Page 55 of Holiday with the Aliens

Juuno hadn’t even understood why he wanted to delay an extra day, but when Tav couldn’t stop smiling, she caught that something had changed.

“Have you met someone?” she asked.

They were sitting in a spare alcove near the mechanic station. Juuno had appointed herself supervisor of the Honora crew and didn’t feel comfortable leaving their ship in the hands of strangers. She’d scoffed when he asked if she wanted to help set up Molly’s party, but he’d never expected her help anyway.

“My denya.” Even saying it made him giddy. Molly’s image rose in his mind, her head thrown back in pleasure as she made a keening cry before yelling out his name and clinging to him.

Juuno just looked at him. “I don’t know what that means.”

“My mate. She’s… everything.” Tav wanted to run through the corridors and shout for joy. He’d found the other half of his soul in a place he’d never expected she’d be. She’d saved him in every way, and shown him pleasures he’d never felt before.

“Oh.” The word came out with a breath of air, but she said nothing else.

Tav’s mind screeched to a halt as something occurred to him. “You didn’t… you and me… um?—”

His engineer sputtered out a laugh and waved her hands as if to ward him off. “Not in a sun’s age! You’re like family, captain. But you aresonot my type.”

“I’m not?” Not that he’d wanted her either, but he still had an ego and found it could be gently bruised.

Juuno was still laughing. “For one, you’re a man, which doesn’t work for me. And two, mating among my people isn’t quite so—well, let’s just say it’s a bit different than you’d expect. But, no, we’re good.”

“I thought you were Oscavian?” She had the purple skin common in the empire, and Tav only now realized that he’d never asked.

“Nope.” But Juuno didn’t enlighten him to her origin and he wasn’t about to push. To some people, it was the height of insult to inquire, and he wasn’t about to risk their friendship over something that didn’t matter. “So this woman, what’s her story?”

Tav could talk for hours about her, even if they’d only known each other for a few days. But he spared Juuno the gushing and gave her the condensed version of Molly’s history: she was a party planner from Earth who was trying to make a name for herself. And she wanted to bring winter to Honora Station to capture the magic of it all.

“Is she coming with us when we lift off?” Juuno asked.

“She’s thinking about it. I just wish there was something I could do to convince her.” The barbarian that lived inside of him told him to tie her up and drag her aboard if she decided to stay, but Tav was a civilized man and he’d never force his mate into something like that. “She says that people give gifts during winter. Have you heard of that?”

Juuno shrugged. “People give gifts all the time. Why? Are you trying to get her something?”

That… that was an idea. Tav rolled it around in his mind until he had it, the thing that just might prove to her how much he wanted her, how much he cared. “Yes,” he replied. “I want to give her something. And I need your help.”

Everything was ready. The party would go on throughout the day tomorrow with live music, food, and presents, capped off with a light show as darkness fell on the ship. Molly had outdone herself and she was ready to collapse from exhaustion. The mix of working at all hours and long nights of sex with Tav was getting to her, and she’d be more than happy to let one ofthose things go. Not Tav, no, she had no desire to leave his bed anytime soon.

Though she still wasn’t sure if she should climb aboard his ship and sail off for destinations unknown.

She’d missed him on the last day of preparations, even if they wouldn’t have had any time to talk to one another anyway. He’d pinged her communicator earlier to tell her he was working on a project and couldn’t see her until late, and she had to understand that. They’d been so dedicated to her party over the last week that she almost forgot that he had concerns of his own to deal with.

Everyone was gone for the night and even Molly had snuck out for a few minutes to grab a bite to eat. She was just doing a final walkthrough before she was ready to call it done when she spotted the problem.

The presents were gone.

She rushed to the tree and saw that half of the boxes had been taken, had disappeared like all of the rest of the things had disappeared.

“No, no, no!” She looked around frantically, hoping they’d just been misplaced, but they were nowhere to be found. Someone had stolen Christmas! Well, okay, not Christmas exactly, but they’d taken gifts meant for children in winter and she couldn’t stand that.

No, she was going to settle this once and for all.

Tav had left the tracking tablet on the table she used as her base of operations and she was able to uncover it with a little shifting around of papers and other items. She powered it up and saw that the tracker they’d placed the first night hadn’t moved from where it had been when they followed it, behind the wall with no door. Well, that had been a few days ago. Tonight she had a purpose. Tonight she’d break through that wall with her bare hands if she had to.

Molly took off, following the path by memory, the hallways seared into her mind as she jogged and turned. Unlike the first time, today a few people were there, but no one paid her any attention. And the further she got away from the party, the fewer and fewer people there were. When she made it to the hallway where she and Tav had been forced to stop last time, she almost thought she’d made a wrong turn somewhere. Now there wasn’t a wall blocking off her path, today the hallway continued on.

Molly looked down at the tablet again and saw that she wasn’t far from the tracker.

As she continued on, a niggling part of her wondered if she should have called Tav or station security before she left. After all, she didn’t know if she was running towards a single thief or some kind of organized crime lord who stole things all over the station and sold them for a profit. It seemed farfetched, but there was no way to be certain. She slowed from a run to a walk and seriously considered turning around to findsomeoneto accompany her, but she was so close now that she could practically see everything that had been taken from her.

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