Hot Kofe

"Personnel Records, what I can do for you, Ma'am?"

Ah, a feminine honorific. That was a good sign, he was already ascribing a certain amount of respect and authority to her. She must be intimidating to the tiny human.

"Hi," she said, putting on the honeyed voice that she usually reserved for seduction. Some humans seemed to respond to her deep contralto more than others. "I'm having a problem, and I wondered if you could help me out?"

"Certainly Ma'am, are you having a problem with your ID card?"

"No, it's not that," she said as she twirled a lock of her long hair in her claw. "I actually feel kind of silly. There's a mistake on my personnel record and wouldn't you know, it took me this long to realize it!"

"What manner of mistake, Ma'am? I'm sure we can help you correct that."

"As you may already know, I'm a Polar," she said as she placed a hand just above her cleavage to illustrate her point. The young man's eyes were drawn by the movement, giving him another eyeful of her breasts. "We came from Borealis originally, but we migrated to Siberia, and I just today noticed that my record shows me as being a Borealan citizen rather than a Russian one. It's a small mistake, and it hasn't caused me any problems so far, but I feel like I should get it straightened out all the same. Can you just...go into your computer and change it for me?"

"I'm sorry Ma'am, there are privacy concerns. I'm not allowed to make any changes to the records without the owner being present to sign off on it."

"Damn," Kofe sighed, feigning disappointment. In reality, she knew full well that he couldn't make any changes to her records. "You mean I'll have to pay you a visit? How inconvenient."

"It should be a trivial fix," the young man confirmed. "If you'd like to head down to the office today, I'd be happy to take care of it myself."

"Oh, would you?" Kofe asked as she beamed at him. "What a darling, I'd be so grateful..."

"S-Sure," he stammered, his cheeks visibly flushing as she batted her long lashes at him. "Come down any time today, and we'll get it fixed for you. I'm Alan, by the way. Just ask the secretary to send you on through to my office."

"I'll see you soon...Alan."

She shut off the vidphone, grinning to herself. That had gone off without a hitch, and now she had a perfect excuse to get into the building that had access to all of the personnel records. She only had a name to go on, Jeff, but it would be enough.

***

The secretary looked up from her terminal, her eyes widening behind her glasses as Kofe ducked in through the main door. It was made with humans in mind, two feet shorter than she was and far too narrow for her bulk. She struggled, gripping the metal frame with her claws as she tried to pull herself through, her wide hips catching on it. She twisted sideways once she had gotten her shoulders through the door, sucking in her gut and finally managing to get past, popping into the room like a champagne cork leaving a bottle. She brushed herself off once inside, the ceiling high enough that it just scraped the tops of her ears, then made her way over to the front desk.

"Can I...help you?" the secretary asked, craning her neck to look up at the eight-foot Borealan.

"I'm here to see Alan, he's expecting me."

"Right through there..." The woman pointed to a door to her left, her eyes lingering on Kofe as she walked towards it. She knocked on the door, hearing a familiar voice give her permission to enter. Kofe gripped the brass doorknob and swung the wooden panel outwards, leaning down and waving to the young man that she had spoken to over the phone with her massive hand.

"Hi, Alan."

"Hello Ma'am, please come in!"

She was faced with another challenge, these accursed human doors almost seemed designed to keep her out. She crouched and tried to make herself as small as possible, her breasts bumping into the frame as she struggled to contain them in her arm. She shuffled sideways, her butt pressing against the wood through the fabric of her shorts, and then she was through.

"Small doors you have round here," she joked, once again able to stand at full height now that she was inside.

"I'm sorry about that," he said, gesturing to a chair in front of his desk. "This facility was constructed before first contact. Please have a seat. Actually...that might-"

"No problem," Kofe said. "I'll just sit on the carpet."

She pushed the tiny chair aside and sat cross-legged on the floor, her exaggerated stature putting her at a little over head-height to the human. It was good that he had to look up at her, that alone had a psychological impact, it should make him more pliable.

"Thank you so much for seeing me on such short notice, Alan, I really appreciate it."

