The Vorkosigan Companion

by Lillian Stewart Carl

  Other Political Entities in the Wormhole Nexus

  (In rough order of importance to the Vorkosigan universe)

  Cetaganda

  The Cetagandan Empire consists of eight developed worlds and a number of allied and puppet dependencies, many of them forcibly acquired. Cetaganda is ruled by a genetically engineered emperor, and the Imperial government consists of a two-tiered aristocracy. At the head of the Imperial power structure is the haut class and at the head of the haut class is the emperor—currently Emperor Fletchir Gaija. The Emperor serves as the only point of meeting between the affairs of the haut and the affairs of the second tier of the aristocracy—the ghem.

  The haut consider themselves to be a post-human breed, the result of several centuries of genetic engineering that they have carried out upon their population. They have a vaguely attenuated elf-like look, and their physical beauty is revered throughout the galaxy. Haut women are so beautiful, in fact, that they are rarely seen in public, traveling in float chairs surrounded by opaque force screens as they move through the landscape, and exiting their protective chairs only in safe and restricted confines familiar to them. The sight of a haut woman has been known to induce instantaneous emotional slavery in typical human men.

  The haut do not believe that their genetic experimentation has reached its apex yet. The work of improving the genome is undertaken by the Star Crèche—which is run by the haut consorts of the various planetary governors and headed by the emperor's mother or the mother of his heir. Each year, the result of their genetic work is sent out to the Cetagandan worlds in the form of a shipment of developing haut embryos in uterine replicators. These children-to-be are taken in by their respective genetic constellations when they reach their home planets, where they will be raised and educated to take their place among the planets' ruling elite. The haut own nothing individually, despite their luxurious lives spent in isolation in the incredibly beautiful enclaves inhabited exclusively by the haut and their genderless ba servitors. All property is held in trust by the government, and awarded to the haut caste based on breeding, merit, status in the haut hierarchy, and ceremonial needs.

  The ba are asexual genetic siblings to the haut, and are created by haut geneticists to test out new genetic additions to the haut bloodlines. The ba are engineered to be servile and loyal, but a few incidents in which they have behaved with startling initiative and ingenuity have raised some questions among the haut as to the degree to which their genetic control has been effective.

  The haut control their empire though a secret and reputedly devastating collection of bioengineered weapons. The few examples of haut genetic weaponry that have been used throughout the galaxy have been so terrifying that it is widely believed that the reputation of haut for maintaining a strong arsenal has been, if anything, underestimated.

  The haut look inward at what they are becoming, while the ghem are the outward face of the Cetagandans. The ghem women, in imitation of the haut, also work in genetic engineering, but they concentrate on non-human material. The ghem men concentrate on politics and conquest, and favor a very aggressive brand of territorial expansion. Their most recent adventures have been universally disastrous for the last century (Barrayar, Vervain, Marilac, etc.). It is widely hoped throughout the galaxy that the Cetagandans are embarking on a newly peaceful period in which they concentrate on improving their own empire, instead of aggressively invading their neighbors.

  The ghem are kept under control by the haut through a system of rewards and restraints. Haut women who have fallen from grace are awarded to successful ghem men as trophy wives. Ghem who achieve great things have their genetic material taken up by the Star Crèche for inclusion into the haut genome. Ghem who fail are ruthlessly dealt with, sometimes by difficult and messy "suicides" that can include multiple stab wounds in the back, though more elegant forms of elimination are preferred.

  Planets of the Cetagandan Empire

  Eta Ceta IV

  The central world in the Cetagandan Imperium, and the home of the Imperial Gardens, where the planetary government and the Star Crèche are situated.

  Tau Ceta

  Located in Sector II.

  Rho Ceta

  The nearest Cetagandan world to the Komarran wormhole jump point.

  Dagoola IV

  A Cetagandan prison planet, which, while run in exact accordance with galactic treaties, is as fiendish and Darwinian a place as ever conceived by the minds of humans.

