Stars, Snow and Mistletoe: A Holiday Naughty List Collection Read online

  This human was taller than the average trellian male, I didn’t quite reach his shoulder. In fact, his build was so different from the males I was more familiar with, I wasn’t sure what to make of him. My species leaned towards slender individuals with a tightly compacted musculature. This male was wide-shouldered and barrel chested. His arms were thick and corded with muscle, as were his legs. Wearing a simple coverall that designated him as maintenance staff, he should have looked as unremarkable as the rest of the human staff, instead it molded to his frame and made him stand out.

  My tail twitched with my interest and I kept it tightly wound around my leg under my slacks. His warm hand on my arm had sent a shivery sensation through me and left me feeling confused and a little flustered. I’d never felt like this around any males and it was disconcerting to say the least. It didn’t really matter though, he was obviously a mated male; he had an offspring, possibly more. He was therefore unavailable, regardless of my fascination. The youngling was now exuding signs of distress, and it was my fault for making them feel unwelcome.

  “What is it that interests you small one? Perhaps I can help in some way,” I offered hesitantly. The little human’s expression brightened and she darted forward, grabbing my hand and dragging me down the aisle and around the corner with a delighted exclamation. Her parent followed quietly.

  “That one! That one!” She cried happily, pointing at a rainbow of short, spiky foliage. I frowned slightly at her choice.

  “The krexian creeper. I am afraid that would not be possible,” I stated, looking down at the child. She mirrored my frown with one of her own.

  “Why not?” She asked with a whine.

  “It is the biggest specimen here. You would not be able to take it back to your quarters,” I explained.

  “It’s barely four feet tall,” the male commented disbelievingly.

  “It is a ground growing plant. That branch is but four feet tall. The plant itself is much larger. Do you see that one over there and the one over there?” I asked pointing out two more branches on opposite sides of the room. He turned towards both and nodded. “They are all the same plant.” His jaw dropped and he turned to look at them again.

  “How? They’re so far apart,” he exclaimed.

  “They grow to fit the available environment. Most of the plant is a complex system of long fibrous roots that grow under the surface of the ground, sending branches up at various intervals. It is surprisingly delicate for so large an organism. Damage one branch and you can kill the entire segment after that branch. It processes waste and returns it to the soil as fertilizer for the other plants. This garden is actually built on top of the creeper’s root mass,” I answered, waving to indicate the soil under our feet. He stared incredulously around the greenhouse, picking out at least four more of the branches that popped up through the greenery at random.

  “Did you hear that Molly?” He asked, suddenly turning to his youngling. “If we try to take one home with us, we could kill the whole plant. We don’t want that do we?”

  “No Daddy,” she said with a disappointed sigh.

  “What is it you are looking for exactly?” I questioned abruptly, strangely driven to ease the little human’s unhappiness. The male tapped something into his wrist com and displayed a projection of cone shaped, dark green tree with needle-like leaves. A second projection showed the same tree now bedecked in lights and sparkling decorations.

  “This one is a fir tree from Earth, but any type of evergreen tree would work,” he said as I looked.

  “That looks like a lorian liru, though the color is wrong. It lives in the coldest parts of the trellian mountains and retains its foliage year-round,” I stated, studying both images. “The greenhouses don’t have anything like them. With the exception of the krexian creeper and a few other large leafed specimens, everything in the greenhouses is smaller or more delicate plants incapable of holding up under the weight of such decorations.”

  “Well, that’s a shame,” he said scratching through his hair. “Do you still want to go look, Peanut? We might find something you like anyways,” he turned to the child. She shook her head.

  “No, it’s ok,” she sighed before looking up at me. “Thank you for letting us look.”

  “Yes, thank you Miss…?” He added expectantly.

  “Layalla Ries,” I said with a quick nod.

