"Which way around is your me your sister-in-law, anyway? Did you marry her sibling or did she marry yours?"

"My brother's wife."

"Some of me are dating some of Sue. Sue doesn't really look like you could be his brother, though, I don't think."

"Identical brother," he clarifies. "I'm a clone."

"Yeah, Sue doesn't look anything like you, taller, curlier, smilier."

"I'd be taller if it weren't for some unfortunate family history. And I have been known to smile."

"Sure, it's not the same thing as being smiley. Sue's not smiling a ton lately but he's still a smiley person."

"Oh? Why isn't he?"

"Well, I just recently got allowed to move in with him but before that they were keeping him in solitary because he's not showing up to his simulator times."

"What fun."

"You're such a ray of sunshine."

"Aren't I just?"

"So what's your me like besides genetically engineered?"

He shrugs. "The only substantial conversation I've had with her took place while she was tied to a chair."

"Eugh. Why was she tied to a chair?"

"It's a long story."

"I'm not in that much of a hurry to make it to Relativistic Tactics."

"So, the seven-century version, then?"

"If you don't wanna to talk to me, my mes have a room upstairs and I should go write stuff in their notebook," she says. "But I'd rather be able to write stuff about your sister-in-law too."

"...There genuinely is an argument to be made that this story starts seven centuries ago," he clarifies. "If you want everyone's motivations properly explained. But six of those centuries are very easily summarized in a block."

"Go for it then." She balances on one foot idly.

"So. Sometime between 2200 and 2250, humanity invented wormhole jump technology and started colonizing every semi-habitable system in sight. They got a few shiploads of people onto Barrayar, fifty thousand in all, and then a wormhole collapsed, cutting the planet off from the rest of the galaxy. My brother's ancestors had six centuries to lose hold of all the technology they no longer had the infrastructure to maintain and then start building back up from there. Then the system was rediscovered at the end of a different jump route, five jumps away from a planet called Komarr. Komarr's main resource is the number of well-trafficked jump routes that pass through its system; the planet itself is a barren rock without even a breathable atmosphere to its name, although they're working on that."

"Well, that sounds like tremendous political brouhaha waiting to happen."

"You could say that. Komarr neighbours one of the outlying planets of the Cetagandan Empire. The Cetagandans decided that Barrayar looked nice and conquerable, so they bribed the Komarrans to let them take an army through and conquer it. Barrayar fought back. Astonishingly well, for people who started out wielding swords from horseback against invaders with plasma rifles and atomic bombs. It helped that they stole all the advanced weaponry they could get their hands on, of course. Anyway, as soon as they were done throwing out the Cetagandans, they turned around and conquered Komarr. I'm sure you can see why."

"Ayep, pretty obvious strategic move. They failed at Neighbor so they get to be Welcome Mat."