Ringworld's Children

centimeters shorter than Louis, curly brown hair around the face and head, bare skin elsewhere. He was clearly human. Louiss nose knew him.

'Wembleth!' Louis limped after him. 'I just want to talk.' He moved inside, afraid theyd outrun him, but he was limping faster than they could move. His hand caught metal swinging toward his head, turned and had a wrist and metal bar. 'Roxanny.'

The fight went out of her. She stared at him in fathomless terror. 'What are you?'

'Dont you believe in Vashneesht?' She didnt react. Not funny? 'Im Louis Wu,' he said. 'Your sonic left me twisted, but otherwise Im a protector. You were lucky. You would have eaten tree-of-life if wed gone where you pointed me.'

'Louis.'

He sniffed: she was carrying a child of his own blood.

She could kill him before he harmed her now. He said, 'Do you know — ?'

'Im pregnant. It happens.' Roxanny looked him in the eye. 'You said you were fertile.'

'Its Wembleths child. I can smell.'

'Stet. Why were you fertile? Most men use up their birthrights. Didnt Louis Wu?'

'Roxanny, every life is unlikely.'

Her smile was a mere flicker. 'And why am I fertile? You sure didnt arrange that.'

Louis said, 'Someone jiggered your med specs. You all used the same doc aboard Gray Nurse, didnt you? Someone wanted to get you pregnant so he turned off your sterility patch.' It was the most rational answer.

Roxanny said, 'Coroner-First Zinna Hendersdatter. She thinks I took Oliver away from her.' She had her aplomb back. 'So protectors make mistakes?'

'Theres never enough data. Its why protectors second-guess each other. Roxanny, I just want to talk and then Ill be gone. Wembleth?'

'Dont hurt her.'

Wembleths head and arms poked out of a hole in the earthen floor. Hed been there for some time. His beard was brown and somewhat curly, tipped with white. Boosterspice had made him young, and in that state he looked something like Teela Brown and quite a lot like a young Louis Wu. He had a crossbow.

'You dont have to come closer,' Louis said. He let go of Roxanny, who backed away. He held still, wondering if Wembleth would fire, wondering if he could catch a crossbow bolt. 'Youve been practicing Interworld speech?'

'Yah, Roxanny wants to join the ARM fleet.'

How? Louis wondered. If hed seen a way, hed have had to block it.

'Roxanny,' he asked, 'where did you leave Snail Darters library?'

'I took it aboard Gray Nurse,' she said. 'Why?'

'My children, their N-children, one or two might have joined the ARM fleet. I have to see the roster. Thered be a current copy in every ship in the fleet.'

She laughed. 'There are tens of thousands of men and women in the ARM ships! Are you going to scan them all?'

'Yah.'

She shrugged. 'Maybe Proserpina picked it up.'

'Youll have to leave here,' Louis said. 'I brought the service stack. Ill reprogram it so itll stop following the flycycle. Its very important that you cant be found. I got this close to you by just following the programming in the stepping disks. I followed your scent from the forest, Wembleth.'

'With a nose like that, Im not surprised,' Wembleth said rudely.

Louis touched his enlarged nose. 'Do you know that youre my son?'

Wembleth snorted in disbelief. 'I would have thought you might be mine! But youre older than you looked.'

'Youre younger. I never saw a human being who hadnt used modern medical techniques. No depilators, no tannin pills, never a dental program. I thought you were another species. But Teela Brown was your mother,' Louis said.

Roxanny shook her head. 'Shed have had a five-year patch.'

'She must have decided she wanted my child. Shed have to have had her sterility treatment reversed before we left Earth. It would have taken both of her birthrights. She never told me.'

Wembleth said, 'Wait. You mean it? Youre my father?' He seemed horrified.

'Yah—'

'Why did you leave us?'

'Teela left me. I thought then that she left me for Seeker—'

'But what did you do?'

'I didnt protect her.' How could he, against her own luck? 'She went into an eyestorm and we lost her. When we found her again, she was with Seeker. Shed have been carrying you when I left them near the Great Ocean, and as for what she did after that, Id be guessing.'

'You are Vashneesht,' Wembleth said. 'Youre good at guessing. Ive never understood. Why did mother leave us?'

Louis knew he should be going. Every second might be precious. Once upon a time Proserpinas people had cleaned the Ringworld system of every menacing rock. Now it was infested with ships…

But in the presence of his son and growing grandchild, Louis was inclined to stay; and Wembleth needed reassurance.

He said, 'I left Teela near the Great Ocean. There werent any stepping disks on the Ringworld then. Seeker — the man she left me for — he might have known how to use the transport that runs along the rim wall. Its a magnetic levitation system, Roxanny. They found something to get them there; theres enough Builder technology lying around. They took the maglev system all the way around to the Other Ocean.

'Youd call that crazy unless they were running from something fearsome. Not from me, I think, but maybe it was what she thought Id bring. The Fringe War. Teela might have been afraid of puppeteers. Nessus meddled in her life, pretty well destroyed it, and she didnt want that to happen again. She knew any of us would look where we last saw her.

'So they found a place halfway around the arc, and she settled down and made a life with Seeker and you. I hope she was happy.'

'Mother was happy,' Wembleth said, 'but restless too. She never had any more children—'

'Course not. Seeker wasnt her species.'

'She and — Seeker — my father,' with a bit of a glare, 'took turns exploring. I never knew what they were looking for. One of them had to stay with me. They did more of that after I was older. I was near eighty falans when she disappeared.'

'And never came back?'

'Never did,' Wembleth said.

'She found tree-of-life.' Teelas luck, Louis thought. Poor Teela. If anything, it was her genes that were lucky. He said, 'I dont know just how it happened, but that tuber grows on every one of these maps of the Pak world, and most maps once held a protector prisoner. A few prisoners must have found some way to infect roots with tree-of-life virus, just as Proserpina did. I think Teela found the Penultimates garden. It would have got Seeker too if she hadnt been exploring alone. She woke up as a protector. Wembleth, she wouldnt ever leave you unless it was to protect you from some greater danger.'

Wembleth scowled.

'No, really. She saw what we all saw. She must have guessed what was under the Map of Mars. Roxanny, its a huge volume, an area to match all the land masses of Earth, and forty miles high. You cant miss it. Its the Repair Center for the whole Ringworld. Teela could see that most of the rim-wall ramjets were missing. Somebody had to get into the Repair Center to try to stabilize the Ringworld before it brushed its sun.'

Shed wanted power too, Louis thought. Futz, she was a