Brothers in Arms

0700 this morning, I was determined that only divine intervention could save you from my wrath. Divine intervention arrived at 0900 in the person of a special courier from Imperial HQ.' Destang held up a data disk marked with the Imperial seal between his thumb and forefinger. 'Here are the new and urgent orders for your Dendarii irregulars.'

Since Miles had passed the courier in the cafeteria, this was not wholly unexpected. He suppressed a surge forward. 'Yes, sir?' he said encouragingly.

'It appears that a certain free mercenary fleet operating in the far Sector IV area, supposedly under contract to a subplanetary government, has slipped over the line from guerrilla warfare to outright piracy. Their wormhole blockade has degenerated from stopping and searching ships to confiscations. Three weeks ago they hijacked a Tau Cetan registered passenger vessel to convert into a troop transport. So far so good, but then some bright soul among them hit on die idea of augmenting their payroll by holding the passengers for ransom. Several planetary governments whose citizens are being held have fielded a negotiating team, headed by the Tau Cetans.'

'And our involvement, sir?' Sector IV was a long way from Barrayar by any measure, but Miles could guess what was coming. Ivan looked wildly curious.

'Among the passengers happened to be eleven Barrayaran subjects—including the wife of Minister for Heavy Industries Lord Vorvane and her three children. As the Barrayarans are a minority of the two hundred sixteen people being held, Barrayar was of course denied control of the negotiating team. And our fleet has been denied permission by their unfriendly governments to cross three of the necessary wormhole nexuses on the shortest route between Barrayar and Sector IV. The next shortest alternate route would take eighteen weeks to traverse. From Earth, your Dendarii can arrive in that local space area in less than two weeks.' Destang frowned thoughtfully; Ivan looked fascinated.

'Your orders, of course, are to rescue alive the Emperor's subjects, and as many other planetary citizens as possible, and to deal such punitive measures as you can compatible with the first goal, sufficient to prevent the perpetrators from ever repeating this performance. Since we ourselves are in the midst of critical treaty negotiations with the Tau Cetans, we don't wish them to become aware of the source of this unilateral rescue effort if, ah, anything goes wrong. Your method of achieving these goals appears to be left totally to your discretion. You'll find all the intelligence details HQ had up to eight days ago in here.'

He handed the data disk across at last; Miles's hand closed over it itchily. Ivan now looked envious. Destang produced another object, which he handed to Miles with a little of the air of a man having his liver torn out. 'The courier also delivered yet another credit chit for eighteen million marks. For your next six month's operating expenses.'

'Thank you, sir!'

'Ha. When you're done you're to report to Commodore Rivik at Sector IV headquarters on Orient Station,' Destang finished. 'With luck, by the time your irregulars next return to Sector II, I will have retired.'

'Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.'

Destang turned his eye on Ivan. 'Lieutenant Vorpatril.'

'Sir?' Ivan stood to attention with his best air of eager enthusiasm. Miles prepared to protest Ivan's complete innocence, ignorance, and victimhood, but it turned out not to be necessary; Destang contemplated Ivan for a moment longer, and sighed, 'Never mind.'

Destang turned to Galeni, who stood stiff-legged—and stiff-necked, Miles guessed. Having beaten Destang back to the embassy that morning, they had all washed, the two embassy officers had changed to clean uniforms, and they had all filed laconic reports, which Destang had just seen. But no one had slept yet. How much more garbage could Galeni absorb before reaching his explosive limit?

'Captain Galeni,' said Destang. 'On the military side, you stand charged with disobeying an order to remain confined to your quarters. Since this is identical to the charge that Vorkosigan here has managed to so luckily evade, this presents me with a certain problem of justice. There's also the mitigating factor of Vorpatril's kidnapping. His rescue, and the death of an enemy of Barrayar, are the only two tangible results of last night's . . . activities. All else is speculation, improvable assertions as to your intentions and state of mind. Unless you choose to submit to a fast-penta interrogation to clear up any lingering doubts.'

Galeni looked revulsed. 'Is that an order, sir?'

Galeni, Miles realized, was about two seconds away from offering to resign his commission— now, when so much had been sacrificed—he wanted to kick him, No, no! Wild defenses poured through Miles's mind. Fast-penta is degrading to the dignity of an officer, sir! or even, If you dose him you must dose me too—it's all right, Galeni, I abandoned dignity years ago— except that Miles's idiosyncratic reaction to fast-penta made that a less than useful offer. He bit his tongue and waited.

Destang looked troubled. After a silence he said simply, 'No.' He looked up and added, 'But it does mean that my reports, and yours, Vorkosigan's, and Vorpatril's, will all be bundled up together and sent to Simon Illyan for review. I will refuse to close the case. I didn't arrive at my rank by shying away from military decisions—nor by involving myself gratuitously with political ones. Your . . . loyalty, like the fate of Vorkosigan's clone, has become too ambiguously political a question. I'm not convinced of the long-range viability of the Komarr integration scheme— but I wouldn't care to go down in history as its saboteur.

'While the case is pending, and in the absence of evidence of treason, you'll resume your routine duties here at the embassy. Don't thank me,' he added glumly, as Miles grinned, Ivan choked back an out-loud laugh, and Galeni looked fractionally less black, 'it was the ambassador's request.

'You are all dismissed to your duties.'

Miles squelched the impulse to run before Destang changed his mind; he returned Destang's salute and walked normally with the others toward the door. As they reached it Destang added, 'Captain Galeni?'

Galeni paused. 'Sir?'

'My condolences.' The words might have been pulled out of Destang with pliers, but his discomfort was perhaps a measure of their sincerity.

'Thank you, sir.' Galeni's voice was so devoid of inflection as to be deathly, but in the end he managed a small, acknowledging nod.

The locks and corridors of the Triumph were noisy with returning personnel, the final placement of equipment and repairs by tech teams, and the loading of the last supplies. Noisy, but not chaotic; purposeful and energetic but not frantic. The absence of frantic was a good sign, considering how long they'd been on station. Tung's tough cadre of non-coms had not permitted routine preparations to slide till the last minute.

Miles, with Elli at his back, was the center of a hurricane of curiosity from the moment he stepped on board—What's the new contract, sir? The speed with which the rumor mill cranked out speculation both shrewd and absurd was amazing. He sent the speculators on their way with a repeated, Yes, we have a contract—yes, we're breaking orbit. Just as soon as you're ready. Are you ready, Mister? Is the rest of your squad ready? Then maybe you'd better go assist 'em. . . .

'Tung!' Miles hailed his chief of staff. The squat Eurasian was dressed in civilian gear, carrying luggage. 'You just now back?'

'I'm just now leaving. Didn't Auson get hold of you, Admiral? I've been trying to reach you for a week.'

'What?' Miles pulled him aside.

'I've turned in my resignation. I'm activating my retirement option.'

'What? Why?'

Tung grinned. 'Congratulate me. I'm getting married.'

Stunned, Miles croaked, 'Congratulations. Ah—when did this happen?'

'On leave, of course. She's actually my second cousin once removed. A widow. She's been running a tourist boat up the Amazon by herself since her husband died. She's the captain and the cook too. She fries a moo shu pork to kill for. But she's getting a little older—needs some muscle.' The bullet-shaped Tung could certainly supply that. 'We're going to be partners. Hell,' he went on, 'when you finish buying out the Triumph, we can even afford to dispense with the tourists. You ever want to try water-skiing on the Amazon behind a fifty- meter hoversloop, son, stop by.'