  Other Civilizations of the Wormhole Nexus

  Beta Colony

  Beta Colony is a technologically advanced planet with superb schools, a very high standard of living, and a very advanced approach to personal liberty, sexual orientation, and lifestyle choices. The planet is essentially a desert, with little surface water other than flat saline lakes, and the vast majority of human habitation located underground. Rebreathers and nose filters are required for humans to survive on the Betan surface, along with personal heat shields during the hotter months. Betan politics are based on a planetary-wide constitutional democracy. Logic and scientific exploration are central to the Betan way of life, just as oaths and honor are central to Barrayarans.

  Sexual behavior is wildly free on Beta Colony, but at the price of reproduction being strictly controlled. This is a legacy of the planet's unique colonization by sub-light generation ships. To bear a child on Beta, a couple must undergo extensive training in parenting, apply for a child permit, and arrange for the health and welfare of the offspring in advance of its arrival. The first permit (actually, the first two half-permits) are free; more may be purchased on a secondary market, where the price varies, or are sometimes rewarded for merit. While a woman or herm may still undertake an old-fashioned risky body birth, and some do, most responsible parents choose in vitro fertilization with the zygote being carefully examined and treated for any genetic flaws before it is placed in a uterine replicator for its next nine months. Sexual preferences among the three genders (male, female, and hermaphrodite) are indicated by earring designs worn by all sexually active Betans, with a design to accurately indicate adult sexual status and the wearer's preferred variations, with gradations ranging in every stage from "not interested at all" to "involved in an exclusive relationship" to "will screw anything willing to allow it." Contraceptive implants are required by law, and may only be removed temporarily with government approval for reasons involving health or officially sanctioned reproduction.

  Among the galactic tourist spots on Beta Colony is the Betan Orb of Unearthly Delights, where every kind of human sexual behavior ever observed is practiced with enthusiasm, and even accompanied by psychological counseling as needed.

  Poverty is unknown on Beta Colony, and every citizen is guaranteed access to information, education, health care, and occupation.

  Marilac

  Given its conveniently placed wormhole access to other planets, Marilac was a prosperous and advanced world. But it was invaded and conquered by Cetaganda. The planetary resistance was rounded up and sent to the Cetagandan prison planet Dagoola IV, and the conquest seemed complete. But a daring massive prison break arranged by the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet brought all the planet's rebels back into play at once. Eventually Cetaganda withdrew from Marilac, and left it to once again govern itself.

  Escobar

  A technologically advanced neighbor of Beta Colony, Escobar was settled by colonists who were, judging by its resulting Latin culture, most probably from Brazil, Spain, and Italy.

  Jackson's Whole

  Originally founded as an interstellar base by libertine space pirates, Jackson's Whole has since evolved into a planet run by a nongovernmental structure of 116 viciously competing Great Houses, countless Minor Houses, and a desperate population of ordinary citizens trying to stay out of the way of politics—which are generally widely terminal on Jackson's Whole. Only the Deal is sacred on the planet—and Jacksonians are expert dealers. The Great Houses have amassed power through traditional criminal e
nterprises, including slavery, illegal genetic manipulation of living organisms, clone slavery—including implantation of human brains into unwilling clone body donors—weapons dealing, and so on. Scientific research facilities, even if criminal, are top-notch, and do a large trade in galactic one-off contracts for poisons, assassinations, drugs, bioweapons, and other lucrative industries. Anything in the galaxy can be bought, traded for, or stolen on Jackson's Whole.

  Pol

  An advanced planet that serves as a wormhole link from Komarr to the Hegen Hub. It is part of the Hegen Hub Alliance along with Aslund, Vervain, and Barrayar.

  Illyrica

  It is a planet on the fringes of wormhole nexus famous for its interstellar shipbuilding.

  The Hegen Hub

  A nexus system bare of habitable planets but rich in wormholes with a collection of adjoining worlds. The Hub serves as a galactic trading post and transportation hub.

  Vervain

  A technologically advanced and comfortable Earth-like planet adjoining the Hegen Hub, it was invaded by the Cetagandans, and only saved from conquest by the actions of the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet and the Barrayaran space fleet under the leadership of Aral Vorkosigan. It is part of the Hegen Hub Alliance along with Aslund, Barrayar, and Pol.

