by Leslie Chase
I smiled, not pleasantly. “Let them. They won’t like it outside of the containers, and it decays quickly once it’s in the air. They won’t be able to keep any of it long enough to matter. How is the rover?”
“We won’t get far,” she warned, pulling a face. “Not in the dark. The batteries are down at ten percent charge. Nowhere near enough to get back to Nicholasville, even if we don’t run into more scroogians on the way.”
“Don’t head towards the colony,” I told her as I strapped in the last container. “Tonight we hide, tomorrow we circle back. The snow will cover our tracks; as long as we put some distance between us and the crash, the scroogians will have a hard time finding us.”
She didn’t look convinced, and I didn’t blame her. Our pursuers would doubtless search for us, and to infrared scanners we’d stand out clear as day against the icy backdrop.
It didn’t matter — if we stayed here, they’d certainly find us, so we might as well try to hide. And if we held out till the sun rose, the rover would recharge.
Living in Earth’s arctic circle had taught me a few tricks, too. Give me some distance and I could at least attempt to hide the rover from detection.
I checked the containers’ straps, pulled myself into the seat beside Megan, and shut the door. The engine growled as Megan pushed the throttle forward, and we set off into the thickening snow.
7
Megan
Am I going mad? The question crossed my mind a dozen times in the first minute as I drove away from the crashed spaceship. A few shards of golden glitter clung to my sleeves, gleaming in the cabin’s light.
I’ve got an alien at my side. A cargo of Christmas in the back, for god’s sake. I can still smell mince pies and an open fire from those cracked containers. How can I not be crazy?
I glanced to my right, almost expecting to see an empty seat. But no. Dhannar was still there, tall and sexy and infuriatingly real. In some ways it would have been better if I’d hallucinated him.
If he was real, the rest had to be too, didn’t it? Unless he was lying… and I had to admit, that sounded more likely than his story. On a mission from Santa? Protecting Christmas from alien psychic vampires? Delivering Christmas cheer to us in secret? Yeah, that didn’t seem possible. But somehow, doubting him didn’t come easily.
He noticed me looking and turned this gaze on me, his incredible pale blue eyes burned directly into my soul. Flustered and blushing, I turned my attention back to the windows and the growing blizzard outside.
He’s not lying. I didn’t know why I was that certain, but I couldn’t doubt him. Was there another explanation? Maybe he’d hit his head in the crash? Scrambled his brain a bit, come up with this crazy story?
A mix of relief and disappointment filled my heart. Yeah, that sounded more plausible than Dhannar’s story did. Whatever was in those containers, it wasn’t concentrated Christmas spirit. It couldn’t be.
“So… what’s the plan once we’re away from here?” I asked. “I mean, you must have gotten pretty banged up in that crash. We should figure out how to sneak you into the doctor’s office in town.”
He laughed and shook his head, reaching over to squeeze my shoulder. The touch sparked a wonderful memory, a warm tingle washing through me, and my cheeks warmed.
Eyes on the road, my sensible inner voice said. I wanted to strangle her, but she was right — especially since there was no road. Cross country driving in a blizzard at night was no time to get distracted by the beautiful, sexy body of the alien at my side.
I stole a look anyway, glancing at his muscular body. With a crunch of ice and metal the rover glanced off a hidden rock and I yelped, struggling to get it back under control.
Told you so. My lips tightened and knuckles went white on the steering wheel. I’d never enjoyed hearing that, and it wasn’t any better coming from my own mind. I needed a distraction. Something, anything, to talk about.
“What are you going to do?” I asked Dhannar, then swallowed. I knew what I hoped he’d do. Blood rushed to my cheeks and I hurriedly clarified. “I mean, about the scroogians? Your delivery? We can’t just drive into town — the warship will see us coming miles away.”
Something about the pause that followed told me there were other plans he’d rather focus on, plans about me. And damn it, I wanted to find out what those were, but not while I was trying to spot hazards through the swirling snowstorm outside.
