It was just after midnight when she got back to the shipyard office. Only 0530 had passed since the coup had been announced. Fanny stood up as she arrived, her steel tube at the ready.

"How is Trina?"

"Sleeping normally, she'll be fine in the morning." Fanny looked tired too.

"Any news?"

Fanny shook her head. "No, actually, I shut down my pad. They can localise it."

Rerra, you stupid cat, of course. She shut down Trina's pad too. She was Petra, so she hoped that hers was under the radar and called up a news site. But apart from the announcement, there was no further information. Not even the closure of the docking ports was mentioned, just standard messages about some urgent repairs being carried out in various parts of the station and some automatic announcements about temporary delays in shipping operations and power shutdowns. She put her pad back into her pocket. "Can we move her?"

"Yes, no problem. She might even wake up from it. What is your plan?"

"To get you two off the station, we have no idea against who we are up to. My ship is here, in the airlock of the shipyard. But warm, not ready before 3000, earliest. If we lose authorisation before, I can manually vent the airlock to space and open the outer hatch with a crank. We could then start the core on backup power while drifting. This way."

She climbed ahead with one hand on the ladder and Trina in the other. It was easy, thanks to the low g's.

"Thanks. I am still not sure if I should really leave the station."

"If it helps you, Trina had the same worries. But you other clansisters are on a ship too?"

"Yes, it seems so. I was the only one further up and did not make it."

"So now you will be safe inside the White Ocetlot."

Fanny almost missed a step. "White Ocelot?"

"My ship, yes. Oh."

"I am probably the only one who really get this joke," Fanny snickered. "White Ocelot, ha! When we ever get out of this, you will be made a honorary member of Ketcher! Make you a true white ocelot!"

Now she froze. "No, please not. I am happy to be Petra."

"But how."

"Careful Fanny, don't move too fast." She wanted Fanny to stop. They could talk about this later. "I am already on the ground. Which doesn’t mean much because we're almost weightless here. So don't underestimate your moment, no spring in your steps. And watch out for the occasional loose nuts and bolts floating near the ground."

She walked slowly with wide, low-g strides towards the control room, making full use of the opposable claw toes whenever there was a handle or wedged tube to grab and was at the entrance of the control room in no time. Only there she stopped and saw Fanny doing uncontrolled erratic jumps too far left and right until she hit the wall quite a distance to the left of the doorframe. She put Trina to the ground and caught Fanny, showing her some paw-holds for better control and guided her to the control room, next to Trina. "Wait here," and she returned a short time later with Trina's thinsuit.

With Fanny's help, they stripped Trina naked and put her into the suit. The near weightlessness made it relatively easy. Trina did not wake at all, her limbs fully relaxed the whole time. Now suited up, they floated Trina through the UDA and the flexible access tunnel into the Sagan, where she was placed in the cargo hold, strapped into the floor netting. That should hold her even in 4D.

Fanny looked around. "Well, this is your ship. The White Ocelot."

She saw how the raw wiring and else must look after what Fanny had seen on her last flight. "Sorry, I have not finished the repairs yet. But I have been with her to Fallerian and back once, she is spaceworthy."

"Well, she hides her nice ocelot coat. Hello, White Ocelot."

"Er, sorry, no AI. That ship is old, only manual control. It had been a luxury ship, built for speed."

Fanny looked at her. "You jump manually. Isn't this dangerous?"

"There is the 4D collision system. It will drop out of jump on any abnormality, no worries. It is just more work. Well, and you fly in the copilot seat. Sit down, I have to get some more equipment."

She went back for her thinsuit and two blankets, which she found in a locker in the suit storage room.

Back in the Sagan, she put the blankets under Trina. Hopefully, this would be enough to dampen the worst of the vibrations if they really had to jump.

Then they sat inside. Fanny yawned, it was contagious. She was tired too, not in the best condition to fly.

"Rerra, I am not sure I may ask, but how come you care so much for Trina from Samul."

She stopped going through the checklist and sighed.

"Please, this is a secret. I was raised as Rerra of Curragh from Samul."

Fanny stared at her, wide-eyed. "You are of Curragh from Samul?"

