The timing of her patch had beeer. She awoke in 3D. The rge letters on s 1 showed that only 0037 had passed sihe return to 3D. But an arm sounded and s 2 fshed red.

  "Cye, status." But before the AI could answer, she kheir acceleration was too slow, the cot was moving very differently.

  "Rerra, main drives 3 and 6 failed after re-entry in 3D."

  "Cye, you be more specific?"

  "The schematics are on the s. I have no response from power distributor 3 outwards. This indicates that either the distributor has failed or the passive wiriween the w step-down verters in main bus 4 has failed. I am running the remaining four at 85 %, giving us 0.6 g."

  She sighed as she looked at the schematic. The wiring iion ran over half the length of the ship. "Cye, do we have a spare power verter?"

  "Yes, there should be two spares."

  "Cye, route on s 1. Go down to 0.3 g for transit and calcute the dey at the destination with the current engine figuration at 85 % and 100 % during the jump, please."

  "I need more time, I am still refining the currery point."

  Well, the jump was short, so using a maximum of 1 g would increase their traime, but not more than two days. "Cye, also calcute a route where we jump earlier and maybe end up closer to the inner of the destination system."

  The up, went to the bathroom and then to their , where Chatee slowly rose from her upper bunk.

  "Good m. Engines 3 and 6 have failed, possibly the power verter."

  "Ugh," Chatee replied, jumping to the flracefully in the lravity. "M," she said, following the vention of resetting the clock after every ielr jump, "If this is a good m, I don't want to hear what a bad m would be. No, don’t ahis. At least it is only the power distributor."

  "Good m Rerra and Chatee, I have fihe refining. In the current figuration, we could arrive with about 2000 dey when we jump in 1450."

  "I'll wake everyone, have a quick meal and then jump again. Good, I hate those jumps. They turn the fur grey prematurely. Wake the staff. I will wake the higher-ups."

  "Ok," and out she went, dowairs and into the st where the chef and her assistant slept along with two other maids. She quickly tore off the pster to reduce the soreness from ripped-out fur before they woke up.

  "Oh, cute little pilot ing to my bunk," murmured the cat on the lower bank, still half asleep. She blushed and raised her ears in embarrassment until she got herself under trol.

  "Good m," she shouted.

  The cat on the upper right bunk stirred and propped herself up.

  "Sorry," she tinued in a normal voice, "we have a problem with two of the six main engines. We have to jump early, in 1300, so we have to eat in 500. Sorry about the short notice."

  The chef looked at her. "And I had such a nice dream. Good m, I will do my best."

  She went to the aed her wake-up call. Four disoriented cats slowly rose from their beds.

  As she ehe , she froze. This was the guard's and oher side slept the male. She had no suppressants with her, and even if she did, her outfit had no pockets. She went back outside, took a deep breath a in, tore off the patches shouting "Good m" a quickly, leaving them alone. She was relieved to see Chatee ing dowairs. So she passed the first two s a down to the workshop, looking for the two spare power distributors. There were two, although her of them were new.

  "Cye, I found two old power distributors. Are they ok?"

  "It depends on the operating ditions, especially heat. Semiducte the higher the temperature the faster. It depends on the manufacturihod. Heat is especially critical if they're made using a process called doping. This involves introdug tiny amounts of fn atoms into the crystal matrix to ge the du. The downside is that."

  Yes, never ask an AI for details. "Cye, stop. I am a bit pressed for time. So, you're saying they could fail pretty quickly if they get too hot?"

  "Rerra, maybe, it depends on the model and if they used doping and what materials are ihe temperature"

  "Cye, it's a PRM23 from ugh," she interrupted the AI again, "I 't read it."

  "The PRM23 series indeed fail due to excessive heat, it should stay below 500 K during operation and tolerate up to 580 K for short periods without power. To avoid overheating, they are ected to a cooling pipe via the ft underside and the two screw holes". The AI sent a picture of the same unit lying on the workshop desk.

  "Cye, could this power distributor have been damaged when the fusion core burned out? I think the cooling system was also overloaded then."

  The AI was silent for a moment, "I am sorry. Ihe entire cooling grid was over 700 K, the maximum the sensors could measure."

  "Cye, sorry t this up again. How difficult is the physical access to the power distributors?"

  "You need zero g and half a day's cool-down to get past two hot areas. It is in a vacuum. It is not a superdug power distributor, so it should be easy to repce."

  "Cye, thank you."

  She put the power distributors ba the box. There was no way she could do this ao their schedule.

  * * *

  When she went up the stairs, there was already some food on the mess table, reheated leftovers and two bowls of meat sad from the fridge, still cold enough to form droplets oside of the bowls. She was not a picky eater and just filled her pte. As she ate, she expiheir situation to the staff, who were not happy to be sent back to sleep so soon. However, this would be their st jump before they reached their destination and that made up for it.

  Chatee emerged from the first with big strides, her fur standing up, her tail a brush. "e up," she growled through her teeth.

  She jumped up, bowed hastily and followed her.

