“Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas, everyone!” Libby repeated over and over until everyone in the dining hall laughed and cheered.
Spuds yelled out, “It’s Christmas Eve, everyone!”
Guiding Dozer with her knees, Libby rode him over to one end of the black plastic curtain and grabbed a string. “Now, Dozer!”
The cat lunged, and the tarp pulled away from the ceiling. The entire room went silent. In the middle of the room was the green tree Merc had created in Engineering. It was decorated like a tree on Earth, covered in white twinkling lights and handmade decorations hanging from each metal branch. Around the base was a large white sheet that hid the metal ring that supported the tree, and the entire sheet was covered in wrapped presents.
Instead of a star at the top of the tree, there was a clear beehive from the garden. It looked very peculiar at the apex, but then the bees started to fly out. The bees looked like diamonds in the sky as they flew around the room, reflecting all the lights. Merc had designed an entrance to the hive that created static electricity and gave the honeybees a positive charge; when they came out of the entrance, they attracted the ground-up diamond dust Merc had placed there in a pan. The bees really were shining diamonds.
It was absolutely mesmerizing. No one had ever seen such an act of beauty pairing nature with the ingenuity of mankind. Each table that surrounded the tree was set for the crew, and each setting had a beautiful bouquet of flowers from the garden. The entire scene was covered in jewels from the bees. It was like looking at a life-size snow globe; instead of snowflakes, they had bee diamonds.
“Okay, everyone, let’s move over to the other half of the Great Hall and have a Christmas feast!” yelled Spuds.
Everyone was so shocked at the beautiful scene that they were quiet, but soon the room was filled with laughter and merriment as everyone changed seats. There wasn’t a bad seat in the house, as they all faced the huge Christmas tree.
“Attention, ladies, the captain has something to say!” yelled Smitty above the clamor.
“Christmas is a very special time of year. Everyone, go back to your quarters and remove your helmet and space suit and put on your favorite clothes. Be back here in twenty minutes. This time we won’t follow protocol,” said Captain Kriss.
With loud whoops, everyone disappeared out the stainless steel doors. Everyone except Kriss and Spuds.
“Don’t be mad. We can keep the food hot,” said Kriss. “I know you wanted to treat everyone to a feast, but I thought they should be more comfortable. Hell, we might not be alive for another Christmas.”
“I understand, Captain,” said Spuds. “It was a good idea for morale, sir.”
The crew that returned looked entirely different. Everyone had their own individual style, from full-length evening gowns to jeans and T-shirts. The crew had been transformed into happy individuals; they weren’t depressed creatures traveling hopelessly deeper into space. They had their spirit back.
Spuds climbed up onto a chair and cleared her throat. “Everyone, enjoy the feast my crew and I have prepared for you! But before we get started, we need someone to say grace.”
Without hesitation, Kriss stood up and recited the Lord’s Prayer. When Kriss finished, Spuds yelled, “Let’s eat!”
Soon the room was quiet, with only the sounds of eating and drinking. Spuds had made an awesome drink that tasted like peach wine–flavored eggnog. It was milky and thick but had a kick to it.
“What is in this drink?” yelled a crew woman.
“Can’t tell,” Spuds said back. “It’s a secret.”
But it wasn’t a secret for long, because soon everyone began to cackle like a flock of seagulls.
“Let’s sing carols!” someone yelled.
“Yes, Leea, please sing for us!” someone else chimed in.
Standing up, Leea began to sing “Silent Night.” The room went quiet. Leea was beautiful. She wore a black sleeveless full-length dress that showed off her sensual neck and accentuated her small waist, delicately tracing her feminine hips.
Leea turned like a ballet dancer in a music box, revealing her cut-out back that ended just below the twin dimples above her ass. Her voice was soothing like the song: all is calm and all is bright.
The bees were captivated by Leea. Not just one or two but tens and then hundreds. Leea didn’t seem to notice or care as she continued to sing. Once covered in black but now in bee diamonds, Leea looked like the star over Bethlehem, and the visual spectacle, combined with her voice, was so powerful that not even the peach nog could dull the crew’s senses. The room was alive with electricity.
