Soul wanders the ship, lost in thought. Finding himself on the bridge he spots Me hovering over the star charts by the nav console.

"Boros? Isn't that where Safe and Jack ran off to?"

Me nods. "I just can't seem to get ahold of them, and I heard gunshots when I tried to open a portal. So I figure we might need to come to their rescue."

Soul smirks. "Nothin' is ever new under the sun, huh? Always someone needing a rescue."

There’s a pause before Me states, “We’re going after them. Still, it will take a while to make it there. Hopefully, they can hang on.”

Me touches some control surfaces to feed his newly plotted course into the navigation computer.

Just then, a voice called over to him on the comm. “Me, it's Jade Hand. I'm in the hanger bay with something you might wanna see. Can you spare a few minutes?” Me touches another control. "Yes, Jade, I will be right there!" Me leaves the Bridge, walks around the upper balcony to the South Wing, and enters the Hanger Bay.

"Whoa! New shuttle!" he says before considering the implications.

"You know, I believe that we could make use of a brand new shuttle that has no known ties to the Sereni-Tree. How do you feel about taking part in a rescue mission? Looks like you are getting ready for a test flight."

Turning away, Me uses his com-link to send a signal to the pilot station on the Bridge to hold off on the new course to Boros for the time being. Then turning back to face the ship he is astounded to find Jade standing there alone.

"Oh, that's magnificent! It just turned invisible! Or did it disappear?"

“Hehehe. No she's still there. That's the S.E.P. field. You just don't notice the shuttle anymore, because it's Somebody Else's Problem.” Jade explains, whilst Me nods, impressed.

“And well, this is really a proxy shuttle, we can use it to grab the platinum, then trade the Platinum for the parts we need through Rat's connections to build the real thing. She'll be perfect for rescue missions with the S.E.P. and enough space for a strike force of about 10, well, less if you want the rescuees to fit in. Who's in trouble?”

“Who’s in trouble?” Me repeats. “Not certain but sounds like Safe, Jack and the Brides are caught up in a firefight on Boros. That’s all I know right now. Likely over already, but knowing them, more trouble is sure to follow.”

“Great isn’t she,” Seryn says, sidling up beside Me and Jade. “Can't wait to get her flying. Though if this rescue you are wanting is planet-side she wont do, not sure that she wouldn't break into flames or disintegrate or something the minute we hit atmo... But as soon as we finish our plan she'll be the best runner and a prime getaway vehicle. The S.E.P idea is genius. Turning to JadeHand, “do you think you could knock another of those up for the fighter?”

Me looks at Seryn when she mentions the fighter, she nods and point to its dark hulk at the back of the bay

“She's actually mostly still there, patches of her outer hull and a lot of her components have gone, but I figure I could patch her up with spare plating from other things, draw in her internals, and get her in a decent working order to go cause some constructive mayhem on Boros.”

“You did say Boros didn't you? I know that place, its a crap hole, but should be very easy to get in and out of, no-one questions what the Alliance do on that rock. So the Ocean Cloud with Military escort”, nodding at the fighter again, “should get to wherever they are unmolested.”

“I can't promise the same for the get out,” she says grimacing, “but the S.E.P. drive should ease that...”

Me nods. He tells both women about the Sereni-Tree’s excellent engineers, technicians, and mechanics on board that could help with the craft. Aside from himself, there was Rat, Needles and Jet who worked in main engineering. And Grey who, in Me’s estimation, was the best engineer they had on board. He’d even helped design and build all the starship components of the Sereni-Tree. These facts he rattled off whilst his mind was elsewhere.

Just then, Soul wanders up to the small group of them, having overheard much of the conversation. "Well," Soul begins, "I would like to offer my services, as well as my bow, to whatever bit of excitement is about to occur." Me pulls out his com-link and uses it to holographically display the 3-D star charts he had been studying earlier…

He had planned to take the ship to Garrison, but he could also do with stopping by the mining colony of Grendel’s Find. All of this would delay their trip to Boros.

"This situation on Boros,” Seryn said. “I don't know these guys, but they have very little time, certainly not time for us to complete our... mission. Possibly not even time enough for the Tree to reach them. We need to test this version of The Cloud, she will fly, I know that, but we need to know that she'll hold up in a fight.'

She punches the button on her comm.

'TRM? We need a portal, one big enough for the Cloud, close to your guys as you can get, do you think thats possible?'

“Well, no, Seryn. I can’t make dimensional portals much larger than the height of a person. And to be honest, I think I over-extended myself recently. I’m struggling to maintain any portals. I think I need rest. Or for space-time around me to flatten out again. I don’t really know.”

“I guess dropping a few individuals directly onto Boros is out of the question then?” Seryn suggests

TheRealMe reaches out his hand and concentrates mightily. A small dot of light appears, but soon fizzles out.

"I'm having trouble making portals of any size just now."

“It happens,” Jade chips in with a smirk.

“I’m afraid that the folks on Boros are on their own for the time being. Now, I COULD adjust the Sereni-Tree’s course to head directly to Boros, but I’m not sure we want to come in on the same vector that the General Grant used.”

Me could feel a headache coming on. It’ll still take time to reach them, no matter what course they chose, maybe he should try and get some sleep until then.

"Why don't you have your test flight, and then we'll decide what to do from there." Me sighed to himself as he wandered to his quarters

He wished Safe or one of the others would reply to his hails. Safe and Jack could handle themselves, but Boros was surrounded by Alliance, not to mention other unsavoury folk. They could be in real go se. Me thought about Schrodinger’s Cat at times like these. As far as they knew, their friends were both alive and dead.

He didn’t know how right he was.