The chef's assistant woke the rest of the crew and then went back to prepare breakfast, the ship's time having been reset after the transit. They welcomed the chance not to be rushed by the higher-ups.
The ship was quiet as the staff prepared the meal and whatever was needed for the higher-ups with calm efficiency. Not least because she had gotten her paws dirty repairing the galley oven and steamer on the first night, the pilots were not considered part of the higher-ups and everyone sat or stood around the mess table where a rich breakfast buffet was served.
Without the stiff atmosphere, she learned more about the staff and their passengers. As Chatee had suspected, the staff were recruited from the lower tribes of the Ketcher clan, mostly fourth and fifth tier. Most of them had been with the Fiyul household since early adulthood and were practically considered Fiyul tribe by now. None of them had been modded, of course, but they had been selected from a large pool of candidates. In addition, most of the lower tribes had modded themselves so often in the past, either voluntarily or at the request of their employers, that many of the lower Ketcher cats now had these idealised bodies naturally.
While that explained the appearance, other things were more important. At this moment, Ketcher was in turmoil after the sudden, though not entirely unexpected, death of the very old clanmother Teresa, who died at the age of 89. As Teresa's children were all over fifty, the Ketcher clan Council decided that the eldest of the second tier should take over. This was clanmother Fiyul, who at 49 was just below this arbitrary threshold. She had suddenly been promoted to lead the Ketcher clan, unexpectedly and not without some opposition. Thus, the clanmother of the highest Ketcher tribe was on her ship, the second most important cat on the planet was off-planet! Even for Samul, the ruler of space travel, leaving the planet at such a time would be unthinkable. A feeling shared by most of the staff. But the clanmother had been planning this expedition for years, even though her departure was only announced three days ago, shortly after Fiyul's promotion.
So she wasn't alone in wondering whether clanmother Fiyul would still rule Ketcher when they returned. Unless this journey would help to stabilise their hold on power. Some speculated that she wanted her eldest daughter to be accepted as de facto leader instead. Which made the mission a mere diversion. But why would she take two doctors, the other two higher-ranking cats? And two of the best Ketcher doctors on modding. And why this long trip to an unoccupied system that had been planned for a long time? No, the majority expected something special from their journey.
All this talk brought back politics, a subject she had hoped to have left behind when she renounced her Samul lineage. Instead, she had been drawn back into the power games of the Ketcher clan. Fortunately, she was only the second pilot and as a necessary support staff, her role would hopefully be limited to a name on the crew manifest. She shuddered at the aim of the mission she had become involved with.
Chatee was from the Kareeb tribe, which until four days ago had been another first-tier tribe. Theoretically, she had been number 184 in line before Fiyul was announced as the new clanmother. If she hadn't been the only active Ketcher pilot, the clanmother would certainly have objected to her selection.
After all these revelations, she told them that she was now technically the fourth in line of the Petra clan. On paper, that made her senior to everyone but the clanmother, even senior to the other bejewelled cat, Fanny, the youngest daughter of Fiyul, who was currently fifteenth in line at the age of 21. It was rumoured that she had come on this journey because she was expendable, while her older siblings would try to consolidate Fiyul's position in the clanmother's absence.
The talk of rank within Fiyul still affected Chatee, who got up as soon as she had finished and headed for the cockpit. She had talked too much, though, and had still not eaten half of her food. But she got up as soon as the door to the first cabin opened and the young cat, Fanny, came out. "Thank you for the food," she bowed in her direction, then turned and headed for the stairs, trying to escape the politics and the rank struggles.
"Wait," Fanny called in a shaky voice, "please, Pilot Rerra, wait."
She hesitated on the stairs. "Yes, madam?"
"Can I see the stars later? Please?"
"Yes, of course," she smiled at her. But then the door behind her opened again and she quickly climbed the stairs, doubting that the clanmother would be pleased to see her second pilot. Well, it was mutual.
* * *
Later she sat on the floor of the cockpit. Chatee was happy to talk about her travels and the things she had learned that only real life could teach a pilot. Most of them were not about navigation or actual flying, but about dealing with customs and officials at all sorts of stations and, of course, dealing with passengers. The latter two were the main reasons why there were pilots at all since the actual flying could be done entirely by AI.
"Hello," came a voice from below, "may I enter?"
There was no trapdoor, so it was rhetorical. "Of course, please enter."
She scrambled to her feet as Fanny entered the cockpit.
"Madam Fanny," she almost whispered and bowed.
"Please, you promised me a view of the stars," Fanny began, "why are the shutters not open?"
"We always close the shutters when we jump, and had no need to open them yet," Chatee replied. "Cyclone, are the radiation levels low enough to open the shutters?"
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"Very low. Should I open them?"
"Cyclone, yes, open them please."
The shutters took a few moments to open fully. The windows were mostly dark except for a few stars, so they looked more like mirrors and reflected their faces.
"Cyclone, turn off all cockpit lights and dim the screens."
And then more stars appeared. As their eyes adjusted, the number of stars increased and increased until even the small area of the window showed more than a hundred stars. They were all enchanted.
"It's easy to forget what is outside," Chatee whispered.
"Can we see the main star of this system?" Fanny asked.
"No, not without some course correction, I'm afraid."
But it was not just Fanny who was interested. "Cyclone, what is the lateral delta v to have the main star in direct view of the cockpit?" She asked.
