The Vorkosigan Companion - Lillian Stewart Carl [202]
Promoted to lieutenant in Imperial Security, he travels under the cover identity of a courier officer, but actually is a galactic Special Operations agent who reports directly to Simon Illyan, who reports directly to Gregor. While attending the funeral of the Dowager Empress on Eta Ceta IV, in the Cetagandan Empire, Miles solves the murder of the ba Lura, foils a plot against the Cetagandan Emperor, and stops a war between Cetaganda and Barrayar. Miles also falls in love with the haut Rian Degtiar, knowing there is no conceivable way they ever could be together. After risking his life to recover the missing Great Key of the Cetagandan Star Crèche regalia in time for the funeral of the Emperor's mother, and recovering copied Cetagandan gene banks from the eight satrap governors, Miles is awarded the Order of Merit by the Cetagandan Emperor.
Next, he is sent to Jackson's Whole to pick up a genetic scientist to work on some interesting new biological strains that Imperial Security has secured. Miles gets tangled up in rescuing a quaddie musician and a bioengineered super-soldier from the two wealthiest Houses on the planet. He earns the wrath of Baron Ryoval when he destroys the genetic samples library in Ryoval's laboratory during his escape.
Miles next earns the enmity of the Cetagandan Empire by using the Dendarii to stage a daring rescue of 10,000 Marilacan prisoners from Dagoola IV, a prison camp. Miles goes in under cover as one of the prisoners. He combines psychology and a bit of religious persuasion to organize the prisoners for escape. He is almost killed before he can pull off the rescue, in the course of which he loses 207 prisoners, along with two shuttles, plus four dead and sixteen wounded Dendarii.
Miles was supposed to report to Tau Ceti after the mission, but the Cetagandans put a large price on his head, forcing him and the Dendarii to lay low on Earth to repair the fleet and get needed medical attention for his crew. Miles and Elli fall in love during this time, but she turns down his offer of marriage. She wants to be Admiral Quinn in space, not Lady Vorkosigan stuck on Barrayar. While coming to terms with this, Miles is kidnapped as part of a Komarran plot to replace him with a clone, Mark, who will destabilize the Barrayaran government and open an opportunity for Komarr to break free of the Imperium—or so the Komarran plotters hope. Escaping from his captors with Elli's help, Miles also gives Mark his freedom, and gets a new mission to rescue Barrayaran hostages from some mercenaries turned pirates.
Four years later, Miles learns that Mark posed as Admiral Naismith and commandeered the Ariel to go to Jackson's Whole and rescue clones there who are about to be killed to provide donor bodies to wealthy and amoral elderly clients. Miles follows Mark with the intention of rescuing his brother, if necessary. During the mission, Miles is killed by a needler grenade to the chest, but cryogenically preserved for later resuscitation. He ends up a patient at the Durona clan medical facility, with a replacement heart, lungs, and stomach, but missing his memory, and must undergo rehabilitation there, where he falls in love with his doctor, Rowan Durona. Captured by Baron Fell's men just before he was about to be rescued by Mark, Miles is sold to Baron Ryoval, but arrives at the compound after Mark had already killed Ryoval. He contacts Imperial Security, which comes to get him, and watches as Mark consummates a deal with Baron Fell to get the Duronas off Jackson's Whole, and make a million Betan dollars in the process. Miles escorts his brother back to Barrayar.
Miles recovers from his cryo-stasis. During his revival his spine was straightened and he gained a centimeter of height, but he has some bad news to go along with the good. He now suffers from seizures that he has not reported to either Imperial