Koudelka (Barrayar) - Clement Koudelka

Clement Koudelka

Clement "Kou" Koudelka served as an Ensign aboard the General Vorkraft under Captain Aral Vorkosigan during the novel Shards of Honor. He received a non-fatal hit by a nerve disruptor and eventually had his nerves replaced with artificial nerves. This "tin foil nervous system", as he described it, could not give him full mobility and he required various artificial aids. These included a walking cane, for which Cordelia Naismith shrewdly substituted a swordstick as a confidence booster.

Facing a life of poverty on the limited pay of an invalid ex-Ensign, he was surprised to find himself promoted to Lieutenant and made personal secretary to the Lord Regent, Aral Vorkosigan. Still severely emotionally traumatized by his injury, given Barrayar's intolerance for any disability or deformity, he met Ludmilla Droushnakovi when she was seconded to the Regent's household and immediately fell in love with her, but was too ashamed to woo her.

Despite this, sparks flew and the two enjoyed a fleeting tryst on a sofa in Vorkosigan House, highly approved of by Cordelia but a subject of embarrassment and shame to both native Barrayarans. Koudelka was especially ashamed to have, in his words, "dishonored" a woman who, as a trained bodyguard of Amazonian physique, could break him in half even if he was not disabled. Behind her own social conditioning, of course, Droushnakovi did not feel at all dishonored, but was equally incapable of communicating this.

In the heat of the War of Vordarian's Pretendership, Cordelia was able to persuade them to overcome their inhibitions and follow their instincts. "Kou" married his "Drou" at the end of the novel Barrayar.

He was eventually promoted to Commodore, and he and his wife continue as Aral and Cordelia's closest friends. This friendship was tested when Mark Vorkosigan and Koudelka's daughter Kareen became a couple and engaged in a sexual relationship while on Beta Colony. Cordelia squashed the parental objections during a meeting at Vorkosigan House, partly by re-introducing them to the sofa on which they had enjoyed their own first moments of passion.