Finally, Fallerian III came into view – time to get the final approach from Fallerian III's flight control. Flight control was polite but cold, speaking Fallerian did nothing to change that; and asking for the shipyard port made them unhappy as it seemed she was evading the docking charges. Even the explanation about the need for xenon did not help. Whoever she was communicating with was clearly unhappy about the state of the world in general and her particular request in particular. But she was not asking for anything unreasonable. So, after some delay, they were cleared for a flight path to the nadir with minimum delta v.

As soon as she had entered the flight control of Fallerian III, a stored message from the human had arrived. Now, drifting on the flight path to the nadir, she read it. 'Dear pilot of the White Ocelot, our contract over 650 is still open. We can renegotiate if you wish. Please, allow me to honour our contract. Please answer.' She transferred it to her pad and registered his address. They would need all the help they could get; the money was secondary. But she worried about again losing control.

"Fanny, do you have any suppressants?"

Fanny looked in her bag. "Yes, five doses. If we have a synth unit I can make more." She grinned, "I was one of the chosen few who knew the current formula."

"Sorry, no synth on this ship. I have not even stocked the first aid kit, otherwise there would be one. Anyway, I am thinking of asking a human male for help."

"You know a human here?"

"I made an innersystem jump with him, nothing more," she waved it away, "anyway, I know I can resist for at least 3000. So if you want to save on the suppressant, you could stay on the ship, no problem."

"No, no, I will come with you. Maybe the human is interested in more. I mean."

She shook her head. "He was not then, and I think he would not now. Do not extrapolate from those who came to our station, they are probably not the norm. As a human once told me, other men tend to see those coming to Hopkins as strange or desperate."

"I must confess that I have never met a human in person. Only stories."

She grinned but became serious again. "Adult entertainment is not a good source on human behaviour, even you should have guessed that. Anyway, I will send him a message. He might not be on the station anyway."

But the human's reply came quickly. He wanted to come to their docking port. She couldn't agree with that, so she asked him to meet them in a restaurant a little later. The smell of food would help, and she was very hungry. So was Fanny, although she was still so excited about flying.

Since it was almost zero g at the nadir, she trusted Fanny with the docking. Fanny went extra slow, but the jerk when the clamps grabbed was not too bad, on par with what the grumpy shuttle AI did when she first came to Hopkins station. Not even half a year ago, it was hard to believe.

She tapped on her pad and then turned to Fanny, grinning. "Congratulations on your B licence. You are now officially a pilot."

"You're not joking?"

"Hand me your pad." She connected to hers and used Trina's key to confirm her assessment that Fanny of Fiyul from Ketcher had fulfilled the requirements of Class B. It registered properly on Fanny's pad, the data dump had not revoked Samul's licensing authorisation. Well, the new management of the station probably had no idea how to run space operations until they found enough collaborators.

Fanny stared at her pilot's certificate on her pad. She ran it through the entire certificate chain. "I'm really a certified space pilot?"

"Yes, and just in time, because the White Ocelot is not cleared for passengers, only for test flights. So pilot's only. Let's shut everything down and get off. We still have to be cleared by a docking officer."

She called flight control again and turned back to Fanny with the answer. "We can leave the ship here for now, but we must be ready to leave within 0100. We are free to enter the station if we go straight to immigration on DF447."

"Which we intend to do."

She nodded too, "Shouldn't be too hard to find. After you."

* * *

She had been a little optimistic. Immigration was deep inside the station, and they were quickly in its vicinity. But then things got difficult. It took a while before she saw the tiny sign leading to a nondescript door. Immigration was a small office, small in the truest sense of the word, and Fanny and her filled out the room opposite the single counter. An old beetle, if the slightly faded colour was any indication of age, was behind the counter, speaking Fallerian in a heavy dialect. She had trouble following him; Fanny looked even more forlorn, but then she had never studied Fallerian beyond not failing a class.

"We come with ship from shipyard nadir port. No officer at nadir port. Flight control sending two us here."

The beetle answered again, something she barely understood half of.

She sighed and called the human. "Hello, this is Rerra, the cat pilot of the White Ocelot."

"Oh, any problems?" Even without being biased by his scent, his voice was soft and pleasant. Not very male, though. She quickly shook her head to clear her mind.

"No, all good. We are now at the immigration office on DF422, flight control sent us there."

"Flight control? Why that?"

"We docked at the shipyard because of xenon transfer, and it seems to be the official procedure. But I have trouble understanding the officer. Could you translate?"

"Yes, of course."

She handed her pad to the beetle in speaker mode. "Friend will translate."

Fanny's ear perked up. It was the first time she heard the human speaking even if it was fast Fallerian.

The exchange was short. The beetle ended the call. "ID please."

She called up her ID on the pad, and Fanny did it on her pad.

