The Cye was in the rgest airlock of the shipyard which was in the 0.1 g zohat made her bag unwieldy in the flexible dog tunnel, not weightless enough and just borderline dirigible with ostretched hand. Not helped by her itg fur, the fiips included. The stubbles even stung a little when she grabbed the bag hard. It was not helping that she had to use the small passenger dog port, sihe cargo hold was ‘wet’. Instead of cargo, they had loaded additional fuel.

  Ihe freighter, she went straight to the cockpit. Penny y in the pilot’s hammod scrolled through the checklist on the pad o her.

  "Sorry, the makeover took so long."

  Penny slowly got out of the hammock, her eyes bleary eyes, ruffled fur and droopy tail. All clear signs of an all-nighter. She finally turo on her and her ears bent forward in surprise. "Wow, this is not just dye!"

  She shook her head. "No, it was a mod. That is now my real perma fur pattern. I romised that it would also grow a little lohan my old fur."

  "Real new fur", Penny trailed off while toug her arm. "No, I am defioo old for this. Even more happy that you took the job."

  "Where should I put the bag?"

  "The flight deck is just across the stairs as on almost any ship. I put a repair kit with a hazmat-hardehinsuit ioo. It should still fit you uhe mod made yer."

  “No they ’t with just a skin mod,” she sighed, turned around and slid the stairs down in the low gravity a straight for her , tossing her bag into the , e bag from the shipyard. Ba the cockpit, Penny poio the hammock, which was a rather coarsely wove. "The Cye is all yours. I have run the checklist down as much as possible and did some additional checks. We still have to fire up the cores, the superductors should be below the critical temperature in 0200." She paused a moment. "Cye, I introduce your sed pilot, Rerra from Petra. Today's test jump will be her qualifying jump for C css."

  "Greetings, Rerra from Petra. Please s your lise." The AI spoke in a very ral voice as if its creators wao make sure that it sounded like a non-intelligent assistance system.

  "Cye, my pad is in search mode."

  "Rerra from Petra born Samul, 17 years, 172 cm, 82 kg, 74 cm tail, Ketcher fur pattern, green eyes, provisional css C lise. You are registered as the sed pilot."

  Penny stood up. "Cye, Rerra will take over."

  "Here, lunch for you from Petra." She gave Penny a packed lunch which Kit had made inally for her. But Penny more, her smile firmed it.

  She y half down in the hammock. Sin low gravity, a hammock does not work, it was attached via five strings to the floor. Now she was the official pilot of a real ship and not half a wreck like the Sagan. And not only the feeling was pletely different, she had now an AI to guide her. A veteran one as the Cye had many years already in service. The trols in front of her told her the same, still the three ss and below the tral panel with the five universal sliders, the standard yout for that she had trained with her outdated simutram. But at least no trol sticks like in the Sagan. "Cye, status on s 2 please, flight pn on s 1, s 3 is for the current focus activity."

  The temperatures of the superductors came up on s 3. Indeed, just one was not yet below critical, the rest were already operational. The other systems around the fusion cores were all green, their tanks were filled to the brim, all engines and thrusters go, no clogged filters. In shreen above the board. She created a simple flight path for the test jump and then the inward spiral for the dog down to A01a, the station's most promi port, ahe ships's AI send it to flight trol for approval. Which came immediately.

  She turned back to Penny, olfing down the food. The slim cat had ear.

  She scrolled through their freight ma which was only fuel, so far. There was also no food decred yet, just plenty of repair tools and spare parts from the shipyard, stored in the workshop.

  Finally, the fusion core's magic guidance coils' superductors were all cold enough to start the repced core.

  "Cye, prepare for fusion core 2 ignition on station power."

  The status s showed the capacitor charging.

  "Cye, please aowledge or firm all ands."

  "firmed", the AI said.

  "Cye, thank you."

  And a little ter. "Fusion core 2 is ready fnition."

  "Cye, ignite fusion core 2 and ramp it to 10 %, please."