"You remember what the avatar had said on the beach. No, my father was human, and my mother was definitely not Curragh from Samul. But she is on my birth certificate. I was number 14 in succession, in theory. All they did was hide me and then send me to Clarice school in the hope the mobbing there would break me. I disappointed them, finished top of class and as soon as I was 17, I tried to renounce my Samul lineage. They finally agreed, under the condition of never speaking to anyone. So Trina was my cousin, and the only cat who held to me, who did not care about human feet or hands, the small breasts or the thin fur. The only Samul I looked forward to meeting on Ekrerr or other family reunions. The adoption by Perta was rather a lucky coincidence later."

"By Hopkins! I am so sorry."

"Don't worry, it worked out in the end. I am happy with being Petra. Honestly, I still admire Trina, how she works with us despite being number three, or now even number two on the station."

Fanny looked down. "I would like to say that I can relate. But I think my life has been pretty normal up to now. Well, until Fiyul was made the clanmother of all Ketcher."

"Yes, power changes a lot."

"Yes, and you never know who is friend anymore. It is …"

She smiled. "So let's be official friends. I had considered you a friend since the evening on the beach."

"Yes, friend forever." Fanny closed her eyes. "Yes, that evening at the beach was so nice, even if surreal. I should have tried harder to stay in contact."

"And I was afraid of getting too close to power. Stupid, letting that reign over friendship."

They gave each other a high-five.

"Maybe get some sleep, while I go through the checklist?"

Fanny yawned again. "Sounds good. Good night."

She went back to her checklist. At least she had come clean towards Fanny. She liked her, but why had it to be cats from the ruling clans? Ok, next point on the checklist. The superconductors were already down to only 20 K over critical, but she knew it would take time for the remaining temperature to drop.

Eventually, Fanny fell asleep in the co-pilot's chair. She went out again to the bathroom. Just as she finished, Bernie called her on her pad. "Rerra, they activated Kerta's hardware key to invalidate all other keys. You have 0010 as the grace period."

"Bernie, can I still order normal shipyard operations after that?"

"Yes, still"

No time for one of Bernie's long explanations. "Bernie, cut the power to the outer docking ring clamps, all of them. Emergency broadcast to all ships on repeat: Calling all ships. If you want to leave, push in now at +0.1 g to trigger the emergency release of the docking clamp. Last chance."

"Ok, done. 3, 2, 1, Sorry, Rerra, your privileges have been revoked, the broadcast was cancelled after just one repetition. But they have not yet restored power. Shipyard's local controls are still with you."

"Bernie, what is the airlock pressure now?"

"1020 Pascal."

"Ok, Bernie, vent the remaining atmosphere from the small ship's airlock to space and open the outer hatch. But leave the UDA attached."

"That will trigger an alarm."

"Bernie, purge and open it anyway." She made wide low-g leaps back to the UDA. The alarm didn't go off until she was in the flexible tunnel that connected the Sagan's airlock to the pressurised section of the shipyard. Once in the cockpit, she closed the hatch to the UDA. Fanny was still asleep, as was Trina.

She typed a final message to Eli. 'I have to leave the station with my ship. Lay low for a few days, cancel everything. I'll try to get back as soon as I can. Love from your clansister.' Then she turned off her pad, not wanting to tie Petra too much to the shipyard or, even worse, to Trina from Samul and Fanny from Ketcher.

Fanny did not wake. She took off Fanny's shorts and briefs and strapped her into the toilet belt before fastening the 4D harness again. Finally, she buckled her 4D harness. All she could do now was wait for the superconductors of the fusion core to drop below their critical temperature and they would be ready to start.

The station's network was still transmitting through the docking adaptor. She sucked the data into her data dump, the storage each ship was carrying with the latest news between the systems. This might be the last data update from here to reach Fallerian for some time. She could search through it later for further clues. And also for an answer from Eli, should it come in time.

She had routed the shipyard's life camera feeds to her communications console. At 2729 an alarm chimed. The door to the shipyard office was yanked out and a huge pitch-black cat appeared in the doorframe. Even in the office light, it was mostly a black outline, except for the bloody white claws and the overgrown upper white fangs, almost as long as her arms. Barely fitting through the doorway, the monster cat sniffed and roared. Well, the cameras did not record sound, but it was obvious. The monster cat did not look very intelligent.

The superconductors were not ready yet, but they better go now. "Bernie, release the UDA. And please make a backup of yourself, just in case. I will try to return as soon as possible. Take care."

"Take care, Rerra, and thank you to Trina too. I will miss you two. It was too short a time."

Then the UDA was released and with it the net access. She fired the thruster just enough to slowly drift out of the airlock, they needed the power to start the fusion core as it was almost ready.