The Garden of Rama by Arthur C. Clarke;Gentry Lee

Author:Arthur C. Clarke;Gentry Lee [Lee, Arthur C. Clarke;Gentry]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General, Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Science fiction, Life on other planets, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Spaceships Fiction, Space flight Fiction, Future Fiction
ISBN: 9781857230215
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 1993-04-15T05:00:00+00:00

THE GARDEN OF RAMA 265

clips, are available in the reserve library stored out in the cargo bay, but those data are not accessible during cruise due to the limitations of the flight data network. The extra data are not needed, however, for it is clear from these photos that the individual who appeared in the transmission this afternoon is either Nicole des Jardins, or an absolutely perfect copy of her.''

A close-up still from the afternoon video was frozen on the left screen and juxtaposed to a head photo taken of Nicole the night of the New Year's Eve party at the Villa Adrian! outside Rome. There was no question about it. The two pictures were definitely of the same woman. An appreciative murmur rose from the audience as Kenji paused in his presentation.

"Nicole des Jardins was born," Kenji continued in a slightly subdued tone, "on January 6, 2164. Therefore, if the video we watched this afternoon was actually filmed about four years ago, she should have been seventy-seven years old at the time.

Now, we all know that Dr. des Jardins was in superb physical condition, and that she exercised regularly, but if the woman we saw this afternoon was

seventy-seven, then the ETs who built Rama must also have discovered the fountain of youth." Even though it was late at night and Kenji was very tired, he still could not sleep. The events of the day kept forcing themselves into his mind and exciting him again. Next to him in the small double bed Nai Buatong Wata-nabe was very much aware that her

husband was awake.

"You're absolutely certain mat we were seeing the real Nicole des Jardins, aren't you, dear?" Nai said softly after Kenji had turned over for the umpteenth time.

"Yes," said Kenji. "But Macmillan isn't. He demanded that I make that statement about the possibility of a perfect copy. He minks everything in the video is a fake."

"After our discussion this afternoon," Nai said following a short pause, "I was able to recall all the brouhaha about Nicole and King Henry from seven years ago. It was in most of the personality

magazines. But I've forgotten something. How was it established for certain that Henry

266 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE

was Genevieve's father? Wasn't the king already dead? And doesn't the royal family in England keep its genome information private and secret?"

"Lopez used the genomes belonging to the parents and siblings of people who had married into the royal family. Then, employing a data correlation technique that he himself had invented, Dr. Lopez showed that Henry, who was still the Prince of Wales during the 2184 Olympics, was more than three

times as likely as any other person present in Los Angeles at the time to have been the father of

Nicole's baby. After Darren Higgins admitted on his deathbed that Henry and Nicole had spent one night together during the Olympics, the royal family

allowed a genetic specialist access to their genome data base. The expert concluded, beyond any

reasonable doubt, mat Henry was Genevieve's

father.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.