I started writing this blog post last Saturday, with the intention of covering chapters four through six of Shards of Honor. I was thinking of those chapters as a tidy little section with Aral regaining command and proposing marriage, quickly followed by two mutinies and Cordelia’s rescue.
It turns out that’s neither tidy nor little. Which is why this blog post only deals with chapter four.
If you’d like to catch up on previous posts in the re-read, the index is here. At this time, the spoiler policy permits discussion of all books EXCEPT Gentlemen Jole and the Red Queen. Discussion of any and all revelations from that book should be whited out.
SUMMARY
When we left them last week, Cordelia and Aral were preparing to approach the supply cache with Dubauer in tow. At the beginning of chapter 4, Aral spiffs himself up—he has Cordelia drain his wound, takes a stimulant from his field kit, and shaves , and then carefully scouts the supply cache. Aral introduces Cordelia to his crew—loyalists and mutineers—through his field scope. He says she’ll need to know when to keep her head down. Koudelka is trustworthy, Darobey is Radnov’s spy, Aral wants to charge Radnov with mutiny, and Gottyan is in charge. Aral sees this as a stroke of luck.
Cordelia and Aral return to their campsite to find Dubauer missing. A brief search fails to locate him. Aral points out that once he regains command, they can find Dubauer with heat scopes, and if he doesn’t regain command, all three of them die. Cordelia agrees to delay search and rescue.
Cordelia and Aral approach the Barryaran camp carefully, avoiding its sentries. Aral fears that the Barryaran presence indicates that something is wrong. With Cordelia hiding in the vegetation armed with her dying stunner, their only firearm, Aral confronts Gottyan. Their meeting does not go well. Gottyan was planning on calling for a court of inquiry into Aral’s death, but was also counting on being confirmed as the successor to Aral’s command. Aral’s survival is an impediment to his career advancement. Aral assures Gottyan that things are in the works—more ships, more opportunities. Gottyan dismisses this as “the usual rumors.” Gottyan explains that Bothari confessed to stunning Aral instead of killing him, and is in solitary confinement in the brig. Cordelia sees tears in Gottyan’s eyes, and concludes that this is grief for the friend he is about to murder, rather than the first case of Sergyaran hay-fever. She stuns him from her position of cover.
Leaving Gottyan tied up next to the path, Cordelia and Aral head north in search of a loyal sentry. They find Koudelka, who tells them about Aral’s funeral. Koudelka also provides the roster for the landing party. Aral gives orders to arrest the men he believes to be involved in Radnov’s mutiny. As they approach the cache, they encounter a group of men torturing Dubauer, who they captured in the woods. Aral helps Cordelia tend to him and reprimands his men for their mistreatment of a prisoner. Aral orders Koudelka to take Cordelia and Dubauer to get food, and goes back into the woods to have a chat with Gottyan.
Koudelka takes Cordelia and Dubauer into the cave where the supply cache is, for lack of a better word, cached. Cordelia notices that it’s enormous—a full-scale fleet depot. Yeoman Nilesa offers stew, and is pathetically grateful when Cordelia praises his cooking. Aral joins them after his conversation with Gottyan. Koudelka returns to inform Aral that some of the mutineers have escaped efforts to detain them. At this point, Aral’s painkiller/stimulant cocktail is wearing off. He orders the cavern sealed and the rest of the crew to return to the Barryaran ship. He’ll let the mutineers spend a few nights in the woods and pick them up later.
The transport to Aral’s ship is filled with young men speculating on their captain’s sex life. Cordelia ponders her next few months. She expects that Aral’s duties will keep him busy, and she won’t see much of him. She considers taking on the Barryarans as an anthropology project, or seeing her captivity as a vacation. Once on board the General Vorkraft, Cordelia and Koudelka take Dubauer to sickbay. Cordelia warns the surgeon about Aral’s condition, and watches what she suspects will be the beginning of an endless series of hospital days for Dubauer. Aral finally reports to sickbay and all-but collapses. As the surgeon examines Aral’s leg, Koudelka escorts Cordelia to her quarters.
