Mid-way through Buddy's speech the captain had renewed his struggles to escape his bindings, so it's clear that Buddy’s speculation is accurate.

At that moment a console at the fore of the bridge beeps.

'Warning:' Buddy says immediately. 'Crew member Yi-Ka's console subsystem indicates a Ghutarn vessel broadcasting as Khatuton is approaching this vessel on an intercept course.'

Feely, Stealy and Cheeky all point their stolen weapons at Hawu.

'All right, all right,' he says. 'I'll talk. A bounty has been put on your ship, and the live capture of anyone found on board. We were lucky enough to be in range of your distress beacon, and your course suggested you might be the subject of the bounty. We let the Ghutarn know we were responding, and arranged to deliver you to them. That's it, I swear.'

Yi-Ka and Shscs indicate agreement at this. They hadn't done so at the captain's other stories, so we think this a good sign of Hawu's current truthfulness.

'Can the Stony Tide outrun the Khatuton, Buddy?' we ask.

'Speculation: Negative.'

'You need a better ship,' we tell the crew, and Shscs wiggles its rearmost shoulders, which seems to indicate emphatic agreement.

'Information:' Buddy says. 'The Khatuton is a scattered-skirmish class vessel. Speculation: There may be more such vessels in the vicinity.'

We pace back and forth on four folded arms, thinking. We can't escape, so our options are limited anyway, but getting closer to the Ghutarn may give us the opportunity to find out who hired them to attack the Shaxixith'th.

We stop pacing. 'Captain, Duchess, crew members Shscs and Xy4. Your luck has matured. We wish to be taken aboard the Ghutarn vessel.'

Yi-Ka peers at us. 'Seriously?'

'Yes. You may hand us over to them, and collect your bounty.'

'No way,' Shscs says. 'Really?'

'Yes. But only if you swear not to attempt to harm us after we untie you.'

'Easy. I swear.' Shscs says.

'I swear on Takathi Prime's broken moon,' Yi-Ka says.

Xy4 speaks from its seat at the table behind us. 'Full disclosure – I'm a big proponent of lying,' it says. 'But I'll swear anyway, because, why not.'

After a lengthy pause Hawu nods. 'Fine. I swear too. No harm done.'

'Great.' We lower our weapons and go over to Xy4 first, only to see it protrude a small laser on an extendable arm, which makes neat segments out of the cable that had bound it to the table.

'Never a fan of that cable,' it says. 'Too noisy.' It floats across the bridge to help Yi-Ka. By the time we make it back to untie Hawu, Xy4 has already released all three of its crew-mates. We decide we need to get our ridable drone back as soon as possible. Dry surfaces really aren’t suitable for octopus speed.

The captain stretches each of his four limbs in turn. Then he detaches something from under his seat and pokes it at us. Chokey easily intercepts the device... but that turns out to be a very bad idea.

A huge jolt tears through us, and all eight of our arms go suddenly rigid.

'G-g-g-g-g-g...' we say.

Then our vision swims, and the bridge seems to get very small and very distant.