Ringworld by Larry Niven Read Free Book Online Page B

you."
    "And I'm one of them!"
    "All right, you're one of them," Louis flared.
    "What are you so tanj protective about? Did I ask for your protection?"
    "I apologize. I don't know why I tried to dictate to you. You're a free adult."
    "Thank you. I intend to join your crew." Teela had gone icily formal.
    The hell of it was, she was a free adult. Not only could she not be coerced; an attempt to order her about would be bad manners and (more to the point) wouldn't work.
    But she could be persuaded ...
    "Then think about this," said Louis Wu. "Nessus has gone to great lengths to protect the secrecy of this trip. Why? What's he got to hide?"
    "That's his business, isn't it? Maybe there's something worth stealing, wherever we're going."
    "So what? Where we're going is two hundred light years from here. We're the only ones who can get there."
    "The ship itself, then."
    Whatever was unusual about Teela, she was no dummy. Louis himself hadn't thought of that. "Then think about our crew," he said. "Two humans, a puppeteer, and a kzin. None of us professional explorers."
    "I see what you're doing, but honestly, Louis, I am going. I doubt you can stop me."
    "Then you can at least know what you're getting into. Why the odd crew?"
    "That's Nessus's problem."
    "I'd say it's ours. Nessus gets his orders directly from those-who-lead -- from the puppeteer headquarters. I think he figured out what those orders meant, just a few hours ago. Now he's terrified. Those ... priests of survival have got four games going at once, not counting whatever it is we'll be exploring."
    He saw that he had Teela's interest, and he pressed on. "First there's Nessus. If he's mad enough to land on an unknown world, can he possibly be sane enough to survive the experience? Those-who-lead have to know. After they reach the Clouds of Magellan they'll have to set up another commercial empire. The backbone of their commerce is the mad puppeteers.
    "Then there's our furry friend. As ambassador to an alien race, he should be one of the most sophisticated kzinti around. Is he sophisticated enough to get along with the rest of us? Or will he kill us for elbow room and fresh meat?
    "Third, there's you and your presumed luck, a blue-sky research project if I ever heard of one. Fourth is me, a presumably typical explorer type. Maybe I'm the control.
    "You know what I think?" Louis was standing over the girl now, pounding his words home with an oratorical technique he'd mastered while losing an election for the UN in his middle seventies. He would honestly have denied trying to browbeat Teela Brown; but he wanted desperately to convince her. "The puppeteers couldn't care less about whatever planet we're being sent to. Why should they, when they're leaving the galaxy? They're test-ing our little team to destruction. Before we get ourselves killed, the puppeteers can find out a lot about how we interact."
    "I don't think ifs a planet," said Teela.
    Louis exploded. "Tanj! What has that got to do with it?"
    "Well, after all, Louis. If we're going to get killed exploring it, we might as well know what it is. I think it's a spacecraft."
    "You do."
    "A big one, a ring-shaped one with a ramscoop field to pick up interstellar hydrogen. I think it's built to funnel the hydrogen into the axis for fusion. You'd get thrust that way, and a sun too. You'd spin the ring for centrifugal force, and you'd roof the inner side with glass."
    "Yeah," said Louis, thinking of the odd picture in the holo he'd been given by the puppeteer. He'd spent too little time wondering about their destination. "Could be. Big and primitive and not very easy to steer. But why would those-who-lead be interested?"
    "It could be a refugee ship. Core races would learn about stellar processes early, with the suns so close together. They might have predicted the explosion thousands of years ahead ... when there were only two or three supernovas."
    "Supernovae. Could be ... and you've snaked me right off the subject. I've