The Aftermath of the Impact
The narrative takes the reader back to when the Spaceguard system was conceived to protect Earth from future interplanetary threats. The narrator describes the asteroid that hit Italy in the year 2077 that caused inconceivable damage and loss of lives. Comparing it with the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa which is regarded as the most destructive eruption in history.:
“Six hundred thousand people died, and the total damage was more than a trillion dollars. But the loss to art, to history, to science—to the whole human race, for the rest of time—was beyond all computation. It was as if a great war had been fought and lost in a single morning; and few could draw much pleasure from the fact that, as the dust of destruction slowly settled, for months the whole world witnessed the most splendid dawns and sunsets since Krakatoa.”
The Rendezvous
Endeavour is sent into space to rendezvous with the unknown floating object for closer observation. The mystery surrounding the giant space object is evident from the minute Norton and his crew make contact. The imagery of the first visual Norton encounters is vividly described in the statement:
“Endeavour's hull was resting against the curving wall with a thrust of several tons, but the pressure was evenly distributed. Reassured, he began to drift around the circular structure, trying to determine its purpose. Norton had travelled only a few metres when he came across an interruption in the smooth, apparently metallic wall. At first, he thought it was some peculiar decoration, for it seemed to serve no useful function. Six radial grooves, or slots, were deeply recessed in the metal, and lying in them were six crossed bars like the spokes of a rimless wheel, with a small hub at the centre. But there was no way in which the wheel could be turned, as it was embedded in the wall.”
The Titanic Scale
The sheer size of the space object from the outside cannot be fully discerned let alone the inside. The darkness within the ship is immense that light from the flare barely pierces through it:
“Even the millions of candlepower of the flare could not light up the whole of this enormous cavity, but now he could see enough to grasp its plan and appreciate its titanic scale. He was at one end of a hollow cylinder at least ten kilometres wide, and of indefinite length. From his viewpoint at the central axis he could see such a mass of detail on the curving walls surrounding him that his mind could not absorb more than a minute fraction of it; he was looking at the landscape of an entire world by a single flash of lightning, and he tried by a deliberate effort of will to freeze the image in his mind.”
Like New York…But Much More Complex
The references the astronauts use to compare the contents of Rama are structures from the old world such as the Manhattan cityscape. On-site, the crew encounters symmetrical arrangements that could look like New York towers but much more complex and deliberate. This gives them the first clue to the intentions of its creators even though the spaceship remains a mystery:
“The resemblance to old-time Manhattan was only superficial; this star-born echo of Earth's past possessed its own unique identity. The more Dr. Ernst stared at it, the more certain she became that it was not a city at all. The real New York, like all of Man's habitations, had never been finished; still less had it been designed. This place, however, had an overall symmetry and pattern, though one so complex that it eluded the mind. It had been conceived and planned by some controlling intelligence and then it had been completed, like a machine devised for some specific purpose.”
