Komarr

for his restless body. He wanted out of this apartment. He'd thought it had been uncomfortable that first night because the Vorsoissons were strangers, but that was as nothing to how awkward it had become now he'd begun to know them.

'Very well, my lord.'

'Thank you, General. That's all for now.' Miles cut the com.

With a sigh, he turned again to the stack of terraforming reports, starting with Waste Heat Management's excessively complete report on dome energy flows. It was only in his imagination that the gaze from a pair of outraged light blue eyes burned into the back of his head.

He had left the workroom door open with the thought– hope?—that if Madame Vorsoisson just happened to be passing by, and just happened to want to renew their truncated conversation, she might realize she had his invitation to do so. The awareness that this left him sitting alone with his back to the door came to Miles simultaneously with the sense that he was no longer alone. At a surreptitious sniff from the vicinity of the doorway, he fixed his most inviting smile on his face and turned his chair around.

It was Nikki, hovering in the frame and staring at him in uncertain calculation. He returned Miles's misdirected smile shyly. 'Hello,' the boy ventured.

'Hello, Nikki. Home from school?'

'Yep.'

'Do you like it?'

'Naw.'

'Ah? How was today?'

'Boring.'

'What are you studying, that's so dull?'

'Nothin'.'

What a joy such monosyllabic exchanges must be to his parents, paying for that exclusive private school. Miles's smile twisted. Reassured, perhaps, by the glint of humor in his eye, the boy ventured within. He looked Miles up and down more openly than he had done heretofore; Miles bore being Looked At. Yes, you can get used to me, kiddo.

'Were you really a spy?' Nikki asked suddenly.

Miles leaned back, brows rising. 'Now, wherever did you get that idea?'

'Uncle Vorthys said you were in ImpSec Galactic operations,' Nikki reminded him.

Ah, yes, that first night at the dinner table. 'I was a courier officer. Do you know what that is?'

'Not . . . 'zactly. I thought a courier was a jumpship . . . ?'

'The ship is named after the job. A courier is a kind of glorified delivery man. I carried messages back and forth for the Imperium.'

Nikki's brow wrinkled dubiously. 'Was it dangerous?'

'It wasn't supposed to be. I generally got places only to have to turn around immediately and go back. I spent a lot of time en route reading. Composing reports. And, ah, studying. ImpSec would send these training programs along, that you were supposed to complete in your spare time, and turn back in to your superiors when you got home.'

'Oh,' said Nikki, sounding a little dismayed, possibly at the thought that even grownups weren't spared from homework. He regarded Miles more sympathetically. Then a spark rose in his eye. 'But you got to go on jumpships, didn't you? Imperial fast couriers and things?'

'Oh, yes.'

'We went on a jumpship, to come here. It was a Vorsmythe Dolphin- class 776 with quadruple-vortex outboard control nacelles and dual norm-space thrusters and a crew of twelve. It carried a hundred and twenty passengers. It was full up, too.' Nikki's face grew reflective. 'Kind of a barge, compared to Imperial fast couriers, but Mama got the jump pilot to let me come up and see his control room. He let me sit in his station chair and put on his headset.' The spark had become a flame in the memory of this glorious moment.

Miles could recognize imprinting when he saw it. 'You admire jumpships, I take it.'

'I want to be a jump pilot when I grow up. Didn't you ever? Or … or wouldn't they let you?' A certain wariness returned to Nikki's face; had he been cautioned by the adults not to mention Miles's mutoid appearance? Yes, let us all pretend to ignore the obvious. That ought to clarify the kid's worldview.

'No, I wanted to be a strategist. Like my Da and my Gran'da. I couldn't have passed the physical for jump pilot anyway.'

'My Da was a soldier. It sounded boring. He stayed on one base for practically the whole time. I want to be an Imperial pilot, in the fastest ships, and go places.'

Very far away from here. Yes. Miles understood that one, all right. It occurred to him suddenly that even if nothing else was done between now and then, a military physical would reveal Nikki's Vorzohn's Dystrophy. And even if it was successfully treated, the defect would disqualify him for military pilot's training.

'Imperial pilot?' Miles let his brows rise in apparent surprise. 'Well, I suppose . . . but if you really want to go places, the military's not your best route.'

'Why not?'

'Except for a very few courier or diplomatic missions, the military jump pilots just go from Barrayar to Komarr to Sergyar and back. Same old routes, round and round. And you have to wait forever for your turn on the roster, my pilot acquaintances tell me. Now, if you really want experience, going out with the Komarran trade fleets would take you much farther afield—all the way to Earth, and beyond. And they go out for much longer, and there are many more berths to be had. There are more kinds of ships. Pilots get a lot more time in the hot-seat. And when you get to the interesting places, you're a lot freer to look around.'

'Oh.' Nikki digested this thoughtfully. 'Wait here,' he commanded abruptly, and darted out.

He was back in moments cradling a box jammed with model jumpships. 'This is the Dolphin- 776 we went on,' he held one up for Miles's inspection. He rummaged for another. 'Did you ride on fast couriers like this one?'

'The Falcon-9? Yes, a time or two.' A model caught Miles's eye; automatically, he slid down onto the floor beside Nikki, who was arranging his collection for fleet inspection. 'Good God, is that an RG freighter?'

'It's an antique.' Nikki held it out.

Miles took it, his eye lighting. 'I owned one of the very last of these, when I was seventeen. Now, that was a barge.'

'A … a model like this?' asked Nikki uncertainly.

'No, a jumpship.'

'You owned a real jumpship? Yourself?' He inhaled alarmingly.

'Mm, me and a bunch of creditors.' Miles smiled in reminiscence.

'Did you get to pilot it? In normal space, I mean, not in jump space.'

'No, I wasn't even up to piloting shuttles then. I learned how to do that later, at the Academy.'

'What happened to the RG? Do you still have it?'

'Oh, no. Or … well, I'm not just sure. It met with an accident in Tau Verde local space, ramming, um, colliding with another ship. Twisted hell out of its Necklin field generator rods. It was never going to jump again after that, so I leased it as a local-space freighter, and we left it there. If Arde– he's a jump pilot friend of mine— ever finds a set of replacement rods, I told him he can have the old RG.'

'You had a jumpship and you gave it away!?' Nikki's eyes widened in astonishment. 'Do you have anymore?'

'Not at present. Oh, look, a General-class cruiser.' Miles reached for it. 'My father commanded one of those, once, I believe. Do you have any Betan Survey ships . . . ?'

Heads bent together, they laid out the little fleet on the floor. Nikki, Miles was pleased to find, was well-up on all the tech-specs of every ship he owned; he expanded wonderfully, his voice, formerly shy around Miles-the-