COMMENTARY
Dubauer survived the 200-kilometer oatmeal-and-blue-cheese wilderness survival trek without hospital support, so I can’t imagine why he would need a hospital on a consistent basis going forward. He’s overdue for a diagnostic workup that reveals exactly what the nerve disruptor did to his brain, so his caretakers can determine what supports he will require and what therapies will be most constructive. I don’t think he’s going to be a Survey botanist again but there are a lot of options between constant hospitalization and Betan Survey crew. Cordelia is questioning whether she has made the best decisions for him; She may be a little more militarist than she cares to admit. Or maybe she’s just very tired.
The flight to the General Vorkraft begins the period in which absolutely everyone assumes Aral and Cordelia have been having tons of sex. Obviously, the last thing anyone would want to do is waste the precious calories obtained by forcing yourself to eat oatmeal and blue cheese dressing in an activity that exposes many delicate body parts to Sergyar’s impressive variety of radially symmetrical fauna that sting and suck your blood. If that risk didn’t kill the mood, Hexapeds would probably come and eat you. Plus, it’s not like it was a private hike. Dubauer was kind of a third wheel.
Prior to this reread, I had not realized how much of Shards Aral spends in an altered mental state. His ability to navigate the byzantine politics of the command structure and manage his strategy for regaining his command while higher than a kite is an interesting measure of his abilities. In later years, Miles will remark that fish don’t notice the water. At this point, Aral is not only failing to notice the water, he hasn’t realized that he’s a shark. His altered mental state may help explain why he allows Cordelia to see the cave. She doesn’t yet know that it’s part of the planning for the invasion of Escobar, but she can plainly see that the Barryarans are planning a major military operation. Aral knows his government better than I do, and possibly better than many of its high ranking officials, so perhaps he knows why Barryar would be willing to allow Cordelia to be debriefed by the Betan military. But the reasons are certainly very well-hidden.
Aral’s knowledge of upcoming military operations colors his conversations. It explains his comment to Gottyan about opportunities for promotion, and his agreement with Cordelia’s description of his crew as sacrificial animals. We haven’t yet met Bothari. Aral released him from solitary confinement before reporting to sick bay.
Ellen Cheeseman-Meyer teaches history and reads a lot.
It makes sense that Dubauer would be spending a lot of time in the hospital, and even in the near future. My understanding was that the Barrayan military hospitals at least had a reasonable standard of care by galactic standards. The medical ethics might be a bit different, but we don’t actually meet a lot of doctors giving their opinions on that – we see what Aral thinks about Dubauer, but that was in the wilderness (the brouhaha over what to do with fetal Miles was, at least in part, based on the old guard not understanding what was possible with galactic medical technology). Given who ends up under Aral’s command, and the then-current attitude of the military command, it makes sense that his doctors would be more likely than most to try and care for someone like Dubauer.
I think that the diagnostics you mention him needing are really a large part of *why* there would be extensive hospital time in the future. Neurological diagnoses (especially with a patient who can’t really communicate) are not an incredibly quick procedure. And I’m sure that, once back on Beta at least, there will be round after round of experimental treatments in the hope of restoring some brain functionality.
The damage from a nerve disruptor seems to be different from that of a stroke or ordinary brain injury. There seems to be little expectation of recovery, even by Betans. The artificial nerves we later see for Koudelka seem only to work for the peripheral nerves, not for the brain and spine.
Aral “letting” Cordelia see the cache seems to be a matter of necessity. He can’t take back command without her help. And there really is no other place to take her and Dubauer. Short of killing them or abandoning them to die, all he can do is take them there to be transported as prisoners back to Barrayar. He assumes that she’ll remain his prisoner until after the invasion, not that she’ll escape with news of the plans.
The corruption Aral has to deal with here is familiar enough that I probably downplay the significance of it. Though I haven’t read that many mutiny stories so maybe I’m reading across from decadent court stories. It’s really bad. Sure there’s Radnov’s mutiny but that’s a top down problem. But Gottyan was going to shoot Aral mostly because he could get away with it, which is evidence of an endemic rot. It seems to foreshadow Haroche.
I don’t remember, are the names here surnames? If so, Aral seems to be the only Vor in the landing party.
@3, noblehunter: I’m pretty sure those are all last names, I’m not sure if Aral was the only Vor in the landing party but his first officer (Gottyan) is not. I remember noticing that his second officer introduced in the sick bay (in chapter 5) is Vor.
