Introducing...

The glimmering new silver ship glided slowly away from the Deep Space Research Base Einstein II to join the awaiting escort of small bubbly looking science ships. Commander Alexei Kachorikov, the chief science officer of Einstein II, watched the new ship with a mix of apprehension and pride as it made its way to the rendezvous site. His ship.
The product of 30 years of research and 20 years of experimentation. Finally it was ready for its first whole scale test with human crew. It glided out to the predetermined coordinates in an empty sector, the cold light from a distant sun glinting off its flawless stronium-algol surface. As one, the science ships protectively shepherded the Quasar 4 into position before situating themselves in a giant spherical orbit the sleek new ship at its core. The crews on the orbiting craft looked on expectantly, checking spectrascopes, gyroscopes, muon colliders, spectroscopy pyrometers, and all manner of readings indicating the behaviour of the ship and her crew down to the tiniest detail of who was using the executive toilet on level 16, Area P that had a gold plated seat and played Chopin when you flushed.
Chief Engineer Brian Cordell strode from his console to stand at Kachorikov’s shoulder.
“It’ll all be over in an hour or so. They’ll look after her alright. Don’t look so worried Chief.”
“I’ll relax when she’s safe back home and we start analysis on the data,” replied Alexei, gazing intently out the window.
Outside, the Quasar 4 began an elliptical flight path inside the guard of circling ships. Turning sharply, it accelerated towards the centre of the sphere, beginning to glow with increasing intensity. The ship was now a blur, streaking towards its target. Suddenly, in a blaze of light like the explosion of a star, it disappeared.
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