"Scan here." It took a few moments and then the screen read 'residence permit for Fallerian III 40 days'. "Sorry for not invading you," she said, which must have been funny because the beetle did what sounded like laughing out loud.

"You speak like a hatchling," he/she finally said, "big cute hatchling. Aim to grow fast."

"Thank you," she replied before any other half-remembered, supposedly polite phrases backfired worse.

"Fanny scan his pad."

She did and then looked at the permit with wide eyes. Her reading of Fallerian was still good enough it seems.

"Any contract or money?" she asked the beetle.

"No, but you pay taxes. Standard citizenship contract. You read it. Good business, you two."

She wasn't sure how to answer correctly, handling Fallerian immigration had not been covered in class. Hence, she bowed in cat style, as much as the small space allowed. "Thank you, we going. Good business."

The beetle did the clicking laugh again as they walked out. Well, this could have been worse. Cheap entry, even a temporary residence permit. But she sighed.

"What's the matter? This was great, we can stay here for 40 days, should be time enough to sort things out."

"I am even deeper in debt with the human. Fanny, please try to control yourself when we meet. I know it will be tempting, but he has earned our best behaviour."

Fanny looked at her. "Girl, you sound soo overprotective. You have a crush on him?"

"Please, Fanny, I am not joking. The scent of a human is much stronger than that of a male. We need all the help we can get and scaring him will not help."

"Scaring? Since when was a human scared of fun?"

"Please, trust me with this one."

Fanny looked at her doubtfully but nodded.

* * *

The restaurant was quite large. But there were no cats or humans, just Fallerian natives. Or so she thought, as she could not tell the natives from the alien insectoid visitors. She stood hesitantly at the entrance, checking the name of the restaurant again. Then she saw a human at the panorama window. She hesitated since she could not remember his face. The human, however, had recognised her and approached them. As he came closer, his scent came back to her, and with it, her nibbles hardened, her breathing accelerated, and her tail would have risen had she not willed it down. Stupid pheromones playing her.

He was almost a head smaller than her, and she was not a large cat. He was the smallest human she had ever seen, which, to be honest, was not a large sample size. However, her other unreliable source of information, the adult media, usually featured humans (or their body doubles) as tall too. But of course, she would never judge anyone by something so superficial as their height.

"Hello Rerra," the human called her in Standard, "Hello, you too. I am Marik. Nice to meet you."

He had only glanced at Fanny, who clearly had expected more attention. "Hello, I'm Fanny from Ketcher." She pushed out her chest.

"Sorry, do you have a problem with your clothes? Don't worry, the Fallerians around us won't notice," Marik smiled and turned back to her.

Fanny looked at her, dumbstruck.

"Fanny, suppressant now!" she hissed.

Fanny got out her inhaler slowly, took a dose and handed it to her.

"Oh, Fanny, you take medicine. Do you have episodes like Rerra?"

She had to stop his misreading. "No, Marik, no. This medicine suppresses our sex drive. Because we cats have literally been gene-engineered to serve Hopkins II, sex slaves for a fetish adult entertainment billionaire." Fanny inhaled sharply at this defamation. "When we met back then, I had no suppressant with me. That was the reason." She smiled for a split second before remembering the human's aversion to seeing her teeth. "Sorry, I was really embarrassed after which is why I did not answer your messages. Now, I swear I will take a dose too, should I not be able to control myself anymore. Or if you ask me to. But we only have four doses left."

"Oh," he said, and then there was an awkward silence. "Well, I don't know much about that. You say you were not yourself in the end."

She nodded. "Yes. It was instinct, not me." She looked at him pleadingly. Again, she wanted to please him, but she held back. Thinking about the den worked well as a distraction. "And thanks to your help, we can now stay for 40 days as residents. You have already done a lot like the cheap fuel and the renegotiation of the fine back then. We are good."

Only now did she notice that all the Fallerians around them had stopped eating to listen to their exchange.

"Oh, ok, I consider our contract fulfilled."

"Thank you. Could we sit down and eat? we haven't eaten properly since the jump."

"Oh, of course!" he signed with his hand on the counter, where the beetle responded by waving his or her antenna. "Please follow."

Concluding their contract meant things were back to normal as the surrounding Fallerians went on eating. Time was money, business awaited. The cat and the human did not look like business.

They walked over to an empty table for four in front of the panorama window. The table was higher than the surrounding ones, as the beetle folk here were smaller than even the human. Otherwise, the setting reminded her a little of the Blended Followers back at Hopkins station, though the table was smaller, and the window was larger, almost four-metre diameter. The huge Fallerian III station rotated so much slower that the movement of the stars was not immediately apparent.

"Let's make a formal introduction. I am Marik Llandradroß. 17 standard years, Class E."

"Rerra from Petra, 18, C-Class." She raised her hand, but he did not recognise the gesture.

