in-system adj.

The ship began to drag a little, a very little, as the cone scooped up interstellar dust and hydrogen. She was still accelerating. Her insystem tank was idle now, and would be for the next twelve years. Her food would be the thin stuff she scooped out between the stars.

A hundred thousand worlds circle their suns here, many of them earth-like; others are too young for intelligent life to have developed; some cradle pre-space humanoid cultures; still others have in-system space travel; many are dead worlds.

Besides, more than half of the crewmen on in-system ships are male, and seven out of ten on military craft.

In fact, his life had been womanless, except for one very drunk insystem merchanter one night on Mariner when he was living high and secure, which was how Mariner knew his name and laid in wait for him. And another insystemer before that, who he had hoped would partner him for good: she had lost him Esperance when it went bad.

The in-system factories must be off-line or hidden behind Groundside.

By the estimate of the senior engineer aboard the Paganini, the other cruiser’s insystem drive had lost thirty percent of its power.

While I waited for the Outbreak Team to arrive from some other starbase, I used the captain’s vidscreen to watch outside the ship. I didn’t see much—nothing came or went at Starbase Iris, not even in-system shuttles. Once I noticed a merchant vessel passing within range of Willow’s hull cameras, but it didn’t come very close; it was aiming for the planet Celestia, a light-minute nearer the local sun.