The Vorkosigan Companion (56 page)

Soon she is pregnant with Miles. After an assassination attempt on Aral using soltoxin gas, Cordelia's fetus is severely damaged, and must be removed and placed in a uterine replicator. During the coup attempt by Vidal Vordarian, Cordelia becomes the de facto protector of Gregor while they are in hiding in the mountains near Amie Pass. Once Gregor and Cordelia are safe again, they learn that Vordarian is holding Miles's replicator hostage. Cordelia leads Bothari, Droushnakovi, and Koudelka on a mission to save her son. After saving Alys Vorpatril from Vordarian's goons and helping deliver her son Ivan, Cordelia continues on to the Emperor's Residence, where she finds Miles's replicator. Captured by Imperial Security guards, they escape with Vordarian as a hostage, until Cordelia orders Bothari to execute him, which he does with Koudelka's swordstick. Cordelia takes Vordarian's head back to Aral, and tells him to end the war.

As Aral serves as Regent of Barrayar, Cordelia sees to the raising of Gregor and Miles, as well as doing her best to bring Barrayar into the modern age without losing its virtues, or her own. Among her other ventures, she helps fund the medical facility in Hassadar. Half the people there are oath-sworn to her in exchange for their schooling. Even after her children are grown, she frequently serves as a voice of reason for them. She accepts her clone-son Mark as her and Aral's own, and tries to help him assimilate to his new life. She also buys Mark a ship to go and rescue Miles from Jackson's Whole after his cryo-revival.

When Miles nearly destroys his relationship with Ekaterin, she gives him relationship advice that gets him back on track. She invests in Mark's bug butter business, and brokers an agreement between Mark and the Koudelkas after his relationship with Kareen becomes difficult.

Cordelia's name and title keep changing throughout the Vorkosigan sagas. She begins as Commander Cordelia Naismith, then becomes Captain Cordelia Naismith. When she marries Aral Vorkosigan, her name/title becomes Lady Vorkosigan. When Aral is appointed Regent, she becomes Regent-Consort Lady Vorkosigan. After Piotr's death, she becomes Regent-Consort Countess Vorkosigan. Then Aral and she move to Sergyar, where Aral becomes viceroy, and Cordelia becomes Vicereine Countess Vorkosigan. (All except FF)

Vorkosigan, Countess, the fifth:

No first name given. An ancestor of Miles's who suffered under the periodic delusion that she was made of glass. One of her irritated relations eventually dropped her off a twenty-meter castle turret, killing her. (BA)

Vorkosigan crest:

A stylized maple leaf in front of three triangles, which represent the Dendarii Mountains, it was originally used to seal the bags of District tax revenues. In an attempt to curry favor with Miles, Enrique Borgos gene-splices the Vorkosigan crest onto the back of a group of butter bugs, not realizing it's a terrible insult to the family. (CC)

Vorkosigan, Ekaterin Nile Vorvayne Vorsoisson:

A Barrayaran from the South Continent, she is the wife of the administrator for the Serifosa division of the terraforming project on Komarr. She has rich brown hair with amber highlights and light blue eyes, and is withering under the stress of her unhappy marriage. She has three older brothers and lost her mother when she was a teenager. She lived with her Aunt Helen and Uncle Vorthys in Vorbarr Sultana for two years before marrying Etienne Vorsoisson and, a decade later, is living in Serifosa, on Komarr.

Ekaterin feels closer to her aunt and uncle than to her father. She has a passion for growing plants and is very intelligent. She is not happy with her husband, and when she finds out he has taken bribes, lost most of their savings and pension on a Komarran trade fleet, and is still not going for help for his illness as well as blocking her son's treatment, she leaves him. After his death, she gets Nikolai into a hospital for treatment of his Vorzohn's Dystrophy, and prepares to leave Komarr to travel back home to Barrayar. At the jump-point station to pick up Helen Vorthys, they are both taken hostage by Arozzi, and held prisoner where the engineers are planning to try to close the wormhole. Ekaterin escapes and ends up breaking the wormhole-closing device. She and Helen are put into an airlock, with the engineers threatening to space both of them, until Miles convinces them to surrender. She ends up going back to Barrayar, with the promise of seeing Miles again very much on her mind.

When she and Nikolai arrive on Barrayar, they live with her Aunt and Uncle Vorthys in Vorbarr Sultana and she plans to attend school. Despite Miles trying to keep her under wraps, she is inundated by gentleman callers, but has no intention of getting married again. Miles gives her a garden design job and she enjoys her time with him, but just as she is letting her guard down, he is forced to propose to her in the middle of his disastrous dinner party, and she storms out, thinking he was trying to manipulate her.

She accepts work from Mark and Kareen redesigning the butter bugs to be more consumer-friendly. Eventually she comes to realize, after carrying around Miles's heartfelt letter of apology and listening to the slander of him by her suitors, brother, and former brother-in-law, that she is in love with Miles.

Brought to Castle Vorhartung by Gregor so he can protect her son from her overbearing relatives, she attends the Council of Counts vote, and when the false charge that Miles murdered her husband is made by Richars, she proposes to Miles to prove that he is not manipulating her into an unwanted marriage. During the preparations, she is naturally jittery about marrying again, but forges onward. When a poisoned gift choker of pearls makes her very ill, at first she thinks it is nerves, and is relieved to find the illness stemmed from poison. Rather than feeling frightened at the assassination attempt, she continues with the wedding, wearing the now-clean pearls in defiance of her husband's enemies.

While honeymooning with her husband, Miles is sent to Graf Station to adjudicate a dispute between the station security and the Barrayaran fleet escort. She assists where she can, especially at the end, where Miles must reach Cetagandan space with the haut-fetuses to return them back to the Empire, and also be treated for the parasites that are killing him. She receives a Warrant of the Celestial House from the Cetagandans in acknowledgment of her actions in saving the haut-lords' children. (K, CC, DI, WG)

Vorkosigan House:

A large, gray stone mansion that is more than two centuries old. Built by Miles's great-great-great grandfather, it was one of the reasons he went bankrupt. Approximately four kilometers from Imperial Security HQ, it is a four-story building with two wings plus a few other odd architectural bits added over the decades. A semicircular drive leads up to the house, with a strip of lawn and a garden setting the house off from the street. A stone wall topped by black wrought-iron spikes surrounds the grounds. There is a force screen inside the wall for true protection. It's a big house, meant to be lived in by multiple generations at once, along with armsmen, servants, and staff.

It is where Evon Vorhalas tries to assassinate Aral, and catches Cordelia in the soltoxin attack. Almost thirty years later, Miles moves in after resigning from Imperial Security, and takes over his grandfather Piotr's former suite of rooms after his confirmation as Imperial Auditor.

There is an empty lot adjoining the house where a house was demolished long ago and Imperial Security did not want anything new built, as it would have blocked their field of fire as they protected Count Vorkosigan. Miles has Ekaterin build a native Barrayaran display garden there. Vorkosigan House is the initial site of Mark Vorkosigan's butter bug industry. But several of Doctor Borgos's butter bugs escaped the lab in the basement, and later Borgos tries to dump fifty kilograms of bug butter down the sink drain, which clogs the main drain, leaving Miles to go in and fix the problem. The house is also the site of the bug butter war, where Kareen and Martya try to save Doctor Borgos from the Escobaran parole officers by pelting them with tubs of bug butter. (B, CC, M)

Vorkosigan, Mark Pierre:

Miles's clone, he was created from stolen tissue samples on Jackson's Whole, financed by a hostile Komarran faction to create a copy of Miles to kill Aral and take over the Barrayaran throne. Mark was raised with other clones in Jacksonian clone crèches until he was fourteen, when he was taken by Ser Galen for more intensive training to impersonate Miles and in espionage and assassination. Galen's training regime for Mark was filled with torture and abuse.

Six years younger than Miles, he is a nearly exact physical duplicate, right down to the plastic replacement bones in his legs. He doesn't suffer from the brittle bone syndrome that Miles has, but is as intelligent as his brother, and comes up with the plan to have Miles kidnap himself so they can insert Mark into the Dendarii and the Barrayaran Embassy in London. Mark is obsessed with Miles, who nearly talks him into coming back to Barrayar as his true brother. Arrested on suspicion of hiring assassins to kill Admiral Naismith, Mark is freed by Ser Galen, who tries to get him to kill Miles at the Thames Tidal Barrier. Mark shoots Galen instead, and takes Miles to where Ivan is trapped in a pumping chamber. Miles gives Mark a half-million-mark credit chit, and tells him he's free to do whatever he wishes with his life.