It is funny how everyone assumes they’ve been getting on since meeting. Given how Aral feels about prisoners and his honor, they should all be well aware that he wouldn’t force himself on Cordelia; although, female prisoners might not be a common consideration for the Barrayarans. OTOH everyone could well be seeing the obvious chemistry between the two of them and realizing that Aral would have had no need to force himself on her. Cordelia is very, very friendly and supportive of her captor. And Aral lets her wander around with no real concern.
The names for Aral’s crew are last names; the only Vor we get on his ship are himself and Aristede Vorkalloner. We get 15 names of crew members (see General Vorkraft on the vorkosigan wikia), so Vor are a severe minority. Of course, it’s also the Leper Colony, so that might explain some.
We’ve had our first negative statements about Barrayar back in chapters 1-3, where Cordelia and Aral talk about what they expected of each other, and Cordelia basically offered the opinion that Barrayaran officers are criminal. And of course her comments about barbarism and living among cannibals….
Aral letting Cordelia see the cave was understandable by way of being unavoidable, but his later conversations with her are going to cross a line. I will wait.
@5 Given how significant elements of the Barayarran military is going to act in the rest of this book, her calling them criminals is understandable. Though she’ll err in the other direction later.
I’m on the fence about how much of the whole structure of the mutiny and systemic corruption within Aral’s own ranks was intended to foreshadow events later in the book, or in the war of the pretendership in Barryar. But it’s certainly proved fertile ground for later books in the series, because the overarching plot of the whole is basically the whole Barryaran society undergoing character development over the course of a generation (well, a generation so far.)
The variety of soldiers are much more interesting the second time around: the first time they were a blur of names and now I know which ones will be important later.
The mutiny, and the Pretendership, show us how, at the beginning of Aral’s regency, violence within the military was seen as a viable means of political change and personal advancement.
That, in turn, shows us one of Aral’s major accomplishments – turning the Barrayan military into a professional organization that is under the firm control of the Emperor. They don’t have the same sort of separation of the military from civilian power that the US does, but it does develop a separation between civil power and military obedience below the highest levels of power.
On the severity of Dubauers initial condition, Aral may reflect Barrayaran attitudes towards physical imperfections, even among war wounded – “no man would want to live like that” – a full life in a wheelchair may still have been within the range of possibilities. Or Bujold is just setting the stage for Cordelia’s later decision not to abort a severely damaged fetus.
I don’t think we can draw any conclusions on Barrayar’s progress yet. Dono’s speech before the Council of Counts was excellent rhetoric, but street fighting may still play a role in deciding the Empire’s future. 20 years later Gregor estimated his death or prolonged absence might cost 8000 – 9000 lives (the total for the Pretendership, presumably)
“A full life in a wheelchair” is not an option for Dubauer. For one thing, he can walk, and well enough to keep up on a hike of over 100 miles through uncharted territory. No wheelchair necessary.
His injuries seem to affect speech and/or cognition.
Further testing should tease out the distinction between damaged communications ability and damaged cognitive ability. Which is an important difference, in terms of quality of life.
Dubauer is the mirror of Koudelka, who could live an intellectually full life despite physical disabilities. Dubauer is physically undamaged, but has severe intellectual/cognitive damage.
@9 Aral’s certainly reflecting his own views on the subject. He gives Cordelia instructions about what to do should he be similarly afflicted (what a romantic, eh?). I do think it’s an example to demonstrate Cordelia’s commitment to Life before Death (to borrow from the Stormlight Archive), in advance of the soltoxin attack.
You’re referring to The Vor Game? That was before Gregor had kids and the question of succession was still relatively open. Also, the strongest of his potential heir would be severely weakened by his disappearance and had no interest in the job. Twenty years after that, Gregor could drop dead and the imperial government would probably hum along fairly well. Though picturing Miles as Regent is provoking emotionally complex reactions.
@9 There is a significant difference in the nature of chaos that follows the death of a monarch without a recognized heir, versus the systemic chaos and violence within the military we see in Shards/Barrayar.