When Leea stopped singing, it was like a large glacier had broken off into the ocean, with the wave of reality hitting the crew.
“Thank you, Leea,” said Captain Kriss. “That was incredible. As you can see, there are gifts under this tree, but first, Merc has something to say.”
Clearing her throat, Merc said, “I was doing inventory last week in Engineering when I discovered this unmarked crate. As you all know, I’m a neat freak, and I was confused as to how something could be in my domain that was not accounted for. You can imagine my surprise to find it full of wrapped gifts. Not just random gifts, but gifts from all your loved ones.”
A hush fell over the Great Hall; even Dozer stopped purring.
“That’s right, each gift under this tree was wrapped by someone who loves you,” said Merc.
Everyone felt the stab of her words in their hearts. Kisses from home. Kisses from the dead of Earth, reaching out one last time.
Standing up, Smitty said, “Come here, Libby. As Earth’s tradition dictates, the gifts are to be given out by Santa, and you are our Santa.”
Reaching under the tree, Smitty held out a gift so that Libby could read the tag. Her sweet little voice read each tag out loud, and if she couldn’t read the handwritten tag, Smitty helped. When she read each name, the receiving crew woman would get up from her place and come to get her gift. It took a while to go through the names, but no one complained; everyone wanted the moment to last.
There was one person who never got a gift, one person who was left out. Everyone was so emotional about their own contact with the past that no one noticed that Leea was empty-handed. No one but Kriss, who saw a glimpse of loneliness flash across the woman’s face.
Leea walked discretely around the tables and chairs and dropped a card gently into Brooke’s lap. Inserting the tip of the knife under the card’s flap, Brooke stiffened and her hand shook as she withdrew the folded paper inside. She and Leea hadn’t talked since the incident in her bunk. The last thing Brooke remembered was Leea’s finger in her climaxing pussy. They hadn’t had time to talk because the moment had been abruptly cut short by the shrieking sirens going off from the gas halo. They had both avoided each other until now.
Unfolding the paper, Brooke realized it wasn’t a card. It was a printout from Connie’s computer with large bold letters at the top: “A-64 Breeding Program.” Farther down the page, “same-sex matings” was circled with a red pen, with an arrow pointing at Brooke’s name, indicating a match. At the bottom of the page was a rouge-colored kiss made by Leea’s lips.
Brooke wasn’t a lesbian, but this intrigued her. She scanned the room for Leea but couldn’t find her. Her ears picked up the sound of a faint whistle that grew louder as she faced the tree. Kneeling down, Brooke came eye to eye with Leea.
Pulling Brooke under the metal branches, Leea gently kissed the surprised gym commander on the lips. Before Brooke could say anything, Leea said, “I know what I want for Christmas.”
“What do you want?” whispered Brooke.
“I want you,” Leea said seductively. She ran her hands over Brooke’s breasts and stopped over her heart. “I feel it here.” Then she slid her hands down over the bulge of Brooke’s pubic bone, pressing gently. “I feel it here. You are mine.”
It wasn’t just a holiday about hope, but also rejuvenation and renewal. For Brooke and Leea, it was the birth of their romance.
“Do you want to come with me to the breeding cave?” asked Leea.
“Yes,” said Brooke with a smile, “but be gentle with me. I have never done this before.”
“Don’t worry, darling. You are in for a primal feast.”
The snake tattooed on Leea’s arm looked like it was uncoiling itself and getting ready to strike. Its threatening manner made Brooke pull away.
“Don’t be frightened, my love. My snake won’t hurt you. We just like new meat.”
Reaching for her hand, Leea led Brooke out of the Great Hall. No one noticed but Dozer and the captain.
