The Vor Game

by Lois McMaster Bujold

  “Most obedient servants,” suggested Miles under his breath.

  “Forces,” Gregor concluded. “Consider that grey suit,” (Ungari glanced down at his with loathing) “regulation wear, and respect it accordingly. You'll doubtless get your greens back when I get mine."

  Miles put in, “I'll be detaching the Dendarii light cruiser Ariel and the faster of our two fast couriers to Gregor's personal service, when you depart for Vervain Station. If you have to split off on courier duties, I suggest you take the smaller ship and leave the Ariel with Gregor. Its captain, Bel Thorne, is my most trusted Dendarii shipmaster."

  “Still thinking about my line of retreat, eh, Miles?” Gregor raised a brow at him.

  Miles bowed slightly. “If things go very wrong, someone must live to avenge us. Not to mention to make damn sure the Dendarii survivors get paid. We owe them that much, I think."

  “Yes,” Gregor agreed softly.

  “I also have my personal report on recent events for you to deliver to Simon Illyan,” Miles went on, “in case I—in case you see him before I do.” Miles handed Ungari a data disk.

  Ungari looked dizzy at this rapid reordering of his priorities. “Vervain Station? Pol Six is where your safety lies, surely, sire."

  “Vervain Station is where my duty lies, Captain, and perforce yours. Come along, I'll explain it all as we go."

  “Are you leaving Vorkosigan loose?” Ungari frowned at Miles. “With these mercenaries? I have a problem with that, sire."

  “I'm sorry, sir,” said Miles to Ungari, “that I cannot, cannot...” obey you, but Miles left that unsaid. “I have a deeper problem with arranging a battle for these mercenaries and then not showing up for it. A difference between myself and ... the Rangers’ former commander. There must be some difference between us, maybe that's it. Gre—the Emperor understands."

  “Hm,” said Gregor. “Yes. Captain Ungari, I officially detach Ensign Vorkosigan as Our Dendarii liaison. On my personal responsibility. Which should be sufficient even for you."

  “It's not me that it has to be sufficient for, sire!"

  Gregor hesitated fractionally. “For Barrayar's best interests, then. A sufficient argument even for Simon. Let us go, Captain."

  “Sergeant Overholt,” Miles added, “you will be the Emperor's personal bodyguard and batman, until relieved."

  Overholt looked anything but relieved at this abrupt field promotion. “Sir,” he whispered aside to Miles, “I haven't had the advanced course!"

  He referred to Simon Illyan's mandatory, personally-conducted ImpSec course for the palace guard, that gave Gregor's usual crew that hard-polished edge.

  “We all have a similar problem here, Sergeant, believe me,” Miles murmured back. “Do your best."

  * * * *

  The Triumph's tactics room was alive with activity, every station chair occupied, every holovid display bright with the flow of ship and fleet tactical changes. Miles stood at Tung's elbow and felt doubly redundant. He bethought of the jape back at the Academy. Rule 1: Only overrule the tactical computer if you know something it doesn't. Rule 2: The tac comp always knows more than you do.

  This was combat? This muffled chamber, swirl of lights, these padded chairs? Maybe the detachment was a good thing, for commanders. His heart hammered even now. A tac room of this caliber could cause information overload and mind-lock, if you let it. The trick was to pick out what was important, and never, ever to forget that the map was not the territory.

  His job here, Miles reminded himself, was not to command. It was to watch Tung command, and learn how he did it, his alternate modes of thinking to Barrayaran Academy Standard. Miles's only legitimate point of overrule might come if some external political/strategic need took precedence over internal tactical logic. Miles prayed that event would not arise, because a shorter and uglier name for it was betraying your troops.

  Miles's attention sharpened as a little jumpscout winked into existence at the throat of the wormhole. On the tactics display it was a pink point of light in a slowly moving whirlpool of darkness. On a telescreen, it was a slim ship against fixed and distant stars. From its own wired-in pilot's point of view, it was some strange extension of his own body. In yet another vid display, it was a collection of telemetry readouts, numerology, some Platonic ideal. What is truth? All. None.

  “Sharkbait One reporting to Fleet One,” the pilot's voice came over Tung's console. “You have ten minutes clearance. Stand by for tight-beam burst."

