Rachel leaned around the corner, gun hand first, but the two men slid out of her view before she could fire. She checked the LED indicator on the side of the stolen pistol; there were six rounds left in the clip—less than half full. That was proof enough for her that these people had killed what remained of the UR crew. That, and the fact that two very angry men with assault weapons had them pinned down. "Dex, do you see any other way to get back to the airlocks from here?" The mechanic's eyes darted around at the corridors surrounding them as he muttered to himself about the dimensions of the ship. Finally, he pointed further down their path at a curving tunnel that faded in the half-lit distance. "That hallway turns back toward us, see?" Rachel nodded. "Means its followin' the curve of the ship. We stay with it long enough goin' t'other way, we'll reach the docking layer." Leo peeked around the edge of the wall, then snapped back with a burst of gunfire. "If we go that way, won't they be able to cut us off?" "Only if they know what we're doin'." Rachel glanced down the rounded corridor, then back toward their covered opponents. "We need a distraction." "Easy. Surrender." Rachel and Dex looked back at him horrified. Leo shrugged. "Yell out that I'm hit and we're ready to give up. Throw…I don't know, something about the size of your gun out into the corridor." "Then when they come over here, we circle around until they're a junction behind us again." Leo nodded curtly. Rachel shrugged in appreciation and turned to Dex, who grudgingly nodded. "Good plan." "Thank you. But we still need a gun." Dex's gaze flitted around the tight corridor, and he smiled. "Knife." Rachel handed him the thin weapon, and he carefully cut a section of the exposed atmosphere duct away. With a few more deft cuts, he bent down a handle and held it in place with a 'trigger guard' cut from the end of the pipe and looped through small holes in the handle and barrel. When he was finished, the ten inch segment of plastic insulating pipe looked remarkably like a handgun. Leo whistled under his breath. "It's hard plastic, too, so it should make the right sound when it hits the ground." Leo shook his head. "You think of everything, don't you?" Dex shrugged. "Don't you?" Rachel took the 'gun' and lifted her head just beyond the edge of the metal bulkhead. "Hold your fire! One of my men's hit. We're ready to give up!" "T'row out th' gun!" Rachel smiled as the mutilated scrap of plastic hit the floor grating with a suitable clatter. These cu lou were almost too predictable. One eye over the edge of the wall, Rachel patted Dex on the shoulder as soon as the smaller man stepped into the corridor. Rachel followed the mechanic and the doctor as quietly as possible down the corridor, then turned left back toward their pursuers' original position. About the time they reached the next junction, Rachel heard the pirates' confused swearing and tromping boots. Wordlessly, the group broke into a run. Saul eyed the smuggling compartment nervously. It was well-disguised, and they didn't have anything illegal on board except Badger's shipment, but it was still more than enough to put everyone on board in jail if the Alliance found it. Well, almost everyone. "What's going on?" Sir Anderson joined Daphne and Mona as they headed down toward the cargo bay floor. "Alliance's on their way. They're prob'ly boardin' the 40190 right now." Daphne took the stairs ahead of everyone else. "Which compartment do you want me to keep them away from?" Saul gestured, and Daphne nodded. As she pursed her lips nervously, Sir Anderson lightly touched her shoulder. "Miss Penn, I…you're a Companion, why are you helping these people commit a crime?" Daphne shrugged, as if she hadn't even considered it. "When I asked for passage on the Border, they didn't ask what I was running away from." "Well, they asked me." Daphne's eyebrows leaned in critically. "With all due respect, your lordship, they didn't ask until you almost got them killed. You've just got to trust each other to survive out here." Sir Anderson pulled his hand back and sighed as Daphne stepped forward and Mariah finally joined the rest of the passengers on the bay floor. From her quick conversation with Mona, it was clear that she was equally willing to lie about the cargo. Sir Anderson shook his head. He hadn't thought about it quite like that. Rachel saw the first of the airlocks hugging the gentle slope of the hull. She could nearly see Artemis' bay doors farther down, but a chorus of bullets sent her diving into a shallow alcove opposite the docking ports. She fired two shots toward their furious pursuers as Dex and Leo dove for the other side, and Rachel followed them into the well of one of the airlocks. Dex looked around for any possible egress when something caught his eye. The pressure lock on the port they were trapped in front of—the light should have been orange. It was purple. Someone was docked there. Before the mechanic could bring the fact to Rachel or Leo's attention, Hector and deVille rounded the airlock, guns raised. "Well, warn't that excitin'. Exercise like that always gets ma appetite whet, don't it, Sid?" deVille grinned. "Well, what you reckon we do now, Hector?" "Well, I think we ought show 'em how much we appurciated that little chu zhong trick they pulled back there." The shorter man grinned even wider. "I get t' appurciate 'er first." "Oh, yeah, that's smart. Threaten the woman with the gun." "We got more guns'n you do, girl. Maybe you ought show us a li'l respect, or we might just not turn you over t' Cap'n Jack after all." The two shifted their guns as Leo stepped forward. "Just keep talking, ben zhuo jun lei. You don't really think we came here alone, do you?" Leo was about to continue intimidating them, but he fell aside as the airlock doors behind them rushed open, and a surprised squadron of Alliance Federals hurriedly leveled their weapons at a significantly smaller but equally surprised group of pirates. As the Feds moved through the crowd, attaching handcuffs indiscriminately and stripping weapons, Dex leaned toward the doctor. "How'd you manage that?" "Manage what? I was just trying to buy us some more time." Rachel shrugged as the Feds led the three of them away from the pirates. "Well, whatever works." Rachel rubbed her wrists as the marshals led 'Cap'n Jack' and his crew off past Artemis' airlock, the standard litany of rights fading in and out as they passed. "…authority of the Union of Allied Planets, you are hereby bound by law. Your ship will be sold at auction and the proceeds contributed to the cost of your defense…" It was a recitation that, despite Daphne's shameless flirting with the men attempting to search the cargo bay, Rachel might be hearing again any minute. The officer in charge of this detachment had obviously served on the Rim for a while—once the men were finished with their inspection, he had them begin tapping on the bulkheads for hollow spots and, Daphne's increasingly indecent efforts aside, they were getting closer to the compartment by the stairs. Rachel cast a desperate glance back at the crew. Mona looked down at the floor, Dex shrugged helplessly, and Saul shook his head. As the marshals moved to the second panel from the compartment, Sir Anderson stepped forward out of the tight crowd. Rachel cursed internally as the nobleman fished out his ident card and began to speak. "Commander, I assume we are nearly done here. I do have business appointments to keep." The officer glanced down at the card reader and startled, bowing his head slightly. "Uh…apologies, your Lordship. Just standard procedure." "I hardly think that manhandling my crew and turning my ship upside down are standard procedure. Or am I to understand that you believe my people to be less than trustworthy?" The cowed officer cleared his throat and motioned for his men to return to the front of the ship. "Of course, Sir…I mean, of course not, Sir. You're of course free to…we need to file the men who perpetrated this act." Sir Anderson smiled tersely as the Feds stepped down Artemis' boarding ramp and a shaken Dex pushed the button to close the cargo doors. Rachel breathed a sigh of relief. "Mona, get us aloft before they change their minds." The captain walked up beside the elderly noble, still smiling. "Thought you were gettin' off." "Don't be ridiculous." Sir Anderson sniffed and straightened his jacket. "You, my dear Captain, need to learn to trust people." As Sir Anderson padded back toward the guest quarters, his nephew offered to escort Mariah back to her room, Dex shot the doctor a jealous glance, and Rachel grinned.