Using their flycycles (similar to antigravity motorcycles), they try to reach the rim of the ring, where they hope to find some technology that will help them. They set out to find a way to get the Lying Bastard off the Ringworld. As the fusion drive is destroyed, they are unable to launch back into space where they could use the undamaged faster-than-light hyperdrive to return home.
![shores of hazeron superluminal stars shores of hazeron superluminal stars](https://styles.redditmedia.com/t5_2s1zj/styles/mobileBannerImage_fwpzkychz7841.png)
The severely damaged vessel collides with a strand of shadow-square wire and crash-lands near a huge mountain, "Fist-of-God". When they reach the vicinity of the Ringworld, they are unable to contact anyone, and their ship, the Lying Bastard, is disabled by the Ringworld's automated meteoroid-defense system. When the crew completes their mission, they will be given the starship in which they travelled to the puppeteer home world it is orders of magnitude faster than any possessed by humans or Kzinti. Night is provided by an inner ring of shadow squares which are connected to each other by thin, ultra-strong wire. The Ringworld has a habitable, flat inner surface (equivalent in area to approximately three million Earths), a breathable atmosphere and a temperature optimal for humans. It rotates to provide artificial gravity 99.2% as strong as Earth's from centrifugal force. The Ringworld is about one million miles (1.6 million km) wide and approximately the diameter of Earth's orbit (which makes it about 584.3 million miles or 940.4 million km in circumference), encircling a sunlike star. On the puppeteer home world, they are told that the expedition's goal is to investigate the Ringworld, a gigantic artificial ring, to see if it poses any threat.
![shores of hazeron superluminal stars shores of hazeron superluminal stars](https://i.imgur.com/eCELN04.jpg)
Speaker-to-Animals (Speaker), who is a Kzin, and Teela Brown, a young human woman who becomes Louis's lover, also join the crew. He meets Nessus, a Pierson's puppeteer, who offers him a mysterious job. Despite his age, Louis is in perfect physical condition due to the longevity drug boosterspice. On planet Earth in 2850 AD, Louis Gridley Wu is celebrating his 200th birthday.