“Merry Christmas, girls,” Kriss whispered. “Have fun.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Connie was in a very good mood. She had gotten a book on animal anatomy and DNA extraction on cloning for Christmas from her favorite professor. She admired his thought patterns and strategies. When she had written her thesis for her doctorate, it was on animal and human cloning. Once it was introduced into the scientific circles, her work was criticized by most, but not by this professor; instead, he heralded her ingenuity. He said she was a boundary breaker who was leading the world in this arena, and if the scientific community didn’t embrace her contributions, it would soon be left behind.
She went over to the gene sequencer in Med Bay and squealed with delight. The cat DNA sequence was complete. The cat had nearly twenty thousand genes, and the sequencer had mapped them completely. Now that Connie had the genetic map, she could enter the data into a biowomb and life would begin. A biowomb was a machine that grew whatever DNA completed sequence was placed in it. It replaced the organism’s biological mother; in this case, there was no living female cat to do the job. The biowomb supplied the nutrients and oxygen to give birth to life in a growing fetus. The normal gestation period for a cat was sixty-six days, but the biowomb could complete the same process in six hours.
Connie watched in amazement as it started building a new life. Within fifteen minutes, a heartbeat was heard coming from the biowomb monitor.
“Come on, little sweetheart, you are going to give our crew hope,” whispered Connie in awe.
Within an hour, an ultrasound-like scanner showed the tiny cat fetus curled up. You could see a faint spinal cord and skeleton, with the small beating heart in its miniature rib cage. It was like watching a beautiful flower open in fast motion. Watching life grow so rapidly made time stand still for the chief science officer, and before she knew it, the kitten was complete. Not just a gene sequence of genetic material, but a flesh-and-blood kitten.
Opening the biowomb, Connie reached in and delicately removed the kitten as far as the umbilical cord would allow. She then cut the cord with surgical scissors. Almost immediately, it started to cry. Connie placed it on a scale: five ounces. The cold metal of the scale made the kitten cry softly like a human infant, but Connie picked it up and put it on the skin of her neck, and soon her body heat warmed the kitten.
Connie had never desired children before, but the kitten was making her feel maternal, and instinctively she knew it needed to be fed. Warming the colostrum and mixing it into a synthetic milk blend, she began feeding the kitten with an eye dropper. At first the kitten squirmed and didn’t want the cold glass tip put into its mouth, but as soon as Connie squeezed out a drop, the kitten hungrily began to suck. Wiping its face with a warm cloth, she held it up to her nose and nuzzled it. The kitten raised its face and hiccupped. Her eyes wouldn’t open for another nine to fourteen days, and Connie wondered what color they would be. She knew she couldn’t place the kitten in the infant pod, even though that was protocol. Instead, she snuck the precious cargo back to her quarters and soon fell asleep herself.
*
Dozer awoke in crew quarters in the same hammock-like cot as Libby and Susanna. Some instinct had awoken him, and he let this instinct guide him down the corridors till finally he stopped in front of the chief science officer’s private chamber. Gently pressing his nose to the metal, the doors opened soundlessly on their tracks. Dozer walked in and, jumping up onto Connie’s cot, inched closer. With his left paw, Dozer used his claws to pull down the blanket, which revealed a tiny black head.
Dozer sniffed, then licked the kitten’s face. The kitten moved slightly and hiccupped. Dozer washed the kitten’s face and soon it began to purr. Its light vibrations triggered an alarm in Connie’s mind and she opened her eyes.
“Dozer,” she said, “meet your new girlfriend. Her name is Hiccup.”
Chapter Forty-Seven
The wind whipped across their bodies like water with no form; it washed and caressed them but was dry and weightless. The fragrant smell of fresh pine needles was strong and musky like the scent of mating trees in the spring.
Leea was naked and hanging from a branch, swinging her sunlit body to its full length over the precipice of a jagged rock that formed the craggy peak of the mountain. Her long black hair glistened in the sun like a wild horse’s mane. She was free and beautiful, with a childlike innocence but a burning power to mate. She was flirting, a stage all new lovers bask in, and her new lover was captivated by Leea.
