Secret Santa fic for punky_96

[amles80]

Title: Spaceship Runway
Fandom: The Devil Wears Prada
Recipient: punky_96, Merry Christmas !
Rating/Genre: PG?/AU
Characters/Pairing: Miranda, Nigel, Andy, Emily, Irv; Miranda/Andy
Prompts: Andy slaps Emily, AU in space, Nigel turns evil
Disclaimer: I don’t own the characters!
Summary: Miranda is the captain of Spaceship Runway, the most prominent explorer and ambassador ship of the galaxy. The annual Explorer Week is approaching; last year, the week ended with Nigel getting very disappointed and Andy almost walking away. If that seems like problems, it’s nothing compared to the challenge that meets Miranda now…
Word count: 7 131
Spoilers/Warnings: No.
Beta reader: Many thanks to my dear friend lynchgrrrl88!
Notes: I have never written anything set in space before; thanks for the challenging prompts, it was fun! punky_96 didn’t want “angst for angst’s sake”, but a little bit of angst is necessary for the plot. If one person gets slapped and another one turns evil, then someone has to suffer, right? But only for a while, I promise!!



Prologue

Somewhere in the galaxy…

“So this is what you meant when you said a million girls would kill for this job!”

Andy wriggled and struggled and was momentarily able to break free, and she slapped Emily across the face, hard.

Andy had never slapped anyone before, and maybe the sound of a strong palm hitting soft flesh was more shocking to her than to Emily, because she forgot to resist for a moment; that was all it took, and both her hands were tied behind her back again.

“Don’t be stupid”, Emily snapped, “I’m not going to kill you, relax and think for a minute! I’m doing this for both of us. You’ll just have to stay calm and wait. This is only to make it look real. We’re on the same side, remember?”

“No!” Andy stared at her colleague in disbelief. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Emily froze, and all colour left her face.

“You’re saying that you’re not…” she gasped, “but I thought…”

Then she shrugged her shoulders and tossed her hair back over her shoulder.

“I see. Sorry, it’s too late… I guess you should have walked away when you had the chance!”

Emily walked out of the small room and closed the door; she left Andy in complete darkness, alone in a place she hadn’t seen before - she had even forgotten the name of the planet she was stranded on!

Andy rested her back against the wall and she slid down, slowly, to the floor. At least it wasn’t cold. She had no idea what was going on, she just hoped it wouldn’t take Miranda too long to find her.

*
The Beginning

Nigel’s private quarters, onboard Spaceship Runway, late at night

Explorer Week, the annual celebration of the Empire’s constant progress and never ending ambition, was over for the year.

Everything had been the way it always was on the Empire’s capital planet Gamma 1-45. The elite of the galaxy was assembled in New Paris to attend to the science seminars, the extravagant luncheons and dinners, the dances, and most of all the shows where the public got access to all the news; everything that had been found and invented since last year.

Miranda Priestly had been there, like every year, with her most competent officers. She had been there to excel at the seminars with her intelligence and eloquence, impress at the shows where her subordinates presented the most important discoveries of the past year, dazzle with her beauty at the parties, and at the luncheons… There had been one special luncheon where she was supposed to give an important speech. And she did. Just not the way she was supposed to do it.

The week that was going to be the starting point of a new career had turned out to be the worst week of his life. How the hell did it happen? It wasn’t supposed to like that, but evidently, here he was, crushed, stepped upon, and swept away like last season’s uniform buttons.

And there was nothing, absolutely nothing he could do about it, because Miranda expected him to understand that she was only doing what she had to do. She was only acting according to the ancient instincts of her reptile brain that told her the way to power was straight and well-defined, and the only way to stay on top was to put everybody else down. He had not been the one to threaten her position, but he was made a pawn in the game, in her game, and she was his commanding officer, was she not, so he had to bow his head humbly and kiss her feet like all the rest of the idiots on Gamma 1-45, well, as the rest of half the galaxy, really…

But he knew that a few of them were on his side. Emily, of course; the one who had been pushed aside by the newest crew member, of all people. Andrea Sachs had seemed so innocent and harmless in the beginning, but being so close to Miranda had evidently almost corrupted her.

Almost. Andy Sachs was not all bad, after all. Apparently, Miranda’s treatment of her most trusted officer, the one who had served the longest under her command, had shaken Andy so much that she had tried to leave.

