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The evening Menak was released from the hospital they all took the tube to Tokyo, and from there to a banquet hall in the Tokyo Hilton-Sheraton hotel, for a press conference to release the findings from the first two stages of Pina's researches. They were met by Professor Enchiku Hamimoto and the Prodigies of Pina's cosmology team.

Though the rest of Pina's team were well known to the Green Band, Professor Hamimoto was not, and he as well as they were suitably impressed and respectful when Pina introduced them, with translations by Eni Suzuka. Pina and the professor huddled with their team as the hall began to fill with the distinguished scientists and science reporters they had invited.

"Remember," Pina cautioned, "You will all have a chance to speak when we open the floor to questions, but we are only releasing the results from the first two stages! If anyone breathes a word about anything beyond that, they will be fired and sued for breach of contract!"

"Don't worry, we've got it!" Michael Billington laughed. "Are you sure you want me on the podium for this? I mean, I didn't really do any science, did I?"

"Your contribution to this work was as important as anyone's, and you will certainly take your place with us to share the honors!" Pina insisted with a smile.

When the time came for the conference to begin, the rest of the Green band took their seats in the front row, much to the irritation of several rather self-important academics and journalists. Pina's team sat on one side of a long table on a low platform facing the audience, with Pina and Professor Hamimoto in the center.

When everyone was in place, Professor Hamimoto stood and spoke, and Eni Suzuka again provided paraphrased translation to Standard English.

"Greetings." he said. "As you know, we are gathered here to announce the results of the cosmological studies initiated by Pina some months ago. Though temporarily impaired by the machinations of the Old Minds during the Academic war, those studies have now been successfully concluded.

"As Pina originally surmised, we have been able to prove the existence of gravitational friction. That is, that photons passing through space are indeed red-shifted by the effects of the gravitational fields they pass through, and indeed, by every gravitational field in the universe, since we have also proven that the effective distance of the gravitational force is infinite."

Most of the audience began stridently speaking at once.

"We will allow questions after the statement is finished!" the professor and Eni shouted over the noise, Hamimoto with obvious irritation.

"Now then," he continued when relative silence had again fallen, "The implications of this discovery are significant. Though our calculations still show that the local universe is expanding, we can prove that it is expanding at a far slower rate than previous work has indicated, and therefore, the universe is much older than we have believed. If we continue to assume that the big bang theory still stands, and we are by no means certain that it does, the local universe must be more than forty-eight billion years old. The positions of every galaxy beyond our own have been re-calculated, and the shape of the macro-structure of the universe is very much different than it has appeared. Almost without exception, every galaxy is significantly closer to our own than we have believed."

The noise from the audience had slowly risen again as those attending were uttering a constant stream of exclamations.

"Quiet please!" Hamimoto and Eni called.

"And finally, as an unexpected result of our work, we have finally proven that with regard to gravity, Einsteinian Relativity is wrong, and quantum mechanics is correct. Gravity is carried by gravitons, quanta of gravity, it is not a result of a distortion in the fabric of space caused by mass and energy. We have also found that the apparent impossibility of traveling faster than the speed of light is an illusion.

"I will now flash you our report, which contains a summary of the work, as well as all the relevant data and calculations that support these findings."

Those attending chattered excitedly to each other for a moment, until they realized that they had been flashed over three terabytes of information.

"We will now accept questions." Hamimoto said into the sudden silence. "Yes, you, Reynolds from Nature."

"Yes, thank you." Reynolds stammered as he stood. "Do you mean to imply that an object can be accelerated away from the earth at greater than the speed of light? What about time distortions, and the rest of the expected relativistic effects?"

"Pina, do you wish to answer this?" the professor asked, then sat as Pina stood.

"As Einstein said, it is all relative." Pina said. "Picture this thought experiment; You stand on the equator of the Earth and look up, and you see a spacecraft passing the earth from north to south at fifty-five percent of the speed of light. At the same time another spacecraft is passing the Earth from south to north, also at fifty-five percent of the speed of light. From your point of view on the earth, neither craft is moving faster than lightspeed, or even close to it, so they are both almost completely relative to you, they experience negligible relativistic effects in relation to you, and you observe nothing unusual.

"However, the two ships then closely pass each other. Since they are both moving at fifty-five percent of the speed of light relative to the earth, and in opposite directions, they pass each other at a relative speed of one hundred and ten percent of the speed of light, regardless of how it looks from the ground. At this point, the two craft are not relative to each other, they are not relative to each other as long as the speed of the vector between them is greater than light speed, regardless of whether they are moving together or apart. As they are not relative to each other in an Einsteinian sense, they are in no way relevant to each other. From the point of view of a person in one of the craft, the other craft is undetectable as it approaches, since it is approaching faster than the light emitted or reflected from it. If you watch it approach, and continue watching in that direction after the craft has passed, the approaching light that does finally arrive after the craft has passed will be blue shifted beyond detectability, and if you then turned around, you would find that the light from a craft that is receding at greater than the speed of light is red shifted beyond detectability.

