Ringworld's Children

"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. Roxa

The ship was indeed sinking inch by inch into the puncture. Worse, it was begi

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

Roxa

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!" Roxa

"He was sitting in the wrong place." Claus glared at Louis Wu, who was in Olivers chair; then at Roxa

The tent billowed in the exhaust as the escape pod thumped down. Recoil threw Roxa

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, "Roxa

"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 Roxa

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," Roxa

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," Roxa

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 Roxa

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! Ru

Acolyte plunged in with a mighty splash. With his fur plastered flat he looked wonderfully fu

Hanuman was wrestling with the fittings 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 ca

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 Roxa