Perhaps Dhannar understood that. He took his hand from my shoulder and looked out of the window before answering. “I do not have a plan yet. I had no idea about the scroogian invasion before I arrived, and I know nothing of their strength. All I know is that I will complete my mission and distribute the Christmas cheer to the colonists. It’s more important now than ever.”
“What do you need to know?” I asked as I carefully skirted a massive rock that loomed out of the darkness. The inertial compass kept me from driving in circles, but I didn’t have a destination to head for. Away would have to do for now, putting distance between us and the crash.
“How many of them there are, and where. What weapons they have, especially any heavy weapons that can target this rover from far away. And what they are doing to the colonists.” Dhannar’s fingers drummed on the dashboard as he spoke, a cold anger in his voice. “They’re attacking your people: I will not allow that.”
A smile plucked at my lips, a small burst of happiness at the way he leaped to my defense even against a horde of invading aliens. “I know some of that, but not everything. There are a lot of them, I’m not sure how many exactly. Dozens? One big ship, landed in the middle of Nicholasville, and a bunch of those little fliers they use to patrol. I don’t know what weapons the ship has, but otherwise it’s just what you’ve seen.”
“I’ve seen their ship’s weaponry,” Dhannar said darkly. “That’s what shot me down.”
I shrugged helplessly and continued: “As for what they’re doing, it’s weird. They’ve been stealing all the Christmas preparations. Presents, decorations, everything, it all gets beamed up to their warship. And they’ve forced us all to do pointless labor around the colony, but they haven’t killed anyone. It’s horrible and mean, but it could be a lot worse.”
“That makes sense,” Dhannar said. Cold anger flowed in his words. “They make you miserable and feed on it. Take the things that give you joy or pride or hope, feast on your loss. The scroogians are a jealous species, and they will take the happiness intended for you.”
“That’s almost sad,” I said, though I couldn’t bring myself to feel sorry for the invaders. Not after everything they’d done since their arrival in the skies above Nicholasville. “They can’t take part in Christmas, so they have to ruin it for other people.”
Dhannar snorted. “They don’t have to, beloved, they choose to. Some scroogians don’t do this, they find honest work helping the suffering and feed that way. Just because they don’t celebrate Christmas doesn’t mean they have to ruin it for others. These ones? They choose to destroy your happiness because they’re jealous. They refuse to share joy; they take it all for themselves.”
I shook my head. That attitude made no sense to me, but it fit the invaders’ behavior. Did it matter why they did what they did? The scroogians had attacked us, stolen from us, hurt us. If Dhannar had a way to drive them off, I’d grab it with both hands.
“Okay, so we need to deliver this stuff without the bad guys shooting you or stealing it. And we’ve got…” I glanced at the dashboard clock and winced. “Two hours before Christmas Day. Tall order.”
“We’ll manage.” The emphasis Dhannar put on the we made me shiver and bite my lip. “That means twenty-six hours before it’s too late.”
“And ten hours before dawn,” I reminded him. “We won’t get anywhere before sunrise.”
“Sixteen hours, then. With ten more to plan our approach. That’s plenty.”
I shook my head. Dhannar sounded awfully optimistic, and I was about to tell him so when
the rover’s engine cut out. The omnipresent hum of the electric motor vanished into an eerie silence, broken only by the sound of the wind outside.
The battery had taken us as far as it would. Now we had to wait out the night and the storm before the solar cells would recharge it.
8
Dhannar
The light of Faraway’s two moons barely made it through the clouds and swirling snow, but it gave just enough light to see Megan by. The silvery moonlight on her pale skin made me hunger for her touch — every time I looked at her, she seemed more attractive than the last.
But there was no time to do anything about that now, much as I wanted to tear her clothing off again and claim her. The heat leaking from the rover would give us away to our pursuers, and by now scroogian patrols would be searching.
I reached for the door, only for Megan to grab my wrist and hold me back, her eyes wide.
