"What now?" Tan asked. For this trip, he was placing all the burden on Josephine. Back when they were suiting up, she'd wondered whether she'd have to tie his shoelaces for him.

"We have to find Naema," she replied. That was obvious, but she was thinking out loud. Her prearranged plan ended here. "She's probably wherever they keep all the other prisoners."

How to find it? Simple.

Josephine caught the next soldier hurrying by. "Do you know where they hold the prisoners?"

He looked perplexed.

"This is my first time aboard," she explained.

"Do you mean the detention center, ma'am?"

Josephine had forgotten she'd stolen her uniform from an off-duty captain.

"Yes, that's what I meant."

"It's on Deck six in the Fore Sector." He pointed down a corridor and issued several directions. From the sound of it, Josephine would have to walk a good ten or twenty minutes. The one part of his instructions that were clear was this: go down, and go toward the front.

She thanked him. He saluted and continued on. She yanked away his memories of the conversation.

They only got lost a few times looking for the detention center. Once they got near, it was impossible to miss. The yells echoed down the corridors. The stench wafted. The center was a hallway with an L-bend in it. Along the walls on both sides were cells, each large and filled with a dozen or so people. Despite the crowding, Josephine got the sense this was a quiet hour. The refuse covering the floors was from many more people than this.

Josephine walked up and down the hall looking at each inmate. Naema wasn't among them.

"There might be more cells," she said. "I think there's another block on the other side of the ship just like this." It was infuriating how few signs there were pointing to anything.

"She not here," Tan said.

"Not here here, but in another cell. Come on."

"Not in cells. If they take her family, then they know her. She not here. She will be different. Eh... separate."

He had a good point. She felt silly for not realizing it herself. But then where was she supposed to look?

Josephine cornered another soldier.

"Is there another detention center?" she asked.

Another puzzled expression. "Sir?"

"I'm looking for a detainee. They're not here."

"Have you tried processing?"

"What's that?"

"What's processing?" he asked, as though clarifying that she was asking an obvious question.

"I just transferred here." Her words were harsher than she'd intended.

"It's where we put civilians into the system before sending them home."

"No. That's not what I want. The person I'm looking for is being held, probably apart from the others."

"Oh. Then you probably want the brig."

The brig. Yes. That does sound like a place Lakirans would put an innocent teenaged girl.

"Where is that?" she asked.

----------------------------------------

Winnie could tell when Her Majesty Queen Victoria was about to show. Guards outside the shuttle lifted a hand to their earbuds. Their stances became rigid. Others hurried through scanning high and low for last minute threats. Some peeked into the hopper as though Helena and Winnie wouldn't have noticed an assassin sitting with them.

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"About time," Helena said. She scooted farther into the shuttle to make room. "I bet she didn't even try to match the color scheme we made."

"I guess we'll see soon." Winnie always felt uncomfortable with Helena's reproachful remarks toward the queen. It couldn't be wise to talk poorly about a dictator who could read your mind.

Victoria emerged from the roof access door with Melanie at her heel. Helena was right. Victoria wore one of her own formal dresses: white blouse and a cream skirt with a matching vest. Beautiful attire, but it wouldn't match the scheme arranged for the charity ball. She must have known; Helena reminded her endlessly, yet she chose to ignore it. Victoria may have thought Helena's micromanaging of the scheme was childish, but even Winnie's mother would have played along.

Victoria took the seat next to Willow. She looked her daughter up and down. Helena pretended to gaze out the window. When Victoria looked at Winnie, Winnie waved.

"Winnie," Victoria nodded. She looked at her daughter. "Are we ready to go?"

"We've been ready to go for a while. Just waiting on you."

Victoria didn't rise to it. She turned to Madeline. "Let's go then."

Madeline climbed into the cockpit with a pilot. A guard closed the hopper door, and they took off. The world outside the windows dropped away.

