![]() ![]() It, and by assumption the others, are powered by internal batteries (much like those of terrestrial electric eels) and possess some intelligence. When one is found damaged and apparently lifeless, the team's doctor/biologist Surgeon-Commander Laura Ernst inspects it, and discovers it to be a hybrid biological entity and robot-eventually termed a " biot". When the crew arrives at base, they see a variety of odd creatures inspecting their camp. As they ride back, tidal waves form in the cylindrical sea, created by the movements of Rama itself as it makes course corrections. Pak jumps off the 500m cliff, his descent slowed by the low gravity and using his shirt as a drogue parachute, and is quickly rescued by the waiting boat. Amongst the strange geometric structures, he sees an alien flower growing through a cracked tile in the otherwise sterile environment, and decides to take it as both a curiosity and for scientific research. The creature dumps the remains of the skybike into a pit, but ignores Pak himself, who explores the surrounding fields while waiting for the rescue party to arrive. As Pak waits, Norton sends a rescue party across the cylindrical sea, using a small, improvised craft, constructed earlier for exploration of the sea's central island. He cannot decide whether it is a robot or a biological alien, and keeps his distance while radioing for help. When Pak wakes up, he sees a crab-like creature picking up his skybike and chopping it into pieces. Due to his proximity to the spires, the concussion from a discharge damages his skybike causing him to crash on the isolated southern continent. Once at the massive metal cones on the southern end of Rama, Jimmy detects magnetic and electric fields coming from the cones, which increase, resulting in lightning. One of the crew members, Jimmy Pak, who has experience with low gravity skybikes, rides a smuggled skybike along Rama's axis to the far end, otherwise inaccessible due to the cylindrical sea and the 500m high cliff on the opposite shore. They also find that Rama's atmosphere is breathable. Massive spires, which are theorised to be part of Rama's propulsion system, stand at its "southern" end. A band of water, dubbed the Cylindrical Sea, stretches around Rama's central circumference. ![]() Rama's inner surfaces hold "cities" of geometric structures that resemble buildings and are separated by streets with shallow trenches. The crew, led by Commander Bill Norton, enters Rama through a safety system consisting of triple airlocks, and explores the 16-km wide by 50-km long cylindrical world of its interior, but the nature and purpose of the starship and its creators remain enigmatic throughout the book. Endeavour manages to rendezvous with Rama one month after it first comes to Earth's attention, when the alien ship is already inside Venus's orbit. The solar survey vessel Endeavour is sent to study Rama, as it is the only ship close enough to do so in the brief period Rama will spend in the Solar System. The resulting images reveal that Rama is a perfect cylinder, 20 kilometres (12 mi) in diameter and 50 kilometres (31 mi) long, and almost completely featureless, making this humankind's first encounter with an alien spacecraft. It is named Rama after the Hindu god, and an uncrewed space probe dubbed Sita is launched from the Mars moon Phobos to intercept and photograph it. The astronomers' interest is further piqued when they realise the asteroid has an extremely rapid rotation period of four minutes and is exceptionally large. Its speed (100,000 km/h – 62,150 m/h) and the angle of its trajectory clearly indicate it is not on a long orbit around the sun, but is an interstellar object. It is detected by astronomers in the year 2131 while it is still outside the orbit of Jupiter. The "Rama" of the title is an alien starship weighing at least ten trillion tons, initially mistaken for an asteroid categorised as "31/439". After an asteroid falls in Northeast Italy on 11 September 2077, creating a major disaster, the government of Earth sets up the Spaceguard system as an early warning of arrivals from deep space.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |