Introduction

The Tnuctipun Plot (TTP) started out as a post to the larryniven-l list, and to alt.books.larry-niven. Part 1 of this text is pretty much the original text of the post, with only minor corrections. Part 2 consists of a number of elaborations on the plot.

Part 1: The Basic Plot

by Simon Hibbs

A few things bother me about the outcome of the war between the Tnuctipun and the Thrintun [see Tnuctipun-Slaver War]. The Tnuctipun must have realised that victory was not guaranteed. Surely, they must have had a backup plan?

"Thrint" by Bonnie Dalzell Copyright © 1975

This post is not intended to be the last word on the Thrintun plans. It's all simply a series of unsubstantiated hypotheses and theories. I'm sure there are holes in my arguments, and I'm not claiming any particular authority or expertise in the study of known space.

I came up with this theory long before reading "Down in Flames", but whereas DiF relies on discarding or modifying 'known' facts about known space from some of the novels, I have worked as closely as I can within the accepted known space corpus of material.

I openly welcome comments on the following article, either supporting or rebutting any of the points raised. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I had dreaming it up.

The Tnuctipun plot :

1. Genetically modify various food yeast strains with pre-programmed genes to jump-start the evolution process, and guide subsequent evolution down certain paths. Food yeast strain programmes are tailored to the planet's environment. This is why terran biology and Pak homewold biology are so compatible— they share the same pre-programmed evolutionary sequence. See end notes for details.
2. The food yeast evolutionary programs are designed to simultaneously (in evolutionary terms) produce sentient life forms on many different worlds throughout the galaxy.
3. Precipitate a galaxy-wide civil war against the Thrintun, but secretly put the Tnuctipun homeworlds into stasis in the galactic rim, out of harm's way.
4. Set the homeworld stasis fields to switch off after the development of sentient life forms, but before the life forms have had time to develop more than rudimentary interstellar technologies (by comparison with the Tnuctipun, anyway). Say, about 2 billion years. This also leaves enough time for the suicide command to fade, including any echoes off nearby galaxies.
5. Seed the galactic core with anti-matter bombs timed to trigger a core explosion at about the same time as the homeworlds are due to come out of stasis.
6. Run a planetary shield technology 'protection racket', saving a selection of the evolved species. This will place them in debt to the Tnuctipun, the new 'saviours' of galactic civilisation. An ideal starting point for a program of total galactic domination.
7. Rule a galactic empire, populated with slave and prey species.
8. Game Over.

Secondary Hypotheses :

1. The starseeds were designed by the Tnuctipun as biological probes. Their life cycle takes them from the galactic rim to the core and back. When the Tnuctipun come out of stasis in the galactic rim, they can examine the starseed's breeding patterns and remains, which form a continuous record of conditions in the galactic core, and indeed the rest of the galaxy, over the last few billion years. The core phase of the starseed's life cycle is designed to be dependent on interaction with the core explosion triggering mechanisms. This way, all the Tnuctipun need to do to check on the status of the core detonation systems is examine the starseeds.
   
   This is why the Outsiders are so interested in the starseeds. The starseed nesting sites in the rim are a clue to the locations of the Tnuctipun homeworlds. Perhaps the Outsiders developed the starseed lure in order to interfere with the Tnuctipun plans?
2. The Tnuctipun must be aware of the dangers presented by Thrint that survived the great war in stasis. Indeed, one of their strategies was to force Thrint warships into stasis, thus taking them out of the fight during battles. Some of these warships are bound to have survived. Perhaps the Tnuctipun have a method of safely destroying stasis field boxes, without opening them? After they bring their homeworlds out of stasis, they could trigger a device that collapses all the stasis fields in the galaxy into singularities— bye, bye, Thrintun!
3. The Tnuctipun designed many strains of food yeast, tailored to the conditions on different worlds. Even the yeasts for similar worlds were sometimes varied to minimise the damage done if a particular strain proved to be flawed. The food yeast nuclei contained vast libraries of genetic code designed to activate in a programmed sequence. This accelerated the evolutionary process, and guided evolution in certain desirable directions. This is why we have so many seemingly redundant genes— the 'extra' genes are actually the libraries of Thrintun designed code. Pakhome and Terra must have been seeded with the same yeast strain, this is why human (Pak) molecular biology is so compatible with terran biology.
   
   Unexplained mass extinctions in prehistory were caused by the timed release of viruses from the DNA libraries. Each phase of evolution is allowed to continue until certain species have evolved to a particular stage, then the viruses wipe out undesired species, freeing up evolutionary niches for the next phase.
   
   I'm not suggesting that the Thrintun could control evolution to such an extent that they could control the specific characteristics of the 'end product' species beyond general biological parameters. Their aim was probably just to accelerate the evolutionary process, and make sure it resulted in sentient species within a desired time frame. This is just enough to ensure that terran and Pakhome biochemistry will be highly compatible.
   
   The Tnuctipun would have spread individual strains widely apart, to prevent a star faring species from finding biologies that were too similar for it to be a coincidence. The fact that the Pak colonists found Earth was pure luck. (!)
   
   The Trinocs are a bit of a problem because their biology is so different from anyone else's. Perhaps their world suffered a catastrophic trauma such as an asteroid impact or a geological event that wrecked the Thrintun tailored gene program. Perhaps the Trinocs were designed to be the way they are after all. Who knows?



The Ringworld

There really aren't many suspects when it comes to figuring out who the Ringworld Engineers were. None of the main Known Space species fit the bill, including the Puppeteers. This only leaves a few possibilities:

1. The Tnuctipun — These guys are a possibility, but why would they build the ring? It's certainly not two billion years old and the idea that some Tnuctipun would come out of stasis and build a ring then go away again is bizarre. However, it may well have been built using Tnuctipun technology.
2. The Pak — Favourite contenders with many, The Pak are resourceful and ingenious. They also certainly colonised the ring at some point, though breeders may have been seeded there by an external agency. Still, why would they do it? No particularly brilliant reasons spring to mind. There are at least six good reasons why not.
Outsider, by Alan Michaud copyright © 2001 by Xlibris Corp.
3. The Outsiders — What is it with these guys anyway? What yanks their chain? Jayson Vantuyl has some ideas. If I'm right about the Tnuctipun planning on conquering the Galaxy, I can't see the Outsiders being very keen on the idea. We know they follow star seeds around and I suspect that the star seeds are part of the Tnuctipun's nefarious schemes. The star seed lures would be a possible way of interfering with them.

What are the Outsiders going to do about the Tnuctipun threat? They don't exactly look like born warriors, so presumably they want someone else to do their fighting for them. Who's up to the task?

Kzin are ferocious fighters, but humans have got their measure. What's tougher than humans? — Human protectors of course!

< A human protector attacks art by Cortney Skinner opyright © 1980 by Galileo Magazine

If you want an army to fight the Tnuctipun, protectors make ideal troops. They're smart, resourceful, tenacious, fearless, long lived and robust. But Pak protectors have many disadvantages too, they're just too single minded and not very creative. Also, you can't really reason or negotiate with them.

So, you want protectors and lots of them. To do that, you need lots of breeders. In fact, you need enough breeders to make a galactic army of protectors. You need trillions of them, and you need them in one place so you can monitor and control the project— having them scattered on hundreds of worlds is not a viable option if you want to keep control. Also, you need to have a way of wiping them all out if the project goes wrong.

Finally, you don't want to have protectors all over the place messing around with your plans, you just want breeders. Of course, without protectors the breeder population will diversify. This is good, because it makes your protector army more diverse and flexible.

So, what do you do? You build a Ringworld, seed it with breeders, eliminate all the protectors, keep a stash of tree of life handy for when Armageddon day comes and you watch, and wait.....

Perhaps the Outsiders have their own Project Cherubim [see A Darker Geometry, in Man-Kzin Wars VII —ed.].

Perhaps simply the threat of a trillion protectors would be enough to force the Tnuctipun to negotiate, after all it's really a doomsday weapon. If it was ever used, the galaxy would never be the same again. If anything goes wrong, you use the solar laser to wipe out the breeders, or sever the scrith wire holding the shadow squares together. The impact of the shadow squares on the ring should do the trick. I wouldn't be surprised if there's more than one Ringworld— one is too vulnerable and it would be hard to co-ordinate simultaneous strikes against two rings in different parts of the galaxy at the same time.




Part 2: Elaborations on the Plot

The Outsiders in TTP

by Philip Hibbs

Note that this is pretty much all my own theorising, building on TTP, none of this has any solid basis in Larry Niven's writings.

