The Vorkosigan Companion (35 page)

Beaded lizard:

An animal native to Tau Ceti, weighing about fifty kilograms. Miles resists purchasing one for Elena on Beta Colony. (WA)

Beatrice:

No last name given. A tall redhead, she is the leader among the estimated five hundred women at the prison camp on Dagoola IV who have formed an alliance to resist rape and abuse. She is instrumental in reorganizing the camp and Miles becomes very fond of her. He wants her to be one of the new leaders in the re-formed Marilacan Army, but she dies by falling out of the shuttle hatch while trying to free its stuck loading ramp. (BI)

Beauchene Life Center:

An Escobaran cryotherapy facility, headed by Doctor Aragones and Administrator Margara, that treats several injured Dendarii mercenaries after the Marilac operation. Medic Norwood trained in cryogenics there, which is also where he met one of the Duronas, enabling him to send her Miles's body after he is killed on Jackson's Whole. (MD)

Benar, Fehun:

A Felician colonel supposedly in charge of the ore refinery orbiting Tau Verde IV. He has a wife named Miram. Captured and psychologically broken by the Pelians, he was forced to record messages to lure Felician ships to dock at the refinery to be captured. He is recovered after the refinery is taken by the Dendarii, but is catatonic from the torture. (WA)

Benar, Miram:

Fehun Benar's wife. Major Daum asks about her during his conversation with Benar. (WA)

Benello:

No first name given. A ghem-lady with red hair who seduces Ivan at Lord Yenaro's party. The sister of Lady Veda, she and Lady Arvin find Miles and Ivan at the bioestheties exhibition, and escort both men over to Lady Veda's exhibit, where Yenaro was unwittingly set up to kill all of them with asterzine-impregnated carpet. (C)

Beni Ra orbital factory:

A project that Leo Graf worked on for GalacTech, where he found micro-cracks in the reactor coolant lines, saving at least three thousand lives. (FF)

Benin, Dag:

A ghem-colonel in Cetagandan Imperial Security assigned to internal affairs at the Celestial Gardens, he is charged with investigating the death of the Ba Lura. Of middle stature, he wears the dark red dress uniform of the Imperial Security in the Celestial Garden, and full Imperial pattern face paint, base white with black curves and red accents. Miles manipulates him into solving much of the conspiracy, and Benin figures out his superior, Naru, set him up to declare the Ba Lura's murder a suicide rather than actually investigating it. When Ivan tells him Miles has gone to Ilsum Kety's ship, Benin leads security forces there to arrest Kety. The Emperor rewards his service by promoting him to ghem-general.

Several years later, he escorts the haut Pel Navarr to Emperor Gregor's wedding. He also passes along to Miles Emperor Fletchir Giaja's personal condolences on the death of Admiral Naismith, letting Miles know that the Cetagandans know about his alter ego and identity. Benin also tells Miles that the Emperor trusts that Admiral Naismith will stay deceased. When Miles replies that he trusts the admiral will never have to be resurrected again, Benin promises to convey his reply to the Emperor exactly as spoken. (C, CC)

Bernaux:

No first name given. The silver-haired ambassador of the Marilacan embassy, he greets Vorob'yev, Miles, and Ivan at the welcoming party. (C)

Beta Colony:

The first successful space colony, it is located on a hot, barren planet with all of the population living underground. It is known throughout the galaxy for its permissive social attitude, which culminated in the creation of a hermaphrodite class of people. Known for its excellent technology and industrial base, it develops and sells products and services throughout the galaxy. Chalmys DuBauer spent much of his artificially lengthened life span traveling between it and Earth, and Anias Ruey is contemplating making a feelie-dream using it as a background. Cordelia Naismith turns her back on her home when the Betan government tries to use her as a propaganda tool against Barrayar. Miles Vorkosigan finds Arde Mayhew and Baz Jesek there, and takes Elli Quinn back to the colony for reconstructive facial surgery. Mark Vorkosigan and Kareen Koudelka attend school and therapy there. (DD, FF, SH, WA, CC)

Betan Embassy:

Located on Orient IV. Leo learns the Betans demonstrated an artificial gravity device there, rendering the quaddies obsolete before they can finish their training. (FF)

Betan Expeditionary Force:

