Rama II

He returned to his bed and rolled over on his back. Dear God, he prayed, staring at the ceiling, how can I possibly know what is right in this situation? Please show me the way.

Only thirty seconds after his morning alarm, Otto Heilma

“I wanted to talk to you,” O’Toole said pleasantly. He courteously waited for Heilma

“What is it?” the admiral asked.

“I want you to call off the meeting this morning.”

“Why?” Heilma

“I’m not ready just yet,” O’Toole said.

Admiral Herma

“I want to talk to someone, General Norimoto perhaps, to understand why we are destroying Rama. I know you and I talked about it yesterday, but I want to hear the reasons from the person giving the order.”

“It is a military officer’s duty to follow orders. Asking questions could be viewed as a disciplinary breach—”

“I understand all that, Otto,” O’Toole interrupted, “but this is not a battlefield situation. I am not refusing to comply with the order. I just want to be certain…” His voice trailed off and O’Toole stared off in the dis­tance.

“Certain of what?” Heilma

O’Toole took a deep breath. “Certain that I’m doing the right thing.”

A video conference with Norimoto was arranged and the Newton crew meeting was delayed. Since it was the middle of the night in Amsterdam, it was some time before the encoded transmission could be translated and presented to the COG chief of staff. In his typical ma

The general and Admiral Heilma

“General O’Toole, we have carefully reviewed the questions contained in your last transmission. All your concerns were included on the issues list that was discussed here on Earth before we reached the decision to proceed with Trinity. Under the unique provisions contained in the ISA-COG operating protocols, you and the other Newton military perso

General Norimoto managed just a glimmer of a smile. “Nevertheless,” he continued reading, “because of the significance of the action contained in your order and your obvious concern about its repercussions, we have pre­pared three summary statements that should help you to understand our decision:

“One: We do not know if Rama is hostile or friendly. We have no way of obtaining additional data to resolve the issue.

“Two: Rama is hurtling toward Earth. It might impact our home planet, take hostile action once it’s in our neighborhood, or perform benign activi­ties that we can’t define.

“Three: By implementing Trinity when Rama is still ten or more days away, we can guarantee the safety of the planet, regardless of Rama’s inten­tions or future actions.”

The general paused for the briefest of moments. “That is all,” he then concluded. “Proceed with Trinity.”

The screen went black, “Are you satisfied?” Admiral Heilma

“I guess so!” O’Toole said with a sigh. “I didn’t hear anything new, but I shouldn’t have expected anything else.”

Admiral Heilma

“I’d rather not,” O’Toole replied. “This episode has exhausted me and I hardly slept at all last night. I’d prefer to wait until the morning.”

“All right,” Heilma

In the morning General O’Toole did not attend the scheduled crew meet­ing. He phoned Heilma

O’Toole watched and listened to the meeting on the video monitor in his room, never interrupting or adding to the proceedings. None of the other cosmonauts seemed particularly surprised that the Newton was carrying a nuclear arsenal. Heilma

“When will the bombs detonate?” Janos Tabori asked nervously after Admiral Heilma

“They will be set to explode sixty hours after our scheduled departure. According to the analytical models, we should be out of the debris field in twelve hours, but for safety we have specified, in our procedure, that the weapons will not be exploded unless we are at least twenty-four hours away… If our departure is delayed because of some crisis, we can always over­write the detonation time by electronic command.”

“That’s reassuring” Janos remarked.

“Any more questions?” Heilma

“Just one,” Janos said. “As long as we’re inside Rama putting these things in their proper locations, I assume that it’s all right if we look around for our lost friends. In case they may be wandering—”

“The timeline is very tight, Cosmonaut Tabori,” the admiral replied, “and the deployment itself, inside the structure, only takes a few hours. Unfortu­nately, due to our delays in starting the procedure, we will place the weapons in their designated positions during the time that Rama is dark.”

Great, O’Toole thought in his room, that’s something else that can be blamed on me. All in all, though, he felt that Admiral Heilma

When O’Toole woke up from a short nap it was past lunchtime and he had a ravenous appetite. There was nobody in the dining room except Francesca Sabatini; she was finishing her coffee and studying some kind of engi­neering data on a nearby computer monitor.

“Feeling better, Michael?” she said when she saw him.

He nodded. “What are you reading?” O’Toole asked.

“I’m looking at the executive software manual,” Francesca replied. “David is very concerned that without Wakefield we won’t even know if the Newton software is working properly or not. I’m learning how to read the self-test diagnostic output.”

“Whew,” O’Toole whistled. “That’s pretty heavy for a journalist.”

“It’s really not that complicated!” Francesca said with a laugh. “And it’s extremely logical. Maybe in my next career I’ll be an engineer.”

O’Toole made himself a sandwich, picked up a package of milk, and joined Francesca at the table. She put a hand on his forearm. “Speaking of next careers, Michael, have you given any thought to yours?”