The Vorkosigan Companion (33 page)

"Winterfair Gifts"
Published in
Irresistible Forces
, 2004

In the hectic days leading up to Miles and Ekaterin's wedding,   Armsman Roic is still trying to get over his mortal   embarrassment at meeting his lord's future bride in less-than-flattering   circumstances—wearing nothing but his boots, briefs, and about five pounds of bug butter. That had been courtesy of the scuffle he had gotten into several months earlier, protecting Doctor Borgos from Escobaran bounty hunters. Still feeling guilty over his role in the debacle, he attends to his duties as a stream of important visitors arrive at Vorkosigan House for the upcoming wedding. Among them is the genetically modified Sergeant Taura, whom Roic is assigned to accompany during an appointment to get her properly attired for the ceremony, courtesy of Alys Vorpatril. Despite a minor incident with a child at tea afterward, the day goes well, but Roic's inadvertent disparagement of the genetically modified butter bugs falls harshly upon Taura's ears. Also, the bride has been ill for the several days leading up to the wedding, and Roic isn't sure if it is pre-wedding nerves or something worse. When he spots Taura looking through the wedding gifts late one night, and pocketing an elegant strand of pearls that supposedly had been sent by Admiral Quinn, he tries to intervene, hating to think she might be just a thief after all. But Taura's modified eyesight has spotted something on the pearls, and Roic convinces her to let him take them to Imperial Security for a more detailed examination. Her suspicion proves correct; the necklace is poisoned with a deadly neurotoxin cunningly designed to pass a cursory inspection. Ekaterin's wearing it for only a few minutes when she first tried it on was enough to make her quite ill, and prolonged exposure would have killed her for sure. The culprit behind the plan is revealed to be Lord Vorbataille, a minor noble who had gotten caught up in a Jackson's Whole criminal ring, and had been arrested a few days earlier trying to flee off-planet. Taura and Roic are the heroes of the wedding for foiling the plot, with Taura becoming Ekaterin's Second during the ceremony. After seeing Lord and Lady Vorkosigan off on their honeymoon, Taura and Roic reach a new mutual understanding, one that leads to some romantic fireworks of their very own.

Diplomatic Immunity
(2001)

More than a year after their marriage, Miles and Ekaterin have enjoyed a well-deserved two-month galactic honeymoon, and are returning to Barrayar for the births of their children when an Imperial courier ship brings a message from Emperor Gregor. Miles is assigned to investigate an incident at Graf Station, in the Union of Free Habitats, located in an area known as Quaddiespace. Members of a Barrayaran military escort, guarding a Komarran trade fleet, got into an incident that resulted in the Barrayarans shooting up a local police station to try and free some of their men. Graf Station responded by locking down the entire merchant fleet in the docks, and holding all the passengers until the mess can be sorted out, hence Gregor's request that Miles see to the matter, as he is the closest to Quaddiespace. Taking Ekaterin with him, Miles is acutely aware of time ticking away before the births of their children, gestating in uterine replicators back on Barrayar, and wants to wrap things up as quickly as possible. However, his initial impression of the station only reveals more problems. Although a Barrayaran ensign, Dmitri Corbeau, who seems to have fallen in love with a quaddie ballet dancer, was the initial cause of the ruckus, Lieutenant Solian, the Komarran-born Barrayaran security liaison with the merchant fleet, has gone missing in the station, leaving only several liters of blood in an airlock, suggesting something dire has happened to him. Miles also finds another surprise—Bel Thorne, the Betan hermaphrodite who resigned its commission from the Dendarii at Miles's request several years ago after the second Jackson's Whole mission, is working at Graf Station as Portmaster, and is also on the Barrayaran Imperial Security payroll as an informer. Miles investigates the station brawl as well as the missing security officer, and finds more questions than answers. Ensign Corbeau is seeking asylum at Graf Station, which would make him a deserter from the Barrayaran military, and have serious repercussions for relations between the two cultures. Even more unusual, Lieutenant Solian seems to have completely disappeared. Initial suspects include a strange-looking, genetically modified man anxious to leave the station, as well as another Betan hermaphrodite, Ker Dubauer, who is worried about a cargo of uterine replicators. After someone tries to kill Miles, Bel, or Ker with a rivet gun, Miles is inclined to view the new herm as the real target, until he inspects the Betan's cargo, and finds it to be human fetuses, not bioengineered animals as Dubauer claimed. He also figures out that Dubauer isn't a hermaphrodite, but is a Cetagandan ba, the neuter class that the haut-ladies practice their genetic   engineering on before releasing the changes into their future generations. Before he can find Dubauer again, Bel disappears as well, increasing Miles's suspicion that something bigger is going on. When the strange man who assaulted Bel and its partner, Nicol, is caught by the quaddies at the docks, Miles gets a large part of the story. Dubauer had hired Russo Gupta and his smuggler friends to off-load the replicators from a Cetagandan transport ship, then tried to kill all of them with a virulent biotoxin. Gupta survived, and tracked Dubauer down to try and kill him, but failed. When Miles received word that Dubauer and Bel Thorne accessed the ship where the replicators are being held the night before, he knows where the criminal went, but still has to catch him. Going onto the ship that's carrying the replicators, Miles finds that genetic samples have been taken from the embryos. He also finds Bel Thorne there, ill from what appears to be the same toxin that killed Gupta's companions. Miles locks down the ship, and during the search for Dubauer, infects himself when he stumbles upon a trap left by the ba. Dubauer has also never left the ship, as they discover when the ba seals all of the compartment doors and demands a jump pilot to take it away from Quaddiespace, claiming to have left a bomb on the station somewhere. The volunteer pilot is Ensign Corbeau. Miles must fight the poison coursing through him to stop Dubauer and regain control of the ship, which he does right before passing out. Ekaterin must race against time to get both Miles and the recaptured fetuses to Cetaganda in time to save Miles's life and prevent a war-by-mistake. Miles awakens on a Cetagandan space station, weak but cured of the toxin's effects. Haut-lady Pel is there, and Miles explains the plan as he saw it: Dubauer had stolen the haut-fetuses to create a new empire, where it would rule over all as both Empress and Emperor. To cover its tracks, it had planted empty Cetagandan replicators in Vorbarr Sultana on Barrayar to create conflict between the two empires. Having averted yet another war, Ekaterin, Bel, and Miles are honored by the Cetagandans, with Miles giving a sample of his genetic structure to the haut-ladies, so that in the future, a bit of him might become part of the Cetagandan whole. For Miles and Ekaterin, however, that pales next to getting home in time to watch their children, a son and daughter, be born, and to see the next generation of Vorkosigans take their first breaths.

The following abbreviations are used to denote where the defined term appeared in the Vorkosigan Saga novels:

B:
Barrayar

BA:
Brothers in Arms

BI:"The Borders of Infinity"

C:
Cetaganda

CC:
A Civil Campaign

DD:"Dreamweaver's Dilemma"

DI:
Diplomatic Immunity

EA:
Ethan of Athos

FF:
Falling Free

K:
Komarr

L:"Labyrinth"

M:
Memory

MD:
Mirror Dance

MM:"The Mountains of Mourning"

SH:
Shards of Honor

VG:
The Vor Game

WA:
The Warrior's Apprentice

WG:"Winterfair Gifts"

Terms are listed alphabetically, without regard to punctuation.

Although we have tried to make this concordance as complete as possible, please note that Lois's novels cover more than one thousand years of future history. The writers and editors are all too aware that mistakes are inevitable in such a mammoth work. Comments, questions, and suggestions or additions or corrections may be sent to the following address:

John Helfers

c/o Baen Publishing Enterprises

500 Wait Ave., #6

Wake Forest, NC 27587

Abell:

No first name given. A scholar who produced a turgid general history of Barrayar. Cordelia views a video of his work while she is Aral's prisoner. (SH)

Abromov:

No first name given. A corporal in the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet, he delivers the helmet recorder files of every Dendarii soldier involved in the clone rescue missions on Jackson's Whole to the officer conference room on the
Peregrine
. (BA)

Aczith:

No first name given. A historian who details the history of Emperor Dorca Vorbarra the Just, Aral's great-grandfather, who ruled at the end of the Time of Isolation. Cordelia views this video while she is Aral's prisoner, trying to gain insight into Barrayaran politics. (SH)

Adumbration of Trigonial Strategy in the War of Minos IV, The
:

