Sonia's surprised to hear Tucker laugh, like breaking an almost-silence in the stillness of the cave, and she breathes out a laugh too, her eyes brightening. He'd come in here looking so down, sounding so miserable... It's good to see him laugh. She can help him with that, at least. Maybe...maybe Byerly hadn't been all that wrong about her being good for morale. She'd always considered it mostly horseshit.
"You sound pretty confident." It's not a criticism, nothing skeptical. Actually, it's sort of comforting. She shakes his head at his speculation of the Cetagandans though. "No. Fast-penta'd, probably, but not torture. And no experiments, not the kind you're thinking of, anyway. The Cetagandans are...subtler than that. If they want something from the other outsiders, it won't be anything so obvious as that."
But she pulls back at his last question, eyes flashing. "Absolutely not," she says, suddenly fierce, resentful -- not really of Tucker, but it lights a fire in her. "This our home, for better or worse. After seven hundred years in isolation, it's the only thing we have. And we barely got so much as a chance to breathe before they tried to take it from us."
She seems to run out of steam then, though, shoulders slackening, and she leans against Tucker again with a quiet breath. "I know it's not much of a planet. Half-irradiated when the wormhole collapsed, most of the native flora is toxic...there are gentler, more civilized worlds out there. There are worlds where no one starves, no one freezes. But Barrayar...Barrayar could be so much more than it is, if we only had the chance."
no subject
"You sound pretty confident." It's not a criticism, nothing skeptical. Actually, it's sort of comforting. She shakes his head at his speculation of the Cetagandans though. "No. Fast-penta'd, probably, but not torture. And no experiments, not the kind you're thinking of, anyway. The Cetagandans are...subtler than that. If they want something from the other outsiders, it won't be anything so obvious as that."
But she pulls back at his last question, eyes flashing. "Absolutely not," she says, suddenly fierce, resentful -- not really of Tucker, but it lights a fire in her. "This our home, for better or worse. After seven hundred years in isolation, it's the only thing we have. And we barely got so much as a chance to breathe before they tried to take it from us."
She seems to run out of steam then, though, shoulders slackening, and she leans against Tucker again with a quiet breath. "I know it's not much of a planet. Half-irradiated when the wormhole collapsed, most of the native flora is toxic...there are gentler, more civilized worlds out there. There are worlds where no one starves, no one freezes. But Barrayar...Barrayar could be so much more than it is, if we only had the chance."