The two crates almost filled the small cockpit behind the airlock. "Sorry, where could I store them?"

  The cat turned, her impressive teeth still bared. His hair stood up on his back. Then she closed her snout a back to looking as normal as a humanoid cat could look. "Are these fragile?" Despite the sharp teeth and the predator's muzzle, she spoke softly and timidly.

  "No, spices, the most fragile are the crates."

  She showed her teeth again. Maybe that was a kind of smile?

  "Here, this is all the hold there is." She opened a rger panel behind the two seats and put the crates inside, using only one hand. The hold was not much bigger than his on Bckbeard, or Silent Samul to be correct. He was almost filled with the boxes and his bag.

  "You wao go fast?" she asked again, "We be there in 0120, but then I have to charge you another, er, 150. This is all fuel, holy, I show you the ption on arrival."

  "You're burning 630 on fuel for an intrasystem jump? What runs this thing?"

  "Xenon, the most pact fuel for a psma drive. And some deuterium for the fusion core, of course. But that is I will not charge."

  "Xenon... " was a rare noble gas, but that was all he knew.

  "So?"

  "Ok, I would like to see that," He could charge this as well on his tract. "A's add another 20 for the deuterium, so 650."

  "Please buckle up." She moved a strange white thing with a tube uhe seat.

  "What's that?"

  "Strap-on toilet for long jumps," she replied, barieeth again.

  He would have felt better if she had said nothing. His fault for asking.

  The cat tapped buttons and sliders on ss to activate the systems, and there were even manual switches.

  "Why don't you ask the AI?"

  "Eh, no AI, only assistant systems. And some of them are even useless because the restoration is not finished yet. Ok, the fusion core is already over 10%. Are you ready?"

  He was not. A ship without AI. He could not see this ending well. "You've jumped in this before?"

  "Yes. From Hopkins station to Fallerian IV, and then here. And more test jumps for certification."

  He was still not fully vinced but his curiosity had won. It was fasating, like watg a native tribe building a fire without tools. He could guess what she was doing but he would be at a loss as to the details. Well, that was what a ship's AI was for.

  "Flight trol for White Ocelot, request line course to exit window B for jump in 0035."

  "White Ocelot, that is impossible."

  "Flight trol, would high-stakes my dog fee?" the cat asked in Fallerian.

  With a k they were weightless. "You have yh-stakes tract. Double dog fee ime too for White Ocelot if you fail. Here is the tract hash."

  "firmed."

  "Wow, I never undocked that fast before. A bit expensive, but I'll remember that. What are you doing?"

  She was furiously w the ss with one hand, while with the other she was trolling the thrusters with a stick. They banked hard. Then she switched to the sti the other side which apparently trolled the pitd roll. "Ramp up, stupid pump," she muttered, limited by the fusion core as she hit that s. Despite this, they accelerated and turned under full manual trol to get onto their flight path on the navigation s, the only thing familiar to him. The fusion core s fshed angrily e with a rhythmic sound.

  She looked at him. "Buckled in?"

  He nodded. It was the first thing he did after the sudden release of the cmps.

  She abruptly cut the thrust and braked hard, he hung in his belts. Some metal screeched angrily but the sed rge bar on the fusion trol panel jumped down and instead of the fshing, there was just a yellow frame around the panel.

  "Finally," she muttered as she yahe ship around hard again with the man thrusters, pressing him again into the seat, probably pulling close to 0.8 g. "You're not getting my money!"

  By now, he would be perfectly happy to pay the double dog fee. He was sweatie the cold cockpit, which felt even colder after waiting so long at the warm station.

  As soon as they were on course, the cat again unbuckled. Uhe tilted 0.7 g acceleration, she removed a panel above her chair taining three rge manual switches, the kind the hero has to turn to foil the vilin's pns in the dramas. She turhe rightmost one, which made a solid thud. Nothing happened, he breathed agai, she grabbed the stick with her right foot paw and made a few course corres while her left foot-paw held to the armrest and her fingers danced over three rge side ss and the fusion core trols, which turned e again. It was an impressive dispy, the massive muscur cat being that nimble.

