Ringworld's Children r-4 Page 11

  "Luiss father came here in a Number Two," Acolyte said. He was giving too much detail. Hed be caught in inconsistencies, Louis feared… but Chmeee must have described Liar, which had been a Number Two, when he told his son of the first expedition.

  And Acolyte was enjoying himself.

  "A huge glass bubble filled with gear. Massive machines inside," Gauthier said.

  Forrestier said, "Or four flames moving across the sky. Its got four fusion motors. It was stolen, maybe by your Chiron."

  Louis said, "Chiron doesnt tell us everything. Or anything."

  Roxanny said, "Actually it was stolen twice, first by the Kzinti, then from the Kzinti. We didnt see it reach the Ringworld, but we think its here. We want it back."

  "Tell us about the Chiron expedition," Oliver ordered.

  Louis improvised. "Dad says it took two years, and it was way cramped." Stick to what you know where possible — "My mother came on the first expedition. She says Lying Bastard started as a Number Two and just grew out of all proportion, bigger every time a puppeteer thought of another safety feature. In the end Lying Bastard was a big flying wing with the General Products cylinder stuck into it. The stasis field enclosed the cylinder, but they lost everything that was on the wing." All of that would be in ARM records, including Louis Wus own speculations. Theyd find Louiss description of Chiron there too.

  "So when Chiron built his ship, he wedged everything inside the hull. Ive been in it, but not since I was this high, and it was already cramped—"

  "We would like to talk to Chiron," Oliver said. "Where may we find him?"

  Acolyte said, "Chiron has told us most explicitly that we must not tell anyone how to find him."

  To Roxanny Oliver said, "Long Shot was in the hands of Kzinti. Puppeteers might find that distressing, dont you think? A puppeteer might act to get it back." He asked Louis, "Did Chirons ship have a name?"

  "Paranoia," Louis said without cracking a smile.

  "How is it armed?"

  "Paranoia has no armaments at all," Louis said, "barring tools which may be turned to that end. Were not to speak of those."

  "Where on the Ringworld did your Paranoia land? Was it near the Great Ocean, where the first expedition left Teela Brown?"

  Louis hadnt decided that either. "Cant say."

  "Boy, you dont seem to have anything at all to trade," Roxanny Gauthier said. "What would you like to know from us? Did Chiron tell you what questions to ask?"

  "He wants to know if the Ringworld is going to heal. I can see that the ruptures sealing itself. Even so, what can you tell us about the Fringe War? Is it about to go away?"

  "I doubt it," Roxanny said.

  "Or is it going to get so big and violent that it shatters everything?"

  "That doesnt have to happen," she said firmly.

  Oliver laughed. Roxanny looked around in annoyance, and Oliver said, "Just a passing thought. How old are you, Luis?"

  Louis had planned to be in his thirties, but both ARMs seemed to think he was just past puberty. For some reason this delighted him. Tanj, why not? He said, "Eighty falans and a bit."

  "And a falan would be?"

  "Ten rotations of the sky."

  "About seventy-five days? Thirty-hour Ringworld days?" Oliver was whispering to a pocket computer, bigger than a civilian version. "Youre about twenty years old, Earth time. Im forty-six. Roxanny?"

  "Im fifty-one," she said without hesitation.

  "We take boosterspice, of course. It keeps us from getting old. What crossed my mind," Oliver Forrestier said, "is that this is the first human woman youve ever seen other than your mother, Luis."

  Roxanny was smiling, a reluctant smile. And Louis was flushing, suddenly aware that his eyes had lingered too long on Roxanny Gauthier; that hed edged closer to her than the cramped quarters demanded; that he couldnt look at her and talk coherently. The close air must be alive with pheromones… Roxannys and Olivers too. And as Oliver was the first human male hed seen or sniffed in twenty-odd years — and no room for a shower aboard Snail Darter — it wasnt surprising if Louis felt both horny and threatened.

  "Sorry," he said, and eased back by an inch.

  It crossed his mind that intimidation could take many forms. They wanted something from Luis: information Louis Wu would have to make up, but still -

  Roxanny laughed lightly. "Never mind. Luis, would you like to see Snail Darter? Acolyte, we cant take you aboard. Its too cramped. Luis can tell you about it afterward."

  Hanumans eyes met Louiss, but he said nothing. Wembleth and Acolyte had begun a halting conversation. Wembleth found the Kzin fascinating. Louis closed his faceplate and followed the ARMs out.

  The ship was awesomely cramped.

  Three seats faced away from each other around a central pillar. One seat was occupied. There was a pucker next to the airlock door for the now-detached tent. A hole in the floor led to a cavity the size of a man: the Weapons and Mission Room.

  Roxanny entered first. She slid into the second seat. "LE Luis Tamasan, meet Tec-Two Claus Raschid. Claus, Luis," she said. "Not quite a native."

  Claus turned around and offered a hand. He was darker than Roxanny, taller than Oliver, and his arm had a long reach. "Luis, Im the pilot. Sit there."

  Louis had hoped to talk to Roxanny alone, or even Oliver alone. Theyd both come along, a little too closely agreed for Louiss comfort, leaving Acolyte and Wembleth (and Hanuman) alone in the tent.

  Louis slid into the third seat. He felt planes shifting, adjusting to his height and weight and the bulk of his pressure suit. Basic seating: it fit him imperfectly.

  Roxanny Gauthier tapped an instruction into her chair arms, using both hands. A crash web held Louis before he could move.

  The force field in a crash web would protect a passenger in a collision; it was also useful for police work.

  Louis didnt react right away. How would Luis react? Frozen in panic, at least long enough for Louis to think. And then what?

  "For your protection. You did say you wanted to see Earth," Roxanny said, smiling like a cat.

  Oliver slid in through the airlock and then down through the hatch, into the fourth chair. The Mission and Weapons Room fitted Oliver like a tight suit.

  Louis wriggled a bit; the field permitted that much. He asked, "Are we going to Earth?"

  "Back to Gray Nurse, anyway," the third crewman said. "Well be there in an hour. Wed better be. Roxanny, you left the kitchen doc behind."

  "We had to," she said.

  "Stet, but if anything goes wrong — stet. Luis, the carrier Gray Nurse is our first stop, and people other than us will decide where you go from there. I expect thats Earth, or at least Sol system. And hey, you can tell us some things while were on route. Chiron cant stop you now. Youll be the second Ringworlder to reach human space."

  "Dont go through this hole," Louis said.

  All three ARMs turned their heads to look at him. Roxanny asked, "Why not?"

  That was a tough one. Louis Wu was certain that Tunesmith wouldnt allow an ARM spacecraft to escape this easily. Something would block them… but why would Luis Tamasan say something so out of character?

  He said, "Chmeee says he left the world through Fist-of-God. My father came through a different puncture. Neither of them saw anything like this… shimmer. Fist-of-God Mountain isnt repairing itself, is it? But this hole is."

  Claus said, "So is Fist-of-God. The crater closed itself weeks ago, before we noticed. We were hoping you could tell us about that."

  Tunesmith must have tested his reweaving system, Louis guessed. Luis said nothing.

  Claus Raschid had something on a virtual screen. "Here we are. Luis, try to follow this. The nearest puncture we know of is a million miles away. Too far. Theyll track us across the surface. Every tanj species in the Fringe War will want us as bad as we want you, because of what we might know. But we might escape if we go through immediately, right here, and with our motors off." The ship lifted. "Here is where Gray Nurse
is waiting, our mother ship, in the dark, up against the Ringworld floor—"

  Below them Oliver was yelling, "Raschid! What are you playing at?"

  Louis tried to yell louder. Being immobilized was driving him frantic. "Drop something first! See what happens to it!"

  "Im getting us home," Raschid told Oliver. The ship eased sideways. Now it was above the puncture. "All power sources off. Luis, if we had the auxiliary fuel tank Id drop that, but I dont."

  They were falling. Louis glimpsed the tent sitting alone on the scrith. Theyd be all right, he told himself; they had Hanuman to guide them. The hole expanded. It was full of stars.

  Snail Darter smashed down into something that gave.

  Crash webs caught his captors recoiling upward. Louis felt his brain bounce in his skull. Already in a crash web, he recovered first… still immobilized. He could hear Oliver screaming below him.

  Claus shouted, "What did we hit?"

  "Get us out! Get us out!" Roxanny screamed.

  Reweaving system, Tunesmith had said. How strong would threads made of scrith be? Strong enough to stop a falling spacecraft? But theyd cut through the hull. The hole must be laced with them.

  "The thrusters are dead," Claus said.

  "Where are they?" Louis demanded.

  Claus craned around to snarl at him. Louis asked, "Theyre on the bottom, arent they?" It was ancient habit: shipbuilders tended to put thruster motors where they would have put rockets. "Whatevers in that hole, mending that hole, its cutting the thrusters apart. Well sink into it. How long before it reaches the power source? What do you use for a power source? Where is it?" Babbling, he was babbling. Why hadnt the stasis field been triggered? But if that happened, they might be here forever.

  Claus was slow catching up. Roxanny Gauthier said, "Midship. Its a battery. If anything cuts into it—"

  The ship was indeed sinking inch by inch into the puncture. Worse, it was beginning to tip over.

  Claus was staring at them, not getting it. When he did, he yelled in terror. His hands danced above the controls.

  Roxanny shouted, "Wait!"

  The hatch in the floor closed. Olivers yell chopped off.

  A rocket motor bellowed. The cabin section detached and rose fast, wobbled, then steadied. Claus took over manually; the cabin tilted far over, fell, tilted upright again.

  "You killed him!" Roxanny said. "Oliver!"

  "He was sitting in the wrong place." Claus glared at Louis Wu, who was in Olivers chair; then at Roxanny. "Wasnt that you yelling, Get us out?"

  The tent billowed in the exhaust as the escape pod thumped down. Recoil threw Roxanny and Claus several inches before their crash webs caught them.

  Through the wall of the tent Louis could just see that Acolyte and Hanuman were spreading the rescue pod open for Wembleth to enter.

  A brilliant light flared from the direction of the puncture. Then that side of the cabin blackened. Louis yelled, "Roxanny, let me loose!"

  "Wait it out, Luis."

  A shock wave slammed the cabin.

  "Theyre dying out there! Let me loose! Claus!"

  Claus said, "Here." His hand moved, and Louis was free. He rolled out of his chair and into the tiny airlock.

  The tent was splayed out in fragments like an exploded balloon. The blast had scattered its contents. Wembleth and his rescue pod rolled gently past, Wembleth tumbling like clothes in an Oil Age dryer, as Louis wiggled out of the airlock.

  Acolyte was trying to find his feet, falling over, trying again. Hanuman was not in sight. Wembleth must have regained his senses: he was curled in a tight ball now, still tumbling.

  "Acolyte? Are you all right? Pressure okay?"

  "My suit is holding pressure. Do you see Hanuman?"

  "No."

  Wembleth was nearest. Louis flashed his attitude jets, dropped ahead of him, and ran alongside the balloon, pushing to stop its spin. The Ringworlder tried to help. They got it stopped, though Wembleth was unbalanced… off balance because Hanuman was clinging tight to him, face to chest. Hanuman still wore his pressure suit.

  "Acolyte, Ive got them both."

  They walked back toward the ruined tent. Acolyte, Claus, and Roxanny joined them. Roxanny was carrying something heavy, an oblong brick she hugged to her breast.

  The kitchen doc hadnt been moved. It looked unharmed.

  They moored it to Louiss flycycle, and moored Wembleths rescue pod to Acolytes. The ARMs gave orders as if they were superior officers. Louis asked at one point, "Any reason to take your escape vehicle? I dont think flycycle motors are up to that."

  "Leave it," Roxanny said. "Its dead."

  The explosion of the fighter ships battery might have damaged Tunesmiths reweaving system, Louis thought. Tunesmith should be told… but he was being told, by voice and camera feeds. He just couldnt answer, and that was fine with Louis.

  CHAPTER 12

  The Giraffe People

  The glow in the XXL plug was dimmed. The tube sagged, leaking broad white rivers of tropospheric storm. It didnt matter. Theyd left the puncture nearly closed.

  The party flew to spinward, directly away from where they had left their fuel tank. "Leave it as bait. We dont want to be near it," Roxanny Gauthier ordered. "Whatever dropped that inflatable mountain range might take an interest. Vashneesht, you said? What do you know of Vashneesht?"

  Louis said, "Vashneesht is just what we say when nobody knows anything. Wizards. Magic." Interworld words Luis would know from his parents.

