CONDORCET (kon DOOR set)A member of a notorious clan stretching back to the 20th Century Standard Calendar (Earth), primarily but not exclusively associated with the Confederate Freespacers Mercenary Fleet.
Family legends say that the original James Joseph Condorcet, a Texan born of an American father and a French mother, rose to prominence during World War II as an officer in the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army Air Corps, the Office of Strategic Services, and the Secret Service, all at once. These legends are scoffed at today, especially since records of the time show no Condorcet enrolled in any of these services, but the pattern remains: Condorcets tend to regard themselves as indestructible action heroes, and act accordingly.
James Joseph Condorcet III emigrated to the infant Confederate Freespacers Alliance in late 2002 or early 2003, when Condorcet Avionics was bought up in a hostile takeover by the Rival Ninja Corporation, which proved in later years to have been subverted by GENOM Corporation. Condorcet took his private wealth and his all-female personal security force of some 30 members to the Freespacers, singlehandedly founding the MASS-03 Righteous Flying Piggy Wrath (Piggies for short). Condorcet later became commander of the CFMF and second head-of-state for the Freespacer nation, and ever since his descendants have been among the first families of the Freespacers.
It is suspected- but no one has demonstrated- that the foolhardy courage, the blatant sexism, the adrenalin addiction, and the paradoxical sexual magnetism of the Condorcet line is genetic in nature. It is known that about nine out of ten male Condorcets, and one out of every three females, has these qualities. The tradition of naming any blonde-haired, blue-eyed child with the initials J. J. in some form has provided an easy way of identifying these incredibly dangerous people.
The stereotypical Condorcet has blond hair and blue eyes. The males wear mustaches as soon as possible; both sexes smoke cigars and drink sociable amounts of alcohol. A Condorcet enjoys doing reckless things like flying a fighter into a station's active defense net and playing chicken. They are offensive-minded soldiers and officers, possessed of great creativity but less than usual survival skills. Condorcets believe themselves indestructible until and unless they officially "retire," and sometimes believe this indestructibility carries over to those unfortunate enough to be close to hand at the time.
The majority of Condorcet females, it must be noted, are more or less "normal." However, they can occasionally become "carriers" for whatever hereditary trait it is that makes a Condorcet a Condorcet, thus leading many respectable galactic families to have an entire generation of 'black sheep.'
Those Condorcet females who inherit the 'gung-ho gene' tend to react as patronizing and chivalric towards males as the male ones do towards females. Female JJs regard males as the weaker sex and tend to treat them as helpless and in need of protection. The sole recorded exception is the infamous Jewel Jasmine Condorcet (b. 2296), who is, according to her great-nephew James Joseph Condorcet XIX (b. 2352), "as queer as a seven-credit bill" and generally regarded as being mentally disturbed even by other Condorcets.
(It should be noted that homosexual Condorcets -do- occur besides Jew Condorcet, but they are always from the non-blond, non-adventurous, non-JJ members of the family. Some people have given the Condorcet example as a case of hereditary heterosexuality; the Condorcets, in a rare display of egalitarianism, usually tell such people just where they can stick any concept of 'gay genes.')
As a consequence of the battle of Wilderness Station, the Condorcet clan has been drastically thinned. Of thirty Condorcets in active service in the CFMF, twenty-eight died at Wilderness, leaving only James Joseph Condorcet XIX and his son JJ "Little Joe" Condorcet XX of the elder line of the family. A scattering of other members of the family, too old or too young for service, also remained to carry on both the legacy of centuries of bullheaded heroism and the shame of James Joseph Condorcet XVIII, the mutineer who is universally blamed for turning a long-range holding action into a hopeless massacre.
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