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Minchenko auditorium on Graf Station was not the place you'd expect to find a re-enactment of Barrayarran history. Operas adapted to include ballet however were quite often performed there, and Lieutenant Corbeau had improved Quaddie-Barrayar relations substantially over the past several years he'd been consul. Perhaps it wasn't as surprising as it appeared at first glance for a production of Cordelia Naismith to be staged there. Still, when Miles had received the invitation to attend the opening night performance with his family, he had been astonished. Now that he was here, in a velvet-lined hexagonal box that offered a splendid view of the dancers and musicians, the performance was casting a spell over him, as quaddie ballet always did.
Miles sneaked a glance at Aral Alexander and Helen. Their faces were intent on Garnet Five, eyes wide.
They knew the story, of course. Helen had even made the family joke when Ekaterin and Bel had gone shopping yesterday. "Don't bring back any severed heads!"
But the quaddie ballet made the opera about Vordarian's pretendership new all over again.
Miles looked back toward the dancers. The dancers all had the second set of arms showing. In an opera where everyone was a downsider, it didn't make sense to make everyone wear shoes on their hands. It was for the best, really. He remembered how clumsy the dancer playing Leo had looked wearing the fake leg costume in the ballet he'd seen years ago when he'd first visited Graf Station.
The dancers were now mostly in costumes that mimicked the green uniforms worn by Imperial soldiers. Garnet Five, who was playing Cordelia, was trying to get past them into Tanery Base. Every time she moved forward, someone blocked her. The music swelled with each attempt. Garnet Five's red hair, grown and dyed for the role, swirled around her, graceful and wild, almost another prop as she frantically danced toward the soldiers.
It was almost time for the infamous Shopping Aria, the climax of the piece.
The big aria that was supposed to be in the previous scene, Burn Palace Burn, had been cut, since to space-station dwelling quaddies, setting a building on fire would have made Cordelia a worse villian than Vordarian. In the opera's original performance on Beta Colony, it had apparently been quite impressive. A popular song version of it had been stuck in his head for weeks after he'd first heard it. Ekaterin had caught him humming it at odd times, and had quirked an eyebrow at him one evening when he'd been humming it while fixing dinner. He'd in fact not burned the roasted vegetable and meat kebabs, thanks to Ma Kosti's excellent instructions tucked away in his pocket.
Garnet Five was now being led by the dancer playing Koudelka to the debriefing room, her hair flowing gracefully behind her. Miles was amazed at how the male dancer was able to get across both the fragility and strength of Koudelka's movements. When the sword had been encased in the cane earlier, he had managed to convey its function by using it as an aid for gripping things with his bottom left hand. Now, out of its casing, the thin sword gleamed, and pointed the way towards the group of men floating around a table.
The dancer playing Piotr pushed away from the table, and sang loudly "Where have you been woman?"
The music stopped. The auditorium was silent.
Garnet Five's expression turned from wariness to rage to sly humour, to pure enjoyment.
A cappella, she started to sing, waving around the plastic bag she was holding up.
"I've been shopping shopping shopping
In the Capital.
It's a very good place to shop."
The writers of the aria had given her more lines than Cordelia had actually said. Otherwise the aria would have been too short.
"You can find things there,
That you'll get nowhere else
But the price may not be what you thought"
The orchestra came in, accompanying her as she repeated the first verse. The castenets clacked in time to the sways of the plastic bag.
The dancer playing Piotr's expression changed from incredulous to thunderously angry. His arms made little movements that suggested contained rage.
"I've been shopping shopping shopping
And I've had my fill,
It is nearly time to stop.
I've brought to you
A most expensive gift
Do you want to see what I've bought?"
The first time Garnet Five sang the last line, it was beautifully musical, but the second time through, it came out as a snarl, as the orchestra suddenly fell silent.
Garnet Five opened the bag, and out tumbled the severed head. It looked wonderfully realistic from this distance. Miles could see the approval in Aral Alexander's and Helen's faces.
The men around the table scattered in a bunch of surprised zero-g backflips, then hurried back and cowered under the table, peeking up over the edge to stare at Cordelia or the severed head. After his own surprised spin, the dancer playing Piotr joined them.
"But of course, every Vor lady goes to the Capital to shop," sang Leo Four, the famous opera star playing Aral, the only one to stay at the table.
"I paid too much for it," sang Garnet Five.
"That too is traditional," sang Leo Four. That got a laugh from the audience. The orchestra came back in with an urgent beat.
"Kareen is dead,
shot in the melee.
Kareen is dead,
shot in the melee.
I couldn't save her.
I couldn't save her.
She's dead! She's dead! She's dead!"
