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Linya is working on a massive flowchart-like diagram of a planned software project for Dr. Cheung. It's laid out in every color and in three dimensions with sprawl of its little writing that takes up most of her office and keeps fading out at the edges and in her shadow when she moves around, but reappears when she turns or approaches.
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isthisart
"I am glad of both things." Kiss. "While you were gone I whipped up prototype versions, two of 'em, for pens up to Simon's standards."
isthisart
"Market disagreement about acceptable tradeoffs between weight and storage space. I had to add extra hardware for the heavy-duty security - the DNA scan feature on my pen is tiny but I did effectively steal it from float-chairs, didn't have to invent it from scratch, and it piggybacks on my being haut."
thisvorlunatic
"And people might get weird about it if their pens gene-scanned them. Barrayar," Miles says wryly. He hugs her some more. "Can I braid your hair? I missed braiding your hair."
isthisart
"Of course you can braid my hair."
Up they go to where hair accessories may be found.
Up they go to where hair accessories may be found.
thisvorlunatic
Miles braids her hair! The arrangement he chooses is rather aggressively gorgeous.
isthisart
So did she!
"It was a very welcome change to know loosely what was going on, but I'm still glad you're home."
"It was a very welcome change to know loosely what was going on, but I'm still glad you're home."
isthisart
It's some weeks later when pan-galactic (for a value of pan-galactic that invites representatives from only about half of the nexus's inhabited planets, Barrayar excluded) trade talks that could substantially alter the landscape of inter-system commerce are announced. They're to be held in orbit around Tau Ceti, and while the only invited guests are governmental representatives, there is reason to have lobbyists in the vicinity - they can't be systematically excluded from the station, let alone comm range thereof, unless they're more like assassins than like people with nonviolent political agendas.
Linya doesn't have a lobbyist, but she has an export agent, with family just a short hop away from the neighborhood; she suggests that her agent take a vacation at home so as to be in the area when delegates arrive and talks start (months later; some people have long trips to make) and keep Linya up to date on how this will affect pens and certain other items Linya might have an interest in moving around the nexus.
thisvorlunatic
A couple of days after she does that, Miles wanders into her office one afternoon and asks, "What do you know about Lairouba?"
thisvorlunatic
"Because I'm headed out there for a job, and Illyan's mission briefings occasionally leave something to be desired. The Lairouban delegation to those trade talks on Tau Ceti wants bodyguards to defend them from Toraniran assassins; apparently there's some history there. Several hundred years of it. I hope nobody's secretly related to anybody this time around."
isthisart
"I did know that Lairouba and Toranira were unfriendly - I suppose my standard of 'not much' might not be a useful one and I should say what the not much is. They speak, I believe, their own language that was originally a pidgin of Urdu and Indonesian with smatterings of other influences, as well as unpidgined dialects of both of those plus Arabic and Farsi and Amharic. Predominantly Islamic colonists but there has been some perturbation since; I believe they're still nominally mostly Muslims but with some unique subsects. Cold climate but not as cold as Jackson's Whole."
thisvorlunatic
"Yeah. And the Lairoubans and Toranirans have nearly identical source populations but they politely hate each other for obscure reasons, and one of their favourite tricks is assassinating each other's diplomats and then loudly protesting innocence. Which is what I am about to go prevent, assuming the Lairoubans accept the Dendarii bid, which they had better. Goodbye kiss? I have time for plenty of goodbye kisses, my ship to Escobar won't be ready for another three hours."
isthisart
"Well then." Kiss. It's not a very goodbye-ish kiss because she doesn't let him go immediately afterwards, though.
thisvorlunatic
Not-very-goodbye-ish kisses are fully acceptable here. They have three hours, after all.
thisvorlunatic
And off he goes. Taking into account travel times and the likelihood of the trade talks dragging on past their three-week projected span, he estimates he will be at least two months out there. But at least this time she can pester Illyan for news.
isthisart
Which she does, although not until Illyan could be expected to have heard things besides, say, "en route to Komarr".
as-i-remember
Illyan informs her of his own accord when he hears that the Lairoubans accepted the Ariel's bid for their guard contract, shortly after Miles made rendezvous with the fleet at Escobar.
isthisart
If he keeps preempting her pestering like that she may not have to do any at all.
as-i-remember
He sends further voluntary updates when he gets word that Miles has met with the delegation on Lairouba; then that the Ariel and the Lairouban ship have arrived in Tau Ceti orbit and docked at the station where the talks are to be held; then, halfway into the talks, that Miles has actually deigned to send a report.
Even if he had not explicitly told me everything was going fine, he writes with that last one, I would know it from the fact that he sent a report at all. Miles detests sending reports mid-action; if I hear from him directly, it's because he is feeling dutiful and conscientious and very, very bored.
Even if he had not explicitly told me everything was going fine, he writes with that last one, I would know it from the fact that he sent a report at all. Miles detests sending reports mid-action; if I hear from him directly, it's because he is feeling dutiful and conscientious and very, very bored.
isthisart
That's adorable and very Milesly.
I appreciate the notification that he is bored. It is superior to some of the alternatives.
And early the following week, Linya gets a report from her agent.
One paragraph sticks out:
I wasn't expecting to have a chance to talk to any of the delegates unless I ran into one at total random while wandering the station, but I got a sudden invitation from the Toraniran delegates to meet them for dinner. So I quickly read up on Toranira's position on the issues under discussion and went. They didn't seem to have known who I work for, and there weren't any other business representatives there, so I almost think it was some kind of mistake, but they talked to me anyway and I think at least a couple of them are slightly more sympathetic to the nuances of software intellectual property you sent me earlier - I didn't get a chance to bring up anything about the hardware but you did say that was lower priority.
Linya forwards this paragraph to Illyan: Does this look bizarre and possibly relevant to you?
I appreciate the notification that he is bored. It is superior to some of the alternatives.
And early the following week, Linya gets a report from her agent.
One paragraph sticks out:
I wasn't expecting to have a chance to talk to any of the delegates unless I ran into one at total random while wandering the station, but I got a sudden invitation from the Toraniran delegates to meet them for dinner. So I quickly read up on Toranira's position on the issues under discussion and went. They didn't seem to have known who I work for, and there weren't any other business representatives there, so I almost think it was some kind of mistake, but they talked to me anyway and I think at least a couple of them are slightly more sympathetic to the nuances of software intellectual property you sent me earlier - I didn't get a chance to bring up anything about the hardware but you did say that was lower priority.
Linya forwards this paragraph to Illyan: Does this look bizarre and possibly relevant to you?