Chapter 33 Chapter Thirty-Three Spiders

Newton set a discipline. From now on, there should be no less than three people in the Alpha Battalion at any time, and one of them must be awake.All members of the exploration team must also abide by it.Potentially dangerous beings are at work in Rama, and while not showing hostility, a prudent commander must not be careless. As an extra insurance, there is a permanent lookout with powerful telescopes at the hub post.From this vantage point, the whole of Rama can be seen.Even the South Pole seemed to be only a few hundred meters away, with every group exploring the surface under its watchful eye; hopefully this would spare any possible surprises.It was a good plan, but it completely failed.

Just after dinner, before bedtime, Newton, Rodrigo, Cafu, and Laura Ernst were watching the evening fax news from Mercury.They were intrigued to see Jimmy's footage in the southern hemisphere and a wonderful close-up of the return journey across the Cylindrical Sea that thrilled the entire audience.Scientists, news commentators, and individual members of the Rama Commission were invited to comment, mostly contradictory.No one was sure that the crab-like things Jimmy encountered were animals, machines, real Ramas, or some species that didn't fall into these categories. They'd just watched the video of the big starfish being torn apart by its predators, and they were feeling an uneasy sick feeling about it, when they realized they weren't alone in the camp Own.An uninvited guest has entered the tent.

It was Laura Ernst who first discovered it.She froze and said, "Stay still, Bill. Slowly look to the right." Newton turned his head.Ten meters away, a slender tripod supported a body the size of a basketball, with three large, expressionless eyes, and it was obvious that it had a 360° viewing angle.A whip-like tentacle trails beneath each eye.The thing was not taller than a person, and its fragile shape did not seem dangerous.But none of that is an excuse for them being so careless that they let it in without even noticing.It made Newton think that it was a spider with only three legs, and nothing on the earth with three legs could move. How did it solve this problem?

"What do you think it is, doctor?" he whispered, turning off the sound of the TV news. "It's the same three-part symmetry that Rama always has. Can't see it hurting us, though those whips are uncomfortable-maybe poisonous, like a coelenterate. Sit still and see what it does. .” After staring at them for a few minutes, the thing suddenly moved, and now they understood why they hadn't noticed it coming.It moves extremely fast, with an unusual spinning motion, which is difficult for the human eye and mind to follow. The guy takes turns using one foot as a fulcrum to turn his entire body.Newton wasn't sure, but it looked like every few "steps" they were turning in a different direction -- only a high-speed camera could be sure of that -- and the three whips swung across the ground like lightning.Its speed is difficult to estimate, but at least thirty kilometers per hour.

It quickly swept across the entire tent, checking every instrument, touching the makeshift beds, chairs and tables, communication equipment, food storage tanks, electronic sanitary ware, video cameras, water tanks, tools—except for the four observers, Everything it ignores.Apparently, its intellect was sufficient to distinguish between humans and their inanimate possessions.Its actions give the impression of an extremely organized pack. "I wish I could check it!" Laura exclaimed in frustration while the guy was still dancing the ballet. "Can we catch it?" "How to catch the law?" Cafu asked realistically.

"You know the way primitive hunters used to catch fast running animals by throwing a rope with a weight attached to one end? It wouldn't hurt them that way." "I doubt it," said Newton, "and we can't take any chances, even if we could. We don't know how intelligent that guy is, and your method is likely to break his legs. Then we'd be in real trouble." gone." "But I must have a sample!" "You'll have to settle for Jimmy's bouquet—unless the guy volunteers to cooperate with you. Forget it! Wouldn't you like it when some species came to Earth and thought you were a suitable anatomical specimen? "

"I'm not going to dissect it," Laura said, "I'm just going to examine it." She wasn't persuaded. "Then, visitors from outer space may treat you in the same way, but you will have a very uncomfortable time before you trust them. We must not take any action that may be considered a threat." Laura understood that he was following the ship regulations.Scientific exploration is a lower priority than space diplomacy. In fact, it is not even necessary to mention this height for consideration.It's just a matter of politeness.They are visitors, even coming in without permission.

