The Black

Eleven

They went to an area and sat. Jol sat and did not feel tired, but suddenly he was asleep.

The ship came into being at an old beacon. The beacon had been on for thousands of years, it was one of the first beacons put out by humanity. The automated repair system and the raw materials kept in the area were enough to keep it running. There was enough water for fuel, and a very limited AI ran all maintenance, so it was kept in good shape no matter it's age. If the AI were to be taken out, then it would be a problem, otherwise it could be repaired.

The ship had not been seen in this system for hundreds of years, but it was recognized by the local defenses and approved for passage. The AI systems in the system talked and decided that it was not a danger, which was a good thing.

On the bridge the Teacher sat in the Command seat, to his front left sat the girl. She wore jeans, a sweater, and soft shoes. She looked different, moving around for some time, and also the training that she had received from the Teacher had made her look less thin, less emaciated, and more like a living human. Her hair had been cut, it was not a good cut, but it was better tamed for space.

"Sir," she said exhaling, "Beacon Eleven."

The man did not look at his instruments, he did not need to, this was an old familiar place. He knew that he was in the right place, in fact within a few meters of where he could have put them. "Very good," he said to the girl, "you are doing very well." The girl smiled, she had come a long way in a short time. This jump had been longer than almost all current pilots would consider. "Have you established contact with System Defense ?" He knew that she had not, but he did not want to accuse, it was her first long jump all by herself.

Skinny, standing suddenly by his side said, "You know good a well she has not." She smiled at the girl who had looked around, "I however have, they are alright with our arrival and given us permission for micro jumps if needed, to just file."

The Trainer looked at her, "Thank you." She knew that tone though, he had wanted her to do it and was not pleased.

Skinny said, "Just like at J222732?" She was reminding him of a jump they had made on the way to get the girl, he had completely forgotten to tell the system they were not there illegally. The Station had been too new to have them in the database. She had had to hack it to keep the station from going into defense mode.

He did not look too happy, but said, "Good then," he looked at the girl, "that was a fine jump though. Very close to the beacon and you moved the debris out of the way. Good." It was a good job.

She smiled at him with the praise, and was happy. She had not heard of a lot of that as she had grown up and his praise went a lot farther than it could have. In his mind came Skinny, "She is doing well right?"

He sent back "Yes, she is."

Skinny replied, "I am going to Luna for a short time, will that be alright?"
He said, "Yes, we can handle this two more micro-jumps and we will be within movement range."

She did a happy dance in his head and then was gone.

He looked at the girl, saying, "Alright now let us see if we can do a micro-jump?"

She was suddenly apprehensive, he had explained the difficulty of the short jump, longer ones normally went into places that mistakes were alright, but the shorter the less room for error. She looked at him as he began to remind her how to make the jump that it seemed she would be making.

Cassandra, she had decided that was going to be her name. When the Teacher had told her about her family, that they believed her dead and had been compensated for that, she did not want to go back. They would have to return the money, and also they would never understand what she was now. So she had decided her old name was not what she was going to use. She had gone through the database with names, and really liked that one, so the Teacher told her she was registered with the Guild as Cassandra. She would get a membership number, she did not know the number, but it would be new. She did not know why she thought about this right now, she was busy. The folding of space was still new to her, she had to concentrate on it, and sometimes that was hard as feelings came up. She had just made the last jump, it was not close to as far as she felt she could have gone, but apparently it was far enough that the Teacher was impressed.