Ringworld's Children

Louis said, 'Im fine. Much too young to have a heart attack.'

The puppeteers heads and legs were buried under him.

'Work on him,' Tunesmith said. 'Im going to be busy.'

'Two questions,' Louis said, but the protector was gone.

The Hindmost eased a head into the open. No part of the neck showed, only eye and mouth.

Tunesmith could be seen sprinting about outside Hot Needle of Inquiry, working controls, then shouting into thin air. Heavy machinery began to move. The rebuilt hyperdrive motor was in motion. Unequal halves of the ships hull began to close. The top of the linear accelerator began to track across the underside of Mons Olympus.

The Hindmost whistled. 'I was right! Hes—' The head ducked back under him. Tunesmith was back.

He stooped to work controls on the hidden stepping disk. Then he picked up the curled-up puppeteer, evading the hind leg as it lashed out. They weighed about the same, Louis guessed. 'Louis, follow,' he barked, and stepped forward and was gone.

Just for an instant, Louis Wu rebelled.

It was a test, of course. Would Louis Wu follow him without question? This was all just too familiar.

An alien mastermind bursts into Louis Wus life, assembles a crew, and hares off on a mission known only to the master. First Nessus, then the Hindmost, then the protector Teela Brown, then Bram, now Tunesmith, each chooses Louis Wu for reasons of convenience, drops him into the middle of a situation he doesnt understand, and runs him like a marionette. By the time Louis finishes playing catch-up, hes committed to something on the far side of sanity.

Piersons puppeteers were control freaks. A true coward never turns his back on danger.

Being a protector was all about control.

Where would he be, what would Louis Wu have done, by the time he knew anything?

The instant passed. If he didnt follow, hed be out of the action entirely. Louis stepped forward, onto a stepping disk that looked like the rest of the floor, and flicked out.

A flood of sunlight made him squint.

He stood on a high peak, on a stack of six float plates and a stepping disk. Tunesmith and the Hindmost stood below him on a translucent gray surface. Louis looked first for the Arch, to orient himself.

The Arch — the far side of the Ringworld — arced from horizon to horizon, broad above the haze at the spinward and antispin horizons, narrowing toward noon where it passed behind the sun. Louis hadnt seen the Arch in some time.

Fist-of-God Mountain loomed to port like a lost moon, poking far out of the atmosphere. Around its foot the land was more moonscape than desert, hundreds of millions of square miles of lifeless pitted rock. Fist-of-God was an inverted crater. A meteoroid had punched up through the Ringworld floor from underneath, hundreds of years ago. The blast had flayed soil from the high places, even this far away. Naked scrith was dramatically slippery.

Closer were silver threads of river and silver patches of sea, and the dark green tint of life gradually encroaching. The land below the hill was a broad jungle, and cutting through it, a river miles across.

'Watch your footing,' Tunesmith said. Louis lowered himself carefully onto naked scrith.

It was worth remembering: beneath this shell of landscape was nothing but stars and vacuum. There would be no springs hereabouts, no groundwater, nothing to support life. No busybody to wander by, to fiddle with the controls on an abandoned service stack. Exposed as it was, this was an excellent hiding place for high-tech tools such as these.

Louis asked, 'Are you going to explain whats going on?'

Tunesmith said, 'Briefly. As a breeder I knew little but remembered a great deal. Coming out of my transition from breeder to protector, the first thing I was sure of was that the Ringworld is terribly fragile. I knew that I was reborn to protect the Ringworld and all its species.

'That has come in steps. I whiffed Bram, of course, and knew I had to kill him. I spent some time learning from the Hindmost and his library, and watching the Fringe War develop. Then for a time it seemed best to work alone or with a few Hanging People protectors. Now I must assemble a team.'

'To do what?'

Tunesmith touched controls. The service stack lifted. Four float plates detached from the bottom and eased apart. Tunesmith boarded a stack of two, leaving one each for the puppeteer and the man.

The puppeteer was looking about him. He said, 'Downslope, one could survive. Ringworld folk are generally hospitable to strangers. Tunesmith, you never accept my word when you can test it. Why do you involve me?'

'And for what?' Louis demanded.

Tunesmith floated off downslope. Louis and the puppeteer boarded and followed. The protectors voice carried easily. He spoke Interworld with no trace of accent, projecting his voice from deep in his belly, fearing no interruption, like a king.

'The Fringe War grows more intense. The ARM is using antimatter instead of hydrogen fusion to power their motors and weapons. Louis, the Ringworld cannot survive this. Something must be done.'

'See if you can describe it!'

'Louis, to shape a plan I need to learn more. Did the Hindmost tell you of a courier ship? Of puppeteer manufacture, with an experimental drive—'

'Long Shot. Ive flown it. The warcats have it!' He hadnt called a Kzin a warcat in a very long time.

'Were going to take it back. We have time to recruit Acolyte,' Tunesmith said.

They were nearing the edge of the jungle.

'Why would Acolyte join you?'

'I expect you will tell him to. Acolytes father sent him to you to learn wisdom.'

'Joining you on a piracy expedition, is that wisdom?'

The puppeteer asked, 'Do you need us? Do you trust us? Could you fight alone?'

The protector said, 'I must leave someone to fly Hot Needle of Inquiry, or else leave Needle abandoned and adrift among the comets.'

The Hindmost immediately said, 'I can fly Needle.'

'Hindmost, you would run.'

'Louis and I will be pleased to—'

'Louis flew Long Shot once before. He will again. You and Acolyte will fly Needle.'

'As you will,' the Hindmost said.

Tunesmith said, 'Louis, you swore an oath. You must protect the Ringworld.'

In a mad moment Louis Wu had sworn to save the Ringworld. Hed done that, twelve years ago, when the Ringworld had drifted off center… but Louis only said, 'I wont force Acolyte.'

'Then I must await developments.'

There were long-tailed Hanging People in the jungle. They threw sticks and dung. Louis and the Hindmost rose above the treetops, but Tunesmiths float plates dropped near the forest floor. They heard him whoop and saw him flinging missiles. Stones and sticks flew faster and more accurately than Hanging People could dodge. In less than a minute theyd vanished.

Tunesmith rose to join them. 'Tell me again why Ringworld species are always hospitable!'

'Tunesmith, those were apes,' Louis said. 'Hominids arent always sapient, you know. Is this what you picked to pilot your probe?'

'Yes, made into protectors. Sapience is relative.'

Louis wondered if a protector really didnt see the difference between these apes and Louis Wu. A protectors lips and gums hardened into something like a beak; he could not frown, or smile, or sneer, or grin.