  Tung spoke into his comm. “Fleet commence jump, tight by the numbers."

  The first Dendarii ship waiting by the wormhole jockeyed into place, glowed brightly in the tac display (though it appeared to do nothing in the televid), and vanished. A second ship followed in thirty seconds, pushing the safety limit of time margins between jumps. Two ships trying to rematerialize in the same place at the same time would result in no ships and a very large explosion.

  As the Sharkbait's tightbeam telemetry was digested by the tac comp, the image rotated so that the dark vortex representing (but in no way picturing) the wormhole was suddenly mirrored by an exit vortex. Beyond that exit vortex an array of dots and specks and lines represented ships in flight, maneuvering, firing, fleeing; the hardened Homeside battle station of the Vervani, twin to the Hubside station where Miles had left Gregor; the Cetagandan attackers. A view of their destination at last. All lies, of course, it was minutes out of date.

  “Yech,” Tung commented. “What a mess. Here we go..."

  The jump klaxon sounded. It was the Triumph's turn. Miles gripped the back of Tung's chair, though intellectually he knew the feeling of motion was illusory. A whirl of dreams seemed to cloud his mind, for a moment, for an hour; it was unmeasurable. The wrench in his stomach and the godawful wave of nausea that followed were anything but dreamlike. Jump over. A moment of silence throughout the room, as others struggled to overcome their disorientation. Then the murmur picked up where it had left off. Welcome to Vervain. Take a wormhole jump to hell.

  The tac display spun and shifted, shunting in new data, recentering its little universe. Their wormhole was presently guarded by its beleaguered Station and a thin and battered string of Vervani Navy and Vervani-commanded Ranger ships. The Cetagandans had hit it once already, been driven off, and now hovered out of range awaiting reinforcements for the next strike. Cetagandan re-supply was streaming across the Vervain system from the other wormhole.

  The other wormhole had fallen fast, the only way to fly from the attacker's viewpoint. Even with complete surprise on the Cetagandans’ side for their massive first strike, the Vervani might have stopped them had not three Ranger ships apparently misunderstood their orders and broken off when they should have counterattacked. But the Cetagandans had secured their bridgehead and begun to pour through.

  The second wormhole, Miles's wormhole, had been better equipped for defense—until the panicked Vervani had pulled everything that could be spared back to guard the high orbitals of the homeworld. Miles could scarcely blame them; it was a hard strategic choice either way. But now the Cetagandans boiled across the system practically unimpeded, hopscotching the heavily guarded planet, in a bold attempt to take the Hegen wormhole, if not by surprise, at least by speed.

  The first method of choice for attacking a wormhole was by subterfuge, subornment, and infiltration, i.e., to cheat. The second, also preferring subterfuge in its execution, was by an end-run, sending forces around by another route (if there was one) into the contested local space. The third was to open the attack with a sacrifice ship laying down a “sun wall,” a massive blanket of nuclear missilettes deployed as a unit, creating a planar wave that cleared near-space of everything including, frequently, the attack ship; but sun walls were costly, rapidly dissipated, and only locally effective. The Cetagandans had attempted to combine all three methods, as the Rangers’ disarray and the filthy radioactive fog still outgassing from the vicinity of their first conquest testified.

  The fourth appro
ved approach for the problem of frontally attacking a guarded wormhole was to shoot the officer who suggested it. Miles trusted the Cetagandans would work around to that one too, by the time he was done.

  Time passed. Miles hooked a station chair into clamps and studied the central display till his eyes watered and his mind threatened to fall into a hypnotic fugue, then rose and shook himself and circulated among the duty stations, kibitzing.

  The Cetagandans maneuvered. The sudden and unexpected arrival of the Dendarii force during the lull had thrown them into temporary confusion; their planned final attack on the strained Vervani must needs be converted on the fly into yet another softening-up round of hit-and-run. Expensive. At this point the Cetagandans had few ways of concealing their numbers or movements. The defending Dendarii had the implication of hidden reserves (who knew how unlimited? Not Miles, certainly) concealed on the other side of the jump. A brief hope flared in Miles that this threat alone might be enough to make the Cetagandans break off the attack.