“If you open that we’ll freeze,” she said. Already her breath was visible as fog in the moonlight. I shook my head.
“It’s more important to stop the scroogians from tracking us. I can keep you from freezing and I will not let any harm come to my mate.” Megan blushed, realizing at once what I meant. Lifting her hand to my lips, I kissed her fingers and then leaned in to plant a firm kiss on her lips. A shiver ran through her, delighting me, and the flame inside me burned hotter. Pulling away was a lot harder than I expected, but I couldn’t risk getting distracted while the hunters were after us.
Once we were safely hidden, I’d turn my attention to protecting my human from the cold. I wanted to take my time over that.
The hatch opened and the howling, frozen wind greeted me like an old familiar friend. Living near Earth’s North Pole left me familiar with weather like this, and it almost felt like coming home.
Jumping out, I slammed the hatch behind me and set to work. The rover had a survival kit which would make things easier for me. I pulled it open and whistled at what I saw inside.
The ice-forming tools I’d expected were there, but so much more. Whoever had equipped this rover had spared no expense, and some of the gear was ridiculous. Emergency flares in a dozen colors, a radio that probably had the range to reach anywhere on the planet, a small matter synthesizer. And amongst that expensive junk, something genuinely useful.
I pulled out the survival tent, double checked its dimensions, and shook my head. Why the owner had paid for a tent big enough to contain the rover itself I’d never know, but it suited my purposes now. It expanded easily, even in the blizzard, a dome that anchored itself into the snow-covered soil. That would keep the wind off the rover, but more to the point it would let me pack snow against it, blocking the engine’s heat.
The snow packed easily into bricks which I set against the tent behind the rover. Working as fast as I could, I built up the shelter until a wall of ice bricks stood between our warmth and the crash site.
Just in time, too. Bright lights pierced the storm back the way we’d come, shining through the falling snow. The searchers were getting closer.
Judging the distances, I wondered whether they’d already seen our heat signature through the storm, then shrugged. Nothing to be done about that now, either way — they’d either seen us or they hadn’t.
I watched as the lights came closer, snarling. They weren’t heading directly for me, but they must have seen something in this direction to draw their attention.
The lights spread out across the snow, burning bright and searching for a trail. I looked at the shelter I’d constructed and swore. As a shield to keep their scanners from seeing our heat, it worked. If the hunters got close enough to look at it, though, they’d see it for what it was. — a pile of snow over a tent.
I did have one last trick up my sleeve. If they’d seen heat this way, I might be able to lead them away from Megan and keep her safe. Better that they catch up with me than her, and if luck was on my side, they might mistake me for local wildlife.
Though luck had been in short supply of late.
It meant leaving Megan behind on her own. A stab of pain, colder than any snowstorm, pierced me at the thought. This would be risky, and if my luck didn’t change, I might not make it back. Well, let that be my gift to her. Wishing I had time to tell her my plan, knowing I didn’t, I leaped into action.
Shifting took no time at all, and in my reindeer form the snow hardly slowed me down. Now I wouldn’t be a humanoid heat signature for the scroogians to detect. I didn’t know if there were any animals that looked like reindeer on this planet, but the scroogians hadn’t been here long enough to know that either.
Casually, as though I was just another animal, I bounded off to the side. Making my movements as obvious as I could, I made my way across the scroogians’ path.
At best they would see me as a wild animal and assume that as what they’d seen. If not, they should still track my heat signature rather than blundering on and finding the shelter.
The lights flickered around the snowscape, and one of the fliers broke off to follow me. Two more, though, stayed on course. I cursed. So much for that plan — whoever commanded those fliers was a skilled hunter, not someone easily distracted by my ruse.
At least I’d split the three fliers up, which would make them easier to deal with. But time wasn’t on my side, not with Megan stuck in the path of that patrol. That put her against six scroogians, and despite my mate’s ferocity she was no trained warrior.