The Outsiders inhabit most of the nearby galaxies. They were around in this galaxy at the time of the Slaver Empire, and when the Thrintun discovered them, they ordered the Tnuctipun to wipe them out (they couldn't stand the fact that Outsiders are immune to the Power). This the Tnuctipun dutifully did, but some of the free Tnuctipun got some ideas from the Outsider physiology. They used what they learned to breed the starseeds, which they would later use as a mechanism for monitoring the conditions at the galactic core. The Slaver war happens, and for a billion years there is nothing but evolving food yeast and starseeds in the galaxy. Then some more Outsiders show up— the Tnuctipun never knew that they were an intergalactic race.

They spot the starseeds, and realise that something very strange is happening in this galaxy. So, they follow the starseeds, and over the course of a billion years, work out what they are up to. This puts the willies up the outsiders— something wiped out their kin in this galaxy, and it's still around! This won't do. So, they set about preparing to deal with these impertinent hotlife when they show up again. They notice the Pak, and their colony world (Earth), and have the idea that these protectors can be used as an anti-Tnuctipun device. They build the ring, and populate it. In order that their precious plan doesn't get disturbed, they monitor any traffic going towards or away from the ring, and make sure that no protectors are among them.

They spot the Home protectors heading off on a genocide mission towards the core, and this distracts them from the ring long enough for the inhabitants to sneak off with a load of attitude jets. Maybe the Home protectors defeat the Outsiders, and this screws up their plans in a big way. The remainder of the Outsiders decide to abandon this galaxy to its fate, maybe drop in for a look in another billion years, and stop worrying about the ring. They therefore allow the Puppeteers to find it. The stage is set for a four-way battle between:

• The Pak (they hate everybody)
• Humans, Puppeteers, Kzin, Kdatlyno, etc.
• The Tnuctipun
• The various hominid Protectors, who have a real hard time working out whose side to be on, the Pak and Tnuctipun are the most serious enemies, and kicking off against the hominids' various allies and neighbours is just asking for trouble.

Shortly after I wrote this, Jayson Vantuyl came up with some better ideas about the Outsiders. Eventually I'll incorporate them.




The Pak Come to Earth

by Philip Hibbs

When did the Pak come to Earth? Niven tells us that they came this way three times:

1. The colony ship that came here two million years ago, bringing our ancestors, which failed due to the tree-of-life (TOL) crop failing.
2. Phssthpok's rescue mission, based on an ancient laser message in an obsolete language, which says that they found what they thought was a suitable planet, but that TOL would not grow properly.
3. The Pak fleet that Brennan-monster discovered, and Truesdale and the Home protectors went off to intercept.

We only have Truesdale's word for this last one, there has been no corroborating evidence since. I'm unsure whether the warning message that comprises the last couple of pages of Protector ever got to humanity.

This still leaves unexplained the overwhelming similarity between Earth and Pak biology. Garner and Sohl said to Brennan that there is considerable evidence that we evolved here alongside everything else, and all that Brennan says is "I have a few ideas about that". That is absolutely typical of protector mentality, he presumed that we would not understand, or it would take to long to explain— we're like children to them.

In my opinion, there must have been a prior pak expedition to Earth. Lets presume it was 65 million years ago. They had no idea what they were going to find out here, there might not be anything that was remotely edible to a breeder. So, they would bring along a potted ecosystem— everything from viruses and bacteria, through plankton, plants, insects, fish, scavengers, herbivores and maybe the odd carnivore, but maybe not. Plus, of course, breeders.

They found Earth, full of dinosaurs, and decided that it was probably the best bet. It may have started from the same food yeast strain, which would help. They seed the environment with all the enabling lifeforms, which begin adapting the atmosphere, reducing the oxygen content towards a comfortable level, and killing off the dinosaurs as it did so. Once the place was getting towards being suitable for habitation, they established a base on the planet, and moved out of orbit. The protective wrapping of an atmosphere is better than any shielding device that they had.

However, something goes wrong. An enormous meteor suddenly appears, and BOOM— all their breeders get wiped out. They do the decent thing, and send a laser message back to the Pak homeworld, telling them that there's a planet here that will soon be ripe for colonisation. The library protectors file it away, and it is lost for sixty million years.

A tiny fragment of this message, almost entirely illegible but just enough can be decoded to work out that is contains instructions on how to get to a particular planet, is found— and the second expedition is launched. By Phssthpok's time, no trace of the original mission can be found, it is all lost in among the details of the second mission.