View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
One lovely afternoon Miles gets a rather urgent call from Ivan.
+ Show First Post
greatcomposure
Nod. "We'll think about it, and maybe we'll come up with some very clever ideas, but maybe we won't."
pen_is_wow
"Yeah." Pen noms breakfast, apparently having forgotten that she was supposed to put somebody.
greatcomposure
Cordelia lets her finish breakfast before asking again.
"Could you put Byerly on the brainphone, please?"
"Could you put Byerly on the brainphone, please?"
tearingup
[...Hi?] says Byerly, and then a few seconds later and sounding much less confused he adds, [Thanks.]
thisvorlunatic
With his mother to take care of the interdimensional eight-year-old, Miles resumes his usual routine.
His next mission is to Jackson's Whole, just over a week later, the day after his father and Gregor are added to the brainphone. He asks Illyan to agree to comm-silence-except-in-emergencies despite this amazing new technology, citing the difficulty of maintaining the Admiral Naismith cover with his ImpSec boss pestering him at all hours. Illyan acquiesces with only moderate sarcasm.
The mission is... one of the more harrowing he's had. He makes some enemies. On the other hand, his new recruit is amazing.
On the way back, the very day he parts ways from the fleet, he walks into his tiny cabin on the commercial passenger transport and, when he looks up from rubbing his eyes, discovers that he is not in a tiny cabin on a commercial passenger transport. Not at all.
'We found the bar' is on the list of pre-approved emergencies under which they are allowed to contact him by brainphone, so he knows they haven't. He also knows they were going to ask Pen for better contact information regarding her parents and their alts, when he left; they hadn't yet expanded the search offplanet, so it was not yet urgent to do so. Of course. And now he's found the bar, and - he checks his chrono and does a quick mental calculation - it's the middle of the night on Barrayar. Of course. While he could wake up his father, his mother, his boss, or his emperor - or that poor Byerly fellow he barely knows - and ask them for an update, that would be rather impolite, and also involve holding open a door to Milliways from a public corridor on a commercial passenger transport while he tries them all to see who hasn't put up a [sleeping] busy message.
He stands to one side of the closed door and mutters curses to himself in several languages and dialects.
His next mission is to Jackson's Whole, just over a week later, the day after his father and Gregor are added to the brainphone. He asks Illyan to agree to comm-silence-except-in-emergencies despite this amazing new technology, citing the difficulty of maintaining the Admiral Naismith cover with his ImpSec boss pestering him at all hours. Illyan acquiesces with only moderate sarcasm.
The mission is... one of the more harrowing he's had. He makes some enemies. On the other hand, his new recruit is amazing.
On the way back, the very day he parts ways from the fleet, he walks into his tiny cabin on the commercial passenger transport and, when he looks up from rubbing his eyes, discovers that he is not in a tiny cabin on a commercial passenger transport. Not at all.
'We found the bar' is on the list of pre-approved emergencies under which they are allowed to contact him by brainphone, so he knows they haven't. He also knows they were going to ask Pen for better contact information regarding her parents and their alts, when he left; they hadn't yet expanded the search offplanet, so it was not yet urgent to do so. Of course. And now he's found the bar, and - he checks his chrono and does a quick mental calculation - it's the middle of the night on Barrayar. Of course. While he could wake up his father, his mother, his boss, or his emperor - or that poor Byerly fellow he barely knows - and ask them for an update, that would be rather impolite, and also involve holding open a door to Milliways from a public corridor on a commercial passenger transport while he tries them all to see who hasn't put up a [sleeping] busy message.
He stands to one side of the closed door and mutters curses to himself in several languages and dialects.
she_sells_seashells
The door opens.
Someone with a passing resemblance to Pen and a crown walks in, then immediately turns around and tries the door again to reveal a really cluttered little room, then swears and closes it again.
Someone with a passing resemblance to Pen and a crown walks in, then immediately turns around and tries the door again to reveal a really cluttered little room, then swears and closes it again.
thisvorlunatic
"I, ah - are you looking for something?" he asks.
It would be a ridiculous coincidence - or maybe it wouldn't; after all, if he remembers right they do have someone who can do just that to doors, and it would be the first thing they'd try the moment they noticed her missing, and if he interpreted the weird time bullshit correctly then the moment they noticed her missing would tend to fall right around the next time someone from his universe encountered the bar.
thisvorlunatic
"Yeah. She's currently staying with my mother on my home planet, safe and sound." ('Something happened to Pen' was also on the list of acceptable emergencies.)
she_sells_seashells
"Well, that's convenient. If you wouldn't mind holding the door for me I'll fetch her home to her family?"
she_sells_seashells
And she steps through, looks around, and vanishes.
And appears where Pen is.
Aww, Pen's asleep. Well, Jane can send her home just fine that way, and she can come back to visit if she wants. Poof goes the little angel. Shell Bell leaves a note on the bed - Pen's auntoid came to pick her up, she is home - and then teleports back to the nice person who let her in.
"Thanks."
And appears where Pen is.
Aww, Pen's asleep. Well, Jane can send her home just fine that way, and she can come back to visit if she wants. Poof goes the little angel. Shell Bell leaves a note on the bed - Pen's auntoid came to pick her up, she is home - and then teleports back to the nice person who let her in.
"Thanks."
thisvorlunatic
"You're welcome," says Miles. "I understand if this isn't the best time, but now that I have access to an adult member of this mysterious interdimensional society of powerful people, I have... a lot of questions."
thisvorlunatic
"How does this business with multiple versions of the same people work, exactly...?"
she_sells_seashells
"We're not actually sure! I mean, we know what happens, but not why. But we - I'm a Bell, so's Pen's mother - cooperate with ourselves really well, so we formed a network to share stuff. We have the same personality and some strange coincidences in circumstance and we look the same. Except for Cam, who is a boy."
thisvorlunatic
"I wonder if I have any of these duplicates," he muses. "How would I go about getting in touch with them?"
she_sells_seashells
"You don't look familiar, but I can call Glass in to check to see if you're a new face of somebody we've met. If you're not, you can leave notes with Bar, or just loiter indefinitely in Milliways, but there's no guarantee this'll get you in touch in a reasonable time frame."
thisvorlunatic
"Hm," he says. "If it's not too much trouble, I would like to know."