Detailed History
May. 9th, 2009 09:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ninelivesoncePoint in canon: She's taken from just before Mirror Dance. At this point, she's 20, and has been with the Dendarii Mercenaries for four years. She does not know Miles' real identity yet.
Detailed History:
Taura was born as "Nine", one of ten experimental super-soldiers commissioned by House Bharaputra, an organized crime syndicate. Planned by committee, the project was doomed to failure from the get-go. The project was developed on Jackson's Whole, a place where the various organized crime Houses are the only law, and everything can be bought and sold.
As a small child, she was raised by a foster family who was paid to be generally decent parents, although she doesn't talk much about them. I'm assuming they treated her kindly, but not like a member of the family -- more like a pet. At age eight, she moved to the lab -- her description of it is "It was all right, I was warm and had plenty to eat." But it wasn't all right by any normal standards -- she and her fellow experiments were constantly used as test subjects, and poked and prodded. They were never treated as human by the researchers. And all of them were told that they failed as soldiers. Funding for the project was cut off. Then, one by one, their sped-up metabolisms got to them -- they died of accelerated old age. Nine was the last one left alive.
One of the doctors involved in the project, Dr. Canaba, injected a set of other experimental genetic material in the muscle one of her calves as a secret hiding place -- he was plotting to get out of the underworld and into the protection of Barrayar. When the Dendarii mercenaries, led by Admiral Miles Naismith (who is secretly also Lieutenant Miles Vorkosigan of Barrayar), arrived to collect him and convey him to Barrayar, Canaba was in serious trouble. Nine had just been sold at fire-sale prices to House Ryoval, a rival House. So as part of his passage off, he asked Admiral Naismith to collect the samples and kill the experiment. Miles agreed, without knowing what he's agreeing to.
Meanwhile, Nine had been thrown in the House Ryoval basement because she was dangerous and not terribly valuable, with no food or water except the rats she can catch and eat raw. By the time Miles showed up, she'd been there for three days. His mission wasn't going according to plan either -- he'd been caught and thrown into the basement as a prisoner. The guards told him he'd probably get eaten by the monster. When he actually found her (in the middle of eating a rat), he was shocked -- he didn't expect her to be a) female b) able to talk c) intelligent. She was and is all of those, and he gave her the last of his rations. Then he showed her how to crack open a pipe for water and hot air, making the prison at least more tolerable. At this, she started to cry, since no-one has ever gone out of their way to be that kind to her.
He gave her a handkerchief, and then told her she was human because only humans weep; she didn't quite believe him, and asked him to prove it. Specifically, to prove it by having sex with her, since it's the only thing she knew that differentiates human from beast. After a brief moment of panic -- remember, she's 8 feet tall to his 4'9", has fangs, and had just been seen eating raw rat -- he complied. This began an occasional love affair between them that endures until he marries when she is 26 -- despite their professional roles and several other serious lovers on his part. It's implied in several places that she has flings though no other serious romances.
Miles also gave her a new name, saying that Nine is a number, not a name. He picked out Taura, and she takes it and goes by it and nothing else for the rest of the series. (No explanation behind the name is given, and he's not naming her after anyone else.)
After the interlude of sex and the best post-coital cuddling they can manage in a cold, wet, basement prison, Miles and Taura made their grand escape. And they destroyed the entire illicit genetic stash of House Ryoval on the way out. At one point, Miles went on ahead, telling Taura to wait for him. She did, though she didn't expect him to come back. He did. From that point on, she'd follow him anywhere, and she later says that's when she fell in love with him. On the way out, they ran into a half-dozen House Ryoval troops, as well as a half-dozen House Fell troops who were escorting Captain Thorne of the Dendarii (and a trooper who never gets a name) to make a swap for Miles. Except the swap is only for Miles, and involves handing over a civilian woman to House Ryoval in his place. Having no other options Miles would consider, took the guards on, four to thirteen, and only two of their side armed with stunners against lethal weapons. With Taura on their side, it was an uneven battle, but not in the way one might expect. They then fled on a freight truck, until a combat shuttle from the Dendarii fleet could pick them up.
Once back on the Dendarii ship, Miles reiterated his offer of a job to Taura, and handed her over to one of his officers to get cleaned up and somehow fitted for a uniform. From that day on, she's a Dendarii.
The Dendarii aren't your ordinary anything-for-a-buck mercenaries -- they're led by a man (Miles) with a strong sense of honor, and they're secretly bankrolled by ImpSec, the Imperial Security service of Barrayar, because Miles is a member of what amounts to the nobility there. So they can pick and choose missions to fit their leader's ethics. That isn't to say they don't often choose more expedient methods than many people would; assassination over full-scale war, sabotage, smuggling, prison breaks, etc. The entire organization inherits Miles's oddball ethics, Taura included.
About a year after the point where I'm taking her from, we see her again. At this point, she's Sergeant Taura, leader of Green Squad, one of the Dendarii's top combat squads. She's chosen as the leader of the team that goes back to Jackson's Whole to liberate fifty clone-children from House Ryoval. The ill-fated mission is actually being managed by Miles' clone Mark, who is impersonating Miles. Taura can clearly tell there's something off about Miles, but he feigns illness and avoids her as best he can. And at that point, she may not have known about the clone's existence -- it's unclear. The clones are children raised so that wealthy and unscrupulous Barons and Baronesses can have their brains transplanted into a younger body. Despite her appearance, she's the one who's best able to talk to the clones once they get into the facility -- she's awkward at it, but sincere, and most of them do listen to her.
