Rene opened his mouth to object but closed it before speaking. It had not occurred to him until that moment just how different they were viewing their situation. Their shared class give them a bond but it didn’t mean they thought alike. Alot had happened and they had been to relieved by the escape from New Concordia, and too thrilled with each others company, to really take stock of the situation. Solae’s training was with the diplomatic corp in which one tiny slip up could mean the disastrous failure of a mission. Rene, as much as he prided himself with resisting the Marine Corps not so subtle indoctrination techniques had a different perspective. It appeared he had internalized more of the Corp never say die attitude than he had imagined. For a moment he flashed back to a tactics lesson in which one of the troopers had asked what they should do if faced with certain death. The instructor, Sergeant Gindi, had shrugged his shoulders and grinned before delivering the line: Well, you can always take one with you. It had become something of a tag-line after that. Rene also had to admit that he had been improvising and hadn’t had time to convey everything to Solae. He had expected her to obey him like a soldier would, which was ridiculous because she was stratospherically above him in any measure of rank. Fighting back a blush of embarrassment he climbed onto the bed and sat cross legged turning her to face him. The light immediately dimmed as Mia attempted to create an ambience, Rene squeezed his eyes shut for a moment in mock defeat.

“Back on New Concordia, we were reacting to the enemy,” he said, taking her hands in his.

“Infact I probably would have blundered around until we had gotten captured or killed if you hadn’t suggested Amber Horizion,” he went on truthfully. Without the Syshin there was almost no possibility they would have found a way off word.

“What I would have given for a slightly damaged, sligltly low on fuel,  starship back then,” he said with a rueful laugh.

“But we are off New Concordia, the Rebels have to react to us now. They don’t know where we are, the dont know what our plans are.” It sounded good, although Rene had to privately admit that he didn’t know exactly what their plans were either, that made it easy for them to be unpredictable. 

“I can get across the strait to San Roayo, the Bonaventure has an inflatable for emergencies,” he went on the idea firming in his mind as he verbalized it.

“I can probably get fuel and get back here.” It would be chaotic, there would be evacuations, aid workers, rescue efforts and he severely doubted any security personnel would still be at their posts in the face of the storm that still raged outside.  Reluctantly he let go of her hand and plucked a personal holo slate from where it had fallen. He linked it to the Bonaventure and bought up the schematic the sensors had created of San Roayo, a sophisticated composite of incoming sensor images, publically available files, and snatches of high orbit images from the ships previous visits. 

“What I can’t do is find their governmental communication facilities, or hack their database to get a list of PEA stations, or figure out which one of those stations is likely to be the best bet to approach.” Rene squeezed Solae’s hand firmly. He deliberately omitted any mention of the fact that such a communications center would be an excellent place to dig into the past. It wasn’t that he expected her to forget her investigation, but he hoped the current trouble would drive it from her mind at least for the time being.

“Or for that matter, land an unfamiliar ship in the middle of a typhoon in a LZ half the size of a Grav Ball field,” His features split into a proud smile as he passed the holo slate to her, eyes sparkling with renewed enthusiasm. 

“I don’t suppose you know anyone like that do you? Because I could sure use their help.”