Almost instinctively, Suzan, Xander, and Don took a step away from Veerna as Sareen turned to her slowly. "You fool," the Federation officer hissed at Veerna. "This is all your doing! How could you?"

Veerna crossed her arms. "Even if I hadn't been caught, and even if I hadn't allowed myself to get arrested, you still would have the last Atonian on your ship, and Rulon still would have come after you," she said in her best lawyer voice. "So yelling at me isn't going to do anything. Shore up your defenses! We're a sitting duck here."

"She's right," Xander agreed, grimacing when Sareen turned her glare on him. "Officer Sareen, permission to search the ship for this Yulia Threden?"

"Hold," Sareen said.

The communications' expert spoke up. "Officer Sareen! A message from the Federation, requiring an immediate response."

Sareen turned her back on Veerna and Xander, marching over the communications' computer. She read through the message with narrowed eyes before heaving a sigh. "Send acknowledgement of the order," she said. She turned back to Veerna. "Well, cousin, it looks like the Federation isn't quite ready to be rid of you yet. If you agree to cooperate in finding and keeping the Atonian out of slavers' hands, the Federation will offer you a full pardon for your crimes."

"A pardon, huh?" Veerna said. "Sounds good."

"But your handler will be with you," Sareen added, shooting Don a poisonous look. "Don't mess this up, Collego."

Don looked about as happy with the arrangement as Veerna felt. "Are you kidding me?" she said. "I have to drag this useless lump around? He thinks I'm crazy!"

"You are crazy!" Don defended himself. "You're a murdering lunatic!"

"I haven't murdered anybody in ..." Veerna scrunched up her face as she thought. "A week?"

Don threw his hands in the air in exasperation. "See?"

Sareen frowned at them. "You work with her," she said. "Federation orders." Then she turned her back on them both.

"Holy moly, Donny," Veerna commented. "That break-up must have been rough."

Xander coughed. "Ten minutes, remember?" he said. "Then Rulon comes and ruins our day. Can't have that. We should split up, try and find the Atonian. Any idea what she looks like?"

Suzan nodded. "Indigo hair. All Atonians had indigo hair," she said.

"Great," Xander said with a sigh. "So we scour a huge prison ship for one girl with purple hair in ten minutes. Sounds awesome! Everybody ready?"

Sareen glared at him from over her shoulder. "Get a move on! All available personnel not manning security and defenses, search the ship for an indigo-haired girl. She is not to be harmed. Get moving!"

Xander went to grab Suzan's arm, but she shook her head. "We'll cover more ground if we separate," she said. "Good luck, Xan!" She quickly moved off.

Xander considered going with Don and Veerna, but Don was already bickering with her. "It would be logical for a scared slave to hide where there aren't any people," he was saying.

Veerna rolled her white eyes. "Except if she's smart. Then she'll go where people will think she won't go and—"

Xander didn't stick around to hear the rest. It was obvious the two of them wouldn't be moving for some time, and speed was key. He shouldered his rifle and sprinted down the opposite corridor Suzan had gone down. Veerna and Don had the right idea, but neither was the right person to come to a decision about where the Atonian would hide. Don was too logical, and he was also right about Veerna—she was nuts.

Moving down the hall, Xander thought about where he would go to hide from slavers if he were the Atonian. Barank was a big ship, after all, and there were way too many places to hide than could be searched in ten minutes. But she had to have known that the slavers would come after her! A small amount of panic threatened to creep into Xander. It was hopeless. Even if they had the entire crew searching Barank, they'd never find her in time!

Sareen's voice over the com just increased Xander's panic. "They're moving to board!" she said. "Get a move on—" There was more, but for some reason, Sareen was cut off by static and her voice faded to nothing.

"So, they cut off communications," Xander muttered.

An unexpected predicament, but Xander forced himself to focus. He did feel a little unnerved that he could no longer communicate with his sister, but he couldn't dwell on it. That just meant he had even less time to find and protect the Atonian.

He decided on his course of action. The Atonian would be scared, but chances were she would be smart enough to know that Sareen had ordered the removal of the prisoners. She would know the cells wouldn't be searched. Which meant that would be where she would hide.

Xander started moving towards the cells when the lights went out. He cursed to himself when he rammed into a wall, groaning at his aching head. Owwww. How in the name of the Federation was he supposed to get to the cells when he couldn't even see?

The emergency lights flickered on. They weren't nearly enough to be considered true light, but at least Xander could see the outlines of stuff without having to worry about running into them. Xander walked along the wall, watching until he found the emergency box mounted on it. He tugged it open and grabbed the oxygen mask and the flashlight. He'd never expected that he'd have to use them.

The beam of the flashlight whipped around Xander like crazy as he ran through hallway. Speed seemed to be his greatest advantage. The faster he found the Atonian, the faster he had could get to Suzan—wherever she was.

A sound came from one of the open cells. Xander's hand crept to his rifle, but he didn't take it. Shining the flashlight into the cell, the golden beam fell on a figure huddled in the corner, their head buried in their arms. Her head. The long indigo hair hung over her arms, and she didn't seem to notice Xander there.