When Nigel realized this, he was only sad at first, because he could not leave; no, considering his position, that would have been looked upon as mutiny and he would have been charged at the tribunal on Gamma 1-10, and then maybe sent away to a place he didn’t want to go to... Andy could run away because she was unimportant and could easily be replaced… But Nigel ran after her. Because he had always liked her; he had been nice to her when she was new, they had formed a friendship - not that Emily was happy about that but she had to learn to live with it. It was only now, after the fact that Andy had tried to leave Miranda, that Nigel received a well-needed sign of loyalty.

“Don’t you dare to walk away”, he said when he found her in a leisure vessel, on her way to program it to take her to Ohio Nova on her home planet Omega, “you have to stay, someone will be blamed for it if you leave, and honestly, Andy; I can’t take more shit from Miranda right now. You of all people should understand that.”

Andy’s big, brown eyes looked hesitatingly up on him.

“Um”, she said, fingering nervously on the badge on her chest, “I don’t know, Nigel, I’m…”

The badge began to blink repeatedly, bright red.

“That’s her”, he said as if she didn’t know, “take her call, apologize… Tell her you’re with me. She’s got to have some compassion.”

Andy did as he told her. They left the vessel - it looked like a child’s toy compared to Runway, and maybe it was - Nigel silently told himself: patience, courage… be smart, and Andy took his arm.

Well, Miranda Priestly, he thought as he rolled over in his bed, finally attempting to sleep, we’ll see how long you can stay on top. The Supreme Commander Ravitz must have done what he did for a reason. He laughs best who laughs the longest.

*
Almost one year later

The Captain’s private space limo, on its way back to Runway.

Miranda was practically shaking with rage as the vessel took off from Irv Ravitz’ residence on Gamma 1-45. She hated to be there, and she suspected that that’s why he had summoned her. Completely unnecessary, especially now; she needed to be at Runway, because it was there everything was happening, and it didn’t help her at all to have to listen to Irv’s threats and so-called advice.

She knew that there seemed to be a problem. Onboard Runway! How could she not know? But she was going to fix it, because that was what she did; Captain Miranda Priestly didn’t back off from a challenge, she faced it, ran over it and eliminated it and turned it into triumph.

That was the attitude that had made her commander-in-chief of Runway many years earlier; she had already then had some reputation, she was known to be a very competent and ambitious woman, and the important people believed in her, she pulled the right strings and played her cards well, and then she was in command. Already at that time had Runway been one of the Empire’s most advanced spaceships; there had only been one captain before her, and he had travelled to the outskirts of the Empire to explore, to learn, to trade, and, occasionally, to fight. Under Miranda’s command, Runway had searched its way even deeper into space among unnamed stars and unexplored worlds. She was a great ambassador; she knew it; everything they brought to Explorer Week every year was proof of it; the new materials, the new resources and the new confederates.

Irv’s behaviour the year before had been completely unprofessional. Replacing her with Jacqueline Follet? Ridiculous; everybody should see that.

Miranda glanced at the young woman by her side; Emily was typing up a memo to the crew and she didn’t look up. She knew better than to offer any words of advice or comfort; that wasn’t her job.

Miranda would have taken Andrea with her if she had had the choice, but Irv’s call came unexpectedly and her second lieutenant was out on a mission.

She smiled and forgot her problems for a moment when she thought that Andrea was going to be there when the limo returned; and it wouldn’t surprise her if the young woman had some rare species of star anemones hidden somewhere in her uniform. Perhaps she was going to make Miranda search for them in her clothes and reward her with a kiss whenever she found one… Later, when they were alone in her private quarters.

First, she had other things to take care of. She could only hope that nothing else had happened during the few hours she had been away. It was like a nightmare, and one that she couldn’t wake up from.

Of course, Miranda didn’t admit that in front of her crew. She didn’t even tell Emily how she felt about it. Nigel and Andrea were the only ones who, to some extent, were allowed to hear her private thoughts on the matter. Not that she was worried, really, more like furious. Things just kept on happening. Why? When did it all start? She didn’t remember anymore, but it had been going on for too long, and of course everything was noted meticulously in her log. But it had seemed to be escalating lately; the accidents, the incidents…

She was followed by inexplicable bad luck, but the Supreme Commander had the nerve to question her leadership. He had implied that she was loosing it; ‘it’, he said, as if he even had the faintest idea what ‘it’ was, but his message clearly was that she shouldn’t have done what she did last year.

