Louis Wu - Appearance in Ringworld

Appearance in Ringworld

At the beginning of Ringworld, Louis celebrated his 200th birthday by working his way from party to party around the world using transfer booths to stay ahead of the dateline.

After one of his booth transfers gets diverted to a hotel room, he accepts an offer to go on an expedition with three other members — two aliens (a Pierson's Puppeteer named Nessus, and a catlike Kzin called Speaker-to-Animals) and Teela Brown, a human female supposedly bred for luck. Unfortunately, the group crash-lands on the Ringworld, a huge structure 3,000,000 times the area of Earth.

When Louis comes up with an ingenious way to get them home, he is rewarded by the Puppeteers with the "Quantum II Hyperdrive," capable of moving a spaceship one light-year in 1.25 minutes. The Long Shot is given to the government of Earth for improvement and development.

Louis then returns to the Ringworld looking for matter conversion technology for another Pierson's Puppeteer, a deposed leader (the "Hindmost"). While there, he discovers that the Ringworld is unstable. He decides to save the Ringworld with Speaker-To-Animals (renamed Chmeee) and the Hindmost (after Louis destroys the hyperdrive motor, trapping them there again).

Louis appears again for the last two Ringworld books, where he tries to get the Pak Protectors in line in The Ringworld Throne and finally escapes in Ringworld's Children. Events immediately following his escape are chronicled in Fate of Worlds (subtitled Return from the Ringworld).