He would know one tiny enclave within that vast cloud. The Smoke Ring was roomy enough for endless variety. 10^3 cubic kilometers of breathable atmosphere was about thirty times the volume of the Earth! Kendy wished for a thousand CARMs, ten thousand. What were they doing in there?
Never mind. Sooner or later there would come a man eager to carve out an empire, determined enough to take the CARM, crazy enough to trust his life to the ancient, leaky service vehicle. Kendy would know how to use him. Such men had helped to shape the State on Earth. They would again, in this strange environment.
Kendy waited.
Dramatis Personae
Discipline
SHARLS DAVIS KENDY Once a Checker for the State, now deceased. Also, the recordings of Sharls Davis Kendy's personality in the master computer of the seeder ramship Discipline and its service spacecraft.
Quinn Tuft
GAVVING A young warrior subject to allergies.
HARP The teller, or bard.
LAYTHON The Chairman's son.
MARTAL Quinn Tuft's cook (deceased).
THE SCIENTIST Quinn Tuft's guardian of knowledge.
THE GRAD The Scientist's half-trained apprentice.
THE CHAIRMAN Ruler of Quinn Tribe.
CLAVE A mighty warrior, the Chairman's son-in-law.
MAYRIN Clave's wife, the Chairman's daughter.
JAYAN and JINNY Twin sisters enamored of Gave.
MERRIL An older woman, strong, but barren. Small, withered legs.
JIOVAN A hunter.
GLORY A woman of unwanted fame.
ALFIN An older man, Keeper of the treemouth.
Others
MINYA A fighting woman of the Truine Squad, of Dalton-Quinn Tuft
SAL, SMITTA, JEEL, THANYA, DENISSE Others of the Triune Squad.
KARA Sharman (or Scientist) of Carther States.
DEBBIE, ILSA, HILD, LIZETH, ANTHON Citizens of Carther States.
KLANCE London Tree's Scientist.
LAWRI London Tree's Scientist's Apprentice.
HORSE, JORG, HELN, GWEN Copsiks in London Tree.
DLORIS, HARYET, KOR Supervisors in London Tree.
KARAL, MARK, PATRY London Tree Navy men.
Glossary
BLUE GHOST and GHOST CHILD-Auroralike glow patches produced by magnetic effects above Levoy's Star's poles. Rarely visible.
BRANCH-One at each end of an integral tree, curving to leeward.
BRANCHLETS-Grow from the spine branches and sprout into foliage
CARM-Cargo And Repair Module. Discipline originally carried ten of these.
THE CLUMPS-The L4 and L5 points for Gold. They tend to collect debris.
COPSIK-Slave. Used as a general insult.
COPSIK-RUNNER-Slavetaker or slavemaster.
COTTON-CANDY JUNGLE or JUNGLES-Describes almost any large cluster of plants. A good many plants and clusters of plants look like fluffy green cotton candy. Many are edible.
DAY-One orbit about Levoy's Star, the neutron star (equals two hours for Dalton-Quinn Tree).
DUMBO-A predator of the integral trees.
FAN FUNGUS-An integral tree parasite. Parts are edible
"FEED THE TREE" — Defecate, or move garbage, or die.
FLASHER-An insectivorous bird.
GHOST CHILD-See BLUE GHOST.
GO FOR GOLD-Rush headlong into diaster. Or battle!
GOLD-See GOLDBLAITS WORLD. Secondary meaning: something to avoid.
GOLDBLATPS WORLD-A gas giant planet captured after Levoy's Star went supernova/neutron. Named for Discipline's Astrophysicist, Sam Goldblatt.
HUTS-Any dwelling. In the integral trees, huts are woven from living spine branches.
INTEGRAL TREE-A crucial plant.
JET POD-Some plants grow pods that may be carried for attitude controclass="underline" they jet gases (of corruption, or of oxygen in plants that favor the outer fringes of the Smoke Ring). Other plants fire seeds when dying, or going to seed, or falling too far out of the Smoke Ring. There are tropisms.
LEVOY'S STAR-A neutron star, the heart of the Smoke Ring system. Named for its discoverer, Sharon Levoy, Astrogator assigned to Discipline.
NOSE-ARM-See DUMBO.
OLD-MAN'S-HAIR-A fungus parasite on integral trees.
POND-Any large globule of water.
PRIKAZYVAT-Originally, Russian for "command." Presently used to activate computer programs.
QUINN TUFT-The in tuft (or point nearest Levoy's Star) of Dalton-Quinn Tree.
THE SCIENTIST-Quinn Tuft's guardian of knowledge. Tribes elsewhere use the same term.
SPINE BRANCHES-Grow from the branch of an integral tree.
SUN-A G0 star orbits the neutron star at 2.5 X 10' kilometers, supplying the sunlight that feeds the Smoke Ring's water-oxygen-DNA ecology.
TREEFODDER-Used as a curse. Treefodder is anything that might feed the tree: excrement, or garbage, or a corpse.
TUYRBERRIES-Fruiting bodies growing in the tuft of an integral tree. They fruit and scatter seed only at the tuft closest to the Smoke Ring median.
VOY-See LEVOY'S STAR.
YEAR-Half of a complete circuit of the sun around Levoy's Star, equal to 1.3 Earth years.
Directions
OUT-Away from Levoy's Star.
IN-Toward Levoy's Star.
EAST-In the orbital direction of the gas torus.
WEST-Against the orbital direction of the gas torus. The way the sun moves.
WINDWARD-Into the wind.
LEEWARD-The direction toward which the wind blows.
PORT-To the left if your head is out and you're facing west, or if your head is in and you're facing east, and so forth. Direction of the Ghost Child.
STARBOARD-Opposite port. Toward the Blue Ghost.
DOWN and UP-Usually applied only where tides or thrust operate. The general rule as known to all tribes is "East takes you out. Out takes you west. West takes you in. In takes you east. Port and starboard bring you back." Even those tribes who no longer can maneuver within the Smoke Ring know the saying.
About the Author
Larry Niven was born on April 30, 1938, in Los Angeles, California. In 1956, he entered the California Institute of Technology, only to flunk out a year and a half later after discovering a bookstore jammed with used science-fiction magazines. He graduated with a B.A. in mathematics (minor in psychology) from Washburn University, Kansas, in 1962, and completed one year of graduate work in mathematics at UCLA before dropping out to write. His first published story, "The Coldest Place," appeared in the December 1964 issue of Worlds of If.
Larry Niven's interests include backpacking with the Boy Scouts, science-fiction conventions, supporting the conquest of space, and AAAS meetings and other gatherings of people at the cutting edge of the sciences.
He won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1966 for "Neutron Star," and in 1974 for "The Hole Man." The 1975 Hugo Award for Best Novelette was given to "The Borderland of Sol." His novel Ringworld won the 1970 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 1970 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and the 1972 Ditmars, an Australian award for Best International Science Fiction.