“No.” Niko was quick to shake her head. “Your medical secrets are still with you, unguessed, if you’ve got any. I believe in privacy and give it to all my workers. But it’s not hard to read, and there’s a logic to bioweapons.” Her dark eyes were thoughtful. “You may well discover that when we get to the IAPH. We need to remove those before we arrive.”

Atlanta shook her head, still feeling irritated. “They’re supposed to be undetectable,” she said. “The Empress protects us with the highest-grade tech possible.”

Niko looked dubious. “I hope you don’t regret it.”

Why was she there except to learn to make decisions, if this was indeed a test? Maybe some of this was even staged for her behalf. Atlanta squared her jaw and tried her best to look in command. “Removing them won’t be necessary.”

“Mmm,” Niko said, and left the room.

15

The days continued. Before her life as it was now, Atlanta had awakened every morning and consulted with her advisors before the official beginning of each day, which was the sweet chime that swept the palace and its outbuildings each sunrise, its echo sounding again in the evening as the sun slipped below the horizon.

Most of these sessions were devoted to either court gossip and maintaining her status in the face of a court with an elaborate etiquette and favor system. She had never been good at it; she forgot sometimes to do the thing prescribed for her by social mores, usually procrastinating on it to the point where she was embarrassingly well known for skipping thank-you presents after particularly significant interactions. She had never been good at building ties in the way one was supposed to, a web of flattery and favors. That was something she liked about the crew around her. They did not seem to be reckoning some system of points, of checks and balances, but simply accepted that there were ways sentient beings were expected to behave, for the good of the universe overall. Lassite had tried to explain his Golden Path to her, but as far as she could gather, its end was cloaked in mysticism: things worked out as they were supposed to because they were supposed to.

Still, it was more interesting than seeing who was acquiring public and private favor effectively.