It was not even midday, just past 4000 and she had to burn some of her pent-up energy. Hence, she searched fym on her pad. There was one, a quarter rotation away omost public deck, the dog ring. The logical pce, a gym must be in the highest gravity region of the station. It called itself an 'open gym', open for all races and all genders. She was curious about what aliens would work out there.

  She used the stairs sihe dog ring was just one deck up. She arently their first user in years, the stairwell was dusty and even some lights were broken. She exited by a nondescript door with a lock s at the outside and jogged the short distao the gym as a warm-up.

  The gym was built in pce of a derelict dog port. When she pushed the entry curtain to the side, she froze. A male was sitting behind the desk. He looked up and smiled. "Hello, wele to Lead's Gym."

  She sloroached him. That male certainly worked out a lot. He could probably even take on Traxy and Tryxa together. "Er, I want to work out."

  "You have a free trial day and then join normally for 1.90 per session. Or buy 15 sessions for 15 and you get a training uniform for free", he replied almost automatically looking at his desk.

  His smell was s and she was still high from Ken, her body responded on her own. Only now, she had fully processed the words. Yes, a new work out uniform was a good idea. "I take the 15 sessions." She held out her pad until the payment was registered.

  "Please wait a moment." He dug uhe ter. A pair of shorts was dumped on the desk. "But I have nothing in your size for a female."

  Her heart beat faster, he had reized her correctly. If her brain had worked properly, it would have told her that her current clothing did not leave muagination and her smell ... Instead, she just smiled madly.

  "I offer you a male crop top in your approximate size. But it has zero support", he spoke still from uhe ter.

  "No problem, not much to support."

  "Ouch". He came up holding his head. "Still nice, er", he gulped, "sorry, here you are, sorry.” He shook his head as he shook out water. “You worked out on a station before?"

  "No, st time was on the p."

  "Ok. Since ravity es from rotation, you should alternate on each visit with the maes to the left and right from the entrahe yout is mirrored. Thus, the Coriolis forces will even out between visits." He took a deep breath and looked down on his desk again. "Please enjoy your visit."

  "Thank you. Also for not mistaking me for a male."

  He fletched his teeth and his tail was going. "My eyes and nose are w. And your buffed body goes rather well with ..."

  "You firactive?" A male, not put off!

  "Girl, I run a gym. Seeing your well-defined muscles moving under your short fur is triggering all my, ugh." He anting with a slightly open mouth and grabbed hard the sides of the ter so that his muscles looked even stronger. "I wish there would be suppressants for males", he sighed.

  "You want to make out with me?" she asked, still expeg reje.

  "Please, stop tormenting me", while slowly nodding.

  "No, I mean it", she licked her also swollen lips, "Now where?"

  Without further words, he put a 'back soon' sign on the desk and directed her to the staff door.

  The room behind it was not so different from her . Only that it showed signs of someone living there for a loime: There were paperwork and printouts oable, parts of a broken mae on the floor o it, old cups of supplementals, a basket with dirty undry and uned dishes in a sink. There was no shower and no toilet though.

  He straightehe bed sheet which was thankfully not a bunk bed.

  She had discarded her top already.

  * * *

  She y on his hot hard-muscled body, both felt the vibrations of their synized afterglow purring.

  "Thank you", she purred.

  "No, my pleasure. It was really nice." Yet, he sighed. "And now, I will be good for ahree days at least. Stupid genes."

  "Yes, stupid", she agreed half-heartedly, not digging further into the 'three days' ent. Instead, she traced his impressive muscles.

  "Now, with the fog gone, please tell me your name again. I am Lead."

  "I am Rerra." She nibbled again on his neck which tasted so nice.

  He winced.

  "This is your ?"

  "The gym is mine, so wele to my bed."

  "I don't feel the bed, only Lead."

  They giggled together at her stupid py of words.

  "Thanks again. I am very impressed that you run a gym."

  "Males are not retarded. Just pressed into their roles by society."

  "Sorry", she should have been more sensitive. Thus, she added, "I am also going against my ."

  "Well, misfits attract each other."

  She said nothing. Still too happy.

  He suddenly started to rise. "I am sorry, but I think I saw someone on the monitoing to the ging area. Business calling. You still want to work out today?"

