Enforcers:
A name Miles gives to a group of chosen men who keep order during the food drops at the prisoner camp on Dagoola IV once he begins organizing the inmates for the upcoming escape. (BI)
Environmental Impact Assessment form:
A bureaucratic form that George Bannerji insists must be completed before he fires on the Cay Habitat ship during the quaddies' escape. (FF)
Equinox:
One of Komarr's domed cities, known for its population of wild cockatoos. (K)
Escobar:
A rich trading planet located in a heavily populated star system, like Tau Ceti and Orient IV. Barrayar tries to conquer it using the survey planet (Sergyar) where Aral and Cordelia met as a staging ground, as a wormhole was discovered near it that leads to Escobar, but they are defeated. The Duronas set up their clinic there after leaving Jackson's Whole. (FF, SH, MD)
Estanis:
No first name given. A deceased Cetagandan ghem-general, the official story claims he committed suicide after his Navy's defeat in the Vervain conflict. The rumor is that his "suicide" consisted of thirty-two stab wounds in the back. (C)
Estelle:
A high-end women's clothing store in Vorbarr Sultana for Vor ladies. Alys meets Taura and Roic there to outfit her for Miles's wedding. (WG)
Esterhazy:
No first name given. An armsman at Vorkosigan Surleau, he is forty years old, and in excellent physical condition. During Vordarian's coup, Piotr chooses him to assist in taking Gregor into hiding. He brings horses for Piotr, Cordelia, and Gregor to ride into the Dendarii Mountains, and also tells Cordelia that Karla Hysopi and Elena Bothari were taken by Vordarian's men. He has a four-year-old son. (B)
Eta Ceta IV:
The homeworld of the Cetagandan Empire. Miles and Ivan travel there to pay respects to the deceased Empress. Its cities are attractive and brightly lit, although Miles thinks they are gaudy when he first sees them. Its citizens' taxes are only half of Barrayar's, but Miles's homeworld keeps up with their rival on a military basis with only a quarter of Eta Ceta IV's natural resources. (C, DI)
Euronews Network:
A vidnews network on Earth. Lise Vallerie is one of its reporters. Miles's daring rescue of the clerk from the burning wine shop, along with his interview as Admiral Naismith, is seen by Duv Galeni, getting him in trouble for going absent without leave from the Barrayaran Embassy. (BA)
Explosive ice-die forming:
A real-world technique used by Leo Graf and the quaddies to make a duplicate vortex mirror that matches an existing mirror. First, an ice mold is made by flowing water onto the good mirror in sub-zero refrigeration. Then a metal blank is explosively formed to the ice mold using explosives, which, in Leo's case, is improvised from gasoline. (FF)
• • F • •
Falcon 9 jump ship:
Nikolai owns a model of this fast courier vessel that Miles rode on during some of his Imperial Security missions. He discusses the ship with the boy during their first conversation. (K)
Fallow Core:
A high-tech fortress on Marilac, it was held against a Cetagandan siege by Colonel Guy Tremont and his men until the base was betrayed to the enemy. The 14th Commandos, among others, were captured and imprisoned at the Dagoola prison camp. (BI)
Farr, Andro:
A good-looking Komarran, he approaches Ekaterin, whom he met at a Winterfair reception for Serifosa terraforming employees, to ask if she knows anything about his missing roommate Marie Trogir, who left all of her personal items and cats behind when she was killed in a test run of the wormhole closer. Ekaterin is unable to help him, and her Uncle Vorthys suggests he contact Security about the matter. (K)
Fast-penta:
A powerful truth drug that renders the subject unable to resist answering questions. Its effects include an overwhelmingly strong feeling of happiness and helpfulness, along with relaxing the body. A subject under fast-penta will answer questions literally, requiring skilled interrogation to elicit the desired information. To ensure security, some couriers, military operatives, and other personnel are given an induced allergy treatment so they will die from anaphylactic shock rather than reveal secret information. It is common to administer a test strip to the subject to determine if a natural or induced allergy exists before using the drug. If allowed, the subject will often babble extraneous information that can be embarrassing, as subjects normally remember the interrogation afterward. Some subjects also drool. Due to these embarrassing effects, most people dread being the subject of a fast-penta interrogation. Once the interrogation is complete, an antidote is usually administered, which neutralizes its effects in a few minutes.
