The Vorkosigan Companion (44 page)

Jollif:

No first name given. The Barrayaran commodore that Ivan Vorpatril serves under during his first military assignment. (VG)

Jon:

A husky quaddie from the pusher crew who goes along to hijack the shuttle used to retrieve Tony and Mrs. Minchenko. (FF)

Joris:

No first name given. An armsman for Lord Dono Vorrutyer, he is driving the lord's car when the attack occurs, and is stunned during the fight. (CC)

Juan:

No surname given. A servant at the Bianca house, he answers the door for Anias and Lieutenant Mendez. (DD)

Jubajoint:

Similar to a cigarette. Bruce Van Atta smokes one in private after disconnecting smoke alarms in his office. (FF)

Jump-pilot implant:

One of the most common cybernetic systems in the Vorkosigan Saga is the jump-pilot implant, which uses surgically implanted viral circuitry and electrodes at the temples that allow a pilot to jack in to a ship's navigation and guidance systems. Each system has to be calibrated to a particular pilot, and forced removal of the system, as Sergeant Bothari does during interrogation of a jump pilot during the Tau Verde IV campaign, can cause mental and physical trauma, and even death. (All)

Jump-point stations:

Self-sustaining space stations that exist to monitor ships entering and exiting wormholes. They all look fairly similar, with merchants selling wares, hotels for transients, and their own security forces. Some, like Graf Station or Kline Station, have been heavily modified and built onto over the decades. (All except DD)

Jupiter Orbital #4:

A station where Leo had a previous mission training a group of roustabouts. He thinks training the quaddies couldn't be any more difficult. (FF)

Kanzian:

No first name given. An admiral in the Barrayaran Imperial Fleet, he is overweight and undertall, with a fringe of graying hair, and resembles a grandfatherly research professor. Assigned to advanced space operations, he is one of two men who Aral considers his superiors in military strategy. During Vordarian's coup, he joins Aral's side. During one of Simon's memory flashbacks, he inquires about Kanzian, who at the time has been dead for five years. Simon had been escorting him out of the capital when Padma Vorpatril was killed. (B, M, SH)

Kara:

A quaddie who works as an infirmary aide on the Cay Habitat, she updates Claire on the status of the revolt. (FF)

Karal, Ma:

No first name given. Serg Karal's wife, she has three boys, and rules her home with a firm but not unyielding hand. (MM)

Karal, Serg:

The Speaker of Silvy Vale for the past sixteen years, he is roughly sixty years old, balding, leathery, and worn, and missing his left hand. He is disappointed that Harra went to see the count over her baby's death, not wanting to cause problems over what he tries to pass off as an accident. He was a corporal in the Barrayaran military for twenty years, where he lost his hand. He doesn't provide a lot of help until the attacks on Miles's tent and his horse, which is an insult to the entire village, not to mention an assault against the Voice of Count Vorkosigan. (MM)

Karal, Zed:

One of Serg Karal's children, he is twelve years old, the middle child of three boys. At the village celebration, he claims that Miles is there to kill Lem Csurik, but Miles explains the true reason he has come to Silvy Vale: to administer justice. Zed and his brothers are in the tent when Dono Csurik tries to burn it, but they all escape unharmed. Almost a decade later, Miles encounters Zed again, now a man with a full, neatly trimmed black beard, when he returns to visit Raina's grave. His older brother married a girl from Seligrad, and his parents spend the winters there, helping with their grandchildren. (M, MM)

Kat:

No surname given. One of the Dendarii mercenaries who clears booby traps on a captured Pelian warship, she disarms one with three seconds to spare. (WA)

Kaymer Orbital Shipyards:

A construction and repair shipyard located in Earth orbit. Miles brings his combat drop shuttles there for repairs after the prisoner breakout on Dagoola IV. He has to settle for placing his payment in escrow until the repairs are made, since the company's representative doesn't quite trust mercenaries. (BA)

Kee:

No first name given. A trooper in the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet, he is killed in action during the Marilac mission. (MD)

Keroslav District:

A district on Barrayar known for its baked goods. After the Singing Open the Great Gates ceremony, Miles makes idle conversation about the district's various baking styles with Voreedi while waiting for his Cetagandan contact to get in touch with him. (C)

Kesterton:

No first name given. A trooper in the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet, he participates in Mark's clone facility raid at Jackson's Whole. (MD)

Kestrel
:

