Taura's terminal metabolic decline

Sergeant Taura’s terminal metabolic decline is an imminent, time-bounded crisis: the first visible gray in her hair signals a serious metabolic failure that may lead to her death within months. The prospect moves Miles Vorkosigan to make a specific request of Elli Quinn—not to prevent the decline, but to ensure that Sergeant Taura will have his company when it comes.

Signs and Expected Course

Miles Vorkosigan recalls noticing gray in Sergeant Taura’s hair and connects it to the beginning of her terminal decline. He has recently consulted Canaba, who estimates that no more than two months may separate the onset of serious metabolic failure from the end. The estimate gives the otherwise gradual sign of aging an urgent consequence: Sergeant Taura’s remaining time may be short once the decline becomes severe.

Miles’s Request and Elli’s Promise

Miles asks Elli Quinn to tell him in time to travel to Sergeant Taura, wherever she may be—with the Fleet or elsewhere. His stated purpose is to make sure she is not alone at the end. He describes this as a promise he made to himself and means to keep, making his intended response an act of personal loyalty rather than an attempt to alter the medical outcome.

Elli agrees seriously. Her response establishes that she will help Miles learn when the moment is approaching, while the exchange also reveals the intimacy behind his concern: she asks whether he and Sergeant Taura had a sexual relationship, and Miles acknowledges that they were together before Elli and, very rarely, afterward. The impending decline thus prompts both a practical promise of notification and a candid disclosure about Miles’s past with Sergeant Taura.