The holo displays surrounded Rene on three sides in a concave arc. He flicked through screens calling up data and running analysis with quick flicks of his fingertips. Infra red sensors monitored the position of his fingers and translated the motion into the most likely command, occasionally he had to use a voice prompt to correct the computer but the rented car had a very high end computing system and its learning algorithm rapidly adjusted to Rene’s quirks. Natives of high technology worlds like Capella were immersed in technology from the cradle and were often able to get far more from it than their more provincial counterparts could. 

Though he had never had anything like Marine OCS training, Rene had, as part of his education studied Imperial History. The records of the Imperial Guard, the men and women who defended the Crystal Palace and the Imperial Person, were filled with stories of coups and counter coups. Though the byzantine manuevurings that led to these were too peculiar to their own time to be interesting to a young Rene, he had learned a great deal from the accounts he had read, and while it was true he didn’t have any specific training in planning operations, it was impossible to participate in the months of training without getting some notion of how it should be done. It felt strange to sit and plan out an action. Since the attack on New Concordia it seemed that every action he and Solae had taken had been a reaction to some crisis or another. Becoming proactive was oddly uncomfortable.

The sensor Rene had trained on the public works building beeped and he blanked his screens instantly with a flick of his hand. Climbing out of the car he walked quickly across the access road and ducked into the building. Sure enough Solae was sitting up on the transport plate, shaking her head as though to clear it. Rene wondered at the fact that people as clearly paranoid and prepared as the Falia’s had been taken by surprise by Duke Tan’s sudden rebellion. It was certainly true that people who looked so many steps ahead sometimes fell victim to a simple, and apparently foolish play. Rene carefully helped his fiancee to her feet. She seemed a little disoriented, either from the drugs or whatever it was she had learned.

“Are you alright?” Rene asked in concern as he helped her across the street and into the car. Although he didn’t have a destination in mind yet he spun up the fan and lifted the car into the air, keying in one of the preloaded courses to the autopilot. The route was a standard one that would take them to the otherside of the dome, merely a placeholder to give them time to talk. According to the chronometer on the dashboard it was approaching local midday, though to Rene’s unpractised eye it looked little different. High above the dome the noxious gases of the half terraformed atmosphere swirled, and flashes of lightning began to light the distant horizon.