“Jump space insertion in six minutes, mark!” Ashley barked.As the seconds counted down I was scanning the space surrounding us for threats. I cut ...ower to the maneuver thrusters. Sometimes it’s a good thing to enter jump space under thrust. The procedure then was to cut thrusters after jump space insertion and power them up when exiting jump space, but that complicated the navigator’s job. A constant, unswerving vector had fewer variables to plug in. We were jumping five light years and some. I wanted to tell you earlier but did not want to spoil my chances to involve you and your company with my plans." Roger, all I can say is that you are considerate not to have brought it up. Don't worry about it as I never know with this ditzy blonde what I will discover after the fact. Well, you are now part of the family, so to speak. Let's go and have a well-deserved drink before supper, and I'll explain Izzy and my rather odd relationship."He ushered me into an elegant living room, and I was. .....When I was 16, my best friend's name was already Lynn. We had been friends for a few years and we spent just about our entire teenage years running around together. I can still remember the fun times we would have flirting with boys and staying up late into the morning trying to outdo each other in silly games we used to play.I can remember some of the hottest times I ever had was when I was doing things that Lynn made up for me to do. When we would spend the night over a each other's. He'd have done anything at that point to remove that barrel from his view! As it happened he didn't have to. Because right at that moment the largest tree in the clearing's center exploded.Curious as that was in itself, stranger still the tree's immolation really hadn't been that loud. One second a healthily Oak, next a shower of splinters with only a loud 'WOOF!' rather than a deafening 'bang' one might almost expect. As what was left of the tree fell in the woods, no one really heard it. They.