“Yet the long-term scientific benefit from that encounter was less than it might have been. Granted, we have reams of remote sensing data from that first investigation, including the information from the detailed dissection of the spider biot done by Dr. Laura Ernst. But the cosmonauts brought home only one artifact, a tiny piece of some kind of biomechanical flower whose physical characteristics had already irreversibly changed before any of its mysteries could be understood, We have nothing else in the way of souvenirs from that first excursion. No ashtrays, no drinking glasses, not even a transis­tor from a piece of equipment that would teach us something about Raman engineering. Now we have a second chance.”

Brown looked up at the circular ceiling above him. His voice was full of power. “If we could somehow find and return two or three different biots to the Earth, and if we could then analyze these creatures to unlock their secrets, then this mission would without doubt be the most significant histor­ical event of all time. For in understanding in depth the engineering minds of the Ramans, we would, in a real sense, achieve a first contact.”

Even Borzov was impressed. As he often did, David Brown had used his eloquence to turn a defeat into a partial victory. The Soviet general decided to alter his tactics, “Still,” Borzov said in a subdued tone during the pause in Brown’s rhetoric, “we must never forget that human lives are at stake on this mission and that we must do nothing to jeopardize their safety.” He looked around the table at the rest of the crew. “I want to bring back biots and other samples from Rama as much as any of you,” he continued, “but I must confess that this blithe assumption that the second craft will be exactly like the first disturbs me a great deal. What evidence do we have from the first encounter that the Ramans, or whoever they are, are benevolent? None at all. It could be dangerous to seize a biot too soon.”

“But there’s no way of ever being certain, Commander, one way or the other.” Richard Wakefield spoke from the side of the table between Borzov and Brown. “Even if we verify that this spaceship is exactly like the first one almost seventy years ago, we still have no information about what will hap­pen once we make a concerted effort to capture a biot. I mean, suppose for a moment that the two ships are just supersophisticated robots engineered millions of years ago by a now vanished race from the opposite side of the galaxy, as Dr. Brown has suggested in his articles. How can we predict what kinds of subroutines might be programmed into those biots to deal with hostile acts? What if the biots are integral parts, in some way that we have not been able to discern, of the fundamental operation of the ship? Then it would be natural, even though they are machines, that they would be pro­grammed to defend themselves. And it is conceivable that what might look like an initial hostile act on our part could be the trigger that changes the way the entire ship functions. I remember reading about the robot lander that crashed into the ethane sea on Titan in 2012 — it had stored entirely different sequences depending on what it—”

“Halt,” Janos Tabori interrupted with a friendly smile. “The arcana of the early robotic exploration of the solar system is not on the agenda for today’s postmortem.” He looked down the table at Borzov. “Skipper, my shoulder is hurting, my stomach is empty, and the excitement of today’s exercise has left me exhausted. All this talk is wonderful, but if there’s no more specific business would it be out of line to suggest an early end to this meeting so that we will have adequate time, for once, to pack our bags?”

Admiral Heilmann leaned forward on the table. “Cosmonaut Tabori, General Borzov is in charge of the crew meetings. It is up to him to determine —

The Soviet commander waved his arm at Heilmann. “Enough, Otto, I think that Janos is right. It has been a long day at the end of an extremely busy seventeen days of activity. This conversation will be better when we are all fresh.”

Borzov stood up. “All right, we will break for now. The shuttles will leave for the airport right after dinner.” The crew started preparing to leave. “During your short rest period,” Borzov said as an afterthought, “I want all of you to think about where we are in the schedule. We have left only two more weeks of simulations here at the training center before the break for the end-of-the-year holiday. Immediately thereafter we begin the intensive prelaunch activities. This next set of exercises is our last chance to get it right. I expect each of you to return fully prepared for the remaining work — and recommitted to the importance of this mission.”

4

THE GREAT CHAOS

The intrusion of the first Raman spacecraft into the inner solar sys­tem in early 2130 had a powerful impact on human history. Although there were no immediate changes in everyday life after the crew headed by Com­mander Norton returned from encountering Rama I, the clear and unambig­uous proof that a vastly superior intelligence existed (or, as a minimum, had existed) somewhere else in the universe forced a rethinking of the place of homo sapiens in the overall scheme of the cosmos. It was now apparent that other chemicals, doubtless also fabricated in the great stellar cataclysms of the heavens, had risen to consciousness in some other place, at some other time. Who were these Ramans? Why had they built a giant sophisticated spacecraft and sent it on an excursion into our neighborhood? Both in public and private conversation, the Ramans were the number one topic of interest for many months.

For well over a year mankind waited more or less patiently for another sign of the Ramans” presence in the universe. Intense telescopic investigations were conducted at all wavelengths to see if any additional information associ­ated with the retreating alien spaceship could be identified. Nothing was found. The heavens were quiet. The Ramans were departing as swiftly and inexplicably as they had arrived.

Once Excalibur was operational and its initial search of the heavens turned up nothing new, there was a noticeable change in the collective human attitude toward that first contact with Rama. Overnight the encoun­ter became a historical event, something that had happened and was now completed. The tenor of newspaper and magazine articles that had earlier begun with phrases like “when the Ramans return…” changed to “if there is ever another encounter with the creatures who built the huge space­ship discovered in 2130…” What had been a perceived threat, a lien in a sense on future human behavior, was quickly reduced to a historical curiosity. There was no longer an urgency to deal with such fundamental issues as the return of the Ramans or the destiny of the human race in a universe peopled by intelligent creatures. Mankind relaxed, at least for a moment. Then it exploded in a paroxysm of narcissistic behavior that made all previous histori­cal periods of individual selfishness pale by comparison.

The surge of unabashed self-indulgence on a global scale was easy to understand. Something fundamental in the human psyche had changed as a result of the encounter with Rama I. Prior to that contact, humanity stood alone as the only known example of advanced intelligence in the universe. The idea that humans could, as a group, control their destiny far into the future had been a significant linchpin in almost every working philosophy of life. That the Ramans existed (or had existed — whatever the tense, the philo­sophic logic came to the same conclusion) changed everything. Mankind was not unique, maybe not even special. It was just a question of time before the prevailing homocentric notion of the universe was to be irrevocably shattered by clearer awareness of the Others. Thus it was easy to comprehend why the life patterns of most human beings suddenly veered toward self-gratification, reminding literary scholars of a similar time almost exactly five centuries earlier, when Robert Herrick had exhorted the virgins to make the most of their fleeting time in a poem that began, “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may! Old time is still a-flying…”