Sarah's heart thrummed in her chest as she paced around the room. She'd heard about pirates, both of the sky and water variety. They were not what anyone would call nice people. Now she was sure stories about them were exaggeration, but every exaggeration had a bit of truth behind it. While they might not actually make people walk off the plank, they could easily stab them or shoot them if it tickled their fancy.

She had to hide. But there was nowhere in this room she could hide. There were probably plenty of places on the ship that would do, but Sarah didn't know it well enough to find one of those spots quickly. She would likely run into one of the pirates if she tried to do that, and it would no doubt make things a lot worse.

Maybe if she cooperated, things wouldn't be so bad. Maybe they just wanted money and items and would be on their merry way. More than likely, they would be focused on the cargo. What was the Echelon carrying besides her? She hoped it wasn't too valuable or the ship would find themselves in financial trouble.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. Sarah took uneasy steps toward the door, grabbed the handle, and opened it up just a crack.

"Y-yes?" Her nervousness made her stuttered a bit. "I don't have that much money on me, to be honest..."

"I'm no stinking pirate!" The door was pushed open by someone's boot. "If I were, I'd be demanding entrance very loudly. I probably would have just knocked down the door instead of knocking!"

Sarah found herself face to face with a woman in coveralls. She held a wrench in her hand, and her coveralls had various stains of oil and grease on it. She had a bit on her face too.

"You're the mechanic, I take it?" Or at least worked with the machinery.

"You're definitely a scholar, kid." She remarked before she reached out and grabbed her arm. "Now come on. I know a few places where you can hide. I can't guarantee that you won't be found, but at the very least, the pirates will be on a time crunch so they won't have time to spend dealing with you."

Sarah had little choice but to go with the woman as she pulled her along. Working as a mechanic seemed to have gifted her strength, probably much like Ash being strong from working with the cargo.

As they went along, they passed a man with glasses in the hall. He paused and looked at them.

"Claire..."

"Get to the cockpit, doc!" She ordered as she and Sarah went along. "Stall for me if you can! Say I didn't hear the announcement because of the engine or I'm just running late."

"But Claire...!" His protests went unheeded as Claire turned a corner.

"That was Mel, the ship's doctor. He won't be able to stall them for long, so we better hurry up." She opened a door that led to the noisy engine room.

It was then that she let go of Sarah's arm. She left a bit of dirt behind from her glove, but it wouldn't be hard for her to rub off later. Claire opened a compartment in the floor.

"I think you ought to fit, at least for a little bit. It's probably going to be tight, but just deal with it."

Sarah looked in the compartment. It was filled with various parts, most of which looked like they couldn't be used anymore or were in the process of being cannibalized for parts. It was also dark.

"Are you sure that this...?" she began, only for Claire to push her in.

"No time to think twice. And here, have this!" She dropped the wrench she had been carrying. It nearly landed on Sarah's foot. "If anyone but us opens this door, give them a good whack! If anything, that'll make them think twice about messing with you!"

"All right..."

Sarah picked up the wrench. It was pretty heavy. She wasn't sure if she could swing it if it came down to it. Claire waved a bit before shutting the door.

Thanks to all the parts around, there wasn't a place for Sarah to sit. Plus, there was no light coming in from the door. She just hoped that it wasn't airtight too or she would have bigger problems than pirates. All she could really do was wait and hope the pirates didn't have time to do a thorough inspection of the ship.

Despite the fact that she was standing, the darkness combined with the silence made Sarah a bit drowsy. There were a couple of times she found herself not dozing off but spacing out before reality came swimming back to her. How much time had passed? It felt like it had been a while since Claire had put her down here but she had no way to be sure.

Just as she was beginning to wonder if things were safe and the mechanic had simply forgotten her, like the few times her parents had accidentally left her at home or the store, she heard someone's footsteps. They were pretty heavy. Claire had been wearing boots, so it might be her. Then she heard more heavy steps and a couple of voices she didn't recognize. She couldn't tell what they were saying.

Her grip tightened on the wrench as the two split up, boots stomping in different directions. One stopped directly on top of the door to the compartment. She held her breath even though there was probably no way that anyone could hear her breathing in the compartment.

"Why are we checking the engine room? This crew never keeps anything valuable in the engine room." The pirate right on top of her insisted. "It's not like that mechanic owns anything valuable."

"No, but she might have some parts that we could use back on our ship. Their cargo alone isn't going to be worth much. It's just a bunch of paper!"

Oh, so that was what they had been hauling. No wonder they had been so willing to take her on a passenger. She couldn't imagine that a paper delivery would be worth that much unless it was a whole lot of paper.

There was some more clomping of boots and the sound of a tool box hitting the floor. "Besides, this is payback for all the times she's hit us with one of those tools of hers. Wonder why she didn't have one this time."

The pirates had boarded this ship before? She didn't think a pirate would board the same ship twice. But then again, sky pirates were different from naval ones. There were probably less pickings, despite how popular airships were compared to ships that sailed on the ocean in this part of the world. Either that or these pirates were lousy ones.

"Who cares? Just don't stand there and help me look for the good stuff. The captain will be upset if we go back empty handed."

The pirate took a step forward and then paused. Sarah's breath hitched as she noticed that the sound of his boot hitting the door had a different sound than on the normal floor. Perhaps he hadn't noticed before because he had been busy talking. Then he stomped a couple of more times.

