“Well, that didn’t work out very well,” Ishikawa admitted.

“What have you idiots done?!” blared the STS channel. Tethered together by the cruiser’s grappling lines, the two ships were whirling around their shared center of gravity, which was somewhere inside the cruiser. Now the port bulkhead was the floor. Everything loose, and a few items that had just gained their freedom, crashed to that side.

Shwartz emerged from the starboard airlock door and fell across the cabin. “I did it!” he shouted.

“Yes, we know,” muttered Pitcher. “Where are we headed, Cap?”

“Jupiter. In fact, I believe, somewhere very close to the center of Jupiter.”

There was a short silence. “Maybe stealing an alien ship and hotwiring its warp manifold wasn’t such a good idea?” Pitcher said.

“What did you want a jumpgate tender for, anyway?” Shwartz wondered.

“I was going to sneak on board a jumpgate and hijack it,” Ishikawa said sheepishly.

“Next time you have an idea, let’s talk first,” suggested Shwartz.