Larry Niven: Fate of Worlds: Return From the Ringworld

Sigmund Ausfaller: retired Defense Minister; New Terra resident; Earth expatriate.

Julia Byerley-Mancini: Captain in the New Terran Defense Forces; commander of starship Endurance; leader, expedition to “The Anomaly”; granddaughter of Sigmund Ausfaller.

Alice Jordan: member, expedition to “The Anomaly”; New Terra resident; Sol system expatriate.

Donald Norquist-Ng: Minister, New Terran Defense Forces.

Denise Rodgers-Bjornstad: Governor (planetary executive), New Terra.

Louis Wu: Earthborn adventurer; member of both Ringworld expeditions; newly escaped from the Ringworld.

Tanya Wu: Earthborn junior naval officer aboard ARM vessel Koala.

Wesley Wu: Earthborn naval officer commanding Koala, deployed to the Artifact Monitoring Mission.

(FLEET OF WORLDS [NATURE PRESERVE FIVE] RESIDENTS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)

Cd’o: A Gw’o unit from the Ol’t’ro ensemble mind; born on the colony world of Kl’mo.

Er’o: Memory remnant within Ol’t’ro of a long-dead Gw’o unit; veteran of the Pak War.

Ol’t’ro: the Gw’oth ensemble mind (a Gw’otesht-16) who secretly rules the Fleet of Worlds; also see artificial intelligence Proteus and Citizen/Puppeteer Chiron.

Tf’o: the Gw’o leader in the joint Gw’oth/Citizen expedition lurking around the Ringworld.

Hawking: AI managing tactical operations of Earth’s Task Force Delta within the Artifact Monitoring Mission.

Jeeves: Any of the many AIs descended from the shipboard intelligence of the ramscoop Long Pass (from whose embryo banks New Terra was populated).

Proteus: AI that manages the Hearth/Fleet of Worlds defensive grid; controlled by Ol’t’ro. As a minor function, it also animates the “Citizen” known as Chiron.

Voice: AI long in exile with Hindmost on the Ringworld.

(HEARTH RESIDENTS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)

Achilles: planetary hindmost [*] The Hindmost — “He Who Leads from Behind” — is the head of government in the Fleet of Worlds (comprised of the Citizen home world of Hearth and its Nature Preserve companion worlds). A hindmost, in lowercase, directs any lower-level Citizen organization or entity. of Nature Preserve One; member of Experimentalist Party; former Hindmost [*] The Hindmost — “He Who Leads from Behind” — is the head of government in the Fleet of Worlds (comprised of the Citizen home world of Hearth and its Nature Preserve companion worlds). A hindmost, in lowercase, directs any lower-level Citizen organization or entity. ; former Minister of Science; former physicist.

Baedeker: former Hindmost [*] The Hindmost — “He Who Leads from Behind” — is the head of government in the Fleet of Worlds (comprised of the Citizen home world of Hearth and its Nature Preserve companion worlds). A hindmost, in lowercase, directs any lower-level Citizen organization or entity. ; former Minister of Science; former engineer; member of Experimentalist Party; in off-world exile.

Chiron: longtime Minister of Science and planetary hindmost [*] The Hindmost — “He Who Leads from Behind” — is the head of government in the Fleet of Worlds (comprised of the Citizen home world of Hearth and its Nature Preserve companion worlds). A hindmost, in lowercase, directs any lower-level Citizen organization or entity. of Nature Preserve Five; secretly a network persona animated by Proteus; Ol’t’ro’s stealthy presence within the Citizen government.

Hindmost: deposed Hindmost [*] The Hindmost — “He Who Leads from Behind” — is the head of government in the Fleet of Worlds (comprised of the Citizen home world of Hearth and its Nature Preserve companion worlds). A hindmost, in lowercase, directs any lower-level Citizen organization or entity. ; member of Experimentalist Party; hindmost [*] The Hindmost — “He Who Leads from Behind” — is the head of government in the Fleet of Worlds (comprised of the Citizen home world of Hearth and its Nature Preserve companion worlds). A hindmost, in lowercase, directs any lower-level Citizen organization or entity. of the second Ringworld expedition; newly escaped from the Ringworld.

Horatius: Hindmost [*] The Hindmost — “He Who Leads from Behind” — is the head of government in the Fleet of Worlds (comprised of the Citizen home world of Hearth and its Nature Preserve companion worlds). A hindmost, in lowercase, directs any lower-level Citizen organization or entity. — as a pawn of Ol’t’ro — since soon after the first Ringworld expedition; head of the Conservative Party.

Minerva: Citizen head in the joint Gw’oth/Citizen expedition lurking around the Ringworld. A deputy director of Clandestine Directorate.

Nessus: onetime senior agent/scout of Clandestine Directorate; hindmost [*] The Hindmost — “He Who Leads from Behind” — is the head of government in the Fleet of Worlds (comprised of the Citizen home world of Hearth and its Nature Preserve companion worlds). A hindmost, in lowercase, directs any lower-level Citizen organization or entity. of the first Ringworld expedition; in exile on New Terra.

Nike: former head of Clandestine Directorate; former Hindmost; Experimentalist.

Vesta: longtime deputy to Achilles; Experimentalist.

2645

Puppeteers and their worlds flee the galactic-core explosion

2650–51

Human slaves rebel; New Terra (was Nature Preserve Four) goes free

2659

Puppeteer effort to reclaim New Terra fails

2675

The Pak War

2780–81

The Gw’oth War

2783

Isolationist New Terran regime veers away from the Fleet of Worlds

2850–52

Ringworld discovered; first expedition to the Ringworld

2878–93

Second expedition to the Ringworld; explorers all stranded

?–2893

War among many spacefaring species for control of the Ringworld

(Dates follow Earth’s calendar and reflect Earth’s frame of reference. During much of this era, New Terra and the Fleet of Worlds traveled fast enough relative to Earth to experience significant relativistic time dilation.)

A beautiful world, alone, serene, races through the interstellar void. Warmed by necklaces of artificial suns orbiting from pole to pole, the world’s climate is everywhere and always temperate. Beneath the many suns, oceans sparkle and cloud tops gleam. Bountiful fields and lush forests span continents. Here and there cities stand, proud and prosperous.

The human inhabitants call this paradise New Terra. Only in story do they remember the days when their home was known merely as Nature Preserve Four. When their home was but one farm world among many in the Fleet of Worlds. When alien masters ruled their lives. “Citizens,” the aliens called themselves and, moreover, “saviors.”