Highlander / Vorkosigan Saga: Potential Unfulfilled

[ffutures]

I think this is the fastest I've ever written a drabble - about ten minutes from start to finish, came out at 101 words before final editing. Highlander / Vorkosigan Saga crossover.

Spoilers for Barrayar



Potential Unfulfilled

Marcus L. Rowland

Count Vordarian didn't know he had the potential for immortality, of course. Under other circumstances Cordelia might have told him, trained him. But now her son was endangered - a son she could never have had before the invention of the uterine replicator.

There was little time for pity or remorse. As Bothari's blade came down, as his head rolled across the table, she felt the faint stirring of his quickening, snuffed before its time, and wished it could be otherwise. She whispered "there can be only one," put the head in her bag, and set off to end a war.

End

Notes: In the Highlander universe immortals can't normally have children. But it occurred to me that the uterine replicator might change that... That got me wondering why the first gift Cordelia bought on Barrayar was a sword, and the rest followed very easily.



Comments please before I post to archives.

Comments

[windtear.livejournal.com]

It's Bujold canon that it's the Count's Choice who inherits his title and merely custom that it's his eldest son. So, if young Vordarian was officially named Count's Choice before his adopted father's death and it was not revoked before said death, legally he's the next Count, no matter what his birth or relationship status.

I can't comment on that Immortals foundling thing, but I thought that we only really knew the origins of three (Callum, Donald and um, the red-headed kid). The others would say vague things like "I'm from Egypt" or "I have been a priest for a very long time. The Church is a lot more familiar with us than it lets on" but I don't recall anybody else saying "Yep, I was adopted too".

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

It's never explained, but there's nothing in canon to deny it. Somewhere there is a VERY busy stork...