Meet the Soltans

[Col. C.E. Harper 0]

Meet the Soltans

 

Y't'rans disengaged zir hands from the ship's control panel and watched as the lights faded to blackness. Out the viewport ze could see a Y'c-line waiting for zir. That would be Y'c'tal, ze thought, the port registrar. Ze had expected someone from Port Control to meet zir vessel; it was procedure, after all.

 

Ze walked off the ship, neither hurried nor dawdling, and approached Y'c'tal. "I am Y't'rans, pilot of vessel 4591 of the home port S'a'nu, civilian-shipping-bulk designation," ze said without preamble. Y'c'tal entered these facts onto a data card, which verified them against the ID Y't'rans had transmitted before landing. The card emitted a single beep.

 

"You are authorized for a three-day porting, pilot Y't'rans, and load-offload privileges with civilian merchant supply designatees. You may request waiver forms if you desire to extend authorization to civilian merchant sales or military supply designatees. You may request waiver forms to extend your port time by up to three days. Your identicard will be printed with the proper licensing at Port Operations." Y'c'tal nodded once to zir and walked away.

 

Y't'rans was not offended by zir abrupt departure. It would have been an insult had ze lingered, implying that ze was incapable of understanding simple directions and protocols. Ze walked towards the hulking complex of Port Operations without bothering to secure zir ship. Such measures were only necessary on alien worlds where the importance of Order was not understood.

 

Arriving at the complex, ze located a set of registration terminals. One was in use by a Y'za-line, zir pilot's jumpsuit marked with a textured splash of green that denoted a military contractor. Y't'rans left a space between them, out of consideration for any sensitive information the Y'za might be accessing. Not that ze would attempt to see it, but since there was space available it would be improper to press close.

 

Ze placed zir upper left hand on the ID scanner and activated the morph-panel with zir right. Zir lower hands extracted zir identification card from its zippered pocker on zir jumpsuit. Ze placed the card on the morph-panel and a portion of the panel folded over to enclose the card.

 

Morph-panels were not as efficient as the full interface of a private vessel or home, but were more secure and more easily reconfigured than a full interface, which had to conform to individual brainwave patterns.

Now the panel below zir card raised a section of cross-hatched texture. Beneath the translucent morph-skin, an illuminated display flickered on, revealing scrolling text. Zir hand briefly sank into the console before the ID scanner bed solidified once more and the morph-panel released zir card. The textured display shifted to a knobbly pattern and new text below informed zir of the completion of the process.

 

Y't'rans picked up zir card and headed into the city.