Although Quatermain passed numerous guards and technicians during his trip back to his fighter, none of them paid any attention to him. Nevertheless, he steered the antigrav container with his left hand while keeping his right hand free to reach his pistol if anyone tried to stop him.
Once he reached his ship, he maneuvered the container to the Executioner's cargo bay door and activated it. He was in the process of securing it to the wall of the ship when he heard a thump, followed by several more thumps.
Quatermain quickly activated the mechanism to open the container.
In his haste to exit the lab, Quatermain had barely glanced at the person he had rescued, but now he looked him over more thoroughly.
He appeared to be a non-descript young man in all respects but one : the intensity of his gaze far exceeded what anyone would typically expect from someone so young.
"Wanting a toilet break in the middle of a rescue is very bad timing" Quatermain said.
The young man showed no surprise.
"Just where do you intend to take me?"
"To tell you the truth, I haven't figured that out yet. Blazes, I haven't even figured out how I managed to get on this station yet!"
"You have a very peculiar method of planning rescues then. I suppose your ship's cockpit only holds one?"
"One indeed, and it's still a tight fit."
The young man gazed deep into Quatermain's eyes for several seconds.
"If you are indeed rescuing me and this is not some sort of LSF ruse, then our only avenue of escape is into Order controlled space. There is a jump hole in this system that will take us there. Let me up and I will program the coordinates into your nav computer."
It was Quatermain's turn to look contemplative.
He said, "We're in quite a situation, you and I. I can't fully trust you, and you can't fully trust me, and we have no other options except to do it anyway. Besides, what I'm looking for came into Alaska, and hasn't come back out, so if it isn't here, then it probably went through Order space."
"Nothing goes through Order space that The Order is not aware of," the young man replied.
Quatermain smiled for the first time that day. "I hope that's true."
After The Order pilot programmed the coordinates for the jump hole into the Executioner's nav computer, Quatermain gave him the ship's spare bio suit and strapped him into the cargo bay's prisoner restraints.
"It's not flying in style, but it's a lot better than traveling in a box," Quatermain said as he stepped out of the cargo hold.
The Order pilot smiled slightly as the hatch closed.
The LSF Executioner received clearance to depart without incident, and three hours later, after the autopilot had completed what Quatermain was certain was the most complicated "throw 'em off your trail" set of waypoints he had ever seen, the fighter slipped into a spatial anomaly deep in the Alaska system.
Moments later the ship exited the other end of the anomaly, and Quatermain found himself in the midst of total chaos.