(no subject)
Miles, love --
This may seem like an odd question, but
*Cordelia taps her fingers thoughtfully on the polished wood of the comconsole, eyeing the unfinished sentence. With a sigh, she deletes the line and starts again. For the fifth time.*
When you were about twenty, did you ever
*She makes a small disgusted noise and deletes the line without even attempting to finish it.
Is Miles even the one she should be asking? The boy she saw didn't look like Mark, but she isn't sure what Mark looked like at that age. And if there is a second clone, similarly body-sculpted to match Miles's height (horrible thought, that; Mark has enough identity issues as it is) then neither Miles nor Mark is likely to know of it.
Once phrased that way, the question has an obvious answer. Miles may or may not be the boy she saw, but asking him could be useful in another direction: he has the resources of Barrayar's Imperial Security at his disposal.
Bringing in ImpSec on the larger question hasn't occurred to her before, but it may be worth doing. Possibly the Betan information nets as well, at least the public ones -- though if need be, she may look into calling in a favor or two from someone with access to secured data. She even toys briefly with the idea of getting in touch with the Dendarii, who might be able to acquire information beyond even her considerable reach.
It's to be an all-out effort, then, if the first query fails to turn up results. It will have to be. This is no longer a harmless and intriguing diversion. Her son is involved.
One son or another.
Frowning at the screen, Cordelia taps out a brief message and addresses it to Lord Auditor Miles Vorkosigan, eyes-only:*
Miles, love --
What can you tell me about a place called Milliways?
This may seem like an odd question, but
*Cordelia taps her fingers thoughtfully on the polished wood of the comconsole, eyeing the unfinished sentence. With a sigh, she deletes the line and starts again. For the fifth time.*
When you were about twenty, did you ever
*She makes a small disgusted noise and deletes the line without even attempting to finish it.
Is Miles even the one she should be asking? The boy she saw didn't look like Mark, but she isn't sure what Mark looked like at that age. And if there is a second clone, similarly body-sculpted to match Miles's height (horrible thought, that; Mark has enough identity issues as it is) then neither Miles nor Mark is likely to know of it.
Once phrased that way, the question has an obvious answer. Miles may or may not be the boy she saw, but asking him could be useful in another direction: he has the resources of Barrayar's Imperial Security at his disposal.
Bringing in ImpSec on the larger question hasn't occurred to her before, but it may be worth doing. Possibly the Betan information nets as well, at least the public ones -- though if need be, she may look into calling in a favor or two from someone with access to secured data. She even toys briefly with the idea of getting in touch with the Dendarii, who might be able to acquire information beyond even her considerable reach.
It's to be an all-out effort, then, if the first query fails to turn up results. It will have to be. This is no longer a harmless and intriguing diversion. Her son is involved.
One son or another.
Frowning at the screen, Cordelia taps out a brief message and addresses it to Lord Auditor Miles Vorkosigan, eyes-only:*
Miles, love --
What can you tell me about a place called Milliways?