Part 37 (2/2)
”Nowhere. I feel no strong urge to justify myself,” the Hindmost said. ”You are not my species, and how can you harm me? Will you burn out my hyperdrive motor again? Yet you are allies. I will explain.”
Chmeee was up against the forward wall, giving the puppeteer his full attention. Claws extended. Fur fluffed around his neck. Naturally.
”I have violated tradition,” said the Hindmost. ”I have continued to function when death might touch me at any second. My life has been at stake for nearly two decades, with the risk rising almost asymptotically. The risk is over, and I am exiled, but I live. I want to rest. Can you empathize with my need to take a long rest? In Needle I have as many of the comforts of home as I will ever see. My s.h.i.+p is safely buried in rock, between two layers of scrith, which compares in strength to Needle's own hull. I have quiet and safety. If later I feel the need to explore, a billion cubic miles of the Ringworld Repair Center is just outside. I am just where I want to be, and I will stay.”
Louis and Harkabeeparolyn did rishathra that night. (No: they made love.) They hadn't done that in some time. Louis had feared that the urge was gone. Afterward she told him.
”I have mated with Kawaresksenjajok.”
He'd noticed. But she meant permanently, didn't she? ”Congratulations.”
”This is not the place to raise a child.” She had not bothered to say I'm pregnant. Of course she was pregnant.
”There must be City Builders all over the Ringworld. You could settle anywhere. In fact, I'd like to come with you,” Louis said. ”We saved the world. We'll all be heroes, a.s.suming anyone believes us.”
”But, Louis, we can't leave! We can't even breathe on the surface, our pressure suits are in shreds, and we are in the middle of the Great Ocean!”
”Were not desperate,” said Louis. ”You talk as if we'd been left naked between the Clouds of Magellan. Needle isn't our only transportation. There are thousands of those floating discs. There's a s.p.a.cecraft so big that the Hindmost could pick out the details on deep-radar. We'll find something in between.”
”Will your two-headed ally try to stop us?”
”Contrariwise. Hindmost, are you listening?”
The ceiling said, ”Yes,” and Harkabeeparolyn jumped.
Louis said, ”You're in the safest place imaginable on the Ringworld. You said so yourself. The most unpredictable threat you face has to be the aliens aboard your own s.h.i.+p. How would you like to get rid of us?”
”I would. I have suggestions. Shall I wake Chmeee?”
”No, we'll talk tomorrow.”
Just at the cliff edge was where the water began to condense. From there it streamed downward. It became a vertical river, a waterfall twenty miles tall. The bottom was a sea of mist reaching hundreds of miles out to sea.
The probe camera that looked down the side of the Map of Mars showed them nothing but falling water and white mist.
”But in infrared light the picture is different,” the Hindmost said. ”Observe.”
The mist hid a s.h.i.+p. A narrow triangle of a s.h.i.+p, oddly designed. No masts. Just a second, thought Louis. Twenty miles down ... ”That thing must be a full mile long!”
”Nearly that,” the Hindmost agreed. ”Teela told us she had stolen a kzinti colony vessel.”
”Okay.” Louis had already decided, that quick.
”I detached an intact deuterium filter from the probe Teela later destroyed,” the Hindmost said. ”I can fuel that s.h.i.+p. Teela's journey was grueling, but yours need not be. You may take floating discs for exploring, and for trade goods when you reach sh.o.r.e.”
”Good idea.”
”Will you want a working droud?”
”Don't ever ask me that again, okay?”
”Okay. Your answer is evasive.”
”Right. Can you dismount a pair of stepping discs from Needle and install them in the s.h.i.+p? It'd give us something to fall back on if we hit real trouble.” He saw the puppeteer eye to eye with himself, and he added, ”It could save your life. There's still a protector and he won't have to leave the Ringworld now, thanks to us.”
”I can do that,” the Hindmost said. ”Well, is this an adequate means to reach the mainland?”
Chmeee said, ”Yes. A long voyage ... a hundred-thousand-mile journey. Louis, your people suppose a sea voyage to be restful.”
”On this sea, it's more likely to be entertaining. We wouldn't have to head straight to spinward. There's the Map of an unknown world to antispinward, and it's less than twice as far.” Louis smiled at the City Builders. ”Kawaresksenjajok, Harkabeeparolyn, shall we check out some legends for ourselves? And maybe make a few.”
THE END.
Ringworld Parameters 30 hours = 1 Ringworld day 1 turn = 7.5 days = A Ringworld rotation 75 days = 10 turns = 1 falan Ma.s.s = 2 X 10e30 grams Radius= .95 X 10e8 miles Circ.u.mference = 5.97 X 10e8 miles Width = 997,000 miles Surface area = 6 X 10e14 square miles = 3 X 10e6 times the surface area of Earth (approx.) Surface gravity = 31 feet/second/second = .992 G Rim walls rise inward, 1000 miles high.
Star: G3 verging on G2, barely smaller and cooler than Sol
Glossary ANTISPINWARD: Direction opposite to the Ringworld's direction of spin.
ARCH: The Ringworld as seen from the surface. Some natives believe their world is a flat surface surmounted by a narrow parabolic arch.
ARM: The United Nations police. Jurisdiction is limited to Earth-Moon system.
BELTER: Citizen of the asteroid belt, Sol system.
CONTROL CENTER: See REPAIR CENTER.
CZILTANG BRONE: A City Builder device, a beamer that allows solid objects, freight, pa.s.sengers, etc., to penetrate scrith.
DROUD: A small device that plugs into the skull of a current addict. Its purpose: to meter the current flow to the pleasure center of the addict's brain.
EYE STORM: The pattern of winds that form around a meteor puncture in the Ringworld floor.
ELBOW ROOT: Ringworld plant grown for fences.
FLEET OF WORLDS: The five puppeteer planets.
FLYCYCLE: Single-seater vehicle used for exploration on the first Ringworld expedition.
FLUP: Seabottom ooze.
FOOCH (FOOCHESTH): Stone couches set throughout the kzinti hunting parks.
<script>