1 An Unexpected Choice

"I need everyone at the meeting table NOW!" Micha barked, making Venera jump. He had burst into the lab in a flurry of ashy blonde hair, wearing the most wrinkled suit in the country.

Despite the fact he couldn't call an official meeting, everyone obliged. News from Micha was always valuable, so the rest of the 10 wasted no time getting to the head table.

The lab was overly crowded these days. For most of the 10 there wasn't any work outside at the moment. Some were sprawled on bean bags in the middle of the room, while Sabrina lay on the black stone floor, laughing at the boys training in the fitness corner.

"The prince has finally decided to marry." he paused for a second to let the information sink in. "They will be announcing the 11 selected girls in a few hours on Channel 3. We need to decide if we can use this to our advantage somehow. I sadly couldn't get any information on the girls or their transportation to the palace."

After Micha was done laying out potential ideas he had everyone look up to Dan for the final judgement. He didn't notice their stares for a moment, his eyes were locked in a silent conversation with Venera. He finally peeled them off her and addressed all of them.

"We aren't doing anything. It is too risky to put a 3 week deadline on a plan. Even if we sent a chip into the palace."

When he mentioned the chips, Venera's brother, Luca, who was sitting next to Micha, immediately reached for his ankle. He isn't used to his chip replica yet. He is still too scared he will get caught with it. The 10 were able to finally take his chip out just weeks prior. Most of them had theirs either deactivated or spoofed for years now, but Luca was the first to have his chip fully removed.

"Even if we find a way into the palace, having a 3 week deadline for whatever we think up, it will be a big gamble. We proceed like this isn't happening. We have gotten too far to risk it all on this," he concluded.

Dan's words were final and everyone stood up to get back to their stations. The twins, Netta and Nat went after Micha to inquire him further.

Venera headed to Dan, who was the only one still sitting at the table, lost in thought. She leaned on his chair, he snapped out of it. He whipped his head and locks of dirt brown hair whipped Venera's face.

Dan stood and hooked his hand in Venera's elbow, tugging her away from the table and towards his workstation.

"Are we going to your place for the show, or do you want to stay here and watch it with the rest?" he asked Venera.

"I want to watch it at home," she said. Dan nodded and they both turned away, rushing to clean up their stations.

It was very important to keep them as clean as possible. Venera's station was always the most well kept. Organizing her experiments was key when it came to her chemicals and medicines. Every bottle, jar, and ampoule were neatly labeled and arranged into a box of similar purpose substances. Then the boxes went on lines of shelves over her desk. She closed her laptop and put back the box she had been working on before the announcement.

Venera had to screw the lids on all the other ingredient containers and put most of them in her refrigerator. She wiped down her black desk and took the trash bag with her on the way out. Dan was waiting for her at the door and they both dove into the metal tube that got them to the balcony of the abandoned first-floor apartment below the lab, from which they jumped down into the alleyway. Venera threw her trash into the container on the side of the building and the two of them made their way through to the street.

It was an early afternoon. The weak wind caressed their arms and the sun lazily illuminated their skin. The streets were mostly empty, a few families with younger kids wandered about, enjoying the late spring weather. Dan pulled Venera to the stand of a churro vendor on the main street and they got some to bring back to Venera's apartment.

Once they stepped into the apartment, Dan immediately jumped on the couch and nearly knocked over one of Venera's plants.

"Watch it!" hissed Venera as she made her way across the room and threw him the TV remote.

"It's brown anyway, what will some dirt change?" he snickered as he was setting up the TV. Venera ignored him, went over to pop some popcorn, and got the churros onto plates for them.

The announcement was starting just as the microwave beeped. Venera rushed over with the popcorn to see the show hosts Molly Millions and Derek Debermann starting their segment on the prince and his approaching marriage.

"This is breaking news for the country. The prince has held off on marriage for longer than we expected. It is customary to start as soon as the prince turns 18, but prince Felix had held off for nearly a year. His 19th birthday is coming up in 2 months," the hosts were filling in the public on the dealing of the palace. Most common people didn't care about the monarchy at all.

Molly and Derek were both wearing inflatable crowns and a slideshow of pictures of the prince was playing on the screen as well. Molly's crown kept slipping off due to her pink wig and Derek kept teasing her about not being princess material.

The hosts moved on to shooting facts at the audience about the prince and his likes and dislikes. They mentioned his favorite color is blue and Dan smirked.

"I told you, I didn't lie to you when you dyed your hair blue," he laughed and wrapped a strand of Venera's hair on his finger.

Venera smiled but pulled her hair back. This kind of banter is why the two were such good friends. It allowed them to be honest with each other, but also make each other do crazy things. Like convincing each other to dye their hair different colors for the stupidest reasons. Dan's hair is now brown because of Venera convincing him that being blonde makes him stand out too much. And he convinced Venera she needed to dye hers blue, because it is the prince's favorite color.

"Here we have a picture of Prince Felix, he recently had laser eye surgery to get rid of his glasses, certainly in anticipation for his princess," noted Molly showing before and after pictures of the prince.

"Now his striking green eyes can certainly pop, am I right Molly?" Derek threw back.

"They do indeed suit his auburn hair. He is certainly handsome." Molly noted.

"Did they really just say that or was I imagining it? Why is this so cringy!" Venera exclaimed and both of them started belly laughing.

After talking about the prince, they started talking about what qualities a princess should possess. Dan took Venera's notebook from the coffee table in front of them and started writing them down. There was a poll in the magazine last week about it and the hosts were trying to guess what the audience had voted.

"A princess should be educated!" Molly called out.

"A princess should be, um, beautiful!" called out Derek.

A princess should be...

Humble

Polite

Caring

Respectful

Independent

"Hey, V, you tick all but one, you know?" noted Dan.

