Meet Cordelia (Honorverse/Vorkosigan, G, gen)

[extrapenguin]

Title: Meet Cordelia
Rating: G
Wordcount: 1371
Synopsis: The Rene Magritte jumps to Barnett while Cordelia Ransom is present. Much scrambling occurs.

“Citizen Admiral, what is that, exactly?”

Theisman sighed. “It looks like a ship that just came in via wormhole. However, it's tiny, and there aren't any wormholes in this system.” He frowned. “At least, I hope not. Otherwise I'd have to fire half my staff for incompetence.”

LePic looked like he was going to say something to that, but Citizen Commander Caslet looked up from his display and said, “They're responding to our hails. They say they're the Rene Magritte, Betan Astronomical Survey, Commander Cordelia Naismith commanding.”

“Warner, please find out if we have anything on the ship, service or commander.” Theisman turned to LePic. “A civilian survey ship, by the sound of things. Shouldn't be a threat to Citizen Committeewoman Ransom. Perhaps we could invite them here to try and angle some information on the wormhole out of them, Sir?”

LePic nodded absentmindedly to himself. “We'd have to ask Citizen Committeewoman Ransom, of course. I expect she'd be delighted to tell them about the People's Republic.”

Theisman put on an expecting expression.

“I'll go and ask her”, LePic continued, giving a wry glance towards Theisman. “Please excuse me.” He left. Theisman let the beginnings of a smile tug at his lips.

 

“-so now they've invited you and two other officers over for tea”, Lieutenant Reg Rosemont said.

“Did they specify anything about the other two apart from the officer bit?” Cordelia Naismith looked wonderingly at the screen. The space around the planet – Enki – was filled with humongous ships, larger than any she'd seen. There were a few that were a bit smaller than the Rene Magritte, and from their positions, she took them for courier ships.

“Your choice.”

 

Theisman was doing his best not to freak out completely at the fact that he'd been drafted to manage introductions. Cordelia Ransom intently staring at him did nothing to diminish his panic. He shifted minutely to try and hide behind Denis LePic.

A tall woman swam down the tube. Her transition from the null-gee tube to the shipboard gravity wasn't quite as embarrassing-looking as LePic's first one had been (she'd figured out what the grab bar was for), but it lacked the grace of practice. As she exchanged salutes and fumbled her way through the welcome aboard ritual with the flagship's exec, the other two officers swam through.

Theisman stepped forwards. The woman was pale, almost ten centimeters taller than him (about as tall as LePic), and had flaming red hair.

“Welcome aboard, Commander Naismith. I'm Citizen Admiral Thomas Theisman, here's my People's Commissioner, Denis LePic. May I introduce you to Citizen Committeewoman Cordelia Ransom”, he said, gesturing towards Ransom. The Cordelias shook hands and murmured pleasantries.

Naismith then introduced Lieutenant Devin Stuben and Ensign Baruch Dubauer. More handshakes and exchanges of pleasantries ensued.

 

Naismith and her entourage had decided to stay the night after their char with Ransom had gone overtime. LePic was still surprised to find Ensign Dubauer knocking on his door. (He'd expected it to be the Citizen Admiral. The Citizen Admiral would have been much preferable.)

He'd let Dubauer in and Dubauer had seated himself. LePic dropped into another seat, resigning himself to a long chat

“Why does everyone have ‘Citizen’ added to their title?” Dubauer blurted. Not one for small talk, then.

“It's part of the egalitarian measures implemented by the Committee of Public Security after the Revolution.” LePic was vaguely glad Dubauer had decided to sit, since he'd probably have gotten a kink in his neck by now. He idly wondered how Ransom managed with always having to look up at people.

“Revolution?” Dubauer stared at him blankly. LePic gave him the “Recent History of Haven 101” tale. See, it's possible to talk of recent history without being politically subversive. Then Dubauer inquired why they were all so young-looking, and LePic had to lecture about prolong instead. Unfortunately, Dubauer was a biologist, leading to question-and-answer rounds followed by moralizing over how people weren't supposed to live for four centuries.

