109 "Navigation," asked North, "what do we have
on that system ahead?"
110 The Navigation Officer put a diagram of the system on the screen.
"If we continue on this route," he explained, "this is where we'll go
in ...by this ice field. The system has twenty planets, most
of them about the size of Haven's largest moon. There's a lot of smaller
stuff."
111 "At least it's not a pebble system," thought North. The combined
mass of that ice field, though, would be a problem. It would be to
starboard of them most of the time. "I'm going to get some sleep,"
announced North. "Slow her down to factor two, and stay well away from
that ice field."
112 North got some sleep and returned to the command deck, just before
his vessel dropped below factor three. Now, they were only
doing two-hundred-and-fifty times the speed of light. Soon, they would
have to shut down their star drive, and switch over to their system
engines, as their star drive would be too dangerous.
113 North was just considering this when suddenly the Firing Control
Officer screamed a warning. "There's something on our tubes!"
114 "Hard to starboard!" North ordered, "Decelerate!"
115 Instantly the Officer on the Helm obeyed. The ship turned sharply,
slowing down rapidly, hopefully to throw off their attacker's aim. But
their attacker knew that this was precisely what they would have to do,
and was waiting. It whipped by, but as it did, it's beam tube put out
two short bursts, both of which found their mark in the cruiser's
engineering section. The ship rocked violently, but kept going.
116 Now, they had to switch to their system drive, but only for moments
until it safely carried them near enough to the ice field for their
planetary engines to work against its gravity.
117 "Get us in there," ordered North, "as deep as you can, then shut
down. Use our hauling beam to pull some of