Although fast-penta has no truly harmful side effects, afterward many subjects experience a drug hangover, including headache, dizziness, and muddled thinking. Fast-penta interrogation is sufficiently reliable to be admissible in virtually all courts. A court order or voluntary cooperation is required in most jurisdictions. Miles has an unusual reaction to fast-penta, where he babbles a constant stream of useless information, and can even resist the drug's effects by reciting poetry or lines from a play. (All)
Fat Ninny:
The horse Miles rides to Silvy Vale, a thickset roan gelding that imprinted on him when they were both very young. Not wanting to embarrass himself, Miles decides to call him Chieftain if any of the villagers ask his name. Ninny almost is killed by Mara Mattulich after the celebration, suffering a deep neck cut that Doctor Dea treats. When Mark is on Barrayar, he feeds him sugar at Aral's request, to see if the animal is fooled into thinking he is Miles. The horse isn't fooled, only confused. (MD, MM)
Father Frost:
The mythological being that plays a role in the Winterfair festival on Barrayar, similar to Santa Claus. (MD)
Federstok:
A city on Barrayar where an extremely conservative Vor lord declared himself Emperor after Vidal Vordarian's death, but was defeated in less than thirty hours. (B)
Feelie-dreams:
A form of entertainment, a feelie-dream is a type of prerecorded video that can be played inside a user's mind through a cybernetic implant, in effect putting them into the dream story itself. It can also be used as a weapon, as Anias Ruey discovered hundreds of years earlier. Still manufactured during Miles's time, feelie-dreams are popular among the younger generation of Cetagandans, untitled artists, and the idle rich. (C)
Felice:
A nation on Tau Verde IV, currently at war with the Pelians. Miles's first cargo, weapons disguised as agricultural equipment, is supposed to be delivered there through the blockade. (WA)
Fell Station:
A space station orbiting Jackson's Whole, owned by House Fell. Miles and Bel attend a party there, where they meet Baron Fell, Baron Ryoval, and the quaddie musician Nicol. (L)
Ferrell, Falco:
A pilot officer on the Escobaran Personnel Retrieval and Identification ship, he helps Medtech Sylvia Boni recover bodies after the Barrayar-Escobar war. He thinks she is a deviant when she kisses a corpse good-bye, only to learn the body is that of her deceased daughter. (SH)
Fetaine:
An obsolete mutagenic poison invented as a terror weapon on Barrayar. Normal protective equipment is not enough to handle it, as it has an incredibly high penetration value. It is the cause of the near-mutiny at Laskowski Base by the technicians when they refuse to clean up a spill of the toxin. (VG)
Firka:
No first name given. One of Russo Gupta's smuggler friends, he was the bookkeeper of the group, handling false passports, easing them around regulations, and taking care of nosy officials. He was killed by Ker Dubauer after transporting his cargo of stolen haut-fetuses. Gupta used his identity while on Graf Station to try to kill Dubauer. (DI)
Five, Garnet:
A quaddie on Graf Station, she is slim and long-limbed, with white-blond hair, leaf-green eyes, and high cheekbones. She is the quaddie Ensign Corbeau was with when he didn't respond to the crew summons
from the Barrayaran escort. In the scuffle to retrieve him, her arm was broken, inflaming tensions between the quaddies, the Barrayarans, and the Komarrans. She is a premier dancer in the Minchenko Memorial Troupe that performs zero-gee ballet. She was with Bel Thorne when both of them were gassed unconscious by Russo Gupta, and awoke to find herself in a recycling bin. After the mystery is solved, Ekaterin calls her to help convince Ensign Corbeau to accept the diplomatic officer position on Graf Station. (DI)
Five-space math:
The complex higher math field that governs the science of wormhole jumps and technology. Miles has a difficult time with his five-space navigation classes at the Imperial Academy, but he passes them. On Komarr, Barto Radovas was a five-space math engineer, as is Doctor Riva. (K, MM)
Flimsy:
The standard means of conveying a hard copy of written or printed documents, the flimsy is a paper-thin sheet of plastic on which text is printed. Most standard comconsoles have built-in printers to create hard copies of documents. (All)
Flipsider:
A derogatory term for a hermaphrodite. (VG)
Float chair:
