azurelunatic: "One Day Only: the irresistible force meets the immobable object. Tickets, five marks."  (irresistible force)
Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 ([personal profile] azurelunatic) wrote2013-04-05 10:21 pm
Entry tags:

Not!fic: "Aral You-Had-One-Mission Vor^H^H^HKosigan Naismith", a Battle of Escobar AU

Title: Not!fic: Aral You-Had-One-Mission Vor^H^H^HKosigan Naismith, A Battle of Escobar AU
Fandom: Vorkosigan AU
Author: [personal profile] azurelunatic
Size: ~7 kb
Advisories: Not!Fic. Barrayarans! and their fucking honor. :( The party continues in the comments.
Note: [twitter.com profile] klreeher was out for dinner with [personal profile] zarhooie and the name "Aral You-Had-One-Job Vorkosigan" popped into my head.
Summary: Not!fic of what happens when Aral fails to get Prince Serg killed.


So Cordelia and company get picked up in their little thingy just like canon, and are brought on board, et cetera.

Aral notably fails to get Serg riled up enough to go to the front. Aral knows his responsibility here: bring the ship into the line of fire, and get blown the fuck up.

Cordelia is on the ship and has been brought into Aral's quarters to keep her safe from Serg. Something is clearly weighing heavily on Aral's heart and mind, and Cordelia is not entirely brave or cruel enough to ask about it.

Aral tells her about his tactical plan which will place the ship right in harm's way, being unable to entirely keep it to himself, and Cordelia goes snow-pale and then tells him that this is going to get him killed. She refuses to tell him why or how, but continues to insist that this is a suicide mission, voice ramping up into hysteria as Aral continues to insist that this is the only tactical choice he can make (also starting to yell).

Aral stops, kneels, puts his hands together in an attitude almost of prayer. Cordelia clasps her hands around his, clinging to him.

Quietly, Aral says with a note of darkly ironic humor in his voice, that Cordelia is a prisoner of Barrayar, and will almost certainly be put to death as she has already done too much -- interfered with Sergyar, killed Vorrutyer (his hands twitch as he says this), in addition to just being caught as a combatant.

(Cordelia tries to start an argument about the inhumanity of Barrayar's standard practices. "If you were caught doing the same against Beta--" she says.

"If I were caught," Aral amends, and then adds, "I would be dragged into a cozy little room and secured with padded restraints, and then they would drug me and tell me pretty lies until I agreed that it was very unfair of me to do this to Beta, and we could all just get along."

Cordelia opened her mouth to try to rebut this, and shut it again without saying anything.)

"On Barrayar," Aral continues, "a doomed prisoner who has earned special distinction can sometimes choose the manner of his death." He pauses. "Or hers." Speaking slowly, carefully, dragging each word out painfully, he continues. "I could offer you this much. An escape pod, stripped of its oxygen reserves. It would not be pleasant."

"If it escaped being hit by a stray shot," Cordelia agrees. "You would be firing me out into the teeth of the Escobarans. They might think it a bomb." She pauses. "Or they could pick me up, depriving Barrayar of its vengence. I could live to haunt you again."

"You speak as if I would survive," Aral reminds her, hands once again twitching in hers.

Cordelia catches his tone. "You mean to die here!" she accuses him.

He remains silent.

"I will not leave this ship," Cordelia tells him, and drops his hands to pace the tiny cabin.



She cannot bring herself to share his bed. He does not sleep -- he has taken one of the little pills -- and works all night on the comconsole. She curls up in a corner. She wakes partway through the night to discover that he's covered her with the blanket from his bunk.



Aral's nerve fails him at the critical moment. He doesn't steer the ship into the heart of the battle. He remains back, Prince Serg on board, and watches the other ships fall.

Cordelia has video from the bridge piped into Vorkosigan's quarters (he refused her plea to stand with him on the bridge, but did grant her that much) and watches as one of Serg's men presses a stunner to the back of his head and knocks him out. Aral calls the retreat and the fleet limps away.

Serg swans off on his own back to Barrayar in a fast courier after he comes to, and now that it is safe to do so, Aral returns Cordelia to the brig.



They make it back to Barrayar. Aral tells Cordelia that she has just one chance for survival, and takes her before the Emperor. Cordelia's pretty fucked up -- they've been treating her well for a Barrayaran prisoner, particularly because she's been under Aral's watch, and her people are doing all right as well as can be expected under the circumstances.

She tells Aral that really, she can deal with dying herself if there's nothing else to be done, but she really has to insist that he leverage all the levers he has on behalf of her people and getting them returned to Beta.

So she cleans up, accepts the return of her Survey fatigues instead of the prisoner's uniform she's been wearing, and stands before the Emperor, terrified but proud.

Aral introduces her to the Emperor as an honorable enemy combatant, which she would argue with as technically she doesn't consider what she'd done to have been fighting, but she's aware that it's a signal Barrayaran honor to consider a woman a combatant, and doesn't argue. He pleads for the lives of her crew, and then pleads for hers.