"In other words, from any given point of view, anything that passes the speed of light relative to them completely disappears.

"But this state of not being relative to each other goes beyond making our two craft undetectable to each other. I believe that two craft with a relative velocity greater than light speed are no longer mass, relative to each other; they are energy. In fact, two such hypothetical craft that collided head on may pass through each other, with no more disturbance than two crossed laser beams, though they would appear completely substantial in every way to observers on the earth the entire time!"

Another outburst followed, and Pina spoke quickly to head it off. "You! Yes you, your question?"

"Murray Degbok, Physics Journal!" that excited reporter proclaimed as he stood. 'What about when the flight is over, and the two ships are at sub-lightspeed again? I mean, relativistic effects have been proven, you can't just say they don't happen!"

"The two ships' clocks show what you would expect of any ship that took off from the Earth and followed that flight path, including having reached fifty-five percent of the speed of light relative to the Earth." Pina explained patiently, but showing a bit of irritation.

"If our two hypothetical spacecraft had originated on the earth, and they had taken off in opposite directions, then turned around and accelerated toward each other, they would experience time distortions relative to each other as they accelerated up to lightspeed, just as you would expect! Once they are past relative lightspeed for their passing run, they no longer matter to each other in any way, so the time and mass and energy distortions do not matter either! After the passing run, they decelerate, and when they are again under relative lightspeed, they again experience relativistic effects! But the effects of supra-lightspeed motion with opposite vectors, and of acceleration and deceleration, all cancel each other out, and when our two ships return to the earth, both of their ship's clocks still read exactly what observers on the earth expect them to read, showing only the relativistic effects of their completely sub-lightspeed motion in relation to the Earth!

"And to answer your next question, if you got into a ship and flew to Alpha Centauri and back at greater than lightspeed, you would find when you returned that your ship's clock does indeed show a time-shift in relation to the Earth. But, when you get to within about ninety-nine percent of the speed of light relative to the point of origin of your journey, reality starts to get pretty weird, and the time-shift gets more linear. Your rate of acceleration as you pass the lightspeed barrier is crucial. Increasing the rate of acceleration reduces the total time-shift. The same is true of your rate of deceleration as you slow down to sub-light speeds again; the harder you decelerate at the crucial moment, the lesser the amount of time-shift you will experience.

"Here is the crux; Once you are past lightspeed relative to your point of origin, time distortion ends.

"As you are in your ship going faster than light relative to the Earth, you know that one day passes on Earth for every one day on your ship. And since almost everything disappears except for very distant galaxies that are receding in the same direction as your flight vector, you have to navigate by inertial dead-reckoning. But you can keep on accelerating."

The room exploded into cacophony, as every member of the audience except the Green Band tried to ask questions at once. Professor Hamimoto called for order twice, and when he still did not receive it, he turned to Pina and growled in Japanese.

"He is done with this." Eni hurriedly translated.

"I am as well." Pina told them in irritation. "I will leave Michael Billington and the rest of the team to answer questions. They will delight in this kind of thing."

"They sure will!" Eni agreed, and translated what she'd said.

Hamimoto nodded and spoke again. Pina was surprised to realize that he was suppressing a smile with all his will.

"He says that's a good idea, and he's inviting you and me and your family to visit at his home until the reception."

"Well, since I thought that this press conference would have more decorum, and that I would withstand it for much longer, we have some unexpected time. I would love to come, and I am sure my family would gladly accept his invitation as well."

Eni translated this while Pina turned to Michael Billington. "Mike, it is up to you and the Prodigies to deal with this pack of fools, and Professor Hamimoto and I would very much appreciate it if you would do so."

"It would be our pleasure!" he replied. "Just let me get things going again. Once I get them listening to the next answer, they'll have to stay and listen to it while you two leave. We'll see you at the reception."

He stood with a grin, pointed his finger, and happily bellowed; "You there! What is your question?" repeatedly until he got the desired result. Noise had fallen a bit since many were waiting to hear the result of the discussion on the podium, and as he asked the fourth time the rest finally stopped talking so they could listen to her ask it.

"Right then kids, it's our show now! Who's up for this one?" Michael Billington asked, smiling as he quickly scanned the table for a raised hand. "Tetsuo?"