But she was home now. Miranda pushed all thoughts of last year aside as she stepped out of the vessel, closely followed by Emily. They took separate elevators as usual and went straight to the bridge, no time for refreshments or rest.

Home. Yes, Miranda had had another home once, down on the ground, on one of the Gamma planets, but she put her past behind her as soon as she began her space training. She went to Gamma 1-45 within regular intervals and she had a house there, but it was Runway, flying through the endless starlit darkness that was her home.

And she was going to fight for it, as long as she had to.

“We have a problem”, was the first thing Nigel said when she showed up at the bridge.

“What is it this time?” she asked, barely moving her lips as she spoke. She noticed that all activity stopped and all eyes were fixed on her and Nigel. They were probably wondering if heads were going to roll for this, whatever it was. Well, maybe! If someone slipped up, she had to make sure they paid for it. Asking people to do their job, was it really too much?

“Another accident? Did anyone get hurt?” She looked interrogatingly at her commissary who held his left hand with a tight grip of his right, as if to stop his fingers from twitching nervously.

“Um, no… but we have kind of an emergency in the kitchen, um… Do you remember the Cerulean beans we got twenty bags of from the little planet with the unpronounceable name?”

“Cha Xtrax, Nigel. Out with it.”

“It seems like more than half of the bags were infected with some kind of vermin which is now spreading to other groceries. It needs to be burnt, but… the main furnace is not working…”

“It’s not? Well, why don’t you use the smaller one?”

“We would, normally, but this vermin produces a very poisonous gas when burned, if the temperature doesn’t go high enough…”

“I see.” Miranda paused, and looked around. “Don’t we have a mechanic onboard anymore? Is there someone here who are actually doing their job, or am I surrounded by a crew of cavemen from the old planet Earth?”

Nobody looked at her, except Nigel who now actually was wringing his hands.

“Miranda, the chief mechanic is on a leave of absence… and the other two appear to have been completely knocked out since earlier this morning by some kind of food poisoning…”

“Food poisoning?” I don’t believe this, she thought, and counted inwardly to ten. “Since when do we get our food poisoned here?”

“Since we began doing business with that Cha-cha place, I guess…”

“And why”, Miranda asked, “has no one called back the first mechanic from her little vacation? I hope someone has isolated the infected groceries at least?”

“Yes, they are isolated, so it should be all right. Or we hope so. And we can’t call her back right now, because she’s at a spa on one of Epsilon’s moons, and that’s a place that only communicates with the outside world by paper letters and direct communication, so someone must go there in person and get her…”

Epsilon’s moons! Miranda was only seconds away from exploding, but she stood straight, continued to stare at Nigel, and inhaled deeply through her nose. Holy Mother of all galaxies, what kind of curse was this?

Miranda turned away from him.

“Emily. Get a mechanic from that planet we visited last month, and send out a memo immediately. No one onboard this ship eats anything other than properly wrapped meal bars from the automatic machines from now on, until the kitchen and the storage rooms are decontaminated. Find the best possible exterminator firm and make sure they understand the word discretion. And tell the person or persons who went to Cha Xtrax that they’re fired. I have no idea why this was not already done hours ago.”

“Well, Miranda, it’s just that so many things seem to go wrong…”

“Your petty excuses”, Miranda answered Nigel without looking at him, “don’t interest me. Oh, and Emily… From now on, no one is ever again granted a leave of absence to go to any of Epsilon’s moons, nor to anywhere else in that area. Nigel, is there anything else you haven’t told me yet?”

“No, Miranda, that’s all.”

Miranda turned around, slowly, and faced her commissary. Was that a slight tone of mockery in his voice? She could see a small duplicated image of herself reflecting from his glasses, and the eyes behind them were as honest as ever.

I can’t get paranoid on top of it all, she reminded herself, and without another word to anyone, she turned around and walked to her quarters, sending the ‘Starbucks 2000’ signal to Andrea’s badge.

