Mildly Military: Difference between revisions
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** There is also that most of the time, the protagonist's behavior could be justified by regulations being circumvented for the purpose of achieving a (significant) net gain for his side. What gets him cashiered in ''Memory'' is his unsuccessful attempt to cover up a gross act of negligence on his part that almost killed (and ''did'' temporarily maim) another officer, for no one's benefit save the protagonist's. At which point his commanding officer proceeded to drop thirteen years' worth of unpaid karma on the protagonist all at once, leading to his dismissal in disgrace.
*** Not even that. He was officially given a ''medical'' discharge and retained all his pension and veteran's benefits.
**** Which is specifically lampshaded as getting off far easier than any officer who ''wasn't'' in Miles' unique political position could hope for. As Miles' own internal monologue points out, as the heir apparent of the Vorkosigan Countship he and Emperor Gregor cannot avoid being close political allies for the rest of their lives unless the whole political alliance supporting the throne is be seriously damaged; both Miles and the Emperor have no choice but to give each other every face-saving gesture that the other party will remotely tolerate.
** Shortly after meeting her, Aral Vorkosigan tells his future wife Captain Cordelia Naismith, of the Betan Astronomical Survey, that near as he can tell, ranks within the BAS doesn't seem to indicate much more than pay-grade.
*** The BAS is explicitly not a military service—it's a government-scientific exploration agency. The Betan Expeditionary Force, which ''was'' a military service, was a rapidly-formed ''ad hoc'' unit (Beta Colony appears to not have a regular armed service at all) that drew upon a lot of BAS personnel to crew its ships—but as what was essentially a civilian militia, its only to be expected that their definition of military topped out at 'could tell port from starboard with less than two tries'.
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