Part 1: Developments

April 26, 2153

A tall woman and a girl child sat on a fallen tree facing each other in the forest. They were naked except for small packs, and the woman wore a knife belt and two jeweled steel armbands. The woman was twenty-five years old, darkly tanned with brown eyes and dark brown hair. Her six foot tall, one hundred thirty pound form was developed to athletic perfection. The girl had bright white hair, brown eyes, and a medium tan. They leaned towards each other till their foreheads were almost touching, speaking quietly and deliberately. They kept a constant watch on the forest around them and listened closely for any unusual sounds as they spoke, though this awareness was so habitual that it required little attention.

The rays of morning sun trickled through the trees to the ground, and a soft breeze whispered through the leaves. It was early in the monsoon season, but it had stopped raining for two days so far.

"Tika, today you are six years old, and you have fulfilled your requirements with very high marks." the woman stated, her smile proud and loving. "Until today you have been an Infant. Your role as an Infant has been to be happy and enjoy life, to grow naturally without worry or responsibility, and your learning has been play; you have not had to learn at those times when you did not wish to. Today you officially become a Training Child. I think you have been ready for your training for a long time already, but the law recognizes that everyone deserves at least six years of Infancy. Now you will begin your training, and begin to accept responsibilities. You gain the right to ask any questions suitable to a Training Child. Congratulations. I love you, and I am very proud of you."

"I love you too, Tira-Mother."

Tira hugged her mother warmly. What a great thing it was to be six! So many times she had been told: 'Do not ask that now.' or 'There is an order of learning. You will learn that when your time is right.' or 'Ask me when you are six, and you become a Training Child.' And now, finally, that day had come. She had many questions she had been saving, and she took a moment to remember them.

"Tira-Mother, why are we Tiger People?"

Her mother smiled, and said: "That is a very good first training question, Tika. It is well chosen.

"There have been six generations of Tiger People, and the females of our family have been Tiger People in an unbroken line for all six generations. My grandmother's grandmother was one of the very first Tiger People, and we are proud of that. You are the seventh generation, and if you have a baby girl, she will count herself as the eighth generation of our maternal line to be Tiger People. We are well suited to this life. It is a good life, and the land here is warm and very productive, so our territories can be small.

"And that is why we are Tiger-People." Tira finished with a smile.

Tika watched the forest and for a minute, and considered her next words. "That is nice to know, but that is not what I meant. At the trading post, I saw on a man's screen many, many techs who were celebrating a holiday called Rationalist's Day. An Elder tech woman spoke to all the people, and said they were thankful for their way of life, as it had proven to be the healthiest and happiest in all of history. They thanked the memory of The Rationalist, who gave them their way of life in the first place.

"So, if the way of life of the techs is proven to be the best, why are we Tiger People instead of being techs? And who was The Rationalist?"

"Tika! That is an even better question!" Tira told her enthusiastically, and gave her a quick hug. "It shows very good thinking for a Training Child! Give me a moment." She cleared her mind and remembered the history, and re-phrased it a bit for a child of six.

"Tika, there was a time called When The World Choked, or the Big Choke. The people did not live within nature. Instead, they used their tech to try to conquer nature. They built their tech things right on top of the ground till they had covered much of the world with them. Even more land was used for agriculture, where they would kill every living thing that lived on the land, so that they could grow only one plant that did not belong there. They released poisons everywhere. After a while the world became sick. The air and water became poisoned. The nights got colder, and the days grew hotter. The dry season got drier, and in the wet seasons it rained more and more. In many places the seasons got all mixed up, and they had weather they had never had there before. Many, many people were killed by storms and droughts and floods and fires, and from war and famine and disease. At the end, about a hundred years ago, society almost collapsed completely, the world economy was wrecked, it seemed the whole world environment was going to die, and everyone was poised on the edge of a world war.

"The people did these things then, because they believed in things that were imaginary, and because they wanted many things that were not important, and because they did not understand human nature.

"Then the Rationalist said to the people: 'We must learn to live within nature again. We must respect the natural way of things, and use our tech to help nature and to live within it, and not to kill it, or we will all surely die. We must recognize reality, and not believe in things that are imaginary. We must recognize human nature, so we can do those things that will make us healthy and happy. We must be efficient, and never waste our efforts.

"We believe in those things, Tika, so we are rationalists too.

"The man we know as The Rationalist did not invent being rational or realistic. Rationality was around for thousands of years before then, but only as a way of thinking. The Rationalist was the first to make it a way of life. He started with a few people and a little land on the edge of a city in North America, and proved that his way of life was far better; that his people were healthier and happier and safer, they had more fun and did less unpleasant work than anyone else. Now, almost everyone in the world is a rationalist, but only he is spoken of as The Rationalist. He was called that because he used it to sign his writings when he was first spreading his ideas to the people.

"He invented the lifestyle of the techs. Before him, their cities were all made of bare shaped stone and plastic. Now their cities are camouflaged into the forest so well you can hardly tell they are there, except at night when you can see some light coming through the windows. They started growing most of their food in underground fields with artificial light, and let the land go wild. They built the paths-in-the-trees, and let all the wild animals back onto the cities, except for the playgrounds and parks, which have fences that keep out any animal larger than a rabbit. They built the tube transports, and the great de-salinators that make clean water from the ocean, and the solar power satellites.

"All the land and waters except for parks was given over to ecoculture, and the people who care for the natural life began finding ways to help the world. They divided themselves into three groups; people responsible for the waters, people responsible for the land, and people responsible for animal populations.

"Those responsible for the waters tend all the life in the oceans, and in the great lakes and rivers of the world.

"Those responsible for the land tend all the trees, plants, funguses, very small animals like worms that are very easy to catch and cannot hurt you, and insects. They name themselves after the dominant plant eating animal in their region, and that is why we have Elephant People in our forest."

Tika had often seen the Elephant People as they went about the business of tending the forest, but had never spoken to them.

"The Elephant People," her mother continued, "Look after the forest by doing what they call Filling-In-The-Gaps. When the dry season is much drier than usual, they water the driest parts of the forest, by taking water from the lake or underground with tech. When the wet season is much wetter than usual, they put in drainage tubes to prevent landslides and to keep too many swamps from forming. When the great herds pass through and stomp the ground into mud, they fertilize it a little to help it grow back faster, and other things like that. They make sure that the numbers of every kind of life form are balanced, by evenly harvesting the excess they have caused to grow by tending the forest.

"Those responsible for animals took to calling themselves after the mightiest hunting animals in their part of the world, and took to living like that animal, and that is why there are Tiger People here. We hunt the animals that become too many, to keep the animal populations balanced. In the beginning our people spent far less of their time hunting animals who had become too numerous. They spent much time saving the lives of animals whose whole species were endangered, so that they would not be lost forever, and exterminating weed species from places they were not native, to restore the natural balance. Now, almost all the species that were endangered have either bred to healthy numbers again, or they were lost when the last of them died.

"The forest grows well on it's own, but by working with the Elephant People in the Counsels, by using the science of ecoculture, and by putting just the right little effort in the right place, at the right time, we all make the forest grow much faster than it would if there were no people here. Even after all the animals we kill to eat and trade at the trading post, and after all the plants and trees the Elephant People take from the forest to eat and trade at their trading post, there are still many more plants and animals in this forest than there would be if there were no people here. The more we help the forest grow, the more people can live from what the forest produces.

"That is what ecoculture is; to help all the natural life forms to grow faster, and be more numerous, so that we can harvest the excess and still have a healthy and balanced system of natural life.

"The Rationalist invented ecoculture, and he invented the lifestyles of all of us who practice it as well. We do not tend to celebrate Rationalist's Day like the techs do, but our respect for him is as great as theirs, because he invented the lifestyles of all of us who are rationalists.

"Some thought that those who did ecoculture should be techs, that they should do it as a job during the day, and use all their technology to do it, and go home to their buildings in the city at night.

"But the Rationalist had many reasons for making our way of life the way it is. The tech lifestyle is best for most people; it is extremely safe and secure, and it can be very easy for those who choose to spend no effort on luxuries. But, he knew that there would always be some people who cannot be happy in that society, and who would make most techs uncomfortable.

"Some people need more privacy, or they have the fear of crowds. Some people have a strong need to fight, against their opponents or their enemies. Some people do not like closed spaces, so they need to be outside almost all the time. Some people love nature too much to live indoors. Some people are not comfortable with complex and superficial mating rituals. Some people need the excitement of living in dangerous situations. Some people cannot help their need to dominate others. All these kinds of people can find a lifestyle they are suited for, with people they feel comfortable with, among the people who live in the outside world.

"There are many different tech lifestyles as well, for different kinds of techs, though most seem very similar to me. The Rationalist thought that these different personalities should not be bred out of the human family by forcing everyone into one tech lifestyle, because the future is long, and who knows what types of peoples we will need to succeed in the future?

"You know that we evolved from simpler species, and so did every other life form. The Rationalist saw that if all danger were taken out of life, the evolution of our species would slow down, because we improve by adapting to difficulties. Our life has an acceptable amount of danger; less than that faced by every person before the world choked, but enough that over millions of years all people will become a little better because a few fools were killed by their own stupidity before they could breed.

"He also thought that it would be a mistake to breed violence out of humans completely, in order to protect the innocent from attack. He proved that there are better ways to protect the innocent. Now all those who face the risk of violence choose to do so.

"We of the Tiger face the risk of violence, and we gain the chance to enjoy victory, but you can always choose to live another way. This is important, Tika; if you ever feel that you would have a better life by living a different lifestyle, say so, and we will find a lifestyle we can both enjoy, at least until you are formally Adult. I love being Tiger People, but I could not enjoy it if I thought I was forcing you to it, and there are many other lifestyles I could love. When you are Adult, you can choose any lifestyle you want.

"Hunting animals is dangerous work, and we make it more dangerous by using the smallest amount of technology possible to do it. That is why we hunt with a knife and other simple weapons. We use the simplest technology so that our hunting will have the smallest possible effect on the forest, and we use it out of respect for the animals. There was a time when hunters killed from a mile away with tech weapons and magnifying viewers that could see in the dark. The weapon made a noise so loud it disturbed the animals for a mile in every direction. The hunters took no risk and were in no danger, and the animals had no chance.

"When we hunt with a knife, we give the animal a chance to get away, or to fight for its life, as it is in nature. Both evolve to be better, the hunters and the hunted. Because we hunt for a living rather than for sport, we tend to make our work easier by hunting the weak and the slow, as other predators do, leaving the swift and the mighty to improve their breed. By living with the least technology, and with the fewest technologically produced products possible, we avoid pollution and litter in the forest, and we also allow the tiny chance that the weak and the slow and the stupid among us will be hunted by predators. As The Rationalist said, this is evolution in its most natural form.

"Also, we hunt with a knife to prove we are the best hunters. It takes more skill to kill with a spear than with a bow, so a hunter who uses a spear is more skilled than one who uses a bow and who hunts the same animals. A sword hunter is better than a spear hunter. A knife hunter is better still, and a knife is the smallest practical weapon you can use to hunt most animals. Only elephants and other very large animals are sometimes hunted with larger weapons, usually a lance. For over one hundred years our training and methods have been constantly improving, and now the poorest hunter among us would have been the best hunter in the world at any time before one hundred and fifty years ago.

"You will learn everything about our way of life and why we live this way now that you are officially a Training Child. There is too much to tell you everything today. I hope that is enough to answer your question."

Tika paused solemnly to ponder what she had heard for a few minutes, nodded slowly a few times, then asked her next question.

"Tira-mother, why is my hair white? The other children call me Cloud-Head, and gave me no friendship on the infants' ground."

Tira considered her response for a moment, then spoke carefully.

"Tika, our way of life can be hard, so that our people will grow strong, and we allow no decoration of our bodies except status signs. We do not color our hair, as it is considered decoration. When you were born, chance decided that you would not have color, and you were white everywhere. Your eyes were clear pink, and you were the prettiest baby in the world, like a white flower. The Meds used tech to give color to your skin and eyes so the sun would not make you sick.

"After the Meds made your skin tan and your eyes brown, I thought you looked even more beautiful with the contrast to your white hair. But, I knew having white hair would make your life harder, and since it was caused by a med condition, I asked the council to let the Meds color your hair forest brown like mine, even though hair coloring is banned among Tiger People. They thought about it.

"They had been forced to allow the coloring of your skin and eyes, because of an important law that says children must always get any med treatment they need to stay healthy. But your hair color does not directly affect your health. They said that it was a survival-disadvantage to have white children because they are easy to see in the forest, and that if our tech failed us all you probably would not survive, and neither would your children. I did not agree with that. They said that if you were to be a Tiger Person, you would have to be good enough to do it with white hair, to prove that you could survive and thrive with this disadvantage, as white tigers thrive among yellow tigers north of China. I could only color your hair if I moved us to the city and became a tech or did something else. Since you have done very well so far as a child of the Tiger People, I think I made the best choice. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Tira-Mother." She thought about what she had heard for a few minutes, sitting silently, both woman and child as patient as their people's namesake. Finally the girl leaned forward to embrace.

"Thank you, Tira-Mother. I do not want to be a tech either. I like being Tiger People."

Tira returned the embrace, and shed a tear or two.

"I love you so much, Tika-Child." she told her daughter.

"I love you too, Tira-Mother." she returned, and held the hug for a few more minutes.

"Also," Tira said, "To some extent the other mothers fear me, because I am very dangerous. The other children sense this, and keep their distance from you because of this."

"I understand." Tika said quietly into her mother's hair. She leaned back and began eating dried berries from her food pouch.

"Tira-Mother, what will my training be like?"

"Well Tika, I do not think it would be good for you to learn with other children. Until now, you have been an Infant, and a very good one. Mothers never let their Infants out of their sight, Infants are not allowed to hurt one another, or to play-fight in anger. Training Children are allowed to fight to hurt, up to first level injuries. During formal Challenges they are allowed to fight with blades."

"What is 'first level injury'?" Tika interrupted.

"That is when you have to go to the med. Like when you slipped from the tree and broke your leg. That was a second level injury, worse than first. First is when you can still get yourself to the med, second is when you cannot. Third level injury is when the Med has to call a specialized Med from the city to watch what they do on screen and give advice, and maybe perform remote surgery with robotic tools. Fourth level injury, maybe you could die. Fifth level, if you get to the med and you are still alive, everyone is surprised. If the Med saves your life, everyone is surprised again.

"If you get hurt, but it is not bad enough to have to go to the med, it is not considered an injury."

Tira paused, and resumed her original train of thought.

"At any rate, it will be hard enough keeping you out of the med every time we go to the training post. The other children will torment you if we do not do anything about it, because you look different, and the other mothers may send their children against you, if they resent that I have more status than they do. So you will learn with me, and from me alone, because there is no one else within a hundred miles fit to train you. So our lives will continue as they have been, you and me, together."

"I am glad, Tira-Mother, I did not want to go to a trainer."

"So far," Tira continued, "You have learned to stalk and hunt plant eaters as big as a rabbit, when you felt like playing that game, and have killed your own meat for two years. Most Infants cannot catch anything better than a mouse, and do not supply their own meat until long after they become Training Children, so you have done very well. You have learned to read and write most words, and to use the four basic math functions. Now you will spend at least eight hours of every day learning. Learning about the world and all the essential tech knowledge on your screen, learning to hunt every animal, plant and meat eaters both, and learning how to keep from being hunted. You will learn to read the animal populations."

She paused for two heartbeats, her expression intense as she held her daughters gaze. "And you will learn to fight. Tiger People, like tigers, contest with each other for status, hunting territory, and mating rights. Many times you may think I am being hard on you, but I will be no harder than the world we live in. An Infant's role in life is to have fun with no worries, but a Training Child's role is to learn, and to accept responsibilities as you become ready to fulfill them.

"Today we will go to the trading post, and eat ice cream and other treats, and I will get you your first screen, and your first knife. Tonight we leave on a journey, west to Ranthambore, the wild land park where no people live. I have arranged for Midor, Dern, and Baya to hunt my territory while we are gone. We will not be back until you are Serious. It may take a few years."

"What is Serious, Tira-Mother?"

"It is a level of status as a fighter, judged on how dangerous you are. Serious is about as dangerous as a full-grown swamp-cat or North American lynx. Dangerous enough that average adult Tiger People would have to be very careful fighting or hunting one. Unlike a thirty-pound infant tiger, a thirty-pound adult lynx has enough skill, attitude and mean-ness to be considered Serious, and I would have to be careful to fight a healthy one without risking a nasty trip to the med.

"Only a few Training Children are dangerous enough to be considered Serious. Most Adolescents are Serious, and they have to reach at least that status to become Adults. Most Adults eventually reach the status beyond Serious, called Hazardous. One in one thousand Adults reach the next status beyond Hazardous, called Excellent. And only about one in one hundred thousand Adult Tiger People reach the highest status as fighters, and are called Magnificent."

Tika asked the question her mother knew would come next. "How dangerous are you, Tira-Mother?"

"My daughter, I am Magnificent."

Tika could not quite grasp how many adults one hundred thousand were, but her eyes widened as she realized that her mother was very, very dangerous indeed. Then, a thought creased her brow. "Tira-Mother, what are you called before you become Serious?"

Tira's eyes got a hard look as she gave the answer.

"Prey."

Tira let that sink in for a moment, then continued. "In the same way that we are judged for status as fighters, we are also assigned status as hunters. Right now you are considered an amateur hunter. When you have gained enough skill that the Elders who judge hunting decide that you can hunt a territory by yourself and keep it balanced, you will be considered a Professional Hunter. As with fighting, most adults reach the next status sometime in their lives, and become Honored Hunters. About one in one thousand will become Master Hunters, and one in one hundred thousand become Grande Master Hunters. The best five hundred Grande Master Hunters are given a numbered rank, and the hunter who is judged to be the very best is named the Grande Master Champion of Hunters.

"The ranking of the top five hundred changes whenever a hunt recording is submitted to be judged, and is considered good enough to affect the rankings, so the standings change constantly. Once about seventy years ago over two hundred of the best five hundred hunters all submitted a hunt on the same day, and when all was said and done the man who had been Grande Master Champion of Hunters the day before found that he was suddenly only forty-seventh!"

"That was a bad day for him I think!" Tika laughed.

"Yes it was." Tira agreed with a chuckle. "Though he did regain the championship a few months later, and held it for another six weeks.

"Now we will go to the trading post." she concluded.

"I will race you!" Tika laughed, and they ran laughing through the trees and down the path.

Tika's first screen was a voice and pressure activated computer eight inches by six inches and an inch thick, with forest green back and edges, hidden narrow-projection speakers, hidden microphone and cameras. Charged by motion, light, and heat differential, it was practically indestructible. It came with a fitted leather pouch that hung on the back of her knife belt or backpack.

Every human older than infancy had a screen, of one type or another. The screens most techs used were only an eighth of an inch thick, but such a device was far too fragile for use in the forest.

Till now Tika had shared her mother's screen, and having her own made her feel very grown up and independent.

She activated it as her mother had told her, by writing the word 'on' on the screen with her fingernail.

The first thing her new screen showed her when she turned it on was the Earth hanging in space with a tiny dot in the center blinking red and white. The corners of the screen showed the date and time, an icon marked 'Time Back', two icons marked 'Zoom In' and Zoom Out', and an arrow tipped cross marked 'Rotate'.

"Hello, Tika. I am your new screen." the screen told her in a deep, resonant man's voice. "Do you like my voice? If not, you can choose another."

Tika considered for a moment.

"Can you sound like me?" she asked.

"This is a demonstration of the voice you have chosen." the screen said to her in a little girl's voice. Tika did not think it sounded much like her.

"Can you sound like Tira-Mother? " she asked.

"This is a demonstration of the voice you have chosen." the screen repeated in Tira's voice. Tika thought that was nice, but her mother's was the only voice she heard regularly or often, so she thought of another choice.

"Can you sound like the gray-haired tech woman from the trading post?" Tika asked. The woman Tika asked about served hot meals and soup in the cafeteria, and Tika thought she was the friendliest person in the world.

"Checking for permission. Please wait." the screen said in her mother's voice. About thirty seconds later it said: "Receiving message." The gray haired woman's face appeared in a square window on her screen and spoke to her with a smile.

"Hello Tika." she said, "My name is Indira, and I am flattered that you would consider using my voice for your screen. You have my permission. I hope you are doing well. Say hello to your mother for me." The square with her face blinked out.

The screen said: "This is a demonstration of the voice you have chosen." in Indira's voice.

"I like that." Tika said. "I will choose it."

"You can ask me questions and give me instructions by speaking them, writing them on the screen, or selecting icons by touch. I am set to understand the speech patterns of a child of your age." the screen continued in Indira's voice.

The screen then taught her that the blinking dot showed where she was, (or rather where her screen was), that she could rotate her view of the world by pressing on the ends of the cross, and that by zooming in she could see what was happening anywhere in the world, limited only by privacy and how recently that location had been recorded, or access information or web content associated with the address. The first thing she did was zoom in on herself. The picture of the world grew until it filled the screen, then continued to grow until the sub-continent of India filled most of the screen, and was momentarily outlined and labeled. As she continued to zoom in on herself the Great Indian Forest, the Vishnu Region, and the Northern Zone were outlined and labeled in sequence. When the screen showed an area a little larger than her mother's territory it was outlined and labeled: 'Territory of Tira, daughter of Tima and Zaman'.

The screen stopped zooming in and said: "This Territory was last recorded in detail on October twelfth, 2149." An icon labeled 'Time Forward' appeared, with '10/12/2149' beside it. The picture resumed zooming in until she could see the fallen log she was sitting on, with the tiny blinking red dot on it. She could see the tiny blinking black dot of her mother, labeled 'Tira', where she prepared the evening meal two hundred yards away.

"Can I see now?" Tika asked. The screen switched to a vertically split view, the right half showing her own face, and the left showing a dark view of what she soon realized was her knee. She realized she was seeing the views from her own screen's two hidden cameras. She felt around the top edge of the front and back of her screen until she found where they were by watching when the views were covered.