Once Tetsuo was well into his complex answer explaining how gravitons only propagated at speeds faster than light, and happily referring to specific pages in the document they had submitted, Pina and Professor Hamimoto slipped away. Once they were in the corridor, Pina asked her family to join them.

Professor Hamimoto's home at the top of a sixty-one-story skyscraper was only eight minutes away by tube. While they rode there, Eni translated as Hamimoto explained that the building had been erected before ecoculture had been adopted here, but then its exterior had been re-fitted to support the maximum amount of local species, as had been done with every such structure. The edges of the balconies and the outer walls were covered with planter boxes filled with lush greenery that almost completely covered the surface of the building except for its windows and balcony openings. Some of the planters were connected by ramps of various sizes, to allow small animal life to travel between the ground and the top of the building. The local Elephant People were proud of their results, and claimed that working on the sides of such buildings while suspended in harnesses by ropes was an enjoyable challenge, a sentiment shared by the local Tiger People. Every floor except the top one had been converted from small apartments into spacious clan homes for clans of up to eighteen.

The elevator they rode to the top was in the core of the building, but it had screens in three walls that worked the same way as the pseudo-windows in the tube cars, creating the convincing illusion that the elevator rode up the outside of the building, and that they were looking out of windows at early morning above Tokyo as they rose.

His penthouse quarters were very elegant and traditional, and after showing them some of it he led them outside onto his deck, which occupied two-thirds of the roof. He explained that he had grown every plant in the rooftop garden from seed, that every plant was native to the region, and that it was done in a style that had been popular for gardens in this region three hundred and fifty years ago. He remarked how the local Elephant people often joined him for tea, and to advise him on maintaining a natural balance in his traditional garden, as well as helping harvest some of it.

The view was spectacular indeed. The canyons of forested skyscrapers went on in every direction for miles, and many of the towers were connected by enclosed skywalks bridging between buildings at random heights above the ground. If one looked down over any of the ornate wrought iron railings around the garden's perimeter, the narrow boulevard of forest between the buildings could be seen running off in both directions for a long way, sixty-one stories below. It was explained that the forest and skylights at the surface between buildings was now several stories above the original street level.

For the next thirty minutes they all enjoyed a free flowing conversation that touched on many subjects, and then it was time to go to the reception for Pina's team.

They traveled back to the Hilton-Sheraton, and found the banquet hall transformed. The rows of chairs and the platform were gone, replaced by rows of tables around the outside of the room that were covered with hundreds of varieties of snacks and beverages. The invited academics and journalists were gone. There were hundreds of newcomers though, and these were the family and friends of Pina's team, including dozens of the Prodigies from other fields, and Professor Hamimoto's daughter, grandson, and two great-granddaughters, all mixing and laughing with the joyous young scientists and introducing each other.

When Pina and Professor Hamimoto made their entrance, many of the Prodigies faced them and began cheering and applauding them. Everyone else joined in, as the young Tiger girl and the old Japanese physicist bowed and beamed with happy smiles.

Michael Billington stood on a small platform in the center of the room and made a short speech, and he was followed by Eni Suzuka, Ralph Smith, Professor Hamimoto, and finally, by Pina. They all thanked everyone for their work and praised each other's role in it, and expressed their pride in taking part in such ground breaking and significant research.

The highlight was when Professor Hamimoto stated that he was sure that they would win the Nobel Prize for Physics for this work within three years, which was a very short time for such things.

After another two hours of mixing and meeting, laughing, eating, singing and dancing, the reception ended, then the participants returned to their homes all over the world.

It was then the middle of the night in their home zone, and Menak was out of energy since he was still recovering from his wounds, so the Green Band took a suite upstairs at the Tokyo Hilton-Sheraton, as did a few others from the reception.

They washed up and went right to bed.

Tika slept for two hours, and they let Menak sleep for ten. The rest were up after six or seven.

When they were all up they went to a restaurant in the top floor of the hotel, and ate brunch eighty-four stories above the forested boulevards. All of them shared a bright mood during the three-stage tube ride home.

For the rest of that day and for the four days that followed, they began to return to a more normal lifestyle. Jena and all of the adults including Tika hunted one territory each, and only Tika, Tira, and Davdan trained for fighting during the day, though the rest still included it in their evening cross-training sessions. Davdan coached Tira, and was herself coached by Tika and Pabano, and all concerned were careful to keep their various roles strictly separate. Pina continued work with Raz and her team on the third and fourth stages of her research, and Raz was kept the busiest, sharing his attention between Pina's projects, the work on the construction beneath the Elf lands, and the final planning and preliminary stages of the freight launcher project, as well as several other projects.

