Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Tales of The Universe of by Larry Niven Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven by Larry Niven. Welcome to the official site for one of science fiction's foremost writers. Announcing the new short story collection from Randle Schanze, The Care and Feeding of Nightmares. Reviews of Randall Schanze's (A.K.A Kevin Long) work: "Highly Entertaining." -- Larry Niven. Larry Niven is the author of , the co-author of The Mote in God's Eye and Lucifer's Hammer, the editor of the Man- War series, and has written or co-authored over 50 books. He is a five-time winner of the Hugo Award, along with a Nebula and numerous others. Come with us as we explore Known Space and the many other worlds of Larry Niven! Known Space. Known Space is a volume of interstellar space explored by humans and their alien neighbors. Known Space is about 80 light years in diameter and contains Human Space. Late in the series, this area is an irregularly shaped "bubble" about 60 light-years across. It is an area near the Earth which is explored and settled and is peopled by races such as Pierson's Puppeteers, Kzinti, and the many races of the Ringworld. Contents. Overview [ edit | edit source ] Species [ edit | edit source ] In the process of exploring space, humankind encounters several intelligent alien species. Most life in Known Space shared similar biochemistries, since they evolved from the Thrintun practice of seeding barren worlds with food yeast. Locations [ edit | edit source ] Many of the early human colonies are on planets suboptimal for Homo sapiens due to issues with the original probes which caused slowboats to be dispatched to places that were, in some cases, barely livable. [1] [2] Technology [ edit | edit source ] The series feature a number of "superscience" inventions which figure as plot devices. Stories earlier in the timeline feature technology such as Bussard ramjets, and explore how organ transplantation technology enables the new crime of organlegging, while later stories feature hyperdrive, invulnerable starship hulls, stasis fields, molecular monofilaments, transfer booths (teleporters used only on planetary surfaces), the lifespan- extending drug boosterspice, and the tasp which is capable of stimulating the pleasure centers of the brain from a distance. The impact of inventions and technology on society is a recurring theme in Niven's work. For example, addiction to electric brain stimulation resulting in wireheads , or the effects of the invention of teleportation. The milieu can be viewed as representing the last gasp of Campbell-era science fiction, as the iconoclastic, counterculture influences of "new wave" science fiction of the sixties play no part in most of the stories. However, there are notable exceptions in the "Gil the ARM" stories; and "Jigsaw Man" first appeared in 's landmark "new wave" anthology, . Organ Transplantation [ edit | edit source ] On Earth in the mid 21st century it became possible to transplant any organ from any person to another, with the exception of Brain and central nervous system tissue. Individuals were categorized according to their so-called "rejection spectrum" which allowed doctors to counter any immune system responses to the new organs, allowing transplants to "take" for life. It also enabled the crime of "organlegging" which lasted well into the 24th century. Hyperdrive [ edit | edit source ] Faster Than Light (FTL) propulsion, or hyperdrive, was obtained from the Outsiders at the end of the first Man-Kzin wars. In addition to winning the war for humanity, it allowed the re-integration of all the human colonies, which were previously separated by distance. There exist three general types of overdrive, Quantum I, Quantum II, and the slaver drive. Quantum I Hyperdrive allows for transit at a rate of 122 times light speed. Quantum II allows for transit at 420,480 times light speed. The slaver drive is a jump centric system and little is known about operation besides that. Humanity gaining the Quantum I Hyperdrive was a result of puppeteer meddling as they used a device called a starseed lure to lure a Starseed ( an extraterrestrial space faring organism) to the Human colony "We made it". There a hyperdrive manual was sold to humanity. The puppeteers developed their Quantum I hyperdrive seperately (or obtained it from the Outsiders so long ago it was forgotten). However the Quantum II hyperdrive was created and fitted aboard the ship "Long Shot" where it was originally thought to be too cumbersome to deal with. It was revealed to have been of the same size as a normal Hyper drive Shunt in "Ringworld's Children". Hyperdrive technology also allows for near instantaneous communication through hyperwave radios, and hyperwave buoys. The buoys remain outside of the traditional hyperwave singularity zone to operate. Stasis Fields [ edit | edit source ] A Stasis Field creates a bubble of space/time that runs separate from the rest of the universe. Time effectively stops for an object in stasis. An object in stasis is invulnerable to anything occurring outside the field, as well as being preserved indefinitely. A stasis field may be recognized by its perfectly reflecting surface, so perfect in fact that it reflects 100% of all radiation and particles, including neutrinos. Stasis fields are one of only two things currently known to reflect neutrinos from deep radar pings. The other being neutronium. Note: A stasis field may be cancelled out by another stasis field becoming active if they both try to occupy the same space. Invulnerable Hulls [ edit | edit source ] The Puppeteer firm, General Products, produces an invulnerable starship hull, known simply as a General Products Hull. The hulls are impervious to any type of matter or energy, with the exception of antimatter. While nearly invulnerable themselves, this is no guarantee that the contents are likewise protected. For example, a high speed impact with the surface of a planet or star may cause no harm to the hull, the occupants however will be crushed if they are not protected by additional measures, such as a stasis field, or a gravity compensating field. Other non-warranty related risks are substantial amounts of anti-matter and the Gw'oth method. GP product hulls come in four given sizes. Type #1, or satellite sized GP hulls, small enough to rest on a tabletop. Type #2 a roughly needle shaped hull with only two doors in the sides. Type #3 a large cylindrical hull, docking bay, engine outlet, much else. Type #4 a roughly 300 meter (1000ft) sphere. NEED ENTRY : Twing, updated GP Hull info from FOW series (vulnerability) Boosterspice [ edit | edit source ] Boosterspice is a compound that increases the longevity and reverses aging of human beings. With