GALAVER
In a far-off dimension is born a fine boy whose name does not matter to this
story. Ten genetisisters each grant a gift to the boy. The first gives him heroism;
the gifts of the others are compassion, curiosity, love, rebellion, creativity,
wisdom, telekinesis, and humour. The tenth and youngest genetisister is
arrogant and enamoured of the child. Her gift, therefore, is herself. She vows
that when the time comes, the boy will join her in her secret tax haven and live
as her husband. The boy grows to manhood and his long life is distinguished
by valour and adventure, but at last he begins to grow old. The genetisister’s
genomebots are so advanced that she has hardly aged at all through all the
years of the hero’s life. She causes a hoverfly on which he travels to crash near
her secret tax haven. He loses consciousness. When he awakes he is in the
genetisister’s clinic, and she is still as fresh and beautiful as the dawn of the
day he was born. She injects him with nanomachines and his crooked back
straightens, his aged eyes clear, until he becomes once more the youth she
had always desired. As finally she places a golden crown upon his head, every
memory of his previous life is erased, and thus he becomes a willing prisoner
of the genetisister’s adoration. And for all that any mortals know, he lives there
still, imprisoned in the timeless and perfect worship of the tenth genetisister.
