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One summer day, a baby appears on the literal doorstep of the Imperial Residence's west servants' entrance. She is in a basket. She doesn't look Barrayaran; while Barrayar is not uniformly Caucasian, it has very few people of east Asian extraction, and that is where this baby appears to have been toted from by more or less circuitous routes of migration and inheritance.
It is not terribly difficult for ImpSec to find the person who put her there - recent hire to the kitchen staff, competent but not overwhelmingly concerned with security when it was literally just a baby and not an explosive and he was offered a large chunk of change. Tracing back this chunk of change leads through a long meandering trail of people, variously shady, none of whom acted with particular malice beyond greed and the sort of vague dishonorableness of putting packages on the doorstep of the Imperial Residence.
The trail ends at someone who - under fast-penta - has no memory whatever of having interacted with the baby, the cash, the shady person who druggedly identified her, or anything else about the affair. She doesn't even have a similar-looking sister to explain the mixup. She has nothing in her background to explain how she would come by an offplanet baby or why she would convey it by such a circuitous method to the Imperial Residence. It's definitely not her baby - the lady's six months pregnant and the baby isn't that old.
In the meantime, the baby is parked with Droushnakovi, who found her in the first place; Cordelia, who was the first person she went to; and Gregor, as Drou is his personal bodyguard.
The baby and her basket are searched and found to be: a baby, and a basket. There is no note, it's the middle of summer and the child wasn't even in a blanket, the basket itself and the baby's onesie turn out to be local products that a Vorbarr Sultana thrift shop didn't even bother reporting stolen.
The baby babbles in her sleep. She's very cute.
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hatchedplan
Miles giggles uproariously.
Nika is delighted to have made her brother laugh.
Nika has recently turned three (counting from the doctors' best guess of how old she was when she appeared) when she finds that she is going to meet her grandda and Miles is not coming.
"That isn't fair," she points out.
Nika has recently turned three (counting from the doctors' best guess of how old she was when she appeared) when she finds that she is going to meet her grandda and Miles is not coming.
"That isn't fair," she points out.
greatcomposure
"Your grandda doesn't want to meet Miles, but he wants to meet you," says Nika's mama.
"But, that isn't fair," says Nika. "Does he know?"
greatcomposure
"Does he know that it's not fair, you mean? I'm not sure," she says. "But sometimes people do want things that aren't fair, even though they aren't."
"Oh. Why does he want that?"
greatcomposure
"Your grandda wishes he had a grandson who was healthy and could run around and play like you and Ivan and Gregor do without getting hurt," Cordelia explains. "He wishes that so much that he doesn't like Miles because Miles isn't the way he wants."
"I can't run around," Nika points out.
greatcomposure
"You can do it better than Miles can. If Miles fell over as often as you do, all his bones would break and he'd spend most of his time in the hospital."
"Well, he doesn't even walk. I walk for him."
"What's Grandda like besides unfair?"
greatcomposure
"He loves your Da very much, even though they're angry with each other about Grandda being unfair to Miles. And he's a hero. He did a lot of very important things when he was younger."
"What important things?"
greatcomposure
"When your Grandda was young, younger than I am now, Barrayar was invaded by Cetagandans and Grandda helped fight them off. That's when he became a General."
"Why'd the Cet-gandans do that?"
greatcomposure
"I'm not sure. They weren't interested in explaining themselves at the time."
Nika giggles. "Okay. How far away is Grandda?"
greatcomposure
"He lives at Vorkosigan Surleau, which is a beautiful house on a lake, and it's three hours away by lightflyer."
"Will you read to me on the way?" Three hours is a long time.
"Yay!"
So Nika spends three hours in a lightflyer being read to and occasionally peering out the window, especially as they get closer to the pretty lake.
And when they land, out she gets.
So Nika spends three hours in a lightflyer being read to and occasionally peering out the window, especially as they get closer to the pretty lake.
And when they land, out she gets.
greatcomposure
Cordelia leads her up to the house, which is indeed beautiful.
There's an old man there, standing just inside the door. He smiles a little bit when he sees them.
There's an old man there, standing just inside the door. He smiles a little bit when he sees them.
Nika politely does not make the first thing out of her mouth be "you are unfair". Instead she says, "Hi Grandda! I'm Nika!"
greatcomposure
"Hello, Nika," he says. "Hello, Cordelia."
"Hello, Piotr."
Piotr crouches down to get on Nika's level and asks, "Do you want a hug?"
"Hello, Piotr."
Piotr crouches down to get on Nika's level and asks, "Do you want a hug?"