the use of boosterspice, humans can easily live into hundreds of years and, theoretically, it can extend life indefinitely. Humans have been led to believe it is made from genetically engineered ragweed (although early stories have it ingested in the form of edible seeds) but, in Ringworld's Children , it is suggested boosterspice may actually be adapted from Tree-of-Life, without the symbiotic virus that enabled hominids to metamorphose from Pak Breeder stage to Pak stage (mutated Pak breeders were the ancestors of both homo sapiens and the hominids of the Ringworld in the Known Space universe). On the Ringworld, there is an analogous (and apparently more potent) compound, but they are mutually incompatible; in The Ringworld Engineers , Louis Wu learns that the character Halrloprillalar died when in ARM custody after leaving the Ringworld, as a result of having taken boosterspice and previously having used the Ringworld equivalent. Transfer Booths [ edit | edit source ] Transfer Booths are an inexpensive form of teleportation. They are similar in appearance to an old style telephone booth: one enters, dials one's desired destination, and is immediately deposited in a corresponding booth at the destination. They are inexpensive: a trip anywhere on Earth costs only a "tenth-star" (presumably equivalent to a dime). However a star is accosted as the value of mailing a wallet sized object anywhere planetwide. Terms [ edit | edit source ] Droud — a device for direct electrical stimulation of the brain's pleasure center, plugged directly into a socket that is surgically attached to the skull. The user of a droud, known as a wirehead , suffers from current addiction . The operation to attach the droud's socket is performed by a specialized surgeon known as an ecstasy peddler. Singleship — a small spacecraft occupied and flown by only one person. It is a term short for single occupant space ship . The singleships are commonly used by Belters for mining and transportation. During the Man-Kzin Wars they were also used as warships, since the fusion jet (so the colloquial name a Torchship ) which propels the vessel could be used like a miles-long flamethrower. Tasp — a device for direct stimulation of the brain's pleasure center, like a droud, but which operates at a distance. To use a tasp on someone, e.g., in a public park, is known colloquially as 'to make someone's day'. As the kzin Speaker-to-Animals notes in Ringworld , only a sophisticate fears a tasp. Background [ edit | edit source ] Known Space is used as the fictional setting of several science fiction novels and short stories written by author Larry Niven. It has been also in part been used as a shared universe in the Man-Kzin Wars spin-off anthologies sub-series. The stories span approximately one thousand years of future history, from the first human explorations of the Sol System to the colonization of dozens of nearby systems (and with some references to the far distant past). The stories which now comprise the "known space" series were originally conceived as separate series, the "Belter" stories, featuring solar-system colonization and slower-than-light travel with fusion-powered Bussard ramjet ships, and the Neutron-Star/Ringworld series of stories, set much further into the future, which feature Faster-than-light ships using "hyperdrive". The two timelines were implicitly joined by Niven in the story "A Relic of the Empire," in which the background elements of the Slaver civilization (introduced in World of Ptavvs, from the Belter series) was used as a plot element of a story in the faster-than-light setting. Roughly 300 years separates the timeline of the last stories of the early setting (which are set roughly between 2000 and 2350), from the earliest stories in the later Neutron-Star/Ringworld setting (which are set in 2651 ("Neutron Star") and later). In the late 1980s, Niven opened up this gap in the known space timeline as a shared universe, and the stories of the Man-Kzin Wars volumes fill in that history, smoothly joining the two settings. Stories in Known Space [ edit | edit source ] Unlike many fictional universes, the component tales of Known Space were largely released as short stories or serials in various science fiction anthology magazines. These stories were generally subsequently released in one or more collection volumes. To add some further confusion, some of the shorter novels published in magazines were later expanded to, or incorporated in, book-length novels. Due to the large number of stories, it is particularly difficult for a completionist fan to read every story in the series. There are also two or three short stories which share common themes and some background elements with Known Space stories, but which are not considered a part of the Known Space Universe: "Bordered in Black" and "One Face" (see the collection "Convergent Series"), and perhaps "The Color of Sunfire." In the Known Space stories Niven had created a number of technological devices (GP hull, stasis field, Ringworld material) which, combined with the 'Teela Brown gene', made it very difficult to construct engaging stories beyond a certain date—the combination of factors made it tricky to produce any kind of creditable threat/problem without complex contrivances. Niven demonstrated this, to his own satisfaction, with "Safe at Any Speed". After 1975, he began to write significantly fewer Known Space stories. However, Niven later invited other authors to participate in a series of shared-universe novels, with the Man-Kzin Wars as their setting. Stories [ edit | edit source ] Stories written by Larry Niven in the Tales of Known Space series [3] Title Published First appearance CollectionTemplate:Efn "The Coldest Place" 1964 (December) Worlds of If Tales of Known Space "World of Ptavvs"Template:Efn 1965 Worlds of Tomorrow Three Books of Known Space "Becalmed in Hell" 1965 The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Tales of Known Space, , Playgrounds of the Mind "Eye of an Octopus" 1966 Galaxy Magazine Tales of Known Space "The Warriors" 1966 Worlds of If Tales of Known Space, Man- Kzin Wars I "Neutron Star" 1966 Worlds of If Neutron Star, Crashlander "How the Heroes Die" 1966 Galaxy Magazine Tales of Known Space "" 1966 Worlds of If Neutron Star, Crashlander "A Relic of the Empire" 1966 Worlds of If Neutron Star, Playgrounds of the Mind "At the Bottom of a Hole" 1966 Galaxy Magazine Tales of Known Space "The Soft Weapon" 1967 Worlds of If Neutron Star, Playgrounds of the Mind "" 1967 Worlds of If Neutron Star, Crashlander "The Ethics of Madness" 1967 Worlds of If Neutron Star "Safe at any Speed" 1967 The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Tales of Known Space "The Adults"Template:Efn 1967 Galaxy Magazine — "" 1967 Galaxy Magazine Neutron Star "" 1967 Dangerous Visions Tales of Known Space "Slowboat Cargo"Template:Efn 1968 Worlds of If — "The Deceivers" (later titled "Intent to Deceive") 1968 Galaxy Magazine Tales of Known Space "" 1968 (collection only) Neutron Star, Crashlander "There is a Tide" 1968 Galaxy Magazine Tales of Known Space, World of Ptavvs Template:Efn 1966 (novel) — A Gift From Earth Template:Efn 1968 (novel) Three Books of Known Space "Wait It Out" 1968 Future Unbounded convention program Tales of Known Space "The Organleggers" (later titled "Death by Ecstasy") 1969 (January) Galaxy Magazine The Shape of Space, The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton, Flatlander Ringworld 1970 (novel) — "Cloak of Anarchy" 1972 Analog Science Fiction Tales of Known Space, N-Space Protector Template:Efn 1973 (novel) — "The Defenseless Dead" 1973 Ten Tomorrows The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton, Playgrounds of the Mind "The Borderland of Sol" 1975 Analog Science Fiction Tales of Known Space, Crashlander, Playgrounds of the Mind "ARM" 1975 Epoch The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton The Ringworld Engineers 1979-80, serialized in Galileo (novel) — 1980 (novel) Flatlander "Madness Has Its Place" 1990 Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine Man-Kzin Wars III , Three Books of Known Space "The Color Of Sunfire" 1993 Worldcon 51 convention program ("Bridging the Galaxies") uncollected; online [4] "" 1993 Worldcon 51 convention program ("Bridging the Galaxies") Crashlander "Ghost" 1994 (collection only, as frame story) Crashlander "The Woman in Del Rey Crater" 1995 (collection only) Flatlander The Ringworld Throne 1996 (novel) — "Choosing Names" 1998 (collection only) Man-Kzin Wars VIII "Fly-By-Night" 2000 Asimov's Science Fiction Man-Kzin Wars IX Ringworld's Children 2004 (novel) — "The Hunting Park" 2005 (collection only) Man-Kzin Wars XI Fleet of Worlds (Edward M. Lerner and Niven, coauthors) 2007 (novel) — Juggler of Worlds (Lerner and Niven) 2008 (novel) — Destroyer of Worlds (Lerner and Niven) 2009 (novel) — Betrayer of Worlds (Lerner and Niven) 2010 (novel) — Fate of Worlds (Lerner and Niven) 2012 (novel) — Man-Kzin Wars [ edit | edit source ] Playground [ edit | edit source ] Niven has described his fiction as "playground equipment", encouraging fans to speculate and extrapolate on the events described. Debates have been made, for example, on who built the Ringworld (Pak Protectors and the Outsiders being the traditional favourites, but see Ringworld's Children for a possibly definitive answer), and what happened to the Tnuctipun. However, Niven also states that this is not an invitation to violate his copyright, so fans should avoid publishing works that are too obviously based in the Known Space universe without Niven's express permission. Niven was also reported to have said that "Known Space should be seen as a possible future history told by people that may or may not have all their facts right." An outline for a "final" Known Space story titled "Down in Flames" has been published, which includes a controversial revelation about the Tnuctipun. However, Niven has stated the story suggested by the outline was made obsolete by the publication of Ringworld . "Down in Flames" was a result of a conversation between Norman Spinrad and Niven in 1968, but at the time of its first publication in 1977 some of the concepts were invalidated by Niven's writings between '68 and '77. (A further edited version of the outline was published in N-Space in 1990.) Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven by Larry Niven. The KNOWN SPACE Universe. Tales of Known Space 1: Human Space. World of Ptavvs. Flatlander (Gil Hamilton) A Gift From Earth. Tales of Known Space 2: Known Space. Crashlander (Beowulf Shaeffer) The Ringworld Throne. Fleet of Worlds. Juggler of Worlds. Destroyer of Worlds. Betrayer of Worlds. The Man-Kzin Wars. Worlds of If, February 1966. A Relic of the Empire. Worlds of If, December 1966. The Soft Weapon. Worlds of If, February 1967. Safe at Any Speed. The Magazine of F & SF, May 1967. Galaxy Magazine, December 1967. There is a Tide. Galaxy Magazine, July 1968. Madness Has Its Place. I A's SF Magazine, June 1990. The Color of Sunfire. Bridging the Galaxies, November 1993. Man-Kzin Wars VIII, Baen, 1998. The Hunting Park. Man-Kzin Wars XI, Baen, 2007. Telepath's Dance by Hal Colebatch. Man-Kzin Wars VIII, Baen, 1998. Cover Art by Rick Sternbach. Orbit Cover Art by Peter Jones. Nessus illustration by Peter Jones. Table of Contents. Madness Has Its Place. A Relic of the Empire. The Soft Weapon. The Color of Sunfire. The Hunting Park. There is a Tide. Safe at Any Speed. The organ bank problem is basic to an understanding of this era, and of later eras on the colony worlds. It forms a background for the three tales of Gil the ARM, and for the society of Mount Lookitthat as detailed in A Gift From Earth. Phssthpok the Pak was the second extraterrestrial to meet mankind. Though he had traveled all the way from the galactic core, he was hardly an alien; the Pak are related to humankind. Before his death he created the first of the protector-stage humans, from a Belt miner named Jack Brennan. There followed a Golden Age—a period of peace and contentment for Earth and Belt—that lasted for two hundred and fifty years. In particular, breakthroughs in alloplasty and regeneration ended the organ bank problem. Probably all of this was due to subtle interventions by the superintelligent being who now called himself the Brennan-monster. Brennan's story is chronicled in Protector. Unfortunately Brennan was unable to anticipate the existence of the Kzinti . . . LN. "I'm sure they saw us coming," the Alien Technologies Officer persisted. "Do you see that ring, sir?" The silvery image of the enemy ship almost filled the viewer. It showed as a broad, wide ring encircling a cylindrical axis, like a mechanical pencil floating inside a platinum bracelet. A finned craft projected from the pointed end of the axial section. Angular letters ran down the axis, totally unlike the dots-and-commas —of Kzinti script. "Of course I see it," said the Captain. "It was rotating when we first picked them up. It stopped when we got within two hundred thousand miles, and it hasn't moved since." The Captain flicked his tail back and forth, gently, thoughtfully, like a pink lash. "You worry me," he commented. "If they know we're here, why haven't they tried to get away? Are they so sure they can beat us?" He whirled to face the A-T Officer. "Should we be running?" "No, sir! I don't know why they're still here, but they can't have anything to be confident about. That's one of the most primitive spacecraft I've ever seen." He moved his claw