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"Fishing once more? "faber castell pencil faber castell penciltfaber castell pencile 128 .In using this system, absentee voters werefaber castell pencil instructed to mark their ballots with number two pencils. The optical scanner rejected ballots which were marked withfaber castell pencil instruments other thamander Norton has been unable to reach, owing to that
ten-kilometre-wide band of water. There are all sorts of
curious mechanisms and structures up on the South Pole
- you've seen the photographs. What they are is any-
body's guess.

'But I'm reasonably sure of this. If Rama does have a
propulsion system, it's something completely outside our
present knowledge. In fact, it would have to be the fabu-
bus "Space Drive" people have been talking about for
two hundred years.

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'You wouldn't rule that out?'

'Certainly not. If we can prove that Rama has a Space
Drive - even if we learn nothing about its mode of opera-
tion - that would be a major discovery. At least we'd
know that such a thing is possible.'

v

'What is a Space Drive?' asked the Ambassador for
Earth, rather plaintively.

'Any kind of propulsion system, Sir Robert, that doesn't
work on the rocket principle. Anti-gravity - if it is pos-
sible - would do very nicely. At present, we don't know
where to look for such a drive, and most scientists doubt
if it exists.'

'It doesn't,' Professor Davidson interjected. 'Newton
settled that. You can't have action without reaction.
Space Drives are nonsense. Take it from me.'

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'You may be right,' Perera replied with unusual bland-
ness. 'But if Rama doesn't have a Space Drive, it has no
drive at all. There's simply no room for a conventional
propulsion system, with its enormous fuel tanks.'

'It's hard to imagine a whole world being pushed
around,' said Dennis Solomons. "What would happen to
the objects inside it? Everything would have to be bolted
down. Most inconvenient.'

'Well, the acceleration would probably be very low.
The biggest problem would be the water in the Cylindri-
cal Sea. How would you stop that from...'

Perera's voice suddenly faded away, and his eyes
faber castell pencil glazed over. He seemed to be in the throes of an incipient
epileptic fit, or even a heart attack. His colleagues looked
at him in alarm; then he made a sudden recovery, banged
his fist on the table and shouted: 'Of course! That ex-
plains everything! The southern cliff - now it makes
sense!'

'Not to rue,' grumbled the Lunar Ambassador, speak-
ing for all the diplomats present.

'Look at this longitudinal cross-section of Rama,' Per-
faber castell pencil era continued excitedly, unfolding his 'map. 'Have you
got your copies? The Cylindrical Sea is enclosed between
two cliffs, which completely circle the interior of Rama.
The one on the north is only fifty metres high. The
southern one, on the other hand, is almost half a kilo-
metre high. Why the big difference? No one's been able
to think of a sensible reason.

'But suppose Rama is able to propel itself - accelerat-
ing so that the northern end is forward. The water in the
Sea would tend to move back; the level at the south would
rise - perhaps hundreds of metres. Hence the cliff. Let's
see-'

Perera started scribbling furiously. After an astonish-
faber castell pencil ingly short time - it could not have been more than
twenty seconds - he looked up in triumph.-

'Knowing the height of those cliffs, we can calculate the
maximum acceleration Rama can take. If it was more
than two per cent of a gravity, the Sea would slosh over
into the southern continent.'

'A fiftieth of a gee? That's not very much.'

'It is - for a mass of ten million megatons. And it's all
you need for astronomical manoeuvring.'

'Thank you very much, Dr Perera,' said the Hermian
Ambassador. 'You've given us a lot to think about. Mr
Chairman - can we impress on Commander Norton the
faber castell pencil importance of looking at the South Polar region?'

'He's doing his best. The Sea is the obstacle, 'of course.
They're trying to build some kind of raft - so that they can
at least reach New York.'

'The South Pole may be even more important. Mean-
while, I am going to bring these matters to the attention
of the General Assembly. Do I have your approval?'

There were no objections, not even from Dr Taylor.
But just as the Committee members were about to switch
out of circuit, Sir Lewis raised his hand.

The old historian very seldom spoke; when he did,
everyone listened.
faber castell pencil
'Suppose we do find that Rama is - active - and has these
capabilities. There is an old saying in military affairs that
capability does not imply intention.'

'How long should we wait to find what its intentions
are?' asked the Hermian. 'When we discover them, it may
be far too bate.'

'It is already too late. There is nothing we can do to
affect Rama. Indeed, I doubt if there ever was.'

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'I do not admit that, Sir Lewis. There are many things
we can do - if it proves necessary. But the time is desper-
ately short. Rama is a cosmic egg, being warmed by the
fires of the sun. It may hatch at any moment.'

The Chairman of the Committee looked at the Ambas-
sador for Mercury in frank astonishment. He bad seldom
been so surprised in his diplomatic career.

