Part 31 (1/2)
”Kathakt will raise my children as heroes. He will teach them arms, and arm them well, and when they are old enough he will turn them loose to conquer their own lands. They will be no threat to his own domains, you see, and they will stand a good chance to survive if I do not return. I left Kathakt my flashlight-laser.”
”Good enough.”
”I hope so.”
”Are we through with the Map of Kzin?”
Chmeee pondered. ”I captured an aircraft pilot. They are all n.o.bility, with names and comprehensive educations. Chjarrl told me much about the age of exploration after I mocked the accomplishments of his ancestors. We may a.s.sume that there is an extensive historical library within the Behemoth. Shall we capture it?”
”Tell me what Chjarrl told you. How far did they get on Mars?”
”They found a wall of falling water. Later generations invented pressure suits and high-alt.i.tude aircraft. They explored the edges of the Map, and one team reached the center, where there was ice.”
”I think we'll just skip the Behemoth's library, then. They never got inside. Hindmost, are you there?”
A microphone said, ”Yes, Louis.”
”We're heading for the Map of Mars. You do the same, but stay to port of us in case we have to flick across.”
”Aye, aye. Have you anything to report?”
”Chmeee picked up some information. Kzinti explored the surface of the Map of Mars, and they didn't find anything un-Marslike. So we still don't know where to look for an opening.”
”Perhaps from beneath.”
”Yeah, could be. That'd be annoying. How are our guests holding out?”
”You should rejoin them soon.”
”Soon as I can, then. You see if there's data on Mars in Needle's computer. And on martians. Louis out.” He turned. ”Chmeee, do you want to fly this thing? Don't exceed four miles per second.”
The lander surged up and forward in obedience to the kzin's touch. A gray wall of cloud broke to let them through; then there was only blue sky, darkening as they rose. The Map of Kzin streamed below them. Then behind them.
Chmeee said, ”The puppeteer seems docile enough.”
”Yeah.”
”You seem very sure of the Map of Mars.”
”Yeah.” Louis grinned. ”It's a very nice piece of misdirection, but it couldn't be perfect, could it? They had too much to hide, by volume. We went under the Great Ocean on the way here. Guess what we found when we went under the Map of Mars?”
”Don't play games.”
”Nothing. Nothing but sea bottom. Not even radiator fins. Most of the other Maps have radiator fins to cool the poles. Pa.s.sive cooling systems. There has to be a system to cool the Map of Mars. Where's the heat going? I thought it might be going into the sea water, but it wasn't. We think the heat is pumped directly into the superconductor grid in the Ringworld floor.”
”Superconductor grid?”
”Big mesh, but it controls magnetic effects in the Ringworld foundation. It's used to control effects in the sun. If the Map of Mars plugs into the grid, it has to be the Ringworld control center.”
Chmeee thought it over. He said, ”They could not pump heat into the sea water. The warm, wet air would rise. Cloud patterns would stream inward and outward from great distances. From s.p.a.ce the Map of Mars would appear as a great target. Can you imagine Pak protectors making such a mistake?”
”No.” Though Louis would have.
”I remember too little about Mars. The planet was never very important to your people, was it? It was no more than a source of legends. I do know that the Map is twenty miles high, to mimic the very rarefied air of the planet.”
”Twenty miles high, and fifty-six million square miles in area. That's one billion, one hundred and twenty million cubic miles of hiding place.”
”Urrr,” said Chmeee. ”You must be right. The Map of Mars is the Repair Center, and the Pak did their best to hide it. Chjarrl told me of the monsters and the storms and the distances of the Great Ocean. They would have made good pa.s.sive guardians. A fleet of invaders might never have guessed the secret.”
Louis rubbed absently at four itching spots across his eyebrows. ”One point twelve times ten to the ninth cubic miles. I have to admit it, that number leaves me numb. What were they keeping in there? Patches big enough to plug Fist-of-G.o.d Mountain? Machinery big enough to carry those patches, and plant them, and weld them tight? That winching equipment we saw on the rim wall, for the att.i.tude jets? Spare att.i.tude jets? Tanj, I'd love to find spare att.i.tude jets. But they'd still have room to spare.”
”War fleets.”
”Yeah. We already know about their big weapon, but-war fleets, of course, and s.h.i.+ps to carry refugees, too. Maybe the whole Map is one big refugee s.h.i.+p. It must have been big enough to evacuate the Ringworld before the population started filling every niche in the ecology.”
”A s.p.a.cecraft? Perhaps a s.p.a.cecraft big enough to tow the Ringworld back into place? I have trouble thinking on this scale, Louis.”
”Me too. I don't think it'd be big enough.”
”Then what did you have in mind when you destroyed our hyperdrive motor?” Suddenly the kzin was snarling.
Louis chose not to flinch. ”I thought the Ringworld might be set up to act on the sun magnetically. I was almost right. The trouble-”
The Hindmost's voice blared from a speaker. ”Louis! Chmeee! Set the lander on autopilot and flick across to me now!”
Chapter 29 -.
The Map of Mars Chmeee reached the disc ahead of Louis, in one monstrous bound. The kzin could take orders too, Louis thought. He forbore to remark on the fact.
The City Builders were looking out through the hull, not at the pa.s.sing seascape-which was nothing but blue sea and cloud-striped blue sky merging at the infinity-horizon-but at a movie-screen-sized hologram. As Chmeee appeared on the receiver disc they turned and flinched and then tried to hide it.
Louis said, ”Chmeee, meet Harkabeeparolyn and Kawaresksenjajok, librarians from the floating city. They've been of great help in gaining us information.”
The kzin said, ”Good. Hindmost, what is the problem?”
Louis tugged at the kzin's fur and pointed.
”Yes,” said the puppeteer. ”The sun.”
The sun showed dimmed and magnified in the hologram rectangle. A brilliant patch near the center was s.h.i.+fting, twisting, changing shape as they watched.
Chmeee said, ”Wasn't the sun doing that shortly before we boarded the s.p.a.ceport ledge?”
”Right. You're looking at the Ringworld meteor defense. Hindmost, what do we do now? We can slow down, but I don't see any way to save the lander.”
”My first thought was to save your valuable selves,” the puppeteer said.