"Years ago my parents arranged for me to take a couple classes in subterfuge and deception, just in case it was absolutely necessary. I think they envisioned it as just being part of courtly training, since hardly anyone is truthful, but my instructor had some insight I think we can use in our present situation. She said the most important thing when you are 'faking it' is acting like you belong. If you are looking around, second-guessing yourself, people will doubt you. If you stroll along an exude confidence, and as if you know your exact purpose and destination, they will be much more likely to believe it as well."

"Lady Solae, we are at the correct distance Zatis's exosphere to begin our descent," Mia reminded her mistress gently as if attempting to seduce her from the attention being paid to Rene.

"Thank you, Mia. I don't really have a plan," Solae stated sincerely, "except to go straight to the PEA once we touch down in the space yard. While you were asleep I was too busy dissecting the data gathered and attempting to solve a mystery, and right now my focus is on landing us safely. I might be piloting but I am not a pilot; because this is not committed to muscle memory it takes all of my concentration. Even if I had all the time and energy in the world I doubt it'd help me fashion a true plan on Zatis. I've no contacts here, no allies of which I am aware, no holdings, no assets- we're on our own. We'll have to improvise unless you devise another course of action."

The marquise strapped herself into her chair, securing the safety harness straps meant to keep her from ejecting through the cockpit in the even of disaster, and moved her hand across the screen of a console. In the wake of her fingers various displays flickered back to life from where they had been dormant. Zatis was a haven for criminals but not without bureaucracy. The space yard alluded to seconds before kept most moving in an orderly fashion to pre-assigned spaces determined by ship shape, size, and arrival time. Guests could access their vessels at their disposal, order maintenance, or even contract engineers and mechanics to make improvements during their stay. Efficiency was the bedfellow of profit and while Zatis might not respect law, it certainly respected economic incentives.

"Mia, I would like you to talk us both through the landing process. I will still be driving us, so to speak, but I want for Rene to learn this with me as well," Solae ordered casually.

"Lady Solae, you are an excellent pilot," Mia re-assured with her typical overly amorous flattery.

"Thank you, Mia, but this isn't up for discussion- from either of you," Solae insisted.

What she did not reveal to the artificial intelligence, if only because she didn't want to be derailed by a philosophical debate with a synthetic consciousness, was that she knew things could go horribly wrong at any given moment. Perhaps decades from now she and Rene would be sharing cocktails on an alien shoreline laughing about her dalliance into the realm of aeronautics. It was more probable, however, that her future would result in incapacitation, capture, and/or death, which would force her fiance to know how to helm the [i]Bonaventure[/i] as well as possible. If something tragic occurred to Solae she would be damned if she'd let her arrogance and pride result in Rene's downfall as well.

"How long from now until we have our feet on the ground, Mia?" the diplomat asked, both of out of interest and as a means of smoothing things over now that she had asserted her authority rather sternly.

"Less than an hour accounting for traffic in Zatis's atmosphere," Mia purred, referring to the transportation vehicles that was used to cross terrain on more advanced planets. There was a wide variety of such vehicles; public transport that carried many people and used minor gravitational manipulation, more archaic creations of the poor that could barely hover if at all, and the 'jets' of the aristocrats that were sleek, fast, and conveyed them from one point to another without requiring a full spacecraft crew (as well as the resources).