about on the screen, pointing as he talked. "The outer shell is an iron alloy. The rotating ring is a method of imitating gravity by using centripetal force. So they don't have the gravity planer. In fact they're probably using a reaction drive." The Captain's catlike ears went up. "But we're light-years from the nearest star!" "They must have a better reaction drive than we ever developed. Vie had the gravity planer before we needed one that good." There was a buzzing sound from the big control board. "Enter," said the Captain. The Weapons Officer fell up through the entrance hatch and came to attention. "Sir, we have all weapons trained on the enemy. " "Good." The Captain swung around. "A T, how sure are you that they aren't a threat to us?" The A-T Officer bared sharply pointed teeth. "I don't see how they could be, sir." "Good. Weapons, keep all your guns ready to fire, but don't use them unless I give the order. I'll have the ears of the man who destroys that ship without orders. I want to take it intact." "Where's the Telepath?" "He's on his way, sir. He was asleep." "He's always asleep. Tell him to get his tail up here." The Weapons Officer saluted, turned, and dropped through the exit hole. The A-T Officer was standing by the viewer, which now showed the ringed end of the alien ship. He pointed to the mirror-bright end of the axial cylinder. "It looks like that end was designed to project light. That would make it a photon drive, sir." The Captain considered. "Could it be a signal device?" "Urrrrr . . . Yes, sir." "Then don't jump to conclusions." Like a piece of toast, the Telepath popped up through the entrance hatch. He came to exaggerated attention. "Reporting as ordered, sir." "You omitted to buzz for entrance." "Sorry, sir." The lighted viewscreen caught the Telepath's eye and lie padded over for a better look, forgetting that he was at attention. The A-T Officer winced, wishing he were somewhere else. The Telepath's eyes were violet around the edges. His pink tail hung limp. As usual, he looked as if he were dying for lack of sleep. His fur was flattened along the side he slept on; he hadn't even bothered to brush it. The effect was as far from the ideal of a Conquest Warrior as one can get and still be a member of the Kzinti species. The wonder was that the Captain had not yet murdered him. He never would, of course. Telepaths were too rare, too valuable, and—understandably—too emotionally unstable. The Captain always kept his temper with the Telepath. At times like this it was the innocent bystander who stood to lose his rank or his ears at the clank of a falling molecule. "That's an enemy ship we've tracked down," the Captain was saying. "We'd like to get some information from them. Would you read their minds for us?" "Yes, sir." The Telepath's voice showed his instant misery, but he knew better than to protest. He left the screen and sank into a chair. Slowly his ears folded into tight knots, his pupils contracted, and his ratlike tail went limp as flannel. The world of the eleventh sense pushed in on him. He caught the Captain's thought: ". . . sloppy civilian get of a sthondat . . ." and frantically tuned it out. He hated the Captain's mind. He found other minds aboard ship, isolated and blanked them out one by one. Now there were none left. There was only unconsciousness and chaos. Chaos was not empty. Somethi ng was thinking strange and disturbing thoughts. The Telepath forced himself to listen. Steve Weaver floated bonelessly near a wall of the radio room. He was blond, blue-eyed, and big, and he could often be seen as he was now, relaxed but completely motionless, as if there were some very good reason why he shouldn't even blink. A streamer of smoke drifted from his left hand and crossed the room to bury itself in the air vent. "That's that," Ann Harrison said wearily. She flicked four switches in the bank of radio controls. At each click a small light went out. "You can't get them?" "Right. I'll bet they don't even have a radio." Ann released her chair net and stretched out into a five-pointed star. "I've left the receiver on, with the volume up, in case they try to get us later. Man, that feels good!" Abruptly she curled into a tight ball. She had been crouched at the communications bank for more than an hour. Ann might have been Steve's twin; she was almost as tall as he was, had the same color hair and eyes, and the flat muscles of conscientious exercise showed beneath her blue falling jumper as she flexed. Steve snapped his cigarette butt at the air conditioner, moving only his fingers. "Okay. What have they got?" Ann looked startled. "I don't know." "Think of it as a puzzle. They don't have a radio. How might they talk to each other? How can we check on our guesses? We assume they're trying to reach us, of course." "Think about it, Ann. Get Jim thinking about it, too." Jim Davis was her husband that year, and the ship's doctor full time. "You're the girl most likely to succeed. Have a smog stick?" Steve pushed his cigarette ration across the room. "Take a few. I've got to go." The depleted package came whizzing back. "Thanks," said Ann. "Let me know if anything happens, will you? Or if you think of anything." "I will. And fear not, Steve, something's bound to turn up. They must be trying just as hard as we are." Every compartment in the personnel rind opened into the narrow doughnut-shaped hall which ran round the ring's forward rim. Steve pushed himself into the hall, jockeyed to contact the floor, and pushed. From there it was easy going. The floor curved up to meet him, and he proceeded down the hall like a swimming frog. Of the twelve men and women on the Angel's Pencil, Steve was best at this; for Steve was a Belter, and the others were all flatlanders, Earthborn. Ann probably wouldn't think of anything, he guessed. It wasn't that she wasn't intelligent. She didn't have the curiosity, the sheer love of solving puzzles. Only he and Jim Davis. He was going too fast, and not concentrating. He almost crashed into Sue Bhang as she appeared below the curve of the ceiling. They managed to stop themselves against the walls. "Hi, jaywalker," said Sue. "Hi, Sue. Where you headed?" "I thought I'd check the drive systems again. Not that we're likely to need the drive, but it can't hurt to be certain." "You'd go twitchy without something to do, wouldn't you?" She cocked her head to one side, as always when she had questions. "Steve, when are you going to rotate us again? I can't seem to get used to falling." But she looked like she'd been born falling, he thought. Her small, slender form was meant for flying; gravity should never have touched her. "When I'm sure we won't need the drive. We might as well stay ready 'til then. Besides, I'm hoping you'll change back to