“Have you tried any of the new exercises I’ve given you?” Victoria asked. She was studying a tablet she’d brought with her, but she could only be speaking to Winnie.

“A couple,” Winnie said. “I was busy getting ready.”

“Any progress?”

“A little.”

“How so?” She looked up. Winnie stared off as though recalling. Eye contact would reveal how little “a little” was. Victoria would find out eventually, but why now?

“I was able to see in the dark without pretending there was a light,” Winnie said.

“Can you distinguish colors yet?”

“Not in the dark, no.”

“How about your point of view exercises? Can you be aware of all sides of an object?”

“Kind of.”

Victoria tilted her head. “Kind of?”

“I can see it from all sides, but it’s like I’m using a lot of cameras.”

“You could already do that.”

"Uh, yeah. I guess I mean I'm able to do it more easily now."

"I don't want you to do it wrong more easily. It's a crutch. You should know what something looks like inside and out without having to look at it. Stop practicing it with your flair for now. Just try to imagine a fictional object. Practice knowing it inside and out without relying on visualizing it from different angles. Once you can do that. Then we'll see if you're ready to start projecting again?"

"Okay."

"Hmm." Victoria eyed her. "And how about locating people? Any progress on that?"

"Oh, come on," Helena said. "Why are you doing this now? We're going to the charity concert."

Victoria turned her gaze to her daughter, her expression cool, but to Winnie's surprise, she did stop. For Victoria, ruling the world came second to training flairs. This charity would fall even lower on the list. Winnie was still glad for the interruption. Otherwise the trip would become another lesson.

Helena spoke. "So I'm ready for my speech. I thought what we'd do, Mother, is enter together. For pictures. You're not dressed in the scheme, but that's okay. The queen should stand out. It's supposed to be just food and drinks to start. No dancing until later. Then we give our speeches to start the auction. Madeline forgot to give me a copy of your speech, but as long as it covers—"

"I didn't prepare one."

"You...? Then you're just going to say a few short words then? That's fine. People will be tired by then, it might be—."

"I'm not making a speech."

"Oh. What? Oh. Are you sure? I mean, aren't people going to expect one?"

"No."

"But I just assumed you would. You always do. It's on the program that you are."

"We'll change the program."

Silence. Helena stared at her lap. Her jaw was clenched.

Victoria sighed and looked from her tablet. "I'm not giving a speech because this is your night, Helena. You organized it, and now you're hosting it."

"But it was your idea."

"Yes. I know it was, but the audience doesn't. The point of this charity is to build your presence. You need to stop being a nameless daughter and start being a political figure. So yes, I'm not giving a speech. You are. You'll be meeting the guests. You'll be posing for pictures. You'll make connections."

"If you don't want to be a part of this, then why'd you even come?"

Victoria threw her hands up in exasperation. "I'm coming to support you, Helena. Nobody has any idea who you are, so I'm lending credibility to your cause, but I only plan to mingle. The world needs to see that this was your initiative. Soon you'll have enough status to draw media attention yourself."

"Then you won't have to deal with me anymore."

Victoria regarded her. "Are we going to start this now? This is your night. Let's not ruin the mood before we're even there."

"Fine. Whatever."

"And Helena?"

"What?"

"You should review your speech. There won't be a teleprompter."

"I know that. I said I reviewed my speech, didn't I?"

"If you say so. As long as you're sure you're not going to make a fool of yourself."

Winnie sat still, acting as though she hadn't even heard the conversation, but she wondered about Victoria's mention of the teleprompter. It's as though Victoria had been listening in to her conversation with Helena earlier using her own power, or perhaps Victoria had seen it from her head when she'd waved at the queen just now.

Either way, it was unsettling, but there wasn't anything to do about it.

In her lap, she held the index cards prominently. She knew better than to offer them to Helena now; that would be siding with Victoria, but Helena could easily snatch them if she wanted.

She gazed out the window. Sure enough, after a minute, Helena yanked the index cards from her hand.