  “Maxwell Anderson and this is Molly,” he replied, extending his hand. The human greeting of touching hands wasn’t practiced by most of the other species that inhabited the galaxy, but it wasn’t unfamiliar to me. Cautiously, I clasped his hand in return. Another shock of heat went through me, curling in my core and raising a flush on my skin. The human noticed the color change and cocked his head curiously, but seemed unaware of its meaning, for which I was grateful. I pulled my hand away quickly and crossed my arms over my torso uncertainly.

  “It was a pleasure to meet you both,” I said distractedly.

  “Same,” he agreed, then turned to Molly. “Come on kiddo, let’s go home.”

  They turned and headed for the doors they’d used to come in and I followed at a comfortable distance. Doors in sight, I spotted my krulu bush nearby, heavy with its sweet, multicolored fruit.

  “Child,” I called decisively, she turned to look and I waved her over. Pulling a pod off, I handed it to her when she joined me.

  “What’s this?” She asked.

  “Krulu pod. A popular fruit on my planet and highly prized by off-worlders for its flavors. You may eat it if you like,” I offered.

  “Is it ok, Daddy?”

  “It’s safe for humans?” He inquired, turning to me. I nodded.

  “Yes, krulu has been tested safe for almost all known species, including humans,” I answered. He nodded at the youngster and she cautiously bit into the small fruit. Her eyes went huge and the krulu pod disappeared in an excited chomp of teeth. Molly chewed and swallowed quickly, a massive smile of delight on her face.

  “That was good,” she gushed, clapping her hands. “Daddy it tasted just like lemon candy!” He chuckled at the bouncing child and I smiled at the rich sound of his laughter.

  “Would you like to take a few with you?” I offered, reaching for the bush.

  “Yes, please! Yes, please!” She cried, jumping up and down. I plucked a handful of ripe pods and deposited them in her little hands.

  “Do not eat them all at once, you can get a belly ache, and be sure to share with your dam and sire,” I instructed only a little sternly. The girl giggled.

  “You said a bad word,” she chortled, covering her mouth.

  “No, Molly. She didn’t say a bad word. She said dam, spelled d…a…m, not the bad word which is spelled with an n. The word she used refers to a mommy. Layalla was saying you should share with your mom and dad,” Maxwell explained patiently.

  “Oh,” she replied, drawing out the long vowel sound. “But I don’t have a mommy.” The statement was flat and matter of fact as the little one looked at me quizzically. I glanced up at her father.

  “Her mother passed away when she was an infant,” he provided with a shrug. I issued a simple understanding sound, but felt both pleased at the news and a little guilty for being so pleased that he had no mate. It made me feel somewhat better about my earlier physical reaction to the big male. My tail shivered again, loosening its grip on my leg before I tightened it again.

  “My sympathies,” I murmured.

  “It’s ok, been a while,” he replied easily. “Come on Molly. We’ll check the Digi-market. We’ve still got a little over a week. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and if not, I’m sure we can fab something.” Taking his youngling’s hand, he turned towards the exit again. I was uncomfortably aware of how his leaving made me vaguely unhappy, but I enjoyed the view of his tail-less rear in the fitted seat of his jumpsuit.

  “I wish you luck in your search for a suitable plant for your holiday celebration,” I stated, firmly cutting off the direction my hormones wanted to take. I was
only recently out of my latest fertile cycle and obviously still feeling some of its effects. That must be why I was reacting to this entirely unsuitable male.

  “Thanks, Ms. Ries,” he replied over his shoulder.

  2

  Max

  Five days passed with no luck. Molly got more and more agitated as time went on and we had no success at finding a suitable Christmas tree. I continued to work, in between searching the daily market, the Diginet, and looking for a pattern for the fabricator, just in case. My parents offered to ship us a tree, but the cost to get it here was prohibitive and there was no way it would be here on time, so I declined. I was just about at my wits end, with no results in sight.

  “Hey Max!” My supervisor hollered from the far end of the service tunnel.

  “Yo!” I called back.

