Ringworld's Children

The land racing below them still had river networks lined with the dark green of life. Through the land a white streak ran to antispin. Louis thought he knew what that was, but it was less urgent than the puncture. "Acolyte — ?"

"I see the wound. I do not see the plug package."

"I havent found that either," Hanuman said. Too small. Tunesmith, are you with us?"

"Half hour delay," Louis reminded him. "Sixteen minutes each way, lightspeed." This was a protector? But upgraded from an animal. You didnt expect a protector to forget things… and Hanuman must be very accustomed to Tunesmiths guidance.

Acolyte bounced against the stepping disk. Magnetic boots clung. He stood uncertainly. "My father tried to tell me about free fall," he said. "I dont think he ever feared it."

Tunesmith spoke from sixteen minutes in the past. "Ive sent the signal to deploy the double-X-large meteor plug. Tell me what you see, all three of you. Be free to interrupt each other, I can sort your voices."

A lamp lit above the target.

It didnt look much brighter than a street lamp, but its size… Louis squinted past the glare. "Something unfolding. Tunesmith, it looks like fire salamanders mating… or a balloon inflating… its bulking up into a shape like a sailing ships life preserver. Jets firing at fusion temperatures. What have you got there, Tunesmith?"

Acolyte: "Its settling. Slowing. A torus. Its much wider than the puncture, a thousand to two thousand klicks across. Was this what you wanted to hear?"

Hanuman: "The scrith foundation that holds the Ring together demonstrates tremendous tensile strength. Ive done the numbers. The forces that hold scrith together would generate showers of quarks if pulled apart. A bag made of such material would be strong enough to confine a hydrogen fusion explosion. Theres risk, Tunesmith, but it seems to be holding."

Acolyte: "Its settling—"

Louis: " — enclosing the puncture. Leaving the puncture exposed like a bulls-eye on a target. Im guessing your balloon stands fifty miles tall, so itll confine the atmosphere as long as it holds."

Hanuman: "Tunesmith, how good an insulator is a scrith balloon? We wouldnt see it if it werent leaking energy. When it cools enough, itll collapse. Tunesmith, it will leak air. The ground beneath will be uneven."

Answer came there none. Tunesmiths reaction was a Ringworld diameter away.

So he must have spoken sixteen minutes ago. "Watch for the second package," the protector said. "Tell me if it settles inside the ring."

Acolyte: "I dont see anything. Louis? Hanuman?"

Louis: "There wont be a meteor trail—"

Acolyte: "Rocket! I see it. Fusion, by its color. Settling slowly at the edge of the hole. Its down."

Louis: "Were drifting too far. I cant see the puncture any more."

Hanuman bent over the rim of the stepping disk. "Ill fix that. The next stepping disk is thirty degrees around the Ringworld arc. Ready?"

They flicked.

The Ringworld flowed beneath them. Theyd jumped thirty degrees, about fifty million miles. Louis, looking ahead of him, found a line of white several worlds wide, and a brighter line peeping above its center. Acolyte said, "There it is. We cant see detail, Tunesmith. We wont be over it for half a day."

Louis: "Theres a zoom function in our faceplates. Tunesmith, I dont see any change. Your balloon plug is still inflated. Everything outside the balloon is fog. Weve lost a… few percent of the Ringworld already."

Around the edges of the fog, the land would be ravaged by shock waves ru

He had once estimated the Ringworlds population at thirty trillion, with hominid species in every possible ecological niche. That vast plain of fog would be water droplets condensed by a drop in pressure. Ecologies under that fog blanket would be dehydrated and suffocating. Around it theyd soon be ravaged by climate change.

But only if Tunesmith made a miracle.

"I think a ship in stasis crashed to antispin of the puncture," Louis said. "I cant see it from here."

Hanuman said, "We wont be over it for half a day. Im going to flick us home."

A moment later — plus a quarter hour — they were aboard Needle.

Moments afterward, so was Tunesmith. "Hanuman, report," he said.

"Your device deployed. It will hold for days, but it will leak. What are you expecting?"

"I sent a reweaving system to make more scrith. I based my design on nanotechnology from the doc aboard Needle. A complicated matter, this. The system must replace not only the scrith floor but the superconductor grid within."

Hanuman said, "There are species whose breeders evolved intelligent. Their protectors would be bright enough to help you with such problems."

"Bright enough to quarrel, too, and to hold the Ringworld hostage for the advantage of their own gene pool. Louis, tell me what you saw of a downed spacecraft."

"Just a streak," Louis said.

"Different from other streaks?"

He spoke too patiently. Louis flushed. "We saw it from a long way away, but — I reached the Ringworld aboard a ship in stasis. Lying Bastard came down with a horizontal velocity of seven hundred and seventy miles per second, like anything that brushes the Ringworld. We left a streak of molten lava and bare scrith. Now Ive seen one just like it. I think when one ship exploded, another got knocked down."

"Well have to find it."

"Thats easy, but not now," Louis pleaded. "Your orbiting stepping disk wont be in view of the puncture for twelve hours anyway. Let us get some sleep." He was ready to weep, exhausted physically and emotionally.

"Sleep, then."

They slept aboard Needle. Louis shared sleeping plates with Hanuman. The little protector just had to try it.

CHAPTER 10

A Tale to Tell

They woke, they breakfasted, they returned to the workstation under Olympus where Tunesmith was waiting.

Tunesmith had added to their gear. The new gear included two flycycles.

Nessus and his motley crew had carried four flycycles: flying structures built something like a dumbbell with a seat mounted between the weights. Theyd all been ruined on that first voyage. These two must have been modeled on the wreckage; but they were longer, each with two seats and a big luggage rack.

Louis inspected one of the vehicles. The kitchen converter would store in the luggage rack or swing out. Mounts on the dash carried a flashlight laser and some other tools. Nessuss team had reached the Ringworld with gear similar to this, some of puppeteer make, some purchased off shelves in human space.

"I reworked the sonic fold too," Tunesmith said. "Orbiting Stepping-Disk Eight will be almost in place, Hanuman. You can take it from here."

"Stet." To Acolyte and Louis, Hanuman said, "Get into your pressure gear, then stow your baggage. Well push the flycycles through first."

"Wheres the Hindmost?" Louis asked.

"Hes still in a depressed state," said Tunesmith. "That worries me. He may be suffering a chemical imbalance. Ill put him in the doc after youre gone."

Louis didnt comment. They geared up and went.

And out into free fall with the Ringworld blazing below. The Kzin, the protector, Louis, and two flycycles drifted apart. Riding lights flashed on the flycycles.

Orbiting Stepping-Disk Eight had drifted in the night, twenty degrees, thirty-three million miles. Louis was looking almost straight down into a black hole with a glitter at the rim, in a quasi-lunar landscape marked with radial streamlines and glittering threads of frozen riverbed. A torus the size of a mountain range, glowing ruby from within and begi