He would never have dreamed that a Hermian was
capable of such a poetic flight of imagination.

CHAPTER TWENTY - Book of Revelation

When one of his crew called him 'Commander', or, worse
still 'Mister Norton', there was always something serious
faber castell pencil afoot. He could not recall that Boris Rodrigo had ever
before addressed him in such a fashion, so this must be
doubly serious. Even in normal times, Lieut-Commander
Rodrigo was a very grave and sober person.

'What's the problem, Boris?' he asked when the cabin
door closed behind them.

'I'd like permission, Commander, to use Ship Priority
for a direct message to Earth.'

This was unusual, though not unprecedented. Routine
'signals went to the nearest 'planetary relay - at the mo-
ment, they were working through Mercury - and even
though the transit time was only a matter of minutes, it
was often five or six hours before a message arrived at the
faber castell pencil desk of the person for whom it was intended. Ninety-nine
per cent of the time, that was quite good enough; but in
an emergency more direct, and much more expensive,
channels could be employed, at the captain's discretion.

'You know, of course, that you have to give me a good
reason. All our available bandwidth is already clogged
with data transmissions. Is this a personal emergency?'

'No, Commander. It is much more important than
that. I want to send a message to the Mother Church.'

Uh-uh, said Norton to himself. How do I handle this?

'I'd be glad if you'll explain.'

It was not mere curiosity that prompted Norton's re-
quest - though that was certainly' present. If be gave
Boris the priority he asked, he would have to justify his
action.

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The calm, blue eyes stared into his. He had never
known Boris to lose control, to be other than completely
self-assured. All the Cosmo-Christers were bike this; it was
one of the benefits of their faith, and it helped to make
them good spacemen. Sometimes, however, their unques-
tioning certainty was just a little annoying to those un-
fortunates who had not been vouchsafed the Revelation.

'It concerns the purpose of Rama, Commander. I be-
lieve I have discovered it.'

'Go on.'

'Look at the situation. Here is a completely empty, life-
less world - yet it is suitable for human beings. It has
faber castell pencil water, and an atmosphere we can breathe. It comes from
the remote depths of space, aimed precisely at the solar
system - something quite incredible, if it was a matter of
pure chance. And it appears not only new; it looks as if it
has never been used.'

We've all been through this dozens of times, Norton
told himself. What could Boris add to it?

'Our faith has told us to expect such a visitation
though we do not know exactly what form it will take.
The Bible gives hints. If this is not the Second Coming, it
may be the Second Judgement; the story of Noah des-
cribes the first. I believe that Rama is a cosmic Ark, sent
faber castell pencil here to save - those who are worthy of salvation.'

There was silence for quite a while in the Captain's
cabin. It was not that Norton was at a loss for words;
rather, he could think of too many questions, but he was
not sure which ones it would be tactful to ask.

Finally he remarked, in as mild and non-committal a
voice as he could manage: 'That's a very interesting con-
cept, and though I don't go along with your faith, it's a
tantalizingly plausible one.' He was not being hypocriti-
cal or flattering; stripped of its religious overtones, Rod-
rigo's theory was at beast as convincing as half a dozen
others he had heard. Suppose some catastrophe was about
to befall the human race, and a benevolent higher in-
faber castell pencil telligence knew all about it? That would explain every-
thing, very neatly. However, there were still a few prob-
lems...

'A couple of questions, Boris. Rama will be at peri-
helion in three weeks; then it will round the 'sun and
leave the solar system just as fast as it came in. There's
not much time for a Day of Judgement or for shipping
across those who are, er, selected - however that's going to
be done.'

'Very true. So when it reaches perihelion, Rama will
have to decelerate and go into a parking orbit - probably
one with aphelion at Earth's orbit. There it might make
faber castell pencil another velocity change, and rendezvous with Earth.'

This was disturbingly persuasive. If Rama wished to
remain in, the solar system, it was going the right way
about it. The most efficient way to slow down was to get
as close to the sun as possible, and carry out the braking
manoeuvre there. If there was any truth in Rodrigo's
theory - or some variant of it - it would soon be put to
the test.

'One other point, Boris. What's controlling Rama
now?'

'There is no doctrine to advise on that. It could be a
pure robot. Or it could be - a spirit. That would explain
faber castell pencil why there are no signs of biological life-forms.'

The Haunted Asteroid; why had that phrase popped
up from the depths of memory? Then be recalled a silly
story he had read years ago; he thought it best not to ask
Boris if he had ever run into it. He doubted if the other's
tastes ran to that sort of reading.

'I'll tell you what we'll do, Boris,' said Norton, ab-
ruptly making up his mind. He wanted to terminate this
interview before it got too difficult, and thought he had
found a good compromise.

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