Still moving slowly and obviously, I circled back towards the approaching flier. Let them catch up to me, and they’d find out who was the hunter here. My antlers itched for a fight and it took an effort to keep myself moving carelessly.
The flying vehicle closed on my position quickly, then slowed. Over the howl of the storm I heard gruff voices, their words impossible to make out but the tone cruel and mocking.
A blaster shot snapped out, flash-boiling snow into steam. I leaped aside, angry. That hadn’t been intended to kill. The scroogians saw me as a wild animal, and I wouldn’t blame them for hunting — but this was a deliberate attempt to torment a defenseless creature.
I’ll show them what defenseless looks like, I thought, lowering my antlers. I turned towards the hovering vehicle and charged.
The sudden change of direction caught the scroogians by surprise and they froze. One snapped off another shot, missing wildly. The driver laughed, a sound between mockery and concern, and pulled up to put their flier too high for me to reach. Or so they thought.
But reilendeer are not mere animals, and we have more than one trick up our sleeves. Sparks flew from my hooves as I launched myself into the sky, using up carefully conserved energy to climb through the air. Too late, my enemies realized that they were still in danger. The driver hauled at the controls, pulling the craft aside, but my charge struck before he could dodge.
Impact vibrated through my antlers, bent the hull of the flier, tipped it onto its side. The driver was thrown against the straps holding him in place, losing his grip on the controls. The others weren’t strapped in and cries of fear and shock filled the air as they tumbled down into the snowstorm.
Before he could recover, I slammed into the driver. My antlers struck hard, all my weight behind them. Ribs gave under my assault and he stopped moving. Leaving the flier to crash, I charged down after the fallen gunners.
One struggled up out of the snowdrift as I approached, blazing away with his blaster. In his panic, every shot went wide. My charge didn’t, a hoof smashing into his throat and sending him back to the ground. This time he didn’t rise.
The last scroogian screamed and leaped at me, a sword in his hand. He knew how to use it, cutting skillfully at my head as I turned to face him, but the falling snow spoiled his aim.
Not mine. I reared back to let the blade pass, then slammed my head forward, antlers lifting the scroogian warrior from the ground and flinging him away. The sword flew from his fingers.
When he hit the snow, he didn’t move.
I tu
rned back in the direction I’d come from. The lights of the other fliers had vanished, which meant they’d arrived at Megan’s shelter. My mate was in terrible danger.
9
Megan
The snow-covered tent deadened the sounds from outside and I couldn’t be sure, but I thought the storm might be subsiding. Where was Dhannar? He’d stepped out to build the shelter and hadn’t been back since.
I shivered, hugging myself and rubbing my arms. The snow trapped what warmth there was but without him to heat the air, the cold had begun to bite.
“Where the fuck have you gotten to?” I grumbled aloud, watching the puff of fog from my breath in the faint light of the dashboard LEDs. “I thought you wanted to warm me up.”
Even on my own I blushed at that, remembering just how he’d warmed me up the last time. It made me squirm, pulse racing just to think — to hope — that he’d go further next time.
The only question was why he was waiting. We had shelter, and no way to move on until morning. No reason for him not to have his way with me.
Something moved in the darkness outside the rover and I breathed a sigh that mixed relief and nerves. In the dim light I couldn’t see him, but that had to be Dhannar pushing his way in through the tent’s opening.
I reached for the hatch, ready to throw it open and welcome him back, but something stopped me. Dhannar moved with grace and poise, and whoever was out there didn’t. Another bulky shape blotted out the faint light at the entrance and I realized my mistake.
The scroogians had found us. Or me, at least — Dhannar wasn’t here. Hopefully he was safe, wherever he was, but I was on my own in the shelter. Had he run when he saw them coming?
No. I rejected that thought as soon as it formed. He wouldn’t abandon me, but the other options were worse. Had he fought them and lost? My heart missed a beat at the thought of him lying dead in the snow outside.
