Captain ghem Estif was the son of Rae ghem Estif by an earlier ghem wife, and served in the Cetagandan military on Barrayar during the First Cetagandan War. He disappeared while on a three-day leave and had been thought either to have been killed by guerillas or to have deserted his post. As it happened, he was instead killed when the Cetagandan army decided to obliterate Vorkosigan Vashnoi with nuclear weapons.