It was third shift, and the Grav gym was empty except for us. That was partly because it was the third shift, and partly because I’d made it pretty clear that any trooper who showed up before fourth shift would be doing 18-point bodybuilders in the enhanced gravity UNTIL the fourth shift.
I was dressed in my workout duds, wearing a pair of exercise shorts and gym shoes and not much else, using a rowing machine, because… you know… two and a half times normal Gee. Yes, I had adept physical affinity and was already rocking a foundation and first evolution, but at that weight, you had to keep moving or your muscles tended to cramp, and shirts got uncomfortable, especially when you were sweating. Gabrielle, on the other hand, was comfortably sitting in a pair of shorts and a loose top, on the weight bench nearby, watching me work out.
I had to admit, I was enjoying having her watch me. I was scarred, but the way she was eyeing me hungrily made it almost not matter.
“So tell me about the different bonds.”
She nodded, “Well, I don’t know if you know the history behind Maenads.”
“Consider me ignorant.” I said, rowing slowly enough to keep my muscles moving, “because I basically am. I think I may have heard it mentioned once in ancient mythology classes, and the XO gave me a little information, but I didn't really study the Gene Wars.”
She nodded, “Back during the exodus, things got really bad. The fallouts were talking about pirate raids on Earth for women, and the backlash against the Utes was getting to the point where progs were getting burned and hanged in the streets. The system was a big deal, and people were going a little crazy with the power, putting on costumes and shooting each other in the streets with mana balls, firechains… a lot of old scores that had festered for centuries were getting settled, and meanwhile, the Dryads were trying to take control for the multicorps.”
“Utes?”
“Progressive Utopians. They are called the crazies now, I guess. ”
I nodded.
“Anyway, to head it off, the church created maenads. Good idea, I think, but a naive implementation. They were supposed to get married, support church doctrine, and bond to become perfect wives and rift warriors for the exodus humans, as well as increase affinity potential.”
She shrugged. “But there were also hardliners that demanded built-in guidelines to prevent another enlightenment fiasco. No more coddling crazies, no more consequence-free sex, endless narcissism, fatherless children, none of that. So they built that into us. We were created to bond as perfectly as possible with males to reinforce whatever affinity was most prevalent, the males would be born of whatever race or hybrid, and the females would create more maenads. We were all still human, after all, and the new culture was fine with men and women being different, especially with the system safeguards.”
“We were created to be both adorable as babies and totally uninteresting sexually until we were old enough, and among males that we were not biologically related to. At that point, we would rapidly mature into acceptable adults.”
I switched around, scooted off the bench, and started doing push-ups as I listened.
She smiled a little, “Please bear in mind, that this is history to me. So it might be tilted a little. What was supposed to happen was that the women who would leave Earth to make up for the shortfall, would have enough power to protect themselves, but still be searching for the perfect man, the perfect complementary affinity set, personality set, to ensure happiness and productive lives together. Especially the delvers, we were supposed to be their shield, their totally loyal ally, their trusted backup, and their love, and the bonded pair would be greater than the sum of their parts.”
“This was during a time when even the churches admitted that relationships could be flexible. Polygamy was pretty much the new normal, within limits. But… they wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just a new set of immorality, so we would force bond to the first male that triggered our hormone, and uhh… took our virginity. It was pretty one-sided, but by the time the church figured out what went wrong, we were already all over the place. When it comes to the ethics of it though, remember that the system and the rifts were brand new... All of humanity was convinced that the Chaos Lords would destroy our world, and they tried. Gene modding dedicated warriors to fight the scourge was definitely the lesser evil.”
I nodded, “I could see what went wrong. So basically forced bond is through sex, more or less, voluntary or not, and it’s one-sided, whatever that means.”
She nodded, “Yeah, one-sided meaning there were no complimentary auras or affinities. A man who force-bonded a maenad would get a willing slave, but nothing else. Still, that was more than enough for a lot of men, even as they lost out on the strength of complementary affinity reinforcement.”
“And you don’t hate the church for that?”
She shook her head, “No, it’s considered the price we pay for the chance to have a full bond, which is worth it. A full bond doesn’t HAVE to involve sex, but it makes forced bonding impossible. On my world, a bond is the same as marriage, although a lot of people prefer the ceremony… vows are kind of pointless when they are already enforced by instinct and biology.”
I was confused, “Okay, so what is a full bond then?”
She smiled a little and scooted closer. “Basically, it aligns our gift to each other, the same as if you had two complimentary traits, and opens up traits, classes, and fun techniques for both of you as if you had each other’s affinities as well. If you have life affinity, and I have spiritual, for example, together we could gain traits like partial resurrection, regeneration, and stuff like that.”
“The downside is that the loyalty sort of goes both ways. If there’s a disagreement, the partner with the stronger spirit pretty much always dominates, which is why you always have to find out about who you are going to fully bond with, especially if they are at a higher stage than you are.”
She shrugged. “The system made sure there are loopholes. If you already have a strong mind, and you are raped or forced to have sex, you can fight off the involuntary bond, and we… if things get too bad, we can will ourselves to cease to exist.”
