Borders of Infinity

Miles dodged, paused to yank off Murka's comm headset. The head came too. Miles had to brace it with his numb hand to pull the headset free. The weight of the head, its density and roundness, hammered into his senses. The precise memory of it would surely be with him until his dying day. He let it fall by Murka's body.

He staggered up the ramp, a last armored Dendarii pulling on his arm. He could feel the ramp sag peculiarly under their feet, glanced down to see a half-melted seam across it where the plasma arc that had killed Murka had passed on.

He fell through the hatchway, clutching the headset and yelling into it. 'Lift, lift! Mark, now! Go!'

'Who is this?' came the shuttle pilot's voice back.

'Naismith.'

'Yes, sir.'

The shuttle heaved off the ground, engines roaring, even before the ramp had withdrawn. The ramp mechanism labored, metal and plastic complaining—then jammed on the twisted distortion of the melt.

'Get that hatch sealed back there!' the shuttle pilot's voice yowled over the headset.

'Ramp's jammed,' Miles yowled back. 'Jettison it!'

The ramp mechanism skreeled and shrieked, reversing itself. The ramp shuddered, jammed again. Hands reached out to thump on it urgently. 'You'll never get it that way!' Beatrice, across the hatch from Miles, yelled fiercely, and twisted around to kick at it with her bare feet. The wind of their flight screamed over the open hatchway, buffeting and vibrating the shuttle like a giant blowing across the top of a bottle.

To a chorus of shouting, thumping, and swearing, the shuttle lurched abruptly onto its side. Men, women, and loose equipment tangled across the tilting deck. Beatrice kicked bloodily at a final buggered bolt. The ramp tore loose at last. Beatrice, sliding, fell with it.

Miles dove at her, lunging across the hatchway. If he connected, he never knew, for his right hand was a senseless blob. He saw her face only as a white blur as she whipped away into the blackness.

It was like a silence, a great silence, in his head. Although the roar of wind and engines, screaming and swearing and yelling, went on as before, it was lost somewhere between his ears and his brain, and went unregistered. He saw only a white blur, smearing into the darkness, repeated again and again, replaying like a looping vid.

He found himself crouched on his hands and knees, the shuttle's acceleration sucking him to the deck. They'd gotten the hatch closed. The merely human babble within seemed muffled and thin, now that the roaring voices of the gods were silenced. He looked up into the pale face of Pitt's lieutenant, crouched beside him still clutching the unfired Dendarii weapon he'd grabbed up in that other lifetime.

'You'd better kill a whole lot of Cetagandans for Marilac, boy,' Miles rasped to him at last. 'You better be worth something to somebody, 'cause I've sure paid too much for you.'

The Marilacan's face twitched uncertainly, too cowed even to try to look apologetic. Miles wondered what his own face must look like. From the reflection in that mirror, strange, very strange.

Miles began to crawl forward, looking for something, somebody. . . . Formless flashes made yellow streaks in the corners of his vision. An armored Dendarii, her helmet off, pulled him to his feet.

'Sir? Hadn't you better come forward to the pilot's compartment, sir?'

'Yes, all right . . .'

She got an arm around him, under his arm, so he didn't fall down again. They picked their way forward in the crowded shuttle, through Marilacans and Dendarii mixed. Faces were drawn to him, marked him fearfully, but none dared an expression of any kind. Miles's eye was caught by a silver cocoon, as they neared the forward end.

'Wait . . .'

He fell to his knees beside Suegar. A hit of hope . . . 'Suegar. Hey, Suegar!'

Suegar opened his eyes to slits. No telling how much of this he was taking in, through the pain and the shock and the drugs.

'You're on your way now. We made it, made the timing. With all ease. With agility and speed. Up through the regions of the air, higher than the clouds. You had the scripture right, you did.'

Suegar's lips moved. Miles bent his head closer.

'. . . wasn't really a scripture,' Suegar whispered. 'I knew it … you knew it … don't shit me . . .'

Miles paused, cold-stoned. Then he leaned forward again. 'No, brother,' he whispered. 'For though we went in clothed, we have surely come out naked.'

Suegar's lips puffed on a dry laugh.

Miles didn't weep until after they'd made the wormhole jump.

4

Illyan sat silent.

Miles lay back, pale and exhausted, a stupid trembling concealed in his belly making his voice shake. 'Sorry. Thought I'd got over it. So much craziness has happened since then, no time to think, digest. . . .'

'Combat fatigue,' Illyan suggested.

'The combat only lasted a couple of hours.'

'Ah? I'd reckon it at six weeks, by that account.'

'Whatever. But if your Count Vorvolk wants to argue that I should have traded lives for equipment, well … I had maybe five minutes to make a decision, under enemy fire. If I'd had a month to study it, I'd have come to the same conclusion. And I'll stand behind it now, in a court martial or any goddamn arena he wants to fight me in.'

'Calm down,' Illyan advised. 'I will deal with Vorvolk, and his shadow-advisors. I think . . . no, I guarantee their little plot will not intrude further on your recovery, Lieutenant Vorkosigan.' His eyes glinted. Illyan had served thirty years in Imperial Security, Miles reminded himself. Aral Vorkosigan's Dog still had teeth.

'I'm sorry my . . . carelessness shook your confidence in me, sir,' said Miles. It was an odd wound that doubt had dealt him; Miles could feel it still, an invisible ache in his chest, slow to heal. So, trust was more of a feedback loop than he had ever realized. Was Illyan right, should he pay more attention to appearances? 'I'll try to be more intelligent in future.'

Illyan gave him an indecipherable look, his mouth set, neck oddly flushed. 'So shall I, Lieutenant.'

The swish of the door, the sweep of skirts. Countess Vorkosigan was a tall woman, hair gone red-roan, with a stride that had never quite accommodated itself to Barrayaran female fashions. She wore the long rich skirts of a Vor-class matron as cheerfully as a child playing dress-up, and about as convincingly.

'M'lady,' Illyan nodded, rising.

'Hello, Simon. Goodbye, Simon,' she grinned back. 'That doctor you spooked begs me to use my superior firepower to throw you out. I know you officers and gentlemen have business, but it's time to wrap it up. Or so the medical monitors indicate.' She glanced at Miles. A frown flickered across her easy-going features, a hint of steel.

Illyan caught it too, and bowed. 'We're quite finished, m'lady. No problem.'

'So I trust.' Chin lifted, she watched him out.

Miles, studying that steady profile, realized with a sudden lurch just why the death of a certain tall aggressive redhead might still be wringing his gut, long after his reconciliation to other casualties for which he was surely no less responsible. Ha. How late we come to our insights. And how uselessly. Still, a tightness eased in his throat as Countess Vorkosigan turned back to him.

'You look like a defrosted corpse, love.' Her lips brushed his forehead warmly.

'Thank you, Mother,' Miles chirped.

'That nice Commander Quinn who brought you in says you haven't been eating properly. As usual.'

'Ah.' Miles brightened. 'Where is Quinn? Can I see her?'