  "firmed."

  The core temperature slowly went up, passing one million K and rising. All looked good, the pumps ramped up as they should.

  "Fusion core 2 is up at 10 %", the AI aowledged.

  "Ok, Cye, now ignite fusion core 1 using local power. If 10 % is not enough, raise output of core 2."

  "10 % is enough, firmed."

  Core 1 was soon up too, and without any problems. So far, so good.

  "Cye, I would like to have manual thruster trol for dedog to check the thrusters. Is this fih you?"

  "You are the pilot", the AI answered, for the first time irely ral.

  "Cye, then from left tht slider, thrust x, rotate around x, rotate around y, rotate around z, st slider thrust z. Slider iral with autoreturn." The slider moved to the middle.

  "firmed. Do you want my help if needed?"

  "Yes, Cye, please. We have just repaired you."

  "Yes, I know. Thank you." But it sounded rather like a sigh.

  She started to worry. On a hunch, she asked, "Cye, please tell me, did you overload the core?"

  "No, I did not. But I should have preve. I think I am not safe anymore for travel."

  She sat bad turo Penny whed. Great, an AI with self-doubts.

  "Cye, don't worry. I am from the shipyard and will travel with you on the rip. I will be there for any repairs. Really, anyone make an error. You are not the first AI." She hoped it helped. Because she did not think that there were any AI therapists oation.

  "Thank you. I am ready to fly now." It still had a slightly depressed uone.

  "Oh, er, Cye, get the final clearance from station trol for us, please."

  "Received."

  She pushed the z slider a little and the ship moved very slowly upwards. After the Sagan, the Cye felt extremely sluggish. But it was like in the simutor. She pushed the left slider for forward thrust half down and they barely made 0.1 g acceleration. Fast enough to clear the airlock without w about the station's rotation or the tilt from the still unbahrusters.

  "Cye, you bahe thrusters?"

  "Yes, I do this either dedicated or adaptive."

  She turo Penny who pointed left.

  "Cye, er, dedicated, please."

  "Please, prepare for soft jerking."

  "Cye, firmed."

  The ship shot forward and backward and spun for a very short moment in various dires. She worried about Penny who had just eaten. But Penny grinned back.

  "Finished, please test it."

  She pushed the x thruster and they accelerated forward without any other forpo. She rotated the ship into the test jump dire.

  "Cye, deploy the full cooling array, please."

  It took a few moments.

  "Deployed."

  "Cye, run up core 2 to 100 % in 0150."

  "firmed." That had been the maximum gradient. The new core had been downrated, full power was 80 % of the inal specs. A standard procedure for refurbished core, she had been told. She saw the pumps speeding up, their ption was well within tolerahe output went up, all looked fihe core was running stable at 100 %. The temperatures slowly rose but were far from any limits. Unfortunately, they did not have time to wait for their final values.

  "Cye, core 2 abrupt back to 25 % with cooling pumps tinuing at full power."

  "firmed."

  The temperature dropped quickly, way outside the specs. But the vacuum held, and the cooling array was w well enough. The flow of the two pumps whose bearings she had exged was even above specs. Her pump repair had made a difference, she was really proud of that. Although she wished that she had had the time to overhaul all eight pumps. Ok, these were all the tests they could do on the cooling.

  "Cye, we will make a short test jump. Core 1 and 2 again up to 50 %, acceleration acc to the flight pn, please. Your turn, please take over."

  "firmed. Rerra, do you want a patch?" Her ears shot up. The AI used her name for the first time after the initial aowledgement.

  "Cye, no thank you."

  The jump warning sounded as firmation with only navigation thrust.

  The jump was again but a flicker of light and they were exactly where her flight pn had wahem.

  "Cye, well done."

  Penny snickered behind her.

  She sighed. Penny really o be more friendly to the world even if the world in general had not been too friendly to Penny.

  "Cye, I will dock manually."

  "firmed. I will be ready if needed."

