One of the Federation cruisers still pursued them to the bitter end, when Captain Northern decided they were far enough from the gravitation of the system’s sun to penetrate Underspace. Still, it was a near thing, and a rough ride into Underspace. As usual in such situations, Northern chose to make the jump long before a safety point was reached, and the turbulence and stress on the Starbow’s frame was considerable, to say nothing about the knocking about the crew received. But then, that was all a part of the game. As soon as course was established, Captain Northern announced that a crew meeting would be held after dinner. Laura Shemzak, cleaned up and feeling good after her little blip-ship exercise, sat down at the table where the military commander robots were serving the meal, and said: “Okay, Northern. Dr. Mish. I don’t think I want to wait. I got your butts out of a crack. I want to know now!” The assembled crew seemed weary from the encounter with the Federation, and not exactly prepared for any space-shaking pronouncements.