It seemed that Tika did not need to spend much energy governing the Elf-kin. Though they did call her to talk and to ask questions, no need arose for a judgment on a serious matter. None of the elders of the Tiger People who had chosen to stay on the Elf lands and become Honorary White Elves had been named to the Council of The White Elves, but they and the other Elf-kin agreed that they still constituted the Councils of the Elders of the five zones, and of the White Elf Region, preserving all the existing levels of government, as informal as it was. Since a third of the elders of the region had left when Tika had won it, most of the remainder enjoyed an increase in their status in those councils, and they happily threw themselves into the tasks of familiarizing the newcomers with the wildlife records and patterns of the region, integrating their efforts with those of the local Elephant People and of the councils of the surrounding regions of the Tiger People, and settling minor disputes with scrupulous fairness. Gradually, the hunters of Tika's people were becoming a community.

John King's outlook continued to improve, and he no longer made as much fuss when visitors arrived to see him, or when they left. When they did not visit for a day or more, he still seemed unperturbed when they returned. He seldom tested his border, and when he did he only tested a few places, without showing his usual anger at the pain in his neck. And as his fulfillment profile rose, he was satisfied with less sex. Tika visited him the most, though Jela often did, and she provided him with most of his sex. Jena or Pina often came along.

Tika installed an Elf-Mother named Hyli in the territory that bordered John King's on the sixteenth of June. She was a tall, sandy haired, wily forty-one year old whose dual citizenship included the Wolf People of California, and she was the second best fighter and sixth best hunter among the Elf-kin other than those of the Green Band, as well as being the Elf-Mother Tika knew and trusted the most. Tika let her watch John King from behind concealing bushes on her side of the border. When she smiled and said she thought John King looked rather cute, Tika orchestrated their introduction, after cautioning her against bringing food or anything else John King might want onto his territory. Ten minutes later they were having boisterous and primal sex, while Tika watched in bemusement. Afterward, a smiling and cuddling Hyli said she was glad and thankful that she had been chosen to make love to the father of her child, and wished she had become pregnant by him this way, instead of through the artificial insemination. Tika decided that she had made a wise choice for her father's neighbor.

During the morning and early afternoon of June eighteenth, the Green Band made an effort to have as normal a day as possible, except for Davdan and Tira, who took advantage of her last available hours to train to fight her daughter.

When they left from Davdan's house for the thirty-five minute journey to the Brahman Region Tiger People's Elder's Enclave house, wearing their finery, they were all in a bright and eager mood, even Tira, somewhat to her surprise. As the rest of her group chatted and watched the scenery, Tika sat by herself in the other end of the car, with her eyes closed and a tiny smile, meditating. When they arrived they were greeted as they emerged from the elevator by Davdan's friend Trowee, who was Custodian of the huge house, and by Shan Len.

Davdan introduced Shan Len to Pabano, since those two were the only ones who had never met before, then Trowee guided them deeper into the house.

"How many live here, Trowee?" Pabano asked as they passed through the huge foyer and down a corridor.

"Three hundred forty-three right now." she answered cheerily. "And Davdan, everyone knows why we are gathered here tonight, since five days ago Tika sent formal notice of her intent to challenge to the top fifty fighters, as soon as that ranking had stabilized, just after their invitations to come to this gathering were issued, as a matter of fact. The smoke screen that you set up about your impending inactive retirement has been truly blown away!"

Tika shrugged. "I wanted everyone to have the same chance against me, as much as possible, so I gave them a few days to study my recordings and train for me." she explained. "And I warned them that if they did not come here to face my challenge, I would seek them out in their own zones. I think it helped ensure their attendance, though I am sure that none of them like me any more for it."

"All the better, Tika-Love!" Tira laughed, ruffling her daughter's hair a bit. "That means there is an even better chance that you will be roughed-up by the time you get to me, and I will have an easy time spanking you!"

"Perhaps, but I would not bet your fortune on it!" Tika laughed.

"Huh! Tika just does not back up, does she?" Pabano chuckled.

"So I have often said myself!" Naz laughed.

"And by the way, my friend," Davdan said to Trowee with a smile, "I never stated, or even implied, that I was entering inactive retirement. I simply never denied it!"

"Well, we all realize that now, Davdan! And believe me, there were a few who were a bit upset that we paid for your new Enclave house, and this gathering as well for that matter, under a mistaken assumption! They will not bring it up with you however, because none of them wish to admit that you have bested them in this!"

"Just as I had planned, my friend, just as I had planned!" Davdan snickered. "I only bested them by taking what they freely offered, and letting them make fools of themselves!"

"Including me!" Trowee laughed without rancor.

