Solae could not help but tense slightly at the innocent question of where they were headed to next. Internally she knew it was not her fault, at least not not entirely, that they were escaping from the trials of one world only to thrust them into yet another complicated scenario on another. The marquise had certainly not been the mastermind behind the coup. More than once she had caught her mind wandering to the strategic weaknesses in Duke Tan's plot that she would not have missed. Regardless of where the blame could be placed she knew that her response to his query would dampen his spirits considerably.

"Mia, can you take us clear of Panopontus and to the jump point we charted earlier?" she asked politely with a diplomatic sidestep of Rene's inquiry. There was a knot forming in the pit of her stomach in anticipation of his distaste for their next stop and how quickly his joy would erode at their poor prospects. Ironically the devastated city of San Roayo had more wealth in the form of stability and hope than the duo that was clearing their orbit.

"Lady Solae, I can not make final preparations until Sir Rene has informed consent of our destination," Mia purred as if they were in the midst of discussing an illicit affair rather than interstellar travel. Solae was stricken with the sudden desire to retire to the captain's quarters with her lover and pretend the rest of the universe simply didn't exist. Had they any chance of actually staying indefinitely free and hidden she might have seized the opportunity. The rebellion forces had made mistakes but none so large that they would miss the small vessel adrift one jump from New Concordia.

"Yes, I understand," she sighed with resignation in her voice. "The closest planet with a functional PEA is Zatis."

"Sir Rene, I am obligated to inform you that Zatis has an extremely prevalent cultural criminal element," Mia told the soldier beau with such overt sensuality that Solae felt like an intruder on intimate pillow talk. The artificial intelligence hadn't particularly bothered her before, because they did not interact all that often, but she could only imagine the reaction of Lord Armon's less brief paramours. Not all of them would have been fans of a computer emulating the seductive tones traditionally reserved for romantic entanglements.

"Criminal element?" Rene repeated with obvious warranted concern.

"Yes, Sir Rene. The Stellar Empire has an arrangement with Zatis wherein they do not interfere with illegal activities, and let the planet informally govern itself, so long as the empire is notified of certain crimes against the Stellar Empire as a whole. Additionally, the Stellar Empire is allowed espionage agents to monitor the more egregious transactions that takes place."

"If they won't let the empress rule over them then Duke Tan should have a more difficult time as well," Solae interjected quickly. What went unsaid, however, was that there would be that many more people who were not loyal to any ideals and would want to claim the bounty (and more) on Rene and Solae. Mercenaries would be more common than heroes on Zatis- if any of the latter existed on the surface at all.

"It's a gamble but no one on Zatis will think anything of people in disguise. It's our best shot at getting a message to another outpost or embassy before we're found. It's not the optimal solution but we can't run forever. I promise that once we've sent our warning we can retreat to wherever you think is best. Stars, we can come back here to Panopontus if you believe Duke Tan would be fooled by returning to a place we already departed," she suggested.

"Sir Rene?" Mia asked breathlessly waiting for his judgment.