The Vorkosigan Companion - Lillian Stewart Carl [121]
Andy:
Claire and Tony's baby quaddie, born on the Cay Project Habitat. (FF)
Anti-gravity field:
A null-gee field can be created just about anywhere with the proper equipment, and is often used for sleep and exotic recreation. For those not accustomed to free fall, this can cause drop-nausea. While hosting a quaddie musician, House Fell uses a null-gee bubble to allow her to float while playing her instrument with all four arms. (L)
Anti-gravity freight pallet:
A self-powered lift cart that can move freight, luggage, and other equipment a short distance. Often, the user will ride on the pallet along with the cargo. The pallet eliminates gravity, but not inertia, so the cart and cargo have to be stopped manually. (All)
Anti-gravity lift tubes:
Mechanical elevators have been replaced by anti-gravity lift tubes. The traveler rises or is lowered at a certain speed, depending on the tube's setting. Built-in safety programs provide for controlled lowering in case of power or equipment failure; however, they can also be overridden, as Mark found out while escaping from Baron Ryoval's laboratory. Emergency handholds/ladders are usually built into the tube walls as a safety backup. (All)
Anti-Vor pro-galactic faction:
One of the splinter political groups on Barrayar, they want a written constitution for the government. (VG)
Apmad:
No first name given. The vice president of GalacTech's Operations Department, she is at the high end of middle age and dumpy, with short, frizzy gray hair and serious eyes. She is inspecting Rodeo and the Cay Habitat when Claire and Tony try to escape, and oversees the hearing into the incident. She is prejudiced and appalled by the genetic experimentation that created the quaddies. As a young woman, she'd had four or five pregnancies that were all terminated due to genetic defects, then gave up trying to reproduce, got divorced, and went to work for GalacTech. She sends the order to shut the Cay Project down. (FF)
Apoptotic Prokaryote:
A bioengineered life-form, smaller and simpler than a bacterium, used by General Lucas Haroche to contaminate Simon's memory chip. Once ingested, it manufactures an enzyme that breaks down the chip's protein matrix, in effect eating the proteins to reproduce. After reproducing a certain number of times, it is supposed to self-destruct, leaving no physical evidence of its existence. The original lot was found in the Imperial Security Evidence Room in Aisle Five, Shelf Nine, Bin Twenty-Seven, and was mislabeled as a Komarran virus. It was originally supposed to be used on Simon in a plot created by the Komarran terrorist Ser Galen. (M)
Aragones:
No first name given. A senior partner and doctor at the Beauchene Life Center, he is a big, bluff man with bronze skin, a noble nose, and graying hair, who works in a very cluttered office. He briefs Miles and Elli on the Dendarii mercenaries injured during the Marilac operation. (MD)
Arata, Tav:
A security officer at Kline Station, he is a neurasthenic Eurasian with lank black hair, pale skin, and eyes like needles, who says little but listens a lot. His uniform is mostly black, with an orange collar and side stripe. Assigned to cleaning up the mess left by Quinn, he gets a date with her for his troubles, and no explanation about what happened. (EA)
Ariel:
An Illyrican-made small warship, swift and powerful for its size, that Miles captures after taking Captain Auson and his boarding party prisoner. After taking over the ore refinery orbiting Tau Verde IV, Miles gives it to Bel Thorne as part of the hermaphrodite's brevet promotion. He uses it for the ordnance and scientist pickup at Jackson's Whole, and also in the prisoner escape on Dagoola IV. Posing as Miles, Mark takes the ship on his ill-fated clone rescue mission on Jackson's Whole. (BI, L, WA)
Armsman:
The social title of a Barrayaran retainer