When all hope is gone, the crew of Hestia's Hearth will make their own.
The Known Universe has been at peace for almost 100 years, but for most of Brenn's life, trapped on an Earth controlled by the genetically superior Aesir Empire, it hasn't felt like it.
The Aesir took her peace, they took her parents, and then they took her wife.
Three years after her wife's murder, she's found a new life light years away from Earth. A happy one, most days, with a best friend and captain who understands her, and a shared mission to undo some of the damage the Aesir have done to the Universe and offer relief to anyone who needs it. But the past has a way of rising again.
A surprise rescue mission brings Brenn face to face with her wife; delirious, ill, and scarred from the bullets Brenn thought had killed her, but very much alive with a newborn at her breast. A newborn whose very existence could mean intergalactic war.
Now Brenn must balance her wife's delicate mental health, new motherhood, and her own complicated feelings while working with her Captain and their odd bunch of friends and allies to protect her tiny family from a small, but influential group within the Aesir government who will stop at nothing to take back Brenn's wife and child.
All the while, there are whispers of a greater and more ancient power coming to life. A power Brenn's wife knows more about than she wants to let on.
It's a good thing Brenn is used to fighting.
***
CW: Contains mildly graphic scenes of violence/death, topics of unwanted pregnancy/abortion, scientific experimentation on sapient beings, depression/suicide, grief, and trauma. The tone of this fiction is often dark, yet hopeful.
Updates Every Other Weekend
It was a bright, summer day.
Mr. and Mrs. Evans were both in the hospital, ready to give birth. But they were really scared. It's their first child so Mrs. Evans was really afraid of how it might go.
"It's okay, honey. It'll be okay." Mr. Evans tried to reassure his wife, stroking her head soothingly.
"But what if the baby comes upside down? What if there's something wrong with her? What if it hurts?" She asked questions so quickly that Mr. Evans doesn't even have time to answer any of them.
"The baby will be fine. Don't worry. It won't hurt as well. It'll be over before you even know it."
But no matter what he said, she was shaking with fear and panic.
The doctor came towards them. "Do we have a name for her?" She asks as they wait for a contraction.
Mr. Evans looked between the doctor and his wife before answering, "Actually, we haven't-"
"Hope"
Mrs. Evans looked up at him, smiling.
"Hope Evans."
~~*~~
Hope Evans lost more in her life at such a young age. She lost every dream she has ever had, lost everything she held dearly and she lost everyone she ever loved.
She had to begin all over again. Only to be fallen right back down.
Will she be happy again?
Will she be able to dream again?
But most importantly, will she be able to love again?
Despite everything she faced, she hopes to gain everything she once loved.
Some say that hope is just a delusion.
Is it?