mooremj@EGLIN-VAX (08/28/85)
From: mooremj@EGLIN-VAX
I think this ties up the loose ends...
The protectors from Home go out to battle the Pak protector fleet. Let's
assume they win. They can't leave such a source of trouble as the Pak out
there, so they head off to Pak (they don't care how long it takes, remember.)
Truesdale sends the message to Earth (in the epilogue of Protector) as a way of
letting them know that there is still a menace. (Why didn't he just say so?
Looking at the actions of the protectors we've seen, they seem to have
a love for the devious method and they enjoy leaving puzzles for people.)
During the battle with the Pak (or maybe just before or after), the human
protectors discover the hyperdrive -- they are at this time far enough from
any stars that it could be discovered. Alternatively, they may have
encountered an Outsider out there and bought/stolen the hyperdrive. (Why
didn't they give the hyperdrive to the rest of the human race? (1) They
would have had to reveal themselves; (2) Children can get *hurt* playing
with such things!)
At the hyperdrive velocity of 3 days/light-year, it will take about 150-200
years for the protectors to get to Pak. Thus, the protectors are out of
town during the Man-Kzin wars, the puppeteer manipulations, etc. The
protectors arrive at Pak and find the Tnuctipun have just eaten the Pak
(except for the Pak protectors -- those hard joints are rough on the
digestion!) [If the appearance of the Tnuctipun seems totally illogical to
you, see Down In Flames.] The protectors fight the good fight, but being
outnumbered millions to one they die to the last protector, except for Roy
Truesdale, who escapes. He heads back to known space and realizes it will
take bunches and bunches of protectors to fight the Tnuctipun. The trip takes
another 150-200 years, so he gets home about the time of Ringworld. Truesdale
starts by kidnapping Beowulf Sheaffer and changing him into a protector -- and
the rest of Down In Flames follows from here. The suggestion that Sheaffer
may have been off in a slowboat for a while, with time dilation keeping him
young enough to make the change to protectorship (protectorhood?
protectorness?), is quite plausible.
And somewhere along the way, we meet the mysterious Opak, the Penguin
Protector...(oof! ouch! okay, I give up!)
marty moore (mooremj@eglin-vax.arpa)markb@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Mark Biggar) (08/30/85)
Would someone please post Down In Flames.
THNX
Mark Biggar
{allegra,burdvax,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,akgua,sdcsvax}!sdcrdcf!markb