"...I can't help thinking that - you might not know if they were distressed," says Ekaterin. "They might not be inclined to let on."

"Well, yes, of course, expectations for how they ought to feel about haut apply even more strongly to ba than ghem. But I am haut, so - if some ba who is in distress declines to communicate this in any way to any haut - then while they might benefit from help, I have no way to let them benefit from my help. Even a dramatic show of interest-in-helping-ba intending to gain their trust would have me making some sort of intervention in their lives without their cooperation."

"I see. But... are they ever going to get any help from anyone who isn't haut?"

"There are more ba than haut - by a factor of something like five or six, I think. They could do it themselves if they fomented sufficient dissent. Ba sometimes interact with ghem and even proles. And of the haut - Lisbet is very - sensible and methodical, but in a sort of - careful way accompanied by people skills that absolutely dwarf mine. I have a lot of high hopes for her tenure in various spheres, this one included. She has more coordination power than I could possibly have acquired in any span not measured in decades; if there is something that haut in general can do to be kinder to ba then she is likelier than I to find out what it is without upsetting any ba in the process and dramatically more able to effect its happening."

"Oh. Well, that's good, then. Lisbet is... the Empress you mentioned before?" she hazards.

"Yes, that's her. I imagine she'll have some spare time between stages of designing the next Emperor."

"...Is that... what Cetagandan empresses do?"

"That's a principal component of the job, yes. Design the Emperor, or possibly several Emperor-candidates for the existing Emperor to choose between; approve novel genomics projects and oversee less experimental creations; participate in the occasional awarding of haut-brides to worthy recipients."

"On Barrayar we don't design our Emperors. They sort of - well, I suppose 'happen by accident' isn't quite right..."

"Random assembly," supplies Linya. "Is I think a reasonably neutral term."

"Random assembly. Yes, that sounds much better."

"And the term of art I've been using for unengineered organisms is 'heirloom' - which is complimentary in every sense except for being originally meant to describe produce."

"I see. Does that make me an... heirloom human? I've never thought of myself in terms of not being engineered before."

"You are indeed an heirloom human," says Linya. "It wouldn't be a particularly useful term if there were no other genetic engineering products besides the haut, but there are also of course the ba, and the ghem get some engineering done, and there are plenty of things elsewhere in the galaxy where it's practiced. I'm sure all manner of things and people have been made on Jackson's Whole, for instance."

"Ick," says Ekaterin. "About Jackson's Whole, I mean. I don't know very much about the place, but the little that I know is... ick."

"I agree completely. If it had turned out to be a complete disaster to have me here and there had been no choice but to ship me off somewhere else my stated criterion was that it be a reasonably civilized planet - defined significantly to exclude Jackson's Whole."

"That seems like a reasonable definition of civilized. But... I hope Barrayar will be civilized enough to keep you."

"I'm very happy here so far. I have a piano and a market for pens and a Miles."

Ekaterin giggles. "Is that last part very important?"

"Quite. I'm terribly fond of him."

"I'm glad!"

"He's so cute."

"He did seem charming, from what I saw of him."

"...He's very good at it," says Ekaterin.