He was not sure how long he had slept. The room, their den, was still lit and Patty was still on top of him, although he was now on his side. As soon as he stirred, she got up zily, shifting just enough to stay on top. He gnced over to Rerra, who was awake and looking at her pad.

  "M, Patty."

  The kitten got up and stretched as only cats could. "Up already?"

  He slowly sat up, allowing Patty to climb down gracefully. "Thank you, little guardian."

  "I'm not little," she excimed.

  "Oh, mighty Patty has reached her final size already."

  "Not fair." Her tail we and right, but she did not know how to reply.

  "No, not fair. Holy, I have no idea how tall a three-year-old is." He smiled. "I guess you're not short at all."

  "I'm taller than Ja," and poio another kitten, closer to the other cats. So they made peace again.

  He stood up fully, stretg and using it to gnce around inspicuously. The other kittens were no longer beside Rerra but sat around Eli. Tab and the other two young adults were also close by. Kit was not there, probably washing dishes. Only the mother was sleeping.

  "Rerra," she said in a low void put his hand orong shoulder.

  She twitched, from ears through her shoulders to the tail, and her fur rose. Only then did she notice him and rex. "Sorry, sleepy human. We had for a few moments and I got some old messages. Nothi though, the data dump for the p was newer."

  "We should leave as soon as the mother wakes up. We take up half the room, you see how they are crowding iher half."

  "I'm here!" came from down below. Damn cat ears, Patty had heard everything.

  "Patty, please go over to Eli for a moment. We want to have a grown-up talk."

  Rerra had found the right words. Patty twisted her muzzle. "I'll be back!" But then she ran with great leaps to joiher kittens as if she had just been away for a moment.

  "So what's on?"

  "It seems that every Samul has goo hiding. And there has been no further broadcast from Ya or any of the other members of the Th tribe. You know, the Ketcher who started this. And fights."

  "So you think it's safe outside?"

  She shrugged. "As safe as it could be with failing life support and no authority."

  "Everyone is lying low?"

  "I think everyone important has left and now no one wants to be responsible for the mess. There are rumours aplenty, people pining about no water or even no circution. Too many, and that was days-old news."

  "And you want to fix all that?"

  She shrugged. "No, of course not. But maybe I help. My shipyard authorisation may be good for something."

  He shook his head. "So what ?"

  "I restore the cooling of the fusion core at the Ketcher ic. Let's go there, maybe that vihem."

  "I thought Ketcher started this."

  "They did. But it seems they lost too. Maybe fighting ihe Ketcher tribes."

  "I don't like it."

  She blew out. "Of course not. But you see those kittens? They could all die at the failure. Space is always trying to kill you until you fight back."

  He had never looked at it that way. He liked being in space, even though he had almost died from empty oxygen tanks, leaking seals or broken coils. "But there's maintenance."

  "Nobody did any maintenance. Or why the neighb sector has been without power for days? All high-tier Samul escaped with the shuttles, and the lower tiers are surely hiding. And very few outside Samul worked for maintehe statiohe AIs who tell anyone how to do maintenance. I lear from them too. There are backups for sure. All I need is a terminal and maybe even my authorisation is enough. Or there are some workers from flight trol or maintenance cooperating with Ketcher. And at least one master key should be with Ketcher. I have messaged my three coworkers who were still alive back then. But without , no ce to find them."

  "So?"

  "I'll go to Ketcher, the ic is only one level down. You wait here until"

  "No, I won't. No way!"

  "But you are a male and"

  "I'm not a stupid weak male." Every ear and most heads turo him. He bowed, then whispered again. "e on, I bought the guns. Also, I ot stay here!" He made a wide arm movement to the others who tinued whatever they had done before his outburst.

  Rerra sighed, but then smiled. "Maybe that be to our advantage. Males and kittens first." She tucked her pad into her belt and stood too, took his hand and walked over to Eli.

  "We're leaving for the Ketcher ic."

  Eli jumped to her paws, the kittens flying off her thighs and gathered around them. "No, don't leave," Patty protested already.

  He looked down. "The mother asked me to leave soon. You are young, but to adult cats, a male like me be very, very, er"

  "Dichturbing," Eli came to his rescue. "And there wach fighting."

  "So stay. Don't die!" The kitten tried her cutest face. Which was indeed very hard to resist.

  He sighed and then did a crooked smile. "I will not die. No fighting for a while. And I have a gun." That was a mistake.

