The next encounter
The next encounter (original title: Garden of Rama ) is a novel by Arthur C. Clarke in collaboration with Gentry Lee , published in 1991 . After Rendezvous with the day after tomorrow , it is the second part of the unintended continuation of Rendezvous with 31/439 .
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The story takes place nine months after the end of Rendezvous with the day after tomorrow . Three astronauts are trapped in a cylindrical spaceship sent to Earth by aliens, including just one woman, Nicole Des Jardins. The spaceship has been called Rama since it was 70 years earlier in the solar system and is on its way with its three passengers towards Sirius . Five children are born on the trip, three with Richard Wakefield and two with Michael O'Toole.
After twelve years of travel, they reach their destination, where they are transferred to a huge technical complex called Nodus. There they are first subjected to physiological tests and help the Nodus intelligence to convert the spaceship for a journey from the solar system to the Nodus for 2000 people as further objects of investigation. After the return flight, which most of the passengers spent in a deep sleep, the 2000 passengers, who were recruited by the ISA under the pretext of founding a new Martian colony, will be taken into their new habitat.
But soon aggressive groups are formed who want to gain control over the habitat. After an attack on the entire political leadership of the human habitat, these groups take control. People discover that there is another habitat within Rama that is inhabited by a species unknown to them. The new government is now starting a war against humans, under the pretext that the other species is a danger to humans, and in the process wiping them out almost completely. Only a few copies are saved by Richard Wakefield, who fled to these intelligences after the coup.
Meanwhile, Rama recognizes the escalation on board and sends an emergency signal to its builders. The book ends with the impending execution of Nicole Des Jardins for political incitement against the new rulers.