þ7#w‹¿v‹ZZZZZZ(!|{¤{¤{¤{¤{´ž~R~RN~ x{¤ 8!s*ZosYss"ssssssFootfall Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle (pagination from paperback) Prologue xiii PART ONE: THE ROGUES 1 1 Discovery 3 2 Announcements 15 3 Flintridge 30 4 Blind Mice 45 5 See How They Run 61 6 Preparations 73 7 Great Expectations 85 8 Launch 97 9 Anticipations 112 PART TWO: ARRIVAL 127 10 The Arrival 129 11 Lights in the Sky 144 12 Message Bearer 157 13 The Morning After 171 14 The Dam 183 15 The Wheat Fields 195 16 Submission 207 17 Farmhouses 219 18 The Jayhawk War 232 19 The Scholars 243 20 Schemes 260 21 War Plans 274 22 Something in the Air 287 PART THREE: FOOTFALL 297 23 Cleanup 299 24 Meetings 310 25 The Garden 320 26 Confrontation 331 27 The Phony War 342 28 The Prisoners 355 29 Footfall 370 PART FOUR; THE CLIMBING FITHP 385 30 Footprints 387 31 Maximum Security 397 32 Mudhath 408 33 Archangel 415 34 The Minstrels 428 35 The Washing of the Spears 445 36 Treason 458 37 The Iron Crab 473 38 Prayers 485 39 The Silver-Tongued Devils 498 40 Thy Dastardly Doings Are Past 510 41 Breakout 523 42 The Men in the Walls 535 43 Steam 544 44 Impact 561 45 Terms of Surrender 571 DRAMATIS PERSONAE THE DISCOVERERS Linda Crichton Gillespie, a Washington debutante Jeanette Crichton, her sister Dr. Richard Owen, astronomer Dr. Mary Alie Mouton, astronomer Major General Edmund Gillespie, USAF astronaut WASHINGTON David Coffey, President of the United States Mrs. Jeanne Coffey, First Lady The Honorable Wesley T. Dawson, a Congressman from California Mrs. Carlotta Trujillo Dawson, his wife Roger Brooks, Special Assignments Reporter, Washington Post James Frantza, White House Chief of Staff Henry Morton, Vice President Dr. Arthur Hart, Secretary of State Hap Aylesworth, Special Assistant to the President for Political Affairs Ted Griffin, Secretary of Defense Admiral Thorwald Carrell, National Security Advisor Peter McCleve, Attorney General Tim Rosenthal, Secretary of the Treasury Connie Fuller, Secretary of Commerce Arnold Riggs, Secretary of Agriculture Jack Clybourne, Presidential Protection Unit, Secret Service THE SOVIETS Academician Pavel Aleksandrovich Bondarev, Director, Lenin Institute Lorena Polinova, his secretary and mistress Marina Nikolayevna Bondarev, his wife Boris Ogarkov, Party Secretary at the Institute Andrei Pyatigorskiy, Assistant Director, Lenin Institute General Nikolai Nikolayevich Narovchatov, Party Third Secretary, later Party First Secretary Chairman Anatoliy Vladimirovich Petrovskiy, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet Ilya Trusova, Chairman of the KGB Dmitri Parfenovich Grushin, KGB officer Marshal Leonid Edmundovich Shavyrin, Marshal of the Long Range Strategic Rocket Forces SURVIVORS AND OTHERS Harry Reddington, unemployed minstrel Jeri Wilson, Senior Editor, Harris Wickes Press Melissa Wilson, her daughter William Adolphos Shakes Kevin Shakes Miranda Shakes Isadore and Clara Leiber George and Vicki Tate-Evans Jack and Harriet McCauley Martin Carnell, Show-dog breeder Ken Dutton, Bookstore manager Cora Donaldson Sarge Harris, friends of Ken Dutton Patsy Clevenger Anthony Graves Maximilian Rohrs, general contractor, Bellingham Evelyn Rohrs, former Washington socialite Ben Lafferty, Sheriff Whatcom County, Washington Leigh Young, Deputy Sheriff Whitey Lowenthal, welder Carol North, citizens of Lauren, Kansas Rosalee Neill KOSMOGRAD Colonel Arvid Pavlovich Rogachev, Commander of Kosmograd Nikolai, onetime Sergeant, Red Air Force Allana Aleksandrovna Tutsikova, Deputy Commander Dr. Giselle Beaumont, French scientist The Honorable Giorge N'Bruhna, Nigerian politician Captain John Greeley, USAFU astronaut THE FITHP Herdmaster Pastempeh-keph Advisor Fathisteh-tulk K'turfookeph, the Herdmaster's mate Chowpeentulk, Advisor's mate Fookerteh, the Herdmaster's son Attackmaster Koothfektil-rnsp Defensemaster Tantarent-fid Breaker-Two Takpusseh (later Takpusseh-yamp) Breaker-One Raztupisp-minz Fistareth-thuktun, priest and historian Koolpooleh, male assistant to Fistarteh-thuktun Paykurtank, female assistant to Fistarteh-thuktun Octuple leader Pretheeteh-damh Tashayamp, female assistant to Takpusseh (later his mate) Octuple Leader Chintithpit-mang, sleeper Shreshleemang, Chintithpit-mang's mate Eight-cubed Leader Harpanet Eight-cubed Leader Siplistepth