Monet felt someone bump her elbow. She moved it slightly and stayed

asleep. Then someone bumped her elbow more forcefully. She made a small

sound to tell them that she did not wish to be bothered. They

continued to shove her elbow and began whispering at her.

"What do you want?" she mumbled sleepily as she raised her head. She

found that all eyes were on her and she blushed as much as one with

her color of skin can. "Oops. Heh-heh, what was the question?" she

asked nervously. She could see Lee trying to suppress her giggles,

unsuccessfully. Deathbird coughed and Sean glared.

"I don't believe there *was* a question, lass, except ye talking in

yuir sleep about someone, I'm not gonnae mention any names but. . ."

he started to lecture.

"You started saying things along the lines of, 'Scott how nice it is

to see you! What a nice suit you're wearing! Of course I'd like to

dance with you' and then you continued from there," Lee said, gloating

a bit. *She may be field leader,* Monet thought, *But she could use

use some maturity!* She noticed Scott was such a deep shade of red,

she couldn't tell where his glasses left of and his face began!

"Could ye please at least *try* to stay awake, Ms. saint Croix?" Emma

said, a smile creeping at the corners of her mouth. Monet mumbled an

affirmative and covered her face with her hands. Scott was already in

that position.

"As I was saying," Lee said, finally stopping her giggling, "I think

the best thing would be to first find X and then attack Lilandra, but

that's only because I value the safety of my team above that of

solving interspacial battles." Emma shook her head.

"I don't think that would work. We've searched the whole ship already,

obviously he doesn't want to be found," Emma said solemnly. "When we

return from the attack, which shouldn't take long, we can take this

ship apart, level by level and find him." She saw Jean's face fall as

she said this and smiled to make it seem that she was as confident as

her words made her seem. "We'll find him, don't worry," she added. Lee

nodded.

"I think that the best plan of attack would be to attack her base

planet. . ."Deathbird began to say but Scott interrupted.

"If you already knew her base of operations, why haven't you attacked

before?" he demanded. Lee rolled her eyes.

"Excuse him, your majesty, he obviously wasn't listening," Lee said to

Oiseux before turning to Scott. "She already said that it was because

there is a growing support for her sister. Politics, ‘member?" Scott didn’t remember, but he nodded anyway.

"We attack where?" Emma asked. Oiseux pressed a button on the table in front of her and the same map that Lilandra had shown Charles popped up. Oiseux went through the same plan that Lilandra had told Charles she would. When she finished, Sean spoke up.

"I think that way is too direct, not to mention simple," he said. He pointed to a less-guarded area. "Why don’t we attack here?" Oiseux shrugged.

"Whatever you want," she agreed. "That would seem more prudent." They spoke together for many more hours until finally they had another plan worked out. They would enter through the proverbial "back door" and take Lilandra by surprise.