And then -- "My liege. I have lost the Battle of Escobar," Aral says. And then distinctly, as if it were a separate failure, he adds, "I have failed in the mission that you assigned me." He bows fully at the waist so that the back of his neck faces the emperor. He remains this way, as if waiting for a signal or gesture from the Emperor. Cordelia realizes in shock that he is in fact waiting for the Emperor to behead him.

"Stand up, Vorkosigan," the Emperor says, a terrifying old man. Cordelia observes that while he holds himself like someone accustomed to power, he is also in a great deal of pain, and encased in a better class of medical gear than Barrayar is supposed to possess.

"You know the penalty for failure," the Emperor says, and Aral flinches but holds his ground. "Have you anything to say for yourself?"

"No, sire."

"Never let it be said that I do not have my moments of mercy," the old man continues, and addresses Cordelia. "Commander Naismith. I will return your troops to Beta Colony on one condition."

"Sir," Cordelia says, terrified and polite.

"You will return with them, with Kosigan as your prisoner," he says. And to Aral again: "Kosigan."

Aral goes down on one knee before the Emperor, hands together in that gesture of prayer again. The Emperor clasps his hands over Aral's, in nearly the same gesture that Cordelia had unconsciously taken so many days ago. "For failure in service to the throne, in place of death," the Emperor says, "you are stripped of your titles, ranks, and properties."

Aral takes a deep breath, and Cordelia can see the muscle in his arm twitch, but the Emperor pins him with a look and holds him in place. There's more. "You are hereby exiled from the Imperium," the Emperor continues, "from Barrayar, from Komarr, from Sergyar, from all its planets, stations, and holdings, now or future. Unless--" --and Aral's gentle slump of defeat turns to electrified attention-- "--you somehow manage to fulfil your mission. In its entirety."

"Sire," Aral says, deep and resonant with suppressed meaning.

The Emperor releases his hands.

Aral kneels in turn before Cordelia. "Cap-- Commander, I remand myself into your custody," he says.

Cordelia feels that something is called for, and manages to stammer out some formal words of acceptance.


AND THEN THEY ALL GO BACK TO BETA COLONY, WHERE ARAL PLOTS THE DEATH OF SERG. I HAVE NO IDEA WHETHER HE EVER SUCCEEDS, BUT THAT IS HOW ARAL VORKOSIGAN FAILED. YOU HAD ONE JOB, ARAL. JUST ONE JOB.
enemyofperfect: a spray of orange leaves against a muted background (Default)

[personal profile] enemyofperfect 2013-04-06 08:04 am (UTC)(link)
This is awesome.
enemyofperfect: a spray of orange leaves against a muted background (Default)

[personal profile] enemyofperfect 2013-04-06 09:47 am (UTC)(link)
Eee, Aral!

My mind is all awhirl about what happens once they reach Beta Colony. It would present such a different set of challenges than the ones Cordelia faced on Barrayar.
enemyofperfect: a spray of orange leaves against a muted background (Default)

[personal profile] enemyofperfect 2013-04-06 10:13 am (UTC)(link)
It's been too long since I read canon; I want to say counts and counts' heirs don't get the treatment, but I could be wrong.

And of course he'd have thought to give her a nerve-disruptor, in the event. Yi.
vass: Small turtle with green leaf in its mouth (Default)

[personal profile] vass 2013-04-06 12:39 pm (UTC)(link)
I seem to remember that he begged to be fast-pentaed after the Solstice Massacre, and the Emperor just told him to shut up and behave.
enemyofperfect: a spray of orange leaves against a muted background (Default)

[personal profile] enemyofperfect 2013-04-07 04:50 am (UTC)(link)
I adore all of this.
cadenzamuse: Cross-legged girl literally drawing the world around her into being (Default)

[personal profile] cadenzamuse 2013-04-06 10:05 am (UTC)(link)
I WANT THIS FIC.
enemyofperfect: a spray of orange leaves against a muted background (Default)

[personal profile] enemyofperfect 2013-04-06 10:15 am (UTC)(link)
*sustained squeeing*

...Oh my gosh, and your next comment!
enemyofperfect: a spray of orange leaves against a muted background (Default)

[personal profile] enemyofperfect 2013-04-06 10:24 am (UTC)(link)
<3
thette: (Default)

[personal profile] thette 2013-04-06 12:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, she didn't vote for him.
lannamichaels: Astronaut Dale Gardner holds up For Sale sign after EVA. (Default)

[personal profile] lannamichaels 2013-04-06 05:20 pm (UTC)(link)
I want this so much. This is all glorious.
thette: (Default)

[personal profile] thette 2013-04-06 11:59 am (UTC)(link)
Wow... <3
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)

[personal profile] kaberett 2013-04-06 02:22 pm (UTC)(link)
YES YES YES THANK YOU YES
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)

[personal profile] kaberett 2013-04-06 02:22 pm (UTC)(link)
TEARS WHEN CORDELIA TAKES HIS HANDS BETWEEN HERS

GENUINE TEARS
pauamma: Cartooney crab wearing hot pink and acid green facemask holding drink with straw (Default)

[personal profile] pauamma 2013-04-07 03:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmm, I forgot the exact timeline, but does that also mean the (mumble) uterine replicators become Cordelia's personal responsibility instead of being dumped into Barrayar's lap?