Ringworld's Children r-4

by Larry Niven

  The shower ceiling. It was the right size. The code would be puppeteer music: Louis could never sing it. Maybe he could hack it, but first -

  He set his hands against the shower ceiling and said, "Hindmosts Voice, put me through."

  He was in the control room. He used the stepping disk there.

  Neither Hanuman nor Louis were where the first flick had taken them. The second flick put Tunesmith and Proserpina on a barren island. They found Hanuman groggy, trying to sit up. Proserpina examined him. He didnt seem badly hurt.

  Tunesmith asked, "How are you?"

  "Injured, not badly. He held my life and released it," Hanuman said.

  "That shows good self-control. Proserpina, see if you can find traces of your escaped guests. Hanuman, rest." Tunesmith went to work on the stepping-disk controls.

  "I find their scent," Proserpina called. "Falans old. In rut."

  "This changes all," Hanuman said. "I must warn my people."

  "Your people are tree dwellers! How can they hide from what must come?"

  "Stet. I know what to do."

  "Do it after were gone," Tunesmith said. "Then rejoin us in Meteor Defense." He and Proserpina flicked out.

  Launch Room. Little Hanging People protectors were all lying prone about the cavern below Mons Olympus. The Hindmost was working on a laser projector. "How are you doing?" Louis called.

  "Im still disconnecting instruments. Its hard to tell where its safe."

  Louis began disconnecting laser and cable attachments, pacifying Tunesmiths instruments where necessary. He wished he could move faster. Something with sharp edges was loose in his hip; the flesh was badly swollen. "Youre not safe on the Ringworld," he said. "How are you going to move the doc components?"

  "I hadnt decided."

  "I was hoping youd think of something. Stet. This next part is risky." Louis finished disconnecting sensors. The docs components were still connected to each other. Louis left them that way. "Ill be gone at least an hour. Get this stuff ready to be lifted with magnetic fields. Leave the roof open."

  "Wait. What are you about to do?"

  "No time."

  "Where are the protectors were robbing? What can I accomplish when death may find me in a moment? Tell me what youve done!"

  Better if he knew, and Louis had already cost himself an hour at least. Give the Hindmost a minute. He said, "I tried to tell Tunesmith that the Fringe War is about to blow up—"

  "Eee!" A raucous chord of dismay.

  " — Just as Im telling you. If you tuck your heads under you, you will die in that position. Do you believe me?"

  "Yah."

  "I let Tunesmith guess I had a child — yes, a boy with Teelas genes. Congratulations, they survived. Your breeding program is still in force—"

  "What of later inbreeding?"

  "Oh, Hindmost, there must have been other ships crashed on the Ringworld. Wembleths children will find mates."

  "Stet."

  "I flicked out to a few places, ended where Tunesmith can find traces of Wembleth. Then I used my block on the stepping disk and went to Needle. It wont take Tunesmith long to get around the block. When he does, hell find out I went to Hot Needle of Inquiry, took my sweet time there, and didnt leave.

  "I must be still aboard. I went to get Wembleth, right? It follows that were trying to leave the Ringworld. The Fringe War balance must be ready to fall apart right now. No protector would otherwise risk his childs life this way, in a ship that can be shot down by Fringe War ships or blocked as easily as Tunesmith can block Needle.

  "If Tunesmith and Proserpina followed that line of logic, then theyre getting ready to end the Fringe War, and they will not disturb us here, as long as you keep these protectors asleep and take care to shut down these cameras. Can do?"

  "Trust me," the Hindmost said.

  Louis took a moment to think that over. The Hindmost knew how to open the roof into Mons Olympus. Long Shot was too big to launch using the linear cannon, so the ship would rise slowly, on fusion jets, making too good a target. The Hindmost wouldnt have the nerve, and it was far too dangerous anyway.

  So he wouldnt launch without Louis, Louis could trust him, and that settled that. Louis flicked out.

  Meteor Defense. "We never did locate the ship," Tunesmith said. "Can you block his takeoff?"

  "Yes. And I can search near space for any ARM ship coining for him. He cant possibly escape me. He must be mad. A failed transition to protector can warp a breeders brain."

