But what if one of the Newton military officers were seized by panic? How could the system be protected against a unilateral act of nuclear warfare by a crew member? When all the discussions were completed, the resultant safety system was relatively simple. There would be three military officers in the crew. Each of them would have an RQ code known only to himself. Manual input of any two of the long numerical sequences would arm the nuclear devices. The system was thus protected against either a recalcitrant officer or a frightened one. It sounded like a foolproof system.
But our current situation was never considered in the contingency analyses, O’Toole thought as he lay in his bed. In the event of any dangerous action, either military or civilian, each of us was supposed to designate an alternate to leant our code. But who would have thought that an appendectomy was dangerous? Valeriy’s RQ died with him. Which means the system now requires two for two.
O’Toole rolled over on his stomach and pressed his face against the pillow. He now clearly understood why he was still awake. If I don’t input my code those bombs cannot be used. He remembered a luncheon on the military ship with Valeriy Borzov and Otto Heilmann during the leisurely cruise toward Rama. “It’s a perfect set of checks and balances,” the Soviet general had joked, “and probably played a role in our individual selections. Otto would pull the trigger at the slightest provocation and you, Michael, would agonize over its morality even if your life were threatened. I’m the tiebreaker.”
But you are dead, General O’Toole said to himself, and we have been ordered to activate the bombs. He rose from the bed and walked over to his desk. As he had done all his life when facing a tough decision, O’Toole pulled a small electronic notebook from his pocket and made two short lists, one summarizing the reasons for following his orders to destroy Rama and the other presenting arguments against it. He had no strictly logical reasons to oppose the destruction command — the giant vehicle was probably a lifeless machine, his three colleagues were almost certainly dead, and there was a nontrivial implied threat to the Earth. But still O’Toole hesitated. There was something about committing such a flagrantly hostile act that offended his sensibilities.
He returned to his bed and rolled over on his back. Dear God, he prayed, staring at the ceiling, how can I possibly know what is right in this situation? Please show me the way.
Only thirty seconds after his morning alarm, Otto Heilmann heard a soft knock on his door. General O’Toole walked in moments later. The American was already dressed for the day. “You’re up early, Michael,” Admiral Heilmann said, fumbling for his morning coffee that had been automatically heating for five minutes already.
“I wanted to talk to you,” O’Toole said pleasantly. He courteously waited for Heilmann to pick up his coffee packet.
“What is it?” the admiral asked.
“I want you to call off the meeting this morning.”
“Why?” Heilmann replied. “We need some assistance from the rest of the crew, as you and I discussed last night. The longer we wait to get started, the more chance we will delay our departure.”
“I’m not ready just yet,” O’Toole said.
Admiral Hermann’s brow furrowed. He took a long sip from his coffee and studied his companion. “I see,” he said quietly. “And what else is needed before you will be ready?”
“I want to talk to someone, General Norimoto perhaps, to understand why we are destroying Rama. I know you and I talked about it yesterday, but I want to hear the reasons from the person giving the order.”
“It is a military officer’s duty to follow orders. Asking questions could be viewed as a disciplinary breach—”
“I understand all that, Otto,” O’Toole interrupted, “but this is not a battlefield situation. I am not refusing to comply with the order. I just want to be certain…” His voice trailed off and O’Toole stared off in the distance.
“Certain of what?” Heilmann asked.
O’Toole took a deep breath. “Certain that I’m doing the right thing.”
A video conference with Norimoto was arranged and the Newton crew meeting was delayed. Since it was the middle of the night in Amsterdam, it was some time before the encoded transmission could be translated and presented to the COG chief of staff. In his typical manner, General Norimoto then requested several more hours to prepare his response, so that he could obtain “staff consensus” on what he was going to say to O’Toole.
The general and Admiral Heilmann were sitting together in the Newton military control center when the transmission from Norimoto began. General Norimoto was dressed in his full military uniform. He did not smile when he greeted the Newton officers. He put on his glasses and read from a prepared text.
“General O’Toole, we have carefully reviewed the questions contained in your last transmission. All your concerns were included on the issues list that was discussed here on Earth before we reached the decision to proceed with Trinity. Under the unique provisions contained in the ISA-COG operating protocols, you and the other Newton military personnel are temporarily part of my special staff; therefore, I am your commanding officer. The message that was transmitted to you should be treated as an order.”
General Norimoto managed just a glimmer of a smile. “Nevertheless,” he continued reading, “because of the significance of the action contained in your order and your obvious concern about its repercussions, we have prepared three summary statements that should help you to understand our decision:
“One: We do not know if Rama is hostile or friendly. We have no way of obtaining additional data to resolve the issue.
“Two: Rama is hurtling toward Earth. It might impact our home planet, take hostile action once it’s in our neighborhood, or perform benign activities that we can’t define.
“Three: By implementing Trinity when Rama is still ten or more days away, we can guarantee the safety of the planet, regardless of Rama’s intentions or future actions.”
The general paused for the briefest of moments. “That is all,” he then concluded. “Proceed with Trinity.”
The screen went black, “Are you satisfied?” Admiral Heilmann asked.
“I guess so!” O’Toole said with a sigh. “I didn’t hear anything new, but I shouldn’t have expected anything else.”
Admiral Heilmann looked at his watch. “We’ve wasted almost an entire day,” he said. “Should we have the crew meeting after dinner?”
“I’d rather not,” O’Toole replied. “This episode has exhausted me and I hardly slept at all last night. I’d prefer to wait until the morning.”
“All right,” Heilmann said after a pause. He stood up and put his arm on O’Toole’s shoulder. “We’ll get started first thing after breakfast.”
In the morning General O’Toole did not attend the scheduled crew meeting. He phoned Heilmann and asked the admiral to proceed with the discussion without him. O’Toole’s excuse was that he had a “vicious stomach upset.” He doubted if Admiral Heilmann really believed his explanation, but it didn’t really matter.
O’Toole watched and listened to the meeting on the video monitor in his room, never interrupting or adding to the proceedings. None of the other cosmonauts seemed particularly surprised that the Newton was carrying a nuclear arsenal. Heilmann did a thorough job of explaining what was to be done. He enlisted the help of Yamanaka and Tabori, as he and O’Toole had discussed, and outlined a sequence of events that would be complete with the weapons deployed inside Rama in seventy-two hours. That would leave the crew another three days to prepare for departure.