*

Miranda walked up to the window in her bedroom and withdrew the curtain. Although she was still very annoyed because of the complete lack of competence her entire crew was showing, she had to tremble in her heart at the sight that met her gaze. Yes, Miranda had looked out of big windows before, surrounded by the black night full of stars, but even after all the time she had spent in outer space, it could still happen that she was completely overwhelmed by it. The night was everywhere. The stars were everywhere. Wherever she turned on her ship, she wouldn’t find one window that showed her streets and cars or houses or green grass… only the vast, incomprehensible star-spangled space.

It made her feel reverent, it reminded her that she was just a humanoid being, and it made her think of all the things that still existed somewhere out there… But at the same time, stargazing made her feel powerful. She was the commander of this magnificent vessel that crossed the endless ocean of space; she could go as far as she wanted, she could find things no one else of her kind had ever seen before and it was her mission to compile the best of all that, bring it back to the Empire’s capital and show it to its people.

But what had she accomplished lately? She had nothing, except beans full of poisonous vermin from the admittedly very pretty fields in the Cerulean province on Cha Xtra.

A knock on the door made her straighten her back and put on her usual mask of calm superiority.

“Miranda? Can I come in?”

It was Andrea.

Yes, she could come in. Andrea Sachs was probably the only person she could tolerate at the moment.

“I’ve got coffee”, the young woman said as she entered, still dressed in her tight temperature controlling field uniform and her rich, brown hair held back from her face and put up in a strict and tidy bun on the back of her head.

Andrea handed her the coffee, and then she let her hair down. She did it slowly, because she knew that Miranda enjoyed watching; Miranda watched as a cascade of chocolate colored silky hair fell down around Andrea’s shoulders.

Miranda drank her coffee, looking at Andrea, who was just standing there, silently; as if they had all the time in the world to just stand there, looking at each other.

“So”, Andrea said when Miranda put the empty cup down on the table next to her, “how are you today?”

Instead of answering, Miranda reached for her, and Andrea willingly let herself be pulled in for an embrace. She wrapped her arms around Miranda - she smelled like flowers, where had she been? - and held her tight.

“Don’t worry”, she said, “we’ll get through this. It’s not your fault.”

“I know that”, Miranda answered, “but Andrea, as much as it pains me to admit it, Irv doesn’t care about who’s fault it is. If these accidents don’t stop, he can fire me. He will fire me.”

“He can’t do that!” Andrea was upset, no doubt thinking about the intrigues of the previous year. “He can’t fire you. Did he say that?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

If these accidents and incidents don’t stop… Miranda knew that it needed to stop, or Irv would blame her. Why wouldn’t he? As far as Miranda knew, she did everything right, everything that was in her power, as always, but she was the commander of the ship and everything and everyone was her responsibility.

Equipment broke and went out of order. That was normal - once or twice every year, but not once or twice every week. Crew members got hurt when they were out on assignments. Of course, that should be expected to happen once in a while in outer space, but it should not be expected as an almost daily routine, as it had been lately.

It could happen that they were met with hostility and suspicion when they went down to unknown planets, but that was why Miranda’s diplomatic skills were so valuable. But they had failed to establish any kind of useful contact with the last four places they had visited, except with Cha Xtrax…

Maybe Irv Ravitz was right? Maybe she was losing it.

“Miranda”, Andreas said as if she could read her captain’s thoughts, “you are a great captain. You are the greatest captain the Supreme Commander has ever seen. But not even you can stop accidents from happening.”

Miranda shook her head. Andrea was sweet and kind, but she was wrong. Most accidents happen because a person has done something wrong. Miranda, being a great judge of character, should not hire the kind of people who are likely to create accidents.

And then there was the question of the thefts. The first time, maybe even the second time, a little money had gone missing, that could have been written off as an error with the accounts - and of course Miranda had fired the accountant. But then it became clear that it was more than that; someone was stealing from her.

It was Nigel who had found the thief - a young man who had recently been employed. Apparently, too much stealing had made the guy too confident and careless, because he had left compromising traces of electronic evidence on Nigel’s own computer.

The man had been sent away and punished according to his crime, but that didn’t really solve the real problem. The real problem was that the man had been hired by Miranda; she had interviewed him just like she had interviewed and evaluated every member of her crew; the chefs and the pilots and the medics and the nurses and the technicians and the field officers… and Miranda Priestly did not hire incompetent people. Miranda Priestly did not let criminals set foot on Runway. Miranda Priestly was the master and commander of the ship and had complete control over every single detail.

So how did it happen that people suddenly got hurt and food poisoned, how did it happen that the technicians screwed up time and again, how was it possible that she didn’t know that that man was dishonest?

“Are you thinking about that man again?” The young brown-eyed woman shook her head. “Don’t do that. Forget about him.”

Again, Andrea Sachs was reading her mind. But of course, that strange ability to read her captains every mood and wish was what had made her an excellent assistant in the first place. Miranda had never had an assistant like that - Emily was tolerable, most of the time, which was more than could be said about some young assistants she had had, but almost from the start, she had felt a strange connection to Andrea.

Maybe because the young woman didn’t see Runway as a steppingstone to a higher rank in the hierarchy; that had been quite obvious ever since the first day Andrea had set foot on Miranda’s ship. Some young women who applied for the position as her assistant dreamed of becoming just like her one day; the commander of a great ship. But Andrea Sachs didn’t desire power. She wanted the adventures and challenges that came with the life of an exploring journalist. Miranda knew that Andrea didn’t have time to write many serious articles, but she knew that the young writer kept a log, and she didn’t doubt that one day something was going to come out of that.

Miranda remembered how she had used to dread the day when Andrea decided that she wanted to focus on her writing instead of working for her. And yet Miranda knew that Andrea had it in her - she could become a great diplomat one day and even a great leader. Wasn’t that ironic. The only young woman she had met who could possibly one day fill her shoes didn’t want to.

And that had nearly caused Andrea to walk away from her one year earlier; she still shuddered when she thought about it now.

But that day at the end of last year’s Explorer Week had changed their life. Miranda knew that she was going to remember it forever, even as everything else started to fall apart around her. When Andrea came back with Nigel from her little detour that day, Miranda had given her a long lecture on power and leadership, authority and discipline and the necessity of uncomfortable decisions, and eventually, the young woman had said that yes, she understood why Miranda had to do what she did to Nigel.

“Don’t talk about it anymore”, she had said, “I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it. But honestly, Miranda, I…”

“Yes?” Miranda had looked questioningly at her young assistant, no longer bothering to hide her need to know what went through Andrea’s mind.

“Miranda, you said that you can see yourself in me…” Andrea blushed and hesitated. “I’m flattered by your high opinion of me, but I really can’t do this any more. I’ve been working for you all this time, trying to do a good job… but it’s not only about the job. I do it for you. Miranda, I don’t want you to see yourself in me, I want you to see me. I don’t want to be like you. I want to be with you.”

Miranda had been shocked speechless. She liked Andrea. She didn’t usually bother to like people, but Andrea was different, and when the girl ran off like that after their argument in the space limo, Miranda had felt a desperate need to keep the girl around.

She hadn’t thought about it as love or even attraction, only a need, and she hadn’t thought that Andrea could understand it.

“Anyway”, Andrea had went on when Miranda remained silent, “that was my real reason for trying to leave. No one can be in love with their captain and do a good job. But… when Nigel came after me, I thought that… even if you don’t want to know about this - I totally understand if you don’t want to hear a word about it - I just couldn’t leave without getting it off my chest. I don’t expect you to say anything…”

“Yes”, Miranda said, feeling a bit dizzy and beside herself, “yes, you can do a good job. Yes, I have to say something, but I don’t know what… Just don’t leave.”

Andrea’s eyes began to sparkle.

“You… you don’t want me to leave?”

That was when Miranda kissed her.

And that had been almost one year ago. They had been happy together; much happier than what Miranda had ever dreamed that she could be, and then as she began to think that she was perhaps not going to die of happiness after all but live happily ever after - that was when the accidents began to happen.

“Hey, Miranda…”

Her lover’s soft voice called her back to the present.

“Guess what I’ve got for you?” Andrea began to unzip her uniform, exposing a tight top under it - what else could fit in there, except her beautiful body?

Andrea put her hand in the folds of her clothes, and pulled out a small bouquet of flowers. They were a bit crumpled but not too much; they were star anemones; exquisite, but hardy, and Miranda had always loved their scent. Andrea loved them because Miranda did, and because they had the exact same colour as Miranda’s eyes.

