The Steel Eagle's hallways were wider than the Echelon's, Sarah noticed. It wasn’t very good cover. So they'd be in trouble if any pirates happened to encounter them. Dave led the way, though his bad leg seemed to make his steps heavier than usual. It must've been a bad knee, since she didn't see it bend very often. But he didn't seem to be in pain, which was good.

"How do you know the way to the infirmary?"

"We've been on this ship enough to have a pretty good mental map of the key spots." Dave replied. "As you probably guessed, we have quite the history with Captain Yager. He's been raiding us since we got started three years ago. Most of the time, we don't get taken on board the Steel Eagle, but sometimes if he's desperate for money, he'll try the ol' ransom routine."

"My mother has started framing the ransom notes he sends. She likes the way he writes." Heather glanced back behind them. "Okay, no one coming up from behind. Most of them are probably in their quarters or in the mess hall. What are the chances of Mel being left unguarded?"

"Not great, I would say. After all, a doctor is one kind of crew member they can't seem to hold onto." He peeked around the corner. "The problem won't be getting him from the infirmary, but getting back to our ship without getting caught or at least shot. Hostages are good as long as they're alive, no matter how many holes are in them."

Sarah flashed back to the moment on the Echelon. She wasn't scared of guns and had gotten used to the sounds they made, but she had never been that close to one that went off. At least, not when she wasn't the one shooting it. Her hand unconsciously touched the powder burn. The pain had stopped, but she could still feel the heat rising from the burn. The cream would help though. She was glad she'd put it in her pocket when they left the brig.

She noticed Dave looking at her. He smiled sadly. "I suppose we didn't do a good job of protecting you, huh? Does it hurt?"

"No, not really. It looks worse than it is." She didn't want either of them to worry about her. Right now, getting the other two and then getting off was the main priority. Her wound could wait until later. "The cream should be able to help."

"Well, the good news is that we're almost to the infirmary." Heather pointed out. "We'll just have to do something about that guard. I guess our best bet is luring him out into the hall and then somehow taking care of him."

"I have an idea for that part." Dave started taking off his boot. "Sarah, you lead him out here. He might not know that Yager put you in the brig."

She wasn’t sure what the pilot was going to do with his boot, but clearly he had some sort of plan. So she nodded and went to the door that Heather pointed to. She lifted her hand and knocked on it. It opened slowly.

"Whaddaya want?" The pirate asked. "Oh, it’s you. What are you doing here?"

"Um... Captain Yager wants to see you! Right now and he sent me to get you. Something about a..." What did pirate captains of dubious skill want their crew for? "Getting rid of all the fizzy poppy water because it's not worthy of his magnificentudious maw."

The pirate sighed. "We told him it was club soda and not fancy water. All right, I'm on my way. Don't think the Doc is going to try anything. I just yelled at him and he's whimpering in a corner."

The pirate opened the door and left the infirmary. Sarah dashed in and found Mel in the corner, though he wasn’t whimpering. But his glasses were askew and some color had drained from his skin.

"Get up, please." Sarah tugged on his arm. "We're here to rescue you!"

Mel nodded and got up. He straightened his glasses. "Is Ash with you guys?"

"No, he went to go find Claire."

"Then they'll need help with the pirate that was with me." He opened a cupboard and removed a bottle. "A little chloroform ought to do it. Do you have a handkerchief or something like that?"

Sarah shook her head. But Mel found a rag in one of the drawers and decided to do that. He poured a certain amount onto the rag then put it up.

"You might want to stay here. It’s going to get rough."

But she followed him out anyways. She had spent weekends on her aunt’s and uncle’s farm and seen animals interact with each other. Rough she could take.

She could hardly believe what she saw when she emerged from the infirmary. Heather was on top of the pirate, pinning his arms with her legs. Mel was attempting to hold his head still while stuffing the rag over his mouth and nose. But the oddest thing was Dave. He was kneeling next to the man, holding what looked like a wooden leg across his throat and would press down whenever he got too active. Eventually, the chloroform took affect and he stilled. Everyone around him sighed and flopped to the side. Dave looked up and saw her staring at them.

"Hey Sarah." He waved the hand holding the leg. "We were going to daze him by hitting his head with this, but it didn't daze him enough. So we had to improvise."

