Starfish

One

*Translator's note: While the Dreen language has been fully translated, certain liberties have been taken to adapt Dreen measurements and colloquialisms into terms that would be better understood by humans who are not fluent in the language. Hence, Imperial as well as Metric are used in the following text and terms for native wildlife have been interpreted into their closest English counterparts. At the time of publication, literary historians are still translating high-demand texts with medical, political and scientific literature taking priority.

     "Nina...Ma'atanoa?" The boarding agent sized up the tiny woman before her, checking against the digital image on the screen beside her. Height, five-foot-eight; hair, black; species, human.     

     "Yes, ma'am."

     "Your boarding pass?"Nina presented the opaque plastic card. Everything from her eye color (grey) and blood type (B+) to her education level (doctorate), credit score (good) and current legal status (not currently wanted by authorities) was imprinted in the code matrix embedded behind her image. She looked up at the eight-foot-tall Dreen female and waited patiently while her pass was scanned and examined. The Dreen's yellow-green eyes wandered over her in curiosity. "Your name, did I say that correctly?"

     "Yes, it's Ma'atanoa."

     The Dreen typed some information into the terminal, her hands tapping rapidly on the glass. The display lit her dark face with pale blue light, data reflecting in her large eyes. "Your information checks out. Follow the green line, keep your pass visible, do not leave any baggage on the walkways. Follow the posted directions for your own safety. If you cannot read Dreen ask someone to read it for you."

     "I can read Dreen," Nina smiled. "Thank you though." The Dreen female politely inclined her head and Nina nodded in return before pulling her carry-on over her shoulder and heading off down the path outlined in green. The Dreen watched her go, making sure the human stayed on the path until she disappeared in the crowd. She entered a command in her terminal, clearing Nina's pass for level three entry to Dreenai. The screen confirmed and the image dissolved, Nina's face fading into the next boarder's.

     Nina presented her pass and submitted to body scans another three times before she was cleared to collect her luggage and leave the port of entry, sighing each time. Nothing ever changes. But security had to be tight these days, no one wanted a repeat of what had happened the last time a human had come through Dreenai security without a complete scan of one's body, clothes, bags and criminal history. Nina passed by the memorial wall erected for those impacted by the breach. Reproductions of children's hand-prints, Dreen and human, were painted in larger-than-life detail with names and ages and messages from family and friends in both Dreen and five of the most common human languages. 

     Finally, after dodging dozens of long legs and large semi-webbed feet, Nina found the doorway that led to the outside, to Dreenai. Standing beneath the awning just before stepping into the warm white sun, Nina stared out at the world she'd just entered. Swathes of tall blue-green grasses, feathered here and there with pink and yellow flower-heads, stretched out from the port for what might have been miles, had they not been stopped by the curving beaches. A sparkling lagoon lined with peach-colored sand bowed in from the vast sea, salty wind blowing in and adding a humid, tropical texture to the air. Islands in the distance rose from the second-largest ocean on the planet in green hills like humpback whales, their backs dotted with trees and communities. Nina's eyes watered, the colors and the smells of an alien ocean overwhelming in their weird beauty. "I made it...I really made it."

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