Rendezvous With Rama, a Screenplay

Rendezvous With Rama, a Screenplay

by Richard Joyce

Based on the novel by Arthur C Clarke


Picture Legend:

1. Rama and Endeavor
2. Sandra Bullock
3. A three-dimensional model of 1862 Apollo based on its light-curve
4. & 5. Artist renderings of the interior of Rama
6. Residence of Dr. Carlisle Perera


RAMA CHARACTER LIST:

Commander William Norton, Captain of the Endeavor, 55 years old

Lieutenant James “Jimmy” Pak

Lieutenant Commander Karl Mercer

Surgeon Commander Laura Ernst,

Lieutenant Boris Rodrigo

Lieutenant Joe Calvert

Technical Sergeant Willard Myron

Sergeant Pieter Rousseau

Chief Stewart, Ravi McAndrews

Sergeant Scarborough

Sergeant Ruby Barnes 

Sergeant Linda Jackson

Corporal Ellis Jansen

Corporal Joss Latendy

Staff Sergeant Iskra Miloslavsky

Ensign Elizabeth Dian

Sergeant Aaron Law

Sergeant Mathilde Arseneault

Corporal William Bryant

Sergeant Joshua Adeyemi

Yeoman Emily Fontana

Executive Officer Jerry Kirchoff

Dr Bose, Ambassador from Mars

Professor Olaf Davidson, Astrophysicist

Dr. Thelma Price, Archaeologist

Dr. Carlisle Perera, Exobiologist

Sir Lewis Sands, Historian

Sir Robert MacKay, Ambassador from Earth

Dr. Dennis Solomons, Science Historian

Dr. Conrad Taylor, Anthropologist

Ambassador from Mercury 

Astrogeologist Maslak Kuznetsov

Surveyor Ilyukhin Fedorov

Surveyor Fred Jones

News Anchor Person

Commander Fitzhugh of the Calypso

Commander Morgan of the Beagle

Commander Atoni of the Challenger

1st Technician

2nd Technician

Ed Cadron,  Tech Supervisor

Director Griffin, Ed’s boss

Representative of Planetary Security James McDonald

President’s Science Advisor Ronald Jameson

Admiral Hendrix, Commander and Chief (comparable to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff)

General Assembly President

Perera’s wife

Narrator (I suggest George Clooney)



Rendezvous With Rama


Black screen and silent.

Opening credits. Titles fade in and out. (short list. Studio Presents, Major Actors, Editor, Cinematographer, Music by, Screenplay by, Produced by, Directed by)

Black screen and silent for 5 seconds

VO: It was not a matter of if it was going to happen... but when.

Screen opens to rear view of asteroid with the Earth in the background. The rock tumbles slowly through space, no sound, the Earth slightly to one side.

VO: Although the probability had been predicted, and precautions taken, not every eventuality could be forseen.

Cut to far long shot of: Padua, Italy. Fade in  “Padua, Northern Italy.” Fade out. Fade in “September 22, 2077“ Fade out.

Cut to Scenes of everyday street life, slightly futurized as this is 2077. Scenes of traffic, street venders, the Pontifical Basilica of Saint Anthony, the Palazzo della Ragione, Orto Botanico di Padova, etc. Scene shifts back and forth between locations and people.

Cut to long shot of the  Prato Della Valle.

Med shot of people walking to and fro as sound of the asteroid entering the atmosphere starts to be heard in the background.

Close med shot of couple stopping what they are doing, turning around and looking into the sky.

Scenes from other locations with people stopping and looking into the sky as the sound increases in volume.

Long shot into the sky as fireball is seen in the distance. Sound gets louder. Fireball increases in brilliance.

Long shot from space, directly above Austria, Slovenia, and Northern Italy as asteroid approaches Italy from the northeast. Hold as asteroid begins to break up.

Long shot into the sky as fireball approaches. The sound is deafening.

Long to Med shot of people beginning to react, running wherever they could.

Long shot from upper atmosphere as asteroid strikes the Earth. This is like a nuclear explosion times six.

Long shot from space at the impact

Long shot from shore, Venice, as a huge wave crashes into the city, inundating it

Long shot from above as water envelopes Venice

Long shot from space looking at an angle as the impact spreads out in a circular fashion.

VO: Thirty four million people died. The total damage cost trillions. The loss to art, to history, to science - to the whole human race, for the rest of time, was beyond all computation. It was as if a great war had been fought and lost in a single morning. And few could draw pleasure from the fact that, as the dust of destruction slowly settled, for months the entire world witnessed the most magnificent dawns and sunsets since Krakatoa.

Fade to black.

VO: It was realized that such a disaster might not occur again for a thousand years - but it might occur tomorrow. And the next time, the consequences would undoubtedly be worse.

Fade in: Exterior of SPACEGUARD headquarters.

Fade in “Houston, Texas. Project SPACEGUARD headquarters. 2131”

VO: So began the last version of Project Spaceguard, and fifty years later - and in a way that none of its designers could ever have anticipated - it justified it’s existence.

Cut to interior main hallway of SPACEGUARD headquarters. Camera moves slowly down corridor. Rows of computer servers can be seen behind glass panels on each side of the hallway.

VO: Mars based radars were discovering new asteroids at a rate of a dozen a day. The Spaceguard computers automatically calculated their orbits and stored the information in their own enormous memories.

   It had taken more than one hundred and twenty years to collect data on the first thousand asteroids since the discovery of the dwarf planet Ceres, largest of these tiny worlds that lie within the Asteroid Belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Hundreds had been found and lost and found again, they existed in such swarms that one exasperated astronomer had christened them “vermin of the skies.” That astronomer would have been appalled that Spaceguard was now keeping track of almost half a trillion.

Camera approaches door at the end of the corridor and passes through it into the main computer complex. Seen are rows of control panels maned by technicians, with a large screen in the front of the room showing tracking of asteroids. Camera moves close to this screen and turns 180 degrees toward the room and slowly moves in on one particular server.

VO: Only the six giants, Ceres, Vista, Pallas, Hygiea, Interamnia, and Fifty-Two-Europa were more than three hundred kilometers in diameter. The vast majority were merely oversized boulders that could fit into a park. Almost all of them moved in orbits that were beyond the orbit of Mars. Only the few that came far enough sunward to be a possible danger to the Earth were the concern of Spaceguard. And not one in a thousand of these, during the entire future history of the solar system, would pass within a million kilometers of Earth.

Camera moves into the circuitry of the server. as the VO describes the detection of 31/439, circuits fire. camera reverses out of server into a long shot of the control center.

VO: The object cataloged as 31/439, according to the year and order of discovery, was detected while it was still outside the orbit of Jupiter. There was nothing unusual about its location; many asteroids went beyond Saturn before returning once more toward their distant master, the Sun. And Thule II, most far ranging of all, traveled so close to Uranus that it might well be a lost moon of that planet.

  
Camera slowly pans over control room and technicians.

VO: But a first radar contact at such a distance was unprecedented; clearly, 31/439 must have been of exceptional size. From the strength of the echo, the computers deduced a diameter of at least forty kilometers. Such a giant had not been discovered for over a hundred years. That it had been overlooked for so long seemed incredible.

   Then the orbit was calculated, and the mystery was resolved, to be replaced by a greater one. 31/439 was not traveling on a normal asteroidal path, along the elliptic which it retraced with clockwork precision every few years. Instead, it was a lonely wanderer among the stars, making its first and last visit to the solar system, for it was moving so swiftly that the gravitational field of the Sun  could never capture it. It would flash inward past the orbits of Jupiter, Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury, gaining speed as it did so, until it rounded the Sun and headed out once again into the vastness of space.

  

Camera moves into one technician  sitting at one control panel talking to another technician.

VO: It was at this point that the computers started flashing their “We have something interesting” sign (Light on technician’s control panel begins blinking), and, for the first time, 31/439 came to the attention of human beings.

Med Shot: Two technicians talking to each other.

2nd Tech: Hey, you’re blinking.

1st Tech:  Huumm?

2nd tech points to the 1st tech’s panel.

1st tech: Oh!

1st tech pushes a button and his monitor activates.

1st tech: What have we got here?

2nd tech moves in closer to have a look.

Close up: Both tech’s faces as they take in information about 31/439. They’re expressions change from mild curiosity to fascination to intense scrutiny.

2nd tech: Wow.  

Med shot: both techs look at each other.

1st tech stands up and calls to his supervisor.

1st tech: Ed! Ed!

Long shot: A man in the back of the room stops what he is doing and stands.

1st tech: I’m going to send something to you.

Ed: Alright.

Med shot: Ed’s face looking at his monitor. His expression of mild interest soon changes. The two techs come and stand behind him.

Ed: If this is right we haven’t seen anything like this for, oh, over seventy years.

1st tech: Oumuamua... Nunnehi?

Ed: Yeah. But this is a hell of a lot bigger.

He tears his gaze from the monitor and looks at the two techs.

Ed: I have to notify Griffin. We better give it a name.

2nd tech: I’ll get it. (he walks away)

Long shot of the room.

2nd tech stops at a computer console and punches in some information.

Long shot of the room, side angle: By now the entire room has quieted, all attention is on the three men. Some other techs walk over to Ed’s station. 

Med shot, Ed looks down at the 2nd tech.

Med shot, 2nd tech: Asteroid thirty one four thirty nine is now designated... “Rama.”

Close shot Ed, who considers a moment: Hindu God. Rama it is! (Ed picks up a land-line phone) Hi. This is supervisor Cadron. Could you get me Director Griffin please. Okay I’ll hold.

Cut to Spaceguard conference room days later. Present were Director Griffin, Supervisor Cadron, First Tech, Representative of Planetary Security McDonald, President’s Science Advisor Jameson, and assorted Spaceguard and PR representatives.

Director Griffin: Okay, most of us know each other. This is Representative of Planetary Security James McDonald, and the President’s Science Advisor, Ronald Jameson.

Ed and 1st tech look a little surprised.

Griffin: Rama. What we know, and what the media has found out, is that it’s big, and it’s coming from outside the solar system. Let’s review please. What else do we know? Number one, and most important, how close will it come to Earth?

Ed looked at his tech.

1st tech: No worries there. Rama won’t get any closer than approximately thirty three million kilometers to Earth. It will approach Mercury a little closer at 18 million, but still a very safe distance.

Griffin: I’m not betting on that being very reassuring to our Mercurian friends, but we’ll deal with that as it happens I suppose. (he looks at McDonald who nods) What else? Where does it come from?

Ed: We’re not completely sure.

Jameson, surprised: Really? It seems it would be a simple matter of calculating from Rama’s trajectory backwards to it’s point of origin.

Ed: Yeah. We would expect that to true in this case. And it would appear that the closest candidate for a point of origin would be Vega...

Jameson: Twenty five light years away?

1st tech: Correct. But there’s a problem. We know it came from the direction of the Lyra Constellation, which includes the main sequence star Vega. However, Vega was not in the same part of the sky at that time when it was detected. We calculate that a hundred years ago, Rama was about 83 billion kilometers from the Sun and traveling at a speed of 26 kilometers per second relative to it. That interstellar speed is very close to the mean motion of material in the galaxy relative to the Sun. This velocity profile also indicates an extra-solar origin, but appears to rule out the closest dozen of stars. In fact, the strong correlation between Rama's velocity and the local standard of rest, might mean that it has circulated the galaxy several times and thus may have originated from an entirely different part of the Milky Way.

Ed: Of course, as it approaches the Sun it’s velocity will correspondingly increase.

Griffin: How fast is it now?

1st tech: About forty eight kilometers per second. It’s expected to reach a maximum velocity of eighty eight KPS.

McDonald: Too fast to intercept?

1st tech, looks surprised: Intercept? Oh yes. Much too fast. The energy cost would be far too great to make any physical contact with Rama.

McDonald: What does it look like?

Ed: We don’t know. It’s too far away. It still appears as a fifteenth magnitude star through our telescopes. We’ll get a better idea as it gets closer. It will grow brighter and larger month by month. Within the next few years some spacecraft might be able to get close enough to get some really good pictures of it.

Griffin clears his throat: I understand you’ve discovered something new about Rama that has prompted Mr. McDonald’s and Jameson’s presence. Care to extrapolate?

Ed looks at 1st tech.

1st tech: Yes, we did. after examining further optical observations we noticed something interesting concerning Rama’s light curve.

 
Jameson: What about it?

1st tech: It doesn’t have one.

Simultaneously, Griffin: Really.

Jameson: What?!

1st tech: Rama does not not indicate any curve at all.

Jameson: Well that’s just ridiculous. You’re observations must be wrong.

McDonald: What’s a light curve?

Ed: All objects in the solar system, like asteroids, exhibit some difference in their brilliance, waxing and waning in a few hours, corresponding to the object’s rotation and it’s irregular shape. As they topple over in their orbits, the reflecting surfaces they present to the Sun are constantly changing, and their brightness varies accordingly.

1st tech: No discernible light curve would mean one of two things.

McDonald: Which are?

Ed: Either Rama isn’t rotating at all, which has never been observed before, or...

McDonald: Or...?

1st tech: It’s completely smooth, or circular, or symmetrical.

McDonald, looking around: So what’s the big deal about that?

Ed: Nothing in nature is completely smooth, circular, or symmetrical.

McDonald: The Earth is circular.

1st tech: With all due respect, the Earth is an  oblate spheroid—a sphere that is squashed at its poles and swollen at the equator, with a diameter of almost thirteen thousand kilometers and a mass of six times ten to the twenty fourth power in kilograms.

Ed: Rama’s diameter doesn’t appear to be any larger than forty to fifty kilometers.

McDonald: So?

Jameson: So... gravity would have no affect on Rama’s shape.

McDonald: Okay. So what does this all mean essentially?

Griffin looks at his two men. They look at each other.

Ed: We don’t know.

Fade out.

Fade in to extreme long shot of outer space. Slowly the Solar Survey Ship Endeavor comes into view from out of the darkness.

Fade in: “Solar Survey Ship Endeavor. Current Mission: Locate, Catalog, and Mark Potentially Dangerous Asteroids Between the Orbits of the Earth and Venus” Fade out

The ship passes the vantage point of the camera

Cut to Endeavor’s interior. Pilot’s cockpit. Weightless environment. Commander William Norton, Captain of the Endeavor, and Lieutenant Joe Calvert are at the ship’s controls.

Cut to close on Norton

Fade in: “Commander William Norton, Captain of the Endeavor” Fade out

Cut to close on Calvert

Fade in: “Lieutenant Joe Calvert, Pilot” Fade out

Cut to med side angle of the two as Norton receives a communication from his signals officer.

Norton: Yes Pieter.

Sergeant Pieter Rousseau: Skipper, we’re receiving a Mayday call from the surveyors on eighteen sixty two Apollo. They say they’re experiencing a “Gravity Situation.”

Cut to med of the two as Norton and Mercer look at each other, the direness of the situation enveloping them

Close on Norton: Put them on please. (waits a moment)

Voice of astrogeologist Maslak Kuznetsov: Hello?!

Norton: This is Commander Norton of the Endeavor. Who am I speaking to?

Cut to exterior of the surface of the asteroid 1862 Apollo, approximately 1.5 kilometers in diameter, which rotates at a rate of 3 times an hour. The star field in the background shall revolve appropriately. Long establishing shot of a small asteroid jumper ship.

Cut to to the ship’s interior wherein there men are inside. Astrogeologist Maslak Kuznetsov, Surveyor Ilyukhin Fedorov, and Surveyor Fred Jones.

Kuznetsov: Bill?! This is Maslak. Maslak Kuznetsov.

Cut back to Norton: Maslak! What seems to be the problem?

Cut back to close on Kuznetsov: Bill, our survey ship has warned us of a recent high velocity collision between two Apollo’s  nearby, and part of the debris field seems to be headed our way. Our own radar confirms this.

Cut back to Norton: Wow. If I were you I’d get the hell out of there Maslak.

Cut back to Kuznetsov: Yeah. That’s the problem. Our ship won’t start.

Cut back to Norton: What?!

Cut back to Kuznetsov: We’ve tried everything, but the damn engine won’t fire.

Cut to Norton: Where’s your survey ship?

Cut to Kuznetsov: Another part of the problem. It’s about five hours away.

Cut to med on Norton and Calvert

Norton: How far away are we?

Calvert calls out: Willard! How far away are we from these guys?

Med on Technical Sergeant Willard Myron from a compartment just behind the cockpit, calls out: Ahh, one hour and eleven minutes at our current velocity, Lieutenant.

Med on Norton and Calvert

Close on Norton: Maslak? How long until you expect the debris field to reach your location? 

Close on Kuznetsov: About ninety minutes.

Close on Norton: Jesus! (to Calvert) Set a course to their location and prepare for a three second burn.

Calvert: Aye, aye, Skipper.

Kuznetsov: Bill...

Cut to Kuznetsov: I’m sorry about this. The debris will probably just pass us by. We issued the “Mayday” in the hopes of someone being close, and there you were.

Cut to Norton: Yeah, well, don’t worry about it Maslak. We’re going to come and get you out of there. We should be there in about thirty minutes... (he looks at Calvert who nods his head in confirmation)

Kuznetsov: Thank you, Bill.

Cut to Norton, into his intercom: Lieutenant Rodrigo!

Voice of Lieutenant Boris Rodrigo answering: Yes, Commander.

Norton: Boris, are you up for a little ride?

Cut to Lieutenant Boris Rodrigo in another part of the ship. He thinks about this a moment, then answers: Why not.

Cut back to Norton: I’ll be down in a minute. (he pushes a button on his counsel. An alarm sounds throughout the ship) General quarters. General quarters. This is not a drill.

Cut to exterior in space from behind Endeavor as it’s maneuvering thrusters place in the correct orientation, and the main engines ignite for three seconds, as the ship disappears into the distance. Hopefully this is done silently, as there is no sound in space as there is no atmosphere. I hope the producers are courageous enough to take a cue from the films “2001, A Space Odyssey,” and “Gravity,” that got along quite well without resorting to unrealistic sound effects

Fade out

Cut to Endeavor interior, weightless environment, navigation compartment behind cockpit. Technical Sergeant Willard Myron and Lieutenant James Pak are manning the stations at their respective control counsels. As in most vessels there are background noises.

Pak, thinking aloud: Why do they call it a gravity situation?

Myron: What?

Pak: The surveyors called this a gravity situation. Why?

Myron: That’s what they call it when there is a potential debris strike on a manned station.

Pak: Why?

Myron, annoyed: Why, what?

Pak: Why do they call it a gravity situation? There’s no gravity down there.

Myron: I don’t know.

Voice of Norton from the cockpit: It’s from a old movie, Jimmy...

Cut to Norton: ...from back in the nineteen nineties I think. It was about one of the space shuttles in orbit around Earth getting hit and destroyed by debris from a broken up satellite. (thinking) Let’s see, it starred an actress named... Sandra Bull..., something... Sandra Bullock, and an actor... James Cagney, I believe.

Calvert, impressed: That’s pretty good Skipper.

Norton smiles

Cut back to Pak, to himself: Still no gravity. (he types onto his computer keyboard. Close on his typing the name “Sandra Bullock.” Med close on his monitor where hundreds of pictures flash by in a second or two stopping at the Sandra Bullock Underwater Smiling Face picture.

Cut to med shot of Pak and his subdued reaction.

Cut to med on Rodrigo working in the sled bay, as Norton floats in

Norton: We’re going to have to make this short and sweet, Boris.

Rodrigo: I understand Commander.

Norton: You’re sure you’re up to it? It’s probably going to be dicey.

Rodrigo: I’ll be fine. We need to get those men out of there.

Close on Norton looking at him

Med on both

Norton: Okay. Good luck.

Rodrigo: Thanks.

Cut to Norton returning to the cockpit

Norton: Prepare to launch the sled, Joe.

Calvert: Ready to launch, Skipper.

Norton: Captain to launch bay. Are you ready, Boris?

Cut to close on Rodrigo from the side, on the sled, in spacesuit: I’m ready, Commander.

Cut back to Norton: Launch, Joe.

Calvert: Launch, aye.

Cut to med on the launch bay of the sled and Rodrigo from above as they descend into a lower chamber, the sounds of machinery moving the sled is heard

Close on Rodrigo as he looks up

Med on the airlock doors closing above Rodrigo and the sled

Cut to med on Rodrigo and the sled from front as the air is emptied into space. As this procedure occurs the ambient sound disappears

Cut to med of the sled and driver from above as the doors below them open to space and the sled descends

Cut to long on the underside of Endeavor as the sled emerges and is released

Cut to med on Rodrigo as he applies power to his thrusters

Cut to long of the two as the sled moves quickly away from the ship

Cut to the cockpit

Calvert: Sled has launched, Skipper.

Norton: Very well. Jimmy! How long do you estimate until Boris reaches eighteen sixty two?

Cut to med on Pak: At its current speed approximately twenty six minutes, Captain.

Cut to Norton: Thank you. (talk on intercom) Pieter! Get the surveyors back for me, please.

Rousseau on intercom: Aye, aye, Skipper.

Cut to long on the sled from the side as it moves through space

Cut to med on Rodrigo from the front

Cut to long on his POV looking at 1682 in the distance

Cut to side shot again as Rodrigo applies thrusters to turn the sled around so the main engine faces his direction of flight, and Rodrigo is facing backwards

Cut to long on the sled as it approaches the camera as Rodrigo fires the main engine to slow the sled down

Cut to side shot again as Rodrigo uses his thrusters to turn the sled around once again so he is facing forward again

Cut to Norton in the cockpit talking on the radio to Kuznetsov

Kuznetsov on the radio: You’re going to send, what?

Norton: A sled.

Kuznetsov: A sled.

Norton: Yeah, a sled.

Close on Kuznetsov on the asteroid: Why aren’t you coming?

Close on Norton: I’m not taking this ship anywhere near a  runaway asteroid field. I have eighty seven people on board that I’m responsible for, not to mention the ship itself.

Kuznetsov on the radio: A sled.

Norton: Yes! But Lieutenant Rodrigo is an expert on this equipment, and in emergency procedures. You guys will be fine. As a matter of fact I suggest you get your gear on and get outside. He’ll be there in about five minutes...

Cut to Kuznetsov: A sled.

Cut back to Norton: It’s official designation is different, but we call it a sled.

Cut to Kuznetsov: What’s the official name for it?

Cut to close on Norton, as he sighs before answering: A scooter.

Cut to Kuznetsov

Cut to the sled and Rodrigo in space Med from behind as they approach 1682

Close on Rodrigo

Norton on his radio: Boris, how are you doing?

Rodrigo: I’m almost there, Commander. ETA in two minutes. Have them be ready.

Cut to rear view again as the camera stops moving and the sled moves on to the right of the slowly rotating asteroid

Cut to Med of Norton and Calvert on the bridge of Endeavor

Norton to the radio: Did you hear that, Kuznetsov? Are you ready?

Cut to med on the surveyors now in their spacesuits and outside of their craft, waiting

Kuznetsov: We’re ready. I think I see your sled coming.

Cut to Norton: Good.

Cut back to the surveyors as the sled can be seen high in the asteroid’s sky to the south coming in fast over the short plain. Rodrigo applies the sled forward thrusters to slow it down to a stop in front of the three men as they scramble to board and hook on to the sled with safety lines.

Close on Rodrigo: All set?

Close on Jones: Yes, we’re ready!

Close on Rodrigo: Hold on.

Cut to behind the sled as it applies full thrust, as the vehicle distances itself from the camera and bends up into space

Cut to close on Rodrigo: Rodrigo to Endeavor.

Cut to Norton on Endeavor’s bridge: Yes Boris.

Cut back to Rodrigo: I’ve got them. I’m going to burn full thrust to get us out of the vicinity. All my fuel will be gone and we’ll need you to pick us up. Copy?

Cut to Norton: No problem, Boris. Do what you think is prudent.

Cut back to Rodrigo: Copy that.

Cut to behind the sled as it’s main engine fires

Cut to long in front of the sled and men with 1682 in the background

Cut to close on Kuznetsov looking back at the asteroid

Cut to 1682 as the asteroid field reaches it, impacting the asteroid and destroying their spacecraft

Cut to the sled from front as other pieces fly near by, one barely missing them

Cut to long on behind the sled as it advances into the distance

Fade out

Fade in long on the men and sled, now out of fuel, drifting in space

Cut to close on Rodrigo: Rodrigo to Endeavor. We’d like to be picked up now.

Cut to long as Endeavor enters the screen from above and nears the stranded men

Norton’s voice: Endeavor to Lieutenant Rodrigo. We’ll be picking you up in a moment.

Voice of Rodrigo: We sure would appreciate it.

Voice of Norton: Hey, don’t worry about it. We need the sled back.

Sound of laughter

Fade out

Fade in ext surface of the Moon looking down at Tranquility Base from lunar orbit.

Fade to conference room.

Fade in “Space Advisory Council, Moon Base Tranquility” Fade out.

Fade in “Rama Committee” Fade out.

Davidson, as he speaks “Professor Olaf Davidson, Astrophysicist” fades in and out: The question today before the committee is straight forward enough. It is agreed that the object Rama is an unusual object. It has yet to be determined if it is an important one. Dr Bose?

Bose, as he speaks “Dr Andrew Bose, Ambassador from Mars” fades in and out: We do have some new developments. Dr. William Stenton, using the Farside Two-Hundred-Meter Reflector, was able to determine that Rama’s reflection is not entirely uniform, and that it is indeed rotating.

Close shots of the other committee members taking this in.

Bose: We know of course that most asteroidal objects rotate at a rate of a few hours to complete one rotation. Rama it seems has a rotational period of four minutes.

Reaction shots of the others.

Perera, as he speaks “Dr. Carlisle Perera, Exobiologist” fades in and out: Amazing! That would mean... lets see (he scribbles on a piece of paper) that at it’s equator, Rama must be spinning at more than a thousand kilometers per hour.

Bose: Yes. It’s difficult to see how it’s holding itself together actually.

Davidson: Where does that leave us?

Bose: It doesn’t leave us anywhere. The only known object that fits a model of forty kilometers in diameter with a rotation rate of four minutes is a neutron star.  

The others take this in somewhat incredulously.

Bose: Fortunately we know Rama is not a neutron star, due to the fact that it’s gravity has not already torn the planets from their respective orbits.

Sir Lewis Sands: What is it then?

Bose: That is what needs to be determined.

Davidson: What are you suggesting.

Bose: There is a a probe scheduled to be launched from Phobos in three months to explore regions beyond Neptune that at a quite horrifying cost could be retrofitted and sent to Rama for what would be the fastest flyby mission ever conceived.

Davidson: I think that would be a tremendous waste of time and resources.

Bose: I know you do Olaf. But considering the unique nature of Rama, and the short period of time we have to explore it before it leaves the solar system altogether, I believe we have an obligation to do what we can. I think we should put it up for a vote. Does anyone else care to second.

Price: I second that.

Bose: Alright, all those in favor...

Cut to interplanetary space.

Camera pans down to the Sita spacecraft which has the name “SITA” vertically imprinted on it’s hull. As camera stops the probe activates and twelve mini probes silently detach and spread out through space. Camera moves downward and to the side of Sita with a bright point of light coming into view which is quickly approaching.

Cut to interior of SITA control room with technicians scurrying about, most of them looking at computer monitors. There is a large monitor in the front of the room. “SITA Control Center, Tikhonravov Crater, Mars” appears on the screen briefly before fading out.

Med Shot, technicians working at control monitors. 

Tech One: Encounter should have just occurred. Waiting for transmission back. We should get data in twelve and a half minutes.

Fade out

Fade in twelve minutes later.

Mission Controller: Okay, put it on the screen.

The large screen in the front of the room activates. All that can be seen is static.

Med Shot of Mission Controller and several technicians staring at the large monitor.

Long Shot from behind technicians with large monitor prominently displayed as the static starts to clear.

Med Shot of Mission Controller and technicians staring at the screen.

Long Shot from behind as a bright point of light off center on the monitor grows in size.

Med Shot of Mission Controller and technicians staring at the screen as their facial expressions begin to react to what they are seeing.

Med Shot on the monitor as Rama grows in size to dominate the screen. “Its body was a cylinder so geometrically perfect that it might have been turned on a lathe -- one with centers fifty kilometers apart. The two ends were quite flat, apart from some small structures at the center of one face, and were twenty kilometers across; from a distance, when there was no sense of scale, Rama looked almost comically like an ordinary domestic boiler...

   ...Its surface was a dull, drab gray, as colorless as the Moon, and completely devoid of markings except at one point. Halfway along the cylinder there was a kilometer-wide stain or smear, as if something had once hit and splattered, ages ago.”

   The smear is the only indicator of Rama’s spin.  

Second Tech: Holy...

Cut to conference aboard the Endeavor. Commander Norton, Lieutenant Commander Mercer, Commander Fitzhugh of the Calypso, Morgan of the Beagle, and Atoni of the Challenger are in attendance. The men are seated around a small table. It is a weightless environment. 

