Falling Free (Vorkosigan Saga Book 1)

Leo Graf was an effective engineer...Safety Regs weren't just the rule book he swore by; he'd helped write them. All that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat. Leo was profoundly uneasy with the corporate exploitation of his bright new students—till that exploitation turned to something much worse. He hadn't anticipated a situation where the right thing to do was neither safe, nor in the rules...

Leo Graf adopted 1000 quaddies—now all he had to do was teach them to be free.

This book book introduces the "Quaddies", a group which plays a part in the main Miles Vorkosigan series again in the book Diplomatic Immunity .