  Old Earth

  The original home of humans and the beginning point for all human interstellar expansion, Earth has become a sleepy galactic backwater due to the few usable wormholes in its sector of space. It still remains of some importance due to religious and cultural tourism, and all major galactic political entities maintain embassies on the planet. Its population of nine billion is still handicapped by a divisive number of competing governments, as opposed to a single planetary government structure that is commonly practiced elsewhere throughout the galaxy. The planet has managed to maintain a large number of its cultural pilgrimage sites despite global warming and a major rise in ocean levels, thanks to intricate engineering and a vast series of water- controlling coastal dikes.

  Union of Free Habitats (Quaddiespace)

  Located on the edge of Sector V, Quaddiespace has been in existence for more than two centuries. It was originally founded as a haven for quaddies—a class of humans genetically altered for zero-gravity environments by the addition of two more arms where their legs used to be, and claimed as slaves by the corporation that genetically engineered them. After anti-gravity technology in a large part rendered the quaddies redundant, the quaddies escaped to freedom by commandeering a D-620 super jump ship and heading out to the far edge of human colonization to found their own civilization.

  They staked their claim on a double ring of asteroids and expanded through it to form a population group over a million strong. With a bottom-up government organized around the principle of work groups, and a work ethic that cannot be matched in the galaxy, the quaddies have done well for themselves. Graf Station, with a population of fifty thousand, is the oldest settlement, and the original asteroid and jump ship are preserved there as a museum. The population does include some legged humans, and areas with artificial gravity include Graf Station, Metropolitan, Sanctuary, Michenko, and Union Station. The quaddies conduct their interstellar trade through these outposts.

  Kline Station

  A three-hundred-year-old space station orbiting a planetless dark star, Kline Station serves six nearby jump points and the interstellar traffic that flows through them.

  Athos

  Athos is a predominantly agricultural planet settled and governed by a monastic order. All human residents of Athos are male. Reproduction is carefully controlled by the government, and is practiced through uterine replicators, using ovaries harvested from off-planet women and the sperm of the planet's males who have been selected as worthy parents. Fear of women is endemic in the society, and few men from Athos travel through the wormhole nexus other than for necessary spaceflights to restock the planet's egg banks and for galactic trade. Even access to information and literature from outside Athos is restricted on the planet, except for necessary scientific journals and other research material.

  Frost IV

  A colonized world destroyed in recent history due to a major tectonic disaster. The planet is frequently used by the illicit on Jackson's Whole and elsewhere as a convenience for forging new identities. Given that all Frost IV's official records were lost in the planetary disaster, it is very simple to assign an untraceable identity from Frost IV to someone seeking a new life, assuming that they are old enough to have lived through the disaster.

  Aslund

  One of the Hegen Hub worlds, it is part of the Hegen Hub Alliance.

  Nuovo Brasil

  Mentioned in the Vorkosigan Saga, but no detail about it is provided.

  Mahata Solaris

  Miles Vorkosigan passed through this planet's local space in his guise as Admiral Naismith while fleeing Cetagandan assassins shortly after the breakout from Dagoola IV.

  Lairuba

  A world settled by Muslims. The ruler is a hereditary head of state with both political and religious power. He is known as the Baba.

  Zoave Twilight

  A nearby neighbor of Marilac, with a rich neighborhood of wormhole jump points that provide cross-routes throughout the nexus.

  Kshatriya

  A distant planet famed as the source of mercenaries hired for interstellar conflicts.

  Tau Verde IV

  This planet system was the site where Miles Vorkosigan began his mercenary career and his work as an interstellar troubleshooter. Here he found his destiny when he joined up with the Oseran Mercenaries, which he eventually converted into the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet. The Dendarii still serve as a secret arm of Barrayaran Imperial Security.

  The Vorkosigan Saga Novel Summaries

  John Helfers

  Editor's Note: Instead of the traditional method of listing the books and novellas in their first published order, we have chosen to arrange them in chronological order as events unfold in the Vorkosigan universe.

