Rene's words made her smile despite her sullen despondency. She had certainly been given compliments before; no lady of social standing went through life without hearing praise of their heritage, of their skills, of their beauty, of their intellect, or something similarly suiting. The courts were cutthroat but they were not filled with only ridicule and betrayal. Every noble knew inherently how to forge alliances with honeyed words that would put them in good favor. Her now-fiance was exceedingly sincere, however, as well as kind and earnest, and it was these attributes that made his flattery exponentially more charming than anyone else's she could recall. Unlike her parents he did not possess a familial obligation to appropriately adulate her and nor had he political agenda that would compel. He was simply a man who cared about her, who believed every word he uttered, and was distressed at her injured pride.

"It's not as easy as you make it sound," Solae remarked.

And it wasn't. The inflatable that he referenced had never been used before and could be defective. If the rest of the [i]Bonaventure[/i] was any indication she wouldn't shocked to discover it had been dragged out for an absurd purpose, damaged, or simply didn't work. Chances were that the previous owners of the vessel had forgotten it and it was immaculate but that was not their only issue. Getting across the straight, finding fuel and/or a person selling fuel, obtaining it without arousing suspicion, and then crossing the body of water back to the caldera was no small feat. Just trying to visualize the veritable man of her dreams putting himself into such a dangerous situation gave her heart palpitations that had nothing to do with their passionate romance. The marquise would have to send him off and try to trust that he would succeed and return. If he did not she would be mourning the life lost while stranded on a foreign world and awaiting her inevitable capture. She knew she would be a liability to Rene's minor quest but being separated, however brief, terrified her.

"We still can't do anything until the storm clears," she insisted. "It will be hard enough with the flooding but you're insane if you think you'll have my blessing going now. Landing during the storm is our reckless strategy for the week. In seven days we can begin negotiations about what horribly risky proposal you want to indulge," she teased as she leaned over and deposited an affectionate kiss on his cheek. Though she was jesting about the timetable she was quite committed to delaying his outing. The typhoon could have destroyed an armored spaceship; it would absolutely rip a tiny little emergency transport to shreds if it just didn't buck him off to drown. That didn't even factor in him trying to haul fuel through cataclysmic tides almost a hundred meters high.

"Are you hungry? We have a wonderful assortment of gourmet delicacies in the kitchen," she mused aloud as she rose from the bed. If Rene wanted to celebrate she imagined that picking up sundries off the floor of the captain's quarters was not what he envisioned. Solae tucked the holo plate under her arm so that she could assess the map more thoroughly after her adrenaline-induced hunger was satiated.

After a second she paused and turned, however, recalling something he had mentioned earlier. "You said you wanted me to see something? If it's not the exterior of the ship, what is it?