Chapter 1
"I should have done this years ago," said Miles as he got up from the exercise mat.
"Yes, you should have," agreed Ekaterin, giving him that look. "I believe I've mentioned that a time or two."
"Or three, or eight," said Miles wiping the sweat off his face with a towel. "And you were right, as always. It's just that it seems like I've spent my whole life enduring one medical procedure after another. Necessary ones. So when faced with ones that aren't absolutely necessary I've tended to…"
"Avoid them."
"Yeah."
"But you really do look a lot better, Miles. Do you feel as good as you look?"
"Oh definitely. The treatments have me feeling like I'm ten years younger. Well, make that twenty; I didn't feel this good when I was thirty." He pointed to the exercise equipment in Vorkosigan House's small gym. "Couldn't have done any of this before." He wriggled his shoulders and shook his arms. He did feel like he was twenty-five again. The anti-aging treatments he'd taken in preparation for this mission had worked better than he'd ever expected. He could walk without limping and he had more energy than he'd had in a long time.
"And the treatments are safe?"
"According to Lily Durona and Mark, they are completely safe. Lily is using them herself, and maybe Mark, too, from his hints. They plan to make them available to the public very shortly." He cocked an eye at her. "You thinking of trying them?"
"Perhaps while you are away. Surprise you when you get back."
"I'll be back as soon as I can. I didn't ask for this, but when the Emperor commands…"
"So you've said. And so Gregor has said."
"We live to serve, Love."
"Yes."
He went and took her hands. "Are you going to be all right? I know I'm leaving you an awful burden. The children, the district…"
"And the Council of Counts. Are you really sure about that Miles?" Ekaterin's face was creased with worry.
"Gregor okayed it and I can't think of anyone I trust more."
"But a woman sitting on the Council, even just as a proxy. The other counts are not going to be happy."
"Oh, one or two will be…"
"Count Dono doesn't count."
"Well, he does, but I don't think he's the only one. They'll grumble, but they'll put up with it. Just don't take any shit from them and it will be all right. And I think Gregor really wants this to work out…"
"Why?"
"Well, I get the impression that he's hoping if they accept the idea of a countess sitting in as a proxy for a count then they might accept an empress sitting in as a proxy for an emperor."
Ekaterin's face lit up. "Really? Now wouldn't that be something?"
"Yup, sure would. I think that Laisa wants a more active role—and Gregor could surely use the help."
His wife sighed and smiled. "Bit by bit we are making progress, aren't we? Leaving the Time of Isolation behind."
"Yes, one step at a time. One woman at a time. My mother, Dono, Laisa, now you."
"Don't forget Anny. She's done a lot."
"Oh yes! There are hundreds of girls applying to the Academy now, a lot of them from Komarr. I remember how hard the reactionaries tried to stop her, but there's no stopping any of them now."
"I'm wondering how to stop Helen. She hasn't given up on the idea of going to the Academy. Granted, that's still ten years away."
"I don't know that we should try to stop her," said Miles. "I mean there are no wars on the horizon and peacetime soldiering usually isn't all that dangerous. And it can really help form a person's character. And Anny is one hell of a role model for anyone."
"I'm so glad she'll be with you on this mission. I hope the separation won't mess up things between her and Jer."
"Well, they knew there would be long separations when they went out with the trade fleets. They might not see each other for six months at a time even under normal circumstances."
"Six months is a long time." She looked at him fondly. "A year's even longer."
"I'm going to expend every effort to make sure this doesn't go beyond six months, my love. If I don't have a red-hot lead by then, I'll make some excuse to come back home at least for a while."
"Good. Will you be able to send messages? The children are going to miss you terribly. And so am I."
"That will depend on where this mission leads me. I'll send messages whenever I can, but I have a feeling we will be outside the reach of normal message services for much of the time. Sorry."
She sighed. "Gregor owes us big time for this."
"He knows that."
"I just wish I could see the need. Neither of you will tell me what it's all about, but you did say it's a Cetagandan matter; why can't they take care of it?"
"They've tried. And they are very worried that they've failed. Worried Cetagandans are… well, something to be worried about. We've made a lot of progress in bettering relations with them in the last ten years. This could help a lot more." He stopped for a moment and then went on: "Everyone was shocked by the losses we took on Novo Paveo, but let's be honest: that was just a skirmish. A real war with the Cetagandans would be a million times worse. No one thinks something like that could happen anymore, but that's just wishful thinking. We've come to the brink twice in my lifetime—well, three times, maybe—and I've no wish to see a fourth. So let's do this and make sure Helen can go to the Academy in peace if she wants to."
Ekaterin stared down at him for a long time, her expression slowly growing less somber. "I love you," she said and bent over to kiss him.
"Ah, I'm all sweaty," protested Miles halfheartedly.
"There's a remedy for that, Love," she said. "Now come along."
[Scene Break]
"Alby! What in the world are you doing here?" Anny Payne stared in astonishment as her old friend came through the door. He smiled when he saw her, but then he threw up his hands and shook his head.
"Damned if I know! What are you doing here?"
"Waiting for orders. Been waiting for orders for almost three weeks. You just get here?"
"Yup, by fast courier, no less. My stomach is still back on Komarr, I think." He grabbed a chair and plunked down in it and looked around the tiny room she was using as her office. "What a dump. You've been here three weeks?"
"Yes. They told us we were going out on a special escort mission somewhere in the nexus. We just assumed it was going to be for an ambassador or something like that, but the next thing we know, they've landed us on Sergyar with orders to sit tight until further notice. Sit tight!" she snorted. "We're on the most isolated post on the entire planet. It's a 500 klick march to the nearest settlement! Where do they think we could go?" She shook her head. "How'd they manage to kidnap you?"
Alby shrugged. "I was ordered to attend a seminar on computer security in Vorbarr Sultana. Nothing unusual about that, but I was met at the monorail station by two ImpSec goons who hustled me to the shuttleport and the next thing I know I'm here."
"Wow, I'm thinking this isn't some ordinary assignment. I wish somebody would tell us what's going on!"
"We might not have too long to wait. There was an ImpSec colonel on the fast courier who landed with me and I saw him head off to the base HQ. He didn't say a word to me the whole trip, but he kept eyeing me like some prize calf."
"Did you see Jer before you left?" she asked. "We're completely incommunicado here."
"I just told him where I was going—where I thought I was going!—when I saw him in the mess hall. Figured I'd be back in a couple of days so I didn't say good-bye to anyone." He paused and smiled. "I know he's really missing you, Anny."
"And I miss him. And there's not anything to do here except miss him. I'm having a hell of a time keeping the men busy."
"Well, you can always have 'em suit up and run simulations with the neural interfaces in your armor, can't you?"
"No!" cried Anny in frustration. "When they landed us here, all our equipment stayed on the ship! We've got nothing but our personal gear."
"Now that's… strange," said Alby frowning. Before either of them could say any more, there was a rapid knock on the door which then opened. One of her men was standing there. He looked excited.
"Captain? They're assembling everyone in the mess hall! They want us all there on the double!"
"At last!" said Anny.
"Damn right!" agreed Alby. "I've been waiting here, what? Fifteen minutes?"
They quickly left the office and followed the crowd toward the mess hall. The base where they'd been parked was nearly abandoned and there were only a few caretakers commanded by officers who must have seriously pissed somebody off to get stuck out here. So there was virtually no one else around. C Company piled into the building, all of them just as eager as Anny to have something happen. The men came to attention as she entered, but she put them at ease and told them to find seats. They'd barely done so when the ImpSec colonel Alby had mentioned entered and they all had to come to attention again.
He strode up to the front of the room, a stern look on his face. He got up on to one of the tables so everyone could see him. "At ease," he commanded. He looked them over for a few seconds and then said: "Well, as I'm sure you've all guessed by now, you are not on some ordinary escort mission. But I am not here to enlighten you. If everything goes well, you will never know what it was all about." This produced a low murmur among her men, that was not quite loud enough to produce a rebuke from Sergeant Nikolaidis. But no explanations? Great, just great.
"What I am here to do," continued the colonel, "is to make sure that in the event that you do become enlightened, you will never breathe a word about it to any living soul. I'm going to require an oath from all of you of absolute secrecy. No horseshit, people! If you take this oath and then blab, you will end up in serious trouble! Serious trouble. So, anyone who doesn't think they can do that, step outside and we'll ship you back to Barrayar. Right now." He paused and glared at them. The sinister 'Eyes-of-Horus' pins on his collar seemed to be glaring, too. There was some nervous shuffling, but no one moved. Anny wasn't sure what the hell to do. She strongly suspected that even if anyone did want to leave they wouldn't do so without her permission. But she was hardly going to tell them to bug out if they wanted! So she held her tongue and glared back at the ImpSec colonel.
"All right," he said. "Repeat after me." He made them repeat a rather long and wordy oath that she wasn't entirely sure she understood, herself. They swore to it and they were all committed. But to what?
The colonel seemed satisfied, however, and spoke inaudibly into his wrist com. "Get your gear together," he then commanded. "Shuttles will be landing to pick you up in twenty minutes. Dismissed." He hopped down from the table and walked out the doors. Immediately a loud babble of voices erupted from the men.
"Attention!" roared Nikolaidis and silence returned immediately. The First Sergeant looked to Anny.
"You heard the colonel," she said loudly. "Break camp! Get ready to move out!"
Her troopers boiled out of the mess hall and ran to the barracks where they'd been quartered. Anny headed for her own room. Alby tagged along. "Good thing I didn't unpack." They reached her quarters and she wasn't the least surprised to find her dog-robber, Lance Corporal Bjorlin, already at work packing up her kit.
"I can finish this up, Corporal," she said. "You get your own stuff together."
"Of course, sir, just give me a second to do this." Naturally, in spite of her instructions, Bjorlin finished packing for her before he left. Alby grinned at her.
"You never did get another dog-robber after old Quinton retired, did you?" asked Anny.
"No, I borrowed other officers' and me and Rad Benin sort of had one on Novo Paveo, but he rotated around the HQ, so he wasn't really mine."
"Well, Bjorlin could certainly work for you, too—assuming you're coming with us." Anny took a step back and stared at her friend. "Alby, what the hell are you doing here?"
"You already asked me that, and I told you: I don't know."
"This is really weird. A super-secret mission, with ImpSec and a top intelligence analyst thrown in."
"I'm hardly a top analyst!" protested Alby.
"Commodore Galeni thinks you are. And so do I. Did I ever thank you for saving my ass back on Novo Paveo when I was being held prisoner?"
"Oh, a time or two, I think."
"They didn't include you in this… thing because you are a good marksman, Alby! Somebody must think your skills are going to be needed."
"Well, they must have had reasons, I guess. Just like they had reasons for wanting Barrayar's most highly decorated assault company commander, eh?"
Before she could think of a response to that, they heard the shriek of approaching shuttles. Or approaching somethings; they didn't sound quite right… They grabbed up their kits and went outside. Nearly everyone was already assembled, with a few laggards scrambling into place. But they were all looking skyward. Three assault shuttles were on final approach, but…
"Those aren't Barrayaran," said Alby.
Nor were they. They were of a make and model Anny could not identify and they were painted a light gray instead of the traditional forest green of Barrayaran shuttles. What is going on? They touched down in a cleared area amidst the barracks, despite there being no landing pads there. As the cloud of dust kicked up by their thrusters dispersed, the loading ramps swung open and she could see crewmen, also wearing gray uniforms, beckoning them to board. The ImpSec colonel waved them on, but no one moved until she bellowed:
"C Company! Board ship!"
The men scrambled aboard, stowed their gear in racks, and strapped themselves into the seats that were in rows along the length of the compartments. She and Alby—and the colonel—watched until everyone else was aboard. Then Alby went up the ramp followed by herself, with the colonel last, as protocol demanded. "Your men are well-trained, Captain," said the colonel, as they strapped themselves in.
"Yes they are. Thank you, sir." And they're mine! Remember that!
Within seconds the ramps were retracted and the hatches closed and the shuttles leaped into the air. Not wasting any time. This is like a combat drop in reverse! The craft vibrated strongly for a few minutes as they sliced through the lower atmosphere and then the vibrations died away until there was no feeling of motion at all, just the muted roar of the thrusters, which eventually cut off as well. A voice came over the intercom announcing a rendezvous in fifteen minutes.
"A rendezvous with what?" asked Alby. He looked at the colonel, but the man ignored him.
"I guess we'll find out in fifteen minutes," said Anny. "Unless they blindfold us and lock us in a storage compartment for the whole voyage."
"Damn peculiar, all this."
"Yes." Ha, we can ignore you, too, ImpSec guy!
There were no windows in the shuttle so they only knew they were closing on their destination when the vehicle used its attitude thrusters to prepare to dock. A few moments later the shuttle lurched slightly and then was still. They had arrived.
[Scene Break]
Alby followed Anny down the ramp into the shuttle bay of the ship. Just what ship they were on remained a mystery. Barrayaran ships all had an imperial crest with the ship's name painted on the forward bulkhead of their shuttle bays, but this one did not. He looked at the side of the shuttle and saw there was a registration code. It started with an R so he'd bet the ship's name started with that letter, too. That really narrows it down, doesn't it?
