Hunters In The Sky: Book Two of The Rational Future Series - Metric Edition

Hunters In The Sky

By

Wayne Edward Clarke

Book Two of

The Rational Future Series

With Metric (SI) measurement units

A Smashwords Digital Production

Copyright2015

By

Wayne Edward Clarke

All Rights Reserved

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between the characters in this book and any real person living or dead is strictly coincidental.

The purchaser of this eBook may copy this eBook to any computers, eBook reading devices, or backup digital storage media that the purchaser personally owns. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people by the purchaser. This eBook may not be loaned by the purchaser to other people unless the purchaser is also loaning the eBook reading device that this eBook will be read on. This eBook may not be copied to any device or media that is not personally owned by the purchaser. The purchaser must delete this eBook from any devices or media that the purchaser is selling, giving away, or disposing of. For the purposes of this statement of rights; corporations are not people. Corporations must purchase one copy of each eBook for each human person associated with the company who will read them.

Books By Wayne Edward Clarke:

Science Fiction:

The Rational Future Trilogy:

Book 1; People Of The Tiger

Book 2; Hunters In The Sky

Book 3; Victory Or Extinction

Epic Fantasy:

The Nexus Of Kellaran Trilogy:

Book 1; Blessings Of A Curse

Book 2; The Fire And The Storm

And coming in 2015;

Book 3; Chaos Of A Demon War

These novels are available in popular eBook formats at

Smashwords.com who have provided format conversions

And at leading eBook retailers

And on popular eBook apps for Apple and Android devices.

Forward

This is the Metric Edition. Measurements are given in Metric (SI) units.

It's been at least thirteen years since I started writing this trilogy, and many things have changed since then. For instance; when I began there were no 'tablet' or 'pad' style computers available in the world, so they were science fiction. Now they are reality, and they're everywhere, much sooner than I expected. This inability to accurately predict the pace of innovation and the course of the future is the biggest problem with writing science fiction, but we do what we can.

Many of the characters in this book who are closely related and of the same gender have very similar names, (Tika daughter of Tira, Raz son of Naz, etc.), so names must be read carefully. This is done to show relationship in a subculture that does not use family names.

The characters who are from the predator peoples in this story speak Formal Standard English, which does not use contractions like doesn’t, or you’ll, or isn’t. It may seem like they speak strangely, but the reasons for this are valid, and are explained in Book One.

The lifestyles of the predator peoples in this book, especially regarding fighting and homes, are completely frivolous plot devices, only designed to contribute to a good story.

Many of the other sociological changes that have taken place in this series are practical solutions to global problems. They include policies, infrastructure, and/or laws dealing with the environment, climate change, overpopulation, transportation, human genetic engineering, recreational alcohol and drug use, and sexuality. I can’t say for sure whether they will work until we try them, but I believe they are the best solutions available.

The thinking that led to these solutions is bio-sociological engineering, and I developed it from bio-sociology as introduced and advanced by Professor Edward. O. Wilson, and sociobiology as introduced and advanced by the zoologist Dr. Desmond Morris.

Since languages began they have constantly changed and evolved. The advents of written language and printing both slowed language evolution, but it still goes on. Sometimes the resulting conventions that make up ‘proper English’ don’t make a lot of sense, and they're slightly different in every English-speaking country. In most of these cases I’ve caved and used the American conventions anyway in order to avoid irritating my readers who are sensitive about these things, like writing ‘seven thousand, three hundred and fifty-five’. It makes no sense that the compound words for numbers up to one hundred are hyphenated, like fifty-five, and the others aren’t, like three thousand. But I go with it anyway.

However, there is one English convention that I absolutely refuse to follow because it distorts the emotional connotations of the writing. I’ll point it out here so that you’ll know that it’s not a mistake; I’m doing it on purpose.

If a quoted sentence is a question or an exclamation, it is conventionally written as a complete sentence within quotations, for example;

Get down! she yelled. Or;

Is that right? he asked.

However if a sentence that would normally end in a period is a quotation, correct English says that it should be ended with a comma. For example;

I live here, he said.

But the comma makes it a sentence fragment rather than a complete sentence, and leaves the reader hanging, giving a different emotional feel to the writing compared to the way I would write it, which is;

I live here. he said.

I only use a comma to end a quotation if it truly is a sentence fragment, because the sentence was interrupted where a comma would normally go. For example;

I live here, he said, And you’re not welcome.

I suppose in that case I shouldn’t capitalize the word ‘And’, since it’s not really the first word in a sentence, but it bugs me if I don’t.

It’s hard to change what is considered Correct English, but I hope that other writers who read my books will agree with me about these points and do the same in their own writing, and that eventually doing it our way will be correct.

I declare and retain my complete ownership of all intellectual property rights in this novel, including the copyright of the story, and the Industrial Design and/or Patent rights of all of the original technological concepts and devices described therein.

Wayne Edward Clarke,

January 16, 2015

Hunters In The Sky

Chapter 1

August 16th, 2155

It had been almost three weeks since all of The Green Band had been together, and now they had arrived at a gathering called by Tira at her den, to announce and celebrate her temporary retirement from competitive blade fighting. Her pregnancy was entering her second trimester, so she would retire from fighting until her child had passed Infancy and become a Training Child, in six and a half years.

Her quadmate Jela was also temporarily retiring from fighting, and for the same reason, but this was less momentous than Tira’s retirement, since Tira was retiring while still Grande Champion of the world, ranked first and most dangerous of the armed fighters of all Peoples.