  "Good," she eo a s, then turo him, "We'll use main engines 2 and 3. Since 1 is not w, I only operate 3 at about 20% because of the asymmetric thrust. Let's see how much that will give us." And buckled in again.

  Not that her expnation filled him with much fidence. So far, he had always let the AIs handle an asymmetric thrust and correct the 4D course. He watched, half fasated and half frightened, as she maniputed ss, adjusted some manual dials and flicked various switches dangling from open panels on her cables. She was following a list from her pad, but it looked like she was taking various shortcuts. He wondered how she could get all these sequences right.

  "Cluster-Kbauter-Cloth, standby."

  There was a murmur in the background. Another s woke up, a very rge one in front of them. With a g-scale of up to 6!

  "You said you had no AI?"

  She bared her teeth again. "No AI, the White Ocelot flies under natural intelligence. Just a codeword activated assistant." And after a short pause, "Cluster-Kbauter-Cloth, 3 limited to 20%, 2 ramping up to 105%."

  The soft murmur in the back became angry. An arm sounded, or perhaps just a normal warning. The fusion core s turned e again. She was not worried, hitting sliders and buttons on ss. Vibrations built up. Their thrust had already exceeded 1.4 g, twice the surface gravity of Fallerian.

  On the navigation s, the most familiar of the ss, he could see that they were 1/3 of the way to the jump window, with half the time left. It seemed hopeless.

  "Ok, two is on now." She showed her fangs again.

  There was a jolt as if they had been hit in the back. But it remained a stant kick. He looked at the navigation, 1.7 g and accelerating fast. He had never accelerated so fast in 3D, that ship must be insanely powerful. The noise in the back was now like an over-revving motor, and it was getting louder. The ship was vibrating, everything was rattling. The fusion panel had turned blue after reag 90% power.

  He was drenched in cold sweat and it felt like a sed person was sitting on him from the acceleration. Like the re-entry with Bckbeard.

  The cat was still w the ss and trols, while he was barely able to lift his arm off the armrest. No wonder she was so muscur. She seemed to enjoy the wild ride, barieeth from time to time.

  2.5 g assed. By now the vibrations were s that he could barely read the numbers. His field of vision on the navigation s narrowed uhe brutal acceleration and kig vibrations. Now the huge numbers and status bars made sense. With the rattling and angry humming cacophony around him, he almost missed the tdown to the jump warning.

  "Do you need a patch?" she shouted.

  "No, fine," he lied. ime, he would ask for one before take-off. But wrong, he will never fly in such a ship again.

  2.8 g was the st time he could read the gauge before the room colpsed and the noise became unbearably loud and accumuted. The ss and panels formed a flickering hypercube, many, many facets at impossible angles.

  And then they were ba 3D, and the infernal noise of the ship felt almost like sileer 4D.

  "Cluster-Kbauter-Cloth, stand by."

  Within moments, the vibrations and rattling ceased. His ears still rang.

  The weightlessness only sted for a tenth of a sed until she had found her bearings and ushing the ship around hard. He was gd that his st meal had been soup, and that it had been 2000 ago.

  But now she was going no faster than 0.5 g. After the rattling high-g jump, her manoeuvres felt smooth and soft.

  "Crazy fun, huh?" she ughed, showieeth again.

  He nodded weakly. He had never uood why everyone called cats crazy. But this cat was crazy. "White Ocelot for Fallerian III flight trol, questioning under a dog port with xenon tubes." Her pronunciation was good, but the words made little sense. She should have used Standard.

  "White Ocelot, you are not announced. Leave the reception window as fast as possible and then prepare for a waiting Hohmann transfer."

  "firmed." The thrust pushed him bato his seat. But it stayed below 0.8 g, maybe that was the limit of the trol thrusters.

