The mud squelched underfoot as Tychon and Rene hauled the fueling pipes across the uncertain footing. The muddy surface of the caldea sucked and pulled at their boots. It was tough work, particularly because the hose kept sticking against the crack in the rock and one of them would have to hike back an unsnare it, but the hose was to heavy for one man to move alone so they couldn’t spare one of them to watch it.  Finally, sweating and half coated in mud and volcanic ash, Rene lifted the hose to the fueling nipple and clamped it shut.  With some difficulty he pried open the manual fuel controls and removed the safety pin from the emergency fuel dump control, a large lever of faded red plastic.

“Stand clear!” he called, even though Tychon was already well clear of the discharge ports, it paid to be careful afterall, and then threw the lever. Liquid helium three sprayed from the three discharge ports on the starboard side in a cloud of gaseous vapor, flash freezing  the water and cascading rainbow iridescence across the water. The sound was loud enough that Rene had to cover his ears with his hands, but it was short lived. The tanks were already low and the high pressure drove the fluid out in a few seconds, sublimating it to gas as it passed through the one way valves in into the atmosphere. A green led light up in the control box, indicating that the tanks had been evacuated.

“How are you doin out there in the gardens?” Solae’s voice rang in Rene’s ear. He grinned although couldn’t see the expression.

“All is well M’lady,” he replied with a warm feeling spreading through his chest.

“Can you light starboard 3? We need to run out the lines,” he asked. There was a moment's hesitation as Solae either found the control or relayed the instruction to Mia, and then the rearmost starboard thruster, the one furthest from Rene, roared to life. With its petals irised fully open the thrust was dispersed enough that it only rocked the vessel slightly. For a moment it poured fire down towards the ground and raised a hissing cloud of sizzling steam, then it stuttered and went out, all the fuel expended. Because starship reaction mass needed to be ionically pure they had to empty out both the tank and the lines before they refueled. WHile Helium 3 wouldn’t react with fluorine, a sudden drop in purity would cause the reaction to fluctuate unsteadily, not something you wanted to worry about when the word ‘fusion’ was in anyway involved. Rene was once again glad for all the shit jobs that had been heaped upon him during his training. If he had known that pulling extra duty on landing craft would save his life, he might have gone to it a bit more gladly.

“Alright Tychon, Start the pumps,” Rene called through cupped hands. The hoses thrashed for a moment as the powerful pumps on the boat came online and Rene felt them thrum beneath his hands as fluorine began to pulse through the lines beneath his hands. A minute later Tychon appeared from the gap in the caldera wall, a sack cloth bag thrown over his shoulder and a small wooden handed shovel in his hands. Rene sighed eloquently. Join the Marines they said, see the galaxy they said.


It took Rene and Tychon almost a half and hour to place one of the poppers under each landing skid. It was a dirty job, digging down through the ashy mud to set the small explosives before covering them back up and packing the dirt down on top of them so that the blast propagated properly. Rene was a little uncertain about the whole idea but Tychon was certain that it would work and the Marine could only defer to his greater experience. They made a sorry pair when they both clambered up the access way, covered in mud and soaked to their skins, but the job was done and Rene was eager to be away. The pumps had transferred over 80 percent of the fuel, and would complete the job within another ten minutes.

“Sir Rene,” an arch yet slightly disapproving voice, greeted him as he stepped through the open airlock. 

“You are hardly in a fit state to entertain your paramour!” 

Tychon blinked taken aback both by the disembodied voice and by its sensuous tone. AIs were common enough in the upper echelons of Imperial society, but it was unlikely that there were more than one or two on the entire planet of Panopontus.

“That is Mia, she is our…” Rene trailed off as he realised that he had no idea how to end the sentence.

“I am Lady Solae’s Major Doma,” Mia purred. Tychon blinked clearly having no more idea of who or what Mia was than he had a moment ago.

“Uh, I am Tychon, pleased to meet you,” he replied uncertainty.

“Welcome Sir,” Mia replied, “If you would proceed to the bath house…” 

Rene surrendered and ten minutes later he and Tychon, freshly showered stepped onto the bridge where Solae sat at a holographic terminal. The had dressed in the cast offs they had salvaged from the previous crew, which if not perfectly clean were at least comfortable. Rene smiled, well they didn’t have much time for shopping on this planet fall.

“I uh..,” Tychon began glancing around the bridge in wonder. It was a fair bet he had never been on a starship before. The Bonaventure was hardly the bright light of anyone's fleet, but the level of technology casually on display was certainly greater than anything Tychon had ever seen. 

“I just wanted to say thank you,” Tychon burst out, “for saving my daughter and all that you have done!”