Back with her Cellmate, by Matthew Clarke (my fan fiction)

Another story about Morgaine's perpetual imprisonment after Battlefield.

Madeleine Issigri is from the Troughton story, The Space Pirates. Madeleine was the head of a mining corporation who turned out to be working with pirates.


Ganymede Correctional Facility, 2192


Madeleine was emptying her bladder in the cell toilet when Morgaine came in. Madeleine had been in prison for over a year, but it seemed like she would never get used to the lack of privacy.

Madeleine pulled up her pyjama bottoms and rushed to Morgaine to give her a hug.

"Wash your hands, you filthy wench!" cried Morgaine, but hugged her cellmate all the same, and kissed her as well.

After beating up the aggressive bully, Mali, Morgaine had been placed in solitary confinement on the punishment wing. She had only been on the punishment wing for two weeks, but it felt like a long time for Madeleine.

"The punishment wing is even worse than that iso-cube they put me in back in Megacity One," said Morgaine.

Madeleine returned Morgaine's kiss.

"I really missed you, Morgaine," she said.

"Not as much as I missed you, my pretty handmaiden," laughed Morgaine.

"I'm not your handmaiden!"

Morgaine smiled. "If we were in the thirteen worlds where I am queen, I would make you my chief handmaiden. You would warm my bed every night."

"You already told me that if this were your world, you would have had me executed for piracy." They both laughed.


Later that night as they snuggled together under a blanket Morgaine thought about her cellmate. Morgaine had indeed missed Madeleine while she was in solitary confinement. She had known so many cellmates during her two hundred years of incarceration. Most of them had been lowborn women; badly educated and often coming from desperate situations of drug abuse and domestic violence. Morgaine had given them love and comfort, but she had especially enjoyed the company of Madeleine. She was an educated and intelligent woman who had taught her much about the ways of this world. Not only that, but despite being a merchant's daughter, Madeleine had a nobility and elegance to her bearing. The humiliation of imprisonment had not robbed her of her dignity. Morgaine admired that deeply.

Morgaine knew that it would only be a matter of months before Madeleine had completed her sentence. She would be set free to rebuild her life, while Morgaine would continue to spend her lonely immortality in confinement. So many women had passed through her life, sharing brief moments with her. It was not easy being immortal, watching other lives pass by so quickly.

Merlin might still be free, but no doubt he also knew that same burden of living an eternity that mortals could never share. Perhaps as he travelled in his Ship of Time, he was also thinking how much longer he had left with his present companion.