  “Naw,” sighed Tung when Miles confided this optimistic thought. “They're too far into it now. The butcher's bill's too high already for them to pretend they were only fooling. Even to themselves. A Cetagandan commander who packed it in now would go home to a court martial. They'll keep going long after it's hopeless, as their brass tries desperately to cover their bleeding asses with a flag of victory."

  “That is ... vile."

  “That is the system, son, and not just for the Cetagandans. One of the system's several built-in defects. And besides,” Tung grinned briefly, “it's not as hopeless as all that yet. A fact we will try to conceal from them."

  The Cetagandan forces began to move, their directions and accelerations telegraphing their intention for a pounding pass. The trick was to try for local concentrations of force, three or four ships ganging up on one, overwhelming the defender's plasma mirrors. The Dendarii and Vervani would attempt an identical strategy against Cetagandan stragglers, but for a few bravura captains on both sides equipped with the new imploder lances playing an insane game of chicken, trying to put a target within the weapon's short range. Miles also tried to keep one eye on the Rangers’ dispositions. Not every Ranger ship had Vervani advisors aboard, and battle arrays that put the Rangers in front of the Cetagandans were much to be preferred to ones that put Rangers behind Dendarii backs.

  The quiet murmur of techs and computers within the tactics room scarcely changed pace. There ought to be a flourish of drums, bagpipes, something to herald this dance with death. But if reality broke in at all to this upholstered bubble, it would be sudden, absolute, and over.

  A vid-comm message interrupted, intra-ship—yes, there was still a real ship encasing them—a breathless officer reporting to Tung. “Brig, sir. Watch yourselves up there. We've had a break-out. Admiral Oser's escaped, and he let all the other prisoners out too."

  “Dammit,” said Tung, glared at Miles, and pointed to the comm. “Handle that. Jack up Auson.” He turned his attention back to his tactics display, muttering. “This wouldn't have happened in my day."

  Miles slipped into the comm chair, and paged the Triumph's bridge. “Auson! Did you get the word on Oser?"

  Auson's irritated face appeared, “Yeah, we're working on it."

  “Order extra commando guards to the tactics room, engineering, and your own bridge. This is a real bad time for interruptions down here."

  “Tell me. We can see the Ceta bastards coming.” Auson punched off.

  Miles began monitoring internal security channels, pausing only to note the arrival of well-armed guards in the corridor. Oser had clearly had help in his escape, some loyal Oseran officer or officers, which made Miles wonder in turn about the security of the security guards. And would Oser try to combine with Metzov and Cavilo? A couple of Dendarii imprisoned for disciplinary infractions were found wandering the corridors and returned to the brig; another came back on his own. A suspected spy was cornered in a storeroom. No sign yet of the truly dangerous...

  “There he goes!"

  Miles keyed in the channel. A cargo shuttle was breaking out of its clamps, away from the side of the Triumph and into space.

  Miles overrode channels, found fire control. “Don't, repeat, Do not open fire on that shuttle!"

  “Uh...” came the reply. “Yes, sir. Do not open fire."

  Why did Miles get the subliminal impression that tech hadn't been planning to open fire in the first place? Clearly a well-coordinated escape. The witch-hunt later was going to be nasty. “Patch me through to that shuttle!” Miles demanded of the comm officer. And, oh yes, send a guard to the shuttle hatch corridors ... too late.

  “I'll try, sir, but they're not answering."

  “How many aboard?"

  “Several, but we're not sure exactly—"

  “Patch me through. They've got to listen, even if they won't reply."

  “I have a channel, sir, but I have no idea if they're listening."

  “I'll try it.” Miles took a breath. “Admiral Oser! Turn your shuttle around and come back to the Triumph. It's too dangerous out there, you're running headlong into a fire zone. Return, and I will personally guarantee your safety—"

  Tung was looking down over Miles's shoulder. “He's trying to make it to the Peregrine. Dammit, if that ship pulls out, our defensive array will collapse."

  Miles glanced back at the tac comp. “Surely not. I thought we put the Peregrine in the reserve area precisely because we doubted its reliability."

  “Yes, but if the Peregrine pulls out I can name three other captain-owners who will follow it. And if four ships pull out—"

  “The Rangers will break despite their Vervani commander, and we'll be cooked, right, I see.” Miles glanced again at the tac comp. “I don't think he's going to make it—Admiral Oser! Can you read me?"