Awkwardly, he cleared his throat. The girl's head shot up, and Xander's eyes widened in surprise. It wasn't her pale violet eyes that seemed too large for her head that surprised him, or the tattoo beneath her chin and swirling beneath her collar. It was her youth that was shocking. She couldn't have been any older than fifteen. Those peculiar-colored eyes went wide, and she pressed herself against the wall behind her, ridiculously long and skinny arms hugging the metal of the cell. Xander couldn't help but notice the bruise on her cheek. "H-hey, it's alright," he said, lowing the flashlight beam from her eyes. "Are you Yulia Threden?"

Still staring at him, she slowly nodded. Xander breathed a sigh of relief to himself. "My name is Xander Weni. There are bad men coming after you. I'm going to protect you."

Yulia chewed her lip. "Protection hasn't gone well for me," she whispered, a brown-leather gloved hand touching her bruised cheek.

"I'm sorry," Xander said. "I would never hurt a child." He extended his free hand towards her. "I can guarantee that the man who has boarded this vessel means to harm you."

"Rulon." Yulia spoke the name like it was poison. "What about the nice lady who saved me?"

Xander was taken aback. "What nice lady?"

Yulia pursed her lips. "She had white hair."

"Veerna?" Xander choked on his surprise. Never had he heard the notorious space pirate described as a "nice lady". The words took a little of the mystery from the alien. Quickly, he forced himself back to the task at hand. "I'll take you to her. She's here; she's trying to help."

"Oh ..." Yulia couldn't take her eyes off of his hand. She made no move to take it. "Are you—are you sure? Some people say I'm unlucky ..."

"I don't believe in luck," Xander insisted. "I'm here to protect you. Please, give me the chance to do that."

"Okay," Yulia said. She still didn't take his hand, but she stood up. "Where are we going?"

"We're going to meet up with Veerna and the others," Xander said. "Hopefully without finding any of Rulon's men. But I'm a part of the Federation security force. I can handle whatever they throw at us."

Yulia looked unconvinced, but she didn't say anything. She hovered close to Xander, though not close enough for contact. For some reason, she seemed to want to avoid that. Not one to question people—particularly when he was a human lie detector, literally—he continued down the hall.

It wasn't long before he heard a sound not far from him. He unthinkingly grabbed Yulia's arm, dragging her back with his shoulder blades pressed against the wall. The Atonian gave a small peep of protest, pulling her arm out of Xander's grasp. Seriously, why didn't she want him touching her?

It was Rulon's voice, Xander knew it. "Where in the name of the stars are those women?" he demanded. "I want everyone on this ship dead but them! Do you hear me? DEAD!"

Xander heard him, alright. Yulia's weird full-body suit creaked a little as she squirmed uncomfortably. They were both thinking the same thing. If Rulon looked to his left, he'd see the flashlight that Xander held. And if he saw the flashlight, he'd find them and he'd capture Yulia and kill Xander. Xander wasn't sure which was worse. He was pretty sure Sareen would destroy his grave if he let the Atonian get captured by the slavers–again.

"Split up," Rulon ordered. "We'll track them down."

Splitting up was a terrible idea, at least for Xander. Moving carefully and avoiding touching Yulia, he started backing down the hall. If he could get far enough away that he could turn off his flashlight, they would be able to get away. It was a big if, though.

Someone grabbed Xander's arm. Before he could yell—which he really wanted to do—he was tugged into one of the cells and a hand was slapped over his mouth. Yulia squeaked in panic as another person grabbed her arm. "Quiet!" a female voice hissed. "Do you want to get caught?"

Xander manhandled the restricting fingers from his mouth. "Veerna!" he whispered. "Is that you?"

A finger tapped his nose. "The one and only, sweetie," she said teasingly. "Now shhh."

Xander didn't appreciate getting told what to do, but he knew that silence was their best option. That was why it was so disturbing when Veerna pushed him aside, stepped into the hall, and bellowed in a voice not her own, "The Atonian is in the kitchen!" The voice sounded ... familiar.

Don, who had been quiet up to that point, made a choking sound in the back of his throat. "That's—Rulon's voice!" he said in a barely-controlled whisper.

Xander raised his eyebrows. "She can mimic voices?" he asked.

"More than voices," Yulia said. "She can morph into the body of anybody."

"She can?" Don and Xander chorused.

"B-but, Rulon, we thought—"

Apparently Rulon was no longer among the group, and somehow Veerna had known that. "You thought wrong!" she—or rather, he yelled. "Get moving!"

There was the sound of people running, and Veerna came back in. When Xander shone the flashlight on her, she had a look of immense satisfaction on her face. "Ta-da," she said. "Good thing Rulon wasn't there. That would've been a sticky situation. Come on, Donny; we'd better go before they realize I bamboozled them."

"Veerna?" Yulia said hesitantly. "Is it really you?"

Veerna's voice took on a kinder tone than Xander had ever thought her capable of. "It's me, dear," she said quietly. "You've nothing to be afraid of, child. I'm going to take care of everything." She and Yulia went ahead of Don and Xander.

Xander shone the flashlight on his face and mouthed the words, Holy moly to Don. For his part, Don looked wide-eyed. "She sounded like ... a mother," the psychologist said, sounding like he hardly believed it.

Xander shrugged. "She can't be all bad," he replied. "Come on. She's getting away."

Don nodded absently. "Yeah. Let's go."