  She was riding the front saddle of Louiss flycycle. Shed tried to operate the controls, and turned icy when they didnt work. Louis flew from the aft saddle. Neither Roxanny nor Claus had said so, but it seemed clear theyd been drafted into the ARM.

  The other flycycle seemed in good shape. Acolyte rode the front seat; Claus was hidden behind him. The native seemed comfortable enough, slung below the flycycle in his inflated rescue pod, until he began gasping.

  "Acolyte!"

  "Here, Louis."

  "The rescue pod has run out of air. Wembleth is in trouble."

  Claus said, "Tanj, it must have been faulty."

  "We descend?"

  They landed. Wembleth had fainted.

  They kept their suits on. The air was thin fog and hurricane wind; it dimmed their headphone voices. Louis shouted, "I dont think opening the rescue pod—"

  Acolyte: "Better idea?"

  "Get the tree swinger to open his helmet. His suit has a recycling feature."

  The little anthropoid was quick to respond to Acolytes gestures. He threw back his helmet, sneezed at the stink, but left it open. Concerned, he pushed his face close to Wembleths and sniffed. Wembleth stirred and presently sat up.

  They flew above fallen trees that had grown as puffy tops on tall, slender trunks. The antimatter blast had flattened them with their tops pointing spinward. Further away, the wind from the pressure drop felled them to antispin and left lower growth alive.

  Falling pressure was a wave still expanding across this land. The flycycles followed the shock wave, catching up slowly. They crossed tens of thousands of miles of disaster and storm. Now there were standing trees among the fallen in the pufftop forest. The forest ran on, cleaving to the lowlands, mingling with other ecologies.

  Louis took them down into a break in the pufftop forest, in a meadow alongside a rushing stream.

  Air! They pulled Wembleth out of his bubble before they stripped off their own suits. Wembleth whooped; he danced, though stiffly. He plunged into the water, stripped off his coarse-woven shirt and pants, and began scrubbing himself with them.

  Water! Running water, ankle deep, ran down to a deep pool. The ARMs looked at each other; then they stripped off their skintights too and dove in. In midair, Roxannys laughing eyes brushed Luis Tamasans. Louis couldnt breathe.

  Acolyte plunged in with a mighty splash. With his fur plastered flat he looked wonderfully funny. It broke the spell: Louis laughed.

  Hanuman was wrestling with the fi
ttings of his suit. Louis helped him out. Hanuman, the affectionate anthropoid, hugged him and whispered, "The ARMs have hand weapons hidden."

  "Surprise," Louis murmured.

  "Ook ook ook. Get naked?"

  "My problem—"

  "They know. Go in like Wembleth." Hanuman eeled out of his arms and, four-legged, ran for the water. He dove in without a splash. Louis yelled and chased him, leaping into a cannonball dive.

  Cold! He pulled his skintight off in deep water. He made an attempt to rub it clean against himself, then balled it up and threw it onto the rocky shore to drain.

  There now. All concerned could pretend not to know that Luis Tamasan was in a state of arousal.

  He stayed clear of the ARMs, who were — getting friendly, hed thought, but Claus was backing off, and Roxanny was talking fast and inaudibly. Quarrel? Theyd still want privacy.

  Acolyte didnt swim well, but the stream wasnt deep. He scooped up Hanuman and waded up to Louis, who was treading water.

  Hanuman spoke briskly. "I saw a meteorite descend near the puncture. Tunesmith would spot another ship."

  "He cant tell us. I turned him off. I—"

  "Good. I will continue riding with Acolyte. Let me lead. I can take us to a service stack."

  A service stack would take them home to the Map of Mars. Louis asked, "How far away?"

  "Orbiting. Tunesmith can direct it toward us."

  "Do we want the ARMs to see a service stack?"

  "Well ask Tunesmith later, when we ask if hes seen other intruders. Your opinion?"

  Louis thought about it. "Theyll want to rejoin their ship. We dont mind that, right? As long as they dont learn too much first."

  Hanumans voice was a whipcrack, barely audible. "Gauthier rescued their library! I want it! I want to watch them use it before we let them loose. But these ARMs are dangerous companions. No need to risk us all. Louis, what if Acolyte and I escape? We can rendezvous with a service stack. You stay and observe."

  It seemed an astonishing suggestion. "Why would I?"

  "Across the entire Ringworld Roxanny Gauthier is your only possible mate. You dont have a plan of your own, do you?"