Part 10

Though they had not had much sleep, Jela and Tira arose at six thirty the next morning to begin making breakfast, and found three people already up, sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee. Soon the delicious smells of cooking food and huge urns of tea and coffee brewing began waking people, and they began rising from cushions and floors, and emerging from the dens. By the time all were roused at seven fifteen, six more people had volunteered to help with breakfast. Eight was the capacity of workers the kitchen was usable for, and all their efforts were needed as it was seen that forty-seven people, over half the attendees, still remained at the Enclave house.

After breakfast a few of them began leaving, and the exodus became a flood after eight fifteen.

At that time, the elevator began disgorging constant carloads of adolescent techs, who gathered around Pina offering her their hero worship like she was a pop star, and jabbering happily to one another in a mixture of slang and technical terms that the uninitiated had no hope of understanding. In minutes there were hundreds of them.

Soon the elevator was carrying a carload of adult techs and Tiger people down for every carload of adolescents that came up, and then the Transport Authority called to say there was a dangerous amount of people congesting Davdan's tube platform, and no more would be allowed to leave the house until the platform was cleared.

The arrival of the adolescents slowed to a trickle within fifteen minutes, but by that time there were more than three hundred of them there. Pina had to go outside, leading the crowd of young like the Pied Piper, to relieve congestion in the house.

The Transport Authority called again to announce they would permit further exits, which the gathering's remaining guests quickly took advantage of, eager to escape the bedlam.

Soon after that all the adolescents were outside, packed around Pina. Of those who had attended the night before, none remained save the members of the Green Band, the four Prodigies in custody, and Tiz and Pika, the visiting parents. The adults watched the antics of the huge pack of adolescents through the window wall, flabbergasted.

Then just before Naz noticed a hand waving frantically in the center of the pack, Tika bolted. When she reached the outside of the pack, she did not slow a bit as she vaulted off the back of one and ran on top of the group of adolescents like they were solid ground, her feet precisely placed on a series of shoulders. In a moment she dropped into the center of the group beside Pina and began shoving them roughly away from her, hurrying the slow with light blows that were non-injuring, but painful.

"She has the fear of crowds! She has the fear of crowds!" she screamed in rage, over and over, but could not make herself heard above the hundreds of voices. As soon as she had cleared enough room to do so, she drew her fighting knife and waved it threateningly at the circle of adolescents surrounding her and Pina, and they retreated quickly. Most beyond the center of the group did not understand what was happening and continued to crowd forward to see, shrinking the space in the center against the resistance of those who were already there.

Naz, whose own yelling had had little effect, began grabbing adolescents from the outside of the group and tossing them aside in an effort to reach his daughter, while trying to not injure any of them.

Tika had almost resigned herself to begin cutting the close ones, when Raz's voice roared out of every screen there at full volume. "YOU WILL BACK AWAY FROM PINA!!!" he shouted in rage. "YOU WILL ALL SHUT THE HELL UP!!!"

All the adolescents stopped speaking, allowing them to hear Tika scream: "She has the fear of crowds!" twice more before she stopped, realizing that they had all finally heard her.

In the total silence that fell, everyone there heard a young tech at the outside of the group exclaim: "Holy shit! That guy just hacked everyone here in five seconds!"

"You will step back from Pina! You will clear a path to the door, before Tika must start to kill you all!" Raz's angered voice boomed out from the hundreds of screens present.

They complied, slowly at first, then with increasing speed.

"Are you all right, Pina?" Tika asked, one arm around her friend, the other still brandishing the big knife threateningly.

"I ... I will be okay." Pina gasped, her eyes wide. Her heart still beat like a frightened rabbit's, and she struggled to force down the panic she felt. "Just make them give me room!"

"All right. We will walk into the house." Tika said, and her eyes flashed at those around her. "These others will stay outside!"

She walked Pina through the crowd, through the house, and into the kitchen. Having seated Pina in a booth beside the cooking area, she poured them each a mug of hot apple juice. She sat with one arm around the older girl, and they sipped their juice in silence for ten minutes.

"Thank you Tika." Pina finally mumbled. "I know it is stupid, they were all trying to be nice to me. But I could not help it; I was so scared. It was like they were going to cover me completely, and smother me to death with the sheer weight of their bodies."

"It was nothing." Tika smiled. "They are lucky that Raz called them off when he did. I was about to start cutting them. It would not have taken me long to clear us a nice, big, open space.

"Do you feel better now?"

"Yes." Pina nodded. "We had better go see what our adults have done to them."

She smiled, and Tika giggled, and they rose and went outside.

The Prodigies, for indeed it was they, sat on the grass in one huge, tight bunch. Some of them, perhaps eighty, were crying, sobbing quietly by themselves or while hugging one another. As many worked on their screens, trying vainly to figure out how Raz had beaten all their defenses and taken control of their computers to use them to amplify his voice. A few had thought about what Tika had done, and sat staring at her with varied expressions from awe to terror. A few sat in groups of two to six, whispering to each other. The rest sat in silent despondence.

"What has been done to them?" Pina asked her father, indicating the crying ones.

"Nothing, other than to tell them to sit down and shut up." Naz stated. "We waited to see how you were before doing anything else. Are you all right?"

"I am fine. I had forgotten about the phobia, as it has been so long since I felt it, and I was so excited. When it seized me, I was taken completely by surprise. These here did not know, and meant no harm by their actions. They were trying to be nice to me.

"Eni Suzuka, come here." Pina called, and Eni stood out of the crowd and approached. She was one of those crying, and tears poured down her face.

"Eni, what is wrong? Why are you and these others crying?"

"I'm crying because I'm ashamed of the behavior of these members of my group. I am so, so sorry we scared you, Pina! And it's so horrible, because that's the last thing we wanted to do!"

"What happened, Eni? Why are so many here?"

"I swear it wasn't me, Pina! I only invited the thirty-one you authorized last night before we went to sleep! You watched me do it, and I didn't invite anyone else after that!" Eni paused, her eyes flashing angrily over the seated crowd. "I can guess what happened though! Some of those you invited couldn't bear to not tell their friends, and they told more members, and pretty soon someone was passing the word that everyone was coming here! When I realized what was happening I put out the call to stop it, or there'd have been a lot more, but these idiots were already here!"

Some of the young began calling out from the crowd. "We're sorry! We didn't know!" "Yes, I swear we didn't know!" "Please, I just want to talk to you for a minute and give you our gift! Please!"

"Will you all just shut up!" Eni yelled at them.

"Why are these ones crying?" Pina asked her.

"They're crying because they came here to show you how much they love you, and they scared the hell out of you, and they feel shitty about it. But mostly because they know they're going to be sent home...

"You will all stop trying to hack me right now!!!" Raz suddenly yelled, standing and drawing his knife. Holding his screen in the other hand, he walked toward the group of techs, yelling in rage. "You will all de-activate your screens, place them on the ground, and place your hands in your pockets or waistbands!!!"

They complied.

"Hey dude, don't be so touchy!" one of them said as he pocketed his hands. "You hacked me first!"

"Only to protect Pina from you!" Raz growled, checking his screen.

"Two of you still have programs running against me!!!" he screamed in rage. "You will recall them, now, or I swear I will frag you!!!"

One of the techs with his hands in his pockets nervously took them out and tapped on his screen a few times.

"One more!" Raz screamed. He waited five seconds. "That is IT!!!" he yelled, jabbing frantically at his screen with his fingertips. "Whoever you are, I will find you, and your processors will become slag!!!" He continued pounding at his screen for forty seconds, then stopped. "HA! FUCK YOU!!!" he yelled, with one last triumphant stab at his 'enter' icon.

He threw his screen onto his pack from ten feet away, and stood scanning the seated group of techs. Four seconds later, a male near the back of the crowd with his fingers stuffed in his waistband looked down when his screen emitted five beeps, then a small puff of smoke.

Raz began striding purposefully toward him, knife in hand, and the Prodigies moved out of his way.

The tech whose screen had beeped picked it up and tapped frantically at it. "Holy shit! He did it! He scrapped my fuckin' computer, you can smell the fried circuits! How the fuck did he do that?! How the hell am I gonna pay for another one?"

Raz reached him and jerked him off the ground by his hair, and pressed his knife to his victim's throat. "Right now, that is the least of your problems." Raz growled, and wiggled his knife a bit.

"Oh Jesus!" The tech cried in panic, his hands flying to the wrist of Raz's knife hand, but lacking the strength to push it away. "He's cutting me! HE'S CUTTING ME!!!"

"Raz, stop it, please!" Eni called, as some of the tech females began to scream. "With us, when you hack someone, it's like a challenge! It's like giving permission to hack you back if they can! He didn't mean anything by it! PLEASE DON'T KILL HIM!!!" She screamed the last words in panic, as blood began to flow from beneath Raz's knife.

Raz held still for a second, then dropped the tech, who lay sobbing on the ground. "I did not know that." he growled, struggling to contain his anger. He glared at the adolescents around him. "Let me tell you something! Among Tiger People, we do not hack! I would never have done such a thing if it were not an emergency, an emergency you fools caused! It is hard enough trying to learn to be both a technologist and a Tiger Man, as my screen is almost the only piece of technology the laws of my people allow me! Sometimes I feel like it is the only thing that keeps me from being anything more than an animal! No one fucks with it! If anyone ever tries to hack me again, they will also find their screens fragged, I promise it! And if they try it from Tiger People land, I will kill them if they cannot kill me first! You do not hack the personal screen of any of the Tiger People, unless you want a death enemy!!! We will not tolerate it!!!"

And with that, he stomped back to his screen and picked it up, sat on his pack, and began strengthening his screen's defenses.

Someone in the crowd was heard to marvel: "Unbelievable! He trashed Norman's screen, and Norman's almost the best programmer we've got! Who the hell is that kid?"

"You do not know who that is?" Pina demanded angrily. "Eni, were you not going to say that these were crying, because they will be sent home without talking to me?"

"Yes." Eni agreed tearfully.

"So you have all come here to kiss my ass, basically, some from the other side of the world, yet it is obvious that you know nothing about me!" Pina stated. "How can you think you care for me so much, when you know nothing about my life as a child of the Tiger People, and you know nothing about those who are important to me?!"

"Because you're so brilliant, and you're so cool!" someone called out. "We love you, we really do!"

"You say you love me because I am brilliant?" Pina asked in exasperation. "Yet you do not even know me enough to know that he is my twin brother Raz, who is just as brilliant as I am!"

A murmur swept through the Prodigies, and a few phrases were picked out, uttered spontaneously and simultaneously by many. "Her brother!" "Her twin!" "Pina's twin brother, no wonder!" "There's two of them? Holy shit!"

"Welcome to fame, child." Davdan chuckled. "It often does not make much sense. This episode brings back many memories for me. And to think, we only worried about how Tika would deal with it!"

"Well, if this is what it is like, she will not like it." Pina grumped.

"They cannot stay here long." Jela stated. "Between the gathering last night spilling outside and this mob, there has been enough noise and human smells emitted from here to disturb the wildlife for five territories in any direction. Already, it will cost Jena and myself an extra hour of work today, and thirty minutes tomorrow. They must be gone in an hour, or there will be protests launched in the councils."

Pina thought for a moment, then spoke to the Prodigies. "Look, I am flattered by all this, really I am. But it can never happen again. I will get the membership list from Eni, and allow you to send me messages. I will begin to exchange calls with those who have anything interesting to say. Eventually, I will let every member visit me here, a few at a time, if they call and ask permission in advance. Right now, I want you to separate yourself into two groups. On this side I want those who only wish to say hello, or give me a card, those who really have nothing important to say to me. And do not give me any crap on this, or I will hurt you. I will speak to you for ten seconds each. I am sorry, I know that is not much, but I have no choice in this. If you try to take more than your ten seconds, I will hurt you.

"I want the thirty one whose presence I requested, and any who truly have something important to say to me, to go inside and wait until I have finished with the first group.

