Shards of Honour

1986

Commander Cordelia Naismith is an astrogator in Beta Colony's Survey service and when she and her crew find a planet full of all sorts of life, they believe it is a potential goldmine of all sorts of discoveries.

The black column of smoke from their camp site indicates a discovery of a more serious nature, however. When Cordelia and her colleague investigate, the man is hit by a nerve disrupter and Cordelia is knocked unconscious.

When she recovers, Cordelia's fears appear to have been thoroughly vindicated when she finds herself under the gun of a Barrayran officer. Her fears recede a bit when it's clear that the man has been caught up in a mutiny and left for dead. They come flooding back when she realises that her captor is Aral Vorkosigan, charged in the court of Galactic Opinion with the slaughter of the former ruling clique on Komarr during Barrayar's invasion of that domed world.

 As they travel through the wilds of the planet that Vorkosigan called Sergyar, they learn to co-operate in order to survive the natives.

Back at his headquarters, they overcome the mutineers and Cordelia is transferred back up to his ship where she is 'rescued' from the clutches of the 'vile' Barrayarans by the crew of her ship.

A few months later, Cordelia is commanding a Betan blockade runner against the Barrayarans' attempt to take the planet Escobar. Again, she is taken prisoner and meets a few old friends and a couple whose acquaintance she would rather have avoided. When all seems unavoidably lost, an unexpected saviour saves her honour in a shower of blood. All that's left for a wild eyed Vorkosigan to do is to clear up the mess and hide Cordelia from the search teams.

When the Barrayaran invasion force suddenly starts being blown out of space by shuttles they don't believe it.

Doesn't stop them dying though!

With the high command of the invasion fleet all dead, Vorkosigan, as ranking officer, orders his forces to retreat back to Sergyar where Cordelia learns the true horror behind the Escobaran Invasion Fleet.

Please note that the UK edition is part of the combined novel 'Cordelia's Honour' also containing 'Barrayar'

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