Rendezvous With Rama - Arthur C. Clarke Page 0,80

escape? That seemed incredible, an act not only of brutality but also of folly, calculated to turn the rest of the solar system against them. And what would have made them ignore the solemn promise of their own Ambassador?

Whatever their plan, they would not get away with it. The second message from Mercury was identical with the first, and arrived ten minutes later. So they had extended the deadline. Norton still had one hour. And they had obviously waited until a reply from Endeavour could have reached them before calling him again.

Now there was another factor. By this time they must have seen Rodrigo and would have had several minutes in which to take action. Their instructions could already be on the way. They could arrive at any second.

He should be preparing to leave. At any moment the sky-filling bulk of Rama might become incandescent along the edges, blazing with a transient glory that would far outshine the Sun.

When the main thrust came on, Rodrigo was securely anchored. Only twenty seconds later it cut off again. He did a quick mental calculation; the delta vee could not have been more than fifteen kilometers an hour. The bomb would take over an hour to reach Rama; perhaps it was only moving in close to get a quicker reaction. If so, that was a wise precaution. But the Hermians had left it until too late.

He glanced at his watch, though by now he was almost aware of the time without having to check. On Mercury, they would now be seeing him heading purposefully toward the bomb, and less than two kilometers away from it. They could have no doubt of his intentions, and would be wondering if he had already carried them out.

The second set of cables went as easily as the first. Like any good workman, Rodrigo had chosen his tools well. The bomb was disarmed; or, to be more accurate, it could no longer be detonated by remote command.

Yet there was one other possibility, and he could not afford to ignore it. There were no external contact fuses, but there might be internal ones that would be armed by the shock of impact. The Hermians still had control over their vehicle’s movement, and so could crash it into Rama whenever they wished. Rodrigo’s work was not yet finished.

Five minutes from now, in that control room somewhere on Mercury, they would see him crawling back along the exterior of the missile, carrying the modest-sized wire cutters that had neutralized the mightiest weapon ever built by man. He was almost tempted to wave at the camera, but decided that it would seem undignified. After all, he was making history, and millions would watch this scene in the years to come—unless, of course, the Hermians destroyed the recording in a fit of pique. He would hardly blame them.

He reached the mounting of the long-range antenna and drifted hand-over-hand along it to the big dish. His faithful cutters made short work of the multiplex feed system, chewing up cables and laser wave guides alike. When he made the last snip, the antenna started to swing slowly around. The unexpected movement took him by surprise, until he realized that he had destroyed its automatic lock on Mercury. Just five minutes from now the Hermians would lose all contact with their servant. Not only was it impotent; now it was blind and deaf.

Rodrigo climbed slowly back to the scooter, released the shackles, and swung it around until the forward bumpers were pressing against the missile, as close as possible to its center of mass. He brought thrust up to full power, and held it there for twenty seconds.

Pushing against many times its own mass, the scooter responded very sluggishly. When Rodrigo cut the thrust back to zero he took a careful reading of the bomb’s new velocity vector.

It would miss Rama by a wide margin—and it could be located again with precision at any future time. It was, after all, a valuable piece of equipment.

Rodrigo was a man of almost pathological honesty. He would not like the Hermians to accuse him of losing their property.

CHAPTER 41

HERO

“Darling,” began Norton, “this nonsense has cost us more than a day, but at least it’s given me a chance to talk to you.

“I’m still in the ship, and she’s heading back to station at the polar axis. We picked up Boris an hour ago, looking as if he’d just come off duty after a quiet watch. I suppose neither of