façade

[isthisart]

Linya gradually feels her way around being proper friends with Ekaterin, not wishing to wreck things with a premature "will you be my Second at my duplicate wedding" request. There is companionable gardening. There is, when Linya and Jocelyn make an unexpected sudden breakthrough in causing the nibs to behave, which holds when they fabricate a prototype and test it out, a fountain pen for Ekaterin. (In addition to Miles's and Count Vorkosigan's. And one for Emperor Gregor, which has got to be worth all the R&D in advertising alone.) When Miles's legs are more or less completely healed, they skip off to Vorkosigan Surleau for a few days and he teaches her to fly a lightflyer, which she enjoys very much and picks up very quickly. Linya writes Miles a song. (It has no words, she doesn't feel up to lyrics, but it is very pretty and slightly different every time she plays/sings it.) With the nibs handled and all the Barrayaran languages learned Linya spends more time reading textbooks and signs up for a university placement exam to see how far ahead into advanced classes on various things she can skip, and awaits her results.

And snuggles her tiny Barrayaran.

Comments

[thisvorlunatic]

"It only takes one hit with a nerve disruptor," says Miles. "They're probably under orders not to kill you - or me, for that matter - but we don't know that for sure. And you're not as easily hidden as I am - can't tuck you into small corners..." But he's wavering. "All right, you can come up for a quick look around. But if we see any guards before they see us, we at least try hiding, all right?"

[ofthestars]

"Sure," he allows.

[thisvorlunatic]

Up the ladder and through the hatch they go, then. Miles takes Asterion on a quick tour of the rooms he's already searched, then proceeds through neighbouring corridors.

There is a lot more basement junk to be had.

But finally, just as Miles is about to give up, they come upon a room that appears to be the dumping ground for at least half the building's waste chutes. Miles vaguely recalls that these chutes are disused now, having been replaced by a new set that all terminate in a ground-floor room - he made a note of it when studying the map because the older chutes (a) are wide enough to admit him and (b) don't lead to an incinerator. Apparently, though, there's a difference between disused and unused. Several of the openings have piles of junk accumulated beneath them. Miles puts on his heavy gloves, exchanges his slightly-overlarge security uniform jacket for a slightly-overlarge lab coat, and goes hunting. People throw out all kinds of things.

[ofthestars]

Asterion watches in fascination.

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles sorts through the piles of junk, uttering an occasional 'Ha' as he retrieves this or that tidbit - the kind of person who throws their trash down the wrong hole is the kind of person who is likely to throw away something more valuable than they would if they were paying attention. And indeed, he scrounges a little loose change here and there, but the real windfall is when he finds a lab coat with one arm burned away and fifteen Betan dollars in the pocket.

"That should do us," he declares, glancing back at Asterion. "Now let's go back and see if I can't get that vehicle entrance open, the one at the bottom of the slope. I'm guessing it'll be our least guarded option."

[ofthestars]

Back they go.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Confusion to the enemy," Miles murmurs as he removes the stylus jamming the hatch open and lets it fall firmly shut behind them.

With his scavenged tools, the control panel for the vehicle entrance is only a moderate challenge. He lets Asterion watch - a little exposure to practical skills can hardly do the kid any harm - and then pauses so they can both don all their layers before he makes the final manipulation that causes the door to rise. As soon as it's up high enough for Asterion to wriggle under, Miles disconnects his widgetry and rolls under it himself as it slowly creaks downward.

[ofthestars]

Outside is a ramp leading up to an area of bare snow-sprinkled ground, mainly rocks and hard-packed dirt with a few sad spiky weeds. There are no vehicles or even any tracks visible, just an expanse of frosted tarmac that spreads out from the ramp and trails a black arm away toward a locked gate in the wall.

"Where to?" murmurs Asterion.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Over the wall," Miles whispers back, pointing. "You'll have to boost me up. Then we wander through the woods until I get my bearings."

[ofthestars]

Asterion nods. Over they go. They don't see anyone on the way, nor do any guards come boiling out of the building to chase them down.

[thisvorlunatic]

Then there are woods. It takes much less wandering than advertised for Miles to get oriented and point out the appropriate direction.

[ofthestars]

At which point, Asterion scoops him up and sets off.

It takes him somewhat less than two hours to cover the ground between the biolab complex and the nearest settlement.

[thisvorlunatic]

And then it is Miles's job to find them a commercial comconsole booth that is open at this hour, and call the Ariel for a pickup.

He does both those things. (He makes sure not to show or mention Asterion on the vid call, since someone somewhere is almost certainly monitoring it and will eventually report its contents to Ryoval. Confusion to the enemy.)

[whyexit]

"Admiral!" exclaims Thorne, when it answers. "What in God's name - well, I guess that puts paid to the ransom discussion, I'll string them along a bit more for cover while a shuttle goes to fetch you, shall I?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"That would be just perfect, thank you."

[whyexit]

"Right. Do you want the shuttle where you're calling from or a rendezvous somewhere else?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"If you can land a shuttle in commercial parking, by all means do so, and I'll meet you there. I feel that the residents of this town would be alarmed by a full-on emergency pickup in the middle of the street."

[whyexit]

"Dispatching," chirps Thorne, "and then operation Screw It He's Not Worth That Much Money Watch Us Innocently Saunter is go." It salutes.

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles chuckles. "All right. See you soon."

He cuts the com and goes to wait for rescue.

[alicornucopia]

Eventually a shuttle appears! It is very tidily landed. Its pilot is surprised to see Asterion. "Uh, sir? What's that?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"This is Recruit-trainee Asterion," chirps Miles. "He'll be signing on officially as soon as we get topside."

[ofthestars]

Recruit-trainee Asterion smiles in a fang-concealing manner.

[alicornucopia]

"...yessir," says the pilot, and without further ado she hauls Miles and Asterion up to the Ariel.

[whyexit]

Where Thorne is delivering an award-winning performance.

"No, you listen, Baron," it's telling Ryoval, "let me tell you what we're doing here in the first place, I told him it was a, what'd I say, wretched hive, scum, villainy, the works, but good old native Betan weapons won't do, he wants to drag us all the way out here and get sidetracked stealing your super-soldier? As if regular soldiers aren't good enough, and if after that he expects us to cough up the kind of money you're talking about -"

"Captain -"

"- I won't hear of it, that comes out of my crew's pockets," Thorne says over Ryoval. "Nope, he's the one who snuck into your facility on a side mission and he didn't leave us near enough spare cash, tightfisted bastard, to put together a ransom that doesn't take from the, I remind you mercenaries, that he hired -"

"Perhaps an alternative arrangement -"

"Look, Baron, at this point I'm inclined to let you have him," snorts Thorne, "after the insult - what, rank-and-file don't look imposing enough in a uniform, do we? - no, no, I think you can keep him, don't bother compiling the footage, we've got other places to be to recover from this fiasco and I've got people to jockey with for a promotion to the empty chair -"

"Captain Thorne -"

"Have lots of fun, Baron," says Thorne, and the comm winks out.

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles, haunting the door to Nav and Com well out of range of the vid pickup, applauds lightly.

"Beautiful. Simply beautiful. I am the proudest Admiral who ever lived."