  "Fallerian VII should have announced us," he stated the obvious.

  "I think we overjumped the intersystem slot reservation message, even with the 0029.7 run-up. After all, the message only travels at light speed.” She closed her eyes for a sed, “Oh yes, they should get it in 0005."

  "Please, you show less teeth?"

  She closed her snout abruptly. "Sorry," she said, again iimid soft voice from when he first ehe ship.

  "Let me iate with the station. This is my home."

  "You're from here? All right and please, make it cheap." She closed her mouth again after barieeth for a split instant.

  Now he smiled to aowledge her efforts. "Ok, how to operate? Ah, I see." There was a unication s with rge speak and mute buttons and some smaller ones for seleg the recipient.

  * * *

  The station was not happy that someone had overjumped an intrasystem jump reservation. It was dangerous, someone else could have used that slot. The intrasystem windows were small and close to the stations because the arrivals were trolled. But they had clearao the Fallerian III entrance window and had been pushed hard by the flight troller on Fallerian VII. Who should never have given them clearance for departure without waiting until at least 0040 to make sure that the slot reservation had gohrough. If they puhem, they would also have to punish the flight troller on Fallerian VII. In the end, he got them off with a symbolie.

  "The fine is down to 50 for deviating too much from the indicated flight path. Bah."

  "Thanks, I would have simply paid," she said.

  "It's still not fair. I know AIs that had more trouble keeping a path than you. Actually, the Silent Samul was horrible at keeping a flight path. You hahe ship well."

  She showed her teeth before hiding them again. "You're a pilot too. What css?"

  "Oh, I think with the jumps and after re-entry I could upgrade to css E. It has been a busy two years."

  "Oh," her face was hard to read, "I'm just a real ow. This is my third trip." She stared at him intensely. "Would you like to try? Here you use your stiow, left stick is z left-right, the thrust is front-back, right stick is rolling in the dire of the stick. Rotate the stick will rotate around the main axis. And autohold is on: Whatever vector you ge to, the ship will hold it as soon as you release the stiow take her."

  Hesitantly, he put his hands around the sticks at the end of the armrests. They were thid solid and would only move with a little force. He tried rolling to the left, a push and they tilted quickly but stopped abruptly by the automatic ter-thrust as he returo ral. The ship was very manoeuvrable. Too much for him, even Bckbeard had not been that manoeuvrable imosphere.

  After a few more stomach-shaking attempts, he took his hands off the sticks. "Thanks, I only flew bigger ships with AIs. It makes your ability to stay on course even more impressive. "

  She showed her teeth again for a moment, then closed her snout again and sighed.

  "Perhaps I should hahe station unications and you fly? Your Fallerian pronunciation wasn't bad, but" he bit his tohere was no nice way to end that sentence.

  "Yes, please." Even without her toothy smile, he could hear that she was relieved.

  With the fi of the way, the dog port was . It took a long exge again. He feared that the White Ocelot would be added to the list of ships to be handled extra correctly, as the only pce to get xenon was an iion port at the shipyard. It was free to dock there to refuel, and he was also free to disembark, as he was a registered resident of Fallerian III. So the station would lose their dog fee from them.

  "Ok, we have a new course clearance. Our dog port is at the shipyard he nadir, there is the only UDA facility with xenon. Dog is free but xenon is rare, sold to units of Jerrotz. Human units, er." He took out his pad. "A ton costs about 350."

  Her ears pricked up and she showed her healthy teeth again. "Really, that cheap? I'll fill her to the brim." And then she closed her snout again, "Sorry."

  "Don't worry, it's just that I'm not used to seeih. I mean, Fallerians don't have any, and Lalleli doesn't show her teeth."

  Apart from her snout, only the ears on her head seem to move to show her emotions. Now they y rather low again. "Who is Lalleli. A cat?"

  "Not," he almost ughed, "a Preon, four strong legs, a tail and fur and then a human upper body. Mostly human."

