vor | Sixth Cream Cake: [Written/Action]

[Filtered to Ivan Vorpatril, 65% unhackable because it's early and he's sick.]

Ivan,

Would you please look in on the horse for me? The Imperial Ass seems to be having trouble getting out of bed today, as the Imperial Sniffles have turned into the Imperial Plague. We apologize for Our impending death and your impending resulting frustrations.

Regretfully,

Gregor

P.S. If this letter caused you alarm, please give yourself a refresher course in detecting the Imperial Sarcasm.

[/Filtered]

[Gregor is sick as a dog. Apartments adjacent to his have probably heard violent, deep, chesty coughing for about two weeks now. Ordinarily, he'd have on-site approved physicians checking him out and prescribing whatever antibiotic was necessary, but here, he has to actually go seek out help. So. To the Battle Dome clinic he goes, looking specifically to see Adele LeBlanc when she's in. He will wait for her, if necessary.

Afterwards, he's going to the library, then the bakery for coffee and something sweet. Anyone stopping in can see him sitting inside, devouring a psychology textbook and sipping coffee, the cream cakes reduced to crumbs. They are the only thing he has eaten all day. He is not looking great, occasionally falling into bad coughing fits, for which he ducks outside, but recovering fairly quickly. When he heads home, he goes straight to bed despite his plans to work out. And the fact that it's the middle of the day.]

[Filtered to Phoenix Ikki 79%]

PI--

I suppose we're supposed to be pen pals, whatever that entails. I hope you're adjusting to the village well.

--GB

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Then that's her right. She's the expert, and if she thinks my bronchial tubes can't handle a couple of cream cakes, I'll defer to her.

[It's a clever answer. Enough to get a grin from Amelia.]

You don't give easily.

I'm learning. [The tiny, somewhat shy smile he gives is warm, compared to the stiff glumness he was displaying.]

[That's a good thing. He's let Amelia get some of her frustration out of her system--especially since it's so likely he'll get better.]

And you really aren't that sick, despite the cough?

It sounds worse than it is. I'll be fine in a week, with antibiotics.

...Just like that.

[It sounds so simple, the way he says it.]

[He watches her carefully. Was it not so easy for this young woman, or someone she knew? Did she live in a place of poverty, or before the invention of antibiotics?]

When and where are you from?

You've got a bad habit of not answering questions.

[But Amelia's willing to reply to his.]

Gunsmoke. And if you don't know the name, there's no point in me telling you the year. You?

Barrayar. It's from the same dimension as Earth, if you're familiar, but...but I'm from a lot further in the future than most Earthers here.

[Now that the need to be defensive has gone, he goes back to being naturally shy.]

[It's a pretty interesting change in demeanor. For her part, Amelia's not so overtly harsh, but she definitely isn't shy.]

That's where the people on Gunsmoke are from. The ships crashed there over a hundred years before I was born.

I see. I've never heard of Gunsmoke, but all planets are ultimately Earth colonies where I come from. Barrayar was settled mostly by Russians, British, French, and Greeks about six hundred years ago. We've gone on to colonize a second planet, but everyone is ultimately descended from Earth.

[She shakes her head at mention of the different Earth people.]

Most of our history got lost in the Great Fall. Same with technology. Gunsmoke's a desert planet, so people focused on trying to survive.

Are you terraforming?

I don't know what that means, so probably not.

Mm. Most planets have to be terraformed. Barrayar always had a breathable atmosphere, but we've had to work the soil to make Earth-descended plants grow there.

Oh. People have had to do that on Gunsmoke too. We also have the Plants--not the ones that grow,, like in the forest. They look like lightbulbs, but they're much bigger. They provide power, so most of our cities are built around them.

Power plants and that ilk, yeah. That makes sense.

You know, you may be one of the first people I told that to who hasn't gotten confused.

[Funny how that works.]

Anything else you want to know?

Are you capable of wormhole travel?

You don't mean going through the holes sandworms leave when they tunnel through the ground, right?

No. Ah. Not capable of space travel at all right now?

[Amelia shakes her head.]

The ships that brought people to Gunsmoke were all destroyed in the Fall. Trust me, I think if there were any way of getting off that rock, people would've done it years ago.

[Gregor nods.]

Barrayar had what we call the Time of Isolation. The Firsters, the original colonists, arrived through a wormhole in space that promptly collapsed. By the time we made contact again with the rest of the galaxy centuries later, they'd invented things like artificial gravity and uterine replicators, whereas our strongest military force was horse cavalry.

[The phrases "artificial gravity" and especially "uterine replicators" get Greg a look of confusion; Amelia doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. But from the context, she thinks he means something along the lines of "better ways to fight."]

Gunsmoke doesn't have a military. The closest we come are the marshals, but even they can't do much.