"She'll sleep for some hours, after this," said Raven.  "The longer, the better."

"We'll clean her up and move her to the isolation booth," said Medtech Tanaka.  "Ako, you can help with the skin treatment."

Tubes and needles were pulled away, lines coiled up, machines turned off.  Roic helped shift the live woman off the procedure table onto the transfer cart.  M'lord slid down from his stool, stretched his back, and leaned on his cane.  "How soon till we can move her to the consulate?"

"Depends on her white blood count, and a few other things," said Raven.  "But possibly as early as the day after tomorrow.  You'll have to keep her quiet in one of those upstairs bedrooms for a few days."

"We can do that," said Vorlynkin.

M'lord turned his head toward the consul.  "Wait, why are you here?  Has Leiber shown up?"

"No, not yet.  You have a sealed message from Barrayar that's arrived in the tight-room.  We can't access it, so I don't know how urgent it may be."  He added with reluctant honesty, "Also, I was curious how this was going.  Given the need to deal with Mina and Jin."  He didn't want to be blindsided again, Roic read this.  Understandable.

"Ah, all right," said m'lord.  "Raven, if you're on top of things here, I guess I can go back."

Raven waved assent and turned to follow the medtech and Ako, trundling his patient away.  The room seemed very empty when they'd left, disconsolate and messy like the morning after a winter solstice party.

Vorlynkin blinked and rolled his shoulders, as if trying to come back into himself from somewhere far away.  "That was very strange.  I've never seen anyone die, but this—it was like watching time run backwards.  Or something."

"I have, and yes," said m'lord.

"Were we playing god?" Vorlynkin asked uneasily.

"No more so than the people who put her down in the first place.  And our cause is much more just."  M'lord added in a mutter, "I hope."  Frowning, he fished out his Auditor's seal on its chain for a slightly cross-eyed downward glance.  "Sealed message, eh?  You know, when I was Jin's age, I'd have been thrilled to own a secret decoder ring.  Now I have one, it feels more like a sack of bricks.  There's something sadly out of phase about that."

When m'lord limped off to exchange one last word with Raven, Roic found himself briefly alone with the consul, who gazed in bemusement up the corridor after the short, retreating form.  "Lord Vorkosigan is not exactly what I expected, when I was told the consulate should prepare for a visit from an Imperial Auditor."