"It is not rising," Yarue stated flatly. The rain had finally abated but the wind sweeping the hillside was now chilling the Syshin to his bones, he didn't complain, but his discomfort was obvious. Syshin weren't cold blooded, despite their reptilian appearance but their evolutionary environment was warmer than many of those early humans had colonized. According to Mia the raft was now only a meter beneath the increasingly unstable hillside. Rene hadn't considered the fact that floating the trio of women the way he had would create what was effectively a huge sinkhole filled with quicksand. Bouradine and Yarue had partially solved the problem by hauling sheets of structural plastic from the Bonaventure to spread the weight of the rescue team as evenly as they could across the increasingly soupy soil. Why the pod wouldn't ascend any further Rene didn't know but a meter was close enough.

"Alright, help me unhook it," he told the Syshin as he closed the feed line by throwing the knife switch. Even through his gloves his hands ached with the effort of so much manual labor. Adrenaline and other stress hormones were beginning to wind down and he suspected that he wouldn't still be standing if it weren't for his genetic enhancements. 

"Mia, reverse the flow," Rene told the AI as the hose came away from the remaining section of guide pipe. The pipe had been dissasembled section by section as they drew the raft upwards and then cast aside to be swallowed up by the muddy soil. The telltale flicked from green to red, and the hose sucked and gurgled as it drew water and mud back along its length. Awkwardly Rene thrust the end against the soil and it began to slurp up mud like a child's straw. Dashin and Yarue began to shovel away mud with their own entrenching tools, though that was orders of magnitude less efficient.

"I see it!" Bouradine called as the bright yellow high visibility skin of the raft came into view. Another thirty seconds of work head cleared two square meters of the rounded top of the raft and Rosaria's excited shouts could be heard both over the comms and as a muffled report from inside.

"How are we going to get in?" the merchant demanded, trailing off as Rene pulled a powered cutting bar from his belt and sliced through the top of the raft in a long wide circle. The vacuum sealant that had protected the passengers inside the raft was tough, but it gave beneath the counter cutting diamond blades like wood beneath a jigsaw.

"Thank the stars!" Rosaria squeaked, blinking and rubbing with irriation at her eyes at grit which the cut had drifted down over the three passengers. Rene felt a surge of relief as he caught sight of Solae, her chest still rising and falling despite her obvious injuries. 

"Bel'sian are you ok?" Bouradine demanded, rushing forward and crumbling the wall of mud which protected the hole. Several gallons of filthy water sloshed down into the pod and the merchant lost his footing and slipped forward. He would have tumbled head first into the raft if Dashin hadn't grabbed him by the ankle and yanked him backward, saving Rene from having to shove the merchant back out of the way.

"I am safe beloved," Bel'sian called and then the alien leaped upwards and out of the raft. It was an extremely uncomfortable action for a human to watch, like a caterpillar hauling itself out of its cocoon with all four of her limbs and legs involved. She seemed to pause halfway out and then pivot, reaching down to take the unconcious Solae's arms as Rosaria sat her mistress up. Bel'sian lifted and then Rene and Yarue got a hold of the noblewoman and hauled her out, depositing her as carefully as they could upon the plastic. Rosaria was last to come out, all but sobbing with relief as Rene and Yarue hauled her up. By now a considerable volume of muck had sloshed into the raft and it was beginning to sink once more.

"Get clear," Rene instructed them all as Yarue and Dashin lifted Solae on a make shift litter.

"I think we have all had enough mud for one day."

___________

Within ten minutes they were back aboard the Bonaventure, Bel'sian and Rosaria swathed in blankets. Rene and Dashin carried Solae to the medical computer where the injured Savachev lay connected to the machine by several tubes. A red hologram showed the spacers injuries along with the word 'critical' in red text. In the confusion of the rescue operation Rene had forgotten about the spacer and hadn't considered the fact she was still connected to the computer. A military model would have a crisis module which would allow the computer to treat multiple patients at once but the Bonaventure could only handle a single patient.

"Patients condition is critical, disconnection not advisable," the computer reported as Rene keyed the disconnection sequence. He hesitated for the barest of moments. If Solae were awake she would certainly object to risking Savachev's life for her own sake. Rene punched the sequence and began the disconnect. Solae wasn't awake, and even if she had been, it was his duty, both to her and to the Stellar Empire, to safeguard her. Savachev had taken the same oath he had when she had enlisted in the Fleet. By any definition, Solae had to take priority. With a hiss of compressed air the spacer slid out of the computer, kept unconscious by the analgesic that had been pumped into her. The suppurations on the burns was gone, covered with a spray of synthetic skin. A sheen of sweat still coated her, showing that the infection still hadn't been purged, but Rene was going to have to hope that between what the computer had already done for her and whatever antibiotics they could administer, that she could be kept alive. With Yarue's help he lifted the spacer off the cot and onto a stretcher, and then carefully laid Solae on the cot. With a hum the computer drew her inside and began its work with a series of whirs and clicks. Rene slumped back, feeling all of his remaining energy leave him. Thank the Stars. Thank the Bloody Stars.