The green band now officially included Pabano; retired High Elder of The Jaguar People, twice Grande Champion, and Davdan’s lifelong love.

Welcome to the club, Tira my love! Davdan laughed as she raised a toast with a glass of champagne. "First me, then Tika, and now you, the only three fighters to ever retire while holding the Grande Championship!

To Tira!

To Tira! the entire group called after her, grinning and clinking glasses.

Thank you. Tira graciously told them, smiling proudly, and they all sipped the delicious beverage in unison.

It is so good having you all here again. she continued. "We see each other regularly, but it has been a while since we were all together.

And now, I will make it official. she said as she picked up her screen and sent her notice of retirement to the website of The Council of Fighting Judges. Menak has made a point of not checking the standings since Tika retired. When she did, and I regained the championship, he was still ranked second. Now that I am retired, we will see where he stands.

If I was still ranked second, I just became Grande Champion. Menak grinned. If not, I will challenge for the title. I doubt it will take long for the new rankings to be posted. They have known for weeks that Tira would retire today. I have trained hard again, for the last two months, in case I have been ranked down.

I am sorry to disappoint you, my love. Tira informed him. You hold the third rank. Ling Rel has been declared Grande Champion. She challenged Tai Truong at his territory two weeks ago to solidify her position at number two, beating him convincingly in six moves. She only took two class one injuries, and she is cleared to fight now. Tai is still out for med, probably for another three weeks. He got cut up pretty good. Samuk has the second rank.

And Shaka? Tika asked as she helped herself to some chocolate-cherry cake.

Retired after the Grande Tournament. Davdan informed them. I heard he took some bad nerve damage in his match with Tai Truong then, and apparently it has not healed well. I imagine he will give it a few more months of physio and retraining, and try another round of surgery then if necessary. If he plans on coming out of retirement at all.

If you plan to challenge Ling Rel for the title, you should hurry, my love. Jela advised Menak. I imagine that if you do not, Samuk will challenge her soon, and then you will have to wait for their injuries to heal.

Good point. I will do it now. Menak nodded as he picked up his screen.

Will you want some coaching, Menak? Tika asked between bites of cake.

I have followed your teachings faithfully, Tika, and Davdan’s, from our recorded sessions before the tournament. Menak told her, still working on his screen. But I welcome you to help me prepare for her. I have the recordings of you preparing Tira to fight her at the tournament, but I imagine you might offer different strategies for me to fight her.

I will. Tika nodded.

She has accepted my challenge, and asks that it take place at her territory in eighteen hours. Menak nodded. Apparently she has a social engagement this evening. I have agreed. So I am off to China in the morning, early.

I am not getting very good odds, betting your fight. Naz stated as he worked on his screen. Ling Rel is barely the favorite, at one point three to one. About thirty-eight percent of gamblers think you will win.

We will come with you, of course, and await you at the trading post there. Tira stated with a smile, and Jela nodded as well.

Oh? You will not join him at the challenge? Slin asked, surprised.

We would, if they were fighting anywhere but at her home territory, with her as the challenged fighter. Tira told him. Under those circumstances, it is considered rude for the challenger to arrive with a party, unless it has been agreed beforehand that both fighters will have their entourages present.

As it is, there will only be the two of us there, and one of her young students, who will record the third camera view. Menak mused. Fights under those circumstances have a unique mood; private and intense, though less so this time since I will not be challenging her for territory or mating rights, only status.

Like Tira’s fight, the day we all met. Pina mused.

There was a pause as they remembered that day, and smiled.

How are your projects coming along? Tira asked, changing the subject.

Ah. Well we took the gravity-constricted fusion rocket engine that we had designed for spacecraft, and adapted it. Pina explained. "Soon we should have our first gravity-constricted fusion-powered electricity generating station. Along with the advantages of our fusion process, it converts the fusion energy to electricity with a new and advanced thermocouple device we came up with. It is a significant development in human achievement, I think. We can build them for a tenth of the initial cost of a Tokamak-style fusion reactor with a steam turbine generator, and produce electricity at a tenth the cost per megawatt, at most.

"We will build the first one beside Raz’s freight launchers. The launchers use a lot of power, with a very intermittent draw, so his first one has been causing big problems for the electricity grid in northern India. They will not let him build any more until he generates his own power for them, which prompted us to think of the generator design. It has the extreme advantage of being able to go from zero to maximum electricity production, and back to zero, very quickly, easily, and on short notice."

We have modified Tika’s plan to retrieve 16 Psyche, the biggest iron-nickel asteroid. Raz told them. At first, it seemed to make the most sense to move it into the Earth-Moon system, and then start making ships and things out of it. But Gods, when you start doing the math of it! 16 Psyche masses almost twenty-two quintillion metric tons! Or as Brits like Mike Billington would say; twenty-two million, million, million tons! Two point one nine times ten to the nineteenth kilograms! It is two hundred and twenty kilometers long! Call it one hundred and forty miles long by ninety wide!

Okay, we see that it is very very big! Naz laughed.

Yes, the amount of energy required to move it is colossal, and so is the time and the cost, and if we move it too quickly, or fail to do it perfectly, it could destabilize the orbits of other asteroids, or groups of asteroids. Raz continued.

"So then we considered just leaving it there, and making ships and components out of it, right where it is in the asteroid belt. But then we realized that almost all of the ships will be delivered to customers in Earth orbit, and that everything and everyone needed to make them would need to be transported to the asteroid belt and back, and we realized that while the ‘Leave It There’ plan may be more affordable in the short term, it is many times more expensive over the long term, and we will be mining the asteroid for many decades.

