Left him chained to a railing with an empty oxygen canister, which you never checked. And then called me to come get him. An hour and a half too late. Ekaterin spat scorn. An exquisite setup. Madame. Mad Emperor Yuri would have considered it a work of art.
Oh, Foscol breathed. She looked sick. Is this true? Youre lying. No one would go out-dome with an empty canister!
You knew Tien, said Ekaterin. What do you think?
Foscol fell silent.
Soudha was pale. Im sorry, Madame Vorsoisson. If that was what happened, it was an accident. We intended him to live, I swear to you.
Ekaterin let her lips thin, and said nothing. Sitting up, with her legs swung out to the deck, she was able to get a less dizzying view of the loading bay. It was some thirty meters across and twenty deep, strongly lit, with catwalks and looping power lines running across the ceiling, and a glass-walled control booth on the opposite side from the broad entry ramp down which theyd come. Equipment lay scattered here and there around a huge object dominating the center of the chamber. Its main part seemed to consist of a wriggly trumpet-shaped cone made of some dark, polished substance-metal? glass?-resting in heavily padded clamps on a grounded float cradle. A lot of power connections slotted in at its narrow end. The mouth of the bell was more than twice as tall as Ekaterin. Was this the secret weapon Lord Vorkosigan had posited?
And how had they ever got it, and themselves, past the ImpSec manhunt? ImpSec was surely checking every shuttle that left the planetary surface-now, Ekaterin realized. This thing could have been transported weeks ago, before the hunt even started. And ImpSec was probably concentrating its attention on jumpships and their passengers, not on freight tugs trapped in local space. Soudhas conspirators had had years to develop their false ID. They acted as though they owned this place-maybe they did.
Foscol spoke to Ekaterins fraught silence, almost as tight-lipped as Ekaterin herself. We are not murderers. Not like you Barrayarans.
Ive never killed anyone in my life. For not-murderers, your body count is getting impressive, Ekaterin shot back. I dont know what happened to Radovas and Trogir, but what about the six poor people on the soletta crew, and that ore freighter pilot-and Tien. Thats eight at least, maybe ten. Maybe twelve, if I dont watch my step.
I was a student at Solstice University during the Revolt, Foscol snarled, clearly very rattled by the news about Tien. I saw friends and classmates shot in the streets, during the riots. I remember the out-gassing of the Green Park Dome. Dont you dare-a Barrayaran!-sit there and make mouth at me about murder.
I was five years old at the time of the Komarr Revolt, said Ekaterin wearily. What do you think I ought to have done about it, eh?
If you want to go back in history, the Professora put in dryly, you Komarrans were the people who let the Cetagandans in on us. Five million Barrayarans died before the first Komarran ever did. Crying for your past dead is a piece of one-downsmanship a Komarran cannot win.
That was longer ago, said Foscol a little desperately.
Ah. I see. So the difference between a criminal and a hero is the order in which their vile crimes are committed, said the Professora, in a voice dripping false cordiality. And justice comes with a sell-by date. In that case, youd better hurry. You wouldnt want your heroism to spoil.
Foscol drew herself up. We arent planning to kill anyone. All of us here saw the futility of that kind of heroics twenty-five years ago.
Things dont seem to be running exactly according to plan, then, do they? murmured Ekaterin, rubbing her face. It was becoming less numb. She wished she could say the same for her wits. I notice you dont deny being thieves.
Just getting some of our own back, glinted Foscol.
The money poured into Komarran terraforming doesnt do Barrayar any direct good. You were stealing from your own grandchildren.
What we took, we took to make an investment for Komarr that will pay back incalculable benefit to our future generations, Foscol returned.
Had Ekaterins words stung her? Maybe. Soudha looked as though he was thinking furiously, eyeing the two Barrayaran women. Keep them arguing, Ekaterin thought. People couldnt argue and think at the same time, or at least, a lot of people shed met seemed to have that trouble. If she could keep them talking while her body recovered a little more from the stun, she could what? Her eye fell on a fire and emergency alarm at the base of the entry ramp, maybe ten steps away. Alarm, false alarm, the attention of irate authorities drawn to Southport Transport Could Arozzi stun her again in less than ten steps? She leaned back against her aunts legs, trying to look very limp, and let one hand curl around the Professoras ankle, as if for comfort. The novel device loomed silently and mysteriously in the center of the chamber.
So what are you planning to do, Ekaterin said sarcastically, shut down the wormhole jump and cut us off? Or are you going to make- Her voice died as the shocked silence her words had created penetrated. She stared around at the three Komarrans, staring at her in horror. In a suddenly smaller voice she said, You cant do that. Can you?
There was a military maneuver for rendering a wormhole temporarily impassable, which involved sacrificing a ship-and its pilot-at a mid-jump node. But the disruption damped out in a short time. Wormholes opened and closed, yes, but they were astrographic features like stars, involving time scales and energies beyond the present human capacity to control. You cant do that, Ekaterin said more firmly. Whatever disruption you create, sooner or later it will become passable again, and then youll be in twice as much trouble as before. Unless Soudhas conspiracy was just the tip of an iceberg, with some huge coordinated plan behind it for all of Komarr to rise against Barrayaran rule in a new Komarr Revolt. More war, more blood under glass-the domes of Komarr might give her claustrophobia, but the thought of her Komarran neighbors going down to destruction in yet another round of this endless struggle made her sick to her stomach. The revolt had done vile things to Barrayarans, too. If new hostilities were ignited and went on long enough, Nikki would come of an age to be sucked into them You cant hold it closed. You cant hold out here. You have no defenses.
We can, and we will, said Soudha firmly.
Foscols brown eyes shone. Were going to close the worm-hole permanently. Well get rid of Barrayar forever, without firing a shot. A completely bloodless revolution, and there will be nothing they can do about it.
An engineers revolution, said Soudha, and a ghost of a smile curved his lips.
Ekaterins heart hammered, and the echoing loading bay seemed to tilt. She swallowed, and spoke with effort: Youre planning to shut the wormhole to Barrayar with the Butcher of Komarr and three-fourths of Barrayars space-based military forces on this side, and you actually think youre going to get a bloodless revolution? And what about all the people on Sergyar? You are idiots!
The original plan, said Soudha tightly, was to strike at the time of the Emperors wedding, when the Butcher of Komarr and three-fourths of the space forces would have been safely in Barrayar orbit.
Along with a lot of innocent galactic diplomats. And not a few Komarrans!
I cannot think of a better fate for all the top collaborators, said Foscol, than to be locked in with their lovely Barrayaran friends. The Old Vor lords are always saying how much better they had it back in their Time of Isolation. Were just giving them their wish.
Ekaterin squeezed the Professoras ankle and climbed slowly to her feet. Upright, she swayed, wishing her unbalance really were artistic fakery to put the Komarrans off-guard. She spoke with deadly venom. In the Time of Isolation, I would have been dead at forty. In the Time of Isolation, it would have been my job to cut my mutant infants throats, while my female relatives watched. I guarantee at least half the population of Barrayar does not agree with the Old Vor lords, including most of the Old Vor ladies. And you would condemn us all to go back to that, and you dare to call it bloodless!