Fifteen.

Maximus looked at the neutrinometer with astonishment. Their little ship was accelerating at a ridiculous, almost dangerous rate. Andromeda was at the controls, although there wouldn't be anything she could do if the autopilot failed – if they hit a gravity sink, they'd be torn into atoms before anyone had a chance to react.

“Are you sure we should be going this fast? We just had the new nav disc installed, what if there's something wrong with it?”

“Don't worry, I've got this.”

Maximus buried his face in his hands. Sure, it was nice that reaching Winterspace would take less than a day... but he wasn't comfortable with pressing the little ship this hard, particularly not after a repair. He had to think of something else. Getting up, he left the cockpit to walk into the little common room, where Selma, Sylver and Sawyer were seated. They were huddled about a screen; it appeared they were watching an old two-dimensional film.

“What's up, guys?”

“Shh!” Sylver said, “He's about to start singing.”

Before long, strange and old-fashioned music emerged from the little screen. It sounded old, even older than Sawyer's music. Maximus took a seat, and was astonished to see the display wasn't even in color. He couldn't follow the plot of the film very well, although he grasped the archaic language with ease. Still, it was hard to focus – he was worried how the ship would hold up. Hesitantly, he leaned over to Selma, whispering:

“Are you sure it's safe for us to go this fast?”

“Almost definitely. The Serendipity is a fine ship, there's nothing wrong with her.”

Abruptly, they were thrown across the room.