So we have made a compromise plan. We will start making things out of it, and start moving it at the same time, and move it inward nice and slowly over about fifteen to twenty-five years, depending on how our fusion rocket development goes.

My space-plane conversions are ahead of schedule, Tika revealed, And four of them are already finished, with up to eight passenger seats each!

Eight?! Jela marveled. How do you fit eight seats in what was a fighter plane?!

"Well, last-generation British Aerospace SuperHarriers came with a two-person cockpit for a pilot and an observer, and huge internal bomb and missile bays. We thought we would have to use the weapons bays for extra fuel tanks for out-of-atmosphere operations, but they are not big enough, so now we are using a rather ugly external rocket and fuel tank system for lifting to space, and the tanks are actually capable of flying themselves back to base after they are dropped. They are mostly tanks, they only have enough rocket thrust to lift their own mass when they are full, though they add good thrust when they get closer to empty. So we had a lot of spare weight capacity in the plane itself, or extra thrust if you think about it that way.

We will use the extra thrust to deal with a slightly less aerodynamic shape, after we have expanded the cockpit to three seats, and put six removable passenger pods where the weapons bays were. The seats in the passenger pods are rather severely reclined; you are more lying down than sitting, but they are very comfortable, and your head and shoulders are still close enough to vertical that you can look around comfortably. Of course the windows are fake, they are just vid displays that show outside camera views, but you cannot tell unless you are really looking for it.

She had been calling up vid on her screen and showing it around as she spoke. "I tell you, this has cost more than I thought. The space-taxi service will still be profitable, but only barely, and only because I bought the one hundred and sixteen SuperHarriers almost for free as obsolete surplus, and much of the work for the space-plane conversions has been contributed by The Prodigies and by techs who are preservationists, who would do almost anything to save these antiques from the recycling bin. And because I can count on docking and refueling at your space station in low Earth orbit. And of course, because it is a unique service; no one else is offering point-to-point taxi service from anywhere on the Earth to orbit and back. And because there are a lot of very wealthy people who are willing to pay a lot of extra credits for such a service.

"It helps that we offer very cheap luggage and freight rates on Raz’s freight launcher, because there is no room for luggage in the SuperHarriers unless we replace one or more of the passenger pods with luggage pods, and that would be a very expensive way to move luggage. And of course; we needed to be associated with the launchers, which emit no gasses, in order to avoid paying a penalty for emissions when we burn fuels other than hydrogen.

We will fly to orbit for the first time in less than two weeks, and carry our first passengers in about a month.

How is our space station coming along? Jela asked as she admired the flight test video of the bright white and pink aircraft.

It is about seven percent finished. Raz reported, and flashed them a link. "This is live video of the construction. You can see we have a nice cluster of Bigelow expandable habitat modules, and our main girder is almost done. We are only using one-twelfth of our launch capacity for construction materials.

"Our choke point is personnel. It cost a lot to get our construction teams up to a commercial space station on short notice on the commercial shuttles, because you have to pay enough to bump an existing reservation to do it. But you would not believe the cost of transporting them from the commercial space stations to ours! There is no available inter-orbital capacity, we had to buy and modify a lunar hopper and have it lifted to low Earth orbit from Copernicus Base, and that cost a fortune even compared to the credits we are talking about here! And it is a damn slow solution, the damn thing only thrusts at a third of a gravity fully loaded!"

Well you know, Tika stated, tapping furiously at her screen, My space planes are an expensive alternative to the commercial shuttles for lifting people to orbit, but once they are up there, they would be very competitive for inter-orbital shuttle work. If you want to pay for a lot of fuel, we can make the trip at up to 3 gravities acceleration, but I think one gee would be fast enough. And if you were willing to pay up front so I can hurry the conversions and certifications even more, I can let you have the use of the first four and their pilots in as little as five days.

Gods, that would be great! Raz enthused, busily tapping at his own screen now. How much would it cost to have the use of those and the next eight, as soon as humanly possible?

Ah, after the first four, if I hire every available worker and rent more tooling and facilities, and go to three shifts per day, I can get you two more every three and one third days. And under those conditions, it would cost you… this much per craft, fuel and pilot included, per round trip flight from the Hitachi station to yours at one G, with you contributing the cost of lifting the fuel. If you book them for the rest of your station’s construction. They will need to return to my facility in Jaipur after every fifth trip for service.

Damn. Raz grinned, and reached into his pack for a small and ornate blue bottle, then rubbed it. The bottle and Naz’s screen then made a quiet sound like lightning striking, and Naz tapped his screen, whereupon his face appeared in a wavering little hologram in the bottle, dressed as an Arabian genie, and Raz’s face appeared in Naz’s screen.

What is thy boon, my son? Naz asked, this voice emitting from the bottle with deep, echoing reverb.

Naz-Father, are you really going to make me go through the whole thing, when I am sitting right here? Raz asked him with a smile and a bit of exasperation.

I am! Naz laughed. And considering what you are going to get for it, I think that it is worth the effort!

Good point. Raz grinned, and held the bottle up before himself with both hands. Oh Mighty Money Genie, the boon I ask is this; that you grant me six point three seven billion credits, so that I can rent twelve of Tika’s space planes for three months! We will be finished construction of the station in one-quarter the time, and I will pay you back with inflation plus one percent interest on the debt within one year!

Thy wish is granted, my son! Naz declared, accompanied by another little flash and crackle of lightning. Your account should have the funds within three minutes!