"No problem!" he replied, clearly taken aback by her size. His office was small, and she was occupying the majority of it. She was making sure to lean forwards a little, ensuring that her tight t-shirt gave him as good a view of her furry cleavage as possible. He was struggling to keep his eyes off her, that pink flush returning to his cheeks. If she was going to take advantage of him, then giving him some nice memories to beat it to later was the least that she could do.

"So, where do we start?" Kofe asked, jolting Alan out of his trance.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I, uh..." He typed on his keyboard for a moment, his eyes turning to the screen. The computer's monitor was facing away from her, and so she couldn't see the readout.

"What are you doing right now?" Kofe asked excitedly, the human staring up at her with a hint of confusion in his expression. "I mean, we didn't have computers back on the homeworld, they're still a novelty to us. It's all magic to me, you'd have to be some kind of wizard to work them."

That seemed to put him more at ease, and he returned to his work with a smile on his face.

"Right now I'm entering in my passcode so that I can access the database, only authorized personnel can make edits to the registry."

"Oh wow, so only you can access those files?"

"Well, me and the other employees. Here we are, foreign nationals, non-humans...Borealans. This is the right section. I'm going to need your name, please."

"How rude of me for failing to introduce myself," she chuckled, covering her mouth with her hand daintily and throwing her head back as she laughed into it. She held that position for a few seconds, giving Alan a chance to get a better look at her while he thought that she was unaware. When she turned her eyes back on him, he was even redder, his eyes fixed on his screen.

"My name is Kailha, I'm sure I'm the only one on the station, so there's no need for a surname."

"Ah, I see your file, now it's just a matter of-"

Kofe reached across the table and placed one of her furry paws over his hand, staying his mouse as he looked up at her in alarm.

"Alan, I'm sorry if it's inappropriate to ask you this, but..." She met his gaze with her sapphire eyes, batting her lashes at him as he swallowed conspicuously. She could hear his heart thudding in his chest with her sensitive ears, smell the pheromones leaking from his pores. He was about to explode. "Can I trouble you for a glass of water?"

His relief was obvious, and he began to laugh, doing a poor job of concealing his tension.

"I saw a water cooler down the hall on the way in," she continued, "and my kind tend to overheat in this environment. I'd go myself, but the door..."

"Of course," Alan said, standing up behind his desk. "Please wait here, I'll be back in a moment."

"Could you make it two or three glasses?" Kofe called after him as he left the office. He nodded, then closed the door behind him with a click.

The moment he was gone, Kofe sprang into action, moving silently on her padded feet despite her size and leaning around the desk to get a look at the monitor. There was a list of Polars on the station, a rather short one, and a search bar with her name in it was open in the top right corner of the user interface. The keyboard was too small for her fat fingers, but she could use her sharp claws instead, and she rapidly backed out of the menu. She ended up on what must be the homepage of the server that handled personnel files, navigating quickly to the UNN section. The employees were listed by vocation, and she quickly found the engineering department, typing Jeffrey into the search bar. Three names came up, and she grinned to herself, selecting the first name. It opened up a new window with the person's serial number and private information, along with a photo ID. Just as she had hoped, there was no reason for them not to store the photos when everyone who worked on the station was required to have an ID card.

This one wasn't Jeff, and she backed out, selecting the second name. She had scant seconds, Alan was probably already on his way back. Her eyes widened when she saw the second photo, this was the one! Jeff was staring back at her, with his red hair and green eyes, so cute! Jeffrey Miller, that was his full name, and it was all that she needed.

She typed furiously, navigating back to the Polar menu and entering in her name, leaving the cursor in exactly the same place that she had found it. Almost the moment that she returned to her seated position there was a click as the door opened, Alan stepping into the room as he struggled to hold three styrofoam cups. Kofe leaned towards him and plucked them from his hands with her long arms, downing the first in one gulp as he made his way back over to his seat.

"Thank you, Alan," she purred. "You're such a darling."

"It's no problem," he said, scooting his chair forward as he returned to his work. "Now then, you said that you had a problem with your..."

"What's wrong?" Kofe asked, feigning ignorance as she downed another cup of water.

"I believe there's been some kind of mistake, Ma'am."