a skirt." She laughed, pleased. "Then you can turn it off. I'm not changing, and we won't be moving. Abel says the other ship did two hundred gee when it matched courses with us. How many can the Angel's Pencil do?" Steve looked awed. "Just point zero five. And I was thinking of chasing them! Well, maybe we can be the ones to open communications. I just came from the radio room, by the way. Ann can't get anything." "We'll just have to wait." "Steve, you're always so impatient. Do Belters always move at a run? Come here." She took a handhold and pulled him over to on of the thick windows which lined the forward side of the corridor. "There they are," she said, pointing out. The star was both duller and larger than those around it. Among points which glowed arc-lamp blue-white with the Doppler shift, the alien ship showed as a dull red disk. "I looked at it through the telescope," said Steve. "There are lumps and ridges all over it. And there's a circle of green dots and commas painted on one side. Looked like writing." "How long have we been waiting to meet them? Five hundred thousand years? Well, there they are. Relax. They won't go away." due gazed out the window, her whole attention on the dull red circle, her gleaming jet hair floating out around her head. "The first aliens. I wonder what they'll be like." "It's anyone's guess. They must be pretty strong to take punishment like that, unless they have some kind of acceleration shield, but free fall doesn't bother them either. That ship isn't designed to spin." He was staring intently out at the stars, his big form characteristically motionless, his expression somber. Abruptly he said, "Sue, I'm worried." "Suppose they're hostile?" "Hostile?" She tasted the unfamiliar word, decided she didn't like it. "After all, we know nothing about them. Suppose they want to fight? We'd —" She gasped. Steve flinched before the horror in her face. "What—what put the idea in your head?" "I'm sorry I shocked you, Sue." "Oh, don't worry about that, but why? Did —shh." Jim Davis had come into view. The Angel's Pencil had left Earth when he was twenty-seven; now he was a slightly paunchy thirty-eight, the oldest man on board, an amiable man with abnormally long, delicate fingers. His grandfather, with the same hands, had been a world-famous surgeon. Nowadays surgery was normally done by autodocs, and the arachnodactyls were to Davis merely an affliction. He bounced by, walking on magnetic sandals, looking like a comedian as he bobbed about the magnetic plates. "Hi, group," he called as he went by. "Hello, Jim." Sue's voice was strained. She waited until he was out of sight before she spoke again. Hoarsely she whispered, "Did you fight in the Belt?" She didn't really believe it; it was merely the worst thing she could think of. Vehemently Steve snapped, "No!" Then, reluctantly, he added, "But it did happen occasionally." Quickly he tried to explain. "The trouble was that all the doctors, including the psychists, were at the big bases, like Ceres. It was the only way they could help the people who needed them—be where the miners could find them. But all the danger was out in the rocks. "You noticed a habit of mine once. I never make gestures. All Belters have that trait. It's because on a small mining ship you could hit something waving your arms around. Something like the airlock button." "Sometimes it's almost eerie. You don't move for minutes at a time." "There's always tension out in the rocks. Sometimes a miner would see too much danger and boredom and frustration, too much cramping inside and too much room outside, and he wouldn't get to a psychist in time. He'd pick a fight in a bar. I saw it happen once. The guy was using his hands like mallets." Steve had been looking far into the past. Now he turned back to Sue. She looked white and sick, like a novice nurse standing up to her first really bad case. His ears began to turn red. "Sorry," he said miserably. She felt like running; she was as embarrassed as he was. Instead she said, and tried to mean it, "It doesn't matter. So you think the people in the other ship might want to, uh, make war?" "Did you have history-of-Earth courses?" He smiled ruefully. "No, I couldn't qualify. Sometimes I wonder how many people do." "About one in twelve." "People in general have trouble assimilating the facts of life about their ancestors. You probably know that there u sed to be wars before —hmmm —three hundred years ago, but do you know what a war is? Can you visualize one? Can you see a fusion electric point deliberately built to explode in the middle of the city? Do you know what a concentration camp is? A limited action? You probably think murder ended with war. Well, it didn't. The last murder occurred in twenty-one something, just a hundred and sixty years ago. "Anyone who says human nature can't be changed is out of his head. To make it stick, he's got to define human nature—and he can't. Three things gave us our present peaceful civilization, and each one was a technological change." Sue's voice had taken on a dry, remote lecture-hall tone, like the voice on a teacher tape. "One was the development of psychistry beyond the alchemist stage. Another was the full development of land for food production. The third was the Fertility Restriction Laws and the annual contraceptive shots. They gave us room to breathe. Maybe Belt mining and the stellar colonies had something to do with it too; they gave us an inanimate enemy. Even the historians argue about that one. "Here's the delicate point I'm trying to nail down." Sue rapped on the window. "Look at that spacecraft. It has enough power to move it around like a mail missile and enough fuel to move it up to our point eight light—right?" "—with plenty of power left for maneuvering. It's a better ship than ours. If they've had time to learn how to build a ship like that, they've had time to build up their own versions of psychistry, modern food production, contraception, economic theory, everything they need to abolish war. See?" Steve had to smile at her earnestness. "Sure, Sue, it makes sense. But that guy in the bar came from our culture, and he was hostile enough. If we can't understand how he thinks, how can we guess about the mind of something whose very chemical makeup we can't guess at yet?" Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven by Larry Niven. The organ bank problem is basic to an understanding of this era, and of later eras on the colony worlds. It forms a background for the three tales of Gil the ARM, and for the society of Mount Lookitthat as detailed in A Gift From Earth. Phssthpok the Pak was the second extraterrestrial to meet mankind. Though he had traveled all the way from the galactic core, he was hardly an alien; the Pak are related to humankind. Before his death he created the first of the protector-stage humans, from a Belt miner named Jack Brennan. There followed a Golden Age—a period of peace and contentment for Earth and Belt—that lasted for two hundred and fifty years. In particular, breakthroughs in alloplasty and regeneration ended the organ bank problem. Probably all of this was due to subtle interventions by the superintelligent being who now called himself the Brennan-monster. Brennan's story is chronicled in Protector. Unfortunately Brennan was unable to anticipate the existence of the Kzinti . . . LN. "I'm sure they saw us coming," the Alien Technologies Officer persisted. "Do you see that ring, sir?" The silvery image of the enemy ship almost filled the viewer. It showed as a broad, wide ring encircling a cylindrical axis, like a mechanical pencil floating inside a platinum bracelet. A finned craft projected from the pointed end of the axial section. Angular letters ran down the axis, totally unlike the dots-and-commas —of Kzinti script. "Of course I see it," said the Captain. "It was rotating when we first picked them up. It stopped when we got within two hundred thousand miles, and it hasn't moved since." The Captain flicked his tail back and forth, gently, thoughtfully, like a pink lash. "You worry me," he commented. "If they know we're here, why haven't they tried to get away? Are they so sure they can beat us?" He whirled to face the A-T Officer. "Should we be running?" "No, sir! I don't know why they're still here, but they can't have anything to be confident about. That's one of the most primitive spacecraft I've ever seen." He moved his claw about on the screen, pointing as he talked. "The outer shell is an iron alloy. The rotating ring is a method of imitating gravity by using centripetal force. So they don't have the gravity planer. In fact they're probably using a reaction drive." The Captain's catlike ears went up. "But we're light-years from the nearest star!" "They must have a better reaction drive than we ever developed. Vie had the gravity planer before we needed one that good." There was a buzzing sound from the big control board. "Enter," said the Captain. The Weapons Officer fell up through the entrance hatch and came to attention. "Sir, we have all weapons trained on the enemy. " "Good." The Captain swung around. "A T, how sure are you that they aren't a threat to us?" The A-T Officer bared sharply pointed teeth. "I don't see how they could be, sir." "Good. Weapons, keep all your guns ready to fire, but don't use them unless I give the order. I'll have the ears of the man who destroys that ship without orders. I want to take it intact." "Where's the Telepath?" "He's on his way, sir. He was asleep." "He's always asleep. Tell him to get his tail up here." The Weapons Officer saluted, turned, and dropped through the exit hole. The A-T Officer was standing by the viewer, which now showed the ringed end of the alien ship. He pointed to the mirror-bright end of the axial cylinder. "It looks like that end was designed to project light. That would make it a photon drive, sir." The Captain considered. "Could it be a signal device?" "Urrrrr . . . Yes, sir." "Then don't jump to conclusions." Like a piece of toast, the Telepath popped up through the entrance hatch. He came to exaggerated attention. "Reporting as ordered, sir." "You omitted to buzz for entrance." "Sorry, sir." The lighted viewscreen caught the Telepath's eye and lie padded over for a better look, forgetting that he was at attention. The A-T Officer winced, wishing he were somewhere else. The Telepath's eyes were violet around the edges. His pink tail hung limp. As usual, he looked as if he were dying for lack of sleep. His fur was flattened along the side he slept on; he hadn't even bothered to brush it. The effect was as far from the ideal of a Conquest Warrior as one can get and still be a member of the Kzinti species. The wonder was that the Captain had not yet murdered him. He never would, of course. Telepaths were too rare, too valuable, and—understandably—too emotionally unstable. The Captain always kept his temper with the Telepath. At times like this it was the innocent bystander who stood to lose his rank or his ears at the clank of a falling molecule. "That's an enemy ship we've tracked down," the Captain was saying. "We'd like to get some information from them. Would you read their minds for us?" "Yes, sir." The Telepath's voice showed his instant misery, but he knew better than to protest. He left the screen and sank into a chair. Slowly his ears folded into tight knots, his pupils contracted, and his ratlike tail went limp as flannel. The world of the eleventh sense pushed in on him. He caught the Captain's thought: ". . . sloppy civilian get of a sthondat . . ." and frantically tuned it out. He hated the Captain's mind. He found other minds aboard ship, isolated and blanked them out one by one. Now there were none left. There was only unconsciousness and chaos. Chaos was not empty. Somethi ng was thinking strange and disturbing thoughts. The Telepath forced himself to listen. Steve Weaver floated bonelessly near a wall of the radio room. He was blond, blue-eyed, and big, and he could often be seen as he was now, relaxed but completely motionless, as if there were some very good reason why he shouldn't even blink. A streamer of smoke drifted from his left hand and crossed the room to bury itself in the air vent. "That's that," Ann Harrison said wearily. She flicked four switches in the bank of radio controls. At each click a small light went out. "You can't get them?" "Right. I'll bet they don't even have a radio." Ann released her chair net and stretched out into a five-pointed star. "I've left the receiver on, with the volume up, in case they try to get us later. Man, that feels good!" Abruptly she curled into a tight ball. She had been crouched at the communications bank for more than an hour. Ann might have been Steve's twin; she was almost as tall as he was, had the same color hair and eyes, and the flat muscles of conscientious exercise showed beneath her blue falling jumper as she flexed. Steve snapped his cigarette butt at the air conditioner, moving only his fingers. "Okay. What have they got?" Ann looked startled. "I don't know." "Think of it as a puzzle. They don't have a radio. How might they talk to each other? How can we check on our guesses? We assume they're trying to reach us, of course." "Think about it, Ann. Get Jim thinking about it, too." Jim Davis was her husband that year, and the ship's doctor full time. "You're the girl most likely to succeed. Have a smog stick?" Steve pushed his cigarette ration across the room. "Take a few. I've got to go." The depleted package came whizzing back. "Thanks," said