They also loved them because star anemones were the only flowers Andrea could bring Miranda without anyone noticing, the only flowers that didn’t get crushed between her uniform and her body.

“The lady in the flower shop”, Andrea said, “wanted to give me freesias, they had a special offer, but I told her no, I want blue star anemones and nothing else, because these are the only ones I want to give to the one I love…”

Miranda smiled and took the bouquet. She put it in a vase, and she knew that within moments, the flowers were going to look as good as new.

“Is there nothing else you want to give me?”

Andrea smiled, and Miranda knew that they were too irresponsible; she shouldn’t talk like that, not now; she shouldn’t allow herself to relax and give in to the pleasure Andrea’s eyes promised her, but she knew that she had to ignore reality for a moment. She had to escape somewhere, because if she didn’t, she might begin to cry, and the crew could never see her cry.

“How about a kiss?” Andrea suggested, “come and get it.”

***

One week later…

Nigel’s forehead was pale and sweaty. His movements were a bit jerky, and he jumped every time someone spoke to him.

But he wasn’t the only one who was tense, and he didn’t think that anyone noticed anything odd about him.

“Don’t worry, Miranda”, he murmured between his teeth, “I’m sure Andy is okay. We will find her.”

“Of course”, Miranda replied with a tone of voice icier than ever, “and the one responsible for this will have to suffer the consequences of his or her actions.”

Nigel nodded, and tried not to gulp visibly. Miranda didn’t suspect anything, did she? He glanced at Emily, who carefully avoided meeting his eyes.

No, she couldn’t possibly suspect anything. His plan was perfect. Yes, he had been forced to change the plan a bit too much, which he regretted, but that was Andy’s own fault.

But on the whole, his plan worked better than he had dared to hope. Miranda’s appearance was as immaculate as ever, and she tried to behave like nothing was wrong, but Nigel could see that the woman was a wreck. Irv was going to see it, too, when Nigel called him.

Andy Sachs had been missing for four days. Four days ago, Andy and Emily had been out on a mission, but only Emily had returned.

Her face had been wet with tears, her eyes were desperate and she delivered her lines with the conviction of an opera diva when she told them that she had split ways with Andy only for half an hour, but Andy never returned to their meeting place.

“I waited and waited”, she cried, “Miranda, I looked everywhere, I swear!”

So, Miranda had ordered everyone out. She called in the police, the army, private investigators, anyone she could think of, and they looked for the missing assistant, but couldn’t find her.

As the time passed, Miranda became more and more like an ice sculpture. She barely moved her lips when she spoke, and Nigel rejoiced at it. This was not just another accident. It was a personal tragedy - who could have guessed? Miranda wasn’t going to be able to handle it; this final proof of her incompetence as a leader would make it unnecessary for Irv to even fire her - she would have to resign willingly, step down from her throne, and that was even better.

The ice queen crushed into a little pile of snow that was going to melt and turn to nothing.

Emily had played her part very well. Nigel was going to reward her later. It wasn’t her fault that Andy had turned out to be loyal to Miranda after all. Emily had told him about the second assistant’s violent reaction - Emily’s cheek was still a little red where Andy had slapped her - and at first, Nigel had thought that their whole plan had been ruined, but when he thought about, he could only see one solution.

In the beginning, he had blindly believed that Andy was going to be on his side; he thought that she was going to agree to stay hidden for a while, even if it would be very uncomfortable; she would have to be tied up to make it look real until he became the hero and ‘found’ her. But now…

“Go back there”, he said to Emily, “make sure that no one is following you, and kill her.”

Emily had stared at him and then, slowly, she nodded.

“O…okay”, she whispered. “You’re right. She’ll ruin everything if Miranda finds her”, she gulped, “alive…”

Two days later, Emily had found him when he was alone, and she told him that the problem was taken care of. The poor girl was shaking and she couldn’t even look him in the eyes, but he patted her shoulder and told her that he was pleased with her.

Now, he decided, was the time to end it all. It was time to end Miranda’s suffering, because if she broke down before he could show her Andy’s dead body - well, any kind of breakdown would be great, but he wanted to enjoy every moment of this unexpected grieving of hers. He hoped to hear her cry. Oh, Miranda in tears in front of the whole crew! It was going to be an exquisite moment indeed.

