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.

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Sonia feels a swell in her chest, almost overwhelming, with affection and comfort and a kind of hope she's not sure she ever knew before. A small breath of a laugh escapes her when Miles pats her head, and she sets down the bottle on the ground, safely out of danger of accidentally being kicked over. That's Vorkosigan wine.

"Miles," she says, turning to him and taking his face in both her hands. Her expression is a little glazed, but she looks utterly serious. "I would do anything you asked of me that's in my power to do."

She's drunk, yes, but entirely sincere.

He's forced to look her in the eye at that, his gray eyes bright from firelight and sudden emotion. He believes her. How can he not when she professes her commitment so firmly? But the thing he would need to ask for is too great. To ask her to believe his wild story that happens to be true, to maybe help build a bulwark to survive the secret eventually breaking on his grandfather. It would surely get back to him sooner if he tells more people.

But - for all he agrees with his grandfather tactically, can he really not believe in Sonia personally? That seems wrong. Entirely wrong.

He lifts his own hands to place them over Sonia's. And hesitates. He's just drunk enough to try.

"If I told you something crazy, would you promise to believe me?"

Sonia blinks at that, a little thrown, which admittedly isn't hard to do right now. Byerly had told her his own tall tale, one that even seems sort of plausible given everything else that's happened, and she's still not entirely sure she believes him. But Byerly, she knows, is terrible at being honest, and so even truths are peppered with lies that are almost impossible to detangle.

"Um," she says, her brain still catching up to her mouth. But this is Miles. Miles doesn't deal in half-truths, does he? Secrets, maybe -- everyone here has secrets -- but Miles is...safe. She can trust him.

She blinks at him again. "I'll try," she says provisionally, but then quickly adds, "but I promise to keep it a secret."

Oh, god. He'd nearly skipped past the most important part. "It has to stay a secret," he says with feverish intensity. "If you think you cannot--" and he won't judge her if she backs out now, "-- it would be kinder to kill me where I stand."

And he means that literally. The best he can hope for from Piotr is a quick interrogation.

This is, perhaps, the worst time and place to ask Sonia to keep a secret. Drunk Sonia is an unfortunate combination of utter earnest and almost no impulse control, and so her desire to help Miles, to make sure she keeps his secret -- she's kept Byerly's after all, hasn't she? -- outweighs her better judgment by a long shot. And maybe even sober Sonia might have made the same decision.

Her eyes widen, because her mind fixates on the it would be kinder to kill me where I stand part, and so she doesn't think as much of the rest of it. But she does want to keep Miles's secret a secret, and if he wants to tell her, then surely there's a reason he wants her to know. She tries to shake her head and nod at the same time, managing some vaguely intelligible gesture, but her eyes are just as serious as ever.

"Of course. You have my word, Miles."

Sober Miles would probably realize that too. For all that he trusts Sonia, it is a bad idea to let any of his family know this secret. And Sonia is impulsive, and young besides.

But - well, they're both making poor decisions tonight, aren't they? He sucks in a breath.

"Your word, then." He hesitates for one more moment. One more pause on this side of the threshold. Then, by inches, he tips over it. "Miles Illyan is not my real name."

Sonia doesn't realize she's holding her breath until he drops that small bomb and she lets it out in a whoosh. But that in itself isn't much of a secret, nor anything particularly wild. She knits her brow.

"Then what is your real name?"

She's still with him. But it's this next part that is critical. If she doubts him here, then he can't possibly continue further.

"Lord Vorkosigan." Title first, because Sonia will understand the subtle distinctions involved. "Lord Miles Vorkosigan."

There. Now he's either fucked this all to hell or taken a step towards having someone from his family know the truth. It's freeing. He's terrified.

Sonia is, unfortunately, too drunk to put together all those pieces right away. She opens her mouth in unvoiced objection and then just squints at him.

"What?" A very intelligent response, that. "Wait, what? Count Piotr doesn't have any brothers or...other relatives for that matter, it's just him and my sister..."

"Just so," he confirms. He's gone all taut and nervous, feeling as though he might snap at any moment. "But the general will have a son one day. And that son will have me."

No need to go into exactly which son. That is too depressing to get into tonight.

Edited 2017-02-26 18:34 (UTC)

Sonia blinks again, looking thoroughly disoriented, because she is -- it was one thing for Byerly to paint her a fanciful picture of a Vorbarr Sultana that may or may not exist, if only to assuage her loneliness. But for Miles to claim something so outlandish, and so seriously...well, he had said it was pretty crazy. Still, Sonia gapes at him, eyebrows raising and knitting and God, what kind of reaction is supposed to have to that? But she looks at him, really looks at him, and she can almost see it, in the lines of his face, the fire in his eyes. Her jaw works a moment, trying to conjure up the right words out of her muddled mind.

"How?" is all she manages to get out.

He takes after his mother a lot too, but there's something of the Vorkosigan look to him. The sharp lines of his jaw, set by both the shape of his face and the stubbornness in his expression. If he weren't so distorted, the resemblance might be even more obvious. (But all his stockiness was robbed by his poor health; Mark, in some ways, looks more a Vorkosigan than he does.)

"I wish I knew," he says, with a real huff of frustration. He didn't ask for this. "The same effect that pulled people from other worlds pulled them from different points in time as well."

Sonia looks helpless for a moment, between confusion and -- well, mostly confusion, because she's still trying to wrap her head around it, let alone sort out the implications.

