Ringworld's Children

"Seek Louis Wu."

"Gray Nurse has the report he made to the United Nations following the Lying Bastard expedition. Should I hide his identity too?"

"Please yourself. He plays a frivolous game of mate-and-dominate with the ARM woman."

"Stet, we will leave all as it is for this little time."

Hanuman asked, "What is this place? Are my charges endangered?"

"No, but guard them if you will. This was the domain of the last rebel but one, the Penultimate," Proserpina said. "Will you serve me?"

"No." No ambiguity, no hesitation.

"I want to talk to Tunesmith. How may I do this?"

"Tell me what you want said. Give me a vehicle."

"I have all of the history of this structure and its regents, all for barter. The Repair Center is not the Ringworlds only secret. Do you dare withhold my knowledge from Tunesmith?"

"No. Tunesmith is more intelligent than you or me, but he ca

"Where is he?"

"Some distance up the arc."

"You came to investigate the antimatter explosion. You left your vehicle behind when the ARM ship took you." Hanuman didnt react. Proserpina said, "You have no transport. I have only this one mag ship. To make another would delay us for days. Can we spare the time?"

"I must guide you to Tunesmith."

Proserpina thought about this. Could she find a way to guard herself? Or was it time to die, if Tunesmith chose to make it so?

"Ill make things secure here first," she said. "Wait until tomorrow night."

Louis Wu was not unhappy. He was getting a long rest, prone in the Intensive Care Cavity. Nobody expected anything of him. Let others deal with the Fringe War, antimatter fuel tanks, the dance of protectors. He dozed, and thought, and dozed…

And he fell asleep, or was put to sleep. He woke under high, dark trees. His massive ARM autodoc was no longer attached to the sunfish ship. The joker stood above him.

He tried not to be dismayed that shed come back alone. Hanuman must be with the others: hed protect them.

She asked, "Are you well?"

"Check the readouts," Louis said.

She took him at his word. "Youre healing. Youre getting nourishment and something to calm you." She tapped at a screen. "You wouldnt be getting these inputs if you didnt have internal injuries. Theyre still healing. This other concoction seems to be brewed from tree-of-life root, or some synthetic analogue, but the machine isnt feeding that to you either."

"Really? Tree-of-life? The stuff that—"

"Here, this tube."

Louis tried to sit up. "I cant see it."

She sketched a mark in the air. Louis knew that symbol, a trademark half a thousand years old. "Boosterspice."

"Intended to restore a breeders age-raddled body? And you dont need it. Youre an old man made young. Is boosterspice one of Tunesmiths secrets?"

Louis blinked. "No. It might be an ARM secret." Hed been told as a child that boosterspice had been made via genetic engineering done on ragweed. It now struck him that the longevity treatment had been introduced, and allegedly changed human nature forever, about two hundred years after an alien ramship reached Sol system. It could fit.

"You are fertile. I can smell it. Roxa

Louis smiled. How would a genderless protector ever understand that?

He said, "I was chasing a woman named Paula Cherenkov. I knew she wanted children. I had the habit of bugging out of human space from time to time. I always thought Id smuggle something some day… never did. This time I went to Jinx.

"Some worlds think just like flatlanders when it comes to the population explosion. Some worlds dont have much habitable territory. Not Jinx! When they need more room, they expand the terraformed regions. I got them to reco

"Then Paula left Earth because she wanted a large family.

"A few years later I brought a new intelligent species into known space. The UN wanted to give me a birthright for finding the Trinocs and serving as their first ambassador. Now the doctors were waiting to fix what shouldnt have been already fixed. When Nessus made his offer, I went to the Ringworld."

Proserpina set her hands on Louiss belly and moved them around. Pressure above his left hip. "Old damage to the gut?"

"Yah."

"Theres barely a trace. This floating rib is newly cracked—"

"Agh!"

Hands like a score of walnuts palpated his numb hips, then ran down his legs. "Six breaks, maybe more, all on the left. It doesnt matter, they can all heal at the same time. In four days youll walk, in seven youll run. Would you try solid food?"

Louis pointed: "That ones good. The Hinsh gave it to us." She broke a canteloupe-sized yellow fruit for him, and fed him, and ate some herself.

He asked, "Who are you?"

"Im the oldest protector, the last of the rebels," she said. "Tell me who you are. The woman doesnt know. She didnt perceive Hanuman either. What does she think he is?"

"We let her think Hanuman is a tame monkey. She thinks Im the son of an ARM who got himself stranded. Can we keep it that way? Roxa

"ARM is one of the factions—"

"Amalgamated Regional Militia. From Earth, the United Nations police since eight hundred years ago. There are a few hundred ARM ships in the Fringe War. How much do you know, Proserpina? Have you been hacking into Needle?"

"Yah. Puppeteer civilization is too fascinating. I could become lost in it. Still, this Hindmost has extensive records of human civilization. Do you know the name Proserpina?"

"Plutos wife, the Lady who rules Hell. Greek myth, Elizabethan pronunciation. Is this Hell to you?"

"In a loose sense. Tell me about Tunesmith."

"Not yet. I want to know about you. Who you are."

He had the impression she was gri

Louis laughed. "He thinks he owns me."

"You dont agree, but you dont hate him. Youd free yourself if you could. Will you serve me? No. For a time, then? Perhaps if you knew me better? Im not prone to rages or bouts of frantic activity or megalomania, Louis. I dont suck blood, though you served a bloodsucker. Ive been passive for millions of falans while the rest of my kind burned themselves out. Of course you must know me first, if we have time. My tale is complicated. I helped build the Ringworld."

"Ive heard that before," Louis said.

"From some braggart breeder? Theyve become hugely various, havent they? My telescopes wont penetrate atmosphere well enough, and I dare not travel to see more, but Ive dealt with spill mountain species. Louis or Luis, Im the real one. I broke promises before the work was finished, so it was finished without me, but I believe Im the last builder. Would you like your legs back?"

What did she mean? She bent over him, reached around behind him. Pain surged.

"Can you tolerate it? Its better if you can feel whats going on."

"Thats pretty fierce," he gasped.

"Ill cut the input by half—" (The pain receded.) " — and change your chemical balance a little." The pain fuzzed. "There. Will you try to urinate and evacuate? The doc system is equipped to handle that."

"In privacy, please."

"Stet." She turned away. "Then you can tell me about the people of the Ringworld. Who have you met? What are they like? I have the right. Our children became their ancestors."

Louis considered keeping silence. It was not his nature. He couldnt hide anything from a protector anyway. He did wonder if Proserpina had set ARM truth drugs dripping into him.