Archive of Our Own ^beta

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At full thrust, it took less than two minutes from the time the Sparrow broke through the low rolling cloud cover above the windswept moon of Dendara until it was safely coasting through the silent dark of space.   Sophie Wilder stared straight ahead, gripping the throttle tightly, her eyes flickering from the forward viewport to various sensors on the panels in front of her, waiting for signs of pursuit.  She steered carefully to keep the mass of the small planetoid between them and the far side of the surface, where the massive frigate of Battle-Sister Diana had touched down just outside the Mendicant monastery only moments after their departure.

“Avis, release drones.  Alpha 327 mark 215, Beta 269 mark 32, Gamma 111 mark 14.  Delta 151 mark 3,” she said flatly. 

There was a slight shimmy in the hull as four small motes of light ejected from the ship and sped off in various directions, each broadcasting the transponder code of the ship, while dumping ion exhaust behind them.  Far from random, each was speeding towards a different jump point into the hyperspace lanes, creating multiple false trails for anyone trying to track them.  With a final glance to check again that nothing was coming up behind them, she selected a fifth trajectory and killed the engine and the transponder.   It was illegal to run dark like this, but the system was remote enough that she was sure they could glide for at least an hour before making their final approach to the jump gate she actually wanted to engage.

She let out a long, slow breath, slowly pulling her hands from the controls, and the tension in her shoulders subsided.  “That was *uncomfortably* close,” she muttered, looking around the flight deck to see if anyone was in the room with her, but she was alone.

Lazily reaching forward, she pulled up the news feeds on the main computer and started scanning the recent headlines for stories about Battle-Sister Diana.  For the last five cycles, at least, since rising in the ranks of the Church of Stellar Flame, Diana had been carving a swath of destruction through nearby systems, targeting “illegal” religious groups like the Mendicants, or anyone else who was known or even suspected of using Ur tech.

“Nobody expects the Stellar Inquisition, I guess” Sophie muttered,  “You always were a drama queen.”

 She had met Diana many years ago, between quarters when they were both college students, and they’d spent a few whirlwind months together.  Sophie’s love life had always been…tempestuous, but this was a relationship that was intense even by her standards…and with that intensity came even more volatility.  When the whole affair finally imploded, in spectacular fashion, none of their mutual friends were surprised, and it did not escape her attention that a lot of money quietly changed hands among them.

“You...you made bets??” she sobbed into the shoulder of her roommate, Julie, who had long ago gotten used to helping prop her up during these periods.

“Oh, sweetie,” she said, pulling her into a tight hug.  “There was a pool.”

Sophie lingered in the memory for a moment longer, then shook off the reverie and returned to the newsfeeds.  She pulled up a search on Diana and sorted the stories into chronological order.  She followed her emergence into the public eye as an acolyte of the Church of the Stellar Flame, the details of her early campaigns, and her quick rise through the ranks of ecclesiastical enforcers the church deployed against their particular notions of heresy.  It wasn’t a short list, and after a while, it was starting to blur together, so she reached forwards to the screen to shut it off when a particular headline caught her eye.

“Seven hells,” she muttered, pulling up the associated story.  She scanned it quickly, confirmed her suspicions, and then sent a copy of it to her personal commpad, rose from her chair, and set off to find a particular person on the ship.

* * * * *

She found her quarry, predictably enough, in a corner of the science station, head down over a holoscope with some weird twisted bit of gear that glowed faintly green under the scan light.  She was intensely focused on the scope, occasionally reaching over to absent-mindedly jot something on the pad next to her, while not actually taking her eyes off the lens.

Sophie stood in the doorway awkwardly, watching her work.  She finally cleared her throat softly, causing Angie to glance up at the doorway and register her presence.  “Oh, hey there, Soph,” she smiled brightly.  “You should look at this…”

Sophie leaned over to peer into the scope.  “Interesting?” she offered uncertainly.  “What…er…what is it?”

“Not a clue”, Angie said brightly.  “It ‘s very exciting.  Probably.”

“Oh.  Cool…” Sophie’s voice trailed off.

“Anyway, what’s up?  Why do you have that look on your face?  Last time I saw that expression, you were telling me that we weren’t going to get paid for a job.  Come to think of that, that was the *last* time I saw you before this excursion.  We…are still getting paid, right?”

“Oh, yeah, nothing so…”, she struggled to find the right word, “Trivial.”

Angie’s face shifted from slightly playful to genuinely concerned.  “What is it?”

Sophie silently passed the pad over to her.

Angie scanned the article, brow furrowed.  “This is…this was my…”

“Yeah,” Sophie said flatly.  Reaching out, she tapped on a particular paragraph of the report.

Angie’s eyes widened, then looked up to meet Sophie’s.

“Yeah,” Sophie said quietly.  “That was her.”

Angie started franticly gathering her notes and pushing them into a satchel.

“Hey, hey, Doc…breathe.  I know about your whole…situation, remember?  I pulled you out of Moonbase 349 when they had you pinned down there.   I know what you’re feeling.  And you’re not wrong to, but…look, I can drop you anywhere you want if you want to go to ground.  But they’re starting to cast longer shadows on more systems, and soon there won’t be many hiding places on the ground left.  But out in the deep…” she trailed off.

“I dunno…”

Sophie placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.  “Look, just…think about it.  There’s safety in numbers, and in movement.  And there’s a few of us, and we rarely stay in one place longer than we have to.  As long as this ship is mine, you got a place here.  No strings, and no expiration date.  Got it?”

Angie swallowed nervously and nodded.  Her eyes went back to the pad, rereading the report again.”

“I’ll leave that with you,” She gestured towards the flight deck.   “I’ve got a few…er…dozen apologies to prepare.  I’ll be up top if you need me for anything.”  Sophie turned to leave.

“Hey, Sophie…um, thanks.”

Sophie glanced back, offering a warm smile and a nod to the doctor, then returned the flight deck to prepare for the jump into hyperspace.

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