The chef's assistant woke the rest of the crew and the back to prepare breakfast, the ship's time having bee after the transit. They weled the ot to be rushed by the higher-ups.

  The ship was quiet as the staff prepared the meal and whatever was needed for the higher-ups with calm effiot least because she had gotten her paws dirty repairing the galley oven and steamer on the first night, the pilots were not sidered part of the higher-ups and everyo or stood around the mess table where a rich breakfast buffet was served.

  Without the stiff atmosphere, she learned more about the staff and their passengers. As Chatee had suspected, the staff were recruited from the lower tribes of the Ketcher , mostly fourth and fifth tier. Most of them had been with the Fiyul household since early adulthood and were practically sidered Fiyul tribe by now. None of them had been modded, of course, but they had beeed from a rge pool of didates. In addition, most of the lower tribes had modded themselves so often in the past, either voluntarily or at the request of their employers, that many of the lower Ketcher cats now had these idealised bodies naturally.

  While that expihe appearaher things were more important. At this moment, Ketcher was in turmoil after the sudden, though irely ued, death of the very old mother Teresa, who died at the age of 89. As Teresa's children were all over fifty, the Ketcher cil decided that the eldest of the sed tier should take over. This was mother Fiyul, who at 49 was just below this arbitrary threshold. She had suddenly been promoted to lead the Ketcher , uedly and not without some opposition. Thus, the mother of the highest Ketcher tribe was on her ship, the seost important cat on the p was off-p! Even for Samul, the ruler of space travel, leaving the p such a time would be unthinkable. A feeling shared by most of the staff. But the mother had been pnning this expedition for years, even though her departure was only annouhree days ago, shortly after Fiyul's promotion.

  So she wasn't alone in w whether mother Fiyul would still rule Ketcher when they returned. Uhis journey would help to stabilise their hold on power. Some specuted that she wanted her eldest daughter to be accepted as de facto leader instead. Which made the mission a mere diversion. But why would she take two doctors, the other two higher-ranking cats? And two of the best Ketcher doctors on modding. And why this long trip to an unoccupied system that had been pnned for a long time? No, the majority expected something special from their journey.

  All this talk brought back politics, a subject she had hoped to have left behind when she renounced her Samul lineage. Instead, she had been drawn bato the pames of the Ketcher . Fortunately, she was only the sed pilot and as a necessary support staff, her role would hopefully be limited to a name on the crew ma. She shuddered at the aim of the mission she had bee involved with.

  Chatee was from the Kareeb tribe, whitil four days ago had been another first-tier tribe. Theoretically, she had been number 184 in line before Fiyul was announced as the new mother. If she hadn't been the only active Ketcher pilot, the mother would certainly have objected to her sele.

  After all these revetions, she told them that she was now teically the fourth in line of the Petra . On paper, that made her senior to everyo the mother, even senior to the other bejewelled cat, Fanny, the you daughter of Fiyul, who was currently fifteenth in li the age of 21. It was rumoured that she had e on this journey because she was expendable, while her older siblings would try to solidate Fiyul's position in the mother's absence.

  The talk of rank within Fiyul still affected Chatee, who got up as soon as she had finished and headed for the cockpit. She had talked too much, though, and had still en half of her food. But she got up as soon as the door to the first opened and the young cat, Fanny, came out. "Thank you for the food," she bowed in her dire, then turned and headed for the stairs, trying to escape the politid the rank struggles.

  "Wait," Fanny called in a shaky voice, "please, Pilot Rerra, wait."

  She hesitated oairs. "Yes, madam?"

  " I see the stars ter? Please?"

  "Yes, of course," she smiled at her. But then the door behind her opened again and she quickly climbed the stairs, doubting that the mother would be pleased to see her sed pilot. Well, it was mutual.

  * * *

  Later she sat on the floor of the cockpit. Chatee was happy to talk about her travels and the things she had learhat only real life could teach a pilot. Most of them were not about navigation or actual flying, but about dealing with s and officials at all sorts of stations and, of course, dealing with passengers. The tter two were the main reasons why there were pilots at all sihe actual flying could be doirely by AI.

  "Hello," came a voice from below, "may I enter?"

  There was no trapdoor, so it was rhetorical. "Of course, please enter."

  She scrambled to her feet as Faered the cockpit.

  "Madam Fanny," she almost whispered and bowed.

  "Please, you promised me a view of the stars," Fanny began, "why are the shutters not open?"

  "We always close the shutters when we jump, and had o open them yet," Chatee replied. "Cye, are the radiation levels low enough to open the shutters?"

  "Very low. Should I open them?"

  "Cye, yes, open them please."

  The shutters took a few moments to open fully. The windows were mostly dark except for a few stars, so they looked more like mirrors and reflected their faces.

  "Cye, turn off all cockpit lights and dim the ss."

  And then more stars appeared. As their eyes adjusted, the number of stars increased and increased until even the small area of the window showed more than a huars. They were all ented.

  "It's easy tet what is outside," Chatee whispered.

  " we see the main star of this system?" Fanny asked.

  "No, not without some course corre, I'm afraid."

  But it was not just Fanny who was ied. "Cye, what is the teral delta v to have the main star in direct view of the cockpit?" She asked.

  "What would be an acceptable upper limit for acceleration, and do you mean within a 15 degree forward angle?"