Miranda was angry because the locals in the area where Andy had ‘disappeared’ were so unhelpful. What could happen to a young woman on their planet? Were there any dangers? Were people aggressive? Could she have fallen down in some old mine or something? People just shrugged their shoulders and seemed to be completely uninterested in Runway, its captain and their crew.

Nigel and Emily had paid them well to pretend that they didn’t care. He had taken money from Runway’s emergency reserves but it didn’t matter. By the time it was going to be discovered, he wasn’t going to be there anymore.

Okay. It was evening. It was time.

“Miranda, Miranda”, he shouted, running towards her on the bridge as if someone was chasing him. “Miranda, I think I’ve found her!”

“Where?” she said sharply, her voice hoarse and thick as if she had been crying. He saw a glimpse of hope in her eyes and she didn’t even reproach him for shouting. People came running, and very soon, a crowd was gathered around him and the captain.

Nigel looked at them, took in the excitement in the air, the expectation and the attention. They looked at him the way they were supposed to have looked at him the previous year, when it should have been announced that he was going to be the captain of James Holt’s brand new star ship, with advanced technology that even Runway didn’t have. Well, he got his moment now!

“I happened to be in the old parts of the city”, he said, and paused for effect. The old parts were almost abandoned; there were warehouses and storehouses, empty buildings, some in ruins, and dark, narrow alleys.

“And suddenly”, he said, “I received a signal to my y-phone…”

“What do you mean by ‘signal’”, Miranda interrupted, “did Andrea call you?”

Nigel was tempted to say yes. They had all assumed that Andy didn’t have the means to contact anyone. What would Miranda think if she believed that her assistant had tried to contact Nigel and not her? But maybe that was a little too much - and hard to explain, when they found Andy dead.

“No”, he said, “I’ve got a new application to my badge. It’s not on the market yet, but someone demonstrated it to me and Andy during Explorer Week last year. It’s a kind of tracking thing - my phone can connect with another one that has the same application even if the phone is turned off.”

“Why…” Miranda’s first instinct was probably to ask why no one had told her about this new ‘tracking’ thing - that didn’t exist, of course - but she didn’t. “Why didn’t you track her before?”

“Well”, Nigel replied, “it’s a new thing, like I said, and it doesn’t work very well yet. I have to be very close to be able to pick up the signal. And I lost it. I thought I’d better come back here and get you, so we could all look together.”

“Enough talking”, Miranda said, “take me to this place.”

Runway had been hovering over the little planet for days. Miranda, Nigel and Emily got into Miranda’s private short distance vessel and the rest of the crew followed them in space cabs, and the descent was quick.

It was already dark down there, and in the area where Nigel claimed to have picked up signals of Andy’s presence, there it was even darker, because most of the street lights had been dead for a long time, and the night was too cloudy for any stars to shine down on them.

“Look”, Serena said to Emily, “that old ruin is full of wild star anemones, they are pretty, don’t you think?”

Emily, pale and tense, didn’t answer, and an expression of intense pain flew over Miranda’s face. Nigel remembered that Andy smelled like star anemones sometimes, and he made a mental note to order lots of them for her funeral.

Nigel stopped, pretending to hear or feel something. He fiddled with his badge and made it twinkle - it was only the flashlight turned on to its lowest, but he didn’t need to say anything - the crew immediately assumed that it was his ‘tracking application’ that kicked in.

“She must be here somewhere”, he said.

“I don’t understand why she came here in the first place”, Miranda complained. “Andrea and Emily were supposed to visit their weaving mills. They were only going to bring back textile samples…”

“They used to have factories here”, Nigel said. “Maybe someone lured her into coming here under false pretences…”

“Why didn’t the police search here? This is an unacceptable lack of competence…”

“Oh, wait a minute”, Nigel interrupted what sounded like the beginning of a fit of anger, “the signal’s getting stronger… we must be very close now…”

Miranda took a deep breath as if she was going to shout the young woman’s name at the top of her lungs. He could almost have felt sorry for her under different circumstances - like a year ago, before she betrayed him - because she had hope now, but it was about to get crushed. Well, then she was going to learn what that felt like.

