bsa@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery) (08/14/85)
Expires: Quoted from <3220@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> ["Re: Niven's Protectors (SFL V10#313)"], by VAF@CMU-CS-C.ARPA... +--------------- | From: Vince.Fuller@CMU-CS-C.ARPA | | Bigger question, though. This one has always bothered me | about Niven's universe. What the heck happens to Home after the | Protectors left to beat off the Pak ? Obviously, our guys win, | because even by Louis Wu's time, Pak were unknown. But what happens | to Home itself, with all that Tree-Of-Life virus floating in the | atmosphere ? It bugs me. | | My guess would be that the Home Protectors continue to keep the human race as | a whole as its charge, looking out for us and keeping us out of trouble. The | Home colony was given as a failure in the timeline in "Tales of Known Space", | and "Protector" has, at least for me, the impression of being a report that | was never seen by most of humanity - the Protecors probably just kept Home for | themselves as a base. Keep in mind that Protectors live a LONG time, | O(10Kyears), so they need not even supplement their numbers very often. !! I wonder !! In my copy of PROTECTOR it is stated that the Pak are mostly dumb browsers and couldn't be dangerous to ANYONE. . . hence the Pak Protector, who WAS. The Protectors on Home originally fought to protect ``their'' Pak (each Pak ``clan'' had its own Protector(s)); but the Pak on Home (the ONLY Pak, short of the attempted colonization of some world way out in the spiral arms. . .) were dead. The Pak Protectors left Home because Phssthpok had shown them the records that a group of Pak had indeed left, and therefore might be the only Pak alive. And the Pak Protectors HAD to protect Pak, else they would die. Of course, when they discovered that we were mutated (and thus not-Pak and thus to be de- stroyed. . . Which Brennan managed somehow to change, probably by the evidence that these WERE the only Pak or near-Pak around. The Pak Protectors took on protecting humans because we are NEAR-Pak, and all that remains of the Pak race, short of the Protectors themselves. Or did I totally mis-read the first part of PROTECTOR? (I read R.E.; I saw nothing incompatible, in fact PROTECTOR explained R.E. to me.) --bsa -- Brandon Allbery, Unix Consultant -- 6504 Chestnut Road, Independence, OH 44131 decvax!cwruecmp!ncoast!bsa; ncoast!bsa@case.csnet; +1 216 524 1416; 74106,1032 -- -- "Well, we can't go dragging around the universe with a dormant Gravis on the console!" --Tegan, FRONTIOS
peter@baylor.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (08/17/85)
> In my copy of PROTECTOR it is stated that the Pak are mostly dumb browsers > and couldn't be dangerous to ANYONE. . . hence the Pak Protector, who WAS. > The Protectors on Home originally fought to protect ``their'' Pak (each Pak The protecters on "Pak", you mean. TYhe protectors on "Home" were human protectors. > ``clan'' had its own Protector(s)); but the Pak on Home (the ONLY Pak, short > of the attempted colonization of some world way out in the spiral arms. . .) > were dead. Not in protector. > Or did I totally mis-read the first part of PROTECTOR? Probably you misread the whole of protector. The only breeders that died in the first part were Phsstpok's own clan. The rest were alive & well. Actually we know what happened to Pak and to Truesdale's fleet! They were caught in the Core explosion. Remember they only had slow sublight ramjets, so by the time they was the light (har) it was too late. Of course this conflicts with Down in Flames, but in that case tha Tnuctipun ate them. -- Peter da Silva (the mad Australian werewolf) UUCP: ...!shell!neuro1!{hyd-ptd,baylor,datafac}!peter MCI: PDASILVA; CIS: 70216,1076