"Fanny from Kretcher, 22, B class." Fanny looked at her with a strange curiosity.

"Oh, another pilot. Are all cats pilots? You must value space flight very much."

She coughed to not laugh out loud and Fanny looked away to not show her snickering. This human was unbelievably naive.

"Not really," she managed. "Can we get something to eat soon?"

"Do you like Krantagratin?"

She and Fanny nodded enthusiastically.

He stood up and signed to the beetle at the main counter, who soon arrived with three cups.

"The Krantagratin will come soon, we prepare it freshly," the beetle said. He had a reddish shell and barely reached with his head over the table.

"Thank you," she answered, "make larger two, please?"

"Yes, we can do this, 1.5x size for 1.4x more money?"

"Yes please, grateful do this."

The beetle turned and walked back.

"Your Fallerian is good."

"Thank you," she smiled, showing all her teeth before covering them and barely restraining her urge to move over to his side of the table and sit on his lap.

Then she took a cup after seeing Fanny inhale the steam. The cups that the beetle had brought contained a strong spiced tea. It almost masked Marik's human male scent. She inhaled several times, clearing her mind, though she had not felt clouded before.

Suddenly, the restaurant was bathed in the brightest light as a ship's main engine pointed in their direction and the autochrome window took a split moment to darken.

"That should have been mine," the human sighed. Then he told them his story, how he had been forced to deliver modded humans, essentially slaves, which earned him his E-class licence. And how he had discovered a ring of corruption on Fallerian VII that not only protected the traffickers. Rooting out corruption was good. But he had hurt a business when he had been under their contract. Even if it was a forced one, it felt wrong to the Fallerians. Now no Fallerian wanted to hire him, because they saw him as a bad omen for their own business. Still, he had done the right thing. It was a sad story, she sympathised with him. And not because of the pheromones.

She inhaled the tea all the time to keep her mind clear, grateful for the slow cooling in the thermo mug. That way she could really listen, not just get lost in his not-so-deep voice. And she listened with great interest. He seemed an honest and humble human, with his heart in the right place. Like Ken. And like Trina.

She took a deep breath. "We fled from Hopkins Station. There was a coup, a riot, fighting. Fanny's clanmother was killed."

Fanny nodded heavily. "Yes, and two of my clansisters too. Killer cats are roaming the station." The mention of Fiyul had sobered Fanny too, who had leered over Marik despite the suppressant. "They were created by"

She hissed at Fanny.

"Modding," Fanny finished lamely.

"And my clan is on the station, which is no longer serviced by ships," she sighed. The thought of the kittens hiding in the den, perhaps even with the circulation failing. A very sobering thought.

Then a beetle arrived with a small trolley. On it were two large steaming plates and a smaller one. He was obviously not usually waiting as he was struggling with the plates.

"Krantagratin freshly prepared, alien-sized," the beetle said. He had a reddish shell and barely reached with his head over the table.

"Thank you," she answered, "make larger nicely."

"Marik was my hatchling. His contract partner is my contract partner."

"Thank you."

The beetle strained himself to lift the plates onto the table, then turned and walked back without another word. Well, the restaurant was busy.

"This is my hatch father, one of the two."

"Sorry, I speak a little Fallerian. But I knew little of their society."

"Don't worry, the hatching contract expired three years ago. Please enjoy your meal."

The Krantagratin was another distraction. It was great, not even Eli's could reach it. It just looked strange, the bright light the beetles liked was bleaching its colours. Fanny licked her lips too, showing a lot of teeth.

The human snacked on his small plate of Kratzez. "So what are your plans?"

She had hot gratin in her mouth, so Fanny replied. "I am not sure. I would like to return as soon as possible. But I don't know what it's like there now."

She nodded. "Yes, so do I. And I want to repair my ship, something I cannot do back there, no parts, not enough knowledge, not even the right tools. But I am very worried about my clan, so I want to go back too. Anyway, first we need a place to stay for a day or so, we had just jumped in."

He nodded. "Of course. What repairs do you need?"

"Main engine 1 is broken. That's not a showstopper, I can jump with just number 2. But I need it for certification and redundancy."

He closed his eyes for a second. "Your ship was built by humans? Ancient, no AI."

"Yes, a Sagan Melorian II."

That made the human smile. "How about a contract: I help you repair your ship and you take me to your next destination." He took out a Fallerian pad and started scribbling.

Fanny jumped at the chance, not used to being sidelined. "Er, can you recommend a desert?"

"They don't have them on Fallerian," he signed with a complex gesture, "but some backed fruits will be coming soon."

He went back to his pad. "So the best offer is a dock at Jedro's shop, which includes free access to his junkyard at a 10% premium. 47 a day."

She almost choked on the gratin. "47? Yes, of course." She resisted her overwhelming urge to hug him and quickly drank some of the now lukewarm tea. "Please order also another hot tea?"