"By asking forgiveness rather than permission?" Val's expertise on that tactic would have been hard to overstate.

"I have technical questions, of course," she said, hauling herself onto the catwalk with only minor breathlessness. "I assume I shouldn't just pump the stuff straight out of the ground and into your internals." She jerked a thumb at several cylindrical tanks of unrefined energon she hadn't gotten around to thoroughly analyzing yet. It was more energon than was strictly necessary for the initial round of tests she had planned, but Val liked the pink glow.