"Including you, and you should know me well enough to have known better!"

"Ah, well I guess I deserve that. You never did fail to take advantage of any who shamelessly kissed your ass!"

"That is right!" Davdan grinned. "Even five Grande Championships only deserve admiration or respect, not blind hero worship or blatant sniveling for favor!"

They all chuckled at that as they entered the great hall of the enclave house. Round tables that seated twelve each were placed around the perimeter of the room, and a large area at the center of the hardwood floor had been left open. Med Teams had set up in two corners of the room, cleaning staff in the third, a media team in the last.

Trowee led them to the head table, where they all took their seats. Most of the invited fighters and fighting judges were already present and seated, the fighters scattered among the judges, as they tended to sit with the judges from their own people. Other Elders of the Brahman occasionally guided another of the stragglers to their place.

When everyone who had confirmed that they would attend was seated, Shan Len turned to Davdan. "Will you speak to begin this, or shall I?" she asked via her screen's translator program.

"Neither, I think." Davdan grinned. "You and I may have initiated this, but it is Tika's show now. Tika?"

"Thank you Davdan." Tika smiled, and stood. After a moment she had everyone's attention. "Greetings. As all of you must know, I am Tika of the Green Band, and we are gathered here today to determine how dangerous I am as a fighter."

As she spoke she walked around the table to the center of the floor and stood relaxed, her weight on one foot, one hand on her hip. "In order to do so, we have invited the fifty most dangerous fighters who are well enough to face combat today. Unfortunately Tai Truong, Shaka, Samuk and Menak are still recovering from the wounds they took in the recent Grande Tournament, as are several others from the ranks below the top ten. I appreciate that Menak and Tai Truong have attended to observe, though they are not yet well enough to fight, as they are the second and third ranked fighters, and I will value their opinions of the testing almost as much as those of these distinguished judges of fighting who have been kind enough to attend.

"Still, the fifty I will challenge here today range from the sixty-third ranked fighter to the Grande Champion, so the elite of the world's blade fighters are well represented here. I will challenge those fifty in close succession..."

A clamor of incredulous exclamations arose around the room, and Tika had to raise her voice almost to a yell to continue to be heard though she still kept a pleasant, informational tone. "And in order to most convincingly prove my ability, I will fight you all with a four inch knife, and I will defeat each of you in the most convincing manner possible."

At that point she had to pause, as the conversation became an uproar. She turned to Raz, pointed to the multi-sensor on her headband, then to her ear, then to the ceiling. He grinned and nodded, tapped on his screen for two seconds, and looked back at her with another grinning nod.

"Volume test." Tika murmured quietly, and she heard her amplified voice issuing from all of the Green Band's screens.

Her group had followed her exchange with Raz and had known what to expect, but Trowee and a few others seated close to them jumped in startlement, and one of those jumped again when Tika continued a moment later in her normal speaking voice. When amplified by ten screens at full volume, she was easily heard above the cacophony. She gave Raz a wink and a nod in thanks.

"All right then. You will notice that a fine production staff provided by Warner is recording us. They have paid a very substantial fee for the exclusive right to broadcast this test live, so you will each receive your share of that fee, in addition to your mandatory viewed recording royalties, and allocated by the same formula.

"After the fights, we shall enjoy the fine banquet that this Elder's Enclave have so graciously provided, and we shall enjoy the finest of entertainment! Though it was very difficult to book them, we have the Montreal Troupe of the legendary Cirque de Soliel!"

This was such rare and expensive entertainment that a few applauded the announcement in surprise, but most were still exclaiming in amazement at the audacity of her plan.

"Kimagme, as the Most Senior of the Elder Judges of Fighting, I would be honored if you would officiate."

"I would not miss the chance for the best view of this!" Kimagme chuckled as she rose and came forward.

"Thank you." Tika smiled. "I do not think formal introductions or procedures are necessary, though."

She turned to the lowest ranked of the fighters present. "Joe Golet of The Grizzly Bear People, ranked sixty-third, I challenge you with honor."

Joe Golet stood with a smile. "I submit." he said with a small bow, and sat down again.

"I see." Tika nodded with a small frown, and turned to the next fighter in the order. "Togopki of the Jaguar People, ranked sixtieth, I challenge you with honor."

Togopki did not stand. "I submit." he stated, with a small shrug of his shoulders.

"All right. Han Ping of the Tiger People, ranked fifty-eighth, I challenge you with honor."

"I submit also." Han Ping said, looking around at the other fighters with curiosity.

Tika's frown almost wrinkled her face. "Fine. In order to minimize what is quickly becoming a tedious process, would those fighters who will meet my challenge please raise their hand?"