Close on Commander Morgan: Shit! You gotta be kidding me!

Med on Norton and Mercer.

Norton: Those are the orders. Look for yourself.

Morgan: I see the orders. You still gotta be kidding me!

“Conference Room, Endeavor, Inside The Orbit of Venus" fades in and out.

Norton: I wish there was some other way...

Commander Atoni: So let me get this straight. You siphon off all of our fuel and go chasing after this thing while our ships drift pretty much helplessly in space waiting for the next tanker to show up and rescue us.

Norton: (uncomfortably) Yeah. That sums up the situation fairly well.

Commander Fitzhugh: (calmly) Why the Endeavor, Bill?

Norton: I imagine it’s our location relative to Rama... The Endeavor seems to be the only ship in the solar system situated to have a chance of intercepting Rama.

Mercer: Also our capacity to carry the extra fuel. Our crew is particularly suited for this type of mission...

Morgan: No crew is particularly suited for this mission.

Norton and Mercer look at the three Commanders

Atoni: And what is it that you hope to do when and if you get there?

Norton: (shrugs) Rendezvous. At the very least we’ll have a good look. We really can’t pass this chance up.

The three Commanders look at Norton and Mercer.

Close on Morgan: (sighs) Alright. I suppose the sooner we transfer the fuel the sooner you can be on your way.

Norton: Thanks Ed, Jerry, Thomas. Again, I’m sorry for this...

Morgan: It’s not your fault. Just find our what that thing is, okay?

Norton: We’ll try our best.

Atoni: And for God’s sake, be safe.

Norton and Mercer react to that last command.

Fade to earth based television news broadcast center. The camera moves in slowly toward the news anchor person as they speak.

Anchor Person: And so it has happened. For as long as man has looked into the skies and toward the billions of flashing, bright stars above we have wondered in all of the vastness of space, are we alone? Now we have the answer to that question. The spacecraft christened Rama has proven that other civilizations exist other than ours. That throughout the galaxy other cultures thrive, some of them capable of making themselves known to us. In many ways the sorrowful truth that we are but one of many societies denies us the privileged platform that we are somehow special. That the universe was not made solely for human beings. That we are not unique in the cosmos. This doleful reality is balanced by the knowledge that ours is but one of many species that inhabit nearby planetary systems, that we share in the miracle of life, that we do not need to feel lonely among the mysteries yet to befall us. How this phenomenon will affect our planet’s religions, our economy, the state of our evolving modes of science and government, is unknown at this time, but surely some of our precious and most closely held beliefs and customs will by necessity need to be revised.  Rama, it’s mission unknown, within the next few weeks will reach perihelion, making it’s closest approach to our sun, using it’s gravity to propel it once again into the dark reaches of outer space. Perhaps those who made and pilot the huge ship will talk to us before leaving. Perhaps not. In any case the long hoped for, the long feared encounter has come at last. Mankind is receiving it’s first visitor from the stars.

Fade to black

Cut to Endeavor approaching a spinning Rama. Endeavor moves along Rama’s hull toward the north surface plain.

Cut to Endeavor over north plain. Rama’s spin is indicated by the three moving pillbox structures below and their shadows. Endeavor’s reaction thrusters fire to match Rama’s spin.

Interior, Endeavor’s cockpit. Commander Norton and Lieutenant Joe Calvert are at the ship’s controls. A display screen shows the northern plain below them. Weightless environment.

Calvert: In three minutes we’ll know if it’s made of antimatter (Norton smiles).

Exterior as the Endeavor slowly approaches the plain below, off center, toward one of the three structures.

Med interior, cockpit of Norton and Calvert.

Exterior: the Endeavor gets closer to touching down.

Interior, Cockpit.

Calvert: Contact in five seconds.

Both men tense in anticipation of landing.

Exterior: The Endeavor lands near one of the pillbox structures.

Close shot of the Endeavors landing pads sliding up to the nearest pill box due to Rama’s spin, and stopping.

Close shot of another land pad shifting to another pillbox.

Interior: As both men switch off power,

Norton: (flips open a radio circuit) Rama Base. Endeavor has landed.

Fade out

Fade in. Endeavor interior, control center. various crew members are about monitoring various controls. Weightless environment.

Norton and Mercer are floating behind Sargent Scarborough who has been monitoring one of the control panels.

Scarborough: Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No radio signals... at any frequency. No vibrations that the seismograph can detect, except for expected thermal heating. No electrical currents. No radioactivity. No nothing. (he looks up at the two officers) It’s like a tomb.

Close on Norton and Mercer.

Norton: Perhaps that’s exactly what it is. A tomb.

Mercer: It looks like there’s some kind of instrumentation on those structures outside. It might be an airlock. Maybe we can find out what Rama is.

Norton : Maybe. We’ll wait twenty four hours to see if Rama doesn’t mind us sitting on it, then go out and take a look.

Mercer: Sounds good.

Norton: You and I will make the first EVA.

Close on Mercer: Sounds good!

Cut to med,  Exterior: Endeavor’s airlock door opens and Norton and Mercer float out in spacesuits using thrusters to maneuver. Throughout the scene the surrounding star field revolves to approximate Rama’s spin.

Long shot: Both astronauts float to where the Endeavor is in contact with the pillbox structures.

Mercer: Looks good Captain. There must be several tons of pressure holding them together, but it seems to be evenly distributed.

Norton: Good... okay, what have we got here?

Med on Norton as he uses his thrusters to float around one of the structures.

Close on Mercer watching him.

Med on Norton as he comes across the embedded wheel. “Six radial grooves, or slots, were deeply recessed in the metal, and lying in them were six crossed bars, like the spokes of a rimless wheel, with a small hub at the center.”

Norton: It looks like it could be some kind of handwheel.

Mercer: Yeah?

Norton: But it’s useless. It’s embedded in the wall. (Mercer joins Norton). It doesn’t make any sense.

Mercer: What’s this?

Norton: What?

Mercer: This recess. It looks like you can put your hand in there and grab the spoke.

Norton does just that and pulls the wheel smoothly out of the wall.

Norton: Amazing. I would think that any moving part would have been vacuum-welded ages ago. (he thinks a moment) Endeavor?

Myron: Endeavor here Captain.

Norton: Has anything changed inside Rama?

Myron: Negative Captain. Still quite as a mouse.

Close on Mercer: Well Skipper, are you going to turn it?

Close on Norton thinking: What’s your diagnosis, Karl?

Cut to Mercer: It’s obviously a manual control for an air lock... probably an emergency back-up system in case of a power failure. I can’t imagine any technology, however advanced, that wouldn’t take such precautions.

Cut to Norton, making up his mind grabbed the wheel with both hands and attempted to turn in a clockwise fashion. It doesn’t move. He strains again. It still doesn’t budge.

Norton: Give me a hand.

Each astronauts took a spoke and exerted all of the force that they could muster but it didn’t move.

They step back and look at it.

Mercer: Let’s try it the other way.

Both men try the wheel again, this time in a counter clockwise fashion and it moves effortlessly a full rotation before taking up the load.

Half a meter away the curving wall of the pillbox began to move like a slowly opening clam shell. A few dust particles escape to space from within looking like “dazzling diamonds” as they flew off. A doorway was opened.

Both men take a moment to look at it.

Cut to the Rama Committee interior long shot.

Med shot Dr Bose: Gentlemen, Doctor Price, the committee is now in session. I think I am correct in saying that this is a gathering of unique talents, assembled to deal with a unique situation. The directive that the Secretary-General has given us is to evaluate that situation, and to advise Commander Norton if necessary.

Sir Robert MacKay: (“Sir Robert MacKay, Ambassador from Earth” fades in and out) This Commander Norton has a tremendous responsibility. What sort of person is he?

Professor Davidson: I can answer that. (he looked down at his phone) William Tsien Norton, born two thousand seventy seven, Brisbane, Oceana. Educated Sydney, Bombay, Houston. Then five years at Astrograd, specializing in propulsion. Commissioned twenty one oh two. Rose through the usual ranks... lieutenant on the third Persephone expedition... distinguished himself during fifteenth attempt to establish a base on Venus... um... ...um... (looks up) exemplary record... (looks down) dual citizenship, Earth and Mars... wife and one child in Brisbane, wife and two in Port Lowell, (looks up) with an option on a third.

Dr. Conrad Taylor: Wife?

Professor Davidson: No. Child, of course!

Taylor is smiling. Polite laughter fills the room.

Professor Davidson: Appointed Commanding Officer Solar Survey Research Vessel Endeavor. First voyage to retrograde satellites of Jupiter... um, that was a tricky one... one asteroid mission when ordered to prepare for this operation... managed to beat the deadline... (Davidson cleared his screen and looked at his colleagues) I think we were extremely lucky, considering that he was the only man available at such a short notice. We might have had a run-of-the-mill captain.

Ambassador from Mercury: The record proves only that he’s competent. How will he react in a wholly novel situation like this?

Dr Bose: How would anyone react in a situation like this?

Sir Lewis Sands: (“Sir Lewis Sands, Historian” fades in and out) (clears his throat) Not exactly a novel situation, even though it’s three centuries since it last occurred. If Rama is dead, or unoccupied... and so far all evidence suggests that it is... Norton is in  the position of an archaeologist discovering the ruins of an extinct culture. (he nods to Price who acknowledges) Obvious examples are Schliemann at Troy and Mouhot at Angkor Vat. The danger is minimal, though of course accidents can never be completely ruled out.

Dr Price: (“Dr. Thelma Price, Archaeologist" fades in and out) But what about the booby traps and trigger mechanisms these Pandora people have been talking about?

Ambassador from Mercury: Pandora? What’s that?

MacKay: It’s a crackpot movement that is convinced that Rama is a grave potential danger A box that shouldn’t be opened.

Taylor: Pandora... Pandora. Oh of course such things are conceivable, but why should any intelligent race want to play childish tricks?

MacKay: Well, even ruling out such unpleasantness, we still have the much more ominous possibility of an active, inhabited Rama. Then the situation is one of an encounter between two cultures... at very different technological levels. Pizzaro and the Incas. Perry and the Japanese. Europe and Africa. Almost invariably, the consequences have been disastrous... for one or both parties. I’m not making any recommendations; I’m merely pointing out precedents.

Bose: Thank you, Sir Robert. I’m sure we’ve all thought of these alarming possibilities. But if the creatures inside Rama are... er... malevolent, will it really make the slightest difference what we do?

Ambassador from Mercury: They might ignore us if we go away.

Price: What... after they’ve traveled billions of miles for thousands of years?

An argument begins to ensue. Dr. Bose breaks it up

Bose: I think that we can all agree that since Commander Norton has opened the first door... it would inconceivable for him not to open the second.


Fade to interior, Commander Norton’s cabin aboard the Endeavor. He is seated at his desk in front of a computer monitor recording a video for his wives. Weightless environment.

Norton: Sorry I’m a day late with this transmission, but I’ve been away from the ship for the last thirty hours. Don’t be alarmed... everything is under control and going perfectly. (as he speaks fade to astronauts (suited up) working in the Rama airlock complex) It’s taken us two days, but we’re almost through the airlock complex. We could have done it in a couple of hours if we’d known what we do now. But we took no chances, sending remote cameras ahead, and cycled all of the locks a dozen times to make sure they wouldn’t seize up behind us... after we’d gone through.

   (fade to one of the locks with one of the crew members entering) Each lock is a simple revolving cylinder with a slot on one side. You go in through this opening, crank the cylinder around a hundred and eighty degrees. (cut to inside a cylinder as it opens to a artificially lighted passageway) and then the slot matches up with another door so you can step out of it (cut to crew stepping out of cylinder) Or float, in this case.

Cut to Norton: And that’s only the beginning. The final lock opens into a straight corridor, almost half a kilometer long. (cut to view of the corridor as the camera moves along though it, passing one or two astronauts along the way) It looks clean and tidy, like everything else we’ve seen. Every few meters there are ports that probably held lights, but now, except for the lighting we bring in,  everything is completely black, and I don’t mind telling you a little scary. There are also two parallel slots, about a centimeter wide, cut into the walls and running the whole length of the tunnel. We suspect that some kind of shuttle runs inside these to tow equipment... or people... back and forth.

Cut back to Norton: I mentioned that the tunnel was a half a kilometer long. (fade back to moving camera as it approaches the final airlock and stops) Well, from our seismic soundings we knew that that’s about the thickness of the hull, so obviously we’re almost through it. And at the end of the tunnel we weren’t surprised to find another of those cylindrical air locks.

Cut to Norton: Yes, and another. And another. The Ramans seem to have done everything in threes. We’re in the final lock chamber now, waiting for the okay from Earth before we go through.

Close on Norton: The interior of Rama is only a few meters away. I’ll be a lot happier when the suspense is over.

Med on Norton) You know Jerry Kirchoff, my exec, who’s got such a library of real books that he can’t afford to emigrate from Earth? He told me of a situation that was similar to ours, back at the beginning of the twenty first, no twentieth century. An archaeologist found the tomb of an Egyptian king, the first one that hadn’t been looted by robbers. His workmen took months to dig their way in, chamber by chamber, until they came to the final wall. Then they broke through the masonry, and he held out a lantern and pushed his head inside. He found himself looking into a whole roomful of treasure, incredible stuff. Gold and jewels.       

Close on Norton: Perhaps this place is also a tomb; it seems more and more likely. Even now, there’s still not the slightest sound, or hint of activity.

Med on Norton: Well, tomorrow we should know. (he turns off the video recorder and sits in thought)

Fade out

Fade in to total black screen. camera is in the interior of Rama looking at the airlock door. After three to five seconds of total black, the airlock opens and light from within breaks out. Norton emerges from airlock with a lighting array attached to his suit. He is on a tether that is attached to something back in the airlock. Weightless environment. 

Long shot from Norton’s POV. His lights are sucked up by the immense darkness.

Med Shot of Norton floating out of the airlock until his momentum damper tightens and brings his forward movement to a halt. He moves so he is turned around, looking at where he had come from.

Med to Long shot. Norton was hovering over the center of a small crater, which was itself a dimple in the base of a much larger one.

Norton’s POV: Looking around him he can see only what is illuminated by his lights. He sees on either side a complex of terraces and ramps, all geometrically precise and obviously artificial, which extend as far as his lights can reach.

Long shot from behind Norton as he points his lights toward to two other exits of the airlock system, which are identical to the one he just emerged from and are at the very limit of his ability to see them.

Med shot of Norton floating.

Norton: I’m sending out a flare... two minute delay. Here goes.

Norton points a flare gun toward the middle of the vast darkness in front of him and fires.

Long shot as the flare disappears into the darkness.

Med shot of Norton. He can be heard counting. When he reaches 100 he points the camera in the direction of the flare.

Long shot as flare explodes and Rama is revealed.

“He was at one end of a hollow cylinder at least ten kilometers wide and of indefinite length. From his viewpoint at the central axis, he could see such a mass of detail on the curving walls surrounding him and his mind could not absorb more than a minute fraction of it. He was looking at the landscape of an entire world by a single flash of lightening, and he tried by a deliberate effort of will to freeze the image in his mind.

   The tube of the landscape that enclosed him was mottled with areas of light and shade that could have been forests, fields, frozen lakes, or towns, the distance and the fading illumination of the flare made identification impossible. Narrow lines could be highways, canals, or well-trained rivers formed a faintly visible geometrical network, and far along the cylinder, at the very limit of vision was a band of deeper darkness. It formed a complete circle, ringing the interior of this world.”

Long shot as the flare sputters and dies.

Med shot back on Norton as flare lights fade out.

Fade out.

Fade in. Rama Committee. Long shot moves into med on large view screen display. The screen shows various photographs and videos of Rama’s interior taken from the hub airlock vicinity, as Norton narrates the pictures/videos change accordingly. Cut to committee members reactions occasionally.

Norton: We have now launched five long-delay flares down the axis of the cylinder, and have a good photo-coverage of its full length. All of the main features have been mapped. Though there are a few that we can identify, we’ve given them provisional names.

   The interior cavity is fifty kilometers long and sixteen wide. The two ends are bowl shaped, with rather complicated geometries. We’ve called ours the Northern Hemisphere and we are establishing our first base here at the axis.

   Radiating from the central hub, one hundred and twenty degrees apart, are three ladders that are almost a kilometer long. They all end at a terrace, or ring shaped plateau, that runs right around the bowl. And leading on from that, continuing the direction of the ladders, are three enormous stairways, which go all the way to the plain. If you can imagine an umbrella with only three ribs, equally spaced, you’ll have a good idea of this end of Rama.

   Each of those ribs is a stairway, every step near the axis and then slowly flattening out as it approaches the plain below. The stairways... we’ve called them Alpha, Beta, Gamma, aren’t continuous, but break at five more circular terraces. We estimate there must be between twenty and thirty thousand steps. Presumably they were only used for emergencies, since it’s inconceivable that the Ramans... or whatever we’re going to call them... had no better way of reaching the axis of their world. 

   The Southern Hemisphere looks quite different. For one thing it has no stairways and no flat central hub. Instead there’s a huge spike, kilometers long, jutting along the axis, with six smaller ones around it. The whole arrangement is very odd, and we can’t imagine what it means.

   The fifty kilometer long cylindrical section between the two bowls we’ve called the Central Plain. It may seem crazy to use the word “plain” to describe something so obviously curved, but we feel it’s justified. It will appear flat to us when we get down there... just as the interior of a bottle must seem flat to an ant crawling around inside it.

   The most striking feature of the Central Plain is the ten kilometer-wide dark band running completely around it at the halfway mark. It looks like ice, so we’ve christened it the Cylindrical Sea. Right out in the middle there’s a large oval island, about ten kilometers long and three wide, and covered with tall structures. Because it reminds us of old Manhattan, we’ve called it New York. Yet I don’t think it’s a city; it seems more like an enormous factory or chemical processing plant.

   But there are some cities... or at any rate, towns... six of them. If they were built for human beings, they could each hold about fifty thousand people. We’ve called them Rome, Beijing, Paris, Moscow, London, and Tokyo. They are linked with highways and something that seems to be a rail system.

   There must be enough material for centuries of research in this frozen carcass of a world. We’ve four thousand square kilometers to explore, and only a few weeks to do it in. I wonder if we’ll ever learn the answer to the two mysteries that have been haunting me ever since we got inside: who were they, and what went wrong? 

Med shot on Dr. Bose

Bose: Dr. Perera, I believe you have some comment to make.

Med on Perera

Perera: Yes Mr. Ambassador, I think I have some information of interest. Rama undoubtedly is a ‘space ark.’ It’s an old idea in astronomical literature. I’ve been able to track it back to the British physicist J.D. Bernal, who proposed this mode of interstellar colonization in a book published in 1929. Two hundred years ago! Also the great Russian pioneer Tsiolkovsky put forward somewhat similar proposals even earlier.

Reaction shots of the other committee members throughout scene.

Perera continues: If you want to go from one star system to another, you have a number of choices. Assuming that the speed of light is an absolute limit... and that’s still not completely settled, despite anything you may have heard to the contrary...

Med shot on a frowning Davidson

Perera continues: you can make a fast trip in a small vessel, or a slow journey in a giant one.

   There seems to be no technical reason why spacecraft cannot reach ninety percent, or more, of the speed of light. That would mean a travel time of five to ten years between neighboring stars... tedious perhaps, but not impracticable, especially for creatures with significantly longer life spans than ours. One can imagine voyages of this duration carried out in ships not much larger than those we utilize now.

   But perhaps such speeds are impossible... with reasonable payloads. Remember, one would need to carry the fuel necessary to slow down at the end of the voyage, even if you’re on a one way trip. So it may make more sense to take your time... ten thousand let’s say... a hundred thousand years.

   Bernal and others thought this could be done with mobile worldlets a few kilometers across, carrying thousands of passengers on journeys that would last generations. Naturally, the system would need to be rigidly closed, recycling all food, atmosphere, and other expendables.

   Some writers suggested that these arks should be built in concentric spheres; others proposed hollow, spinning cylinders so that centrifugal force could provide artificial gravity... exactly what we’ve found in Rama...

Med on Davidson

Davidson: There is no such thing as centrifugal force. It’s an engineer’s phantom. There’s only inertia...

Perera: You’re quite right of course... though it may be hard to convince a man who has just been slung off a carousel. However mathematical rigor seems unnecessary...

Med on Bose

Bose: Yes Dr. Perera. We all know what you mean... or think we do. Please continue

Perera: Well, I was merely pointing out that there’s nothing conceptually novel about Rama... although it’s size is startling. Mankind has imagined such things for over two hundred years.

Perera continues: Now I’d like to address another question. Exactly how long has Rama been traveling through space?

   We now have a precise determination of it’s orbit and velocity. Assuming that it’s made no navigational changes, we can trace it’s position back for millions of years. We expected that it would be coming from a nearby star. But that isn’t the case at all.

   It’s been more than two hundred thousand years since Rama passed near any star, and that particular one turns out to be an irregular variable... about the most unsuitable sun you could imagine for an inhabited solar system. It has a brightness range of over fifty to one.      Any planets near it would be alternatively baked and frozen every few years.

Med on Price

Price: A suggestion doctor. Perhaps that explains everything. Maybe this was once a normal sun that became unstable. That’s why the Ramans had to find a new one.

Perera, putting her down kindly: We did consider that. But if our present theories of stellar evolution are correct, this star could never have been stable, could never have had life bearing planets. So Rama has been cruising through space for at least two hundred thousand years, and perhaps for more than a million.

   Now Rama is cold, dark, and apparently dead, and I think I know why. The Ramans may have had no choice... perhaps they were fleeing from some disaster... but they miscalculated.

   No closed ecology can be one hundred percent efficient; there is always waste, loss... some degradation of the environment and built up pollutants. It may take billions of years to poison and wear out a planet, but it will happen in the end. The oceans will dry up, the atmosphere will leak to space.

   By our standards Rama is enormous... yet it is still a very tiny planet. By my calculations, based on the inevitable leakage through it’s hull, and some reasonable guesses about the rate of biological turnover, indicates that it’s ecology could survive for only a thousand years. At the most, I’ll grant ten thousand.

   That would be long enough, at the current speed Rama is traveling, for a transit between the closely packed suns in the center of the galaxy. But not out here, in the scattered population of the spiral arms. Rama is a ship that exhausted it’s provisions before it reached it’s goal. It’s a derelict, drifting among the stars

Reactions of the committee members

Perera continues: There’s just one serious objection to this theory, and I’ll raise it before anyone else does, Rama’s orbit is aimed so precisely at the solar system that coincidence seems ruled out. In fact, I’d say it’s now heading much too close to the Sun for comfort. Endeavor will have to depart long before perihelion to avoid overheating.

   I don’t pretend to understand this. Perhaps there is some form of automatic terminal guidance still operating, steering Rama to the nearest suitable star ages after it’s builders died.

Close on Perera

Perera continues: And they are dead. I’ll stake my reputation on that. All the samples we’ve taken from the interior are absolutely sterile. We’ve not found a single microorganism. As for the talk you may have head about suspended animation, you can ignore it. There are fundamental reasons why hibernation techniques will work for only a few centuries... and we’re dealing with time spans a  thousandfold longer.

   So the Pandorans and their sympathizers have nothing to worry about. For my part, I’m sorry. It would have been wonderful to have met another intelligent species.

   But at least we have answered one ancient question. We are not alone. To us, the stars will never again be the same.

Fade out

Fade in, Central Hub Airlock, Weightless Environment, as Lieutenant Commander Mercer exits, wearing a full spacesuit, and floats along the axis, followed by Lieutenant Joe Calvert and Technical Sergeant Willard Myron. They descend the beginning of the ladder headfirst.

Cut to from several hundred feet out as the lights attached to the suits continue to descend through the complete blackness

Cut to side shot of the three men descending

Cut to shot before the men approach and reach the five hundredth rung

Mercer: Everything OK, Skipper. We’re just passing the halfway mark. Joe, Will, any problems?  

Calvert: I’m fine. What are you stopping for?

Myron: Same here. But watch out for the Coriolis force. It’s starting to build up.

Mercer: Watch out... I’m going to swing around.

Mercer grips the ladder and swings from headfirst to feet first

Mercer and the others continue their descent, falling rather than using the ladder traditionally

Various shots of the men descending until they reach the first step

   “The ledge of the platform from which the stairway descended was about ten meters wide, and curved upward on each side until it disappeared into the darkness.” A tall handrail flanked the stairway.

Mercer: Skipper, there were no problems getting down the ladder. If you agree, I’d like to continue toward the next platform. I want to time the rate of descent on the stairway.

Norton replies over an intercom: Go ahead.

The three men began to descend on the stairway, but it soon became apparent that walking in a normal manner was impossibly tedious considering the weak force holding them down provided by Rama’s spin, at their current position on the stairs

Mercer: There must be a better way.

Calvert: This stairway was built to walk up, not down! You can use the steps when you’re moving against gravity, but they’re just a nuisance in this direction. It may not be dignified, but I think the best way down is to slide along the handrail.

Myron: That’s ridiculous! I can’t believe the Ramans did it that way.

Mercer: I doubt if they ever used the stairway. It’s obviously only for emergencies. They must have had some mechanical transport system to get up here. A funicular, perhaps. That would explain the those long slots running down from the hub.

Calvert: I always assumed they were drains... but I suppose they could be both. I wonder if it ever rained here.

Mercer: Probably. But I think you’re right Joe, and to hell with dignity. Here we go.

The handrail was a smooth flat metal bar supported by widely spaced pillars a meter high. Mercer straddled it, tested the breaking power he could exert with his hands, then slid down, gaining speed, into the darkness. The other followed suit

Cut to below the men as they pass

Cut to the second platform as the men arrive and disembark

Norton via intercom: I hope you enjoyed yourselves. Climbing back won’t be so easy.

Mercer: That’s what I want to check.

He walks back and forth on the platform

Mercer continues: It’s already a tenth of a gee here. You can really notice the difference.

He walked to the edge of the platform and looked down

Cut to view of the stairway for as far as the suit lights would permit

Cut to Mercer turning around and looking up at the hub

Cut to a view of the stairway and ladder and a small glow of light at the hub

Mercer continues: There’s no change in temperature. Still just below freezing. But the air pressure is up as expected... around three hundred millibars. Even with this low oxygen content, it should be almost breathable,  farther down there will be no problems at all. That will simplify exploration enormously. What a find! The first world on which we can walk without breathing gear! In fact I’m going to take a sniff.

Mercer equalized the pressure, unlatched the securing clip of his helmet, and opened it a crack. After a moment. His breath condenses due to the cold

Mercer: Dead. The air smells and tastes dead.

Calvert: What do you mean?

Mercer: Sterile. Musty... like anything that may have caused an odor... or smelled like life... disappeared a long time ago.

After a moment he closed his helmet

Mercer: We’er coming back, Skipper. There’s no reason to go further until we’re ready to go all the way.

Cut to the hub where Norton and others were monitoring the three men

Norton: I agree. We’ll be timing you... but take it easy.

Cut to the second platform as the men bound up the steps three or four at a time until they disappear into the darkness

4 beats

Fade in to Norton’s cabin aboard the Endeavor, weightless environment. There is a knock on his door and Surgeon Commander Laura Ernst floats in the doorway

Ernst: Bill, I’ve checked our mountaineers, and here’s my verdict. Karl and Joe are in good shape... all indications normal for the work they’ve done. But Will shows signs of exhaustion and body loss. I won’t go into the details. I don’t believe he’s  been getting all the exercise he should, and he’s not the only one. There’s been some cheating on the centrifuge; if there’s any more, heads will roll. Please pass the word.

Norton: Yes, ma’am. But there’s some excuse. The crew has been working very hard.

Ernst: With their brains and fingers, certainly. But not with their bodies... not real work in kilogram-meters. And that’s what we’re dealing with, if we’re going to explore Rama.

Norton: Well, can we?

Ernst: Yes, if we proceed with caution. Karl and I have worked out a very conservative profile... based on the assumption that we can dispense with breathing gear below the second level. Of course, that’s an incredible stroke of luck, and changes the whole logistics picture... so we need to supply only food and water, and thermosuits, then we’re in business. Going down will be easy. It looks as if we can slide most of the way, on that very convenient banister.

Norton: I’ve got Chips working on a sled with parachute-breaking. Even if we can’t risk it for the crew we can use it for stores and equipment.

Ernst: Fine; that should do the trip in ten minutes. Otherwise it will take about an hour. Climbing up is harder to estimate. Id’ like to allow six hours, including two thirty minute rest periods. Later , as we get experience... and develop some muscles... we may be able to cut this back considerably.

Norton: What about psychological  factors?

Ernst: Hard to assess, in such a novel environment. Darkness may be the biggest problem.

Norton: I’ll establish searchlights on the hub. Besides it’s own lamps, any party down there will always have a beam playing on it.

Ernst: Good... that should help.

Norton: One other point: should we play it safe and send a party only halfway down the stair and back of should we go the whole way, on the first attempt?

