Jenna had to meet with the doctor who was treating Rennett. His name was Arc Lawson and he was the sort of person Jenna never got along with. Which meant, he talked a lot without a lot of meaningful communication in his dialogue. His intent while talking seemed to be to keep Jenna in the room for as long as he could without telling her what she had come to discover.

They were in the Waterfall Palace, where Jenna was allowing Rennett to live, even though he hadn’t been crowned yet. She was trying to gauge whether or not it made sense to crown Rennett at all since his health was failing rapidly. How soon was he going to die?

Arc was not answering her questions quickly enough. 

Finally, she’d had enough. “He was the candidate provided by the AAMC. Is his health good enough for me to crown him or will he not be able to perform any of his duties ever?”

“Well, it all depends on how well he takes care of himself. If he eats well…” the doctor hedged. It seemed he was going to continue explaining how to take care of a patient with poor heart health, but Jenna cut him off, hoping for a more direct answer.

“What is your medical opinion? Will he be well enough soon?”

The doctor pushed his glasses into his face so that the frames touched his eyebrows. “I can’t really say what he’s capable of.”

“Let’s get Admiral Lou Denver on the line and you can give him your professional opinion,” Jenna volunteered, getting Ixy to make the call.

The Admiral was not delighted with the timing of Jenna’s transmission and stared at the screen in a lesser version of his uniform. “Miss Fairchild,” he said, unimpressed. “This better be important. I have other things to do rather than meet with you at your whim.”

“Yes, I understand that. This is Doctor Arc Lawson. He’s here to talk to you about the suitability of your candidate.” She moved aside to give the doctor room on the screen.

“Uh…” the doctor said, getting more flustered by the second. “It’s an honor to be talking to you in person.”

Jenna glared at him. He’d obviously already spoken to the Admiral and the Admiral had already told the doctor what he wanted him to say… which was nothing. He was supposed to stall for as long as he could.

Jenna listened to them exchange more of what she’d already heard from Arc. That Rennett may or may not be a proper candidate. It all depended on how his rehabilitation went over the next few weeks.  

Jenna scowled. Even though she had given in so much by allowing a crown to go to Iker (one of the terrible AAMC majors who had broken into her bedroom the night Sardius went dark), the Admiral was still going to do everything he could to stall the negotiations.

“Should I crown him or not?” she blurted in the middle of Arc’s weak explanations.

The Admiral took on a patronizing demeanor that suited his pink face and encouraged her to be patient. “Just wait a few weeks and we’ll see where he’s at then.”

“How many weeks?” she demanded.

“Three to six weeks,” the doctor replied.

She glared at both of them. “Thank you for your time and advice. I shall be sure to follow it to the letter,” she said to the Admiral before signing off.

Without saying anything further to the doctor, Jenna stormed out of the room. Footsteps assured her that he was following her.  

“When can I schedule his next checkup?” he called in a voice that was almost mocking as Jenna left the palace and stood on the deck.  

By then, the walk had helped Jenna regain some of her composure and blow off some of her adrenaline. To be more specific, she looked more calm on the outside but felt as frigid as Death himself on the inside. The doctor was still behind her and waiting for her reply.  

Jenna turned to him, put an innocent look on her face, and prepared to be a thousand times eviler than the poor doctor expected. “Dear, Doctor Lawson, your care for him during this troubled time is so appreciated.”

The doctor launched into another lengthy narrative explaining things he had already said before, but Jenna refrained from telling him he had already said some things three times and this was the fourth. Instead, she looked up at him with her defenseless woman’s eyes.  

Then she bit her lip and said gently. “You’re such a caring doctor. I want you to always have the ability to treat him. You live on the seaside, don’t you? Why don’t I move his palace so that it is docked outside your house?”

The doctor sputtered. That hadn’t been what his dialogue intended and he thought it would be convenient to come to the cluster of floating palaces whenever Rennett needed something. But he was the sort of man who didn’t realize that most women phrased commands as questions.

