"Well, I used to be a deep space surveyor as cover for delivering warp equations to plagiarists so that more planets could be admitted to the Federation and benefit from the post-scarcity, but then I spent several years as a political refugee and now I make speeches."

"And get shot. But hopefully that was a one-off."

"Yes. I'm actually in the hospital right now, ostensibly still recovering."

"Ooh, post-scarcity. We don't have that. Economy's not flat enough and too much capital's in the hands of people with countervailing agendas. Why are the warp equations important for participating in it?"

"The Federation won't admit any societies which can't break the warp speed barrier, but will invite any society it catches producing a warp signature. I got caught, but it was very efficient before that. Although I'm glad not all the planets I visited decided to join the Federation, because then when Lalita broke me out of prison we had somewhere to go that was kindly disposed towards us and disinclined to extradite me. I miss priv..."

"I have no idea what priv is, but Bar can probably get it for you. How efficient?"

"At last estimate, I'm a contributor to saving - well, prolonging, given that immortality isn't yet a solved problem - twenty-six point four billion or so lives, I'd have to consult my program to get more significant figures."

"Can you explain warp, please?"

"Holy shit," says Ivan.

"Thank you," Isabella says to Ivan, and to Miles she says, "It's the - well, our - interstellar travel mechanism. I have the equations involved memorized but I'd have to look up how to actually build an engine. Why, how do you do it?"

"Sublight travel to wormholes, and then certain gifted and highly trained individuals maneuver through same and pop out on the other end. It's five jumps between Barrayar and Komarr, for example."

"Oh. We don't have nearly enough wormholes for that to work. They crop up occasionally - but must be different, they don't require specialized piloting. I can give you the warp equations but I'm sort of concerned now that the underlying physics differ..."

"Give it to us anyway," says Miles, "that's what physicists are for. We can check. And even if the physics aren't exactly the same, they might be close enough for what you know to be worth something."

"Sure. Um, how does this bar... work?"

"The bar itself is a herself. She communicates via napkins and can produce almost any specified nonmagical medium-sized nonliving harmless object for reasonable currency-dependent prices, no arbitrage allowed."

"Oh, in that case, just get a copy of Jenna Verma's A History of Warp Drive."

"Great," says Miles.

"You're very enthusiastic about warp drive," says Lalita.

"Wormholes," he says, "close."

"Not often, but when they do, if there isn't an alternate route, planets can be cut off. This is why Barrayar underwent its period of low technological access."

"Oh no. But it opened again?"

"Yeah, Komarr's our front gate. With a five-jump garden path."

"This bar just loves throwing people at me who find me unexpectedly entertaining, doesn't it."