A far cry indeed from what we are leaving. It will be refreshing to deal with reasonable people.

Yes. I expect them to grant any reasonable requests you make and otherwise leave you alone. ... And maybe ask for access to some of the less dangerous parts of the archives, with your permission.

We'd best have two sections to it, then.

I'll have schematics drawn up for it. Different sections for different levels of security, maybe, to organize and allow visitors into as you like?

Yes. Do not forget the extra meter between decks for the droid conduits.

I won't, she agrees, amused.

You remember all that trouble we had with the first contractor. Not something that need be repeated.

She laughs, a little, thinking of all of the problems associated with the construction of Occlus's last archives. No, she won't be having that.

Certainly not. I'll see to it being something that meets all of your requirements.

Excellent. Any further business?

None for now, but I'll keep you informed.

They set up a new scheduled contact time to prevent awkwardly timed interruption, and then the connection fades.

Well. She has a space station to see to the construction of. She hasn't done this before, but it sounds like a fun challenge.

First: she'd like to know of the technical specifications for Sith Imperial space stations, and for ones built in this galaxy. For the former, she has her fleet's archives. For the latter -

...

She's going to message Cordelia again. That seems the thing to do.

Do you know where I could get an idea of the particulars of the mechanics of space stations in this galaxy?

Certainly. I'll have someone send you some books.

Excellent, thank you.

The prospect of designing and building a space station is not a small one. There are a thousand things to keep in mind in an ordinary space station, but Callida needs to do something more difficult; integrate two separate and foreign sets of technology. To compound the logistical problem, she has minimal manufacturing resources that aren't Barrayaran, and needs to make the systems compatible with what Occlus will be bringing over. Furthermore, she doesn't actually have anyone that specializes in building space stations in her fleet; a few for ship manufacture, a number for orbital relay manufacture, but none for space stations. She'll be treading new ground with all of the people allowed to actually know the specifics of the space station's architecture inexperienced in everything involved with it.

It's a fun problem.

How willing is Barrayar to give some of her people a crash course in space station design as laid out by a foreign entity?

Oh, very.

Callida appreciates Barrayar so very much.

She'll be quite busy with this problem of hers for a while. Maybe someone else would slap whatever Barrayaran tech they could acquire onto some Sith Imperial space station schematic and call it a day, or vice versa, but Callida thinks that's untidy and shortsighted. She will integrate these systems and leave room for future upgrades or changes, because she is going to build something that lasts and lasts well, and be flexible enough to allow for adaptation to whatever future circumstances will arise. Less importantly, it's also going to be pretty. For once in her life, Callida's free to build, instead of looking over her shoulder for Sith that want to use her, or uncovering the artifacts of those that came before and failed, or running damage control for all of the little tragedies the Sith casually cause daily. She can just make something that does its job, does it well, and evokes the mood she'd like it to evoke.

The only unfortunate thing about it (besides all of those other things, like most of her fleet being permanently separated from their family and friends) is that now she has to name the damn thing. She decides that she can't be damned to figure out a name for it personally, finds a person that isn't currently doing anything of importance, and promptly makes it their problem. With instructions to set up an opinion poll for various options, and that Callida will get ultimate veto ability if anything offends her aesthetics as much as the first proposed name for the fleet. (It was 'Calladian.' She thought it made her sound like the leader of a cult.)

As fantastic as all of this work is, she doesn't want her entire social circle to be people who work for her and people who work with her. That seems - she doesn't know what it seems like, but she doesn't like it. And she doesn't have to put up with it if she doesn't want to, because Barrayar is amazing and she appreciates it very much. For example: it contains Miles, and she has only really gotten to speak to him once in the past month. This is a thing she finds she wants to fix. So she does.

Does Miles want to visit her manor for a social visit?

It takes him two days to respond to her message.

"Just got in from a courier run," he explains in a brief vid response, sent about ten minutes after midnight local time. He's in uniform, but the top button of his shirt is unbuttoned - did he literally just get in, and then interrupt himself in the middle of changing clothes to record and send this? "I'd love to drop by and catch up, when would be a good time?"

Callida reminds herself that he is likely not doing this on purpose, and that she should not read too much into his shirt being slightly unbuttoned or how he very obviously replied to her the absolute first chance he got. That would be crazy. She is not going to be one of the crazy Sith, though this is very educational into the reasoning behind the crazy Sith and their unfortunate objects of affection. Desire's one of the emotions that can easily spiral out of control for a Force-user. She knew that intellectually, but the visceral knowledge that she's not immune to it drives it home. It's a frightening thought, but Callida is used to those. People have very good reason to be afraid of her, because if she lets herself be controlled by her emotions, people will get hurt.

She takes an extra hour during her morning meditation to get that properly under control. Then she calls him back.

"Welcome back to Barrayar, then," she says in her own brief vid message, clearly amused. "I tend to be more free in the evenings - tomorrow I expect to be busy with meetings and the like, but I should be able to take time off later today, or the day after tomorrow. If either of those work for you."

He calls her that evening, about half an hour before local sunset.

After a slight delay, she answers.

"Hello," she says, slightly amused.

"There's my favourite Sith Lord! I only just checked my messages, is now a good time?"

"I can make it one," Callida snorts. "Did you sleep in?"

"Slept in, went to deliver my report, that ran unexpectedly late so I stopped for lunch on the way home, met my mother at the door and talked to her for a few hours, and I can no longer remember why but after that conversation I found myself insatiably curious about the history of terraforming and that ate the remaining time between midafternoon and now. Fascinating stuff. Anyway, I'll see you in half an hour?"

"Certainly."

"See you then!" he says, and flashes a brilliant smile, and ends the call.

"See you then," she echoes.

She puts what little work she still has left to do on hold (or in one case, handles it in five minutes) and informs the other residents of her manor that she's having a visitor. Days ago, she'd mentioned that it would be a possibility before, but now the time is confirmed. Followed by reassuring them that, no, it's okay, they don't need to drop everything to do everything to prepare for her guest. Really. It's fine. Calm down. It's fine.

It is really hard to get (former) Sith Imperials to not attempt to do everything in their power to keep the Sith happy. Understandably so, but, still.

The remainder of the half an hour is spent in brief meditation, because - well. She's going to be alone in a room with Miles. She should maybe have her head as in order as possible before that occurs. Just a thought.