53
TRINITY
When Richard Wakefield had left the Newton to go back inside Rama, General O’Toole had been the last crew member to say good-bye. The general had waited patiently while the other cosmonauts had finished their conversations with Richard. “You’re really certain you want to do this?” Janos Tabori had said to his British friend. “You know the full committee is going to declare Rama off limits within hours.”
“By then” — Richard had grinned at Janos — “I will be on my way to Beta. Technically I will not have violated their order.”
“That’s bullshit,” Admiral Heilmann had interjected tersely. “Dr. Brown and I are in charge of this mission. We have both told you to stay onboard the Newton.”
“And I’ve told you several times,” Richard said firmly, “that I left some personal items inside Rama that are very important to me– Besides, you know as well as I do that there’s nothing for any of us here to do over the next couple of days. Once the abort decision is definitely made, all the major scheduling activities will be on the ground. We will be told when to undock and head for Earth.”
“I will remind you, one more time,” Otto Heilmann had replied, “that I consider what you are doing an act of insubordination. When we return to Earth I intend to prosecute to the fullest—”
“Save it, will you, Otto?” Richard interrupted. There was no rancor in his tone. He adjusted his space suit and started to put on his helmet. As always Francesca was recording the scene on her video camera. She had been strangely silent since her private conversation with Richard an hour earlier. She seemed detached, as if her mind were somewhere else.
General O’Toole walked up to Richard and extended his hand. “We haven’t spent much time together, Wakefield,” he said, “but I’ve admired your work. Good luck in there. Don’t take any unnecessary chances.”
Richard had been surprised by the general’s warm smile. He had expected the American military officer to try to talk him out of leaving. “It’s magnificent in Rama, General,” Richard had said. “Like a combination of the Grand Canyon, the Alps, and the Pyramids all at once.”
“We’ve lost four crew members already,” O’Toole replied. “I want to see you back here safe and sound. God bless you.”
Richard finished shaking the general’s hand, put on his helmet, and stepped across into the airlock. Moments later, when Wake6eld was gone, Admiral Heilmann was critical of General O’Toole’s behavior. “I’m disappointed in you, Michael,” he said. “From that warm send-off the young man might have concluded that you actually approved of his action.”
O’Toole faced the German admiral. “Wakefield has courage, Otto,” he said. “And conviction as well, He is not afraid of either the Ramans or the ISA disciplinary process. I admire that kind of self-confidence.”
“Nonsense,” Heilmann rejoined. “Wakefield is a brash, arrogant schoolboy. You know what he left inside? A couple of those stupid Shakespearean robots. He just doesn’t like taking orders. He wants to do what’s uppermost on his own personal agenda.”
“That makes him a lot like the rest of us,” Francesca remarked. The room was quiet for a moment. “Richard is very smart,” she said in a subdued tone. “He probably has reasons for going back into Rama that none of us understand.”
“I just hope he comes back before dark, as he promised,” Janos said. “I’m not certain I could stand to lose another friend.”
The cosmonauts filed out of the atrium into the hallway. “Where’s Dr. Brown?” Janos asked Francesca as he walked along beside her.
“He’s with Yamanaka and Turgenyev. They’re reviewing possible crew assignments for the trip home. As shorthanded as we are, a lot of cross training will be necessary before we leave.” Francesca laughed. “He even asked me if I could be a backup navigation engineer. Can you imagine that?”
“Easily,” Janos replied. “You probably could learn any of the engineering assignments at this point.”
Behind them Heilmann and O’Toole shuffled down the corridor. When they reached the hall leading to the private crew quarters, General O’Toole started to leave. “Just a minute,” Otto Heilmann said. “I need to talk to you about something else. This damn Wakefield thing almost made it slip my mind. Can you come to my office for an hour or so?”
“Essentially,” Otto Heilmann said, pointing at the unscrambled cryptogram on the monitor, “this is a major change to the Trinity procedure. It’s not surprising. Now that we know much more about Rama, you would expect the deployment to be somewhat different.”
“But we never anticipated using all five weapons,” O’Toole responded. “The extra pair were only loaded onboard in case of failures. That much megatonnage could vaporize Rama.”
“That’s the intent,” Heilmann said. He sat back in his chair and smiled. “Just between us chickens!” he said, “I think there’s a lot of pressure on the general staff down there. The feeling is that Rama’s capabilities were vastly underrated initially.”
“But why do they want to put the two largest weapons in the ferry passageway? Surely one of the bombs would accomplish the desired result.”
“What if it didn’t explode for some reason? There has to be a backup.” Heilmann leaned forward eagerly on his desk. “I think this change to the procedure clearly defines the strategy. The two at the end will ensure that the structural integrity of the vehicle will be absolutely destroyed — that’s essential to guarantee that it is impossible for Rama to maneuver again after the blast. The other three bombs are scattered around the interior to make certain that no part of Rama is safe. It’s equally important that the explosions should result in enough velocity change that all the remaining pieces miss the Earth.”
General O’Toole constructed a mental image of the giant spacecraft being annihilated by five nuclear bombs. It was not a pleasant picture. Once, fifteen years before, he and twenty other members of the COG general staff had flown into the South Pacific to watch a hundred-kiloton weapon explode. The COG system engineering personnel had convinced the political leaders, and the world press, that one nuclear test was necessary “every twenty years or so” to ensure that all the old weapons would indeed fire in an emergency. O’Toole and his team had observed the demonstration, ostensibly to learn as much as possible about the effects of nuclear weapons.
General O’Toole was deep in his memory, recalling the spine-tingling horror of that fireball rising in the peaceful South Pacific sky. He was not aware that Admiral Heilmann had asked him a question. “I’m sorry, Otto,” he said. “I was thinking about something else.”
“I had asked you how long you thought it might take to get approval for Trinity.”
“You mean in our case?” O’Toole said with disbelief.
“Of course,” Heilmann responded.
“I can’t imagine it,” O’Toole said quickly, “The weapons were included in the mission manifest solely to guard against openly hostile actions by the Ramans. I even remember the baseline scenario — an unprovoked attack against the Earth by the alien spacecraft, using high-technology weapons beyond the capabilities of our defenses. The current situation is altogether different.”
The German admiral studied his American colleague. “No one ever envisioned the Rama spacecraft on a collision course with the Earth!” Heilmann said. “If it does not alter its trajectory, it will gouge an enormous hole in the surface and kick up such dust that the temperatures will drop all over the world for several years… At least, that’s what the scientists say,”
“But that’s preposterous,” O’Toole argued. “You heard all the discussion during the conference call. No rational person really believes that Rama will actually hit the Earth.”