The Vorkosigan Companion (30 page)

Barrayar
(1991)
Winner of the Hugo and Locus Awards for Best Novel

The day after Aral Vorkosigan is named Regent by Emperor Ezar Vorbarra, Cordelia and he travel to the Imperial Residence to meet the heir to the throne, Gregor, and his mother, Princess Kareen. The meeting goes well, with Cordelia being given one of the princess's personal guards, Ludmilla Droushnakova, as her bodyguard. Life settles into a routine, with Aral up to his neck in administrating the affairs of the Empire, and Cordelia attempting to navigate the confusing intricacies of Barrayaran social life. One bright spot in their lives is Cordelia's pregnancy, which has drawn her closer to Aral's father, Piotr. When Aral goes before the Council of Counts to be approved as Regent, Cordelia meets Evon Vorhalas under unpleasant circumstances when his brother insults Aral's secretary, Clement Koudelka. Aral is approved with little difficulty. Emperor Ezar dies a week later, and the job of running the Empire until Gregor comes of age begins in earnest. Cordelia gets her first idea that it might be dangerous when someone shoots a grenade at Aral's armored groundcar, narrowly missing it. She also learns of the long list of people and groups that might want to kill the Regent of Barrayar. At a celebration of the Emperor's Birthday, Cordelia meets Count Vidal Vordarian, who tries unsuccessfully to shock her by telling her that Aral is bisexual. Cordelia counters by obliquely threatening him, and has Simon Illyan keep closer tabs on him as well. She also has her own issues in running the household, dealing with Sergeant Bothari beginning to remember his time served under Admiral Vorrutyer, Koudelka depressed and suicidal over his physical handicap, Droushnakova in love with Kou, but him oblivious of her, and Aral having to make decisions that will slowly destroy him, such as ordering the execution of Evon Vorhalas's younger brother for dueling, which is strictly prohibited under Barrayaran law. In revenge, Evon attacks Aral with a soltoxin grenade that severely damages Cordelia's unborn child. The embryo is saved by transferring it to a uterine replicator and giving it experimental calcium treatments. This course of action, however, divides Cordelia and Piotr, who is aghast at the idea of a deformed heir to the Vorkosigan family being born. Piotr even tries to order the doctors in charge of the project to destroy the child that will be Miles Vorkosigan, but fails. He threatens to cut Aral and Cordelia out of his estate, but that doesn't faze them. His tirade is interrupted by a mortally wounded Captain Negri crash-landing on the country-house lawn with Gregor. Before he dies, Negri tells them Count Vordarian has launched a coup to take the throne. Cordelia takes Gregor into hiding, guided by Piotr into the mountains, where she uses a clever ruse to draw away the Imperial men looking for them. In time she is reunited with Aral, and they face the potential civil war together, up to the point when Vordarian declares himself Regent. But when Doctor Vaagen escapes and says that Vordarian has confiscated Miles's uterine replicator, Cordelia launches a secret rescue mission to recover it using Bothari, Droushnakova, and Koudelka when he stumbles on them leaving. The group is sidetracked by encountering the Vorpatrils, Aral's kin, hiding in the slums where they're planning to strike from, who are discovered by Vordarian's security. Padma is killed but the group rescues Alys, who goes into labor, forcing them to deliver the child immediately. Even with larger issues looming over them, Cordelia patches things up between Koudelka and Droushnakova, then sends Kou with Alys and her newborn son Ivan to escort her out of the city while they continue into the Emperor's Residence. They find what Cordelia thinks is the replicator, but it is a fake, set as a trap. Caught by Residence guards, Cordelia, Bothari, and Drou are captured and taken before Vordarian. But when Cordelia produces evidence that Gregor is alive, not dead as Vordarian told Kareen, the princess tries to kill him, but is killed in the ensuing firefight. Taking Vordarian hostage, Bothari has Cordelia set the Residence on fire, then she orders him to behead the pretender. Taking the real replicator, the three escape the Residence through the secret tunnels underneath, presenting Vordarian's head to Aral and the rest of the loyal counts. The coup collapses, and Miles is born, although it's obvious he will have his own difficulties. Koudelka and Droushnakova get married, and the book ends with an epilogue five years later, with a precocious Miles already getting into trouble, and winning Piotr over in spite of himself.

The Warrior's Apprentice
(1986)

Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, son of Aral and Cordelia Vorkosigan, is seventeen years old, and at loose ends. His brittle bones forced him out of the military academy entrance exams after he broke both legs while trying to complete an obstacle course. Feeling guilty over breaking his grandfather's heart by washing out, and believing he inadvertently hastened Piotr's death, Miles takes Elena Bothari, on whom he has a crush, to Beta Colony to visit his grandmother Naismith. In reality, he is taking her to research her mother's side of the family, since her taciturn father hasn't told her very much about her relatives. At Beta Colony, Miles helps a down-on-his-luck pilot named Arde Mayhew, and also finds a Barrayaran deserter named Baz Jesek hiding out in a recycling station. Taking them both on as sworn armsmen, Miles quickly gets in over his head. Forced to take a quick shipping job to pay off the outstanding lien on Arde's ship, which Miles now owns, he finds one that would pay off everything, with even a bit of profit left over. However, the job is a risky weapons-smuggling run to the nation of Felice, on Tau Verde IV, currently in the middle of a planetary war. Camouflaging the weapons to resemble farm equipment, the freighter is stopped by mercenaries working for the enemy Pelians. When they decide to take Elena as their hostage instead of the usual jump pilot, Miles captures them, then takes over their ship as well, leaving him with two spacecraft. Miles convinces the soldiers of fortune to join his Dendarii Mercenaries, an outfit that exists only in his mind. From there, they take over an ore refinery after they discover that their employer's in-system contact has been captured. More mercenaries join the nascent Dendarii group, among them a woman named Elena Visconti, whom Miles recognizes as Elena Bothari's mother. However, his plan for reuniting the family goes horribly wrong when the elder Elena kills Bothari in front of her daughter. That, along with the strain of putting together a working mercenary group completely on the fly, pushes Miles to the breaking point physically and mentally. He confesses his love to Elena, but she turns him down, citing the impossibility of their different castes on Barrayar, and besides, she is already falling for Baz Jesek. After coming up with a plan to break the blockade by setting the Pelians and their mercenary employees at each other's throats by hijacking payrolls, Miles ends up in the infirmary with a bleeding ulcer just before they are about to embark on their most hazardous mission yet. With Elena in charge, working alongside a hired space captain named Ky Tung, also formerly of the enemy mercenaries, they take the payroll. Miles finds out about this when he awakens after his emergency surgery, and also finds his cousin Ivan Vorpatril sitting next to his infirmary bed. Ivan had been ordered to find Miles, as rumors of his raising a mercenary army—expressly forbidden on Barrayar—have caused enemies of his father to attempt to accuse Miles of treason. Ivan was to have been killed in a jump accident, but when he missed his ship, he stuck to his original mission, and found Miles at Tau Verde IV. Miles figures out the plan, but before he can get back home, he is contacted by Admiral Oser, the leader of the mercenaries hired by the Pelians, who wants to join the Dendarii. After working out the details of his rapidly expanding mercenary army, and a quick stop to drop mercenary Elli Quinn off at Beta Colony for reconstructive facial surgery, he gets back to Barrayar just in time to expose the plot against his father, and see the conspirators arrested. Miles gently nudges Emperor Gregor Vorbarra to bring the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet under the control of Barrayaran Internal Security, and then, as "punishment" for his escapades, Miles is sent to the Imperial Service Academy for officer training.

"The Mountains of Mourning" (1989)
Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella

A ragged, wild-eyed woman named Harra Csurik comes to Vorkosigan Surleau, demanding to see the count for justice for her murdered baby, Raina. After hearing her story, Miles decides to take her in to see his father as a lark. After breakfast, however, Aral sends Miles to the small village of Silvy Vale to find out if the woman's husband did kill her baby, which had been born with a harelip, something the backwoods people often take for a sign of mutancy. After a two-day horseback ride into the Dendarii Mountains, Miles, his armsman Pym, and an Imperial military surgeon, Doctor Dea, arrive at the backwoods hamlet. Cutting through feeble resistance by the village's Speaker, Serg Karal, Miles begins his investigation in earnest, exhuming the baby's body, and having Dea perform an autopsy, which reveals the child was killed by having its neck broken. They take a look at the couple's cabin, and Miles has Harra recount her actions the day she found her baby dead. He sends the Speaker to bring Lem Csurik in for questioning under fast-penta, to determine his guilt or innocence. The men return, and say he's fled. That night, the village honors Miles with a feast and music, and he meets both mothers-in-law, Csurik's, who protests her son's innocence, and Harra's mother, Ma Mattulich, who is a dark, angry woman, and who refers to Miles as "mutie lord." There are two attempted assaults that night; first on Miles's Service-issue tent, which he had let the Speaker's children sleep in, and which is fortunately fireproof, and later on his horse, Fat Ninny, which could have killed the animal if they hadn't chased off the attacker. Early the next morning, Miles sees Lem, who has come out of the mountains to clear his name, but he insists on not naming any one else in the incident, although he clearly knows more than he's saying. Miles agrees, and has the doctor fast-penta him for the interrogation, which proves his innocence. Miles now knows who killed the child, and summons the suspects and witnesses. He clears up the matter of the burning torch thrown on the tent, finding out it was Dono Csurik, Lem's younger brother, trying to scare Miles. Miles leaves his punishment up to the family. He has Doctor Dea fast-penta Ma Mattulich, who reveals not only that she killed Raina, suspecting she was a mutant, but had killed two of her other deformed children, born twenty years earlier. Faced with handing down a proper sentence, but not really wanting to order her execution, Miles sentences her to death, but stays her execution indefinitely. Instead, he strips her of all legal rights, remanding her to her daughter's care for the rest of her life. He also offers Harra and Lem the chance to attend teacher's school and work in Hassadar, and promises to get comm units to the village, along with a lowlander to teach the children until Harra and Lem return. Miles rides away from the village with a deeper understanding of not only himself, but also the people whom he must serve as Count Vorkosigan, and he swears to make good on his promises to them.