"What would be an acceptable upper limit for acceleration, and do you mean within a 15 degree forward angle?"
"Cyclone assumes 0.1 g and yes."
"Then a lateral component for the next 0044."
"Cyclone, what about 0.05 g?"
"0071"
She looked at Chatee who shrugged her shoulders and tail. "We're wasting fuel left and right anyway. Cyclone, align us with the star of this system for 0200 with less than 0.05 g lateral component during the correction."
The stars began to move immediately, although the lateral component was barely noticeable, still accelerating at 0.7 g. Soon the system's main star, a smaller red dwarf, came into view. Its dull red glow still washed out all but the brightest stars. Although it was half the diameter of their home planet's orbit, it was so far out that it barely filled the windows, like an oversized red lampion. Unlike the latter, its surface was boiling. As these structures were gigantic, all the bubbles and filaments did not move at all from their point of view. It still showed the tremendous energies that kept the stars shining, exceeding their energy output by millions and millions of times. They watched in silence until the ship swung back to its original course after passing 0200 and the main star disappeared from their direct view. The cockpit fell into darkness and the stars and a faint distant nebula reappeared.
"It's nice to see them for real once in a while," Chatee finally broke the silence, long after they were back on their old course.
"Yes, thank you, First Pilot Chatee and Second Pilot Rerra for sharing this with me," Fanny said, bowing slightly in the cramped cockpit. "I apologise for the clanmother. She may seem cold, but this journey was her heart's desire. She planned it long before her promotion, even before I was born. Now she suddenly has the means at her disposal and has decided to go before she loses her status".
"It must be something very important to leave at this time."
"Sorry," Fanny just shook her head, "that is not for anyone to know."
"We understand. Anyway, three more jumps and we are all closer to knowing."
"Thank you," Fanny said, ignoring her remark, "I'd better get downstairs before the clanmother gets angry."
"You are welcome any time, Madam Fanny al Fiyul of Ketcher," she said.
Fanny stopped halfway. "Please, second pilot Rerra from Petra, call me Fanny here. You are the pilots."
And then she went down without waiting for an answer. They looked at each other and nodded. Definitely another star-struck cat.
* * *
In preparation for the next jump, Chatee went around applying the patches to knock out all their passengers. The staff would have also accepted their second pilot handing out the patches, but she did not dare go to the clanmother. Instead, she stayed in the cockpit this time, her first interstellar jump as the main pilot at the controls. Even though she had no intention of touching them, except in an emergency. Which hopefully would not happen. At least the countdown was going well while she dozed off at 0001.
They were in 3D. It was Chatee who woke her by ripping off the plaster. It stung a lot, she still had hairs on the inside of her ear.
"Sleepyhead, it seems your metabolism is still not fully balanced after the mod," she grinned.
"Sorry," she mumbled, still not awake enough for a better retort. "Cyclone, status!"
"We're out for 1200 and on course. Next jump in 8140. A transit authority had hailed us. I just sent our status and flight plan and delayed a full reply."
"Aren't we in a human system?"
"Cyclone, good answer," Chatee replied instead, turning to her. "Yes, Charock was settled a long time ago. They have two planets in the habitable zone and almost two billion people live in this system. One of the bigger human settlements. As such, they have traffic control because they can enforce it. Ok, Cyclone, record. This is cat freighter Cyclone. We are requesting clearance for the flight path towards the exit point for Hrst 259934 as previously submitted. We have a crew of two and thirteen passengers, all cats." Chatee waited a moment.
"Ok, sent. Given the time stamp of the message, a reply will take about 0417 or longer."
"Ok, take your bathroom break and come back so I can go around and wake up the passengers. In this system, we will play by their rules and keep the cockpit manned at all times."
Now she really felt the pressure in her bladder, just a "thanks" and then she was off down the stairs.
* * *
About halfway through the transit, Fanny returned to the cockpit. Manning the cockpit was boring since the system even had traffic control. And for collision warning, they relied on the AI-monitored sensors anyway. She looked at the numbers showing their course, which of course indicated a full match. Which meant there was nothing to do. Fanny's visit was a welcomed change of routine.
She opened the shutters. But they were on a pre-submitted flight plan and had to follow their course. So there was nothing but distant stars drifting very slowly through their field of view as they followed a tenth of a hyperbola through the system towards their next jump window. And since their next transit system was inside a faint nebula, there were fewer stars visible in that direction than usual.
She showed Fanny her route, on screen 1 in 3D mode, from their starting point, the planned and actual routes, and how well they matched. It turned out that Fanny had done some simulator training herself. Not enough to pass a test, but she had a good idea of how a spacecraft travels under the forces of a central star and how they had to factor that into their route, as well as the heavy burden of accelerating or decelerating at a constant 0.7 g. However, Fanny was primarily the second most senior member of the Ketcher clan on board and was under strict orders not to socialise too much. Therefore, her visit had to be brief.
Soon after Fanny left, Chatee came to relieve her. It was time for the second meal to nourish her body before the next jump, a long one, coming close to the three-day transit time limit in 4D for passenger carriers.
Afterwards, Chatee went around and put the passengers to sleep while she talked to the human of the local traffic control to clear their exit. Though talking was a bit of a stretch with the communication delay caused by light speed, she had already sent her message out so they could reply in time. And a real human replied, wishing them well with a smile. She smiled back and replied by video, although the jump warning had already started and they would not receive his reply.