Thank you, Oh Mighty Money Genie! You are great and wondrous!

Yes, I know. Naz laughed, and ended the call.

Excellent. Tika stated with great satisfaction. Have your people call mine, Raz. I will even lift some of your people to orbit and back in my flights at cost, just to be nice about it. Though you are paying me handsomely for inter-orbital transport, there is no use in my planes going up there and back down empty.

Thank you Tika. Raz grinned, still busy on his screen. That works very well for me. Even though your launches at your cost are still more than the commercial shuttles’ fares, they are less than what I have been paying to bump existing bookings.

I thought you all were one company now, basically. Slin commented.

No, Tika’s stuff is still separate. Pina told him. "She and almost all of the businesses and capital of The White Elves are one entity, and she owns most of it and manages all of it. The rest of us excluding Naz-father are one entity, including the assets of The Prodigies as an organization, and most of them as individuals as well, and a few people we or they know. But we are still private; we have not sold stock to the public. Raz, Davdan, Michael Billington, and myself, are fairly equal co-managers of our operations. Though Tika’s organizations and ours often work together closely, as we have today.

"And of course, Naz-Father is still worth over twelve times as much as the rest of us put together, from the remainder of his winnings on the great bet, and the interest he earns on it. Though we are borrowing it from him as fast as we can integrate the additions to our plans, for the most part.

We tend to be limited to how fast we can train personnel. Of course, it helps that The Educational Institute of The Prodigies is willing to institute new courses in the subjects and skills we need, and recruit for them on our demand, since we are financing the educations of any who will volunteer for them. This is especially handy, since much of what we are doing has never been done before, and there are no existing courses in our specific applied technologies.

Ah. Slin nodded, still watching the orbital construction video. And who owns the Prodigies’ Institute? Your group or Tika’s?

Neither, it is fully independent and non-profit. Though both of our groups contributed significantly to its initial construction and equipment costs. It has been so successful that they have had to lower their standards in order to expand quickly enough to avoid making a profit. The average intelligence scores of the original prodigies was over one hundred and eighty, and now they are accepting scores as low as one sixty-five, and teaching them from grade one to post graduate, and in every field of study imaginable. There is a child whose education they are administering who is starting the first grade at two years, three months of age, though she does not attend the institute personally, she learns remotely from her home in Managua.

Wow! That is amazing! Slin said, and the rest agreed with him.

When my brothers and sisters are born, I will be monitoring the state of their development carefully. Tika stated. When I was an infant, Tira-Mother was pure Tiger People in the way she treated me, and it was wonderful. But, since Tiger people are very casual in teaching their infants, and expend no more effort than necessary to teach them not much more than the necessary basics until they become Training Children at six years of age, I think I would have thrived just as much if my early training had been somewhat more intensive. It is a wonderful thing to spend your infancy with no pressure to achieve, in a life dedicated to wonder and enjoyment, and I agree that it is great for our personal development. But whenever Tira-Mother told me that she had finished teaching me my lessons for that day, during every day when I was an infant, I would have been just as happy or happier to keep learning for a while longer, and I am sure I could have learned much faster during the time we did spend. I just never thought to question her teaching program in any way. Anyway, I will see if my siblings will enjoy more early education, and how much more they can thrive on.

Ah. No doubt you are right. Tira mused as she laid a hand on her tummy and smiled at her unborn, though her pregnancy wasn’t showing yet. "Considering the pace of your development since we formed the green band, in every way except fighting, compared to its pace before that, the difference is dramatic. I think that it is obvious that I held you back from reaching your potential, though I did not realize it at the time. You were such a completely obedient child, your progress was faster than average, and you seemed so happy with everything I was doing, I never thought to question my program either.

I encourage you to help me with your brother’s training, in every way, right from the beginning of his life.

As do I with your sister. Jela smiled, caressing her own abdomen.

Speaking of my brother and sister, Tika grinned as she rubbed Tira’s belly, I assume you both went for your first trimester med exams and scans yesterday?

We did. Jela nodded. We knew that our children were likely to be developing early and small, as you did, so rather than ask the Meds if their development was normal, we asked if their development was the same as yours, compared to the scans Tira had taken when she carried you. And my daughter’s is, she is almost exactly the same as you were at this stage. This supports our hopes that your sisters will be like you, and not like your father. His pre-natal scans were very normal, and he was a bit bigger than normal, and none of our children resemble him in any way so far.

My son is not the same as you were, Tika my love, but he is not like your father or a normal fetus either. On the other hand, since he is exactly the same as all of his brothers, we feel safe in assuming that his development is normal for a male elf, which none of us have ever seen. Though I still feel strange using that word, referring to you and your siblings as elves. There is still so much mythical and pop culture baggage associated with the word.

Yes, but it is mostly all positive connotations, Tika nodded, "And I needed some word to use for us, or we would have been stuck with the scientific term that Rabat coined for us, which is now scientifically official; Homo Velox Parum. Fast little humans. It is apt I suppose, but it does not have much ring to it.

"They will be stout little boys, my brothers, or so it seems so far. All the males that have been scanned so far, and I assume this includes yours Tira-Mother, have higher than normal bone and tissue density, less body fat than normal, and are wider in the hips and shoulders than normal as well, though it seems all of them will only be a bit taller than the girls. That is, assuming that extrapolating from their present state of development is valid, which it may not be.

Still, so far, everything I have felt about them that I attribute to genetically programmed knowledge has been consistent with the results. At this point I am positive that I was right about them in every way. Already they are far more uniform than twenty thousand fetuses could ever be, by any other explanation.

