Page 5 of The Alien Who Saved Christmas

Let aliens’ hearts, give humans room,

They don’t need to be enemies.

They don’t need to be enemies.

They don’t --They don’t!-- need to be enemies.

(verse repeats many, many times)

From “Joy to the Other Worlds”

A Christmas Carol for Non-Earthlings by Sadie Malone

Xane had found a woman. He’d never even imagined such a thing.

When he’d woken up that morning, he’d thought today would be his last. He’d expected to be purchased for the blue salt mines, because they were the last stop for slaves who would not bend, and he would not bend.

He’d expected to fight his captivity, as he always did.

Only he’d known his resistance would be useless, as it always was.

He’d expected to die, this time, and then fade into forgotteness.

Instead, he was alive. Owned by a small girl and standing in front of a partially concealed Class H-77 Cruiser. The Rtaharion were not a creative people, so this was completely beyond his craziest, middle-of-the-night fantasy.

Perhaps it was a delusion. Xane had been forcibly injected with castr extract to keep him calm for the auction and it had clouded his head. This could all be an illusion, brought on by the drug.

He tried to focus on survival and not the beckoning scent of the woman beside him. “This is a Lythion ship.” Xane told the female with a suspicious scowl. Whatever kind of creature she was, she was not Lythion. “Where are the Lythions?”

The woman huddled deeper in her very fashionable, very expensive Lythion robes.

Xane had never seen one of her kind before.

And he’d seen just about everything. The woman’s face was smooth and soft, with no scales or fur.

She had large gray eyes and deep pink lips that looked like they’d been stained with honeb berries.

He couldn’t see most of her body, under her enveloping clothes, but it was probably equally strange.

She was lacking horns and an adequate number of arms. It should have made her less attractive.

…But, for some reason, his eyes kept traveling back to her.

It had to be her intoxicating fragrance.

He had never in his life smelled anything as good as the female.

Warm spices and yasee honey and feminine heat.

It was a miracle that no other men had caught scent of her at the auction, or she would’ve been grabbed up and sold on the spot.

It seemed certain that she couldn’t defend herself.

The woman’s size did not speak to skill at war.

Her open manner did not speak to skill at espionage.

Her free-wheeling spending at the auction did not speak to skill at finance.

In short, Xane had no idea how such a being could possibly survive in the universe, let alone in a sewer like Corono.

Was that more evidence that he was hallucinating this entire experience?

“I’m guessing Lithiums are the See-Through Alien Kidnappers?” She ventured.

“Lythi ons are the biggest slavers in the galaxy.” She was baffled by very obvious things. “This ship should be crewed by them and filled with their captives.”

“Right. Well, there were three Lyth-eee-ins and a bunch of other beings on that ship with me. They took all the other aliens away and came back without them. That was weeks ago. Now, I’m here by myself.”

Xane grunted. The Lythions had no doubt sold the more average captives at the slave market and held her back for some fancier auction.

Women were rare. Exotic women were rarer still.

An exotic woman with large gray eyes and berry-colored lips, who smelled like honey and sex, was a one-in-a-million find.

She would bring an exorbitant price on any number of worlds.

The Lythions wouldn’t waste her on the squalid hordes of Corono.

They would save her for some wealthy man seeking a spectacularly impressive mate.

Unless she was lying.

“You claim to be here alone?” He challenged.

“I don’t ‘claim’ it. I am here alone. Nobody has any clue where I am. Including me! Back home, I’m losing my apartment, flunking my classes, and missing out on all the seasonal coffee drinks.”

She was definitely lying. Even through the drugs, he knew that. No female would be stupid enough to casually admit she was without protection. Not to a Rtaharion, who could overpower her, even while chained and hazy from drugs.

Xane’s eyes scanned around, looking for signs of a Lythion ambush.

Lythions were a small but powerful species, capable of unimaginable cruelty and crafty tricks.

It was the only reason the woman’s disguise had worked at the auction today.

No one wanted to get close to a Lythion, so they gave her a wide berth.

Had she planned that? He lived his life assuming that everyone else was plotting his death, and he was rarely disappointed.

Rtaharions’ enhanced healing abilities meant the whip-lashes were already fading from his flesh. His body could not dispel the drugs in his bloodstream so easily. The sunlight glinted off the purple sand, causing a piercing ache in his skull.

Dammit .

