dissonance

[isthisart]

Dr. Cheung's at a funeral all day, so Linya decides to go up to London and see if Miles is out of his Mood.

Security has decided to be deeply unhelpful today. She is currently showing them various forms of ID and repeating in a slow, patient voice that she has been here before, there is not more than one of her, and she promises she is not there to assassinate her husband or whatever fool thing has them skittish today. Perhaps she shouldn't drop in while the captain's missing; it seems to make them worse. But she got in before while he was missing...

Comments

[isthisart]

"Was this while you were out? Did you get it looked at yet?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"It, um, didn't hurt enough for me to bother," he says sheepishly. "I probably should."

[isthisart]

"Yes. You should." She picks him up and kisses his forehead and puts him down again. "Which way's the infirmary in here? I only theoretically know how to electrostim a bone."

[unmarred]

[isthisart]

Linya tilts her head.

[unmarred]

"Fuck it," he says, in a distinctly local accent. "Sorry I even bothered."

And he draws his stunner and fires.

[isthisart]

She is surprised enough that she's barely started trying to dodge when the nimbus catches her.

She is not immune to stunners. She collapses to the floor.

[unmarred]

And now - Miles, if you must - has a problem on his hands, but a merely logistical one, and therefore infinitely less distressing than the problem he was facing a few moments before.

He applies himself to the task of getting Lady Vorkosigan safely stowed for eventual delivery back to his superiors. Maybe they can get some use out of her.

[thisvorlunatic]

The literal actual Miles, on the other hand, has already been delivered.

He is just coming off the initial stun when his kidnappers finally bundle him into a small windowless room, after a dizzying trek through mazelike streets that he could not hope to track in his condition. The door clicks shut behind him. He squints at the brightness of the single ceiling light, and looks around.

[alicornucopia]

A man curled up on one of the benches with his back to the rest of the room sits up stiffly. He holds his hands over his eyes, squinting against the harsh light. He is stubbly, unkempt, disgruntled, and Captain Galeni.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Ah, fuck. There you are," Miles says hoarsely. "I was wondering."

[alicornucopia]

"Were you?" wonders Galeni dubiously.

[thisvorlunatic]

"I admit, in large part because I expected to find you in the same place as my eighteen million marks. That fond hope has now been laid to rest."

Miles staggers to the unoccupied bench and parks himself on it.

[alicornucopia]

"I suppose it might be pointless to ask if you're - you."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I don't know," says Miles, almost cheerfully. "Which me were you expecting?"

[alicornucopia]

Galeni doesn't dignify that with a response, just sits and regards Miles with minute attention to detail, apparently coming to no firm conclusion.

[thisvorlunatic]

"You've met the other one, then, I take it."

[alicornucopia]

"Yesterday. If you're the real one, anyway. I think it was yesterday." Galeni glances at the light.

[thisvorlunatic]

"God, don't tell me they keep that thing on all the time," shudders Miles. "It's, let's see - maybe one in the morning, of the fifth day since you went missing. Did he really...? I mean, actually pretend to be me? To you? Did it work?"

[alicornucopia]

"I thought it was you till the end, when he told me he was - practicing. Testing. And incidentally collecting information on my reactions to you. This lasted four or five hours."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Hell," says Miles, shuddering again. "Well - historian - how do you tell a forgery from the real thing?"

[alicornucopia]

"Well," says Galeni dryly. "He saluted."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Not a perfect copy, then," Miles says with a dry, brittle smile. "Damnation... I suppose there's no reasonable way they could have given him my bones; following this logic, all I have to do to convince you is punch a wall. You'll excuse me if I don't rush to try it."

[alicornucopia]

Galeni rolls his eyes.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Anyway, regardless of my identity, surely you can tell me who they are." He gestures up at the light. "And whatever Miles Version Two let slip about his origins." (Fuck, don't say he's a clone, don't say he's a clone. That would be much, much too weird.)