Captain Decan looked at his first mate. The small man shrugged. "We really don't have a choice captain. Whether they're honest or not, we're running out of oxygen; if we could have kept that part of the engine working, we'd be ok for a few more hours. As it is, we've only got about 30 minutes left."<br/><br/>Decan sighed and keyed the mike. "Cazador, this is the Artemis. Thanks for your offer of help - we're in a bit of a jam over here. We've got a crew of four and one paying passenger. Can you take all of us on board? Our air scrubber is offline.  Over."<br/><br/>He flipped a switch, bringing up the ship's intercom. "We've got an offer of a ride and a tow for the ship. Meat, Scrubs, code 13. Ms Efram, please stay in your cabin until I send Len-Su to get you, understand?"<br/><br/>He knew she'd understand. Code 13 was to tell the boys to be loaded for bear, but stay out of sight. Hopefully Cazador was an honest ship, but you never could tell.<br/><br/>He fingered the revolver at his hip and reached above him into a locker for his shotgun. He threw Len-Su's scimitar to him (never understood that weapon), and then a belt with a handgun in it. "Let's pray it'll be alright. Too bad we don't have a Shepherd on board..."