All of which is great news and a huge relief! Menak emphatically stated.

Indeed! Naz agreed as he raised his glass for a toast. To healthy little baby elves!

The sentiment was enthusiastically shared by all, as glasses were touched and sipped.

Speaking of healthy little elves, we have not seen you move for weeks, Tika, and I truly miss it. Naz admitted, a little bashfully. Though it is not a usual activity at a gathering, I would be pleased if you would now train Menak for his challenge tomorrow.

Really?! Tika grinned in surprise as she looked around and saw that they were all in agreement with Naz. Well I will be happy to do so, but that will not really be a very good example of what my moves are like now, as I will be trying to move like Ling Rel as I prepare Menak to face her. So, I will show you something neat, first.

She activated one of the high-quality camera/microphones that were mounted in trees and camouflaged around the edge of the clearing, then asked; May I borrow your staff, Davdan?

What? You fight with the staff now too? Davdan laughed. Are you not a little young for an elder’s weapon?

Well I know some staff moves, but you will have to judge for yourself whether they would be of any use in a real staff fight. Tika giggled as she moved to the center of the clearing, and used her screen to make sure that her feet were placed in her stance exactly and in a very specific location in relation to the camera that was recording her. She tossed her screen 6 meters into her pack, and went fully into her stance; feet wide, right foot ahead of left, the staff held level before her, balanced in both hands.

All right, I will do the sequence three times, once at half speed, once at full speed, and once at double speed. So you should hold your applause until it is all finished.

She went through the sequence. It was strange and beautiful the first time, breathtaking the second time, and unbelievable the third; so fast that the moves could not have been discerned it they hadn’t seen them in the first two repetitions, the staff whooshing and almost whistling through the air.

She smiled and nodded as she retrieved her screen from her pack. The rest applauded, cheered her, and stated their amazement.

"Now the thing is, that is the sequence I have devised to win the final scene of a game called ‘Ogre Attack.’ It is a virtual reality game, played with goggle screens and earphones, and the camera input decides what your character does in the game. It is a very simple game by today’s standards; the whole download is only twelve gig, but it is so well-made and well-designed that it is very addictive. It seems very realistic when you are in it.

"In the first stage of the game you are standing on two little platforms shaped like feet that are floating in the air at the top of a bottomless pit, in a huge cave lit by big bonfires. The pit is beneath you in every scene, it is always round and about three meters wide. Then more little foot-shaped platforms appear and you have to step onto them with your toes at the toe end of the step, and the ones you were standing on disappear. Sometimes only one step appears at a time, and sometimes as many as six, so you have choices. It requires a lot of trial and error to figure out the moves that will allow you to make the steps, and the right moves are slightly different for almost everyone, depending on their height, weight, and other physical characteristics. The staff version is the hardest, because in a lot of the moves if you do not have the staff swinging right, you will have the wrong momentum for the move, and there are a lot of moves that need a jump and a spin to make the steps. After a while you realize that it is teaching you kicks that flow with the staff moves, because if you do not swing your leg that way, you do not make the step.

In the first level there are twenty scenes, and you only have to make the steps, but the sequences get harder with each scene. In the second level you go through the same twenty scenes again with the same sequences of steps, but you have to dance the steps while defending yourself from ogres who are attacking you from all directions, and so you have to figure out the exact moves that will allow you to triumph while dancing the steps, but they only attack you one at a time. Sometimes there is no way to use the same moves to dance the steps that you have been using, and defeat the ogres at the same time, so then you have to redesign your whole sequence of moves from there. Like the steps, the ogre attacks are always exactly the same every time you play the same scene at the same level. In the third level they attack you two at a time, and you still have to make the same steps, and three attack at once in the fourth level. In every level after that it does the same thing, but faster. The three sequences I just did are from the last scene in the fourth, eighth, and twelfth stages. I am pretty sure that no one else ever got that far.

She had played advertising recordings of the game being played while she explained this, and by now the rest were all watching it on their screens.

Now, I’ll play you recordings of my character doing that in the game in those stages. I’ll flash them to you.

It was even more amazing to watch a slightly cartoonish version of Tika go through the same moves while using them to defend herself against the constantly renewed simultaneous attack of three ogres and while having to place her feet precisely in the constantly shifting footprints.

After they had gone through reactions similar to what her live performance of the moves had elicited, Tika’s grin was even more smug.

Now, to show you how well I have learned that sequence, I will use the vid that I just danced, and input it directly into the game, overlaying the ogres and the pit and the steps onto my vid recording, but not the background of the cave, so that you can see for sure that it is the vid that I just recorded.

Tika played the video. Though she had done the moves blind, when they were inputted into the game, every swing and kick scored on an ogre, every step was perfectly placed on a footprint.

It was such a mind blowing performance that none of the others had any response for a few seconds after it was finished.

I can guess your response, Tika giggled, "And I thank you, but we have inflated my ego enough for one day, so we will move on before I spend another five minutes being congratulated and admired.

Menak, I offer three strategies to use against Ling Rel, but I am seventy-eight percent certain that Plan A will work, so we will spend about fifty percent of our time on that, thirty percent on plan B, and twenty percent on plan C. This will require perfect timing…

The next morning at 07:32, Tika, Pina, and Slin sat in Tika’s kitchen, enjoying hot chocolate after breakfast, while Menak, Tira, Naz, and Jela were seated in a booth in a trading post near the north coast of China. The two groups were in communication via their screens.

