The Vorkosigan Companion (49 page)

Quaddie approved fiction:

Video fiction approved for the quaddies' viewing by GalacTech personnel. As seen by the titles (
The Little Compressor That Could
,
Bobby BX-99 Solves the Excess Humidity Mystery
,
Bobby BX-99 and the Plant Virus
), they are educational in nature. The quaddies pass them up in favor of more escapist fare. (FF)

Quartz:

A Betan city, of which Cordelia says the president can "put on falsies and go woo the hermaphrodite vote" there before she'd become a government representative. (SH)

Quinn, Elli:

A mercenary in the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet, she begins as a recruit-trainee, and ends up as admiral in command of the entire organization. Slim but curvy, she has short-cropped, dark, curly hair, a fine, chiseled nose, large eyes, and white skin. Her face was burned off by a plasma arc blast at Tau Verde IV, but Miles paid for reconstructive surgery on Beta Colony.

She was born and raised on Kline Station. Miles sends her there to find out what Colonel Millisor is chasing after, a task she covers by also accepting a contract to eliminate him from House Bharaputra. It is her first intelligence assignment, and while she succeeds in her primary mission, she is unable to convince Terrence Cee to join the Dendarii mercenaries. She donates one of her ovaries to Athos to be the start of a new genetic line: EQ-1.

During the prisoner rescue at Dagoola, she infiltrates the Cetagandan forces, posing as part of the prisoner observation teams. She is one of only three people outside Barrayar who know Miles's true identity, and often serves as his bodyguard. She and Miles fall in love, but she turns down his marriage offer, preferring a mainly physical relationship with Miles in his Admiral Naismith persona rather than the hopeless complications of marrying Lord Vorkosigan. During the incident at the Thames Tidal Barrier she is stunned unconscious, and must be rescued by Miles and Ivan.

She leads the rescue mission for Mark on Jackson's Whole, and almost scuttles the deal to get Miles's cryo-chamber from Baron Bharaputra by threatening him with multi-planet retaliation if the chamber isn't returned. She also accompanies Mark on the trip to the Durona complex to recover Miles, and goes into Ryoval's secret laboratory to find him.

After Elena and Baz resign from the Dendarii, she is promoted to commodore and fleet-second in Baz's place by Miles. However, he also alienates her when he gets his new orders to return to Barrayar, first by not revealing his seizures to Imperial Security, and second by choosing Sergeant Taura to escort him to Tau Ceti. She is very upset at Miles's deception of Simon Illyan, and the increasing uncertainty of their relationship.

When she does see Miles again, he offers her the choice of becoming his wife and joining him on Barrayar, or becoming the admiral of the Dendarii. She chooses the promotion, but asks him to join her instead, and leave Barrayar behind. Miles regretfully declines, accepting his role as Lord Vorkosigan and Imperial Auditor. She is unable to attend Miles's wedding, and a pearl choker arrives supposedly as a wedding gift from her, but she had already sent a living fur along with a naughty limerick. The jewelry is actually an assassination attempt by another party using a neurotoxin to kill Ekaterin and destroy Miles, but the plot is stopped before it can succeed. (BA, BI, CC, EA, M, MD, WA)

Quintillan:

The Minister of the Interior on Barrayar, he works with Aral Vorkosigan. One of the men Aral suggests to be the Regent of Barrayar until Gregor comes of age to rule, he is not a serious candidate because he is not Vor. Two decades later, Aral Vorkosigan is ready to give him the Prime Minister position, but he died in a lightflyer accident before it could be arranged. (MD, SH, WA)

Racozy:

No first name given. Cordelia tells Simon he is one of three men that could replace Aral as Prime Minister. Racozy assumes the position when Aral retires. (MD)

Radials:

A class of animal that lives on Sergyar. One is an aerial, gas-filled jellyfish that lands on the hexapeds and takes blood from them with tendril-like appendages tipped in poison. Others are little, round, underground creatures that move on cilia-like legs. One of the "vampire balloons," as Aral describes them, attacks Dubauer during the trek to the supply cache. (SH)

Radnov:

No first name given. A lieutenant in the Barrayaran military, he is Aral's political officer on the
General Vorkraft
, and leads a mutiny while Aral is on the survey planet, later named Sergyar. He escapes capture when Aral returns to the on-planet base, and is brought back to the ship by the crew of the
Rene Magritte
when they rescue Cordelia. He and his men take over the engineering section, and threaten to turn off life-support unless Aral and his officers surrender. Cordelia stuns him and his co-conspirators with help from Nilesa and Tafas. (SH)

Radovas, Barto:

A five-space math engineer, he was hired by Administrator Soudha as part of the terraforming project on Komarr, although he is actually involved in the plan to close the wormhole to Barrayar. After his disappearance, rumors spread that he ran off with Marie Trogir, even though he was married and had three children. He turns up dead in the Soletta Station wreckage, even though he wasn't supposed to be up there. He and his wife are a part of the jump-point plot, and his death was actually part of the Soletta accident, when one of their experiments with the wormhole-closure device caused an ore ship to crash into the mirror array. (K)

Radovas, Mrs.:

No first name given. The widow of Barto Radovas, she is in her late fifties, although she appears fifteen years younger, and is slender and well dressed. When notified of her husband's death, she feigns ignorance of what he was doing, and would have been a penniless widow if not for Miles ordering that she receive survivor's benefits even though Radovas resigned his post five days before dying. She is a leader of the jump-point plot, which Miles discovers just before his capture at the Waste Heat experiment station. During the standoff on the jump station, it is her deciding vote that induces the conspirators to surrender and release their hostages. (K)

Randall's Rangers:

A mercenary group hired by Vervain for protection, unaware that the group's commander, Cavilo, plans to use the mercenaries to rob the planet after letting the Cetagandans into Vervain space. Cavilo changes the uniforms to black and tan after she has Randall murdered. (VG)

Rappelling harness:

A climbing tool consisting of a self-powered spool of drop-wire with retractable handles, a ribbon harness for the user, and a gravitic grappling hook that will attach to just about any surface. Miles uses it several times at the Thames Tidal Barrier on Earth. (BA)

Rathjens:

No first name given. A general in Barrayaran Imperial Security, he is the chief of Imperial Security on Komarr, and is middle-aged, alert, and busy. He dresses in Komarran civilian wear instead of his Barrayaran uniform. Miles calls him at his office in Solstice to discuss the identification of the unknown body found in the solar-array wreckage. (K)

Rau:

No first name given. A Cetagandan ghem-captain working with Colonel Millisor at Kline Station, he kidnaps Ethan Urquhart and brings him to the colonel for interrogation. He is so average-  looking Ethan has a hard time remembering his face even when Rau is right in front of him. When dressed as a Cetagandan, his face paint is base red with slashes of orange, black, white, and green. He is killed by assassins from Bharaputra House. (EA)

Razor-grass:

A plant on Barrayar that is not actually a grass, which Miles sees in a new light in Ekaterin's virtual garden, composed entirely of native flora. (K)

Reddi-Meal!
:

A prepackaged, self-heating meal sold in Vorbarr Sultana and other Barrayaran cities. Miles lives on them in the first few days after his return to Barrayar before he hires Ma Kosti as Vorkosigan House's cook. (M)

Reed:

No first name given. An investigator with Eurolaw in London, he is charged with looking into the attempted murder of Admiral Naismith at the shuttleport. He interrogates Mark while he is in his Lieutenant Vorkosigan persona, and releases him into Ser Galen's custody before Miles can get him. (BA)

Reformation Army:

The unit title Miles gives the prisoners on Dagoola IV, once he starts reorganizing them for the coming escape. (BI)

Rene Magritte
:

A Betan scientific survey ship with a crew of fifty-two, commanded by Cordelia Naismith and sent to a survey planet that has attracted the attention of Barrayar as well. Her crew risks their lives to free Cordelia, bringing a group of Barrayaran mutineers on board the
General Vorkraft
. (SH)

RG 132
:

An obsolete but operational jump-capable cargo ship that Arde Mayhew threatens to destroy at Beta Colony. Miles buys the ship and uses it to transfer weapons to Tau Verde IV. It is damaged beyond repair when Arde uses it to ram the
Triumph
into the ore refinery, bending the Necklin rods and peeling half the hull off. (WA)

RG Freighter:

On Komarr, Nikolai has a model of this antique cargo-hauling jump ship, which reminds Miles of the
RG 132
, which he owned briefly when he was seventeen years old. (K)

Rho Ceta:

