Ringworld's Children

'There it is. We cant see detail, Tunesmith. We wont be over it for half a day.'

Louis: 'Theres a zoom function in our faceplates. Tunesmith, I dont see any change. Your balloon plug is still inflated. Everything outside the balloon is fog. Weve lost a… few percent of the Ringworld already.'

Around the edges of the fog, the land would be ravaged by shock waves running through air, sea, earth, and the scrith foundation. Weather patterns would be shattered… Louis realized he was being optimistic. He was assuming that Tunesmith would plug the hole, stop the loss.

He had once estimated the Ringworlds population at thirty trillion, with hominid species in every possible ecological niche. That vast plain of fog would be water droplets condensed by a drop in pressure. Ecologies under that fog blanket would be dehydrated and suffocating. Around it theyd soon be ravaged by climate change.

But only if Tunesmith made a miracle.

'I think a ship in stasis crashed to antispin of the puncture,' Louis said. 'I cant see it from here.'

Hanuman said, 'We wont be over it for half a day. Im going to flick us home.'

A moment later — plus a quarter hour — they were aboard Needle.

Moments afterward, so was Tunesmith. 'Hanuman, report,' he said.

'Your device deployed. It will hold for days, but it will leak. What are you expecting?'

'I sent a reweaving system to make more scrith. I based my design on nanotechnology from the doc aboard Needle. A complicated matter, this. The system must replace not only the scrith floor but the superconductor grid within.'

Hanuman said, 'There are species whose breeders evolved intelligent. Their protectors would be bright enough to help you with such problems.'

'Bright enough to quarrel, too, and to hold the Ringworld hostage for the advantage of their own gene pool. Louis, tell me what you saw of a downed spacecraft.'

'Just a streak,' Louis said.

'Different from other streaks?'

He spoke too patiently. Louis flushed. 'We saw it from a long way away, but — I reached the Ringworld aboard a ship in stasis. Lying Bastard came down with a horizontal velocity of seven hundred and seventy miles per second, like anything that brushes the Ringworld. We left a streak of molten lava and bare scrith. Now Ive seen one just like it. I think when one ship exploded, another got knocked down.'

'Well have to find it.'

'Thats easy, but not now,' Louis pleaded. 'Your orbiting stepping disk wont be in view of the puncture for twelve hours anyway. Let us get some sleep.' He was ready to weep, exhausted physically and emotionally.

'Sleep, then.'

They slept aboard Needle. Louis shared sleeping plates with Hanuman. The little protector just had to try it.

CHAPTER 10 A Tale to Tell

They woke, they breakfasted, they returned to the workstation under Olympus where Tunesmith was waiting.

Tunesmith had added to their gear. The new gear included two flycycles.

Nessus and his motley crew had carried four flycycles: flying structures built something like a dumbbell with a seat mounted between the weights. Theyd all been ruined on that first voyage. These two must have been modeled on the wreckage; but they were longer, each with two seats and a big luggage rack.

Louis inspected one of the vehicles. The kitchen converter would store in the luggage rack or swing out. Mounts on the dash carried a flashlight laser and some other tools. Nessuss team had reached the Ringworld with gear similar to this, some of puppeteer make, some purchased off shelves in human space.

'I reworked the sonic fold too,' Tunesmith said. 'Orbiting Stepping-Disk Eight will be almost in place, Hanuman. You can take it from here.'

'Stet.' To Acolyte and Louis, Hanuman said, 'Get into your pressure gear, then stow your baggage. Well push the flycycles through first.'

'Wheres the Hindmost?' Louis asked.

'Hes still in a depressed state,' said Tunesmith. 'That worries me. He may be suffering a chemical imbalance. Ill put him in the doc after youre gone.'

Louis didnt comment. They geared up and went.

And out into free fall with the Ringworld blazing below. The Kzin, the protector, Louis, and two flycycles drifted apart. Riding lights flashed on the flycycles.

Orbiting Stepping-Disk Eight had drifted in the night, twenty degrees, thirty-three million miles. Louis was looking almost straight down into a black hole with a glitter at the rim, in a quasi-lunar landscape marked with radial streamlines and glittering threads of frozen riverbed. A torus the size of a mountain range, glowing ruby from within and beginning to sag, was its border. It looked like God had dropped one of his toys. A plane of white cloud surrounded the torus, bigger than worlds.

To antispin, where cloud cover became patchy, a white scratch ran across the land.

Louis pointed it out. 'A ship dug that gouge. Well find it at the antispin end, the far end. I dont see it yet, so itll be small. Hanuman, shall we start decelerating?'

'Yes. Board a flycycle, Ill take the other, Acolyte rides with whom he will. Acolyte?'

'With you,' Acolyte said.

'Stet. Keep your altitude until your relative velocity is low, Louis. The sonic fold wont take more than a few times sonic speed. Ill keep you in sight. Guide us down to the ship.'

A grid of superconducting material ran beneath the Ringworld floor. Nessuss flycycles had flown by magnetic levitation. With maglev for lift, thrusters didnt have to be powerful… but these redesigned machines did deliver some serious push. When his velocity relative to the landscape had decreased to something reasonable, Louis eased down into atmosphere until he could hear a thin whine in the sonic fold. He could see a lacework of water vapor around the other flycycle. His own shock waves were barely visible.

Tunesmith spoke suddenly in his earphones. 'Your mission is to seek out a crashed ship. Louis, guide them. Report to me at every step. Watch for more than one ship down. The crash grooves they carve would be close together and parallel.

'I want to know the species and what to expect of them. Dont throw your life away to find out. Dont kill any LE if you can avoid it, but if you must, leave no sign. If possible, negotiate. Ill make any guests glad they met me.

'I worry for what I might forget to tell you.

'Louis, remember that information storage is easy. All of human knowledge is probably stored aboard every ARM spacecraft, with blocks to restrict secrets. The right officer will know the right passwords. Acolyte, if you find a Patriarchy ship instead, give up. The knowledge may be there, but no hero will give it to you—'

Louis said, 'A telepath might,' but Tunesmiths monologue droned on.

I worry for what I might forget to tell you… that its a three hundred million mile walk home, and the stepping disk is orbiting beyond your reach, and the Hindmost will be in the doc. So you cant count on him for an ally, and you cant use the doc to rejuvenate, Louis. In the fullness of time, Ill make you a protector… Not likely that Tunesmith would say any of that. Louis concentrated on flying.

Far behind them was the low wall of fog. The ship they were tracking had skipped across a sea, a river, another river. A ridge showed a glittering notch of bare scrith where the ship must have bounced aloft. The arrow-straight canyon resumed further on, scrith rimmed with splashed lava. Following it was easy. It ran across forest, a white sand beach, a long, long stretch of veldt… there…

So small a thing to have wrought so much damage.