Mirror Dance

1994

When Admiral Naismith returns to the Dendarii Mercenaries with a new mission, Captain Bel Thorne is delighted to have it's ship chosen for this mission. A raid on the clone factories of House Bharaputra on Jackson's Whole.

It's presented as a raid to embarrass one of the House's patrons who had ordered themselves a new body but the real mission is something quite different - a mission not thought up by Miles Vorkosigan or his masters in Imperial Security but by Miles's clone brother, Mark.

At first he takes in those around him, expect for captain Thorne, but when the plans begin to unravel around them, Bel had to take back command in order to rescue the situation but things had gone too far leaving the squad trapped in Bharaputra's crèche building.

Meanwhile, Miles was coming up fast behind, but not fast enough. When he finally reached Jacksonian space, he finds the assault squad on the verge of capture and tries bargaining for their release. The Jacksonians are willing to discuss this, except for Mark, which was unacceptable to Miles so a quick rescue mission is put together.

As the Dendarii are pulling back after a successful raid, Miles is spotted by a sniper and is almost blown in half by the resulting explosion. Successfully cryofreezing his corpse, his devastated squad is forced to split up as they try for the shuttles once more.

Once aboard the ship it becomes clear that the med tech in charge of the cryochamber didn't make it back!

After a panicked conference aboard the ship, the surviving Dendarii realise that they have the head of House Bharaputra himself and in a ploy of desperation, they have to bargain the man's freedom for information on any cryochambers recovered by the Jacksonians. To their ill-concealed dismay none is found and their ship is forced to flee local space to take the news, and the author of the disastrous mission, back to Barrayar.

Once there, Lord Mark Piotr Vorkosigan is introduced to his father Count Vorkosigan, a man he had been trained to kill.

Who will survive?

Will Miles' body be recovered?

Has he been revived?

Will Mark be able to take Barrayar?

Will Barrayar be able to absorb Mark?

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