Ringworld's Children

Against another ridge lay an elegantly contoured half-cylinder, flat along one side, no cabins, no windows, no breaks in the reflective surface, except near one end. Louis zoomed his faceplate.

'Is that an ARM ship?' Acolyte asked. 'Or Patriarchy? Smooth as it is, it might be puppeteer. But theyd use a General Products hull, wouldnt they?'

Closing now at several mach. The protrusion at one end looked like a bees stinger.

'Its a drop tank,' Louis said.

'Explain,' Hanuman rapped.

'Its not a spacecraft. Its part of a spacecraft, the part that carries extra fuel, the part you can throw away.' He was furious with himself, and then, suddenly, elated. 'The ship whapped down in stasis. After the stasis field collapsed, they still had a working spacecraft.'

Working spacecraft!

Keep talking. Somehow he held his voice steady. 'They drop the tank when they want agility or longer range. Id say they were getting ready for a dogfight.'

But a working spacecraft!

Hanuman said, 'Flup. We have to find that ship. Were you expecting this?'

'No. Lying Bastard was a different design. After we hit, we were grounded. Now what?'

'Possibilities suggest themselves,' Hanuman said. 'First, Im linked to Tunesmith. Tunesmith, you have Louiss assessment. Shall we wait for the ship to return for its fuel? Is it ARM or Kzinti or something else? Must we negotiate or challenge?'

Louis said, 'ARM.' Kzinti would have marked their property. Pierin or Kdat or Trinocs wouldnt challenge Kzinti or men; Kzinti had owned them. Puppeteers wouldnt directly challenge anything. Outsiders wouldnt get this close to a star. 'Might be some other human branch, or Kzinti bandits, or Trinocs… but call it ARM.

'Thats a little tank, so were looking for a little ship. A fighter wont carry antimatter fuel. Energy stored in a battery. Water for reaction mass because its easy to store and pump. They might have antimatter weapons. Its surprising that a little ship would have a stasis field. Maybe the UN is getting better at building them.'

Any part of a warcraft would have dot-sized cameras all over it. 'If theyre not watching us, they might still record us,' Louis said. 'So what shall we be?'

The little hologram heads of his companions looked blank.

Louis explained. 'Were operatives working for a superintelligent protector who used to be an eater of the dead. Thats too scary. Any military LE who heard that might shoot us out of hand. An ARM ship will have records of what a protector is. Thatll scare them too.

'So, what do we want to be? Were a Kzin and a man and a Hanging People protector. We dont want to be Patriarchy. Theyre scary too. We cant show ARM identification—'

'Ah,' Hanuman said. 'You want to lie.'

'Hanuman? A new concept?'

Acolyte rumbled in dissatisfaction. Hanuman said, 'My species breeders arent sapient. Ive been able to think and speak for less than a falan. Who would I lie to? Tunesmith?'

A dog will try to lie to its human master, Louis thought, but getting away with it — 'Stet, but we do not want to confront them with a protector. Hanuman, do you remember how you behaved as a breeder? Can you do it again?'

'You would make me a pet monkey?'

'Yah.'

'Stet. If I cant talk, I cant be caught in a lie. Acolytes pet, I assume. What of you?'

Louis said, 'I think Tunesmith saw this coming. Our gear is pretty close to what Nessus brought aboard Lying Bastard. Lets be the Hindmosts new crew. With the puppeteer leading from wayyy behind, as usual. It would explain flycycles. Hanuman, any thoughts?'

'Were telling a story. Better if they do not learn that Louis Wu made a protector and set him in charge of the Ringworld. You would seem too powerful and too undefended. Best if we do not mention an experimental medical system using nanotechnology, either. That was stolen from the United Nations, even if eight hundred falans ago. Theyd want it back.'

'I hadnt even thought of that. Stet, lets keep working on this. Acolyte—'

'I am proud of what I am! And I was not taught to lie. We serve a powerful master. Why not simply demand what we want?'

'Maybe this is why Chmeee sent you to me. Acolyte, its only a fighter, but their mother ship would carry antimatter fuel. Hanuman, how many double-X-large plugs does Tunesmith have?'

'One partly completed.'

Worse than hed thought. The Ringworld couldnt afford another antimatter explosion! 'Acolyte, youre Chmeees son. Stick with the truth, as much as you can. Just dont talk about the Repair Center or Tunesmith or Carlos Wus nanotech autodoc. Your father, Chmeee, rules a chunk of the Map of Earth. The Hindmost made you an offer, and you went off with him rather than fight your father again. Youre his hostage, but you dont know it.'

'And how did I meet Louis Wu?' the Kzin demanded.

'I… hadnt got that far.'

'Land,' ordered Hanuman. 'Well fill our kitchen slots while we wait for the ships return. Louis, how long does a dogfight take?'

'Not long. Hours.'

They landed among trees like redwood-sized dandelions. Louis had seen these elsewhere.

Light and noise would alert them if a ship returned. Meanwhile they dismounted, stretched, removed their pressure suits. As soon as Acolyte sniffed the air, he bounded away with a howl, hot in pursuit of something the others never saw.

Louis swung his kitchen converter out on its boom. He loaded grass and small plants into the hopper. Hanuman was doing the same. If the kitchen box was based on what theyd used thirty-odd years ago, it would process local vegetation or animal flesh, make handmeal bricks he could eat, and discard the dross. Hed have to catch something meaty, soon.

It extruded a brick.

'Wrong setting,' Hanuman said. 'Here.' He turned a dial on Louiss kitchen. 'That was for me. Fruit eater.'

Louis broke a chunk off the protectors brick and tasted it. 'Good, though. We eat fruit too.'

It hit him without warning, a rush of nostalgia. Hed been here before, on unknown landscape in all this Ringworld hugeness, sharing a handmeal brick with Teela. He turned away from Hanuman as his eyes filled with tears.

He remembered Teela Brown.

She was tall and slender and walked with the confidence of a centenarian, though she was only in her thirties. Hed first seen her wearing silver net on blue skin; hair scarlet and orange and black, like bonfire flames and smoke, streaming upward. Later shed put aside flatlander style. Nordik-pale skin, oval face, big brown eyes, and a small, serious mouth; dark and wavy hair cut short to fit into a pressure suit helmet.

She had never stumbled, never had a bad love affair, never been sick or hurt, never been caught in scandal or a public gaffe, until she attended Louis Wus birthday party. Louis still believed that was a statistical fluke. Among a population in the tens of billions, someone like Teela Brown could surely be found.

But the Experimentalist Party among Piersons puppeteers believed that they had been breeding the human race for luck. Teela was the descendant of six generations of Birthright Lottery winners. Whatever happened to Teela could be interpreted as lucky:

Falling in love with Louis Wu. Following him here.

Losing her way, in a domain three million times the surface area of the Earth. Finding Seeker, the brawny explorer who could show her so much of the Ringworlds secrets.

Finding the Repair Center beneath the Map of Mars. Finding a cache of tree-of-life root. Falling into a coma