The Great and Secret Knowledge
[Editor’s note: Jeff said some things about George W. Bush that haven’t necessarily been proven in court. We encourage you to read up on the issue to learn what has and hasn’t been corroborated publicly.]
In this one, Sofia B returns to discuss chapters 3 thru 5 of The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold. Miles gets in over his head and goes head to head with a dangerous superior.
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Plugs
Check out Sofia’s interview on Jeff’s other show, Everything is Awesome with Jeff and ?:
https://awesomepodnw.libsyn.com/episode-149-saving-the-wetlands-ft-sofia-buhrgard
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Recommendation
Pantheon (tv series) - Based on the short story collection by Ken Liu
Anti-Recommendation
The Culture series by I.M. Banks
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Everything is Awesome with Jeff and ?
Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)
Possible Show Titles
I Gotta Get a Cloak
Sinister Assistant
A Well-Known Sneaky Guy
The Other Empire
Links
George W Bush and the Air National Guard
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption
Extended Notes
chapter 3
1
he survived the cold
hes recovering in the infirmary
he fantasizes about what impsec would do to the motor pool guys
they hadnt meant to murder him so he lets it go
2
M asks if they treat a lot of frostbite
corpsman has to send him packing
3
do many people lose scat cats?
not too many
the commandant has been ripshit about it
he goes home and realizes he doesnt have the correct uniform since he lost his boots and trousers in the mud
he couldnt borrow from anyone because they wouldnt fit his unusual anatomy
4
"He cursed under his breath and shucked on his dress greens, complete with mirror-polished boots to the knees. At least the boots obviated the need for leg braces."
Miles thinks about how he failed to avoid the problem. He always seems committed to improving his behavior. Very ambitious
"Today, the general was aggressively dressed in black fatigues. At Metzov’s altitude in the hierarchy, this stylistic choice usually indicated a deliberate identification with The Fighting Man. The only concession to his rank was their pressed neatness. His decorations were stripped down to a mere modest three, all high combat commendations. Pseudo-modest; pruned of the surrounding foliage, they leapt to the eye. Mentally, Miles applauded, even envied, the effect. Metzov looked his part, the combat commander, absolutely, unconsciously natural."
5
Miles realizes hes fulfilling an embarrassing stereotype
a Vor lordling in riding boots
He thinks to himself: "I didn’t design the damned boots. His father had once suggested that his staff officers must need them for riding hobbyhorses, high horses, and nightmares. Unable to think of a useful reply to the general’s sally, Miles stood in dignified silence, chin lifted, parade rest. “Sir.”"
6
Metzov goes in on poor Miles about his fanciness and failure
he finds out the permafrost zones were represented by blue on the maps which hed have known if hed read the regulations, which hed have done if his boss wasnt a total wreck
7
Metzov is being a real douche
"The authority lent Miles by his uniform barely balanced the deformities that made him a target of Barrayar’s historically grounded, intense genetic prejudices. A public humiliation that sapped that authority before men he must also command came very close to an act of sabotage. Deliberate, or unconscious?"
Miles references how he nearly wasnt born because of an attack during Vordarians Pretendership
8
Metzov thinks what they need is a fresh war every few years to toughen up the troops
Metzov says some sexist shit and Miles internally turns it around
Metzov lays out his punishment. He has to get with Lt Bonn and organize a work detail to lift the scatcat out
9
Metzov turns the screws, punishing Miles for damaging the station to save his life
Miles does not want to be insubordinate but also he has no respect for Metzov.
"'The damage I did to the weather station was not a stupid accident like the scat-cat, sir! It was necessary to my survival.”
General Metzov fixed him with a very cold eye. “Make that six hours a day, Ensign Vorkosigan.”
Miles spoke through his teeth, words jerked out as though by pliers. “Would you have preferred the interview you’d be having right now if I’d permitted myself to freeze, sir?”"
Metzov is shooting daggers
10
Miles leaves the office and starts to unravel
he got too used to being around bigwigs
he doesnt know how to shut up and serve
Miles wonders if Metzov is political
11
M realizes that there could be myriad reasons why Metzov is a bust
Milo tells himself hes just gonna have to avoid Metzov
foreshadowing about Ahn and Metzov!
Bonn and Miles are stomping around, trying to find the scatcat
12
Miles learns that the ice forms under the bog, making it solidish ground unless it gets warm enough then it melts
""Midwinter, you could park a freight shuttle on this bog. Come summer, it thins out. It can thaw from seeming-solid to liquid in a few hours, when the temperature is just right, and back again.”
“I . . . think I found that out.”"
13
Bonn finds the scatcat with a probe
he signals the hovercab
hovercab flies over and sucks the thing out of the ice
14
Miles explains how he almost died
goes to look for his boots
only finds one
"Bonn frowned down at the ruined boot dangling from Miles’s hand. “You could have been killed,” he said in a tone of realization."