The Barrayaran courier ship that delivers Miles's orders to go to Graf Station, and also takes Ekaterin and him to his destination. (DI)

Kety, Islum:

The haut-governor of Sigma Ceta, one of the Cetagandan satrapy worlds. A cousin of the Emperor, he is in his mid-forties, tall, lean, and hawkish, with an artificial touch of gray at his temples. He is behind the conspiracy to overthrow the Emperor, using the power of possessing the Star Crèche and his plan to put a false copy of the Great Key in Miles's possession to provoke a war with Barrayar. He sets up Lord Yenaro to kill Miles and Ivan. His haut-consort is Nadina, whom he kidnaps when she comes to his ship to take back his copy of the Star Crèche. In her place, he sends his mistress, Vio d'Chilian, to capture Ivan. After he is arrested and his plan foiled, he will be forced to retire or commit suicide. (C)

Kevi:

No surname given. An assistant to Emperor Gregor, he is unobtrusive, middle-aged, and intelligent-looking. He shows Ivan and Mark to Gregor's private office in Vorhartung Castle. (MD)

Killer:

One of the separate personalities Mark creates to survive Baron Ryoval's torture. Also known as Other by Mark's various personalities, Killer comes out to murder Baron Ryoval. (MD)

Kim:

No first name given. One of the Oseran mercenaries killed in the battle for the ore refinery orbiting Tau Verde IV. (WA)

Kimura:

No first name given. A sergeant in the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet's Yellow Squad, he participates in Miles's attempted rescue of Mark and Green Squad on Jackson's Whole. (MD)

Kitten tree:

A bioengineered tree that sprouts the front half of kittens instead of fruit, on display at the Cetaganda bioestheties exhibit. When Ivan tries to free one of them, he accidentally kills it, as it wasn't designed to survive away from the plant. Vorreedi quietly disposes of the remains. (C)

Kline Station:

A very large space station near a star that has no planets, founded three centuries before Ethan Urquhart first visits it, and built onto ever since. One of the projects the quaddie race was originally created to build, it is within a sub-light boost of six jump points, including to Athos. An independent station, it has a complete internal ecosystem, supplying its own food, heat, light, etc. The station also has environmental police, called biocontrol wardens, who make sure uncleared animals, produce, molds, fungi, and other potentially hazardous material are not brought onto the station. They have pine green uniforms with sky blue accents. Security personnel wear black and orange. Docks and Locks, or maintenance, wears red uniforms. Ethan Urquhart is sent there to acquire new ovarian tissue cultures for his planet, and runs into the various parties chasing after Terrence Cee. (EA, FF)

Klyeuvi, Amor:

Also known as Kly the Mail, he was a major in the Barrayaran military during the reign of Yuri Vorbarra, and fought against the Cetagandan invasion. He wears a worn Imperial Postal Service jacket and clothes made up of other uniform pieces: black fatigue shirt, ancient dress green trousers, and well-oiled officer's knee boots. He is unshaven, his lips are stained black from chewing gum-leaf, and he's missing several teeth, with the others a uniform yellow brown. A friend of Piotr's, he helps Cordelia, Gregor, and Bothari escape from Vordarian's security men. He has ridden the mail circuit for eighteen years, and was an Imperial Ranger for twenty years before that. He has a niece and was married but no children. After his death, he is buried in the cemetery at Vorkosigan Surleau. (B, MD)

Knolly:

No first name given. An admiral in the Barrayaran Imperial Fleet, he suffers from colitis. Referred to as "Jolly Nolly" by Admiral Kanzian, during Vordarian's coup, he is located at Jumppoint Station One, and hasn't answered any messages from either side. Aral and Kanzian plan a private meeting with him to bring him over to their side. (B)

Komarr:

A planet controlled by Barrayar for forty years, it is near a wormhole nexus with routes to Barrayar, Sergyar, Escobar, Pol, the Cetagandan Empire, and several minor routes. An 0.9 standard gravity planet, with an abundant native supply of gaseous nitrogen and water ice, it has an atmosphere with a high CO
₂
content, but an inadequate greenhouse effect to retain heat. The population lives in domed cities that receive solar heat from a set of mirrors called a hexagonal soletta array. Breath masks are required to go out on the planet's surface. When Cetaganda invaded Barrayar eighty years before Cordelia met Aral, Komarr let them through the wormhole route. Later, Aral was in charge of the campaign to seize the planet, but he was unjustly given the title "The Butcher of Komarr" when his political officer ordered two hundred people from the planet killed against his orders.