  "Cye, thank you, that helps." She had no experieh ship AIs, but at least this one seemed more positive the more friendly she was. She wished that she had asked Rarrar about ship AIs. The shipyard's AIs were definitively treated like persons - they even tried jokes from time to time. Not always on target though but that could happen to anyone.

  "Cye, remove autoreturn from x thruster, leftmost slider, please.”

  Using the manual trols, she rotated them pointing back to the station. The freighter reacted so sluggishly after the hectic corres which the Sagan had needed. But it followed exactly her bidding, the trim was on the spot. With the slow turn rates and thus the low acceleration, it was almost like in the simutor.

  "Cye, please add the main eo x thrust."

  "Do you want a progressive slider response?"

  "Yes, please, x thrust slider in cumutive mode."

  "firmed."

  And now began their dance around the station as they spiralled towards A01a, the outermost gate where usually only important ships dock. And because the ces for normal flights to dock there were low, it was a well-used target for simutor flights, to have do at least once even if only in the simutor. And now her qualifying flight targeted A01a. She grinned, imagining for a moment she would approach it with the Sagan.

  The approach was by the book. The Cye followed her ands, their acceleration increasing the closer they came. They docked almost without a jitter. She ramped down their forward thrust with the slider while turning to Penny, grinning broadly.

  "Not bad", Penny ceded, "gratutions to your official css C." And then she sighed as if she had said too much. There would be hardly more praise from Penny.

  "Rerra, I firm the qualification for css C. Please firm with full biometrics."

  Then the AI added, "You did very well for a new pilot. Should the cores stay hot?"

  She almost dropped her pad. "Er, Cye, er, yes", she answered distracted. The nient from the AI had caught her off-guard. At least one raising her.

  Penny came to her rescue. "Cye, hot standby for both cores, pumps back to load-based operation mode. Disable the pilot sole. Prepare for 9000 departure."

  "firmed", but in a ral voice again. So this AI did favourites.

  She fihe full biometric identification, put the pad bad stretched. Now, with her tration gone, her itg fur hit her with force, worse than she had ever experiehe accelerated regrowth was no joke. And the fur on her lower arm was already lohan her old fur. Amazing. But itg like hell.

  "Penny?"

  Penny looked up from the writing on her pad.

  "Please, you y backfur? That itg drives me mad."

  "I still think you should not have them dohis to you. They could just have dyed your fur."

  She did not say anything but was w the same. Just a dye should have been an option. She had been too tired yesterday and then lured by the ce of getting longer fur …

  There was not only a for two pilots, o it was a shower , her target. She stripped aered with Penny. There were several brushes. She ed a dense one, gave it to Penny and raised her arms.

  Penny's tail showed deep embarrassment. Her nude evenings ira den had really done a job on her; she had apparently thought of Penny as a sister. And even though Penny had seen at least her upper body naked when they had ged into the thinsuits and the radiation suits, she was not used to sudden nakedness. She smiled at Penny apologetically.

  Penny brushed her as roughly as she had expected, rough like she treated almost everyo was a great relief, she closed her eyes. But then Penny brushed now mently aed her tail with great care. She started to purr, embarrassed. "Turn around", Penny almost whispered.

  She turned around, her arms still up and eyes closed. Penny worked her still almost white stomach fur, not in straight brushes but following the tours of her muscles. And from there down her legs. She smiled, her purring intensified. It felt so nice, relieving the itg.

  And then Penny surprised her, threw herself at her, hugging her with all the power that the gracile cat could muster, pressing her head into Pennies cleavage. Penny's musky sweat from the ht work was overp and now there was also a distinct arousal note.

  "Rerra", Penny said, undecided between sighing and g. She hugged again tighter. "Please, take care. I have a bad feeling. I am really worried about you." A tear from Penny nded on her shoulder and then Pen go. "Now shower, and good luck. Please e back." And with that, Penny turned and raced out.

  "Thank you, Penny", she shouted after her, standing still for a moment. And the into the shower before the other pilot came.