Senjen avoided showing his relief too openly. Unlike the QV, he had that luxury. They had not been told previously what the goal of Major’s team was, but Senjen had been quietly worried about what it might be. He had hoped it would not be something too objectionable, and that fortunately seemed to be the case. A rescue mission in exchange for their help: that was something he could get behind. Hopefully this Lady Trevelyan was not infected, but even if she was, finding a cure was the whole point of their job on the planet. Their interests were pretty neatly aligned here, so hopefully that would help things go smoother.

“Well, if you already have an inkling of where she might be, then I suppose that decides where we’re going to land. I don’t think it terribly matters where on the planet we go, as long as Seraphim can study the disease.” Senjen said, though even as he was speaking, he was already thinking about other possibilities. “Though...I imagine the locals are hard at work studying the disease too. It might speed things up to see what kind of progress they’ve made., if that’s possible. Where is it that you would expect to find Lady Trevelyan?”

HOPE looked uneasy, like she couldn’t decide whether to say anything more. “We only want to help. Senjen is very good at finding people. Or things, really.” Light reassured her. She bobbed her head.

“Her last signal came from a compound outside one of their capital cities on the planet’s surface. Major thinks it’s a Myrmidon naval college, built to train new crews for their ships, but I’m less sure. I think it sounds like a den for spies and all manner of miscreants. She shouldn’t have been there at all!”

Light looked at Senjen. He didn’t like the sound of that at all. “There there, we’ll find her and bring her back.” He said to HOPE, trying to be comforting. She just looked downcast.

“Hmm, Myrmidon again.” Senjen said, his expression turning to something akin to a frown. “I guess there’s no getting away from the fact that Myrmidon is going to have a large presence on this planet. Still, I really hope to avoid any sort of confrontation with them. Not just because I’m still making payments on this thing, but because that’s not a wise enemy to make. If it ever becomes unavoidable, we should definitely do what we can to avoid being identified.”

Senjen took a moment to bring up the map of the planet for reference to try and find the place HOPE mentioned. He had what was publicly available, at least. “Let’s see...at least it’s outside the city. I’d rather not land anywhere populated. We need to make sure we have somewhere safe on the planet to work from. I don’t suppose you have any sort of subtle way to signal Lady Trevelyan, do you? Or will we need to begin the search ourselves to find her whereabouts?”

HOPE shared Senjen’s look of concern. “Let’s hope we do not have to fight anyone at all. This is first and foremost a mission of mercy…The two Chekeri with you – they’re scientists?”

“Yes. One of them is our friend. The other is a medical AI from FGC. Both need protecting.” Light said. HOPE nodded, stroked the outside of his suit. “We’ll keep them safe, I promise. As long as Major finds his master, everything will be fine.”

She looked to Senjen. “We’ve been signalling her via the Veppecantel relay, but there’s been no sign of her. They might have disabled it by now. Maybe once we get closer, we’ll be able to see something? Otherwise, we’ll have to land and look for clues.”