The ship reported that it would be three days before they arrived at the pirate haven. After her initial attempt to kill them had failed, Lolola was apparently happy enough to have them wandering the areas of the ship she had not shut off. This lack of fear worried Niko. Clearly the critic/pirate had no concern that they might be able to thwart her.

Each of them passed the time in their own fashion. Dabry spent his in consultation with the Thing, continuing to attempt to instruct it in the ways of cookery and then sharing the results of the attempt with the rest of the crew.

Milly spent her hours going over her equipment, cleaning and checking it. She was a late addition to the restaurant and had not served in the ranks of the Holy Hive Mind like the rest of them.

The previous pastry chef, Whenlove’s partner Whyzest, had vanished only a month before. Niko thought they had found some ship to take them elsewhere, fearing that the hand of the Holy Hive Mind might reach out and grab them again unexpectedly.

This was the fear they had all lived with, the same fear that came to Niko in nightmares. A wild, grasping fear that sometimes woke her thinking that she was actually back in that place, in a vinegar-and-piss-scented cell. That her mind had been laid out and was now living through an elaborate set of punishments, a virtual imprisonment before it was taken and consumed and she became not herself and was just a mote drowning in the sea of consciousness that was the Holy Hive Mind.

Because that was one of the cruelest things the Holy Hive Mind did: make its prisoners think they had found an escape, only to see it destroyed around them. It was a psychological trick, and a good one, one that destroyed a person’s sense of self and made them more susceptible to becoming what the Holy Hive Mind wanted them to become.

Gio, Thorn, and Talon played warball endlessly. Another person might have thought it frivolous, but Niko recognized it for what it was: training. And when they began to teach Atlanta as well, she said nothing. The young woman had clearly had some combat training already, enough to defend herself. But they could sharpen her, and they did.

Skidoo swam a great deal and spent the rest of her time cuddling with the others.

Lassite waited. His ghosts stayed in their pouch.

“Thorn and Talon say you’re the Imperial Heir. What’s that like?” Milly and Skidoo had discovered Atlanta in the dining room. They had all become fond of that original dining room, mainly for the massive bubble that looked out onto Q-space.