Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watmath.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!columbia!topaz!packard!desoto!cord!pierce!bentley!ihnp1!ihnp4!cbosgd!clyde!watmath!jagardner From: jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner) Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: protectors Message-ID: <16168@watmath.UUCP> Date: Tue, 13-Aug-85 09:40:59 EDT Article-I.D.: watmath.16168 Posted: Tue Aug 13 09:40:59 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 18-Aug-85 22:23:57 EDT References: <3246@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> Reply-To: jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner) Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 68 In article <3246@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> mooremj@EGLIN-VAX writes: >Speaking of protectors, how could Beowulf Sheaffer become a protector in >"Down in Flames"? DIF takes place about the same time as The Ringworld >Engineers, in which Louis Wu is well over 200 years old. Beowulf is Louis's >stepfather, so he is closer to 300...way WAY past the maximum age to become >a protector! Ideas? SPOILER WARNING: IF YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD OF "DOWN IN FLAMES", YOU MAY NOT WANT TO READ THIS -- NIVEN MAY WRITE THE BOOK SOMEDAY. Down in Flames was conceived before Ringworld Engineers...in fact, it may have been conceived before Ringworld, since one of the premises of Down in Flames is that the faster FTL drive (used in Ringworld) was actually a hoax. Therefore, Down in Flames could very well be incompatible with Known Space as it has since developed. NEVERTHELESS, I can suggest one way that Beowulf Sheaffer could easily be the right age to eat Tree-of-Life root anytime he wanted. In the known Sheaffer stories, he is likely in his late twenties/early thirties. He could be Louis's stepfather at this time. Then for some reason (possibly connected with the Puppeteer hoax that he helped start), he had occasion to hop on a Ramjet and go off somewhere at speeds that would provide enough relativistic time dilation to let him age ten years while Louis ages 200. At the end of the journey, Sheaffer ends up...at Home, for example, where there is lots of Tree-of-Life root. Sheaffer turns into a protector, picks up an FTL rocket from the ones left on Home when the other Protectors left, and rushes back to wherever he has to be to start the events in Down in Flames. Second possibility: the whole point of Down in Flames is that the T'Nuctipun are not dead. Suppose the T'Nuctipun get worried about human Protectors... after all, human Protectors are supposed to be even nastier than Pak Protectors. The T'Nuctipun figure that it might be in their best interests to study a Protector, maybe "put one on the payroll" so to speak so they can have their tame Protector help them against other protectors that may appear. They grab poor Sheaffer as Sheaffer is off alone on some solo trip (who cares what he's doing?), stuff him full of Tree-of-Life root, then hold him prisoner for centuries. Perhaps they can keep him in line just by threatening to destroy large human colonies if he disobeys. A Protector would likely submit if the alternative was a direct threat to his charges. So Sheaffer has to help the T'Nuctipun for 200 years; then he manages to escape in some clever way (perhaps he fakes his own death so the T'Nuctipun don't make a retributive strike on humanity), and the wheels are set in motion. This makes a more interesting scenario, because it means that there is at least one Protector out there who has some familiarity with T'Nuctipun technology. NOTE: To all those who have never heard of Down in Flames, it was a story outline by Larry Niven that circulated on the net a few years ago. In it, the whole Known Space series was turned on its ear by the suggestion that the T'Nuctipun were not a race that died out a million years ago. They're here, now, and nasty. For their own reasons, they mug any ship that tries to go FTL too close to any star's gravity well (it's to their advantage that Known Space races believe that they have to go a long way out of their way before they can go FTL). The Puppeteers are fleeing from the T'Nuctipun, not the exploding centre of the galaxy. In fact, the centre of the galaxy is not exploding. That is all a hoax the Puppeteers played on Beowulf Sheaffer to explain why they were running. And so on, and so forth. Everything you thought you knew is far from the truth. Down in Flames was thrown together after some sort of party many years ago. Someone suggested to Niven that he should write one last Known Space story and destroy most of the galaxy. Down in Flames certainly puts an end to Known Space as we know it. However, I doubt if it can be considered an official part of the series; if and when the book ever comes out, it is likely to be a lot different. Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo