Tales from the Academy

Fourth Interlude

"Well, Anny, I think that just about wraps it up," said Major Ivan Vorpatril. "I want to thank you for taking time off from your leave to let me pick your brains. If they didn't keep you cadets so infernally busy I'd have tried to do it during the normal year."

"Glad to do it, sir," said the young woman sitting opposite him in his office in the huge Operations Building. "Hopefully we'll never have to face anything like that fire again, but if we do, at least the next time we'll be better prepared."

"I think we will," said Ivan. "Oh, and once I get all this organized I'd appreciate it if you could give it a looking over and let me know if there's anything you can think of to make it better."

"Certainly, sir."

"And now let me make it up to you for interrupting your leave. Can I take you to lunch?"

"Uh…" a look of … of panic seemed to wash over Anny's face for a moment and he mentally kicked himself. Ivan, you idiot! Think before you speak for once in your life!

"But if you'd rather not, I understand," he said hastily. "I'm sure you're anxious to get out of that hot uniform…" urk! "I mean, get back to Vorkosigan House and relax." Ivan hoped he wasn't blushing as badly as it felt like he was. Damn!

"No, no, sir, I'd be happy to have lunch with you, thank you, sir," said Anny Payne. Her face was a bit pale, but she forced a smile and got to her feet, brushing some invisible spec of lint from her undress blacks.

Ivan rose from his own chair and suddenly felt incredibly awkward. What was the proper etiquette for escorting a woman in uniform? A lower ranking woman in uniform. An incredibly pretty, lower ranking woman in uniform…? Damn it, stop that! Why couldn't she have just turned him down? It would be so much simpler. No getting out of it now. Make the best of it.

He grabbed his cap and told his aide he'd be out of the office for an hour or so. He still hadn't quite gotten used to the fact that he was a major now. It might only seem like one step up from captain, but it was a huge step. Captains answered to just about everyone, but majors… majors were the ones captains usually answered to. Of course, he still answered to people above him, but at this level there were so many fewer of them. They still hadn't picked a permanent commander for Ops since General Vorsworth retired and the temporaries they'd put in his place tended to leave Ivan alone.

They walked down the broad corridor, heels clicking in unison on the polished stone floor. More than a few people did a double-take when they passed Anny. Any woman in uniform would have attracted attention, but Anny Payne was something special. The shy, uncertain girl who he'd first seen at Vorkosigan House over three years ago had turned into a confident, striking young woman. Let her hair grow out, put her in something less restrictive than that uniform and… damnation! Stop thinking that way! She's not half as pretty as Tej!

They reached the elevator lobby but Ivan suddenly turned and led her down the broad staircase rather than taking a lift. Ivan's initial plan—as much as he had one—was to go to a nice little restaurant down the street that the Ops officers favored, but instead he continued down the stairs to the first sub-level where the building's cafeteria was located. Anny seemed relieved by the choice and he had no trouble understanding why. No cozy restaurants—no enclosed lifts for that matter. No private spaces with Vor officers.

The 'incident'—stop mincing words, the attempted rape—on Komarr had not been publicly announced, but most everyone around headquarters knew something about it by now. There was no way the court martial of four officers—four Vor officers—could be hushed up—not from the military anyway. Ivan didn't think all that many knew the specifics, but he did. He'd encountered Cousin Miles at Vorkosigan House a few months ago in an absolute rage and he'd blurted it out.

Before his marriage, Ivan had slept with more women in his life than he could count, and while a few of the times could probably be labeled seductions, he'd never, ever, come close to forcing himself on anyone. The thought was repugnant to him. It would be easy to condemn the four as trash, as a disgrace to the Vor class, as unworthy to wear an imperial uniform. Kick them out, pretend they never existed, and forget them. But damn it, he knew one of them! Had served with him for a couple of boring years when he was a new lieutenant. The man hadn't seemed like a monster, although people change. He and Anny got trays and selected some things from the menu. It wasn't bad food for a cafeteria, really. They found a table and sat down.

"I guess you're sort of rattling around inside Vorkosigan House these days, aren't you?" he asked. "With my coz and his brood all off to Sergyar it must seem pretty empty."

"Yes, sir. Most of the normal staff is gone with them. With Ma Costi gone, I'm even cooking my own meals. I used to be a pretty good cook, but I'd gotten out of the habit."

"I'm amazed they got Ma Costi to go off-planet. She used to pitch a fit just taking an aircar to Vorkosigan Surleau."

"I'm told it took quite a bit of persuasion, but one of her sons is stationed there and I think that did the trick," laughed Anny. She had an amazingly nice smile. A damn fine looking woman. Yeah, he could see exactly how Vorritter and the others had arrived at their ill-fated plan. And it wasn't just that Anny Payne was an attractive woman. Hell, that was probably the least of the factors. The frigate Swiftsure was old, small, and obsolescent. Ship duty was highly sought by most officers, but no one would be seeking out an old bucket like that. Anyone with any influence would try for a newer, bigger ship. A ship that did interesting things and went interesting places. Swiftsure and its sister ship, Daring, did nothing but escort freighters from Barrayar to Komarr and back again. An almost pointless precaution since nothing like a pirate could get into Barrayaran space unobserved. It was boring, unglamorous work. A dead-end assignment. Officers on those ships would drink too much and think too much.

Playing nursemaid to a batch of cadets would be bad enough, but the sudden appearance of a female cadet… Yeah it would push all sorts of buttons, none of them good ones. Vorritter would naturally try to make the best of a bad situation. He'd find reasons to talk to Anny. Hang around. Make a few suggestive remarks—just like Ivan would have done in his place. In his younger, pre-Tej days, anyway. Nothing like rape would even be contemplated at that point, but if she was willing… why not? And Anny would have cut him off at the ankles. Politely, of course, but after a year being trained and prepared by Tante Cordelia and Drou Koudelkas, Ivan had no doubt that she would have rebuffed him.

Which would have made him angry. Add to that the fact that Anny's cadets would have still treated her like their commander even though they'd been ordered to drop their cadet ranks. They'd look to her for leadership, it would be habit by this time, and that would piss off Vorritter all the more. A non-Vor and a woman, challenging his authority! Ivan had no idea what Vorritter's stance on letting women into the military was, but if he was like a lot of Vor he'd be against it. And now he was having the whole issue rubbed right in his face. Oh yeah, by the time they reached Komarr he'd be wanting some sort of payback. A few drinks, some talk with some old buddies he knew dirtside, and the rest was almost inevitable. Ivan could see it as clearly as if he'd been there himself.

He didn't think he would ever stoop to what Vorritter had attempted, but in some different reality, who knew? Most officers probably wouldn't but there would be more than a few who would. The Barrayaran warrior class had an unfortunate penchant for rape that went back a long, long time into history. He remembered his childhood playmate Elena Bothari, the product of a more recent example of Barrayaran rapine. Anny Payne was stepping into a very dangerous profession in more ways than one.

"So, what are your plans for your senior year, Anny?" he asked when the conversation had lain dead for too long. "You've got some serious choices to make about your career track, don't you?"

"Yes, sir," she replied. "I'll be meeting with an advisor next week to decide which way I'm going to go."

"From what my coz tells me about your record at the Academy I'd think you could pretty much write your own ticket. Ship duty, the Imperial War College, the General Staff School, anything."

"It's all a bit overwhelming, sir," she nodded.

"You're on the fast-track, Anny. You are aware that you'll be commissioned as a lieutenant and not an ensign when you graduate, aren't you?"

"So I've been told, sir," she glanced down at the ribbon on her tunic. There was an old and rarely-used regulation which said that any cadet decorated for gallantry while at the Academy would be bumped one rank at graduation. Some count had rammed it through generations earlier on behalf of a nephew that had managed to win a medal and the rule was still on the books. It wasn't actually all that big of a deal since most ensigns were promoted to lieutenant within a year or two anyway, but it was still quite a distinction and would give her seniority over most of her classmates during the long period between lieutenant and captain. Anny Payne was going places—if she wanted to. It was clear that a number of powerful people were looking at her as the poster-child for letting women into the military. If she could stay out of trouble, he might end up having to salute her in ten or fifteen years.

If she could stay out of trouble.

While she had some powerful friends, she was also making some powerful enemies. Once the full story about those court martials came out—and it would—a lot of officers were going to be royally pissed. Not at Vorritter and his cohorts, but at Anny Payne. They'd argue that if Anny hadn't been there, where she didn't belong, then none it would have happened. Four officer, officers with otherwise good records, lost to the service because of temptations that had no place aboard a ship. Or in a barracks. Or… Oh yeah, there was going to be some backlash from this. And that was the best case scenario. If Vorritter and the other three had friends or family who might decide to take some sort of personal revenge against Anny…. Damn. Had Miles thought about this? Probably. the little git usually thought of everything.

Or maybe not. Miles' career had kept him far away from the day-to-day realities of the Imperial Military. He'd spent his time with the sexually and racially integrated Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet. They didn't have issues like that there. Once the word got around, what ship commander in his right mind would want Anny Payne aboard? Even if he fully endorsed the notion of women in the military in general, he still wouldn't want the potential trouble on his ship. Or in his battalion. Or on his staff. And that was only the professional side of it. What officer who was genuinely interested in her, with motives as honorable as any love-smitten man, would take the risk of approaching her? Ivan found himself feeling sorry for the woman. Anny Payne was facing a very lonely career, he was afraid.

"Are you planning to make the military a career, Anny? Be a twenty-year… person?"

"I haven't really thought that far ahead, sir. But after so many people worked so hard to get me in, it would seem… ungrateful if I didn't stick with it for a while."

"To say nothing of all the work you put in yourself. Well, I have to get back to my office and I'm sure you've got some serious relaxing to do. Thank you again for your help on those procedures. Maybe I'll see you around Vorkosigan House." They got up from the table and exchanged salutes. Ivan saw her out of the building and then headed back upstairs. She's really quite something, isn't she?

[Scene Break]

"Anny!" cried Drou Koudelkas. "It's so good to see you again! It's been too long!" The woman stepped up to Anny and embraced her.

"It has been a while," replied Anny when Drou released her. "We've all been so busy. Me at the Academy and you with all those grandchildren."

"Good heavens, yes! The girls have been turning them out like clockwork the last three years! And with uterine replicators it is like clockwork. I'm sorry we haven't been able to stay in closer touch the way we used to but…" Drou trailed off.

"Being Gran'mama comes first, I understand," said Anny smiling. In truth it had saddened her a bit when the distance between her and Drou had widened. But it was probably for the best. She couldn't help but notice that Drou's daughters who had been so friendly at first had grown a bit… cold as Drou threw herself into the project of getting Anny ready for the Academy. Jealous? Maybe so. But the arrival of the grandchildren had reversed the trend. Drou was paying far more attention to her family and the daughters were much warmer towards Anny. It was only proper. "Thank you for inviting me over today. It was getting a bit lonely at Vorkosigan House with only me and the security guards there."

"I would think so! Even with a dozen people there you could wander around all day without bumping into anyone! I should have thought to ask you sooner. But you are in luck," said Drou, taking her arm. "Olivia and Dono are here with little Pierre today! Come on, they're in the sitting room." She guided Anny through a doorway and into the parlor of the big old house. A small crowd of people were already there. Commodore Koudelkas was holding his newest grandchild and smiling ear to ear. Olivia was right beside him fussing with some bit of the baby's clothing. Count Dono Vorrutyer was standing a pace away, smiling, with his hands clasped behind his back. An armsman in Vorrutyer livery was standing in a corner. Several other women who Drou introduced as neighbors were also fawning over the baby.

"Anny!" exclaimed the Commodore when he saw her. "Come meet my grandson." Before she could figure a way to refuse Anny found herself holding the squirming bundle. It had been quite a while since she had held a baby and she was uncomfortably aware that it was a count's heir. What if she dropped it?

But disaster was avoided and eventually Anny was able to hand the infant off to someone else. The morning passed pleasantly enough although Anny couldn't force herself to take all that much interest in the endless chatter about babies and all the myriad details of their care and upbringing. She'd been exposed to it while helping raise her younger sisters, but even then her interest had been limited. She found herself wishing she could discuss the theories of Clausewitz with someone or maybe field-strip a heavy plasma arc…

"So, Cadet-Captain Payne, we meet at last," said Count Dono, suddenly sitting next to her. "I'm amazed our paths haven't managed to cross before, what with us both in and out of Vorkosigan House so much."

"Uh, I think we did meet for a moment, the Winterfair before last, my lord," said Anny awkwardly.

"Really?" said Dono, his eyebrows going up. "Oh, that's right! How embarrassing. But you were still keeping a pretty low profile back then. I've heard a lot more about you since ."

"I… I've heard quite a bit about you, too, my lord," stammered Anny.

"I imagine you have!" laughed Dono. The man was a little shorter than her but with his full beard it was hard to believe that he had once been Lady Donna Vorrutyer before she travelled to Beta Colony to have her sex changed so that she could—successfully—challenge a relative for the countship of her/his district. "But you and I have so much in common, Anny: we've both set Barrayaran society on its ear. Me in the Council of Counts, and you at the Academy."

"That was never my intention, my lord."

"Well, it wasn't really mine, either. I suppose that if I could have done what I did—what I needed to do—without upsetting everything I would have. It would have been so much easier. But I couldn't and neither could you. We each had a destiny to fulfill and neither one of us was going to let tradition or Barrayar's notion of propriety stand in our way, eh?"

"I guess that's true, my lord. I hadn't really thought about it in that way before." Anny wasn't quite sure what to make of this.

"Well you ought to sometime. In the long run what you did will be far more important than what I did. My situation might come along once every few centuries, but the changes you've forced are already bearing fruit. There are how many women at the Academy now?"

"Six beside me, my lord. I understand there will be about twenty more arriving with the new freshman class."

"Well there you are, Anny! None of them would be there but for you. You should be very proud of yourself." Anny found herself blushing.

"You're embarrassing the poor girl, Dono." Anny looked up and the Commodore was standing there.

"I would seem so," said the Count. "But every word was true."

"No doubt. But before you can turn her head completely, I'm afraid I need to borrow her for a while. Anny, could Drou and I talk with you in private for a bit?"

Anny sprang to her feet, a bit relieved to have an excuse to get away from the intense Count Vorrutyer. "Certainly, sir." She followed him out onto the back porch of the house which overlooked their small garden plot. Drou joined them with a pitcher of lemonade and glasses. They settled themselves on comfortable chairs and Anny looked at the Koudelkas in anticipation. What was this all about?

"You're meeting with your advisor tomorrow, aren't you, Anny?" asked the Commodore.

"Yes, sir."

"Have you decided on what you're going to do?"

"There were so many choices, it was hard to decide. But I've decided to pursue the naval track, sir. Ship duty if I can get it."

The Commodore frowned and pursed his lips. Drou looked worried. What is this?

"Anny," said the Commodore, "I-we've gotten a message from Miles on Sergyar and he was acting on behalf of… well, some other important people. He asked me to talk to you."

"Sir?"

Drou leaned forward. "Anny, perhaps ship duty isn't the best choice right now."

"I-I don't understand."

"Anny, we know about what happened on Komarr," said the Commodore. The look on his face was a veneer of concern over seething anger.

"Oh! It… it could have been a lot worse, sir. And your training helped save me, Drou."

"You should have torn that bastard's arm off and stuffed it up his…" snarled Drou.

"No doubt," said the Commodore, casting a strange look at his wife. "But the issue here is a lot more complex than just protecting you from this sort of thing, Anny. It shouldn't be, damn it, but it is. The high command is afraid of the… disruptive effects that might result from your presence aboard a ship. The close quarters, the long tours of duty, the restrictive spaces… and the fact that for years to come you'd be the only woman aboard any given ship. The example they've made of those four on Komarr would probably keep most men in line—but not all. And even if there were no overt assaults…"

"A non-ship assignment might be better," said Drou, an odd, awkward tone in her voice. "Less confined, more space, more…"

"More room to run?" asked Anny, a note of bitterness leaked into her words and both of the Koudelkas caught it immediately. "Sorry."

"There's nothing for you to be sorry about!" said Drou heatedly. "Nothing!"

"Drou…" said the Commodore.

"Damn it, Kou! We shouldn't even be having this conversation! I agreed that I'd try to help, but this is just plain wrong! Anny shouldn't have her career put in a straightjacket just because some… some…" the woman ran out of breath and just glared.

"I know, I know, but we have to deal with reality, not with wishful thinking. And even if Anny went ahead with the naval track the high command could still decide they didn't like the risks and just deny her ship duty anyway. They'd end up sticking her in BuShips or BuPers or… or Docks and Wharfs, for God's sake! Pushing paper behind a desk! Is that what you want to do for the next twenty years, Anny?"

Anny felt stunned. Not just by the possibility, but by the intensity in both Drou and the Commodore. "N-no, sir. I-I love commanding my company. Leading… being in charge…"

"It's what you're good at," nodded the Commodore.

"It's what you were born for, Anny!" exclaimed Drou. "Don't let the bastards take it from you!"

"That is why we're having this little talk, Drou," said the Commodore. "Miles was no happier asking us to do this than we are doing it. But he's right: the high command will probably have the final say on Anny's posting once she's graduated. And if she insists on following a track that they oppose it could end up torpedoing her career right off the mark."

"So… so what are my options, sir?" asked Anny. She was trying to grasp the whirling fragments of the plan she'd had before this conversation started. The pieces kept bouncing off her fingertips.