Detailed History:
Taura was born as "Nine", one of ten experimental super-soldiers commissioned by House Bharaputra, an organized crime syndicate. Planned by committee, the project was doomed to failure from the get-go. The project was developed on Jackson's Whole, a place where the various organized crime Houses are the only law, and everything can be bought and sold.
As a small child, she was raised by a foster family who was paid to be generally decent parents, although she doesn't talk much about them. I'm assuming they treated her kindly, but not like a member of the family -- more like a pet. At age eight, she moved to the lab -- her description of it is "It was all right, I was warm and had plenty to eat." But it wasn't all right by any normal standards -- she and her fellow experiments were constantly used as test subjects, and poked and prodded. They were never treated as human by the researchers. And all of them were told that they failed as soldiers. Funding for the project was cut off. Then, one by one, their sped-up metabolisms got to them -- they died of accelerated old age. Nine was the last one left alive.
One of the doctors involved in the project, Dr. Canaba, injected a set of other experimental genetic material in the muscle one of her calves as a secret hiding place -- he was plotting to get out of the underworld and into the protection of Barrayar. When the Dendarii mercenaries, led by Admiral Miles Naismith (who is secretly also Lieutenant Miles Vorkosigan of Barrayar), arrived to collect him and convey him to Barrayar, Canaba was in serious trouble. Nine had just been sold at fire-sale prices to House Ryoval, a rival House. So as part of his passage off, he asked Admiral Naismith to collect the samples and kill the experiment. Miles agreed, without knowing what he's agreeing to.
Meanwhile, Nine had been thrown in the House Ryoval basement because she was dangerous and not terribly valuable, with no food or water except the rats she can catch and eat raw. By the time Miles showed up, she'd been there for three days. His mission wasn't going according to plan either -- he'd been caught and thrown into the basement as a prisoner. The guards told him he'd probably get eaten by the monster. When he actually found her (in the middle of eating a rat), he was shocked -- he didn't expect her to be a) female b) able to talk c) intelligent. She was and is all of those, and he gave her the last of his rations. Then he showed her how to crack open a pipe for water and hot air, making the prison at least more tolerable. At this, she started to cry, since no-one has ever gone out of their way to be that kind to her.
He gave her a handkerchief, and then told her she was human because only humans weep; she didn't quite believe him, and asked him to prove it. Specifically, to prove it by having sex with her, since it's the only thing she knew that differentiates human from beast. After a brief moment of panic -- remember, she's 8 feet tall to his 4'9", has fangs, and had just been seen eating raw rat -- he complied. This began an occasional love affair between them that endures until he marries when she is 26 -- despite their professional roles and several other serious lovers on his part. It's implied in several places that she has flings though no other serious romances.
Miles also gave her a new name, saying that Nine is a number, not a name. He picked out Taura, and she takes it and goes by it and nothing else for the rest of the series. (No explanation behind the name is given, and he's not naming her after anyone else.)
After the interlude of sex and the best post-coital cuddling they can manage in a cold, wet, basement prison, Miles and Taura made their grand escape. And they destroyed the entire illicit genetic stash of House Ryoval on the way out. At one point, Miles went on ahead, telling Taura to wait for him. She did, though she didn't expect him to come back. He did. From that point on, she'd follow him anywhere, and she later says that's when she fell in love with him. On the way out, they ran into a half-dozen House Ryoval troops, as well as a half-dozen House Fell troops who were escorting Captain Thorne of the Dendarii (and a trooper who never gets a name) to make a swap for Miles. Except the swap is only for Miles, and involves handing over a civilian woman to House Ryoval in his place. Having no other options Miles would consider, took the guards on, four to thirteen, and only two of their side armed with stunners against lethal weapons. With Taura on their side, it was an uneven battle, but not in the way one might expect. They then fled on a freight truck, until a combat shuttle from the Dendarii fleet could pick them up.
Once back on the Dendarii ship, Miles reiterated his offer of a job to Taura, and handed her over to one of his officers to get cleaned up and somehow fitted for a uniform. From that day on, she's a Dendarii.
The Dendarii aren't your ordinary anything-for-a-buck mercenaries -- they're led by a man (Miles) with a strong sense of honor, and they're secretly bankrolled by ImpSec, the Imperial Security service of Barrayar, because Miles is a member of what amounts to the nobility there. So they can pick and choose missions to fit their leader's ethics. That isn't to say they don't often choose more expedient methods than many people would; assassination over full-scale war, sabotage, smuggling, prison breaks, etc. The entire organization inherits Miles's oddball ethics, Taura included.
About a year after the point where I'm taking her from, we see her again. At this point, she's Sergeant Taura, leader of Green Squad, one of the Dendarii's top combat squads. She's chosen as the leader of the team that goes back to Jackson's Whole to liberate fifty clone-children from House Ryoval. The ill-fated mission is actually being managed by Miles' clone Mark, who is impersonating Miles. Taura can clearly tell there's something off about Miles, but he feigns illness and avoids her as best he can. And at that point, she may not have known about the clone's existence -- it's unclear. The clones are children raised so that wealthy and unscrupulous Barons and Baronesses can have their brains transplanted into a younger body. Despite her appearance, she's the one who's best able to talk to the clones once they get into the facility -- she's awkward at it, but sincere, and most of them do listen to her.