Rashinggith, warrior (Year Zero Fithp) Birithart-yamp, warrior in Africa Pheegorun, warrior in Africa, died by spear Thiparteth-fuft, guard officer COLORADO SPRINGS Sergeant Ben Mailey, U.S. Army Sherry Atkinson Robert and Virginia Anson the Threat Team Wade and Jane Curtis Bob Burnham Lieutenant General Harvey Toland, U.S. Army The Honorable Joe Dayton, Speaker of the House Senator Alexander Haswell, President Pro Temps of the Senate Senator Raymond Carr, Senator from Kansas WARRIORS AND PRISONERS Nat Reynolds Joe Ransom John Woodward Carrie Woodward, prisoners Alice MeLennon Gary Capehart Ensign Jeff Franklin Hamilton Gamble Dr. Arthur Grace "Tiny" Pelz, crewman Michael Jason Daniels Samuel Cohen Roy Cuber, shuttle pilots Jay Hadley Commander Anton Villars, Captain, USNS Ethan Allen Colonel Julius Carter, U.S. Special Forces Lieutenant Jack Carruthers, U.S. Special Forces Lieutenant Ivan Semeyusov, Soviet Expeditionary Force Brant Chisholm, South African farmer Katje Chisholm, his wife Mvubi, Zulu warrior Niklaus Van Der Stel, Afrikaner Commando Juana Trujillo Morgan, wife of Major Morgan Lieutenant Colonel Joe Halverson Major David Morgan, Kansas National Guard Captain Evan Corporal Jimmy Lewis Captain George Mason PROLOGUE Where are they? -Enrico FermiThe Fifth Part of the Year Three Within its broad array of nested rings, the planet was a seething storm. It had always been so. Patterns chased themselves across its brown-on-brown face in bands and curlicues. The space around it churned with activity: billions of icy particles in a broad array of nested rings; eights of moons; streamers of dust whipped by powerful magnetic fields; all whirling around at terrific velocities, at several makasrupkithp per breath. Message Bearer maneuvered within that storm. The Herdmaster's Advisor, gazing raptly through the thick double window, seemed to notice only the beauty of the scene. The Herdmaster found that irritating. His own domain included collisions, industrial operations, internal quarrels, and the peaceful integration of sleepers with spaceborn. He had quite enough problems without . . . that. Message Bearer's main telescope was the equal of any astronomical installation on the world they had left behind. The alien probe was close now, by astronomical standards, and the screen showed it in fine detail. A circular antenna. A pod at the tip of a long boom radiated infrared warmth. That would be the power supply. Two more booms thrust instruments outward. Clasp digits with me, that I may know your herd! One extension held what had to be cameras, the other some kind of electronic sensing device. Sixty-four sleepers, the Breaker's team, were working now to infer what they could about the creatures who had built that machine. They hadn't told the Herdmaster anything useful. When the camera platform began to turn, the Herdmaster's digits flexed restlessly. "You made your decision half a year ago," Advisor Fathistehtulk said placidly. "You did not destroy it then. How can you destroy it now?" "Here is where their fragile spy probe must pass through endless orbiting debris, It must survive collisions, radiation, orbital fluctuations, and any unreal danger the prey may imagine. Here is where some mischance is most likely to smash it!" "We agreed that the probe will find no trace of us. Message Bearer is tiny on this scale. Surely the probe is not seeking us: it was launched long before we arrived. But if there were something to see, yonder camera might have seen it by now. Some evidence of our presence, vivid in their receivers ... and now comes a flash of light, then silence from the probe, ever after. Would that tickle your suspicions?" "If you were Herdmaster, would you continue to worry?" That was cruel. At the beginning of things, Fathisteh-tulk had been Herdmaster. He had entered his death-sleep expecting to be Herdmaster again. In his present subservient position the concerns of a Herdmaster seemed not to bother him at all. Sometimes Herdmaster Pastempeh-keph wondered if he was being mocked. "Were I Herdmaster," the Advisor said placidly, "I would do as you have done. Rest quiet while the probe passes through. Make no attempt to move the ship, send no message to our work force on the Foot. Let the probe pass. When the second probe comes,...
Januszek66