Thousands of three-legged, two-headed creatures were watching them through the forward wall.
“We say ‘Hindmost,’ ” one of them said. “I’m the Hindmost. Speak your desire.”
“Teach me.”
The granite block had been set aside.
Louis limped past Kzin and protector. The pain in his shoulder was a part of his anger. He asked the Hindmost, “Now how did you do that?”
“I braced my forequarters against the wall and pushed with my hind leg. Bram felt the strength in my leg. He should have known.”
“Lucky for us—”
“Where is Bram?”
“Dead at our hands. Tunesmith, the teaching aids are all here aboard Hot Needle of Inquiry. Those pictures especially. They’re made by bronze webs like the one on the cliff at Weaver Town.”
Tunesmith said, “I follow Bram’s advice. Web Dweller, teach me. I am not to trust you until we have a contract.”
“I’ll print out my people’s standard contract for service.”
“Only for my amusement, I hope. Louis, my son needs …” Tunesmith looked again. “You, into the ’doc, now. Is that it?”
Acolyte was lifting him.
He was in the big box and Tunesmith was examining the readouts doubtfully. “How long?” the Ghoul protector asked.
The puppeteer said, “Three days, maybe less.”
Louis talked in haste. “Don’t anyone sign anything. Hindmost, I don’t know how to feed a Night Person. Try aged beef. Try cheese. Tunesmith, I hope you won’t destroy that last ARM spacecraft unless they do something dreadful—”
“Nearest possible mates in this universe?”
“Well … that, too. Now, the High Point protectors hold the rim wall, and at this point they may be scared out of their minds. Talk to them through that window, with the black sky and the big strange shapes? Ghouls stole that web from a vampire nest, carried it maybe two hundred thousand miles plus two miles straight up—”
“The sunlight network told us about it.”
“Tell the spill mountain protectors they’re in charge of the rim. Mean it.”
Acolyte was closing the lid on the big box. Louis laughed suddenly. “Hey. Remind you of anything?”
He heard the voice of Louis Wu telling a hairless face with red skin, “We’d like to talk to a protector, please. We want to propose a contract.”
And the lid closed and he could rest.
THE END
Glossary
ARM: once the Amalgamated Regional Militia, now the United Nations armed forces.
antispin: direction opposite the Ringworld’s direction of spin.
collier: 1. A ship used to carry coal. 2. A merchant who transports or sells coal.
cziltang brone: alleged to be a device to allow solid objects to penetrate scrith.
cruiser: a Machine People vehicle.
elbow root: ubiquitous Ringworld plant, a kind of natural fence.
daywalk: varies by species, but usually means a serious effort consistent with foraging and health. One daywalk for Machine People is about ten miles; for a Grass Giant, less, but they can keep it up forever. Gleaners can do one and a half Machine People daywalks for a couple of hours.
Fleet of Worlds: the homeworld of the Pierson’s puppeteers, and four worlds sequestered for farming.
flup: seabottom ooze.
Outsider hyperdrive or hyperdrive: a means of faster-than-light travel, common in known space.
Patriarchy: the kzinti empire.
Repair Center: ancient center of Ringworld maintenance and control housed beneath the Map of Mars.
payload shell: the locked iron housing on a Machine People cruiser.
rishathra (reshtra): sexual practice outside one’s own species but within the intelligent hominids. Not a useful term beyond the Ringworld.
scrith: Ringworld structural material. Scrith underlies all of the terraformed and contoured inner surface of the Ringworld. The rim walls are also of scrith. Very dense, with a tensile strength on the order of the force that holds an atomic nucleus together.
spill mountains: mountains standing against the rim wall, the outflow of the rim spillpipes. One stage in the circulation of flup. The spill mountains have their own ecology.
spin or spinward: in the direction of rotation of the Ringworld (against the rotation of the sky).
star or starboard: to the right as one faces spinward.
stet: leave it alone, no change, that’s exactly right.
tanj: an expletive. Initial slang for “There Ain’t No Justice.”
thruster: reactionless drive. In known space, thrusters have generally replaced fusion rockets on all spacecraft save warcraft.
vishnishtee / vashnesht: wizard or protector.
weenie plant: ubiquitous Ringworld plant. Edible. Grows in damp areas.
webeye: puppeteer technology, a multisensory probe.