I have just sent the message to Ling Rel. Menak stated as he touched his ‘send’ icon, and read it out. "It says: ‘I am running behind schedule, but I will be there to fight on time, I guarantee it; Menak.’

Has anyone ever tried this before?

Not that I know of. Tika smiled. And Menak, I am unable to locate Samuk at this moment, but he was last seen at the Intercontinental tube station in Shanghai. Be alert today.

I… see. Menak slowly nodded. We can spare twenty minutes. Give me what preparation for Samuk you can in that time.

Forty-one minutes later Menak was jogging through the Chinese forest, and slowed as Tika’s voice came over his earphone.

Twelve meters more, and, five more, two… Good, maybe fifteen centimeters forward… And mark it. she instructed, and he took off his pack and set it down at the indicated spot. He did his stretches and warm-ups, took off his knife belt, held his knife in his left hand, and took a runner’s ready position beside his pack.

At home, Tika was watching on split screen, half showing the view from Menak’s headband camera, half showing a live satellite view of the ground around Ling Rel’s den.

She is ready and in position, as is her third view cam operator. Tika reported. She is standing forty-five centimeters closer to you than we expected.

Menak moved back the same distance.

Three, two, one, go. Tika instructed, and Menak took off running.

He had started a careful one hundred meters from Ling Rel’s den, just far enough to be sure he was out of her view, while having an unobstructed path between the trees to her clearing.

She spotted him at thirty-seven meters distance, running toward her in a full sprint, with all of the considerable speed that he was capable of.

He comes. Be ready with the call. she told her student in Chinese.

The fourteen year old girl stood poised with her screen, ready to record the bout, watching the clock. He will be late. she stated, to which Ling Rel did not reply.

Ling Rel expected Menak to slow as he approached, and when she realized he would not and that he planned a running attack, she hurriedly prepared herself to counter the leaping attack she expected at the end of his run. His leap never came, instead he just poured on a last-moment burst of speed and ran right into her at his fastest possible run.

She might have been able to adjust her defense quickly enough, but a fraction of a second before Menak impacted with her, her student called Begin!, further distracting her at the crucial moment. The impact happened as the g phonic in the word was pronounced.

Ling Rel slipped his left-handed knife strike at her own knife arm and tried to stab him in the abdomen, hopefully in his heart, but only managed a deep wound in the skin and muscle of his chest. Though she cut a lot of meat, it did not prove to be a wound that inhibited him very much.

Then his right elbow connected with her cheekbone with crushing force, just before his body impacted hers with incredible momentum and he struck her in her right thigh with his left knee.

She was knocked backward over three meters and rolled to a crumpled stop. He stumbled over her as he tried to keep his footing and fell forward beyond her, turning his momentum into a shoulder roll that brought him immediately back to his feet. He passed his knife to his right hand as he quickly turned to begin another attack, but she lay in an awkward heap, obviously unconscious.

Before Menak could even call his victory, Samuk dropped out of the trees only 3 meters away and yelled; I challenge you now! as he absorbed his impact and bounced into a two-step attack.

Right vee! Tika barked, her voice sudden and loud in Menak’s earphone. He immediately bounced back and to his right, then bounced forward and right, turning to continue facing his slightly smaller opponent, taking him too far to Samuk’s left to allow Samuk a right-handed knife attack, as Samuk’s forward momentum was too much to cancel immediately. As Samuk tried to adjust to Menak’s lightning-quick dodge, Menak slashed at him, scoring the outside of Samuk’s upper left arm.

A med flyer roared into the air above the clearing, almost standing on its tail in the air as it decelerated hard from high speed, less than four seconds after Menak had impacted with Ling Rel. Ling Rel’s student had made a choked sounding cry, dropped her screen, and ran to her trainer as soon as it was obvious that the woman was unconscious.

Since the Meds had been called to attend after Ling Rel’s fight, and that fight was now completed, nothing would deter them from treating her. Anything that happened after that was none of their affair, and if Menak or Samuk impeded them in any way, they could be charged with interfering with the administration of medical help to a patient; a fairly serious crime.

Menak and Samuk had two choices, they could continue fighting, since they were not between the meds and Ling Rel, or they could call a pause to the combat to move far enough to not risk impeding the Meds.

They both chose to try to end the fight before the Meds became an issue. After Menak had slashed his arm, Samuk took two more steps to take him beyond the range of any follow-up attack Menak might offer, while swinging and clenching his left arm to test its injury. Since it was mostly unimpaired and there was no sign that it would bleed too heavily, he quickly turned left to face his opponent again.

Menak pressed his attack as quickly as he could, slashing down and in at Samuk’s neck, but Samuk used the motion of his left turn to swing hard with a block, and their blades struck with an impact that knocked sparks and small chips from both edges. The motion exposed Samuk’s right side to Menak, who was spun a quarter turn to his right by the impact, and he threw a left punch at Samuk’s head, connecting with a powerful blow to the face. Samuk fell heavily to his left side, landing badly on his injured arm but not injuring it further, and Menak sprang at him, aiming to seize the wrist of Samuk’s knife hand with his free hand and stabbing down at the fallen fighter’s neck.

Samuk was partly stunned by Menak’s punch, but was jolted back to full awareness by the lance of pain in his left arm as he hit the ground, and he had the wherewithal to launch a side-kick upward with his right leg. His heel struck Menak’s right cheekbone, momentarily stunning him. Menak fell heavily onto his opponent and was scored deeply across his back as he fell onto Samuk’s knife arm.

