forbarrayar | [ february ii log ]

Entry tags:

[ february ii log ]

Who: Everyone
What: Traitors exposed, celebrations had, sleight hands passing cards under the table. And so begin the preparations for what is soon to come.
When: February 18th - 28th
Where: Barrayaran camp / Cetagandan base
Warnings: Torture (interrogations thread)

Quick links:
Riverfall
Barrayar: Barrayaran camp / Party / Missions
Cetaganda: Cetagandan base / Moon-poetry party / Missions

The harsh weather rages on, which temperatures still averaging far below freezing, and the wind is still strong. But things are a little less dire for the outsiders, and for the exotics -- well, they have their own chills to deal with.

riverfall
Riverfall village is your typical Dendarii mountain village, which means it's small, humble, and mostly poor. This is the most rural of the rural around here, a little backwater even by Barrayaran standards. Most of the villagers live in houses of wood and stone built themselves or by ancestors. Despite the cold, there are plenty of people outside at any given time -- working, mostly, because the daily grind stops for no one, but even the occasional group of children taken over by fits of cabin fever. The village is built up against a rocky mountain face, from the top of which the eponymous waterfall flows into the river that borders the west edge of the village and continues down the mountain. The place isn't exactly hidden, but if you don't know your way around, it'd be hard to find without a native guide.

The villagers are wary of the outsiders at first, even more than the soldiers had been -- the rural Dendarii are as superstitious as they come -- but, slowly convinced of their good intentions, start to warm to them. They're a blunt, hardy people, largely uneducated and tending toward the most extreme of Barrayaran sensibilities, but they are undeniably fierce. The General Count trusts them, so they'll be more or less civil (by Barrayaran standards, anyway), but you might catch the occasional scrutinizing, watchful stare. With Cetagandans in camp and exotics among them, they border on hostile, especially those who are visibly nonhuman. They keep their heads down enough to keep from getting into trouble with the soldiers, but they do not like you at all.

Not everyone in Riverfall speaks English -- Russian is everyone's first language, and only about half the village has any passable command of English. Thankfully, the village's Speaker Yakiv Gura speaks English, if heavily accented. They're clearly stretching to the limit to help the camp, but to the Dendarii, there's no higher act than one in the Count's service, especially when it comes to fighting this war.

barrayar
Even after scoring themselves a little extra food, morale in the camp is at an all-time low. The miserably dangerous weather hasn't let up, food is still heavily rationed, and everyone is still at least a little tired, cold, and hungry all of the time. It doesn't help that they've lost a few soldiers in the last couple of weeks, and in Riverfall, too, some villagers have died of the cold despite their relative warmth and safety, mostly children. This is hardly the first harsh winter they've faced, but that doesn't stop the inexorable loss that comes with it. Some villagers may be somberly putting their loved ones to rest in the village graveyard when the outsiders are in town.

But Piotr finally calls Negri out as a spy sent by his aide-de-camp Captain Ezar Vorbarra, partly to deliver a message and partly to test Piotr, because Ezar loves coy bullshit. However, he does learn that both Ezar and Prince Xav Vorbarra, Olivia and Sonia's father, are en route to Vorkosigan's District with relief supplies from Beta Colony secured by Xav's ambassadorial connections and tireless lobbying. Once Piotr judges it safe to release this information, it bring with it a bit of hope -- and to seal the deal, Piotr and Olivia arrange a celebration of sorts in the village.

Finally outing the ring of reason in the camp helps to bolster morale, too. Vorhalas is interrogated, and the names of his co-conspirators are revealed: Lieutenant Boris Vortala, who killed himself in disgrace shortly after his fast-penta interrogation at ghem-General Zefyst's hand, and their commander Captain Aaron Vorbataille. Vorbataille has, of course, already started to make his escape -- but with the help out of the outsiders, he won't get very far. Once Piotr is satisfied with Vorbataille's interrogation as well, both men are put to execution, but not by beheading as Doctor ghem-Miko: the sentence for treason is death by public starvation and exposure, and in this weather, it doesn't take long. They are publicly and emphatically denounced as traitors with no honor to speak of, sending a very clear message. Although this might seem like a gruesome sight to the outsiders, to the Barrayarans this is simply how it goes, and very few of them are sorry to see these traitors suffer, particularly as Vorhalas was the one responsible for their food shortage in the first place.

Reports from those soldiers and outsiders who were in the village at the same time as the Cetagandan field science team present the General Count with another troubling problem, however: the implications of the Cetagandans building a device that could control this phenomenon are terrifying, particularly to this threadbare resistance movement. But sabotage seems hardly a worthy solution, either. This is the only lead they have on sending the outsiders home, and so many of them have already put their lives on the line for the cause of a planet that otherwise nothing to most of them. There would be no honor in robbing them of their only chance to return home. But whether they should continue to allow the Cetagandans to proceed with their research or try to find a way to copy their plans themselves, a dubiously possible venture at best, weighs heavily on his mind. It only complicates his strategic concerns further, but by his military orders in the next couple of weeks, at least one thing is clear: he wants Cetagandan bodies.

camp
Morale is critically low among the soldiers, particularly after a few casualties during a recent skirmish with a Cetagandan patrol, but spirits definitely begin to lift with news of relief. The soldiers are now more or less accustomed to the outsiders' place in the camp, and they're even starting to become a little friendlier toward them, particularly those who've been involved in the war effort. They might invite outsiders to play card or dice games with them, or share a conversation over an admittedly meager meal, or better still, bond with them in the true Barrarayan form: over a lot of alcohol.

Negri has more or less built himself a niche in the camp, and doesn't look like he's going anywhere any time soon. But he isn't the only spy around. They desperately need a man on the inside, particularly with the troubling news about the wormhole device, and right now, that man is Byerly Vorrutyer. Starting next month, Piotr is sending him on assignment to infiltrate the Cetagandan base under the cover of a cowardly collaborator.

party
By the time they have the party on the 21st, the villagers have warmed up to the outsiders a little, but they don't really bond until the party. With what little they have to share, they scrape together as much of a feast as they can: not much, but by this month's standards, any hot meal prepared with fresh ingredients seems absolutely decadent. And because this is Barrayar there is, of course, plenty of liquor, that Barrayaran moonshine maple mead not the least among them, and there's no shortage of wine or vodka, either.

The hillfolk light lanterns all around the village and raise large tarps to cover the open center of the village where they usually hold gatherings. Inside, protected from the wind and lit by the bonfire and braziers placed around the perimeter, it's actually almost warm. Every villager who's ever laid hand to an instrument seems to gather there to play music all night long, an energetic mix of lively folk music and raucous drinking songs. Anyone with any musical talent would be welcome to join them as well. There's plenty of dancing, too, very little of it formal or complicated, but everyone's having a good time for the first time in weeks, maybe months, and the mood is infectious. By the end of the night, morale seems to have risen overall, and people in camp have something real to look forward to. The partygoing visitors are put up in warmed tents within the tarped village center or in the villagers' homes where they have room. Come morning, they'll head back, but for just one night, it's almost like there isn't even a war on.

missions
Outsiders have been assisting with moving supplies between the camp and Riverfall all throught he rest of the month, and it mostly goes smoothly. Vorbataille is caught on the 20th, although he and Vorhalas aren't publicly executed until a few days later, when Piotr is satisfied with the intelligence he's extracted. By the time he gets Vorbataille's name out of Vorhalas, the traitorous Captain has already fled -- but thanks to Carolina, Duv and Zarya, he's dragged back to camp for his interrogation.

That evening, Maine and William have the misfortune of encountering a dragon -- Darkstalker is on a mission with a Cetagandan patrol, and they run right smack into each other. A fight breaks out, but ultimately Darkstalker and the Cetagandans come out on top, and the outsiders and Barrayarans are forced to retreat -- but not before managing to kill a Cetagandan soldier or two, just barely escaping with one of the bodies.

Miles finds himself in a terrible position when a guard patrol shift goes horribly wrong in a skirmish against some Cetagandans, resulting in the death of their squad leader and a very ugly aftermath.

Zarya, William, Beth and Miles are in Riverfall with some Barrayaran soldiers on a supply run when a Cetagandan field science team arrives with a few exotics in tow. This is a rare chance to learn more about the Cetagandans' scientific exploits, and among other things, they find out that whatever it is that brought them here, the Cetagandan scientists are convincede it has something to do with the wormhole that collapsed 700 years ago.

The unabridged mission writeup is here.

cetaganda
The Cetagandans are a notoriously tight-lipped bunch, but they're blowing away most of the smoke surrounding their wormhole science research. As has been alluded, they're currently working on a device to harness the phenomenon that brought all the exotics here in the first place, and hopefully find a way to send them all home with it. They invite any exotics with scientific expertise to a series of interviews about neurology, astrophysics, and mechanical engineering. None of the advisement they receive helps to solve one of their most critical problems -- that of generating a Necklin field to match the one that must have surrounded each exotic -- but it certainly puts them closer to their goal, particularly in the area of neurology, and they're hardly going to stop there. But it's clear that the mathematicians and astrophysicists on base don't have sufficient expertise to solve the most complex equations before them. But on the brighter side of things, in the interest of this scientific exchange, they're letting the lab techs help a little more beyond just grunt work.

