Hot Kofe

Miller tried to muster some kind of snarky reply, but there was something about the way that she was looking at him with those blue eyes that turned his tongue into a lump of lead. He was torn between wanting more and wanting to resist her obvious attempts to seduce him. It was like being hitched to two trucks that were driving in opposite directions, the conflict threatening to tear him in half.

The giant Polar giggled to herself, planting a wet kiss on his forehead. She sat him upright again, perching him on her lap, resting a heavy arm about his shoulders as she let him stew for a few moments. She eventually grew impatient, tapping his arm with her finger.

"Anybody home?"

"Y-Yeah," he replied, struggling through the fog that had overtaken his brain.

"Kissing an alien isn't so bad, right?"

"I...guess not."

"You may want to, um...go for a walk around and get your blood flowing."

With a surge of embarrassment, he realized that he was pitching a very conspicuous tent, hopping to his feet and making sure to keep his back to her as he inched around the couch and made for the kitchen.

"You want anything to eat or drink?" Miller asked, quickly changing the subject as she smirked at him from across the tiny apartment.

"No, I'm sure I'd eat you out of house and home. Why don't you show me around your place?"

"There's not much to see," Miller replied, crouching in front of the fridge as he rummaged for an alcoholic beverage that might settle his nerves. He found a half-empty bottle of scotch, filling a glass with ice and pouring it on the rocks. He took a long draw, the drink warming him. A little Irish courage should see him through the rest of her visit.

"You must have hobbies," Kofe protested, turning towards him with her arm resting across the headrest of the couch. "What do you do when you're not working?"

"Honestly, I'm rarely not working. I don't get a lot of time off, and I'm always on call. If an airlock jams or an oxygen processor craps out, they can't just wait and have someone fix it when their next shift starts."

"Well, I'm going to have a poke about," Kofe announced as she struggled to free her rump from the couch.

"You've pretty much seen the whole apartment already," Miller complained as she stepped deftly around the furniture. "I swear I'm not hiding anything of interest in the bathroom."

He followed her as she headed straight for the bedroom, sliding the faux wooden panel open before he could stop her. She turned sideways and struggled through the doorway, her body practically made from protruding obstructions. Her breasts and belly caught on the frame, as did her butt, but her flesh was malleable enough that she managed to force her way through. It was like watching someone try to force a marshmallow through a coin slot.

When she emerged into the bedroom, her bulk blocking his view, he heard her coo excitedly.

"What's this!?"

He squeezed through behind her, her massive body very nearly taking up the entire room as she crouched near the far wall. There were shelves bolted a few feet off the ground and a low table, Miller making the most of what little space was available to him. The surfaces were covered in scale models off UNN ships, hobby kits that the engineer had painstakingly assembled in his limited free time. There were two dozen of them, and the cupboard that also stored his clothes was full of more kits waiting to be built.

"I don't have any hobbies," Kofe mocked, imitating his voice as she examined the models. "Are these spaceships? Do you collect them?"

"Look with your eyes, not your fingers," he complained as she turned one of them on its stand to get a better look at it. "I build model kits, I guess it's the closest thing that I have to a hobby. I know that it's dorky, you don't need to tell me."

"Why are you hiding these in here?" Kofe asked, examining the spaceships intently. "You built these yourself?"

"Yeah, I'm an engineer after all. I'm certainly capable of putting a model spaceship together. Do you...like them?"

"Yeah, I like them," she laughed. "Why are you so nervous about people seeing them? You should put shelves up in the living room, there's far more space in there. They'd make great conversation pieces."

Miller was taken aback. He had always assumed that other people would see his hobby as childish or a waste of time, but Kofe was immediately onboard. He didn't get the impression that she was humoring him, she was always very straightforward, she didn't mince words. Emboldened, he sidled a little closer to her, peering past her bulk to see which ships she was looking at.

"That one is the Kartikeya," he said, pointing to the large model that she was inspecting. "It's a Martian battleship, Phobos class, one of the largest in the UNN fleet. You see how the two halves are built around a kind of cylindrical structure? That's a mass accelerator, like a giant railgun. It has a loading mechanism like an oversized revolver, where that wheel turns and slots a new projectile into the loading tube, tungsten slugs about the size of a trailer. Then the magnetic rings accelerate it to a percentage of light speed."

"What about this one?" Kofe asked, pointing to a sleeker vessel whose hull was dotted with docked shuttles, making it look a little like a metallic pine cone.

"That's the Shiroyama, one of the UNN's jump carriers. See all the little shuttles that are docked in recesses along the hull?"

"And this one?"

She pointed to something that looked like a knitting needle, a long, tapered tube with a bulge on one end.