  “Yike!” Tung returned to his seat, absorbed in the Cetagandans once again. Four Cetagandan ships were combining against the edge of the Dendarii formation, while another attempted to penetrate the center, clearly trying to close the range for a lance attack. Casually, in passing, a Cetagandan plasma gunner from it picked off the stray shuttle. Just bright sparks.

  “He didn't know the Cetagandans were making their attack run till his stolen shuttle cleared the Triumph,” Miles whispered. “Good plan, rotten timing.... He could have turned around, he chose to try and run for it.... “Oser chose his death? Was that the comforting argument?

  The Cetagandans did not so much break off their attack run as complete it, in depressingly good order. The score was slightly in the Dendarii's favor. A number of Cetagandan ships had been badly chewed, and one blown up entirely. Dendarii and Ranger damage control channels were frantic. The Dendarii had not lost ships yet, but had lost fire-power, engines, flight control, life support, shielding. The next attack run would be more devastating.

  They can afford to lose three to our one. If they keep coming, keep nibbling, they must inevitably win, Miles reflected coldly. Unless we are reinforced.

  Hours passed, while the Cetagandans formed up again. Miles took short breaks in the wardroom provided for that purpose off the tactics room, but was too keyed up to emulate Tung's amazing fifteen-minute instant naps. Miles knew Tung wasn't faking relaxation for morale effect; nobody could simulate such a disgusting snore.

  It was possible to watch the Cetagandan reinforcements coming on across the Vervain system in the televid. That was the time tradeoff, the risk. The longer the Cetas waited, the better-equipped they could be, but the longer they waited, the better the chance that their enemies would recover too. There was doubtless a tac comp aboard the Cetagandan command ship that had generated a probability curve marking the optimum intersection of Us and Them. If only the damned Vervani would be more aggressive in attacking that supply stream from their planetary base....

  And here they came on again. Tung watched his displays, his hands unconsciously clenching and unclenching in his lap between jerky, thick-fingered dances on his control p
anel, sending orders, correcting, anticipating. Miles's fingers twitched in tiny echoes, his mind trying to get around Tung's thought, to absorb everything. Their picture of reality was getting lacy with hidden holes, as data points dropped out due to damaged sensors or senders on various ships. The Cetagandans flew through the Dendarii formation, pounding ... a Dendarii ship blew apart, another, weapons dead, tried to scramble out of range, three Ranger ships broke away as a unit ... it looked bad....

  “Sharkbait Three reporting,” an abrupt voice overrode all other comm channels, making Miles jump in his seat. “Hold this wormhole clear. Help coming."

  “Not now,” snarled Tung, but began to attempt a rapid re-deployment to cover the tiny volume of space, keep it clear of debris, missiles, enemy fire, and most of all enemy ships with imploder lances. Those Cetagandan ships that were in position to respond seemed almost to prick their ears, hesitating as Dendarii ship movements telegraphed changes coming. The Dendarii might be in retreat ... some exploitable opportunity might be about to open up....

  “Whatinhell's that?” Tung said, as something huge and temporarily indecipherable appeared in the throat of the wormhole and began instantly to accelerate. He punched up readouts. “It's too big to be that fast, it's too fast to be that big."

  Miles recognized the energy profile even before the televiewer yielded up a visual. What a shakedown cruise they're having. “It's the Prince Serg. Our Barrayaran Imperial reinforcements have just arrived.” He took a dizzy breath. “Did I not promise you..."

  Tung swore horribly, in pure aesthetic admiration. Other ships followed, Aslunder, Polian Navy, spreading out rapidly into attack—not defensive—formation.

  The ripple in the Cetagandan formations was like a silent cry of dismay. An imploder-armed Cetagandan ship dove bravely at the Prince Serg, and was sliced in half discovering that the Serg's imploder lances had been improved to triple the Cetagandans’ range. That was the first mortal blow.

  The second came over the commlink, a call to the Cetagandan aggressors to surrender or be destroyed—in the name of the Hegen Alliance Navy, Emperor Gregor Vorbarra and Admiral Count Aral Vorkosigan, Joint Commanders.