Status Updates From Rendezvous mit 31/439 (Rama...

Mr President, distinguished fellow delegates, I would
like to begin with a brief summary of the situation which
now confronts us.'
From some delegates, that phrase 'a brief summary'
would have evoked silent groans among all listeners; but
everyone knew that Hermians meant exactly what they
said.

Long ago, the astronomers had exhausted Greek and
Roman mythology; now they were working through
the Hindu pantheon. And so 31/439 was christened
Rama.
For a

Imaginate volar en una cometa dentro de una nave/asteroide alienígena que tiene el tamaño y ecosistema de un mini-planeta dentro porque no hay manera de cruzar un mar y a nadie se le ha ocurrido mejor idea

it mean? Who needs a forest of glass pillars?'
Norton rapped gently on one column. It sounded solid,
though more metallic than crystalline. He was completely
baffled, and so followed a piece of useful advice he had
heard long ago: 'When in doubt, say nothing and move
on

Norton walked towards the nearest column and dir-
ected his beam into its interior. Refracted as through a
cylindrical lens, the light fanned out on the far side to be
focused and refocused, getting fainter with each repeti-
tion, in the array of pillars beyond. He felt that he was in
the middle of some complicated demonstration in optics.
'Very pretty,' said the practical Mercer, 'but what does
it mean? Who

and still less were they completely trusted.

It had even been proposed that
Hermian lasers would one day thaw out gigantic Jupiter,
but this idea had not been well received on the other
worlds. A technology that could cook Jupiter had too
many tempting possibilities for interplanetary black-
mail.
That such a concern had ever been expressed said a
good deal about the general attitude towards the Her-
mians. They were respected for their toughness and e