and was gone into the sky. The launch system was inefficient, Louis thought. Bad for the environment. Tunesmith must have power to throw away.
Tunesmith was suited up much faster than the others. 'Eat before you close your helmets!' he shouted. 'Theres time.' He raced through some diagnostic programs, then began using stepping disks to flick through the ship, stopping to observe, to fiddle. In two or three minutes he was back.
CHAPTER 6
The Blind Spot
'Another one!' Forrestier
That,
'Thats
Gray Nurse
—
—the view jumped, navy blue masked by flame colors around a black disk. The flames died, leaving the sun a deeper black disk on black sky.
He could breathe again.
The ships wall protected them from unfiltered sunlight by imposing a black patch on the sun. As Louiss eyes adjusted, he could make out stars, and here and there a spear of fusion light. A sudden starship zipped past, an advanced ARM design, too close.
Tunesmith said, 'Sorry. I reworked the stasis field generator. The stasis effect was holding for too long. It would have left us vulnerable, but now it doesnt become active fast enough. Ill fix it. Is everyone all right?'
'We could have been crushed!' the Hindmost whimpered.
'Where is Hanuman?' Acolyte asked.
A virtual window appeared, and zoomed. 'There, ahead of us.'
The Fringe War was starting to notice Hanumans tiny ship and the larger craft following four minutes behind. Tunesmith jigged and jogged to avoid dangers unseen. Ahead of them, Hanumans
Tunesmith used the thrusters for a sustained surge; veered in the midst of the burn. The forward view went black, then cleared.
Louis had never had a chance to know the little protector. He asked, 'Now, what did that accomplish, Tunesmith?'
Pyrotechnics sought them out, Fringe War weapons following
Tunesmith said, 'We are constantly testing each other, arent we, Louis? Let me
The puppeteers orchestral scream drowned out Louiss, 'Wait!' Tunesmiths hands moved.
There was color and flow. Shapes werent there, just flow patterns of light and a few tiny dark comma shapes.
In the Blind Spot, in hyperdrive, Louis had never been able to see anything.
To go into hyperdrive this close to a sun was insane, but Hanumans
Born and raised on the Map of Earth, Acolyte hadnt even guessed the danger. Launch must have been scary enough. In this nightmare of scrambled light and dark darting commas, he was only drawing breath to roar when they were out again.
Stars. The singularity hadnt eaten them, it had spit them out. Louis looked around, savoring his ability to see. Close behind him was a black half-moon rimmed in fire: the sun chopped in half.
Hyperdrive gone wrong might, in theory, take them anywhere. Louis had not expected to see a black arc of Ringworld eclipsing half the sun — out of all the quintillions of suns in the universe, he had not thought he would still be next to
Tunesmith said, 'Hindmost… no? Louis, then. Will you tell me if that was the Blind Spot your histories speak of?'
Louis said, 'The Blind Spot is what you dont see in hyperspace. If you try to look through a window, youre blind. You can only see whats inside the cabin. Its why most pilots use paint and curtains to cover up a General Products hull. There are freaks, though, people and other LEs who can at least use a mass detector without going nuts. I can do that. Hindmost?' The puppeteer was in footstool mode. 'Acolyte?'