"Ivan..." Gregor started, then paused, not because he was unsure of what he wanted to say, but to ensure that Ivan was actually, for once, paying close enough attention to his Emperor to not wiggle out of the orders that would be coming down on him. "I have spoken with your peers... and with many of my advisors. They have rather more to say than I'm willing to repeat, here."
Ivan looked around and spotted his cousin Miles, standing smug with his wife Ekaterin towering over him, smirking back at him, as were both his own mother Alys, Falco Vorpatril and Simon Illyan. He sighed, feeling naked within Gregor's gaze. "Yes, sire?"
Gregor must have practiced holding such a grave face for a long time, working up the ability to resist the edge of humor none of the others in this room were making any effort to hide. It was like Gregor could be a block of stone, staring at him. "Ivan, you are a nuisance. You've been a disturbance to familes, you've make eyes at my Empress, and, even though you have occasionally distinguished yourself as an astute and energetic officer, especially during that whole annoying Vorrutyer succession, your ImpMil superiors are not particularly pleased with your lack-luster performance in your official duties, even with their usual low expectations. So I-- and my advisers-- have a mission for you that will both get you out of Our hair and, We all fervently hope and pray, will solve your problems in finding something worthy of you to apply yourself on a more consistent basis."
At this point Ivan's attention was firmly focused on his Emperor, his vision narrowing until he felt like he was alone with Gregor.
"So, Ivan, We have decided. You are to find a wife... or a partner. If she won't-- or it can't... move back here, all well and good, you will be officially assigned to wherever she-- or he, or it-- is comfortable with you. My foster brother, your cousin, has put some time into arranging a... tour... for you. You are not to return without a spouse or partner, do you understand? Additionally, your budget is not coming from deep pockets, either."
Ivan gulped, almost rocking on his heels. He understood. There was nothing left to say beyond "Yes, sire."
And, at that, he seemed to be getting off lightly.
Ivan got picked up at the Komarr transfer station.
He was usually resistant to acts of cowardice, especially physically, and, even being over thirty, he could still give a good accounting for himself.
Except...
He was sitting in the ImpSec office on the commercial station at the Barrayar wormhole, waiting to be briefed by Major Vorgier on the station, feeling only a little bit worried. He didn't know, until later, that he was cooling his heels waiting for his escorts-- or baby-sitters-- to arrive.
And, of course, Ivan groaned when they arrived. Now seemed to be a good time for cowardice.
What he really did not need was for Elli Quinn-- Admiral Quinn of the Dendarii Mercenaries-- and Sergeant Taura, as his escorts.
He had travelled here with one of Miles' Armsmen, a tall quiet fellow by the name of Roic, and he stood there, staring, as Roic jumped up to hug that freakishly huge woman.
Ivan would admit later that he only kept silent because he was so startled and his mouth was hanging open, first at seeing the junior member of his cousin's twenty show so much emotion, but, compounding this, his eyes must've looked like saucers when Roic was picked up, thrown over Taura's shoulder, and carried out of the office. What made it worse for him, in a way, was that Roic looked happy.
Elli watched Ivan's eyes on hearing Roic giggle before the door closed and blocked the sound of happiness. It was obvious to her that Ivan Vorpatril hadn't been used to paying much attention to those he felt were "beneath" him.
Ivan was left feeling especially uncomfortable knowing that Elli probably vividly remembered the "face like an onion" remark he'd made over a decade before, even if she had not been able to see his face. His name would have stood out having been uttered by his cousin so often during the flight to Beta Colony.
Elli, herself, sighed, thinking about what to do with this-- an ancient word popped up, having tripped over some remarks about political figures-- doofus. She suspected, from the meagre biographical data that Miles had sent in advance of her arrival, that Ivan's successes were due to his making stupid mistakes rather than despite them.
She had no idea of what she could do to open Ivan's eyes while carrying out a more involved mission, but, then, the big data packet she got from ImpSec regarding her official mission was accompanied by an even bigger data packet from Miles about her unofficial tasks in dealing with Ivan.
And, knowing Miles the way she did, he must have expected her to make those two jobs work together.
At least Miles had never expecting her to think highly of his cousin. That thought elicited a smile as she considered having him in the same bunk room with Guppy. Between the two of them...
Anyone watching Elli Quinn at that moment would have seen her expression of mild exasperation shift subtly to a smirk of superiority. One could also see her resisting the urge to giggle, too.
'Dammit, Miles has been a bad influence on me' she thought.
It came as a relief to Ivan when Major Vorgier released him to go to his hostel room so that Admiral Quinn could be debriefed from her previous ImpSec mission and get an introduction to her next one.
Ivan tried to rest.
He really tried.
Even with too little sleep during the trip via commercial passenger liner, coupled with his vain attempts to dazzle any of the women on board it, the sounds of a happy frolic he was missing out on was coming from the next room over, and, whoever that couple was, they were obviously both energetic and enthusiastic. The repeated thumping of someone being pounded against the bulkhead-- well, it wasn't a structural member, so it wasn't all that solid-- carried through better than he liked, being only an audience with no opportunity to participate.
Of course he liked that kind of thumping, but, usually, only when he was an intimate participant in making it.
No man is completely immune to this stimulus. Ivan, as has been explained elsewhere, is a man well-accustomed to the activity in question. Given that he found it exciting and being alone in his room, there was available only the old stand-by, which got a good enough workout. With the rhythm through the wall he had little difficulty in taking matters into his own hands, so to speak.
He'd been relaxing after cleaning himself up, and, with the change of tempo next door having slowed appreciably, the com-console in the room chimed, letting him know that he was to return to the ImpSec office.
On exiting his room he caught sight of a disheveled Roic-- and Taura-- stepping out of the room next to his. Ivan could feel his hair stand on end: How could Roic have... have...