  "Dreamweaver's Dilemma"

  First published in Dreamweaver's Dilemma, 1996

  Approximately six hundred years before Miles Vorkosigan's birth, Anias Ruey, a "feelie-dream" composer, uses a device called a dream synthesizer to create artificial dreams that people can experience as if they were actually dreaming themselves, a sort of virtual reality. She is late providing a sequel to her most successful feelie-dream, a romance called Triad, mostly because the idea bores her, and takes a new commission from a mysterious man named Rudolph Kinsey, who makes her uneasy, but the price he offers is too good to pass up. To recharge herself, she travels to the secluded home of her friend Chalmys DuBauer, a spaceship pilot who spent more than a century traveling between Earth and its first off-planet habitat, Beta Colony, and who was rendered obsolete by the technological developments made during that time. She completes the commission, a dark and violent scenario, and gives it to Rudolph in exchange for a bonded check. Before he leaves, he requests a brief feelie-dream for his aunt. When Anias goes to set up her dream synthesizer, she finds it has been sabotaged, and would have killed her if she had used it. Suspecting that Kinsey had tried to kill her, she lures him to DuBauer's Ohio home, which is surrounded by a forest full of lethal creatures. After taking him out to the woods and threatening to leave him there, DuBauer learns that Kinsey's real name is Carlos Diaz, and that he was hired as a middleman by a man he knows as Doctor Bianca to get the feelie-dream made. Anias realizes that, if used on a sleeping person without their knowledge, the disturbing vision could drive them to suicide. With the help of Lieutenant Mendez, who had been investigating the synthesizer accident, she confronts Doctor Bianca and recovers the master cassette for the feelie-dream, returning the payment in the process, and thwarting a would-be murderer.

  Falling Free (1988)

  Winner of the 1988 Nebula Award for Best Novel

  Leo Graf, an efficient, by-the-book engineer for GalacTech, a galaxy-wide corporation, is sent to the mys
terious Cay Project Habitat on a space station orbiting the planet Rodeo. Upon arrival, he learns he will be training a group of genetically engineered humans who have a second pair of arms instead of legs, for increased agility in freefall, as well as other modifications to adapt them to living permanently in space. GalacTech's plan is to train them and hire them out as deep-space labor to other companies. The project is run by Bruce Van Atta, a former subordinate of Leo's who moved into management, who is also the epitome of the soulless, profit-minded, middle-management corporate executive. After getting used to his trainees' appearance, Leo begins teaching space engineering, and over the next few months finds the "quaddies," as they are nicknamed, intelligent, quick to learn, and very capable. However, that intelligence is also creating problems. Treated as property by the corporation, the quaddies have begun forming attachments to each other, especially during the breeding process. This leads to a near-disaster when Tony and Claire, who have a baby, are told that they won't be allowed to stay together, and try to escape the station and flee the system. Van Atta alerts planetside security, and an overzealous security guard shoots Tony, foiling their escape. After the incident, Leo learns that if the Cay Project fails, the quaddies would be sterilized and left on Rodeo, suffering under the planet's gravity every day, until they died. Not long after the incident, his worst fears come true. When Beta Colony announces the development of a prototype artificial gravity system, the quaddies become expendable, and Van Atta is ordered to scuttle the project, dump them all on Rodeo, and get out as soon as possible. Knowing he cannot abandon the quaddies to the fate the corporation is planning for them, Leo comes up with a desperate plan—he'll enlist them to hijack the entire space station, disassemble it, and move it through the nearby wormhole to deep space, where the quaddies can live free. He enlists several quaddies as ringleaders and rigs a simulated accident to evacuate the human personnel off the station. However, there are several obstacles hindering their escape. Tony is stuck in the hospital on Rodeo, and must be rescued. An accident breaks a critical component of the jump mechanism, forcing a jury-rigged replacement in space. Not to mention the thousand-and-one other things that need to be done to make the station as self-sufficient as possible. And all the while, Leo knows Van Atta will be coming after them to take back what was his, even if only to see it destroyed. Working frantically, Leo and his cobbled-together crew manage the nearly impossible, and get the space station through the wormhole, and into space controlled by a friendly government—and find freedom for the quaddies, for the first time in their young lives.