She had finished her checklist long ago. The lights were dimmed, even the life support was off. The only active screen showed the psma temperature, density and power generation in the fusion core. The batteries were at 45% and draining, the capacitors discharged. But the electron temperature was nearly stable at 250 million K, and the density and power output have been increasing steadily. It did look like a normal startup, thank Hopkins. "Psma gets net positive."

  "Good," commented Jerka from Marik’s seat, very rexed. But then, she could get anywhere on her own.

  She focussed again on the fusion core controls as if this could help the deuterium nuclei fusion faster. With net positive, the heating consumption was lower than the generated power. The excess electrical power climbed quickly until it saturated at 47% even though the thermal power increased further. "Mud," she cursed, "only one converter is working." She limited the fusion core to 50%.

  "Core exchanges are no fun. But 50% should be enough."

  "Barely enough for a jump. I wish they had built her with more redundancy." She flipped two switches and the rest of the panels came alive.

  Jerka said nothing.

  She aligned them, getting the other systems up. Soon the usual noise filled the cockpit. But only the smell was strange. It was as if Jerka was not there. She focussed back on the checklist. "Set transponder back to normal.”

  Jerka nodded but still gazed at the stars.

  Finally, she finished the checks. No new errors, apart from the missing power they were ready. "Cluster-Kbauter-Cloth, standby."

  The main panel awoke, with the usual noise of the pumps and the charging of the static high-voltage generator for the static psma drive running up the octaves. She smiled as this finally evoked some reaction from Jerka. Nice that even this Jump Rider could be surprised by the White Ocelot. She checked the status again. All green, batteries charging at 51%, the capacitor bank charging too. "Do you want to confirm our course? We better dock at the outer station. The remaining xenon gives us not enough delta v for the inner."

  Jerka gnced only at the navigation panel. "I agree. Problem?"

  She sighed. "Our destination was the inner station, Ken's ship parts. Had a loose appointment."

  "You are te?"

  "No, no, he doesn't know that I am coming. Just sent out the message when entering the system."

  "Ah, I hoped we had to hurry. I have heard some stories about the Sagan Melorian II."

  Jerka seemed happy and disappointed at the same time.

  "Cluster-Kbauter-Cloth, 1 at 33%."

  The abrupt jump forward came immediately with the ignition of the middle main drive, pushing with 0.7 g and raising quickly to 33%.

  Jerka made happy noises.

  She smiled too, relieved. They would accelerate now for half a day so that even if their jump did not work, they would be on an easier course for a rescue and have fully charged their batteries until then.

  "The first time in a Sagan Melorian II," Jerka finally said. "No one ever mentioned the shaking. But can we go faster?"

  "This is harmless, the fun starts above of 3 g. I am still worried about the connection."

  "When I say that I fixed it, it is. The coil contact will stay. Not that you could have fixed it, you don't even have a space suit.”

  "Oh, I have a thinsuit.”

  But Jerka was not finished. "And then, I am not sure you could get through the access hatch."

  "Yes, even a small cat like me often has trouble getting somewhere on human ships," she conceded. "I wonder whether they used child bour or magical midgets to build the Sagan."

  Jerka was ughing tears in the co-pilot chair. "Magical midget, hu, I have to remember that next time I meet a construction robot," she finally said, out of breath. She looked at the screen and panel. "So, with 50% core power, how fast can we go?"

  She did a crude estimate. "In 3D, not feeding the coil and using the batteries - I guess we could hit 5 g for about 0020."

  Somehow Jerka did kitty eyes too. "Please, try 5 g."

  "It will be rough," she warned her but grinned. "Cluster-Kbauter-Cloth, 2 and 3 standby at 10%."

  The noise got angry again but was soon drowned by the rattling. Her thoughts went back to her first flight with Marik. But unlike Marik, Jerka seemed to enjoy the two sudden jerks when 2 and 3 came online. "Cluster-Kbauter-Cloth, all at 33%."

  They jumped forward, at 2.8 g. The White Ocelot worked fine, the repairs at Fallerian had been great.

