Altaica on the Planet Jean
By Donald E. Miller, Jr.

	After Florence left the meeting, with Lee Philips, LK asked Altaica to stay behind.
	“What is it, LK?”
	“Altaica, before I authorize shore leave I want you, Pete Cooper and Chuck Roberts to do a survey to see how safe the surrounding area is.”
	The tigress nodded her head. “Understandable. What are your orders regarding contact?”
	“First, no open weapons and only defensive blasters. We are here peacefully and I don’t want us to seem like invaders. Also, as Florence noted, the people here are not used to anthros so they may react in unusual ways to you, so be prepared, but lenient. Try not to initiate any hostile actions.”
	Altaica frowned at this and was ready to speak when LK finished. “Not that you would, but I want you to be clear on that. Especially you. You, like me, are a large predator in their eyes, I’m sure. Your size just amplifies that perception.”
	Altaica nodded her head and said, “Yes, I know what you mean. I have seen how some ‘prey’ furs react around us.” LK nodded his head, and she continued, “You can be sure, LK, that we will take care to put our best paw forward here to give everyone a good impression of us.”
	“I would expect nothing less,” LK said.
	“Anything else?”
	“Only to remind you that HASS credits won’t work here, so no shopping,” LK said with a smile.
	“Aww,” Altaica said kiddingly, “you’re no fun.”
	“Wait until we get an account established here.”
	“Yes, sir.”
	“Ok, that’s it. Dismissed.”
	“Right. I’ll contact Pete and Chuck.” With that Altaica left the briefing room.
	LK looked after his tigress friend and said to himself, “If I know her, and I do, she’ll try to buy something using our credits.”

	Altaica met with Pete and Chuck and gave them LK’s orders. They nodded their understanding.
	“Pete,” Altaica said, “I want you to check out the town.”
	The badger nodded and said, “Anything I should be on the look out for?”
	“Only any sections that could cause us problems. I want to steer our furs away from those areas. I don’t want to be rushing security squads around town.”
	“Understood.”
	“Chuck, I want you to check out the spaceport and surrounding environs.”
	The bald eagle morph said, “Roger that. I guess you want me to get a bead on their security.”
	“Right. I want to know where their weak points are so we can be better prepared in case something occurs.”
	“And I guess you will be checking out the ‘White Pony Mall’,” Chuck said with a chuckle.
	Altaica smiled and said, “Well, someone has to be sure that the shopping area is safe.”
	“Not to mention to see what kind of deals they have,” Pete rejoined.
	Altaica just winked at him and said, “On a more serious note, keep your wristlets on channel two and scramblers on. I don’t think they can receive that channel, but I want to be sure that we have a secure link.”
	“Why the security?” Pete asked. “We’re not doing anything nefarious.”
	“True, but people may mistake our precautions as hostile actions and I want us to have an advantage, if we need it.”
	“Agreed,” Chuck said.

	With that the meeting broke up and Altaica retired to her quarters. She looked at herself in the mirror and decided that she needed to change. Although she loved to wear her Gi she thought that some people, who knew what a Gi was, would take it as a challenge or threat. She wanted to look as peaceful as possible, so she had to change. She opened her closet and picked out a red short sleeve shirt and black trousers. More casual and less threatening. One thing she did not wear was a weapon. She figured that the bulge would show and, anyway, she had built in defensive weapons; her teeth and claws.
	She exited the ship after some double takes from some of the crew; after all they had rarely seen her not wearing the Gi. She headed towards the shopping district and after she had gotten outside the space port she heard “Big kitty!!” She turned to see a robot with its arms spread wide. “Well,” she thought, “Florence did warn us about this.” She then wondered if she would get used to it.
	The scene was repeated every time she met a robot. “This is unnerving,” she thought.
	A few humans reacted with a bit of fear, but most were curious. One fellow worked up the nerve and approached her.
	“Hello,” Altaica said.
	“Hello. Are you from that new ship?”
	“Yes, I am,” Altaica replied with a smile.
	“Who and what are you?”
	“My name is Altaica Powell and I am an anthropomorphic Siberian tigress, from the planet Homestead.”
	“Are you an A.I.?”
	“No, sir, I am not. I am a free fur.”
	“What of your crew mates?”
	“They are also all free furs.”
	“Thank you.”
	“You’re welcome.”
	As Altaica turned to leave the man gave in to the urge to reach out and grab her tail.
	Altaica turned and, with a low growl, said, “Sir! I would suggest that you do not go around pulling our tails. That is a sure way to start some unpleasantness.”
	The man said, “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”
	“Apology accepted.” Altaica then continued on her way.

