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

[thisvorlunatic]

"Right. I... suspect Mark is a very effective saboteur."

[isthisart]

"I'd bet you're right."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yeah."

He falls silent.

[isthisart]

Eventually Linya goes to sleep herself.



This doesn't stop the guards from preemptively stunning her next time they open the door. She slumps a little.

"Pick her up," one of them tells Galeni. "And both of you, out." They look agitated - one solemn, one about to break into nervous laughter.

[thisvorlunatic]

...Miles is deeply unhappy about this.

But there's no advantage to staying in the cell.

On the other hand...

"Captain Galeni," he says, "I think now might be a good time for you to talk to your father."

[alicornucopia]

Galeni makes a complicated series of expressions that all agree on little more than the fact that he is unhappy. He manages to haul Linya off the ground and over his shoulder. The braid she went to sleep in trails on the floor.

"That way," says the guard, gesturing them towards the lift tube.

[thisvorlunatic]

"It's not just your life you're throwing away," hisses Miles, unimpressed with Galeni's willingness to literally carry Miles's wife to her death for the sake of his principles.

[alicornucopia]

Galeni hisses, but says, "I wish to speak to my father," he says, as they approach the garage.

"You can't."

"I think you'd better check with him before you sound so sure."

"He's not here. He gave us our orders and left."

"Call him."

"He didn't say where he'd be. And if he had, I wouldn't, anyway. Over by that lightflyer."

[thisvorlunatic]

"You know," Miles says suddenly, as a different strategy occurs to him, "what did my wife ever do to you, anyway? She married me, granted, but for a haut-lady that's not really a matter of choice as such. And you can hardly argue that she's Barrayaran. Barrayar does not love her, I guarantee you that. So what? Someone stuck the name Vorkosigan to her like a 'Kick Me' sign, and now you're going to—what are you going to do to us?"

[alicornucopia]

"Stun you, fly you out over the water, drop you in," says a guard.

"Didn't sound like a marriage of convenience to me," says the other, but dubiously.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Convenience doesn't enter into it. She's literally a bloody prize for good behaviour from the Cetagandan Empire. Just because she's made the best of it doesn't mean she deserves to die for it, or wants to. Look, I can divorce her first if it makes you happier. It's a bit legally tricky to declare myself Count's Voice for the purpose and then petition myself for a divorce, but given the emergency conditions and the fact that you're about to kill me anyway, I don't think anyone's going to waste energy arguing with the details afterward. You just have to wake her up and let me explain the situation and then talk to myself for half a minute."

[alicornucopia]

"And then she'd go straight to the cops," says the first guard. "Can't do it."

"Not on our own recognizance."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Right, and you can't call Ser Galen because he didn't leave a bloody forwarding address. So what's it to be, fellows? Do revolutionaries follow different rules than the rest of us - how many innocents are you allowed to kill because you don't believe you have the authority not to? If the total exceeds two hundred will you give up and turn yourselves in?"

[alicornucopia]

"She's a collaborator if nothing else, living in the Butcher's house..."

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles gestures to Galeni. "He's been living in your house for going on a week now, and I don't see you believing he's on your side."

[alicornucopia]

"She was on Earth for months," says the other guard.

"You say that like it means she's been trying to get away, but it just means they give her free rein and she used it to visit the clone at the embassy so he had to stun her in the first place -"

[thisvorlunatic]

"I did say 'making the best of it', did I not? She doesn't hate my guts; that doesn't mean she'd die for me." Whereas Miles would unquestionably die for her - but that's his business. "She made it pretty clear when I first met her that given free choice of ways off Eta Ceta, she'd rather have had a ticket to Beta Colony."

[alicornucopia]

"Look, get some rope and synergine and we'll see what she has to say about it," says one of the guard. "Ser Galen said 'kill them', he didn't actually say 'all' -"

"He meant all -"

"If she wants to go to Beta Colony and sell consumer electronics what harm does that do to the revolution, hm? If she makes a dramatic speech we can dump her with the others."

The reluctant guard grumbles and trots off while the other keeps his stunner trained on the captives from sufficient range to drop them both if either lunges.

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles waits with infinite patience.

[isthisart]

Eventually the one guard returns with a hypospray and some rope. Galeni puts Linya down gently and backs away; she is tied up; she is synergined.

She blinks and looks around. "Now what?" she wonders.

"Butcher's kid thinks you might be convinced to drop him and go somewhere else nice and quiet."

Linya glances at Miles.

[thisvorlunatic]

"These kind gentlemen are willing to let me enact a semi-official divorce so you can live free of my shameful name," Miles explains, "the key words here being 'live' and 'free'. My fate is to be stunned and thrown out of a lightflyer to drown, but I pointed out that you are innocent of the charge of marrying me on purpose and managed to talk them around."

[isthisart]

Linya is quiet and expressionless for a minute, until one of the guards says, "Well?"

"By 'free' here you mean something that involves me walking out of this house under my own power, ideally with my pen back?" she inquires.

"Is your pen waterproof?"

"Yes."

"Then we'll put it in a block of ice and you can walk off with it so you don't go notifying the police straight away, hm?"

"How clever." She closes her eyes. "All right."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Perfect," says Miles, rubbing his hands together. "Now, I'd like you all to imagine this garage as the Count's Court in Hassadar. Lots of interestingly carved woodwork on the walls," he sketches these with sweeping gestures, "tables here, a desk there, behind which sits the Butcher of Komarr himself, looking vaguely awkward the way he always does when my wife is in the room, it's nothing personal, Linya, he's just overthinking things. Here," he skips to the side and gestures again at a spot beside the imaginary desk, "stands a very bored clerk - Captain Galeni, would you take the role? I'll feed you your lines, never fear - holding a spear with the Vorkosigan standard, a very important historical artifact dating from the Time of Isolation which I've always thought looked a bit like an overgrown toothpick laden with a fragment of a giant's dinner."

[alicornucopia]

"Get on with it," says one of the guards.

Galeni doesn't look bored, he looks despairing.

[thisvorlunatic]

If Galeni can't tell a bloody distraction when he sees one, that's his problem. Miles is in his element. Probably about to die, under incredible stress, improvising bizarre pageantry - the only way he could get any more in his element would be if he had any idea whatsoever of how to take advantage of this distraction to actually escape.

"Got to get all the proper ceremonial bits in, you know. Don't worry, I'll keep it short," he lies blithely. "Galeni: 'Next case, Lord Miles Naismith Vorkosigan versus his wife the haut Lady Linyabel Miriat Vorkosigan', tap imaginary spear on ground, 'Your Count is listening; complainants please step forward'."