Star Haven; Departure

"Commander, what did the envoy have to say?"
"We have a heading.  We're going to track down a beacon, rescue an immortal, and change the course of this war."
"That's all the answer we get, isn't it?"
"I didn't get much more.  And I'm not really sure what to make of the rest of it.  The important thing is that I know who we're looking for, and I know how to get there.  Is the crew all aboard?"
"The last shuttle just docked.  We can leave as soon as..."
Natalya tuned out the rest of the details.  They were just procedure.  She turned her attentions to the navigational computer.  The display booted up slowly, adding individual points of light to a circular orb.  It was a representation of the entire known universe.  Tradition dictated that the center of any map was Krove, home of the Arcane Academy, and crossed by more intergalactic level ley lines than any other known planet.  A line drawn between it and the homeworld of the Nielda, and capitol of the Empire, marked galactic north.  A line drawn from Tara in the east to Medea in the west completed the compass.  By some coincidence, the whole series of planets were roughly level with each other, anything above Krove's north pole would be up, and below its south pole was down.  Over the years, the known universe had gotten somewhat lumpy.  Seclora  and Gravaga both occupied vast expanses to the south, and the Harakai war had lead to the mapping of billions of star systems beyond Seclora's southern borders.  Both the Harakai and Ga-Vok held tracts of space just north of the empire, and slightly up.  Humanity lived primarily just east and west of the empire, with the heaviest concentrations just to the north of Gravaga's holdings.
The Djin's location was marked on the map by a little purple dot.  Natalya reached into her pocket and pulled out the compass she'd been given by Empress Thalia earlier.  It still pointed forty degrees up, north-northwest.  She drew an open ended line from the purple dot using the compass to keep it even.  The computer automatically registered the line as the heading for subspace travel, a necessity for a search.  Normally she'd have plotted a tesser jump, simply submitting a destination and engaging.  But without a certain destination, a fact that seemed odd considering that the beacon was still active, such a jump was impossible.  Besides, subspace left more potential to react to enemy movements, and it let them gather invaluable scans on their surroundings.
"Sir? You ready to depart?"
"I think you'll find that our course has been laid in.  Inform command that we've departed and lets get under way."
"At once commander."