Winnie saw the battle of the spider drones. It lasted less than a second. A firework of explosions rocked through the spider swarm as the Venezia missiles struck. Many missiles exploded a split second before hitting their target, but others hit home. Scores of drones detonated. Their shrapnel tore into their neighbors. Twisted metal plummeted toward the earth.

Simultaneously, the Venezia spider swarm came within combat range. Winnie noticed no exchange of fire. Just that spiders on both sides dropped from the sky in droves, like bugs gassed with poison. There wasn't anything visibly wrong with the husks hurling back to the planet, but when she looked inside, she saw clean holes cut through their interiors, shattering circuitry. Their armored chassis had a dent at worst.

The enemy swarms passed each other. About thirty of the Venezia's drones dropped. More than a hundred enemy drones failed. According to the displays in the Venezia strike room. The two swarms would collide once more before the enemy drones descended upon the Venezia. Without the missiles, the next strike wouldn't be nearly as effective. Over four hundred drones would attack the Venezia in under two minutes.

The launch room was in madness when Winnie, Victoria, and Josephine arrived. Marines were cramming into pods. One would buckle into the seat. Another would practically sitting on their lap.

"Ma'am. Here," Bishop called out. Two pods were standing by. Tan was already buckled into one. He watched the commotion with passing interest. Oni was crammed in beside him. Tan had not allowed him to sit on his lap. The other pod was empty.

Victoria stepped into the pod with Tan. To her exemplars, she pointed out Winnie and Josephine. "Put those two in the other pod. And you," she said to Tan. "Get up. I'm sitting."

Tan didn't move.

Liat and Bishop pulled Winnie and Josephine along and secured them down, Winnie in Josephine's lap. They then crammed into a remaining pod for themselves.

Victoria addressed the room. "Listen closely. Everyone." The launch room went quiet. "They're going to destroy our pods the moment we've landed. Watch your GPS. As soon as you're one mile from land, eject. If you stay in your pod, you will die. You'll need to swim to safety."

One marine spoke up. "We'd be over four hundred feet up. We'd die."

"Not if you jump out when you're a mile away. The TransAtlantic skirts traffic just above the water. A hundred feet at most."

"At the speeds we'll be traveling, it'd be a bitch."

"Your alternative is death. Do this or die."

The words reverberated. No one spoke up after that. Victoria sat on Tan's lap. She spoke to Winnie, who sat in another pod. "Keep an eye on me. I will say when you should jump."

Winnie nodded. She put her mind once again outside the ship. The enemy swarm still couldn't be seen with the naked eye, but it was only ninety seconds away. The Venezia would be over the TransAtlantic chute soon.

"All pods prepare for launch in sixty seconds." It was the intercom voice of Lieutenant Ruiz from the bridge. By now, every pod was full. Winnie was settled in Josephine's lap. Tan and Victoria were intimately closer than either preferred, and Oni was crammed in with them. Anyone who could be saved would have their chance.

Winnie and Victoria would be on the run again. At least they'd have company this time. Josephine and Tan might stick around, assuming Victoria didn't treat them like enemies. But given that she now had Josephine's power, she didn't need Josephine anymore. And Tan... Winnie still didn't even know what his power was.

Though once Victoria had his power, why keep him either? Winnie would have to convince her they were worth keeping around. That meant convincing Victoria they were useful. It was always about power to her. All the queen cared about was hoarding flairs, but even with all that power combined, flairs weren't going to save this ship.

An idea occurred to Winnie. She kicked Josephine's shin. Josephine looked, opened her mouth to speak, but upon looking into Winnie's eyes, she stopped. She still held the glyph card she'd taken from Winnie and could see exactly what Winnie was thinking. There were six ships controlling that spider swarm from nearly two hundred miles away. That put them outside the range of all their powers, except for Winnie. She could see them. She could even see the pilots of all six ships at once.

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Sight. That is how Josephine's power worked, right? Victoria had brought her into the Venezia with a bag over her head. If Josephine saw you, your mind was hers to pilfer. So since Winnie could see the enemy ships, and Josephine could see in Winnie's head. Why shouldn't that be enough? It's not as though their powers required working eyeballs, it was just about awareness. Or so Winnie hoped.

Yet the soldiers she spied continued to work. In each ship, the comms officers chattered quick confirmations with other ships. The captains oversaw their respective display tables. The strike controllers maintained focus on their swarms. Their hands flew over their controls, making micro adjustments to the spider drones' flight paths.

