Announcement

Another volume, this time with more action. (The cover is this time DallE, AI generated.)

The White Ocelot was docked in cold shutdown. After a detour to a real toilet and a short, badly needed shower, Rerra headed for the 'Blended Followers'. It was almost midnight station time, most tables were empty. But she had messaged ahead when she had started her final approach 1500 minutes ago, and Trina was still sitting at 'her' table, working on her pad. She directly asked for a drink at the counter and brought it to Trina's table.

"Rerra! Good to have you back."

They hugged.

"I didn't expect you back today. You really pushed your ship."

"Yes, turned out that xenon is cheap on Fallerian III."

"Great. Everything else went well? Penny's on her way?"

"Think so. She had left Fallerian VII when I jumped from the system. Cheers!" She drowned her spiked meat shake in one go.

"You should get something to eat with that. Here, take the krantasticks."

She nibbled at one. Her stomach growled.

Trina waved the barmaid over, "Two portions of krantasticks and two chai," and turned back to her.

"So, all good then."

"No, I'm stupid. I mean, all good. We got to Fallerian VII almost on schedule, my brave White Ocelot performed well, no surprises. Transit was just under a day, even staying below 1.5 g. When Penny got off, a human was waiting with the key to the Silent Samul, couldn`t have a faster transfer. But then there was a corrupt docking officer trying to rip us off".

"Oh, that's strange. Didn't the Fallerians hold their contracts sacred?"

"Well, the human with the key was Fallerian born and thought so too. He even intervened. So we just paid the usual docking fee. And not even that in the end. He, I mean the human, wanted a ride to Fallerian III and I offered to take him back for the fuel costs."

"So you took a passenger from Falerian. With a ship not designed for passengers."

"Yes, but he was a pilot too, E-class even. So a second pilot, not a passenger that is still a within the permission. And because of," she paused, sighed, "I wanted to impress him and even made a bet for a fast jump with the Fallerian VII flight control on my docking charges, jumping from cold to 0031."

"Sorry, I never jumped. You forgot?"

"That was ridiculously short. I mean, I know the White Ocelot could do make it as the core was hot and knew how fast I could ramp the engines. But I maxed out, we were close to 3 g at the jump window. And the stations were so far apart, that we arrived faster than they could send the clearance for the jump window, the transmission only going lightspeed. So we overjumped their clearance and now Fallerian III was offended. The human sorted that out too. In the end, I got a warning and he even got me a free docking at a shipyard, as it was the only port with xenon facilities. I filled her up to the brim for almost a tenth of what I would pay here. And then back home with all she had. Still got all my teeth, despite the rattling of that plasma drive."

Trina smiled politely. "That sounded great. You should keep that human warm. What was his name again?"

"This is the part I messed up. I had no suppressant with me, you know my cargo space and with the price of xenon here I went with as little as possible. So I do not even remember his name. I could barely think straight after the short jump, exhausted from the 3 g. I am not even sure how I docked safely, that part is totally fuzzy. Next, I almost shoved my bum in his face after we docked, made him petting my tail."

Trina grinned. "And then? One more cat enjoying a human, no biggy."

"But I am no mindless victim of my urges."

"I know, the hopelessly rational one," Trina grinned.

"No, Trina, he wasn't ready, that would have been a rape. I was so embarrassed I even deleted his messages. I'll never ever travel again without suppressants." She sighed.

"Sorry, come on, nothing happens. The galaxy is vast and then next one might be ready." She winked while toasting with the chai mug. "To the first successful voyage of Trader Rerra!"

She raised her mug too but shook her head. "No trade, I left before he could pay me."

Now Trina looked at her with worry. "Oh, little Rerra!"

* * *

Tabita, the kitten, gently nipped at her finger. "Sister Rerra, wake up, the food is here."

She sat up, still tired, the bruises from the shaking by the unstable drive still sensitive. She blinked again, looked around. The other adults were waiting for her, their plates already full. She rose, still a little shaky, transferred a single blaumore from the trolley to her plate, bowed to the clanmother with the others, and almost fell to the floor again, yawning. Half asleep, she nibbled at the vegetable.

The more she awoke, the hungrier she became. Eventually, she was still eating when the older kittens and teens had left for school. Slowly chewing, she thought of today's program. First, she would take the Sagan to the shipyard lock. Not primarily to avoid the docking fee, there was still so much to do. Apart from the almost endless list of minor repairs and improvements, she wanted to close all the inner plating in the cockpit to give it at least a semblance of professionalism and hopefully also dampen the noise from the fusion core and the main engines. Penny would be back in two days, and after her return she should qualify the Sagan as safe for commercial use. But knowing Penny's likely critical report, she should address the obvious deficiencies first.

"Rerra?"

She had dozed off again. Yuha was standing in front of her, dressed up and wearing jewellery, a first for her. Even spicy perfume. She jumped up. "Sorry."

"No problem. I have to leave now," she pointed to the door where the clanmother stood waiting.

"Yes, I'll take care of the food trolley and the dishes."

"I might not be back for lunch, so maybe"

She nodded. "Yes, I will use the leftovers and maybe make some meatballs."

Yuha shook her head slightly. "Ask Tab for help, she should be back soon." And then she left with the clanmother.

She slowly pushed the food trolley into the kitchen. There she ate some leftovers while cleaning the dishes, still not fully awake. Well, two interstellar jumps with absolutely no rest in between, plus the brutal short hop and the pheromone overload where she almost, ugh, she shivered.

When she reentered the den, Tab was back, surrounded by the kitten. She had given birth to her second while she had been away, a tiny baby cub with even shorter fur than hers; but already with black stripes. It loved to be petted and purred very softly. It was so cute.

