Divine Artifact in a Scientific World

"Worse," Jack continued, "I could choose to delete you if I wanted."

"Wait, wait," said Phineas, holding up his hands. "Let me see if I get this straight. After soul bonding, I'll have voluntary access to your soul space, if you grant it, but once I die, you can summon or dismiss me at will?"

"Yes."

"And what happens when I'm dismissed?"

"It's like you've been paused. For you, no subjective time passes between when you are dismissed and when you are summoned again."

"And I'd have no control over being summoned or dismissed?"

"Correct."

"And if you wany, you could just delete me? Make me cease to exist?"

"Once you die, yes. Prior to that, no."

"That's a bit heavy. I'm an atheist, so I've always assumed that when I die, that's it. No more me. And now you're telling me you can grant me an afterlife? Are you a god or something?"

"No. I'm mortal, but I have this power because, by chance, I received a divine artifact."

"What happens if you die?"

"As far as I know, I and this soul space would continue to exist. So theoretically, I'm sort of immortal."

"Okay, that's a lot to think about," Phineas paused. "What about the third thing?"

"I have some control over the formation of the soul bond. So, I could, if I wanted, try to dominate your soul so that I could command you. I've done it twice. Once by accident, once on purpose. I would not do that to you, but I believe you should know so you can make an informed choice."

"Dominate. Um, will you tell me about the two cases you mentioned?"

"Sure. The first was Isabella here. She was in a life-and-death situation, and the only way to save her life was if she was soul bonded. I tried to establish enough control so that she would not take advantage of her newfound knowledge for personal gain. The result was more extreme than I intended."

"And the second case was where I needed to compel a man to stop trying to kill Isabella and to confess his crimes."

Looking at Isabella, Phineas asked, "Does it bother you, what he did?"

She hook her head. "No. To know he has such power and used it to dominate me; it pleases me greatly."

Looking at Jack, Phineas asked, "And you don't want to do that with me? It seems like the wiser choice."

"The basic soul bond prevents you from acting against me, and that's enough in this situation. The only reason I went so far with Isabella was because of her selfish nature. That and my poor understanding of what I could accomplish with more subtle soul bond modifications."

"Would you make any modifications to my soul bond if I accepted?"

"There is one modification I would consider, but only if you agreed. I recently discovered a way to establish something equivalent to telepathy. With the modification, you would be able to grant me temporary access to your surface thoughts, and I would be able to transmit thoughts to you."

"Surface thoughts. What about memories are deeper thoughts?"

"I could theoretically do that, but I feel it is too invasive."

"So basically I'd have to trust you not to dominate my soul."

"Yes."

"But if I agreed, I'd effectively be immortal. Or at least have a chance at an afterlife."

"Basically, yes."

Phineas sat in thought for several minutes before looking Jack in the eyes and saying, "I think I'll risk it. I like your grand plan, and it seems like the only way to truly be part of your vision is if I join the club. So, make your offer. I'll just have to trust that you are a man of your word."

Jack sent Phineas a soul bond offer.

[Soul Bond Accepted: Phineas Dermot]

There was a long pause, but Phineas accepted the offer.

When the soul bond formation began, Jack didn't try to pull Phineas' soul closer to him, or push it away. Nor did he try to dominate Phineas' soul. He didn't need another zealot like Isabella.

Instead, he focused on establishing the mental link, with two intentions. Besides the gated mental link, he also wanted to be able to know if Phineas was lying even if his mental gate was closed.

When the soul bond formation completed, it felt like he had achieved exactly what he wanted.

He pushed Phineas out of his soul space, so his physical self wouldn't be stuck staring into space in the middle of a meeting or something, then he activated Phineas' parallel self.

When Phineas reappeared, he explained the self-staring-into-self issue. And to his surprise, Phineas said, "That sounds unpleasant, thanks for the warning."

Jack stared at Phineas like he couldn't believe what he'd just heard.

"What?" asked Phineas. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, sorry. It's just that you're the first person to actually heed my warning. Everyone else I've soul bonded has tried it anyway."

"Oh, I'll try it. But my other self is in a meeting, so I'd rather not go cross-eyed right now."

Is this one of those 'maybe it will be different for me' kinds of things? He wondered.

Moving on, he asked, "So, how do we want to proceed?"

"Ideally, you'd want to start by acquiring as much Horizon stock on the open market as you can without driving the price up. Then, when you've acquired as much as you can that way, I'd announce that a private investor is willing to back my effort to take the company private."

"Are there any major stakeholders who might cause problems?" asked Isabella.

"No. The only major stakeholders are my board members, and most of them want me to sell. The only reason they haven't been able to force it is because I still own 32% of the voting shares, and two of my friends own a combined 20% giving us a 52% voting block."

"And will your friend be okay with the deal?"

"Yes. The only reason they've held onto their shares as long as they have is out of loyalty. As long as your offer price is at least 2.2 credits per share, they'll be happy to sell."

"Great. Now what about Jensen Manufacturing? Do you have any ideas about how to proceed there?"