"I am Commander Erin O'Neal, First Officer of the HOLLAND SKYE. These gentlemen are members of the wardroom. Now, again, who are you and what are you doing here?"

Erin stares defiantly at you, seemingly unmoved by your weapons and the fact that you have seven of her crew as bound prisoners.

Sam inquires, "You ship ish running pretty good. Were you able to repair your engine trouble? We were told dat you put in a dishtresh call. Maybe if you have shome form of identification, it would help to clear dish matter up."

With no real way down after Dune, Danny heads back into the bridge, an angry look crosses his face as he does, "Damn women, this is a real mess." He looks around at the crew, spots the Captain and walks over to him, "sir, Downtown, I am very sorry about your crew.

We," he says pointing at Ichiro and the others, "had know idea this was a kill everyone on board op, we thought your vessel was up for salvage, I suggest you put in a distress call to the UCAS Coastguard immediately, let them know you are under armed attack by a ship called INTREPID."

Erin shakes her head at you quizzically.

"Engine trouble? We've had no engine trouble this entire trip. We haven't sent a distress call. I don't know anything of the sort."

She reaches into the back pocket of her uniform and produces a slim leather ID case. Inside is a slim plastic card bearing her name and image, and identifying her as a member of the UCAS Merchant Marine Corps.

Before the Captain can answer, the first of four mortar rounds, guided by Dune's laser designator, impacts on the bridge. The guided munition's stand-off probe, designed to defeat reactive armor, crumbles against the steel hull moments before the shaped charge detonates. The cone of explosives turns its copper lining into a jet of superheated plasma that spears through the bridge overhead at an oblique angle. The central control console shatters into a cloud of half melted plastic and electronic components. The shockwave following spiderwebs the bridge windows. The second mortar round impacts half a second later, peeling open the bridge roof with its plasma scalpel. The third round, having lost the laser spot in the wake of the first two detonations, continues on the last azimuth available to its seeker head. Unlike the first two, this round is simple HE. It's impact point, just beyond the breach caused by the first two rounds, hammers the bridge with a shockwave of shrapnel and fire. The last of the precision guided rounds detonates against the front wall of the superstructure, turning the glass of the armored windows into razor sharp sleet.

Sam takes a look at the id, trying to make sure it is real. Once the explosions start, Sam looks around worriedly and says, "What da hell wash dat?"

Sam hands back the id to Erin O'neal and says, "It looksh real enough to me. Dis doeshn't make any shenshe. You tink da captain wash wrong... or dat he wash lying to ush?"

"I would have to suggest that he was probably lying to us, although it doesn't really add up if you think about it. But seeing as no one sent out a distress signal in the first place, then no one made a deal with the captain to salvage this vessel, so I don't believe that he has any good reason to be out here. And then there are those explosions."

Os turns to Erin and says, "Commander, I came here under the impression that I was part of a salvage crew, along with my collegue here, and five others, sent by the ship INTEPRID. We were expecting another crew, who we planned to take the ship from. Obviously, we were under the assumption that this ship did not belong to them, and that they had as much claim to it as we do. Apparently, that isn't the case, and I'm not being payed for piracy, so I'm not going to engage in it. Therefore, you and your men are free to go. You should probably get in contact with your Captain, and find out what's going on up there."

Os looks up at Sam again and says, "Mate, I think we'd better go and check on the engine room."

Erin nods gravely.

"I'll send my Chief Engineer along with you as well. He should be down there anyway in case something is wrong."

She waves forward a middle-aged man of Philipino descent and directs him to accompany you.

"The rest of us are due on the bridge."

Sam steps in front of the Philipino engineer and says, "Hold on! Jeff'sh down dere, and he'sh part of da captain's crew. Nishe guy, but we shtill can't trusht him. We have to make sure dat da engine room ish shafe before he goesh down dere. If da captain ish planning anyting involving da enginesh, like maybe shabotage or shometing to make it look like dish ship was really having engine troublesh, den dat could mean trouble down dere. Jeff shaid he wash gonna make sure da enginesh were running fine, but dey already are."

Os takes a moment to think about what they should do, and eventually says to Sam, "Okay, as far as Jeff knows, everything down here is running according to plan. I'm going down to the engine room to see what's up, but I want you to hold back outside the engine room with the chief engineer. I'll tell Jeff that you stayed back in order to guard the prisoners or something. If he's screwed the engines, I'll subdue him and call you in. How does that sound?"

Sam thinks for a moment and then says, "Uh.. ok. Shoundsh fine. But I won't be able to help you from here if you need it."

