The Cyclone was in the largest airlock of the shipyard which was in the 0.1 g zone. That made her bag unwieldy in the flexible docking tunnel, not weightless enough and just borderline dirigible with one outstretched hand. Not helped by her itching fur, the fingertips 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 docking port, since the cargo hold was ‘wet’. Instead of cargo, they had loaded additional fuel.
Inside the freighter, she went straight to the cockpit. Penny lay in the pilot’s hammock and scrolled through the checklist on the pad next to 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 turned to 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 permanent fur pattern. I was promised that it would also grow a little longer than my old fur."
"Real new fur", Penny trailed off while touching her arm. "No, I am definitely too old for this. Even more happy that you took the job."
"Where should I put the bag?"
"The flight deck cabin is just across the stairs as on almost any ship. I put a repair kit with a hazmat-hardened thinsuit in there too. It should still fit you unless the mod made you larger."
“No they can’t with just a skin mod,” she sighed, turned around and slid the stairs down in the low gravity and went straight for her cabin, tossing her bag into the net, next to a large bag from the shipyard. Back in the cockpit, Penny pointed to the hammock, which was a rather coarsely woven net. "The Cyclone 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 superconductors should be below the critical temperature in 0200." She paused a moment. "Cyclone, I introduce your second pilot, Rerra from Petra. Today's test jump will be her qualifying jump for C class."
"Greetings, Rerra from Petra. Please scan your license." The AI spoke in a very neutral voice as if its creators wanted to make sure that it sounded like a non-intelligent assistance system.
"Cyclone, 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 class C license. You are registered as the second pilot."
Penny stood up. "Cyclone, Rerra will take over."
"Here, lunch for you from Petra." She gave Penny a packed lunch which Kit had made originally for her. But Penny needed it more, her smile confirmed it.
She lay half down in the hammock. Since in 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 completely different, she had now an AI to guide her. A veteran one as the Cyclone had many years already in service. The controls in front of her told her the same, still the three screens and below the central panel with the five universal sliders, the standard layout for that she had trained with her outdated simulator program. But at least no control sticks like in the Sagan. "Cyclone, status on screen 2 please, flight plan on screen 1, screen 3 is for the current focus activity."
The temperatures of the superconductors came up on screen 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 short, green above the board. She created a simple flight path for the test jump and then the inward spiral for the docking down to A01a, the station's most prominent port, and let the ships's AI send it to flight control for approval. Which came immediately.
She turned back to Penny, who was wolfing down the food. The slim cat had earned it.
She scrolled through their freight manifest which was only fuel, so far. There was also no food declared yet, just plenty of repair tools and spare parts from the shipyard, stored in the workshop.
Finally, the fusion core's magnetic guidance coils' superconductors were all cold enough to start the replaced core.
"Cyclone, prepare for fusion core 2 ignition on station power."
The status screen showed the capacitor charging.
"Cyclone, please acknowledge or confirm all commands."
"Confirmed", the AI said.
"Cyclone, thank you."
And a little later. "Fusion core 2 is ready for ignition."
"Cyclone, ignite fusion core 2 and ramp it to 10 %, please."
"Confirmed."
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 acknowledged.
"Ok, Cyclone, now ignite fusion core 1 using local power. If 10 % is not enough, raise output of core 2."
"10 % is enough, confirmed."
Core 1 was soon up too, and without any problems. So far, so good.
"Cyclone, I would like to have manual thruster control for dedocking to check the thrusters. Is this fine with you?"
"You are the pilot", the AI answered, for the first time not entirely neutral.
"Cyclone, then from left to right slider, thrust x, rotate around x, rotate around y, rotate around z, last slider thrust z. Slider in central with autoreturn." The slider moved to the middle.
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"Confirmed. Do you want my help if needed?"
"Yes, Cyclone, 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, "Cyclone, please tell me, did you overload the core?"
"No, I did not. But I should have prevented it. I think I am not safe anymore for travel."
She sat back and turned to Penny who shrugged. Great, an AI with self-doubts.
"Cyclone, don't worry. I am from the shipyard and will travel with you on the next trip. I will be there for any repairs. Really, anyone can make an error. You are not the first AI." She hoped it helped. Because she did not think that there were any AI therapists on the station.
"Thank you. I am ready to fly now." It still had a slightly depressed undertone.
"Oh, er, Cyclone, get the final clearance from station control for us, please."
"Received."
She pushed the z slider a little and the ship moved very slowly upwards. After the Sagan, the Cyclone felt extremely sluggish. But it was like in the simulator. 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 worrying about the station's rotation or the tilt from the still unbalanced thrusters.