  "Cye assumes 0.1 g and yes."

  "Then a teral po for the 0044."

  "Cye, what about 0.05 g?"

  "0071"

  She looked at Chatee whed her shoulders and tail. "We're wasting fuel left and right anyway. Cye, align us with the star of this system for 0200 with less than 0.05 g teral po during the corre."

  The stars began to move immediately, although the teral po was barely noticeable, still accelerating at 0.7 g. Soon the system's main star, a smaller red dwarf, came into view. Its dull red glow still washed out all but the brightest stars. Although it was half the diameter of their home p's orbit, it was so far out that it barely filled the windows, like an oversized red mpion. Uhe tter, its surface was boiling. As these structures were gigantic, all the bubbles and fiments did not move at all from their point of view. It still showed the tremendous energies that kept the stars shining, exceeding their energy output by millions and millions of times. They watched in sileil the ship swung back to its inal course after passing 0200 and the main star disappeared from their direct view. The cockpit fell into darkness and the stars and a faint distant nebu reappeared.

  "It's o see them for real on a while," Chatee finally broke the silence, long after they were ba their old course.

  "Yes, thank you, First Pilot Chatee and Sed Pilot Rerra for sharing this with me," Fanny said, bowing slightly in the cramped cockpit. "I apologise for the mother. She may seem cold, but this journey was her heart's desire. She p long before her promotion, even before I was born. Now she suddenly has the means at her disposal and has decided to go before she loses her status".

  "It must be something very important to leave at this time."

  "Sorry," Fanny just shook her head, "that is not for ao know."

  "We uand. Anyway, three more jumps and we are all closer to knowing."

  "Thank you," Fanny said, ign her remark, "I'd better get downstairs before the mets angry."

  "You are wele any time, Madam Fanny al Fiyul of Ketcher," she said.

  Fanny stopped halfway. "Please, sed pilot Rerra from Petra, call me Fanny here. You are the pilots."

  And then she went down without waiting for an ahey looked at each other and nodded. Definitely aar-struck cat.

  * * *

  In preparation for the jump, Chatee went around applying the patches to knock out all their passengers. The staff would have also accepted their sed pilot handing out the patches, but she did not dare go to the mother. Instead, she stayed in the cockpit this time, her first ielr jump as the main pilot at the trols. Even though she had no iion of toug them, except in an emergency. Which hopefully would not happen. At least the tdown was going well while she dozed off at 0001.

  They were in 3D. It was Chatee who woke her by ripping off the pster. It stung a lot, she still had hairs on the inside of her ear.

  "Sleepyhead, it seems your metabolism is still not fully banced after the mod," she grinned.

  "Sorry," she mumbled, still not awake enough for a better retort. "Cye, status!"

  "We're out for 1200 and on course. jump in 8140. A transit authority had hailed us. I just sent our status and flight pn and deyed a full reply."

  "Aren't we in a human system?"

  "Cye, good answer," Chatee replied instead, turning to her. "Yes, Charock was settled a long time ago. They have two ps in the habitable zone and almost two billion people live in this system. One of the bigger humalements. As such, they have traffitrol because they enforce it. Ok, Cye, record. This is cat freighter Cye. We are requesting clearance for the flight path towards the exit point for Hrst 259934 as previously submitted. We have a crew of two and thirteen passengers, all cats." Chatee waited a moment.

  "Ok, sent. Giveime stamp of the message, a reply will take about 0417 or longer."

  "Ok, take your bathroom break and e back so I go around and wake up the passengers. In this system, we will py by their rules ahe cockpit ma all times."

  Now she really felt the pressure in her bdder, just a "thanks" and then she was off dowairs.

  * * *

  About halfway through the transit, Fanuro the cockpit. Manning the cockpit was b sihe system even had traffitrol. And for collision warning, they relied on the AI-monitored sensors anyway. She looked at the numbers showing their course, which of course indicated a full match. Which meant there was nothing to do. Fanny's visit was a weled ge of routine.

  She opehe shutters. But they were on a pre-submitted flight pn and had to follow their course. So there was nothing but distant stars drifting very slowly through their field of view as they followed a tenth of a hyperbh the system towards their jump window. And siheir ransit system was inside a faint nebu, there were fewer stars visible in that dire than usual.

  She showed Fanny her route, on s 1 in 3D mode, from their starting point, the pnned and actual routes, and how well they matched. It turned out that Fanny had done some simutor training herself. Not enough to pass a test, but she had a good idea of hoacecraft travels uhe forces of a tral star and how they had to factor that into their route, as well as the heavy burden of accelerating or decelerating at a stant 0.7 g. However, Fanny rimarily the seost senior member of the Ketcher board and was urict orders not to socialise too much. Therefore, her visit had to be brief.

  Soon after Fan, Chatee came to relieve her. It was time for the seeal to nourish her body before the jump, a long one, ing close to the three-day transit time limit in 4D for passenger carriers.

  Afterwards, Chatee went around and put the passeo sleep while she talked to the human of the local traffitrol to clear their exit. Though talking was a bit of a stretch with the unication dey caused by light speed, she had already sent her message out so they could reply in time. And a real human replied, wishing them well with a smile. She smiled bad replied by video, although the jump warning had already started and they would not receive his reply.