Ringworld's Children

CHAPTER 12 The Giraffe People

The glow in the XXL plug was dimmed. The tube sagged, leaking broad white rivers of tropospheric storm. It didnt matter. Theyd left the puncture nearly closed.

The party flew to spinward, directly away from where they had left their fuel tank. "Leave it as bait. We dont want to be near it," Roxanny Gauthier ordered. "Whatever dropped that inflatable mountain range might take an interest. Vashneesht, you said? What do you know of Vashneesht?"

Louis said, "Vashneesht is just what we say when nobody knows anything. Wizards. Magic." Interworld words Luis would know from his parents.

She was riding the front saddle of Louiss flycycle. Shed tried to operate the controls, and turned icy when they didnt work. Louis flew from the aft saddle. Neither Roxanny nor Claus had said so, but it seemed clear theyd been drafted into the ARM.

The other flycycle seemed in good shape. Acolyte rode the front seat; Claus was hidden behind him. The native seemed comfortable enough, slung below the flycycle in his inflated rescue pod, until he began gasping.

"Acolyte!"

"Here, Louis."

"The rescue pod has run out of air. Wembleth is in trouble."

Claus said, "Tanj, it must have been faulty."

"We descend?"

They landed. Wembleth had fainted.

They kept their suits on. The air was thin fog and hurricane wind; it dimmed their headphone voices. Louis shouted, "I dont think opening the rescue pod—"

Acolyte: "Better idea?"

"Get the tree swinger to open his helmet. His suit has a recycling feature."

The little anthropoid was quick to respond to Acolytes gestures. He threw back his helmet, sneezed at the stink, but left it open. Concerned, he pushed his face close to Wembleths and sniffed. Wembleth stirred and presently sat up.

They flew above fallen trees that had grown as puffy tops on tall, slender trunks. The antimatter blast had flattened them with their tops pointing spinward. Further away, the wind from the pressure drop felled them to antispin and left lower growth alive.

Falling pressure was a wave still expanding across this land. The flycycles followed the shock wave, catching up slowly. They crossed tens of thousands of miles of disaster and storm. Now there were standing trees among the fallen in the pufftop forest. The forest ran on, cleaving to the lowlands, mingling with other ecologies.

Louis took them down into a break in the pufftop forest, in a meadow alongside a rushing stream.

Air! They pulled Wembleth out of his bubble before they stripped off their own suits. Wembleth whooped; he danced, though stiffly. He plunged into the water, stripped off his coarse-woven shirt and pants, and began scrubbing himself with them.

Water! Running water, ankle deep, ran down to a deep pool. The ARMs looked at each other; then they stripped off their skintights too and dove in. In midair, Roxannys laughing eyes brushed Luis Tamasans. Louis couldnt breathe.

Acolyte plunged in with a mighty splash. With his fur plastered flat he looked wonderfully funny. It broke the spell: Louis laughed.

Hanuman was wrestling with the fittings of his suit. Louis helped him out. Hanuman, the affectionate anthropoid, hugged him and whispered, "The ARMs have hand weapons hidden."

"Surprise," Louis murmured.

"Ook ook ook. Get naked?"

"My problem—"

"They know. Go in like Wembleth." Hanuman eeled out of his arms and, four-legged, ran for the water. He dove in without a splash. Louis yelled and chased him, leaping into a cannonball dive.

Cold! He pulled his skintight off in deep water. He made an attempt to rub it clean against himself, then balled it up and threw it onto the rocky shore to drain.

There now. All concerned could pretend not to know that Luis Tamasan was in a state of arousal.

He stayed clear of the ARMs, who were — getting friendly, hed thought, but Claus was backing off, and Roxanny was talking fast and inaudibly. Quarrel? Theyd still want privacy.

Acolyte didnt swim well, but the stream wasnt deep. He scooped up Hanuman and waded up to Louis, who was treading water.

Hanuman spoke briskly. "I saw a meteorite descend near the puncture. Tunesmith would spot another ship."

"He cant tell us. I turned him off. I—"

"Good. I will continue riding with Acolyte. Let me lead. I can take us to a service stack."

A service stack would take them home to the Map of Mars. Louis asked, "How far away?"

"Orbiting. Tunesmith can direct it toward us."

"Do we want the ARMs to see a service stack?"

"Well ask Tunesmith later, when we ask if hes seen other intruders. Your opinion?"

Louis thought about it. "Theyll want to rejoin their ship. We dont mind that, right? As long as they dont learn too much first."

Hanumans voice was a whipcrack, barely audible. "Gauthier rescued their library! I want it! I want to watch them use it before we let them loose. But these ARMs are dangerous companions. No need to risk us all. Louis, what if Acolyte and I escape? We can rendezvous with a service stack. You stay and observe."

