Brothers in Arms

Upon reflection, the idea was suddenly not funny.

He embraced Quinn upon her return with more complicated feelings than sexual desire alone. They stole kisses in the bubble car—more pain than pleasure; by the time they reached their destination Miles was in the most physically uncomfortable state of arousal he could ever recall. Surely all his blood had departed his brains to engorge his loins, rendering him moronic by hypoxia and lust.

She left him on the platform in the embassy district with an anguished whisper of 'Later . . . !' It was only after the tubeway had swallowed her that Miles realized she'd left him holding the bag, which was vibrating with a rhythmic purr.

'Nice kitty.' Miles hoisted it with a sigh, and began walking—hobbling—home.

He awoke blearily the next morning engulfed in rumbling black fur.

'Friendly thing, isn't it?' remarked Ivan.

Miles fought his way clear, spitting fuzz. The salesman had lied: clearly the near-beast ate people, not radiation. It enveloped them secretly in the night and ingested them like an amoeba—he'd left it on the foot of his bed, dammit. Thousands of little kids, sliding under their blankets to protect them from the monsters in their closets, were in for a shocking surprise. The cultured fur salesman was clearly a Cetagandan agent-provocateur assassin. . . .

Ivan, wearing his underwear and with his toothbrush sticking jauntily out between gleaming incisors, paused to run his hands through the black silk. It rippled, as if trying to arch into the strokes.

' 'At's amazing,' Ivan's unshaven jaw worked, shifting the toothbrush around. 'You want to rub it all over your skin.'

Miles pictured Ivan, lolling. . . . 'Yech,' he shuddered. 'God. Where'sa coffee?'

'Downstairs. After you're dressed all nice and regulation. Try to at least look as if you'd been in bed since yesterday afternoon.'

Miles smelled trouble instantly when Galeni called him, alone, into his office a half hour after their work- shift started.

'Good morning, Lieutenant Vorkosigan,' Galeni smiled, falsely affable. Galeni's false smile was as horrendous as his rare real one was charming. 'Morning, sir,' Miles nodded warily. 'All over your acute osteo- inflammatory attack, I see.'

'Yes, sir.'

'Do sit down.'

'Thank you, sir.' Miles sat, gingerly—no pain pills this morning. After last night's adventure, topped by that unsettling hallucination in the tubeway, Miles had flushed them, and made a mental note to tell his fleet surgeon that there was yet another med she could cross off his list. Galeni's eyebrows drew down in a flash of doubt. Then his eye fell on Miles's bandaged right hand. Miles shifted in his seat, and tried to be casual about tucking it behind the small of his back. Galeni grimaced sourly, and keyed up his holovid display.

'I picked up a fascinating item on the local news this morning,' said Galeni. 'I thought you'd like to see it too.' I think I'd rather drop dead on your carpet, sir.

Miles had no doubt about what was coming. Damn, and he'd only worried about the Cetagandan embassy picking it up.

The journalist from Euronews Network began her introduction—clearly, this part had been made a little later, for the wineshop fire was dying down in the background. When the cut with Admiral Naismith's smudged, strained face came on, it was still burning merrily. '. . . unfortunate misunderstanding,' Miles heard his own Betan voice coughing. '—I promise a full investigation …' The long shot of himself and the unhappy clerk rolling out the front door on fire was only moderately spectacular. Too bad it couldn't have been nighttime, to bring out the full splendor of the pyrotechnics. The frightened fury in the holovid Naismith's face was faintly echoed in Galeni's. Miles felt a certain sympathy. It was no pleasure commanding subordinates who failed to follow orders and sprang dangerous idiocies on you. Galeni was not going to be happy about this.

The news clip ended at last, and Galeni flipped the off-switch. He leaned back in his chair and regarded Miles steadily. 'Well?'

This was not, Miles's instincts warned him, the time to get cute. 'Sir, Commander Quinn called me away from the embassy yesterday afternoon to handle this situation because I was the closest ranking Dendarii officer. In the event, her fears proved fully justified. My prompt intervention did prevent unnecessary injuries, perhaps deaths. I must apologize for absenting myself without leave. I cannot regret it, however.'

'Apologize?' purred Galeni, suppressing fury. 'You were out, AWOL, unguarded in direct defiance of standing orders. I missed the pleasure, evidently by seconds, of making my next report to Security HQ a query of where to ship your broiled body. Most interesting of all you managed to, apparently, teleport in and out of the embassy without leaving a ripple in my security records. And you plan to wave it all off with an apology? I think not, Lieutenant.'

Miles stood the only ground he had. 'I was not without a bodyguard, sir. Commander Quinn was present. I wave off nothing.'

'Then you can begin by explaining precisely how you passed out, and back in, through my security net without anyone noticing you.' Galeni leaned back in his chair with his arms folded, frowning fiercely.

'I …' here was the fork of the thing. Confession might be good for his soul, but should he rat on Ivan? 'I left in a group of guests departing the reception through the main public entrance. Since I was wearing my Dendarii uniform, the guards assumed I was one of them.'

'And your return?'

Miles fell silent. Galeni ought to be put in full possession of the facts, in order to repair his net, but among other things Miles didn't know himself exactly how Ivan had diddled the vid scanners, not to mention the guard corporal. He'd fallen into bed without asking the details.

'You cannot protect Vorpatril, Lieutenant,' remarked Galeni. 'He's my meat next after you.'

'What makes you think Ivan was involved?' Miles's mouth went on, buying time to think. No, he should have thought first.

Galeni looked disgusted. 'Get serious, Vorkosigan.'

Miles took a breath. 'Everything Ivan did, he did at my command. The responsibility is entirely mine. If you'll agree that no charges will fall upon him, I'll ask him to give you a complete report on how he created the temporary hole in the net.'

'You will, eh?' Galeni's lips twisted. 'Has it occurred to you yet that Lieutenant Vorpatril is above you in this chain of command?'

'No, sir,' gulped Miles. 'It, er . . . slipped my mind.'

'His too, it appears.'

'Sir. I had originally planned to be gone only a short time, and arranging my return was the least of my worries. As the situation extended itself, it was apparent to me that I should return openly, but when I did get back it was two in the morning and he'd gone to a great deal of trouble—it seemed ungrateful—'

'And besides,' Galeni interpolated sotto voce, 'it looked like it might work. …'

Miles suppressed an involuntary grin. 'Ivan is an innocent party. Charge me as you wish, sir.'

'Thank you, Lieutenant, for your kind permission.'

Goaded, Miles snapped, 'Dammit, sir, what would you have of me? The Dendarii are as much Barrayaran troops as any who wear the Emperor's uniform, even if they don't know it. They are my assigned charge. I cannot neglect their urgent needs even to play the part of Lieutenant Vorkosigan.'

Galeni rocked back in his chair, his eyebrows shooting up. 'Play the part of Lieutenant Vorkosigan? Who do you think you are?'

'I'm …' Miles fell silent, seized by a sudden vertigo, like falling down a defective lift tube. For a dizzy moment, he could not even make sense of the question. The silence lengthened.

Galeni folded his hands on his desk with an unsettled frown. His voice went mild. 'Lose track, did you?'

'I'm …' Miles's hands opened helplessly. 'It's my duty, when I'm Admiral Naismith, to be Admiral Naismith as hard as I can. I don't usually have to switch back and forth like this.'

Galeni cocked his head. 'But Naismith isn't real. You said so yourself.'