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"He was flanked by his aide, a tall blond lieutenant named Jole. Miles had met Jole on his last home leave. Now, there was a perfect officer, brave and brilliant—he'd served in space, been decorated for some courage and quick thinking during a horrendous on-board accident, been rotated through HQ while recovering from his injuries, and promptly been snabbled up as his military secretary by the Prime Minister, who had a sharp eye for hot new talent. Jaw-dropping gorgeous, to boot, he ought to be making recruiting vids."
―Miles envies Jole[src]
Gentleman jole and the red queen by airin ater-d9wo9yv

Picture by Airin Ater

Oliver Perrin Jole (name rhymes with prole) was an officer in the Barrayaran Imperial Service. As a Lieutenant, he served as Aral Vorkosigan's military secretary. Later, he served as Commodore and as an Admiral on Sergyar, commanding the Sergyaran Fleet. He was one of the pallbearers at Aral's funeral, and later revealed to have been Aral's lover - a co-lover with Cordelia.

Biography[]

Born and raised in a far-western rural district, he left at a young age to enter the Barrayaran Imperial Military. He did not miss his old home. All that is known of this time was that his father was named Everard. Soon after he began serving in space, during his early 20s, a space accident occurred. His heroic actions in a state of hypoxia saved lives and resulted in him being hospitalized in ImpMil. Aral Vorkosigan promptly offered him a job as personal secretary to the Prime Minister (himself), which Jole accepted and served in for seven years. He was serving in that job when the Hegen Hub War broke out; he provided a great deal of support to Aral during and after the main battle. Afterwards, Aral persuaded him to take a tour away from home (and his love life) to broaden his military experience. He did three tours on trade fleet escort duty, at the end of which he was promoted to Captain and began command of a ship. During the second of these tours, he served as exec on New Athens. Afterwards, he transferred to Sergyaran Fleet. He resumed his relationship with Aral and Cordelia and was promoted to Admiral over time.

He served as pallbearer for Aral upon his death. Three years afterwards, he began a new relationship with Cordelia, not so much resumed from their older one as resurrected from the ashes that followed with Aral's death.

Jole was offered the extremely prestigious position of Chief of Ops by Desplains. While he was certainly intrigued by the challenge -- and would have most certainly pleased Aral were he still alive -- he was given an alternative future: Cordelia had offered him the role of father of three sons conceived from Aral's X chromosomes and Jole's own Y, using her enucleated eggs. Thanks to the demanding role of Chief of Ops, Jole could not continue his relationship with Cordelia and raises sons if he decided to take the promotion. After being injured saving Aral Alexander Vorkosigan and Helen Natalia Vorkosigan from being injured by fallout from exploding Vampire balloons, he realized his desire was to retire from military service, and choose a career in biology, after becoming fascinated by Sergyar's strange wildlife. His studies had gone so well that he achieved an accelerated doctorate one short year after he began formal study.

Personality and traits[]

Jole was meticulous and detail-oriented. Extremely good looking, he collected passes from males and females both, as well as from a Betan hermaphrodite with whom he had a short-term relationship, named Bel Thorne.

"Remarkable person in its own right, Captain Thorne, but do you know—the best thing about that fling was that for one whole week, I could stop worrying about my damned categories."
―Jole meditates on bi/gay/other[src]

He enjoyed sailing, which he learned from Aral and carried forward to Sergyar.

Appearances[]

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