"Miles was rather vague," said the Commodore, shrugging. "Which with him means that the information he received must have been pretty vague, too. The only definite thing was that they don't want you pushing for ship duty. I know this is disappointing to you, Anny, every young officer wants ship duty, but that still leaves a huge number of options available to you. And quite a few of them involve commanding troops."

"I suppose so, sir." She couldn't hide her disappointment, but if the Academy had taught her anything it was how to pick herself up off the ground after taking a fall. Still, it was disappointing. She had dreamed of getting out into the wormhole nexus that was the highway between worlds. Despite its horrid conclusion, the trip to Komarr had been thrilling, just a taste of things to come. Ship duty wasn't the only way to get out there, but it was the surest. She'd hoped to be part of the escorts guarding the trade fleets on their long journeys to distant worlds, just the way her father had.

Her father.

He'd gotten out there, but he hadn't been in the navy… Perhaps…

"I'll have to give this some thought, sir," she said aloud.

"Of course," said the Commodore. "It's a big decision."

"We're sorry to ruin your last day of leave like this," said Drou. "We hope you'll stay and have lunch, but if you feel like you need to go and think for a while, we understand."

"None of this is your fault," said Anny. "Thank you. Thank you both for helping me out—again." She got to her feet and held out her arms to Drou. The woman rose out of her chair and hugged her fiercely.

"I'm so damn proud of you, girl," she whispered in her ear. "Don't take any shit from anyone, you hear me?"

"I hear you, ma'am," she whispered back. Then she pulled away and smiled. "And I'll be happy to stay for lunch."

[Scene Break]

"Cadet-Captain Payne, reporting as ordered, sir," said Anny, saluting.

"Ah, Miss Payne, have a seat," said Captain Vorigley, returning the salute and gesturing to a chair, without actually looking up from his comconsole. Her advisor was a middle-aged man who, just at the moment, looked a little frazzled. There were only ten advisory councilors for over six hundred senior cadets and every last one of them would be trooping through their offices for the next four days. Anny, due to her rank, was among the first ones to see the councilors. She didn't want to know what Vorigley would look like by the end! He glanced at her and then back at the screen. His expression shifted from frazzled to worried. Had he been given the same message as the Koudelkas? Turn Anny Payne away from ship duty? She'd be surprised if he hadn't.

"Well!" he said after a few more moments studying the comconsole. "You have an outstanding record, Miss Payne. But active service isn't the same as the Academy, nor vice-versa. You've got some serious decisions to make about your final year and the direction you want to go. I hope you've given this some thought already."

"Yes, sir, I have."

"Good! Good! You'd be amazed at the number of cadets who come in here without a clue. Of course most of them don't have nearly the number of options open to them as you do." Vorigley paused and eyed her. "Of course the other thing that happens all too frequently is a cadet coming in here hell-bent on getting ship duty." Okay, here it comes. "The sad fact is that we just don't need that many personnel or officers on the naval track. Most of those who try either fail or end up in some boring planetside assignment. And even if you get a ship, there's no war on right now. Most of our ships just cruise around in the same star system doing nothing. Why for a bright young officer like you it would be terribly boring! Now perhaps I can suggest…"

"Excuse me sir," said Anny. "I've already ruled out the naval track." There, she'd said it. And it hardly hurt a bit.

"Oh, thank G…! Er, I mean: really?" An expression of relief washed over the Captain's face, followed by puzzlement. Technically, no one could order her what to do on this decision and Vorigley had probably been bracing himself for an argument.

"Yes, sir. For all the reasons you mentioned." And a few more you didn't!

"Well, good! That's remarkably mature of you, Miss Payne, but I supposed I shouldn't be surprised, given your record and all. So what have you decided on?"

"I was looking at the Ground Forces, sir."

"Ah, well, that opens up a huge range of possibilities. There's Intelligence, Supply, Quartermaster Corps, considering your two victories in the Howitzer Haul perhaps you'd be interested in Engineering? And if you want to pursue post-graduate work there is the General Staff College, the War College, why you could even end up an instructor here at the Academy! Why don't we look at…"

"I was thinking more along the lines of a combat branch, sir. I like commanding troops."

"Oh!" Vorigley seemed taken aback. "Well, I suppose that could be a possibility. Infantry, Artillery, Armored Cavalry…"

"Actually, sir, I've already decided what I want. From what I was able to determine, I'm completely qualified."

"Really? For what?"

Anny grinned.