  She hesitated just a moment. "Yes, I deyed that for too long already."

  "If there is time, I might join you for a bit. Ok, go out first and go to the right for this session. That area is empty. I still have a reputation to uphold of being a serious busiomcat."

  She got the hint and soon was out in her smelly clothes, saving the new gym uniform for the way home.

  She had missed a proper workup. Soon she was in the zo felt harder than a week ago, the days in reduced gravity had made her a little soft.

  It was 5500 wheiced a message on her pad. Ken wao meet Trina a 6000 in the shipyard’s office, the real office. She quickly showered and ged to the gym uniform which really showed her every tour. But for now, her insecurities had been blown away by Lead. She did not care if people thought that she was s with her furious smile. Today was the best day of her life: She got a ship, a new friend from a founding family, a a male who admired her for herself, or at least, for her body.

  * * *

  She hurried to the shipyard's office but it was 6012 when she arrived. Trina aood at the window each with a cup of hot tea and turo her.

  Trina raised her ears upon seeing her. "Rerra, what did you do? You went for even more daring and." She stopped and sniffed again. "Oh. Already celebrated?" She looked at Ken. "Ok, I want all the juicy details ter. Let’s start the business."

  Before she could even answer, Ken raised his cup: "Cheers, Rerra. I appreciate the effort to reduce your tease, but I am sorry to report that you failed spectacurly."

  It rather added to her fusion, and thus it took her a moment to process his remark. "Oh!" She looked down at her new grey gym uniform. Ok, the nipples were a little visible but still. "Should I get something else?"

  "No, just stay true to yourself."

  Trina burst into ughter and even spilt her tea. She took a few moments to get herself under trol. "Rerra of the long-sleeved shirts, please no, not your old self, rather more of this", and turned back to the window, still snickering.

  Even Trina ositive about her showing literally her skin? But right now, she did not care. She went to the window o Trina and looked fasated at the assortment of jump coils, main engines and two fusion cores secured on the rge moving ptform o the wide multistandard freight dog port. She had not seen these core parts of a ship yet in full, only some bottom or top parts from afar when she was in a duct where she had to rewire some es too. So far, she had only worked on less critical systems.

  "Penny here, the floater drones are in position to move hull 472."

  "Wait a moment, there is still a fusion core to secure and three Vasimirs to unload."

  " I get the, err, hull 472 registration, papers, and manuals?" she asked Ken.

  "Oh, yes, of course, sent. But I could not find a matg manual, only one for the prototype."

  She scrolled through the official dots first. "There is really a space-worthy certification? Why, that is pretty useless, it means it does not leak. One certify a of soda space-worthy."

  "Wait till you see her. Be happy she has one."

  So that was the first catch.

  "And then this certificate of ownership. That history only goes back 12 years and the in is IS, what does this mean?"

  "IS is Ielr, she was found drifting off route."

  Ok, so here was the sed catch. "Is there much more for me to worry?"

  "She has no AI."

  "No AI?" That was defihe most worrisome so far, an AI volunteering for such a ship might be hard to get.

  "No, Sagans never had. Lots of assistant systems but no coordinating AI. Flown more or less manually, like expected of a true sportsman."

  Somehow, her childhood spaceship trump cards have ed to mention that. The Sagan Melorian II had been her favourite card because she was top in all categories other than cargo capacity ah. But flying without AI while she had not even sat in a real ship's cockpit ... Now she got cold feet.

  "Traxy here, we are finished. Penny, your turn."

  "Ok", came Penny's voice, "I am getting hull 472 out now."

  She went with her snout so close to the gss that it fogged. Now a real Sagan Melorian II was floating out of the dog port into the shipyard. She was tiny, the smallest ship in the yard. Her shape was that of a wedged oval, with a sharp edge at the equator and a big bulge 2/3 aft which taihe fusion core. There were even two real cockpit windows at the very front of the bulge. The aft was like one had cut off 1/8th of the oval with a sharp knife and then made three perfect circur and very dark holes. These were the three psma torches, the stro quasi-static pulsed psma drives ever built by humans, at least acc to the details on the back of that arump card. Admittedly, today’s state-of-the-art were dynamic psma engines but these were bulkier. Apart from the sharp equator rim and the ft in the back, the Sagan was all flowing lines. And while the Sagan was only rated for open spad would burn ory, she looked certainly capable of it. Even dirty, with miscoloured and some missing hull pting, she was a beauty.