"Please, call me Kailha," she said.

"Of course Miss...uh, Kailha. The information that I'm looking at right now shows you as a citizen of the Russian Federation."

"Is that so? I could have sworn that it said Borealis. Are you absolutely sure?"

"That's what it says. Perhaps there was a misprint on your ID card? Do you have it with you?"

"Oh Alan, I'm sorry. I've wasted your time! I feel so foolish right now," she said, acting distraught.

"No, not at all," he said in an attempt to reassure her. "Helping people out with things like this is my job! I'm sure it's just a misprint. I'll put in an order to have your ID card reissued, and it should arrive at your residence in a couple of days."

"Really? That's such a relief. You're so capable, Alan."

He blushed, pleased by her compliment.

"Is there anything else that I can help you with?"

"No, you've solved all of my problems already," she announced. "And if I should have...other queries?"

"You can always reach me at the office, and if I'm off-duty, you can leave a message with the secretary."

She reached over the desk and took his hand, sandwiching it between her furry palms.

"You've been so helpful, Alan. Perhaps I'll be able to...repay the favor some time." She put on her most syrupy and seductive voice, watching the little human melt at the suggestion. It was all so easy, he was young, inexperienced. All it would take was a kiss, and he would be like putty in her hands. But easy wasn't fun, that was why she wanted Jeff.

She pulled away, standing up as the young human looked on.

"I'll see myself out," she said. "See you around, Alan."

She lingered for a moment, stopping just short of blowing him a kiss, and then walked out of the room. She could feel his eyes on her back as she struggled through the doorway, trying to suppress her grin as she walked past the sour-faced secretary.

All according to plan...

CHAPTER 2: THE WORST DATE IN HISTORY

Miller struggled his way out of the vent, emerging into a narrow space about the size of a broom closet that was packed with cables and pipes. He dropped to the floor and brushed himself off with his thick gloves, turning to secure the vent cover behind him. The damned Krell had made a mess, the agile little lizards had been through the whole quadrant, filling the maze of tunnels and shafts with droppings and broken eggshells. They might be gone, but their leavings still remained, and he was one of the poor saps tasked with sanitation.

His yellow overalls were caked in oil and dust, and he removed his breathing mask, slipping off his gloves and stowing them in his pocket. The overtime pay hardly seemed worth crawling through miles of ventilation shafts and cleaning up lizard shit, but it needed to get done. The station was like a living ecosystem, so large and with so many interdependencies that when one system was affected, it usually caused a cascade of problems. The air filtration system circulated throughout the Pinwheel and if it wasn't properly maintained then contaminants could spread all over the place. Airborne viruses, foreign plant spores, molds and bacteria. Not to mention the problem of fresh air not getting where it needed to go. It could pose a serious hazard to the health of the occupants.

So many people were passing through these days, human and alien alike. The station was becoming a petri dish. In his opinion, it was only a matter of time before someone brought a horrible strain of flu onto the station or some alien disease, and the whole thing had to be quarantined.

He rummaged in his pocket for his phone, tapping at the glass screen for a moment before holding it up to his ear.

"Yeah this is Miller, I found out what was causing the pressure drop in section thirty-six D. Yup, same as in one-oh-four, eggshell blocking the ventilation fan. It's out now, you can release the lockdown and put the system back online. No problem. I'm clocking out, so I'll see you on the next shift. Yeah, take care."

Miller slid aside an access panel in the wall, crouching as he stepped out into an apartment. It was a night and day difference. On one side of the hidden panel were the inner workings of the station, its guts naked for all to see, and on the other was an attractively furnished apartment no different from one that you might find on any of the more developed colony worlds. The average person only saw the veneer of white metal. They didn't realize that behind these walls were hundreds of miles of pipes, vents, and cables that circulated power and water throughout the station.

It was the most impressive structure ever built in Miller's opinion, halfway between a city and a spaceship, at least that was the way he felt when he wasn't crawling through it on his hands and knees.

They had needed to close up a dozen of the apartments in the residential quarter today because of a pressure drop that had been registered in the vent system. Something was interrupting the flow of oxygen and was causing a dangerous backwash of carbon dioxide, stale air in other words. It had turned out to be a blocked fan, and now it should be working correctly again.

