Ringworld's Children

protector. He said, 'She rode the rim-wall maglev system, and then anything that could reach the Map of Mars on the Great Ocean,' his mind running ahead of his mouth. 'Maybe she went to the Map of Earth first, to see how the archaic Pak were faring, and picked up Hidden Patriarch there. Thats how the ship got to Mars—'

Roxanny said, 'Say what?'

'It doesnt matter. What happened next was that Teela tried to murder Bram.'

Roxanny said, 'Bram?' and Wembleth said, 'Murder? My mother?'

Louis said, 'There was a protector already inside the Repair Center. Teela didnt know about Bram, but she knew that if there was anyone on site, he wasnt doing his job. He was letting the rim-wall attitude jets be stolen. Hed have to be replaced.

'Wembleth, I talked to Bram. I got his version of what happened. Bram wasnt the brightest of protectors. He never figured out this next part.

'Teela was a protector. She did what she had to do. She took an older man off one of the other maps, probably, and disguised herself. She went with him into the Map of Mars as a pair of breeders. They went exploring through the Repair Center. By the time they found the tree-of-life garden, Teela must have seen enough, or smelled him. Somewhere there was a protector. She let the man eat tree-of-life, and she ate too.

'The man died. Teela pretended to go into a coma. She might have lain motionless for several turns. Bram was supposed to come and examine her to find out what she was, then kill her before she could wake up as a protector. She would have taken him by surprise and killed him.

'But Bram didnt come. He must have decided to let her wake. She had to go to Plan B. She left the Map of Mars without ever letting Bram know she knew about him. She set about repairing the rim-wall jets, and then… she contrived to get herself killed.'

'How? Louis, how?' Wembleth demanded. He was still holding the crossbow.

She had attacked Louis and his companions, and contrived to lose the fight. Louis had killed her himself.

He said, 'Bram had us at his mercy. We were hostages for as long as Teela was alive. Shed have been his servant, and he was incompetent. She had to die to save the Ringworld, and she did.'

'But—'

Louis rode him down. 'What matters now is that I would do anything for you. In practice, what I have to do is lose you again. Its indescribably important that the ruling protectors, Tunesmith and Proserpina, be unable to find you.'

'What would they do, kill us? Question us?'

'Theyd protect you.'

Wembleth set the crossbow down. His hands were shaking. 'Vashneesht! Stet. I like these people, but we can move again. Must you know where?'

'I must not,' Louis said firmly.

He went outside. Wolf-people youths were clambering over the service stack. Louis shooed them away. He reprogrammed the stepping-disk controls and the float controls too.

Wembleth and Roxanny had followed him out. 'Im going to flick through,' he told them. 'After Im gone, change this setting, then tap the Crosshatch button, here, and flick through. Then go wherever you like.'

'Cant we be traced?'

'I fixed that, Roxanny. Youre ghosts as long as you tap the Crosshatch before you flick out. Even so, Tunesmith will solve that pretty quick, so bounce around for no more than… half a day, give me that much… then stop flicking around and get away from the service stack.' Louis flicked out.

CHAPTER 20 Telling a Tale

Launch Room. Louis only needed an instant here. He wanted to see the workspace, Long Shot, and the nanotech autodoc.

Carlos Wus rebuilt autodoc was spread around the stepping disk hed flicked onto. Tools lay about. He could guess their intent, most of them. Cables and rainbow threads of laser light led to a score of instrument stacks. This maze would take minutes to disentangle… an hour or more for the Hindmost.

Long Shot loomed, a bubble a mile tall. At first sight it looked partly disassembled. A curved hatch as big as a fairgrounds gaped near the bottom. Equipment was piled about, and there was lightweight packing stuff everywhere.

Look again: that stuff wasnt intrinsic to any likely hyperdrive system. Here was a General Products #2 ship, a lifeboat. Those were tanks. Those, inflatable habitats for ground and orbit, and a deuterium refinery fitted to suck up seawater. Some of it was mere misdirection. Distorted hull fittings turned out to be a holoprojector left running.

Tunesmith had cleaned out cargo and packaging to get at the works, done his investigations, and rebuilt the ship. Close that hatch and — Louis couldnt instantly see how it would exit the cavern. Hmm?

The linear cannon roared like the end of a world. Lightning ran through the hole in the floor, up and out through Mons Olympus. In the silence that followed, Louis heard Proserpinas shout.

'Theyll notice!' In Ghoulish.

They were over by the hole, looking down along the linear cannon: Proserpina, Tunesmith, and two little protectors either of whom might be Hanuman. Tunesmith bellowed, 'They know Im here. Theyll guess Im active. The ones with brains must have deduced whats under the Map of Mars by now. Some may even rest easier because Im closing holes in the Ringworld floor.'

'…Risk?'

'The missiles most of these factions have been using, one antimatter explosion wouldnt tear up much of the Repair Center. An enemy couldnt know hed hurt me, and hed anger me, and I might find him. I admit theres risk. Im stalling. I dont want the ARM and the rest of them wondering what the Mars protector is up to. So this is what Im up to, closing holes. Keeps me out of mischief.'

They wouldnt scent him: Louis was in a pressure suit. Louis couldnt smell anything either, so he kept looking around. He saw a few Hanging People protectors. They werent near him. He saw a webeye camera sprayed on the docs Intensive Care Cavity. He waved at it, Hi, Hindmost! and wondered if Tunesmith was linked into the same cameras.

'…need the holes?'

'Im through with them. Were almost…' Their voices dropped as their hearing came back. Louis wasnt going to learn more this way.

He saw them cover their ears, so Louis covered his. As lightning roared up the linear cannon, Louis picked up a grippy and flung it at Proserpinas head, sixty meters away.

Proserpina caught it and sent it whizzing back at him… almost: it would hit the service wall, shatter, and shower him with slivers, Louis danced around the service wall, caught the grippy as it struck, and flung it slantwise at the floor, to ricochet at Proserpina, who caught and returned it. Suddenly other objects were in motion, tools and a random chunk of concrete and a long dead animal as big as Louis. The animal disintegrated in his hand. Louis caught the rest and returned them. He turned a spigot on a tank and was behind the service wall again, popped up and returned the grippy and a block of lava tuff, then threw himself behind the puff of featherweight packing plastic that had emerged from the tank. He kicked it upward and was behind the tank while they looked for him there. The grippy burst through the foam plastic, shattering it -

But there were too many things moving now, and elements in his torso and hip were trying to tear themselves apart. He caught what missiles he could, juggled them, and presently set them down. He limped toward the protectors.

Proserpina said, 'Funny man—'

'What makes you feel so safe?' Tunesmith demanded.