“I’m not torturing you for information, Sophia,” Madison said, patiently. “I’m torturing you for fun.”
7.1 billion people.
Kill 7.1 billion people on the planet Ediokthen, capture the Shareholder. It’s simple math: 7.1 billion people now, but if the Shareholder escapes, they could kill 10 billion later.
That’s what Madison tells herself, two years after she survived the Shareholders’ “liberation” of her planet. Now a special operative in the interstellar war against the Liberation, she has dedicated her life to hunting its seven Shareholders. Revenge gives her control and her life feels manageable again. Like before.
Before, Madison’s younger brother wasn’t dead (no one found his body). Before, 8.3 billion people hadn’t been liquefied into bloated skin-sacks of milked bone (it’s the same weapon which will destroy Ediokthen). Before, Madison felt peace (now all she feels is violence).
7.1 billion people, for the high of revenge.
For the feeling of autonomy.
Maybe it’s good her brother isn’t here to see her like this.
Maybe he still can.
If Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga met Emily Tesh’s Some Desperate Glory: heavy on the emotions, light on the military, enough explosions to keep the engine turning.
Featuring: non-romantic friendships, found family, and a sapphic power couple in the vein of “sunshine with a gun” and “grump with a knife.”
“It was as simple as this: she could desert, forfeiting the Protectorate and all its advances against the Liberation, and she could find Sol. She could run away, flee from what she owed Harpazo, run from all she owed her town, her trust family, her parents. She was this close.
Or she could complete the mission.”
Metadata
Final Wordcount: 111,000
Subgenre: military space opera
Completed: 2022
Warnings
Content Warnings
self-harm, attempted suicide
Trigger Warnings
torture, PTSD, depression, attempted suicide, violence/mild gore
Status
12 March 2023: awaiting query replies
A. O. Henderson 
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