The troops assembled and then several of the gray-clad crewmen guided them out of the bay and down a corridor. They passed other crewmen and Alby suddenly realized where he'd seen those uniforms before. "Anny," he whispered. "Dendarii Free Mercenaries."
Anny sucked in her breath. "You sure?"
"Yup. Or at the least they buy their uniforms from the same place as Admiral Quinn."
"Huh. What the hell is going on?"
They reached some berthing compartments and Anny spent a few minutes getting her troopers settled. The quarters were significantly more comfortable than those on a Barrayaran transport. Alby supposed that was to be expected: mercenaries rarely had a permanent base to return to; they might have to live aboard ships for long periods. He was given a small, but adequate compartment of his own, right next to Anny's. Her dog-robber had already decided that he was his charge, too, although he hadn't seen Anny say anything to him, and he was helping him unpack.
Before long the ImpSec colonel, who had disappeared as soon as they'd arrived, returned and ordered he and Anny to follow him. He led them along corridors and up stairs. This was clearly a pretty large ship, at least cruiser-sized. Alby finally spotted some writing with the word Raptor on one bulkhead, so he guessed that was the ship's name. Yeah, there had been a Raptor among the Dendarii ships at Novo Paveo.
They reached an area that was clearly officers' country and the colonel stopped at a hatch and pressed the buzzer next to it. The hatch immediately slid open and they went through. "Here they are, My Lord," said the colonel.
Sitting behind a desk was a small, but familiar figure.
"Count Vorkosigan!" exclaimed Anny.
Vorkosigan grinned and got up from his chair, came around the desk and shook both their hands. "Anny, Alby, good to see you again," he said. Then he looked to the ImpSec officer. "Thank you, Colonel, that will be all."
The man frowned ferociously. "My Lord, I'd like to stay for this briefing."
"I know you would," replied Vorkosigan, the expression on his face amused, but unmovable. "But that will be all, Colonel, thank you." The man drew himself up and glared, but then he spun on his heel and left.
"Who is that guy?" breathed Alby.
"Colonel Vorfannon? Oh, he's our ImpSec watchdog. There are a few less obvious ones on board, too. Not sure if I've spotted all of them yet, so watch yourselves."
"My Lord?" said Anny. "I don't understand. Aren't we all on the same side?"
"Of course. Or at least we are all on Barrayar's side. ImpSec sometimes forgets just who they work for. No harm in reminding them from time to time. But come in! Sit down! Sit down!" He gestured to some comfortable chairs around a low table. As they found seats, another hatch slid open and Armsman Roic entered carrying a tray with coffee and a few snacks. He smiled at them. "Captain Payne, Lieutenant Vorsworth, good to see you again." They returned his greeting and helped themselves to some really good coffee. Roic waited a moment and then withdrew.
"Well!" said Vorkosigan, seating himself and also taking coffee, "I imagine you both want to know what the hell you're doing here?"
"Yes, My Lord," they replied in unison.
Vorkosigan's gaze slid over to Alby. "Lieutenant Vorsworth, I have been trying—with no success—to get Anny to call me by my first name. How about you? Will you call me Miles—in private?"
"Uh… I will if she will, My Lord."
"I won't, My Lord," said Anny firmly. "Sir."
Vorkosigan sighed. "Ah well. It was worth a try. But to business! Why you are here. At its most simple, I'm on a rather bizarre treasure hunt and you are here to help me. I don't suppose that our good Colonel Vorfannon told you anything at all?"
"No, sir."
"Typical, although I can't really blame him in this case. Now I could follow his example and not tell you anything, either, but I won't. You can't help me if you don't know anything. Or at least you can't help me as much as you could if you did know what we are up to. So. A story." Alby found that his attention was riveted to the small count.
"Seven years ago—about six months before I met, you, Anny, now that I think about it—Ekaterin and I were taking an extended honeymoon cruise out through the nexus when I was suddenly ordered—in my Imperial Auditor's role—to straighten out a mess on Graf Station between one of our trade fleets and the local authorities. It seemed fairly straightforward at first, but the deeper I dug, the more complicated it became. By the time I reached the bottom, we were very nearly in a shooting war with the Cetagandans."