  "Sudden understanding can do that too. Mad with fear?"

  "But is he afraid of the Fringe War, or of what well do?"

  Proserpinas eyes half-closed. She looked a little like Hanuman in that pose. She said, "He didnt expect to delay us long. Hed have just enough time to get clear, if we begin now and ignore Louis Wu and his freemother child."

  Tunesmith looked up at the crowded sky. "Begin," he commanded.

  Hanuman flicked in on a ridge of bare scrith. He looked down across miles and miles of forest, reviewing his options.

  Louis Wu was the protector who had no children on the Ringworld — unless hed had a child by Teela Brown. Louis-protector could have no interest in Teela, who was dead, unless shed left a child; and that child would be Louis Wus. The chain of logic was so straightforward that even a Hanging People protector could follow it.

  Tunesmith had seen it in a moment. And in that moment, Louis Wu had gone to rescue his child and get him to safety.

  It followed that the Ringworlds death was likely and immediate. Tunesmith would act.

  And what now? Hanumans people were tree dwellers! They didnt have minds; they couldnt follow instructions even if he had any to give. How was he to hide them from the sky?

  Wish for a rainstorm?

  Find and fetch Teela Browns lucky child, bring the creature here, then wish for a rainstorm?

  Hanuman decided.

  He detached a float plate from the depleted service stack. He stayed above the forest, enjoying the scents of thousands of his people below the canopy. Brothers, sisters, N-children. He did not dip down to see them. There wouldnt be time.

  Tunesmith would move immediately. Where a treetop blocked the sun, already Hanuman could see a glitter to the shadow squares. Power was being beamed down.

  He settled his disk on raddled earth. A few Burrowing People emerged. He spoke to them.

  "You must stay underground for two days. For you this is easy. Do not watch the sky. Spread the word as far as you can, but be underground before shadow hides the sun.

  "There will be lights beyond your experience. Do not look at the sky until the light fades. Afterward the sky will be very dark. Go spin-and-port to where you will find Hanging People. Help them. They are mine, and they will have gone mad."

  CHAPTER 21

  In Flight

  Penultimates Palace. Louis flicked in and rolled off the burnt stack of float plates. Nothing fired on him.

  The flying belt took him out and down. He skimmed above the yellow lawn, wondering at the black markings. One pattern must be the Penultimates name or portrait… there, traces of a cartoon, very simplified, a style weirdly reminiscent of William Rotsler. The other would be speech.

  He had guesswork for a Rosetta Stone. What would a protector say to an invader? That might be a pictograph pun: a word you could read as "Enter" or "Extinct"; "Greetings" or "Epitaph". Could you extrapolate a language from that?

  Nah.

  Louis flew low, enjoying the skill it took to weave between trees. Maybe theyd conceal him if Proserpina came looking for him on her own turf. (Nah. She had his scent.) Hard turns and high gees and a brief freedom from intellectual problems.

  Proserpinas sunfish ship rested among the trees near Proserpinas base. Lesser trees had grown up through the gridwork. Louis set the flying belt behind a thick trunk, stripped off his falling jumper, and left that too. He made his way forward on foot. See the naked, limping breeder.

  Here was the ARM doc from Gray Nurse
. Louis wondered what the diagnostic readings would say about him. Mutated? Not human? Dying? He walked past it without a pause. No time!

  He stopped by Snail Darters library. No time, but protectors didnt always have a choice.

  Hed watched Claus and Roxanny work this device. It wasnt hard to persuade it to summon up a roster for the Fringe War fleet. There were dozens of Wu, and six Harmony: his first daughter had married a Harmony. An ID number sequence would identify his line of descent -

  A grandson and his daughter had joined the Navy decades ago. Wes Carlton Wu was Flight Captain aboard Koala, a lurker ship, with Tanya Wu as Purser. Another quick pass found no other blood relatives, and time was shrinking.

  Louis approached the sunfish ship.

  Think like a Pak. A protector might kill any breeder who smelled wrong, to leave more space for her own breeders. But youre Proserpina. Accommodation has been your survival for a million years. You dont want to hurt a breeder. It might be some powerful enemys N-child!

  There were no steps up to the cabin. Louis climbed up like a Hanging Person.