Os looks confused for a second and says, "Er, I kind of meant that you'd come down with us, along with the chief engineer, but not actually go inside the engine room with me."

Sam nods assuredly and says, "Oh. Right. Let'sh go den."

The massive explosions flatten Danny to the deck. He rolls to the door, barely avoiding a support beam the crashes into the deck. So that's why she was grinning. Vowing to make her pay, Danny picks himself up. "Ichiro," he yells through the smoke and choking debris.

"Anyone at the helm?"

Os continues down to the engine room, trying to discern how Jeff will react to Os' change of sides.

The bridge is a smoking ruin in the aftermath of the mortar strikes, lit only by electric blue arcs as the various control consoles short out. A cold wind blows through the gaping hole torn in the front of the compartment. No movement is immediately discernable.

When you reach the engine room, Os, you find the hatch dogged and locked from the inside.

Coughing and hacking from the smoke and the debris Danny makes his way back out the way he just came in, assuming the exit is still there in some form. While moving he readys his M-23, sure that Dune would be in to mop up any second. He calls out in a loud voice,

"Everyones dead, Ichiro, and I'm hit, I cant move my legs...," he ends it with a lot of coughing, hacking, and moaning hoping to sucker her back in.

Os thumps on the door with his fist, and yells, "Jeff, it's Os, we found some more crew up in the wardroom, and Sam's on guard. I'm back to help with the engine."

Sam's face wrinkles into a scowl as he says, "Dat dirty rat... he locked ush in!"

Thinking for a moment, Sam says, "Wait! Da engines! He'sh gonna shabotage dem. I jusht know it."

Sam turns around to the engineer and says, "Ish dere anoder way into da engine room? We've got to get in dere if we want to shtop Jeff from doing any damage."

Os looks at the engineer and asks, "Yeah, how else do you get into the engine room, and is there any way to unlock these doors from the outside?"

"Damn," Danny exclaims as he stands up and dusts himself off. He had hoped the ruse would draw her back in to finish of the crew but no such. He looks around for survivers and asks the first one he finds, "wheres the ships emergency beacon, and how do you activate it?"

Sam says, "Yesh. We need ta get in dere and shtop Jeff from shabotaging da enginesh. Maybe we should try and get back aboard da INTREPID after we do dat. If we're gonna shave dish ship, we have to shtop da INTREPID and her crew. Firsht tingsh firsht dough. We have to make sure dat nobody blowsh a hole in dish ship and shinksh it with ush on board. I tink we should make sure dat no one leavesh on da RHIB and forget about da engine room for right now. I bet dey won't blow up da ship if dey're shtill on board." Sam winks at Os, pointing a finger at his head to show that he is thinking.

Cheng nods his head rapidly.

"All right, if you two are headed off to stop the attackers, I'll muster up the flying squad and try and break in to the engine room. We should be able to come in through the port side escape trunk."

He turns and jogs off down the passageway, shouting orders at his enlisted team.

"Okey-dokey, let's get up to the RHIB, then."

Os takes off without any ceremony.

"Right, " says Sam. He follows Os, squeezing through the doorways and narrow passages, right behind Os.

When Sam and Os reach the stern, they're dismayed to see that the RHIB is already gone.

"Crap. Okay then, plan B: we find Downtown and the rest of the team." Os puts on a heroic voice and says, "To the bridge!" at which point he takes off in the direction of the bow.

Sam says in a worried tone, "Dish ish bad."

He follows Os as quickly as he can toward the bridge, squeezing through any doors or passages that they find.

A crewmember, dazed and bleeding from a cut above his eye, points to the ruined communications console.

"That was the main control for our communications. You'll have to get to the central radio room in order to use the systems now."

Moments later, Sam and Os arrive on the bridge. Or what's left of it at least.

Sam looks around the burned out hulk of the bridge and says, "Shentral radio room? Where ish it? I wonder if my radio would work."

Sam activates his radio and tries to find an active comm frequency that he can communicate with someone on.

Static fills the near empty bridge, spiked with hisses. You don't think that anyone is listening within range.

"Hey Sam, Oz," Downtown says, "I think we got duped, the INTREPID is a pirate ship. Dune is loose on board, I managed to wound her, but she got away. We need help. Let's get to the radio room and call in the guard, if it still works." Downtown has the crewman explain the way to the radio room.

"Yeah, Jeff's gone and buggered us as well, and now that you mention it, it was probably Dune that took the RHIB. I'm game to come with you to the radio room, but first, if it's all the same to you, we'd better see how the engine room is doing; it seems as though Jeff's locked it, which leads us to believe that he's sabotaged it."

