The Escobar War
Aral and Cordelia crossed paths again a short time later during the war precipitated by Barrayar's abortive attempt to invade Escobar, into which Beta Colony was brought as an ally of Escobar. Cordelia received a promotion to captain and was transferred into the Betan Expeditionary Force (the Betan military). She was captured along with her crew after she successfully broke the Barrayaran blockade, allowing vital military supplies and weapons to reach the Escobarans, which were instrumental in turning back the invading Barrayaran forces.
During her time as a military prisoner she was brought to the attention of Ges Vorruyter, a high-ranking commander of the Barrayaran forces and a notable sadist and pervert who enjoyed tormenting and raping female captives. She was spared a violent rape at the directives of Vorruyter when Sergeant Bothari rejected his orders and killed him by slicing his throat because Bothari knew that Cordelia was important to Aral Vorkosigan. Later, upon the conclusion of the war, many of her compatriots and allies believed that she was the heroine who slew Vorruyter, earning her a brief status as a heroic celebrity on Beta Colony.
However, her favorable opinion of Aral Vorkosigan, protestations of his honor and integrity and later her profession of love for him, quickly earned her the suspicions of her government, which believed that she had been psychologically conditioned and brainwashed to serve as a Barrayaran deep-cover mole, using the cover of a faked love affair as a means to transmit intelligence to Barrayar. After several attempts by her Betan superiors at remedying this non-existent psychological tampering, including being drugged against her will, and being told that her mental state would prevent her from resuming her command, Cordelia fled to Barrayar and became Aral's wife, and thus Lady Cordelia Vorkosigan, only to learn that the retired soldier she thought she was marrying was to be pressed into government service as the new Regent of Barrayar upon the death of the elderly and gravely ill Emperor Ezar Vorbarra. Upon her husband's appointment, she was to be titled Regent-Consort.
Read more about this topic: Cordelia Naismith, Vorkosigan Saga Character
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