"So you're -- from the future," she says, managing that much coherently, although her voice comes out a little strangled. She almost says how again, but stops herself. "And you're -- how old?"

Sorry, Sonia. He's already regretting this bad decision a little, but ... there's no turning back.

"Thirty," he says, with a weak smile. "Trust me, it's as strange for me as it is for you."

"I'm only twenty-three," Sonia says, her hands dropping, though her muddled brain is starting to churn through this. She gives Miles's face another good, close look, seeing the lines in his face that are there -- so much she doesn't yet recognize, but she can't dismiss this idea like she could Byerly's. She finally looks away from Miles, toward her sister and Piotr dancing across the room.

"They don't know, do they?"

He watches them too. And there is a terribly keen edge of longing in both his expression and his tone. God, he wishes he could tell them. But Piotr is impossible, and he couldn't ask his grandmother to keep such a thing from him. No, he's gone over this in his mind too many times already. He shakes his head sadly.

"No," he murmurs. "Piotr would ... god. I can't see any good outcome there. At absolute best, he believes me - and he's utterly horrified by what I am."

Sonia shudders slightly in agreement. No, even drunk she can tell that that would be a terrible move. Even her sister, progressive as she is -- she'd never keep that from Piotr. They share everything, Sonia's convinced. It would burn the whole house down.

Except she's...sort of in the house. She looks back at Miles, looking genuinely perplexed. "But why are you telling me?"

He's quiet a moment. Just trying to puzzle that one out for himself. "It's intensely lonely, being from the future," he says quietly. "Hard to watch sometimes. I thought ... you, of all my family, would believe me. And understand why I can't tell anyone else."

Understanding finally slides down over her face, her expression sobering. Yes, she can understand loneliness. Not exactly what he's feeling, no, but -- that suffocating feeling of isolation, no one to reach out to... Yes, she understands that part. And she does, to a point, understand why Piotr and Olivia cannot know. Sonia bites her lip and covers one of Miles's hands with hers.

"I do," she says quietly. "I'm...sorry, Miles. I can't even imagine."

Then she starts, jerking upright to look at Miles as a sudden thought finally occurs to her. "Oh my God, you're my nephew!"

He squeezes her hand back gently. As bad of an idea as this is, he's comforted. One of his family members recognizes him as family. That's ... god. That lifts an incredible weight from his shoulders. Even if it should be more of a weight in the long term.

"You can imagine a little, I think," he says with a weak smile. She would get that isolation, wouldn't she? Being in the wrong place and time, seemingly. And as for the second comment, well - he even manages to laugh a little. "Great-nephew, yes. And I'm older than you. Strange, isn't it?"

Yes -- yes, she can, and that acknowledgment is mirrored in her smile, but mostly she's caught up in the unexpected swell of emotion that comes with looking at her great-nephew -- family that doesn't yet exist for her, no, but family all the same. And Sonia, separated from her mother and brother for ten years, hardly ever seeing her father, with only Olivia and now Piotr for family...ha.

"Very," she agrees, dabbing lightly at the corners of her eyes. She's not crying, you're crying. "I must seem so -- " She waes a hand vaguely, trying to find the right word. "Childish?" She lets out a short laugh. "It's nice to know there's someone like you in the family tree."

Oh. His great-aunt is tearing up looking at him? And not out of revulsion, it seems. God. He really needs that. It's so good to have a bastion here that isn't one of his fellow time-travellers. Or Lakshmi, as wonderful as she is.

"You aren't quite what I'd pictured," he admits with a bit of a grin. "But I'm glad to know you like this. Intensely so." Best not to mention he's never met her, period. That might cause too many questions he doesn't want to answer. "You really don't mind, though? I'm not much, physically."

"What did you picture? Someone the picture of Vor, like my sister, maybe?" Sonia sniffs delicately and smiles, tucking her hair behind her ear, and shakes her head.

"Miles," she says patiently, raising an eyebrow, "I spent most of my childhood on Beta Colony. I know I'm renowned for my vanity," and this she says with just a hint of wryness, "but Miles, I don't give a damn what you look like as long as you're family. Family is...all that matters."

And everything to lose, at that. Sonia feels a sudden pang, realizing that Miles is just another someone she could lose, but -- no. She shoves it aside, squeezes his hand back. She doesn't look back at her sister and brother-in-law, but it's not hard to tell who she's talking about.

"It wasn't so easy with them, was it?"

"More like her, yes," he says, with a grin to soften the blow. He's glad to meet a member of his family who isn't dignified Vor. Not many of those in either the Vorbarra or the Vorkosigan line.

But god it feels good to hear her say that. He had his family's support, even Piotr's by the end, but this is different. To just be accepted by a portion of his family he'd never known ... Tears well up in his own eyes for a moment. He has to swipe surreptitiously at his face.

"No," he murmurs, dropping his voice low. Not that there's any chance of them hearing. "Grandfather in particular was extremely opposed to my existence. He ... " And here he hesitates, not sure if he should go into the gory details. "He tried to kill me a few times, when I was young. In my uterine replicator, mostly."

Sonia looks genuinely horrified at that, with just the quickest glance back at Piotr and her sister. Piotr is a ruthless soldier, of course, she knows that, they're at war...but his own grandson, in peacetime? She can't imagine Olivia would ever condone something like that, and Piotr...she knows he's painfully Vor, but still...

"Well, I'm -- glad to see he didn't succeed," Sonia says, trying not to sound as thrown as she is. She tries hard to wrap her head around that, around Piotr being that ruthless.

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