besides, Archie, at least in his capacity as a representative of the octospiders, is far more involved in the subject matter than Eponine."
Richard and Nicole looked at each other. "Do you have any idea at all what this is about?" Richard said.
Nicole shook her head. "But we might as well begin," she said.
Archie spread out his tentacles on the floor so that his head was about the same height as those of the sitting humans. Ellie then informed her parents, and everyone laughed, that this time Archie would provide the "preamble." Ellie translated, at times hesitantly, as Archie began with an apology to Richard for the way Richard had been treated by Archie's "cousins" years previously. Archie explained that those octospiders, the ones the humans had encountered in Rama prior to arriving at the Node, were from a separate, splinter colony, only remotely related to the octospiders that were currently on board Rama. Archie emphasized that it was not until Rama came into their sphere of influence for the third time that the octospiders, as a species, concluded that the great cylindrical spacecraft were important.
A few of the survivors of that other octospider colony—a "vastly inferior group," according to Archie (this was one of the places where Ellie asked him to repeat what he was saying)—were still passengers on Rama when the spacecraft was intercepted, early in its trajectory, by the current octospider colony that had been specifically selected to represent their species. The splinter group survivors were removed from Rama, but all their records were preserved. Archie and the others in his colony learned the details of what had happened to Richard at that time and they now wished to make amends for that treatment.
"So all this preamble, in addition to being fascinating," said Richard, "is an elaborate apology to me?"
Ellie nodded and Archie flashed the broad crimson followed by the brilliant aquamarine.
"May I ask a question before we continue?" Nicole said. She turned toward the octospider. "I assume, from what you told us, that you and your colony boarded Rama during the period that we were all asleep. Did you know we were there?"
Archie answered that the octospiders had presumed the humans were living inside the far northern habitat in Rama, but had not known for certain until the external seal of the human habitat was first broken. By that time, according to Archie, the octospider colony had already been in place for twelve human years.
"Archie insisted that he make this apology himself," Ellie said, glancing at her father and then waiting for him to respond.
"Okay, I accept, I guess," Richard replied. "Although I have no idea what the proper protocol should be…"
Archie asked Ellie to define "protocol." Nicole laughed. "Richard," she said, "sometimes you are so stiff."
"Anyway," Ellie said again, "in the interest of time, I will tell you everything else myself. According to Archie, the records from the splinter colony show that they conducted a number of experiments on you, most of which are outlawed in those octospider colonies Archie refers to as 'highly developed.' One experiment, Daddy, as you have often suggested, involved inserting into your brain a series of specialized microbes to void all your memory of the time period you stayed with the octospiders. I have reported to Archie and the others that the memory experiment was mostly but not completely successful.
"The most complex experiment they conducted on your body was an attempt to alter your sperm. The splinter colony of octospiders knew no more about where Rama was going than our family did. They thought that perhaps the humans and octospiders on board would be coexisting for centuries, maybe even eons, and the octospiders determined that it was absolutely essential for the two species to communicate.
"What they attempted to do was to change the chromosomes in your sperm so that your offspring would have both expanded language capability and greater visual resolution of colors. In short, they tried to engineer me genetically—for I was the only child born to you and Mother after your long odyssey—so that I would be able to communicate with them without undue difficulty. To accomplish this, they introduced a set of special creatures into your body."
Ellie stopped. Both Richard and Nicole were staring at her as if they were in shock.
"So you are some kind of hybrid?" Richard asked finally.
"Maybe a little," said Ellie, laughing to defuse the tension. "If I understand correctly, only a few thousand of the three billion kilobases that define my genome have been altered… And speaking of that, Archie and the octospiders would like to invalidate, for their scientific research, that I am indeed the result of an altered sperm. They would like blood and other cell samples from both of you, so that they can conclude unequivocally that I could not have come from a 'normal' union of the two of you. Then they would know for certain that my facility with their language was indeed 'engineered' and not just incredible good luck."