At this point the guy seemed to have completed its inspection.After circling around the tent again at high speed, it rushed out in a tangential direction, heading for the stairs. "I don't know if it can go to those steps?" Laura wanted to know.Her question was quickly answered, and the spider made its way up the curved slope without hesitation or slowing down. "Axis hub post," said Newton, "you're going to have a visitor soon, please keep an eye on the sixth section of the Alpha ladder. By the way, we thank you for your excellent post on our watch."

It took a minute to figure out the meaning of the irony.The apologetic voice of the outpost observer came: "Uh...Captain, I didn't see that thing until you told me the location. But what is it?" "I don't know any more than you," Newton replied, pressing the all-communication button. "Camp Alpha communicates with all stations. We've just been visited by a fellow that looks like a three-legged spider. About two meters tall, small Spherical body, moving very fast in a whirling pattern. Appears harmless, but curious. It may come close before you notice it. Be alert!"

The first reply came from London, fifteen kilometers to the east. "We have no anomalies here, Captain!" Rome, who was at the same distance to the west, replied, with a little sleepiness in his voice. "It's the same here, Captain. Ah... please wait..." "What's up?" "My pen was down for a minute - now it's gone! What... oh!" "Speak clearly!" "You won't believe it, Captain. I'm taking some notes. You know I like to write. I don't bother anybody. I use my favorite ballpoint pen, that nearly two-hundred-year-old relic. Now it's in five Meters away on the ground! I've got to pick it up. Thank goodness it's not broken!"

"How do you think it got there?" "Uh...maybe I dozed off for a minute. Tired enough today." Newton sighed and swallowed the criticism.To survey a world, there are so few people and so little time.Enthusiastic drive cannot always replace energy.He wondered if they were being too aggressive.Maybe he shouldn't have had so many teams trying to survey so many areas.But he always felt that the days were passing so quickly, and there were so many unexplainable mysteries.He was becoming more and more certain that something was going to happen, that they would have to give up Rama. "Listen now, Hub, Rome, London—everyone," he said, "every half hour tonight, give me a report. We must be prepared to have visitors from now on. Some of them may be Dangerous, but we must avoid at the utmost cost... 'incidents'. You all know the order on the subject." It's true, it's part of their training.But maybe none of them really believed that the unreachable theory of "personal contact with intelligent outsiders" would happen in their lifetime, let alone experience it by themselves. Training is one thing, practice is another, and no one can be sure that the inherent human impulse to defend oneself will fail in an emergency.However, it is necessary to remind everyone in Rama. Newton was unwilling to go down in history as the man who started the first interstellar war.Within a few hours, hundreds of spiders were active on the plain.From the telescope, we can see that there are also in the southern hemisphere, but they have not been found on New York Island. They stopped paying attention to the surveyors, and after a while, the surveyors paid no attention to them—although Newton noticed the curious look in the lieutenant colonel's medic's eyes.He knew that nothing would please her more than a spider having an unfortunate accident. It seems that those spiders can't have much intelligence.Their bodies are too small for a brain, and it's hard to see where the energy that keeps them going can be hidden.Yet their behavior is so strange, purposeful and coordinated.They appear everywhere, but the same place is never visited twice.Newton always felt that they were looking for something.what is it?They don't appear to have been found yet. They climbed all the way to the hub, and those giant stairs were not in their eyes at all.How they deal with the vertical section is unclear.Laura's theory is that they have sucker feet. Later, she was overjoyed to get her sample.The hub post reported that a spider had fallen from a vertical plane onto the first platform and had died or been broken.Laura immediately set an unbreakable record for climbing up the plain. When she reached the top platform, she found that, despite only a slight fall in the low-gravity zone, it had broken all three of its legs.Its eyes were open, but there was no response.As soon as Laura brought her prey back to Endeavor, she couldn't wait to prepare it for dissection. The dead spider was so fragile, it broke into pieces almost without her having to do it.She amputated first the joints of the legs, and then the torso, which split into three pieces like an orange.Seeing nothing recognizable or similar at all, she carefully took a series of photographs before reaching for the scalpel. Where to start the knife?She wanted to close her eyes and let the knife go in, but this was not very scientific. The knife cut in with almost no resistance.A second later, Lieutenant Colonel Ernst's ladylike yell resounded throughout the Endeavor.It took Sergeant Mike Andrews a full 20 minutes to silence the frightened monkeys. ----------------------------- Notes: