Part 7

When the adults returned to Tira's clearing they found Pina working on her screen by herself, sitting on the big root outside the den. Tika, Raz and Jena were huddled together at the firepit, doing something on Tika's screen. They all looked up as the adults returned wearing expressions that cut short the children's happy greetings.

"What happened? What is wrong? Where is Jela-Mother?" Jena cried, running to the adults and gripping Tira's hands.

"Menak traded for the territory of Midor, Naz traded for the territory of Baya." Tira stated. "Jela challenged Dern for her territory. Jela won, but it was very close. She is at the med. Her life is not in danger, but she will be in surgery for six more hours as they rebuild her left knee and her right collarbone. She will regain consciousness sometime late tomorrow morning. The Meds will let you see her from eight o'clock, so you can be there when she wakes up.

"Dern is dead."

"Dead? How can she be dead?" Jena asked in confusion.

"Brain injury." Tira answered. "You can watch the recording if you want."

"Yes. Please." Jena nodded.

Tira flashed the recordings, and the children sat down with their screens to watch. When they watched Dern kick Jela's knee, Tika yelped and cringed a fraction of a second before the kick connected, the rest of the children a fraction after. This happened again a second later at Dern and Jela's simultaneous final strikes. Tika and Naz replayed it.

"It is eight seconds." Jena softly said.

"That is about average." Tika stated.

"Eight seconds. And everything can change." Jena said.

"I have seen people die in recordings before." Tika said. "But this is the first time someone I knew died. Jela is sure lucky that Dern's knife hit her collarbone, or that would have been a class five injury for sure."

"You are not sad that your neighbor Dern is dead?" Pina asked emotionally. "I am sad, and I only saw her five times!"

"I am not sad. I did not like Dern." Tika said. "I like Jela, and I am glad that she won. Now she and Jena can live beside us." Tika said.

"I did not know that you did not like Dern!" Tira said, surprised. "Why did you not like her?"

"I used to like her a long time ago, but I am older now, and she still treats me like a baby. I mean she did." Tika stated. "But I knew you would not let me fight her, so I was nice to her instead. I do not think she knew I did not like her."

"That was well done, Tika. Often we must be nice to those we dislike, and it usually shows." Naz said thoughtfully.

"Are you sad, Naz-father?" Raz asked.

"I am sad that Dern is dead." Naz said, putting his arm around his son. "Though she did nothing brilliantly, she did everything well, everything that a Tiger person should. Those like her are the spine of our people.

"But more than that, I feel bad for Jela. I care about her very much, and she was hurt badly today. Also, when she wakes up she will have to deal with having killed Dern. I know she did not mean to kill her, and I do not know how she will feel about it."

"That is how I feel too." Jena said. "I am sad for Dern, but I feel more badly for Jela-Mother."

Pina sniffed loudly, and they all looked at her. Tears were streaming down her face. "I am very sad for Dern." she sobbed. "For her, tomorrow will not happen! All the tomorrows will not happen for her! Her mind does not exist anymore! That is horrible! It makes me afraid to die, and it makes me afraid that one of you will die, or one of my friends from the Children's ground!"

She began crying.

Naz held out his arms to her, and she came over and sat on his lap, the side of her face pressed to his chest as her body was racked by sobs.

"It is all right to cry, small one. We adults cried already."

After a moment Tika turned to her mother and asked; "Should I be sad? Should I cry?"

"Your feelings are right for you, Pina's feelings are right for her." Tira told her gently.

"We must all deal with death in our own way, child." Davdan said. "Each in our own way."

Tika watched Pina cry for a few moments, then went over and hugged her. "My friend Pina, I am sad because you are sad." Tika softly told her. She sat beside Pina on Naz's lap, and he hugged and rocked them both.

"All sadness passes, children." Naz told them quietly. "Remember that. All sadness passes."

No one spoke as Pina's crying gradually faded. All were silent for the next twenty minutes after that, each occupied with their thoughts. It was a phenomenon common to the Tiger People and no others.

Davdan broke the silence. "So, can you tell us what you could not before, Tika? I am curious."

"I can tell you some. I wanted a special knife. I knew I would have to ask an Elder. I knew if I asked you and you said yes, some could say we cheated, because you are my friend. So I had to ask an Elder that does not know us. Jena can say it better." Tika explained.

"Yes Davdan." Jena agreed. "She wished for there to be an exception to the weapons limits made for her, a dispensation because of special circumstances, and worried about accusations of favoritism in the judgment, basically. It turned out that she did not need an exception for what she wanted to do. But she and Raz and I did some research, and in the course of researching we thought of other characteristics that she might like to have in her weapons. In the end, we asked Gutchki of the Polar Bear People, who granted Tika two exceptions, one specific and one general. I will not say what they were, for Tika wishes that to remain a secret until she can show you the weapons she has purchased. Raz was very helpful in ordering them." she snickered. "He really is a genius with tech things."

Raz opened his mouth as if to speak, closed it again, then grinned. "I was very helpful in ordering them." he repeated, and laughed. Then a thought seemed to occur to him. "Davdan, why did you choose twelve billion credits as my budget?"

"I have about four billion in available credits, and about ten billion in easily liquidatable investments. I thought to keep about two billion aside for other uses. That is why I gave you twelve billion." Davdan explained. "I know construction is expensive, if you wish to achieve greatness. Still, I do not expect you to use much of it."

"And how much could you get if you also sold your companies and property?" Raz asked.

Davdan looked at him hard for a moment, then grinned as she answered. "I could get another forty billion credits, and it would take a year to sell it all, if I wanted to get a fair price for it."

There were whistles of exclamation from Naz and Tira.

"Fifty-four giga! You are wealthy indeed, Davdan!" Tira marveled.

"Ha!" Davdan laughed. "I am barely in the top ten thousand wealthiest!"

Then she noticed that of all of them, only Raz seemed unimpressed. "Why, what did you have in mind, Raz?"

"Well, you asked me to design a project that would show the extent of my greatness. I have a project in mind that would do that, but it could not be completed in less than one year and eight months. Not soon enough to be within the six month deadline, but soon enough for it's glory to reflect on you in time for your campaign for Leader of the Council of All Peoples. It would cost up to one hundred seventy billion credits."

Everyone was taken aback.

"One hundred and seventy giga!" Naz exclaimed. "Are you sure, son? What could possibly cost that much wealth?"

"Father, I would build a launch and recovery facility for freight spacecraft." Raz stated solemnly.

"Hmm. For now we will leave aside the questions of the time, and the cost." Davdan said. "But there are other questions. There have been no new spaceports built for over one hundred years. The councils for land use will not allocate the land, as a spaceport represents a huge loss of habitat."

"I understand that, Davdan, but I will not build a spaceport, I will build a launch facility." Raz said. "Please let me explain fully. The space planes that are used to shuttle freight and passengers to and from space stations in low earth orbit work well, but that system has been running at full capacity for over a hundred years. Commercial spaceports were first built on the great dry lakes of the world, and then when the transport tubes replaced long distance air travel, the great airports of the world were gradually converted to spaceports, and space shuttles were built that would land on the shorter runways.

"You know the transport tube cars go so fast, first because they are electromagnetically driven and electromagnetically suspended in the center of the tube, and second because all the air in the tube is pumped out, so there is no friction or drag. They are properly called Superconducting Magnetically Levitated Evacuated Tube Transport. The cars in the intercontinental tubes reach thirty-five thousand miles an hour in the center of their run, and all the acceleration energy is regained when they are decelerated during the last half of the distance.

"Thirty-five thousand miles an hour is more than fast enough to launch to orbit, in fact it is fast enough to launch to the moon. This is how spacecraft are launched on the moon and on space stations. They are magnetically accelerated through an open tube. There is no air there, so they do not have to seal the tube.

"Transport tubes on earth have to be sealed to keep the atmosphere out, and that is why they have not been used to launch spacecraft. You could build a tube up a mountain and launch from the top, but you would have to have a door at the end of the tube to keep the air out, and you would have to be able to open the door very quickly when the spacecraft was coming out. So far, no one has been able to design a door that opens fast enough. Even if you could open the door fast enough, there is another problem. The air at twenty-five thousand feet above sea level is very thin compared to here. Still, to hit it suddenly at thirty-five thousand miles an hour would be like hitting a wall of sand with a flyer.

"I have found a solution to both these problems. Of course, the craft will still experience many g's of deceleration for a moment as it enters the atmosphere. No human or animal could tolerate such forces, so the system could only carry freight. It could carry a lot of freight. Right now, freight accounts for eighty-five percent of the mass carried by space shuttles and rockets. My facility could launch all of that, which would allow them to launch five times as many passengers as they do now. Five times! Now, if they launched five times as many passengers, they will need to launch five times as much freight as they do now. My system, if designed using components common to the major intercontinental transport tubes, could launch thirty times as much freight as they do now!

"This would be an historic leap in the human development of space!" Raz enthused, really getting excited now. "But that is only half of it! Close to the launch facilities I would have another tube facility. It would have a huge entrance, shaped like the inside of the end of a trumpet, a flaring cone. This entrance would be lined with hugely powerful variable magnetic repulsors, and would guide craft into the tube. We wouldn't have to have a door or pump the air out. Descending craft would steer into it to be decelerated, and it would end at the same underground station where the launch tube began. Such a landing facility has been technically feasible for a long time, and requires no innovations. I could build it from components that are already available! But without the launching tube, there was no need for a landing tube."

There was silence for a moment.

"Raz, I know you are brilliant, but you are nine years old." Davdan finally stated. "I doubt even you could learn to engineer such a project in the time allowed."

"Oh, I would not serve as chief engineer on the project, Davdan. I would be the project coordinator, and I would engineer the door system. It is the only real innovation." He paused, grinning.

"All right, I will bite it." Jena laughed after a moment. "How will you open the door quickly enough, and how will you deal with the craft's impact with the air?"

"I will make the door explode!" Raz cried, jumping up and gesturing wildly in his excitement. "The door will be a very thin dome composed of two materials. The outside layer will be explosive, and the inside layer will be a hard plastic that will reflect all of the force of the explosion outwards. The hard plastic layer must absorb exactly enough heat energy from the explosion to vaporize, and it must finish vaporizing immediately after it has finished directing the blast and immediately before the craft hits it. The craft passes through the vaporized plastic layer and exits directly behind the blast, and rides the explosion's shock wave and decelerating gasses, giving it a gradual enough entry into the atmosphere to make the project practical, even with stringent safety margins.

"This is an important part; I am asking for one hundred and seventy billion credits, but that is a guaranteed maximum. It may be possible to build it with as few as one hundred Giga. But we say one hundred and seventy Giga, and say we charge a third of the space planes' freight rates. Even then, this project will still pay for itself in a year! If I build it for one hundred Giga, and we charge competitive rates, it could pay for itself in as little as two months! And after that, everything is easy prey; of at least one hundred fifty billion credits a year! And, it only uses a little over nine thousand square meters of the earth's surface! And, it generates far less noise than a spaceport! And, both the surface use and the noise generated will be at the top of a Himalayan peak, thousands of feet above the treeline, where they will not impact the habitats!"

"Hmm. That is so good, it is scary." Davdan murmured after a moment. "I could not raise more than seventy billion credits in that time, without going public with the project, and we do not want to do that, do we? We want to surprise the world, and we want to own it all if we can.

"Naz, if you succeed in winning more credits than any other Tiger Man has won in six months, how much will you have?"

"I will have over four billion credits if I win more than any Tiger person has won in that time. I doubled my credits with my winnings from bets on Jela's fight. I started today with one hundred and forty Mega, and I now have eight hundred and forty Mega after betting on two events. I have won seven hundred Mega today, about fourteen percent of what I need. At this rate I will reach my initial goal in another three events.

"Perhaps I have aimed too low." he grinned. "The absolute record for winnings over six months' time is held by a tech named MacPhereson. His record is some two hundred and seventy five Giga, which he made betting on the performance of manufacturing companies. Many techs bet on various economic results.

"I will contribute whatever I win to your project, son. It sounds like a good idea."

"I have two point five billion I could contribute, if need be." Menak stated. "My inheritance was substantial."

Davdan turned back to Raz. "Are you sure you can do this, Raz?"

"Davdan, I have worked on this project as a hobby for a year and a half. I have run the numbers every way there is. It will work." Raz stated with certainty. He held Davdan's gaze for four heartbeats.

"All right, build it. You will have the money. And I will get the permits." Davdan stated. "Do you still wish to work on the Enclave house and trading post projects?"

"Yes. All three go together." Raz stated, bringing his hands together and lacing the fingers. "And it is a good sequence. The Enclave house is small, and has a local tube connection. The trading post is moderate in size, and will be served by four locals and the express line to Jaipur. The launching facility will be large, and uses intercontinental tube components.

"Up here," he tapped his head, "I am ready to start work on the launcher. But my hands have never held a power tool, and I have never worked with synthetic materials. Gods above, Tiger People do not even use the wheel!"

He took a deep breath and re-asserted his self-control.

"I am sorry, I am very excited. But there is one thing, Davdan..." He stopped and looked down, and shuffled his feet. "I am sorry, I am uncomfortable with this. Ummm. Here. Tika will be paid for fighting, and Jena for hunting, by well-established automatic accounting procedures that count the times their recordings are viewed. I do not know how Pina will be paid for theoretical cosmology if she makes a discovery..."

"Patents, publishing rights and royalties, research grants, scholarships, fellowships, tenured Professorships, speaking engagements, the Nobel Prize..." Pina rattled off gleefully.

"I see what you are saying." Raz said, re-interrupting his sister.

"Now, when I realized that I could blow the door to make the launcher work, there was a moment when I thought to renounce, and take my work to the open market. I would work entirely over the net, and present myself as an adult, so that I could be taken seriously in negotiations. I have good business analysis programs, and they all agree on what I should ask for in negotiations.

"All revenue from the facility should go to paying off any non-equity debt, until it is retired. No dividends or profits should be paid until then. I should own at least nineteen percent of the facility, the rest owned by capitol investors. And I retain all patents and other intellectual property rights to the exit door, and the processes that manufacture it."

"Gods, I hate it when he talks like that!" Pina stated, and there were chuckles from the others, but Raz was not distracted.

"Ha! So you are fierce, are you boy?" Davdan cackled. "Consider this; I will own the company that we will form to build and operate this facility. I will pay you two hundred million credits a year to work for me, and I will pay you one hundred million credits as a signing bonus right here and now if you agree. This way you are not liable for nineteen percent of the loss if it fails."

Raz grinned. "Consider this;" he returned. "I will own the company, and you can loan me the money to build the facility. This way your investment is a non-equity debt, and you get paid first, starting from the first day of operation. I will give you two points above prime, to ensure that I am a good investment."

Davdan laughed out loud at that. "Hah, you are fierce! Consider this, then; you can have seventeen percent of the company and retain the patent rights you want, and those of us who invest credit will divide the remaining eighty-three percent between us, proportionate to the size of our investment. After the company is formed with our capitol, it will borrow the rest of the construction costs as they arise. Beyond your seventeen percent share of net profits, you will be paid by the company for licensed use of your patents and processes, your work as an engineer, and your work as coordinator of construction, at a generous rate for such things in the tech world. Beyond my share of the profits, I will be paid by the company for the work I will do as general manager, for I will not involve myself if I cannot safeguard the company from errors of business."

"I agree!" Raz shouted, jumping up and down in his excitement.

"Naz? Menak?" Davdan asked.

"It feels fair to me." Naz said, grinning.

"To me as well." Menak nodded.

"I do not know what a 'non-equity debt' is, but I have some credits I could contribute." Tira laughed.

"Me too!" Tika added. "I am wealthy, from my fight with Jena when I became Serious!"

"So am I!" Jena chimed. "Many watched us that day!"

"Wow! Suddenly I live with a pack of capitalist techs!" Jena laughed, and all joined her.

Two hours later Davdan held the corner of her screen to her ear for a moment, then whispered a short reply.

"Meds will arrive soon." she announced. "They are early."

"Ah. I will prepare my den." Tira said, and rose to do so.

Soon the sound of an approaching flyer was heard.

"It is seeming like a space port here already!" Naz chuckled.

A black taxi hovered into view over the treetops, and settled gently at the far end of the clearing. Four figures emerged, three dressed like techs, and one with the pack and status items of a Tiger Man.

The Tiger Man was an elder, gray haired with dark Caucasian features, leaning heavily on his staff and favoring his right leg.

One of the techs was also an elder, a tiny white haired woman with bright blue eyes and a bright smile. She wore black canvas pants and a gray knit sweater.

The two younger techs were a male and a female, both having very short dark hair. The male was tall, with a lanky slouching posture and a huge grin. The female was of average height, and seemed shy. They both wore dark blue business suits, and looked to be in their mid-twenties.

Tira emerged from her den as they walked across the clearing, and they met at the firepit as the flyer lifted into the sky.

The elder Tiger man stepped forward to speak. "Greetings. I am Rabat, of Sri Lanka. Since my retirement, I have become a leading authority on the mental health of Tiger People, and other predatory peoples.

"This is Professor Virginia Watson, of Birmingham England."

The elder Tech stepped forward and bowed a little, a pleasant smile on her serene features.

"She has set new standards in the treatment of psychological trauma. These are her assistants, Doctor Mary Fitzpatrick, and Doctor Achmed Bronchowski."

Davdan stepped forward. "I am Davdan. I thank you for coming." She introduced the rest of the group, ending with Tika and Tira.

Tira nodded respectfully as she was introduced. "Welcome to my den. Would you like something to drink?" She sounded a little nervous.

"No thank you." Prof. Watson declined politely. "I'd like to spend a few hours with you, so if you'll show us into your den, we'll get started."

"All right." Tira agreed, and led the four visitors into her den.

Tika quietly laughed when they were inside the den. "Eyed like to if yool show me, weel get started! Why do Techs talk so funny, and so fast?"

"Actually, most Techs think we talk funny, and they think we talk too slow." Jena giggled. "Most of them live under horrible time pressure, which they choose for themselves, and I think that is why they talk so fast and use contractions. Because they are in such a hurry all the time."

"Contractions... ?" Tika asked.

"Contractions." Pina nodded. "That is where they squish two words together into one, like I'd for I would, or you'll for you will. Most techs speak Standard English, except the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Spanish speakers of the Americas. Standard English is almost the language of humanity, and I think in another hundred years it will be the only language spoken among the techs. More Chinese speakers learn to speak English in a year than English speakers learn Chinese, for instance.

"It was thought for a while that cheap and reliable translating software would demotivate people from learning other languages, and so keep more languages alive, but it has not. I do not need to learn to speak Spanish to speak face to face with a Spanish speaking person, since I can use the translator. The thing is, if I continue to do that very often, say at least once a week or so for half an hour, I am hearing each of our sentences in both languages, and I will eventually find that I have learned to speak Spanish, and no longer need the translator.

"We speak Formal Standard English, because the first Elders of the predatory peoples thought that it provided clearer communication, and that is crucial for us. When you have to whisper to someone on a night hunt and they are fifteen feet away, it is far easier to understand Formal Standard English due to its lack of contractions and slang. Compared to the techs we speak slowly and enunciate with exaggerated clarity for the same reason. The few slang words we use most are shortened versions of words or phrases that are very common in our lifestyle, like med for medical clinic, or Med with a capital M for Doctor of Medicine, or the hundred. The old Elders also thought Formal Standard English resisted language evolution more strongly than Standard English. Of course, except for slang, there is little evolution of language now, because we all learn to speak with the aid of standardized pronunciation and grammar recordings, but the first Elders did not know that would happen. And every people has a few slang words and phrases that are unique to them."

