Daphne and Sir Anderson's arrival on the bridge made eight. The nobleman cast a cowed glance in Rachel's direction, but she ignored it. She had more important things to worry about right now. Daphne squinted toward the consoles from the back of the group. "What's going on?"

Mona flipped a toggle to isolate the signal. "We're receivin' a distress call."

Daphne blinked. "Receiving? You mean, as in the kind where we're not the ones in distress?" The Companion looked around Artemis' rickety cockpit, then nodded. "Well, that's refreshing."

Rachel frowned in her general direction. "Mona, what exactly are we lookin' at?"

Mona tapped a few controls and squinted at the panel. "Well, it…"

Dex leaned closer. "Is it automated or live?"

"Well, I haven't had…"

Sir Anderson stepped forward, scanning the black horizon. "Where's it coming from?"

"Hey!" The questions stopped as Mona shoved back from the console. "Best pilot on the Border, here. Let me work, xing bei ni men?"

Now that the other seven people on the bridge had stopped talking, Mona nodded, and scooted the chair back toward the console. "All right, then." She began to work at the controls. "It's coming from…what looks like a salvage scow, about…twenty minutes from here. It's a live signal, and…" Mona blinked in surprise and looked up at the captain. "We're gettin' a video feed."

Rachel nodded, her eyebrows creased in curiosity. "Put it on monitors."

Mona depressed two buttons and the image of a tired-looking middle-aged man faded onto all the screens on the bridge. "I'll play it from the beginning."

Mona tapped the control and the fuzzy image groaned to life. "Please…this is Captain Hyram Goode of Unified Reclamation Survey Ship 40190. We…we had an accident." The picture began to fade. "…still not sure what happened. My engineer's de…" The picture faded into gray snow again. "…stimate we have no more than two hours of air left. Qing fu chi wo men. Plea…" The picture faded, and then cut out entirely. The bridge was silent as Mona dropped the transmission fr