There was a thunk and the ground shook. It took the Armstrong's AG a moment to compensate for the unexpected change of course.

"What is-" began the Captain.

"It's a tractor beam," said Marceaux before she could finish "Origin point is within the gravity bubble."

The Captain sighed.

"What did Dr. Kang do now?" she asked "Hail them."

"Go ahead," said Marceaux.

"This is Captain Alexandria Littlecrow of the Armstrong. Why did you just use a tractor beam against my ship?" then she added "As soon as you get a response I want it on the main screen."

A few moments later a familiar pair of sunken-eyed retainers appeared on the screen.

"Be it known that in the name of His Imperial Majesty, Emperor of the Milky Way, in his glorious wisdom and divine mandate, has claimed this starship as his own. Prepare to disembark from the Emperor's ship immediately," said the right retainer.

"Is you Emperor entirely sane?" asked Littlecrow "Tractor beam or no I could obliterate your whole complex with one salvo from this ship's main weapon."

"It is known to the Emperor and therefore is true that you would not dare to harm the last of the Gormenghast line. You will therefore surrender the ship," replied the left retainer.

"You sure about that?" asked Littlecrow, looking down at the two men.

"The Emperor is infallible," explained the right retainer.

"I'm not giving him my ship," said Littlecrow, flatly.

"Then you will starve in the coldness of space," said the left retainer "And the Emperor will collect it from your corpses."

The right retainer looked at the left retainer with a raised eyebrow.

"End transmission!" said the left retainer, with more emotion than the line is usually uttered with.

The screen returned to a starscape with a tiny speck of a moon in it.

"Captain," said Commander Gibson "With all due respect this is completely ridiculous."

"I'm inclined to agree with you, Commander," said the Captain "But we have people down there right now. So as ridiculous as it is it's also dangerous. We need to get in contact with Lieutenant-Commander Mitzner immediately."

"They're jamming communications all around the moon now," said Marceaux "We can't even hail them back."

"Well then how do they expect us to respond to them?" asked the Captain.

"I don't think they expect us to respond," said Commander Gibson "I think they expect us to stave in the coldness of space."

"Can we break the tractor beam from here?" asked the Captain.

"Well," replied Marceaux "Dr. Kang always claims he can although I don't think he's ever actually done it. But Dr. Kang and Mini Kang are both down on the moon."

"Can we target the tractor beam with our ion cannons with any degree of accuracy?" asked Littlecrow.

There was silence. Usually Mitzner would answer a question like that.

"We could make an attempt," said Commander Gibson "But the tractor beam will make precision difficult. And one bad shot..."

"Understood," said the Captain "Does anyone have any other ideas?"

Again silence.

"We could send another team down to rescue them," offered Commander Gibson.

"No. Not a team," said the Captain "That exposes us to too much additional risk. We'll send a probe. It can go through the jamming field, assess the situation, then come back and report to us. It might even be able to get into contact with the original team."

"I'll page the Science Department," said Commander Gibson.

This was the moment the Captain knew was going to come all along. The moment when she regretted letting Zarah go to that stupid dinner.