Ernst: If we had plenty of time, I’d be cautious. But time is short, and I can see no danger in going all the way... and looking around when we get there.

Norton: Thanks, Laura... that’s all I need to know. I’ll get the Exec working on the details. And I’ll order all hands to the centrifuge... twenty minutes a day at half a gee. Will that satisfy you?

 

Ernst: No. It’s point six gee down there in Rama, and I want a safety margin. Make it three quarters...

Norton: Ouch!

Ernst: For ten minutes...

Norton: I’ll settle for that.

Ernst: Twice a day.

Norton: Laura, you’re a cruel, hard woman. But so be it. I’ll break the news just before dinner. That should spoil a few appetites.

Ernst smiles.

Fade out

Fade in. View point from the hub airlock as a searchlight shines down onto the stairway where three figures are moving, casting long shadows. The actual beam of light cannot be seen in the antiseptic atmosphere inside Rama

Cut to the fifth level where Norton, Calvert, and Rodrigo have stopped their descent briefly. Norton walked several hundred meters along to narrow ledge before returning to his companions.

   Gravity at this level has reached almost half the value of Earth’s. “The stairway had long ago ceased its vertiginous downward plunge and was now flattening out toward the horizontal. The gradient was now only about one in five; at the beginning it had been five in one. Normal walking was now both physically and psychologically acceptable; only the lowered gravity reminded them that they were not descending some great stairway on Earth."

   Cold set. The breath of the three men condenses as they breath.

   The three walked down the steps two at a time in long, gentle strides until they ran out of steps and were now standing on the northern plain, “dull grey in the now weakening beam of the hub searchlight, fading away into the darkness a few hundred meters ahead.”

Med shot on Mercer as he turns and looks back up to the hub.

Med shot of Mercer at the hub looking through a telescope at the three men on the plain below

Telescope POV shot of the three men on the plain. Mercer is looking directly at the hub

Cut to med shot of Norton as he speaks into his intercom unit

Norton: Captain here. Everyone’s in fine shape... no problems. Proceeding as planned.

Cut to Mercer: Good, we’ll be watching.

Cut to the three men on the plain

VO Executive Officer Kirchoff: This is the Exec. Really skipper, that’s not good enough. You know the news services have been screaming at us for the last week. I don’t expect deathless prose, but can’t you do better than that?

Norton chuckles: I’ll try, but remember there’s nothing to see yet.

He looks out to the plain.

Long shot of the plain, darkness beyond the boundaries of the searchlight

Norton: It’s like... well... being on a huge, darkened stage, with a single spotlight.

Cut back to Norton as he turns toward the stairway

Cut to long shot of the stairway still partially illuminated by the searchlight

Norton: The first few hundred steps of the stairway rise out of the plain until they disappear into the darkness overhead.

Cut to Norton: What we can see of the plain looks perfectly flat. The curvature too small to be visible over this limited area.

Norton shrugs: And that’s about it.

Kirchoff: Like to give any impressions?

Norton: Well, it’s still very cold... below freezing... and we’re glad of our thermosuits. And quiet, of course; quieter than anything I’ve ever experienced on Earth.. or in space, where there’s always some background noise. Here, every sound is swallowed up. The space around us is so enormous that there aren’t any echos. It’s weird, but I hope we’ll get used to it.

Kirchoff: Thanks Skipper. Anyone else? Joe, Boris?

Calvert: I can’t help thinking that this is the first time... ever... that we’ve been able to walk on another world, breathing it’s natural atmosphere, though I suppose “natural” is hardly the word you can apply to a place like this. Still Rama must resemble the world of it’s builders; our own spaceships are all miniature earths. Two examples are damned poor statistics, but up to this point it seems that all intelligent life forms... most life forms... utilize oxygen to live. What we’ve seen of their work suggests that the Ramans were humanoid, though perhaps about fifty percent taller that we are. Wouldn’t you agree, Boris?

Close on Rodrigo. After a moment: They were certainly oxygen breathers, and they could be humanoid. But let’s wait and see. With any luck, we should discover what they were like. There may be pictures, statues... perhaps even bodies, over in those towns... if they are towns.

Calvert, hopefully: And the nearest is only eight kilometers away...

Norton: Laura, what do you think?

Ernst over radio: Take thirty minutes rest, and a five-hundred-calorie energy module. Then you can start.

Calvert: Thanks Doc, now I can die happy. I always wanted to see Paris. Moulin Rouge, here we come...

Fade out

Fade in on the three explorers as they march through the plain illuminated only by the hub’s searchlight. It is eerily quiet. Cold set. The men’s breath condenses.

Cut to the men walking away from the camera

 

Cut to the men walking toward the camera

Cut to side view of the men walking

Close on Calvert who begins to whistle “Heigh-Ho”

Med on Norton and Rodrigo as they look at him

Calvert looks back at them before switching to the theme song from “The Bridge on the River Kwai”

Norton stops and motions for Calvert to stop whistling.

Calvert: I can do old movies too, boss.

He talks into his intercom: Karl. I want to make a detour to the Straight Valley. It should be only a kilometer away to our left. Can you light it up for us?

Mercer: You got it Skipper.

Cut to long shot behind the three men as another searchlight begins to shine in the distance. The area of illumination moves quickly away to a point. Then moves up and down the Valley’s length. The valley is slightly elevated due to Rama’s curvature

Mercer: There it is Skipper. About ten kilometers long, approximately forty meters deep, and a hundred across. Just like it’s brother and sister above...

Close on Norton: Yeah.

Long shot as the men begin to walk toward the light

Fade out

Fade in

Aerial shot of the three men approaching the Straight Valley illuminated by the hub’s searchlight. Their long shadows veer to the right. As they approach the second searchlight comes into the frame above them until both areas of illumination merge

Wide angle long shot inside the Straight Valley. The three men appear at the edge, in the upper right side of the frame.

 Cut to med shot of the three men

Cut to their POV looking down into the valley. “The perfectly smooth walls sloped down at an angle of sixty degrees, there were no steps or footholds. Filling the bottom was a sheet of flat white material that looked much like ice.

Cut to close on Norton: I’m going down.

Cut to long shot of Norton rappelling down the side of the valley with a rope anchored by Calvert and Rodrigo

Cut to med shot at the bottom of the valley as Norton reaches the bottom. He the rope remains attached to his waist. He takes a few steps

Norton: It’s not ice. The friction is too great and my footing’s secure.

Norton crouches down and touches the surface material

Norton: This is some kind of glass or transparent crystal.

Norton turns away from the glare of the searchlight and bends close to the surface trying to see what lies beneath. He switches on his helmet lamp

Close shot of the surface Norton is looking at

Norton: I can’t see anything underneath the surface. This stuff is translucent, but not transparent.

He sits back up

Norton: If this is a frozen liquid it has a melting point much higher than water.

He taps the surface with a hammer, which rebounds with a dull “clunk.” He tries again a little harder with the same result.

Med shot of Norton about to use his full strength with the hammer, when he stops himself, reluctant to possibly damage an artifact he doesn’t know the purpose of

Med shot of Norton standing

Norton: It doesn’t seem likely that this is some kind of canal. There’s no sign of water residue anywhere. Everything is bright and clean as if it was just built, yet it might be a million years old.

Norton turns around and looks down the length of the valley until it disappears into the darkness.

Norton, softly: This is just a strange trench that starts and stops abruptly and leads to nowhere.

Norton walks down the valley

Long shot of Calvert and Rodrigo keeping pace with Norton and holding the rope that is attached to him

Norton stops. He’s thinking of something

Rodrigo: What is it, Commander? Have you found something?

Close on Norton as he climbs out of his revery

Norton: No. There’s nothing down here. Haul me up. We’ll head straight to Paris.

Fade out

Fade in to Rama Committee conference room. Staffers are milling about while the major participants take their seats. Close on Dr.Bose. While he speaks, close on the various members as they listen

Bose: I’ve called this meeting of the committee because Dr. Perera has something important to tell us. He insists that we get in touch with Commander Norton right away, using the priority channel we’ve been able to establish... after, I must say, a good deal of difficulty. Dr Perera’s statement is rather technical, and before we come to it, I think a summary of the present position might be in order. Dr. Price has prepared one. Oh yes... some apologies for an absence. Sir Lewis has had to leave for Earth for a conference he’s chairing, and Dr. Taylor asked to be excused. Dr Price...

Close on Price: As you all know, Commander Norton has completed one traverse of almost thirty kilometers without encountering any problems. He explored the curious trench shown on your maps as the Straight Valley. Its purpose is still quite unknown, but it is clearly important, because it runs the full length of Rama... except for the break at the Cylindrical Sea... and there are two identical structures  one hundred and twenty degrees on the circumference of the world.

Price continues: Next, the party turned left... or east, if we adopt the North Pole convention... until they reached Paris.

A picture of Paris appears on the large monitor in the room

Price: As you’ll see from this photograph, taken by a telescopic camera at the hub, Paris is a group of several hundred buildings, with wide streets between them.

The pictures on the monitor change to reflect what Dr. Price is talking about

Price continues: Now these photographs were taken by Commander Norton’s group when they reached the site. If Paris is a city, it is a most peculiar one. Note that none of the buildings have windows, or even doors! They are all plain, rectangular structures, an identical thirty-five meters high. And they appear to have been extruded from the ground. There are no seems or joints. Look at this close-up of the base of a wall... There’s a smooth transition into the ground.

   My own feeling is that this place is not a residential area, but a storage or supply depot. In support of that theory, look at this photo.

Picture changes to show grooves in the streets

Price continues: These narrow slots or grooves, about five centimeters wide, run along all of the streets, and there is one leading to every building... going straight into the wall. There is a striking resemblance to the streetcar tracks of the early twentieth century. They are obviously part of some transport system.

   We’ve never considered it necessary to have public transport direct to every house. It would be economically absurd; people can always walk a few hundred meters. But if these buildings are being used for storage of heavy materials, it would make sense.

Sir Robert MacKay: May I ask a question?

Price: Of course, Sir Robert.

MacKay: Commander Norton couldn’t get into a single building?

Price: No. When you listen to his report, you can tell he was quite frustrated. At one point he surmised the buildings could only be entered from underground; then he discovered the grooves  of the transport system, and changed his mind.

MacKay: Did he try to break in?

Price: There was no way he could without explosives or heavy tools. And he doesn’t want to do that until all other approaches have failed.

Dr. Dennis Solomons: This may be an example of cocooning.

Price: I beg you pardon?

Solomons: It’s a technique developed a couple of hundred years ago. Another name for it is mothballing. When you have something you want to preserve, you seal it inside a plastic envelope, and then pump in an inert gas. The original use was for military equipment between wars; it was once applied to whole ships. It’s still widely used in museums that are short of space. No one knows what’s inside some of the hundred-year-old cocoons in the Smithsonian basement.

Perera: Please, Mr Ambassador! This is all very interesting, but I feel my information is rather more urgent.

Bose: If there are no other points... very well, Dr. Perera.

Med shot on Perera: According to our latest information one party is now on its way to the Cylindrical Sea, while Commander Norton has another group setting up a supply base at the foot of Stairway Alpha. When that’s established, he intends to have at least two exploratory missions operating at all times. In this way he hopes to use his limited manpower at maximum efficiency.

Close on Perera: It’s a good plan, but there may be no time to carry it out. In fact, I would advise an immediate alert, and preparation for total withdrawal at twelve hours notice. Let me explain.

Med on Perera: It is surprising how few people have commented on a rather obvious anomaly about Rama. It is now well inside the orbit of Venus, yet the interior is still frozen. And the temperature of an object in direct sunlight at this point is about five hundred degrees!

   The reason, of course is that Rama has not had time to warm up. It must have cooled down to absolute zero... two hundred and seventy degrees below... while it was in interstellar space. Now as it approaches the Sun, the outer hull is already almost as hot as molten lead. But the inside will stay cold until the heat works its way through that kilometer of whatever it is the hulls made of.

   There’s some kind of fancy dessert with a hot exterior and ice cream in the middle... I don’t remember what it’s called...

MacKay: Baked Alaska. It’s a favorite at U.P. banquets, unfortunately.

Perera: Thank you, Sir Robert. That’s the situation in Rama at the moment, but it won’t last. All these weeks, the solar heat has been working its way through, and we can expect a sharp temperature rise to begin in a few hours. That’s not the problem, however. By the time Endeavor will have to leave anyway due to Rama’s proximity to the Sun, it will be no more than comfortably tropical inside.

Bose: Then what’s the difficulty?

Close on Perera: I can answer in one word, Mr. Ambassador: hurricanes.

Fade out

Fade in to med shot of suited astronauts passing supplies out of the air lock at the hub

Cut to long shot of other astronauts moving said equipment and supplies down the ladder.

Cut to party walking on the plain illuminated by searchlight from the hub. Surgeon Commander Laura Ernst, Lieutenant Boris Rodrigo, Sergeant Pieter Rousseau, and Sergeant Ruby Barnes are walking towards camera. Cold set as their breathing condenses.

Cut to them walking toward the darkness from behind as search light beam elongates into the darkness.

Cut to med shot of Ernst talking into her radio

Ernst: How much father now hub?

Hub Control: Only a hundred meters. Better slow down.

Ernst: Copy that.

Rodrigo: There it is!

Cut to forward shot of the weakened searchlight beam displaying an abrupt end of the plain in the distance. They were approaching the Cylindrical Sea

Cut to the four walking up to the edge of the plain from overhead

Cut to long shot from below the cliff looking up as the three come to the edge and look down with their suit lights.

Cut to long shot of the icy surface of the sea for as far as their lights and the searchlight permit. Their long shadows appear on the ice magnifying and exaggerating their movements

Rodrigo: Fifty meters to the surface Commander.

Ernst: Yeah. Fifty meters here. But why is it five hundred meters on the southern side?

Rousseau: Good question. I have no idea.

Ernst into her radio: Hub Control, please aim the light at New York.

Cut to long shot from behind the four as they are plunged into darkness as the searchlight beam moves out over the ice to the island of New York, four kilometers distant. The towers of the island come into view. The searchlight plays over the entire island. The beam tracked along the towers and domes and interlocked spheres and criss-crossed tubes. Sometimes there was a brilliant reflection as some flat surface shot the light back at them.

  

Cut to the four looking out over the sea towards New York illuminated by their suit lights

Cut to long shot from above and behind the four as they walk along the cliff’s edge, the searchlight has returned to them.

Cut to med shot of Sergeant Ruby Barnes

Barnes: Where there’s sea there must be docks and harbors... and ships. You can learn everything about a culture by studying the way it builds boats.

Ernst: Unfortunately Ruby I don’t see any of that right now. Pieter, Boris... I think it’s time I climbed down...

Rodrigo: Wait a second Commander. What’s that?

Cut to floor shot looking up at astronauts as they approach the stairway

Cut to long shot above and behind astronauts looking down at the staircase. The narrow stairway could easily been overlooked in the shadowed darkness below the edge of the cliff, for there was no guardrail or other indications of its presence. It ran down the fifty meter vertical wall at a steep angle and disappeared below the surface of the sea

Ernst: Well here’s your dock, Ruby... I guess.

Cut to shot from midway down the stairway looking up at the team as the suit lights flash down.

Cut to med shot of Rodrigo and Ernst

Rodrigo: I don’t see any hazards. Do you want me to go down?

Ernst: No. I’ll do it. (talking into radio) Commander Norton, we’ve found a stairway leading directly into the Cylindrical Sea. Request permission to go down to the surface.

Norton through radio: Be careful, Laura.

Ernst: Roger that.

Cut to med shot as she starts her descent.

Cut to the ice surface as Ernst’s suit lights illuminate the surface and as she steps onto the ice.

Cut to close shot of her foot moving back and forth on the ice, testing it.

Ernst into her intercom: It feels like ice. It is ice I think.

Cut to med shot as she bends down and uses a hammer to hit the surface

Cut to close as she cracks the icy surface with the hammer

Cut back to med shot of her as she picks up pieces of the ice

Cut to close shot of her putting specimens into a sample bottle

Rodrigo with a trace of anxiety: Is that safe?

Ernst: Believe me, Boris (she stands) if there are any pathogens around here that have slipped through my detectors, our insurance policies lapsed a week ago. 

Cut to close shot as Ernst looks and smells the melted water in the bottle

Ernst: It’s water, but I wouldn’t care to drink it... it smells like an algae culture that’s gone bad. I can hardly wait to get it to the lab.

Rodrigo: Is the ice safe to walk on?

Ernst looks out into the darkness beyond her suit lights

Ernst: Yeah. Solid as a rock.

Rousseau: Then we can walk to New York.

Ernst: Can we, Pieter? have you ever tried to walk across four kilometers of ice?

Cut to Rousseau: Oh, I see what you mean. Just imagine what Stores would say if we asked for a set of skates! Not that many of us would know how to use them, even if we had any aboard.

Cut to Rodrigo: And there’s another problem. Do you realize that the temperature is already above freezing? Before long, that ice is going to melt. How many spacemen can swim four kilometers? Certainly not this one.

Cut to med shot as Ernst rejoins them at to top of the stairway holding up the sample bottle

Ernst: It’s a long walk for a couple of cc’s of dirty water, but it may teach us more about Rama than anything we’ve found so far. Let’s head for home.

Cut to long shot from over the ice behind them as they turn toward the light of the hub

Cut to close shot of Ernst’s face as a slight breeze ruffles her hair which she does not notice

Cut to long shot from over the ice behind them as they begin walking toward the hub

Fade out 

Fade in to the Rama Committee same as before. Cut to med shot of Bose

Bose: As you may know perfectly well, Dr. Perera, few of us share your knowledge of mathematical meteorology, so please take pity on our ignorance.

 Cut to med shot of Perera

Perera: With pleasure. I’ll explain it best by telling you what is going to happen inside Rama... very soon.

   The temperature is now about to rise, as the solar heat pulse reaches the interior. According to the latest information I’ve received, it is already above the freezing point. The Cylindrical Sea will soon start to thaw, and unlike bodies of water on Earth, it will melt from the bottom upward. That may produce some odd effects, but I’m much more concerned with the atmosphere.

   As it is heated, the air inside Rama will expand... and will attempt to rise toward the central axis. And this is the problem. At ground level, although it is apparently stationary, it is actually sharing the spin of Rama... over eight hundred kilometers an hour. As it rises toward the axis, it will try to retain that speed. And it won’t be able to do so, of course. The result will be violent winds and turbulence. I estimate velocities of between two and three hundred kilometers an hour.

Close of Perera: Incidentally, very much the same thing occurs on Earth. The heated air at the Equator... which shares the planet’s sixteen-hundred-kilometer-an-hour spin... runs into the same problem when it rises and flows north and south.

Cut to med shot on MacKay

MacKay: Ah, the trade winds! I remember from my geography lessons.

Perera: Exactly, Sir Robert. Rama will have trade winds... with a vengeance. I believe they’ll last only a few hours, and then some kind of equilibrium will be restored. Meanwhile, I should advise Commander Norton to evacuate... as soon as possible. Here is the message I propose sending.

Fade out

Fade in med shot of Norton taking in the surroundings of Camp Alpha.

Cut to pan of the camp “The clutter of sleeping pads, collapsible chairs and tables, portable power plant, lighting equipment, electrosan toilets, and miscellaneous scientific apparatus would not looked out of place on earth--especially because there were men and women working here without life-support systems.”

Cut to med shot of Norton as he picks up a chair and carries it out of the searchlights illumination and sits in the dark. He is only illuminated by the faint light from the searchlight, but still very dark. He sits with his back to the organized confusion of the camp and speaks into a recorder he has attached to a cord around his neck

Norton: Original for personal  file, dupes to Mars and Earth. Hello, darling. Yes, I know I’ve been a lousy correspondent, but I haven’t been aboard the ship for over a week. Apart from a skeleton crew, we’re all camping inside Rama, at the foot of the stairway we’ve christened Alpha.

Cut to side med view of Norton: I have three parties out now, scouting the plain, but we’ve made disappointingly slow progress, because everything has to be done on foot. If only we had some means of transportation. I’d be happy to settle for a few electric bicycles; they’d be perfect for the job.

Cut back to front view of Norton: No luck in exploring the Southern Hemisphere either. We’ve tried sending five drones over the Cylindrical Sea into it and they all have failed, crashing onto the plain. We have no idea what’s causing these failures... the best theory being there’s some sort of force or electrical field permeating the area to the south causing the electronics in the drones to fry. We just don’t know. It might be we’ll never get a chance to see what’s over there close up.

Cut to close on Norton: You’ve met my medical officer, Surgeon Commander Ernst... (he stops, thinks a moment, then erases the last sentence) My M/O, Surgeon Commander Ernst, led the first group to reach the Cylindrical Sea, fifteen kilometers from where I’m at now. She found that it was frozen water, as we expected... but you wouldn’t want to drink it. Dr. Ernst says it’s a dilute organic soup, containing traces of almost any carbon compound you’d care to name, as well as phosphates and nitrates and dozens of metallic salts. There’s not the slightest sign of life... not even any dead microorganisms. So we still know nothing about the biochemistry of the Ramans... though it was probably not wildly different from ours.

A breeze brushes slightly against his hair, which he brushes with his hand

Cut to med shot

Norton: You’ve seen the videos of Paris and the other towns we’ve explored on this side of the sea... London, Rome, Moscow. It’s impossible to believe that they were ever built for anything to live in. Paris looks like giant storage depot. London is a collection of cylinders linked together by pipes connected to what are obviously pumping stations. Everything is sealed up, and there’s no way to find out what’s inside without explosives or lasers. We won’t try those until there are no alternatives.

Cut to med side shot of Norton: As for Rome and Moscow...

Cut to long shot of Sergeant Law walking up to Norton.

Law:  Excuse me, skipper. Priority from Earth.

Law hands Norton a message.

Norton: Thank you, Sergeant.

Close on Norton

Norton scans the message, then reads it more carefully, frowning

Norton, talking to himself: What the hell is the Rama Committee?

Med shot on Norton: Two-hundred-kilometer winds... probably sudden onset... now that’s something to think about.

Norton’s hair falls into his eyes, and he brushes it back, then looks at his hand, thinking

The Sergeant waited patiently, while his Commander stared silently out into the night of Rama.

Cut to long shot behind Norton and the Sergeant as two spots of light about four kilometers away, faint patches of light marked the spots where exploring parties were at work

Cut to med shot of Norton and Law. Norton turns to him

Norton: Take this message. Rama Committee, care of Planetcom. Appreciate your advice and will take precautions. Please specify meaning of phrase “sudden onset.” Respectfully, Norton, Commander, Endeavor.

Law: Got it, Skipper.

Nichols leaves Norton in the dark

Fade out

Fade in long shot of Camp Alpha during a sleep period when lights are dimmed. Unobtrusive background music is heard.

Cut to med shot of Norton sitting on his cot staring off into the blackness of Rama

Cut to close shot of his face as he looks and listens

Cut to med shot as he decides to lay down

Cut to close shot of Norton’s face as he closes his eyes and tries to sleep

Cut to long shot of his cot and others near by with people sleeping

Fade out

Fade in long shot of the camp from a different angle. Camera slowly pans as many are sleeping

Cut to med shot of officer on watch at the communications console, reading

Cut to close shot of the device emitting the soft background music. Music gets louder during this brief shot.

Cut to med shot of Norton sleeping on his cot

Cut to long shot of Camp Alpha as a low frequency grinding sound can be heard reverberating from the vast darkness, then silence

Cut to close shot on Norton’s face as his eyes open

Cut to med shot of Norton lying on his cot as all hell breaks lose. A loud crackling, crashing sound dominates the scene, a sound like the sky is falling coming from the direction of the Cylindrical Sea. A sound like Rama had opened and was splitting itself apart. “First there was a rending crack, then a long-drawn-out series of crystalline crashes, like a million glasshouses being demolished” The sounds continue as Norton reaches the communication center and talks over it. During this there are a series of shots showing personnel reacting to the deafening sounds

Norton, excitedly: Hub Control! What’s happened?!

Hub Control: Just a minute, Skipper. It’s over by the sea. We’re getting the light on it.

Cut to long shot as searchlight shoots out from hub

Cut to Med shot as Norton looks above and behind as the lights hits the Cylindrical Sea

Cut to long shot of the searchlight roaming along the sea embankments up and down and completely over until half way up the side of Rama’s interior on the left we see... “at first it seemed to Norton that the sea was boiling. It was no longer static and frozen in the grip of an eternal winter. A huge area, kilometers across, was in turbulent movement. And it was changing color, a broad band of white was marching across the ice.”

Cut to Norton and Ernst reacting to the sight

Cut to long shot of a slab of ice perhaps a quarter of a kilometer on a side begins to tilt upward like an opening door. “Slowly and majestically, it reared into the sky, glittering and sparkling in the beam of the searchlight.” Appropriate sound accompanies this ice movement. The slab slid back and vanishes beneath the surface of the sea, “while a tidal wave of foaming water raced outward in all directions from its point of submergence.”

Cut to med shot on Norton as he calls Hub Control: Hub Control, play the light along the rest of the sea...

Hub Control: Got ya, Skipper.

Cut to long shot as the searchlight moves around the rest of the circular sea. We see the ice breaking up along it’s entire length. The sounds are still roaring on as the ice groans, changing positions

Cut to med shot of Norton and Ernst. Norton walks forward

Cut to behind the two as Norton stands and looks on. They are silhouetted as the searchlight illuminating the ice dominates the foreground

Cut to Norton as Ernst walks up to him

Norton: It’s pretty obvious now that it’s happened.

Ernst: What?

Norton: The sea has been thawing from from beneath as the Sun’s heat has seeped through Rama’s hull... and when ice turns into water it occupies less volume.

Ernst: So the sea has been sinking below the upper layer of ice... leaving it unsupported.

Norton: Yes. Everyday the strain has been building up, and now its collapsing. Like a bridge that has lost it’s center pier.

Long shot of the searchlight on the Cylindrical Sea as the ice was splintering into hundreds of islands which crash and jostle into each other

Cut to med shot as Norton returns to the communication console

Norton: Rodrigo... Boris, are you alright?! Do you hear me?

Rodrigo replying over the radio: We’re alright Commander. No water has come our way...

Cut to med shot of Rodrigo standing with three others in his exploration party near the sea

Rodrigo: No water has reached us or bridged the edge of the cliff.

Close on Rodrigo: Now we know why there is a cliff.

Cut to close on Norton: Yes. Spring has been a little late, but winter has definitely ended.

Cut to close on Rodrigo: Definitely.

Cut to med shot on Norton and Ernst who look at each other as a slight breeze passes through their hair

Norton: Did you feel that breeze?

Ernst: Yes.

Norton, making up his mind: Okay. Rama has given us enough warnings. Time to get out.

Cut to Long shot of suited astronauts ascending the stairway from behind, illuminated by a hub searchlight

Cut to close shot of Norton face as he climbs, his visor is up as he can still freely breathe at the level he is at. He looks up and sees other climbing above him.

Cut to astronauts at the last plateau and the beginning of the ladder. Some begin climbing in the reduced gravity. They are now breathing in a closed suit

Cut to close as Norton starts to climb

Cut to long shot of the climbers only illuminated by their individual suit lights

Cut to several angles of the climbers

Cut to POV of Norton’s view of the ladder as he climbs from inside his helmet

Cut to Norton’s face as he exerts himself

Cut back to POV for five counts when the darkness out side is replaced by a bright light

Cut back to Norton’s face as he first notices the change in lighting and then has to close his eyes due to the brightness

Cut to long shot of the climbers from underneath and to the side as they are now fully illuminated and reacting to the new light

Cut back to Norton’s face eyes closed and breathing heavily

Cut to Norton on the ladder as he turns himself around

Cut to behind Norton as he takes on the now fully illuminated Rama interior and all of it’s spectacle from his point of view. Rama is now lighted by the activated strip lights that were the Straight Valleys  

Cut to Norton’s face as he tries to keep his eyes open and look at Rama

Cut to long shot of Rama’s interior from Norton’s POV

Cut to Norton on ladder heard breathing heavily

Cut to Norton’s face: Caption here. Is everyone okay?

Cut to the climbers on the ladder as the count off

Cut back to Norton: Keep your eyes closed until you’re quite sure you can handle it. The view is... overwhelming. If anyone finds it too much, keep on climbing without looking back. You’ll soon be at zero gravity, so you can’t possibly fall.

Cut to Norton as he turns and lets go of the ladder briefly, he hooked his left arm under a rung and turned around

Cut to Norton’s face, eyes closed then open

Cut to long examination of what Norton is seeing. Rama in all of it’s glory. Norton’s breathing is emphasized during this section

   “His first impression was one of blueness. The glare that filled the sky could not have been mistaken for sunlight; it might have been that of an electric arc. So Rama’s sun, Norton told himself, must be hotter than ours. That should interest the astronomers.