Ann. "Let me know if anything happens, will you? Or if you think of anything." "I will. And fear not, Steve, something's bound to turn up. They must be trying just as hard as we are." Every compartment in the personnel rind opened into the narrow doughnut-shaped hall which ran round the ring's forward rim. Steve pushed himself into the hall, jockeyed to contact the floor, and pushed. From there it was easy going. The floor curved up to meet him, and he proceeded down the hall like a swimming frog. Of the twelve men and women on the Angel's Pencil, Steve was best at this; for Steve was a Belter, and the others were all flatlanders, Earthborn. Ann probably wouldn't think of anything, he guessed. It wasn't that she wasn't intelligent. She didn't have the curiosity, the sheer love of solving puzzles. Only he and Jim Davis. He was going too fast, and not concentrating. He almost crashed into Sue Bhang as she appeared below the curve of the ceiling. They managed to stop themselves against the walls. "Hi, jaywalker," said Sue. "Hi, Sue. Where you headed?" "I thought I'd check the drive systems again. Not that we're likely to need the drive, but it can't hurt to be certain." "You'd go twitchy without something to do, wouldn't you?" She cocked her head to one side, as always when she had questions. "Steve, when are you going to rotate us again? I can't seem to get used to falling." But she looked like she'd been born falling, he thought. Her small, slender form was meant for flying; gravity should never have touched her. "When I'm sure we won't need the drive. We might as well stay ready 'til then. Besides, I'm hoping you'll change back to a skirt." She laughed, pleased. "Then you can turn it off. I'm not changing, and we won't be moving. Abel says the other ship did two hundred gee when it matched courses with us. How many can the Angel's Pencil do?" Steve looked awed. "Just point zero five. And I was thinking of chasing them! Well, maybe we can be the ones to open communications. I just came from the radio room, by the way. Ann can't get anything." "We'll just have to wait." "Steve, you're always so impatient. Do Belters always move at a run? Come here." She took a handhold and pulled him over to on of the thick windows which lined the forward side of the corridor. "There they are," she said, pointing out. The star was both duller and larger than those around it. Among points which glowed arc-lamp blue-white with the Doppler shift, the alien ship showed as a dull red disk. "I looked at it through the telescope," said Steve. "There are lumps and ridges all over it. And there's a circle of green dots and commas painted on one side. Looked like writing." "How long have we been waiting to meet them? Five hundred thousand years? Well, there they are. Relax. They won't go away." due gazed out the window, her whole attention on the dull red circle, her gleaming jet hair floating out around her head. "The first aliens. I wonder what they'll be like." "It's anyone's guess. They must be pretty strong to take punishment like that, unless they have some kind of acceleration shield, but free fall doesn't bother them either. That ship isn't designed to spin." He was staring intently out at the stars, his big form characteristically motionless, his expression somber. Abruptly he said, "Sue, I'm worried." "Suppose they're hostile?" "Hostile?" She tasted the unfamiliar word, decided she didn't like it. "After all, we know nothing about them. Suppose they want to fight? We'd —" She gasped. Steve flinched before the horror in her face. "What—what put the idea in your head?" "I'm sorry I shocked you, Sue." "Oh, don't worry about that, but why? Did —shh." Jim Davis had come into view. The Angel's Pencil had left Earth when he was twenty-seven; now he was a slightly paunchy thirty-eight, the oldest man on board, an amiable man with abnormally long, delicate fingers. His grandfather, with the same hands, had been a world-famous surgeon. Nowadays surgery was normally done by autodocs, and the arachnodactyls were to Davis merely an affliction. He bounced by, walking on magnetic sandals, looking like a comedian as he bobbed about the magnetic plates. "Hi, group," he called as he went by. "Hello, Jim." Sue's voice was strained. She waited until he was out of sight before she spoke again. Hoarsely she whispered, "Did you fight in the Belt?" She didn't really believe it; it was merely the worst thing she could think of. Vehemently Steve snapped, "No!" Then, reluctantly, he added, "But it did happen occasionally." Quickly he tried to explain. "The trouble was that all the doctors, including the psychists, were at the big bases, like Ceres. It was the only way they could help the people who needed them—be where the miners could find them. But all the danger was out in the rocks. "You noticed a habit of mine once. I never make gestures. All Belters have that trait. It's because on a small mining ship you could hit something waving your arms around. Something like the airlock button." "Sometimes it's almost eerie. You don't move for minutes at a time." "There's always tension out in the rocks. Sometimes a miner would see too much danger and boredom and frustration, too much cramping inside and too much room outside, and he wouldn't get to a psychist in time. He'd pick a fight in a bar. I saw it happen once. The guy was using his hands like mallets." Steve had been looking far into the past. Now he turned back to Sue. She looked white and sick, like a novice nurse standing up to her first really bad case. His ears began to turn red. "Sorry," he said miserably. She felt like running; she was as embarrassed as he was. Instead she said, and tried to mean it, "It doesn't matter. So you think the people in the other ship might want to, uh, make war?" "Did you have history-of-Earth courses?" He smiled ruefully. "No, I couldn't qualify. Sometimes I wonder how many people do." "About one in twelve." "People in general have trouble assimilating the facts of life about their ancestors. You probably know that there u sed to be wars before —hmmm —three hundred years ago, but do you know what a war is? Can you visualize one? Can you see a fusion electric point deliberately built to explode in the middle of the city? Do you know what a concentration camp is? A limited action? You probably think murder ended with war. Well, it didn't. The last murder occurred in twenty-one something, just a hundred and sixty years ago. "Anyone who says human nature can't be changed is out of his head. To make it stick, he's got to define human nature—and he can't. Three things gave us our present peaceful civilization, and each one was a technological change." Sue's voice had taken on a dry, remote lecture-hall tone, like the voice on a teacher tape. "One