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derwent watercolour pencilsnt watercolour pencilstderwent watercolour pencilse 128 .In using this system, absentee voters werederwent watercolour pencils instructed to mark their ballots with number two pencils. The optical scanner rejected ballots which were marked withderwent watercolour pencils instruments other than number two pencil. 2006, Barbara Slater Stern, curriculum and teaching dialogue: V. 8, page 33."Mrs. Landry, I forgot to bring my number two pencils! Does that mean I flunk this test?" Big tears filled Joey's eyes. A standbe at least three people at Camp Alpha, and one of them
would always be awake. In addition, all exploring parties
would follow the same routine. Potentially dangerous
creatures were on the move inside Rama, and though
none had shown active hostility, a prudent commander
would take no chances.derwent watercolour pencils up
on the Hub, keeping watch through a powerful telescope.
From this vantage point, the whole interior of Rama
could be surveyed, and even the South Pole appeared
only a few hundred metres away. The territory round
any group of explorers was to be kept under regular ob-
servation; in this way, it was hoped to eliminate any pos-
sibility of surprise. It was a good plan - and it failed
derwent watercolour pencils completely.

After the last meal of the day, and just before the 22.00
hour sleep period, Norton, Rodrigo, Calvert and Laura
Ernst were watching the regular evening news telecast
specially beamed to them from the transmitter at In-
ferno, Mercury. They had been particularly interested in
seeing Jimmy's film of the Southern continent, and the
return across the Cylindrical Sea - an episode which had
excited all viewers. Scientists, news commentators, and
members of the Rama Committee had given their opin-
ions, most of them contradictory. No one could agree
whether the crab-like creature Jimmy had encountered
was an animal, a machine, a genuine Raman - or some-
derwent watercolour pencils thing that fitted none of these categories.

They had just watched, with a distinctly queasy feel-
ing, the giant starfish being demolished by its predators
when they discovered that they were no longer alone.
There was an intruder in the camp.

Laura Ernst noticed it first. She froze in sudden shock,
then said: 'Don't move, Bill. Now look slowly to the
right.'

Norton turned his head. Ten metres away was a
derwent watercolour pencils slender-legged tripod surmounted by a spherical body no
larger than a football. Set around the body were three
large, expressionless eyes, apparently giving g6o degrees
of vision, and trailing beneath it were three whiplike
tendrils. The creature was not quite as tall as a man, and
looked far too fragile to be dangerous, but that did not
excuse their carelessness in letting it sneak up on them
unawares. It reminded Norton of nothing so much as a
three-legged spider, or daddy-long-legs, and he wondered
how it had solved the problem - never challenged by any
creature on Earth - of tripedal locomotion.

'What do you make of it, Doc?' he whispered, turning
derwent watercolour pencils off the voice of the TV newscaster.

'Usual Raman three-fold symmetry. I don't see how it
could hurt us, though those whips might be unpleasant -
and they could be poisonous, like a coelenterate's. Sit
tight and see what it does.'

After regarding them impassively for several minutes,
the creature suddenly moved - and now they could under-
stand why they had failed to observe its arrival. It was
fast, and it covered the ground with such an extraordin-
derwent watercolour pencils ary spinning motion that the human eye and mind had
real difficulty in following it.

As far as Norton could judge - and only a high-speed
camera could settle the matter - each leg in turn acted as
a pivot around which the creature whirled its body. And
he was not sure, but it also seemed to him that every few
'steps' it reversed its direction of spin, while the three
whips flickered over the ground like lightning as it
moved. Its top speed - though this also was very hard to
estimate - was at least thirty kilometres an hour.

It swept swiftly round the camp, examining every item
of equipment, delicately touching the improvised beds
derwent watercolour pencils and chairs and tables, communication gear, food con-
tainers, Electrosans, cameras, water tanks, tools - there
seemed to be nothing that it ignored, except the four
watchers. Clearly, it was intelligent enough to draw a dis-
tinction between humans and their inanimate property;
its actions gave the unmistakable impression of an ex-
tremely methodical curiosity or inquisitiveness.

'I wish I could examine it!' Laura exclaimedderwent watercolour pencils in frus-
tration, as the creature continued its swift pirouette.
derwent watercolour pencils 'Shall we try to catch it?'

'How?' Calvert asked, reasonably enough.

'You know - the way primitive hunters bring down fast-
moving animals with a couple of weights whirling
around at the end of a rope. It doesn't even hurt them.'

'That I doubt,' said Norton. 'But even if it worked, we
can't risk it. We don't know how intelligent this creature
is - and a trick like that could easily break its legs. Then
we would be in real trouble - from Rama, Earth and
everyone else.'

'But I've got to have a specimen!'

'You may have to be content with Jimmy's flower -
unless one of these creatures cooperates with you. Force is
out. How would you like it if something landed on Earth
and decided that you would make a nice specimen for
dissection?'

derwent watercolour pencils

'I don't want to dissect it,' said Laura, not at all con-
vincingly. 'I only want to examine it.'