An all-purpose exploration unit that is made up of the top   scientific minds on Beta Colony. Its primary mission is to explore newly discovered planets and regions of space. Cordelia Naismith is a captain in the organization when she meets Aral on the survey planet that will later be named Sergyar, and observes the preparations for the invasion of Escobar. Her survey team is driven off the planet, but instead of warning Beta Colony about Barrayar's plans, they rescue her from the
General Vorkraft
instead. A documentary,
The Thin Blue Line
, recounts the Force's heroism in helping to repel the Barrayaran invasion, which disgusts Elena Bothari when she watches it nineteen years later. Doctor Enrique Borgos is tremendously impressed when he learns that Cordelia was a member of the Force. (CC, SH, VG)

Betan Journal of Reproductive Medicine, The
:

A magazine Ethan Urquhart reads after its approval by the Athos Board of Censors, wherein he finds an article called "On an Improvement in Permeability of Exchange Membranes in the Uterine Replicator," by Kara Burton M.D., Ph.D., and Elizabeth Naismith, M.S. Bioengineering (Cordelia's mother). Their pictures are in the magazine, and Ethan sees a photo of a woman for the first time in his life. (EA)

Betan Mental Health Board:

Mentioned by Arde Mayhew as people he cannot take hostage. (WA)

Betan rejuvenation treatment:

A rumor with unknown provenance about Admiral Naismith that claims he has undergone a mysterious life-extending treatment at Beta Colony. Baron Fell is extremely interested in finding out more about it, and Miles uses his interest as a bargaining tool at first, but eventually tells him that no such treatment exists. (L)

Bharaputra, Lotus Durona:

Lilly Durona's second daughter, she left her clone family and married Baron Bharaputra. She is Eurasian, with white hair streaked with black wound up in elaborate braids around her head, dark eyes, a high-bridged nose, and thin, ivory skin softening with tiny wrinkles. The dark-haired girl Lilly, rescued and then lost in the clone group when she rejoined Baron Bharaputra, is the transplant body Lotus intends to inhabit once the girl has reached the proper age. Lotus is now in her sixties, and ready to undergo the procedure, but is thwarted when Miles convinces young Lilly to escape the Baron's House and join her true family. (MD)

Bharaputra, Vasa Luigi:

The baron of House Bharaputra on Jackson's Whole, he appears to be forty years old, but has been in a clone body for the past twenty years. He has a strong-boned face, with olive skin and dark hair pulled back and held in a gold ring. Miles first encounters him during his first mission to Jackson's Whole to steal his genetic scientist Hugh Canaba.

Miles tries to negotiate with him for the return of Mark, Bel Thorne, and Green Squad after the clone rescue attempt, but ends up trying to break them out himself when the talks break down. The baron is captured by Yellow Squad during that mission, and is released in exchange for the Dendarii's passage out of the Jackson's Whole system. He captures Rowen Durona and Miles after he is resuscitated at the Durona Clinic, and lets Rowan go, not realizing that she and the young clone Lilly have traded places, and sells Miles to Baron Ryoval. (L, MD)

Bianca:

No first name given. A doctor and executive in the Portobello Pharmaceutical Company, he holds degrees in chemistry and psychology, and runs the product development section. Forty, tan and fit, with slightly graying hair, he is married to granddaughter of the company's founder, and lives in a big, beautiful house in Rio de Janeiro. He hires Carlos Diaz to act as his surrogate to hire Anias Ruey to make a disturbing, violent feelie-dream that he plans to use to get his wife to commit suicide so he can inherit her portion of their business. After figuring out his plot, Anias brings the police in, and forces him to give the feelie-dream back to her. (DD)

Bianca, Mrs.:

A woman in her late thirties, she is thin and tense, with dark hair, arrogant eyes, and a feelie-dream implant. She owns sixty percent of her grandfather's company, Portobello Pharmaceutical Company. Married to Doctor Bianca, she is the unknowing target of a plot to kill her by her husband using a feelie-dream to drive her to commit suicide. (DD)

Bier-gift:

A Cetagandan practice of offering gifts to be burned on the funeral bier of a person in their honor. For the Dowager Empress Lisbet Degtiar, Miles presents a sword carried by Dorca Vorbarra in the First Cetagandan War. All of the bier-gifts are placed around the body, and everything is incinerated using plasma-fire. (C)

Bioengineered parasites:

An assassination weapon developed by the Cetagandan Star Crèche, it can be introduced to a victim by various means, including skin contact. The parasites are sometimes protected by micro-  encapsulation that can be set to dissolve under specific conditions, including at a predetermined body temperature. Once ingested, they multiply, then switch to producing two chemicals in different vesicles inside their membranes. The vesicles engorge until an increase in the victim's body temperature bursts them, and the chemicals mix, producing a violently exothermic reaction—killing the parasite, damaging the surrounding tissues, and stimulating more nearby parasites to detonate, becoming microscopic bombs. Deceased victims look like they have melted, dissolving into puddles of flesh and bones.

