The three sequels to Ringworld present three different accounts, or tales, of what happened to Teela Brown
following the events of Ringworld. The contradictory nature of these accounts is confusing. To clarify
matters, the three separate accounts are summarized separately in this article. For convenience, we have designated
the three "Teelas" as Teela-A, Teela-B, and Teela-C.
The Tale of Teela-A (from The Ringworld Engineers)
According to the tale Teela herself told, she ridiculed Seeker's goal of walking to the base of the Arch. She told
him that if he wanted to find the place from which the world could be ruled, he should seek what Louis later called
the Repair Center. She guessed it was somewhere in the Great Ocean, and Seeker remembered enough to make them maps.
They spent 16 years sailing across the Great Ocean, in an epic voyage to rival the Odyssey. During this time they
visited the Map of Down, where they were captured and then released by Grogs. They also encountered an enormous
krill-eating sea creature the size of an island. Reaching the Map of Earth, they captured a Kzinti colony ship,
the Hidden Patriarch. On that ship their journey culminated at the Map of Mars. By luck they found the
entrance to the Repair Center in Mons Olympus. Finding tree-of-life, Seeker died, and Teela became a protector.
She recognized the danger of the Ringworld being off-center, and formed a repair crew to remount the few attitude
jets which could be found. To head the team she created three more protectors. Two of those she later killed with
the superthermal laser as Needle was flying toward the Map of Mars. The third was tasked with using a few
spacecraft to carry survivors away from the Ringworld before it was destroyed. After Needle entered the
Repair Center, she trapped it in lava. She then forced Louis and Chmeee to kill her, apparently because she could
not bring herself to destroy five percent of the Ringworld's population in order to save the rest. She gave Louis and
Hindmost sufficient information for them to be able to save the Ringworld after she died, using the superthermal
laser controls.
The Tale of Teela-B (from The Ringworld Throne)
This tale is mostly Louis' speculation, although a few details are confirmed by Bram. According to Acolyte's speculation,
Teela's luck made her a protector because what she really wanted was to be smarter. According to Louis' speculation, it
was because she wanted to "play with" the Ringworld, and could only do that as a protector in the Repair Center. Seeker
led Teela to the Map of Mars, or told her enough that she could guess it was a place of secrets. After awaking as a
protector, she played around with various things in the Repair Center. She blasted a few comets with the superthermal
laser. Later she noticed the Ringworld's wobble. She hastily left for the rim wall, taking with her tree-of-life and
thallium oxide. She saw a few attitude jets in place, remounted by Anne, but merely thought the City Builders (CB)
hadn't stolen them all yet. She took over Anne's job without realizing it, intercepting returning CB ships and
remounting attitude jets. But later she spotted traces of an active protector, perhaps Anne's tree-of-life garden,
and realized there were rival protectors lurking on the Ringworld and in the Repair Center. After remounting all
available jets, she returned to the Repair Center. She spotted Needle in a telescope, and recognized the
Puppeteer design. Guessing Louis Wu was aboard, she lured the ship to the Map of Mars. But in doing so, she made
its crew potential hostages to be used against her by the lurking protector, Bram. So she forced Louis and Chmeee
to kill her in order to save her hostages, trusting that Louis would be able to save the Ringworld.
The Tale of Teela-C (from Ringworld's Children)
This tale is almost entirely Louis' speculation, supported only very slightly by Wembleth. Teela had her birth control
patch removed, desiring a child by Louis, who happened to be fertile himself through an undocumented reversal of his
vasectomy on Jinx. According to Louis' guesses, Teela was afraid of what Louis might bring back to the Ringworld, or
perhaps afraid of Puppeteers meddling even more with her life. So she ran as far as possible; she and Seeker took
the rim transport system halfway around the Ringworld, to the Other Ocean. She gave birth to Wembleth, Louis' son.
She and Seeker took turns caring for Wembleth, while the other parent explored. When Wembleth was about 20, somehow
Teela got into the Penultimate's Citadel, found the tree-of-life patch, and became a protector. Wembleth never saw her
again. Teela-monster saw most of the attitude jets were missing, and decided the resident protector in the Repair Center
wasn't doing his job. She disguised herself as a breeder, and taking an older man (not Seeker) with her, entered the Repair
Center. She ate tree-of-life and pretended to go into a coma, hoping the resident protector would come to investigate,
planning to ambush him when he got close. But instead Bram hid and watched her. So she went to plan B. She left the
Repair Center without letting Bram know she knew about him, and set about replacing what attitude jets she could. Later,
when she spotted the Second Ringworld Expedition, she lured the Needle into the repair center, then contrived to
get herself killed. Bram would have used her hostages to make her his servant, and he was incompetent. She had to die to
save the Ringworld, and she did.
Editor's Opinion on the Tales of Teela Brown
We never liked the idea in The Ringworld Engineers that Teela arranged to have herself killed because a protector
couldn't bring itself to kill a great many people to save an even greater number. So we were gratified when
The Ringworld Throne presented what we find a more satisfying and believable motive for Teela's near-suicide.
Furthermore, Niven himself appears to suggest this tale is the true one: "Why did Teela Brown arrange her own death?
Because she was being watched by a vampire protector, and Louis Wu must choose his successor..." ("Introduction to Peter
Hamilton story 'Watching Trees Grow'", Scatterbrain paperback p. 288). Therefore, we were disappointed to
discover in Ringworld's Children yet another retcon of Teela's story. We find this last version wholly
unnecessary. Fortunately, it appears we are free to disbelieve most of Louis' speculations. It would appear definite
that Wembleth is the son of Teela and Louis; after all, Louis-Monster could detect his offspring by smell. Likewise,
Wembleth was probably telling the truth about being raised by Seeker, so apparently Seeker did not accompany Teela on
the expedition to the Map of Mars.
But we reject the idea from Ringworld's Children that Teela became a protector before entering the Repair
Center. After all, the only evidence presented for that hypothesis was Teela's skirt found in a pool of water in the
Penultimate's Citadel. It seems much more likely that the skirt was taken there after the stepping disk was
placed in the Citadel, rather than before. Tunesmith had a number of Hanging People living inside the Repair Center,
and any one of them could have taken an interest in the pretty, colorful cloth skirt, and taken it through a stepping
disk to the Penultimate's Citadel. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that Teela, as a protector, would be so foolish as
to place herself in an exposed position inside an enemy stronghold, motionless in an apparent coma, in the hope that
she could ambush the protector ruling that stronghold when he came to examine her. Given a protector's caution and
paranoia, it seems more likely he'd have sent a servant to investigate, or simply used a remote-controlled float plate
to dump a bomb on her location. Similarly, it seems unlikely that Teela, a protector herself, would think Bram so unwary
and foolish that he could be so easily ambushed. Nor does it make sense that Teela would arrange for herself to be killed
because the Repair Center's resident protector was incompetent. Rather, that would be a reason for Teela to kill him and
take his place.
If the Hidden Patriarch did not carry Teela to the Map of Mars, then how did it come to be there? What remains
unexplained is that Teela says the voyage on the Hidden Patriarch took 16 years, but Wembleth said Teela and
Seeker took turns raising him, as the other parent went exploring. A 16 year absence cannot be reconciled with Wembleth's
account; according to him, he last saw Teela when he was about 20 years old, which was only about three years before the
Second Ringworld Expedition encountered Teela-monster.
