Nicole searched the alien’s mystical blue eyes with her own. She had never seen a pair of eyes that had such a wide range of expression. But Nicole had had no recent practice reading what the Eagle was saying with his eyes. Was he teasing her about Maria? Or was he serious? Surely it wasn’t just chance that she discovered the child so soon after Katie killed herself.
You ‘re being too rigid in your thinking, Nicole recalled Richard saying to her at the Node. Just because the eagle is not biological like you and me does not mean that he’s not alive. He’s a robot, all right, but he’s much smarter than we are… And much more subtle.
“So have you been hiding in Rama all this time?” Nicole asked several seconds later.
“No,” the Eagle replied. He did not elaborate. Nicole smiled. “You’ve already told me that we haven’t reached the Node or an equivalent place, and I’m certain that you didn’t just drop by for a social visit. Are you going to tell me why you are here?”
“This is a Stage Two intercession,” the Eagle said. “We have decided to interrupt the observation process.”
“Okay,” Nicole said, placing Maria back down on the ground, “I understand the concept. But what exactly will happen now?”
“Everyone will go to sleep,” the Eagle said. “And after they awaken…?” Nicole asked. “All I can tell you is that everyone will go to sleep.” Nicole stepped away in the direction of the Emerald. City and raised her arms to the sky. Only three colored rings: remained now, and they were all far away, over above the Northern Hemicylinder. “Just out of curiosity-I’m not complaining, you understand…” Nicole said with a trace of sarcasm. She paused and turned around to face the Eagle. “Why didn’t you intercede a long time ago? Before all thisoccurred? Before there were so many deaths?”
The Eagle didn’t answer immediately. “You can’t have it both ways, Nicole,” he said at length. “You can’t have both free will and a benevolent higher power who protects you from yourself.”
“Excuse me,” Nicole said with a puzzled look on her face. “Did I mistakenly ask a religious question?”
“Not really,” the Eagle replied. “What you must understand is that our objective is to develop a complete catalog. on all the spacefarers in this region of the Galaxy. We are not judgmental. We are scientists. We do not care if it is — your natural predilection to destroy yourself. We do care, ^however, if the likely future return from our project no longer justifies the significant resources we have assigned.”
“Huh?” said Nicole. “Are you telling me that you’re not interceding to stop the bloodshed, but for some other reason?”
“Yes,” said the Eagle. “However, I’m going to change the subject because our time is extremely limited. The lights will be coming on in two more minutes. You will be asleep a minute after that. If you have anything you wish to communicate to the girl child—”
“Are we going to die?’ Nicole said, suddenly frightened.
“Not immediately,” said the Eagle. “But I cannot guarantee that everyone will live through the sleeping period.”
Nicole dropped down in the dirt beside the girl. Maria had another clod in her mouth and wet dirt lined her lips. Nicole wiped her face off very gently and offered the child a drink of water from a cup. To Nicole’s surprise, Maria sipped at the water, spilling it down her chin.
Nicole smiled and Maria giggled. Nicole stuck her finger under the girl’s chin and tickled her. Maria’s giggles erupted into laughter, the pure, uninhibited, magical laughter of the small child. The sound was incredibly beautiful. Nicole’s eyes filled with tears.
Suddenly all of Rama was filled with light. It was an awesome spectacle. The Big Horn and its six surrounding acolytes, attached by massive flying buttresses, dominated the sky above them. “Forty-five seconds?” Nicole said to the Eagle.
The alien birdman nodded. Nicole reached over and picked up the girl. “I know that nothing that has happened to you recently makes any sense, Maria,” Nicole said, holding the child in her lap, “but I want you to know that you have already been terribly important in my life and I love you very much.”
There was a look of astonishing wisdom in the little girl’s eyes. She leaned forward and put her head on Nicole’s shoulder. For a few seconds Nicole did not know what to do. Then she began patting Maria on the back. And singing softly.
“Lay thee down…Now and rest…May thy slumber beBlessed…”
RETURN TO THE NODE
1
The dreams came before the night. They were disconnected dreams, random images sometimes expanding into short, unified sets without apparent purpose or direction. Colors and geometric patterns were the earliest dreams she remembered. Nicole could not recall when they had started. At some point she had thought for the first time, I am Nicole. I must still be alive, but that had been long ago. Since then she had seen, in her mind’s eye, entire scenes, including the faces of other people. Some she had recognized. That’s Omeh, she had said to herself. That’s my father. She had felt sadness as she had awakened more each time. Richard had been in her last several dreams. And Katie. They’re both dead, Nicole had remembered. They died before I went to sleep.
When she opened her eyes, she could still see nothing. The darkness was complete. Slowly Nicole became more aware of her surroundings. She dropped her hands beside her and felt the soft texture of the foam with her fingers. She turned over on her side with very little effort. I must be weightless, Nicole thought, her mind beginning to function after years of being dormant. But where am I? she asked herself before falling asleep again.
The next time she awakened, Nicole could see a solitary light source at the other end of the closed container in which she was lying. She wiggled her feet free of the white foam and held them up in front of the light. They were both covered with clear slippers. She stretched out to see if she could touch the light source with her toes, but it was too far away.
Nicole put her hands in front of her eyes. The light was so dim that she could not see any details, only a dark outline that silhouetted all the fingers. There was not enough room in the container for her to sit up, but she could manage to reach the top with one hand, if she propped herself up with the other. Nicole pressed her fingers against the soft foam. Behind the foam was a hard surface, wood or possibly even metal.
The slight activity wore her out. She was breathing rapidly and her heart rate had increased. Her mind became more alert. Nicole remembered clearly the last moments before she had gone to sleep in Rama. The Eagle came, she thought, just after I found that baby girl in the Alternate Domain. So where am I now? And how long have I slept?
She heard a gentle knocking on the container and lay back down in the foam. Someone has come. My questions will be answered soon. The lid of the container was slowly raised. Nicole shielded her eyes from the light. She saw the Eagle’s face and heard his voice.
The two of them were sitting together in a large room. Everything was white. The walls, the ceiling, the small round table in front of them, even the chairs, the cup, the bowl, and the spoon were white. Nicole took another sip of the warm soup. It tasted like chicken broth. Over to her left the white container in which she had been lying rested against the wall. There were no other objects in the room.
“…About sixteen years altogether-traveler’s time, of course,” the Eagle was saying. Traveler’s time, Nicole thought. That’s the same term that Richard used. “…We did not retard your aging nearly as efficiently as before. Our preparations were somewhat hurried.”
Despite the weightlessness, it seemed to Nicole that every physical act was a monumental effort. Her