   And now he understood the purpose of those mysterious trenches, the Straight Valley and its five companions. They were nothing more that gigantic strip-lights. Rama had six linear suns, systematically ranged around its interior. From each a broad fan of light was aimed across the central axis, to shine upon the far side of the world...

   ...First he had to establish some kind of reference system. He was looking at the largest enclosed space ever seen by man, and he needed a mental map to find his way around it.

   The feeble gravity was little help, for with an effort of will he could switch 'up’ and 'down’ in any direction he pleased. But some directions were psychologically dangerous; whenever his mind skirted these, he had to vector it hastily away.

   Safest of all was to imagine that he was at the bowl-shaped bottom of a gigantic well, sixteen kilometers wide and fifty deep. The advantage of this image was that there could be no danger of falling farther. Nevertheless, it had some serious defects.

     He could pretend that the scattered towns and cities, and the differently colored and textured areas, were all securely fixed to the towering walls. The various complex structures that could be seen hanging from the dome overhead were perhaps no more disconcerting than the pendent candelabra in some great concert hall on Earth. What was quite unacceptable was the Cylindrical Sea.

   There it was, halfway up the well shaft... a band of water, wrapped completely around it, with no visible means of support. There could be no doubt that it was water; it was a vivid blue, flecked with brilliant sparkles from the few remaining ice floes. But a vertical sea forming a complete circle twenty kilometers up in the sky was such an unsettling phenomenon that after a while he began to seek an alternative.

   That was when his mind switched the scene through ninety degrees. Instantly, the deep well became a long tunnel, capped at each end. 'Down’ was obviously in the direction of the ladder and the stairway he had just ascended; and now, with this perspective, he was at last able to appreciate the true vision of the architects who had built this place.

   He was clinging to the face of a curving, sixteen-kilometer-high cliff, the upper half of which overhung completely until it merged into the arched roof of what was now the sky. Beneath him, the ladder descended more than five hundred meters, until it ended at the first ledge or terrace. There the stairway began, continuing almost vertically at first in this low gravity region, then slowly becoming less and less steep until, after breaking at five more platforms, it reached the distant plain. For the first two or three kilometers he could see the individual steps, but thereafter they had merged into a continuous band.      

   The downward swoop of that immense stairway was so overwhelming that it was impossible to appreciate its true scale. Norton had once flown around Mount Everest, and had been awed by its size. He reminded himself that this stairway was as high as the Himalayas, but the comparison was meaningless.   

   And no comparison at all was possible with the other two stairways, Beta and Gamma, which slanted up into the sky and then curved far out over his head. Norton had now acquired enough confidence to lean back and glance up at them... briefly. Then he tried to forget that they were there.

   Too much thinking along those lines evoked yet a third image of Rama, which he was anxious to avoid at all costs. This was the viewpoint that regarded it once again as a vertical cylinder, or well... but now he was at the top, not the bottom, like a fly crawling upside down on a domed ceiling, with a fifty kilometer drop immediately below. Every time he found this image creeping up on him, he needed all his will power not to cling to the ladder in mindless panic.

   In time, he was sure, all these fears would ebb. The wonder and strangeness of Rama would banish its terrors, at least for men who were trained to face the realities of space. Perhaps no one who had never left Earth, and had never seen the stars all around him, could endure these vistas. But if any men could accept them, Norton told himself with grim determination, it would be the captain and crew of the Endeavor.”

Camera sweep pans quickly throughout Rama’s northern plain, up to the Cylindrical Sea, then returns to Norton looking out into Rama

   “He looked at his chronometer. This pause had lasted only two minutes, but it had seemed a lifetime.”

Close on Norton: Alright! Let’s get out of here.

Long on the climbers from underneath

Cut to med on the lead climber (Jansen) who seems to be frozen into place, starring off into Rama. Camera pans to the climber below him (Jackson)

Close on Jackson’s face: Ellis! Are you alright? (med on the two climbers as Jackson reaches up and taps Jansen’s boot) Skipper says to move on.

Close on Norton: What’s the matter Linda? Is Jansen alright?

Cut to Jackson: I’m sure he is Skipper. Ellis! Ellis!

Cut to Jansen as he snaps out of his reverie and looks down: Sorry. (he starts climbing)

Cut to long of the climbers assembling near the airlock in weightless environment. One of the suited climbers (Miloslavsky) fumbles with their faceplate, removing it completely and vomits. Norton floats over to assist her, as she begins to cough

Norton: Are you okay Iskra? Put your plate back on.

Miloslavsky: Yeah, I’m alright. (puts her faceplate back into place) Sorry Captain.

Norton: No need to apologize Sargent. I feel like throwing up myself.

   “Just before he entered the airlock and turned his back on Rama, he made one final survey of the interior.

   It had changed, even in the last few minutes, a mist was rising from the sea. For the first few hundred meters the ghostly white columns were tilted sharply forward in the direction of Rama’s spin; then they started to dissolve in a swirl of turbulence, as the uprising air tried to jettison its excess velocity. The trade winds of this cylindrical world were beginning to etch their patterns in its sky; the first tropical storm in unknown ages was about to break.”

Med shot of Norton, the last to enter the airlock, as he looks back into Rama as the door slowly closes.

Fade out

Fade in to long shot of the Rama Committee already in progress

Bose: Congratulations Doctor Perera on the confirmation of the manifestation of Rama’s, er, trade winds.

Close on Perera looking somewhat embarrassed: Thank you.

Bose: Might I ask what other atmospheric changes do you expect?

Perera: It’s hard to say Doctor. You must realize that the meteorology of a world as strange as Rama may have many more surprises. But if my calculations are correct, there will be no further storms, and conditions will soon be stable. There will be a slow temperature rise until perihelion... and beyond... but that won’t concern us, because Endeavor will have had to leave long before then.

MacKay: So it should soon be safe to go back inside?

Perera: Er... probably. We should certainly know within forty eight hours.

Ambassador from Mercury: A return is imperative. We have to learn everything we possibly can about Rama. The situation has now changed completely.

Bose: I think we know what you mean, but would you care to elaborate Ambassador?

Ambassador from Mercury: (the words “Ambassador from Mercury” appear briefly) Of course. Until now, we have assumed that Rama is lifeless... or at any rate uncontrolled. But we can no longer pretend that it is a derelict. Even if there are no life forms aboard, it may be directed by hidden computers which are programmed to carry out some mission... perhaps one highly disadvantageous to us. Unpalatable as it may be, we must consider the question of self-defense.

There was a babble of protesting voices, and Bose had to hold up his hand to restore order

Bose: Let the Ambassador finish please! Whether we like the idea or not, it should be considered seriously.

Taylor, not kindly: With all due respect to the Ambassador, I think we can rule out as naive the fear of malevolent intervention. Creatures as advanced as the Ramans must have correspondingly developed morals. Otherwise, they would have destroyed themselves... as we nearly did in the twentieth century. I’ve made that quite clear in my new book, Ethos and Cosmos. I hope you received your copy.

Cut to Perera looking amused

Cut to Ambassador from Mercury: Yes, I did, thank you. I’m afraid the pressure of other matters has not allowed me to read beyond the introduction. However, I’m familiar with the general thesis. We may have no malevolent intentions toward an ant heap, but if we want to build a house on that same site...

Taylor: This is as bad as the Pandora party! It’s nothing less than interstellar xenophobia!

Bose: Please gentlemen! This is getting us nowhere. Mr Ambassador, you still have the floor.

Ambassador from Mercury: Thank you. The danger may be unlikely, but where the future of the human race is involved we can take no chances. And if I may say so, we Hermians may be particularly concerned. We may have more cause for alarm than anyone else.

Cut to Taylor, looking disgusted

Cut to Bose: Why Mercury, more than any other planet?

Ambassador from Mercury: Look at the dynamics of the situation. Rama is already inside our orbit. It is only an assumption that it will go around the Sun and head on out again into space. Suppose it carries out a breaking maneuver? If it does so, this will be at perihelion, in about thirty days from now. My science division tells me that if the entire velocity change is carried out there, Rama will end up in a circular orbit only twenty-five million kilometers from the Sun. From there it could dominate the entire solar system.

Cut to long shot of the silent Committee Room as they silently take in the possibilities

Cut to Taylor looking down to his notes

Cut to Perera

Cut to Bose: I think there is some merit in your argument, Mr. Ambassador. Have you any proposals?

Ambassador from Mercury: Yes sir. Before we know what action to take, we must have the facts. We know the geography of Rama... if one can use that term... but we have no idea of its capabilities. And the key to the whole problem is this: does Rama have a propulsion system? Can it change orbit? I would be very interested in Dr. Perera’s views.

Perera: I’ve given the subject a good deal of thought. Of course Rama must have been given its original impetus by some kind of launching device, but that could have been an exterior booster. If it does have onboard propulsion, we’ve found no trace of it. Certainly there are no rocket exhausts, or anything similar, anywhere on the outer shell.

Ambassador from Mercury: They could be hidden.

Perera: True, but there would seem little point in it. And where are the propellant tanks, the energy sources? The main hull is solid; we’ve checked that with seismic surveys. The cavities in the northern cap are all accounted for by the air-lock systems.

   That would leave the southern end of Rama, which Commander Norton has not been able to surveil or reach due to some kind of interference in that area that renders our drones inoperable, which is interesting in itself. Unlike the north, the Southern Hemisphere may be completely inhabitable... we just don’t know.

   And the there’s that ten-kilometer-wide band of water known as the Cylindrical Sea. 

   Still, there are all sorts of curious mechanisms and structures up on the South Pole... you’ve seen the photographs. What they are is anybody’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 fabulous ‘space drive’ people have been talking about for two hundred years.

Bose: You wouldn’t rule that out?

Perera: Certainly not. If we can prove that Rama has a reactionless propulsion system, even if we learn nothing about its mode of operation... that would be a major discovery. At least we’d know that such a thing is possible.

MacKay: What is a space drive?

Perera: Any kind of propulsion system, Sir Robert, that doesn’t work on the rocket principle. Antigravity... if it is possible... would do very nicely. At present we don’t know where to look for such a drive, and most scientists doubt it exists.

Davidson: It doesn’t. Newton settled that. You can’t have action without reaction. Space drives are nonsense. Take it from me.

Perera: You may be right. 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 attendant fuel tanks.

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

Perera: Well, the acceleration would probably be very low. The biggest problem would be the water in the Cylindrical Sea. How would you stop that from...

Perera’s voice fades away as his mind pulls everything together. He falters a bit, then sputters...

Perera continues: Of course! That explains everything... The southern cliff... now it makes sense!

Lunar Ambassador: Not to me.

Perera, excitedly: Look at this longitudinal cross section of Rama. Have you got your copies? The Cylindrical Sea is enclosed between two cliffs, which completely circle the interior of Rama. (as Perera speaks what he is describing is represented on the room’s large monitor) The one on the north is only fifty meters high. The southern one, on the other hand, is almost half a kilometer high. Why the big difference? No one’s been able to think of a sensible reason.

   But suppose Rama is able to propel itself... accelerating 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 meters. Hence the cliff. Let’s see... (Perera scribbles some calculations on a sheet of paper before him. Cut to the faces of other Committee members as he does this. Back to Perera as he finishes and looks up) Knowing the height of those cliffs, we can calculate the maximum acceleration Rama can take. If it was more than two percent of a gravity, the sea would spill out over the southern continent.

Bose: A fiftieth of a gee? That’s not very much.

Perera: For a mass of ten million megatons, it is, and it’s all you need for astronomical maneuvering.

Ambassador from Mercury: Thank you very much, Dr. Perera. You’ve given us a lot to think about. Mr. Chairman, can we impress on Commander Norton the importance of looking at the south polar region?

Bose: He’s doing his best. The sea is the obstacle of course. They are trying to build some kind of raft... so they can at least reach New York.

Ambassador from Mercury: The South Pole may be even more important Meanwhile, I am going to bring these matters to the attention of the General Assembly. Do I have your approval?

Nobody objected. Sands raised his hand

Bose: Sir Lewis?

Sands: 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.

Ambassador from Mercury: How long should we wait to find what its intentions are? When we discover them, it may be far too late.

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

Ambassador from Mercury: I do not admit that, Sir Lewis. There are many things we can do... if it proves necessary. But the time is desperately short. Rama is a cosmic egg, being warmed by the fires of the Sun. It may explode at any moment.

Fade out

Fade in to Commander Norton’s cabin aboard the Endeavor. Weightless environment. Med shot on Norton sitting at his desk writing. Cut to from behind Norton as someone knocks on his door.

Cut to med on Norton: Come in.

Cut to med of Lieutenant Boris Rodrigo entering: Commander, do you have a minute?

Cut to med on Norton as he sits back into the chair that he’s strapped into and contemplated the Lieutenant’s question.

Norton: Yeah, sure. What’s the problem, Boris?

Rodrigo floats to the chair opposite of Norton and straps in: I’d like permission, Commander, to use ship priority for a direct message to Earth.

Norton thinks a moment: You know, of course, that you have to give me a good reason. All our available band width is already clogged with data transmission. Is this a personal emergency?

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

Norton thinks again for another moment: I’d be glad if you’d explain.

Rodrigo looks intently at Norton: It concerns the purpose of Rama, Commander. I believe I have discovered it.

Norton: Go on.

Rodrigo: Look at the situation. Here is a completely empty, lifeless world... yet it is suitable for human beings. It has 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.

Norton: Yes. This has been noted before.

Rodrigo: My faith, our faith, has told us to expect such a visitation, though we did not know in what form it would take. The Bible gives us only hints. If this is not the Second Coming, it may be the Second Judgment; the story of Noah describes the first. I believe that Rama is a cosmic Ark, sent here to save... those who are worthy of salvation.

Norton thinks again for a few moments: That’s a very interesting concept, and though I don’t go along with your faith, it’s a tantalizing plausible one. (Norton shifts in his seat) A couple of questions, Boris. Rama will be at perihelion 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 Judgment, or for shipping across those who are... er... selected... however that’s going to be done.

Rodrigo: Very true. So when it reaches perihelion, Rama will have to decelerate and insert itself into a parking orbit, probably one with aphelion at Earth’s orbit. Once there it will make another velocity change and rendezvous with Earth.

Norton thinks again: Okay... one other point Boris. What’s controlling Rama now?

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

Norton thinks again: I’ll tell you what we’ll do, Boris. Can you sum up your ideas in less than... oh, a thousand bits?

Rodrigo: Yes, I think so.

Norton: Well, if you can make it sound like a straightforward scientific theory, I’ll send it, top priority, to the Rama Committee. Then a copy can go to your church at the same time, and everyone will be happy.

Rodrigo: Thank you, Commander. I really appreciate it.

Norton: Oh, I’m not doing this to save my conscience. I’d just like to see what the committee makes of it. Even if I don’t agree with you along that line, you may have hit on something important.

Rodrigo: Well, we’ll know at perihelion, won’t we?

Close on Norton: Yes. We’ll know at perihelion.

Fade out

Fade in. Med shot. Endeavor control center. Weightless environment. Norton, Mercer, Kirchoff, Pak, and Myron are present monitoring instruments.

Pak: Winds are at five MPH at base camp. Still zero at the hub, Skipper.

Norton: What’s it look like in there?

Pak: Still pretty much a white out. Cloudy at the hub...

Mercer: And we lost video at base camp.

Norton: So we don’t have any idea what it’s like down there?

Mercer: Right.

Norton: Well, we don’t have a whole lot of time here. (he hits a button on a wall mounted intercom) Commander Ernst!

After a moment

Ernst: Yes Captain.

Norton: Laura, conditions have stabilized somewhat inside Rama. Our intentions are to go back. Do you see any problems?

Ernst: What are the conditions?

Norton: Mild wind at the base camp... cloudy...

Ernst: I don’t see any problems, except I want you all to wear re-breathers on the plain until the humidity dissipates. The toxins from the Cylindrical Sea should have been evaporated  out, but I want to be careful.

Norton: Acknowledged. Thanks Laura. (he turns to his exec and Mercer) Let’s suit up.

Fade out

Fade in to astronauts floating through the last airlock toward the last door

Med shot of Norton leading the away party floating toward the door (and camera)

Med shot of the astronauts as they stop at the door

Norton is the first to enter the airlock, and the door closes after him.

Cut to black. The airlock door opens to: “Norton was struck first by the change in the light. It was no longer harshly blue, but was much more yellow and gentle, reminding him of a bright, hazy day on Earth

   He looked outward along the axis of the world and could see nothing except a glowing, featureless tunnel of white, reaching all the way to those strange mountains at the South Pole. The interior of Rama was completely blanketed by clouds, and nowhere was a break visible in the overcast, The top of the layer was quite sharply defined; it formed a smaller cylinder inside the larger one of this spinning world, leaving a central core, five or six kilometers wide, quite clear except for a few stray wisps of cirrus

   The immense tube of cloud was lit from within by the six artificial suns of Rama. The locations of the three on this northern continent were clearly defined by diffuse strips of light, but those of the far side of the Cylindrical Sea merged together into a continuous glowing band”

Cut med shot of Norton looking out at the clouds of Rama, as other astronauts emerge and move around behind him in a weightless environment. The hub is now festooned with guide wires that the astronauts use in order to move around easily.

Cut to long shot from behind Norton as he watches Mercer, Calvert, and Myron descend the ladder toward the plain.

Fade out

Fade in, long shot, as the three astronauts (or Ramanauts if you prefer) reach the first platform at the base of the ladder. They are wearing re-breathing masks instead of helmets 

Med shot of Mercer stopping to make an atmosphere check with his suit instruments.

Close shot of Mercer looking at his read out.

Close on read out

Med on Mercer and the two others in the background

Mercer: Damn!

Calvert: What’s the problem?

Mercer: My read out must be broken. It’s oxygen reading way too high. Strange... that’s never happened before... I’ll check it on the breathing circuit.

Med on Mercer as he plugs the analyzer into the test point of his oxygen supply. He unplugged the meter and used it to sample the Rama atmosphere again.

Close on Mercer

Mercer as he speaks on his radio: Skipper?! Can you take an O two reading please?

Med shot of the three men

Norton over the radio: Alright.

Cut to another angle of the men as they wait

Cut to med on Mercer

Norton over radio: I think there’s something wrong with my meter.

Close on Mercer smiling: It’s up fifty percent, isn’t it?

Norton: Yes. What does that mean?

Mercer: It means we can all take off our masks. Isn’t that convenient?

Close on Norton at the hub: I’m not sure. It seems too good to be true.

Cut to med on Mercer: I’m going to test the air manually...

Norton: Karl, remember what Laura said about contaminants!

Mercer: I do Skipper. But we know there’s no biological activity in the water, and what’s in it is documented pretty thoroughly. I’m just going to take a sniff.

Med on Mercer as he opens his mask, takes a couple of breathes, and smiles. He then closes his mask

Mercer: The air’s perfectly breathable at this altitude now. There’s no more musty, sterile, dead smell. And it’s really humid. (he checks his instrument readout) Up eighty percent by my reading.

Mercer turns to his men: Okay. Let’s keep going.

Fade out

Fade in med shot of Mercer sliding down the stairway’s rail, then Calvert, then Myron.

Cut Mercer’s POV while sliding and looking up at his two colleagues

Cut to long shot of the three men as they enter the clouds

Cut to Mercer’s POV

Cut to close on Mercer

Mercer: Take it easy. Spread out so we can just see each other. And don’t let yourself build up speed in case I have to stop suddenly.

Simultaneously

Calvert: Copy.

Myron: Copy that.

Fade out

Fade in med shot, stationary camera as the three men slide past in the fog

Cut to med shot of Mercer breaking

Mercer: Whoa! Stop a minute. Stop!

Cut to long of the three as they bunch together

Mercer in a low voice: Listen! Do you hear something?

Pause, then close on Myron: Yes. It kind of sounds like wind.

Close on Calvert as he turns his head trying to listen
 
Close on Mercer: Let’s go.

Fade out

Fade into long shot of the stairway’s rail emerging from the overhead cloud cover, just as the three astronauts emerge from the clouds. The sounds of a waterfall are now much louder. “They shot out into the blinding glare of the Raman day, made more brilliant by the light reflected from the low hanging clouds. There was the familiar curving plain-now made more acceptable to mind and senses because its full circle could not be seen. It was not too difficult to pretend that they were looking along a broad valley, and that the upward sweep of the sea was really an outward one.”

Cut to long shot of the three men stopping at the fifth terrace.

Med on Mercer: Skipper, we’ve broken through the clouds.

The two other men are staring out onto the plain

Voice of Norton on radio: Copy that Karl. Anything else?

Long shot from behind the men at a huge waterfall falling “from some hidden source in the clouds three or four kilometers away... For a long minute they stared at it silently, almost unable to believe their eyes. Logic told them that on this spinning world no falling object could move in a straight line, but there was something horribly unnatural about a curving waterfall that curved sideways, to end many kilometers away from the point directly below its source.”

Close on Mercer: Yeah, Skipper. There’s something else. Take a look at this. (Mercer points a camera at the far off phenomenon

Mercer: If Galileo had been born on this world he’d have gone crazy working out the laws of dynamics.

Calvert: I thought I knew them and I’m going crazy anyway. Doesn’t it get to you Professor?

Myron seems nonplussed: Why should it? It’s a perfectly straightforward demonstration of the Coriolis Effect. I can’t wait to show this to my students.

Long shot from behind them out at Rama and the Cylindrical Sea

Myron: Have you noticed what’s happened to the water?

Calvert: Why? Oh... it’s no longer blue, is it?

Mercer: I’d call pea green.

Calvert looking at Myron: What does that signify?

Myron: Perhaps the same thing that it does on Earth. Commander Ernst called the sea an organic soup, waiting to be shaken into life. maybe that’s exactly what happened.

Mercer: In a couple days! It took billions of years on Earth.

Myron: Three point eight billion according to the latest estimates. So that’s where the oxygen’s come from. Rama’s shot through the anaerobic stage and has got to photosynthetic plants... in a bout forty eight hours.

Close on Myron: I wonder what it will produce tomorrow.

Med shot on all three

Fade out

Fade in Endeavor’s sick bay. Weightless environment. Mercer and Ernst are present. Mercer is dressed only in shorts, vomiting into a bag and looking very sick

Ernst: Next time you’ll listen to Dr. Laura, and not take off the mask... right?

Closer on Mercer as he wearily shakes his head in the affirmative right before throwing up again

Fade out

Fade in to long shot from above of crew members looking down at other crew members attending to the motorized raft (it was a small raft, constructed from six empty storage drums, held together by a light metal framework) that they have just finished launching onto the Cylindrical Sea from the stairway they had used previously to get an ice sample. Now the waters were calm... and slightly green.

Med on Sergeant Pieter Rousseau: Shouldn’t one christen a new boat with a bottle of champagne?

Med on Norton: Even if we had some on board I wouldn’t allow such a criminal waste. Anyway, it’s too late. We’ve already launched the thing.

Med on the raft

Med on Rousseau: At least it floats. You’ve won your bet, Jimmy. I’ll settle when we get back to Earth.

Med on Pak: It’s got to have a name. Any Ideas?

Norton: I’ve got one for you. Call it Resolution.

Rodrigo: Why?

Norton: That was one of Captain James Cook’s ships. It’s a good name. May she live up to it.

Long on all looking at the Resolution silently

Sergeant Ruby Barnes: Okay. I need three volunteers.

Long on everyone holding up their hands

Barnes: Sorry... we only have four life jackets. Boris, Jimmy, Pieter... you’ve all done some sailing. Let’s try her out.

Cut to med long on all four in the raft

Med on Barnes as she opened the rafts throttle

 

Long on the Resolution powering away from the staircase, setting a course along the cliff

Cut to long as the Resolution returns to the staircase

Med on Barnes as she stepped up on the staircase and salutes Norton

Barnes: Maiden voyage of Resolution successfully completed sir. Now awaiting your orders.

Norton: Very good... Admiral. When will you be ready to sail?

Barnes: As soon as stores can be loaded aboard, and the Harbor Master gives us clearance.

Norton: Then we leave at dawn.

Barnes: Aye, aye, sir!

Fade out

Fade in on med of Resolution and it’s crew (Barnes, Norton, Rousseau, and Rodrigo) sailing the Cylindrical Sea

Cut to long shot as the Resolution approaches the camera from a distance. Camera pans first to one side of the sea as it curves upward and above, then back down again, past the Resolution, panning to the other side, up and above

Cut to med on Norton as he looks out of the sea.

Cut to long on New York as it gets closer

Cut to long shot from high above as the Resolution approaches the New York shore

Cut to long back on New York (“New York was no longer a distant island. It was becoming a real place, and details they had seen only through telescopes and photo enlargements were now reveling themselves as massive, solid structures. It was strikingly apparent that the ‘City,’ like so much of Rama, was triplicated. It consisted of three identical, circular complexes or superstructures, rising from a long, oval foundation. Photographs taken from the hub had also indicated that each complex was itself divided into three equal components, like a pie sliced into 120-degree portions. This would greatly simplify the task of exploration; presumably they had to examine only one-ninth of New York to see the whole of it. Even this would be a formidable undertaking. It would mean investigating at least a square kilometer of buildings and machinery, some of which towered hundreds of meters into the air... New York appeared to be an example of triple-triple redundancy)

Cut to long from behind the Resolution as it gets nearer the central portion of New York

Cut to long from above as the Resolution makes contact with a flight of steps which led from the water to the top of the wall or levee that surrounded the island

Barnes: This will do for a mooring post.

Norton: Pretty convenient.

Barnes: Yes sir. I’d really like to see what the Ramans use to sail this sea.

Med on Norton as he stepped on one of the steps

Norton: Wait here on the boat until I get to the top of the wall. When I wave, Pieter and Boris, you come up. Ruby, you stay at the helm so we can cast off at a moments notice. If anything happens to me, report back to Karl and follow his instructions. Use your best judgment, but no heroics. Understood!”

Med on crew as Barnes and Rodrigo say: Yes.

Rousseau: Yes, Skipper. Good luck!

Close on Norton as he turns and looks up at the stairway.

Long on ascending stairway

Long on Norton as he climbs the staircase

Med from Norton’s POV as he climbs

Long shot from the bottom of the stairs looking up at Norton.

Long from out at sea looking at Norton ascending and the Resolution and crew

Med from the top of the stairway looking down at Norton as he approaches the top

Norton speaking into his suit radio: Nearly at the top. (he takes a few more steps) Still completely quiet. Radiation normal. I’m going to hold the meter above my head, just in case this wall is acting as a shield for anything. If there are any hostiles on the other side hopefully they’ll shoot at it first.

Med on Norton as he does this

Norton: Everything seems alright. I’m going up.

(“When he took the last step, he found that the flat-topped embankment was about ten meters thick. On the other side, an alternating series of ramps and stairways led down to the main level of the city, twenty meters below. In effect, he was standing on a high wall, which completely surrounded New York, and so was able to get a grandstand view of it”)

Med on Norton as he uses his camera to record what he is seeing

Long shot of what camera is seeing

Med on Norton: No sign of any activity; everything quiet. Come on up... let’s take a look around.

Fade out

Fade in to long shot of the three crew members walking down an avenue toward a large intersection (“This celestial New York was just about as wide as the island of Manhattan, but its geometry was totally different. There were few straight thoroughfares, it was a maze of short, concentric arcs, with radical spokes linking them. Luckily, it was impossible to lose one’s bearings inside Rama; a single glance at the sky was enough to establish the north-south axis of the world... It was not a city; it was a machine. Norton had come to that conclusion in ten minutes... A city, whatever the nature of its occupants, surely had to provide some form of accommodation; there was nothing here of that nature, unless it was underground. And if that was case, where were the entrances, the stairways, the elevators? He had not found anything that even qualified as a simple door. The closest analogy to this place that he had ever seen on Earth was a giant chemical-processing plant. However, there were no stockpiles of raw materials, or any indications of a transport system to move them around)

Cut to med shot of the three. Norton and Rodrigo take panoramic videos of their surroundings

Cut to close on Norton: Anybody care to make a guess? If this is a factory, what does it make? And where does it get its raw materials?

Cut to med on Rodrigo and Rousseau as they consider the question

Cut to Norton as Mercer calls on the radio

Mercer: I’ve a suggestion, Skipper.

Cut to close on Mercer on board the Endeavor. Weightless environment

Mercer continues: Suppose it uses the sea. According to Doc, that contains just about anything you can think of.

Cut to med on Norton: That’s a good idea Karl. But what does New York do with its sea water?

Cut to med on the three as silence ensues for a few moments

Close on Norton

McAndrews over the radio: That’s easy, Skipper. But you’re all going to laugh at me.

Med from behind Norton as he looks at Rodrigo and Rousseau

Cut to close on Norton: No, we’re not, Ravi. Go ahead.

Cut to close on McAndrews on board the Endeavor. Weightless environment

McAndrews: Well, it’s a factory, all right, Skipper, and maybe the sea provides the raw material. After all, that’s how it all happened on Earth, though in a different way. . . . I believe New York is a factory for making. . . Ramans.