"Hey, I think this is a secret compartment or something. They must've put it in after the last time we raided them." He noted.

"Well, let's open it up then! I bet that's where they keep the good stuff! If not parts then drink!"

There was a grunt as one of them searched for a way to open the door. "Why would they put drinks in the engine room? It would be a terrible place to put them with the constant movement and heat."

"Well, they've got to be hiding it somewhere. Everyone knows that cargo ships have some sort of drink on board!"

Sarah could now see a bit of light as one of the pirates managed to find the crack and started lifting the door some. Fortunately, he still didn't have that good of a grip on it and dropped it. He cursed a bit before addressing his fellow pirate.

"The Echelon has never had that much drink aboard, much less the good stuff! They can barely afford to keep the ship in the air at times. They don't have extra money to spend on drink! Now help me with the door. These cracks are so tiny. I don't know how that mechanic does it. She doesn't exactly have small hands."

"She probably just knows where to lift." The light started shining through again and this time, the door was thrown open. "See, there we go. Now let's see what goodies they're hiding down here..."

She blinked against the bright light. Once her eyes adjusted, she found the faces of two rather surprised pirates staring down at her. For pirates, they didn't look too bad. Neither of them wore eye patches, only one had a scar, and they only smelled mildly like they hadn't bathed in a while. Apparently, the pirates in the stories she grew up with had something personal against hygiene that real life pirates didn't seem to have.

"Well well, what have we here?" One questioned with a tilt of his head. "A stow-away perhaps? No, Claire would know if someone was hiding down in her engine room."

"Forgot the girl and look for the drinks! Maybe they're behind her!" The one with the scar exclaimed. "Hey chickee, move out of the way! You're blocking our light."

"I'm telling you, there's no drinks down there! She barely has room as it is. No way there's any space for a bottle where it won't get broken!"

During this whole exchange, Sarah slipped the wrench behind her back. If she tried to smack one now, he'd just end up falling on top of her. She would have to wait until there was a bit more room. Though with as clammy as her hands were getting, she was worried she might lose her grip.

"Move, you idiot! She's not able to get out with you blocking her way! The bandana wearing one pushed the scarred one aside. "The captain will want to meet you, madam-morsel, so if you would please come with us..."

His pronunciation of mademoiselle may her skin crawl more than the so-called smile he offered. Though now that she looked at it, she wasn't sure how she was supposed to get out. There wasn't a ladder. She'd probably need help up.

"Um, I can't...get out. It's a little too tall." Maybe she could lift herself out if she had two hands available, but Sarah didn't want to let go of the wrench. "Would you lend me a hand, please?"

"Why certainly, madam-morsel." It was clear that he was putting on airs, probably because he thought it was funny. Sarah certainly never understood the joy that some people got from fake-politeness. He stretched out his hand.

She carefully put her free hand in his. His fingers tightened around her hand in a vice grip. She managed to hide a wince. No, she couldn't make her move quite yet. It would require timing, like shooting rats.

"Alley-oop!" the pirate declare as he pulled back, giving her the boost she needed to put her foot against the wall and push off it to get out of the secret compartment. Sarah managed to keep her balance easily once she got out. "And there we go, nice and easy."

The other pirate hopped in as soon as she was out, which meant it was just her and the other one. That at least improved her odds somewhat. Bandana let go of her hand, much to her surprise, and smiled once again.

"Come along then, chickee, let's go see the captain. This crew has never had a passenger when we've raided before. Where are you from? You've got a bit of an accent, but I can't place it..."

"I'm from pretty far away..." There was no need to reveal too much detail yet. "You have quite the accent too. What part of Aboloan are you from? You certainly don't have the Central accent." She allowed the wrench to slip a bit further down her hand so she could get a better hand position. "Neither does your friend."

"Caspian? He's not even from Aboloan. He's from Aleman, even though he doesn't sound like it. He lost his Aleman accent a long time ago. Well, most of it.” The pirate did a mock bow and swept his arms in the direction of the exit. "Ladies first. I insist."

Now was her chance. She stepped forward. "Thank you, sir. That's very kind of you."

Then, Sarah struck. With all of her strength, she swung the wrench. She narrowly missed the pirate's head, but managed to nail his shoulder. He gave a pained yell as her momentum made her spin once before she was able to start running. The wrench slipped out of her grip as she ran, but she didn't care.

Her flight went uninterrupted. Her brain scrambled to come up with a good location to hide. The kitchen obviously wasn’t an option and they were no doubt raiding the infirmary for medical supplies. The only thing she could do was return to her room, lock the door, and hope they didn't have time to break in.

Then she ran into an obstacle. A man, even larger and taller than Ash. He barely fit in the hallway and there was no room for her to go around him. He grunted as he looked down at her. The giant said something with a great rumble in his voice. It took Sarah a moment to identify the language as Espanese and to begin the process of translating it.

Unfortunately, the man lunged forward, grabbed both of her arms around her biceps, and lifted her off the ground. She kicked at him, but he remained unfazed.

This time, she was able to catch what he was saying.

He turned around and started walking, holding her out from him like a naughty kitten who kept trying to scratch their owner's face. She thought about kicking him again, but he was right. It wasn't doing her any good. Still, she felt like she should put up some sort of struggle. It felt wrong just going along, even if at the moment, she didn't seem to have much of a choice. So, she stopped squirming. His grip relented but instantly tightened the moment she so much as twitched.