Leo Four and Garnet Five leaped toward each other. A crescendo from the hand drums and Nicol's dulcimer peaked when the lovers embraced, then the pizzicato strings and woodwinds started something more comforting and soothing. Leo Four gently stroked the back of Garnet Five's head, following the red hair, smoothing it down to her waist. Then some of the urgency crept back in, as the drum beats started again.
Leo Four turned back to the table and made flicking motions with his hands.
"Shoo! You!
Go go away!
I want to be alone with my wife!"
"Brave man," the men sang in chorus.
"Surrender!
He may have mercy left!
And stay away from my son!"
"Yes, ma'am," the men sang, then scattered into the wings of the auditorium.
Garnet Five and Leo Four kissed. It went on for a long time, the theme from the wedding scene at the beginning of the opera coming back in the orchestra. Aral Alexander made a face. He wasn't of an age yet where kissing was interesting. Helen was studying the couple more closely, perhaps trying to figure out how they managed to slowly rotate all of the way around during the kiss without making many hand movements.
The music softened to a low hum. Nicol's harp repeated a note over and over again, backed by soft chords from the French horns.
"Don't let this be for nothing," Garnet Five spoke, in the odd way that opera singers do.
"I won't. We've won. These sacrifices were not in vain."
"I feel dirty."
"Most sane people do, coming off a combat mission."
"You must rescue Elena."
"I will."
"And Barrayar must change!"
The spoken words lead into a duet. Garnet Five made this part more forceful somehow than the shopping aria.
"Barrayar must change
Or else we will lose.
A nightmare for a planet
Is this what you will choose?"
Leo Four did the quaddie equivalent of kneeling, kissed her hand, and put his upper hands over his heart.
"Barrayar will change
For Ivan, Miles and you
For Gregor and Elena
I give my word, it's true."
They then sang together the same verses they'd just sung, each line from their own verse interweaving with the words and melody of the other's verse. The sound of their voices slowly grew even louder, which Miles marvelled at, knowing they weren't amplified. They had been plenty loud already. He was used to projecting his own voice, but this went way beyond his skills.
At the end of the third repetition, the lights faded to black. The auditorium was silent for about ten seconds. Then uproarious applause as the lights came back on. The company took their bows, which were actually more like somersaults. When Leo Four and Garnet Five took their bow together, there were whistles and cheers and several downsiders floated away from their hexagons, forgetting the zero-g effects of stamping their feet. Flowers floated toward the performers. The whole company bowed again, then exited into the wings.
Later, in Garnet Five's dressing room, Aral Alexander, Helen, and Bel and Nicol's children Silver Ten and Warren Four watched Garnet Five take off her stage make up and pin up her hair. Behind them, their parents sipped locally-grown tea, exchanged brief looks that were the equivalent of a league of parents secret handshake, then turned their attention back to their children. One couldn't take one's eyes off them for long, Miles reflected, unless one was ready to face peculiar and interesting consequences. And who did they learn that from? He smiled, knowing the answer.
"Up close you don't look much like Grandma Cordelia," Helen said, "But in the middle of the auditorium, it was much better."
"How did they make the severed head? That was really cool," Aral Alexander asked.
"I'll arrange a tour of the costuming and props department for you, if your parents approve," Garnet Five caught Miles' eyes, then Ekaterin's.
"Certainly," Miles said, after his own glance at Ekaterin.
"Was that really how you were born?" Silver Ten asked Miles.
Miles nodded gravely. "Yes."
"I'm glad my replicator wasn't stolen when I was in it," Silver Ten said.
"Bel said you came by your hostage rescue daredevil urges honestly," Nicol remarked. "Now I know what it meant. Your mother was fantastic!"
"She'd like you," Miles said. "If you're ever on Sergyar, you should look her up."
"Speaking of Grandma Cordelia," Ekaterin said, "We promised her we'd take a holo-cube of all of us while we were here at the auditorium."
Ekaterin quickly organized one of the ImpSec men to use the holo-recorder, and gathered all the children into the middle of the auditorium. The adults followed, arranged themselves dutifully into position, then relaxed a bit as the children's antics made them smile.
Later, when he brought it out now and then, the holocube wouldn't fail to bring a smile to Miles' face. Seeing his family together like that made him feel quite the paterfamilias, even if both Aral Alexander and Helen had contrived to make goofy faces captured perfectly by the holo-recorder. His two youngest daughters were attempting to wriggle out of the arms of Miss Pym and Armsman Roic, forward momentum being instinctual even at their tender ages. They were too young to have understood the performance, but they still looked happy in the lights and attention. Bel and Nicol floated behind Silver Ten and Warren Four, Nicol's harp in her upper hands. All of them were smiling, and Miles was glad to see Bel so relaxed and happy at last. Leo Four, who they'd convinced to join them, held one of Garnet Five's hands, Lieutenant Corbeau held another. Miles himself floated next to Ekaterin, his feet dangling by her knees, his head for once at the same height as hers.