"Rerra," Tab began, "you're 18 now. Uh, and there is, uh, the clan has," she hesitated, "Yuha might come back pregnant," she finally blurted out. "There is a Petra male, well one generation out, who lives on the station. He gives us a special rate."

"That's why she went with the clanmother," she thought aloud, "her first time?"

Tab nodded. "Yes, and since you are Petra... "

She felt so privileged again. Although Eli knew that she was no virgin, she had never talked about it in the den. "You know, I also met a friendly male at the gym who likes a strong cat. We get together occasionally. Tab, I have been pregnant three times, but resorbed each time."

"You told your body to give it up?" Tab seemed shocked.

"Look at me, no real breasts, small hips, and then thin fur and hands." She wiggled her fingers. "Every single one would have been already enough to get the endless teasing and bullying. No way I want this for my kitten. And my fur pattern is not even Petra." She held up her hand as Tab wanted to interject. "And now, my ship is ready to make regular jumps and actually earn money for the clan. But it is too small to take a kitten with me. Besides, the jump stress triggers the resorption reflex quite effectively anyway, pregnant pilots are almost unheard of. Which is probably a good thing, since working in space and near fusion reactors means lots of radiation. No kittens for me, at least for now."

Tab looked at her, nearly in tears.

"Look, I like kittens, I adore them. They make me so happy, they are the reason I moved to the den as soon as I was adopted. But I am too much of a realist. My friendly male runs a." She stopped herself, taking a moment of how to continue without exposing Lead. "Well, some business. And I have a spaceship. So neither of us has time to look after kittens properly. Yes, I know the clan would care for them. But I would be away so often. I think I'd be better off contributing financially because my cooking sucks and," she sighed.

Tab hugged her, clearly seeing the reasons she gave was more to convince her than Tab.

She felt a little better, fur-on-fur hugs did that.

And with Tab back, she should go to the shipyard. Trina was still paying her, well, and the docking fee was ticking too.

* * *

To make up for her late arrival, she had prepared a lunchbox for Trina too. But Trina was not in her office. So she left both boxes on a sideboard and went to the regular dock to bring her Sagan into the shipyard`s airlock. It took less than 1000 and the Sagan was in the airlock, core cooling down and superconductors warming up to room temperature.

Moving around in almost zero g had become easy with her opposable toe claws. This had been such a good suggestion from the avatar. Now she floated hesitantly over the outdated controls of the shipyard's airlock. Until now, either Penny or Trina had operated the airlock. She searched for a checklist or manual. But she found nothing.

"Bernie?" she called to the AI, "can you vent airlock 1? The Sagan, I mean Hull 472 is inside and soon is in warm standby."

"Of course, Rerra," the AI was surprisingly brief, "including a purge cycle, that will take 0957."

"Thank you, Bernie. Do you know if anything needs to be done in the shipyard?"

"The filters are overdue. Although we always use them until the differential pressure drops below 7 Pa, this is not the way filters should be used. Especially in this environment with its high levels of unclassified dust. There is a 37% chance" The AI was back to its verbose self.

Filter duty. Well, that would certainly make everyone happy. But it was already early afternoon, not this heavy work on empty stomach.

She went into the office to get her lunchbox. "Trina," she called while opening the door and froze when she saw Aunt Kerta talking with her. "Clanmother Kerta from Samul," she stammered and bowed stifly.

"Isn't that Rerra, the youngest of the Curragh? Clanmother Curragh did not announce your arrival at the station. When did you arrive?"

Her aunt looked so much older even though it had been less than three years since her last encounter.

"Rerra?"

"Yes, sorry, clanmother. I came directly after graduation."

"Oh, yes, Clarice, wasn't it? How did you do?"

"Top of the class. But I left the planet the next day." She was still confused. Maybe Aunt Kerta was not up-to-date of her having renounced Samul.

"Oh, here it's usually the other way round, they can't leave the station fast enough," Aunt Kerta sighed and then did the math. "Wait a moment, you arrived almost a quarter of a year ago?"

She nodded.

"What! And you never thought to visit me?"

"Clanmother, I know you've been busy and all."

"I am. But you are Clan."

"No," she writhed, "not anymore. Did Clanmother Curragh not tell you? I officially renounced my Samul lineage the day before graduation. I am no longer a Curragh tribe, and not even a Samul."

The old cat was visibly shocked. "You betrayed your clan?"

"Clanmother, no betrayal, never. They were happy, even gave me a big payout on the condition that I cut off all contact with Samul. I was afraid of breaking it by contacting you. Working in the shipyard for normal pay was as far as I dared."

Her ex-aunt sat on the table, her tail going left and right so that Trina retreated to the window looking down into the shipyard.

"Curragh, you evil scheming crone. How could you do this to your own kitten?"

Why stop when she was going? "Clanmother, I recently had a DNA check. My father was human, and Curragh isn't my mother. Even my birth certificate is a fake."

"What?" The clanmother sailed down on a chair, her claws screeched over the table, ears flat, and tail lashing out left and right. "Oh, nasty, Curragh. Sorry, you poor Rerra." She took a deep breath. "I really want to hear the rest. Ekrerr is in ten days. Please come, I do not care what Curragh said. But we are a bit busy right now."

"I apologise, Clanmother Kerta." She bowed as best she could in the low gravity and was out. She stood for a few moments after the door closed, trying to process what had just happened. That had been the Aunt Kerta who she had been afraid meeting?

And yet she had lied to her. There was no way she could visit her on Ekrerr, not when she was now Petra clan. And at least a few of Trina's clansisters would be there from the planet, bringing the news of her to the Curragh Samul. What a fine mess.

She left the shipyard, bought some meatballs and ate them on her way to the gym. Now way she would do filter duty right now when Kerta might see her from the window.