15
Bonn finds it odd that Miles wont turn in Pattas from the motor pool
Miles explains the situation
16
he tells Bonn why he's here,
to earn his spot on the new ship
Miles jokes that Vor promises dont mean much
17
Bonn delivers Pattas and Olney to Miles in the morning
they get to work cleaning all the equipment that had been submerged
Miles heads off to work, musing how these two must be confused
18
next day he Olney and Pattas had culvert duty
he really got into it
19
Miles finds a plugged culvert with water pooling on one side
he realizes hes the only one narrow enough to get through the drain
20
he finds a corpse!
chapter 4
page 1
surgeon arrives
miles and crew close off one end of drain
surgeon determines he drowned, no signs of foul play
page 2
"Does this sort of thing happen often around here?” Miles inquired mildly.
The surgeon shot him a sour look. “I slab a few idiots every year. What d’you expect, when you put five thousand kids between the ages of eighteen and twenty together on an island and tell ’em to go play war? I admit, this one seems to have discovered a completely new method of slabbing himself. I guess you never see it all.”"
miles went in to search but found nothing but a handlight
original impressions suggest the guy was alone
Pattas is surprised Miles seems unimpressed by the mans body
page 3
Pattas asks if hes seen a body before
Miles thinks about it
"Miles hesitated. Events of three years ago flickered through his memory. The brief months he’d been caught in desperate combat far from home, having accidentally fallen in with a space mercenary force, was not a secret to be mentioned or even hinted at here. Regular Imperial troops despised mercenaries anyway, alive or dead. But the Tau Verde campaign had surely taught him the difference between practice and real, between war and war games, and that death had subtler vectors than direct touch. “Before,” said Miles dampingly. “Couple of times.”"
later he gets a call from someone in Vorbarr Sultana
handsome Ivan is on the other end
he wanted to show Miles his new apartment
page 4
Miles used to live in the capitol, he finds it strange to see again
Ivan has a webcam you can turn around 360, shows Miles the room
he gets a wave of homesickness
Ivan has a new girlfriend
Ivan noticed Miles is soaked, asks what he's been doing
forensic plumbing
"how’s life in the infantry?”
“Oh, great. Lazkowski Base is the real thing, y’know.” Miles did not define what real thing. “Not a . . . warehouse for excess Vor lordlings like Imperial Headquarters.”"
Ivan explains how fun his job is, getting to see info from all over the empire
page 5
"Voices from another universe. At that, Vorbarr Sultana was only a couple of hours away by sub-orbital flight. In theory. Miles was obscurely comforted to be reminded that the whole planet hadn’t shrunk to the lead-gray horizons of Kyril Island, even if his part of it seemed to have."
later he goes to the infirmary to talk to the surgeon
surgeon explains that the guy got stuck and died within thirty minutes. "death by misadventure"."
Miles asks why he doesnt want to know more
page 6
surgeon isnt interested. just death by stupidity, details irrelevant
Miles goes jogging
arrives at culverts
"The road was lonely, out by the empty practice fields. The sun crawled crabwise toward the horizon. Miles broke from a jog back to a walk, then to a slower walk. His leg-braces chafed, beneath his pants. One of these days very soon he would take the time to get the brittle long bones in his legs replaced with synthetics. At that, elective surgery might be a quasi-legitimate way to lever himself off Kyril Island, if things grew too desperate before his six months were up. It seemed like cheating, though."
he tries to figure out why the guy chose that particular culvert
he takes a slightly wider one and voila finds
7
a package taped to the roof
his mind races, thinking of the glory
"Pastries. A couple of dozen lisettes, a kind of miniature popover glazed and stuffed with candied fruit, made, traditionally, for the Midsummer Day celebration. Month-and-a-half-old stale pastries. What a cause to die for."
doc isnt impressed
"The surgeon’s only comment, when Miles caught up with him and explained his findings, was “Yep. Death from stupidity, all right.” Absently, the man bit into a lisette and sniffed."
8
he see Lt Ahn off
Ahn leaves him with a cryptic warning
"he can be a funny kind of dangerous. dont ever really threaten him, huh?"
Ahn tells him not to risk pissing him off
9
Miles decides to look into Metzovs record
clearly something happened during the Komarr revolt that got him sent to Kyril Island
he comes to a redacted section and decides to call a contact with security clearance
its Ivan!
10
"Yeah, the old man’s stuck in committee. Nice little flap—a Barrayaran-registered freighter got itself impounded in the Hegen Hub—at Vervain Station—for suspicion of espionage.”
surely this wont end up having something to do with the story later
Ivan gets stopped by an impsec warning, explains how he cant get any data out
Miles tells him how he can make the two computers talk to each other, bypassing all security
11
Miles finds out Metzov probably killed a dude who killed a guard trying to escape
And there the info ended
Miles tries to get Ivan on board
"You,” said Ivan severely, “are career-poison. Never darken my vidplate again. Except at home, of course.”
