The posting on Xerxes is supposed to be quiet, and mostly is. Ivan dates local girls and investigates local entertainments and cuisines and he stands around on guard duty against assassination attempts that never materialize, for a value of "never" that turns out to mean "once" and "attempt" that means "it doesn't count as successful assassination if you miss and instead hit the nearby military mook, against whom you have no specific political motives".

A stunner would have been one thing, even a plasma arc within the purview of sufficiently advanced medical science, but it's a nerve disruptor and it gets him right in the jaw, which is near some important concentrations of nerves, such as the brain.