Part 11 (2/2)
In the stratosphere the air would be forced outward from the center of the sunflower patch. Some of the cloud would rain out, but some water vapor would meet the steam from the boiling sea and flow inward, recirculating.
His arms hurt. Louis realized that he had a death grip on the chair arms. He let go. He turned on the intercom.
”Louis has kept his promise,” the king giant was saying, ”but the dying plants may be out of our reach. I don't know-”
”We'll spend the night here,” Louis told them. ”In the morning we'll know better.”
He set the lander on the antispinward side of the island. Seaweed had washed ash.o.r.e in great heaps. Chmeee and the king giant spent an hour stuffing seaweed into a hatch in the lander's hull, feeding the converter-kitchen with raw material. Louis took the opportunity to call Hot Needle of Inquiry.
The Hindmost was not on the flight deck. He must be in the hidden part of Needle. ”You have broken your droud,” he said.
”I know it. Have you done anything-”
”I have a replacement.”
”I don't care if you've got a dozen. I quit. Do you still want the Ringworld engineers' trans.m.u.ter?”
”Of course.”
”Then let's cooperate a little. The Ringworld control center has to be somewhere. If it's been built into one of the spill mountains, then the trans.m.u.ters that came off the s.h.i.+ps on the s.p.a.ceport ledge have to be there. I want to know everything about the situation before I go into it.”
The Hindmost thought it through.
Behind his flat weaving hands, ma.s.sive buildings glowed with light. A wide street, with stepping discs at intersections, dwindled to a vanis.h.i.+ng point. The street swarmed with puppeteers. Their coiffeured manes glowed in glorious variety; they seemed always to move in groups. In a sliver of sky between buildings, two farming worlds hovered, each surrounded by orbiting points of light. There was a background sound like alien music, or like a million puppeteers holding conversations too far away to be heard clearly.
The Hindmost had a piece of his lost civilization here: tapes and a holo wall and, probably, the smell of his own kind constantly in the air. His furniture was all soft curves, with no sharp corners to b.u.mp a knee on. An oddly shaped indentation in the floor was probably a bed.
”The back of the rim wall is quite flat,” the Hindmost said abruptly. ”My deep-radar won't penetrate it. I can afford to risk one of my probes. It will still serve as a relay between Needle and the lander; in fact, it will serve better as it rises higher. Accordingly I will place a probe in the rim wall transport system.”
”Good enough.”
”Do you really think the repair center is-”
”No, not really, but we'll find enough surprises to keep us entertained. It should be checked out.”
”One day we must decide who rules this expedition,” the puppeteer said. He disappeared from the screen.
There were no stars that night.
Morning was a brightening of chaos. From the flight deck nothing showed but a formless pearly glow: no sky, no sea, no beach. Louis was tempted to re-create Wu, just to step out and see if the world was still there.
Instead he took the lander up. There was sunlight at three hundred feet. Below was nothing but white cloud, growing brighter at the spinward horizon. The fog had spread a long way inland.
The repulser plate was still in place, a black dot just overhead.
Two hours after dawn, a wind swept the fog away. Louis dropped the lander to sea level before the edge reached sh.o.r.e. Minutes later a bright nimbus formed around the repulser plate.
The king giant had been at the airlock doors all morning, watching, absently stuffing his face with lettuce. Chmeee too had been almost silent. They turned toward the ceiling when Louis spoke.
”It will work,” he said, and finally he believed it. ”Soon you will find an alley of dead sunflowers leading to a much bigger patch of them under a permanent cloud deck. Sow your seeds. If you'd rather eat live fire plants, forage at night on both sides of the streamer of fog. You may want a base on some island in this sea. You'll want boats.”
”We can make our own plans now,” the king giant said. ”It will help to have Sea People near, even so few. They trade service for metal tools. They can build our boats. Will gra.s.s grow in all this rain?”
”I don't know. You'd better seed the burned-off islands too.”
”Good ... For our special heroes we carve their likeness on a rock, with a few words. We are migratory; we can't carry large statues with us. Is this adequate?”
”Certainly.”
”What is your likeness?”
”I'm a little bigger than Chmeee, with more hair around the shoulders, and the hair is your own color. Carnivore teeth, with fangs. No external ears. Don't go to too much trouble. Where shall we take you now?”
”To our camp. Then I think I must take a few women and scout the edges of the sea.”
”We can do that now.”
The king giant laughed. ”Our thanks, Louis, but my warriors will be in an ugly mood when they return. Naked, hungry, defeated. It may go better for them when they learn that I am gone for a few days. I am no G.o.d. A hero must have warriors happy with his rule. He cannot be fighting every waking hour.”
Part Two
Chapter 13 -.
Origins.
The lander cruised five miles up at just under sonic speed.
Thirteen thousand miles was no great distance for the lander. Louis's caution irked the kzin. ”Two hours and we can be dropping onto the floating city, or rising from underneath! One hour, without serious discomfort!”
”Sure. We'd have to go out of the atmosphere with the fusion drive blazing like a star, but sure. Remember how we reached Halrloprillalar's floating jail? Upside down in midair, with the motors burned out of our flycycles?”
Chmeee's tail thumped the back of his chair. He remembered.
”We don't want to be noticed by any old machinery. The superconductor plague doesn't seem to have got it all.”
Gra.s.sland gave way to patterns of cultivation, then to a watery jungle. Vertical sunlight reflected back at them from between the trunks of flowering trees.
Louis was feeling wonderful. He wouldn't let himself see the futility of his war on the sunflower patch. It had worked. He had set himself a task; he had accomplished it with intelligence and the tools at hand.
The swamp seemed to go on forever. Once Chmeee pointed out a small city. It was difficult to see, with water half drowning the buildings, and vines and trees trying to pull them down. The architectural style was strange. Every wall and roof and door bulged outward a little, leaving the streets narrow in the center. Not built by Halrloprillalar's people.
By midday the lander had traveled further than Ginjerofer or the king giant would travel in their lifetimes. Louis had been foolish to question savages. They were as far from the floating city as any two points on Earth.
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