The walk was becoming familiar Rene thought as he trudged back through the knee deep water of the Caldera. Since the rain had stopped the level had dropped by a few inches. Volcanic the plug of volcanic rock was a fairly water tight substrate but there must be cracks and faults in the caldera that allowed for some drainage, else it would have been a lake rather than a puddle. Even if the rain held off it would be days before the caldrea was free of surface water much less dry. If they had sufficient fuel they could run the thrusters to bake the mud around the landing skids to clay, then shatter it with hammers or explosives. Rene wondered whether suitable charges might be found in San Roayo. Certainly they must use some kind of low yield explosive to break up the coral they harvested.

“Welcome back Sir Rene,” Mia announced in her perfectly normal voice. Rene repressed a shiver at the change, Mia to be speaking so … normally upset him at a subconscious level it seemed. He pressed the stud that sealed the door, killing the ambient whistle of the wind and replacing it with the low hums and buzzes of idling subsystems. Rene turned and headed down the companionway towards the junction that lead to the hold and the living quarters. As he approached the door to the hold slid shut with a smooth his. The soldier arched any eyebrow at this unexpected turn of events.

“Mistress Solae requests that you change and rest,” Mia said her tone a trifle censorious. Rene, who had been in the process of reaching for the manual unlock, paused, trying to force his tired mind to process this new turn of events. It hadn’t escaped his notice that Mia considered Solae to be the mistress of the house and Rene merely as her paramour. That was entirely proper of course but he needed to get into the hold to go over the gear.

“Mistress Solae is with mistress Damaris, who is unlikely to be reassured by the preparation of firearms and other such military accoutrement,” the AI continued still, sounding disapproving. AIs were not technically sentient of course but it was easy enough for humans, programmed as they were to ascribe intent to view them that way and Mia did seem to be extrapolating on Solae’s instructions.  Sighing with resignation Rene turned into the sleeping quarters and stepped briefly under the shower, sluicing away the salt and sand of his labours. By the time he stepped out the temperature of the room had risen significantly in an obvious attempt to make him drowsy. Shaking his head in resignation Rene fell onto the bed, still damp from where the water logged Damaris had lain, and fell instantly into unconsciousness. 

The Imperial Marines inflicted sleep deprivation on their recruits during training as a matter of course. Rene had historically handled it well, but people who thought they could function without sleep were kidding themselves. Eventually you went a little loopy of course, started to see things that weren’t there, make mistakes. Even wide-awakes the Imperial Militaries standard issue stimulants, could only keep a man going for so long. The payoff was that when you did sleep, it was invariably black and dreamless. Rene, frequently plagued by unpleasant dreams, found this a comfort. When the alarm sounded it seemed to come from very far away. Rene opened his eyes. He seemed for a moment to be peering through panes of glass that reflected the sound of the monotone into shimmering reflections. He had a sensation of movement as though rushing forward at great speed and then he was sitting up with a gasp. The monotone alarm persisted for a second or two until Mia was sure he wouldn’t fall back to sleep. Rene pulled on his combat pants, boots and a tan undershirt he typically wore for exercise. He reached for his pistol and then remembered Mia’s words about disturbing Damaris. For a moment his hand wavered in indecision before he grasped the holster pistol and stuffed it into one of the large thigh pockets. He ran his thumb over the seal and closed it with a soft snap.

“Mia, where are Solae and Damaris?” he asked, presupposing that they would be in the same location.

“They have returned to the galley Sir Rene,” Mia responded pleasantly. Returned from where Rene wondered, but it was unlikely to be important. The chronometer indicated they still had twenty minutes until the ideal time for departure, but that was time enough to get the supplies and the three of them to the barge. Rene grinned as he opened the door to the galley. THen all they had to do was cross twenty kilometers of storm tossed waters, infiltrated a hurricane wracked settlement, find or steal fuel and break into a government compound and hijack their communication equipment. Well, one thing at a time.