Someone snickers over the circuit then silence

Cut to close on Norton: (after a moment) You know, Ravi, that theory is crazy enough to be true. And I’m not sure if I want to see it tested... at least until I get back to the mainland.

Cut to long shot as the three continue walking

Fade out

Fade in to long on the three as they reach the opposite side of New York.

Cut to med as they climb the embankment

Cut to med shot from behind as they reach the top and the view of the southern sea and hemisphere fills the screen

Close on Norton looking out

Long shot of (“the five-hundred-meter cliff that barred them from almost half of Rama... from this angle it appeared an ominous, forbidding black, and it was easy to think of it as a prison wall surrounding a whole continent. Nowhere along its entire circle were there stairways or any other means of access)

Cut to med shot of the three from in front of them as they contemplate their surroundings

Fade out

Fade in on med shot of Jimmy Pak sitting across from Norton in his office/stateroom. Weightless environment

Cut to Norton staring at him, a stern look on his face

Cut to Pak looking a bit hesitant and uncertain

Cut back to Norton: Well Jimmy, what is it?

Pak: I have an idea, Commander. I know how to reach the southern continent... even the South Pole.

Norton: I’m listening. How do you propose to do it?

Pak: Er... by flying there.

Norton: Jimmy, I’ve had at least five proposals to do that... more, if you count crazy suggestions from Earth. We’ve looked into the possibility of adapting our spacesuit propulsors, but air drag would make them hopelessly inefficient. They’d run out of fuel before they could go ten kilometers.

Pak: I know that. But I have the answer.

Norton looked at Pak, studying him, then: Well, go on. If it works, I’ll see your promotion is retro-active.

Pak gave a rather sickly smile at Norton’s attempt at humor, made several nervous false starts, then: You know, Commander, that I was in the Lunar Olympics last year.

Norton: Of course. Sorry you didn’t win.

Pak: It was bad equipment; I know what went wrong. I have  friends on Mars who’ve been working on it, in secret. We want to give everyone a surprise.

Norton: Mars? But I didn’t know...

Pak: Not many people do. The sport’s still new there; it’s only been tried in the Xante Sportsdome. But the best aerodynamicists in the solar system are on Mars. If you can fly in that atmosphere you can fly anywhere.

   Now, My idea was that if the Martians could build a good machine, with all their know how, it would really perform on the Moon... where gravity is only half as strong.

Norton: That seems plausible, but how does it help us?

Pak: Well I formed a syndicate with some friends in Port Lowell. They’ve built a fully aerobatic flyer, with some refinements that no one has ever seen before. In lunar gravity, under the Olympic dome, it should create a sensation.

Norton: And win you the gold medal.

Pak: I hope so.

Norton, changing his position in his seated chair, and building up to some false enthusiasm: Let me see if I follow your train of thought correctly. A sky-bike that could enter the Lunar Olympics, at a sixth of a gee, would be even more sensational inside Rama, with no gravity at all! You could even fly right along the axis, (making hand gestures) from the North Pole to the...

Cut to Pak watching him, then back to Norton

Norton: ...South, and back again! (he raises both hand in the air triumphantly)

Pak, caught up in Norton’s attitude: Yes... exactly. The one way trip would take about three hours, nonstop. But of course you could rest whenever you wanted to, as long as you... as I kept near the axis.

Norton: It’s a brilliant idea, and I congratulate you! (turning serious) What a pity sky-bikes aren’t part of regular Space Survey equipment.

Pak seemed to have difficulty finding words, opening his mouth several times with nothing coming out.

Norton: All right, Jimmy. As a matter of morbid interest, and purely off the record, how did you smuggle the thing aboard?

Pak: Er... recreational stores.

Norton: Well, you weren’t lying. And about the weight?

Pak: It’s only twenty kilograms.

Norton: Only! Still, that’s not as bad as I thought. In fact, I’m astonished you can build a bike at that weight.

Pak: Some have been only fifteen, but they were too fragile and usually folded up when they made a turn. There’s no danger of Dragonfly doing that. As I said, She’s fully aerobatic.

Norton: Dragonfly... nice name. So tell me just how you plan to use her, then I can decide whether a promotion or a court martial is in order. Or both.

Fade out

Fade in to central hub, weightless environment, onto Dragonfly. “The long tapering wings were almost invisible, except when the light struck them from certain angles and was refracted into rainbow hues. It was if a soap bubble had been wrapped around a delicate tracery of aerofoil sections; the envelope enclosing the little flyer was an organic film only a few molecules thick, yet strong enough to control and direct the movement of a fifty-kph air flow. The pilot---who was also the power plant and the guidance system---sat on a tiny seat at the center of gravity, in a semireclining position to reduce air resistance. Control was by a single stick, which could be moved backward and forward, right and left; the only “instrument” was a piece of weighted ribbon attached to the leading edge, to show the direction of the relative wind.”

Long shot of Dragonfly, Norton, Ernst, Calvert, and several others there to see Pak off

Cut to med shot of Ernst talking to Pak

Ernst: Now listen to me carefully, Jimmy. It’s very important not to over-exert yourself. Remember, the oxygen level here at the axis is still very low. If you feel breathless at any time, stop and hyperventilate for thirty seconds... but no longer.

Pak: Okay.

Close on Norton looking very concerned

Med long on Pak climbing into and aboard Dragonfly.

Med on Pak testing the controls. “The whole rudder-elevator assembly, which formed a single unit on an outrigger five meters behind the rudimentary cockpit, began to twist around; then the flap-shaped ailerons, halfway along the wing, moved alternately up and down.”

Cut to med on Calvert: Do you want me to swing the prop?

Pak: No, I’ve got it.

Med on Pak and Dragonfly as Pak slowly starts to move the foot pedals. “The flimsy, broad fan of the airscrew---like the wing, a delicate skeleton covered with shimmering film---began to turn. By the time it had made a few revolutions, it had disappeared completely. And Dragonfly was on her way.”

Several long shot angles of Dragonfly lifting off from the central hub

Close on Pak

Med on Dragonfly and Pak as he lifts away

Long on Dragonfly as it moves toward the camera at an angle and stops. Now the spin of Rama’s interior becomes apparent, and will continue to do so throughout these flight scenes as Dragonfly is now separated from Rama physically. This perception will be slow at first as Pak and Dragonfly share Rama’s spin, but as they shed their spin velocity relative to Rama’s interior, it will soon become more apparent and noticeable

Close on Norton as he calls out to Pak: How does she handle?

Med on Pak and Dragonfly: Response good, stability poor. But I know what the trouble is... no gravity. I’ll be better off a kilometer lower down.

Med on Norton and the others: Now wait a minute... is that safe?

Med on Pak: I can manage a tenth of a gee without any trouble. And she’ll handle more easily in denser air.

Long shot of Pak and Dragonfly making a slow spiral across the sky, roughly following the stairway down toward the plain.

As Dragonfly maneuvers we look at it from various angles. At times the little ship’s structures seems to be invisible, depending on the angle, which make it look like Pak is floating by himself through the air, at times rolling completely over. Pak continues to to test the bike, making several spurts of speed, then coasts to a halt.

Close on Pak as he stops, feeling and getting used to the controls.

Back to long on Dragonfly, as it soon became apparent that the ship handled much better at lower altitudes, and no longer rolled, becoming parallel to the plain seven kilometers below.

Long from a further angle as Pak makes several wide orbits, then started to climb

Med shot from the hub from behind the astronauts as the Dragonfly comes into view from directly below them, filling the screen

Med from Pak’s POV

Norton: Shall we throw you a rope?

Med on Pak: No, Skipper, I’ve got to work this out myself. I won’t have anyone to help me at the other end.

“He sat thinking for a while, then started to ease Dragonfly toward the hub with short bursts of power. She quickly lost momentum between each, as air drag brought her to rest again. When he was only five meters away, and the sky-bike was still barely moving, Jimmy abandoned ship. He let himself float toward the nearest safety line in the hub webwork, grasped it, then swung around in time to catch the approaching bike with his hands. The maneuver was so neatly executed that it drew a round of applause.”

Med on Calvert: And now, for my next act...

Med on Pak: That was messy. But I know how to do it. I’ll take a sticky-bomb with me, on a twenty meter line. Then I’ll be able to pull myself in wherever I want to.

Med on Ernst as she approaches Pak

Ernst: Give me your wrist, Jimmy. And blow into this bag. I’ll want a blood sample, too. Did you have any difficulty in breathing?

Pak: Only at this altitude. What do you want the blood for?

Ernst: To test your blood sugar, so I can tell how much energy you’ve used. We’ve got to make sure that you carry enough fuel for the mission. By the way, what’s the endurance record for sky-biking?

Pak: Two hours twenty-five minutes three point six seconds. On the Moon, of course... a two kilometer circuit in the Olympic Dome.

Ernst looked at him incredulously: And you think you can keep this up for six hours?

Pak: Easily, since I can stop for a rest at any time. Sky-biking on the Moon is at least twice as hard as it is here.

Ernst: Alright Jimmy. Let’s get you back to the lab. I’ll give you a Go-No Go as soon a I’ve analyzed these samples. I don’t want to raise false hopes, but I think you can make it.

Pak smiles and Ernst leads him to the airlock

Med on both as Pak turns around and calls out: Hands off,  please. (looking at Norton) I don’t want anyone putting their fist through the wings.

Med on Norton: I’ll see to that, Jimmy. Dragonfly is off limits to everybody... including me.

Fade out

Fade in

Med shot behind Pak and Dragonfly as it reaches the coast of the Cylindrical Sea. Rama’s spin is readily apparent now relative to Dragonfly

Med side shot looking at a downward angle as Dragonfly crosses the coast

Med on Pak

Pak: Dragonfly to Hub Control. I’m now over the Cylindrical Sea. It’s kind of the point of no return. If something were to happen to Dragonfly now I’d be totally...

Central Hub: Norton: Yes, we know Jimmy.

Close on Norton at Hub Control: Don’t let anything happen to Dragonfly.

Close on Pak

Pak: Copy that.

Fade out

Fade in long shot looking down on Dragonfly which is further along over the Cylindrical Sea, as New York passes below him, moving with Rama’s spin. Pak peddles in circles over it as it passes photographing it with a hand held camera.

Med side shot of Pak and Dragonfly

Pak into his intercom: From this angle New York looks like a big ship sailing round and round Rama as it spins.

Hub Control: Dragonfly... you’re getting a little low. Twenty-two hundred meters from the axis.

Pak: Thanks. I’ll gain altitude. Let me know when I’m back at twenty.

Hub Control: Copy.

Med shot as Dragonfly turns it course back towards the south

Long on Dragonfly as Pak seemingly makes a mad dash for the coast.

Fade out

Fade in med long shot on Dragonfly from directly above as it crosses the southern coast

Med side shot on Pak

Pak: I’m now over the Souther Continent and back over land. I don’t mind telling you I feel a little better not being over water any more.

Hub Control: Copy that Jimmy. I think we all feel better.

Another angle on Dragonfly as Pak pans his camera over the varied landscape below

Med on Pak

Hub Control: Beautiful, Jimmy! This will keep the map makers happy. How are you feeling?

Pak: I’m fine. Just a little fatigue, but no more than I expected. How far do you make me from the pole?

Long shot from behind Dragonfly which is dwarfed by the enormous and ominous central spike ahead of it

Hub Control: Fifteen point six kilometers.

Med on Pak: Tell me when I’m at ten; I’ll take a rest then. And please make sure I don’t get low again. I’ll start climbing when I’ve five to go.

Central Hub: Copy. Jimmy, we’d like you to release the drone at this point.

Pak: Copy that. Hope it works now.

Med shot from above and behind Dragonfly as the drone that had been affixed to the rear part of the bike was released. The camera pans following it

Cut to Hub Control as Norton and others watch a monitor which is receiving video signals from the drone

Cut to close on Pak: How’s it going?

Cut back to Hub Control, Norton: So far so good.

Cut back med shot from above Dragonfly

Pak: Great!

The camera pans over to the drones flight and closes in on it as it begins to spiral out of control

Cut to close on Pak watching it

Cut to Hub Control watching the spiral death dance of the drone

Cut to long shot above the drone as it spirals to the plain below

Cut to Hub Control as the monitor displays the uncontrolled spiral

Cut to shot above the drone as it crashes onto the plain

Cut to Hub Control as the monitor blacks out

Cut to close on Pak, watching the drone: Ouch!

Cut to Hub Control, med on Norton: Yeah (he looks up). That didn’t work out as well as we might have liked.

Cut to close on Pak: No, I guess not.

Cut to close on Norton, seriously: Listen to me, Jimmy. I need you to be very careful. There is something acting on these drones. Some force. Report if you notice anything like that at once and then get the hell out of there!

Cut to close on Pak, equally seriously: Roger that Skipper. Don’t worry. I have no intention of sacrificing myself.

Cut back to Norton: Good man. Now I guess we continue on.

Cut to close on Pak: Copy.

Long shot from behind Dragonfly as Pak peddles toward the Southern Dome

Transpose shot to same long shot from behind Dragonfly twenty minutes later. It is much closer to the Southern Dome section

Long shot from above side angle as Dragonfly leaves the plain section

Long shot from behind again

“He had studied it for hours through the telescopes at the other end of Rama, and had learned its geography by heart. Even so, that had not fully prepared him for the spectacle all around him.

   In almost every way the southern and northern ends of Rama differed completely. Here was no triad of stairways, no series of narrow, concentric plateaus, no sweeping curve from hub to plain. Instead, there was an immense central spike, more than five kilometers long, extending along the axis. Six smaller ones, half the size, were equally spaced around it; the whole assembly looked like a group of remarkably symmetrical stalactites, hanging from the roof of a cave; or inverting the point of view, the spires of some Cambodian temple, set at the bottom of a crater.

   Linking these slender, tapering towers, and curving down from them to merge eventually in the cylindrical plain, were flying buttresses that looked massive enough to bear the weight of a world. And this, perhaps, was their function, if they were indeed the elements of some exotic drive unit, as had been suggested.”

Long from the central spike down to Pak and Dragonfly as they cautiously approach

Med on Dragonfly from behind and down as it approaches the spike

Hub Control: What can you see?

Pak: Just Big Horn. It’s absolutely smooth... no markings... and the point’s so sharp you could use it as a needle. I’m almost scared to go near it.

Med on Dragonfly as Pak peddles along it’s length. The spike slowly flares out becoming larger in diameter

Long from in front of Dragonfly as it continues on until he reaches a point where the spike is several meters in diameter

Med on Pak as he opens a small container and takes out a small sphere about the size of a baseball and tosses it out to the spike.

Close on the sphere as it makes contact with the spike and sticks to it

Med on Pak as he tugs on the line attached to the sphere pulling himself and Dragonfly closer to the spike.

Another med angle as Pak gets close enough to put out his hand and touch it

Close on Pak’s hand as he touches the spike

Med on Pak: I suppose you could call this some kind of touchdown. It feels like glass... almost frictionless... and slightly warm. (he removes his hand) The sticky bomb worked fine. (Pak takes out a wire attached to a suction cup and places the cup on the spike) Now I’m trying the mike. Let’s see if the suction pad holds as well... Plugging in the leads... Anything coming through?

Hub Control: Hold one... (long pause) Not a damn thing, except the usual thermal noises. Can you tap it with a piece of metal? Then at least we’ll find out if it’s hallow.

Pak: Okay.

Pak taps the spike with a small screwdriver

Pak: Okay, now what?

Hub Control: We’d like you to fly along the spike, making a complete scan every half kilometer and looking out for anything unusual. Then if you’re sure it’s safe, you might go across to one of the Little Horns. But only if you’re certain you can get back to zero gee without any problems.

Close on Pak, to himself mostly, looking down: Anything unusual, huh?

Long on Pak and Dragonfly from above and to the side with deep focus on the buttresses and infrastructure of the moving smaller horns below him: That won’t be hard.

Med on Pak: Three kilometers from the axis... that’s slightly above lunar gravity. Dragonfly was designed for that. I’ll just have to to work harder.

Hub Control, Norton: Jimmy. this is the captain. I’ve got second thoughts on that...

Cut to med on Norton: ...Judging by your pictures, the smaller spikes are just that same as the big one. Get the best coverage of them you can with the zoom lens. I don’t want you leaving the low-gravity region... unless you see something that looks very important...

Cut back to med on Pak: ...then we’ll talk it over.

Pak: It’s alright, Skipper... here I go...

“He felt he was dropping straight downward into a narrow valley between a group of incredibly tall and slender mountains. Big Horn now towered a kilometer above him, and the six spikes of the Little Horns were looming up all around [and moving as Rama spinned relative to Dragonfly). The complex of buttresses and flying arches that surrounded the lower slopes was approaching rapidly. He wondered if he could make a safe landing somewhere down there in that Cyclopean architecture. He could no longer land on Big Horn itself, for the gravity on its widening slopes was now too powerful to be counteracted by the feeble force of the sticky-bomb.

   As he came ever closer to the South Pole, he began to feel more like a sparrow flying beneath the vaulted roof of some great cathedral... though no cathedral ever built had been even one-hundredth the size of this place. He wondered if it was indeed a religious shrine, or something remotely analogous, but quickly dismissed the idea. Nowhere in Rama had there been any trace of artistic expression; everything was purely functional. Perhaps the Ramans felt that they already knew the ultimate secrets of the universe, and were no longer haunted by the yearnings and aspirations that drove mankind.”

Long shot from the spike as Pak and Dragonfly spiral downward toward the six moving smaller spikes.

Med shot from in front of Dragonfly as Pak distances himself from the huge spike overhead

Various shots and angles of the architecture that Pak is seeing and recording with his camera

Various shots and angles of Dragonfly as it traverses this domain

Long shot as Dragonfly approaches one of the smaller spikes, catching up to it and matching its relative speed

Med on Pak: Hub Control, are you getting this?

Hub Control: Say again, Dragonfly. We can’t understand you; your transmission is garbled.

Pak: I repeat... I’m near the base of one of the Little Horns, and am using the sticky bomb to haul myself in.

Hub Control: Understand only partially. Can you hear me?

Pak surprised: Yes! Perfectly. Repeat, perfectly.

Hub Control: Please start counting numbers.

Pak: One, two, three, four...

Hub Control: Got part of that. Give us beacon for fifteen seconds, then go back to voice.

Pak switched on a low powered beacon

Long on Dragonfly and its surroundings

Med on Pak as he goes back to voice: What’s happening? Can you hear me now?

Hub Control: Jimmy give us fifteen seconds on TV, then go back to voice.

Pak, becoming frustrated: Jeeez.

Pak switches over to television mode

POV from Pak’s TV for fifteen seconds

Med on Pak: Can you hear me?

Long pause. Pak absently rubs both of his arms with his hands

Pak: Hub Control, can you hear me. I can hear you fine...

Hub Control: Glad you can hear us okay, Jimmy. But there’s something very peculiar happening at your end. Listen.

“Over the radio, he heard the familiar whistle of his own beacon, played back to him. For a moment it was perfectly normal; then a weird distortion crept into it. The thousand-cycle whistle became modulated by a deep, throbbing pulse so low that it was almost beneath the threshold of hearing. It was a kind of basso-profundo flutter in which each individual vibration could be heard. And the modulation was itself modulated; it rose and fell, rose and fell, with a period of about five seconds.”

Hub Control: We think you must be in some kind of very intense magnetic field, with a frequency of about ten cycles. It may be strong enough to be dangerous. We suggest you get out right away... it may only be local. Switch on your beacon again, and we’ll play it back to you. Then you can tell when you’re getting clear of the interference.

Pak jerks the sticky-bomb free from the spike and shoved off peddling away and upward rapidly. The sound of his modulated beacon can be heard, and the farther away he gets from the small spike the less interference he receives, until he is clear of it completely.

Med on Pak: Hub Control, I think I’m free from whatever it was. Can you hear me.

Hub Control: Yeah, Jimmy. We can hear you fine. Good job.

Long on Dragonfly from underneath at an angle as Pak continues to peddle upward

Fade out

Fade in to long shot from above and slightly above Dragonfly as Pak makes his return trip

Long from below Dragonfly as it progresses. Big Horn is directly above

Med and behind Dragonfly as it climbs to just underneath Big Horn, which stretches out for a kilometer ahead

Med on Pak as he peddles steadily. At this point all of the hair on Pak’s body begins to stand up

Close on Pak as he begins to look concerned

Med on Pak and Dragonfly as it stops in mid-air

Close on Pak as he looks around. Something is bothering him but he can’t figure out what or why

Med on Pak as he absently brushes his arms and hands

Close on Pak as he lifts his hand and examines it and notices that every single hair was standing straight up.

Med shot on Pak as he explores his arms and head

Close on Pak: Hub Control, there’s a static charge building up around me. I think there’s going to be a thunder storm at any moment.

Med On Pak and Dragonfly as a flicker of light shines behind them

Soon followed by “the first crackling rumble arrived.”

Pak looks behind him

Long on the Little Horns “every one of the six needles seemed to be on fire. Brush discharges, hundreds of meters long, were dancing from their points, as if they were giant lightening conductors.”

Med on Dragonfly as Pak starts peddling furiously to distance himself from Big Horn

Long on Dragonfly as it separates from Big Horn and loses altitude

Med shot from just behind Pak as he continues

Long on Dragonfly as it passes the tip of Big Horn leaving the giant structure behind

Med on Dragonfly as the air around it begins to become turbulent, and Pak fights to control the vehicle

“A wind seemed to have sprung up from nowhere, and if conditions became much worse, the sky-bikes fragile skeleton would be endangered. He peddled grimly on, trying to smooth out the buffeting by variations in power and movements of his body. Because Dragonfly was almost an extension of himself, he was partly successful, but he did not like the faint creaks of protest that came from the main spar, or the way the wings twisted with every gust.

   And there was something else that worried him: a faint rushing sound, steadily growing in strength, that seemed to come from the direction of Big Horn. It sounded like gas escaping from a valve under great pressure, and he wondered if it had anything to do with the turbulence he was battling.”

Med On Pak: Hub Control. I’m experiencing a lot of turbulence and Dragonfly is getting harder to control... You see what’s going on behind me!

Hub Control, Norton: Oh yes! Just continue on and get the hell out of there Jimmy. You’re doing fine.

Med on Pak from behind as he continues, battling the turbulence

Long on Dragonfly from in front, deep focus on all of the spikes. Pak looks behind him as a enormous electrical charge disperses from the tip of Big Horn to each of the Little Horns. Within six seconds the concussion reached Pak and Dragonfly. The Sky-Bike loses what stability it had. The sound should be deafening. Members of the audience should cover their ears because of it. Dragonfly is pushed toward the camera, and passes it

Cut to med shot of Norton and others at Hub Control

Cut to long shot from behind them looking at the electrical display at the South Pole

Cut to close on Norton: Holy mother of God.

Cut to med shot of Pak and Dragonfly

Pak: The wing’s buckling... I’m going to crash...

Cut to Pak and Dragonfly as the bike spirals, Pak trying to regain some measure of control. He is barely able to get it parallel with the ground far below when “Dragonfly started to fold up gracefully around him. The left wing snapped cleanly in the middle, and the outer section drifted away like a gently falling leaf. The right wing put up a more complicated performance. It twisted around at the root, and angled back so sharply that its tip became entangled in the tail. Jimmy felt that he was sitting in a broken kite, slowly falling down the sky.

   He was falling very slowly, here in this tenth-of-a-gravity zone, but would soon start to accelerate as he got farther away from the axis. However, air drag would complicate the situation, and would prevent him from building up too swift a rate of decent. Dragonfly, even without power would act as a crude parachute. The few kilograms of thrust he could still provide might make all of the difference between life and death; that was his only hope.”

Long on Dragonfly as it spirals toward the camera

Long on the South Pole

“The streamers of lightening still played from the tip of Big Horn down to the lesser peaks beneath, but now the whole pattern was rotating. The six-pronged crown of fire was turning against the spin of Rama, making one revolution every few seconds. Jimmy felt he was watching a giant electric motor in operation, and perhaps that was not hopelessly from the truth.”

Long on Dragonfly as it continues to spiral downward, when the fireworks display behind it ceased. The hairs on Jimmy’s body collapse.

Long on the scenery on front of Pak and Dragonfly

Close on Pak’s face as he picks his landing spot

Med on Dragonfly from behind as Pak tries to maneuver

Close on Pak: I’ve still got some control... will be down in half a minute... will call you then...

Med On Pak and Dragonfly from behind as the plain rushes up to meet them

Long from the plain toward Dragonfly as it rushes past

Med on Pak and Dragonfly as he is about to crash land

Black out, ten seconds

Fade in

Slow fade in, close on Pak as he lies unconscious on a bare patch on the southern plain

Pak starts to move around a little, opens his eyes, groans

POV of Pak’s view starring up at two light strips above him

Cut back to close on Pak as he closes his eyes due to the painful light. He moans. A crunching sound is heard off camera. Pak slowly raises up on one arm and risks a look at the source of the sound

Cut to med shot of “a large crab like creature was apparently dining on the wreckage of poor Dragonfly. When Jimmy had recovered his wits, he rolled slowly and quietly away from the monster, expecting at every moment to be seized by its claws when it discovered that more appetizing fare was available. However, it took not the slightest notice of him; when he had increased their mutual separation to ten meters, he cautiously propped himself up in a sitting position.

   From this greater distance, the thing did not appear quite so formidable. It had a low, flat body about two meters long and one wide, supported on six triple-jointed legs. Jimmy saw that he was mistaken in assuming that it had been eating Dragonfly, in fact, he could not see any sign of a mouth. The creature was actually doing a neat job of demolition, using scissorlike claws to chop the sky-bike into small pieces. A whole row of manipulators, which looked uncannily like tiny human hands, then transfered the fragments to a steadily growing pile on the animal’s back.

   But was it an animal? Though that had been Jimmy’s first reaction, now he had second thoughts. There was a purposefulness about its behavior that suggested fairly high intelligence. He could see no reason why any creature of pure instinct should carefully collect the scattered pieces of his sky-bike... unless, perhaps, it was gathering material for a nest.”

Med shot of Pak and the crab in the background as Pak slowly gets to his feet and the crab continues to demolish Dragonfly

Med on Pak as he tests his footing, then calls Hub Control

Pak softly: Hub Control. Can you receive me?

Cut close on Norton at Hub Control: Thank God! Are you alright?

Cut back to close on Pak: Just a bit bruised and shaken. Take a look at this.

Med from behind Pak with the crab in the background as Pak aims his video camera

Norton: What the hell is that, and why is it chewing up your bike?

Med on Pak from the front:  I wish I knew. It seems to be finished with Dragonfly. I’m going to back away in case it wants to start of me.

Long on Pak and the crab from behind as Pak backs away, keeping a steady eye on the crab

Med on Pak from the front backing away

Med on the crab, now finished, as it turns to face Pak

Med on Pak facing the crab

Long on the crab as it begins to search the area in slowly descending circles

Med on Pak as he stop and looks at the crab

Med on the crab as it stops its searching, faces Pak, makes a small and rapid up and down motion three times

Med back on Pak

“The name “crab” which he had automatically given to it, was perhaps a little misleading. If it had not been so impossibly large, he might have called it a beetle. Its caprice had a beautiful metallic sheen; he would almost have been prepared to swear that it was metal.

   That was an interesting idea. Could it be a robot, and not an animal? He stared at the crab intently with this thought in mind, analyzing all the details of its anatomy. Where it should have had a mouth was a collection of manipulators that reminded Jimmy strongly of a multi-purpose knives that are the delight of all red-blooded boys; there were pinchers, probes, rasps, and even something that looked like a drill. But this was not decisive. On Earth, the insect world had matched all these tools, and many more. The animal-or-robot question remained in perfect balance in his mind.

   The eyes, which might have settled the matter, left it even more ambiguous. They were so deeply recessed in protective hoods that it was impossible to tell whether their lenses were made of crystal or of jelly. They were quite expressionless, and of a startling vivid blue. Though they had been directed toward Jimmy several times, they had never shown the slightest flicker of interest. In his perhaps biased opinion, that decided the level of the creature’s intelligence. An entity----robot or animal ---- which could ignore a human being could not be very bright.”

Med on the crab as it does the up and down motion three times, pauses a second, then turns and sets off in the general direction of the northeast toward the sea

Long shot in front of the crab as it makes its way toward the camera with Pak in the background

Long from above looking down as the two’s separation becomes greater

Med on Pak as he makes a decision and starts to follow the crab which is moving at a steady rate at four or five kilometers an hour, and in a straight line

Long from above as Pak closes the distance on the crab

Med from behind the crab

Med from in front of Pak as he makes a realization

Med from the side of the two moving

Pak: Hub Control.

Hub Control: Yes Jimmy. We read you.

Pak: This thing has my food and water.

Hub Control: Copy.

Pak: What do you suggest I do?

Cut to Hub Control

Norton: This is the Captain, Jimmy. We suggest that you try and get it.

