Beth described a man in her blog and posted a challenge; tell his story. Of course I bit, and here it is, doing double duty as my daily blog entry.

Zaz stared at the primitive device, unwilling to admit he might need assistance. He was a member of House Kalor, as his clan markings clearly showed. A race and a House far more advanced than anything Earth had to offer. Still, how to make this machine produce the two-dimensional non-interactive image he required baffled him.

His failure made him surly. More surly than usual, that is. House Kalor was known for their skill in survey and willingness to travel to the far reaches of the galaxy, not for diplomacy.

Apparently he’d managed to annoy even more bystanders than usual on this survey trip as more than one Earth native had threatened to summon the Fashion Police. Fashion Police were not listed in his database of local authorities, but between the baffling machine and the repeated threats to involve him in an interstellar diplomatic tangle for reasons that eluded him, Zaz was on edge.

Nevertheless, he did go out of his way to be polite to the woman who offered to assist him with the machine instead of offering the interfering female a one-way transport to the nearest moon. Zaz thought the effort to not offend the natives might improve his standing if the Fashion Police did apprehend him. Or at least persuade his superiors not to downgrade his ranking.

The machine did cooperate after a surreptitious kick to the front panel, and Zaz walked out of the building with his copy. His mission was nearly complete. A few more details and then he could finish his report on the way to the wormhole. If Gal was with him, the forms would be complete before he departed local space.