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"Labyrinth" (1989)

Miles goes to Jackson's Whole to pick up a defecting genetic scientist for Barrayar, under cover of buying munitions on the criminal planet. The mission gets off to a rocky start when Bel Thorne insults one of the ruling barons at a party while defending the honor of a quaddie musician. Then the quaddie finds them later, wanting to hire them to smuggle her off-planet. Also, the scientist they're liberating needs several valuable genetic samples that happen to be injected into another of his bioengineered creations, which is held by House Ryoval. He wants Miles to kill the creature and bring back the samples. Miles and his team try to break into the laboratory to retrieve it, but his men are caught and escorted out, leaving Miles behind. He finds a guard and interrogates him under fast-penta, but the man turns out to be the head of security. Captured, Miles is thrown into a basement room where they're keeping the creature. She turns out to be an intelligent, eight-foot-tall, bioengineered super-soldier, whom Miles befriends in an unusual way, even giving her a real name, Taura. During an attempt to escape, Miles stumbles across Ryoval's genetic library, which he destroys. He almost finds his way out, but the guards come for them, planning on trading Miles to Baron Fell in exchange for the quaddie. Out of options, Miles attacks the guards with Taura, Nicol, and Bel, succeeding in escaping in a float-truck. They are about to be forced down by the chasing security forces, but Dendarii reinforcements arrive in a combat shuttle, driving the House Ryoval forces off and evacuating Miles and his group. Taura joins the Dendarii, and Miles and his team, with the scientist safe under their protection, escape from Jackson's Whole by the skin of their teeth, leaving a furious Baron Ryoval behind.

"The Borders of Infinity" (1989)

The expected invasion of the planet Marilac by the Cetagandan Empire has happened, and Miles Vorkosigan finds himself in a force-field prison camp filled with ten thousand Marilacan soldiers. Beaten and stripped naked within five minutes of his arrival, he nevertheless sets about his mission—to find Colonel Guy Tremont and rescue him to form the nucleus of a new Marilacan guerrilla army. His only ally at first is a man named Suegar, who refers to Miles as "The One" that will save them all, and who just might be mad—or might not be. But Tremont is catatonic and dying, and Miles realizes his mission is now not to save just one man, but to save ten thousand. He slowly gains control of the camp, first by uniting the disparate factions inside, then by transforming the riots for the ration dispersal into an orderly food distribution. His organization of the camp serves a vital secondary purpose as well—to prepare the prisoners for the rescue they don't even know is coming. When the force shield drops due to the Dendarii's attack, Miles now faces the logistical problem of organizing and loading ten thousand people—and finding room for all of them on his ships—before Cetagandan reinforcements arrive. Using the food distribution plan as the blueprint for loading the prisoners, he manages it, although they lose two shuttles, one empty, one full, to a Cetagandan fighter in orbit. Also, Beatrice, one of the leaders Miles had relied on to maintain order in the camp, is lost due to a ramp malfunction on the last shuttle to lift off, which haunts Miles, as he risked his own life to save her, and failed.

Brothers in Arms (1989)

After the prisoner rescue on Dagoola IV, Miles and the Dendarii head to Earth to rest and repair the fleet, having been chased halfway across the galaxy by the vengeful Cetagandans. Also, they need to get paid by the Barrayaran government for their efforts—and badly, as the Dendarii are literally broke. Still juggling his Admiral Naismith persona alongside Lieutenant Vorkosigan, Miles goes to meet his superior officer, a Komarran named Duv Galeni, at the Barrayaran Embassy. Miles's cousin Ivan is assigned to orient him at the embassy, and soon Miles is doing