Cut back to med on Pak and the crab walking

Pak: Try and get it. Okay.

Med on Pak and the crab from the side as Pak carefully approaches the crab from the side

Med from Pak’s POV looking at the crab

Med from the side with both in the frame

Close on the crab’s caprice at the water flask and food pack

Med from the side as Jimmy gets close to the crab and reaches for the items

Close from Pak’s POV as he snatches up both items

Med from the side as Pak does this

Pak: Excuse me...

Med from above as Pak retreats

Close on Pak: Hub Control. I was able to get them.

Hub Control: Great job Jimmy. Did it react?

Pak: It ignored me completely.

Cut to Hub Control: Good. You two seem to be headed straight for Copernicus. Are you going to keep following it?

Cut back to Pak: Yeah. It’s not like I have anything else to do. Besides, I want to see what it does with my bike.

Cut to Hub Control: Alright Jimmy. You’re headed in the general direction of the sea, which is where any escape attempt can be made and where we want you to wind up.

Cut to Pak and the crab

Pak: Copy that.

Norton at Hub Control: Don’t worry Jimmy...

Cut to Norton: ...We’ll find a way down somehow. That cliff can’t go right around the world, without a break anywhere...

Cut to close on Pak, more to himself than into the radio: Why not?

Hub Control: What was that, Jimmy?

Med on Pak: Nothing, Hub Control. We’re getting close now.

Cut to long shot from above and partially showing the edge of Copernicus closest to the approaching crab and man. Copernicus is a half-kilometer wide, circular pit

Long shot from above Copernicus, partially showing directly down into it, and the two approaching, Pak overtaking the crab to get to the edge of the pit before it does

Long shot from behind Pak as he approaches the pit, camera lifts above him and moves forward to look directly down in to it, as Pak gets to the edge and lifts further until the well is shown in its entirety

“When he came close enough to look into it, Jimmy was able to see a pool of ominous leaden-green water at least a half a kilometer below...

   ... Winding down the interior of the well was a spiral ramp, completely recessed into the sheer wall, so the effect was rather like that of rifling in an immense gun barrel.  There seemed to be a remarkable number of turns; not until Jimmy had traced them for several revolutions, getting more and more confused in the process, did he realize that there was not one ramp, but three, totally independent and 120 degrees apart. In any other background than Rama, the whole concept would have been an impressive architectural tour de force.

   The three ramps led straight down into the pool and disappeared beneath its opaque surface. Near the water line Jimmy could see a group of black tunnels, or caves. They looked rather sinister, and he wondered if they were inhabited.”

Med from inside the well looking up at Pak as he is using his camera to record what he is seeing

Long to med shot of what he is seeing

Med to long shot from slightly above Pak and looking down into the well

Pak: There seems to be a ramp that goes all the way down into the water, if you want to call it water. It looks pretty yucky.

Cut to POV from the camera as Pak pans

Pak: I have to revise that Hub Control. It looks like there are actually three ramps built directly into the wall.

POV from camera as Pak focuses on the water. There’s a hint that there may be something big swimming around just below the surface

Close on Pak’s face as he contemplates what he is seeing

Med from Pak’s side as the crab makes it to the edge

Med on the crab as it approaches the edge and sloughs off  Dragonfly into the depths below, almost falling in itself in the process

Med from behind Pak as he watches

Med on the crab as it finishes and turns toward Pak

Med from behind Pak as the crab starts to walk toward him

Close on Pak speaking into his radio softly but urgently: What do you advise?

Hub Control: Don’t run until you’re sure it’s hostile...

Long from the side containing the two as Pak holds out his outstretched, empty hands

Med on Pak: See, no weapons...

Med on the approaching crab which ignores Pak

Long on the two from the side as the crab passes Pak and begins to walk off into the distance

Close on Pak’s reaction of something between humiliation and astonishment

Long on the crab from behind walking off

Long on Pak as he walks back to the well’s edge and looks down

POV from Pak’s view to close on the water below. This time “vague shapes, some of them quite large, were moving slowly back and forth beneath the surface.”\

Med on one of these shapes approaching one of the ramps. “something that looked like a multilegged tank” emerged from the water and began to slowly ascend the ramp

Med on Pak from below as he records what he is seeing

Long on camera’s POV

“Then he noticed a flicker of much more rapid movement, near those cavelike openings down by the water line. Something was traveling swiftly along the ramp, but he could not clearly focus upon it, or discern any definite shape. It was as if he was looking at a small whirlwind or dust devil, about the size of a man.”

Med on Pak looking down. He shakes his head and rubs his eyes and looks back down

POV from the camera at the previous location wherein the whirling shape was gone

Med on Pak at his level as he backs away from the edge

Close on Pak as he turns around to view the incredible vista before him

Med on Pak as he walks away

Fade out

Fade in to extreme long from above Pak as he walks in the Southern Hemisphere, which is comprised mostly of huge squares, with each square displaying various types of terrain

Cut to med on Pak as he walks between the squares. He stops and takes drink from his flask

Long shot from behind as Pak surveys the road ahead of him and sees the quartz filed to his left. He starts walking toward it

Med shot as Pak is bending down examining one of the quartz crystals

Long on the quartz field which holds millions of identical crystals embedded in sand

Med on Pak as he takes his camera and pans across the field

Close on Pak from in front

Pak: It looks like quartz crystals, Control. Millions of them.

Hub Control: Copy that, Jimmy.

Med on Pak’s side as he turns around to view the adjacent square

Med to long on Pak from behind viewing the square which consists of “an apparently random pattern of hollow metal columns, set close together and ranging in height from less than one to more than five meters.” Pak stands to record what he is seeing as the camera moves above him to also view what the square contains

Cut to med on Pak in between the two square, or fields, as he continues walking towards the camera

Long on Pak from behind as he walks away from the camera

Cut to long on Pak from above as he comes to a crossroad between the squares

Med on Pak from behind as he surveys the two new squares in front of him

Long on the  wire tapestry square, which is a huge expanse of “tapestry made of woven wire.”

Med on Pak from in front as he finishes recording the field and sits down to try and pry one of the wires lose

Close on the wire tapestry that Pak is touching but can’t budge

Med on Pak as he stands back up to look at the other square and steps up to it

Long on this square “a tessellation of hexagonal tiles, so smoothly inlaid that there was no visible joints between them. It would have been a continuous surface if the tiles not been colored all the hues of the rainbow.”

Med on Pak from the side as he tentatively walks up to the tile square and sticks his foot out to touch it

Close from above Pak’s foot as he touches the solid tile

Med on Pak from the side as he walks out of the tile field, looking down

Close on Pak’s feet as he walks

Med on Pak as he walks back to the crossroad

Close on Pak as he surveys the scene with his camera

Pak: What do you think this is? I feel I’m trapped in a giant jigsaw puzzle. Or is this the Raman Art Gallery?

Hub Control: We’re as baffled as you are, Jimmy. But there’s never been any sign that the Ramans go in for art. Let’s wait until we have some more examples before we jump to any conclusions.

Pak: Copy, Control.

Med from behind Pak as he walks away from the camera

Fade out

Fade in on long shot from above as Pak reaches the next crossroad

Med on Pak as he uses his camera to record what he is seeing

POV from Pak’s camera as Pak records the two squares. The one on the left is a pure grey surface, the one on the right, a huge soft sponge

Med on Pak as he approaches the grey square and tests it with his foot

Close on Pak: Control, this field appears uniformly grey in color, and has a hard surface, but is slippery, like ice...

Med on Pak as he turns around

Pak: ... and on this side we have what looks like a big sponge! (Pak bends down to get a closer look)

Close on what Pak is seeing

Pak: A big sponge with a bunch of tiny holes in it.

Med on Pak as he touches the sponge

Close to med on Pak’s hand touching the sponge which begins to undulate

Long from above of Pak and the sponge as the whole field moves

Med on Pak as he stands back up

Pak: Wow! You getting this control?

Hub Control: Yeah, Jimmy. We’re getting it.

Pak: It’s like the biggest water bed ever, huh?

Hub Control: (laughter) I wouldn’t try it out if I were you.

Pak: You don’t need to worry about that.

Back to long on Pak and the undulating field from above

Fade out

Fade in to a montage of Pak continuing to walk and explore with different squares with different things on them. At one point he is walking along the edge of the cliff next to the Cylindrical Sea. Next he is walking along what looks like squares of barren fields

“Further inland were other fields, and many of them were complicated constructions of rods and wires, presumably intended for the support of climbing plants. They looked bleak and desolate, like leafless trees in the depths of winter.”

Long shot from over the sea looking back at the cliff from a forward angle at Pak as he continues walking

Med shot of Pak as he walks toward the camera. He notices something in the distance and stops, and shields his eyes from the Straight Valley’s strip lights

Long from behind as he continues to look, then begins to run to what he has seen

Long from above the square Pak has run to as he arrives at the edge

Med on Pak as he stares at what he has seen

Med on the flower, which is protuding from a hole in the sheathing that protected the ground below it from contamination, and embedded in a trellis of wires and rods

“Through this break extended a green stem, about as thick as a man’s little finger, which twined it’s way up through the trelliswork. A meter from the ground it burst into an efflorescence of bluish leaves, shaped more like feathers than the foliage of any plant known to Jimmy. The stem ended, at eye level, in what he had first taken to be a single flower. Now he saw, with no surprise at all, that it was actually three flowers tightly packed together.

   The petals were brightly colored tubes about five centimeters long; there were at least fifty in each bloom, and they glittered with such metallic blues, violets, and greens that that they seemed more like the wings of a butterfly than anything in the vegetable kingdom. Jimmy knew practically nothing about botany, but he was puzzled to see no trace of any structures resembling pistils or stamens.”

Med on Pak as he points his camera at the flower

Pak: Hub: Control, can you believe this, a flower!

Cut to Hub Control as Mercer and others watch a monitor: That is beautiful, Jimmy! We at least know for sure that this must be organic.

Cut back to med on Pak as he continues to record what he has found.

Close on Pak: It sure looks like it.

Med on Pak: Actually, it looks like it was a mistake.

Hub Control: What do you mean?

Pak: It looks like...

Cut to close on the flower

Pak: there was a tear in the sheathing that must protect the ground below from contamination. An unintended tear, that this flower popped out of when it got warm enough inside Rama for it to start growing.

Cut back to Pak: I’m going after it!

Cut to Hub Control as the officers silently look at each other a moment

Hub Control: Are you sure, Jimmy? It’s a native life form. I don’t know if taking it is appropriate.

Cut to med on Pak as he begins to take off his clothes.

Pak: Neither do I. But it wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place, and when Rama returns to interstellar space it won’t survive the cold anyway.

Hub Control: Copy, Jimmy.

Cut to long from behind Pak as he strips off his clothes

Med on Pak from behind as he squeezes into the network of trellis, wires and rods

Close on Pak as he continues toward his objective, at various angles

Close on Pak as he reaches his goal and reaches out as far as he can

Close on Pak’s hand reaching for the flower, he grasps it, and it came away into his hand

Cut to med on Pak with his prize as he begins to back out the way he had got in

Close on Pak’s face as he looks back at the remaining plant

Close on the plant

“It was then that he noticed that the feathery leaves were closing, and the headless stem was slowly unwinding itself from its supports. As he watched with a mixture of fascination and dismay, he saw that the whole plant was steadily retreating into the ground, like a mortally injured snake crawling back into its hole.”

Med on Pak as he continues to back out

Fade out

Cut to Norton’s stateroom, weightless environment, Norton is strapped into his chair and considering various escape options on his computer when Mercer pops in through the open door and hands Norton a message

Norton: What’s this?

Mercer: From Earth. It was sent twice as a matter of fact. Look who wrote it.

Norton: Huumm. (Norton reads it, becoming a little astonished) Well. What do you think?

Mercer: He’s right of course.

Norton: Are you sure?

Mercer: He was right about the storm, wasn’t he? We should have thought of this; it makes me feel like a fool.

Norton: You have company. The next problem is... how do we break it to Jimmy?

Mercer: I don’t think we should... until the last possible minute. That’s how I’d prefer it if I was in his place. Just tell him we’re on our way.

Close on Norton’s face

Fade out

Fade in to med of Pak walking among the various fields with his flower

Close on Pak as he turns to look at something

Long on Pak as he walks in a different direction

Med to close on Pak as he reaches his objective and looks intently at it

Long on a square with a completely black surface. In the middle of this large square is a small mound in which a black monolith protrudes, whose sides extend in the precise ratio of 1 : 4 : 9. It’s large, at least 6 meters tall

Cut to med on the monolith from below, with Big Horn above in the distance

Med on Pak as he cautiously approaches it

Long from the side as Pak walks up in front of it

Med from low at Pak’s side as he stares up at the monolith

Med from low from behind Pak looking up at the monolith

Med from just above the monolith looking down at Pak looking up at it

Med shot as Pak reaches out to touch it

Close as Pak’s hand almost touches the monolith’s smooth, black surface

Hub Control, Mercer: Hey, Jimmy!

Med on Pak as he pulls his hand back and answers

Pak: Yes.

Cut to Mercer at Hub Control looking through a telescope: Quit screwing around. (he relinquishes the scope) The Skipper’s on his way to you and wants you there when he arrives. Copy?

Cut back to Pak: Yeah. Sure. Thanks.

Med on Pak as he walks away from the monolith

Long from above on Pak and the monolith as Pak continues walking

Fade out

Fade in Long shot from Pak’s POV on the cliff looking out at the Cylindrical Sea and New York as the Resolution passes the island

Med On Pak looking out, standing at the edge of the cliff

Close on Pak as he looks down

Long on Pak’s POV looking down to the sea far below, 500 meters down, almost a third of a mile

Med on Pak as he involuntarily steps back from the cliff’s edge and looks back out to the sea

Long on the Resolution, several transposition shots as it gets closer to Pak’s location. After the boat is approximately a kilometer away...

Med on Pak as he begins to frantically wave at the boat

Med of the crew of Resolution, Norton, Barnes, Technical Sargent Myron, and Sargent Scarborough. Norton is looking at the cliff through binoculars.

Cut to POV through the binoculars as he spots Pak

Med on Norton as he waves back at Pak

Med on Pak

Med on Norton as he uses a radio: Glad to see you’re in good shape, Jimmy...

Med on Pak

Norton over the radio: I promised we wouldn’t leave you behind. Now do you believe me?

Pak: I’ll believe you, Skipper, when I’m down there on the deck with you. Now, can you tell me how that’s going to happen?

Long on Resolution from the top of the cliff. The boat slows down when it is about a hundred meters from the cliff’s base

Med on Norton: Sorry about that Jimmy, but we didn’t want you to have too many things to worry about.

Long on Resolution as it stops fifty meters from the cliff’s base

Med on Norton: This is it, Jimmy. You’ll be perfectly safe, but it will require some nerve...

Close on Norton: ... We know you’ve got plenty of that. You’re going to jump.

Med on Pak: Five hundred meters!

Med on Norton: Yes, but only at half a gee.

Med On Pak: Have you ever fallen two hundred and fifty on Earth?!

Med on Norton: Shut up, or I’ll cancel your next leave. You should have worked this out for yourself. It’s just a question of terminal velocity. In this atmosphere you can’t reach more than ninety kilometers an hour... whether you fall two hundred or two thousand...

Close on Pak as he takes this in

Norton on radio: ... Ninety’s a little high for comfort, but we can trim it some more. This is what you’ll have to do, so listen carefully.

Pak: I will. I hope it’s good.

Quick fade out and fade in

Med on Norton in the boat: It will be just the same as stepping off a diving board on Earth.

Close on Norton: Nothing to it---if you make a good entry.

Close on Pak: And if I don’t?

Close on Norton as he considers Pak’s question: Then you’ll have to go back and try again.

Cut to med on Norton: I don’t want to hurry you, but the sooner the better.

Med on Pak as he looks at his flower

Close from Pak’s POV looking down at the flower in his hands. He wraps it in a dirty hankerchief

Med from above and behind Pak as he tosses the bundle over the edge of the cliff

Long from below the bundle as it approaches the camera and passes it

Med from above and behind Pak looking down as the flower descends

Long from somewhere along the cliff looking down. The Resolution is in the frame far below. The bundle passes and continues down. The boat surges to meet it

Long on the boat moving 

Long on the bundle as it hits the sea

Long on the boat as it rushes to retrieve it

Med on the boat as it picks up the bundle from the water

Med on Norton as he unwraps the bundle

Close on the flower as it is revealed

Med on Norton as he shows it to the crew.

Norton: It’s beautiful, Jimmy. I’m sure they’ll name it after you.

Close on Norton: Okay... we’re waiting.

Med on Pak as he removes his shirt and stretches it several times

Med on Pak from behind as he turns around to take a last look at the Southern Hemisphere

Panoramic view of the world Pak had just explored

Med on Pak as he turns back and starts to run at the camera

Med to long as Pak continues to run from the camera toward the cliff’s edge as he jumps off the camera following him over the edge and down

Long on Pak from below as he passes the camera holding his shirt above him as an air break

Med on Pak from above as he plummets, the sea coming up fast

Long from the boat as Pak approaches the sea. At the last moment Pak lets go of the shirt, holding his hands over his nose and mouth as he makes a clean feet first entry into the poisonous water

Long in the water as Pak’s momentum carries him further down

Med On Pak as he stops and begins to swim upwards, fast

Med on the sea’s surface as Pak surfaces, gasping air

Long on the Resolution as it races to pick up Pak

Med as the boat reaches Pak and pulls him out of the water. The Resolution starts its return trip at full speed

Med inside the boat

Norton: Did you swallow any water?

Pak: I don’t think so.

Norton: Rinse your mouth out with this, anyway. (Pak does) That’s fine. How do you feel?

Pak: I’m not really sure. I’ll let you know in a minute... oh, thanks everybody.

Pak then rushes to the side of the boat and vomits overboard

When Pak recovers, Barns, incredulous, and straining to be heard above the noise of the engine: Oh come now... on a flat sea?

Norton: I’d hardly call it flat.

Med from below Norton as he waves his hand at the sea directly above them

Cut back to med on Norton: But don’t be ashamed. You may have swallowed some of that stuff. Get rid of it as quickly as you can.

Pak hangs his head over the side again as a flicker of light shined in the sky behind them

Close on Pak as he raises up to look

Med on the boat as Barns slows to a stop

“There were the kilometer-long steamers of fire, dancing from the central spike to its smaller companions. Once again they began their stately rotation, as if invisible dancers were winding their ribbons around an electric Maypole. But now they began to accelerate, moving faster and faster, until they blurred into a flickering cone of light.

   It was a spectacle more awe-inspiring than any they had yet seen here, and it brought with it a distant crackling roar, which added to the impression of overwhelming power.”

Long in front of Resolution about ten meters up from the surface with the boat in the foreground and the lightening display in the background

Med of the crew looking back

Long on the boat from in front near surface level as the lightening display stops “as abruptly as if someone had turned a switch

Close on Norton: I’d like to know what the Rama Committee makes of that.

Med on Norton as he turns to his crew: Has anyone here got any theories?

Hub Control on the radio: Resolution! Are you okay? Did you feel that?

Norton talks into his microphone: Feel what?

Cut to Mercer at the hub: We think it was an earthquake. It must have happened the minute those fireworks stopped.

Cut back to Norton: Any damage?

Cut to Mercer: I don’t think so. It wasn’t really violent---but it shook us up a bit.

Cut to Norton: We felt nothing at all. But we wouldn’t, out here on the water.

Mercer over the radio: Of course---silly of me. Anyway, everything seems quiet now... until next time.

Close on Norton: Yes, until next time.

Myron: Skipper!

Med from Norton’s POV as Myron points directly above him: Look! Up there!

Close on Norton as he looks

Long on the Cylindrical Sea panning upward until directly above the Resolution, where there is a tidal wave racing toward the boat down the curve of the sea

Close on Norton: My God.

Med on Norton: Endeavor! Situation report!

Kirchoff over radio: All okay, Skipper.

Cut to Kirchoff onboard Endeavor, weightless environment: We felt a slight tremor, but nothing that could cause any damage. There’s been a small change in attitude; the bridge says about point two degrees. They also think the spin rate has altered slightly.

Cut to med on Norton

Kirchoff on radio: We’ll have a more accurate reading on that in a few minutes.

Close on Norton: Thanks, Jerry. (he looks back up at the wave, and says to himself) So, it’s beginning to happen.

“The wave was about ten kilometers away, and stretched the full width of the sea from northern to southern shore. Near the land it was a foaming wall of white, but in deeper water it was a barely visible blue line, moving much faster than the breakers on either flank. The drag of the shoreward shallows was already bending it into a bow, with the central portion getting farther and farther ahead.”

Med on the boat from the front with the entire crew

Norton, with some urgency: Sergeant, this is your department. What can we do?

Close on Barnes who is studying the approaching wave. She seems more excited than worried, and may even be smiling a little.

Barnes: I wish I had some soundings. (looking at Norton) If we’re in deep water there’s nothing to worry about.

Norton, a little relieved: Then we’re all right. We’re about four kilometers from shore.

Barnes: I hope so, but I want to study the situation.

Med on the boat as Barnes applies power and swings the boat around in the direction of the wave. As the wave approaches the appropriate sound is applied

“Norton judged that the swiftly moving central portion would reach them in less than five minutes, but he could also see that it presented no serious danger. It was only a racing ripple a fraction of a meter high, and would scarcely rock the boat. The walls of foam lagging far behind it were the real menace.

   Suddenly, in the very center of the sea, a line of breakers appeared....

   ...At the same time, the breakers on the two flanks collapsed as they ran into deeper water.”

Close on Norton: What happened?

Med on Barnes, calmly: Anti slosh plates, like in Endeavor’s fuel tanks. Below the surface. But these are real big. Like several kilometers long big.

Long on the Resolution as Barnes brings her to a full stop

Med on the boat as Barnes threw out the anchor

Barnes: Five meters!

Barnes returns to the engine controls: Haul it up! We’ve got to get away from here!

Med on Myron and Scarborough as the haul the anchor back up

Med on the boat as Barnes heads it toward the wave at full speed

Long on the Resolution from above and forward as it makes it’s way

Med on Barnes as she cuts the throttle and throws out the anchor again

Close on the line attached to the anchor as it plays out

Close on Barnes

Close on Norton

Med on Barnes: It’s over thirty meters deep here. We’re okay, but I’ll keep the motor running in case.

Med on the boat as all the crew look ahead to the wave

“Now there were only the lagging walls of foam along the coast. Out here in the central sea it was clam again, apart from the inconspicuous blue ripple still speeding toward them...

   ... Then, only two kilometers ahead of them, the sea started to foam once more. It humped up in white-maned fury, and now it’s roaring seemed to fill the world. Upon the the sixteen kilometer-high wave of the Cylindrical Sea, a smaller ripple was superimposed, like an avalanche thundering down a mountain slope. And that ripple was quite large enough to kill them.”

Med on the boat. All of the crew members except Barnes were looking very anxious indeed

Close on Barnes as she looks at the expressions of the others

Med on the crew as Barnes shouts above the oncoming roar: What are you scared of! I’ve ridden bigger ones than this!

Close on Barnes: But if we have to jump, wait until I tell you.

Med on the crew

Barnes: Check your life jackets!

Long on the Resolution and the enormous wave from behind as it rushes toward the boat. “Then, within seconds, it collapsed, as if the foundations had been pulled out from underneath it.”

Long on the boat from the side as the now small ripple came and went, making the Resolution bounce up and down a couple of times

Close individual shots of the crew members who are looking rather astonished and relieved

Barnes: See! No problem.

Med on the other crew members looking at her

Med on the boat as Barnes heads the Resolution off at full speed toward the north

Med on Norton who comes up to Barnes

Norton: Thanks, Ruby... that was splendid. But will we get home before it comes around for the second time?

Barnes: Probably not; it will be back in about twenty minutes. But it will have lost all of its strength by then. We’ll scarcely notice it.

Long on the Resolution from the side as the wave now large again is seen behind them, moving up the side of Rama, as it collapses once again

Med on the boat as the crew members can now sit back and relax

Long on the Resolution from behind, and the left side as one hundred meters on the right side “something like a slowly rotating wheel began to rear up out of the water. Glittering metallic spokes, five meters long, emerged dripping, spun for a moment in the fierce Raman glare, and splashed back. It was if a giant starfish, with tubular arms, had broken the surface.”

Med on the boat and crew as they stared at the creature, completely dumbfounded. Myron starts to record what they are seeing

Med on the starfish

“At first sight it was impossible to tell whether it was an animal or a machine. Then it flopped over and lay half-awash, bobbing up and down in the gentle aftermath of the wave.

   Now they could see that there were nine arms, apparently jointed, radiating from a central disk. Two of the arms were broken, snapped off at the outer joint. The others ended at a complicated collection of manipulators that reminded Jimmy strongly of the crab he had encountered...

   ... At the middle of the disk was a small turret, bearing three large eyes. Two were closed, one open---and even that appeared to be blank and unseeing. No one doubted that they were watching the death throes of the strange monster, tossed up to the surface by the submarine disturbance that had just passed.

  

Med on the boat and crew as they stared at the creature, still dumbfounded

Long from behind Resolution with the creature on the background

Long on the starfish

“Then they saw that it was not alone. Swimming around it, and snapping at its still feebly moving limbs, were two small beasts like overgrown lobsters. They were efficiently chopping up the monster, and it did nothing to resist, though its own claws seemed quite capable of dealing with the attackers.”

Close on Pak

Pak: Look, Skipper...

Med on Pak and Norton

Pak: Do you see... they’re not eating it. They don’t even have any mouths. They’re simply chopping it to pieces. That’s exactly what happened to Dragonfly.

Norton: You’re right. They’re dismantling it... like... like a broken machine.

Close on Norton as he wrinkled his nose: But no dead machine ever smelled like that.

Med on Norton: My God! Suppose they start on us! Ruby, get us to shore as fast as you can!

Med on Resolution as Ruby thrusts the boat into maximum speed

Long on the creatures in the foreground and Resolution as it speeds away. The creatures sink back under the water

Fade out

Fade in

Camp Alpha, med shot on Norton, Rodrigo, Calvert, and Ernst who are sitting around a monitor watching the evening news.

Med from behind them watching the monitor. They were watching a scene of the starfish being dismantled

Long from slightly above and to the side of the four. A sizable part of the camp is in the frame as a dark blur rushes across the top of the screen

Med from in front of the four watching the monitor intently as Ernst looks off  in front of her and to the right

Ernst: Don’t move Bill. Now look slowly to the right.

Close on Norton as he slowly turns his head

Norton’s POV from ten meter’s away

Med on the “slender-legged tripod surmounted by a spherical body no larger than a soccer ball. Set around the body were three large, expressionless eyes, apparently giving 360 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 longlegs, and he wondered how it had solved the problem---never attempted by any creature on Earth---of tripedal locomotion.”

Med on the four somewhat amazed

Close on Norton and Ernst

Norton, whispering: What do you make of it, Laura? (he turned off the monitor)

Ernst: Usual Raman threefold 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.

Cut to med on the spider

Cut to med of the four

Cut to med of the spider

Cut to med of the four

Cut back to the spider “the creature suddenly moved, and now they could understand why they had failed to observe its arrival. It was fast, and it covered the ground with such an extraordinary spinning motion, that the human eye and mind had real difficulty in following it.”

Cut to several med shots of the spider moving around the camp, touching things with it’s tendrils. A couple of close shots of those tendrils touching stuff like “the improvised beds and chairs and tables, communication gear, food containers, electrosans, cameras, water tanks, tools---there seemed to be nothing that it ignored except the four watchers

Close on Ernst: I wish I could examine it! (hopefully) Should we try to catch it?

Close on Calvert: How?

Med on all four. Rodrigo has begun to record the spider with a camera

Ernst: 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.

Norton: That I doubt. But even if it worked...

Cut to the spider continuing its exploration

Norton VO: ... we can’t risk it. We don’t know how intelligent this creature is... and a trick like that could easily break its legs...

Cut back to the four

Norton continues: ... Then we would be in real trouble, from Rama, Earth, and everyone else.

Close on Ernst: But I’ve got to have a specimen!

Med on Norton and Ernst

Norton: You may have to be content with Jimmy’s flower... unless this thing cooperates with you. Force is out.

Med on all four

Norton: How would you like it if something landed on Earth and decided that you would make a nice specimen for dissection?

 Ernst, unconvincingly: I don’t want to dissect it. I only want to examine it.

Norton: Well alien visitors might have the same attitude toward you, but you could have a very uncomfortable time before you believed them. We must make no move that could possibly be regarded as threatening.

Med on the spider which seemed to finished examining stuff

Long from above as it made one more high-speed circuit of the camp, then shot off in the direction of the stairway. The camera lowers to ground level watching its progression

Cut to med of Norton and Ernst, who are now standing

Ernst: I wonder how it’s going to manage the steps...