  "Show" "A gun!" "I want to see, too." Now all the kittens were pleading. He looked at Eli whed. Rerra opened another pocket of her utility belt and took out one gun. It was again so tiny in her furry hand. He took it from her and showed it to them. "It is a krati-gun, you will sleep when hit."

  "A tranquillizer gun," Rerra corrected him, painfully reminding him of his g Standard vocabury.

  "If Marik gets a gun, then I get ooo!" Patty stood on her paw-tips.

  That statement told him a lot more about the status of male cats, and probably about their image of humans too.

  But it was Rerra who rejected her first. "No Patty. When it is safe, we e bad then you go with us."

  "But kitten and males first!" an older kitten remarked.

  "Julia is right, if a male go out then I go out too."

  He was not sure how to fix this. "I am human. The rules are different for humans."

  "Unfair!" Now all kittens pined.

  He looked at Eli who seemed to enjoy his struggle with the kitten. But then she nodded. "No cat would kill a kitten or a male," she ceded. "But there are monchterch out there who might kill anything."

  "But I guarded him when he slept. Unfair." There was another unspoken thing here. He briefly wondered, how much cultural misuanding just had happened without him notig. But not for long, he was distracted by Patty who went down on all fours and ran a circle through the room and theo the lobby. Likely sulking i or the ging room, given what hatgs would do on Fallerian.

  Eli sighed. "Che ich right though. Uchually, we would guard malech or kittench if unchave."

  "Eli, I uand but I am not a cat. In Fallerian we do not care if male or female. Only for, er, kittens." He took a deep breath. "And I apologize for all the trouble that I caused by ing here."

  Eli o the mother. "Pleache, it ich her to thank and apologiche."

  "The me thank you for the food, that was your doing. This was one of the best meals that I had in my life."

  "Then chtay for lunch." She got up, and with her also Kit and Tab rose, all of them with their ears ft on their heads and tails waving wildly. "We'll be i."

  Rerra put a hand on her shoulder and handed Eli the inhator.

  Eli inhaled without hesitation and passed it on to Kit. She shook her head that her mane was flying. "With or without, any chpechial requestch?"

  "No everything so was nice."

  She looked at him like he eless kitten but then nodded ao the kit.

  * * *

  Patty had ed herself around his neck, her front paws dangling to the left aail and hind paws to the right. The warmth of the kitten was weled, even though he was not freezing thanks to the hoody. He just wished for slightly less screaming colours than fluorest pink with glow-in-the-dark green spots. At least, no one could overlook him. So he hoped, that the prote of males and kitteended also to humans.

  Rerra fumbled at a screw in a rusty steel panel iaircase. They watched her from the nding also to warn her should someone approach. Suddenly, Rerra roared, then took a deep breath, her muscles bulged and she ripped the eeel panel off. He got goosebumps. As she tore off the pahe head of the st screw was sheared off and ricocheted from the wall behind them. The gun he bought seemed pretty useless with Rerra.

  Now the right arm of the muscur cat vanished in the hole where the panel had been. She cursed again and pushed with her other hand against the side of the frame. "e turn!" Then a creaking sound was heard and she smiled.

  "Fusion core cooling i is open." She stood again upright and dried her dirty hand. Her smile was wide while she shook her head. "But the maiurns are just warm. Before, they were too hot to touch. Let's go!"

  It was just the nding, level 2. But it was also where the bloody trail exited the staircase, together with a thirail ing from below. "This is all old blood," Patty said, surprise iiny voice.

  "We are going to the ic," Rerra said, "If I were hurt, I would go there too."

  That satisfied the kitten but not him. The trails were old and dry, but still. One must be very badly io leave such bloody trails. Hopefully, that ic was not a graveyard. Moreover, the thick steel door which sealed each level to the staircase as an emergency hatch was bent, the log bolts on the frames all torn off. Something that would require a lot more force than bending a 3 mm steel pting. There were also scorch marks on the door and the blood was all over then nding before the door with signs of heavy fighting.

  In the corridor, tools were scattered on the floor and there were much more scorch marks than oaircase side. A crowbar was lying there too. So they had tried to open the door from the corridor. But there was less blood, and the trail went straight spinwards through the wide corridor. He doubted again the decision to have allowed Patty to e with them. "Have you ever been here?" he asked his kitten neck-warmer.

  "Oh yes, for She-Cubs."

  Rerra ughed a moment so heavily that she had to stop. "You mean checkups, dear." Tears were running over her face. “Little she cub,” she wheezed.

  Patty's tail beating on his shoulder was her only answer.