Meanwhile, the genetics project that seems so strange and arcane to the exotic carries on, largely behind the scenes, although Diya is increasingly at odds with her husband and even some of her senior staff, particularly the precocious Amai ghem-Soren. But there is very real purpose behind it -- and far more than just one -- and Diya d'Zefyst is a woman of great ambition. And more than anything else, she is haut.

Unfortunately, the relative peace on base is abruptly broken when Daryl, Lakshmi and Wash all manage to escape in a wild breakout attempt on the 25th. York and Ratchet are left behind, and as a result, some of their privileges revoked. They're now being watched a little more closely as a result.

base
Overall, despite simmering tensions under the surface and the miserable weather, life on base seems to be going more or less smoothly around them. The Cetagandans have had some recent victories against the Barrayarans, so morale is high. Unfortunately, after the breakout they begin cracking down on security with the exotics -- going back to treating the exotics a little more like they did when they first arrived. They aren't under guard, but after the 25th, they are being watched.

They still maintain that insistent veneer of civility, however, breaking only in cases where they feel the need or security risk is significant enough. The ghem on base remain overall cordial and courteous to the exotics as they ever were, which is to say considerably and always with a touch of smug superiority. With her success at the party earlier this month followed by her performance in the moon-poetry garden, the often-sequestered Amai ghem-Soren is seen more around the base.

moon-poetry party
The moon-poetry party is about three hours long and steeped in ceremony, each participant taking their turn to recite. This is, apparently, not a recitation of one's own work, but rather selections of classical Cetagandan poems, and in so referencing something culturally ubiquitous, each makes a statement in its mere selection and juxtapositions. If you pay close enough attention, you might notice that each participant has very subtly coordinated their outfits to further complement the theme of their recitation. Although there is a definite dignity to the party, it doesn't take much to pick up on the fact that this is yet another arena ghem use to try and socially one-up one another. Among the participants are both the Chief Medical Officer Colonel Faro ghem-Naru and Doctor Amai ghem-Soren, whose performance was especially well-received, the theme apparently being something about subtle passions.

missions
The science interviews with the exotics go more or less well, although not quite so hopeful as the Cetagandans were hoping. They do, however, learn some things about FTL travel in other worlds as well as other kinds of neural implants.

On the evening of the 21st, York, Natasha and Kaidan accidentally bear witness to what is clearly some kind of travesty: clearly a human being, but both overgrown and underdeveloped, and exhibiting powers of hydrokinesis and psychic empathy, referred to only as a ba.

On the 23rd, Jasper, Lapis, Pearl and Darkstalker accompany some soldiers and a field science team to Riverfall village, coinciding with a visit from some outsiders and soldiers. They encounter some outsiders while there but also pick up a bit on what it is the Cetagandans are doing -- that the Necklin field problem still remains their biggest problem, and they've been getting conflicting orders from the higher ups lately.

The unabridged mission writeup is here.

Note: Negri and Zahal are available for threads by request only this round. Please hit up Madi or Ammay respectively if you want threads with either of those NPCs. You can also request a thread with Village Speaker Yakiv Gura if you want, in which case hit up Madi.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Exceptional is a good word," he says with a self-deprecating sort of smile. It's certainly served him well. And poorly, in equal measures. "I want to win with the hand I was dealt. However poor it may be." A faint grimace as he stares forward. "No matter what my grandfather thinks."

Sonia nods in firm affirmation, something about that statement resonating with her. What else does she have besides the hand she was dealt, anyway?

She blinks in surprise and turns toward him quizzically. He'd never mentioned his grandfather before. "I didn't know you still -- well, that you had more family here." Considering the lifespan of the average Barrayaran at this time, it is a bit surprising.

Wait. What? Miles freezes a moment - did he say that out loud? Shit, he did. He has to think frantically for a moment to try and salvage this.

"Not - not my real grandfather," he says after too long of a pause. "Someone in the fleet. Barrayaran deserter. Didn't like me much." He takes another long drink of wine before continuing to spin the lie. "We all called him Grandfather."

"Ah." A convincing enough lie to a drunk girl, more or less. The frustration is genuine.

"Well, in addition to being exceptional, it sounds like you're very accomplished, too," she starts, weaving two fingers idly through the air in a meaningless gesture. She stares into the fire and rubs her face. "Sounds like this Grandfather of yours wasn't all that appreciative. Sot of a bad attitude toward a superior officer, isn't it?"

