Rene followed Solae into the hallway swinging the hatch to within a handbreadth of closing. If the girl woke up he didn’t want her to feel like she was a prisoner behind a locked door. It was true that Damaris had been through alot but Solae had been through far worse and there was much worse waiting for her if they lingered here long enough to get caught. With each moment that passed the storm waned, the window they needed to exploit grew a little narrower.

“We can’t do anything till she wakes up,” Rene replied, neither agreeing or disagreeing with Solae’s statements.

“Well I mean we cant make any final decisions,” he corrected as Solae led him into the galley. Reaching across the table he turned on the hot water and filled two of the chipped ceramic cups. Reaching into the cupboard he withdraw two packets of synthetic coffee and tore them open pouring the dark crystals into the hot water. They foamed for a moment as the chemical reactions ran their course and then passed on of the mugs to Solae. The brew was bitter and tasted vauguley oily, it wouldn’t have been worthy of house servants back on Capella but it was considerably better than some Rene had drunk since joining the marines. Ration coffee was rumored double as thruster polishing grit. Though he knew it wasn’t true Rene could certainly see where the urban legend had begun. 

“And no, I think I can rig a propulsion system from gear we have here, basically a big pump that will act like a water jet,” he explained. Equipment meant to operate in vacuum was typical many times more powerful than that designed for terrestrial use. Without the coefficients of friction that governed atmospheric operation there was less concern about waste heat. The Bonaventure had a half dozen such pumps that were surplus to what it needed to operate. It was simple to say but it would be something of a production to strip one out. Perhaps Mia could suggest the easiest one to access, preferable one that wasn’t built into the hull. Pumps built into the hull… an idea flared to life in Rene’s mind, something so simple and obvious he was a little embarrassed it hadn’t occurred to him before. 

“Mia, can you pump water from the caldera into the air above the ship?” he asked. A light on one of the heating units lit up as the AI signaled it had heard, it wasnt nearly as effective as the complex system of lights at Armond’s manor had been but Mia seemed to be adapting to her new surroundings. 

“To what purpose Ser Rene?” she asked, her tone suggesting that she simply couldn’t wait to discover whatever juicy secret might lay beind mundane water pumping.

“If we pump water over the ship, its going to drop algae all over it,” he replied, it was obvious from Solae’s expression that she didn’t yet understand so he elaborated.

“If we coat the outside of the ship with algae its going to look exactly like the caldera from the air, even if they have jumpers there is virtually no way they will be able to pick us out!” He set down his coffee, excited to have a solution to a problem for once.

“I’ll rig it up then get to work on the boat,” he declared, feeling far more excited than a simple breakthrough should have accounted for. They could do this. He knew they could.