"Help me put him in the infirmary." Mel told Heather. "Give Dave time to strap on his leg again."

Heather nodded and they both dragged the pirate away. Dave managed to stand up using the wall for balance and leaned against it. His pants' leg flopped a bit, but didn't around the knee. He rolled it up. Indeed past the knee, he had no leg. That would explain why he walked so stiffly and why he had a cane. Then she remembered the words that Captain Yager had said about him being a wooden legged pilot. And here she thought he had been mixing up his metaphors. After putting the leg in the right place and strapping a series of buckles, Dave pulled his pants leg down and put his boot back on. He then looked back at her.

"Enjoying the show?"

Sarah's cheeks tinted a little when she realized she had been staring at him the whole time. She shook her head.

"I apologize. It was rude of me to stare like that. If I had thought about it, I would've turned around to give you some privacy."

"No apology necessary. I'm used to doing it with people watching. Besides, I find prosthetics rather interesting in the various ways they can go on someone."

She was glad he didn't seem offended. She should've known that someone like Dave took something like that in stride. It was clear that he didn't let it slow him down. Which begged the question...

"Why do you have a wooden leg?"

He stepped away from the wall and put his hands in his pockets. "Are you asking how I lost my leg or why I have a leg made of wood instead of something more modern like plastic?"

"The...second question didn't even occur to me."

"Long story short, I had a training accident when I was in the Airforce. Needless to say, it ended my career with them. But don't feel bad. I only joined up to fly the neat planes. I'm just grateful the bottom part of my leg was the only thing I lost. As for the second, I requested wood. At the time the accident happened, they weren't making many plastic ones. I wanted those who actually lost their limbs in battle to have first choice. And it's served me well enough." He tapped the shin. It made a wooden sound, albeit muffled by his pants. "Maybe someday I'll switch to plastic, but it's not the most important thing on my mind."

About that time, Heather and Mel came back out.

"We should get going." Heather suggested. "There's no way to tell how long he'll be out and the Echelon will need time to warm up before we can take off."

They continued on their way, with Mel supporting him so they could pick up the pace a little. It was amazing how much difference just that little bit of help made. They made good time to the docking bay, but there was still the obstacles of pirates milling about and stairs that led to the bottom of the bay. The stairs were very exposed and it would be easy for the pirates to spot them. Dave stuck his head out of the open door before sticking it back in.

"I didn't see anybody by the controls, but I don't like all those pirates hanging around. It's going to make it difficult to get to the ship unseen. We're just lucky that most of them are probably in the mess hall celebrating their victory. Not to mention the fact that if Yager steps out of his office, he can see the entire bay. Hopefully, he's taking a nap or too busy thinking about the ransom money to do that."

Now that Sarah thought about it, they were probably very near his office. She wasn't sure if it was next door or a couple of doors down. She had no desire to face him after what she pulled with him. He didn't seem like the forgiving type.

"I'll man the controls." Heather volunteered. "I know what to push to open the bay door without dumping the ship out. We'll need a distraction with all those pirates."

"Sounds like you're up again , Sarah." Dave remarked. "You did do well with that other pirate."

"Maybe I should go." Mel spoke up. "It might be too dangerous for her."

"Mel, I've seen you interact with them. They look at you the wrong way and you clam up. Besides, I need help getting an SOS out and she doesn't know how to do that." He turned to her. "That is if you want to, Sarah. I'm not going to make you if you don't want to."

"It doesn’t look like we have much of a choice." Sarah stepped out from the door. "Um, how do I get all of their attention?" It was easy with just one, but there was at least six down there.

"It doesn't have to be very long. Just long enough for me and Mel to get inside the ship. Then you'll have to rush inside while Heather opens the door. Hopefully, Ash and Claire won't be too far behind. I haven't heard a ruckus over the intercom, so maybe he managed to rescue her without being caught or at least without an alarm being raised." He put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll be quick. Yager no doubt left the keys in the ignition like he usually does."

Sarah nodded and headed down the stairs. She could hear Heather not too far behind her, but her footsteps split off when she made her way to the console. Apparently Sarah had a light enough step that the pirates didn't hear her coming until she had nearly completed the staircase. A few pistols were instantly trained on her and she held her hands up in surrender.