It's still dark when we come to, and we're moving. Mighty, Feely, Sneaky, Chokey and Cheeky are already awake, and they feel out our environment while we wait for our other three arms to recover.

It's a solid container of some sort, easily large enough to contain us – we guess the Stony Tide's crew haven't figured out how squishy we can be yet. Unfortunately there aren't any holes in the container for us to squeeze through.

There is a seam though, on three sides, and we realise it is a case of some kind. The motion of the case suggests we are being carried, and when we listen carefully we can hear multiple footsteps. After a short while the case is set down on the floor.

More footfalls approach from the other direction. When they stop a conversation ensues in the language Buddy calls Local Standard.

'It's in here.' We recognise Hawu's voice.

'What is it?'

'Octopus. Cephalopod. From a nearby garden planet. Shouldn't be sentient, or out of saline water, but it is.'

'What did it tell you about the Dhruhagon?'

'Not much. And we didn't ask. It said it tricked the ship into thinking it was its commander. Probably with this. Some sort of data device. We think it might be Mixcycli, but it won't talk to our data officer without the octopus.'

'Open the case.'

'Might want to step back. It's got a lot of tentacles.'

There comes further shuffling of feet, and then the case cracks open and light spills in. We squint out to see two heavily-armoured Ghutarn soldiers pointing their rifles at us, with a third, an officer, between them. This one wears only light armour, and no helmet. Its mottled blue face peers down at us.

'Hi,' we tell it, and Cheeky gives a little wave. 'They're actually arms, not tenta-'

'Close it,' the officer says, and someone – presumably Hawu – shuts the case from behind, sealing us in darkness once more.

Sneaky, however, has snuck out a bit, and is trapped hanging from the front of the case. The seal is quite flush, so it hurts a lot. The Ghutarn don't bother trying to push it back in, but someone does poke and prod at it. Knowing Sneaky, it's playing dead out there.

Someone lifts the case up.

'The bounty,' Hawu says.

'No bounty. You may have this instead.'

A tense silence follows.

'Command codes,' the Ghutarn officer says. 'You can have the Dhruhagon. Looks like you could do with an upgrade.'

One of the other Ghutarn sniggers. Another lengthy pause comes before Hawu says, 'Fine.'

And with that the Ghutarn carry us off. They walk not too far, then go up an incline, and the sound of the footfalls on the floor changes. We think it sounds more enclosed, and when we hear the sound of a rising ramp we realise we're in a shuttle.

The case is set down and the footsteps disperse away from us. A moment later there's a small tone and the officer speaks. 'This is Quastas. Fire on the ship as soon as we're clear.'

'Yes Captain,' comes a voice, and the timbre of it suggests the speaker is elsewhere, not aboard the shuttle.

Huh. The Ghutarn aren't going to give the crew of the Stony Tide the Dhruhagon at all. They're going to kill them.

We're tempted to leave them to it, given Hawu's duplicity and the unnecessary electrical attack on us. But as much as we dislike him, we dislike the Ghutarn even more. Light suddenly spills into the case as it cracks open, and the pain coming from Sneaky eases somewhat. We swiftly realise the Ghutarn haven't opened it – Sneaky has unclipped the catches on the case.

We push the lid open a little wider and peek out. We were correct – we are in a shuttle. The officer is seated at the front, with one of the armoured soldiers alongside. We can only see the legs of the other, but it looks like it is seated too, facing roughly in our direction.

We have to move fast, and soon, before it looks down and realises Sneaky has unlatched the container.

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Mighty and Feely are acting before we've even finished that thought. They shove the case open and Chokey shoots out and wraps around the soldier's leg. It yanks, causing us to fly out of the case towards it, just as the shuttle's engine's spool up.

'Hey...' the soldier blurts, and the rest of our arms twist overhead, their momentum directing us upward. 'Hey!' it yells.

But then Fighty is punching its visor, Pokey is jabbing its armoured windpipe, Cheeky is restraining one of its arms and Stealy is grabbing its sidearm.

It struggles, gets up, yells more, but by then it's too late, and Feely has readied the weapon for Stealy.

Stealy shoots the third Ghutarn twice as it's raising his own gun. Mighty whips down and breaks one of the soldier's arms. The officer is still turning to see what's happening when Stealy shoots it too.