It seemed an astonishing suggestion. "Why would I?"

"Across the entire Ringworld Roxanny Gauthier is your only possible mate. You dont have a plan of your own, do you?"

Louis shrugged.

Acolyte asked, "Have you noticed that we have an audience?"

Louis looked around.

The ARMs, upstream, were waist deep and still talking, their body language gone conspiratorial. Louis had to pull his gaze away from her breasts. Wembleth was onshore, on his back on a warm flat rock, soaking up sunlight. Black birds whirled above the puffball forest, and a pair of horn-bearing quadrupeds were watching it all suspiciously.

"I dont see anything human."

Acolyte said, "Seven hominids. Three men, four women. I found them by smell. We should decide—"

Something had Wembleths attention. Wembleth stood up. He shouted into the woods.

A man stepped forth. He walked past the horned beasts; the beasts didnt run. The man stopped a dozen yards from Wembleth. He spoke. His hands were at his side, conspicuous. So were Wembleths.

They were both naked. The man towered over Wembleth. Hed be taller than Acolyte, eight feet or a little less, and as slender as the trees around them. Every part of him was elongated… but not his head. His jaw was strong and square. The hair on his head was the same color as the forests puffball tops.

Naked in running water, the ARMs seemed at a loss. They waded upstream toward Louis and Acolyte.

"They havent drawn their weapons," Hanuman murmured. "Louis, will they stay calm?"

He meant the ARMs, of course. Louis said, "Dont know. Someone has to tell them about rishathra."

Wembleth and the stranger were talking freely now.

Claus came in earshot. He asked, "Any suggestions?"

"Wembleth is doing fine," Louis said. "Let him talk for us. There are more locals."

"Where?"

Acolyte said, "In the trees." He pointed. "There, all six."

"He looks like a giraffe," Claus laughed.

Roxanny said, "Or a lunie." It was a rebuff.

Luis Tamasan would never have seen a citizen of Luna. Louis said, "Theyll be peaceful. Look at the jaw: hes an herbivore. Probably picks fruit from these trees. We have to decide—"

"Tanj that. Our translators have to hear them." Claus waded out. The others trailed after him. Claus picked up his skintight to wipe himself dry, then dropped it, and picked up his back-pouch. If nakedness was good enough for the strangers, then Claus didnt need clothes; but the pouch held his translator, and maybe a weapon too.

Six tall, slender humanoids emerged from the tall, slender trees. Rishathra? We still have to tell the ARMs.

Wembleth talked rapidly, waving at Acolyte and Hanuman. The tall hominids bowed deeply, and went on talking to Wembleth. Louis and Roxanny fished out their translators and joined the group.

The ARM translators were picking up some speech. It was close to what theyd learned from Wembleth, though this local language would be a long way separated from any speech heard near the Great Ocean.

Wembleth suddenly turned to Roxanny. His speech sounded no different, but the translators all reacted. "They want to know what your kind does about—" something that didnt translate. "What shall I tell them?"

Roxanny asked, "What is it?"

Wembleth tried to explain. The activity that makes women bear children? But between different kinds it doesnt? Claus and Roxanny listened, then turned to Luis for help.

Louis said, "Hes using a different word, but it means rishathra. Rishathra is sex practiced outside your species but between intelligent hominids. Not a word youd need—"

"Smart-ass boy." Claus was not amused.

It dawned on Louis that he was afraid of Claus. "No joke, Claus. Its the first thing you need to know about a new species. Look, you can always say youre mated. Monogamous."

Claus was looking at the four women. They were as tall as the men, eight feet or just under. Not lunies, not giraffes: Elves. They were staring as frankly as the men; but the men were looking at Roxanny, who was blushing. Louis realized hed blushed too.

He said, "Wembleth, tell them Acolyte is not our kind at all. He doesnt rish."

Wembleth talked. One of the women laughed. Louiss translator picked up her "Think not!"

Louis said, "But we need to decide. Claus? Roxanny?"

Claus demanded, "Luis, have you done this?"

"Sure!" What would Luis say? An adolescent wouldnt admit to being a virgin! Hed exaggerate — "With more than one species — nothing like these — but Ive heard more than that. Why not?" He couldnt quite look at Roxanny, or Claus either. "Its friendly, its safe, you cant get pregnant. Infections dont usually cross the species boundary. And who else is there for me? Human women were just rumors, as far away as the stars."

Wembleth exclaimed, "Same for me! I was a lost one too. Claus, why are you having trouble with this thought? When folk meet, they always ask this question first. Some kinds use reshtra for birth control. Water dwellers — well, to them it is a joke, unless you can hold your breath far too long. Some species cant resh, or mate with any but a life partner. Some oddly shaped ones dont expect reshtra — rishathra? — only ask for politeness. Some insist. Roxanny, cant you see the Hinsh are puzzled? Its because you havent answered."