	Along the way she overheard people saying, “Who is she?”; “What is she?”; “She looks like a tiger.” and various other comments and all the robots throwing their arms open wide and saying “Big kitty!”

	She finally made her way to the White Pony Mall and was stopped cold by an announcement: “Please put right eye to scanner for retinal verification.”
	Fortunately she had previous experience with wall mounted retinal scanners so she had no trouble in placing her eye for easy scanning.
	BLIP! “Error. Pattern not on file. Please state name. and affiliation”
	“Commander Altaica Powell of the Lion’s Den.”
	“Acknowledged. Please proceed.”
	She took a few steps into the mall itself when she heard “BIG  KITTY!!!”
	“Ow,” Altaica said has she grabbed her ears from the reverb of the mall. She then thought to herself, “The mall must be run by an A.I.”

	Meanwhile Pete Cooper was experiencing much the same thing, though no-one tried to grab his tail.
	What he found was the area near the space port was friendly and there should be no security issues.

	Chuck Roberts found while the space port security was competent they tended to flail about when they didn’t know what to do. They also seemed to have a “Shoot first, ask questions later” mentality about them. He figured that the LD’s security teams would probably be called in sooner rather than later if a problem occurred that involved the ship or her crew.

	Altaica received their reports and told them good work and pass their reports on to LK. She then went window shopping. She saw a clothing store and decided to see if she could get a new outfit, half forgetting LK’s admonishment about HASS credits not working at the mall.
	“Welcome to Triac’s Boutique. If you have to ask the price you can’t afford it,” a robot said. It then turned to look at Altaica and then said, “Big kitty!” After a beat it put a hand to it’s cylindrical head and said, “I did it again. I blew my condescending atmosphere.”
	Altaica looked at the robot and said, “I don’t know about that. That intro still holds sway in my mind, though I could probably buy anything here three times over.”
	Triac regained his composure and said, “Do you know Florence Ambrose? Do you work for Sam Starfall?”
	“Yes and no, respectively.”
	“Good. What can I do for you?”
	“What do you suggest for someone like me?”
	“Step into the scanner and get undressed, so I can get some body measurements.”
	Altaica was a bit nonplussed at this, but did as she was asked.
	After his experience with Florence Triac had some modifications done to the scanner to take in account someone with fur, so no buckets of water were needed.
	“Very good. I have all the body motion scans and measurements required. You can come out now.”
	Altaica did as she was told and Triac said, “Here is a viewer and we will project an assortment of different clothes onto your base body.”
	“Hmm. This is a lot easier than what I am used to. Go ahead.”
	Triac then showed a variety of clothes on the viewer and Altaica made her decisions.
	“Now for payment,” Triac stated.
	Altaica fished in one pocket and pulled out a HASS credit card and handed it to him.
	A frown sounded in Triac’s voice as he said, “I’m sorry, this is not good here. I don’t recognize it.”
	Altaica slapped her head and said, “Damn, I forgot. We’re not on a HASS affiliated world. Can you save the patterns and I’ll be back later with proper payment.”
	“Yes, that would be acceptable. Please let me know if you will not be back to pick them up. I don’t want unneeded patterns taking up memory.”
	“Understandable and yes.”
	“Goodbye and thanks for stopping by.”
	“Goodbye and you’re welcome.”
	Stepping out into the mall and a chorus of “Big kitty!” Altaica mentally kicked herself. “LK reminded me about that. That’s what I get for letting my shopping instincts get the better of me,” she thought to herself.

	She checked out the mall and the surrounding areas and found that they were safe and there should be no problems. She also found some good deals that she would try to take advantage of.

	Back at the ship she reported to LK.
	“So, according to Pete, Chuck and what I’ve seen the areas seem to be safe enough for our furs.”
	“I agree, Altaica. I will start setting up shore leave in a short while. By the by, how did your clothes shopping go?”
	“How did you know?”
	“How many anthro tigresses are on planet? And how many went to the mall? It is the buzz around the spaceport.”
	“You got me. I  found a couple of things, but forgot that I couldn’t use our HASS cards here.”
	“To tell you the truth I figured that would happen. Now, back to business. How many furs should we allow in a group?”
	“I would say no more than five. Also we have to warn everyone about the robots doing their ‘greeting‘, for lack of a better term. We also need to warn them about people possibly pulling their tails.”
	“Agreed.”

	And with that they resumed the business of running the Lion’s Den, though Altaica’s mind was still half preoccupied with the new clothes she had ordered.

THE END