Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site psivax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!sdcrdcf!psivax!friesen From: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: Re: Fate of the Protectors of Home Message-ID: <696@psivax.UUCP> Date: Fri, 30-Aug-85 16:04:14 EDT Article-I.D.: psivax.696 Posted: Fri Aug 30 16:04:14 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 5-Sep-85 07:15:21 EDT References: <3345@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> <494@baylor.UUCP> Reply-To: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) Organization: Pacesetter Systems Inc., Sylmar, CA Lines: 44 Summary: In article <494@baylor.UUCP> peter@baylor.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes: >> From: Cate3.SV@Xerox.ARPA >> >> As I remember the story, (and this may be faulty) the Home >> Protectors were going off to fight the Pak, at the speed of light. At > >...at nearly the speed of light... > >> that time the Puppeteer's had not sold the secret of going faster than >> the speed of light yet. So the Home Protectors spent two hundred years >> traveling to fight the Pak, hopefully beat the Pak, and then another two > >...slightly less than 200 years because the Pak were cming towards them >as well... > >> hundred years to come back. This would explain the lack of interaction >> between the Home Protectors and the human race. > >for a while when Louis Wu was born (he was his foster-father, see "Borderlands >of Sol"), and Louis was 200 years old at the time of Ringworld. This comes >to well over 400 years after Protector. > Well, this all also forgets the fact that Protectors are a *methodical* bunch. They would almost certainly make utterly certain that there are no more Pak waves comming in. This would require quite a lot of time since they would have to go quite far towards the Pak planet to find out. Besides, I decided the obvious way of deciding this question was to ask Larry Niven himself, after all he is the one who wrote the story. I didn't have a chance to get much detail, but he said that the Home Protectors are still out there, every one of them. So for whatever reason they *haven't* gotten back yet. >> Maybe the next story will be about how thousands of Home Protectors >> deal with the human race? Well, bad news, Larry Niven has said he is through with the Known Space series, since it is too big to be maintained consistantly anymore. So there won't *be* a "next story". -- Sarima (Stanley Friesen) UUCP: {ttidca|ihnp4|sdcrdcf|quad1|nrcvax|bellcore|logico}!psivax!friesen ARPA: ttidca!psivax!friesen@rand-unix.arpa