13 ITEMS IN THE ALIEN'S POCKETS (PART II)

 

THE TINY TYRANT SPECIES: [QUICK HANDS (SYSTEM 0506)] 

As a matter of official policy, the largest TTS polities view their citizens as machines; so one's occupational designation usually follows their creche-name.  Quick Hands is a 'system' that performs administrative auditing tasks and oversees public health projects.  This gives him a degree of autonomy that laborers and clerks generally lack but exposes him to considerable danger.

1.  Juice box (berry-flavored in a plastic-lined cardboard container).  Unopened.  Branding is subdued but the label indicates it was made at an industrial plantation outside a neighboring city-tower.  This is practical food; Quick Hands eats fresh fruit but is careful not to flaunt that fact in public. 

2.  Koenig-Seidel B24 backpack computer.  A copy of TTS computer technology manufactured in human space as a trade good.  Handheld-sized for a human.  It's designed not to reveal any technological developments to TTS polities but humans can apparently make devices like this for a fraction of the price.  

3.  Screw-top plastic jar full of powdered soap.

4.  PPE kit (respirator, face shield, and several sets of gloves.

5.  Child sling (no child in it)

6.  Vitamin supplements (label written in English, Hindi, and several local languages).

7.  Leather document pouch made from recycled Tiny Tyrants (indicates that Quick Hands is an auditor and a symbol of high status).  While people eatin' is frowned upon (as a public health hazard), sanitary recycling of corpses is an important part of life in a city of several tens of millions packed into a space the size of a a few human city blocks.

8.  Plastic bag full of water. 

9.  Elaborate bead-and-string map of the major thoroughfares of the city-tower when strung between the hands just so.  A very efficient way of representing a complex 3d space.

10.  Pamphlets (propaganda, public health advice, and best practices for proper document control)

11.  Belt with several pouches (lightweight nylon).

12.  Ledger stick (also usable as a cudgel)

13.  Ballpoint pen sized for a 4kg Bat Fascist.  The improvements in industrial processes that made this pen possible were licensed from humans but the pen was made locally.  Quick hands prefers pencils but the Health Department switched to pens and its archival unit punishes severely for reports written with improper media.