A device quaddies use to move about more easily in gravity, it is a small, one-person anti-gravity pod. It doesn't have a place for feet, but handles on the floor where the quaddie rests its lower set of hands, with the controls mounted on a central column. (L, DI)
Force screen:
A generated field of pure energy, impenetrable to all physical attacks, and many energy-based ones. The technology behind it is not explained. They are used for defense of ships, buildings, and persons. A force screen can be conformed to the shape of a building or ship or be spherical. A home version may be powerful enough to kill even large insects, and when a larger life-form comes into contact with it, it envelops it in a golden glow. Vehicle-mounted versions provide shielding from debris and radiation for spaceships moving at high velocity. Chalmys DuBauer traps Carlos Diaz outside of the screen surrounding his property to interrogate him about the feelie-dream he hired Anias Ruey to create. A kilometers-wide force screen over the Cetagandan Emperor's Celestial Gardens requires an entire power plant for its maintenance and provides both military and environmental protection. A spherical force screen over the Marilacan prisoner-of-war camp on Dagoola IV shows above ground as an opalescent dome. Personal defense screens are created by a wire mesh suit that protects against nerve disruptor and stunner attacks, and later a personal plasma mirror shield is created that protects against plasma arc blasts. (All except FF)
Fors, Bern:
A sergeant for GalacTech security. Sent out to recover a stolen shuttle on Rodeo, he and his partner are thwarted by Silver and Ivy Minchenko, who use the shuttle's engines to destroy their ground vehicle. (FF)
Foscol, Lena:
An accountant for the Waste Heat Department of the Komarr terraforming project at Serifosa, she is a middle-aged woman with frizzy, gray-blond hair. Involved in Soudha's scheme to destroy the wormhole to Barrayar, she embezzles the money from the terraforming budget to finance the jump-point plot. She is the one who informs Miles that help will be on the way after Etienne and he are chained outside, and calls Ekaterin to get them. She is noticably upset that Etienne died before help arrived. During the final standoff, she votes to continue the hostage situation, wanting to use Ekaterin and Helen Vorthys to escape the standoff at the jump-point station. (K)
14th Commandos:
A captured Marilacan military unit held in the prison camp on Dagoola IV until being rescued by Miles and the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet. (BI)
4th Armored All-Terrain Rangers:
A captured Marilacan military unit held in the prison camp on Dagoola IV until being rescued by Miles and the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet. (BI)
Framingham:
No first name given. A sergeant of Blue Squad in the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet, he participates in the mission to rescue Mark and the other Dendarii at the clone facility on Jackson's Whole. (MD)
Franklin:
A representative from Barca on the Population Council, Ethan and Desroches discuss the possibility of sending him on the mission and the potential negative repercussions of it. (EA)
Frill:
A derogatory term for a woman used by Barrayans, implying that they are useless decoration. (B)
Frost IV:
A planet that lost its entire computer network system and records in a tectonic occurrence twenty-eight years earlier. Jackson's Whole, which sells complete new identities, often uses it as an origin planet if the buyer fits the correct age range. (BA)
Fuzzy crabs:
Animals native to Sergyar that are the size of a pig, with too many hairy black legs, four beady, black eyes set in neckless heads, and razor-sharp yellow beaks. Aral and Cordelia fend off three of them while burying Reg Rosemont. (SH)
• • G • •
Galen, Rebecca:
One of the two hundred counselors killed in the Solstice Massacre. Her death caused Ser Galen to become a terrorist fighting against Barrayar. In a communiqué between Aral and Simon about Duv Galeni's suitability to join Barrayaran Imperial Security, Aral noted she was one of the few victims who faced her killers when she died. (BA)
Galen, Ser:
The father of Duv Galeni, he is a Komarran terrorist who is behind the plot to replace Miles with Mark, and have him sow chaos on Barrayar. He is about sixty years old, with blue eyes, gray hair, and a thick body, and appears to be an ordinary businessman or teacher. He travels under the name Van der Poole. His sister Rebecca was killed in the Solstice Massacre, and his eldest son died when a bomb Galen made went off prematurely.