Jenna continued like she hadn’t heard him. “If he’s just outside your house, you’ll be able to keep a very vigilant eye on him at all times. Nothing will happen to your patient without your full knowledge. And all the responsibility for his care will rest squarely on your shoulders.” She patronized him further by looking at his shoulders like they were capable of far more than just managing Rennett’s care.

“B-but…” he stuttered.

“You were a doctor recommended by my colleague, Philip, but you obviously have the endorsement of the Admiral as well, don’t you? From that conversation, he has all the confidence in the world in you. I’m sure you’ll be able to take care of everything to everyone’s satisfaction.”

The man looked horrified as Jenna patched him through to Ixy who explained that there was no reason to call for a transport. The Waterfall Palace would move by itself to take him home. Arc’s face grew paler with every added detail.

He said everything except the words, ‘I was asked to be a spy for the Admiral and if I have the patient at my home, I can’t spy on you!’

If he had said that, he would have gotten a lot further with Jenna. Instead, he said everything else, like a child stacking sand on a marble hoping that if he stacked enough sand on top, everyone would see the sand heap and no one would know the marble under it all. His excuses sounded childish and Jenna had had enough of him.

Jenna stepped off the gangway of the Waterfall Palace and waved to him in a way that would have been pleasant and friendly if she hadn’t already proven herself to be the Devil. “Thank you for everything!”

“But, Madam Diplomat,’ he stuttered, trying to run after her, but now an ever-widening stretch of ocean was between them. He couldn’t chase her.

Dr. Arc Lawson definitely did not want General Rennett docked outside his home. He did not want to check up on him every hour of every day or have his health be his top priority.  

Jenna was happy to toss everything in Arc’s lying, stalling, cheap, sell-out hands. Jenna herself didn’t know if Rennett was well enough to be crowned. At first, she thought it didn’t matter. Sardius said she should crown him whether he was well or not and if he died, she could just crown whoever she wanted afterward. It turned out that his living was the problem.

She was going to have to renege on her deal with Fallcet. She promised him three seats to the AAMC, but the AAMC was no longer sending her candidates and she couldn’t crown Rennett the way things were, especially when Admiral Denver had told her to wait and be patient.  

She needed another candidate. To get eight, she needed to crown someone else rapidly, but crowning her next choice, Phane, posed all kinds of problems.

Looking around as she crossed a floating palace and came on board another, she reflected on how much had changed since she first came to Octavia Prime. She passed the Lotus Palace. That was where Scion lived. To Jenna’s surprise and relief, he had done everything they had agreed upon with flying colors. He redid his interviews with Celestina and brought his approval rating up, speaking up for the program and extolling the virtues of cooperation in the universe. He claimed he adored Jenna and did so so convincingly that she wasn’t sure if he was lying. He seemed legit, which worried her a little.

Rold, Scion’s father, had chosen a first wife for his son and she was being delivered in a few months. She was a daughter of an AAMC commander and the intention of the union was to strengthen his bond with the AAMC. 

Scion’s face briefly twisted as he spoke of it as part of his interviews.  

Jenna longed to ask him what that was about but refrained. That twist in his face meant something… something no one had any business asking about.  

Regardless of Jenna’s hesitation, it was a union to be publicly celebrated, and so Celestina had her hands full preparing for it. Scion had opened their filming to a whole new demographic of people who loved the AAMC and wanted to see what their next moves might be. That meant Celestina’s ratings were up.

The next palace Jenna passed was the Rainmaker Palace. She had given it to Iker. He had not arrived yet, but the palace had been docked next to Scion’s in preparation for his arrival. Jenna could see the temporary staff Sardius had hired hard at work cleaning it.

Across the gap created by the removal of the Waterfall Palace, Jenna could see the Salt Palace (she was saving it for Phane). She had brought it back after Lucy and Armen departed. It was right beside the Stone Palace, where Excelyn and Philip lived.  

Jenna stepped onto Celestina’s Sun Palace dock and moved to get to her own palace when she saw Sardius coming toward her.

