The timing of her patch had been better. She awoke in 3D. The large letters on screen 1 showed that only 0037 had passed since the return to 3D. But an alarm sounded and screen 2 flashed red.

"Cyclone, status." But before the AI could answer, she knew. Their acceleration was too slow, the cot was moving very differently.

"Rerra, main drives 3 and 6 failed after re-entry in 3D."

"Cyclone, can you be more specific?"

"The schematics are on the screen. I have no response from power distributor 3 outwards. This indicates that either the distributor has failed or the passive wiring between the working step-down converters in main bus 4 has failed. I am running the remaining four at 85 %, giving us 0.6 g."

She sighed as she looked at the schematic. The wiring in question ran over half the length of the ship. "Cyclone, do we have a spare power converter?"

"Yes, there should be two spares."

"Cyclone, route on screen 1. Go down to 0.3 g for transit and calculate the delay at the destination with the current engine configuration at 85 % and 100 % during the jump, please."

"I need more time, I am still refining the current entry point."

Well, the next jump was short, so using a maximum of 1 g would increase their transient time, but not more than two days. "Cyclone, also calculate a route where we jump earlier and maybe end up closer to the inner of the destination system."

Then she got up, went to the bathroom and then to their cabin, where Chatee slowly rose from her upper bunk.

"Good morning. Engines 3 and 6 have failed, possibly the power converter."

"Ugh," Chatee replied, jumping to the floor gracefully in the lower gravity. "Morning," she said, following the convention of resetting the clock after every interstellar jump, "If this is a good morning, I don't want to hear what a bad morning would be. No, don’t answer this. At least it is only the power distributor."

"Good morning Rerra and Chatee, I have finished the refining. In the current configuration, we could arrive with about 2000 delay when we jump in 1450."

"I'll wake everyone, have a quick meal and then jump again. Good, I hate those chain jumps. They turn the fur grey prematurely. Wake the staff. I will wake the higher-ups."

"Ok," and out she went, down the stairs and into the last cabin where the chef and her assistant slept along with two other maids. She quickly tore off the plaster to reduce the soreness from ripped-out fur before they woke up.

"Oh, cute little pilot coming to my bunk," murmured the cat on the lower bank, still half asleep. She blushed and raised her ears in embarrassment until she got herself under control.

"Good morning," she shouted.

The cat on the upper right bunk stirred and propped herself up.

"Sorry," she continued in a normal voice, "we have a problem with two of the six main engines. We have to jump early, in 1300, so we have to eat in 500. Sorry about the short notice."

The chef looked at her. "And I had such a nice dream. Good morning, I will do my best."

She went to the next cabin and repeated her wake-up call. Four disoriented cats slowly rose from their beds.

As she entered the next cabin, she froze. This was the guard's cabin and on the other side slept the male. She had no suppressants with her, and even if she did, her outfit had no pockets. She went back outside, took a deep breath and went in, tore off the patches shouting "Good morning" and left quickly, leaving them alone. She was relieved to see Chatee coming down the stairs. So she passed the first two cabins and went down to the workshop, looking for the two spare power distributors. There were two, although neither of them were new.

"Cyclone, I found two old power distributors. Are they ok?"

"It depends on the operating conditions, especially heat. Semiconductors age the higher the temperature the faster. It depends on the manufacturing method. Heat is especially critical if they're made using a process called doping. This involves introducing tiny amounts of foreign atoms into the crystal matrix to change the conduction. The downside is that."

Yes, never ask an AI for details. "Cyclone, stop. I am a bit pressed for time. So, you're saying they could fail pretty quickly if they get too hot?"

"Rerra, maybe, it depends on the model and if they used doping and what materials are inside, the temperature"

"Cyclone, it's a PRM23 from ugh," she interrupted the AI again, "I can't read it."

"The PRM23 series can indeed fail due to excessive heat, it should stay below 500 K during operation and can tolerate up to 580 K for short periods without power. To avoid overheating, they are connected to a cooling pipe via the flat underside and the two screw holes". The AI sent a picture of the same unit lying on the workshop desk.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Cyclone, could this power distributor have been damaged when the fusion core burned out? I think the cooling system was also overloaded then."

The AI was silent for a moment, "I am sorry. Indeed, the entire cooling grid was over 700 K, the maximum the sensors could measure."

"Cyclone, sorry to bring this up again. How difficult is the physical access to the power distributors?"

"You need zero g and half a day's cool-down to get past two hot areas. It is in a vacuum. It is not a superconducting power distributor, so it should be easy to replace."

"Cyclone, thank you."

She put the power distributors back in the box. There was no way she could do this and keep to their schedule.

* * *

When she went up the stairs, there was already some food on the mess table, reheated leftovers and two bowls of meat salad from the fridge, still cold enough to form droplets on the outside of the bowls. She was not a picky eater and just filled her plate. As she ate, she explained their situation to the staff, who were not happy to be sent back to sleep so soon. However, this would be their last jump before they reached their destination and that made up for it.

Chatee emerged from the first cabin with big strides, her fur standing up, her tail a brush. "Come up," she growled through her teeth.

She jumped up, bowed hastily and followed her.