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“Cease to exist?”
“Die. Just like that. Instant suicide, no poison or high windows involved. We are not suicidal, but there have been enough deviants… the era of the insane technomancer is long over, your stories are ancient history. If you bonded to me and deviated, I wouldn’t live through it, and neither would you. The church included that ability on purpose, and it’s not considered suicide, but sacrifice, since we have a strong self-preservation instinct.”
“Do you mind if I ask Taera a question? About whether or not I can reveal part of a quest?”
She shook her head, “Not at all.”
I nodded, “Fair warning, she will definitely want you to bond with me, that way she stays loyal to the Timur and also gets her carrot.”
“Carrot?”
“You know, carrot and stick?” at her confused expression, I shrugged, “It’s an old expression. A carrot is a reward, and a stick is a punishment. For me, her reward is a joke, but for her, even the first part of her reward is a dream come true."
I sent a quick message to Taer using my UI.
Kushiel- Talking to Reynard. Don’t get wet, just talking. Can I share the first benchmark?
She must have instantly responded because a few seconds later I got a reply.
Taera- if I could I would. Be my guest.
I lifted my UI and showed it to Gabrielle.
“Who’s Kushiel?”
I sighed, “Me. My church name. For some reason, the system considers it my true name. I think it means ‘punishment’ or something like that. It’s kind of depressing.”
She smiled, “I like Kushiel though… it sounds soft, and comfortable, like a counterbalance to how hard you are.” She blinked innocently.
I snerked. “Yeah. Well, the first benchmark for her, was to find me, and make sure I didn’t deviate… but her overall goal is the same as mine, to keep you from being enslaved, bound against your will, or turned into a political tool. Her stick is a hell of a lot worse than mine, though. I just lose paladin if I fail. If she fails, uhh.. the bad things start happening. I’m not positive if the benchmarks are necessary to win the quest. I mean, if I die, she doesn’t get her carrot, and if you live and stay unbonded, or finally bond with the right guy, no stick.”
“So what is her carrot?”
I shrugged, “If she can keep me from deviating, she gets a true name and a spiritual root.”
Her eyes opened wide, “As a Taer, oh my Lord!”
I nodded, “Yeah, that means she could eventually gain a gold core and go through an evolution, maybe two, and become a real boy…. Or girl.”
She shook her head, “Not without meridians or dantians, no gold core, but with a true name, she could be reborn as a human, and a spiritual core…”
“What?”
“She said she’s made out of barely differentiated T-cells.”
“Which means?”
“It means that she starts differentiating. She won’t have to go through a rejuvenation to become a real...whatever. A spiritual root turns her mortal, and mortal humans come in male and female varieties by default… probably. Without a dantian or meridians, she will eventually grow old and die just like a human, but she could have sex, babies, a life…”
I sighed, “A kiss on a bridge covered with locks that she can feel to her toes.”
She nodded, “I guess so? I am not sure what the locks are about, though.”
I laughed, “Me either. So the most important question is, do you want to be bonded?”
She looked at me very seriously. “Is that an inquiry or a request?”
“That’s an inquiry.” I snorted, “If it were a request, I’d be asking very differently.”
She sighed, “No.”
I nodded, “I guess, because it’s too big a step, and you just matured?”
She shook her head, “Oh no! I was hoping to bond and was considered mentally, if not physically, mature enough, long before I was kidnapped. I’m glad I hadn’t started to mature physically yet, though, Or I’d probably be on Montav or Allabad getting sold or licking some smelly scrothead’s feet clean right now.”
“The problem is, you are a paladin. I have goals, and you are a knight in shining armor,” she added.
“What goals?”
She sighed, “Finding the people who have been raiding my world, killing most of them, and torturing the survivors into telling me where and to whom they sold my sisters. And then I plan on finding and slitting all of their throats while they sleep, and then killing my sisters so they don’t go insane.”
I nodded, “That’s dark. I am a paladin, not a pacifist. These people are evil. There are a million better ways to force the truth out of evil people than torture, but I am okay with the killing. Are the torture and murdering your sisters thing optional?”
She looked at me hopefully, “Possibly? I mean, I don’t know if I can actually torture people, but I HAVE to know where they were taken, and my goal, in the end, is the same as the Timur’s, I just haven’t nailed down how to do it permanently yet.”
I sighed, “It’s impossible to nail down evil permanently.”
“So I’ve been told. But there has to be a way to nail down THIS evil, here and now, and hurt them badly and frighteningly enough that the NEXT evil people that come along might choose to avoid the same possibility.”
She looked at me utterly seriously, “I believe in redemption, I truly do, but the first step in any redemption is always hurting or scaring someone badly enough that they feel they need to change, and that’s what I intend to do… even if I never bond, never have a family, and die angry and alone. The next step is theirs, but the first step always has to come from the outside, or they never even think of changing.”
I laughed, and she looked at me like I’d just struck her.
“Sorry. I’m sorry. But you just described what I went through, both the experience and the decision process when I became a paladin. If you were life or divine affinity, you’d make a fine paladin yourself. But with spiritual, I am betting that when you go copper the first option on your list will be crusader.”