"Once you have spoken your ten seconds with Pina, leave immediately." Davdan called. "As custodian of this house, I have already received a warning from the Transit Authority about you all arriving here so suddenly, and without notice. They called it a 'flash crowd', and apparently they hate nothing more. You caused a huge disruption in our section of the tube system. If you try to leave the same way, there will be a huge fine levied, and I tell you, I will not be the one to pay it! So when you have had your turn, go immediately to the elevator and leave on the first available tube car! Do not wait for your friends, or try to wait to get another chance to speak with Pina, or you will be hurt!"

"And we have to start now!" Jela called, clapping her hands sharply twice. "You of the first group, line up here, speak to Pina, pass through the doors this way to the elevator, and leave. Quickly now, I will time your ten seconds each, and then I push you through the doors!"

"Wait! Everyone should see me give her the gift!" one girl called anxiously. "Everyone should see, and it'll take more than ten seconds!"

"I'll give my time to Sarah!" one girl called.

"Me too! I'll give my time to Sarah!" another called.

"All right, those giving their time to Sarah, stand in the doorway. Quickly." Jela directed. "Sarah, step forward."

Fourteen young hurried to the doorway, while a red-headed girl in blue jean coveralls sprinted up to Pina and caught her breath for a moment.

Jela did the tally and gave it to Sarah. "You have two minutes and twenty seconds." she said, and looked down at her screen's time display.

Sarah reached into a pocket and withdrew a black case, twelve inches long, three inches wide by two deep. She held it out to Pina almost reverently with both hands, and spoke while Pina took it from her, opened it, and examined the object within.

"There's a magnifier in a compartment in the lid, so you can see the detail, and you'll wanna look close. Three of us spent over two months of our free time to make it. We took up a collection among the members for the materials and for work we couldn't do ourselves. Seven hundred and fifty three donations were made, from a few cents, to thousands of credits. It's all the real thing, even the platinum, and the diamonds and gems are natural. We were originally going to give it to you for Christmas, but we couldn't finish it in time. So then we were going to give it to for new years, but we couldn't resist bringing it to give to you today, cuz so many of us were gonna be here. It's a little bit not finished, right there on that frame there, but there's only three more days' work left on it."

There was silence for over a minute as Pina inspected the object through the magnifier. Then she set the magnifier down and took a new cloth from her pack. She spread the cloth over her hand and ever-so-carefully picked up the object between two fingers and turned it over, and set it back in the case. Most of it was covered by the cloth as she did so, and the rest glittered and reflected so dazzlingly in the bright sunlight that it's shape could not be made out by most of those watching. She put the cloth aside and inspected the other side with the magnifier.

"You know, there are those among the Tiger people who do not believe that the price of a gift should be with-held from the recipient." Pina stated. She sounded a little choked up.

"Oh?" Sarah responded. "Well, we spent one hundred and seventy thousand credits on the materials and the hammer work. Most of that was donated before the war got bad, and people started hurting for cash. We did a good job, though. It's appraised and insured at two million, one hundred and forty-eight thousand, three hundred fifty credits."

"Pina!" Davdan chided. "That is almost completely dishonest!"

"She tricked you!" Tika laughed. "Most Tiger People do not tell the cost of a gift!"

"Oh." Sarah said.

"Sorry. I could not resist. You could have researched Tiger People more, you know." Pina said. She definitely sounded choked up now, close to crying.

"Time!" Jela called.

"Oh Gods Jela, take a break, will you?!" Pina told her in exasperation. "I will help you hunt the territories to balance! Take your eye off the clock and look at this a minute!"

"What is it?" Davdan asked. There were enough crowded around Pina trying to look that she did not attempt to join them.

"Well, they know some important things about Tiger People." Pina declared emotionally. "It is a knife.

"Raz, tie my remote cam to Tika's big display there, so everyone can see, please." Pina asked. She sat on the ground cross-legged and set the knife case on the grass before her. She then detached her remote camera from her headband and held it over the magnifier with one hand, while holding the magnifier over the knife with the other, and steadied her elbows on her knees to not shake the picture.

"You can see it is a Japanese tanto with a six inch blade, forged by folding and hammer welding in the ancient way." She said, focusing the magnified camera on the distinct wavy pattern in the steel, providing commentary as she shifted the camera's view. "The handle's pattern is ivy leaves, I think, some plant not native to here, outlined in various precious metals and colored with graduated green gemstones."

"Emeralds." Sarah said.

"Yes." Pina agreed. "On each side of the handle there is an oval of diamonds around a picture. On this side there is this picture of a tiger from in front, and on the other side there is a picture of me, looking fierce."

"The original of that picture is a frame from a recording of a conversation you had with Professor Imaroku." Eni volunteered with a giggle.

"There is a thin oval gold plate the same size on each side of the blade, this one outlined in tiny sapphires I think, the other outlined in rubies."

"Right." Sarah confirmed.

"There is another picture in each of these ovals. "The most amazing thing is, these pictures are fine photographic quality, good enough to recognize the nine faces in this picture through the magnifier. Each of these dots of color, small as a speck of dust, is a gemstone. And by that I do not mean that it is a piece of gemstone dust, I mean each is a gemstone the size of dust. When you look at them under maximum magnification ... here, I will see if I can show it in the screen ... There, you see, each of these tiny things, like the rest of the gems on the knife, is perfectly cut with all the facets of the standard fire brilliant shape. Hence the incredible glitter."

"That is so beautiful." Tika cooed, looking up at the screen.

"And so amazing!" Jena added.

"What do you think of the picture on the blade there?" Eni asked. "It's from a painting I did. Do you recognize the men, the setting?"

Pina backed off the magnification enough to study the picture, then burst out laughing, though she was close to tears.

"It is all the great philosophers and scientists of ancient Greece, having an animated discussion in a McDonalds restaurant in Tokyo! It appears that Socrates will momentarily throw his milkshake at Plato!" Pina laughed.

"And on the other side?" Sarah prompted.

Pina retrieved her cloth, turned the knife over, and looked at the portrait on the blade there.

"Oh. I see." Pina said. Tears came to her eyes, and she wiped them away. "I am so flattered. And so ... moved." she said, and swallowed hard.

"Who is it?" Tika asked.

"It is Shrinivas Ramanujan." Pina said, and sniffed. "I am not sure of the exact details, but basically he lived in this land about two hundred and thirty years ago, in a poverty so horrible that we cannot imagine it today. He only had five or six years of schooling, then he had to go to work to help feed his family, but he managed to get a university level mathematics text in his hands when he was in his teens. Though most would need thirteen or fourteen years of schooling to understand it, he was so brilliant that he understood it with five or six. Further, it inspired him to work on higher mathematics, though he was a manual laborer and most of the people around him were illiterate. With only these influences; the first five years of schooling and a single common textbook, and working in complete intellectual isolation, he broke important new ground in the field of mathematics. When he was in his twenties he was discovered by a famous British professor who returned with him to England. He soon became one of the world's leading mathematicians. I may have much of that wrong. I know his work perfectly, his story less well. I guess I want to believe the legend, so I have not checked to see how much of it is true. If I can say that I have one, he is my role model as a scientist."

"That's lucky, we didn't know that." Sarah chuckled. "He just reminded us of you, and we couldn't think of anything else to put on a knife like this to give it a tie-in to cosmology and India, without making it tacky."

"And here on the hilt," Pina continued, "It is inscribed; To Pina, The Fiercest Cosmologist in the Universe. We love you. The Prodigies."

"It's fully functional, too." Sarah added. "It's laser sharpened and bonded with the best adhesives, so it's as indestructible as it can be within the limits of the gems and the decorative metals. You could nick the metals or chip a gem, but you'll never knock one out, cuz all the decorative stuff's bonded to the steel underneath. The steel in the blade is full tang and traditionally forged, you know, all that hammering and folding and stuff, but the other steel in the handle and guard is the latest technology, a stainless chromium molybdenum silicon nickel steel alloy. If you ever really had to, you could really use it to, ah, you know, stab someone or something."

Pina put her remote back on her headband, and Raz de-activated the link to the big display. She sniffed and wiped tears from her eyes again, tucked the magnifier back into its compartment, then picked the knife up in her hands. She slowly looked it over again, turning it over a few times, then stepped away from Sarah and went through a few of her favorite blocks and strikes.

"Gods, even the balance is beautiful." she breathed, smiling at the glittering weapon she held.

"Ya, we had the old guy who did the steel check the design for that. He really is a master. When we first got the blade blank from him, we recorded it thoroughly, cuz it was so beautiful we almost didn't want to put anything on it."

"I would like to see that." Pina softly said as she gazed at the blade. Suddenly she stepped back and replaced the knife in its case, closed it, and handed it to Sarah. Then she gave the redhead a warm hug.

"Are the two who helped you build it here?" she asked.

"No." Sarah replied.

"It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It is so beautiful I hesitate to take it, as I do not deserve it. I still am not sure how you all think you can love someone you do not know, but you must feel something very powerful for me to have spent such time and credits to produce such a magnificent gift for me. I am truly affected so strongly by this, I have no words for it. I must say thank you, to you and the two who helped you, to all of you here, to all of the Prodigies. Thank you, thank you so much.

"You take this, and sometime after you and your friends have finished it, I will have you three here as my guests for dinner when you bring it back. I will buy a small glass case just the right size for it, and it will spend most of its time on display here at the Enclave house. But every so often I will take it out to polish it a little, to enjoy its feel in my hand, to enjoy it at all levels of magnification, or just to sit and look at it and love its beauty, and laugh about the Greeks. It is beautiful in so many ways. And when I put it back in its case, I will turn it over, so those who view it can see the other side for a while."

"Thank you. It means a lot to hear you say that." Sarah told her, wiping a tear from her own eye. "I really do care about you. It's important to me to know you're happy, and that you're doing well. All of us feel that way.

"I should go. I'll talk to you later. I'll call you when it's finished." Sarah smiled, and turned to go.

"Wait a moment. I want you all to know that I am happy." Pina laughed. "I have a great life as a Tiger Person, with the love of a great family and true friends. And, I am a nine-year-old cosmologist with a fully funded project, and a chance to achieve greatness! A chance to change the universe! And I have many new friends to help me, who I think will be hard working and loyal. I will do well. We all will."

"I hope so. Later." Sarah smiled as she turned to leave.

"Thank you! It was generous to give up your time!" Pina called to the fourteen who had waited by the door, and she smiled and waved.

They returned the wave as Sarah joined them, and headed for the elevator.

The first prodigy in line, a male, shook Pina's hand as techs do, saying: "Thank you. I just really wanted to meet you." Then he stepped on.

The next said: "We're so sorry about earlier. We really didn't know. I really think you're great." She gave Pina a very polite little hug, and passed through the doors.

The third gave her a trinket box, saying: "This is for you. I really, really like you, and I'd be honored if you'd accept my courtship. My number's under the lid." Grinning and blushing, he passed through the doors without waiting for her to open it.

The fourth said much the same as the first.

The fifth presented her with a large, flat, wrapped gift, and a card, on behalf of herself and two other members who were unable to attend.

The sixth said: "One of the reasons we like you so much is because you don't put up with fools. We're sorry that today, they turned out to be us. You're really great."

All the rest had only different variations of these sentiments. Many took far less than their ten seconds, and all had spoken to her in forty-six minutes.

The only one with something unique to say was Norman, the hacker Raz had cut. Someone had given him first aid, and he had a large, puffy white bandage on his neck. "You're really great." he told Pina with a smile, and turned to Raz. "Hey Mister, sorry about your screen. I really didn't know. No hard feelings?"

"No hard feelings." Raz agreed with a grin. "It is hard to feel bad about it when you stand there with blood on your shirt, and a fragged screen under your arm, while I stand here victorious. You learned nothing from me, while I captured the program you sent after me. I will learn much about you from studying it. Remember this, and know it is the truth: If I had not been so angry, I would have hacked you for everything you had before I fragged you. I would know everything about you, and you would be completely vulnerable to me."