kemplerer-rosette

A rare stable orbital configuration of five equal masses arranged in a pentagonal pattern, discovered near the puppeteer fleet.

1 chapter across 1 book

Ringworld (1970)Larry Niven

Mmmm. Wake Teela? It would be nice to talk to her now. Lovely idea there. Next time I go on sabbatical I’ll take a woman in stasis. Get the best of both worlds. But he looked and felt like something washed from a flooded graveyard. Unfit for polite company. Oh, well.

In this chapter, Louis Wu reflects on his choice to bring Teela, a lover lacking empathy and experience with stress, on the Long Shot mission, recognizing she may be a liability. The crew approaches a mysterious puppeteer fleet located within a Kemplerer rosette formation of five equal-mass bodies orbiting in stable equilibrium, an unprecedented astronomical phenomenon. Upon docking with a puppeteer ship, the crew prepares for a briefing about their final destination and learns about the puppeteers' practice of moving habitable worlds as a form of population control.