Lois Bujold - Captain Vorpatril's alliance

“Did they show anything about that horrid worm plague?” Tej shuddered.

“Not a word. I think they were trying to persuade people to move there. Gruesome pictures of colonists all bloated up like lumpy sausages wouldn’t much aid that. But I gathered you could go as some sort of indentured laborer, and pay for your passage after.”

It sounded like the first step on the slippery slope into contract slavery, to Tej. What she said aloud was, “But Sergyar has an even smaller population than Komarr. And it’s all stocked with Barrayarans. How would you hide there?”

“It’s a very mixed population, I heard. The current Vicereine is making an effort to draw immigrants from all over. Even Beta Colony. It won’t be like Barrayar, or even Komarr, if that keeps on.”

They were both silent for a while, contemplating this option. It depended on their being able to make it to orbital embarkation alive and uncollected, which didn’t seem a good bet right now.

“There’s Captain Mystery, here.” Rish nodded to the sleeping figure across from them. “Captain Vormystery, I suppose he would correct that.”

“Ivan Xav, the one and only. I think he likes me.”

“Oh, I can smell that.” Rish smirked. “He also has a slight breast fetish.”

“Don’t they all,” Tej sighed. The corners of her mouth drew up. “Though not, in his case, for slight breasts.”

“If he were a random Komarran stranger off the street, I’d advise—though only as a second-to-last resort—that you attach yourself to him and ride as far as you could. But he’s not Komarran, he’s definitely not random, and that’s far too strange.”

“Mm.”

Another long silence.

Rish finally said, in a very low voice: “I would die before I allowed myself to be taken back and used against the Baron and Baronne.”

In an equally quiet tone, Tej returned, “There’s no Baron and Baronne left to be used against. We’d just be used.” She blinked eyes gone abruptly blurry. No. I won’t cry any more. If weeping were going to help, it would have done so by now .

Both stared straight ahead. Rish’s voice went darker, bleaker. “Once they grab us, the chances for the last escape will grow very constrained. Too soon could become too late too fast to target.”

No need to say out loud what the last escape was; they’d discussed it twice before, though they’d twice evaded it, once by bare minutes. “How, here?”

“Too dangerous for either of us to go out looking for a painless termination drug, though I did notice a sign for veterinary hospital on the way, could be raided, but…I read about this method, once, that they used on Old Earth. Lie back in a hot bath and just open your veins. It only hurts for a moment, a little sting, less than a hypospray jab, they say. There’s that great big tub in the bathroom. We could just ease back and…go to sleep, sweetling. Just go to sleep.”

“It would be a bit tough on Ivan Xav when he came home, though, wouldn’t it? Not to mention tricky for him to explain to the dome cops.”

“Not our problem by then.”

Barely turning her head, Tej glanced aside at her companion. “You’re tired, too. Aren’t you.”

“Very,” Rish sighed.

“You should have taken a nap this afternoon, as well.” Tej scrunched her eyes in thought. “I don’t know. I think I’d rather seize some last chance for…something. Go to the highest tower in Solstice, maybe, and step off the roof. The fall would be great, while it lasted. We could dance all the way down. Your last dance.”

“Bitch of an arrêt at the end, though,” said Rish.

“And no encore. The Baronne always loved your encores…”

“I vote for the tub.”

“The balcony out there might do, if we were cornered.”

“No, too public. They might scrape us up and put us back together. And then where would we be?”

“That’s…really hard to guess.”

“Ah.”

More silence. The sleeping captain snorted and rolled over again.

“You’d have a better chance of hiding out minus me,” began Rish.

Tej sniffed. This, too, was an old argument. “My loyalties may not be bred in my bones, odd-sister, but I’ll back nurture against nature any day you care to name.”

“Nature,” breathed Rish, starting to smile.

“Nurture,” said Tej.

“Nature.”

“Nurture.”

“Tub.”

“Tower.” Tej paused. “You know, we need a third vote, here. We always end up in a tie. It’s a gridlock.”

“Deadlock.”

“Whatever.” Tej tilted her head in consideration. “Actually, the best method would be something that made it look like our pursuers had murdered us. The local authorities would think they were killers, and their bosses would think they botched the snatch. Get them coming and going.”

“That’s pretty,” Rish conceded. “But it would only cook the meat. The best revenge would fry the brains .”

“Oh, yes,” Tej sighed. Oh, yes . But she didn’t see how to reach all the way home to effect such a deed from the Unbeing, given that she couldn’t even do so while still breathing.

Vorpatril rolled back and made a strange wheezing noise, like a distant balloon deflating, then went quiescent again.

“Eyeable show, that, I grant you,” said Rish, nodding to him, “but there’s not much of a plot.”

“Think of it as experimental dance. Very abstract.”

More quiet.

Rish yawned. “I vote we take over the bed. Leave him out here.”

“You know, I think you might get a unanimous—” Tej froze as the door buzzer sounded, loud in the stillness. Rish jerked as if electrocuted and leaped to her feet, golden eyes wide.

Tej lurched across to the other sofa and shook its occupant by the shoulder, saying in an urgent undervoice, “Captain Vorpatril! Wake up! There’s someone at your door!”

He mumbled and hunched in on himself, like an animal trying hide in a hole too small for it. The buzzer blatted again.

Tej shook him again. “Ivan Xav!”

Rish stepped across, grabbed his sock feet, and ruthlessly yanked them to the floor. The rest of him followed with a thud. “Hey, ah , wazzit?” he mumbled indignantly, rolling over and sitting up at last, then clapping a hand over his eyes. “Ah, too bright!”

The door buzzer sounded and did not stop, now, as if someone held it down with a thumb and leaned in.

“Who the hell’d be out there at this time of night?” Vorpatril blinked in a blurry attempt to focus on his wristcom. “What is this time of night?”

“You’ve been asleep almost three hours,” said Rish.

“Not ’nough.” He tried to lie back down on the floor. “God, what’s that noise in my head? Swear I didn’t drink that much…”

“Answer your door ,” Tej hissed, hauling on his arm. To the buzzing was now added a thumping, as if someone was hitting the door with a bunched hand. Surely kidnappers wouldn’t be this noisy…?

He lumbered up at last, visibly pulling himself into focus. “Right. Right. ’L go find out.” He waved them off as he started for the short hallway leading to the door on the corridor. “You two go hide.”

Tej stared wildly around. The place had only the living room, kitchenette, bedroom, and bath, spacious as they were, plus two closets and the balcony; any search for cowering women would be short and foregone. Should she allow herself to be cut off from access to that balcony? Rish darted into the open bedroom doorway and frantically motioned her to follow; instead, Tej nipped to the other corner and peeked around into the entry hall.

The door slid aside. From a shadowy shape occluded by Vorpatril’s broad shoulders came a terse voice, male, Barrayaran accent: “Ivan, you idiot! What the hell happened with you last night?”