Later problems were not so easy. With each successive puzzle, more complications were added. The humans made their first error on the eighth matrix, the dolphins on the ninth. Altogether Dr. Bardolini exhibited sixteen matrices, the last one so complicated that at least ten separate changing patterns had to be recognized to properly identify what should be entered as the last element. The final score was a tie, Humans 12, Dolphins 12. Both pairs took a bow and the audience applauded.
Nicole had found the exercise fascinating. She wasn’t certain if she believed Dr. Bardolini’s assertion that the competition was fair and unrehearsed, but it didn’t matter to her. What she thought was interesting was the nature of the competition itself, the idea that intelligence could be defined in terms of an ability to identify patterns and trends. Is there a way that synthesis can be measured? she thought. In children. Or even adults, for that matter.
Nicole had participated in the test along with the human and dolphin contestants and had correctly answered the first thirteen, missing the fourteenth because of a careless assumption, and just finishing the fifteenth accurately before the buzzer sounded the end of the allocated time. She had had no idea where to begin on the sixteenth. And what about you Ramans? she was wondering, as Franceses returned to the microphone to introduce Genevieve’s heartthrob, Julien LeClerc, Would you have been able to answer all sixteen correctly in one tenth the time? One hundredth? She gulped, as she realized the full range of possibilities. Or maybe even one millionth?
“I never lived, “til I met you… I never loved, “til I saw you…” The soft melody of the old recorded song swam in Nicole’s memory and brought back an image from fifteen years before, from another dance with another man when she had still believed that love could conquer everything. Julien LeClerc misread her body signals and pulled her closer to him. Nicole decided not to fight it. She was already very tired and, if the truth were known, it felt good being held tightly by a man for the first time in several years.
She had honored her agreement with Genevieve, When Monsieur LeClerc had finished his short set of songs, Nicole had approached the French singer and given him the message from her daughter. As she had anticipated, he had interpreted her approach to mean something entirely different. They had continued talking while Francesca had announced to the partygoers that there would be no more formal entertainment until after midnight and that all the guests were free to drink or snack or dance to the recorded music until then, Julien had offered his arm to Nicole and the two of them had walked back over to the portico, where they had been dancing ever since.
Julien was a handsome man, in his early thirties, but he was not really Nicole’s type. First of all, he was too conceited for her. He talked about himself all the time and did not pay any attention when the conversation switched to other topics. Although he was a gifted singer, he had no other particularly outstanding characteristics. But, Nicole reasoned as their continued dancing brought stares from the other guests, he’s all right as a dancer and it beats standing around twiddling my thumbs.
At a break in the music Francesca came over to talk to them. “Good for you, Nicole,” she said, her open smile appearing genuine. “I’m glad to see that you’re enjoying yourself.” She extended a small tray with half a dozen dark chocolate balls lightly sprayed with white, possibly a sugar confection. “These are fantastic,” Francesca said. “I made them especially for the Newton crew.”
Nicole took one of the chocolates and popped it into her mouth. It was delicious. “Now I have a favor to ask,” Francesca continued after several seconds. “Since I was never able to schedule a personal interview with you and our mail indicates that there are millions of people out there who would like to find out more about you, do you think that you could come over to our studio here and give me ten or fifteen minutes before midnight?”
Nicole stared intently at Francesca. A voice inside her was sending out a warning, but her mind was somehow garbling the message.
“I agree,” Julien LeClerc said while the two women looked at each other. “The press always talks about the “mysterious lady cosmonaut” or refers to you as “the ice princess.” Show them what you’ve shown me tonight, that you’re a normal, healthy woman like everybody else.”
Why not? Nicole finally decided, suppressing her interior voice. At least by doing it here I don’t have to involve Dad and Genevieve.
They had started to walk toward the makeshift studio on the other side of the portico when Nicole saw Shigeru Takagishi across the room. He was leaning against a column and talking to a trio of Japanese businessmen dressed in formal attire. “Just a minute,” Nicole said to her companions, “I’ll be right back.”
“Tanoshii shin-nen, Takagishi-san,” Nicole greeted him. The Japanese scientist turned, startled at first, and smiled as he saw her approach. After he formally introduced Nicole to his associates, and they all bowed to acknowledge her presence and accomplishments, Takagishi started a polite conversation.
“O genki desu ka?” he asked.
“Okagesama de, ” she replied. Nicole leaned across to her Japanese colleague and whispered in his ear. “I only have a minute. I wanted to tell you that I have carefully examined all your records and I am in complete agreement with your personal physician. There is no reason to say anything about your heart anomaly to the medical committee.”
Dr. Takagishi looked as if he had just been told that his wife had given birth to a healthy son. He started to say something personal to Nicole but remembered he was in the midst of a group of his countrymen. “Domo arrigato gozaimas,” he said to the retreating Nicole, his warm eyes conveying the depth of his thanks.
Nicole felt great as she waltzed into the studio between Francesca and Julien LeClerc. She posed willingly for the still photographers while Signora Sabatini ensured that all the television equipment was in working order for the interview– She sipped some more champagne and cassis, making intermittent small talk with Julien. Finally she took a seat beside Francesca underneath the klieg lights. How wonderful, Nicole kept thinking about the earlier interaction with Takagishi, to be able to help that brilliant little man.
Francesca’s first question was innocent enough. She asked Nicole if she was excited about the coming launch. “Of course,” Nicole answered, She then gave a lively summary of the training exercises that the cosmonaut crew had been undergoing while waiting for the opportunity to rendezvous with Rama II. The entire interview was conducted in English. The questions flowed in an orderly pattern. Nicole was asked to describe her role in the mission, what she expected to discover (“I don’t really know, but whatever we find will be extremely interesting”), and how she happened to go to the Space Academy in the first place. After about five minutes, Nicole was feeling at ease and very comfortable; it seemed to her that she and Francesca had fallen into a complementary rhythm.
Francesca then asked three personal questions, one about her father, a second about Nicole’s mother and the Senoufo tribe in the Ivory Coast, and the third about her life with Genevieve. None of them were difficult. So Nicole was totally unprepared for Francesca’s last question.