“Hello, Nicole,” the king said finally. His voice was soft and tender.

“Hello, Henry,” she replied. He started to walk around the couch, to come close to her, perhaps to touch her, but there was something in her body language that stopped him. He leaned on the side of the couch.

“Won’t you sit down?” he invited.

Nicole shook her head. “I’d prefer to stand, if it’s all right with you.” She waited a few more seconds. Their eyes again locked in a deep communica­tion. She felt herself being drawn to him despite her strong internal warn­ings. “Henry,” she blurted out suddenly, “why did you summon me here? It must be important. It’s not normal for the king of England to spend his days sitting in a chalet on the side of a Swiss ski mountain.”

Henry walked toward the comer of the room. “I brought you a present,” he said as he bent down with his back to Nicole, “in honor of your thirty-sixth birthday.”

Nicole laughed. Some of the tension was easing. “That’s tomorrow,” she said. “You’re a day early. But why—”

He extended a data cube toward her. “This is the most valuable gift I could find for you,” he said seriously, “and it has taken many marks from the royal treasury to compile it.”

She looked at him quizzically,

“I have been worried for some time about this mission of yours,” Henry said, “and in the beginning I could not understand why. But about four months ago, one night when I was playing with Prince Charles and Princess Eleanor, I realized what was bothering me. My intuitive sense tells me that this crew of yours will have problems. I know it sounds crazy, particularly coining from me, but I’m not worried about the Ramans. That megaloma­niac Brown is probably right, the Ramans couldn’t care less about us Earth-lings. But you’re about to spend a hundred days in confined quarters with eleven other…”

He could tell that Nicole was not following him. “Here,” he said, “take this cube. I had my intelligence agents put together full and complete dos­siers on every member of the Newton dozen, including you.” Nicole’s brow furrowed. “The information, most of which is not available in the official ISA files, confirmed my personal view that the Newton team contains quite a few unstable elements. I didn’t know what to do with—”

“This is none of your business,” Nicole interrupted angrily. She was af­fronted by Henry’s involvement in her professional life. “Why are you med­dling—”

“Hey, hey, calm down, will you,” the king replied. “I assure you my motives were all good. Look,” he added, “you probably won’t even need all this information, but I thought that maybe it could be useful. Take it. Throw it away if you like. You’re the life science officer. You can treat it however you want.”

Henry could tell that he had botched the meeting. He walked away and sat down in a chair facing the fire. His back was toward Nicole.

’Take care of yourself, Nicole,” he mumbled.

She thought for a long moment, put the data cube inside her parka, and walked over behind the king. “Thank you, Henry,” she said. Nicole let her hand fall on his shoulder. He didn’t turn around. He reached up with his hand and very slowly wrapped his fingers around hers. They remained in that position for almost a minute.

“There was some data that eluded even my investigators,” he said in a low voice. “One fact in particular in which I was extremely interested.”

Nicole could hear her heart amid the crackle of the logs in the fireplace. A voice inside her shouted Tell him, tell him. But another voice, full of wis­dom, counseled silence.

She slowly withdrew her fingers from his. He turned around to look at her. She smiled. Nicole walked over to the door. She put her scarf back on her head and zipped her parka before going outside. “Good-bye, Henry,” she said.

The combined Newton spacecraft — had maneuvered so that Rama filled the expanded viewpoint in the control center. The alien spaceship was im­mense. Its surface was a dull, drab gray, and its long body was a geometrically perfect cylinder. Nicole stood beside Valeriy Borzov in silence. For each of them, this first sight of the entire Rama vehicle in the sunlight was a mo­ment to savor.

“Have you detected any differences?” Nicole said at length. “Not yet,” Commander Borzov replied. “It looks as if the two of them came off the same assembly line.” They were quiet again.

“Wouldn’t you love to see that assembly line?” Nicole asked.

Valeriy Borzov nodded. A small flying craft, like a bat or a hummingbird zoomed past the viewport in the near field and headed off in the direction of Rama. “The exterior drones will confirm the similarities. Each of them has a stored set of images from Rama I. Any variations will be logged and reported within three hours.”

“And if there are no unexplained variations?”

“Then we proceed as planned,” General Borzov answered with a smile. “We dock, open up Rama, and release the interior drones.” He glanced at his watch. “All of which should take place about twenty-two hours from now, provided the life science officer asserts that the crew is ready.”

“The crew is in fine shape,” Nicole reported. “I’ve just finished looking at a synopsis of the cruise health data again. It’s been surprisingly regular. Except for hormonal abnormalities in all three women, which were not totally unexpected, we have seen no significant anomalies in forty days.”

“So physically we’re all ready to go,” the commander said thoughtfully, “but what about our psychological readiness? Are you troubled about this recent spate of arguments? Or can we chalk it up to tension and excite­ment?”

Nicole was silent for a moment. “I agree these four days since the docking have been a little rough. Of course, we knew about the Wilson-Brown prob­lem even before launch. We partially solved it by having Reggie on your ship during most of the cruise, but now that we’ve joined the two spacecraft and the team is all together again, those two seem to be at each other at every opportunity. Particularly if Francesca is around.”

“I tried to talk to Wilson twice while the two ships were separated!” Brozov said in a frustrated tone. “He wouldn’t discuss it. But it’s clear that he is very angry about something.”

General Borzov walked over to the control panel and started fiddling with the keyboards. Sequencing information appeared on one of the monitors. “It must involve Sabatini,” he continued. “Wilson didn’t do much work during cruise, but his log indicates that he spent an inordinate amount of time on the videophone with her. And he was always in a foul mood. He even offended O’Toole.” General Borzov turned and looked intently at Nicole. “As my life science officer, I want to know if you have any official recom­mendations about the crew, especially with respect to psychological interac­tions among the team members.”

Nicole had not expected this. When General Borzov had scheduled this final “crew health assessment” with her, she had not thought that the meet­ing would extend to the mental health of the Newton dozen as well. “You’re asking for a professional psychological evaluation also?” she asked.

“Certainly,” General Borzov replied. “I want an A5401 from you that attests to both the physical and psychological readiness of every one of the crew members. The procedure clearly states that the commanding officer, before each sortie, should request crew certification from the life science officer.”

“But during the simulations you asked only for physical health data.”

Borzov smiled. “I can wait, Madame des Jardins,” he said, “if you’d like time to prepare your report.”

“No, no,” Nicole said after some reflection. “I can give my opinions now and then officially document them later tonight.” She hesitated several more seconds before continuing. “I wouldn’t put Wilson and Brown together as crew members on any subteam, at least not in the first sortie. And I’d even have some qualms, although this opinion is certainly not as strong, about combining Francesca in a group with either of the two men. I would place no other limitations of any kind on this crew.”