December 19th, 8251

You lean back in the captains chair on the bridge as the Night Horse settles into her pre-warp vector for the Azur system. You have both Midshipmen on the bridge with you to better keep track of their locations. Midshipman Huckle is the veteran of at least twenty warp jumps under all conditions so you have little concern that he will panic or suffer form jump sickness. Midshipman Engel on the other had has only ever been on one warp jump, the one to the Celesmore system itself to join your ship's crew, so you expect him to come off the worst of the three of you.

You idly bring up the diagnostics for the Kleinova warp drive on a secondary screen to watch it spin up in preparation for the jump. This will be it's longest jump to date and thus the sternest test of it's capabilities. With the route to Azur mapped out but little tested you expect the jump duration to roughly match the listed five days. You also expect that the near-prototype nature of the drive will make itself apparent again.

You check the plots and nod in satisfaction.

“J minus fifteen minutes. Engineering sound off on Warp Jump drive status please.”

“Engineering here, all systems nominal at this time. Will advise or abort as required should that change.”

“Thank you engineering. Fair warning crew, this is a new warp jump drive, complete with the squeaky-new smell. Grab a barf bag unless you have a stomach of iron and stop by the auto-doc for sleeping pills if you need them.”

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“Engineering, aye aye.”

“Supply, aye aye.”

Neither man leaves their post but you do notice Midshipman Engel thumb the edge of a bag protruding from his pocket. You nod in satisfaction that your crews is as prepared as they can be and relax in your chair to let the time slip by. You are woken from your near-trance by an automated announcement.

“Jump in five... four... three... two... one... Jump initiated.”

You feel the drop and lurch but easily hold your lunch down. Glancing about you see midshipman Huckle working his station as if nothing had happened. Hearing a retching noise you turn and winch at Midshipman Engel losing his lunch into a barf bag.

“Stand down from jump stations. Engineering has second watch, Supply has third watch. Take it easy Engel, catch your breath, let's get you taken care of. Auto-doc is this way.”

December 24th, 8251

Allfather's Eve finds the three of you sat down to an off-duty drink and a minor feast when the emergence notification sounds. Checking your tablet you note that it's on schedule and wince at the minor lurch as the Night Horse returns to reality in the Azur system.

“That's arrival. Give me a moment here...”

You lift your tablet and issue the commands to start a standard system survey pattern, staring at the star and spiraling out to each planet and moon in turn.

“Right, nine hours on silent running until we reach the inner system. Not too much interesting about stars by and large. Six worlds and seventeen moons plus transit time... Computer estimate puts us as here for a month all told. This is the boring part of course, lots of scanning and data logging, but also the part that earns us our princely salaries. Hazard pay for mapping out all the astrological perils and being the first to check for pirates, raiders, and hostile aliens. This part of the Empire the threat data banks indicate possible golrak hivemind presence. We also get Survey pay for any rare and valuable deposits we can locate. They are common enough that we only get a minute fraction of their total value but split only three ways, even with the required rank-share structure, we're still looking at the possibility of several months of pay each with only a bit of luck.