One of the eight satrapy planets in the Cetagandan Empire, and Barrayar's nearest unallied neighbor. It would expand toward Komarr, except that Barrayar holds two-thirds of the jump points between the two planets. Its governor is Este Rond, and its unnamed Imperial consort has brown hair. (C)

Rigby:

No first name given. A Group-Patroller, or civilian peace officer, on Komarr, she accompanies Miles, Vorthys, Etienne, and Tuomonen to inform Doctor Radovas's wife of his death. (K)

Ritter:

No first name given. The surgeon who performs Cordelia's placental transfer, assisted by Doctor Vaagen and Doctor Henri. Tall, dark-haired, with olive skin and long, lean hands. (B)

Riva:

No first name given. A professor of five-space math at Solstice University, she is called in as a consultant by Imperial Auditor Vorthys to help figure out what the Waste Heat engineering group were building with all of the money siphoned off the project. She is about fifty years old, and is a thin, intense, olive-skinned woman with bright black eyes who paces endlessly while solving a problem. Miles interrogates her under fast-penta when he thinks she is withholding information. Her answers let them discover that the engineers have built a wormhole destroyer, and are planning to close the wormhole to Barrayar. She also figures out that there is a very good chance the device will backlash, and destroy whatever vessel or ship it is on, and it is that sort of backlash that caused the solar-array collision. (K)

Rivek:

No first name given. A commodore in the Barrayaran military stationed in Sector Four, he was concerned with the rescue of Lord Vorvane's wife and children, which Miles handled with the Dendarii a few years earlier. Simon brings it up during one of his flashback moments caused by his malfunctioning memory chip. (M)

River barge:

A large, flat-bottomed boat that carries cargo on a river. Used on Barrayar throughout the Time of Isolation, river barges established the location of Vorbarr Sultana, as the rapids there defined the limits of barge traffic. Afterward, a dam and lock system allows barge traffic to continue upriver from the city. (B, CC)

Road:

In most modern cities, a regular city grid of streets provides organized transportation and defines blocks of property. During Barrayar's Time of Isolation, transportation reverted to horses and mule-drawn carts and wagons. In the old part of some cities, networks of winding streets with very narrow lanes and alleys defy modern traffic, such as in Vorbarr Sultana's Caravanserai district. Country and backcountry roads range from paved highways to dirt paths. Modern cities use automated traffic grids. Barrayar, barely a century past the Time of Isolation, is still improving its infrastructure. It's not until the time of Gregor's wedding that the capital, Vorbarr Sultana, starts implementing automated traffic grids for groundcars and lightflyers. (All)

Rodeo:

A marginal world, home to GalacTech mining and drilling operations. Its surface consists primarily of harsh desert and mountains. GalacTech owns Rodeo on a ninety-nine-year lease with Orient IV, but large mineral deposits make the planet much more interesting to the Orient IV government. GalacTech had planned to dump the quaddies on planet if they were not profitable. (FF)

Roic:

No first name given. An armsman at Vorkosigan House, he usually works the night shift, but is pressed into day duty when Ekaterin first arrives at the house. He is awoken to intervene during the butter bug fight, and greatly embarrassed to be caught in the foyer covered in bug butter and wearing briefs, a backward stunner holster, and nothing else.

Assigned to assist Taura while she's visiting Barrayar, he is intrigued by her and becomes smitten. He proves his loyalty to Vorkosigan House and redeems his honor, which he felt was questioned during the butter bug battle, when he and Taura figure out the assassination plot aimed at Ekaterin, saving her life and Miles's sanity. As his reward, Pym takes over his night shift duty for the next week, while Roic romances Taura after the wedding reception.

He accompanies Miles and Ekaterin on their honeymoon as bodyguard and batman. A former municipal guardsman in Hassadar on Barrayar, he assists in the investigation at Graf Station, and helps Miles take the
Idris
back from the renegade Cetagandan ba that hijacked it. (CC, DI, WG)

Rond, Este:

The haut-governor of Rho Ceta, he is middle-aged, tall, heavy, and vigorous, with a bullish demeanor. Miles considers him an early suspect in the plot to overthrow the Emperor, but eliminates him in favor of either Slyke Giaja or Ilsum Kety (C)

Rose:

A gentle mare Cordelia rides during Gregor's escape into the Dendarii Mountains. (B)