Stationmaster

The general manager of the Crossings Intercontinual Worldgating Facility at Rirhath B, and hence usually a Rirhait (though there have been Masters of other species in the past). The Mastery of the Crossings is a position of tremendous real and political power, since the being who runs the facility controls the frequency of worldgate access to hundreds of thousands of worlds across the Orion and Sagittarius Arms of the Milky Way galaxy, to other galaxies of the Local Group and the Virgo Supercluster, and -- to some extent, insofar as interlocking treaties will allow -- to neighboring dimensions and continua as well.

For almost the entire duration of the YW series so far, the Stationmaster has been the same Rirhait, a rather cranky individual who had some slight reason to be annoyed when first meeting Nita and Kit, as they were then in pursuit of Dairine. Since Dairine's flight through the Crossings had caused the place to be comprehensively shot up by a hunting party of Satrachi which the Lone Power had sent after her, the Master's testiness with her and anyone else associated with her would possibly have been understandable.

However, that said, this particular Master seems to be cranky most of the time, causing various characters in the series to wonder whether there is something wrong with his personality, or perhaps with one of his digestions. Surprisingly, one person who has shown no sign of disagreeing with these assessments is Sker'ret, who is one of the Master's many progeny, and possibly the most talented of them.

Like all Rirhait, the Stationmaster looks rather like a giant centipede with many long, stalky eyes at one end. He is, however, rather fair for a Rirhait, tending to a silvery-blue color rather than the more common violet or purple. (SYWTBAW et seq.)