The holovid of Aral Alexander and Helen singing the Shopping Aria and doing tricks with the severed head they'd charmed out of the props department also never failed to amuse. His mother had shook her head when the twins had showed it to her, but she had been smiling.
Ekaterin's favourite holocube, however, was of their entire group in the hydroponic farms they'd visited the next day, the children proudly displaying the vegetables they'd harvested, the adults if anything looking more relaxed than the day before. Miles had to admit that was a good one too. And no one was making goofy faces in it, so it was easier to show off to relatives and to anyone who would listen to him talk about his children.
To Miles' satisfaction but not surprise, the opera ballet itself was popular and a hit with the critics on Graf Station. In fact, it got so popular that the quaddies took it on tour to many space stations, including one in Earth orbit.
Miles followed its progress with interest after arriving home to Vorkosigan House. According to the news reports, at the performance in one of Beta Colony's space stations, the author and composer of the original opera had been moved to tears.
The performances in Sergyar orbit sold out quickly, since most of the colonists were familiar with the story of their much-loved Viceroy and Vicereine's youth. The Vicereine had sent Miles a holocube. It showed Cordelia's somewhat bemused expression and sparkling eyes as she clasped hands with Garnet Five, the two of them surrounded by a group of quaddie dancers in free fall who were artistically arranged in geometric shapes. Along with the holocube was a short note to say that his father had also attended the performance, but had avoided the holo-recorders and the press on the grounds that he didn't want his reputation to poison the publicity for the tour's next stop in Komarr orbit. She didn't say anything about what they thought of the performance. Miles hoped that the next time he saw his parents in person he'd be able to pump them for their reactions to the piece.
Despite the inevitable controversy that came from one of the main characters in the opera being "The Butcher of Komarr," the show did well in Komarr orbit, even staying for an extended run. Miles learned during a dinner with Laisa's relatives that Zero-G dance, operatic singing, hand drums and red hair had all become fads on Komarr.
The tour stopped briefly at Barrayar, where the Vorkosigan family got to see the opera ballet again. In between a few sold-out performances in orbit, during which security was very high given the anti-mutant sentiment, Miles, Ekaterin, Laisa, Gregor, Kou, Drou, Alys, Illyan and Ivan gave the quaddie company private tours of the Imperial Residence and Tanery Base, and a horseback ride through the hills near Vorkosigan Surleau. Miles had smugly taken pride in arranging the tours, and had enjoyed the looks of bogglement from the guards and bystanders as the float chairs went past. The performances the company gave after that were, if anything, even more engrossing, the emotions even more heightened. Seeing the places where the events had taken place and meeting some of the people involved had made tangible and intangible differences to the performance. One of the more tangible changes was that some of the dancers imitated horses, creatures which had boggled the quaddies almost as much as the quaddies had boggled the ordinary Barrayarrans.
Barrayar has changed, Miles thought while Leo Four and Garnet Five were singing the final duet in one of the post-horse performances. A generation ago, a group of people with four arms visiting Barrayar would more likely have met with a lynch mob than with applause. Ma, Da, you made it come true. Wasn't there some wag who had said that the best way to predict the future was to invent it?
In one of the rare trips to the planet that was not organized by Miles, Lieutenant Corbeau introduced his family to Garnet Five and showed her the house where he grew up. Although they had already been permanently partnered quaddie-style for some time, they seized the opportunity to have a Barrayarran-style wedding. Lieutenant Corbeau's brother and Nicol stood and floated respectively as their Seconds. Miles and Ekaterin's offer of the garden next to Vorkosigan house as a site for the wedding ceremony was accepted. The newlyweds gave interviews to the media, then went to a cottage by the ocean for a brief honeymoon before returning to orbit. Miles was pleased to see that much of the media coverage was positive. It helped that Garnet Five was so photogenic and charismatic.
After too short a time, the Vorkosigans were having to say goodbye to the rest of their visiting friends.
Ekaterin clasped hands with Nicol and Bel. "You know you're welcome here any time."
"We know," said Nicol.
"Stay out of trouble," Miles said blithely. Bel's lips quirked.
"Come and visit us again some day," Warren Four told Aral Alexander and Helen. Silver Ten nodded vigourously.
And they were off, to dance their way home through the heavens.