Rene felt a slight sting of guilt as Solae explained their situation to the child. To Dramaris it must have seemed a fairy tale simple and right. While Rene loved Solae he knew that being with him would bring social disgrace upon her. The nobility wouldn’t take kindly to her choosing to be with someone like him even if he survived the remainder of his term with the Marines and his sins were officially forgiven. Did he have the right to condemn her to the life of a pariah? This was not the time or place to discuss it and Solae had made it blindingly clear that he shouldn’t presume to make her decisions for her. Nodding he rose, turning to keep his injured side away from the child so as not to further distress her.

“I’m sure we can find something,” he said smiling encouragingly at the girl.

It turned out to be easier said than done. While they had made some progress organising the Bonaventure since they had taken her, there was plenty of stuff they simply hadn’t had time to go through. Most of it was trash that Rene would jettison the next time they had a chance but he did manage to find a locker in which some surplus clothing had been stuffed. Most of it appeared to have been taken from Syshin females that had been captured or sold to the previous owners and was too large for a child. Eventually Rene found a cleanish green jacket that would make an adequate fit for Damaris which he bundled up before returning to his quarters and changing into his own dry clothing. His uniform was as clean as it was likely to get and he pulled on his combat pants and boots along with the tan undershirt he had been wearing when the Rat Trap had been attacked. His field jacket was too obviously military so he pulled on a long sleeves spacers jacket over the top of it to give himself more of a civilian look. 

Returning to the galley he found Solae breaking up a ration bar for Damaris. The girl was chewing enthusiastically on one of the previous pieces, clearly starving. Rene felt his own stomach grumble, though beef flavored protein rations didn’t exactly excite a lot of enthusiasm it had been hours since he had eaten anything. 

“Sir Rene, the calculations for the pump unit are completed and it is now working within parameters,” a voice that it took Rene a moment to recognise as Mia’s reported. It was amazing how comfortable he had gotten with her breathy suggestive commentary. Solae and Damaris both looked up at him, the girl still seemed a little nervous but the food seemed to have eased some of her concerns. Rene felt a flush of embarrassment at having nearly struck the girl when she had jumped out at them. He extended his hand offering her the jacket. Damaris glanced at Solae who nodded encouragingly at her. The girl reached out and took the jacket with a thank you that was muffled by a mouthful of protein ration. She chewed several times and swallowed visibly.

“Are you a knight? Is that why she calls you sir?” the girl asked. Rene paused, a little taken aback by the question. 

“I… I suppose I am,” he said after a moment. Whatever his technical legal status he conducted himself as a member of the nobility and tried to live up to the oath he had sworn when he joined the Marines. He supposed that made him close enough to a knight for the purpose of reassuring a child. Further conversation was interrupted by a ping from his chronometer. Thirty minutes to low tide. He felt weary and rung out, hungry and sore from his exertions already but the sooner they moved the better it would be.

“That’s my que,” he said ruefully and gave the girl a smile and Solae’s shoulder a squeeze.

The pump unit was heavy and Rene was sweating profusely by the time he had dragged it out of the caldera and down to the beach. At Mia’s suggestion he had improvised some skids out a sheet of structural plastic which made shifting the thing a good deal easier than it might have been. Dragging a hundred kilos of machinery across wet sand still wasn’t a pleasant task. Fortunately the rain had slacked, the cyclonic system was moving away to the north and dragging the clouds with it. Though the winds were still strong enough to whip the waves to a white forth, it was the calmest Rene had seen it since they landed on Panopontus.

The barge lay on the sand where the tide had stranded it, still ancored both to the shore and the rock by cables. Fortunately the barge had a boom for loading cargo and enough pulleys that Rene was able to rig some of the spare cabling into a sling to lift the pump into place. Once it was settled on the deck he opened the small chest of tools he had bought for the job and began to screw the unit into the deck, connecting the output hose to one of the bilge lines. The work was surprisingly satisfying, as a noble Rene hadn’t been expected to do much physical labor and as a Marine he had been expected merely to follow directions. Working on something that required him both to use his hands and his mind was stimulating. 

By the time everything was connected the tide was already returning, the sea lappng closer and closer to the beached barge. Rene tossed the input line out into the water and then turned the pump unit on. The hydrogen fuel cell hummed to life, clicking several times as the catalytic reaction began. The power light blinked green and Rene switched the pump on, eliciting a deep thrum from the equipment. Taking a deep breath he bought the pump live by throwing the final activator switch. There was a brief cough as the pump primed the line and then a great woooooosh as it expelled the water and sand at high pressure, gouging a deep trough in the sand behind them. Rene turned the pump back to idle for a moment an the switched off. In theory the force of the pump should be enough to power the barge.

“Solae, we are good to go here, the tide will be high enough in about two hours,” he told her over the radio, swinging his legs out over the edge of the barge and dropping into the ankle deep water with a splash. So far, so good.