  She went up to 3.5 g, 4.2 g. Now she was barely able to steer a straight course and their st single fusion core converter was maxed out. She added battery emergency power, and the huge bar on the central dispy went longer, now at over 2/3, turning red at 5 g, then 5.1 g. The panels were blurred outlines in the vibrations, her field of vision had narrowed. Then the battery arm sounded. "Cluster-Kbauter-Cloth, all 33%," she shouted. The voice recognition worked even in the infernal noise in the cockpit. The pressure went away, 3.3 g felt almost smooth in comparison. Their status was ok, only batteries drained to 12 %.

  Jerka was smiling like mad. "Thank you," she shouted, "The ship's a barely tamed beast."

  She just nodded, smiling toothy as well. Reckless, to have tried this with the st and probably knocked-on fusion core converter, but it was worth it.

  "So unlike you," Jerka shouted on.

  "What?"

  "Nicest cat that I have met," she shouted, barely understandable through the rattling.

  She was not sure how to reply. "Cluster-Kbauter-Cloth, 2 and 3 standby, one at 25%."

  It felt almost like negative g when suddenly 2.2 g vanished and they were a mere 1.1 g.

  She moved in her seat. It had been short but intense.

  "You'll keep this vector?"

  She nodded.

  "How about some food." Jerka unbuckled but did not go for her backpack, just vanished again.

  Only to reappear shortly after with two steaming bowls with nice smelling kranta gratin. "I was lucky, it was morning on Fallerian III, freshly made. Here."

  She still stared at the jump rider before she took the bowl Jerka held in front of her snout. "Thanks."

  Jerka y down in the contour seat again and gave her a strange piece of throwaway cutlery, feeling like a beetle's leg. "Enjoy," she said, "and afterwards some apple juice."

  She suspected a practical joke from Jerka with that strange eating tool. But when she gnced over at Jerka, she ate it with that tool, even stylish, as much as this was possible with street food.

  But Fallerian style or not, nothing was better than a long tongue to clean out a bowl. She had finished way before Jerka.

  When Jerka had eaten hers too, she asked. "How will you know that Marik is well again?"

  "You saw the ship of Avatar?"

  "The moon?"

  "You are a funny one, yes, that's about its size. They are entirely powered by the 4D grid. When they want me to come, they will move it and I will know. Don't worry."

  "And until then?"

  "Well, you fly this ship to the station. And then we disembark, check into a hotel and maybe have some fun."

  "Fun? While Marik is dying?"

  "No, he is not. Trust me, he will be in much better shape than you ship."

  She sighed.

  "Ok, maybe not the best metaphor. You trust Avatar?"

  She nodded.

  "So let's rex at the station. No compining, but the cabin smells like a den."

  She was not sure where Jerka had gotten that word, but she was right. She reeked and longed for a real toilet, a shower. And a bed. And Marik.

  "Don't worry." She winked. "I want to reunite you with your lover too."

  She was blushing so hard, the heat must radiate even through her fur.

  "I can't not worry. And how we get on the station. Will you hide on the ship then jump on it?"

  Jerka ughed. "No, just enter normally. You are coming from Hopkins. Almost every human will not want anyone to know that they have been there, so no close checks. And I have a Fallerian ID too, your crew manifest will pass. Should Marik be back before, then just you two disembark and I am on my way." Jerka still smiled. "And if we two disembark, then ter, the station ai will swap my ID with Marik's so I have never been here. Every station ai listens for a jump rider."

  She turned to the navigation panel on the other side.

  "No, really, don't worry, that is the only time when I bend the rules. I do not wreck cute couples. Here, the promised cold apple juice."

  She blushed and hesitated until the scent hit her. Then she turned, gnced at Jerka and fixated the cup with the golden liquid in her hand. It was not a simple throwaway cup, no, it was a heavy crystal cup with many cuts and polished facets on its base. Her hand grabbed it, lured by the scent simir to apple cider, but sweeter. She inhaled again, her eyes widened. "Thiss smellss great," she hissed, closing her eyes and pping a tiny bit with her tongue. Sweet bliss.

  "I guess you like it?" Jerka asked after she had only pped the juice so very slowly.

  She just nodded, then shook her head. "Sorry, I mean thank you very much, Miss Jerka."

  She smiled. "That good? Apple juice is sold at most human stations. Well, not the freshly pressed one, but close enough. Another cup?" She ughed. "Oh please, no kitty eye from 200 kg of cat." She still poured the juice from an indescriptive cardboard box. "Now, with your apple juice, tell me how you met Marik."

  "I thought you knew already everything?"

  "No, I am just a clever con woman. Honestly, Avatar told me about a modded cat pilot, and you did fit that description."

  She got angry. "I thought they would never tell anyone about the modding?"

  "You know that I am not anyone. And they owed me a favour."

  "They owed you?"

  "So do you and Marik now. But please, tell me how you met and I consider my favour to you repaid."

  She grinned. "I am very cheap, it seems. But I will tell the story to the provider of such good apple juice."

  "Here, let me refill."

  Even pin apple juice still seemed to loosen her tongue. She told Jerka their story in detail until it was time for the jump. Soon they would find out whether it was just the bad connection at the coil’s end. The room folded as pnned. Yes!

  * * *

  They had come out nicely in the centre of the station’s incoming jump window. The rge blue gas giant with its white cloud bands filled a good part of the sky. It would take a mere 2000 to the station, the rger of the two in this system. Only it was the wrong station, Ken's ship storage was at the other station around the inner pnet. Too bad, her xenon did not fit that delta v. At least, that pnet was some consotion for their detour.

  Only moments after she had confirmed the course, Jerka vanished for a moment to come back with a pte of assorted starters and set it between them. Jerka's mencholy seemed to have been left behind by the wild ride up to 5 g, and her smile showed teeth too.

  She did all the course corrections extra carefully to keep the starters on the pte. They were delicious. And they were just the beginning. The green-haired jump rider made true to her promise that one would never starve when travelling with her. Jerka vanished for split moments and returned each time with another pte of what would become a six-course menu.

  She had never eaten so well on a ship, not even when travelling with the Ketcher cnmother. The food at the den was great too, Petra catered for high tiers for a reason. But the food on her pte was entirely different. She had never seen most of the items. There were many more vegetables, at least they looked like pnt matter. Beautifully shaped alien morcels them all, alien as Jerka.

  The mandatory station calls for their approach annoyed her, always when she had just discovered a new delicacy. Like the hairy white flower-like item which tasted sweet and exotic and was surprisingly crisp. Or the blue and red balls sticking to a centre rod, forming colourful spirals. Their taste was not like berries, but rather salty with some hint of giraffe. And there were different kranta too in more shapes and sizes, some even mouldy and with a strong smell. Jerka assured her that all the food was from human worlds. And that kranta was no kranta, it was made from an animal's breast milk, no insects at all. She shuddered. Humans ate weird stuff.

  Jerka's happiness as host was contagious. She had never been so rexed on arrival. Even with Marik still with Avatar. Only when the cmps closed and she powered the core down, she got anxious again.

  "What ails you?" asked Jerka, even though she had not voiced anything.

  She sighed. "You have been a great passenger."

  "But I am not Marik?"

  "Yes, sorry." She took a deep breath. "But not only. This is the first time that we go to a human system, and" She threw her hands up, "and I am afraid of doing stupid things. Alone, sorry, not entirely alone, but we have just met today." She sagged together.

  "Don't worry." Jerka put her hand under her snout and lifted it a little so she had to look straight down into Jerka's eyes. "You are the most restrained cat. So while Marik gets better, let's get off the ship. Come on, there is nothing out there that could hurt such a nice little big cat like you."

  She smiled, barely.

  "And about your, you know." She threw her a small cylinder. "A stronger suppressant from Avatar."

  She looked at it. "How to use it?"

  "Wear it, it goes through your skin."

  She looked at it sceptically and instead inhaled two doses from the Ketcher special that Fanny had given her. "Maybe next time." She slung her small backpack over her shoulder and opened the inner hatch then hesitated. Jerka climbed past her into the straight steel tube, still cold and smelling like sulfur. Even space smelled differently here.

  Jerka was already on the other side, talking with a male human docking officer. His eyes went wide when he saw her emerging. "Oh, hey, you probably wanted the other station. No cats here."

  "I know," she hissed, then rexed a little. "Not by choice, had troubles with the coil. Deuterium and xenon both too low. So please?"

  "Sorry." He still stared at her then lowered his eyes. "Sorry, cats are rare."

  "Can we check in?" asked Jerka.

  "Oh, sure, business or leisure."

  "Leisure!"

  The way Jerka pronounced it, implied a thousand meanings.

