They sat in the crew room. After stowing as many boxes of spices as the sed sleeping capsule could hold, and receiving a rge box of local food that was also safe for him, including a huge loaf of bread, it was time to say goodbye. But first, he had Lart enter Lalleli and the spices on the shipping ma.

  Lalleli was in the hold to give them a hug, while he stayed in the crew spad waved his hand. Then Lalleli closed the rge hatd was trapped inside again. Beyond the hatch, the hanging pstic tubes would first be infted by hydrogen gas to full expansion. Then the super-cold liquid hydrogen would turic tubes into brittle tanks. The wall of the hold did not ge temperature when touched from their side, but the thermal differences caused some eerie creaking and bending noises.

  While they waited, Lalleli gave a brief at of her excursion into the city. When she had returned, it had been almost strao see him walking on two legs when everyone else reon. It was clear to him that she would have no problems living here. But he remained silent. If she wao e with him and help shut down this operation, all the better.

  Then he excused himself, he had to go to the cockpit and check the departure list. There were also simutions, especially for the take-off from a runway. But Bckbeard assured him that it could do that on its own. And on the air, there was almost no essing up. They would fire the argines until they were out of the atmosphere, deploy the radiators and then switch to the weaker but more effit direct psma propulsion of the general engines until they had reached 1.5 escape velocity. The status s showed him that the hold was already down to 50 Kelvin, the actual filling would begin soon.

  He went back down to the crew area. "Filling with liquid hydrogen will start soon. Then it will only be 1000 or so."

  "Good, I'll be gd when I float again."

  "I thought you liked walking on the p."

  "Yes, on the p. But for now, I am fio the area the size of my mattress. Floating is much better, there is sso much more spae."

  "Well, it will take a little loo get t." He rubbed his hands together.

  "If you are too cold, just make it warmer, I have no problems."

  "But the atmosphere is already quite dense pared to the p and"

  "Don't worry, I've been here for almost three days without any problems. I really don't mind."

  "Thank you." If she said so, he would be happy to get rid of his thick clothes. "Bckbeard, 295 K for all crew areas, please."

  Theried to expin to her what to expect during the unch. And she had to test her 4D harness. She hesitated a lot, it reminded her too much of the first time she woke up as a preon in that rack. But it would be much safer for take-off and would be necessary during the jump. And she could open it herself, which took away most of her s.

  * * *

  "Hydrogen is 99 % full," the AI announced.

  "Bckbeard, thanks."

  He climbed into the cockpit and watched the stream from the trol room. Lart was sitting on his haunches, reading something. "He Lart," he called to get his attention, though his voice would probably be clipped. "We are ready."

  Lart looked up and smiled. "Good timing, we be home before dark." He left the trol room, probably to give instrus.

  He watched their activities on one of the outside cameras. It took some time to disect the hose. First, the ector had to warm up a bit before it could be disected. And then some more before they could hold the hose normally without thick leather gloves and not break it when they bent it.

  Finally, they galloped down the runway to the trol room with the hose still frozen. When they reappeared on the s, he could see them stowing the steaming cold hose uhe side row of tables in the trol room.

  "We're ready when you are."

  "Bckbeard, bring the fusion cores online."

  "ing up, tdown is running. Online, we o be in space within 0150 to deploy the radiators after we use up the hydrogen."

  "Ok, I'm bringing the fusion cores oakes about 0017."

  "We won't go outside until you're off the p, don't worry."

  "Huh? This ship runs on fusion, no radiation outside."

  "You will still be bsting the area with hot hydrogen."

  He was right. "Ok, yes."

  Lart took up his book again. He went through the suggested unch sequences in his mind over and ain while the time ticked down.

  "Ok, fusion core 1 and 2 at 100 %," the AI announced.

  "Lalleli, are you ready?"

  "Yes, strapped and ready."

  "Lart, we are ready."

  "Well, see you ime."

  "Thank you and farewell." He cut the audio. "Bckbeard, take us off the p."

  The whole s ged to the view he had seen in the simutor, a rge forward view and two small feeds from sidewards and aft. It took a few moments for the hydrogen pressure to build up and a little longer for the argio reach a steady burn. During this time, the ship began to vibrate, boung a little even with the brakes on full. Then the brakes were released. Never in his life had he felt such acceleration. Brutal forces pushed him into his chair which hung in the unusual position. The s showed only 2.2 g but it felt like entire ps were crushing him. They raced and bumped along the runushed forward by a white-hot cloud of rebining hydrogen from the argines. Suddenly the worst of the vibrations stopped, they were in the air. Now another po of acceleration was added as they climbed steeply out of the p's gravity well. But the higher they climbed, the less vibrations he felt. And while they were still accelerating, it was not so bad without the vibrations. Soon they crossed the terminator, and on the p below it itch-bight again.

  Bckbeard rolled the ship and the familiar view of stars filled the cockpit. Although they were still too slow to escape the phey shut down the argines because the atmosphere here was thin enough to deploy the radiators and then switch to the much more effit main engines normally used for jumps. They were soon firing at full power, which was 0.9 g, just a normal p’s gravity.

  "Lalleli, we are in space. Another 0030 of acceleration and then a 3000 of low g drift to align the vectors.

  " I open the harness?"

  "Yes, should be safe now."

  Soon the ground station would be below their horizon. The deep spatenna was also deployed, so he called them. "Lart, no problems, we are in space. Thanks for everything."

  The reply came immediately. "Yes, we see the data. And greetings to Lalleli, Per will be waiting for her return," Lart smiled, waved and cut the feed. Yes, they wao go home quickly.

  * * *

  Finally, they reached their target speed and the main engines were shut down. They were weightless for 0030. And then they would tih a slower acceleration from the navigation engines.

