He walked toward the fallen man, holding a straight sword stained completely red and dribbling thickly.

"Surrender," he said quietly to the man before him, who looked up in terror and sobbed, fumbled idiotically for his knife.

The grey-clad man spun instantly in the air, his arms and legs bent. He twirled as if he were dancing and stamped out quickly, the bottom of his foot slamming into the fallen man’s face and smashing him back. The sailor sprawled, bleeding, unconscious or dead. As the man in grey landed he was instantly still. It was as if he had not moved.

"Surrender,"he shouted, very loud, and the men of the Terpsichoria faltered.

They were losing the fight.

Bodies lay like litter, and dying men screamed for help. Most of the dead wore the blue of the New Crobuzon Merchant Navy. Every second more pirates emerged from the submersible and the armored tugs. They surrounded the Terpsichoria’s men, corralled them on the main deck.

"Surrender," shouted the man again, his accent unfamiliar. "Throw down your weapons and we’ll end this. Raise your hands against us and we’ll cull you until you hear sense."

"Gods fuck and blast it…" shouted Captain Myzovic, but the pirate commander interrupted him.

"How many of your men would you kill, Captain?" he said, projecting his voice like an actor. "Order them to drop their weapons now, and they need not feel like traitors. Otherwise you order them to die." He drew out a thick pad of felt from his pocket and began to wipe his blade. "Decide, Captain."

The deck was silent. There was only the faint sound of engines from the aeronauts.

Myzovic and Cumbershum huddled in conversation for a second, and then the captain looked out at his bewildered, frightened men and threw up his hands.

"Drop your weapons," he shouted. There was a pause before his men obeyed. Muskets and pistols and short swords smacked dully against the deck. "You have the advantage, sir," he yelled.

"Stay where you are, Captain," shouted the man in grey. "I’ll come to you." He spoke quickly in Salt to the pirates standing with him in front of the window. Faintly, Bellis heard a word that sounded like "passengers," and adrenaline made her giddy.

Bellis huddled still and quiet while she heard shrieks from the corridors beyond, as the pirates led the passengers outside.

She heard Johannes Tearfly, the pitiful tears of Meriope, the frightened pomposity of Dr. Mollificatt. She heard a shot followed by a terrified scream.

From outside, Bellis could hear the terrified passengers lamenting as they were ordered onto the main deck.

The pirates were thorough. Bellis was silent, but she could hear the slamming of doors as the passages were searched. She tried desperately to wedge the door closed, but the man in the corridor shouldered it open with ease; and faced with him all grim and bloodstained, faced with his machete, she lost any heart for resistance. She dropped the bottle with which she had armed herself and let him haul her out.