why me, or more to the point why him

[middlingalong]

Ivan has just returned to Vorbarr Sultana after a stint on Komarr, where he was filling in for some guy who was on leave for some reason. Home, sweet home. Time to clean out his kitchen, he left on somewhat short notice. He does that. He doesn't have a girlfriend to call. His mother insisted on meeting him when he landed so he's already done his due diligence interacting with her. Hmmm.

He calls Miles.

Comments

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles answers, clearly in the middle of something; for a second he doesn't even glance away from whatever he's prodding on his desk, out of range of the vid pickup. "Please be a gravity-related revelation," he mutters, half to himself, and looks up.

"Oh." Mild disappointment. "You're not a gravity-related revelation. Hi, Ivan, welcome back."

There is a slight pause, during which a calculating expression blossoms on Miles's face.

"...Hi, Ivan, welcome back," he says, much more cheerfully. "Have I got a story for you."

[middlingalong]

"Oh God, don't make me regret calling."

[thisvorlunatic]

"You won't regret calling. Okay, you might regret calling a little, but failing to call would not have saved you, it would only have delayed the inevitable."

[middlingalong]

"Great. So at least I can begin the regret at a time more or less of my choosing. What is your gravity-related story, Miles."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Oh, the gravity-related story is—" he begins, grinning enormously.

...Then he breaks off and shakes his head and sighs.

"Not to be relayed on an unsecured channel, alas. Actually most of this isn't. Can you make time in your schedule to visit me? That's a trick question. Time will be made in your schedule, the question is whether it's now and by you or during your next workday and by Gregor."

[middlingalong]

"...Oh boy. Implied stakes are very high, huh? I'll... I'll just come over now. I want Greekie takeout for my trouble."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Fine by me. See you soon."

[middlingalong]

"Right." Ivan sighs, and hangs up, and drives to Vorkosigan House.

[thisvorlunatic]

Where he is shown to a sitting room containing:

A desk absolutely covered in handheld readers, print books, flimsies with strange things scribbled on them, a slightly buried comconsole, and one lonely neglected cup of tea;

Miles, sitting at that desk, apparently trying to read eight books at once;

A comfortable couch with a nice table pulled up in front of it;

Ivan's favourite Greekie takeout, waiting for him on the table.

[middlingalong]

"What's gotten into you? I would make a terrible research assistant, just saying," says Ivan, digging in to the takeout.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Would you like the story in some kind of sensible order, or in an alarming jumble?"

[middlingalong]

"I move against alarming jumble."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Suit yourself. In that case—"

He pulls up a fairly ordinary-looking forum in yet another window on the already busy comconsole.

"A couple of weeks ago or something, I happened to stumble across this place while bored in Escobar orbit. It claims to be a netsite that exists across multiple universes. I joined up while it was still young and checked it a couple of times and everyone seemed to be playing along, but you know hobbyists, that's no surprise."

Pause.

"Except that it was still accessible in real-time all the way to the jump point. And past it. And as you observe, it is still accessible now. Exact same place, exact same userbase, no discernible service interruption from lightspeed delays or jump cutoffs, never mind mere ordinary connectivity problems. I told Simon. Simon told me my job is now to find out what the fuck."

[middlingalong]

"...This is not what I'd expect somebody who could break communication delays to do with the ability."

[thisvorlunatic]

"All evidence points to it actually being a netsite that joins multiple universes."

Pause.

"That evidence includes: I have been corresponding with an elven fugitive who hacked the account of a legitimate user from her world, and she sent me the procedure of an awakening ritual which successfully gave me a fascinating array of magical powers."

[middlingalong]

"Oh dear lord."

[thisvorlunatic]

"The second person to acquire magical powers was my mother. The third is going to be my father. The fourth was going to be Illyan, but I convinced him that I'd better ask my correspondent about the effects his memory chip might have on the process, and she says she has no idea but there will probably be some, so now I have to compare him to as many other people as possible with magical analysis, and since we are keeping the existence of magical powers very tightly under wraps the pool of available comparison candidates is not large. Consider yourself volunteered for the purpose. It isn't difficult or dangerous or anything, just slightly undignified - I have to sit in a room with the two of you and hold your hands."

[middlingalong]

"And you know this is not dangerous because someone on the magic netsite told you so."

[thisvorlunatic]

"My elven fugitive contact seems to be flawlessly trustworthy as far as I can tell!" he defends. "And I've been experimenting heavily in between all of the other shit I have to do to keep up with this place - yeah, that's the other thing. One of the other users is an automated salesperson peddling 'QUALITY DISCOUNT SPELLBOOKS'. A fellow named Andrew managed to successfully purchase working spellbooks from them, much to both his and my surprise, and solicited a copy of their catalogue. The catalogue includes a spell for traveling between worlds."

Pause.

"Andrew's world contains a class of magical being which can conjure arbitrary matter. Andrew has me consulting a grav tech expert to see if we can produce anything, even theoretically, that might contain a suddenly appearing black hole. Because if the conjurors get their hands on a 'plane shift' spell through that forum, a bored and unscrupulous one could wander between universes imploding every planet in sight."

[middlingalong]

"...Uh."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Hence why I was hoping you were a gravity-related revelation."

[middlingalong]

"Well, I'm... not."

[thisvorlunatic]

"You're not. But you'll be helpful to the arcany project. And if you wanted magical powers of your own, I could arrange that, but somehow I suspect you do not want to be one of the single-digit number of people on Barrayar with magical powers."

[middlingalong]

"I can't really imagine that having a particularly tempting upside, but I don't know what-all you can do."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Oh, all sorts of shit. There are nine subdivisions. Mother and I are both strongest in 'breath craft' - control of water, air, and motion. My runners-up are song, crystal, and plant; respectively 'sound', 'light', and 'fucking with things'."