Title of a set of three military history reading discs Miles purchases on the Jacksonian Consortium jump station to pass the time during his trip home after his Victor Rotha persona is revealed. (VG)

Agba:

One of the welding quaddies Leo trains at the Cay Habitat. He inadvertently almost ruins Leo's plan to create a new vortex mirror by using slurry explosive to blow off clamps while disassembling the station. (FF)

Ahn:

No first name given. A lieutenant and meteorological officer in the Barrayaran military, he is stationed at Lazkowski Base. Miles replaces him on his first assignment after graduating from the Imperial Academy. An unshaven drunkard, approximately forty years old, he has been in the military for twenty years, and is about to retire. He has been Kyril station's only weather officer for fifteen years, and is able to accurately forecast the weather by smell alone. He was an accomplice in covering up Stanis Metzov's murder of a Barrayaran guard corporal who was going to turn Metzov in for killing a Komarran rebel during   interrogation. (VG)

Aime Pass:

A pass in the Dendarii Mountains where Piotr takes Cordelia and Gregor to hide from Vordarian's security men. Populated by scattered homesteads, it is also the mail route for Major Klyeuvi. (B)

Aircar:

A cross between a groundcar and a lightflyer, an aircar combines the best of both vehicles. Using anti-gravity technology for lift, it can carry several people, and move either on the ground or through the air, giving it an extended travel range. Miles, Ivan, and Vorob'yev travel to the Celestial Garden on Cetaganda in one. (C)

Alex:

No surname given. The Speaker's deputy in Silvy Vale, he is a hulking young man, big-handed, heavy-browed, thick-necked, and surly. He assists in exhuming Raina Csurik's body for autopsy. (MM)

Alfredi, Marsha:

A lieutenant in the Barrayaran prison camp during the Escobar war, she is the ranking officer there until Cordelia arrives. (SH)

Aljean:

A quaddie zero-gee ballet composer. His most famous work is "The Crossing," about the original quaddies' escape from GalacTech to freedom. (DI)

Allegre, Guy:

A general in the Barrayaran military, he is the Head of Domestic Affairs for Komarr, and Lucas Haroche's counterpart before Lucas is promoted to Simon's position. He accompanies Miles to catch Haroche destroying the evidence that he had infected Simon with the prokaryote organism. After being promoted to acting Chief of Imperial Security, his first act is to arrest Haroche on Miles's order. He is then appointed to the position of Chief of Imperial Security after Miles turns the position down.

After the Komarr investigation, he warns Miles not to speak publicly about the rumors regarding Ekaterin until Imperial Security can learn if there is a security leak regarding the recent events there. Before Miles's wedding, he reports to the wedding party about the poisoned pearls, and lets them know that the people behind the plot have been caught. (CC, M, WG)

Alpha-S-D plasmid-2:

A sexually transmitted disease Elli Quinn mentions as part of her plan to bring biocontrol wardens down on Colonel Millisor at Kline Station. (EA)

Alpha-S-D plasmid-3:

A sexually-transmitted disease Elli Quinn mentions as part of her plan to bring biocontrol wardens down on Colonel Millisor at Kline Station. (EA)

Amor Klyeuvi's nephew:

No name given. He guides Cordelia and Bothari out of the Dendarii Mountains. (B)

Anafi, Ser:

A representative of the Rialto Sharemarket Agency, he contacts Ekaterin Vorsoisson after Etienne's death, trying to collect on her husband's loan, which was lost in an investment in trade fleet shares. He tries to get her to cosign a repayment plan, but Miles thwarts him by putting him in direct contact with Colonel Gibbs as part of the investigation into Etienne's finances. (K)

Anderson, Laureen:

A sergeant and shuttle pilot in the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet, she is assigned Miles's mission to infiltrate House Ryoval's biological laboratory. She saves Miles, Taura, and Nicol from the pursuing Ryoval security forces, and helps Taura clean up aboard the
Ariel
. (L)

Andy:

Claire and Tony's baby quaddie, born on the Cay Project Habitat. (FF)

Anti-gravity field:

A null-gee field can be created just about anywhere with the proper equipment, and is often used for sleep and exotic recreation. For those not accustomed to free fall, this can cause drop-nausea. While hosting a quaddie musician, House Fell uses a null-gee bubble to allow her to float while playing her instrument with all four arms. (L)