He squinted against the glare, trying to concentrate. Ignoring the sickening swirl of his vision and the pounding of his brain, he kept his expression resolute. He would never reveal his agony to her. Rtaharions did not disclose their pain to their enemies.

“You look terrible, Xane. Do you want to sit down?”

“No.” He flashed her a glower. “Where are the Lythions?” He demanded again.

The woman winced and reluctantly pointed towards a purple boulder. “Over there.” At the wide base, there were three rock-covered mounds that could only be graves.

Xane’s eyebrows soared.

“It wasn’t my fault.” She insisted. “I had no idea they’d melt.”

He blinked, trying to process what he was seeing. This tiny creature had killed three Lythions? By herself?

The woman seemed to mistake his stunned silence for terror. She held up her palms in a gesture of peace. “I swear, you don’t have to be scared of me. I’m not going to hurt you.”

His head whipped around to glower at her. The swift movement increased his sensation of vertigo. “Rtaharions are scared of nothing .”

“I was just trying to escape.” She went on passionately, like she didn’t understand that Xane came from a people of blood and war.

Like she’d never even heard of the Rtaharions.

“And the only thing I had on me was that spritz-y hand sanitizer stuff. Like in the mini-sized spray bottles. I’m a waitress, so I had it in my pocket when they kidnapped me. ”

Xane had no idea what most of that gibberish meant.

It wasn’t just the drugs muddling his mind.

Not many people spoke to Xane. Being a slave didn’t encourage conversation.

Being a Rtaharion encouraged even less. It felt strange to have someone using his name and talking to him.

It was hard to be sure whether he was rusty at communicating or if she was just using words that did not exist.

“So, I thought, maybe I could use it like pepper-spray and grab the keys from them.” She continued chattily. “Because alcohol burns if you get it in your eyes, you know?”

“What is ‘alcohol’?” The translator wasn’t giving him the meaning of that word.

“It’s just a disinfectant. It’s good for you!” She hesitated. “I mean, some types of alcohol can make you sick, if you drink too much. But nobody drinks hand sanitizer, because it’s dangerous. Otherwise, it’s perfectly safe.”

Xane rubbed at his pounding skull, trying to make sense of her circular logic.

“So anyway, I sprayed the guys, when they got close to my cage. Only instead of just burning them, the hand sanitizer kind of melted them.”

“You melted the Lythions.” He repeated, trying to understand how such a thing could be possible.

“Yep. Like I doused them in acid.” She cringed a bit at the memory. “I took a chemistry class at my college, but we did not cover that scenario. The aliens’ faces dripped all over the floor. The smell was terrible.”

Xane glanced back over at the graves. They had suffered? Good.

She followed his gaze, chewing on her lower lip again.

It was a pity to twist the soft, rosy flesh into such shapes.

“I’m not sure about funeral rites for aliens, so I did the best I could.

Although, I do think they were jerks. For real.

They abducted me right out of the diner’s parking lot. I’m sure I’ll be fired.”

“You fear someone will light you aflame?” Doubtful. She was worth too much.

“No, that’s not what ‘firing’…” She trailed off with a sigh. “Never mind. Let’s keep moving forward.” She turned to face him. “My name is Sadie Malone, by the way.”

“Say-dee-mal-own?”

“ Sadie .” She stressed the pronunciation. “I’m from Earth. Do you know where that is?”

“No.”

“I’m a human. Have you heard of us?”

“No.”

“Do you know how to fly a spaceship, maybe?”

“No.”

“Great.” She puffed out an irritated breath. “Okay. Doesn’t matter. We’ll take this one step at a time. First, we need to get the ducklings.”

The woman was either an accomplished liar or feebleminded. “The what-lings?”

“The yellow fuzzy aliens that went for sale right after you. They’re allegedly pilots. I’m hoping they can fly this damn thing, since neither of us knows how.” She gestured towards the H-77 Cruiser. “That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier.”

Xane blinked. “The Vipri?” He choked out, understanding her intentions.

“Sure. Vipri.” She shrugged dismissively. “I saw a cyclops-guy taking one of them into that bar earlier. Hey, hang on…” Her head tilted. “What is the tavern serving, if not alcohol?”

“ Leegos .”

She stared at him for a beat. “Right. Legos. So, we need to steal a duckling from Legoland. Sounds doable.” She paused. “I mean, it’s not really stealing, though. We’re setting the little fella free. We’re the ones in the right…”