Chatee closed the staircase door to the crew deck. "That stupid, arrogant, stubborn old crone!" she shouted, "thinks she can order the physics just because she can order any Ketcher around."

"Didn't Fanny explain it to her?"

"She did, but the old hag listened even less to her daughter. And we are talking about a delay of 2000. On a journey of more than 100 light years. Hell, our accumulated relativistic errors are probably greater than 2000. And then our target seems to be the entire orbital plane, almost 200 million km from the star. Not to mention that neither phase nor reference point has been given!"

"What?"

"Yes, I can tell you now, you have seen the system. A supernova remnant, an old neutron star, no other large objects, no strong radio beam. We were going to rendezvous with someone about 200 million km from the neutron star, or rather pi times 10 to the power of 17 red light cycles as was the original instructions. That adds another 15% error, depending on what colour you choose for red. Only the retarded Fiyul believed it was accurate enough to meet someone at that exact moment. And she had seen us jump, anyone who would take the trouble to come that far would need at least a day to meet with us."

They sighed together.

"Anyway, I've been ordered to make haste, so we'll stick to the plan. Jump as soon as possible with less acceleration and get as close to the 200 million km orbit as possible." Her tail dropped again. "I could have done that with less yelling and more time to eat."

"Did you eat at all?"

"No, but in about 0500 I have to make my round. And I will sedate the clanmother first. There will be enough leftovers. Maybe even some of the better stuff."

They both stopped in the cockpit. "Cyclone, zoom in on the target system."

Screen 1 showed the system in 3D with their entry point and a braking trajectory to an orbit.

"Why did you choose a clockwise rotation?"

"It's a gamble but the neutron star rotates that way. Anyway, we come out 2000 too late and then need at least another day to slow down into that orbit."

She shook her head. "And all that rushing for this stupid destination."

Chatee nodded. "Yes, planet dwellers."

She smiled, that statement made her feel like an experienced pilot.

* * *

Cyclone had timed her patch on the spot for this fourth iteration. It was only 0019 when she woke up in the pilot's bunk, as Chatee had used the time before the jump to eat up to the last tenth. But that thought made her hungry too. "Cyclone status?"

"Still refining, no new problems. The coils are down one to 252 %. Please be patient, the neutron star gives off very little radiation and the lack of planets or large unique objects makes refining a challenge."

She knew that a neutron star was the typical remnant of a larger star after it had become a giant and then exploded as a supernova, losing most of its mass. The neutron star was the naked core, a single big atom, as big as the station. But of course, it was small compared to a typical star and therefore hard to find, a tiny dot among all the stars here. No sane person would travel to such a system. As a result, it was not well charted, and the few circling rocks had been entered into the almanack centuries old and could have well-changed orbit since then. It was also a dangerous transit system, as the radio beam from the neutron star would fry anyone not coming from a shallow angle at the equator. It was the space equivalent of an empty cave near the perpetual ice; no one would come here unless they had a very good reason.

"Cyclone broadcast our arrival with ID and 'cat freighter Cyclone with clanmother Fiyul' to the inner system as soon as you have a direction." She climbed out of the cot for a quick visit to the bathroom. And then woke Chatee, grinning at her bunk.

"Morning, Chatee. Cyclone is still refining, no new problems."

"Morning," she purred, pushing herself up on all fours and shaking her fur. Which changed nothing. Everyone had their own rituals.

"No answer?" Chatee yawned.

"No answer, no destination," she confirmed.

"Let's put off this problem and just wake up the staff."

She nodded and went downstairs, leaving Chatee time to get fully awake.

* * *

Apart from the higher-ups, everyone else sat or stood around the table and ate a hearty breakfast, following the tradition that the clock resets to zero at the end of a jump, so it was morning. In terms of time elapsed since their departure, they had about one or two days until their rendezvous, depending on which side of the system it was. But with relativistic corrections using this star system as a reference, they were slightly behind, 3500 to give a rather random number. She tried to explain this to the staff, but most of them had only a vague idea of what she was saying. They had been the clanmother's best staff, chosen for their loyalty, skills and looks, but probably not for their brains.

After a relaxing, slow breakfast, the staff went back to prepare for the higher-ups, while Chatee went to wake the guards, the clanmother and finally the two doctors. She felt sorry for Chatee; surely the clanmother would not like the lack of an answer.

She took a shower instead. When wet, the longer fur clung to her body and she looked almost as before, plus the ring spot fur pattern. After the mission she would ask for her white fur, if possible. Or bleach it. And shorter again, the thick fur took a long time to dry. And she quickly overheated when she worked out with her water-filled dumbbells. The word of the old pilot on the shuttle came back, and this time she agreed. Fur was not so useful in space.

Under the dryer, she continued to ponder whether she should get real claws at the reverse mod? Assuming, of course, that they would return, that Fiyul would still be in power and grateful enough for a second mod for her, and that she would be given a choice. If so, back to short white fur and a fluffy tail. But with long paws instead of feet, to stand taller. And then what? Should she ask for bigger breasts? But Lead had never complained about them.

The dryer stopped and pulled her out of her thoughts. "Rerra, sorry to interrupt, but I have received an answer," the AI said.