Did that work? He thinks so. God, that was entirely too close. He takes another drink.

"Of course. But he's Barrayaran. Couldn't see past my damage."

"A bit rich coming from a deserter," Sonia remarks dryly, raising on eyebrow. For all her Betan-ness, she does manage to sound remarkably Vor from time to time. She sighs then, resting her chin in her hand. "But I suppose you can't with them all."

"Agreed," says Miles, exhibiting a bit of Vorishness himself. Even fictionally he can feel a bit of that scorn. Sorry, Baz. "Better to lose with him and have plenty of others instead. I'd rather have their respect any day."

Sonia nods in firm agreement and approval. "You command it, you know," she says, covering a hiccup with her hand over her mouth. "Respect, I mean. I've never seen a prole hold himself the way you do." She grins. "But then, I've never met a mercenary admiral before."

Well. There's a reason for that, obviously. He can't help but prod that thought like someone might prod a gap left by a missing tooth. "What do I seem like then? Vor?"

"I suppose," she says with a small laugh. "A little bit, yes. The way you square your shoulders when you're trying to make an impression, that strikes me as very Vor, hm? But it's just not that. You're...very galactic, too."

He squares his shoulders? He hunches a bit more just in case. "Ah, well. I must have absorbed it on Barrayar sometime," he says. "I'm meeting more Vor now, of course."

Completely smooth, that.

Sonia raises an eyebrow at him, but mostly just waves for him to hand the bottle back over. "Yes, I suppose you are," she concedes, tilting her head to the side. "Although, you'd be surprised -- or, well, probably not, you've been here almost two months -- not all of Count Piotr's officers are Vor. That hasn't been a very popular move. So I guess this is the, um, most progressive camp you could've fallen into."

She tries to smother the laugh that comes out of her immediately, but not altogether successfully. Barrayar, the only place where Piotr could be considered a progressive. She rocks back on the bench, wobbling a little, momentarily seized with laughter. She probably ought to stop drinking by now, but pfff. This is a Barrayaran party.

"Sorry -- sorry," she finally manages, wiping at the corner of her eye. Another laugh escapes her. "This whole place -- this whole thing is so ludicrous when I think about it, sometimes. I was mostly Betan-raised, but I've spent the last ten years on Barrayar...and you're Barrayaran bred and born, but you've been off in the Nexus all that time. Do we even belong here? I don't know where else."

He knew, of course, but he raises his eyebrows convincingly anyway. "I guess I hadn't even considered it. He's certainly inflexible in other ways." A vague gesture down at himself.

But his expression softens as she mentions not fitting in. She would feel that way, wouldn't she? What was it Byerly had tried to knock into his head? She was of a new kind of Barrayar, like Byerly. Unable to fit into the roles as prescribed. Finding other ways forward, even if Miles himself finds those ways rather hollow. It's harder to judge Sonia than Byerly. Sexism? Hell, he hopes not.

"You do belong here," he says fiercely. "Just because Barrayar says you're strange doesn't mean you can't forge your own path anyway." A pause for breath. "Barrayar will change one day. It will." Just maybe not before she gets to see it... god, don't even think about that.

Sonia breathes out a huff. 'He certainly is," she murmurs in agreement. Piotr's grown on her over the years, and she's sure the same is true for himself, but there's quite a lot they don't see eye-to-eye on.

She looks away from the fire, properly looking at him, at the conviction in his voice. "Just have faith?" she suggests with an ironic tilt to her mouth, thinking of Byerly's words to her earlier that night. "I believe it will. But I don't...even know what kind of path I want to forge."

She rubs her forehead, blowing out her breath. She must only be thinking of this because she's drunk. She doesn't dwell on this much sober. But that seems to be the theme for tonight. "Honestly, Miles? I haven't a clue what to do with myself. I hate this war, I want it to be over, but I don't have any idea what I'd do. Go back to Beta Colony, maybe, but..." She trails off uncertainly.

He can sympathize completely. More than she knows, even. If they could share their experiences directly... He looks down at his hands, once again tempted beyond reason to just tell her. Lay out the whole ridiculous story minus what he knows about the family's future. He takes a deep breath.

"It's hard. Harder than anything else I've done." He twists his hands in his lap. "Ultimately I had to leave to find myself. What I should do." And then he'd shattered even that, though apparently he finds his way through that as well. "But you will figure it out. If I can, you absolutely can too."

He reaches out to take one of her hands and squeeze it gently. Staring up at her with his bright gray eyes.

Sonia matches that gaze, feeling a little overwhelmed for a moment, but she squeezes his hand back and smiles softly. She tilts her head in acknowledgment.