The Vor Game
(1990)
Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel

Having graduated from Barrayaran Imperial Academy, Miles is ready to begin his first assignment as an ensign, but is disappointed when he is stationed to be Meteorological Officer at the remote Lazkowski Base on bleak Kyril Island. Before he leaves, he learns that if he can keep his nose clean for six months there, he will be assigned to the
Prince Serg
, the newest dreadnought in the Barrayaran space navy. Miles ships out to Camp Permafrost, as the base is colloquially known, and finds his superior officer a drunk, the base commander a humorless martinet, and the rest of the camp treating him with the usual mixture of disdain and insubordination. After nearly being killed when a practical joke almost drowns him in mud, Miles settles down to the job at hand. He solves a brief mystery of a dead cadet found in the sewers, and thinks he's about to get through his tour unimpeded when what starts as a routine accident turns into a near-mutiny. When ordered to clean up a fetaine spill, the cadets refuse to go near the virulent poison, leading the base commander to threaten them all with being shot if they don't obey. Miles joins his lieutenant in resisting the order, resulting in their arrest, and him being shipped back to the capital, Vorbarr Sultana. Miles offers to resign in exchange for the charges being dropped against the other men. After being held more or less incommunicado for a few months, with visits only from his mother and Emperor Gregor himself, Miles is instead brought out of involuntary confinement and given an assignment to dust off his Admiral Naismith persona and investigate the sudden heavy military activity on the various planets surrounding the Hegen Hub, a system with four wormhole jump points that is a nexus linking routes to several planets. Miles also learns that the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet has been hired by one of the sides. Posing as an arms dealer, Miles is recognized by one of his former mercenaries, nearly blowing his cover. Meeting with the man later, Miles finds out Admiral Oser has taken back command of the Dendarii, demoting Baz Jesek and Ky Tung, but keeping them on staff. Still playing the weapons dealer, Miles has another meeting with a potential buyer, only to find his target has been replaced by a blond woman named Livia Nu, who is interested in the single-person nerve disruptor shield net he's selling, and also in seducing Miles, which he resists, thinking it might be an assassination attempt. Later, however, there is a charge of murder against Miles's cover identity, forcing him and his superior officer to flee from the Pol Six station to Jackson's Whole jump-point station, where Miles is found and captured by hired thugs executing a bid arrest by a person named Cavilo. Miles is thrown in the local jail, where he is astonished to meet Emperor Gregor, who has fled the stifling realm of politics and planetary rule and is off on his own. Switching identification with engineers press-ganged into building Aslund's new space station, Miles and Gregor get aboard, partly to escape prison, and also to learn what's really happening in the region. However, Miles gets captured by the Dendarii first, and brought before Admiral Oser, who is none too pleased to see him, and who responds to Miles's suggestion of allying again by ordering him thrown out the nearest airlock. Saved by Elena, Miles contacts Ky Tung for help smuggling Gregor off the station to safety. Unfortunately, the shuttle pilot is a double agent, and delivers Miles and Gregor into the hands of the mysterious Cavilo, who, it turns out, is also Livia Nu. She is the leader of Randall's Rangers, a mercenary outfit hired by Vervain for protection. Cavilo is clever, ruthless, sociopathic, casually homicidal, and makes new friends quickly, her latest being Stanis Metzov, the former Lazkowski Base commander whose career Miles helped end on Barrayar. She sends Miles on a mission to subvert the Dendarii from within, thereby allowing her mercenaries to raid Vervain in the chaos of allowing an invading Cetagandan fleet through the wormhole to "rescue" Vervain from the mercenaries, and seal an alliance with the planet, ensuring that Empire more direct access to the Hegen Hub—and getting closer to Barrayar too. However, Gregor in the mix changes everything, and Miles figures Cavilo will now reach even higher—for an empress's crown, gained by marrying Gregor. Miles retakes the Dendarii, frees Gregor from Cavilo's grasp, and sends his outmatched fleet to hold off the Cetagandan invasion force until reinforcements arrive. They do, in the form of the dreadnought
Prince Serg
and a Barrayaran fleet. Admiral Oser escapes during the fighting, and is killed when his shuttle is blown out of space. The Cetagandans are routed, and Cavilo, who had escaped from the brig in the confusion, kills Metzov when he tries to kill Miles, and is granted safe passage out of the area. Miles is reunited with his father, and is assigned to be the Barrayaran liaison to the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet—as "Admiral Naismith," with an accompanying promotion to lieutenant in the Barrayaran military as well.