Brooke was naked, as well, lying across the rocky outpost Leea was swinging over. Both were watching the other, capturing each nude shot in their mind’s eye. Even the snake tattoo was radiant in the sun, with his marked scales glittering.
The breeding cave was a circular room with no windows or doors. Its only opening was in the center of the ceiling, which consisted of a round cutout platform big enough for two people to stand on. When entering the cave, one stood on the platform, which was lowered by a chrome-plated hydraulic piston down into the room. Then the platform raised itself back up into the closed position and sealed the room off. Brooke had nervously clung to Leea, who held onto the extending piston as they were lowered into the unlit cave.
Some people on Earth loved caving, squirming around in cramped, claustrophobic places, exploring like subterranean rodents. Brooke wasn’t one of them. She preferred being out in the open air under the sun. So when they had reached the floor and got off the lift, Leea had said, “Computer, turn on the sun.” Instantly, the room lit up in a bright, soothing color.
“Computer, we want a bright blue sky with puffy white clouds,” said Leea.
As if by magic, the ceiling changed color.
“Okay, honey, what is your fantasy?” asked Leea.
“I want two of you,” giggled Brooke.
“The computer can only generate 3-D interactive scenes, not people. Besides, you couldn’t handle two of me,” Leea said as she pushed Brooke over.
The unexpected move shocked Brooke, and she waited to hit the floor. Instead she sunk down into a cloud-like bed. The circular bed was in the center of the room on a slightly raised platform with digital projectors mounted underneath. The projectors could spin freely clockwise or counterclockwise. When they spun, it gave the person the feeling that the room was moving.
“Okay, baby, where would you like to make love?” asked Leea.
“Surprise me,” said Brooke.
A bunch of Earth’s images flickered around the room on the circular wall. The Grand Canyon, the Great Wall of China, London’s Big Ben, a meadow in Montana, the thatched huts of Tahiti, the pyramids of Egypt—the screen flickered so fast that your eyes couldn’t focus. A fan kicked on and both women could feel a cool breeze. Soon the scene Leea had picked projected on the wall. It got incrementally brighter until they were in the mountains.
Leea took her black dress off hurriedly and in an awkward manner. She wasn’t trying to be seductive; it was just the naked innocence of freedom. Grabbing the overhead branch, she start
ed to swing. Brooke too could feel the childlike pull of Leea’s excitement and struggled to get her own clothes off as well.
At first Leea didn’t notice; she just kept on swinging and laughing. Feeling jealous of the lack of attention, Brooke pulled off her blouse and unfastened her bra. Her small, round breasts were still cupped by the outer edges of the bra, not enough to push them together to create cleavage, but rather to be a tease. The effect worked; Leea was teased for two reasons. One was that Brooke lay on her back with both legs together and twisted to her right so that Leea couldn’t see her pussy. The other was the loose bra, only revealing portions of her breasts.
Swinging over Brooke’s naked body, Leea did a backflip and landed perfectly astride the gym commander’s thighs. Gently, Leea opened her legs so her body could sink lower onto Brooke’s lap. She began rocking her hips in a rhythmic motion. She wasn’t pushing down hard yet, just enough so her pussy lips were rubbing Brooke’s.
At first there was no moisture, just soft skin rubbing soft skin, as both girls were clean shaven. But slowly it got wetter until their intimate skin was soaked with precum. Because Leea was sitting in an upright position, her clit couldn’t touch Leea’s pussy, but her thick meaty lips could, and so could the entrance to her vagina.
Leea’s constant gentle motion, combined with her thicker lips rubbing Brooke’s pussy, aroused Brooke, and soon her clit filled with blood and stood out from her body. Leea could feel this, and it made her moan. Pressing down harder with her pelvis, Leea put increasingly more pressure on Brooke’s clit.
The clit thickened and lengthened; Leea had never felt anything like it. She could ride up and down on it like she would a man’s cock. Brooke rotated her hips to match the motion of her lover’s. Leea looked into Brooke’s eyes as she leaned down and opened the bra, exposing her breasts. Reaching forward, Leea cupped both breasts with her hands.
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