Alby stiffened. "Really, sir? I… I don't recall hearing anything about that—of course I would have been about thirteen at the time, I guess."
"No, the crisis arose and dissipated so quickly we were able to keep things fairly quiet. Frankly, the whole thing was so damn embarrassing for both sides that we made a real effort to downplay it all. One advantage of not having a free press. But it could have gotten very ugly."
"What happened, sir?" asked Anny.
Vorkosigan blew out his breath, took a sip of his coffee, and leaned back. "How much do you know about the Cetagandan leadership?"
"I saw a haut woman once," said Alby.
"Pretty amazing, huh?" grinned Vorkosigan.
"Yes sir." She'd been the most stunningly beautiful woman Alby had ever seen.
"Well, the genetically engineered haut rule their empire, while the somewhat-less genetically engineered ghem actually run it. But within the haut there is an inner circle made up of the Imperial family itself and what is known as the Star Crèche. The Star Crèche is made up entirely of women and they are the ones in charge of the haut genome. They decide what's worth keeping, what ought to be discarded, and what changes can be made to 'improve' things. It gives them enormous power.
"Now a few years before the Graf Station incident, well, more than a few, I was probably younger than you two, a freshly minted lieutenant at the time, there was a… plot within the Star Crèche hatched by one of the empresses before she died. It's all hellishly complicated and I only barely understand it all myself. But apparently there is a faction within the haut and the Star Crèche that feels—felt—that the system they had was leading to stagnation within the haut line. They wanted to open up the control of the genome, apparently to stimulate what they saw as progress. The conspirators attempted to steal the data on the genome and give it to each of the governors of the Cetagandan satrapies. I got… involved in things then and fortunately the plot was foiled. If it had succeeded, it could have led to civil war and that almost certainly would have eventually involved Barrayar." Vorkosigan drank some more coffee and popped one of the snacks into his mouth and chewed for a moment.
"A number of Cetagandan heads rolled," he continued after swallowing. "We thought that was the end of it. But… it wasn't. The mess on Graf Station was a continuation of it. Not all the conspirators had been rooted out and they still had hopes to carry out a variation of the plan. Not by giving the genome data to the governors, but by starting a whole new line of the haut, somewhere outside the Cetagandan Empire." Vorkosigan frowned. "One thing that's not widely known is that the Star Crèche not only controls the haut genome, it actually controls all reproduction. I mean this literally. They run all the uterine replicators that produce haut babies. Every haut that is born comes directly from the Star Crèche."
"Really, sir?" said Anny. "That's… terrifying."
"Yes, isn't it now? Periodically the Star Crèche sends out a thousand uterine replicators with the infants to their new parents throughout the empire. These Child Ships are terribly important for obvious reasons. And then one disappeared."
"Disappeared?" said Alby.
"Well, actually, it was destroyed after the replicators had been transferred to another ship. The conspirator attempted to make it look like an accident, with a back-up plan to suggest the ship had been destroyed by us—hence the almost war. But the conspirator—just a single person, a genderless servant called a ba—fled with its kidnapped babies, apparently with plans to set up a new colony somewhere beyond the reach of the Cetagandans. Through a series of mistakes and plain bad luck, its plan came a cropper on Graf Station. We recovered the babies and turned them over to the Cetagandans in the nick of time." Vorkosigan shivered even though the cabin was quite warm.
"That's incredible," said Anny. "But how does that concern us now?"
"Ah, well, just like with the first incident when I was a lieutenant, we thought that the matter was closed and the Cetagandans would mop up things at their end. They tried, they tried very hard, but in spite of their efforts, there is one very large loose end that still needs to be tied up. Can you see what that is?" He looked at both of them
Alby refrained from raising his hand, but said: "Where was the conspirator, this ba, going?"
"Got it in one!" said Vorkosigan. "Yes, where was it going with a thousand soon to be born infants? It seems unlikely that it was going to feed and change the diapers of a thousand newborns all by itself, doesn't it? So it had to be heading somewhere. Somewhere where it had help waiting. But it had to be secret and safe and far from prying eyes. And it had to already be there; it had no time to create something from scratch on the fly. That means more conspirators and resources ready and waiting. The Cetagandans desperately want to find the place, because there's no reason to think it isn't still there ready for another hijacked load of kids. As long as it remains unfound, it will be a danger to them."
"And we're supposed to find it?" asked Alby, simultaneously intrigued and appalled.
"I am supposed to find it," said Vorkosigan, grinning. "You are supposed to help me find it."