Fate of Worlds: Return From the Ringworld

“It is — ”

With a short, sharp trill, Hindmost silenced the AI. “Louis, it is almost certain that ship was built on the world where I last saw Nessus.”

What about a hull material is so secret? Louis wondered. “That’s good, I assume.”

“It is encouraging.” Hindmost stared into the tactical display, crooning to himself.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Why aren’t you hailing that ship?

Hindmost said, “That world is called New Terra. Most who live there are humans.”

“Why haven’t I heard of it?” Louis asked.

“It lies far outside Known Space.” Hindmost turned one head toward Louis. “But you are correct. The time has come to contact that ship. Will you make the call? Lest I am mistaken about Nessus being aboard, I prefer not to reveal myself just yet.”

“Easier said than done. I don’t expect Kzinti comm software to know New Terran protocols.” Because if the Kzinti knew of an isolated human colony, that would not be the sort of place Hindmost would have stashed his family.

“I know New Terran protocols,” Hindmost’s Voice said. “Shall I make the call?”

“Louis,” Hindmost said, “do not disclose your true name.”

Louis shook his head. “I’ve never heard of this world, and I’m supposed to use an alias? Explain.”

“It is complicated. Please, Louis, we cannot know how long that ship will remain in the area. That it no longer signals in the form of the ballet may denote its imminent departure.”

“But you will explain,” Louis said.

“If need be, but it is more Nessus’ place to explain. Let us both hope he is aboard.”

Louis rubbed his nose, intrigued. “Do New Terrans speak Interworld?”

“They speak a dialect of a precursor language called English. Voice can translate.”

“All right,” Louis decided. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Hindmost retreated to the adjacent tiny rec room, abandoning the equally tiny bridge to Louis. “Voice, hail the New Terran ship.”

“Done, Hindmost.”

They waited. After a minute a light began flashing on the comm console. Louis accepted, and a holo opened. He didn’t recognize the person who answered, a young woman, but he hadn’t expected to.

“Endurance,” she said. “Who is this?”

“Nathan Graynor,” Louis improvised. The name had just popped into his head. “May I speak with — ”

“Hold on. You’re not … at home. There’s no comm delay. Where are you?”

“On a ship, of course. Look, I don’t have all day. May I speak with Nessus?”

“He’s in his cabin, asleep. I’ll take a message.”

Nessus was there. Why didn’t Hindmost stick a head through the door with some guidance? Louis kept improvising. “Actually, Miss, I’d — ”

“Captain.”

“Sorry. Captain, I need to deliver this message in person.”

“I’ll get him up.” She reached toward her console.

“There is no need.” With a clatter of hooves, a Puppeteer cantered onto the bridge. His hide was off-white with scattered tan spots, and his dark brown mane was unkempt. His eyes didn’t match: one was red and the other yellow. “Louis!”

“Nessus!” Louis greeted back. “You look well.”

“Two heads are better than one.” Nessus trembled. “I should have guessed I would find you here. And is … is…”

The captain had stiffened at the mention of Louis’s true name. She interrupted Nessus’ nervous stammer. “You introduced yourself as Nathan Graynor.”

“One and the same,” Nessus assured her. “I am surprised you remember, Louis.”

Remember what? Louis wondered. And we met at my two hundredth futzy birthday, and now I look maybe twenty. How did he recognize me so quickly? And why doesn’t Hindmost come in and show himself?

For the last question, at least, Louis had a guess: Hindmost chose to reunite in person. “You’re right, Nessus. I have company aboard.”

“We should rendezvous, Julia,” Nessus said. “These are old friends.”

The New Terran vessel, like most ships in the area, had no normal-space velocity worth mentioning. “We’ll need time to match velocities,” Louis said. “We’re doing about point eight light speed.”

Julia took a while making up her mind. “What’s your location, Louis?”

Hindmost didn’t object so Louis transmitted Long Shot’s coordinates. The AI knew the New Terran navigational conventions, too. “What about matching our velocities, Captain?”

“Be right back,” Julia said. The holo froze.

Hindmost’s Voice reported, “They’ve gone to hyperspace. We’ve lost comm.”

“How far are, were, they from us?” Louis asked.

“A few seconds by standard hyperdrive.” Pause. “They are here.”

The holo unfroze and Julia said, “Matching course and speed … now.”

A small ship hung, immobile, in Long Shot’s main view port.

Outsider ships could start and stop in an instant, and Louis had seen a Puppeteer ship match speeds with the Fleet in about an hour. Before Hindmost had shanghaied Louis, he had never heard of a human world with similar technology.

The New Terrans — whoever they were — looked more and more interesting.

21

Louis stepped from Long Shot to Endurance — into a skinny, cylindrical, clear-walled isolation booth. The entire booth floor was a stepping disc, and another disc sat on the deck just outside.

Stepping discs had tiny control switches inset on their rims, but the tiny booth left him nowhere to stand but on the disc. He could not get at its controls, even if he had known the address of the other disc.

“Deja vu, Louis?” Nessus asked.

Huh? Louis sensed more to the odd greeting than meeting each other after many years. He rapped on the booth wall. “I’ve had friendlier welcomes.”

“Blame me.” With some kind of a handgun dangling from her belt, Julia emerged from a dim corner of the cargo hold. “The eyeball check was a final precaution. Nessus, you may extricate our guest.”

Eyeball check? Precursor language or not, Louis thought he might have to link in Hindmost’s Voice to translate to and from English. Blame me was plain enough, though. He waited to be let out.

In Nessus’ sash, some gadget made a pocket bulge. Nessus plunged a head into the pocket —

And Louis found himself standing outside the booth.

He and Hindmost had scattered stepping discs around the Ringworld and across Long Shot, and Hindmost had never mentioned that the discs could be controlled from a distance. Somehow it didn’t surprise Louis that the Puppeteer had kept a trick in reserve.

“Welcome aboard, Louis. I’m Julia Byerley-Mancini, captain of this ship. If half what I’ve heard is true, you have some interesting stories to tell.”

“And I won’t mind telling them,” Louis said. “Nessus. Someone is waiting for you aboard Long Shot. Someone with whom you shared a special night at the ballet.”

“It has been a long time.” Nessus shivered. “I need a moment to compose myself.”

“Go when you’re ready,” Julia said.

“I’d like to see your ship,” Louis said.