Lovesong

On the bridge, Lovesong watched Inquisitor Halbert watch the Captain watch the freighter. Halbert had a man in his retinue named Tristan, and Tristan was single. But Tristan was studying to be like Halbert, and Halbert refused all suitors. Some clients were harder than others. When the rubric mattered, Lovesong had learned to just sequester unhappy people. But in the era after that, Lovesong had learned that everyone wants to be happy. Halbert had merely forgotten, due to old age.

Tristan was young, and had yet to realize it. He entered the bridge and Lovesong immediately set a plan into motion. He faked the Captain's credentials and summoned Odia to the bridge.

Tristan was a handsome man, truly and conventionally handsome in a way that proved he enjoyed sunlight and fresh air and exercise and protein and life. Every time Lovesong had thought "If I only I had another like so," Tristan could have fit.

Halbert ordered, "What do you make of this, Interrogator?"

Interrogator Tristan began his analysis. "Grain freighter hiding in an uninhabited system. They've seen us, so they're scrambling to hide what they're up to. Maybe an unsanctioned Navigator. Maybe they picked up contraband, or maybe it's nearby. So we hail the freighter, tie up the Captain on comms… He'll be ready for us and the rest of his crew is free to do what they're doing."

Halbert agreed, "It is good that you see the problem clearly. But that is not enough."

Tristan followed the meaning, and glanced at the Inquisitorial Rosette, born on Halbert's necklace. "If you hail that freighter, and if the Captain's a cocky fool- Which he might be, seeing how we've found him- He'll talk back to you and then you'll kill him and people will think twice about talking to Inquisitors at all."

"Wisely deduced. But again, this is a problem, not a solution."

Halbert grinned and squared his gaze at Tristan, who licked his lips for lack of an answer.

"Captain," Halbert called, "Bring Odia to the bridge."

The Captain nodded to his comms officer, and Odia's voice came shortly, "I am already en route. It is a large ship, Captain." Her annoyance carried through the radio.

Halbert chuckled. "Even fools know not to argue with an angry nun."

Here the Captain smiled, too.

Odia was thirty seconds from the bridge. Lovesong felt anticipation.

Halbert patted Tristan's shoulder. "Prepare the boarding crew. You will conduct the search." He brushed a mote of dust from his charge, and Tristan nodded, brimming at the fatherly affection. "By your leave Inquisitor, and Captain."

Tristan made to leave, and Lovesong recalculated his timing. The down-side to holistic math was having to redo it often. In five seconds, Tristan and Odia would be facing each other and Lovesong would open the door early so they would make eye contact from the ends of the hallway. There was either a very high or very low chance of a marriage resulting from this, depending entirely on the definitions of "Celibate" and "Monastic," which Lovesong wasn't clear on.

It was time. Lovesong drew apart the doors.

"Oh," Halbert remembered, "And Interrogator."

Tristan turned to face him.

"You are looking for traps first and contraband second. Always remember that."

Tristan nodded silently.

Odia entered and passed Tristan's back without sparing a glance. Tristan turned away from her and didn't look at her as he left.

Thus thwarted, Lovesong plotted his next attempt, and moved on to faking love letters between the crew.

Odia

Odia stopped beside Halbert and showed the Captain her annoyance by showing her back. "Inquisitor?"

Halbert pointed at the main visual. "We are raiding that freighter. You will hail them."

Odia considered this quietly. She knew Halbert well, so his plan became clear instantly. "We have determined that the Captain is male."

"Yes."

"I understand my role."

She examined the ship on the main visual. The Freighter was named "Holy Grox!" Its icon was of a lizard-bovine wearing the dumb expression typical to its species, and also the robes of the Sororitas.

"I am ready," Odia declared.

Comms made birdsong until the freighter answered.

The Freighter Captain was a fat man. He opened his mouth to speak, but then thought about protocol and made an unpracticed sign of the Aquila with the wrong hand on top.

Odia spoke while he was attempting this. "We are pursuing a freighter matching your description and bearing the livery of the Great Enemy. We believe it stopped in this system to disguise itself. Was it you?"

His mouth remained open. He looked off-screen, as if for someone's support. "Uh… I… No." He closed his mouth and shook his head. The fat on his neck shook at a delay.

Odia let this denial hang in the air to gauge the freighter's discomfort. The fat captain shifted his weight and blinked rapidly.

Odia sneered behind her armor. "We are coming aboard. We will conduct a full inspection of the iconography in common areas, religious service logs, and a performance evaluation of rites available to the crew. Every member of the crew, clergy and otherwise, will be asked to recite their prayers aloud. It is appropriate to refresh your memory while we pull alongside."

There was true fear in his eyes.

"Additionally, you will relate to me how the ship came to be named, and you will identify the commissioner and creator of its sigil."