Ivan shook his head and trudged on to his appointment and watched Elli, seated at the conference table, smirk at him.
Dammit, she even smirked like Miles!
And it was in that sudden moment of clarity that Ivan suddenly remembered something important which caused him an internal shiver: Miles had mentored Elli Quinn.
Leaving Komarr space in a fast courier of the Dendarii fleet, Ivan reflected on the injustice of having to share a small cabin with Taura.
True, he had always found her intimidating, if not outright scary. He also found out that she was only sharing space with him... and that she was not interested in him at all . This left Ivan with mixed feelings-- he'd have like some of the fun that Roic had had on the station but he'd also been afraid that Taura would kill him.
Not that there much chance of them getting together. They were on different shifts. That didn't keep Ivan from enjoying Taura's scent, though.
On top of that, Elli put him to work as a technician working with the engineer, an older woman. While it was a big step down from his usual work, it didn't take long for the whole rhythm of the work to make a soothing change.
It also did not hurt that the engineer was, on their off shifts, interested in some close social time with him. She realized that he wasn't in her chain of command... and he was kind of cute, and, yeah, while he wasn't the sweetest cookie in the jar, his sexual competence soon accumulated some variation. She was surprised that he was in his 30s and so clumsy in bed, but, under her tutelage, he was finally doing better in achieving bliss.
Ivan, meanwhile, enjoyed the time off when he had time on the engineer. Sure, she was older... but she was willing to play with him, no strings attached.
Elli's meeting, early on in that relationship, had let him know, clearly, what was on-- and off-- limits for him.
It can be argued that Emperor Gregor might have made a bit of a mistake given that Ivan suddenly became a firm believer in mixed-sex crews.
The fast courier worked its way through the wormhole nexus and even passed old Earth. There were stops to drop off and even pick up some data packets, but it was at the final rendezvous stop at Graf Station that put Ivan into shock.
Two of the larger ships from the Dendarii fleet were under repair, here, and Ivan joined Admiral Quinn in greeting the local administrators. The looks he got from the quaddie police chief when Elli introduced him were... hard.
By this time Ivan had gotten over goggling at the quaddies and was better able to pay attention to the important parts of the conversation, like now, as Chief Venn glared at him.
"Are you one of them damned barbarian Barrayarans? We had a real hard-ass named Vorpatril here almost a year ago..."
Ivan, without taking the earlier glare into account, smiled. "My uncle."
Venn turned to Elli. "Don't tell me, you're scraping the bottom of the damn barrel if you've got a Barrayarans as an officer! Where'd you find him?"
Elli chuckled. "I've got a little job on the side, holding his leash." She paused and smirked, adding "Maybe he'll be house-broken, soon, and I can send him back."
Venn laughed, his eyes soon full of tears, before answering her with "Given what I've seen of most of 'em, that could be a long job!"
So, once they were dismissed, Ivan questioned Elli on the subject as they made their way back to the docks area and got her to stop, with, "Can you explain what he was talking about?"
Elli's eyes sparkled as she said "He's had business with your uncle... and Miles."
Ivan groaned. As... stubborn... as his Uncle Eugin was, he was certain that Miles had made a deeper and more lasting impression on these Quaddies. He was glad he didn't mention kinship with Lord Auditor Vorkosigan. "Just don't let him know I'm related to Miles, all right?"
Finally, after over a month in close quarters with Admiral Quinn, he finally got a real laugh out of her. "I don't want to admit to having worked with Miles... and survived it. Not with anyone -- Barrayaran or not-- that knows him!"
When they crossed back into the section of the station that had gravity they were laughing together. It was so strange to feel kinship with someone so different from himself.
But, then, they both had been exposed to Miles.
Ivan's meeting with the Barrayaran consul, a young former pilot named Corbeau, was encouraged by Elli, telling him he should "check in" with him, being that he was a Barrayaran far from home.
Meeting the man-- and his partner-- further confused Ivan. Even with his acquired comfort in dealing with the oddities of differing body shapes did not prepare him to see a former Barrayaran officer-- and ship's pilot-- partnered with a quaddie.
Even if she was the most gorgeous freak he had ever met.
Seeing them in their quarters, however, showed him that his brother officer had an eye for beauty. It was only later, in discussing this with the courier's pilot, that he had a better handle on it, all because of "the beauty of flight".
Even though he found some of the quaddies very attractive-- and, yes, they were women, even with the odd anatomy-- he wasn't quite ready to settle down, especially here.
And it was almost comforting that the women-- well, quaddie females-- only wanted to "sample" a downsider.
Elli had various mercs keep a covert eye on Ivan. Her old lover Miles had made some suggestions, as had the fleet's psychiatrist, covering what Ivan needed to learn in order to acquire enough empathy for a real human relationship.
It was agreed that bringing him to the Betan Orb would not foster emotional growth. She knew he'd had assignations with women outside the Dendarii, as well as the engineer who had taken him under her wing, and hoped he wasn't burning any bridges for her.
She had reports showing that Ivan was slowly accumulating a lot of little shocks. His exposure, in one night at the Minchenko, did not result in any major changes to him but did seem to leave him more pensive than she ever thought possible.
And, truly, she didn't know he could look pensive. She sent off a photo of him with this unusual expression back to Miles, knowing that ImpSec would see it first.
She expected them to laugh loud enough for her to hear it, all the way out here.
And it was at this point in Ivan's maturation process that it all went awry.
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Author: Jack C Lipton Title: Ivan Stephanie Part: 1 Universe: Vorkosiverse Summary: Keywords: scifi Revision: $Revision: 1.4 $ Archive: http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/CupaSoup/www/ Mailing List: FAQ: RCS: $Id: ivan001.x,v 1.4 2007/08/03 03:27:08 jcl Exp $