"What difference does it make at this point?" Richard asked. "I would think that all that matters is that you can communicate."
"I'm surprised at you, Father—you who have always been such a knowledge junkie. The octospider society places information at the top of the value scale. They are already virtually certain, as a result of the tests they have performed on me plus the records kept by the splinter group, that I am indeed the result of an altered sperm. Looking at both your genomes in detail, however, would allow them to confirm it."
"All right," said Nicole after only a brief hesitation. "I'm willing." She walked over and hugged Ellie. "Whatever caused you to be, you are my daughter and I love you with all my heart." Nicole glanced back at Richard. "And I'm certain your father will agree as soon as he has had time to think about it."
Nicole smiled at Archie. The octospider flashed the broad crimson, followed by a more narrow cobalt blue and a bright yellow. The sentence meant "Thank you" in the octospider language.
The next morning Nicole wished that she had asked a few more questions before volunteering to help the octospiders with their scientific research. Just after breakfast, their constant alien companion Archie was joined by two other octospiders in the humans' small suite. One of the newcomers, introduced by Ellie as "Dr. Blue—a most distinguished medical scholar," explained what was going to occur. Richard's procedure would be simple and straightforward. Essentially, the octos only wanted enough data on Richard to corroborate the historical record of his visit to the splinter colony years before.
As for Nicole, since the octospider data base contained no physiological information on her, and the octos had already learned from their detailed examination of Ellie that the way in which human genetic characteristics are expressed is dominated by the mother's contribution to the offspring, a much more elaborate procedure would be required. Dr. Blue proposed to perform a complex series of tests on Nicole, the most important of which involved data gathering inside her body by a dozen tiny, coiled creatures that were about two centimeters long and the width of a pin. Nicole recoiled with horror when the octospider doctor held up an equivalent of a plastic bag and Nicole first saw the writhing, slimy creatures that were going to be inside her.
"But I thought all you needed was my genetic code," Nicole said, "and that's contained in each and every cell. It shouldn't be necessary—"
Bright colors circled Dr. Blue's head as the octospider interrupted before Nicole had a chance to finish her protest. "Our techniques of extracting your genome informatio
n," Dr. Blue said through Ellie, "are not yet very advanced. Our methods work best if we have many cells, chosen from several different organs and biological subsystems."
The doctor then politely thanked Nicole again for her cooperation, finishing with the sequence of cobalt blue and bright yellow bands she had already learned to interpret. The blue part of the "Thank you" spilled down the side of Dr. Blue's head, producing a beautiful visual effect that momentarily distracted the linguist in Nicole. So keeping those color bands regular must be a learned behavior, she thought. And our doctor has a kind of speech impediment.
Nicole's attention was forcibly returned to the pending procedure a few moments later when Dr. Blue explained that the coiled creatures would burrow through her skin into her body and then remain inside her for half an hour. Yuch, thought Nicole immediately, they remind me of leeches.
One was placed on her forearm. Nicole raised her arm up in front of her face and watched the tiny animal screw its way through her skin. Nicole felt nothing while the creature was invading her, but when it had disappeared she shuddered involuntarily.
Nicole was asked to lie down on her back. Dr. Blue then showed her two small eight-legged creatures, one red and one blue, each the size of a fruit fly. "You may feel some discomfort soon," Dr. Blue said to Nicole through Ellie, "as the coilers reach your internal organs. These little guys can be used for anesthesia if you would like some relief from the pain."
Less than a minute later Nicole experienced a sharp stabbing sensation in her chest. Nicole's first thought was that something was cutting into one of the chambers of her heart. When Dr. Blue saw Nicole's face wrenched in pain, he placed the two anesthetic bugs on Nicole's neck. In only seconds Nicole was suspended in a peculiar state between waking and dreaming. She could still hear Ellie's voice, continuing to explain what was happening, but she could not feel anything occurring inside her body.