  “Got a rush job! Need you to take care of it yesterday,” he called back. Sighing irritably, I climbed out of the access panel I’d been repairing and swiped at the stains on my hands. There was always something that needed fixed yesterday.

  “Whatcha got boss?” I asked, joining him. He handed me a data-pad with the relevant work order.

  “Hydro-systems failure in the greenhouse district. Specifically, the botanist’s private unit, but it could affect the public unit and two other private units and those guys are royal pains if their precious plants don’t get enough water and all that blah, blah, blah, bullshit,” he huffed, waving me in the direction of the biodome.

  “Botanist?” I repeated curiously.

  “Yeah, some stuck up, hoity-toity alien owns that unit and is always making demands on us to come fix this and come install that and it has to be done immediately so it doesn’t affect their biome and their precious plants, yadda, yadda, yadda,” he huffed in reply.

  “Oh, one of those types huh? Don’t worry boss, I’ll take care of it,” I assured him as I walked off.

  “Yeah I know, just get going.”

  Jogging down to the bio unit on the far side of the station took me twenty minutes, but it would have taken longer on the public thoroughfares. The station was built in a fat, sort-of U-shape laying on its side with a rounded central living unit cradled between the arms. The markets, entertainments, restaurants, and greenhouses were all kept on the upper half of the U. The lower half of the U was dedicated to offices, maintenance, engines, and stabilizers. And in between all those layers were the access tunnels that led to everything. Security tunnels with grav-lifts to move officers from one end of the station to the other in minutes, housekeeping tunnels for the janitorial staff with easy access to laundry chutes and trash compactors every few feet, and the maintenance tunnels that burrowed through everything and allowed me to pass unimpeded right through the middle of the station.

  The workorder gave me an address for the main complainant, but no name so I was more than a little surprised when Layalla answered the door. This was not the same door Molly and I had used before. Surely, I’d learn my way around the massive station one day, I thought with a little sigh. She looked just as surprised and flushed that pretty rose color across her pearly skin once more.

  “Mr. Anderson. What can I do for you?” She asked, sounding almost shy.

  “You can call me Max. I’m here about the hydro unit, work order says yours went down,” I said holding up the data-pad.

  “Oh! Yes, do come in. The system is located in the wall between my greenhouse and the public dome,” she said, leading the way through what looked like small living quarters and out into the greenhouse itself.

  “You live here too?” I inquired curiously. She gave a small tinkle of laughter.

  “No, I have personal quarters in the living center, but occasionally I like to relax here, maybe sleep in if my night lilies are about to bloom,” she explained with a smile. “I do love my plants but I couldn’t live here full time.”

  “Yeah? Why not?” I was curious about the alien beside me.

  “The havaysta,” she replied shortly, with a grin that suggested I should know what that was.

  “Havaysta?” I repeated blankly. Layalla laughed again, pointing to a large blue plant in the far corner.

  “The havaysta is a flowering shrub that smells rather strongly of decomposition when it first blooms. The odor is so overpowering, it has been known to incapacitate some species, my own included. Personal air units are useless as the pollen can permeate the filters.

  “I must seal the dome for the five days that it blooms. That is why the hydro system is so important, it must have continuous water during those days. I need the blooms to last until the smell dissipates so they can be harvested while they are viable. If they wilt on the plant, they are no longer useable. I cannot tend to my other plants while it blooms either, which it does so every eighty-two planetary rotations. It will bloom again in the next two to three rotations, so we must get this fixed quickly,” she detailed as we walked through the foliage.

  “Why have it then?” I asked incredulously.

  “Overharvesting has left the havaysta endangered. There are only a few left in the wilds of its native planet. The rest are carefully cultivated in biodomes and nurseries such as mine. I became a botanist to save endangered plants, especially ones that are vital to the production of certain compounds.” Her voice was sad as she turned to look at the supposedly noxious plant with affection.

  “I still don’t get why it’s so important,” I said reaching for the panels that closed off the hydro system.