  By the time he was on the dder, Lalleli was already floating through the , smiling madly.

  "I see you are having fun."

  "Yes, this is really great." Her right middle foot grabbed the dder and she smmed into it, making the metal groan. "Ouch."

  "Careful, your iia is still the same. First rule of moving in 0g, make sure you stop safely. The sed rule would be to always be within reach of a handhold, but with our small ," he trailed off. "Anyway, are you all right? Stomach okay?"

  "Now that you mention it, I could eat."

  ly what he had worried about. But it was good to know that Lalleli beloo the lucky ones who didn't get spacesick quickly, even without being strapped in.

  "Bckbeard, we get 0.1 g?"

  "Yes, we are right on the vector and save some fuel."

  Lalleli soon floated down in slow motion, looking disappointed.

  "Believe me, eating is no fun at 0 g."

  Even cutting the bread under low 0.1 g was a challenge. Especially without a proper table under which to pce his ko teract the for the knife. In the end, Lalleli grabbed four handles with her four feet and held him by his hips while he sliced the bread with the only flimsy kit khey had. Sihe spread wouldn't st long outside of the fridge, which it didn't fit into, they put a spoon i and then a big pile of the thick spread on top of the slice. It was easy to eat in the low g, the slices did not buckle uheir heavy yer of spread.

  Lalleli wolfed down the slices as soon as he had finished cutting them. Her one hand holding him down and the other holding the slice. He didn't mind, he wasn't that hungry. Even with the uping jump, one slice was enough for him. Instead, he pleted his evening meal with some hot tea. Lalleli was happy with some water and another slice of bread. Almost half the food from the box had already disappeared into her stomach.

  He vacuumed up the crumbs and then they went back to 0 g so he could help Lalleli to relieve herself. He let her sail around a bit, but at 1200 she would have to strap in for the run up to the jump.

  For someoh no experience of weightlessness, Lalleli did very well. At first, he was worried because she was doing slow somersaults right after eating. But after she drifted around and rotated on all axes without a problem, he rexed. She was a natural at 0 g. He had fun trying to sail over or under her, just staying out of her reach. It was hard in the small and with fs, two arms and a tail at her disposal. It brought back memories of Jerka.

  When Bckbeard annouhe 0150 mark to the jump, they had to finish. He ordered slow acceleration and Lalleli nded on her mattress. She was relut to put on the harness but uood his s about 4D aering buried in a hatch that was too small in normal 3D space.\

  When she had buckled, unbuckled and buckled agaiwo belts of the harness. He went upstairs to get a patch for her. She was in her harness, her torso too this time. "Sweet dreams," he smiled at her.

  "See you in Faleran."

  "Fallerian," he smiled and stuck the patch the patch behind her ear. Her head and shoulder rexed immediately, and the rest soon followed.

  Taking advantage of the privacy, he went to the toilet and then strapped himself into his chair. "Bckbeard, all set."

  The jump warning souhrough the ship and the room folded as he had hoped. And his patch ected.

  * * *

  Bckbeard had timed his patch perfectly. And their point of entry was right too. Or, to be more precise, it was believably far off. The inal flight pn had had them dog at the Fallerian VII station. But they came out oher side of the system, as if they had overjumped, just outside the inner edge of the jump zone. With their low fuel reserves and ck of food, and already drifting outside the jump window, they would have to dock first at Fallerian III, his intended destination. With their deliberately butchered jump, Fallerian III was only a day away. He smiled. "Thank you, Bckbeard, well done."

  The AI did not answer.

  They kept radio silence, as if he were still uhe patch. He had set a timer, no respoil 0714.

  At 0517 came the first coded message from Fallerian VII. They must have been monit the system, their ship would have just appeared on the ss when they sent it.

  But he still did not aowledge receipt. Until 0714, when four more messages arrived.

  "Bckbeard, I assume we decrypt this?"

  "Yes, it requires the private key to our flight pn. Here."

  It was no surprise. They wao know why they had e out wrong. And they were supposed to make an intrasystem jump to the arrival zone of Fallerian VII. Nothing ued.

  "Bckbeard, I assume they provided us with a key to answer?"

  "Yes, of course, it was in the message. What do you wish to send?"

  "ologise for jumping too far and taking too long to respond. We are currently outside of the allowed intrasystem jump window with insuffit delta v to reaother. Due to our fuel situation, we will instead dock at Fallerian III, refuel and make an intrasystem jump from there. The estimated dey should be less than 4000 from the inal flight pn. Thank you for your uanding." He waited until the AI indicated the end of the rec.

  "Do you think they will buy it?"

  "Bckbeard, what are they going to do? If they had a jump ship, they would not have shanghaied me. you trace the message?"

  "Probably not."

  He sighed. "Bckbeard, open a secure el to Fallerian III flight trol."

  "Narrow beam is the only option. You may transmit, dey is 0003.23,"

  "Fallerian III, this is Silen from Samur." Then he switched to Fallerian. "Calling cuse 14-33. Must divert to Fallerian III with low fuel. inal destination is Fallerian VII. you help me fulfil my tract?"

  Well, that should be very clear. Maybe too clear.

  "Fallerian III replied, also encrypted with our flight pn. Now we have a secret key for them as well."

  "Bckbeard, thank you. I will first send the dog request unencrypted and then expin more things encrypted. So tell them to be patient, I will do the official flight protocols first."

  And so he did, a normal exge with the Fallerian III station. While waiting for the answers, he posed the secret message. Eventually, he was able to send their whole situation, as well as the problem with his ID and lice. Then it was still half a day of braking and 0 g drifting to reach Fallerian III. After taking care of the most urgent things, he went to the toilet and had a shower. A Lalleli be knocked out by her patch, it was the best for the moment in the narrow .