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By Root 1187 0

that can be set to dissolve under specific conditions, including at a predetermined body temperature. Once ingested, they multiply, then switch to producing two chemicals in different vesicles inside their membranes. The vesicles engorge until an increase in the victim's body temperature bursts them, and the chemicals mix, producing a violently exothermic reaction—killing the parasite, damaging the surrounding tissues, and stimulating more nearby parasites to detonate, becoming microscopic bombs. Deceased victims look like they have melted, dissolving into puddles of flesh and bones.

The Cetagandans have the only known antidote for this weapon. A delaying treatment is to cool the body in an ice-water bath and filter the organisms from the victim's blood. However, since they also hide inside tissues, this is not a cure, as energy is continuously drained from the body to create new parasites until death results. The only known person to survive infection without treatment is Russo Gupta. Both Miles and Bel Thorne are infected during the investigation at Graf Station, and are cured by the haut-women of the Star Crèche, although both suffer permanent physical damage. (DI)

Black Escarpment:

Part of a mountain range located deep in Barrayar's Southern Continent, it is where Miles trained in winter maneuvers during his time at the Imperial Academy. (VG, CC)

Black Gang:

The name Mark gives to his various sub-personalities that emerge during his torture by Baron Ryoval, and which stay with him afterward. (MD, CC)

Bleakman, Greg:

Gregor Vorbarra's alias while he is absent without leave from Barrayar. (VG)

Bloody Century:

A term the Barrayarans use to refer to the time of endless fighting on Barrayar before Dorca Vorbarra united all the Vor under his banner. (B)

Blue cheese dressing:

One of the two provisions at Base One that weren't destroyed in the Barrayaran attack. Cordelia, Aral, and Dubauer survive on it during their trip to the supply cache. (SH)

Bobbi:

A quaddie from Gang B on Cay Habitat. (FF)

Body pod:

Also known as a bod pod, it is a cheap, one-size-fits-all emergency survival module in the form of a mostly spherical balloon. A person can quickly enter and seal the pod, then the automatic system will inflate and maintain the internal environment until the inhabitant can be rescued. (All)

Bollan Design:

A Komarran jump-ship powerplant design firm contracted by Soudha to make five experimental Necklin field generators. The chief engineer of the project quit the company to help with the wormhole destruction plot, and is arrested on the jump station with the other collaborators. (K)

Bone replacement:

A medical operation in which weakened or permanently damaged bones are reinforced or replaced by plastic versions. The existing bone marrow is transferred to the new matrix in the artificial bones. Miles undergoes several operations over his lifetime to replace his skeleton with artificial bones. (BA, VG)

Bone, Vicky:

A lieutenant in the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet, she is the outfit's head accountant, and is a precise, middle-aged, heavyset woman. When the payment for the Marilac operation doesn't arrive from Barrayar, she receives permission from Miles to get creative with the finances, including setting up a short-term loan against the Triumph itself. She also creates the untraceable half-million-Imperial-mark credit chit for Miles to use to try to buy off Galen, which he gives to Mark instead. (BA)

Boni, Sylva:

A deceased Escobaran ensign found in the aftermath of the final battle between Barrayar and Escobar by Falco Ferrell and Tersa Boni. She was Tersa's twenty-year-old daughter, and the reason the medtech asked to be assigned to retrieval duty in that sector. (SH)

Boni, Tersa:

A medtech of the Escobaran Personnel Retrieval and Identification ship, she performs body recovery after the Barrayar-Escobar war, and locates the body of her daughter, Sylva, who was killed in battle. (SH)

Bonn:

No first name given. A lieutenant of Engineering in the Barrayaran military, he is Miles's immediate superior