Rama II (Rama, #2)

by Arthur C. Clarke

Copyright © 1989 by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee

ISBN e-Pub edition: 9780795325663

Author’s Note

Fifteen years earlier, the very last sentence of Rendezvous With Rama had read: “The Ramans do everything in threes.” Now, those words were a last-minute afterthought when I was doing the final revision. I had not—cross my heart—any idea of a sequel in mind; it just seemed the correct, open-ended way of finishing the book. (In real life, of course, no story ever ends.)

—Arthur C. Clarke

Rama Returns

The official report offered no explanations for the many mysteries encountered by the investigators; however, the experts did convince themselves that they understood one basic principle of Raman engineering. Since most of the major systems and subsystems encountered inside Rama by the human explorers had two functional backups, it appeared that the aliens engineered everything in threes. Therefore, since the entire giant vehicle was assumed to be a machine, it was considered highly likely that two more Rama spacecraft would be following the first visitor.

As the generator again took images of the distant heavens, almost nobody on Earth was expecting the arrival of another Rama spacecraft.

By 2197 the world knew that the object hurtling through the solar system toward the inner planets was a second extraterrestrial spacecraft.

Rama had returned. Mankind had a second appointment with destiny.

Test and Training

The American shook his head without saying anything, hoisted his pack onto his back, and walked off in the direction of the helicopter and the elevator.

Crew Conference

The top priority is the safety of the crew. Second priority is the analysis and/or determination of any threat, if it exists, to the human population of the planet Earth.

The Great Chaos

After the Crash

As more time passed and the tent communities turned into hopeless, restless caldrons of despair, these new enclaves in the middle of the metropolitan areas threatened to boil over and destroy the very entities that were allowing them to exist. Despite the anxiety caused by this constant Damocles’ sword of urban anarchy, the world squeaked through the brutally cold winter of 2137–38 with the basic fabric of modern civilization still more or less intact.

Michael Balatresi, a young Franciscan novitiate who would later become known everywhere as St. Michael of Siena, occupied much of the attention of the world and temporarily forestalled the disintegration of the society. Michael was a brilliant combination of genius and spirituality and political skills, a charismatic polyglot speaker with an unerring sense of purpose and timing.

When he was martyred under appalling circumstances in June of 2138, mankind’s last spark of optimism seemed to perish.

The four years from 2138 to 2142 were not good years to be alive. The litany of human woes was almost endless. Famine, disease, and lawlessness were everywhere. Small wars and revolutions were too numerous to count. There was an almost total breakdown in the standard institutions of modern civilization, creating a phantasmagoric life for everyone in the world except the privileged few in their protected retreats.

By 2145 the struggling world had managed to see the importance of some of the international organizations neglected and maligned at the beginning of The Great Chaos. The most talented members of mankind, after having eschewed personal political involvement during the benign early decades of the century, began to understand that it would only be through the collective skills of the brightest and most capable humans that any semblance of civilized life could ever be restored.

The combination of an astronomical death rate from many causes and a minuscule birthrate (for who wanted to bring a child into such a hopeless world?) caused the world’s population to drop by almost a billion in the decade ending in 2150.

By the late 2170s, when a semblance of stability had returned to the planet, interest in space began to build again.

On Earth growth was achingly slow but regular and predictable for most of the twenty years preceding the discovery of the second Raman spaceship in 2196.

Many of the human beings alive in 2196, especially those who were older and held the policy-making positions in the governing structure, had lived through some of the very painful years of The Great Chaos. They knew the meaning of the word “fear.” And that powerful word shaped their deliberations as they debated the priorities that would guide a human mission to rendezvous with Rama II.

La Signora Sabatini

Some of Elaine’s wine sloshed out of her glass from the force of the collision with her son; she unconsciously licked it off her hand as she sought to comfort the little boy.

Sexy!

“I didn’t know I was that boring,” Reggie said without humor.

Yes, you really are that boring. Jesus wept.

Darrell. It’s Francesca in Dallas. Tell that weasel Bianchi I wouldn’t do his ads even if he offered me ten million marks. And by the way, since I understand that his main competition these days is Donatelli, why don’t you find their advertising director, Gabriela something or other, I met her once in Milano, and let her know that I would be happy to do something for them after Project Newton is over. April or May.” She paused for a moment. “That’s it. Back in Rome tomorrow night. My best to Heather.”

Francesca thought before responding to his message. It is comfortable living with you. I have both freedom and security.

At least in Texas some of the hotels do have smoking balconies. Those zealots on the American West Coast would make smoking a felony if they could.

....and should! Smoking is fucking GROSS!

And so, Francesca, she reflected, now comes what may be your greatest assignment. A chance to become immortal? At least I should be remembered a long time as one of the Newton crew.

You would be more interesting if there was some subtlety, perhaps even a little finesse.

As would this novel if you would get to the freaking story already!

Public Relations

“Many adjectives can be used to describe you, Francesca, but harmless would never be one of them.” He suddenly became very businesslike. “Now, what can I do for you? You said that you had something very important to discuss with me that absolutely could not wait.”

Francesca looked directly at General Borzov. “I am asking you to cancel the additional simulation, to set a definite time for your personal interview, and to talk to Nicole on my behalf.”

“All right,” the general continued after the lengthy silence, “I will cancel the extra simulation. Others have already complained about it.”

“Thank you, Valeriy,” she said.

Biometry

“Focus those cameras on the tracer simulation. It’s quite a show when these electronic bugs swarm through the bloodstream.”

Diastolic Irregularity

So if the system was working correctly, she had reasoned, the onset of the long diastole should have immediately sent the heart monitor outside the expected range and triggered an alarm. But it didn’t.

I still believe today, that there was some reason for that visit, some purpose for the appearance of that awesome spaceship. I have studied all the data from that first encounter, hoping to find a clue that would explain why it came. Nothing has been conclusive. I have developed several theories on the subject, but I do not have enough evidence to support any of them.

The potential crew was first reduced to forty-eight and then we were all taken to Heidelberg for the physicals. The German doctors in charge insisted that each of the candidates must pass every single medical criterion. The academy graduates were the first group tested and five out of twenty failed. Including Alain Blamont.

So you somehow worked out a deal with Hakamatsu, Nicole thought, jumping ahead of him in her own mind. Either with or without his explicit knowledge. And you input expected value ranges that would not trigger in the presence of your abnormality. You hoped that nobody analyzing the tests would call for a full biometry dump. Now she understood why he had summoned her urgently to Japan. And you want me to keep your secret.

“Daijobu,” she said before he had finished talking. “I will go with you to see your doctor and if I don’t find anything that bothers me, I will take the entire file home with me to study during the holidays.” Takagishi’s face lit up. “But let me warn you again,” she added, “if there is anything in your history that I find questionable, or if I have the slightest shred of evidence that you have withheld any information from me, then I will ask you to resign immediately.”

The Cosmonaut and the Pope

I probably decided not to become a priest because it would have limited my free access to scientific truth. The church has never been as comfortable as I am with the apparent incompatibilities between God and Einstein.

“Dr. Brown is an atheist, isn’t he?” the pope asked. O’Toole nodded. “An outspoken one. He believes that all religious thinking impairs the proper functioning of the brain. He regards anyone who doesn’t agree with his point of view as an absolute idiot.”

He turned toward General O’Toole. “This spaceship may be a messenger from God, but probably only you will be able to recognize it as such.”