Ringworld - Larry Niven Page 0,44

flat. It looked like a topographical map of the Pacific Ocean: valleys and ridges, shallows and depths and peaks tall enough to be islands.

“They wanted to keep their sea life,” Teela guessed. “They needed one deep ocean. The fin must be to keep the depths cool. A radiator.”

An ocean not deep enough, but easily broad enough, to swallow the Earth.

“Enough of this,” the kzin said suddenly. “Now we must see the inner surface.”

“First then are measurements to take. Is the ring truly circular? A minor deviation would spill the air into space.”

“We know that there is air, Nessus. The distribution of water on the inner surface will tell us how the ring deviates from circularity.”

Nessus surrendered. “Very well. As soon as we reach the further rim.”

There were meteor wormholes. Not many, but they were there. Louis thought with amusement that the Ringworlders had been remiss in cleaning out their solar system. But no, these must have come from outside, from between the stars. One conical crater floated by in the fusion light and Louis saw a glint of light at the bottom, something shiny, reflecting.

It must be a glimpse of the ring floor. The ring floor, a substance dense enough to stop 40 percent of neutrinos, and presumably very rigid. Above/inward from the ring floor, soil and seas and cities, and above these, air. Below/outward from the ring floor, a spongy material, like foam plastic perhaps, to take the brunt of a meteoroid impact. Most meteoroids would vaporize within the thick foamed material; but a few would get through, to leave conical holes with shiny bottoms…

Far down the length of the Ringworld, almost beyond its infinitely gentle curve, Louis’s eyes found a dimple. That must have been a big one, he thought. Big enough to show by starlight, that far away.

He did not call attention to the meteoroid dimple. His eyes and mind were not yet used to the proportions of the Ringworld.

C H A P T E R 9

Shadow Squares

Blazing, the G2 sun dawned beyond the straight black rim of the ring. It was uncomfortably bright until Speaker touched a polarizer; and then Louis could look at the disc, and he found an edge of shadow cutting its arc. Shadow square.

“We must be careful,” Nessus warned. “If we were to match velocities with the ring and hover above the inner surface, we would surely be attacked.”

Speaker’s answer came in a slurred rumble. The kzin must be tiring after so many hours behind the horseshoe of controls. “By what weapon would we be attacked? We have shown that the Ringworld engineers do not have so much as a working radio station.”

“We cannot guess at the nature of their communications. Telepathy, perhaps, or resonant vibrations in the ring floor, or electrical impulses in metal wires. Similarly, we know nothing of their weaponry. Hovering over their surface, we would be a serious threat. They would use what weapons they have.”

Louis nodded his agreement. He was not naturally cautious, and the Ringworld held him by the curiosity bump; but the puppeteer was right.

Hovering over the surface, the Liar would be a potential meteor. A big one. Moving at merely orbital speed, such a mass was a hellish danger; for one touch of atmosphere would send it shrieking down at several hundred miles per second. Moving at faster than orbital speed, holding a curved path with the drives, the ship would be a lesser but a surer threat; for if the drive were to fail, “centrifugal force” would hurl the ship outward/down at populated lands. The Ringworlders would not take meteors lightly. Not when a single puncture in the ring floor would drain all the world’s breathing-air and spew it at the stars.

Speaker turned from the control board. It put him eye to eye with the puppeteer’s flat heads. “Your orders, then.”

“First you must slow the ship to orbital speed.”

“Then?”

“Accelerate toward the sun. We can inspect the ring’s habitable surface to some extent as it diminishes below us. Our major target shall be the shadow squares.”

“Such caution is unnecessary and humiliating. We have no slightest interest in the shadow squares.”

Tanj! Louis thought. Tired and hungry as he was, would he now be called on to play peacemaker for the aliens? It had been too long since any of them had eaten or slept. If Louis was tired, the kzin must be exhausted, spoiling for a fight.

The puppeteer was saying, “We have a definite interest in the shadow squares. Their area intercepts more sunlight than