“I don’t know how much longer I can live like this,” she confessed under her breath when he arrived. He looked so good with broad shoulders, his shirt hugging his torso, his stride thick with purpose. She licked her lips. He looked like chocolate on ice cream, with cherries and nuts and salted caramel and shaved gold.  

She was clearly going insane.

When he got closer, she said to him, “If you’re in charge of security, can’t you arrange for a place where you and I can be alone for a minute?”

He winked at her and matched her pace as they walked toward the Dahlia Palace. “I’d like that too, but I’d hate it if a fleet of angry aliens arrived to get revenge on me before you’ve reached quorum. That would be a shame.”

Did that mean he was planning on leaving when she got her eight diplomats? She didn’t dare ask him.

“Yes, it would be,” she agreed, letting her gaze downward.

He shook his head. “No. You need to look available. Can’t you see how many bonus boxes your availability is helping you open? You’re not selling these guys diplomacy, you’re selling them what you are. Hey, wanna be like me?” he said, doing a mock impression of her.

Jenna stuck her nose in the air. “I’m not like that, but aside from Fallcet being stupid, none of these other guys are keen on me.”

“It’s not that they’ve got the hots for you. It’s that they want to be like you. They want your shine and polish, and part of that is being in close enough proximity for you to sprinkle some of your glitter on them.”

“Well, Rennett isn’t going to get any of my polish. I just sent his ass…I mean… his palace away.”

“Where did you send it?” 

“Beside Dr. Arc Lawson’s house.”

Sardius stopped. “You’re not going to crown him, are you?”

“Probably not. It’s okay. I’ve got a few other options.”

“If Iker can get here in a reasonable time,” Sardius said.

Jenna agreed. “That reminds me. Where the hell is Iker? I thought he was supposed to be here already.”

“He’s supposed to be arriving the day after tomorrow. The AAMC swears up and down that his delay was not intentional, but just a sad collection of mismanagements.”

Jenna ruffled her hair. “They just make themselves sound incompetent with excuses like that. It’s particularly yucky because they’re trying to gum us up. I take it you got him on board an Octavian ship?”

Sardius nodded. “Eventually. They’re faster and less annoying. Temptic is monitoring it himself. Oh, and Jenna, there is one more tiny, crucial, thing,” Sardius said, holding her back. “Dr. Brazel Russell is waiting for you in the great hall of the Dahlia Palace.”

Jenna’s face brightened. She needed Philip’s mother, Brazel, to do the surgery on Phane so he could join them on Octavia Prime.  

“Is she?” Jenna asked cheerfully. “Did you talk to her? Was she delighted with the gift?”

“I didn’t see her. Vash invited her in, knowing that you wanted to see her whenever she showed up. I don’t know if it went well. Vash told me she came bearing a large box with Misha’s logo on it, so I’m thinking she didn’t like the dress as much as we would have hoped. He thought came to return it.”

Jenna blew a bit of her hair out of her face and charged into her palace. With a swish of her skirt and a bob of her head, she entered the great hall. With a hundred-watt smile, she greeted Philip’s mother.  

“Good day, Dr. Russell. I’m so pleased you could visit me today. How was your journey to the floating palaces?”

“I hope I won’t be leaving with one of them,” she commented dryly.  

Jenna dropped her smile 50 watts. “Did you see Dr. Lawson leaving via palace on your way in?” 

“Yes,” the older woman said without elaboration.

Jenna had been taught what to expect when she met her. Brazel was a master cosmetic surgeon and even though she was 60, she looked like she was 30 without any of the hangups of too much plastic surgery. Her mouth wasn’t stretched too wide, the corners of her eyes didn’t tilt upwards, and every part of her face was mobile and not a little bit frozen.

Otherwise, she was Philip’s mother. She had pitch-black wavy hair, olive skin, and flashing green eyes. The dress Misha had made for her would have made her look ravishing. What had been the problem? But Jenna didn’t ask, even though she saw the box sitting on a table by the door.

“Might I invite you to sit down?” Jenna crossed the room and led the way to a cluster of chairs and sofas.

Brezel didn’t move. Instead, she had eyes only for Sardius, looking him up and down and then up and down again.