Komarr

married. . . .

He'd started every new job with a burst of enthusiasm, working hard, or at least, very long hours. Surely no one could work harder. Then the enthusiasm dwindled, and the complaints began, of too much work, too little reward, offered too slowly. Lazy coworkers, smarmy bosses. At least, so he said. That had become her secret danger signal, when Tien began offering sly sexual slander of his superiors; it meant the job was about to end, again. A new one would be found . . . though it seemed to take longer and longer to find a new one, these days. And his enthusiasm would flame up again, and the cycle would begin anew. But her hypersensitized ear had picked up no bad signs so far in this job, and they'd been here nearly a year already. Maybe Tien had finally found his– what had Vorkosigan called it? His passion. This was the best posting he'd ever achieved; perhaps things were finally starting to break into good fortune, for a change. If she just stuck it out long enough, it would get better, virtue would be rewarded. And . . . with this Vorzohn's Dystrophy thing hanging over them, Tien had good reason for impatience. His time was not unlimited.

And yours is? She blinked that thought away.

'Your aunt was not sure if things were working out happily for you. Do you dislike Komarr?'

'Oh, I like Komarr just fine,' she said quickly. 'I admit, I've been a little homesick, but that's not the same thing as not liking being here.'

'She did think you would seize the opportunity to place Nikki in a Komarran school, for the, as she would say, cultural experience. Not that his school we saw this morning isn't very nice, of course, which I shall report back for her reassurance, I promise.'

'I was tempted. But being a Barrayaran, an off-worlder, in a Komarran classroom might have been difficult for Nikki. You know how kids can gang up on anyone who's different, at that age. Tien thought this private school would be much better. A lot of the high Vor families in the Sector send their children there. He thought Nikki could make good connections.'

'I did not have the impression that Nikki was socially ambitious.' His dryness was mitigated by a slight twinkle.

How was she to respond to that? Defend a choice she did not herself agree with? Admit she thought Tien wrong? If she once began complaining about Tien, she wasn't sure she could stop before her most fearful worries began to pour out. And people complaining about their spouses always looked and sounded so ugly. 'Well, connections for me, at least.' Not that she had been able to muster the energy to pursue them as assiduously as Tien thought she ought.

'Ah. It's good you're making friends.'

'Yes, well . . . yes.' She scraped at the last of the apple syrup on her plate.

When she looked up, she noticed a good-looking young Komarran man who had stopped by the outer gate to the restaurant's patio and was staring at her. After a moment, he entered and approached their table. 'Madame Vorsoisson?' he said uncertainly.

'Yes?' she said warily.

'Oh, good, I thought I recognized you. My name is Andro Farr. We met at the Winterfair reception for the Serifosa terraforming employees a few months ago, do you remember?'

Dimly. 'Oh, yes. You were somebody's guest . . . ?'

'Yes. Marie Trogir. She's an engineering tech in the Waste Heat Management department. Or she was. … Do you know her? I mean, has she ever talked with you?'

'No, not really.' Ekaterin had met the young Komarran woman perhaps three times, at carefully choreographed Project events. She had usually been too conscious of herself as a representative of Tien, of the need to cordially meet and greet everyone, to get into any very intimate conversations. 'Had she intended to talk to me?'

The young man slumped in disappointment. 'I don't know. I thought you might have been friends, or at least acquaintances. I've talked to all her friends I can find.'

'Urn . . . oh?' Ekaterin was not at all sure she wished to encourage this conversation.

Farr seemed to sense her wariness; he flushed slightly. 'Excuse me. I seem to have found myself in a rather painful domestic situation, and I don't know why. It took me by surprise. But . . . but you see . . . about six weeks ago, Marie told me she was going out of town on a field project for her department, and would be back in about five weeks, but she wasn't sure exactly. She didn't give me any comconsole codes to reach her, she said she'd probably not be able to call, and not to worry.'

'Do you, um, live with her?'

'Yes. Anyway, time went by, and time went by, and I didn't hear … I finally called her department head, Administrator Soudha. He was vague. In fact, I think he gave me a run-around. So I went down there in person and asked around.

When I finally pinned him, he said,' Farr swallowed, 'she'd resigned abruptly six weeks ago and left. So had her engineering boss, Radovas, the one she'd said she was going on the field project with. Soudha seemed to think they'd . . . left together. It makes no sense.'

The idea of running away from a relationship and leaving no forwarding address made perfect sense to Ekaterin, but it was hardly her place to say so. Who knew what profound dissatisfactions Farr had failed to detect in his lady? 'I'm sorry. I know nothing about this. Tien never mentioned it.'

'I'm sorry to bother you, Madame.' He hesitated, balanced upon turning away.

'Have you talked to Madame Radovas?' Ekaterin asked tentatively.

'I tried. She refused to talk with me.'

That, too, was understandable, if her middle-aged husband had run off with a younger and prettier woman.

'Have you filed a missing person report with Dome Security?' Uncle Vorthys inquired. Ekaterin realized she hadn't introduced him and, on reflection, decided to leave it that way.

'I wasn't sure. I think I'm about to.'

'Mm,' said Ekaterin. Did she really want to encourage the fellow to persecute this girl? She had apparently got away clean. Had she chosen this cruel method of ending their relationship because she was a twit, or because he was a monster? There was no way to tell from the outside. You could never tell what secret burdens anyone carried, concealed by their bright smiles.

'She left all her things. She left her cats. I don't know what to do with them,' he said rather piteously.

Ekaterin had heard of desperate women leaving everything up to and including their children, but Uncle Vorthys put in, 'That does seem odd. I'd go to Security if I were you, if only to put your mind at ease. You can always apologize later, if necessary.'

'I … I think I might. Good day, Madame Vorsoisson. Sir.' He ran his hands through his hair, and let himself back out the little fake wrought-iron gate to the park.

'Perhaps we ought to be getting back,' Ekaterin suggested as the young man turned out of sight. 'Should we take Lord Vorkosigan some lunch? They'll make up a carry-out.'

'I'm not sure he notices missing meals, when he's wound up in a problem, but it does seem only fair.'

'Do you know what he likes?'

'Anything, I would imagine.'

'Does he have any food allergies?'

'Not as far as I know.'

She made a hasty selection of a suitably balanced and nutritious meal, hoping that the prettily-arranged vegetables wouldn't end up in the waste disposer. With males, you never knew. When the order was delivered, they took their leave, and Ekaterin led the way to the nearest bubble-car station to get back to her own dome section. She still had no clear idea how Vorkosigan had so successfully handled his mutant-status on their mutagen-scarred homeworld, except, perhaps, by pursuing most of his career off it. Was that likely to be any help to Nikolai?

CHAPTER FOUR