We slam hard into the other wall as our captive writhes and fights back, but it's easy to restrain a two-armed biped when you have eight arms yourself. Stealy finishes it off with a headshot.

We detach ourself from the body, then go over to the officer slumped in its seat. We frisk it, and sure enough, it has Buddy in an odd little pouch at its waist.

'Hey Buddy,' we say. 'Can you hear us?'

'Affirmative,' it says.

'Can you stop the shuttle and open the ramp?'

'Local system identified, cracked and interfaced.'

The engines wind down and the ramp starts to open. 'It's not always annoying to hear that after all,' we concede to Buddy as we grab some weapons and grenades from the Ghutarn bodies.

We hurry out of the shuttle to find we're in a small airlock. The outer door is still closed so Pokey just has to hit the control and open the inner door, and then we're hurrying as best as we can through the corridors of the Stony Tide, back to the bridge.

When we round the corner, Shscs sees us first.

'Um. Guys?'

'Hi,' we say, as the rest of the crew turn round, and Hawu and Yi-Ka immediately draw and aim their weapons at us, fast, before we can even think about telling them not to.

'Excretion... Where are the Ghutarn?' Hawu demands.

'Oh, we killed them and escaped,' we explain. 'We've got some...'

'Put the guns down,' he interrupts.

'No. You put yours down.'

'No.'

'Okay, here's how this goes,' we tell them, and our arms double up, two to each stolen gun – two rifles and two sidearms in total – leaving Buddy and the grenades on the deck. 'Our arms are autonomous. If you fire at them, you'll need to hit dead-on, with eight shots, just to stop us shooting you back. If you shoot at our head, our arms will just carry on and shoot you anyway. Yes, you have your guns aimed at us, but honestly? You don't have enough of them.'

Yi-Ka and Shscs exchange glances. Xy4 rotates towards its crewmates. 'I believe our guest speaks the truth. Its nervous system is not overly centralised.'

'Fornication,' Hawu says, while Yi-Ka lowers her guns.

Hawu glares at her for a second, then lowers his too. 'Fine. But I'm going to kick your hindquarters anyway, octopus.'

'We don't really have those... but look, we're trying to save your lives...'

He tosses his weapons against the wall. 'Unarmed combat,' he states.

'We don't have time for that. The Ghutarn on the Khatuton were going to fire on you as soon as the shuttle left. They'll realise they can't contact their friends and then...'

'Silence, invertebrate! Drop your weapons and fight!'

'Why should we? And why are you acting like the aggrieved party here...'

Hawu stalks towards us, interrupting us once more. 'I challenge you to combat!'

'But we're trying to save...'

'We don't need your help! Your escape has probably just cost us the Dhruhagon, and that's worth a lot more than the original bounty. The Ghutarn think they'll fire on us? Not a chance. Because we'll still have you to use as leverage!'

'We're not sure we like...'

'I don't give a damn what you like. Accept my challenge!'

The rest of the crew are watching with expressions we can't really interpret, and we're a little confused ourselves. Hawu is now unarmed, while we have four guns. We could just shoot him down, but he seems to think proposing a challenge will prevent that.

'One moment,' we tell him. 'Buddy? Is there some reason we can't just shoot this Jyondon?'

'Negative,' Buddy speaks up from where it rests on the deck before us. 'Information: It should however be noted that a great majority of species consider the refusal of a challenge to be a sign of cowardice, dishonour, or a practical equivalent to conceding defeat.'

'But not all species?'

'Affirmative. Information: Some species consider the idea of such challenges to be archaic or absurd, or consider the delivery of a challenge to be offensive to the ideals of free will.'

'Thanks, Buddy,' we tell it. 'Bad luck Captain. We're the only one of our species to experience this kind of thing, so we can choose which ideology we subscribe to. We think we're just going to shoot you.'

'Ahem,' Xy4 says, moving forward in the air a little. It's an odd noise for an inorganic lifeform to make, we think. 'If I may, Saturday, you are in the company of others, besides our captain, who do believe that a challenge should be met. Of course, you may do whatever you wish, but if you wish respect following a hypothetical defeat of our captain, the strategic option would be to accept this challenge.'

'Huh,' we say, thinking that over. 'Actually, that makes sense.' We lower our guns. 'In that case, and if your crew agree, we will fight you, currently-Captain Hawu, for the position of Captain of the Stony Tide.'