Part 31 (2/2)
The sea threw back a highlight from directly below the fleeing Needle. Now it seemed to be growing brighter, with a violet tinge. Suddenly, momentarily, it was unbearably bright. Then it was a black spot on the hull beneath their feet.
And a thread of jet-black, outlined in violet-white, stood upon the spinward horizon. A vertical pillar, reaching from ground to sky. Above the atmosphere it was invisible.
The kzin spoke words in the Hero's Tongue.
”All very well,” said the Hindmost in Interworld, ”but what is it firing on? I a.s.sumed we were the target.”
Louis asked, ”Isn't the Map of Earth in that direction?”
”Yes. Also a good deal of water and considerable Ringworld landscape.”
Where the beam touched down, the horizon glowed white. Chmeee whispered in the Hero's Tongue, but Louis caught the sense. ”With such a weapon I could boil the Earth to vapor.”
”Shut up.”
”It was a natural thought, Louis.”
”Yeah.”
The beam cut off abruptly. Then it touched down again, a few degrees to port.
”Tanj dammit! All right, Hindmost, take us up. Take us high enough to use the telescope.”
There was a glowing yellow-white point on the Map of Earth. It had the look of a major asteroid strike.
There was a similar glow farther away, at the far sh.o.r.e of the Great Ocean.
The solar flare had dimmed and was losing coherence.
Chmeee asked, ”Were there aircraft or s.p.a.cecraft in those directions? Fast-moving objects?”
”The instruments may have recorded something,” the Hindmost said.
”Find out. And take us down to one mile alt.i.tude. I think we want to approach the Map of Mars from below the surface.”
”Louis?”
”Do it.”
Chmeee asked, ”Have you knowledge of how that laser beam was produced?”
”Louis can tell you,” the puppeteer said. ”I will be busy.”
Needle and the lander converged on the Map of Mars from two directions. The Hindmost held the two vehicles parallel so that it was possible to cross between them.
Louis and Chmeee flicked across to the lander for lunch. Chmeee was hungry. He consumed several pounds of red meat, a salmon, a gallon of water. Louis's own appet.i.te suffered. He was pleased that his guests weren't watching.
”I don't understand why you picked up these pa.s.sengers,” Chmeee said, ”unless it was to mate with the woman. But why the boy?”
”They're City Builders,” Louis said. ”Their species ruled most of the Ringworld. And I plucked these two out of a library. Get to know them, Chmeee. Ask them questions.”
”They fear me.”
”You're a soft-spoken diplomat, remember? I'm going to invite the boy to see the lander. Tell him stories. Tell him about Kzin and hunting parks and the House of the Patriarch's Past. Tell him how kzinti mate.”
Louis flicked across to Needle, spoke to Kawaresksenjajok, and was back in the lander with him before Harkabeeparolyn quite realized what was happening.
Chmeee showed him how to fly. The lander swooped and did somersaults and darted skyward at his command. The boy was entranced. Chmeee showed him the magic of binocular goggles, and superconductor cloth, and impact armor.
The boy asked about kzinti mating practices.
Chmeee had mated with a female who could talk! It had opened new vistas for him. He told Kawaresksenjajok what he wanted to know-which Louis thought was pretty dull stuff-and then got the boy talking about mating and rishathra.
Kawaresksenjajok had no practice but a lot of theory. ”We make records if a species will let us. We have archives of tapes. Some species have things they can do instead of rishathra, or they may like to watch or to talk about it. Some mate in only one position, others only in season, and this carries over. All of this influences trade relations.h.i.+ps. There are aids of various kinds. Did Luweewu tell you about vampire perfume?”
They hardly noticed when Louis left to return to Needle alone.
Harkabeeparolyn was upset. ”Luweewu, he might hurt Kawa!”
”They're doing fine,” Louis told her. ”Chmeee's my crewmate, and he likes children of all species. He's perfectly safe. If you want to be his friend too, scratch him behind the ears.”
”How did you hurt your forehead?”
”I was careless. Look, I know how to calm you down.”
They made love-well, rishathra-on the water bed, with the ma.s.sage unit going. The woman might have hated Panth Building, but she had learned a good deal. Two hours later, when Louis was sure he would never move again, Harkabeeparolyn stroked his cheek and said, ”My time of mating should end tomorrow. Then you may recover.”
”I have mixed feelings about that.” He chuckled.
”Luweewu, I would feel better if you would rejoin Chmeee and Kawa.”
”Okay. Behold as I stagger to my feet. See me at the stepping disc? There I go: poof, gone.”
”Luweewu-”
”Oh, all right.”
The Map of Mars was a dark line, growing, becoming a wall across their path. As Chmeee slowed, microphones on the lander's hull picked up a steady whispering, louder than the wind of their pa.s.sage.
They came to a wall of falling water.
From a mile distant it appeared perfectly straight and infinitely long. The top of the waterfall was twenty miles above their heads. The base was hidden in fog. Water thundered in their ears until Chmeee had to turn off the microphones, and then they could hear it through the hull.
”It's like the water condensers in the city,” the boy said. ”This must be where my people learned how to make water condensers. Chmeee, did I tell you about water condensers?”
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