“What’s in the crate?” Thorn asked, coming up behind them, trailed by his twin and Lassite. Gio had several bulky duffel bags at his feet; Milly a conglomeration of white plastic cases. Thorn and Talon both carried bulky packs that she suspected contained sports equipment. Jakka and the other Dlin were sorting through several bags that apparently held mutual gear.

“Cooking supplies,” Niko lied, giving Dabry a glare. “And there had better be some of that smoked sausage in there.”

“I believe there is,” he said.

Arpat’s ship, You Sexy Thing, was docked three levels down. They tried to take the closest main lift, but it was out of commission; its doors, hanging ajar, showed the immense stretch of downward and upward tube. The air smelled of smoke and the sour tang of firefighting foam.

Gio eyed the empty lift tube speculatively until Dabry said, “Let’s not abandon the luggage unless we have to.” Niko ground her teeth for a moment but refrained from comment. Nonetheless, they were able to backtrack and find a cargo lift. Unfortunately, its dimensions would accommodate only half of them.

“We’ll have to split up,” Dabry said.

“You go ahead—take Jakka and Brineke, and the other waitstaff and kitchen folks. Thorn and Talon with me and the two civilians.”

Dabry shook his head. “You go first and take those two,” he said, nodding toward Arpat and Lolola. “Thorn, Talon, sure, but also Gio, Skidoo…” He looked around. “Milly too.”

Niko would have argued but there was no time. She let Lassite squeeze aboard the lift with them as she scowled at Dabry.

“See you there, Captain,” he said, and saluted as the doors closed.

The crowded confines of the lift were full of elbows. Skidoo clambered up into a corner of the ceiling and hung there, although she kept two tentacles stretched downward, one twined along Milly’s arm, the other resting just a tip on Niko’s wrist. She patted it with her free hand; the other braced against the wall.

They were rocketing downward when the station shook again, a massive shift that reverberated through the metal around them, ringing it like a giant bell, followed by two smaller explosions that seemed to be coming from above them, somewhere in the decks they’d abandoned.

“Any way to speed this thing up?” Arpat Takraven asked, nodding over at the control panel.

“Maybe you could wave some money at it,” Niko snapped. She was tired of the calm with which Takraven seemed to be taking all of this. He could afford to have things fall apart around them. The Last Chance was all she and the others had.

He glanced at her and said, “Got a problem?”

“No,” she said. She swallowed back a further retort and raised her chin. This was only another situation. Her team had weathered worse in the past.

“You’ll like my ship,” Arpat said, more to Lolola than Niko.