Supposedly killed in that incident as well, Galen has been living on Earth while training the clone Mark to impersonate Miles. He switches the two brothers, then gets Mark released from jail, kidnaps Ivan, and forces Miles and Duv to meet him at the Thames Tidal Barrier to eliminate Miles. Mark kills him with a nerve disruptor when Galen orders him to kill Miles. (BA)
Galeni, Duv:
A captain in Barrayar's Imperial Security, and the senior military attaché for the Barrayaran Embassy at London, Earth. He is also, by default, chief of Imperial Security there as well as Service Security. In his thirties, with dark hair, hooded, nutmeg-brown eyes, a hard, guarded mouth, and a Roman profile, he is an arresting-looking man with blunt, clean fingers. He was born David Galen of the Galen Orbital Transshipping Warehouse Cartel, once a very wealthy, powerful family. His aunt, Rebecca Galen, died in the Solstice Massacre. Duv's father, Ser, became an active member of the resistance, and was thought to have been killed, along with his oldest son, in an accident with one of his own bombs. Because of his Komarran heritage, he has worked very hard to earn his current position. Duv has a doctoral degree in Modern History and Political Science from the Imperial University at Vorbarr Sultana and at age twenty-six turned down a faculty position at the Belgravia College on Barrayar to go back to the Imperial Service Academy.
He is kidnapped by his father, Ser Galen, who tries to turn him against Barrayar and get him to work for Komarr's freedom. Initially prejudicial toward Miles because he is Aral's son, his attitude changes when the two are held prisoner together. During the events at the Thames Tidal Barrier, Duv takes out two of the Cetagandans sent to kill Miles, and steals their groundcar to get Miles, Ivan, Elli, Mark, and himself out of the area.
A few years later, he is posted in Vorbarr Sultana and involved with Laisa Toscane, which goes awry after Miles invites them to an Imperial State dinner, where she meets Emperor Gregor. When Duv doesn't move fast enough, Laisa falls for Gregor instead. Duv thinks Miles arranged the whole thing, and insults him, but later comes to his senses and apologizes. He also lets Miles know when Simon first begins to exhibit his memory problems. When Haroche can't make his frame of Miles stick, he tries to frame Duv instead, but Miles thwarts him, clearing Duv of all charges. Duv gets over Laisa and falls in love with Delia Koudelka.
During the preparations for Greg
or's wedding, he has been promoted to the rank of commodore, and is the Chief of Komarran Affairs for Imperial Security. He also advises Alys on aspects of Komarran tradition and etiquette for the Emperor's wedding. He marries Delia, and they both attend Miles's wedding. (BA, CC, M, WG)
Gamad:
No first name given. A lieutenant in the Felician Army, he disagrees with Elena's decision to release the prisoners when the brig was hit by weapons fire during a battle with the Pelians. He also informs Miles that Major Daum was killed during that same battle, and that he is the senior ranking Felician officer until relief arrives. Miles finds him to be an irritating glory-hound. (WA)
Gasoline:
Fuel still used to power land vehicles on more remote planets. When one hundred tons of it is accidentally shipped to the Cay Habitat instead of fuel rods, Leo Graf turns it to his advantage by using the gasoline as an explosive to create a new vortex mirror. (FF)
Gavin:
The head accountant for GalacTech's Operations Department, he appears to be a big, rumpled goon with a broken nose, but speaks precisely, with elegant elocution. During the hearing regarding the Rodeo spaceport security breach, he explains the operational relationship between the Habitat, Rodeo, and Orient IV to Leo. (FF)
Gelle:
No first name given. A Cetagandan ghem-lady, she is beautiful, tall, and elf-like, with blue eyes and blond-white hair that falls halfway to her knees. She talks briefly with Miles and Ivan when they first meet Lord Yenaro, who criticizes her choice of perfume with the outfit she's wearing, irritating her. (C)
General Accounting & Inventory Control:
A bureaucratic office of GalacTech that gives Bruce Van Atta the power to destroy the quaddies by recommending that all "post-fetal experimental tissue cultures" be destroyed by cremation as per IGS Standard Biolab rules. (FF)
The Vorkosigan Companion Page 32