Rene felt as wrung out as he had ever been, so much so that it took him a moment to realise that Solae was speaking to him. For most of the trip her stories had been a buzz in the background of his mind as he tried to keep the improvised engine going. The pump was an effective propulsion unit but Rene had failed to take into account the fact that it was meant to pump air in the cold vacuum of space rather than water at atmospheric pressure. While it certainly could handle the higher mass of the water, the cooling system wasn’t designed to deal with the varying cooling constants of atmospheric operation. Without Mia’s modifications the engine would have shut down due to overheating within an hour, even so it ran close to the limits of the system. It was possible to cool the unit by adding air to the mixture with a manual valve, but that ran the risk of a stall if it got too high and the pump sucked in enough air to lose its vacuum. If that happened Rene wasn’t sure he would be able to get it started again, at least not before they were swept hopelessly off course. The focus of balancing thrust with cooling had been exhausting and his hand cramped on the tillerbar as the words finally penetrated his concentration. 

“Yes ma’am, or maybe it should be aye, aye?” he joked for Damaris’ benefit and through the tillerbar over, slewing the nose of the barge slowly northwards. There was no illumination on the barge, save for the glow of LEDs on the pump but even with the clouds there was enough moonlight and reflected star light to see by. Despite poor light and the grey curtain of drizzling rain, the coast line was clearly in view now. Thin beaches of pale white sand clung to the stoney bones of the land mass, which periodically thrust forth in rocky promontories. The passage of the recent hurricane was etched on the shoreline in stark relief. Great wads of lavender vegetation were bunched around the snapped trunks of trees at the top of the shoreline. Rene assumed it was some sort of sea grass that had been driven inland by the storm surge, certainly there was plenty of other maritime detritus, both human and natural scattered about to confirm that theory. The land rose slowly enough that what further damage the winds had done was hidden from sight, but judging from the patchy look of the low distant hills, this wasn’t the only place trees had been shorn of their branches.

There was a sudden grinding crunch and the barge lurched suddenly. Rene felt the shock of the rudder snapping through the tillerbar as it slammed him against the gunnel with enough force to drive the wind from his lungs. Damaris or Solae, possibly both, screamed as they were tossed from their feet. The grinding sound continued for another heart beat and the barge listed badly to one side before its momentum carried it off whatever undersea obstruction they had hit. Detritus and slipped and slid across the tilting deck before the vessel righted itself.

“Stars bloody bu…” Rene cursed as he staggered to his feet and tried to turn them towards the shore. The tiller bar moved easily in his hand, but with the control surface sheared he might as well have saved himself the effort. Worse still the pump clucked and choked and then shut off, its bank of LEDs flashing from yellow to red as it finally overheated. There was a sudden quiet broken only by the hiss of rain on the water and the slap of waves against the hull, all the more profound for the lack of the familiar hum of the pump. Rene looked down into the barge relieved to see Solae and Damaris on their feet. Unfortunately he could also see that three or four inches of water had already accumulated in the bottom of the hull and that the level was rising steadily. The vacuum sealant must have cracked when they hit whatever reef or rock had been concealed beneath the waves and water was now entering rapidly. 

“Alright,” Rene called, forcing himself to remain calm as he abandoned the useless tillerbar, vaulting down into the hull to retrieve his bag and the satchel which contained the emergency raft. The water was almost two feet deep and there was a pronounced gurgle as the waves worked the two sections of the now unpowered barge further apart, he clambered back up onto the deck in two quick steps joining both the women. Solae looked pale but her beautiful face was set in an expression of resolve, repressing any fear she had for the sake of Damaris. The girl looked nervous but she wasn’t the mess Rene had feared. Perhaps she trusted that Solae wouldn't let anything bad befall her. There probably weren’t many nobles for whom that would be true, but in this particular case, Rene thought that her faith was well placed.  Solae already had her waterproof pouch with her so there was really nothing of value left on the barge. 

“What happened,” Damaris asked, though intellectually she must have known the answer. Rene knelt down and began to unzip the satchel of dull polymer canvas he had salvaged.

“I’m afraid our boat is a little worse for wear,” Rene said as he withdrew the bright yellow emergency raft from its casing. He pulled three red tabs in quick succession and there was a sudden rush of pressurized air as the ancient canisters began to discharge unfolding the raft as each section filled.

“Fortunately we have spare,” he said as the raft unfolded like a flower blooming in timelapse. It was a rectangular craft of high visibility yellow synthetic, perhaps four meters long by half that in length. The bottom of the satchel contained a small but powerful electric motor with a fold out propeller extension which Rene withdrew and clipped to the plastic attachment point at the rear of the raft. The barge was settling quickly now, the hold nearly completely awash with sea water.

“Climb aboard,” he directed, guestring to Damaris and Solae to the front of the raft to counterbalance the motor. 

“Aren’t you getting in,” Damaris asked nervously. Rene smiled in what he hope was a reassuring manner.

“In a minute,” he told her passing his equipment bag to Solae who slid a leg through the carry strap to pin it in place. The water rose to the level of the deck so that only the gunnels remained above the water. Rene waited for the last moment, resisting the urge to shove off until the water reached his boots. At the final instant he shoved the raft hard sending it off towards the shore before stepping onto the gunnel and leaping onto the back of the small inflatable, adding his momentum to the shove and carrying it away from the now completely submerged barge. He pressed the activation switch on the motor and, to his enormous relief it spun to life. Casting a final glance back he saw the barge slip completely beneath the waves in a frothing mass of bubbles. 

By now the current had carried them the length of the beach and nearly to the rocky promontory.  Rene turned hard and angled back towards the beach. He didn’t know how well the raft would handle rocks but he was in no mood to find out when Solae’s life might hang in the balance. As it turned out, the promontory proved to be a boon, shielding them from the worst of the wind and waves until, a few minutes later, they ground ashore on the beach. Rene’s relief was immediate and profound. He hadn’t been at all confident that the rafts capacitors would hold out more than a few minutes. Solae and Damaris must have been equally relieved because they both climbed over the side and splashed through the thigh deep water up onto the beach. Rene picked up his bag and pitched it underhanded up onto the sand before climbing out himself and dragging the raft several dozen feet up towards the purplish ruin at the top of the strand. Rene sat down heavily on a chunk of sun bleached coral and blew out his breath, wiping salty water out of his face and eyes. He was glad that the tremble in it, the byproduct of fear and adrenaline wasn’t visible in the dim light of evening. His ribs throbbed from where the tiller had struck him but he was really not too much the worse for wear.

“I’m afraid we have a bit of a walk head of us.”