"Cyclone, can you balance the thrusters?"
"Yes, I can do this either dedicated or adaptive."
She turned to Penny who pointed left.
"Cyclone, er, dedicated, please."
"Please, prepare for soft jerking."
"Cyclone, confirmed."
The ship shot forward and backward and spun for a very short moment in various directions. 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 force component. She rotated the ship into the test jump direction.
"Cyclone, deploy the full cooling array, please."
It took a few moments.
"Deployed."
"Cyclone, run up core 2 to 100 % in 0150."
"Confirmed." That had been the maximum gradient. The new core had been downrated, full power was 80 % of the original specs. A standard procedure for refurbished core, she had been told. She saw the pumps speeding up, their consumption was well within tolerances. The output went up, all looked fine: The 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.
"Cyclone, core 2 abrupt back to 25 % with cooling pumps continuing at full power."
"Confirmed."
The temperature dropped quickly, way outside the specs. But the vacuum held, and the cooling array was working well enough. The flow of the two pumps whose bearings she had exchanged 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.
"Cyclone, we will make a short test jump. Core 1 and 2 again up to 50 %, acceleration according to the flight plan, please. Your turn, please take over."
"Confirmed. Rerra, do you want a patch?" Her ears shot up. The AI used her name for the first time after the initial acknowledgement.
"Cyclone, no thank you."
The jump warning sounded as confirmation with only navigation thrust.
The jump was again but a flicker of light and they were exactly where her flight plan had wanted them.
"Cyclone, well done."
Penny snickered behind her.
She sighed. Penny really needed to be more friendly to the world even if the world in general had not been too friendly to Penny.
"Cyclone, I will dock manually."
"Confirmed. I will be ready if needed."
"Cyclone, thank you, that helps." She had no experience with 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.
"Cyclone, remove autoreturn from x thruster, leftmost slider, please.”
Using the manual controls, she rotated them pointing back to the station. The freighter reacted so sluggishly after the hectic corrections 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 simulator.
"Cyclone, please add the main engines to x thrust."
"Do you want a progressive slider response?"
"Yes, please, x thrust slider in cumulative mode."
"Confirmed."
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 chances for normal flights to dock there were low, it was a well-used target for simulator flights, to have done it at least once even if only in the simulator. 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 Cyclone followed her commands, 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 conceded, "Congratulations to your official class C." And then she sighed as if she had said too much. There would be hardly more praise from Penny.
"Rerra, I confirm the qualification for class C. Please confirm 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, Cyclone, er, yes", she answered distracted. The nice comment from the AI had caught her off-guard. At least one was praising her.
Penny came to her rescue. "Cyclone, hot standby for both cores, pumps back to load-based operation mode. Disable the pilot console. Prepare for 9000 departure."
"Confirmed", but in a neutral voice again. So this AI did favourites.
She finished the full biometric identification, put the pad back and stretched. Now, with her concentration gone, her itching fur hit her with force, worse than she had ever experienced. The accelerated regrowth was no joke. And the fur on her lower arm was already longer than her old fur. Amazing. But itching like hell.
"Penny?"
Penny looked up from the writing on her pad.
"Please, can you comb my backfur? That itching drives me mad."
"I still think you should not have them done this to you. They could just have dyed your fur."
She did not say anything but was wondering the same. Just a dye should have been an option. She had been too tired yesterday and then lured by the chance of getting longer fur …
There was not only a cabin for two pilots, next to it was a shower cabin, her target. She stripped and entered with Penny. There were several brushes. She cleaned a dense one, gave it to Penny and raised her arms.
Penny's tail showed deep embarrassment. Her nude evenings in the Petra den had really done a job on her; she had apparently thought of Penny as a clansister. And even though Penny had seen at least her upper body naked when they had changed 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 everyone. It was a great relief, she closed her eyes. But then Penny brushed now more gently and petted 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 contours of her muscles. And from there down her legs. She smiled, her purring intensified. It felt so nice, relieving the itching.
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 Penny's cleavage. Her musky sweat from the overnight work was overpowering and now there was also a distinct arousal note.
"Rerra", Penny said, undecided between sighing and crying. She hugged again tighter. "Please, take care. I have a bad feeling. I am really worried about you." A tear from Penny landed on her shoulder and then Penny let go. "Now shower, and good luck. Please come back." And with that, Penny turned and raced out.
"Thank you, Penny", she shouted after her, standing still for a moment. And then went into the shower before the other pilot came.