Louis said, "Luis" being wistful, "Id like to meet a City Builder. Theyre supposed to be really good at it. They built trading empires around rishathra. They even tried to go interstellar."

Claus was grinning. "What if we say no?"

"I can do that for you," Wembleth said immediately. He began to speak Hinsh.

Claus said, "Hold up, Wembleth. Ill do it," his eyes flicking toward Roxanny, then away.

Wembleth asked, "In company, or only two?"

Claus was startled. "Um. Company. I wouldnt know what to say to just, just one."

Roxanny Gauthier stepped close to Wembleth. She spoke fast and low. Wembleth nodded. He changed language. Now the translators were picking up a few words of Hinsh speech.

One of the women bent far over. Her long fingers wrapped around a cantaloupe-sized yellow fruit. She bit into it, rind and all, then broke it and offered pieces to Wembleth, then Claus, then the other Hinsh. Wembleth broke his further and offered fruit to Louis and Roxanny. Louis realized that they were labeling themselves. Claus and Wembleth would rish with the women, Louis and Roxanny would not. Hanuman was getting his own fruit: he would not rish.

Do they rish with carnivores? Not by offering melon. But this ritual would eliminate Ghouls, and maybe they want that.

The fruit was red inside. It tasted a little like berries.

The others took it as a signal when the strangers ate: they feasted. There was fruit all around them. They were herbivores, all right: they needed to eat a lot. They fed Wembleth and Claus, and moved into more intimate contact.

Roxanny turned her back and walked away.

Louis picked up a melon, broke it on his knee — tanj, why not? — and followed her. He had hoped to court Roxannys attention.

She turned and waited; looked down, grinned up at him, and said, "I told Wembleth to tell them were courting." She took half the melon and ate.

Then she stepped into him, on tiptoe, half a head taller than he, and slid the length of her down his body until she was kneeling.

With a hoarse shout, Louis pushed her into the grass and entered her.

It was not the way he would ever have treated a woman. Roxanny was astonished. She wasnt quite ready, either, but she wrapped her arms and legs around him and made him prisoner again. Louis Wus mind went away.

When he came to himself again, he was babbling, and he wondered if he had blurted secrets. Roxanny, still holding him prisoner in the grip of her legs, was laughing. "Boy, you are eager!"

And the Hinsh had moved to surround them.

The women knelt to rish. When they mated with their men, both knelt. The men watched the strangers with their women and made graphic half-translated commentary. They found short men funny. Wembleth, the shortest, was funniest. They learned he was ticklish.

"Im sorry, Roxanny. I lost control of myself," Louis said. It felt like hed mated with one of the Ringworld bloodsuckers: it was that mindless, that intense. He dared not tell her about that!

She patted his cheek. "Refreshing. Nine years to go on my implant, and its a tanj good thing."

"Im fertile," Louis said.

" Course you are." She stood up, her back to him, fists on hips. "I didnt buy it. Rishathra? You havent told me every last bit of the truth, Luis. But… shall we join them?"

What? "Were mated! Youd shock them!"

Roxanny picked up a melon, broke it in half, and offered it to an elf.

The elf was shocked. Then he laughed, knelt, and swept her against him. Louis flushed… and picked up a melon.

By dusklight — too dark to tell which fruits were perfectly ripe — the Hinsh broke off eating and rishing and mating to introduce themselves: an odd reversal of order. Their names were long and formidable.

Wembleth took Louis aside and said, "The Hinsh are like others where I have traveled. If strangers plan to stay a short time, they use short names, quick to learn. This can mean, go away soon. But do you see all this fruit? The wind shook hundreds of manweights of fruit to the ground. Every stranger eating means less fruit left to rot. We are welcome."

Louis felt welcome. But rishathra was not sex. His body knew. His body wanted Roxanny.

And Claus wanted his blood.

Night on the Ringworld was rarely too dark to see. The Hinsh didnt want sleep; they conversed. The ARMs mostly listened.

Louis asked about the horned beasts. "The grass eaters? They dont bother us, we dont bother them," a man said. Of the sky he said, "The stars used to hold their course. We could use them to tell time, if we wished. Now theyre loose, wandering across the sky. Only the Vashneesht know why." They spoke of the crops theyd left behind, and of the weather. Dull people, really.

They talked about the sudden wild winds.

"The climate will change," Louis told his lady companion, whose name hed memorized as Szeblinda. His translator would fish out all eight syllables. "You may have to follow the pufftop forests as they die off to antispin. Carry melons and drop the seeds where you want more. Other folk may be running away from the disaster. Youll have to deal with them when they get here."

"Will you stay with us, to advise?"

"We have to move faster than that. Were trying to solve it all," Louis told her.