12
5000 grubs arrive!
some grubs strted a fire lighting farts
Miles suggested they solve the problem by taking red bean stew off the menu
"Three months down, three to go. It was getting darker."
chapter 5
1
not the wahwah warning?
silence was baffling
some sort of accident in a toxic stores bunker
2
they join a big gang of folks at the bunker, including fire marshall and surgeon
surgeon tells them to take off everything and then decon
the bunker is full of fetaine
a terrible poison
barrels corroded over 20 years
3
Miles suggests using heat to melt the fetaine
fetaine affects reproduction
Miles busts out a full on weatherman bit
Bonn and the fire marshall plan the operation
Miles thinks about following them there
he cant risk mutating his sperm
he couldnt sleep so he's up
Metzov is in his office with Bonn
Miles steps in
Metzov says some ignorant shit
he says he isnt mad
the doc says the gear isnt good enough
5
Metzov is talking about shooting people who dont follow orders
Miles doesnt like what hes seeing
were gonna have a good old fashioned discipline parade
6
Metzov has a bunch of guys lined up
"the really old-fashioned discipline parades had involved lead-lined rubber hoses. How far back in Barrayaran history was Metzov’s mind rooted?"
Metzov explains why it was good to have multiple military branches so they could shoot each other
mutiny?!
"'Principle, sir, what principle? It’s waste disposal,” Miles choked."
7
a bunch of grubs with nerve disruptors (which sound hella scary)
Miles thinks about how these kids arent trained enough for these weapons
Metzov orders the techs to strip
Miles thinks about how evil fetaine is and how screwy it is for barrayar to have made it
Bonn strips and joins the line
8
"No, no, no! Miles screamed inside his head. If you join them they’ll never back down. They’ll know they’re right. Bad mistake, bad . . . "
Metzov tells Miles to grab a gun or get gone.
someone gives Miles a disruptor
"He could leave. Could he leave?"
he realizes this is gonna be a massacre
he ponders the thorniness of the issue, how his dad taught about how to handle criminal orders
it was a powerful class
they called it Vorkosigan's Day
9
"For a lunatic moment Miles envisioned thumbing off the safety and shooting Metzov. And then what, shoot the grubs? He couldn’t possibly get them all before they got him.
I could be the only soldier here under thirty who’s ever killed an enemy before, in battle or out of it."
M realizes he has no choice. his career is toast, he knows hed be haunted by ghosts if he doesnt join the others
"He sat on the ground. Pulled off his gloves and boots. Let his parka fall, and his shirts. Trousers and thermal underwear atop the pile, and the nerve disruptor nested carefully on them. He stepped forward. His leg braces felt like icicles against his calves.
I hate passive resistance. I really, really hate it."
"What the hell do you think you’re doing, Ensign?” Metzov snarled as Miles limped past him.
“Breaking this up, sir,” Miles replied steadily"
Metzov calls him Vorkosigan, which could only stiffen his resolve. hes honorbound to do the right thing
10
Miles calls him Mad Metzov in his head
Miles explains the situation. If people learn what happened it would be bad for Metzov
"S-s-sorry, sir, but I see at least ten witnesses, behind those nerve disruptors.”
"You can’t silence me. Living or dead, through my mouth or yours—or theirs—I will testify.”"
11
Miles gives Metzov a win, explaining how it could benefit him
Metzov calls his dad a nasty name
Miles gets him to go for the deal
he sees the relief in Metzovs eyes
"It reminded him of that definition of his father’s. A weapon is a device for making your enemy change his mind. The mind was the first and final battleground; the stuff in between was just noise."
Bonn asks am i supposed to thank you for this?
"We got what we wanted, eh? He’s going to plasma the fetaine on-site before the wind shifts in the morning. Nobody dies. Nobody gets their nuts curdled. We win. I think.”"
12
Bonn and Miles are cellmates
Bonn just confirmed that the bunker was melted
guards take Miles to base security
Impsec is there as Miles arrives
Miles signs some travel orders
13
Miles is stoked to see the impsec courier thinking hes there to help
Metzov comes in all pleased
says if a vor commits mutiny its treason
Miles realizes now that the big guy is his new jailer
"Overholt, read the name on the man’s badge, which Miles mentally redubbed Overkill. He had only to lift his arm to dangle Miles like a kitten."
14
theyre taking him to imperial hq
"The Imperial Security sub-orbital courier shuttle sat on the icy concrete like a bird of prey accidentally placed in a pigeon cote. Slick and black and deadly, it seemed to break the sound barrier just resting there."
Miles can smell the weather - conflicting emotions