"Oh, yeah? Which one do I not tick?" Venera asked sheepishly.

Dan's face split into a grin. "Girl, you haven't been humble a day in your life!" Venera snorted, helpless to stop the contagious laughter that caught them up once more.

"Shush, they are starting the announcement, I want to test my hypothesis." Venera cut off.

Venera's hypothesis was simple: she wanted to know if the girls were a random sample and if the prince had a type and what was similar between all of them.

They started drawing names out of the big glass ball on the stage and reading the names of the girls, followed by a slideshow split screen with pictures of the girl that was drawn and one of the hosts reading out information about her.

The first 5 girls were all blonde and daughters of remarkable people. Venera was smelling a correct theory, then it all crashed down with girl number 6, black hair, short, and a daughter of one of the king's advisors.

Venera was still pondering on the previous girl when blue hair flashed on the TV.

"Venera Vorobyova, 18."

Pictures of Venera with different hair colors were being shown on national tv. Dan's jaw dropped. He swiveled his head, looking from Venera in the room and the Venera on the TV.

"She graduated from ASBSOS last year with honors and majored in international relations and history. She is currently a translator here in the capital. She has translated numerous books in the last year and recently translated our favorite new guilty pleasure Russian tv series, Kitchen. Her hobbies include gardening and learning languages," Molly Millions announced.

Time froze for Venera. The look in her eyes was getting more and more concerned.

She then looked at Dan and the same confusion was all over his face.

Luca burst through the door and was about to say something when he saw that the two were also watching the broadcast.

"Venera, they'll be here to pick you up. We don't know when, but you have to get ready to be taken to the palace. Make sure your chip is in order and take anything you might need. We need to think about how we can use this to our advantage. I'll suspend all other plans." Dan said, shaking off the shock.

Venera was going to the palace, she was going to be so close to the person who scares her the most in this world, the King. She was still rationalizing everything when Dan instructed Luca to get to the lab asap and take everything from Venera's station and all her belongings from there.

"I need a moment to get over this and think straight." she finally spoke.

The prince had chosen her to go to the palace. This meant so many things, but most importantly it would give the 10 even more inside information into the palace. Venera struggled to remember everything the twins had taught her about thinking on her feet and talking to the enemy. How should she speak to the prince?

"You will need to make the prince fall in love with you, Venera," Dan declared. "You will need to stay there as long as possible. If you can convince him to become the princess, getting rid of the king and the chips would be easier than we ever imagined," he said hopefully.

Venera nodded, taking deep breaths to prevent her anxiety from overtaking her.

"I know you also aren't emotionless; you have some feelings for the prince," he spit out. "I'll make sure Micha comes over as much as he can, to keep communication open.. If you can get the prince to trust you and turn on his father - even better."

Micha was the prince's cousin and the two were close as children, and remained good friends. Micha had convinced the 10, the prince wasn't evil like his father. Venera didn't fear him, just the King.

"Dan, I'm not like the twins, I'm no good at spying and extortions. I'm no good at seducing men," she reminded him.

"You'll know what to do when put on the spot," he assured Venera. She shook her head ignoring his answer. She began shoving things into her leather backpack, attempting to ignore the trembling in her fingers.

Luca came back with her things in record time.

"Everyone at the lab was watching it too. Micha had no idea the prince had chosen Venera, but he has a clue on why she was a choice in general. He snuck profiles of all of our girls into the palace when he first heard the prince was thinking about getting married." Luca explained.

Venera hurried to gather all the boxes she wanted to take with herself to the palace, she retreated into her bedroom to organize everything in her backpack.

When Venera left the bedroom, two guards were standing just inside the door. "We are here to take Venera Vorobyova to the palace. You have been summoned to fulfill your duty as a daughter of Anglonia and answer the invitation of the prince."

Venera stared at them blankly. It finally hit her that this wasn't a cruel joke and begged them for some more time to pack her bags.

The guards gave her 10 more minutes and she slammed the door in their faces.

Venera was completely pale and bile burned her throat. Luca had fallen into panic as well, his hands shaking and checking if his chip replica was attached properly. Dan was just silent on the sofa, head in his hands, elbows on his knees.

"Snap out of it boys, I need to borrow your heads for processing power," Venera ordered and motioned Luca to the sofa as well. "Tell me everything I should know before going to the palace. I have 0 experience in the field," she said sitting on the glass coffee table facing the boys.

Dan and Luca began stumbling over each other in their haste to give her tips about imagined scenarios.

A booming knock echoed around the room, making them all jump. "Time to go!" The guard yelled through the thin wood.

Take care of Luca," Venera said to Dan. instructed Dan to take care of Luca, while she was gone and for the 10 to be careful with fieldwork while she was gone, as she wouldn't be there to patch them up. She left her scientific journal to her brother and told him to use it to treat the 10 while she was gone by following the instructions in the journal.

She finally opened the door and was met by the guards.

Venera felt even smaller than usual, standing between the two castle guards, both towering 3 heads above her. They got her outside and into the back seat of a black jeep, placing Venera in the middle seat and a guard at each door.

"You can do whatever," the tall black-haired guard said, "We have around 40 minutes until we approach the palace. Don't mind us, you might want to change or do whatever. The prince will meet you on arrival," he informed Venera, who hadn't even gotten to thinking about her appearance. She was wearing dark blue jeans and a checkered mustard-and-black flannel shirt. Good enough, she thought.

"Can I listen to music on my headphones?" Venera asked innocently.

The guard just nodded.

Venera took out her phone and headphones from her backpack. The music helped calm down her thoughts and build a plan of action.

After a while, she took them off and asked the guards if they had any idea why the prince chose her.

"It's probably the hair," they laughed and Venera's ears burned with embarrassment.