fermata

[isthisart]

Linya sees Dr. Cheung onto a ship other than the Ariel, which agrees to tote him to Komarr very, very slowly, knocking him out for each jump and having someone look after him when he comes around green in the gills. It's not going to be a fun trip for him, but it's better than trying to collaborate with a multi-week conversational turnaround time. It's pricey - the ship has nonperishable cargo with no deadline at its destination and already employs a medtech, but still - but she thinks it's worth it.

Her business on Earth concluded, she examines the list of tourist attractions she didn't get around to, determines that none of them are worth sticking around for, and gets on a much faster vessel and goes all the way home. The first thing she does when there is go looking for whichever of the Count or Countess is easiest to find.

Comments

[isthisart]

"He didn't say anything along the lines of 'play along, undercover', he just fed me unadulterated lies - which might not have worked if one of the Dendarii ships hadn't picked up my job bid for transporting a neuroscientist to Komarr. I didn't think an undercover Miles would have drawn my attention to his mercenary outfit, so I tentatively bought the story, although I did call Miles-qua-Miles to confirm at the earliest opportunity. He told me Naismith was his clone and made excuses for not having ever told me he had a clone and - I was not certain I was getting the truth but I was pretty sure I was getting what Miles wanted me to pretend was the truth, so I proceeded to operate under the supplied assumptions. And then a bit later on Miles was kidnapped and replaced by his actual clone, who I will hereafter refer to as Mark."

[as_i_remember]

"Mm. Yes, I've heard the name. Miles used it in his report, several times in fact."

[isthisart]

"Mark does an exceedingly good impression of Miles. He fooled Ivan for days, although after being told about the swap Ivan retroactively learned a tell which may or may not persist. I was completely unawares - since Naismith had seemed perfectly friendly and disinterested in replacing his original when I met 'him' - until I picked Mark up and kissed him on the forehead and put him down again only to discover that he has a flinch reaction to physical affection. He dropped the act and stunned me. When I woke up I was tied to a chair in a room with Miles on fast-penta mid-recitation-of-Macbeth, and Ser Galen, the orchestrator of the clone plot. They didn't know about my fast-penta immunity, so when they dosed me too I pretended in case - as seemed likely - option two was more primitive. It was convenient that I have, actually, memorized Macbeth and Galen was too enraged to ask me any probing questions."

[as_i_remember]

"That does seem convenient. What was Ivan's tell?"

[isthisart]

"Mark likes him too much."

[as_i_remember]

[isthisart]

"Anyway, then we were put in a cell - in Miles's case back in the cell - with Captain Galeni, Galen's son, who had been kidnapped days previous. Correctly suspecting surveillance I pretended to come down off fast-penta, albeit more gently than Miles did. Having made two mistakes about my husband's identity in a very short span of time I wasn't certain the one I was locked up with was, actually, my husband, which was emotionally distressing in ways that are probably relevant to nothing you're looking for except Miles's decision to completely abandon cover with respect to me, insofar as there was anything to salvage except for dubiously protective uncertainty and confusion."

[as_i_remember]

"Miles's motivations are certainly of deep interest to me."

[isthisart]

"He is motivated," says Linya, "to stop lying to me, at least in cases where the ceiling or a facsimile thereof is not watching us."

[as_i_remember]

"So noted. You may consider yourself de facto cleared to know the identity of Admiral Naismith. Please do not spread it around."

[isthisart]

"I haven't done. I did tell Cordelia and Aral about Mark, though. And give them my medical scan of Miles for comparison. You can have a copy too if you want it."

[as_i_remember]

"Cordelia and Aral are aware of Miles's dual identity and you are free to discuss it with them. As well as me, Gregor, Ivan, and three Dendarii whom you may or may not have met - Elli Quinn, Elena Bothari-Jesek, and Baz Jesek. I would be pleased to receive a copy of your medical scan."

[isthisart]

"I briefly encountered Quinn but neither Jesek," says Linya. "Do you have a pen yet, or...?"

[as_i_remember]

"I do not. Should I?"

[isthisart]

"My personal opinion? Everyone ought to have a pen. Pens are lovely. But if you don't my existing contact information for you will be within date." Woggle. "There. Anyway, we continued to be kidnapped. Mark extracted Miles for a conversation, and then me - I was not considered safe to usher at stunner-point through the house so they just shot me and I woke up tied to a chair again. Mark - has been badly brought up, but is not intrinsically motivated to hostile behavior. I did not manage anything as dramatic as talking him into letting us all go, though. Back into the cell I went."

[as_i_remember]

"Hm. And?"

[isthisart]

"And there I sat until I was stunned again and woke up tied up on a garage floor while Miles, who had conned the guards into maybe letting me go provided I didn't make any dramatic declarations of Barryaran loyalty, was pretending to divorce me. He drew this out until a small contingent of Dendarii who'd been sent to find Captain Galeni burst in and rescued us. I left under my own power once I had my pen back and made it to my hotel without further incident and didn't bother with any of the business at hand again until Commander Quinn called me to come 'be haut at' Cetagandan assassins who were after Naismith. I was extremely haut at them. They packed up and went home."

[as_i_remember]

"Miles mentioned the pretend divorce in his report, briefly. It sounded like... a spectacle."

[isthisart]

"It was certainly that. I don't actually know if he has the authority to imbue himself with the necessary power to undo the ceremony with the groats, but he has no such power over the Cetagandan arrangement, anyway. And if they'd let me go - I'd convinced them to give my pen back first. In a block of ice so I couldn't call the police on them soon enough to matter, supposedly - they thought to ask if it was waterproof but not if it was strong enough to withstand me simply breaking through the ice, but I didn't get that far into my contingency plans. Oh, and," she adds, "while I was being haut at Cetagandans, Mark was pretending to be Miles for reasons of costuming and disparate amounts of time having practiced each role - they later found it expedient to appear together. And in the end Mark was released into the tubeway with a pocketful of cash and a reminder that he has a family if he wants one."

[as_i_remember]

"Mark... is a problem whose solution is not yet apparent to me. But having him quietly followed for the rest of his natural life seems like a decent start."

[isthisart]

"You can tell him apart from Miles with a medical scanner if he reverts to the level of his training," she says. "I plan to do this routinely once Miles is home again. I don't pretend that I can stop you from having Mark stalked on top of that, but I decline to conversationally endorse it."

[as_i_remember]

"If he reverts to the level of his training there are many things he could do which a medical scanner would not adequately solve."

[isthisart]

"Such as?"

[as_i_remember]

"Of ways to carry out his creators' ultimate agenda, 'impersonate Miles' is but one, and it wouldn't necessarily be the most effective one even if telling them apart were much more difficult than it is. What worries me is not so much the prospect of a substitute Miles as the prospect of someone with Miles's potential and Miles's drive and a relationship to Barrayar with the same depth and complexity as Miles's, but considerably less positive and devoid of loyalty."

[isthisart]

"I do not think that you can improve the positivity and loyalty situation by having him followed, but again, I can hardly stop you."