Chapter 17, The Eye of the Storm Summary

Speaker's hand has also been burned by his translator, and Teela's translator burned its case. They are now useless. The party now flies on, below the clouds in case of further danger, like another sunflower field. Louis calls Nessus and tells him about the castle, learning that Nessus's translator is also useless. They'll need to learn the language. Louis mentions a theory that the original builders died from a bacterial epidemic. Nessus says that once the original inhabitants could no longer transmute matter, civilization could not recover, since there is no ore to mine. There are no raw materials on the Ringworld.

Teela, Louis, and Speaker see a giant human eye in the sky before him. Teela screams. Louis at first thinks it's a vision or hallucination, but Speaker sees it, too. Once...