Like Samuk, the sudden pain from that wound prevented Menak from giving in to semi-consciousness from the kick to his face, and he stabbed Samuk in the left side of the abdomen to the hilt of his knife, and viciously ripped the blade sideways through Samuk’s guts.

Submit! Samuk screamed as Menak pulled his blade out, just in time for Menak to abort his impending strike at the defeated fighter’s throat.

Menak sat up, freeing Samuk’s right arm, and Samuk used it to try to keep his guts from spilling onto the ground as he rolled to his back.

Then they were blinded by the dust and debris thrown by the down-wash of the med flyer’s fans, as it maneuvered right under the tree branches while spinning gracefully on its axis, to land with its rear door only 2 meters from Ling Rel. The six meds jumped out the opening door carrying two stretchers before the fans had even begun to spin down.

Hurry, her neck is broken I think! Ling Rel’s student yelled in Chinese as she stepped back to make room around her trainer.

Help him first. Menak told the approaching med team as he painfully stood, and made his way to the side door of the flyer. The pilot opened it for him, and he stepped inside and sat heavily in a seat, his head still not completely clear from the kick to the face he’d received.

Victory. he stated with quiet satisfaction.

Damn right, victory, and a well fought one as well! Tika said in his earphone. "Congratulations Menak, you are most decisively the Grand Champion of all fighters, having beaten both the top two in about ten seconds! I doubt that has ever been done before! I suppose it was damn sneaky fight strategy that Samuk used, but so was our strategy against Ling Rel, so we cannot complain, really. Though if you had not won, I would have had a challenge without honor for Samuk right now. That chest wound Ling gave you, and your impact with her, were severe enough that you may not have been medically cleared to fight when you were challenged by him, or should I say attacked by him. Though he called his challenge, he really gave you no chance to respond to it other than by defending yourself.

I will have someone pick up your pack and deliver it to the local med there for you. Your quad-mates will meet you there.

Thank you Tika. This win is as much yours as mine, I know.

Bah. Your win against Samuk was entirely yours; I contributed little to that victory. You fought them with championship skill and courage, and fully deserve the title. I doubt your wounds will keep you in the med after you are stitched up and scanned, so I will see you all in a couple of hours. I love you Menak, and I am very proud of you. End call.

The pilot very quickly inspected and taped Menak’s wounds, and performed a quick exam for brain injuries.

I don’t think you’re concussed, but your face will be pretty sore and swollen soon. the Chinese pilot said in mildly accented English as he assisted Menak with buckling his safety harness. There’ll be some serious muscle reconstruction on your pecs, abs and lats, but it looks pretty routine, and they should heal well.

Thank you. Menak told him. Do you have a screen I could use for a minute?

Sure. the Med said as he took an ID card sized computer from his breast pocket and handed it over, before resuming his own seat and checking with the other Meds.

Three of them were already loading Samuk’s stretcher, but the other team took a long time to get Ling Rel stabilized on her stretcher and gingerly loaded; almost two full minutes, due to the delicacy of her neck injury.

Ling Rel’s student left for the med at a run as the door closed, and the flyer lifted as its door latches clacked into their locked positions.

Menak took his congratulations from Tira, Jela and Naz on the tiny screen, as they reviewed the vid of the fights.

This continued for ten minutes at the med, while Menak waited for attention, as all the local Meds were working on his two vanquished opponents. Since Ling Rel’s student had failed to record the second fight, they called Davdan and had her use her Fighting Judges program to re-create third-view graphics of it, based on the views from Menak and Samuk’s head-cams, and Tika’s satellite feed, though the tree branches obscured most of that.

Then extra Meds arrived by tube from a neighboring zone, and Menak faced a half hour of surgery under local anesthetics and analgesics. He could have chosen to have them put him under general anesthesia, but he chose to not wait the four hours it would take to recover from that before he could travel.

The Green Band again gathered for an early supper after the four returned from China.

Though Menak’s right cheek and eye were swollen and discolored, and he had to move gingerly due to his wounds, he was a happy man as they sat around the fire at Tira’s den.

Finally, I am Grande Champion! Damn, I have been so close to it ever since the tournament, I almost cannot believe the title is really mine!

I almost cannot believe that five of us have won it! Tira laughed, cuddled against his left side, while Jela cuddled his right.

I think I must intensify my studies. Slin grinned, from where he sat on a fur, similarly cuddled between Tika and Pina. Of this entire group, I am the only one left who has not been named champion of the world at some activity!

Oh? And how will you be tested, in order to be named world champion? Tika laughed. Considering that the only areas of study that you have specialized in are the sociology of human mating, and the physiology of female sexual response?

That is a good question, Sweetness! Pina laughed as she tickled him in his ribs a bit. Of course, me and Tika know that you must be approaching a world championship level of skill and ability at kisses and caresses, and we appreciate it infinitely, every single night! But as far as I know, there is no championship for that, or even agreed-upon objective criteria for judging such performances!

Well of course I am only joking, and complimenting you all on your great achievements! Slin laughed, wrapping her in a tight hug and trapping her arms against her sides in order to fend off her tickling. "And though my knowledge and my skill are improving as I learn, and fairly quickly if I may say so myself, there is a component of being a great lover that is a factor of experience, and I still only have a few months of that. I doubt I could truly even qualify for the round of two hundred fifty-six at such a tournament.

"But as to how such a tournament should be organized, and how it should be judged, now that is a question I can answer! And I would organize it much like a fighter’s tournament, using a round-robin format.