Miles's first official assignment as an Imperial Auditor is to assist in the investigation into an accident at the soletta array, damaged by a collision with an inner system ore freighter, threatening to stop the centuries-long terraforming project. Miles thwarts a plot by renegade Komarran engineers to cut Barrayar off from the galaxy by permanently closing the wormhole. He also meets his future wife, Ekaterin, there. Emperor Gregor's wife, Laisa Toscane, is also a Komarran, and their marriage strengthens the relationship between the two planets. (CC, K, M, SH)

Komarr Revolt:

A military action that Aral Vorkosigan dealt with while serving as the Regent of Barrayar. (WA)

Komarran fleet shares:

A risky form of investment, where a person or company buys shares in a Komarran trading fleet, which goes on an extended trip through the galaxy, with any profits to be distributed upon its arrival back home. Etienne Vorsoisson borrows money and invests his family's entire fortune in a trip that goes wrong, losing three-quarters of the investment. (K)

Kosti:

No first name given. A corporal in the Barrayaran military, he is the gate guard at the empty Vorkosigan House when Miles arrives home. About twenty-one years old, he is a tall, blond-haired young man with sharp features. Against regulations, he has adopted a cat that was rescued from the security system. He has a younger brother, Martin, whom Miles hires as a driver until before he goes into the Military Academy. He also receives lunch every day from his mother, whom Miles hires as House Vorkosigan's cook once he sees it. (M)

Kosti, Ma:

No first name given. Her son guards Vorkosigan House as part of Imperial Security security protocol. After seeing the gourmet spread Corporal Kosti receives every day, Miles hires her to cook at Vorkosigan House. Her culinary reputation spreads so fast that everyone wants to hire her away, including Cordelia, who would like to bring her to Sergyar when Aral and she go back. Ma Kosti joins Mark's company when she comes up with many delicious recipes using bug butter, and is upset when Miles doesn't allow her to serve all of the creations at his dinner party. She also assists with creating and distributing the maple ambrosia at the Emperor's wedding reception, and prepares the food for Miles's wedding reception. (CC, M, WG)

Kosti, Martin:

Corporal Kosti's younger brother. A tall, blond young man who looks like his older sibling, but with softer features. He is two months away from the mandatory age of eighteen to apply for Imperial service, so Miles hires him in the interim as his driver and batman. Initially, Martin isn't a very good driver, but improves with experience, and grows on Miles as well. He accompanies Miles to Silvy Vale, and teaches city dances to the kids there. (M)

Kostolitz:

No first name given. A fellow officer's school candidate in the Barrayaran military, he is paired with Miles during the initial physical training, when Miles breaks his legs on the obstacle course. Later, Miles has his revenge during officer school, when he keeps cool during a hazardous exercise and saves both of them from getting "killed." (WA)

Koudelka, Clement:

An ensign in the Barrayaran military, he is one of Aral's loyal men during the mutiny on Sergyar. He is tall with a regular, pleasant face. After he is hit with a nerve disruptor while fighting the mutineers, the nerves in his right leg and left arm are replaced by artificial ones, which render him unable to serve in the infantry. After accepting the position of Regent, Aral promotes him to lieutenant, and makes him his personal secretary.

He carries a spring-loaded swordstick, a weapon of the aristocracy, by Aral's special order. He considers suicide at least once, due to the isolation and prejudice he receives from other Barrayarans. After having sex with Ludmilla Droushnakovi on the night of Aral's assassination attempt, he feels guilty about taking advantage of her, which she proves him wrong about later. His father was a grocer, which enables him to help smuggle Cordelia, Bothari, and Droushnakovi into Vorbarr Sultana to rescue Miles. He is ordered to escort Alys Vorpatril out of the city after they save her from Vordarian's security men.

After the coup is put down, he marries Droushnakovi, and they have four daughters together. He is a commodore by the time Miles becomes an Imperial Auditor, and is very upset at the turn of events between Mark and Kareen, which he finds out in public at the dinner party. With Cordelia's assistance, he agrees to the option arrangement for Mark and Kareen to have a relationship that works for everyone, and even apologizes to Mark for his earlier churlish behavior. He also has to get used to the idea of his daughter Olivia and Count Dono Vorrutyer getting married as well. (B, CC, SH, WA)