Set pre-series, just after Alex gets his mission regarding Alvis Hamilton. I don't keep track of official non-series backstory (and/or spelling, for that matter), and I apologise if I've made any errors.

finished 12 March 2006

Answers

"... Give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee."

Hamlet, 3.2

Sophia ponders the card again, in the privacy of her cabin. Dinner, with Captain Vincent Arthai of the Urbanus. Nobody knows why, and nobody is asking; the captain of the Urbanus, like Alex, is not easily understood, although for different reasons.

Sophia remembers Vincent Arthai. He boarded the Silvana perhaps a month after she became its newest officer, blinked with surprise at the sight of her, and then promptly demanded that Alex introduce them.

And, just before he left with Alex, Vincent smiled at her, not unkindly, and threw her a gentle salute. "Good luck, Ensign Sophia."

Sophia heard from the rest of the crew, later, that Vincent was just Like That, charming and flamboyant in exactly the way Alex wasn't. It was a bit strange to see them together, but you got used to it eventually. They said it with a little affectionate eye-rolling, as if Vincent was to be tolerated for Alex's sake, another of the captain's peculiarities.

Even so, she's always suspected that there's more to it than that; that Vincent was wishing her well in more than just her career. Sophia sighs, inspecting her reflection in the mirror: bespectacled, with a matron's braided hair.

If Vincent was hoping that she could succeed with Alex where everyone else had failed, she thinks, he will have to be disappointed.

Sophia unbraids her hair, carefully. Every so often she asks herself questions: why did she board this ship, to hide her nineteen-year-old beauty behind glasses and a no-nonsense grey uniform? Why did she throw everything away for this?

The answer is always the same: because she wants to.

And that is always answer enough.

-

Sophia finds Vincent Arthai disconcerting, after having got used to Alex's taciturn authority. There's something in her that rebels at the idea of a battleship captain happily showing off his beloved coffee set.

"You must be wondering why I invited you here," Vincent says, eventually.

Sophia shrugs. "I don't question orders, Captain Arthai."

"Vincent. Please." He smiles. "You've come a long way, Vice-Captain Sophia."

"Sophia. Please." Sophia returns the smile. She was trained for this kind of conversation, but there's not been much use for it on the Silvana.

Vincent clears his throat, awkwardly. "You know about Alex's latest assignment."

Sophia replaces the smile with calm expressionlessness, reminding herself that Vincent is a military officer as well as Alex's friend; he has an agenda of his own. "I'm not required to answer that question. Sir."

"It wasn't a question."

There is nothing to say to that, so Sophia keeps her lips silently pressed in a firm line.

Vincent exhales. This is not something he particularly wants to do, Sophia observes, but what Vincent wants or doesn't want to do is none of her business. "I know why you boarded the Silvana."

"I don't think that's relevant to this conversation."

"Alex isn't going to live through this," Vincent says, his voice rising slightly. "Don't you realise that?"

Sophia opens her mouth, ready to defend Alex: the Silvana has never lost a battle, Alex has never failed a mission. And then she shuts it, slowly, because now that she's thinking about it seriously, Vincent is right. Alex will disobey orders, this time. He will not deliver Alvis Hamilton to Anatoly.

And then, one way or another, Alex will die.

"You see?" Vincent asks, a little more gently. "Anatoly will send battleships after him. I'm almost certain that the Urbanus will be one of them. And then the Guild, and Maestro Delphine. And even if he succeeds - "

He leaves that part of it unsaid. Sophia understands why. Even if he succeeds, Alex will find a way to die. It sounds wholly irrational, and is almost certainly true.

Vincent Arthai has been watching Alex slowly and methodically work his way through to suicide for years, Sophia realises. More than just watching: she remembers being told that Alex entered the officers' academy uncommonly late, and if it weren't for Vincent's recommendation he would never have been accepted.

Sophia looks at Vincent Arthai, the incongruity of his seriousness. "Do you really think I can do anything?" she asks, finally.

Vincent stares at her. "No. I only asked you here so you would know that it won't be your fault."

Sophia tries to find the sarcasm in his voice - he can't possibly mean that - and fails.

"Maybe you should be leaving," Vincent eventually says, quietly. "Help him, Sophia."

Help him do what, is the logical next question. Sophia doesn't ask it; she knows the answer and it doesn't bear saying. "I'll do that."

Vincent smiles, and offers her a gentle salute. "Good luck, Vice-Captain Sophia."

-

Vincent stands next to the open doors for some time after her departure, inspecting the cloudy sky. Sophia Forrester is not to be spoken of in front of Alex; Vincent suspects that Alex is slightly surprised that she's lasted so long. He's not the only one: when Vincent first heard that the princess of Anatoly had left home to serve on a battleship he wouldn't have bet on her staying more than two months.

Vincent sighs, softly. He likes what he's seen of Sophia; he hoped that she could soften Alex. In retrospect, though, he should have warned her off the Silvana. She deserves better than this.

Not that she would have listened. He remembers Sophia's clear-eyed resolve: I'll do that.

Damn you, Alex.

Vincent Arthai has never been a particularly religious person, but he's also aware that nothing short of divine intervention will solve matters concerning Alex. "Help her," he mutters, under his breath, and then shuts the doors.

End

Notes:

This was the logical next step after Like Hamlet. Sophia and Vincent are, to me, a composite Horatio: watching Hamlet go his merry way towards revenge and death, and helping him do it because it's the only thing he can help him with.

In the same way that I don't really care for Hamlet, I'm not sure I like Alex. He has this tendency to run over anything in his way. I believe that, like Hamlet, Alex is aware of this and knows that someday he'll have to pay for it, but still.

There is a lot in this fic that I'm determinedly not saying. Sophia is obviously completely and utterly in love with Alex Rowe. It's also obviously completely and utterly Doomed. There's inevitability building behind everything: it's inevitable that Alex will die, inevitable that he will never love Sophia, and equally inevitable that Sophia will stay by him to the best of her abilities. Because she wants to.

I have the utmost admiration for Sophia because I think she knew all this and in some unobvious way it was tearing her apart. And she just smiles a lot, and is a perfect vice-captain.

... I think that both Sophia and Vincent were very, very fond of Alex, but Vincent in particular sometimes had no idea why, and went 'Damn you, Alex,' under his breath a lot.