If Gregor died without a recognized heir, there would likely be civil war, with factions among various contenders, and perhaps the military fracturing as different high-ranked leaders took sides. On the other hand, the disciplined military Aral created might not take sides, but rather leave the Counts to squabble with their 20 armsmen each, and put down any attempts to raise an army by any given Count. The result might be a backdoor coup and military rule, as in the absence of an Emperor the military leadership kept things at a sort of status quo until the Counts settled on an Emperor.
In Shards/Barrayar, particularly Shards, we see people even in the middle ranks of the military using violence within the military for personal advancement. That’s a different sort of chaos, when the military breaks down into armed factions fighting each other, without any goals beyond each faction empowering itself.
That’s why, in Barrayar, Aral wanted to keep the military quiet for as long as possible, limiting the Pretendership to a palace coup with most of the military doing nothing until he could decisively retake control on Gregor’s behalf. Having the military start fighting itself, junior officers fighting senior for control in favor of their preferred sides, etc. would have created a chaos that could not have been calmed just by Cordelia’s shopping trip. Things could settle down because most people hadn’t really taken sides, and the fighting wasn’t personal, involving revenge and individual desires.
@@@@@ Ursula
A real or metaphorical wheelchair, Dubauer may be alive but without control of his body. What control he could have regained over his body if he had reached a hospital without further damage we will never know. And yes, his body is amazingly mobile. My point is that we should discount Aral’s diagnosis.
Your followup on the maturity of Barrayar really supports my position, the empire has not had to face severe internal stress since the Pretendership, the various crisis have been quenched before reaching the shooting stage, mostly by Miles or Illyan. It is too soon to proclaim Barrayar a stable society where subordinates will refuse illegal orders although Bonn in Vor Game shows it can happen.
The mutiny in Shards does not tell us anything about Barrayar generally, Aral is figuratively stabbed in his back in the middle of the night, and this is the garbage detail. The main conflict in Shards is between Ezar and Serg, the mutiny seems to be retaliation for Komarr, I don’t remember if it is made clear. We’ll see.
@13 I think that stating that “the empire has not had to face severe internal stress since the Pretendership” as an argument for why Barrayar’s government can’t be shown to be stable is circular. A big point of creating a more stable government is to eliminate severe internal stresses, not to be clever about dealing with them (they don’t want the place being kept barely stable like Ezar had been doing, they want a system that mostly works and doesn’t generate those kinds of problems). So seeing the Barrayarans not having to deal with such is very good… I’d say that after the Hegen Hub War, this seems to be coming along quite well – to find good adventures, Miles has to go off-planet and find his bad guys out there.
There are still many stressors that Barrayar is facing, mostly in the form of super-fast-moving future shock (Cetagandan aggressions make for another). They’re building up tech and laws and training and such practically overnight, and mostly succeeding precisely because they’ve got themselves into a decently stable situation.
@14
Not circular, just cautious. Destructive testing yields reliable results faster but it can be costly. 40 years and one transition of power with just a handful of people dead, not counting Komarr, is a vast improvement over the Barrayaran average, but it may still be premature to declare Barrayar stable, given its history and the known dangers of inherited power.
I agree with everything else you say, Barrayar is moving in the right direction at a fast pace.
@13 Of course we should discount Aral’s diagnosis, his society drives anyone it perceives as disabled to suicide or isolation. Until he’s got Cordelia to provide a different model of disability, any injury severe enough to prevent a return to military service is pretty close to not being worth living with.
I thnk Aral’s goal for the imperial service is that officers don’t give illegal orders. His seminar at the academy is a stopgap and mitigation.
I find it interesting we spend so much time discussing the worldbuilding that hasn’t really been done yet rather than this week’s chapter. Maybe because the best part of Shards is the potential rather than what’s actually happening?
Dubauer was being tortured by the Barryarens when Cordelia and Aral returned to the supply depot. He might have needed hospitalization for that, as well as his nerve disrupter damage.
This is a series reread, we can see events in the light of what we know about the Vorkosigan universe from stories ahead. This may be particularly prominent in early stories, and stories we haven’t read into the ground. I stop when we get into subjects that I feel belong further along the reread.
I think we can conclude that Cordelia’s decision to try to rescue Dubauer was fully justified at the time. I had wondered about that, as did she in retrospect.