"Right, so then another wormhole opened up, through Komarr. Komarr's another broadly livable planet, even farther from ideal than Barrayar - Barrayar has breathable air. Komarr not so much. Everybody has to live under huge domes that rebalance the air for them so there's enough of the parts people need to breathe. Their main resource is a lot of wormhole connections through the system, so they can make people pay to come through. And a little while after Barrayar was rediscovered, the Cetagandan Empire made the kind of stupid decision to invade 'em, and Komarr made the even stupider decision to let the Cetagandans bribe their way past. I mean, I'm sure everyone thought Barrayar would be easy pickings, but they should've thought about it harder first."