  "Oh!" Her ears stood up again. "You are a nipanion in the cockpit."

  "Thank you. I am not used to being in the cockpit with someone else. I always fly solo."

  "Isn't that lonely?"

  "Sometimes, but that depends a lot on the AI. I have met some very nies."

  "Nice AIs?" Her head tilted further in his dire.

  "Yes, the st good one was Simon. He was really good, he knew all the tricks."

  "He? Tricks?" She spoke very slurred.

  "Hey, are you all right? We're drifting off course!"

  She jumped up, head straight again. "Damn," she muttered, "mind over matter."

  * * *

  The cat kept them exactly on course. For the rest of the flight, she trated on the ss and looked out of the window, but never onced in his dire or spoke to him. She seemed stressed, even though the approach was easy. And she was no longer smiling, her tongue was hanging out and she anting. Her smell became stronger but he robably smelling as well, drenched in cold sweat after the crazy jump. After all, the ship was tiny.

  Finally, the eation's nadir filled their view. They sloroached the only dog adaptor that could supply xenon. She did a few final adjustments and they ected with a metallig, almost weightless. She worked the ss again to shut dorepare for refuelling. This time she wely down the checklist on her pad.

  He unbuckled his harness and floated up, rubbing his back.

  "Ouch, my back. With the vibrations from the main drive, some fur would be nice."

  She mumbled something.

  "Pardon?"

  "You'd need even thicker fur than I have. And my tail is worse off."

  He had no idea. But Lalleli had a tail too, so his i iqued. "What's it like with a tail?"

  Her fingers stopped their slow dan the ss. She shivered, then unbuckled and turned around, holding on to the side of the seat to keep herself from floating away. And then she pushed her rear, tail up, towards his face. "Ah, go, touch it," she said again in a slurred voice.

  He was very fused. Her tail was only a handspan away from his face, reminding him of Lalleli at the 0 g toilet. Hesitantly he touched the tail. It was thicker and softer than Lalleli's. The tail's fur felt nice. Even though it was a little sweaty, it was very soft. She began to purr and moan. Obviously, she was no loaking care of the ship.

  He worried a go of the tail. "Hey, e on, give me your wallet and you get the 650. I have to go." It took him a moment to figure out the td the cargo panel swung open. He had the boxes and the bag halfway out when she grabbed him from behind with ford started rubbing her body against his baext, she ed her legs and arms around him from behind, again with great force. He screamed whe his left earlobe, and he was bleeding.

  That brought her to her senses. She pushed herself to the far er where she held on to the armrest and shivered. "Sorry. Leave! Crazy cat! Leave, crazy ow!" She did sound indeed like a crazy cat.

  He was fused, she looked so bad, shivering, chewing on a finger and looking around wildly. Half of him wao help her, but older instincts told him to run away from the predator. He grabbed his luggage, which was drifting around in the cramped cockpit. Luckily, it had not yet damaged any ss. Swinging the bag's strap around his neck, he tug the crates towards the airlod went through as soon as it opened, a st gnce back to the shivering cat behind her chair.

  The access tunnel was short. There was a sed hatch that opened easily. No one was oher side, just ay round wide tunnel with lots of ropes along its sides. He floated at the entrance for a moment to get his bearings. There was a lift nearby at one end of the tunnel, so he used the ropes to get him there. o the lift were flexible o secure things. He pced the crates and his bag uhe s and hooked his feet into the ropes.

  It took him a few moments to calm his rag pulse and slow his breathing. What had just happened? She had been so fident and suddenly so different. Was she really crazy and had she had a breakdown? But then she would never have got a lice, would she?

  He took out his pad, he still wao pay. They had a tract, even if it was only verbal. He could not just walk away like that. But they had not yet exged addresses. After a momeuro the dog port. But the ship's hatch was closed. And ion. He really started to worry.

  So he went back to his things, took out his pad and called flight trol to send a message to the White Ocelot. Which was quickly received, but not answered.