"Mia, can you make some preliminary calculations as to the best landing trajectories within five kilometers of those escape pods, taking into account the residual heat the Bonvanenture will be emitting after we touch down? I want to avoid crash landing onto a building but still make certain that we don't cause nearby vegetation to ignite," Solae said with a sigh as she deposited herself into the chair for the pilot and turned herself towards the nearest console to have a closer look at the data that Rene had been reviewing. This would be a more difficult landing than when visiting Zatis, which had a large area available to facilitate such functions, but would still be easier than navigating through the eye of a hurricane. Surprisingly this might be the first instance in which she had to worry about forest and underbrush. Circumstances had allowed her to avoid the complication thus far, but nothing lasted forever.

"I will do a thorough analysis of each option, Duchess Solae," the AI purred in her characteristically overtly sensual tone. Machines were incapable of emotions, yet she seemed to emulate a degree of enthusiasm for orders from her mistress that was not replicated when she accepted similar instructions from Rene or Rosaria (Dasin and Yarue had not felt comfortable enough with her to test the waters so to speak).

"Why don't we just land right next to them?" Rosaria asked incredulously, stating what she felt was the obvious. With two strong male Syshin, a marine, herself, and an aristocrat she knew for a fact had learned how to handle a weapon in the last few weeks, she knew they were fully equipped if their runaway couple managed to pose any sort of threat.

"This is a diplomatic endeavor, not an invasion," Solae chastised her young counterpart gently, "and if they came here, to a planet that is all but abandoned, it would seem to me that they are hiding. Hearing our descent veritably on top of them, a foreign freighter that belonged once to unsavory sorts, will almost certainly invoke fear. The more peaceful approach is from a short distance away. They will see us first rather than what we travel in; plus announcing ourselves will leave a better first impression, don't you think? We need to plan prudently. If they bolt into hiding it will be all but impossible to find them and the problem will remain."

"It is also easier to determine if they are dangerous if we sneak up on them first," Rosaria shrewdly deduced after a prolonged pause.

"Yes, that too," the linguist reluctantly conceded before strapping herself into her chair. Already she was apprehensive about this venture. Nothing on the sensors immediately leapt out at her as a natural deterrent for re-settling this habitable planet. It was true that many worlds were lost to common knowledge during the passage of time, and an age had passed since the first deployment of terraforming technology, but it was improbable that no one had stumbled upon it in the interim. To have somewhere like Zatis seen as a desirable location, despite the setbacks and necessity of bio-domes in the interim, but the moon vacant, was absolutely baffling. One wayward ship ought to have capitalized on this rare opportunity before Bouradine. Merchants and traders ought to have set up shop and advertised the solar system as a rare chance to get close to enigmatic aliens without inciting offense. Artists at the least would have flocked here so that their works would be more accessible (and valuable) to Kalderi buyers.

Mysteries such as these bothered her. Just as she sought out the solution to the puzzle of who framed Rene with fervor, so too did she chase down what was conflicting or unknown, savoring the satisfaction of her conclusions and greater knowledge. It was the inherent jeopardy of flying them to the surface without that crucial information that made her so anxious. Ferocious beasts could be lurking in the undergrowth and keeping would-be visitors at bay. The weather, which seemed so serene now, could be highly unstable from idiosyncrasies of the evolution of the atmosphere. Humanity could have fled their grand buildings and regressed to more primitive beginnings. A few times she had heard of the Stellar Empire trying to cover up rumors of small outposts becoming isolated and horrifically mutated without the influence of a grounding civilization. What had seemed like outrageous paranoia was not so far-fetched the farther one traveled from the grandeur of Capella.

"And if the Kalderi female was kidnapped it would give the male human a chance to escape," Dasin pointed out more quietly. He didn't distrust the wisdom of their theory that this was something less malevolent, but he had a hard time having faith she hadn't been tricked. Understandably his experiences had left him skeptical of the dominant expansionist species of the known universe.

"We do have to be cautious," Solae agreed as she sighed in resignation. "I'll chose the best route, but the rest of you might as well change and determine what weapons we will carry. A certain dashing man I know," she explained, clearly referencing her own fiance, "would say that we ought to prepare for the worst but hope for the best. We shouldn't rely on our assumptions that they are here alone." Mia couldn't distinguish until they were closer any signs of life and, when she did, she may not differentiate beast from bipedal humanoid. A terraformed world did not sit vacant for centuries without evolution creating prey and predators alike. She grimaced inwardly at having to bear arms. The recollection of using it to save Rene was still burned into her memory in a way she could not quite articulate.

Rosaria all too eagerly turned, as did Yasin and Darue with a distinctive lack of enthusiasm, but Solae extended her hand to signal to Rene he should stay there with her. "I'll need my good luck charm here. After all, I can only assume that you are truly responsible for my success so far, so I must insist that you would sabotage me if you went with them," she winked.

Turning back to the console she saw that Mia had plotted four different possible landing spots, each accompanied by data that listed the difficulty on approach and the distance to the pods. The duchess smiled at how well her needs had been anticipated. The easiest was of course the farthest away. Since she had tested her ability in the an objectively harrowing landing once, and survived to tell the tale, she opted for the median. It was a short walk, a relatively patch of terrain, and would not be somewhere between so easy they could be utilized for training the Syshin on and being a serious challenge for her. The interior of the vessel remained still as she adjusted their angle of entry, the view facing their destination the only indicator of her intent.