All That We Are (The Commander Book 7) Read Online Free Page B

Keaton terms a working hypothesis.  In my hypothesis, each of the Major Transform forms come in sixteen varieties, based on four affinity sets: instinctive versus overt juice/dross/élan manipulation, objectified versus personal juice/dross/élan stabilization, mystical versus rationalist thought processes, and charismatic thinking gestalt versus metasense thinking gestalt.  The ‘basic’ or ‘standard’ Major Transform uses all the right-side versions of these: overt, personal, rationalist and metasense.  These no-household Focuses are all instinctive, personal, rationalist and charismatic.”
    “I’ve seen some of this before,” Lori said.  “For instance, Rogue Focus was also instinctive instead of overt.  I’d thought this was training based, though.”
    “Cross training is possible, but what I’ve found are affinities, what comes easily for each Major Transform.  I suspect someone else figured this out, figured out that instinctive-juice-manipulating charismatic-thinking Focuses didn’t work out well as standard Focuses but are trainable in hand-to-hand combat and symbolic juice manipulation, without households.”
    “Hank?” Carol said.  “Spill.”  She didn’t believe Haggerty’s work, but read his agreement.  She wanted to know why.
    He took a deep breath.  “Gilgamesh and I identified the first three affinities, though we used somewhat different terminology.  However, we were only working with Crow abilities, and had no idea it might apply to other Major Transforms.”  Up until now, he thought he had discovered what made Crows so different from the other Major Transforms.  So much for his theory.  Phaaah.  “As one example, Occum uses instinctive symbolic dross manipulation.”  A Shaman, as opposed to Wizard, in Gilgamesh’s terminology. “Gilgamesh does objectified dross manipulation, and Crow Nameless does mystic instead of rationalist thinking.  From a Crow point of view.”
    His comment elicited a nervous titter from the non-Crows.
    “I’m puzzled by the charismatic versus metasense thinking gestalts,” Hank said.  “Do you have any examples of these, ma’am?”  If Haggerty was using Tonya as an example she was wrong, as Tonya’s reliance on charisma was based on Patterson’s orders, because of her now-vanished Patterson tag, not a native affinity.
    “This one is trickier, because it’s easy to confuse with raw strength of charisma, which is one of several sliding variables I’ve found for describing Major Transforms,” Haggerty said.  “The best example I am familiar with is your boss, Ma’am Hancock.”
    Carol didn’t look pleased with this observation.
    “Oh, that’s why our Commander has a glow like an exploding supernova when she doesn’t shield,” Sky said.  “Her glow itself is charismatic.  That makes sense.  Lots of sense.”
    Carol looked even less pleased.
    Keaton snorted.  “I’m willing to buy the first three, but the fourth so-called affinity bothers me.  A lot.  It’s a minor difference at best.  I still don’t think it belongs with the others.”  They had argued this one before.  At length.
    Haggerty ran her fingers through her hair in frustration.  “But it’s just as important,” she said.  “It’s a way of thinking about the world, about how your innate capabilities as a Major Transform influence how you build world-models in your mind.”
    “Mystical garbage.”  Keaton, who Hank suspected fell into the mystical worldview, glowered.  Well, at least as mystical as possible for an Arm.
    “No, actually, overly rationalist, ma’am,” Haggerty said.  “I will admit to being at times unclear if I’ve chosen the right words to describe this affinity, though.  Another way of looking at it is people-oriented versus process-oriented, but this introduces complications due to the innate differences between Major Transforms…”
    Stacy waved her hands, shutting Haggerty up.  “It’s a pointless digression,”