was the development of psychistry beyond the alchemist stage. Another was the full development of land for food production. The third was the Fertility Restriction Laws and the annual contraceptive shots. They gave us room to breathe. Maybe Belt mining and the stellar colonies had something to do with it too; they gave us an inanimate enemy. Even the historians argue about that one. "Here's the delicate point I'm trying to nail down." Sue rapped on the window. "Look at that spacecraft. It has enough power to move it around like a mail missile and enough fuel to move it up to our point eight light—right?" "—with plenty of power left for maneuvering. It's a better ship than ours. If they've had time to learn how to build a ship like that, they've had time to build up their own versions of psychistry, modern food production, contraception, economic theory, everything they need to abolish war. See?" Steve had to smile at her earnestness. "Sure, Sue, it makes sense. But that guy in the bar came from our culture, and he was hostile enough. If we can't understand how he thinks, how can we guess about the mind of something whose very chemical makeup we can't guess at yet?" 9780345334695 - Tales of Known Space: the Universe of Larry Niven by Niven, Larry. Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven. Larry Niven. Published by Del Rey (1985) Used - Softcover Condition: VERY GOOD. Quantity available: 1. Light rubbing wear to cover, spine and page edges. Very minimal writing or notations in margins not affecting the text. Possible clean ex-library copy, with their stickers and or stamp(s). Del Rey, 1985. Mass Market Paperback. Condition: VERY GOOD. Tales of Known Space. Larry Niven. Published by Random House Publishing Group (1985) Used - Softcover Condition: Fair. Quantity available: 2. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Random House Publishing Group, 1985. Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven. Larry Niven. Published by Del Rey (1985) Used - Softcover Condition: LIKE NEW. Quantity available: 1. Like new, very light shelf wear. Del Rey, 1985. Mass Market Paperback. Condition: LIKE NEW. Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven. Larry Niven. Published by Del Rey (1985) Used - Softcover Condition: VERY GOOD. Quantity available: 1. Light rubbing wear to cover, spine and page edges. Very minimal writing or notations in margins not affecting the text. Possible clean ex-library copy, with their stickers and or stamp(s). Del Rey, 1985. Mass Market Paperback. Condition: VERY GOOD. Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven. Niven, Larry. Published by Del Rey (1985) Used - Softcover Condition: Good. Quantity available: 1. A+ Customer service! Satisfaction Guaranteed! Book is in Used-Good condition. Pages and cover are clean and intact. Used items may not include supplementary materials such as CDs or access codes. May show signs of minor shelf wear and contain limited notes and highlighting. Del Rey, 1985. Condition: Good. Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven. Niven,Larry. Published by Del Rey November 1985 (1985) Used - Softcover Condition: Very Good. Quantity available: 1. Niven,Larry Tales Of Known Space: The Universe Of Larry Niven Covers clean and unmarked, light edge and corner wear. Pages clean and very tight, lightly tanned. A good copy. All Orders Shipped With Tracking And Delivery Confirmation Numbers. Del Rey November 1985, 1985. Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven. Larry Niven. Published by Del Rey Ballantine, United States (1991) Used - Softcover Condition: Very Good. Quantity available: 1. Spine tight and square with light stress lines noticeable. Few slight creases or bends in the cover with minor color flaking to back cover. Pages mostly white. Light wear noticeable on extremities. 13th printing. Rick Sternbach cover. Del Rey Ballantine, United States, 1991. Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Tales of Known Space. Larry Niven. Published by Random House Publishing Group (1985) Used - Softcover Condition: Fair. Quantity available: 2. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Random House Publishing Group, 1985. Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Tales of Known Space. Larry Niven. Published by Random House Publishing Group (1985) Used - Softcover Condition: Fair. Quantity available: 2. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Random House Publishing Group, 1985. Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Tales of Known Space. Larry Niven. Published by Random House Publishing Group (1985) Used - Softcover Condition: Fair. Quantity available: 2. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Random House Publishing Group, 1985. Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven. Niven, Larry. Published by Del Rey (1985) Used - Softcover Condition: Fair. Quantity available: 1. Student Edition. No apparent missing pages. Moderate wrinkling from liquid damage. Moderate wear, wrinkling, Curling or creasing on cover and spine. May have used stickers or residue. Dust cover may be missing. Fair binding may have a few loose or torn pages. No apparent writing or highlighting. Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with used books. Del Rey, 1985. Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Fair. Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven. Niven, Larry. Published by Del Rey, USA (1985) Used - Softcover Condition: Fair. Quantity available: 1. Del Rey 1985 Fair/ Heavy wear to plasticised cover, pos penned inside cover dated "Jan 1990", tight tanned pages. In Plastic. Del Rey, USA, 1985. Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Fair. Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven. Larry Niven. Published by Del Rey (1985) Used - Softcover Condition: Good. Quantity available: 1. Del Rey, 1985. Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Good. Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven. Niven, Larry. Published by Del Rey (1985) Used - Softcover Condition: UsedAcceptable. Quantity available: 1. Del Rey, 1985. Condition: UsedAcceptable. book. Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven. Niven, Larry. Published by Del Rey (1985) Used - Softcover Condition: Near Fine. Quantity available: 1. Later pr. SIGNED by AUTHOR on the title page. Book is square, solid, and unread. When you receive this book you ll feel as though you ve received a postcard from the Ringworld, a snow globe from Tran-Ky-Ky, or or a one-week guided tour of Trantor -- TRANSPORTED! In protective archival bag. NOTE: Light age-toning to the insides of the covers as well as the pages. Del Rey, 1985. Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Near Fine. Signed by Author. Book.