“There’s a lot of ship,” she said. “And a lot of rules about where to walk and when to stand. I can’t give you a full tour now—you won’t be permitted to wander about, regardless—but after you get settled in your quarters, I’ll show you the mess and a few other places you’ll be allowed to go.”

“We aren’t prisoners, are we?” A challenge rose in Gerel’s voice.

“Of course not. You’re guests.” Nine glanced over her shoulder. “When you’re in someone else’s home, do you roam about and peek in all their closets?”

Gerel scowled. “I think you and I both do that.”

Nine let out a soft snort. “Well, that’s fair. But don’t do it here. I can only protect you so much. Try to behave.”

By and large, the corridors all looked the same—with that strange black metal and light sigils—but stairwells and intersections did have signs, which helped. Sort of. While the letters looked familiar, they were long and slanted in strange ways, as though we’d once shared an alphabet, but time and distance had squished ours, or stretched theirs, or maybe both. Spellings were different, too, but similar enough that we probably wouldn’t get completely lost. And, whether I wanted to or not, I was counting steps and turns and stairs, so I was confident that, if nothing else, I could get us back to the docking compartment.

“Unfortunately,” Nine was saying, “you’ll have to share quarters. Somewhere around a thousand people work aboard this ship, so everyone has to share, aside from the captain. Lower-ranked crew usually have ten to a cabin, but the higher-ups get two.” She motioned us faster down the corridor. “As honored guests, you’ll have two to a cabin, with one group of three, unless one of you wants to share with me. My usual bunkmate won’t be here.”

“It wasn’t Seven, was it?” I asked hesitantly.

“No.” She pressed her mouth into a line. “Not that it’s any of your business.”

That was fair; I was curious how close she and Seven had been, because everything she’d told us about being an imperial spy (not much) was so strange. But curiosity didn’t mean I deserved answers.

“So we’ll pick who we share with.” Ilina glanced meaningfully at me. How, even now, even here, was she still thinking about making sure Aaru and I had time alone? There was more of the trickster in her than she liked to admit.

“A thousand people on one ship,” Chenda breathed. “Not even our biggest, most advanced ships can hold so many.”

Gerel nudged her, as if to say stop giving the enemy information, as though Nine didn’t know all about our capabilities.

“The skimmer den could hold more,” Nine said. “If it weren’t for all the skimmers and the supplies needed to repair them when they break down. And maintaining a population this size requires a lot of food.”

“And water,” I said.

She nodded. “We have a system for extracting salt from seawater, so that, at least, isn’t as much of a concern.” She paused in front of a line of doors. “Here are your quarters. Drop off your things. I’ll wait out here.”