Tunesmith wasnt making repairs unless he had to. Given what he was doing, Tunesmith might be glad to find places where the landscape was ripped down to the scrith.

Aircraft and spacecraft he saw none. That was better than his predictions. By now the Fringe War might have worked its way down to the surface. Louis still had time.

But he would have made this side jaunt despite the Fringe War. A protector didnt often have choices. He tapped in another setting.

Still in orbit, but elsewhere. An ARM camera the size of a gnat was looking at him from two meters away.

That tore it! Now they had a verified protector sighting. Or would the pressure suit and his twisted shape hide his nature for long enough? He tapped and flicked out quick.

Might wasnt particularly dark on the Ringworld. Nothing was here but sand and scrub and Tunesmiths service stack, and the calm surface of a sea. Louis prowled about for a bit, but the sand wouldnt hold footprints.

But it held a trace of a scent.

Theyd flicked in here, but they hadnt stayed long. They had a flycycle to play with. Louis walked around the island, using mag specs to study the distant shore. A flycycle ought to stand out.

Nothing. Try again.

Nowhere. He flicked in and was trapped in branches and thorns.

He looked about him, he felt about him, before he tried to move. The thorns didnt do much harm to his leathery skin. Behind his hardshelled face his mind grinned.

Tunesmith had sent a service stack to rendezvous with Louiss flycycle.

Half a year ago. Roxanny, riding the flycycle, might have moved several times before she gave up. Tunesmiths programming would hold: the service stack would follow the flycycle. For all Roxanny knew, it might be covered in sensors and cameras! Finally she must have run it into a jungle and let thorn plants grow over the flycycle and service stack both.

Louis did some careful cutting with the flashlight-laser. The brush started to burn around him. Not a good thing. He crawled down through the thorns, around the edge of the stepping disk, picking up scratches, cutting more brush as he went. Popped the rim and turned off the stepping disk, and lofted the stack of float plates before the fire could roast him.

The forest ran a fair distance, following a river, and hed been in the middle of it. Now he was above it, with a fine view. Where would a pair of strangers go after abandoning their transportation?

Not far. Wembleth would lead Roxanny to the nearest center of civilization: he knew strangers were welcome everywhere. Follow the river downstream and theyd find something.

What Louis found was a convergence of two rivers and a small village. He drifted toward the conical houses. Somewhere a voice shouted, "Vasneesit!" and Louis thought, "Stet."

A fire was growing in the forest. A pillar of smoke to gather attention, right where Roxanny and Wembleth had left their vehicles. Looking toward the fire, theyd see a stack of float plates limned against smoke. And what then? Would they hide, or flee?

Hide. They couldnt run faster than a service stack.

Louis sniffed. Population of a thousand to fifteen hundred, smelling like meat eaters, not many elders, lots of parasites but little disease. And -

There.

He set the stack down in the village square. Locals gathered. They were short, brawny, wolfish-looking men and women. Eyes faced front from deep sockets. Small sharp jaws protruded a little.

An elder tried to speak to him. Louis couldnt understand the language, but he tried to placate the man with body language. When that didnt work, he nipped the elders nose, then knocked him down. A brief shoving match and the man was groveling.

Fair enough. Louis followed the scent. The source had changed houses, but it would have been stronger if theyd moved through open air. Were there tunnels under the village?

A young man popped out of a doorway with Roxannys sonic in his hand.

The buzz just brushed him before Louiss laser beam touched the metal butt. Carefully! The man dropped the sonic and ran inside. He wasnt one of the Wolf People. He was only a few centimeters shorter than Louis, curly brown hair around the face and head, bare skin elsewhere. He was clearly human. Louiss nose knew him.

"Wembleth!" Louis limped after him. "I just want to talk." He moved inside, afraid theyd outrun him, but he was limping faster than they could move. His hand caught metal swinging toward his head, turned and had a wrist and metal bar. "Roxanny."

The fight went out of her. She stared at him in fathomless terror. "What are you?"

"Dont you believe in Vashneesht?" She didnt react. Not funny? "Im Louis Wu," he said. "Your sonic left me twisted, but otherwise Im a protector. You were lucky. You would have eaten tree-of-life if wed gone where you pointed me."

"Louis."

He sniffed: she was carrying a child of his own blood.

She could kill him before he harmed her now. He said, "Do you know — ?"

"Im pregnant. It happens." Roxanny looked him in the eye. "You said you were fertile."

"Its Wembleths child. I can smell."

"Stet. Why were you fertile? Most men use up their birthrights. Didnt Louis Wu?"

"Roxanny, every life is unlikely."

Her smile was a mere flicker. "And why am I fertile? You sure didnt arrange that."

Louis said, "Someone jiggered your med specs. You all used the same doc aboard Gray Nurse, didnt you? Someone wanted to get you pregnant so he turned off your sterility patch." It was the most rational answer.

Roxanny said, "Coroner-First Zinna Hendersdatter. She thinks I took Oliver away from her." She had her aplomb back. "So protectors make mistakes?"

"Theres never enough data. Its why protectors second-guess each other. Roxanny, I just want to talk and then Ill be gone. Wembleth?"

"Dont hurt her."

Wembleths head and arms poked out of a hole in the earthen floor. Hed been there for some time. His beard was brown and somewhat curly, tipped with white. Boosterspice had made him young, and in that state he looked something like Teela Brown and quite a lot like a young Louis Wu. He had a crossbow.

"You dont have to come closer," Louis said. He let go of Roxanny, who backed away. He held still, wondering if Wembleth would fire, wondering if he could catch a crossbow bolt. "Youve been practicing Interworld speech?"

"Yah, Roxanny wants to join the ARM fleet."

How? Louis wondered. If hed seen a way, hed have had to block it.

"Roxanny," he asked, "where did you leave Snail Darters library?"

"I took it aboard Gray Nurse," she said. "Why?"

"My children, their N-children, one or two might have joined the ARM fleet. I have to see the roster. Thered be a current copy in every ship in the fleet."

She laughed. "There are tens of thousands of men and women in the ARM ships! Are you going to scan them all?"

"Yah."

She shrugged. "Maybe Proserpina picked it up."

"Youll have to leave here," Louis said. "I brought the service stack. Ill reprogram it so itll stop following the flycycle. Its very important that you cant be found. I got this close to you by just following the programming in the stepping disks. I followed your scent from the forest, Wembleth."

"With a nose like that, Im not surprised," Wembleth said rudely.

Louis touched his enlarged nose. "Do you know that youre my son?"

Wembleth snorted in disbelief. "I would have thought you might be mine! But youre older than you looked."

"Youre younger. I never saw a human being who hadnt used modern medical techniques. No depilators, no tannin pills, never a dental program. I thought you were another species. But Teela Brown was your mother," Louis said.