  It was roomy inside. There were handgrips everywhere, and footgrips: just how prehensile were Proserpinas toes? And sensors and touchpads and toggles and levers, randomly placed. There was a horseshoe of couch, but only one control chair, and it would not fit Louis. Hed have to change it — but hed better give some thought to convincing the ship he was Proserpina.

  Louis was disappointed in the Hindmost. He had steered the destiny of a species whose tools and learning beggared mankinds. Why couldnt he move a few kilotons of medical equipment? It would have saved Louis considerable trouble and two or three hours time.

  Maybe the Experimentalist faction on the Fleet of Worlds was more like New Orleans traditional Fool King. Set them going, but watch them. Turn them off when they do something excessively expensive or dangerous. Sometimes theyll do something worthwhile -

  He was getting distracted.

  Thou shalt have no Proserpinas before me. Shed have set defenses to prevent a protector from manipulating the ship. Unless — would Proserpina really set a death trap for someone like Tunesmith, acknowledged as brighter and more dangerous than Proserpina herself? Retaliation could be terminal.

  And what about protector slaves? This chair looked like it had been altered to fit a Hanging Person, then adjusted for Proserpina again. Hey, she must have let Hanuman fly it!

  Futz! The ship wasnt defended. She was the defense. Who would dare steal Proserpinas ship? — and that was the point: risk for Louis Wu was do nothing. He adjusted the chair and sat down, strapped himself in, and lifted.

  Trees had grown into the ships metal lacework. They tore loose. Louis lofted the ship above the atmosphere, then turned toward the rim wall.

  Was the sun starting to roil? Hed burn his eyes out if he looked hard. There must be a way to dim the glass, right? And Tunesmith would have the meteor defense going. Louis zigzagged his path a bit, and studied the controls. Here?

  It didnt just darken the view; it was light-amplification too. He turned it very dark, and looked up.

  A solar prominence was reaching out and out.

  Louis jogged the ship at high gees. The ground flared below him. He could see the beam tracking and avoid it, even guide it a little to miss a populated spill mountain, and then he was off the Ringworld and dropping, easing back and under the Ringworld floor.

  He had to follow the arc halfway around, three hundred million miles. Now the nontrivial danger was alien ships. Louis zigged along the magnet grid, accelerating hard, hearing a toc, toc of multimolecule-sized cameras hitting the skin of the ship. The Fringe War would be after him soon enough.

  Something flashed on the Ringworlds underside. Louis zagged almost into another flash. Maybe hed started a war himself.

  Tunesmiths Meteor Reweaving System had closed Fist-of-God. Louis came up around the rim instead. He made for the Map of Mars, a little over half a million miles away. The sun was roiling again.

  A spark struck upward: a launch from Mons Olympus. Louis slid the sunfish ship beneath the path of the meteor package, just for a moment. Tunesmith wouldnt have set the meteor defense to fire on those! He slowed, descended through the crater, and set the ship to hover.

  He crawled halfway out of the cabin and shouted down. "Hindmost! Close it!"

  The craters lid began to close.

  Louis began to play with the sunfish ships controls. The docs Intensive Care Cavity rose, twirled in the air, and settled a bit jerkily into the bay in Long Shot. Then the Service Wall, trailing loose cables. Then other, smaller components. Then the lifeboat.

  Then a tank Louis had identified earlier.

  The puppeteer was shouting something. " — tied down?"

  Louis settled the tank in with the rest of the doc. He brought the sunfish ship down and got out.

  The Hindmost came trotting up. He asked, "How will you tie these components against shock of takeoff?"

  "Tunesmith was using a tank of foam plastic. Lets set it going and close the ship up, then board."

  The tank was spraying foam plastic as Louis closed the lid on it. Hed taken the pilots seat without comment. Hey, it was built for humans. The Hindmost asked, "Shouldnt we open the crater again?"

  "Hindmost, lets try something else." He activated the hyperdrive. The cavern disappeared. The Q2 ship launched itself straight down into a boil of colors.

  Map of Earth. Shortly after nightfall Acolyte begged audience with Chmeee.

  One of the guards said, "Play elsewhere, child. Your father is busy." And grinned.