  As soon as the Sagan was fully in the yard, she ran out of the office as fast as she could do in the low gravity. She was at the Sagan before the drones had even fully powered down, ign the dust blown up by them. As soon as Penny had switched off the drones, she touched the ship ahe surprisingly rough hull pting. But in vacuum it would not matter.

  "A little te and too expensive for a cuddling toy", came Penny's remark.

  She still smiled even at that remark. "Isn't she beautiful?"

  "Well, hull 472 has good aesthetics", Penny ceded.

  Now also Ken and Trina walked dowairs and jumped in wide low-g strides towards her.

  "The shape had certainly appeal", Trina ented, "But I wonder how one get a profit from such a small ship."

  "Quick passeransit, courier services", answered Ken to her relief, "And maybe speciality charter. But holy, the best option would be to restore her to her old glory and find a collector."

  "No", she said, "I will fly her. You said you would do a test jump with me. I am ready."

  "I appreciate your enthusiasm. But she is cold. It will need half a day to get her ready", Ken brought her back to reality.

  "The's start now. e pretty please." She almost purred, looking wide-eyed at Ken while her tail swung pyfully to either side outside her scious trol.

  Ken ughed. "Ok, ess overload wins." He went to the aft and opened a panel. "He we o ect auxiliary power to boot up the basic services."

  Trina interjected: "Before you do anything in here, Penny, have the drones enough juice left to get the hull into airlock I?"

  "Yes, but that means a full sweeping of the yard."

  "e Rerra, you touch her ter." Trina tugged her back to the office where the rest of the crew had been taking a break. Minus Roberta, she had taken half a day off as soon as she had heard that a visitor would e.

  And Penny had not exaggerated, moving the Sagan into their smallest airlock across the yard blew up so much dust that hull 472 almost vanished from their view. There were a lot of circution filters pining too.

  “So, Rerra, that will be your turn on filter duty tomorrow.”

  She just nodded absently. When the hull was in the airlock, Penny released the drones and they returo their charging stations.

  After most of the dust had been sucked out into the filters, the shipyard's crew went back to whatever task this had interrupted. Only Pen with Ken aogether they half walked and half floated through the still open airlo the hub, the weightless region. They ected a flexible universal dog adapter, short UDA, to the top of the bulge on the Sagahe entry was. It would be the only way to ehe Sagan ter when the airlock was evacuated. Sihe Sagan was without power, they had to ect the auxiliary start-up power manually from the UDA. Immediately, the Sagaed with a status message full of errors and warnings to their systems. Now they could fully ect to the UDA.

  To ehey had to get out of the airlod then climb to the airlock's internal dog port. From there, they would float down through the UDA.

  Sihey would evacuate the airlock too, and the live support was not primed, She and Penny put on the shipyard's thinsuits and waited for Ken to get his spacesuit. The suits made the floating down the flexible hose of the UDA a challenge. And the Sagan’s hatch was small, the twins would not fit.

  Her fur ihe thinsuit tried to stand up when she was at the hatch. The Sagan Melorian II series had been built 232 to 223 years ago, that ship was older than her race. She felt like she was entering an a alien artefact. It was dark and narrow inside like in a drama, the only light was via the cockpit windows and their helmet mps. A single small red s glowed low he entrance.

  Ken expihat this was the dog sole which also operated the light trols a her lighten up the cockpit. The Sagan had five rge, dedicated soles doubled oher side, and a rge horizontal in the tre, which was quite an outdated design. All dark.

  Without AI, all the sole’s data were important, Ken stressed. Now, with the light, she could see that the restoration had not e very far. Three-quarters of the inner panelling had been removed; everywhere one had an excellent view of the inner ws, the ducts, cables, and tubes of the ship. The skeletal frame only hi the elegance of the cockpit once. But the exposed inner ws were as utilitarian as on any ship. Rather more crowded given the ck of space.