The work day was almost over.
I tapped buttons on the control pad, and molten glass began to flow from the reservoir into the mold that would form the last restaurant serving spoon I intended to make today. Then I sat down to monitor the addition of colorant at precise intervals.
Ding!
The door of my shop opened. I looked up –
And caught my breath as I found myself looking into the brown eyes of the most gorgeous man that I had ever seen. He was wearing a blue-and-black uniform that was clearly not of Havenese origin.
He stopped and let out a small, involuntary gasp as my blue eyes met his.
I shook myself and took a deep breath. "Hello, may I help you?"
He took a step forward. "I'm Dr. Julian Bashir, Chief Medical Officer of the USS Defiant. You can all me Julian."
"A Starfleet officer, I presume?"
"That's right," he confirmed.
I stood up, flipped my long black curls over my shoulder, and walked around in front of the mold machine. I stuck out my hand. "I'm Anastasia Callahan, master glassmaker. Call me Stacey."
Julian grasped my hand firmly, sending a delicious thrill down my spine. "Pleased to meet you." He didn't let go of my hand.
I didn't make him.
Eventually, with obvious reluctance, he did let go. He took a deep breath. "So," he said, "you're a glassmaker?"
"Yeah. Let me show you what I do." I handed him one of the spoons I had made earlier in the day. It was about thirty centimeters long and blue, with green and yellow swirls throughout.
Julian turned the spoon over in his hands. He whistled. "This is exquisite." He mimed spooning food onto an imaginary plate. "And it weighs a ton."
I chuckled. "Yes, it does. And it's virtually unbreakable. Our glassmaking tradition is really quite bizarre, in comparison to most other planets, including Old Earth."
"How so?"
"Well, you may have noticed coming in that the entire land surface of Emerald Haven is made up of volcanic archipelagoes. Because of the unique geomorphology of the planet, we have no oil reserves and very little accessible metal ores. But resources we have in abundance include volcanic sand, diamond, and wood. So the vast majority of our technology is made from those three things."
I sat back down at the machine. Julian moved to watch over my shoulder as I guided the machine through the addition of various ingredients, explaining the steps as I pressed the proper buttons.
"Fascinating," Julian commented.
"Don't say that too loud," I replied. "Glassmaking is considered an exclusively female pursuit. I'm breaking hundreds of years of tradition by showing you this."
Julian's hand briefly touched my shoulder. I sucked in my breath. "Your secret's safe with me."
I turned around to look up at him. "So, tell me, is being drop-dead gorgeous a prerequisite for joining Starfleet?"
He chuckled, looking embarrassed. "No. But I don't know if I'd call myself 'drop-dead gorgeous.'"
"You're certainly way hotter than any man on Emerald Haven," I shrugged.
His face turned even redder.
I changed the subject. "So, I'm pretty sure you didn't come in here just for a glassmaking lesson. What's your real reason for being here?"
Julian sighed and sat on the edge of a nearby table. "I came to ask questions, and yours was the only shop that was obviously open."
I glanced at my chrono. Wow, it really was that late.
I turned back to Julian. "Go ahead."
"Do you happen to know if any ships have crashed on your world lately?"
"Hmmm." I thought for a moment. "About a week ago, I saw something crash about halfway up the side of the Smoking Cone. I guess it must've been a ship, because they sent out a war party the next morning."
Julian's face went white. "A war party?!"
I put my hand on Julian's arm. "Unfortunately, our government is ridiculously xenophobic. My ancestors came to Emerald Haven just as the Federation was forming. They didn't think humans should have contact with other species."
Julian waited, his arms crossed and his jaw set.
"My family raised me to be curious about other species and places," I continued. "But the conservatives continue to keep a stranglehold on the government. That's why they generally kill off-world visitors on sight. And why I'm going to have to struggle to protect you while you're here."
Julian still said nothing.
Leaving the glassmaking machine, I sat down on the edge of the table and draped my left arm over Julian's shoulders. "You knew someone on that ship?" I guessed.