"I should point out that the professional sexuality industry does have their version of the Academy Awards for the making of sex vids, and there are some crude contests in that industry as well, like how many men a woman can get fucked by in close sequence before she loses consciousness from lack of sleep. You do not want to know the record number for that, it is a disturbing thought. But the sexuality industry has nothing to do with being a great lover. Being a great lover is judged on the physical and emotional responses of your lover during your performance, not on how good it looks when its recording is viewed by a spectator.

"Of course, men and women need separate tournaments; you could not have the lover’s equivalent of the Grande Tournament, because men and women’s sexual responses cannot be objectively compared with each other. And I suppose gay and group sex would need their own tournaments as well, and there would be separate tournaments for specialties, like pure romance or playing on the dark side, with bondage and spanking and stuff.

"But focusing on the point here, I would compete in the Grande Tournament of Male Heterosexual Lovers. Like fighting, a group of qualified pre-judges would have to go through the submitted works of the applicants to decide the two hundred and fifty-six who are good enough to make the first round of the tournament.

"The judges should be famous and attractive women from all walks of life except the sexuality industry. I think that those sex professionals are so sexually jaded that they are no longer capable of rendering what most of us would consider to be an objective judgment. You invite famous women, just to increase the marketability of the event. Actresses, singers, athletes, politicians, musicians, artists, businesswomen, scientists, anyone attractive and as famous as possible. Just to make things more interesting, the athletes should cover the spectrum from the tiniest gymnast to the tallest basketball player and the biggest weightlifters. Their ages should cover the bell shaped curve, with most in their prime sexual years, and a few elders and a few of the youngest adults.

"I would only have each judge officiate one match. That is, every woman in this case would be asked to enjoy and judge sexuality with only two men, on one day, half a day apart. In this way they can take part without seeming to be overly promiscuous about it. So we would need… two hundred and fifty-five judges, and perhaps ten spares, in case any of them had to cancel, and to add some extra uncertainty to it.

"They would wear very inconspicuous sensors that would thoroughly report and record their levels of sexual response and the length and intensity of their orgasms during every moment of the test, and that would form the ‘technical merit’ part of the score. The judges’ overall personal preference would be the basis for the ‘artistic impression’ part of the score, given as a percentage. For instance she might judge one male eighty-nine percent perfect and the other ninety-five percent. Their technical merit score multiplied by their artistic impression score, compared to the other man’s score, decides the winner.

He paused, and got a huge grin. "And before I go on, I will formally claim the intellectual property rights to this whole plan, and claim precedence in asking the Magic Money Genie for financing for it as soon as I have finished describing it! I am more qualified to produce such an event than I am to compete in one, and it is time I started contributing to our wealth!

"Anyway, the first event would be the first draw. For each test, two contestants and one judge would be randomly drawn, and a coin would be tossed to decide who goes first. Whoever won the coin toss would have the choice of going first or second. The draw of judges would be held with the extra ten spares included, so no one would know for certain who would judge that day. So on the first day, only a random one hundred and twenty-eight judges out of two hundred sixty-six would be judging.

"The first test would not be until the next day; after the contestants knew who their judge was to be, they would have overnight to study that woman and design an experience just for her.

All the tests going first take place in the morning, say for two hours, then there would be a six hour break for the judges to, ah, recover their energy, then all those going second would do their tests for two hours, then the judges would have an hour to consider the two experiences.

"They would then have a ceremony to announce the winners, and to hold the next day’s draw.

This format keeps it all manageable, and eliminates all the what-ifs and ambiguities of it. On any given day, each contestant either gave his judging lover more pleasure, or a better experience, or both, than his competitor, or he did not. And I think the proceedings and recordings, although they will be kept strictly separate from every existing person and entity in the sex industry, will still set new records for sales and viewings of recorded and live sexual recordings. By including famous judges from every walk of life, and contestants who are otherwise ordinary citizens, the breadth of the potential audience is almost all-encompassing!

Wow, that is damn good! Davdan stated admiringly. You know Slin, I like you a lot, but that is the first time you have truly impressed the hell out of me!

Do you want to use my Genie Bottle, love? Tika asked with a giggle.

"Not yet. I need to research it a bit more, before I will know how much to ask for. We will have to offer the judges a generous appearance fee and a good share of the revenues from their events, and we will need a big expensive advertising drive even before then to give the project legitimacy and luster before we will have a hope of attracting them. If we do it right, they will compete with each other for the opportunity to be chosen as a judge!

And we will need to attract contestants, and give them time to compile the testimony of a selection of their lovers, and any recordings they have of their sex, in order to convince the pre-judges to allow them into the tournament.

You know, Tika giggled, I control facilities that would be perfect for hosting such a prestigious and innovative event. And I would be glad to assist you in any way that you wish, my love.

"Thank you my baby, I will accept both those offers.

"You know, the jealous part of me is glad that none of you could compete in or judge such an event, including Tika and Pina, since as the producer’s family group, it would look improper. But the business side of me is not happy about that, because I recognize how the fame and attractiveness of each of you would add to the marketability of the event with you as judges!

Ah, anyway. I have hogged the conversation enough, when it is Menak’s big night.

I do not mind at all, as that was fascinating stuff, and the very first time I have ever heard you speak at length about anything! Menak laughed. I think that was more words than I have heard you speak in total since I have known you, and it was well-spoken indeed!

Well, of course, since I promised Tika and Pina that I would be the best lover in the world for them, even if only they knew it, I have of course considered how I could prove it, if it came to it. Slin bashfully admitted.