Vorsoisson snorts quietly.
"Tsipis, our business manager, is optimistic too - things in general cheapen over time, and of course I have the option of pocketing as little as I care to from my own research and development involvement," Linya tells Vorsoisson.
"Do you mean you're designing these things mainly by yourself? It's an amazing thing to be doing," says Madame Vorsoisson.
"I already had my own pen developed in its current form when I married Miles, for personal use," Linya said. "Most of the software in the others is the same, with a few features most people won't want or need removed. All I had to do was make sure the design still worked with more scalable materials, and find a manufacturer - Tsipis has been invaluable - and teach them to make the pens, and come up with a tutorial and make particularly sure that the network and data formats popular on Barrayar were best supported."
"So it's Cetagandan technology, then," says Vorsoisson.
"It's my technology, and both I and the pen were developed on Eta Ceta. But everybody who owns a pen presently lives on Barrayar, and this will probably be the case for at least another year or so until I can invest in offplanet distribution attempts."
"Why?" wonders Vorsoisson.
"You'd have to ask her to be sure. A sense of fairness? The fact that she got the second pen ever to exist?"
"Linya," he says, kissing her hand, and then turns to the other participants in the conversation. "My Lord Auditor - ah - ?" He surveys the two unknowns with a querying eyebrow.
"Ekaterin Vorsoisson, Tien Vorsoisson - Lord Vorkosigan," supplies Professor Vorthys.
"I've been showing off my pen again," Linya says, putting her hand on Miles's shoulder when he has finished kissing it. "Professor Vorthys and Madame Vorsoisson both want fountain pens, like you, but Vorsoisson's going to get a silver one in the mail."
"At this rate you'll be supplying the entire Vor caste with free pens," says Miles. "Fountainoid or regular, according to taste."
"I don't know about all the Vor. Unless you think pens would make a particularly good peace offering to the ones who are inclined to need such things? Because that might add it up."
"Not sure. Some of them, maybe. Others would probably find a way to get offended."
"Then certainly not the entirety of the Vor. Some of them will just have to buy their pens. But not all of you." She kisses Miles on the top of his head.
"I'd like to think so."
"Is it hard to use?"
"I don't find it hard, but I designed it. Drawing should be simple, and so should any program operated principally by pointing at things - learning the gestures to input text might take longer. You can have it do voice recognition if that's easier, since it does pick up sound just fine."
"Could you - I don't know - offer a pointing-operated virtual keyboard?" wonders Madame Vorsoisson. "As a stepping stone?"
"That's a good idea - I switch alphabets pretty routinely, but if the main customer base will be using Barrayaran Cyrillic all the time - I'll make a note of that for an update. There is a virtual keyboard but it's there to troubleshoot finicky custom gesture recognition and it's not too accessible -" She makes a note of this suggestion.
"I appreciate it. This is half of why I'm giving away the first batch - feedback from people who know better than I do what people who aren't me need from pens."
"But I talk too much about pens - what do you do with your time?" Linya wonders. Mostly of Madame Vorsoisson and not her husband.