"Well said, Pina." Naz congratulated.

"Thank you, Naz-Father. I speak to many techs on screen, so I was curious about it." Pina acknowledged.

"They make me laugh." Jena giggled. "Chinese sounded more strange, in fact it sounded very strange, but it is not funny like the techs' Standard English."

"They made me laugh for a while too, but some physics researchers became very angry when I giggled at them." Pina said, laughing as she remembered. "And after a while I became accustomed to it."

"I liked the Chinese." Tika stated. "I think it would be fun to learn to talk like that. Maybe I will ask Kwan Mei to teach me after my tournament."

"Your tournament?" Davdan inquired.

"At the gathering. You said to Ling Rel, that it would be like a Tournament. If I beat everyone, will I be the Grande Champion?"

Davdan's eyebrows knit in concentration for a moment. "I seem to remember that when I said that to Ling Rel, you were talking to Kwan Mei."

"I was." Tika agreed. "I was asking her how soy sauce is made, but I could still hear you. So will I, Davdan? If I beat everyone, will I be the Grande Champion?"

Davdan looked at her a long moment before answering. "I guess you will, child."

"I will train hard." Tika solemnly stated. "I will be the Grande Champion."

"Perhaps you will." Davdan said after a moment. "You know that if you do, you will be famous. You will be one of the most famous people who have ever lived. You heard us speak of protecting you from this?"

"Yes, Davdan." Tika said.

"And what are your thoughts on this?"

"Well, yesterday when Tira-Mother beat Paginna, many called Tira-Mother on her screen. She talked to those she knew, and recorded a message for those she did not know. That is being famous, right?"

The adults chuckled.

"I think you understand." Davdan said, giving Tika's hair a playful tousle.

"And if they come here, we can hunt them." Tika stated seriously.

"That is true." Davdan agreed. "If any are foolish enough to come here when the holders of these territories have banned uninvited visiting, they can be hunted, or challenged."

Just then Rabat emerged from the den. "Tika? May I speak with you?"

Tika went to join the grizzled elder. They sat on the roots outside the den and talked quietly together.

"She will be famous, whether she wins the Grande Championship or not." Naz stated with surety. "And I think she will win it. I will bet all of my credits on it. And on each of her matches, most likely. I have never met anyone like her."

He paused and thought for a moment. "I will do it now." He took out his screen and worked for a minute. "There. I have bet eight hundred million credits that Tika will win the Grande Championship in less than seven months, and will take the highest odds. All they know about her is her age, and her size, and they can watch the recording of her fight with Jena for Serious last year. Now we will see if I get any takers.

All waited patiently for two minutes, then responses began appearing on Naz's screen

"Ahh! There are many who wish to bet with me! Let me see what kind of odds ... Ahh! There is someone in Sao Paulo who is bidding against another in Johannesburg. They must both think I am an idiot!

"There, it is done! The one in Sao Paulo is offering seventeen thousand to one odds, and the African will not go higher. I will take that! Done!"

He sat back and chuckled. "If Tika wins, I will have ... Thirteen trillion, six hundred billion credits! I think I had better run a financial status check!" He wrote a quick sign, and had his answer back in a moment. "He has it! He can back up the bet! Gods! Who has thirteen trillion liquidatable credits to bet with?"

"There are maybe ten who could do such a thing." Davdan said thoughtfully. "Of them, there are perhaps five who would consider it. None are based in Sao Paulo, but then, those as wealthy as that are never really based in any one place.

"You know, if I did not know Tika, I would not give a seven-year-old Serious fighter with three real fights under her belt even one chance in seventeen thousand of becoming Grande Champion in six months. Perhaps not even one in one million. No, if I had not seen Tika beat Menak and Jeng and Chen, I would say such a thing was impossible."

"Ah, but we did see it. What do you think her chances are, really?" Menak asked.