“The mayor of North Pole and his wife.”
“Ah, Paul and Barbara,” Liza said. “Let me call them.”
She tapped her wrist-holo and tried to call Paul, but it went to a recording. Then she called Barbara and told her about the Harbingers being on her property.
“Do you know why they’re there?” Liza asked her.
“No idea.” In the background, Liza could hear a hum of voices. Barbara was at work at the post office.
“Well, there’s no reason for them to keep going back out there, so they must be up to something,” Liza said.
“Oh well,” Barbara said, her tone hopeless and sad. “What does it even matter? One clan or the other will own this entire planet soon enough. They can troop around there all day long for all I care.”
Liza rang off, shaking her head in puzzlement.
Jaspar snorted. “The Harbingers are nothing that we can’t handle. Korl, take half our clan and go investigate. Leave Sterran and the rest here, and stay in touch with them at all times. We’ll be back in a few hours.”
He, his clan mate Kyro, and Liza flew his hovercraft up to the Balthazar FTL Starliner, and then Kyro left that craft behind and flew another hovercraft back to the Christmas Colony so that Jaspar and Liza would have transport when they needed it.
Liza’s family’s hovercraft would have burned up if it had tried to leave their atmosphere.
The Starliner was equally impressive. It was enormous, and the interior was sleek and smooth, with an organic feel to the décor.
Doors were seven-foot-tall oval outlines in the walls. When Jaspar took her over to them, the doors melted away and they walked through.
One wall of the bridge was a viewscreen that showed a pitch-black sky splashed with millions of little sparkling stars. There were a dozen Drakken on the bridge, chatting with each other, drinking hot beverages, pressing buttons on their holoscreens. They leaped to their feet and saluted when Jaspar entered.
“Oh my God, this is amazing!” Liza’s wrist-holo vibrated, and Geneva appeared right next to her. “You are so lucky. I wish I had a giant, sexy, rich dragon boyfriend.”
“Geneva, could you be any more embarrassing?” Liza said, her face flaming red as the crew members snickered behind their hands.
“Giant, sexy, rich dragon boyfriend,” one of them whispered to the Drakken sitting next to him, and they howled with laughter.
“I will be your giant, sexy, rich dragon boyfriend!” another added to the hologram, waving at Geneva.
Geneva laughed as Liza glared at the Drakken. “I will consider that,” she said to him with a wink.
Jaspar bowed to the hologram. “Greetings, lovely sister of my heart-mate. Has Liza told you that we are getting married?”
“No, she has not,” Geneva said, her eyebrows shooting up. “Dang. I spend one week with my head buried in my holos for finals, and this happens? What the hell? I mean…congratulations!”
“I have not made any final decisions yet,” Liza said, then looked over at Jaspar in time to see him mouthing, “Yes she has.”
“Where will you live?” Geneva asked. “If you go live on his planet, I’ll never be able to afford to visit you.” She managed a wry smile. “I told my teachers that this would be my last semester here. No, don’t worry about it,” she said as Liza started to protest. “I’m a realist. And I’m determined. I will find a way to travel the galaxy no matter what.” Then she waved at Liza and winked out.
“But you will be wealthy when you are my wife, and so will your family.”
“I know how my family are,” Liza said, shaking her head. “They won’t take charity.”
“What if I were to help keep the planet open for you all?” Jaspar said.
“That is an incredibly generous offer, but the problem is that we depend on our trees. Apple trees, maple trees, pine trees…without them, we don’t have a business. And since we don’t know what caused the fungus, it wouldn’t be worth planting new forests that would just die again. Also, it would take decades for us to regrow all those forests, and there would be no way for us to make a living in the meantime.”
“Well, don’t abandon hope just yet.”
“Has my grandmother gotten to you with her relentless Christmas spirit?” Liza asked with a smile. They paused in front of an oval door.
“Perhaps,” Jaspar said. “And now, let me show you my quarters. Shut up,” he added to his crew members as they exchanged glances and high fives. “You are most immature and making a terrible impression on my heart-mate.”
