But the biots were not incapacitated. Far from it. Despite the fact that one of the follower crabs had lost a leg and the lead biot had a slightly damaged claw, within seconds all three of them were at work in the wreck­age. They started slicing the rover into chunks with their claws, and then they used their fearful collection of probes and rasps to tear the chunks into still smaller pieces.

Reggie was momentarily stunned by the impact of the rover against the biots. The alien crabs had been heavier than he had anticipated and the damage to his vehicle was severe. As soon as he realized that the biots were still active, he started to jump out of the rover. But he couldn’t. His legs were wedged underneath the collapsed dashboard.

His unmitigated terror lasted no longer than ten seconds. There was noth­ing anyone could do. Reggie Wilson’s horrified shrieks echoed through the vastness of Rama as the biots chopped him apart exactly as if he were part of the rover. It was accomplished swiftly and systematically. Both Francesca and the automatic camera in the helicopter filmed the final seconds of his life. The pictures were transmitted live back to the Earth.

30

POSTMORTEM II

Nicole sat quietly in her hut at the Beta campsite. She could not erase from her mind the horrible image of Reggie Wilson’s face, contorted in terror as he was being hacked to pieces. She tried to force herself to think of something else. So what now, she wondered. What will happen to the mission now?

Outside it was dark again in Rama. The lights had vanished abruptly three hours before, after a period of illumination thirty-four seconds less than during the previous Raman day. The disappearance of the lights should have prompted much discussion and speculation. But it didn’t. None of the cos­monauts wanted to talk about anything. The awful memory of Wilson’s death weighed too heavily on everyone.

The normal crew meeting after dinner had been postponed until morning because David Brown and Admiral Heilmann were in an extended confer­ence with ISA officials back on Earth. Nicole had not participated in any of the conversations, but it was not difficult for her to imagine their content. She realized that there was a very real possibility the mission would now be aborted. The hue and cry from the public might demand it. After all, they had witnessed one of the most gruesome scenes…

Nicole thought of Genevieve sitting in front of the television at Beauvois, watching while Cosmonaut Wilson was being methodically subdivided by the biots. She shuddered. Then she chastised herself for being self-centered. The real honor, she said to herself, must have been in Los Angeles.

She had met the Wilson family twice during the early parties right after the crew selections were announced. Nicole remembered the boy particu­larly. Randy was his name. He was seven or eight, wide-eyed and beautiful. He loved sports. He had brought Nicole one of his prized possessions, a program from the 2184 Olympics in nearly perfect condition, and had asked her to sign the page featuring the women’s triple jump. She had tousled his hair as he had thanked her with a huge smile.

The image of Randy Wilson watching his father die on television was too much for her. Several tears wedged themselves into the corners of her eyes. What a nightmare this year has been for you, little boy, she thought. The roller coaster of life. First the joy of having your father selected as a cosmo­naut. Then all the Francesca nonsense and the divorce. Now this terrible tragedy.

Nicole was becoming depressed and her mind was still too active for sleep. She decided that she wanted some company. She walked over to the next hut and knocked softly on the door.

“Is someone out there?” she heard from inside.

“Hot, Takagishi-san,” she replied. “It’s Nicole. May I come in?”

He walked over to the door and opened it. “This is an unexpected sur­prise,” he said. “Is the visit professional?”

“No,” she answered as she entered. “Strictly informal. I was not ready to sleep. I thought—”

“You are welcome to visit me any time,” he said with a friendly smile. “You do not need a reason.” He looked at her for several seconds. “I am deeply disturbed by what happened this afternoon. I feel responsible. I don’t think I did enough to stop—”

“Come on, Shigeru,” Nicole replied. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re not to blame. At least you spoke up. I’m the doctor and I didn’t even say any­thing.”

Her eyes wandered aimlessly around Takagishi’s hut. Beside his cot, sitting on a small piece of cloth on the floor, Nicole saw a curious white figurine with black markings. She walked over to it and bent down on her knees, “What’s this?” she asked.

Dr. Takagishi was slightly embarrassed. He came over beside Nicole and picked up the tiny fat oriental man. He held it between his index finger and his thumb. “It’s a netsuke heirloom from my wife’s family,” he said. “It’s made from ivory.”

He handed the little man to Nicole. “He is the king of the gods. His companion, a similarly plump queen, rests on the table beside my wife’s bed in Kyoto. Back before elephants became endangered, many people collected figures like this. My wife’s family has a superb collection.”

Nicole studied the little man in her hand. He had a benign, serene smile on his face. She imagined the beautiful Machiko Takagishi back in Japan and for a few seconds she envied their marital bond. It would make events like Wilson’s death much easier to deal with, she thought.

“Would you like to sit down?” Dr. Takagishi was saying. Nicole positioned herself on a box next to the cot and they talked for twenty minutes. Mostly they shared memories of their families. They referred obliquely to the after­noon disaster several times, but they avoided detailed discussion of Rama and the Newton mission altogether. What they both needed were the com­forting images of their daily lives on Earth.

“And now,” Takagishi said, finishing his cup of tea and putting it on the end table beside Nicole’s, “I have a strange request for Dr. des Jardins. Would you please go over to your hut and bring back your biometry equip­ment? I would like to be scanned.”

Nicole started to laugh but noticed the seriousness in her colleague’s face. When she returned with her scanner several minutes later, Dr. Takagishi told her the reason for his request. “This afternoon,” he said, “I felt two very sharp pains in my chest. It was during the excitement, after Wilson crashed into the biots, and I realized…” He did not complete his sentence. Ni­cole nodded and activated the scanning instrument.

Neither of them said anything for the next three minutes. Nicole checked all the warning data, displayed graphs and charts of his cardiac performance, and shook her head regularly. When she was finished she faced her friend with a grim smile. “You’ve had a slight heart attack,” she said to Dr. Takagi­shi. “Maybe two very close together. And your heart has been irregular ever since.” She could tell that he had expected the news. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I have some medicine with me that I can give you, but it’s only a stopgap measure. We must go back to the Newton immediately so we can treat this problem properly.”

“Well.” He smiled wanly. “If our predictions are correct, then it will be light again in Rama in about twelve hours. I assume we’ll go then.”

“Probably,” she answered. “I’ll talk to Brown and Heilmann about it right away. My guess is that you and I will leave first thing in the morning.”

He reached out and took her hand. “Thank you, Nicole,” he said.

She turned away. For the second time in an hour there were tears in the corners of her eyes. Nicole left Takagishi’s hut and headed for the edge of camp to talk to David Brown.