Nigel wondered briefly if anyone else had noticed that Miranda was unnaturally upset about the disappearance of her second assistant, or if they only interpreted it as anger because it was the worst of their ‘incidents’ yet. To Nigel, it was obvious that Miranda had feelings for the girl, and that made this whole drama so much better.

He led them into a building that looked like it was going to collapse any minute, and someone in the crew tried to warn Miranda and advised her not to enter, but she shook off the words.

“I’m beyond caring”, she snapped. “Nigel, you go first; I’ll be right behind you.”

He had done his research, with the help of a local hit man, before he instructed Emily where to take Andy, and he knew his way down in the labyrinth that was the basement, he had to remind himself to pretend to be a little insecure sometimes.

And there was the door, locked with a big old-fashioned padlock.

“Here she is”, he said.

Instantly, two men from the crew stepped forward with their tools, and they removed the door quite effortlessly.

The smell in there wasn’t exactly pretty, but Miranda must have been far beyond caring like she said, because she went in immediately and turned her flashlight on, as did the others.

There, on the floor, laid a lifeless mess of brown hair and the familiar Runway uniform.

Miranda gasped when she saw Andy - she almost even wailed - and fell to the floor next to her, trying to see if she was alive, and the paramedics joined her.

Nigel prepared an appropriate grieving facial expression, when he heard a faint moan from the floor, and something moved - something that wasn’t supposed to be moving.

“She’s alive -but we’ve got to get her out of here quickly!” the paramedic said.

“Andrea!” Miranda exclaimed, and the moan intensified.

“Emily!” Nigel hissed, and turned to his accomplice.

Then something disastrous happened. Tears began to flow and Emily became hysteric.

“I’m sorry Nigel but I just couldn’t, I couldn’t kill her, I know I should have but I couldn’t! There would have been blood everywhere and I’ve never killed anyone before, I was afraid to do it because I didn’t want to touch a dead person, and I didn’t know how to - “

“Be quiet!” Nigel said, but it was too late; even the paramedics had stopped caring for the barely alive assistant on the floor, and looked at Emily and Nigel with their mouths wide open.

“I thought she was going to die a natural death or something,” Emily cried, “I really did, at least I tried to tell myself that, I’m sorry I let you down, Nigel, but I just couldn’t kill her…”

Emily’s words disappeared into sobs, she was shaking and then she fell to the floor.

“Miranda”, Andy whispered from the floor, “it was Emily who… she said that Nigel…”

“Andrea”, Miranda replied with tears in her voice, “don’t speak, darling, it’s all right now, we’re going to take you out of here…”

The paramedics brought in a stretcher and when they began to carry her out of there, Nigel tried to follow, but even as he did it he knew that it was in vain; the security guards who had never left Miranda’s side during the last few days had caught the message in Emily’s confused statement, and they were not going to let him leave.

The game was over. He had lost.

***

Epilogue

Miranda and Andy’s private quarters, onboard Spaceship Runway, early morning

Dear Mom and Dad,

This is the first email I have had time to write, and I want to tell you that I am okay. I got out of the hospital the day before yesterday, with almost all my strength regained. The days I spent in that horrible, dark place made a complete wreck out of me, but the doctors and the nurses, and most of all Miranda, have made me believe that I will get over it and become my old self again.

It is painful to know that Nigel wanted to see me dead when he realized that I didn’t want to be his accomplice in his mutiny against Miranda, but he will be punished. His trial was yesterday; I testified, and Emily had already confessed, and there was really nothing for him to do. The investigation showed evidence that proved that he was behind everything that has happened on Runway during the last six months. He sabotaged equipment, paid people to steal, and to work against us - he even brought vermin from Cha Xtrax onboard, and he made the people on the planet I was trapped on obstruct the search for me. And he could have gotten away with everything, if Emily hadn’t been afraid to kill me… Instead, he will be imprisoned for life. I hope they put him in a dark cell in the worst prison of Azkaban Beta…

I have other news, too. I won’t be working for Miranda Priestly anymore. Now wait a minute before you get too excited over this - I know that you’ve never liked how hard I work, but you don’t know her! You will get to know her. You see, I love her - I’ve loved her for a long time - and we’re together… and Miranda has asked me to marry her.

I will of course tell you more when I talk to you in person - and you’ll have to meet her! - but this will be all for now. I just wanted to tell you that I’m safe and happier than ever.

Much love,
Andy