Ringworld Parameters
30 hours = 1 Ringworld “day.”
1 turn = 7.5 thirty-hour days = 1 Ringworld rotation.
1 falan = 10 turns = 75 days
Mass = 2 x 10^30 grams
Radius = 0.95 x 10^8 miles
Circumference = 5.97 x 10^8 miles
Width = 997,000 miles
Surface area = 6 x 10^14 square miles = 3 x 10^6 times the surface area of the Earth (approx)
Surface gravity = 31.7 feet/second/second = .992 gee
Rim walls rise inward, 1,000 miles
Repair Center = 40 miles high by 0.56 x 10^8 square miles area = 2.24 x 10^9 cubic miles
Near Great Ocean = 600x surface area of Earth
Star: G1 or G2, barely smaller and cooler than Sol
Cast of Characters
Machine People
Valavirgillin (Vala, “Boss”)—hired the caravan. Represents Farsight Trading
Foranayeedli (Forn)—Barok’s daughter. Kaywerbrimmis’s crew
Sabarokaresh (Barok)—biggest male. Kaywerbrimmis’s crew
Kaywerbrimmis (Kay)—Valavirgillin’s Wagonmaster
Anthrantillin (Anth)—wagonmaster
Taratarafasht (Tarfa)—female, Anth’s crew
Whandernothtee (Whand)—wagonmaster
Chitakumishad (Chit)—Whandernothtee’s crew
Sopashintay (Spash)–Whand’s crew
Himapertharee (Himp)–Anthrantillin’s crew
High Rangers Trading Group–died but for Valavirgillin, forty-three falans ago
Tarablilliast (Tarb)—Valavirgillin’s mate, taking care of their children, far to starboard
Grass Giants
Paroom—male sentry
Thurl—alpha male, the Bull
Moonwa—female, the Thurl’s primary wife
Beedj—male, the Thurl’s probable heir
Tarun—male
Makee—male, Wemb’s son
Heerst—male
Twuk—small Grass Giant female
Gleaners
Perilack—female
Silack—beta male
Manack—alpha male, hairier
Coriack—female
Reds
Tegger hooki-Thandarthal—ambassador
Warvia hooki-Murf Thandarthal—ambassador
Anakrin hooki-Whanhurhur—messenger
Chaychind hooki-Karashk—messenger
River People
Wurblychoog—female
Borubble—male
Rooballabl—speaks trade language
Fudghabladl—old one, remembers
Ball People
Louis Wu
The Hindmost (the Web Dweller)
Chmeee
Weaving People
Parald
Strill
Sawur
Kidada
Fishers
Shans Serpentstrangler
Hishthare Rockdiver
Sailor
Wheek
Night People
Kazarp
Tunesmith
Harpster
Grieving Tube
Kzinti
Acolyte—Chmeee’s eldest son
Kathakt—a lord of the Map of Kzin
Saron—older woman
Deb—middle-aged woman
Skreepu–bird, belongs to Deb
Harreed—Deb’s younger son
Barraye—Deb’s older son
Jennawil—younger woman mated to Barraye
Protectors
Cronus
Bram
Anne
Lovecraft
Collier
King
… and others, nameless.
FB2 document info
Document ID: 613cac16-d927-4622-8905-72e685650819
Document version: 1.2
Document creation date: 2006-04-17
Created using: MS Word, FB Tools software
Document authors :
Jolly Roger Skull
Document history:
v 1.0. The text is not read through. All qoutes (single and double) and apostrophes are changed to side oriented ones. All dashes are corrected. Some other minor corrections. Annotation is taken from http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk. The cover is added.
by Jolly Roger Skull, 2006.04.17
v 1.1. Some misprints are corrected now.
by Jolly Roger Skull, 2006.04.21
v 1.2. Some formatting is changed. Lot of misprints are corrected now.
by Jolly Roger Skull, 2006.05.08
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