Page 44 of Holiday with the Aliens

“It’s a dump with a dock and a repair yard,” Tav corrected. “A few days there and we’ll be on our way. If we fly fast enough, we might only be a day late into Karlea.”

Juuno tsked. “Sorry, captain, we’re looking at a week of repairs at the least.”

“You said it was just the backup thruster.” Tav wasn’t a mechanic, but he knew what made his ship go, and replacing any of the thrusters shouldn’t have taken very long.

“Itwasjust the backup thruster. A week ago. Since then we’ve been fighting a cascade of failures. That means you’re going to miss your rendezvous, doesn’t it?” She sounded sad for him, knowing just how precious Tav’s time was.

He’d been planning to meet with an old friend, Tyral NaRaxos, a fellow Detyen who had reached out to him after he was saved from certain death by meeting his denya, his mate, a human woman. Tav had thought it impossible, but as Tyral’s thirtieth birthday had passed and he was still breathing, thestory had to be true. They hadn’t seen each other in years, and given the size of space, it was unlikely they’d meet again before Tav’s own thirtieth birthday in three years. He’d been looking forward to it, but Tyral only had a short layover on Karlea and he’d most likely be gone by the time Tav arrived.

“It isn’t meant to be,” Tav finally replied to Juuno. “I will send him a message once we reach the station. He’d much rather we remained safe than push on and put everyone at risk.”

Something hissed over the comm, which set off a new wave of cursing. “Get us there as quick as you can,” Juuno urged.

“Before you know it,” Tav promised. He increased their speed as much as he could and made the announcement to the passengers, telling them to report any issues to his second in command, Dansin. Served the man right for delaying the repairs. He hadn’t wanted to journey to Honora Station, but hopefully there he could find a replacement for the man who’d almost gotten them all killed.

Chapter Two

As quick as he’d appeared, Jyx was gone, his ship speeding off into the darkness of space and taking her assistant with it. Molly wished him well; she didn’t have time to get angry about her routine being upset. They were six days out from the party and she had to get everything ready to go. When Molly walked into the main hall, she froze. One of her minions bumped into her from behind and she jostled forward but couldn’t make herself move any further.

The tree was gone.

It had been Jyx’s last assignment and he’d been so happy to complete it before he left that he’d sent her a special message to make sure she knew it was done. He’d stayed up late into the night to complete the damn thing, even painting it green like she’d specified. But in the area she’d dubbed Santa’s Corner, there was a giant blank space where her tree should have been.

The tears in her eyes waged a war with the scream lodged in her throat. The tree had been there last night, she had the picture on her communicator as proof, but this morning there was nothing to be found. Finally she forced herself to move untilshe came up to the closest assistant. She tugged on the alien’s sleeve until she had his attention.

“Where’s the tree?” she asked, in something that might have been called an even tone if someone didn’t know the emotions raging inside of her.

The alien looked confused, the whiskers on his face undulating despite the fact there was no breeze in the room. “What tree?” he finally responded.

Molly jabbed her hand out, almost smacking someone carrying bundled fabrics to another table. “The pipe sculpture that Jyx put together last night. It was supposed to look like a tree!” Her voice jumped up as she spoke and she choked back her anger.

The alien just shrugged. “There wasn’t anything over there when I arrived this morning.”

Molly stared at him for a moment before letting go of his arm and backing away. The tree wasn’t the first thing to disappear. Just the day before, the pipes that acted as the branches had walked away from where they were supposed to be. But Molly had been sure that was all settled when she’d found new pipes for the project. It had started with small things, a few cans of paint, some tools, one cheap information tablet. Nothing that couldn’t be ascribed to simple negligence. But the pipes yesterday, and now again today, were something entirely different. A person didn’t accidentally remove a hundred kilos of plas piping. It was unwieldy and storage on the station came at a premium.

No, this wasn’t negligence. Molly had a thief.

If Jyx were still here, this would be the perfect time for him to show his worth. He could go to the security station and report the thefts while she stuck around to oversee the decorations and confirm the timing for everything that was going to take place on the day of the party. She looked over the room, but no one stoodout as a likely candidate for taking up the mantle of her assistant in these final days. Whenever she made eye contact with anyone they quickly looked away, as if she had some evil look that could send them to their doom.

Maybe she did.

But while no assistant made themselves known, her minions did seem to be putting everything together in a timely manner. She’d posted several lists of everything that needed to be done and sectioned off her workers into different tiered groupings. Everyone knew what they were supposed to do; all her presence was doing at the moment was making them nervous.

Security reporting it was, then.

Molly turned on her heel and left her people to get their work done. They knew how to contact her if anything else went wrong. She ended up at the central security desk where only an android was waiting, telling her that all non-emergency reports would be seen to in a timely fashion. It offered her a tablet to use to send in her report, but Molly didn’t trust it. No one was going to take a few disappearing pipes seriously if she didn’t talk to them in person. Luckily, the android was able to tell her where she could find the nearest security officer and she was off on the next part of her adventure.

Dock E was used for emergency ship repair and generally stayed empty, according to the tour she’d been given when she arrived on the station. But today people milled around outside, many Oscavians, and several other aliens that Molly couldn’t identify. Rising up from the center of all of them, standing half a head taller than the tallest person near him, was a golden-skinned alien who immediately captured her attention.

He had short, soft dark hair that her fingers itched to touch, and his skin would have shone under natural light. Even the fake lighting of the ship, which did favors for no one, made him look radiant, like he had been birthed by a sun. The wide collar ofhis top gaped and she spotted dark rectangular and triangular markings that might have been tattoos. They climbed down his neck and over one shoulder, disappearing under the dark fabric of his shirt, much to Molly’s disappointment. She felt like some huge hook had dug into her chest and cast a line out until it connected her and the golden stranger. She didn’t know his name, his species, or why he was here.

But he washers.

God, she wanted him, wanted to talk to him, to touch him, to taste him, anything that he would give to her. The stab of need was so sudden that it threatened to stagger her in place. All thoughts of why she’d come here dissolved. She needed to have him, and she was going to do whatever she needed to do to make sure that happened.

When his eyes finally met hers over the crowd of people in between them, she caught a flash of black before they shifted to a deep ruby red. So far away she shouldn’t have been able to see it, but nothing about the man made sense. None of it mattered. She stepped towards him, ready to see what happened next.

Denya.The recognition tore through Tav as he made eye contact with the brown-skinned alien across the room. Human, he was almost certain. They were kind of rare this far away from their home planet, but it didn’t matter where she came from. She washis. He’d heard rumors of Detyens finding mates among the humans; something about the species was compatible with his own, though the compatibility had only recently been discovered. Tav had never thought to hope that one day he might take a human mate. He’d thought that if he were ever lucky enough to meet his denya then she would be a Detyen like him.

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