Ringworld - Larry Niven Page 0,10
was the cold white stream of a comet’s tail—looked up from her work. “Teela, take over,” she said gaily. “I’m hungry.”
Teela knelt obligingly beside the great orange head. Louis said, “Teela Brown, meet Speaker-To-Animals. May you both be—”
From nearby came a discordant blast of music.
“—very happy together. What was that? Oh, Nessus. What—?”
The music had come from the puppeteer’s remarkable throats. Now Nessus nudged rudely between Louis and the girl. “You are Teela Jandrova Brown, ident number IKLUGGTYN?”
The girl was startled, but not frightened. “That’s my name. I don’t remember my ident number. What’s the problem?”
“We have been combing Earth for you for nearly a week. Now I find you at a gathering I reached only by chance! I will have harsh words for my agents.”
“Oh no,” Louis said softly.
Teela stood up somewhat awkwardly. “I haven’t been hiding, not from you and not from any other—extraterrestrial. Now, what’s the problem?”
“Hold it!” Louis stepped between Nessus and the girl. “Nessus, Teela Brown obviously isn’t an explorer. Pick someone else.”
“But, Louis—”
“Just a moment.” The kzin was sitting up. “Louis, let the herbivore choose his own team members.”
“But look at her!”
“Look at yourself, Louis. Barely two meters long, slender even for a human. Are you an explorer? Is Nessus?”
“Just what the tanj is going on?” Teela demanded.
Urgently, Nessus said, “Louis, let us retire to your office. Teela Brown, we must make a proposal to you. You are under no obligation to accept, nor even to listen, but you may find our proposal interesting.”
The argument continued in Louis’s office. “She fits my qualifications,” Nessus insisted. “We must consider her.”
“She can’t be the only one on Earth!”
“No, Louis. Not at all. But we have been unable to contact any of the others.”
“Just what am I being considered for?”
The puppeteer started to tell her. It developed that Teela Brown had no interest in space, had never even been as far as the Moon, and had no intention of going beyond the borders of known space. The second quantum hyperdrive did not arouse her cupidity. When she started to look harassed and confused, Louis broke in again.
“Nessus, just what are the qualifications Teela fits so well?”
“My agents have been seeking the descendants of winners of the Birthright Lotteries.”
“I quit. You’re genuinely insane.”
“No, Louis. My orders come from the Hindmost himself, from the one who leads us all. His sanity is not in question. May I explain?”
For human beings, birth control had long been an easy matter. Nowadays a tiny crystal was inserted under the skin of the patient’s forearm. The crystal took a year to dissolve. During that year the patient would be unable to conceive a child. In earlier centuries clumsier methods had been used.
Earth’s population had been stabilized, about the middle of the twenty-first century, at eighteen billion. The Fertility Board, a subsection of the United Nations, made and enforced the birth control laws. For more than half a thousand years those laws had remained the same: two children to a couple, subject to the judgment of the Fertility Board. The Board decided who might be a parent how many times. The Board might award extra children to one couple, deny any children at all to another, all on the basis of desirable or undesirable genes.
“Incredible,” said the kzin.
“Why? Things were getting pretty tanj crowded, with eighteen billion people trapped in a primitive technology.”
“If the Patriarchy tried to force such a law on kzinti, we would exterminate the Patriarchy for its insolence.”
But men were not kzinti. For half a thousand years the laws had held good. Then, two hundred years ago, had come rumors of chicanery in the Fertility Board. The scandal had ultimately resulted in drastic changes in the birth control laws:
Every human being now had the right to be a parent once, regardless of the state of his genes. In addition, the Birthrights Second and Third could come automatically: for a high tested IQ, or for proven, useful psychic powers, such as Plateau eyes or absolute direction, or for survival genes, like telepathy or natural longevity or perfect teeth.
One could buy the birthrights at a million stars a shot. Why not? The knack for making money was a tested, proven survival factor. Besides, it cut down on bribery attempts.
One could fight for the Birthrights in the arena, if one had not yet used up his Birthright First. Winner to earn his Birthrights Second and Third; loser to lose his Birthright First and his life. It evened out.
“I have seen such battles on your