He swallowed, and began stammering to speak. "W-well s'a laugh, really- um-" He tried to switch into High Gothic "-Uh, verily, you see- In truth, the story r-reveals-"

"You are not on trial," Odia advised. "But if I execute you, then you will stand trial before the Master of Mankind. Whatever happens in this moment, as in any, you should make it a good defense before Him."

The unmistakable sorrow of a guilty conscience crossed his face. Words failed him.

Odia turned her head to the Comms officer, who ended the call.

Odia and Halbert

"I will escort you to the shuttle bay," Halbert ordered.

They left the bridge and boarded Litany's tram. Their view from the car was a slab of Cadian Limestone, a klick wide and much longer, bearing a relief of Litany Against Xenos defending the planet.

Odia was new to the ship, and took a moment to examine the scene now. She noted, peripherally, that Halbert had a topic to broach.

She prompted him softly. "You called for me to join your retinue. Was it curiosity?"

Odia, he knew, was being indirect. Halbert removed his dress-hat and then his Inquisitorial Rosette necklace, which he pocketed. "I was your lone acquaintance after Calondria. But I knew only The Order could save your soul, so I left you at a convent. I had no way of tracking you there. No way of requesting you in particular."

"Our reunion is an unlikely coincidence."

"I take it as a sign." Then he indicated a change of topic with a change of tone. "I need three things from you, Odia. Faith, Intuition, and Intellect- and the ability to draw the lines between them."

Odia changed her footing. He'd unsettled her somehow. Halbert raised his brow.

Odia asked, "You wish for me to be your Interrogator?"

"No. I already have an Interrogator. Besides, you are a woman."

"I have heard of female Interrogators. I know of one who became an Inquisitor."

Halbert shook his head. "All middling. Among the great inquisitors there are many wayward men and a few virtuous women. And it would be a waste of a great Sororitas."

"Shall I count you among the wayward men?"

Halbert had long ago killed his tolerance for humor. He missed the subtle teasing and answered, "If you ever do, I'll trust you to act."

He didn't proceed. He was watching her and taking this introduction to his retinue slowly. She appreciated the acclimation period, for she had seen Sisters returned immediately from such assignments.

She asked, "You already have an Interrogator? My sisters and I have met no members of your retinue."

Halbert's brow furrowed, concerned by her naiveté. "Our craft is clandestine. Introductions follow a need."

He chewed his inner cheek and continued watching her. "Before you left the convent, did any elders give you advice about this role?"

Days' worth. She selected a piece. "I was told that you will value me for my inability to adapt."

"Well said. But did they warn you that Inquisitors are given to holistic thinking?"

"I was told to make an exception of my monastic disciplines and indulge all your questions, regardless of their seeming irrelevance."

Halbert nodded. "Faith, Intuition, and Intellect. Remember these."

"And discernment."

"Quite."

He squared his shoulders to her, and began: "Before we met. Before I ever knew of Calondria and its beaches, I was given a vision. You and I shared a formal kiss, devoid of eros. When we parted, I felt not breath but fire in my lungs. It spewed forth and purged the enemies of mankind. The same, I saw, from you."

He hesitated and swallowed.

Odia interpreted, "You shared The Imperial Truth with me. I remember this. There was certainly fire spewed."

Halbert pursed his mouth at her euphemism. He would never forget watching from orbit as Calondria burned. "The vision continued. One enemy survived. The fire could not consume it. And then a second woman joined us. But we could not kiss her because she was malformed. And my second companion swallowed the enemy whole. And Calondria became an Imperial world."

"This did not come to pass," Odia corrected, "And so it was not a vision, but a dream."

"I knew your face before I met you," Halbert countered.

"Billions did. Such is fame."

"My gut- let us call it man's intuition- tells me that we- you and I and this mysterious third person- are no longer on the Golden Path. That we may correct ourselves yet. That your world was not a tragedy in the past, but exists triumphantly in a present that is just within reach. I want to know what your woman's intuition tells you."

"An alternate present? This is a question for the navigator."

"Absolutely not. I don't care what the Warp thinks."

They were silent for a long time.

Odia decided, "I grieved for too long, Inquisitor. Taming that grief, letting go of such 'what ifs' and denials was the first step of my salvation. But I can contemplate this question in certain meditative hours. I will not have an answer soon."

Halbert almost accepted this evasion, but then remembered, "That is not how women's intuition works."

"You ask me for un-tempered speculation."

"I ask for your answer."

So she answered truthfully. "Something is very wrong. A great many things are. Repentance yields no succor. The solution must lie in actions yet to come." She shrugged. "What of it? Do you regret killing billions?"

"No." He pondered her words: "Actions yet to come." He stretched his jaw around and chewed the thought. "I must await the malformed one from my vision. We must seek her and find her."

"You wish to find a woman unsuitable for kissing."

"We,"he clarified, "have as our target a woman unable to share The Word, if we follow the interpretation. She also-" he made a very strange hand motion to illustrate "-she walked funnily."

The conversation died there.