  "I bear a message from Tunesmith."

  "An odd name."

  "Chmeee will know it. Tunesmith who lives under the Map of Mars."

  The guard was bored, and he toyed with Acolyte a bit longer. Then he went into the tent. When he came out, he asked, "How did it come, this message?"

  "There were flashes of light from the mountains to starboard."

  Acolyte was allowed entrance. He groveled before his father, who asked, "Is this the Tunesmith who wants to give me the Map of Earth? Ive heard nothing since you delivered his message."

  "He says you may take the Map yourself, after the other prides have gone mad."

  It had gone quiet: Chmeees courtiers were paying attention.

  Chmeee asked, "Mad?" and studied his son, whose subservience seemed laid over a whiplash eagerness. "Lecture me, then."

  "Tunesmith instructs us to hide ourselves from the sky for two full days. We must be under a roof or tent, all of us, even females and kits. We should sleep if we can. We must all be under cover, or blindfolded, before shadow reveals the sun."

  "So soon? How shall I manage that?"

  Acolyte dared to grin. "What would Louis Wu say?"

  " Thats why I get the big money. What is to happen to the sky?"

  "That was not told. You have seen ships leaving tracks of light across the sky. You have heard talk of the Fringe War. I watched it in Tunesmiths Meteor Defense Room. It is told that Tunesmith will end the war."

  Chmeee nodded. "Are you ready to run? It is well." His voice rose to a bellow. "All in my hearing, you are each an emissary to my far provinces! Divide the contents of my kitchen to feed yourselves. Go where I send you. Carry a blindfold ready to use. You will know when to use it. Fools will go blind or mad.

  "You are each more valuable than those you will speak to, and you will be under cover before the shadow square passes. Two days hidden, or answer to me. The rest of us may conquer the Map of Earth if we so choose."

  The boy Kazarp was gazing open-mouthed at the sky. Shadow had covered the sun, but the shadow squares were glittering in a way hed never seen. Presently he raised his instrument and began to play.

  Over the music he heard a stealthy shift in posture, too close for any stranger, and he said, "I knew you were there."

  "Dont turn around. I am become Vashneesht."

  His father had disappeared falans ago, and now this: a thing out of fantasy,
awesome and terrible. Kazarp didnt turn. "Father? Does mother know?"

  "You must tell her. Tell her gently. Then tell her she must hide from the sky for two days, and you too, for fear of going mad. Spread the word. A burrow would be better than a roof. Afterward there is a world of mad folk to care for, and far more feasting than our folk will ever want."

  "Will you stay?"

  "Not now. I will visit when I can."

  Long Shots cabin was at the bottom of the sphere, between four fusion-drive nostrils. In hyperdrive Long Shot flew ass-backward into the unknown. Louis launched straight down, into and through the Ringworld floor — feeling a touch of drag from the superdense scrith — and out into space.

  He was moving away from the sun and straight into the thickest gathering of Fringe War ships. Not that that mattered. Those ships were all in Einstein space, this close to a large mass. Louis was flying blind, of course, through hyperspace. What he hoped was that this faster ship would outrun the eaters.

  The puppeteer was wound into a tight knot. He wouldnt be of much help.

  How fast would Long Shot move near this great a mass? Hed wondered if it would even exceed lightspeed. Tunesmith might have worked out the QII systems behavior, but Louis didnt have enough clues. Hed learn soon enough. When the crystal sphere that was the mass detector began working, hed be outside the "singularity."

  Eleven hours later, Louis knew that even protectors could grow tired. He could ignore that, and hunger and thirst, and pain in guts and joints, headache and sinus ache, that properly belong only to an aging savage. It didnt matter. Hed got clear of the Ringworld. Of thirty trillion Ringworld hominids, a fat percentage would survive. Wembleth and Roxanny and their child were lost in noise. If Tunesmith worked out what they truly were, he wouldnt even search. With luck, though, hed think Louis had taken Wembleth to the stars.

  Winning could compensate for a lot of pain.

  The window was the floor, and it would darken, light-amplify, record and display recordings, or zoom. Louis watched flow patterns of colored light, and a dark comma zipping past.