Life in the ‘verse can be hard and dangerous, especially when you are transporting a bunch of stolen cargo through alliance space and particularly with a bunch of civilians sitting on it.
You already managed to escape one Alliance cruiser and reached Persephone but now Badger has stiffed you. You need to get away, find a new buyer, get paid and avoid further alliance entanglements. Oh, and don’t let the passengers know what is going on. Especially that Tam bloke, he looks like an Alliance rube!