'Well, alien visitors might have the same attitude to-
wards you, but you could have a very uncomfortable time
before you believed them. We must make no move that
could possibly he regarded as threatening.'

He was quoting from Ship's Orders, of course, and
Laura knew it. The claims of science had a lower priority
than those of space-diplomacy.

In faderwent watercolour pencilsct, there was no need to bring in such elevated
considerations; it was merely a matter of good manners.
They were all visitors here, and had never even asked
permission to come inside...

The creature seemed to have finished its inspection. It
made one more high-speed circuit of the camp, then shot
off at a tangent - towards the stairway.

'I wonder how it's going to manage the steps?' Laura
mused. Her question was quickly answered; the spider
ignored them completely, and headed up the gently slop-
ing curve of the ramp without slackening its speed.

'Hub Control,' said Norton. 'You may derwent watercolour pencilshave a visitor
shortly; take a look at the Alpha Stairway Section Six.
And incidentally, thanks a lot for keeping such a good
watch on us.'

It took a minute for the sarcasm to sink in; then the
Hub observer started to make apologetic noises.

'Er - I can just see something, Skipper, now you tell me
it's there. But what is it?'

'Your guess is as good as mine,' Norton answered, as he
pressed the General Alert button. 'Camp Alpha calling
all stations. We've just been visited by a creature like a
three-legged spider, with very thin legs, about two metres
high, small spherical body, travels very fast with a spin-
ning motion. Appears harmless but inquisitive. It may
sneak up on you befoderwent watercolour pencilsderwent watercolour pencilsre you notice it. Please acknow-
ledge.'

The first reply came from London, fifteen kilometres to
the east.

'Nothing unusual here, Skipper.'

The same distance to the west, Rome answered, sound-
ing suspiciously sleepy.

'Same here, Skipper. Uh, just a moment...'

'What is it?'

'I put my pen down a minute ago - it's gone! What -
oh!'

derwent watercolour pencils

'Talk sense!'

'You won't believe this, Skipper. I was making some
notes - you know I like writing, and it doesn't disturb
anybody - I was using my favourite ball-point, it's nearly
two hundred years old - well, now it's lying on the
ground, about five metres away! I've got it - thank good-
ness - it isn't damaged.'

'And how do you suppose it got there?'

'Er - I may have dozed off for a minute. It's been a
hard day.'

Norton sighed, but refrained from comment; there
were so few of them, and they had so little time in which
to explore a world. Enthusiasm could not always over-
come exhaustion, and he wondered if they were taking
unnecessary risks. Perhaps he should not split his men up
into such small groups, and try to cover so much territory.
But he was always conscious of the swiftly passing days,
and the unsolved mysteries around them. He was becom-
ing more and more certain that something was about to
happen, and that they would have to abandon Rama
even before it reached perihelion - the moment of truth
when any orbit change must surely take place.

'Now listen, Hub, Rome, London - everyone,' he said.
'I want a report at every half-hour through the night. We
must assume that from now on we maderwent watercolour pencilsy expect visitors at
any time. Some of them may be dangerous, but at all costs
we have to avoid incidents. You all know the directives
on this subject.'

That was true enough; it was part of their training -
yet perhaps none of them had ever really believed that
the long-theorized 'physical contact with intelligent
aliens' would occur in their lifetimes - still less that they
would experience it themselves.

Training was one thing, reality another; and no one
could be sure that the ancient, human instincts of self-
preservation would not take over in an emergency. Yet it
was essential to give every entity they encountered in
Rama the benefit of the doubt, up to the last possible
minute-and even beyond.

Commander Norton did not want to be remembered
by history as the man who started the first interplanetary
war.
Within a few hours there were hundreds of the spiders,
and they were all over the plain. Through the telescope,
it could be seen that the southern continent was also in-
fested with them - but not, it seemed, the island of New
York.

They took no further notice of the explorers, and after
a while the explorers took little notice of them - though
from time to time Norton still detected a predatory gleam
in his Surgeon-Commander's eye. Nothing would please
her better, he was sure, than for one of the spiders to have
an unfortunate accident, and he would not put it past
her to arrange such a thing in the interests of science.

It seemed virtually certain that the spiders could not
be intelligent; their bodies were far too small to contain
much in the way of brains, and indeed it was hard to see
where they stored all the energy to move. Yet their be-
haviour was curiously purposeful and coordinated; they
seemed to be everywhere, but they never visited the same
place twice. Norton frequently had the impression that
they were searching for something. Whatever it was, they
did not seem to have discovered it.

They went all the way up to the central Hub, still
scorning the three great stairways. How they managed to
ascend the vertical sections, even under almost zero grav-
ity, was not clear; Laura theorized that they were equip-
ped with suction pads.

And then, to her obvious delight, she got her eagerly
desired specimen. Hub Control reported that a spider
had fallen down the vertical face and was lying, dead or
incapacitated, on the first platform. Laura's time up from

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