This post's authors have general content warnings that might apply to the current post.
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
Time goes by. Linya, who already quietly turned nineteen, turns twenty. She collects an accelerated master's degree in neuroscience and starts corresponding with various people on the subject.
Pens spread out; the next time Miles sees Elli he gets a white standard-model pen she bought him on Escobar. She has one too; it's silver. She loves it and thanks him for recommending it to her. (She has bought a whole boxful to unload at a markup on the next planet or station she comes to that doesn't have them yet, but doesn't explicitly mention this in case he objects to her cutting into Lady Vorkosigan's margins.)
Miles also has one actual courier mission in there, just escorting a diplomatic pouch from Pol back home, to pad his service record for the less-cleared eye.
There is a visit to a clinic to collect and mystically join gametes, and Linya collects the resulting assembly in data format for editing. She does the grey eyes first and estimates that if she doesn't particularly hurry she'll have a Little Aral What-the-Heck-Should-His-Middle-Name-Be all ready to put in a replicator in two or three years, though she can accelerate that considerably if something comes up urgently requiring the presence of Little Aral sooner rather than later.
And then Miles gets sent off again and is gone for a very long time.
isthisart
So Galeni shows him the news item.
The shop burns, the Admiral is interviewed, the news clip goes on for an uncomfortably long time.
Galeni switches it off when it's over. And looks Miles in the eye.
"Well?"
The shop burns, the Admiral is interviewed, the news clip goes on for an uncomfortably long time.
Galeni switches it off when it's over. And looks Miles in the eye.
"Well?"
thisvorlunatic
He takes a steadying breath.
"Sir, Commander Quinn called me in to handle this situation yesterday afternoon because I was the closest ranking Dendarii officer. It was a sound decision on her part. People could have died or been gravely injured without my intervention. I must apologize for my actions, but I cannot regret them."
"Sir, Commander Quinn called me in to handle this situation yesterday afternoon because I was the closest ranking Dendarii officer. It was a sound decision on her part. People could have died or been gravely injured without my intervention. I must apologize for my actions, but I cannot regret them."
"Oh, Lieutenant, an apology will hardly do this incident justice. You have apparently managed to teleport, AWOL, unguarded in defiance of standing orders. I have been deprived by a margin of seconds of the opportunity to inquire of headquarters where I ought to ship your barbecued corpse. And this left no ripple in my security records, this after I thought I put the fear of God into them following the incident with Lady Vorkosigan. No, Lieutenant, an apology will not suffice."
"Then there is that fraction of the matter accounted for. You may instead start by explaining how you passed through the security net in both directions without a trace." Galeni is scowling fiercely.
thisvorlunatic
"I... left in a group of guests departing the reception through the main public entrance. Since I was not in my Barrayaran uniform, the guards assumed I was a member of the group." There. Fully true, and without bringing Ivan into it at all.
thisvorlunatic
Miles doesn't actually know how Ivan diddled security to get him back in last night, or he'd try to come up with a carefully true explanation for that too. Fuck.
thisvorlunatic
"Ah," says Miles. He contemplates innocently asking how Galeni concluded that Ivan was involved. He thinks better of it. Instead:
"Everything Ivan did was done at my command. The responsibility is therefore also mine. I can produce a complete and accurate report of how I penetrated your security net, and I will, if you agree that no charges will fall on him."
"Everything Ivan did was done at my command. The responsibility is therefore also mine. I can produce a complete and accurate report of how I penetrated your security net, and I will, if you agree that no charges will fall on him."
"Your command, eh? Has it occurred to you yet that Lieutenant Vorpatril is above you in this chain of command?"
thisvorlunatic
Miles sighs.
"Yes, sir. I... had planned at first to be gone only as long as it took to deal with the immediate crisis, but then Admiral Naismith's duties—" He cuts himself off with a shake of his head. "Anyway. I came to the decision that I should return openly, but when I did get back and he'd gone to all that trouble, it seemed ungrateful..."
"Yes, sir. I... had planned at first to be gone only as long as it took to deal with the immediate crisis, but then Admiral Naismith's duties—" He cuts himself off with a shake of his head. "Anyway. I came to the decision that I should return openly, but when I did get back and he'd gone to all that trouble, it seemed ungrateful..."
thisvorlunatic
"What would you have done?" he snaps. "The Dendarii are my responsibility - as much the Emperor's troops as any who wear his uniform. I can't, I won't abandon them in their desperate need, merely to play the part of Lieutenant Vorkosigan."
thisvorlunatic
"I... look, sir, in a way Lieutenant Vorkosigan is just a - part. The cover for my role as Admiral Naismith. It's just that for as long as they never appeared within light-years of each other, the two sets of duties never came into conflict. Now that they have... it's apparent to me that the lieutenant must, excuse me, be subordinate to the admiral. Please, sir, I need some kind of rational arrangement through which to attend to Naismith's responsibilities."
Galeni sighs heavily.
"When," he says, "Naismith's duties call - come to me first, Lieutenant Vorkosigan. Consider yourself on probation. I'd confine you to quarters and tell your wife not to visit, but the ambassador has specifically requested you for escort duties this afternoon and I suspect Lady Vorkosigan could likewise get the ambassador to request you for herself if I inconvenienced her... But be aware that I could have made serious charges. Disobeying a direct order, for instance."
"When," he says, "Naismith's duties call - come to me first, Lieutenant Vorkosigan. Consider yourself on probation. I'd confine you to quarters and tell your wife not to visit, but the ambassador has specifically requested you for escort duties this afternoon and I suspect Lady Vorkosigan could likewise get the ambassador to request you for herself if I inconvenienced her... But be aware that I could have made serious charges. Disobeying a direct order, for instance."
thisvorlunatic
"I am very aware, sir," he says. He considers bringing up Ivan again, and then decides against it.