It was a small victory, every day there was something new that needed fixing or cleaning, but the engineers were the unsung heroes that kept the Pinwheel spinning.

He made his way out of the apartment and onto the torus, and immediately the sounds of a thousand conversations assaulted his ears. He waded into the ever-present crowd, eager to get back home and take a shower. He wasn't too far from his own residence today, he wouldn't have to walk halfway around the station. He could also avoid going through the tourist quarter, lest he be accosted by that strange Polar again.

"Jeff!"

Miller froze up as a voice like a foghorn rang out across the torus. He turned to see a white mass struggling through the throngs of people, recognizing it as Kofe. How the hell had she found him?

"Hey Jeff, wait up!" She succeeded in pushing through the crowd, the smaller humans parting to let the giant alien pass lest they be crushed underfoot, and she came to a stop beside him. She peered down at him excitedly, her eyes bright, a warm smile on her face as if he should be happy to see her.

"Kofe? What the hell...how did you find out where I was working today?"

"Well, first I checked the personnel files to see how many engineers were named Jeffrey, and there were only three. I knew that you were Miller, because your photo was in your file. Then it was just a matter of calling your shift manager and asking him where you were."

"And he just gave you that information? He didn't ask who was calling or why? Wait, how did you get access to the personnel files? Those are supposed to be confidential."

"I have my sources. Anyway, are you on your way home? Do you want to stop for some food? You must be hungry after working all day, right?"

He wanted to scold her, and he was certainly going to have some words with his manager about giving random people his personal information, but something about her persistence was endearing. He sighed, waving for her to follow him.

"Come on then."

She beamed, practically skipping as she walked along beside him. She reached down and took his hand in hers, her palm coated with soft, downy fur. Immediately his hand began to warm, almost uncomfortably so. Their insulating fur was no joke, how on Earth did she tolerate the station's human-centric temperature?

"There you go getting in my personal space again," Miller complained, glaring up at her as she smiled innocently. "So, are you going to tell me what this is all about, why you've been hounding me over the last couple of days?"

"You're interesting," she replied, as if it should have been obvious to him.

"Interesting? What about me is so interesting that you're stalking me?"

"Let me ask you a question," she said, quickly changing the subject. "Do you like me?"

"Do I like you?" Miller repeated incredulously, "why would you ask me that? I don't even know you, I've talked to you for a grand total of about fifteen minutes."

"Well then let's get to know each other better. That's what dating is for, right?"

"We're not dating," he protested, feeling her squeeze his hand as she marched him along.

"You're taking me out to dinner, sure sounds like a date to me."

She was doing it again, outplaying him. Was he slow, or was she just that fast?

"I'll ask you again," she continued, her loud voice rising over the sound of the crowded torus as she led him towards the tourist quarter. "Do you like me?"

"You'll have to be more specific," he grumbled. He noticed that her round ears were swiveling to track him like a pair of furry radar dishes, her hearing no doubt far more sensitive than his own.

"Well...do you like aliens?"

"Aliens are fine. I don't work with any, but I see them around on the station."

"And what about my species, do you like us?"

"You're the first one that I've ever met, so I couldn't tell you."

"What kind of girls do you like? Or do you like boys? Some humans are like that."

"I like girls," he insisted, "and never you mind what kind. What's this all about anyway?"

He was playing coy. He knew what she was getting at, he'd have to be a real bonehead not to pick up on the signals that she was sending, but it just didn't make any sense to him. Why did she like him so much? Why was she going to such extreme lengths to track him down? He thought that he had made it pretty clear that he wasn't interested, and yet here she was. Maybe this date would be worth his time just to pick her brains and find out what the hell was going on here. The curiosity was starting to eat at him.

"Well," Kofe said as she began to swing his arm back and forth. "I've noticed that most human males seem to like their partner to be smaller than they are. Very sexually dimorphic your species, the men are usually bigger and stronger than the women. I know that isn't the case for everyone, so I wondered which category you fell into? If we're going on a date, I should know where we stand, don't you agree?"