A small fleet of 10 lifeboats had taken off from the now empty shell of the Anna Karenina. Floating together in a tight cluster, they would set off in the direction of Mars, enough supplies to last several weeks of the slow crawl back to more traveled space. Once their beacons were in range of friendly ships, they’d be picked up and probably shipped back moon-side after an all-too-brief investigation and then reassigned to a new ship.

But why had they taken off? What had gone wrong and what had triggered the CQC lights? Even while unconscious, a small part of Sirius was questioning the events of the day. It made him anxious, but he didn’t realize it until he had woken up, his arms crossed tightly in a knot across his chest. Someone had nudged him. He relaxed, but only for a moment.

“I think we’re about to be found out”, the captain muttered in his direction.

Sirius looked around carefully through half closed eyes, pretending that he was still asleep in his chair. They were on the first of two decks on their lifeboat, this deck comprising of “living space”. It was a sparse, open room with bunks, some lockers, and flight chairs bolted to the walls, and a few metal tables and chairs bolted to the floor. On the other side, he could see a small group of crew, talking in hushed whispers, occasionally throwing back glances at the two of them.

Sirius let his arms relax, slowly bringing them down and patted the flight chair, looking for something helpful. He found one of the support struts had rusted where it met the floor, all he needed to do was loosen the top bolt where it met the chair and it would come free. Still trying to look asleep, he started to loosen the bolt. Its edges were sharp, it wasn’t meant to be loosened by fragile human hands, and it cut into his finger pads with each twist.

Suddenly, the whispers stopped, something was decided, and a huge man Sirius had met once or twice between shifts led the small group in their direction. Sirius closed his eyes for real, trying to look convincingly asleep. He suddenly forgot how to relax, the muscles in his legs tensing, but he kept still. His heartbeat sounded too loud. Could they hear it?

“You know, they say that good captains always go down with their ship, so it’s pretty obvious which kind of captain you are”, a voice that Sirius was sure came from the big man said.

“I don’t know what you mean by that, I’m just a mechanic”, the captain told him.

“No, you aren’t, I’m the one in charge of the mechanics, I’d know if you were one of us”, Big Man laughed, “still – that’s a pretty clever disappearing act you pulled, one that requires some insider knowledge. So, you either are an expert in ship design, or I’m thinking maybe you got some extra help. They’re saying this tech went missing shortly before the alarm was sounded, then he’s seen bringing you aboard one of these boats. Did he work with you?”

Sirius couldn’t see but he was sure they were referring to him. He quickened his pace, unscrewing the bolt thread by thread.

“What?! This guy? No. I’ve never seen him until today. After I covered myself in blood from one of the emergency kits, I just waited for the first idiot to stumble by. Put on a whole performance, I did, and he fell for it. Poor altruistic bastard”, the captain said.

That was surprising, Sirius reflected, he had been sure that the captain would sell him out. I wonder why.

The bolt came loose and as he fumbled for it his hand knocked it into the wall where it bounced into view with a clatter.

Shit.

“Seems the poor altruistic bastard is only pretending to be asleep, why don’t we ask him his side of the story”, Sirius was shaken roughly, he opened his eyes to see Big Man’s face close to his.

“What? What’s going on?”, he asked as innocently as he could manage before he was pulled roughly from the seat and placed just far enough from any handholds that he was now stuck floating.

Big Man was smart.

“Let’s have a look at what you were working on, huh?” Their new friend asked with amusement. Big Man didn’t take long to find the now mostly loose piece of metal. He pulled it free and looked at it.

“Pretty clever, but it wouldn’t have been much help. Six of us versus the one of you, and a very out of shape old man. Not good odds”, he passed it off to one of his followers who looked quite eager to hit someone with it. He then pulled the captain out of his chair too, the group surrounding them.

“I told you, he isn’t working for me! Wrong place wrong time, you know?”, the captain insisted.

“I would have bought your story, really. But a really important somebody warned me you’d have a backup”, Big Man explained, “In fact, he’s got something to say to both of you right now, come with me”.

The two were dragged into formation by Big Man’s followers who herded them up the ladder to a miniaturized executive deck. A man was seated in the crew lead’s chair. The First Mate.