Long on the spider in the distance as it ignored the stairway all together and “headed up the gently sloping curve of the ramp without slackening its speed.”

Med on Norton and Ernst looking at the spider then each other

Med on Norton as he walks to the radio

Norton: Hub Control. You may have a visitor shortly. Take a look at Stairway Alpha, section six... and incidentally, thanks a lot for keeping such a good watch on us.

Cut to Latendy at Hub Control looking through a telescope

Latendy: Oh wow... sorry about that Skipper. I can just see it... something, now that you tell me it’s there. (he stops looking for a moment) But what is it?

Cut back to Norton: Your guess is as good as mine.

Norton press a button on a control panel. An alarm sounds. He lets it go on for six seconds, then turns it off.   

Norton: Camp Alpha calling all stations. We’ve just been visited by a creature like a three-legged spider, with very thin legs, about two meters high, small spherical body, travels very fast, with a spinning motion. Appears harmless but inquisitive. There may be more of them about, and they could sneak up on you before you notice it. Please acknowledge.

Cut to med on Arseneault at London, looking around: London here, Skipper. Nothing unusual around.

Cut to long on Law at Rome who is sitting on a cot: Same here at Rome, Skipper. Uh... just a moment...

Cut to Norton: What is it?

Cut to med on Law: I put my pen down a minute ago... and it’s gone! Wait... oh!

Cut to Norton: Talk sense Sergeant!

Cut back to Law: You won’t believe this, Skipper. I was making some notes... you know I like writing, and it doesn’t disturb anybody...

Cut to close on Norton listening

Law on radio: And I was using my favorite ballpoint; it’s nearly two hundred...

Cut back to Law: ... years old. Well, now it’s lying on the ground...

Close on pen lying on the floor

Back on Law: ... about five meters away! (Law picks it up. Close on him examining it) Thank goodness it isn’t damaged.

Norton: And how do you suppose it got there?

Med on Law: Er... I may have dozed off for a minute. It’s been a hard day.

Cut to Norton, as he sighs: Now listen, Hub, Rome, London... everyone. I want a report every half hour from this point forward. We must assume that from now on we may have 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.

Long and slightly above and to the side of Norton as his order is acknowledged

Fade out

Fade in

Med on Calvert at Camp Alpha as he walks from the middle of camp to its edge and looks out at the northern plain as the camera moves ahead past him into a long shot of the plain with herds of the spiders zipping about. Hundreds of them

Cut to Hub Control med on Mercer and Latendy. Mercer is looking through the telescope

POV of what Mercer is seeing, which is hundreds of the spiders all over the plain below.

Latendy: They’re all over the Southern Hemisphere too.

Mercer relinquishes the scope

Latendy: It’s weird. I‘ve been watching them for an hour now and they don’t seem to ever visit the same place twice.

Mercer: It’s like their looking for something.

Latendy: Yeah. But whatever it is they don’t seem to have found it.

Cut to close on Dian who is using binoculars to look at the plain

POV of what she is seeing, which is the spiders on the plain as she pans down to the plateaus and stairway as a lone spider is making its way toward the hub

Close on Dian

Dian: Commander!

Med on Mercer and Latendy

Mercer: Yes Sergeant.

Dian: We have a spider coming our way.

Mercer moves over to where Dian is posted and takes the binoculars and looks

POV of what he is seeing, which is the spider much closer now

Med on the two as the spider zips up the wall behind them and to their side where it stops just above the airlock entrance where it looks down at the astronauts

Med on the spider

POV from the spider looking at the three below it

Long on the three of them

Med on Mercer and Dian with the spider at the top of the frame as it zips off

Long on the hub as the spider rushes past Hub Control on the other side and starts down the wall

Med on Mercer and Dian

Mercer: Well that was interesting.

Mercer gives the binoculars back to Dian 

Close on Dian who is monitoring the spider’s progress

Dian: Oh no!

Med on Mercer and Dian

Mercer, alarmed: What?!

Dian: It fell.

Mercer: What?

Dian: The spider, it fell down the wall. Here, look...

She hands Mercer the binoculars who takes them and looks down

Mercer: Where.

Dian: Right there (she points). It’s sliding down the wall.

POV of what Mercer sees through the binoculars as he searches in the direction Dian had indicated, until it is spotted lying on the first plateau motionless

Close on Mercer

Mercer: It’s lying on the first plateau. It looks like it’s dead or injured.

Med on Mercer and Dian

Dian: Oh, the poor thing...

Mercer looks at her, a little bemused, then uses his radio

Mercer: Hub Control to Commander Ernst. Hub Control to Commander Ernst.

Ernst over the radio: Yes Karl.

Mercer: Laura, I may have something for you...

Cut to the inside of sick bay on board Endeavor, Weightless enviornment. Ernst enters followed by Bryant and Adeyemi who are carrying a covered stretcher

Ernst: Over here guys. Be careful.

They place the stretcher on the examination table and all three strap it down

Ernst: Thanks.

The men leave

Cut to med from above the spider fully exposed now

Med on Ernst and the spider as she begins to examine it

Close on her hands as she touches the creatures legs that almost come apart in her hands

Ernst talking into a recorder: The creature is one hundred and eighty seven centimeters tall or long. The upper circular portion is sixty nine centimeters in circumference. It seems to be extremely fragile.

Close on her hands as she disarticulated one of the legs

Ernst: The legs are coming off the main body with little effort.

Med from above as she removes the other legs and tendrils

Med at the side as Ernst takes a camera and photographs the specimen from several angles. When finished she picks up a scalpel

Close on Ernst looking down at it

Ernst, to herself: Where to start...

Close on the spider’s head as she starts to cut into it, the blade meeting little resistance

Close on Ernst’s face as she works

Cut to the corridor just outside of sickbay where Yeoman Fontana has passed the open door just as Ernst screams from inside. Fontana turns around, very alarmed and makes her way inside sickbay

Fade out

Fade in

Long on the Rama Committee the members, various staff, and media mill about as Bose calls everyone to order

Med on Bose: As you are aware, gentlemen, a great deal has happened since our last meeting. We have much to discuss...

As he speaks med shots of the other members listening

Bose: ... and to decide. I’m therefore particularly sorry that our distinguished colleague from Mercury is not here. Two of our members have statements  to make. I would first like to call on Professor Davidson.

Long on the room, where members and staff are murmuring to each other. They quiet down as the Professor speaks

Med on Davidson: Mr. Ambassador. I have been analyzing the curious behavior of Rama during the last few days, and would like to present my conclusions. Some of them are rather startling.

Med on Perera

Back on Davidson: First of all, there was the remarkable series of events when that young leftenant flew over the Southern Hemisphere. The electrical discharges themselves, though spectacular, are not important; as it easy to show that they contained relatively little energy. But they coincided with a change in the rate of Rama’s spin, and its attitude... that is, its orientation in space. This must have involved an enormous amount of energy; the discharges which nearly cost Mr... er... Pak his life were merely a minor by-product.. perhaps a nuisance that had to be minimized by those giant lightening conductors at the South Pole.

   I draw two conclusions from this. When a spacecraft... and we must call Rama a spacecraft, despite its fantastic size... makes a change of attitude, that usually means its about to make a change in orbit. We must therefore take seriously the views of those who believe that Rama may be preparing to become another planet of our Sun, instead of going back to the stars.

   If this is the case, Endeavor must obviously be prepared to cast off... is that what spaceships do? At a moments notice. She may be in very serious danger while she is still physically attached to Rama. I imagine that Commander Norton is already well aware of this possibility, but I think we should send him an additional warning.

Med on Bose: Thank you very much, Professor Davidson. Yes... Professor Solomons?

Med on Solomons: I’d like to comment on that. Rama seems to have made a change in spin without using any jets or reaction devices. This leaves only two possibilities, it seems to me.

   The first one is that it has internal gyroscopes, or their equivalent. They must be enormous. Where are they?

   The second possibility... which would turn all of our physics upside down... is that it has a reactionless propulsion system. The so-called space drive, which Professor Davidson doesn’t believe in. If this is the case, Rama may be able to do almost anything. We will be quite unable to anticipate its behavior, even on the gross physical level.

Long on the chamber as the members and staff react

Med on Davison: I’ll stick to the laws of physics, if you don’t mind, until I’m forced to give them up. If we’ve not found any gyroscopes in Rama, we may not have looked hard enough, or in the right place.

Med on Solomons

Med on Bose: Very well. If there are no other comments, I know that Dr. Perera has some important information.  

Med on Perera: Thank you, Mr. Ambassador. As you’ve all seen, we have at last obtained a specimen of a Rama life form, and have observed several others at close quarters. Surgeon Commander Ernst, Endeavor’s medical officer, has sent a full report on the spider-like creature she dissected. I must say at once that some of her results are baffling, and in any other circumstances I would have refused to believe them.

   The spider is definitely organic, though its chemistry differs from ours in many respects. It contains considerable quantities of light metals. Yet I hesitate to call it an animal, for several fundamental reasons.

   In the first place, it seems to have no mouth, no stomach, no gut... no method of ingesting food. Also no air intakes, no lungs, no blood, no reproductive system...

   You may wonder what is has got. Well, there’s a simple musculature, controlling its three legs and three whip-like tendrils or feelers. There’s a brain... fairly complex, mostly concerned with the creature’s remarkably developed triocular vision.

Med on MacKay

Perera: ... But eighty percent of the body consists of a honeycomb of large cells...

Med on Perera: ... and this is what gave Dr. Ernst such an unpleasant surprise when she started her dissection. If she’d been luckier, she might have recognized it in time, because it’s one Rama structure that does exist on Earth... although only in a handful of marine animals.

   Most of the spider is simply a battery, much like that found in electric eels and rays. But in this case it’s apparently not used in defense. It’s the creatures source of energy. And that is why it has no provisions for eating and breathing; it doesn’t need such primitive arrangements. And incidentally, this means it would be perfectly at home in a vacuum.

  

Med on Bose

Perera: So we have a creature which...

Med on Sands

Perera: ... to all intents and purposes, is...

Med on Perera: ... nothing more than a mobile eye. It has no organs for manipulation; those tendrils are mush too feeble. If I had been given its specifications, I would have said it’s merely a reconnaissance device.

Med on Davidson

Med on Perera: It’s behavior certainly fits that description. All the spiders ever do is run around and look at things. That’s all they can do.

   But the other animals are different. The crab, the starfish, the sharks... for want of better words... these can obviously manipulate the environment, and appear to be specialized for various functions. I assume that they are also electrically powered, since, like the spider, they appear to have no mouths.

Med on Bose

Med on Perera: I’m sure you’ll appreciate the biological problems involved raised in all this. Could such creatures evolve naturally? I really don’t think so. They appear to be designed, like machines, for specific jobs. If I had to describe them, I would say that they are robots... biological robots... something that has no analogy on Earth.

   If Rama is a spaceship, perhaps they are part of the crew. As to how they are born... or created... that’s something I can’t tell you. But I can guess that the answer’s over there in New York. If Commander Norton and his men can wait long enough, they may encounter increasingly more complex creatures, with unpredictable behavior. Somewhere along the line they may meet the Ramans themselves... the real makers of this world.

   And when that happens, gentlemen and ladies, there will be no doubt about it at all.

Fade out

Fade in on med of Scarborough and Law as they are carrying garbage from Camp Alpha away from the camera and place it on the plain with other trash, or stuff they don’t need anymore

Cut to med of the two walking back and passing Norton and Mercer who continue to stand there as the other two return to the camp.

Cut to long on the plain as several crab creatures approach from the distance

Close on Norton and Mercer

Cut to med on the crabs as they disseminate the refuse and haul it off

Close on Norton and Mercer

Cut to med of two crabs as they face Norton and Mercer

Close on Norton and Mercer

Med on the two crabs as they move toward the two men in order to get to the camp where they deem there’s a whole bunch more trash to be had

Med on Norton and Mercer who stand their ground, hold out their arms and hands and yells at the crabs: No! No!

Med on the two crabs who have now stopped. One crab makes an up and down motion three times, then the other

Close on Norton and Mercer

Med on the two crabs as they turn around and waddle away

Close on Norton and Mercer, looking quite relieved

Med as they turn around and walk back to the camp

Fade out

Fade in

Camp Alpha, close on Norton sleeping as his communicator sounds.

Med on Norton, after grabbing and opening it: Yes.

Cut to Kirchoff on Endeavor, control room, weightless environment: Sorry to wake you, Skipper. Triple-A priority from headquarters.

Cut to med on Norton: Let me have it.

Med on Kirchoff: I can’t. It’s in code... Commander’s eyes only.

Med on Norton, instantly alert: Damn! What do we do now? (he thinks a moment) Jerry, who’s on the switchboard?

Kirchoff on the radio: No one. I’m making the call myself.
 
Norton: Recorder off?

Cut to close on Kirchoff: By an odd breach of regulations, yes.

Cut to med on Norton, smiles: Okay. You know where my key is. Call me back. (he lays back down)

Fade out

Fade in a few moments later. Med on Norton who is standing near the camp’s perimeter, looking out on the plain

Kirchoff on the radio: Skipper!

Norton: Yes.

Cut to Kirchoff on Endeavor: It’s not really urgent, Bill. An hour won’t make any difference. But I prefer to avoid radio. I’ll send it down by messenger.

Cut to Norton: But why... oh, very well. I trust your judgment. Who will carry it through the air locks?

Cut to Kirchoff: I’m going myself. I’ll call you when I reach the hub.

Cut to close on Norton: Which leaves Laura in charge.

Cut to med on Norton

Kirchoff on radio: For one hour at the most. I’ll get right back to the ship.

Norton: Very well. For the record, you never left the ship. Have you woken Laura?

Cut to Kirchoff: Yes. She’s delighted to have the opportunity.

Cut to close on Norton: Lucky that doctors are used to keeping secrets. Oh, have you sent the acknowledgment?

Kirchoff on radio: Of course, in your name.

Med on Norton: Then I’ll be waiting.

Close on Norton

Fade out

Fade in on Hub Control, weightless environment, POV through telescope, extreme long shot of “Something that looked like a [huge] centipede with suction pads... ... exploring Big Horn...” Pan down to a “a burly creature around the lower peaks that could have been a cross between a hippopotamus and a bulldozer” Pan to one of the Straight Valley strip lights to see a “‘window cleaner’ with large padded feet, who was apparently polishing its way the whole length of the  artifical sun. Its enormous shadow, cast right across the diameter of the world, sometimes causing temporary eclipses on the far side.” Pan to the plain below where a myriad of different kinds of creatures were working at one thing or another, except the spiders. They were gone now

Cut to med shot in front of Rousseau looking through the scope as Kirchoff in spacesuit exits the airlock behind him. Rousseau turns around

Med on Kirchoff floating over to Rousseau

Med on the two

Rousseau: Jerry... who’s in charge of the ship?

Kirchoff, flips open his helmet: I am. You don’t think I’d leave the bridge when I’m on watch, do you? (he opens a pocket on his suit and pulls out a small can labeled “Concentrated Orange Juice”) You’re good at this, Pieter. (he gives Rousseau the can) The Skipper is waiting for this.

Rousseau: I just hope you put enough mass inside it. Sometimes they get stuck on the first terrace.

Kirchoff: Well, you’re the expert. 

Med on the two from above as Rousseau anchors himself, and hurls the can down the face of the cliff

Long shot on the can as it makes it way down. “Almost immediately, air resistance robbed the can of its initial speed, but then the pseudo-gravity of Rama took over and it started to move downward at a constant velocity. It hit once near the base of the ladder, and did a slow-motion bounce which took it clear of the first terrace.”

Med from the side and slightly in front of Rousseau and Kirchoff. While the following conversation occurs a large creature that resembles a grey worm with what looks like a mop as an undercarriage passes them close by in the near distance making it’s way slowly but steadily down the cliff. The two astronauts take a look at it briefly

Kirchoff: What does that thing do?

Rousseau: I’m not sure. I’ve been watching it for a while. I don’t see it doing anything at all really. (Rousseau looks back down) The can’s okay now. Like to make a bet?

Kirchoff: No. You know the odds.

Rousseau: You’re no sportsman, but I’ll tell you now...

Cut to long on the can as it progresses

Rousseau: ... it will stop within three hundred meters of the camp.

Cut back to the two men

Kirchoff: That doesn’t sound very close.

Rousseau: You might try it sometime. I once saw Joe miss by a couple of kilometers.

Cut to the can now glued to the floor’s surface rolling past the second terrace at 25 kilometers per hour

Cut back to the two

Rousseau: Now we’ll have to wait. (he returns to the telescope to monitor the can) It will be there in ten minutes.

POV from the telescope as Norton enters the frame

Cut to Rousseau: Ah, here comes the Skipper. I got used to recognizing people from this angle.

Cut back to telescope POV as Norton looks up directly at the Hub

Rousseau: Now he’s looking at us.

Close on Kirchoff: I believe that telescope gives you a sense of power.

Med on them both. Rousseau smiles

Rousseau: Oh, it does. I’m the only person who knows everything that happens in Rama. (looks at Kirchoff) At least I thought I did.

Close on Kirchoff as he stretches: If it will keep you happy, the Skipper found out he had run out of toothpaste.

Close on Rousseau who doesn’t seem convinced he’s being told the truth

Fast fade out

Fade in at the two looking down at the plain Rousseau on the telescope

POV from the telescope as the can, now on the plain comes to a rest

Rousseau: Wish you had taken that bet...

Close on Rousseau: He’s only got to walk fifty meters...

Back on POV as Norton enters frame, sees the can and walks over to it

Close on Rousseau: Now he sees it. Mission complete.

Med on the two

Kirchoff: Thanks, Pieter... a very good job. Now you can go back to sleep. (he gets his suit together preparing to exit Rama

Close on Rousseau: Sleep! I’m on watch until zero four hundred.

Close on Kirchoff: Sorry... you must have been sleeping. Or how else could you have dreamed all this?

Fade out

Fade in on close on message:

SPACEGUARD REPORTS ULTRA-HIGH-SPEED VEHICLE APPARENTLY LAUNCHED MERCURY TEN TO TWELVE DAYS AGO ON RAMA INTERCEPT. IF NO ORBIT CHANGE ARRIVAL PREDICTED DATE 322 DAYS 15 HOURS. MAY BE NECESSARY YOU EVACUATE BEFORE THEN. WILL ADVISE FURTHER. C IN C.

Cut to close on Norton

Cut to med on Norton who looks at his watch, turns and thoughtfully walks away from camera

Fade out

Fade in, outer space near Rama as the Mercurian missile completes its breaking maneuver and parks fifty kilometers from the giant spacecraft

Med on missile as its two cameras survey Rama

Long on missile from behind with Rama in the background

Cut to inside Endeavor control room, weightless enviornment, close on monitor showing the missile up close

Cut to med on Mercer, Kirchoff, and Norton looking at the monitor

Over the intercom: Bridge to Captain. Triple-A message from Earth, Skipper. Video and back-up text from Commander in Chief Hendrix. Ready to accept?

Norton: Check and file the text, let me have the video.

Bridge: Here it comes.

Close on the monitor as the view of the missile is replaced with a seal of the C in C, then to Admiral Hendrix. Through this brief seen close cuts to the faces of the three officers are made to record their reactions. At the same time the camera slowly pulls back from the monitor

Hendrix: C in C to Commander, Endeavor. This is a quick summery of the situation as we see it now. You know that the General Assembly meets at fourteen hundred and you’ll be listening to the proceedings. It is possible that you may have to take action immediately, without consultation; hence this briefing.

   We’ve analyzed the photos you have sent us. The vehicle is a standard probe, modified for high-impulse and probably laser-riding for initial boost. Size and mass are consistent with fusion bomb in the five-hundred to one-thousand-megaton range. The Hermians use up to one hundred megatons routinely in their mining operations, so they would have no difficulty in assembling such a warhead.

   Our experts also estimate that this would be the minimum size necessary to assure the destruction of Rama. If it was detonated against the thinnest part of the shell, underneath the Cylindrical Sea, the hull would be ruptured, and the spin of the body would complete its disintegration.

   We assume that the Hermians, if they are planning such an act, will give you ample time to get clear. For your information, the gamma-ray flash from such a bomb could be dangerous to you up to a range of a thousand kilometers, despite Endeavor’s inherent shielding for cosmic and solar radiation. 

   But that is not the most serious danger. The fragments of Rama, with masses of several metric tonnes and spinning off at almost a thousand kilometers an hour, could destroy you at an unlimited distance. We therefore recommend that you proceed along the spin axis, since no fragments will be thrown off in that direction. Ten thousand kilometers should give an adequate safety margin.

   This message cannot be intercepted; it is going by multiple-pseudo-random routing, so I can talk in clear English. Your reply may not be secure, so speak with discretion and use code when necessary. I will call you immediately after the General Assembly discussion. Message concluded. C in C.

Fade out

Fade in to long shot of the United Planets General Assembly chamber, a large meeting room with delegates from the seven members, Mercury, Earth, Luna, Mars, Ganymede, Titan, and Triton. Their staff and and media fill the chamber

Fade in text: “United Planets General Assembly”

Med on President: We recognize His Excellency the Ambassador from Mercury.

Med on the Ambassador as he picks up his notes and stands. During his presentation cuts are made to various members of the Assembly for reactions, including members of the Rama Committee, especially Perera. During the scene the camera will also slowly move in from a long shot, to med, and ending on a close

Ambassador: Mr. President. Distinguished fellow delegates, I would like to begin with a brief summary of the situation which now confronts us.

   The giant spaceship or artifical asteroid which has been christened Rama was detected over a year ago, in the region beyond Jupiter. At first it was believed to be a natural body, moving in a hyperbolic orbit that would take it around the Sun and on to the stars.

   When its true nature was discovered, the solar survey vessel Endeavor was ordered to rendezvous with it. I am sure we will all want to congratulate Commander Norton and his crew for the efficient way in which they have carried out their unique assignment.

   At first, it was believed that Rama was dead... frozen for so many hundreds of thousands of years that there was no possibility of revival. This may still be true, in a strictly biological sense. There seems general agreement, among those who have studied that matter, that no living organism of any complexity can survive more than a few centuries of suspended animation. Even at absolute zero, residual quantum effects eventually erase too much cellular information to make revival possible. It therefore appeared that, although Rama was of enormous archaeological importance, it did not present any major astropolitical problems.      

   It is now obvious that this was a very naive attitude, though even from the first there were some who pointed out that Rama was too precisely aimed at the Sun for pure chance to be involved.

   Even so, it might have been argued,... indeed, it was argued... that here was an experiment that had failed. Rama had reached the intended target, but the controlling intelligence had not survived. This view also seems very simpleminded; it surely underestimates the entities we are dealing with.

   What we failed to take into account was the possibility of nonbiological survival. If we accept Dr. Perera’s very plausible theory, which certainly fits all the facts, the creatures that have been observed inside Rama did not exist a short time ago. Their patterns, or templates, were stored in some central information bank, and when the time was ripe they were manufactured from available raw materials... presumably the organometallic soup of the Cylindrical Sea. Such a feat is still somewhat beyond our own ability, but does not present any theoretical problems. We know that solid-state circuits, unlike living matter, can store information without loss for indefinite periods of time.

   So Rama is now in full operating mode, serving the purpose of its builders... whoever they may be. From our point of view it does not matter if the Ramans themselves have all been dead for millions of years, or whether they, too, will be re-created, to join their servants, at any moment. With or without them, their will is being done, and will continue to be done.

   Rama has now given proof that its propulsion system is still operating. In a few days, it will be at perihelion, where it would logically make any major change in orbit. We therefore may soon have a new planet... moving through the solar space over which my government has jurisdiction. Or it may, of course, make additional changes and occupy a final orbit at any distance from the Sun. It could even become a satellite of a major planet, such as Earth.

   We are therefore, fellow delegates, faced with a whole spectrum of possibilities, some of them very serious indeed. It is foolish to pretend that these creatures must be benevolent and will not interfere with us in any way. If they come to our solar system, they need something from it. Even if it is only scientific knowledge... consider how that knowledge may be used.

   What confronts us now is a technology hundreds, perhaps thousands of years in advance of ours, and a culture that may have no points of contact with ours whatsoever. We have been studying the behavior of the biological robots... the biots... inside Rama, as shown in the films that Commander Norton has relayed, and we have arrived at certain conclusions, which we wish to pass on to you.

   On Mercury we are perhaps unlucky in having no indigenous life forms to observe. But, of course, we have a complete record of terrestrial zoology, and we find in it one striking parallel with Rama.

   This is the termite colony. Like Rama, it is an artificial world with a controlled environment. Like Rama, its functioning depends upon a whole series of specialized biological machines: workers, builders, farmers... warriors. And although we do not know if Rama has a queen, I suggest that the island of New York serves a similar function.

   Now it would be obviously absurd to press this analogy too far; it breaks down at many points. But I put it to you for this reason: What degree of cooperation or understanding would ever be possible between humans and termites? When there is no conflict of interest, we tolerate each other. But when either needs the other’s territory or resources, no quarter is given.

   Thanks to our technology and our intelligence, we can always win if we are sufficiently determined. But sometimes it is not easy, and there are those who believe that final victory may go to the termites.

   With this in mind, consider now the appalling threat that Rama may... I do not say must... present to human civilization. What steps have we taken to counter it, if the worst eventually should occur? None whatsoever. We have merely talked and speculated and written learned papers.

   Well, my fellow delegates, Mercury has done more than this. Acting under the provisions of Clause thirty four of the Space Treaty of twenty fifty seven, which entitles us to take any steps necessary to protect the integrity of our solar space, we have dispatched a high-energy nuclear device to Rama. We will indeed be happy if we never have to utilize it. But now, at least, we are not helpless... as we were before.

   It may be argued that we have acted unilaterally, with out prior consultation. We admit that. But does anyone here imagine... with all respect, Mr. President... that we could have secured any such agreement in the time available? We consider that we are acting not only for ourselves, but also for the entire human race. All future generations may one day thank us for our foresight.

   We recognize that it would be a tragedy... even a crime... to destroy an artifact as wonderful as Rama. If there were any way in which this can be avoided, without risk to humanity, we will be very happy to hear it. We have not found none, and time is running out.

   Within the next few days, before Rama reaches perihelion, the choice will have to be made. We will, of course, give ample warning to Endeavor, but we would advise Commander Norton always to be ready to leave at an hour’s notice. It is conceivable that Rama may undergo further dramatic transformations at any moment.

   That is all, Mr. President, fellow delegates. I thank you for your attention. I look forward to your cooperation.

Fade out             

Fade in, Norton’s stateroom aboard Endeavor, weightless environment

Med on Norton: Well, Boris, how do the Hermians fit into your theology?

Med on Rodrigo and Norton from the side

Rodrigo: Only too well, Commander.

Close on Rodrigo: It’s the age-old struggle between the forces of good and evil. And there are times when men have to take sides in such a conflict.

Close on Norton: I take it you have a plan, Boris.

Med on both

Rodrigo: Yes, Commander. It’s really quite simple. We merely have to disable the bomb.

Norton: And how do you propose to do that?

Close on Rodrigo: With a small pair of wire cutters.

Med on both

Norton: Now just a minute! It’s bristling with cameras. Do you suppose the Hermians will just sit back and watch you?

Rodrigo: Of course, that’s all they can do.

Med on Rodrigo: When the signal reaches them, it will be too late. I can easily finish the job in ten minutes.

Med on both

Norton: I see. They certainly will be mad. Suppose the bomb is booby-trapped so that interference sets it off?

 Med on Rodrigo: That seems very unlikely. What would be the purpose?

Close on Norton

Rodrigo: This bomb was built for a specific deep-space mission...

Med on Rodrigo: ... and it will be fitted with all sorts of safety devices to prevent detonation except on a positive command.

Med on both

Rodrigo: But that’s a risk I’m prepared to take... and it can be done without endangering the ship. I’ve worked everything out.

Norton: This close to the Sun... it’s pretty hot out there. In both infrared and gamma...

Close on Rodrigo, smiles: I’ll take precautions.

Close on Norton as he considers what has been said

Fade out

Fade in same setting as the last scene. Norton is strapped into his chair, lost in thought. What if he allows Rodrigo to disable the bomb and Rama does prove to be hostile? But there has been no sign of hostility anywhere inside Rama

Norton glance up across the small room

Close on the picture of Capt. Cook

Close on Norton, whispering: I agree with you Captain. The human race has to live with its conscience. Whatever the Hermians argue, survival is not everything.

Med on Norton as he pushes his intercom button

Norton: Lieutenant Rodrigo, this is the Captain. I’d like to see you...