  “Artificial biosystems encourage the plant to blossom on a natural cycle that can be harvested regularly without harming the plant itself. The havaysta blossoms are a key ingredient in the vaccine used to treat and prevent vedlin fever. The compound derived from the havaysta cannot be replicated artificially. Every harvest is essential.” Vedlin fever was a particularly nasty virus that cropped up about a hundred and fifty solars ago. No one knew where it came from, just that it was bad; killing thousands of people from hundreds of different species before a vaccine had finally been created to fight it. The fever still appeared every so often on backwater planets with low tech capabilities, but the vaccine was slowly obliterating it.

  “Damn,” I murmured flatly. “Why don’t you have more of them in here then?”

  “They like their space. Havaysta are territorial and extremely hard to grow close together. I attempted to grow a second one over there, but it died when the first one bloomed again. There is some debate that they each emit a unique pheromone receptor in their pollen that eliminates weaker rivals growing too closely together,” she answered with a shrug. I eyed her to see if she was joking but her expression stayed serious.

  “Huh. Wow. So stinky miracle plant doesn’t like roommates, got it.” With that I started scanning the mishmash of wires and hoses in front of me. The system was top of the line. Problem was it must have been installed by a moron. The wires were all jumbled and the filters were in backwards of all things. “When was this installed?”

  “I had the new system put in midway through last orbit. It should have lasted much longer,” she answered, peering over my shoulder.

  “It would have if they put it in right. All this wiring is a mess and those over there are all wrong, but I’ll get it put right in no time,” I grinned at her. Layalla smiled tentatively back, then gasped in mild horror as I ripped half the wiring out in one swipe.

  The rest of the wiring came down just as easily, the hard part was untangling everything. After watching quietly for a moment, Layalla wandered away without a word. I shrugged. I hadn’t expected her to stay the entire time I worked. She probably had something she needed to do herself. Then she was back just as quietly as she’d left, only now she carried a tray with drinks and snacks. Placing it in easy reach of us both, she sat and drew a knot of wiring into her lap.

  Layalla

  We labored in silence for a time, concentrating on simply separating the different pieces and sorting them by size and color. He was swift and well-organized, deftly combing throug
h the snarls as he worked. It was rather pleasant to be in his quiet, confident company. Most other males I had known, especially humans, tended to be noisy and boastful, determined to impress whatever females were within sight, regardless of whether they actually wanted that female or not. Maxwell was simply there. Capable and self-assured, he had no need to act out to be impressive, he simply was. His calm presence was attractive all by itself.

  I’d been surprised to find the handsome human on my doorstep, but it was a pleasant surprise. He wore his maintenance jumpsuit again, though it was dirtier than the last time I’d seen him. It still hugged his backside and thighs as he moved. The sleeves were rolled up above his elbows, revealing strong forearms and a peek of muscular biceps. Smears of lubricant and hydraulic fluids down the front and on his hands and arms showed he’d already been hard at work this morning. His facial stubble was lighter today, as if he’d removed some of it and I found myself admiring the line of his jaw as he worked. A smudge of black down the side of his nose amused me.

  “Whatcha thinkin?” He asked suddenly, startling me from my thoughts.

  “Why do you ask?” I countered.

  “You just seemed to be concentrating really hard on something other than those wires,” he replied with a grin.

  “How is your offspring, Molly?” I inquired, deflecting his question.

  “She’s good. She’s in school today, but I’ll pick her up later,” he answered.

  “I did not realize she was old enough for school,” I commented, thinking back to the small human. He laughed.

  “Yeah, she turned five right before we came to the station,” he replied with a nostalgic look.

  “And your search for the…Christmas tree?”

  “That’s not so good. We’re still looking for an alternative,” he shrugged, setting the last of the wiring aside. Turning back to the unit, he began disassembling the filtration components and setting them at his feet in a specific order. “Any chance you have the schematics that show how they installed the pipe-works?” He asked, glancing over at me before shining a light up into the overhead wall.