The Cetagandans have the only known antidote for this weapon. A delaying treatment is to cool the body in an ice-water bath and filter the organisms from the victim's blood. However, since they also hide inside tissues, this is not a cure, as energy is continuously drained from the body to create new parasites until death results. The only known person to survive infection without treatment is Russo Gupta. Both Miles and Bel Thorne are infected during the investigation at Graf Station, and are cured by the haut-women of the Star Crèche, although both suffer permanent physical damage. (DI)

Black Escarpment:

Part of a mountain range located deep in Barrayar's Southern Continent, it is where Miles trained in winter maneuvers during his time at the Imperial Academy. (VG, CC)

Black Gang:

The name Mark gives to his various sub-personalities that emerge during his torture by Baron Ryoval, and which stay with him afterward. (MD, CC)

Bleakman, Greg:

Gregor Vorbarra's alias while he is absent without leave from Barrayar. (VG)

Bloody Century:

A term the Barrayarans use to refer to the time of endless fighting on Barrayar before Dorca Vorbarra united all the Vor under his banner. (B)

Blue cheese dressing:

One of the two provisions at Base One that weren't destroyed in the Barrayaran attack. Cordelia, Aral, and Dubauer survive on it during their trip to the supply cache. (SH)

Bobbi:

A quaddie from Gang B on Cay Habitat. (FF)

Body pod:

Also known as a bod pod, it is a cheap, one-size-fits-all emergency survival module in the form of a mostly spherical balloon. A person can quickly enter and seal the pod, then the automatic system will inflate and maintain the internal environment until the inhabitant can be rescued. (All)

Bollan Design:

A Komarran jump-ship powerplant design firm contracted by Soudha to make five experimental Necklin field generators. The chief engineer of the project quit the company to help with the wormhole destruction plot, and is arrested on the jump station with the other collaborators. (K)

Bone replacement:

A medical operation in which weakened or permanently damaged bones are reinforced or replaced by plastic versions. The existing bone marrow is transferred to the new matrix in the artificial bones. Miles undergoes several operations over his lifetime to replace his skeleton with artificial bones. (BA, VG)

Bone, Vicky:

A lieutenant in the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet, she is the outfit's head accountant, and is a precise, middle-aged, heavyset woman. When the payment for the Marilac operation doesn't arrive from Barrayar, she receives permission from Miles to get creative with the finances, including setting up a short-term loan against the
Triumph
itself. She also creates the untraceable half-million-Imperial-mark credit chit for Miles to use to try to buy off Galen, which he gives to Mark instead. (BA)

Boni, Sylva:

A deceased Escobaran ensign found in the aftermath of the final battle between Barrayar and Escobar by Falco Ferrell and Tersa Boni. She was Tersa's twenty-year-old daughter, and the reason the medtech asked to be assigned to retrieval duty in that sector. (SH)

Boni, Tersa:

A medtech of the Escobaran Personnel Retrieval and Identification ship, she performs body recovery after the Barrayar-Escobar war, and locates the body of her daughter, Sylva, who was killed in battle. (SH)

Bonn:

No first name given. A lieutenant of Engineering in the Barrayaran military, he is Miles's immediate superior at Lazkowski Base. A slight man in his late twenties with a craggy face, pocked, sallow skin, calculating brown eyes, and competent hands. He oversees the recovery of Miles's scat-cat after his encounter with the mud. Disobeying General Metzov's order to make his men to clean up the fetaine spill, Bonn joins his team when they are ordered to strip down to bare skin. He is arrested with Miles and the rest of the disobeying technicians, but the charges against him and the other men are dropped at Miles's request. (VG)

Bonsanklar:

An ocean resort town on Barrayar for the upper class, where Aral's mother used to take him every summer when he was a boy. After their marriage, Cordelia and Aral are about to visit it when Prime Minister Vortala takes them to see the Emperor regarding Aral's appointment as Regent of Barrayar. (SH)