Was Josephine even trying? Maybe this wasn't how her power worked. Victoria had mentioned that Josephine could only erase memories related to her. But Josephine certainly had an intense gaze as she looked into Winnie's mind. All Winnie could do was keep eye contact and maintain her visions.

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

Sakhr watched the dots on the displays. They crawled, despite the ships they represented traveling at supersonic speeds. The odds were six on one. The general was exuding an aura of calm. That's how much he thought this fight was in the bag. Of course he didn't know what was at stake. For Sakhr, he'd felt as though he'd bet his life savings on a turtle race. Every inching minute built upon the tight ball of stress in his stomach. Even if this succeeded, that didn't mean it was over. Pods would launch. Missiles would follow. Then an eternity of uncertainty would follow. Did she die? Or was there another goddamn bird? He missed the days when seeing your enemy's body was proof enough.

He watched the next stage of this glacial fight. The swarm of spider drones were about to intersect a second time. A few more would drop, and then it was on to the enemy orbiter. Sakhr found himself clenching the handrail as the dots mixed.

Then a moment later, they separated. Exactly as expected. He relaxed.

Admiral Laughlin frowned. "Hmm."

Sakhr's tension returned. "Is something wrong?"

"Hmm? No, ma'am. They just... hold on a moment. Lieutenant Diaz?" He addressed his comm officer. "Is there any chatter from the orbiters about that engagement?"

"No, sir."

"None?"

"No, sir. None of them are talking."

"Contact the fleet commander. I want to know why they didn't return fire on the enemy swarm."

"Yes, sir."

"They didn't return fire?" Sakhr asked.

The admiral waved it off. "The commander may have opted not to. Attacking the swarm makes no difference. It won't swing back in time to fight again," but the admiral's aura was not as calm as he acted. When the comm officer got through, both he and Sakhr listened.

"Squad fourteen. This is the Manakin bridge. Report your current situation... You're free to engage the target... Aye... The HIMS Venezia... Affirmative... Affirmative... Yes, that is your target... Hold."

Diaz looked to the Admiral. "They're requesting confirmation on their orders, sir."

Laughlin frowned. "Put it on my console."

The call transferred.

"This is Admiral Laughlin."

"This is squad fourteen," a tinny voice came from the speakers. "Requesting confirmation on our orders, sir."

"You're to destroy the rogue orbiter vessel, the HIMS Venezia."

Pause. "That's a Lakiran vessel, sir."

"Yes, Captain. We know. It's been commandeered. Take it out."

Radio silence stretched on for moments. The spider drones continued their arc toward their target. The enemy swarm was circling back, but it would never get there in time. Everything was on course.

Then,

"Requesting a copy on our orders," the radio voice said.

"I just told you your orders, Captain. Destroy the damn ship."

"Yes, sir. Which ship? The... the Venezia?"

"Yes, Captain. The Venezia."

"That's... understood, sir. Destroying the Venezia."

The radio clicked out. The flight continued. One minute left until the spiders could open fire on the target.

The radio clicked back in. "This is squad fourteen. Requesting copy on our orders."

"Shoot the goddamn ship!" the admiral screamed into the mic.

"Confirmed."

The admiral glared at his mic as though daring the console to click back on.

It did. "This is squad fourteen. Requesting copy on our—"

"Is this some kind of joke?"

"Admiral," Sakhr said. "It's not them. Those blasted flairs aboard the enemy vessel are fiddling with your mens' minds. Can you take control of the swarms?"

"What? What flairs?"

"I'll explain later. Treat those soldiers as useless. Is there any way your men can take over?"

"There... there should be," Laughlin turned to his flight operator. "We can remotely control those spiders, isn't that correct?"

"We can," the strike commander said. "If we can slave the orbiters to—"

"Don't explain. Just do it," Sakhr said. He didn't know how Victoria was doing this. Records indicated that that Josephine woman needed to see her targets. Could she work over radio contact? Or...

Oh.

The moment he thought it he knew it was true. It was that farseeing girl.

Damn. It.

Everyone was going to need shields now.

"I'm in, Your Majesty" the strike commander said. His console layout changed to reflect the controls aboard the orbiter flagship.

"Do you understand the mission?" Laughlin said.

"Yes, sir. Destroy the Venezia."

"Then carry it out."

Sakhr held his shield plaque out to the strike commander. "And keep your hand on this while you work."

"Your Majesty?"

"Humor me," he said. This mission was not going to fail.