Spoilers ahead...
I was playing around with "What if?"s, and I thought: "What if Marguerit Maida had answered Al-An's distress call?
The image began with an ominous scene in which Marguerit stood on top of an ice cliff, inches from the edge.
And then, as the story developed, I was startled to realize just how much the crusty mercenary and the softspoken scientist had in common.
You can read the story on this website here, or on Archive of Our Own here.
And if you want to read my original novels, you can find them here.