Diplomatic Immunity characters

Also known as Admiral Naismith

Appears from the start

An Imperial Auditor and the Emperor's direct envoy, diverted from his delayed honeymoon to settle the Graf Station impoundment. He must distinguish conflicting accounts, free the Komarran fleet, and prevent a local confrontation from widening while his children approach birth in uterine replicators.

Also known as Ekaterin Vorsoisson

Appears from the start

Miles's wife, Nikki's mother, and co-parent of their replicator-gestated twins. She chooses to accompany Miles to Graf Station despite the risk that the unexpected mission will keep them away until close to the children's births.

Appears from the start

Miles's armsman and a member of the envoy party. He boards the Imperial courier with Miles and Ekaterin, serving as their practical protection as an urgent diplomatic assignment replaces the remainder of their journey home.

Appears from the start

The Emperor who appoints Miles as his direct envoy to Graf Station. Gregor charges him with freeing the impounded fleet, preventing a wider confrontation, and determining which account of the dispute is false.

First appears in chapter 2

Commander of the Barrayaran escort aboard the Prince Xav. His determination not to abandon personnel led him to cancel leave and support an armed effort to recover Corbeau, helping turn a disappearance and disciplinary problem into a station-wide impoundment.

First appears in chapter 2

The escort fleet's security commander. He treats Solian's disappearance as likely desertion and directs the armed retrieval patrol sent after the overdue Corbeau, an operation that ends in gunfire, fire damage, arrests, and the fleet's confinement.

First appears in chapter 2

A Komarran Imperial officer serving as security liaison aboard the Idris. He vanished after going off duty, and blood identified as his was later found in a cargo bay. Whether he deserted, was abducted, or was killed is the central unresolved question behind the standoff.

Also known as Ensign Corbeau

First appears in chapter 2

A Barrayaran jump pilot whose late return from Graf Station prompted an armed retrieval attempt. He is detained after the resulting violence, and the fleet initially presents his recovery as part of its justification for escalating the dispute.

First appears in chapter 3

A quaddie dancer and Corbeau's partner. Her arm was broken when Barrayaran security personnel entered her quarters to retrieve him, and her injury forms part of Graf Station's case that the purported rescue was an abusive armed intrusion.

First appears in chapter 3

Graf Station's assistant portmaster, Miles's former Dendarii associate, and the local ImpSec observer. Publicly assigned as Miles's station liaison, Bel quietly gives him a trusted connection inside Graf while both conceal the full history of their association.

First appears in chapter 3

The Union official empowered to negotiate the impoundment dispute for Graf Station. Greenlaw receives Miles as the opposing arbitrator, presents the station's account of Barrayaran misconduct, and must answer to the Union's governing work gang.

First appears in chapter 3

Chief of Graf Station Security. He regards the Barrayaran patrol's attempt to seize Corbeau as an armed jailbreak that caused a fire, and he represents the station's criminal case while Miles tests both sides' accounts.

Appears from the start

A quaddie musician whom Miles encountered during an earlier ImpSec operation. She is remembered for playing the hammer dulcimer with all four arms.

Appears from the start

Ekaterin's son and a member of Miles's family.

First appears in chapter 7

An Idris passenger presenting as a Betan hermaphrodite responsible for hundreds of uterine replicators said to contain engineered animal fetuses. The cargo handler seeks access before the delay harms the cargo and suffers a minor wound during an unexplained hostel shooting.

First appears in chapter 10

A recently boarded Rudra passenger who claims an amphibious background and has webbed hands and gill slits. Questions about the ship's blood synthesizer and movements near crucial events make Firka a material witness and possible suspect in the fabricated blood evidence.

Also known as Guppy

First appears in chapter 12

The amphibious former Jacksonian technician arrested under the identity Firka. Records expose him as Russo Gupta, called Guppy, and Garnet Five identifies him as her attacker. He admits using a dead crewmate's identity and becomes a compelled witness in the widening investigation.

First appears in chapter 12

A Graf Station legal official overseeing the treatment of the captured Gupta. After Gupta's claimed fast-penta allergy proves false and his admissions connect him to Bel's disappearance, Leutwyn authorizes a compelled examination.

First appears in chapter 15

The Prince Xav's fleet surgeon. He identifies Bel's illness as an engineered parasite transmitted through blood contact and establishes that cooling and chilled blood filtration can slow its destructive activity, though the available measures cannot cure it.

First appears in chapter 17

The identity used by the captured Cetagandan Ba while posing as the earlier cargo handler. Purchases under the Kerr Dubauer name link the Ba to the biological device hidden at the Minchenko Auditorium, completing the public connection between the disguise and the attack on Graf Station.

First appears in chapter 18

A Cetagandan planetary consort acting for the Starcresh at Rosita. Pell receives the returning evidence and stolen fetal cargo after Cetagandan treatment saves Miles and Bel, and provides the authoritative account of the attack on the child-ship.

First appears in chapter 18

A Cetagandan military authority reached during the Rosita emergency. Benin establishes that empty replicators discovered on Barrayar were planted decoys rather than evidence of Barrayaran participation, helping both powers step back from war.

First appears in chapter 19

Miles and Ekaterin's newborn son. His uterine replicator is opened at Vorkosigan House after his parents return from the Graf and Rosita crises, and he is born safely in the presence of the waiting family.

First appears in chapter 19

Miles and Ekaterin's newborn daughter. Her uterine replicator is opened alongside her brother's at Vorkosigan House, completing the homecoming that the unexpected diplomatic mission had threatened to delay.