Four years later, Mark pretends to be Admiral Miles Naismith again to gain control of the
Ariel
and a squad of Dendarii commandos to rescue a group of fifty clones from House Bharaputra on Jackson's Whole. After the events in London, Cordelia is aware of his existence and has read the intelligence reports concerning him. Mark's attempt to rescue the clones fails, leading Miles to come to Jackson's Whole to save him. Miles is killed during the rescue and cryogenically frozen in front of him. Mark is sent to Barrayar, where he meets Aral and Cordelia, who tell him if Miles is dead, he is the Vorkosigan heir. Not wanting to get enmeshed in Barrayaran politics or family trees, Mark figures out where Miles is, and goes to rescue him with help from Cordelia, Elli Quinn, Bel Thorne, and Elena Bothari-Jesek. He is captured by Baron Ryoval's men and tortured, causing his personality to fracture. One of his personalities, Killer, kills Ryoval. Mark then negotiates a deal with Baron Fell to let the Duronas leave Jackson's Whole and goes back to Barrayar with Miles, two million Betan dollars richer, and ready to plan his new life as Mark Vorkosigan.

He stays with Aral and Cordelia for a time, and then moves on to Beta Colony to go to school at the University of Silica, studying accounting. He is getting acquainted with his grandmother, Elizabeth, and is also involved with Kareen Koudelka. Elli Quinn doesn't like him, blaming Mark for Miles's seizures, and calling him a "fat little creep." Mark is a potential suspect in Simon Illyan's breakdown, but his alibi of being on Beta Colony rules him out. In an attempt to differentiate himself from Miles, Mark gains an enormous amount of weight.

After a year of university study and therapy, Mark returns to   Barrayar. His latest capital venture is an offshoot of a visit to Escobar to get powerful weight-loss drugs. He also takes an Escobaran scientist, Doctor Enrique Borgos, under his wing to develop a bioengineering program to convert Barrayaran native plants to human edible food. The butter bug scheme turns Vorkosigan House on its ear.

Mark's relationship with Kareen Koudelka progresses well, but runs into difficulty with Kareen's return to Barrayar. He becomes quite desperate about potentially losing Kareen, until his mother Cordelia helps allay her parents' concerns about her relationship with Mark. He also seems to be bonding more with people, particularly with Miles. Mark is engaged in a valiant struggle to become a functional, if never quite normal, human being, and seems to be succeeding.

The butter bug maple ambrosia is a hit at the Emperor's wedding reception, and Mark also brokers a deal with Count Vorsmythe for start-up capital for his company, the profits from which he plans to use to explore alternate longevity techniques other than brain transplants. (BA, CC, DI, K, M, MD, WG)

Vorkosigan, Miles Naismith:

The hyperactive, physically deformed, genius son of Aral Vorkosigan and Cordelia Naismith. As a result of the soltoxin attack on his mother while she is pregnant, Miles is born with severe teratogenic, though not genetic, damage. In particular, his bones are brittle, misshapen, and prone to breakage. Miles was not able to walk until he turned five, after which he never slowed down. He has dark hair, gray eyes, a bit of a humpback, and is short for his age, approximately four foot ten inches tall. His appearance, on mutation-phobic Barrayar, is a problem that requires constant vigilance to contain. Miles reaches adulthood only because of his father's position, his intelligence and ability to charm those around him, and the watchful eye of Sergeant Bothari, who keeps enemies at bay.

Miles tries to commit suicide at age fifteen while attending school on Beta Colony, but Bothari prevents him from succeeding. Two years later, he washes out of the Imperial Military Academy when he breaks both his legs during a physical trial. His grandfather Piotr, Miles believes, dies from the shame of this. Miles accidentally forms the Dendarii Free Mercenaries while on a trip to Beta Colony to visit his grandmother. He ends the blockade of Tau Verde IV, and averts a plot to discredit his father and family back on Barrayar. After these adventures, Gregor realizes that Miles is a loose cannon, and appoints him to the Military Academy by Imperial fiat.

Miles's first assignment after graduating from the Imperial Academy is to replace the chief meteorology officer on Lazkowski Base. After trying to prevent the slaughter of technicians who refuse an order to clean up a dangerous poison, he is shipped back to Vorbarr Sultana, where he offers to resign his commission to save the rest of the men from standing trial. After a period of house arrest, he is seconded to Imperial Security and assigned to gather information on increased activity around the Hegen Hub. Miles poses as an arms dealer, and is framed for murder. While fleeing the charges, he finds the Emperor of Barrayar, Gregor, who has escaped his security detail, and is also in prison. The two uncover a plot by the psychotic mercenary Cavilo to let Cetaganda invade Vervain. When Cavilo learns she has the Emperor of Barrayar in her clutches, her thoughts turn to a marriage alliance, and Miles has to rescue his ruler and prevent an interplanetary war from breaking out. He manages both, with a bit of help from his father, Aral, and the Dendarii Free Mercenaries.