  "Lesbian cat? That I lived"

  She hissed and barred her fangs.

  He stepped back. "Sorry. Here, your passes, 26 per day. Have fun dies." Then he turned and almost ran five steps to vanish through a 'staff only' door.

  As Jerka had said, disembarking at the station posed no problem, her being a cat had caused more fuzz. She inhaled. From now on, she would be the minority everywhere she would go until she returned to Hopkins. The first time alone, well, not fully. But until now, there had always been at least another cat with her apart from the very short trip to Fallerian with Marik.

  She climbed back into the cockpit and made sure that the liquid xenon and deuterium transfer went well. And she kept the cooling running via the station loop: This way they would be ready to depart whenever the xenon and deuterium were half full. Again, compared to Hopkins, everything was cheaper. But not as cheap as Fallerian, and especially not for a cat, it seemed. Still, the price was ok and they had made a very good profit from the run to Fallerian and selling all the spices to high-T serving caterers.

  "Rerra, come. Leave your Ocelot!" shouted Jerka through the access tube.

  She climbed up. As soon as she was again on the station, an answer came from Ken. 'Welcome, looking forward to meet. But just on the pnet until in two days. Stay in touch.' So being on the wrong station did not matter. No Ken, no Marik. Just a jump rider telling her to rex.

  Being the only cat here was also a bonus. No Samuls or other high tiers who were probably plenty on the other station, so close to Hopkins. No dealing with entitled cats not knowing that their time was over. The downside of being on the wrong station was that everyone was staring at them. Looking closer, a good lot of the stares went to Jerka too who did not mind. Did she showed too much skin?

  "Let's go!" So Jerka led them through the station. With the physical exercise, she rexed a little, taking in her surrounding, the strange scent of the station, the many humans, the unusual chemicals in the life support, more humid and warmer air. Just warm, not sweltering like at Fallerian.

  Jerka led them to a panoramic walkway between the two rows of docking ports, and almost deserted. Just one couple stood at the other end of a long row of windows. The giant gas pnet dominated their outside view, blue from methane with white clouds of carbon dioxide, ammonia, and maybe even water throwing shadows on the deeper blue yers. So blue, like a giant water world.

  She had seen the pnet during their approach through the narrow cockpit windows. Of the few pnets that she had been close enough, this one had touched her the most. She stopped. "Jerka," she started, then hesitated. Jerka just stood silently next to her. "Do you ever, are you ever." She looked away. "Are you ever tired of the universe?"

  Jerka did not ugh as she had expected. She stood next to her also looking out of the window into the stars above the gas giant. Again the serious, sad look.

  Nobody spoke. She followed the cloud bands, seeing ship shapes and animals and one looked like a tiny face.

  Finally, Jerka spoke, much softer than her usual voice. "Most of the time, in most pces. Too much emptiness." Jerka still looked outside.

  She went behind Jerka and put her arms around her. Jerka id back, her head between her breasts, tilted back until she could see her. "But right now, I am happy. There is a beautiful world outside, and I have nice company." Jerka wiggled herself deeper into her short fur. She started purring. Embarrassed, she looked outside again.

  They stood a long time, the pnet gradually rotated out of their view.

  Jerka broke the silence. "You have a nice soft fur."

  "Too short for a cat."

  "No, Rerra of Codeson from Petra, do not judge yourself by their arbitrary standards. You are you."

  The pnet was just a small rim at the bottom of the window and then had been fully rotated out of their view.

  "Are there cat jump riders?"

  Jerka id her head back to look at her. "No, you are a way too young race. Awakenings are rare." Then she turned around and wiggled her warmer body out of her furry embrace. "And with that pheromone-controlled brain hack, cats might be never stable enough. Why didn't you get rid of it in the modder?"

  "Because I, it makes me a cat? Never felt it like a hindrance before Marik." She paused. "Well, the one time with Ken. You are right, I was a stupid cat then again."

  "No, accepting your identity is not stupid." Jerka smiled. "Come, no more sad thoughts for today. It's not that often that I am on a station with nice company." She started walking and towed her forward. How could such a small person be so strong?

  "Where do we go? Another dinner?"

  "Didn't I feed you well? No, first we shower, even I can smell you. And then, I will introduce you to some human culture."

  prissi