  Finally, Rerra moved on, following the blood trail to a heart-shaped entrance. Gss shards were lying around from the former sed half of the gss sliding doors. Norighted desk served as the sed half of the door. A very tall and tired cat in a pink bcoat looked at them through the still-intact half of the gss door. "What is your emergency?" she stated holding a long surgical knife.

  "I e to see if I help to fix the systems."

  The cat behind the door ed her o have a better look at him through the door. "That is a human male with a kitten?" She did not wait for an answer, ihe door slid open. While they entered, four new cats came running, each with a knife and each with the same fur pattern as the cat that had e with Rerra to Fallerian. But only one of them wore a bcoat, the other three skimpy leather bras and loincloths. More fitting a cave than a i a space station.

  The reception cat and the four newers surrouhem. But he was surprisingly calm. Despite being taller and at least three of them cd like a amazon warriors from the human ics that Lnaplo? had obtained for him once, he was not worried. Not because of his gun; the cats in bcoats looked like they had only fought with budget cuts and the three amazons mostly with their leather bras. Despite t the bcoat cats, each of the amazons tried to be just a little further to the back than her neighbours. And they looked like ed, all with the same height and identical fur patterns. Although, he certainly had no eye for finer details of fur patterns.

  "Name and tribe," the new bcoat demanded.

  "Rerra from Petra." Rerra just bowed the ti bit.

  "Wait," said one of the amazons, "I think, I remember you." All heads turo her. She took up the rge pad from the entrance desk. "Yes, 107 days ago, skin mod, paid by the Ketcher cil."

  The other cats all stepped back a little and straightened. "Was it new or old cil?" the bcoat asked with a much frieone.

  "Holy, I do not know. But probably new. It was for a mission I flew for Fiyul from Ketcher, the mother was on that ship. Transp the alien modder?"

  The bcoat's tails fluffed out, and the amazons looked fused. "This is not to be discussed in public," hissed the bcoat from the entrance.

  "Anyway, I just came back from Fallerian. Got strange news from the phe station silent, a sector without power, life support on base fallback systems. I had to enter via the shipyard. Well, I worked there."

  "She restored her ship herself," he added, turning their heads. But only for a moment.

  "Kora, Yna, stay with her." The bcoat leader left with two of the amazons into the barely lit depth of the ic.

  The cat from the entrance had picked up the ic pad and was studying the entry. "You do not look like that Rerra at all," and turhe pad. He silently agreed, the Rerra in that picture had long fluffy fur in the same pattern as all the cats here. He wondered if it would feel nicer ...

  "Yes, but the Koni rahrough their main," she said and lifted her leg and took with her opposable toes her pad from a belt pocket. "Here, s the ID."

  Even without knowing the fine nuances of cat expressions, the two cats were stuhey stared at the foot-cws which held her pad in a pose that would be impossible for him. And to them too, apparently.

  The remaining bcoat finally sed her pad but did not even look at the result, still following Rerra's foot with opposable cws whe the pad bato her belt and then stood again normally.

  "Are there more mods?"

  "Yes, but this is getting quite personal."

  "Sorry for asking, Ketcher values the patient's privacy." That sentence came automatically from better days. The bcoat shook her head. "Sorry, again. I am Yna of Grotan from Ketcher."

  "Rerra of Codeson from Petra. This is Marik Lnadross from Fallerian, the p, I mean."

  "I am Patty of Codeson from Petra," shouted Patty in her cute kitten voice. Everybody smiled, the knives were put away.

  " I put you down?" he asked hopefully.

  "No, I better guard you up here," Patty said while the cats finally aowledged his presend moved closer.

  "I am Kora of Ulta from Ketcher," the amazon suddenly whispered. She did not expect him to look at her directly and stepped further back.

  "Suppressant anyone?" Rerra held up her inhator.

  Both cats shook their heads. "37 males here, maybe all the males of the station. Your human does not make any difference."

  The human got a little angry, being discussed like a piece of furniture. But before he could say something, Rerra put her hand on his bad ged the topic. "When you looked up my record, the was w?"

  "Only the private ietwork. No e to the outside. All fried wheried to restore the power at the very beginning."

  "While waiting, I go and check the power e? It is in the sed stairwell."

  "That's in the dark sector. Ko with her."

  "I am going too," he stated, annoyed from being stantly ignored.

  "Yes, he help, he is a skilled tei too." He could hug Rerra for this.

  Yna shook her head. "No, you stay here. No kittens go into the dark sector. And in 0387 the night cycle ends, so be back by then."