CHAPTER 7

End Run

Acolyte asked, "Louis, are we pointed the wrong way?"

Four fusion rocket motors glowed blue on Long Shot, grown tiny now. The great ship didnt have much acceleration, and that was all fusion flame, conspicuous against a sky full of enemies.

Would the ARM, would the Patriarchy, try to destroy Long Shot? Not while there was a ghost of a hope of capturing it. The Quantum II hyperdrive was just too valuable, Louis thought. Unless another faction looked ready to make a capture. Then what?

How could the protector expect to hide the great ship? A mile in diameter… but that was tiny against the scale of deep space.

But none of Tunesmiths problems had any relevance to what the Hindmost was doing: turning toward interstellar space, toward his home.

Louis hadnt answered at once. Acolyte said, "My father often assumes that I know things I dont. He learned them too early. They must seem obvious. Spherical geometry, centrifugal force, seasons, the way light falls across a Ball World—"

"Hes trying to escape," Louis said.

"Escape?"

The Hindmost was certainly able to listen, and Tunesmith might hear this too, but what did Louis have to hide? "The Hindmost has an intact spacecraft now," he said. "He sees the Ringworld as fragile. It makes him feel trapped. Now hes out. Hell run for the Fleet of Worlds… the Ball Worlds where the puppeteers live."

"Then I am kidnapped! Hindmost!"

The puppeteer didnt answer.

"Im kidnapped too. Relax," Louis said. "We have time. This ship couldnt reach human space in less than two years. Even the Fleet of Worlds is months away. Weve got time to think."

"Louis, what will you do when you finish teaching me patience?"

Louis smiled. "Mount you as a statue in your fathers palace." It was their private joke.

So, the Fleet of Worlds might be the Hindmosts target. Then again, Fleet of Worlds politics had ousted him from the supreme position… years ago, but puppeteers thought in much greater time spans. The Hindmost might not be welcome among his own kind.

One could hope.

As for Louis Wu, the United Nations wanted him for holding proprietary knowledge… for the crime of knowing too much. The UN held great power among the worlds of human space. Still, they didnt rule everywhere. Their rule only included the Earth and Moon — and all targets which might threaten that domain.

The Hindmost had found Louis Wu on Canyon and snatched him away, some fifteen years ago. The local government or the ARM would have claimed his possessions there. His homes on Earth were forfeit. So. Where? There had to be a place of safety.

He hadnt really seen this day coming.

Louis said, "Ill have to be persuasive. Maybe I can get the Hindmost to drop us somewhere in human space. Then Ill find a way to get you home. Ill show you some of human space first. Could be fun."

"Why human space? Take us to the Patriarchy! Let me guide you."

Louis had been an interspecies hero, briefly, when they brought back Long Shot. He said, "Ive been in the Patriarchs palace and hunting park. Have you?"

"Guide me then. Show me where my father grew up."

"Im afraid to go there. I could show you recordings I made, if I could get to Earth or Canyon… but even thats too risky." Even in a daydream, the ARM would have claimed his possessions. "But I could read up on the Fringe War before we come back here. Tunesmith doesnt know enough. Maybe nobody does. Itll be like the War of the Roses, or the Vietnam War, or Avenge Mecca: it could last forever. Nobody knows how to turn off a war."

"Stet, take me to human space. Will they grant me my place, my rights?"

Louis laughed. "No. Stick to Interspeak, the way Chmeee and I taught it to you. Well claim youre from Sheathclaws or Fafnir, grown up in a Kzin-and-human community. Theyd expect you to be a little strange. Tanj, why havent we moved? Hindmost!"

Long Shot was lost in starscape and sunglare, and Needle wasnt doing anything at all.

Louis shouted, "Do something, Hindmost!"

The puppeteer squawked. Then, tonelessly, "Louis. Acolyte. The carrion eater has disabled my hyperdrive motor."

Louis had nothing to say.

The puppeteer said, "I could have circled in hyperspace to hide my point of return into Ringworld system! Now every telescope in the system will be watching while I try to reach safety. Well be under fire for… two days as a most optimistic estimate. Tunesmith has much to answer for."

"You would have run," Louis said.

The puppeteer snorted an orchestral dischord. Needle swung about.

Clouds of missiles and a score of ships began drifting in from the comets an hour after the Hindmost started his run. They watched it all coming while Needle accelerated toward the sun.

The Hindmost remained on the flight deck. Acolyte and Louis were sealed in their own quarters. They talked of this, voices low, as if they couldnt be heard that way.

Louis watched the Fringe War coming.

The faster missiles werent a danger. Nothing with high thrust would carry antimatter. You couldnt risk antimatter jarring against its containment. Some ships, particularly those elongated ARM ships, might carry antimatter bullets and a linear motor to fire them, but those ships would be slow, too slow to catch Needle.

Tracking Long Shot gave the invaders no problem at all. The mile-wide sphere was conspicuous and undefended.

On the second day missiles began to arrive. Most of them gathered in a cloud around Long Shot.

Tunesmith had added a laser turret to Needle. The Hindmost shot down the few scores of missiles that sought Needle out. The sun grew large. Louis wondered if more ships waited in the inner system.

"Shouldnt we be making turnaround, Hindmost?"

"Thats just what theyll be expecting," the puppeteer said.

Louis wondered what the puppeteer intended. Then, looking ahead, he knew.

How dangerous could it be? Puppeteers are cowards, right? Louis Wu couldnt show fear before a Kzin. Better if he could persuade himself that he was having fun. Its a ride!

But the Hindmost was more afraid of his pursuers than of what he was doing.

Louis took a moment to consider his words. Then, "Hindmost, everything new about Needle, even the hyperdrive, has been built or rebuilt by Tunesmith and never tested afterward. Do you still trust it all? Even the stasis field?"

"I must," the Hindmost said. "Out here Im prey. Any creature with a telescope might have seen our attack on Long Shot. Are we a mere diversion? Will Tunesmith throw our lives away for misdirection? Louis, he is your kind more than mine!"

Being asked for his opinion of Tunesmith, Louis gave it. "Dont trust him. Take your best shot. Assume he reacts very fast."

"Even if we can reach the Ringworld, Im still his prisoner," the Hindmost said. "But I will not accept that. I will not. I tire of being put at risk for purposes I dont understand."

"Tell me about it."

Hot Needle of Inquiry had picked up considerable velocity and was still accelerating as it passed the rim wall. As it did, ships lifted from the Ringworlds black underside. Then Needle was inside the Ringworlds arc in a glare of sunlight and a halo of thousands of tiny probes.

Louis heard a howl to melt bones and a rhythmic thudding sound, but he didnt walk around the kitchen wall to see. It was just Acolyte attacking a wall, getting some exercise.

The ship was jigging and jogging across the sky, but only the jittery starscape showed that. Needle had tremendous acceleration, but its cabin gravity was up to the challenge. Then again, so were the probes. Nothing was attacking Needle, but every species wanted to look.