Trusting the System (Otherwise Untitled)

Story by Moriar on SoFurry

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#136 of Short Stories

A possum arrives for an appointment with a jackalope.


~ The possum leaned back in his seat, again glancing over to the communications terminal to verify that he'd disabled the voice concealment software before he spoke his reply, "I know my ship's registration is expired, and I know there's rules about who gets to dock in port at such an illustrious station as yours, Ma'am. I'm fairly certain the Detective will be granting my waiver in the next few minutes."

~ The fennec controller on the other end spoke in the tone of a sigh, "Unless otherwise directed, be advised that you will be escorted out of our space by lances, in seventeen hours."

~ "But I can lock my navigation to your control in the meantime, right?", Reg verified as he keyed up the link. "I don't want to have to worry about manual docking."

~ The fennec's tone was a bit more agreeable, "...yeah. Yeah. We'd rather be able to keep you out of the way, yes. We'll auto-dock your ship, if that waiver comes from whoever you said would provide one.", muttering to the operator to her left, "...do we even have those?"

~ Satisfied with state of the controls and communications of the ship, the possum stepped away towards the galley to start removing his pants and shirt.

~ It was well into his third bowl of ice cream, with all of his clothes sans boxer shorts resting in a pile on a chair, that the proximity alert tones could be heard from the pilot's terminal. Reg grinned out the window to the three law enforcement lancers that had arrived quite a bit early.

~ With a gesture of pride, the possum noted to the otherwise empty ship, "And.. navigational thrusters in.. Three... Two...", the ship lurching as the spaceport summoned it in for docking.

~ A calm pace later, and Reg stood in the door frame of the opening airlock. Soft hissing and whunks while the station's systems engaged those of the ship. On the portal's side opposite the nearly nude possum were a dozen security officers with weapons drawn, arrayed in a half circle around a rather stoically confused jackalope.

~ Reg grinned, "You look like you expect me to be surprised to see you."

~ Detective Clip replied curtly, "I'm the one surprised to see you. What're you into, all this?", motioning over his form and likely regarding his lack of pants.

~ The possum shrugged, his hands held high in the air. "I thought your folks'd have enough trouble with just the pouch, so I decided to not make them worry about searching to many clothes."

~ The jackalope, missing her left antler, remained dubious. "And you're just walking into custody?"

~ Reg fixed the Detective with a glare. "What I did before, I did to give her a chance to be safe.", stepping off the ship and into handcuffing range, "For me right now, I don't see any need for more of that to be done, and am ready to yield to the experts in seeing to that.