Tychon blushed furiously at Mia’s tone and shook his head mutely. Rene supposed it was possible that one eventually got used to Mia, but he certainly hadn’t as yet. The Hydralics groaned as the ramp was extended and Rene stood and clasped the fisherman forearm to forearm.

“I hope we meet again,” he said honestly. Solae rose from the controls for a moment and murmured her farewell to Tychon and then Rene walked him to the landing ramp, the air outside was biting with ozone roiled from the thrusters but if it bothered Tychon he gave no sign of it. Rene paused for a moment, and raised his hand in farewell, and then touched the control that began raise the ramp. Tychon turned and shouted something, but it was lost over the sound of the Bonaventure.

A sudden beeping came from the cabin and Rene swiviled his head to see what was going on, before he could however Mia’s voice interrupted him.

“There are several aircraft lifting from the local air field,” the computer explained with the sensual relish of a debutant announcing that her parents wouldn’t be home for several hours. The sensors on the Bonaventure were not Fleet quality, but even the most rundwon tramp needed to be able to chart interstellar space and so they were more than enough to pick up a couple of jumpers lifting in response to an unexpected starship launch. Rene swore and turned to glance through the narrowing aperture but Tychon was already trotting away toward the treeline, plenty far enough that they could light the thrusters.

Ducking back through the companionway Rene clambered into his seat beside Solae and strapped himself in. The sensor board registered the contacts almost two miles away, almost precisely in the center of San Roayo. It was very unlikely that they were armed, and even less likely they would fire on the vessel without knowing to whom it belonged but there was no percentage in waiting around for what, at best, would be an awkward discussion. Solae waited till his buckle clicked and he nodded to her, letting her know Tychon was clear, before she lit all six thrusters and they rocketed skyward, drawing enough Gs to squeeze them both against their seats. The ship rocked and buffeted as it sped up through the atmosphere, leaving the slow moving aircraft far behind. There would be logs of the encounter of course, but at the very worse they would be identified as an interloping freighter, dozens or hundreds of which plied this area of space. 

The atmosphere peeled back like a veil and suddenly they were faced with the dark backdrop of space. Behind the Bonaventure streams of vapor trailed like a comet’s tail as the last of the water vapour and atmospheric material burned away. The sensor switched seamlessly from their atmospheric mode to their stellar configuration and Rene’s display a three dimensional view of space centered on Panopontus sprang to life. A trio of small bright dots trailed notations. One was BVT, the computer designation for the Bonaventure, the others were labeled COS and CAP. Rene touched each dot and expanded the names. The transponders identified the as the City of Saint Lawrence and the Cappadocia, both unremarkable freighters of unremarkable registry. There were no warships or suspicious vessels on the screen. Rene leaned back allowing himself to feel safe for the first moment since they had dropped out of jump space days before.

“Looks like we are clear,” he breathed swiveling his chair to smile at Solae, his face transfigured with relief.

“So what is our next move?” he asked before throwing his arms around Solae and kissing her in relieved delight.