The hangar bay was a crowded mess. Ships had been cleared out of the way. In their place, a sea of folding chairs pointed toward a raised platform where Queen Helena was supposed to make an appearance, but she was twenty minutes late. Defense Minister Lowden checked his phone again.

Other ministers were here too. Helena had summoned the entire cabinet, all generals and admirals posted near South America, and several lower ranking military personnel. Also, there were the ministers of several Lakiran districts. Lowden recognized the current head of Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, and a few representatives from North and Central America. All these people were supposed to be maintaining the empire. Instead, they had taken red-eye flights here, where they could get frisked and scanned by exemplars because Helena had seen fit to order everyone to come. The child ruler had decided she has something important to say. Lowden had no idea what, but this was blatant mismanagement of power. What had been so important about the recent assassination attempt that she needed to summon everyone?

She survived, didn't she? Unharmed. What's the big deal?

Of course, what if Helena had been killed? Victoria never outlined contingency plans beyond her own family. The ministry had discussed the idea of electing a prime minister for the indefinite future, but that wasn't an official plan. The military might accept this decision, or not. Lowden worked with top ranking generals. He knew they talked among themselves, especially in the wake of Victoria's demise. As of yet, neither the civilian or military camp had strayed into what might be considered ambitious plans, not with exemplars around. By design, exemplars only had soft power. If they detected trouble, they'd tattle to the queen. If the queen wasn't there, then they might as well write about it in their diaries for all the good they can do. At the end of the day, when systems failed, hard power was all that mattered. It would be interesting if anything ever did happen to Helena. That's for sure.

Not that Lowden hoped for that. He didn't like her, but he wasn't a traitor.

He glanced toward the exemplars standing by at elevator. Their eyes remained forward.

Though he swore, if she announced sweeping changes at a time like this, he'd resign. Maybe she was stepping down. That'd be nice. Victoria, difficult as she was, at least knew what she was doing. He recalled something Helena had told him once years ago. When I'm queen, I'm going to make my birthday the first global holiday. Disgusting. She's been queen for three weeks. In that time, if she wasn't ordering him to withdraw humanitarian support from locations across the globe or torch farms, she was renovating this citadel to be her personal playhouse. She'd recalled all of exemplars from their posts, and wasting time hunting deserters so unimportant that Lowden couldn't even recall who they were.

Everyone knew what Helena was like. No one had the balls to say anything... as though they should have to. Didn't Victoria read minds? How much of a doting mother must she have been to ignore the obvious? Helena was not fit to rule.

A spokesman came onto the stage. He tapped the mic and told everyone to take a seat. About God damn time. Ministers and military alike shuffled into the nest of chairs. Lowden could see strained patience in their eyes. He wasn't alone in finding this affair ridiculous.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

Once everyone was seated, they waited another five or so minutes before an elevator finally descended from the upper levels. Helena emerged and took to the podium. Right behind her was the asian, high-school girl that Helena had assigned to head the Exemplar Committee. Can anyone say nepotism? Not around Helena.

"Good evening, everyone." Helena smiled at the audience. Something about it made Lowden's skin crawl. Ever since she'd taken the throne, she'd only been severe or sulky. Somehow, this was worse. It was as though she were about to sell everyone vacation time-share estates.

"Thank you all for coming. I know this was short notice. And many of you are probably wondering why you had to come in person. As you all know, there was an attempt on my life. Luckly, I'm all right. This, however, was the second such assassination attempt this month. The first took my mother from us. That attack was carried out by one of my most trusted members of the Committee."

There were murmurs through the crowd.

"I'm here to share with you what we've learned about these attacks. Both were carried out by the same unnamed terrorist group. And both carried out by members of our staff that had previously been scanned for disloyalty. What we've learned is that this terrorist group has multiple flairs working for them capable of altering the will and memory of targeted individuals, and turning them against the empire. They can do this from anywhere, and target anyone. They killed my mother by turning her own guards against her, and they did the same to me with my own exemplar body guard."

She paused to allow a discord of murmurs work their way through the audience. Her gaze traveled slowly over the crowd, as though studying reactions. Her gaze fell on Lowden. She still smiled, even as she talked about her mother's death, but it didn't seem so sinister. If what she'd said was true, then she was taking a grave risk meeting everyone in person. Was this meeting wise? And why was now the first time he was hearing about this?

"That's why I've brought you all here," she said. "The people in this room hold this empire together. If these terrorist agents invaded your minds, it could have catastrophic effects. Even putting them aside, the world at large now has access to the same glyphs previously exclusive to the Exemplar Committee. Anyone in the street could pull state secrets from your mind. That is why you'll all be getting one of these."

Helena held up an object the size and shape of a robin's egg, although flatter. It's black surface gleamed.

"This little stone contains a shield glyph," she said. "It's protected with the same technology used in exemplar plaques. Everyone in the military will be getting these, but the first batch goes to you. Until these terrorists are dealt with, you must keep it on yourselves constantly. Sleep with it. Shower with it. Never take it off, except for security screenings of course." She shrugged and smiled. "Even afterward, the world at large has mind-reading glyphs now. You'll want to keep this. Congratulations everyone on your promotions in clearance."

The crowd applauded. Many stood. Ministers chattered with one another. Helena looked over them all with a smile.

Maybe Lowden had the wrong idea about her. Plaque technology was something Victoria would only share if it were pried from her cold dead fingers, but Helena gave it willingly. If what she said was true, then this was absolutely the right move. Doing so showed trust in this crowd that Victoria never had. Perhaps Helena wasn't as foolish as he took her for.

Good thing too. Only weeks into her reign, the poor girl was facing challenges her mother had never dreamed of.

The queen motioned to everyone. "Come. The exemplars will outfit each of you upstairs. And there's an open bar."