  Chatee closed the staircase door to the crew deck. "That stupid, arrogant, stubborn old e!" she shouted, "thinks she order the physics just because she order acher around."

  "Didn't Fanny expin it to her?"

  "She did, but the old hag listened eveo her daughter. And we are talking about a dey of 2000. On a journey of more than 100 light years. Hell, our accumuted retivistic errors are probably greater than 2000. And then our target seems to be the entire orbital pne, almost 200 million km from the star. Not to mention that her phase nor reference point has been given!"

  "What?"

  "Yes, I tell you now, you have seen the system. A supernova remnant, an old ron star, no e objects, n radio beam. We were going to rendezvous with someone about 200 million km from the ron star, or rather pi times 10 to the power of 17 red light cycles as was the inal instrus. That adds another 15% error, depending on what colour you choose for red. Only the retarded Fiyul believed it was accurate enough to meet someo that exaent. And she had seen us jump, anyone who would take the trouble to e that far would least a day to meet with us."

  They sighed together.

  "Anyway, I've been ordered to make haste, so we'll stick to the pn. Jump as soon as possible with less acceleration a as close to the 200 million km orbit as possible." Her tail dropped again. "I could have dohat with less yelling and more time to eat."

  "Did you eat at all?"

  "No, but in about 0500 I have to make my round. And I will sedate the mother first. There will be enough leftovers. Maybe even some of the better stuff."

  They both stopped in the cockpit. "Cye, zoom in oarget system."

  S 1 showed the system in 3D with their entry point and a braking trajectory to an orbit.

  "Why did you choose a clockwise rotation?"

  "It's a gamble but the ron star rotates that way. Anyway, we e out 2000 too te and the least another day to slow down into that orbit."

  She shook her head. "And all that rushing for this stupid destination."

  Chatee nodded. "Yes, p dwellers."

  She smiled, that statement made her feel like an experienced pilot.

  * * *

  Cye had timed her pat the spot for this fourth iteration. It was only 0019 when she woke up in the pilot's bunk, as Chatee had used the time before the jump to eat up to the st tenth. But that thought made her hungry too. "Cye status?"

  "Still refining, no new problems. The coils are dowo 252 %. Please be patient, the ron star gives off very little radiation and the ck of ps e unique objects makes refining a challenge."

  She khat a ron star was the typical remnant of a rger star after it had bee a giant and then exploded as a supernova, losing most of its mass. The ron star was the naked core, a single big atom, as big as the station. But of course, it was small pared to a typical star and therefore hard to find, a tiny dot among all the stars here. No sane person would travel to such a system. As a result, it was not well charted, and the few cirg rocks had beeered into the almanack turies old and could have well-ged orbit sihen. It was also a dangerous transit system, as the radio beam from the ron star would fry a ing from a shallow a the equator. It was the space equivalent of ay cave he perpetual io one would e here uhey had a very good reason.

  "Cye broadcast our arrival with ID and 'cat freighter Cye with mother Fiyul' to the inner system as soon as you have a dire." She climbed out of the cot for a quick visit to the bathroom. And then woke Chatee, grinning at her bunk.

  "M, Chatee. Cye is still refining, no new problems."

  "M," she purred, pushing herself up on all fours and shaking her fur. Which ged nothing. Everyone had their own rituals.

  "No answer?" Chatee yawned.

  "No answer, ination," she firmed.

  "Let's put off this problem and just wake up the staff."

  She nodded a downstairs, leaving Chatee time to get fully awake.

  * * *

  Apart from the higher-ups, everyone else sat or stood around the table and ate a hearty breakfast, following the tradition that the clock resets to zero at the end of a jump, so it was m. In terms of time epsed siheir departure, they had about one or two days until their rendezvous, depending on which side of the system it was. But with retivistic corres using this star system as a referehey were slightly behind, 3500 to give a rather random number. She tried to expin this to the staff, but most of them had only a vague idea of what she was saying. They had been the mother's best staff, chosen for their loyalty, skills and looks, but probably not for their brains.

  After a rexing, slow breakfast, the staff went back to prepare for the higher-ups, while Chatee went to wake the guards, the mother and finally the two doctors. She felt sorry for Chatee; surely the mother would not like the ck of an answer.

  She took a shower instead. Whehe longer fur g to her body and she looked almost as before, plus the ring spot fur pattern. After the mission she would ask for her white fur, if possible. Or bleach it. And shain, the thick fur took a long time to dry. And she quickly overheated when she worked out with her water-filled dumbbells. The word of the old pilot on the shuttle came back, and this time she agreed. Fur was not so useful in space.

  Uhe dryer, she tio ponder whether she should get real cws at the reverse mod? Assuming, of course, that they would return, that Fiyul would still be in power and grateful enough for a seod for her, and that she would be given a choice. If so, back to short white fur and a fluffy tail. But with long paws instead of feet, to stand taller. And then what? Should she ask fger breasts? But Lead had never pined about them.

  The dryer stopped and pulled her out of her thoughts. "Rerra, sorry to interrupt, but I have received an answer," the AI said.