Daphne and Sir Anderson's arrival on the bridge made eight. The nobleman cast a cowed glance in Rachel's direction, but she ignored it. She had more important things to worry about right now. Daphne squinted toward the consoles from the back of the group. "What's going on?" Mona flipped a toggle to isolate the signal. "We're receivin' a distress call." Daphne blinked. "Receiving? You mean, as in the kind where we're not the ones in distress?" The Companion looked around Artemis' rickety cockpit, then nodded. "Well, that's refreshing." Rachel frowned in her general direction. "Mona, what exactly are we lookin' at?" Mona tapped a few controls and squinted at the panel. "Well, it…" Dex leaned closer. "Is it automated or live?" "Well, I haven't had…" Sir Anderson stepped forward, scanning the black horizon. "Where's it coming from?" "Hey!" The questions stopped as Mona shoved back from the console. "Best pilot on the Border, here. Let me work, xing bei ni men?" Now that the other seven people on the bridge had stopped talking, Mona nodded, and scooted the chair back toward the console. "All right, then." She began to work at the controls. "It's coming from…what looks like a salvage scow, about…twenty minutes from here. It's a live signal, and…" Mona blinked in surprise and looked up at the captain. "We're gettin' a video feed." Rachel nodded, her eyebrows creased in curiosity. "Put it on monitors." Mona depressed two buttons and the image of a tired-looking middle-aged man faded onto all the screens on the bridge. "I'll play it from the beginning." Mona tapped the control and the fuzzy image groaned to life. "Please…this is Captain Hyram Goode of Unified Reclamation Survey Ship 40190. We…we had an accident." The picture began to fade. "…still not sure what happened. My engineer's de…" The picture faded into gray snow again. "…stimate we have no more than two hours of air left. Qing fu chi wo men. Plea…" The picture faded, and then cut out entirely. The bridge was silent as Mona dropped the transmission from the screens. "We have to help those people." Mariah shrank back a little as they all looked at her. "Don't we?" Rachel sighed and looked at Mona. "When was this sent out?" "Time stamp says…" Mona looked up at Captain Wu. She looked horrified. "Near two hours ago." Dex's face twisted in empathy. "Think we can get there in time?" Rachel glanced nervously at Saul, who shrugged. "Could be a trap, Cap'n." Rachel nodded, then turned back to her pilot. "How many people on a ship like that?" Mona bit her lip. "That's a Jonson Vertical. Standard crew's thirty-five." Rachel let out a heavy breath. "All right, set a course. Get us there quick as you can." The residents of Artemis began to drain out of the bridge. Dex, Mariah, and Leo headed aft, Daphne went down the stairs toward the cargo bay, and Saul settled into the copilot's seat. Rachel headed down into the front corridor, but Sir Anderson's hand slowed her. "Might want to be movin' that hand 'fore I do." "I…I suppose I know what you think of me, but…Mr. Horton is right. I mean, I don't know everything about space travel, but this does seem like a rather convenient place for an ambush." Rachel jerked her shoulder out of the old man's grip. "Yeah, you're right. It might be a trap. But what if it ain't?" She started down the hallway, leaving the noble standing. "Ain't gonna have thirty-five bodies weighin' me down. Don't suppose someone never got his hands dirty'd understand a thing as that." Sir Anderson sighed. As much as it killed him to admit it, he did understand. "Gravity's normal, and atmo's low but breathable, but we ain't gettin' any responses on wideband. We got a hard seal." "All right, thank you, Mona." Rachel released the toggle on the radio receiver and pressed the button that caused the cargo doors to slide open. "Y'all ready?" Dex nodded, strapping the tool harness over his jumpsuit. "You bet." "Leo?" The doctor nodded, looking more confident than she had ever seen someone about to waltz onto a desiccated ship to possibly deal with the bloated, oxygen-deprived bodies of the men and women who had called it home. The two men stepped forward, and Saul pulled the captain to the side. "Still think I should be goin' with you, ma'am." Rachel shook her head lightly. "If anything goes wrong, I want you here to keep an eye on the women and children." Saul nodded, then his eyebrows wrinkled in confusion. "Which one's Sir Chen?" Rachel shrugged. "Hain't really made up my mind yet." Saul almost chuckled, then nodded and stepped back into the cargo bay, shutting the doors behind them. The ship's lights were out entirely in most places, with only a few flickering bulbs remaining. Dex and Rachel lit their flashlights, and motioned for the doctor to do the same. Waving the light around at the tight corridors, Leo examined the walls. There wasn't any damage, at least not that he could see. "How come there's atmosphere in here?" Dex shrugged absentmindedly, tapping at the frozen keys of a computer access panel. "Could be they managed to get it repaired 'fore they…well, you know. Just took too long to get back to a breathable level. Can happen on a big ship like this." Leo nodded appreciatively as Rachel moved ahead to examine the forks in front of them. "You really know a lot about machines." Dex shrugged. "I guess." "Where'd you study?" "Did a few years at Pett Trade." "Never heard of it." "Yeah, well, it's a pretty small school. Back on Beaumonde. Anyway, mostly I just picked it up on the farm." "Your parents were farmers." Dex grew suddenly very silent. "Somethin' like that." Leo eyed the mechanic, not entirely understanding his unease. He had assumed that the red-head had grown up on the Border or the Rim. It was certainly nothing to be ashamed of. "Hey, sorry, mate, just trying to make small talk." "No, it's fine. Just forget it." Leo nodded. "So…how well do you know Miss Boleyn? I mean, I've sort of been thinking about…" Dex narrowed his eyes at the doctor, then stepped forward to follow Rachel down the nearest corridor. Leo grimaced and fell into step a few paces after them. "Right." That was another thing to make note of. Captain Wu darted her light around the corridor, at the bare walls of a ship that was more a place of business than a home. "Power's out." "Whatever they got left's prob'ly keepin' life support and the distress beacon goin'." Rachel squeezed the radio on her shoulder. "Mona, how do we get to the bridge from here?" Mona glanced to the adjacent console at Mariah studying the schematics. The debutante pointed at a juncture headed from the airlock to the top of the craft. Mona nodded. "Straight on ahead, then turn back down towards th' center of the boat. 'S a set of stairs leadin' up into the command module." "All right, we'll check it out." Rachel dropped her hand and turned back to see…empty corridor. "Dex? Leo?" She turned back they way they had been going and moved her hand back up for the radio. She saw of flash of gray and felt a dull pain in her upper cheek before she careened to the floor.