He pauses and looks around for a second.

"Jesus, what happened to this place?"

The crewman points to a hatch near the rear bulkhead.

"Go down a deck and forward. It'll be on the starboard side. But only certain people have access: the CommO, First Officer, and Captain."

Erin steps forward from where she's been surveying the damage.

"I'll go with you to Radio."

"Goody, let's go," Os starts to move, before stopping, turning to Downtown and saying, "Oh yeah, it's 'Os', not 'Oz'," in a light tone.

He moves his gaze to Erin, and motions the hatch, "Commander, lead the way, if you please."

Erin leads the group down to the radio shack, pausing only to punch in an eight digit code into the maglock. The door buzzes open, revealing a small space filled with communications gear. She unlatches a portable access terminal, and switches over the main panel of one of the radios to local broadcast control.

"Mayday, mayday, mayday, any station this channel, this is the motor tanker HOLLAND SKYE. We have been attacked and require assistance."

She repeats the call three times, listening for several seconds in between for a reply. Frowning, she punches in a short diagnostic code, and checks the connections on the mic and the keyboard.

"Nothing. Those explosions must have damaged the HF whips. We'll have to rig new antennas."

She reaches for the phone on the wall, only to be interrupted by its ringing.

"Go ahead? Good. What! How? Nevermind, can you fix it? I don't care, tear the thing apart! Cheng, listen to me. With that interface offline, we can't take manual control of the SKYE. I know you have every faith in your satellite navigation system, but in the end I don't trust anything but a sure eye and steady hand when it comes to mooring this beast in L.A. basin. Get it online. I'll be down in ten minutes."

With a sigh, she hangs up the phone, running a hand through her hair.

"All right, who wants to take care of our antenna problems?"

Sam straightens up and says, "I'll go wherever you need me, Captain."

Os says, "Count me in, Commander, but what's going on with Cheng?"

Erin grabs a near-by crewmember.

"Take these two down to the spares locker and pull out the emergency HF whip. I'll call down to the machine shop to authorize the release of tools. Make sure you get safety harnesses as well. Move!"

She turns to Os and Sam.

"Not sure yet, but what news I have is not good. I'm headed there for a full briefing. I'll tell you more when I know more. Follow Jones, he'll take you where you need to go."

"Steer 280 degrees. Slow to seven knots. Man the boat deck for RHIB recovery."

The Captain nods to the OOD's orders, his eyes still on the dark horizon. The first of the rain showers wash over the INTREPID as the salvage tug comes about into the waves, creating a lee for the small RHIB to approach and recover.

Downtown turns to Oz, "I think it was Dune who took the boat back to the INTREPID, so we may be clear on that end. Why don't we get down to the engine room and see if we can help them get in."

Sam says to the captain, "If all else failsh, I have a radio implanted in my head dat dey don't know about. If we can't get da shipsh radio working, maybe we can rig up someting using my radio. I don't know if it will have enough range on it'sh own. We might need to boosht da power."

"Sure thing Downtown, but first I have to have a look at the communications antennae. Come with us, and as soon as we're sorted in that respect, we'll go down to the engine room, okay?"

"Right, right, ok lets get on that whip," he says, shaking his head, that explosion must of knocked me around harder than I thought.

Os takes off after Jones, saying, "Come on then."

At some point between the radio room and the spares locker, Os pipes up again.

"Has anybody else got the impression that we're sitting ducks over here?"

Jones leads you down three decks and forward, through a maze of corridors that eventually leads to a large compartment. Stacked through out, in neatly labeled plastic shipping crates, and numerous spare and replacement parts. Along the rear wall, held by a series of metal tie downs, are two HF whip antennae. The crewman gestures to them, and then to the ceiling.

"We'll have to take them up through the hatch there to the main deck, and then up the rear of the superstructure. Try not to bend them, as you'll dislodge the receiving elements inside."

Sam says to Os, "Yeah I got dat impression too. I wonder why dey haven't been shooting at ush."

Sam follows Jones and Os to the lockers and then says, "Maybe dey are waiting for us to do dis. Or maybe dey don't tink dey have to shoot at us anymore."

He helps Jones and Os push the antennae through the hatch, trying not to let them snag on anything and start to bend.

The five meter tall antennae are lighter than they look, only about forty kilos each, but they're unwieldy to lift and carry. The wind has picked up noticeably topside, and lightning is visible on the horizon.

Noticing the bad weather, Os says, "Let's make this quick."