Warshawski sails, grav waves and regen later, LePic finally managed to oh-so-politely kick Dubauer out. Then Theisman popped in to ask what Dubauer had been up to, and LePic had to recount the entire conversation.

 

The next morning, LePic found himself invited to a brunch tête-à-tête with Naismith and Ransom. He wondered what Naismith was going to do with the intel Dubauer had provided.

An exchange of greetings later, he was in a room with the Cordelias and Ransom's bodyguards. He felt vaguely like a fifth wheel.

Naismith noticed the bodyguards and frowned. “Do you really receive enough assassination attempts to warrant bodyguards?”

Ransom shrugged. “Oh, it's part and parcel of being on the Committee. We aren't considered expendable.” She gave a winning smile. “I'd like to hear about your system of government, though. We didn't get a chance to chat about it yesterday, if memory serves.”

“Well, we have an elected President. Actually, almost everyone in a position of importance gets elected.” Naismith shrugged. “We also have strict water-management laws, due to living on a desert world, as well as some rather draconian birth control laws. They're necessary, though – the Sandbox is kind of hostile to humans.”

“So, how do you enforce the birth-control laws? Mandatory contraceptives?” Ransom asked.

Naismith nodded. “For all women and herms.”

“Herms?”

“Hermaphrodites”, Naismith clarified. “You know, sex is actually better with herms than with men-”

The Cordelias then spent ten minutes discussing the female orgasm. LePic did his best not to blush.

“-and you can have too much of a good thing, since a couple of Ensigns on my last ship spent way too much time on each other, rather than socializing with everyone else. The Captain ordered them to stop, but the way he phrased it he'd banned sex completely so of course it went for a vote, and, well, it lost-”

“A vote?” Ransom leaned forwards, captivated.

“Standard procedure on Betan ships. If enough people disagree with the Captain, the issue goes for a vote. It makes commanding rather difficult”, Naismith sighed.

Ransom's face lit up like that of a child who'd been told Christmas came early. Some portion of LePic's brain was flashing the Red Alert sign.

“Why, that sounds excellent”, Ransom grinned ferally. “Don't you agree, Citizen Commissioner?”

LePic considered his words carefully. “Such an implementation would be a very large change, so the Navy would have to be given some advance warning of the matter. It would also be an important change, one we couldn't afford to mess up, so I'd recommend sending it to the Committee to be thought out. We do want it to give it the best chances of success, after all.” And hopefully Citizen Secretary McQueen will have enough clout to shoot it down immediately.

Ransom looked thoughtful. “Excellent advice, Citizen Commissioner. I'll take it under consideration.”

 

Thomas Theisman was going over quarterly efficiency reports with Citizen Captain Megan Hathaway when Citizen Commissioner LePic entered. Hathaway raised her eyebrow. Theisman shook his head minutely.

“Do you have five minutes to spare, Citizen Admiral?” LePic asked.

“Yes, Sir”, Theisman replied, wondering what the hell this could be now.

Hathaway looked at the men. “I take it I'm dismissed?”

“You may stay”, LePic said. Hathaway slid back into her chair.

“So, what has happened?” Theisman asked.

“Naismith let slip that all Betan crews will vote on an issue if enough people disagree with the Captain. Ransom, of course, considered this an excellent idea. I managed to make her consider sending it back to the Committee first, but be prepared to be ordered to submit to a vote. If in any way you can do damage control, do so”, LePic said.

Hathaway looked at him curiously. “Wouldn't you be in favor of this democratization?”

LePic gave a wry smile. “I'm not an idiot. The democratic process is by its nature slow, whereas in a military situation, life and death can be a matter of milliseconds. Good luck.” LePic rose and left.

 

Later that day, Naismith left with her ship. Then news came of Harrington's capture by Tourville, distracting even Cordelia Ransom from the voting model of spaceship command.

It was years later when Theisman realized they'd never found the wormhole Naismith had come through.

Comments

[shannnon_foraker]

Thanks for writing this!