"You sound so certain." But then, Byerly had sounded certain, too. It plucks at the back of her mind, just beyond conscious thought. She ducks her head and gives his hand another squeeze. "I suppose if that's what all my friends keep telling me, it must have some merit to it."

Friends. That's sort of a novelty in itself, to have actual friends. Sonia doesn't quite let go of his hand, just smiles at him. "Thank you, Miles."

"Believe in yourself with or without us," he says fervently. "But we believe in you too." He's certain at least one of those people is Byerly. It's making him feel rather ... well, petty about his earlier argument with the man. Maybe he can still manage an apology before the man leaves.

In any case, he gives her hand another squeeze. "It's nothing at all. I'm glad to help someone through the same conundrum I once faced myself."

Sonia feels a swell of comfort in that, in the conviction in his voice, because believing in herself isn't the problem so much as finding something about herself to believe in. She's resented the role of morale booster, feeling useless all this time. Maybe she just needs to find something else to believe in. Something else to focus on. Or maybe that's what she should be focusing on. She isn't entirely sure. She just knows that all these people, all her new friends, seem to think she is so much more than she's felt in a long time. The warmth of it is a little overwhelming, so for a moment she just takes a long drink from the bottle before rocking forward, elbows on her knees.

"Thank you," she says again, because just the once seemed inadequate somehow. Her expression is a little glazed, but thoroughly warmed. "I'm very lucky to have you and Byerly as friends. Especially with...with everything that's been happening."

The hunger, the cold, the utter crushing hopelessness of it all. Byerly and Miles had made her feel better then, had made her feel wanted or useful or whatever it was she needed.

As he thought. Byerly has been helping, then. In his own Byerly way, maybe not the way he'd do it. But ... he can see the effect, can't he? Maybe he shouldn't have been so quick to agree with Piotr after all. Sonia will take Byerly's supposed defection very hard, he think.

He can't possibly risk the mission now. Not when Byerly's life will be on the line. Not when Byerly himself couldn't tell her. But maybe ... maybe he can soften the blow in advance.

"Byerly is a good man," he says, leaning his head lightly against her. "For all that he pretends otherwise. He'd fooled me for quite a while."

Sonia settles a little on the bench, her arm going around Miles's shoulders again. She knows he must get bullshit all the time for his height, but really, he's rather ideal for this, especially with her on the taller side.

"Oh, I knew right away," she sighs, closing her eyes. "He's a very good liar, but he's lousy at telling the truth. It's sort of funny to watch, actually. But..." She scrubs at her cheek. "I know he'd like me to believe otherwise. But he really is a good man."

She falls into silence for a moment, just staring into the fire. Then she says, "I had a, ah...a long talk with him earlier."

Miles is quiet a bit at that. A long talk, eh? Did Byerly tell her after all? He ... isn't sure what outcome he's hoping for there. "It's quite true. I have the worst time convincing him otherwise too."

A pause. His curiosity is just too much... "What did you talk about? May I ask?"

"A lot of things," Sonia says slowly, trying drunkenly to tease out the details into something coherent. "His merit as a human being among them. Some...things we had in common."

And a hell of a lot they didn't. Sonia looks down at Miles, cocking her head to the side. "I didn't sleep with him, you know."

He holds up his hands in surrender at that. "Far be it from me to judge." Byerly, though. He'd judge Byerly a little. Maybe less after tonight, but a little. "What things in common, then?"

Sonia breathes out an awkward laugh. "Ah -- no," she says, looking suddenly self-conscious. "He turned me down."

She coughs, groping for a way to answer Miles's question, because those had been the most private things of all. And Byerly's secret other Vorbarr Sultana... "I suppose it's hard to describe," she says carefully, chewing on her lower lip. "He...sees things like I see them. Or maybe the other way around. But I suppose there was really more we didn't have in common."

She shrugs, fumbling to articulate herself. "He was very...honest. Have you ever seen him really try? It was... Well." She smiles slightly, tentatively. "He said a lot of things that you said, too, actually."

Byerly turned Sonia down? He blinks a moment in surprise. That - okay, that's not what he expected. For Byerly to turn Sonia down when she's actively offering ... his respect for the man ticks up a bit. As does his guilt.

But that's not what he should be focusing on here. He thinks he knows what Byerly may have been talking about, given their own conversations and the context Sonia is giving him now. Had ... Byerly told her their secret? Is it possible? He thinks she would treat him differently if she knew, though. He's quiet a moment as he thinks. "A different image of Barrayar," he says after a moment. "A newer one. More room for people like you and him."

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