Fade out

Fade in, outer space, the northern central axis of Rama, long on Rodrigo on a stripped down sled, Endeavor disconnected from Rama, in the background as it disappears behind Rama’s bulk, the star field is moving in accordance with Rama’s spin

Med on Rodrigo and the sled as he thrusts off. Throughout the scene Rodrigo’s breathing is heard

Med on Rodrigo and the sled from behind crossing the polar plain

Long on the two from high above

Med on Rodrigo from the side and below as the bright Sun is seen above him

Med on the two as they approach the edge of the plain

Med from in front of the two as Rodrigo applies thrusters to stop, and maneuvers the sled to coincide with the edge of the Raman plain, he applies power to decrease his inherent spin in relation to Rama’s. The background star field slowly stops moving

Med on Rodrigo and the sled as he thrusts to the left and over the edge of Rama into open space

Long on the two as Rodrigo applies full power

Med on the two from behind as Rodrigo cuts off his power

Long on the sled as it continues

Long on Rodrigo and the sled from in front and they approach the camera

Long from Rodrigo’s POV as he sights the probe

Med of the sled as Rodrigo applies maneuvering thrusters to turn the sled around so the main thrusters are aimed at the probe. Rodrigo applies power to the main thrusters to decrease its velocity

Long from behind the probe as the sled approaches

Long on the probe and sled coming together

Med on Rodrigo as he attaches lines to the probe securing the sled to it

“The bomb was a cylinder about ten meters long and three in diameter---by a strange coincidence, almost the same proportions as those of Rama. It was attached to the framework of the carrier vehicle by an open latticework of short I beams. For some reason, probably to do with the location of the center mass, it was supported at right angles to the axis of the carrier, so that  it conveyed an appropriately sinister hammer-head impression....

   From each end of the bomb a bundle of braided cables ran along the cylindrical side and disappeared through the latticework into the interior of the vehicle. All communication and control was here. There was no antenna of any kind on the bomb itself.”

Close on Rodrigo’s face inside the helmet as he finishes grappling the bomb and sled together

Med POV from Rodrigo as he survey’s the bomb and carrier

Med on Rodrigo as he checks his watch

Long on Rodrigo, the sled and carrier/bomb

Med on Rodrigo as he inspects an engraved plate

Close on the plate:  DEPARTMENT OF POWER ENGINEERING
                                                     SECTION D
                                           47 SUNSET BOULEVARD
                                             VULCANOPOLIS, 17464
                                    For information apply to Henry K. Jones

Med on Rodrigo as he gets up and moves to the cables

Close as he cuts through them with wire cutters

Med on Rodrigo as he checks his watch again, he moves to the back-up-cables

Close on his hands as he is about to begin cutting

Close on his face

Med on Rodrigo from behind as he looks back

Med POV from Rodrigo looking at one of the carriers thrusters firing

Cut to interior of Endeavor, control room, weightless enviornment, Mercer has just handed Norton a printed message

Close on the message: COMMANDER ENDEAVOR FROM MERCURY SPACE CONTROL, INFERNO WEST. YOU HAVE ONE HOUR FROM RECIEPT OF THIS MESSAGE TO LEAVE VICINITY OF RAMA. SUGGEST YOU PROCEED MAXIMUM ACCELERATION ALONG SPIN AXIS, REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, MESSAGE ENDS.

Close on Norton’s reaction

Cut to long on the bomb, carrier, sled, Rodrigo as the orientation in space of them all changes due to the firing thruster

Med on Rodrigo

Med from Rodrigo POV as a second thruster fires

Med on Rodrigo as he checks the lines holding him and the sled to the carrier.

Cut back to control room

Med on Norton and Mercer

Mercer: What are you going to do, Skipper?

Close on Norton: Nothing. Ignore them. It’s too late to stop Boris, and will be at least another thirty minutes before we can pick him up.

Close on Mercer

Med on the two

Norton: We’ll see what they do next.

Cut back to med on Rodrigo as he looks back on the firing thrusters

POV from Rodrigo as the two thrusters stop firing and the main engine ignites

Long from behind the bomb and carrier as it begins to move

Med on Rodrigo as he moves to the second set of cables

Close on his hands as he cuts the cables

Cut to med of Rodrigo finishing

Med on Rodrigo crawling toward the long-range antenna

Med as he reaches it

Close as he cuts the multiplex feed system

Close as the antenna slowly began to swing around almost hitting Rodrigo

Med as Rodrigo crawls back to the sled and he disengages the grapples

Med as Rodrigo gets back into the sled’s seat

Long from behind the sled as Rodrigo fires it’s thrusters, slowly pushing the carrier and bomb into a trajectory away from Rama

Long on the sled and bomb being pushed

Med as Rodrigo applies thrusters separating the bomb from the sled

Long as the two further the distance from each other

Med on the sled as Rodrigo applies the thrusters necessary to turn the sled around toward Rama

Long on the bomb and carrier as it slowly moves out into space

Fade out

Fade in to Norton’s stateroom, Med on Norton strapped into his chair writing

VO, Norton: Darling, 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 us will ever be able to visit Mercury again, and I’m wondering if we’re going to be treated as heroes or villains when we get back to Earth. But my conscience is clear. I’m sure we did the right thing. I wonder if the Ramans will ever say 'thank you.’

Close on Norton, VO continues: We can stay only two more days. Unlike Rama we don’t have a kilometer-thick skin to protect us from the Sun. Endeavor’s hull is already developing dangerous hot spots and we’ve had to put out some local screening. I’m sorry... I didn’t want to bore you with my problems.

Back to med: So there’s time for just one more trip into Rama, and I intend to make to most of it. But don’t worry, I’m not taking any chances.

  

Close on Norton, from the side and above: In forty-eight hours, then, we’ll have completed this mission. What happens after that is uncertain; as you know, we’ve used virtually all of our fuel getting into this orbit. I’m still waiting to hear if a tanker can get with us in time to get back to Earth, or whether we’ll have to make planet-fall on Mars. Anyway, I should be home by Christmas. Tell Jessie I’m sorry I can’t bring home a baby biot; there’s no such animal.

Med on Norton: We’re all fine, but very tired. I’ve earned a long leave after all this, and we’ll make up for lost time.

Close: Whatever they say about me, you can claim you’re married to a hero. How many wives have a husband who saved a world?

Med on Norton from across the room as he finishes

Fade out

Cut to black screen. After a moment a light can be seen in the lower right hand corner of the screen. It is a laser torch cutting through a wall

Cut to med of the torch as it quickly cuts a rectangle into the wall about three quarters the size of a man

Cut to close on the torch as it progresses

Cut back to med as the torch completes its circuit and is turned off. The rectangular piece of metal is kicked in from outside and Mercer appears through the hole, wearing a re-breather, and steps in holding an instrument and flashlight. He tentatively checks the air with the tool, then looks at the instrument. He takes of the re-breather and calls back out through the hole

Mercer: Oxygen level okay, Skipper. It’s not any different from outside. There’s no inert gases...

Cut to med from outside as Norton, Calvert, Myron mill about. Norton enters the building at London carrying a high-intensity lantern. Myron disassembles the laser torch

Cut to the building’s interior as Calvert enters and the three shine their lights about the large room, soon to be followed by Myron. They set down several lanterns that begin to shed some light on their surroundings

Long on: “A Greek temple made of glass---that was his first impression. The building was filled with row upon row of vertical crystalline columns, about a meter wide and stretching from floor to ceiling. There were hundreds of them, marching away into the darkness beyond the reach of his light.”

Med on Norton as he walks up to one of the columns and directs his light into the interior

Med on “Refracted as through a cylindrical lens, the light fanned out on the far side to be focused and refocused, getting fainter with each repetition, in the array of pillars beyond. He felt that he was in the middle of some complicated demonstration in optics.”

Med on Norton and Mercer who was watching

Mercer: Very pretty, but what does it mean?

Close on Mercer: Who needs a forest of glass pillars?

Med on the two. Norton raps on the glass. The sound indicates the column is solid

Norton: When in doubt, say nothing and move on.

Long on all four as Norton walks up to another column and shines his light into it

Med on Norton and Mercer. Suddenly Mercer acts surprised

Mercer: I could have sworn this pillar was empty. Now there’s something inside it.

Norton: Where? I don’t see anything.

Mercer points to a spot in the interior. Norton looks

Mercer: You can’t see it? Come around to this side. Damn, now I’ve lost it!

Calvert walks up: What’s going on here?

Med on the column as the camera circles it: “ The columns were not transparent from every angle or under all illuminations. As one walked around them, objects would suddenly flash into view, apparently embedded in their depths like flies in amber, and when then disappear again. There were dozens of them, all different. They looked absolutely real and solid, yet many seemed to occupy the identical volume of space.”  

Med on the men looking into the column

Calvert: Holograms. Just like a museum on Earth.

Norton moves off to examine other columns. He stops at one and shines his light inside 

Med on what he is seeing: “Hand tools (though for huge and peculiar hands), containers, small machines with keyboards that appeared to have been made for more than five fingers, scientific instruments, startling conventional domestic utensils, including knives and plates that apart from their size would not have attracted a second glance on any terrestrial table: they were all there, with hundred of less identifiable objects, often jumbled up together in the same pillar. A museum surely, would have some logical arrangement, some segregation of related items. This seemed to be a completely random collection of hardware.”

Long on the four men exploring the pillars. Three of them are photographing the column’s interiors

Med on Norton: Not a museum... maybe a catalog... a catalog of items, indexed according to some arbitrary but perfectly logical system.

Med on Mercer: I see what you mean. The Ramans might be equally surprised to find us putting... ah... camshafts next to cameras.

Calvert walks up: Or books beside boots.

Med on Norton: That’s the idea. This may be an indexed catalog for 3-D images... templates... solid blueprints, if you want to call them that.

Close on Calvert: For what purpose?

Med on Norton, he turns to face Mercer and Calvert: Well, you know the theory about the biots... the idea that they don’t exist until they’re needed and then they’re created... synthesized... from patterns stored somewhere?

Med on Mercer and Calvert. Myron walks up to them

Mercer: I see. So when a Raman needs a left-handed blivet, he punches out the correct code number and a copy is manufactured from a pattern in here.

Med on Norton: Something like that. But please don’t ask me about the practical details.

Long as the four continue to walk and explore further in to the room. The pillars got bigger the father they progressed. Now the were two meters in diameter. The four spread out in order to cover more area

Med on Norton photographing what seemed to be some kind of optical device when he heard Calvert in the distance

Calvert off screen: Skipper, Karl, Will... look at this!

Norton starts to run toward the Calvert’s voice

Med on Calvert and Mercer as Myron and Norton run up to them. They all stare at what it was that Calvert had seen, looking slightly upwards

Med on and from below looking up. What is inside is lighted to inspire some sense of grandeur as this is the closest we will see of an actual Raman: “Inside one of the two meter columns was an elaborate harness, or uniform, obviously made for a vertically standing creature much taller than a man. A very narrow central metal band apparently surrounded the waist, thorax, or some division unknown to terrestrial zoology. From this rose three slim columns, tapering outward and ending in a perfectly circular belt, and impressive meter in diameter. Loops equally spaced along it could be intended only to go around upper limbs or arms---three of them.

   There were numerous pouches, buckles, bandoliers from which tools (or weapons?) protruded, pipes and electrical conductors, even small black boxes that would have looked perfectly at home in an electronics lab on Earth. The whole arrangement was almost as complex as a spacesuit, though it obviously provided only partial covering for the creature wearing it.”

Med on the men. Myron begins to photograph the suit

Mercer: About two and a half meters high... not counting the head... whatever that’s like.

Norton: With three arms...

Cut to behind and below the men with the suit in the background

Norton: ... and presumably three legs. The same plan as spiders, on a much more massive scale.

Close on Norton: Do you suppose that’s a coincidence?

Med on Mercer: Probably not. We design robots in our own image; we might expect the Ramans to do the same.

Med on the men

Myron, looking around: Do you suppose they know we’re here?

Close on Mercer: I doubt it. We’ve not even reached their threshold of consciousness... though the Hermians certainly had a good try.

Med on the four

Rousseau over the radio: Skipper, you’d better get outside.

Norton: What is it... biots heading this way?

Rousseau: No. Something much more serious. The lights are going out.

Cut to the men emerging from the hole. The lights seemed as normal as they had ever been

Close on Norton: Pieter, the lights seem to be normal.

Cut to Hub Control, med on Rousseau: It happened so slowly that it was a long time before I noticed any difference. But there’s no doubt about it... I’ve taken a meter reading, and the light level is down by forty percent.

Cut to med on Norton Myron, and Mercer from behind and to the side, and below as they survey Rama’s interior. The camera moves around them as they do this

Close on Norton: This is it. We’re going home.

Med on Norton: Leave all of the equipment behind... we won’t need it again.

Long on the four men as the start a “loping trot” back to Stairway Beta

Transposed fade out and in to med from the side of the men making their way

Med on them from the front walking towards the camera

Close on Norton: Wait!

Med on the four. Norton turns around to view the Southern Hemisphere

Close on Norton: Bridge, did you notice that?

Cut to Endeavor’s bridge, weightless enviornment

Med on Dian, looking at her monitors: Yes, Skipper... very small shock. Could be another attitude change. We’re watching the rate gyro. Nothing yet... just a minute! Positive reading!

Close on the instrument she is looking at

Med on Dian: Can just detect it... less than a microradian per second, but holding.

Cut to med of the four men on the plain

Close on Norton: Rama’s beginning to turn...

Med on the other three’s reaction

Cut to Dian: Rate increasing. Five micorad. Hello! Did you feel that shock?

Cut to med of the four men

Norton: We certainly did. Get all ship’s systems operational. We may have to leave in a hurry.

Dian over the radio: Aye, Skipper.

Mercer walks over to Norton

Mercer: Did you expect an orbit change already? We’re still a long way from perihelion.

Norton: I don’t think Rama works by our textbooks. We’re nearly at Beta. We’ll rest there for five minutes.

Quick fade out and in

Close on Norton still on the plain, at this time the ambient light inside Rama progressively, but slowly weakens: Hub Control. Is the searchlight operating. We may need it in a hurry.

Over the radio, Rousseau: Yes, Skipper. Here it comes.

Long on Hub Control from the plain as a bright light begins to shine

Med on the men

Norton: Let’s go.

Long on the men from behind as they advance toward the stairway

Fade out

Fade in, med on the men resting on the fourth platform

Med as the camera pans from one man to the next

Close on Calvert: What’s that noise, Skipper?

Med on Norton and Mercer

Norton: Noise? I don’t hear anything.

Med on Calvert and Myron

Calvert: High-pitched whistle, dropping in frequency. You must hear it.

A high-pitched whistle, dropping in frequency, begins to be heard

Med on Mercer and Norton

Norton: Your ears are younger than mine. Oh, now I do.

“The whistle seemed to come from everywhere. Soon it was loud, even piercing, and falling swiftly in pitch. Then it suddenly stopped.”

Med on the four men

POV from the men on the platform looking at over the interior of Rama

The sound came on again as the lights dimmed almost all the way, then started to flash

Med on the men

Long on Rama’s interior as: “Brilliant beads, like ball lightening, raced along the six narrow valleys that had once illuminated this world. They moved from both poles toward the sea in a synchronized, hypnotic rhythm that could have only one meaning. ‘To the sea!’ the lights were calling. ‘To the sea!’ And the summons was hard to resist; there was not a man who did not feel a compulsion to turn back, and seek oblivion in the waters of Rama.”

Close on Norton: Hub Control. Can you see what’s happening?

Med on Rousseau looking through the telescope, sounding frightened and a little in awe: Yes, Skipper. I’m looking across at the Southern Hemisphere.

Telescopes POV watching the biots running and falling into the sea

Rousseau VO: There are scores of biots over there... including some big ones. Cranes, bulldozers... lots of scavengers. And they’re all rushing back to the sea faster than I’ve ever seen them before. There goes a crane... right over the edge! Just like Jimmy, but going down a lot quicker... it smashed to pieces when it hit... and here come the sharks; they’re tearing into it... ugh! It’s not a pretty sight...

   Now I’m looking at the plain. There’s a bulldozer that seems to have broken down... it’s going round and round in circles. Now a couple of crabs are tearing into it, pulling it to pieces...

Close on Rousseau: Skipper, I think you’d better get back right away.

Med on the men now standing

Close on Norton: Believe me, we’re coming just as quickly as we can.

Med as they start up the last section of stairway

Transposition fade out and in as the reach the ladder and begin to ascend

Transposition fade out and in on long of the men ascending the ladder. The whistle abruptly stops as does the fireball lights

Close on Norton as he turns to look at Rama’s interior

Long on Rama’s interior. The narrow valley’s lights were now continuous once again, but fading rapidly, sometimes flickering

Close on Norton: Bridge, is Rama still turning?

Cut to med of Kirchoff on the bridge: Yes, Skipper. Very slowly but constant.

Cut to close on Norton: Good. It’s when Rama stops moving that I’ll really start to worry.

Cut to telescope POV of an empty plain

Rousseau VO: Skipper, the biots are all gone now.

Close on Norton: Copy that.

Long on the men as they continue to ascend

Cut to med of the men reaching the Hub. Others helped the men to the airlock.

Close on Norton as he turns to look at Rama one last time

Long on Rama with  very low light

Med on Norton who is the last to enter the airlock, which closes behind him

Fade out

Fade in, Norton’s state room aboard Endeavor, weightless enviornment, med on Norton sleeping as Mercer shakes him awake

Med on Norton as he gets up: It’s stopped turning?

Close on Mercer: Yes. Steady as a rock.

Med on Norton: Let’s go to the bridge.

Cut exterior in space of both Endeavor and Rama. The smaller ship is in the shadow of the larger, using it as a heat shield. In this shot the Sun begins to peek over the top of Rama, displaying “the pearly splendor of the corona reappear across a background of brighter stars. There was one huge prominence, at least a half a million kilometers high, that had climbed so far from the Sun that its upper branches looked like a tree of crimson fire.”

Cut to med on Endeavor’s bridge

Med on Calvert, from navigation: Skipper! We’re rolling... look at the stars...

Med on Norton adjusting a monitor to display a moving star field

Med on Calvert: But I’m getting no instrument readings!

Med on the room

Norton: Rate gyros operating?

Close on Calvert: Perfectly normal. I can see the zero jitter. But we’re rolling several degrees a second!

Close on Norton: That’s impossible!

Med on Calvert: Of course it is... but look for yourself.

Med as Norton does just that

Close on Mercer: I think we have to be in some kind of gravitational field. That’s the only explanation.

Norton looks at him as a bright light begins to shine on the monitor

Cut to exterior of Rama beginning to pull away from the Endeavor, with the Sun fully in sight now

Cut to med on the bridge

Norton, talking to Pak: Can you get a radar reading? What’s the Doppler?

Pak: Yes, Skipper. Rama’s pulling away, accelerating at, uh, zero point zero one five gravities.

Norton to Mercer: Rama’s underway now, and I think we’re caught in its wake.

Close on Mercer as he nods in agreement

Cut to exterior as Rama’s distance from Endeavor increases

Fade out

Fade in, the next day (24 hour period), med on Norton and Mercer in the cockpit

Mercer: Four, three, two, one.

Cut to exterior as Endeavor’s main engine fires. The ship slowly turns from the course it was following, turning around, away from the Sun, toward the camera, and past it

Cut to med on cockpit as Pak calls on the intercom

Pak: Skipper, you better come see this.

Norton gets up and enters the compartment behind

Norton to Pak: What is it Jimmy?

Close on Pak: We’re approximately two hundred thousand kilometers away from Rama now, and it seems to have stopped maneuvering, but it’s gaining speed.

Close on Norton: It’s gaining speed? Are you sure?

Med on the two

Pak: Of course.

Norton: Have you calculated its orbit?

Pak: Yeah.

Close on Pak: It’s headed straight for the Sun.

Close on Norton

Fade out

Fade in on long of the Rama Committee, already in progress

Med on Bose: We’ve refined the calculations concerning Rama’s new orbit, and re-checked them thoroughly. It would appear the spacecraft will pass so close to the Sun... er... five hundred thousand kilometers from its surface at perihelion, to be exact. So close that it will assure it’s own destruction. How could this be? Dr Perera?

Med on Perera: I don’t know Ambassador. Perhaps those that controlled Rama made a mistake, or its computers malfunctioned. All it would take would be a minor miscalculation, perhaps changing the sign of an equation from a plus to a minus. That’s all it would take. I’m afraid we’ll never know for certain.

Long on the room

Fade out

Fade in to med on Endeavor’s control room, amidst the normal business of the ship, Norton and Calvert are watching the main monitor.

Close on the monitor which shows the Sun blacked out and a small object approaching it from the side.

Close on the object which is Rama. Details of Rama cannot be seen due to its proximity to the Sun and the distance from Endeavor

Med on the two men

Norton: How close is it to the Sun’s surface?

Calvert turns: Jimmy?

Med on Pak at his station: Approximately five million kilometers...

Med on Norton and Calvert

Close on the dot

Cut to outer space as Rama approaches the camera, the camera begins to move with it keeping it in the frame. Rama begins to exude a cocoon, or shell from each end of the craft until it is totally enveloped in a perfectly spherical shell about 100 kilometers in diameter, that is perfectly reflective and mirror like. The camera stops and Rama passes on its way to perihelion

Cut to control room on Endeavor, Norton and Calvert still watching the monitor

Close on the dot, or object as it disappears

Med on the two men

Calvert: Wow, what happened?

Norton, looking somewhat sad: It’s gone...

Cut back to the monitor and the empty space where the object was when a star like shinning object comes into view.

Med on the two

Calvert: Hey, wait a second. What’s that?

Norton floats over to Pak

Norton: Do you still have radar contact with Rama?

Med on Pak: I think so, or at least I have contact with something where Rama used to be...

Close on Norton: What do you mean?

Close on Pak as he turns to face Norton: If it’s Rama, its has changed its shape and size. It’s now a hundred kilometers in diameter and spherical.

Close on Norton

Med on Mercer across the room: It could be a shield of some kind.

Close on Norton: So Rama’s protecting itself?

Med on Mercer who shrugs

Norton returns to the monitor

Cut to outer space 30 million kilometers from the sun as a remote observatory trains its cameras toward the Sun and Rama

Cut to Rama near the Sun as its shape turns from a sphere into an ellipsoid.

Cut to long on the Sun and Rama as the Sun’s lines of force in its corona begin to bend into a tube, that surrounds Rama

Cut to various angles of this phenomenon

Cut long in Rama interior looking head on and a little below the Big and Little Horns as they are in full electric display, with the accompanying thunderous sound

Cut back to Rama exterior shots as: “Something was happening to the solar magnetic field in the region around Rama. The million-kilometer-long-lines of force that threaded the corona and drove its wisps of fiercely ionized gas at speeds that sometimes defied even the crushing gravity of the Sun were shaping themselves around that glittering ellipsoid. Nothing was yet visible to the eye, but the orbiting instruments reported every change in magnetic flux and ultraviolet radiation.

   And presently even the eye could see the changes in the corona. A faintly glowing tube or tunnel, a hundred thousand kilometers long, had appeared  high in the outer atmosphere of the Sun. It was slightly curved, bending along the orbit Rama was tracing, and Rama itself---or the protective cocoon around it---was visible as a glittering bead racing faster and faster down that ghostly tube through the corona.

   For it was still gaining speed. Now it was moving at more than two thousand kilometers a second, and there was no question of it ever remaining a captive of the Sun. Now, at last, the Ramans’ strategy was obvious. They had come so close to the Sun merely to tap its energy at the source and to speed themselves even faster on the way to their ultimate, unknown goal.

   Soon it seemed that they were tapping more than energy. No one could ever be certain of this, because the nearest observing instruments were thirty million kilometers away, but there were definite indications that matter was flowing from the Sun into Rama itself, as if it was replacing the leakage and losses of ten thousand centuries in space.

   Faster and faster Rama swept around the Sun, moving more swiftly than any object that had ever traveled through the solar system. In less than two hours its direction of motion had swung more than ninety degrees, and it had given a final, almost contemptuous proof of its total lack of interest in all the worlds whose peace of mind it had so rudely disturbed.

   It was dropping out of the elliptic, down into the southern sky, far below the plain in which all the planets move. Though that, surely, could not be its ultimate goal, it was aimed squarely at the Greater Magellanic Cloud, and the lonely gulfs beyond the Milky Way.”  

Cut to long shot of Rama as it leave the vicinity of the Sun downwards, as it’s shell retracts, and it disappears into space

Fade out

Fade in to another meeting of the Rama Committee. Med on Perera

Perera, a little embarrassed: It would seem, ladies and gentlemen, that Rama simply used our Sun as a refueling station, and that it had no interest, whatsoever, in any of our worlds, or making contact of any kind with any of us. (he looks directly at the Ambassador from Mercury)

Cut to med of the Ambassador from Mercury, also looking rather embarrassed

Cut to Davidson: Amazing. No interest in contact at all?

Med on Perera: It certainly seems that way.

Med on Davidson: That seems rather rude, doesn’t it?

Med on Perera who cannot say anything to that

Med on Bose: Where is Rama headed now?

Med on Perera: Huumm. Good question. According to our best projections, Rama is leaving the solar elliptic, and headed into the southern skies, on a course straight toward the Greater Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way’s companion galaxies, one hundred and fifty eight thousand and two hundred light years away.

Cut to various reactions from the committee’s members

Med on Bose: How long will it take to get there?

Med on Perera: Another good question, and the answer to that is relative to Rama’s velocity of course, and if it remains constant, but I can surmise this. The Greater Magellanic Cloud is probably not Rama’s true destination, surely it will make a change in course sometime in the future, as the time it would take to traverse the distance between the two galaxies is, at Rama’s last recorded speed, a little over twenty four million years. Even for a craft as advanced and unpredictable as Rama has proven to be, a voyage of that duration is virtually inconceivable.

Med on Price: Why?

Perera: Well, that would be a trip over a hundred times longer than that which brought it here. If it needed to replenish its stores, so to speak, after just two hundred thousand years, think of how exhausted it would be at twenty four million.

Price: Doctor Perera. We’ve all underestimated Rama’s capabilities far too many times to declare anything out of its reach.

Perera, admittedly: Perhaps you’re right, Doctor Price. Perhaps you are right.

Long on the room as the members digest this information

Fade out

Fade in to med in Norton’s stateroom, weightless enviornment. Norton is lying on his bunk when there is a knock on the door

Norton: Come in.

Med on Ernst entering. She closes the door

Ernst: Some news for you Bill. I wanted to give it first, before the crew gets into the act. And anyway, it’s my department.

Med on Norton as he comes out of his reverie, and sits up

Norton: Sorry, Laura, I don’t understand. What’s it all about?

Ernst: Don’t say you’ve forgotten!

Norton: Stop teasing you wretched woman. I’ve had a few things on my mind recently.

Ernst floated over to a chair and sat

Ernst: Through interplanetary crises come and go, the wheels of Martian bureaucracy grind steadily away. But I suppose Rama helped. Good thing you didn’t have to get permission from the Hermians as well.

Norton, realizing what she’s talking about: Oh! Port Lowell has issued the permit?!

Ernst: Better than that. It’s already been acted on. (she looked at the piece of paper she was holding) Immediate. (looking up) Probably right now your new son is being conceived.

Norton: Thanks! I hope he hasn’t minded the wait.

Close on Ernst

Close on Norton: You’re off duty, aren’t you?

Ernst: What are you thinking? This visit was purely in a professional capacity.

Close on Norton: After all these years we know each other better than that.

Close on Ernst smiling

Fade out

Fade in, same setting, Norton and Ernst are now in his bunk, naked and covered, he is holding her from behind. They may have had sex.

Norton is lost in thought. Ernst notices

Ernst: Now what are you thinking? You’re not becoming sentimental I hope.

Norton, he sighs: Not about us. About Rama. I’m beginning to miss it.

Ernst: Thanks very much for the compliment.

Norton: It’s a well known fact, Laura, that men, unlike women, have two-track minds. But seriously... well, more seriously... I do feel a sense of loss.

Ernst: I can understand that. But hey, look. You were immensely successful, beyond all reasonable expectation. Scientists will be busy for decades analyzing what you discovered in Rama, and I might add, you did it without a single casualty.

Norton: I suppose. But in a very real sense I failed. The Ramans used our solar system as a refueling stop, a booster station, call it what you will, on their way to more important business. They probably won’t even know the human race exists!

Close on their faces

Norton: But I failed, because the nature and the purpose of the Ramans is still totally unknown. Our chance has been lost... forever.

Fade out

Slow fade in to long shot of a moderately expensive three story house in a rural setting, at night. Ambient rural noises are heard
Fade in

“Residence of Dr. Carlisle Perera

Lehighton, Pennsylvania

Earth"

Fade out

Camera moves in slowly

Transposition fade out and in on Perera’s living room. Camera moves through this slowly toward a stairway

Transposition fade out and in on Perera’s bedroom, with Perera and his wife sleeping in bed

Cut to view from above the bed as Perera sits up suddenly out of a deep sleep, breathless.

Cut to med from the side as Perera’s wife wakes up in response to Perera’s movement

Wife: What is it Carlisle? What’s the matter?

Med on Perera from the front, face on looking into the camera, as he gasps: The Ramans do everything in threes!

Fade to black

Credits