Rene bowed his head in aquiecene, picking up a slice of bread and biting into it obediently. It was coarser than what humans would consider normal but it was still warm and strangely tasty. In an effort to combat the chalky texture he tried dipping it in a redish sauce which turned out to be some sort of fruit chutney, spicy and pleasantly sweet. Unconsciously his mind shifted to the dangers that lay ahead. His focus was on Solae but there was a bigger picture to consider. His jaw masticated the tough bread stoically as he thought.

“It isn’t just for you,” he said at last, referring to the risks he and others had run for her.

“If the Empire isn’t warned about what's happening in this sector, there will be more attacks like this. You are the only one who can do that,” the words crystallized in his mind as he spoke them. Solae represented a double edged sword. If the enemy took her, they could use her and her bloodline to utilize the PEA system. That would lengthen the war, inevitable once the Empire learned of the rebellion, by months or years. It was even an outside possibility that the existence of an organized and successful rebellion here would spark others and light a fuse that would bring the Stellar Empire down, paving the way for a second Collapse which might mean the end of humans as an intergalactic species. As a child Rene had read the surviving archives of the Collapse, a cataclysmic war which had spread famine and disease across human space and led to the death of trillions. It was only chance that humanity hadn’t stumbled into the darkness of extinction the first time around. The other side of the blade was that if Solae were able to get in contact with the Stellar Empire, over the PEA or in person, she would trigger a swift and decisive counterstrike. Only someone of her rank and position bypass the ponderous byzantine bureaucracy and galvanize the Imperial Leadership into action. In a perfect world that was the function of the nobility, to provide the exception to the rules that allowed the Empire to stomach crisis.   

“When this is over, it will be your voice that speaks for New Concordia, maybe for the whole Eastern Cross. You can make it better for the Syshin, for everyone. The kind of attack that happened here will be happening everywhere the rebels are flying their banners. You can stop that. We can stop that.” Rene trailed off a little embarrassed to catch himself giving a speech. It occurred to him that escape through the Stars alone knew how many occupied jump points might not be the best move. The PEA on New Concordia had been destroyed in the attack on the embassy, but there were others. If he and Solae could reach one they could call for help and then hide out till reinforcements arrived. He swallowed the bread with an effort of will.

“You should eat, you need to keep your strength up,” he told her, taking a drink to wash the chalky taste from his throat. He plucked a mango from the platter and drew his knife. Rather than power the blade on he drew the steel over the peel in a long sinuous stroke. The greenish red peel curved away from the yellow heart of the fruit in a single long strip. As he finished the cut the peel curled up into the approximate shape of a rose, a little warped because of the not quite circular shape. Rene had learned to do it with an apple. It was the kind of gallantry which had been common at the Imperial court five years ago, though he doubted it was still current. Fashioned changed and he had been out of those circles for a long time. He passed the little rose to Solae with one hand and set the peeled mango down on her plate with the other, fingers tacky with the syrupy juice. Inspite of his training he grinned boyishly, pleased that he could call upon a skill which had lain dormant so long. 

“And for the record, I think you would have made a great marine. Certainly you would have been a considerable boost to the morale of a certain Private First Class Quentain.”