Julian sagged. "It was my brother Jeffrey's ship." His tone of voice was ragged and hollow. "He's a freighter captain. His wife Talina and eight-year-old daughter Allana were onboard with him. I was afraid it would turn out to be something like this because, even though Jeff's distress call included some pretty specific information about where they were crashing, when I got here, I couldn't find the ship. It's almost as if someone put a cloaking device around the mountain."
"Someone probably did," I told him. "But that's a good sign, since it means they think there might be survivors. They'll leave it there until they confirm that everyone onboard is dead. So as long as the cloaking device is in place, we can hope that your brother and his family may still be alive."
Suddenly, the fatigue left Julian's body. He sat up straighter, as if some newfound sense of purpose were re-inflating him. "I owe it to my brother to find out what happened to him. Especially since I'm the only family member still talking to him."
"That stinks. Why?"
"Our parents didn't approve of Talina." Julian shrugged. "Not only was she not human, but Jeff rescued her from sex work. She'd become a concubine on a smuggling ship in an attempt to escape the grinding poverty of her home world."
"Oh. Awkward."
"Only because my parents refused to see Talina's value as a person, in spite of her desperate circumstances."
"Do you still talk to your parents?" I asked.
"Rarely. I'm not close to them. It's a long story."
We were both silent for several moments. My arm was still around him. I wasn't sure when he had adjusted his posture so that he was – ever so subtly – leaning against me. I began to gently rub his back. He inhaled sharply and leaned closer.
The mold machine dinged, letting me know it was transitioning into cool-down mode.
I ignored it for a minute or two, perhaps a hair longer than I should have. Then I squeezed Julian's shoulders. "That last spoon's almost done. You can stay at my house tonight. It's fully dark by now, so navigating the jungle on the side of the mountain is impossible, but at least we should be able to get you to my house without being seen. Then tomorrow morning I can show you how to get to the Smoking Cone."
"Thanks," Julian replied. "Once I know where it is, if I beam back to my ship, I should be able to beam directly onto the side of the mountain. That'll probably be the safest way to do it."
"I'm sure you're right," I acknowledged. But damn, was I going to miss him when he was gone – and he'd only been in my shop for an hour!
I held onto him for one more long moment; then I forced myself to let go and stand up. I placed the newly finished spoon on a cooling rack and shut down the mold machine.
"Okay, Julian, let's go home."
He followed me through the front door of the shop. I turned off the lights and locked the door. I offered Julian my hand.
He took it without hesitation. We hurried down the street, like pair of mice scurrying through the darkness.
Before long we reached the shore, where I had tied up my boat early this morning. Julian looked surprised, but he clambered right in. I hopped in after him and fired up the engines. I hauled anchor, turned the boat around, and accelerated away from Grayson, toward my home island of Flora.
"It's so quiet," Julian observed. "What powers this thing?"
"A battery-operated engine charged by solar panels," I smirked. Having no oil reserves had been the mother of invention. I was pretty sure no other frontier world had such an advanced energy system.
"Solar? Huh. That's fantastic."
At that point we reached cruising speed, which meant the wind was too loud for us to speak. My hair streamed behind me as one of Emerald Haven's four moons rose on the horizon, far out to sea.
A couple minutes later, I decelerated into Flora, sliding to a gentle stop on the beach. I cast the anchor and turned off the engine. We got out and I led the way to my house. I let us in and locked the door behind us.
"Let's have a quick supper," I suggested. Julian followed me to the kitchen, where I filled two bowls with fish stew that I had made the night before. I heated them in the zapper and set the table.
Julian and I sat across from each other. Using a glass spoon that had come from my shop, he took a bite. "Mmmm, delicious."
We ate in companionable silence. When we finished, I brewed a pot of tea. I poured some into a cup and held it out to Julian.
"I'm offering you a special cup of tea," I explained. "It's called the Tea of Desire. It means I want you. If you drink from the cup, it means that you want me, too."
Julian took the cup. "A Havenese custom, I presume?" he asked, grinning.
"Yes."
"Very straightforward. I like it." He took a sip from the cup. "Nice flavor." He took another sip and placed the cup on the table.
I sat down on his lap. We wrapped our arms around each other, and our lips locked in a passionate kiss.
Eventually, our clothes found themselves on the kitchen floor, and we scurried into the bedroom.
It was turning out to be the best night ever.
