EL-MASRI: And through all of this none of the soldiers told you what they wanted.

DAMANIS: No, sir. When I was taken to the cargo deck, I saw all the other crew members on the deck, kneeling, hands behind their head. The only one standing was Bosun Zarrani, who was quoting Colonial Union merchant maritime law to one of the soldiers. The soldier seemed to ignore him for a little while, then drew a sidearm. He shot the bosun in the face, and then Zarrani was dead. And that was it for anyone asking questions.

SPURLEA: So the entire crew was there.

DAMANIS: Everyone but the captain and a helmsman named Qalat. And Khosa, but he was dead already.

EL-MASRI: So you were all in the cargo bay. How did you get from there to here, Malik?

DAMANIS: The Erie Morningstar had four autopilot container carriers. Two of them were full of the supplies for your colony. The other two were empty. The soldiers opened up those two and ordered us in, half into one, half into the other.

EL-MASRI: And you just went in?

DAMANIS: A couple of us resisted. They shot them in the head. They didn’t waste any time talking to us or bargaining with us. As far as I can tell, except for the ones on the bridge getting the command codes from the captain, they didn’t talk at all. There was no point in it, and they didn’t have to talk to get us to do what they wanted.

EL-MASRI: After you were all in, what happened next?

DAMANIS: They sealed us into the cargo containers. Everything went pitch-black and people started screaming, and then a couple of us turned our PDAs on so their screens would give light. That seemed to calm people a bit. After that we could hear the sounds of people moving and talking—the soldiers would apparently talk to each other, not to us—but I couldn’t hear anything clear enough to make out what they were saying or doing. And then there was another sound. It was the sound of the cargo bay’s purge cycle. That’s when people started screaming again. It meant the cargo bay door was being opened and we were being thrown out.

GANAS: They were tossing the crew over the side.

DAMANIS: Yes, ma’am. Although one of the crew members in my container suggested something else. Once the container started moving and it was clear it was thrown off the ship, someone in the container started screaming, “We’re walking the plank! We’re walking the plank! We’re walking the plank!” He kept doing this for a minute or two before I heard a thump and he shut up. I think someone punched him to make him quiet.

EL-MASRI: The cargo containers aren’t designed for live transport.

DAMANIS: No, sir. They are airtight and they’re insulated, so the cargo inside won’t freeze in space or heat up excessively on reentry. But there’s also no artificial gravity or anywhere to secure yourself. The closest thing to that are the pallet restraints at the bottom of the container. We use them to strap down the cargo pallets, but they don’t do much good if you’re not a pallet. I still grabbed one and tied it to my arm, as close as I could to the restraint anchor so at least I wouldn’t go floating off. I thought it might help when we hit the atmosphere.