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From: okamoto@ucbvax.ARPA (Jeff Okamoto)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Protectors
Message-ID: <10103@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 22-Aug-85 13:40:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.10103
Posted: Thu Aug 22 13:40:21 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Aug-85 04:20:49 EDT
References: <3352@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 74

In article <3352@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>, godwin@uci-icse writes:
> From: Dave Godwin 
> 
> 1.  Brennan invented a breed of Tree-Of-Life variant that would live in a free
> 	atmosphere.  This is how Roy Treusdale got turned into a Protector.
> 
> 2.  The virus got all over the Home colony.  The entire elligible population
> 	changed into Protectors.  The rest died.  Home was then used as a 
> 	staging area to fight the incoming Pak.  First, the Home boys ( sorry )
> 	built fake cities and stuff all over the planet to sucker in the
> 	Pak scout ships.  The scouts were destroyed, and the Home team ( real 
>         sorry ) left this part of space to fight of the main Pak fleet.  No 
> 	more word is ever heard from Truesdale or his followers.

Sorry, but what the Brennan-monster grew was a strain of the tree-of-life virus
that would grow in a human.  Thus, all that Brennan needed to do was to insure
that either his or Truesdale's corpse reached Home.

> 4.  Lots and lots of centuries later, we have Louis Wu.  In 'Engineers', he 
> 	reminices that he's lived on lot's of worlds.  Lots of years spent
> 	on Earth, and enough years on various colony world to make him feel
> 	like a native.  On of these he mentions is Home.  So apparently
> 	Home is resettled.
> 
> 	So, questions that I don't see clear answers to:
> 
> 1.  How were the Home Protectors able to clean up the atmosphere of Home ?
>     And did they also remove all trace of their presence ( fake cities, etc )
>     from same ?  I guess they had to have, but this is a bit heavy on my
>     suspension of disbelief.

The reason that there was no tree-of-life virus when Home was resettled is that
there were no more humans left.  No humans, no virus, no more protectors.
Also, "Protector" implies that Home was devastated by fusion bombs from the
Pak scouts.   Granted that the rather large craters are hard to hide...

> 2.  The Home Protectors beat off the Pak Protectors.  If they hadn't, humans
>     would know.

Remember the epilogue?  Truesdale sent off the pulse iff they lost.  Though
this raises some interesting questions.  What happened to the Pak scouts?
Maybe they both lost -- doomsday weapon?

>     None of them but Truesdale had decendants left
>     anywhere at all, so after the Pak were destroyed, there would have
>     been no reason to live on.

Well, Brennan said that the will to die was mostly cultural.  They could
generalize their paternal instincts to the whole human race.  But I think
they all died, Pak and Homers.

> 3.  Small detail question.  The stl Ramships found on the starport docks
>     on the Ringworld were built from modified Ringworld attitude jets,
>     right ?  Built by Ringworld natives ( City Builders ? ), millenia
>     after all the Ringworld Pak died off.  So whose Pak style vacsuit did 
>     Louis and Chmeee find on that one intact starship ?  Vacsuits are form 
>     fitting.  Teela Brown's ?

Pak-style doesn't necessarily mean Pak-shaped.  But the City Builders "spilled
over the rim walls and found starships".  These could be old-style Pak ships 
(Hope there's no tree-of-life still on board!)

As a shameless ploy, let me recommend the Chaosium game "Ringworld".  The
essays contained within are quite good.

Anyone got any solutions to the Grog Problem?


"Tanj for torment!"

The New Number Who,
Jeff Okamoto
okamoto@BERKELEY.EDU
..!ucbvax!okamoto