"Oh, that's a Courser. They're the fastest ships in the fleet. See that bulge at the far end? That's where the superlight drive and the nuclear reactors are housed. The design balances low mass with as much power production as possible, which means that it can be extremely light, while also housing enough nuclear reactors to charge the superlight drive for long-range jumps."

He shuffled past her and picked up a smaller model to show her. This one was white, with sleek, curved lines that gave it an attractive silhouette. Its hull was dotted with large portholes and windows, to give the occupants a good view of space. There was even a deck that was decorated to resemble the wooden hulls of ancient sailing ships, complete with deck chairs and a swimming pool, shielded from the vacuum of space by a clear bubble of fortified glass.

"This one, on the other hand, can't jump very far. It's a civilian yacht, the smallest class of ships that can house a jump drive. It only has one nuclear reactor, so it takes a comparatively long time to travel interstellar distances. It has to do a little jump, then coast along until the reactor can charge the drive again, like a game of interdimensional leapfrog."

"You sure do know a lot about spaceships," Kofe mused as she examined the model, "did you grow up near a shipyard or something?"

"No," he replied, placing the yacht back on its shelf. "I started off training to be a spaceship engineer. I wanted to work on carriers, but I guess I wound up here. Not that I'm complaining, being stationed here is a hell of a lot better than working on a carrier, my quarters are ten times the size they would be on a spaceship. Living on the Pinwheel has more in common with being planetside than being on a station, there's so much space. I'm not getting shot at either, which is always a plus. I guess things just turned out this way. I know plenty of wannabe hotshot pilots who ended up being technicians instead. What we want isn't always what we need, and where we want to be isn't always where we'll do the most good."

"So...do you have any more of these?"

"What do you mean?"

"Got any kits that you haven't assembled yet?"

"Oh yeah, loads," Miller replied as he gestured towards the closet. Kofe moved over to it, stooping to examine the contents as she slid the door open. There was a stack of five or six boxes piled high beneath the pants and jackets that were hung up inside. She lifted one of them, looking at the picture and reading off the title.

"UNN...Frig..ate. A Frigate."

"That's a torpedo frigate," Miller confirmed, peering past her bulk. "See the little circular caps along the hull? Those pop open to reveal the torpedo tubes. They fire the torpedoes vertically, and then the thrusters align them towards their targets."

"Want to build it?" Kofe asked, turning her head to grin at him.

"Uh...sure," he replied, surprised by her candor. "I didn't peg you as someone who liked building models."

"I don't. Or at least, I've never done it before. Who knows, maybe I'll like it. You should never pass up a chance to try something new, right?"

"You don't have to humor me you know," Miller said, his tone coming across a little more self-deprecating than he had intended. "We could watch a movie or something instead."

"I'm not humoring you," she chuckled, clasping the box under her arm and making for the door. He followed after her, waiting for a moment as she struggled back through into the apartment. She set the box down on the kitchen table, pushing a chair aside as she sat on the floor, shuffling to get comfortable on the cushion of her rump. Her long tail trailed along the tiled deck like a furry anaconda, waving back and forth. She gestured to the chair opposite her, inviting him to sit.

"Hang on," Miller said, "if we're doing this then we'll need glue and a scalpel."

***

"Careful," Miller gasped, watching with bated breath as Kofe placed the tiny torpedo in its tube. This was the final piece, they had decided to leave the last bay with its cap open, the missile emerging slightly to simulate a launch in progress. He leaned in and carefully placed a dab of model glue to hold it in place, Kofe pinching it between her black claws to keep it steady.

Her hands were larger than his head, and her fingers were almost as thick as his wrists, but she was surprisingly good at delicate work. Rather than using the unwieldy pads on the ends of her digits to grip small objects, she used her pointed claws, pinching things between them like a pair of tweezers. It was actually very useful, and it avoided getting glue or paint on her fur. Truth be told, Miller had been expecting to be gluing more parts to Kofe than to the frigate. It was no surprise that so many Polars seemed to be finding their way into the medical field, they must make excellent surgeons, and their bedside manner was probably unparalleled.

She drew her hand back, the torpedo staying in place.

"Is it finished?"

"Yep," Miller replied, appraising the newly minted frigate as it stood perched on its stand. They had decided to paint it in Martian regalia, clean, red stripes decorating the ocean-grey hull.

"It looks great," Kofe said as she leaned in to examine it. "How large are the real ones?"

"They're about five hundred feet long, maybe four and a half thousand tons. So...what do you think about my hobby?"

"It's pretty fun," she said as she scratched her furry chin with her claw. "Very zen. I can't say that I know very much about spaceships, or even that I have much of an interest in them, but we got to make something cool together. That's time well spent in my book."

"Oh damn, what time is it?" Miller scrambled out of his seat to check a nearby tablet computer that was resting on the kitchen counter. "Fuck, it's gone two AM, we've been at this for hours."

"Time flies when you're having fun," Kofe said, stretching her long arms above her head and yawning widely. It was contagious, Miller following suit soon after, much to her amusement. She stood and brushed herself off, careful to avoid hitting her head on the low ceiling.

"Guess I'd better go home and let you get some shut-eye, unless you want me to stay?"

"I'd like that," Miller admitted, "but there really isn't anywhere for you to lie down in here. The bed and the couch are too small, and I can't really move the furniture around, there wouldn't be enough floor space."

"I got my kiss at least, so I suppose I'm satisfied for now," she said with a wink. "I know where you live now, Jeff. I'll be back to bother you again if you disappear."

"I won't disappear," he laughed. "I hate to admit it, but I had a pretty good time today. I didn't think we'd get along, we're so...different. But I guess I was wrong. I'm glad we went on a real date, is what I'm saying."

She listened to him ramble, standing with her hands on her hips as if waiting for something. He went quiet, his face starting to redden as her blue eyes pierced him, the beginnings of a smile curling the corners of her mouth. Her round ears twitched as they swiveled to face him, like a pair of furry radar dishes.

"Uh," Miller continued, stammering his way through his ill-thought-out proposition. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'd like to see you again. Y'know, in an official capacity..."

She didn't respond, smirking at him as he grew increasingly flustered. He cleared his throat, loosening his collar as he struggled to get the words out. He was embarrassed to admit that he was starting to develop feelings for her, and there was also the fact that he hated admitting that she had succeeded in wooing him. She had achieved exactly what she had set out to achieve, but worse than that, she now had Miller wanting the same thing.

"We can go on another date, if you want to," he finally said.

Kofe crouched down level with him, leaning forward to plant a kiss on his forehead.

"Of course I do. You know where I'll be, come find me when you're off work tomorrow evening. We'll do something fun."

She turned to leave, but Miller called after her, and she paused at the door. He scooped up the model frigate from the kitchen table and thrust it into her hands, the Polar blinking in surprise.

"Keep this," he insisted, "we made it together. Watch your fur, some of the paint might still be wet."

She took the model carefully in her giant hand, reaching down to mess up his red hair before beginning the ordeal of exiting the apartment. She eventually made it out onto the torus, the frigate still intact, giving him a wave before she set off downspin in the direction of the Borealan housing.

He watched her for a minute or two, her white fur illuminated by the yellow glow of the lights that served the function of street lamps, the Polar head and shoulders above the other pedestrians. When the curvature of the station obscured her from view, he closed the automatic door with a pneumatic hiss, leaning with his back against the fake wood panel and running his fingers through his hair.

What was this alien doing to him? He couldn't remember ever feeling this way before, it was like she had caught his heart with a fish hook and was trying to yank it out of his chest. If this was what falling in love felt like, then it was an oddly unpleasant sensation. It was like he had drunk a vial of poison and Kofe was the only person with the antidote.

What was with that kiss? Why couldn't he get it off his mind? It was like hearing a catchy tune, an earworm that burrows into your brain and resurfaces at random, leaving you humming along despite yourself. Maybe he should sleep on it, see how he felt the next morning. He only had a few hours before his next shift started, so that was the best option.

He headed towards his bedroom, hoping that his dreams wouldn't exacerbate his dilemma.

CHAPTER 6: TURNING UP THE HEAT

"Best sandwiches on the station, satisfaction guaranteed or your credits back! Get your sandwiches here, the only store that sells a fusion of Borealan and human cuisine!"

Miller could hear her from a mile away, she had a voice like a foghorn. His shift had just ended, and he had decided to take her up on her offer. He had woken up feeling the same way about Kofe as he had the night before, confirming that it wasn't the result of alcohol, or some kind of insidious Polar mind control. While he wasn't really sure what that meant, he knew that he wanted to see her again. Maybe spending some more time with her would help him figure things out.

She seemed to notice him before he announced himself, her ears swiveling on a pivot and her pink nose twitching. Could she smell him even through the crowd of people? She waved to him when he came into view, struggling out of her apron and sliding through the door to the right of her counter. She greeted him with an enthusiastic hug, trapping him in her massive arms and lifting him a couple of feet off the ground, Miller wheezing as she crushed him. She deposited him on the floor again, brushing off his yellow overalls apologetically. He usually hated it when she picked him up, but today it was almost welcome. There was something about the way that he sank into her body that he was starting to enjoy. She was wearing a striped t-shirt today that was battling to contain her bust, along with a pair of jean shorts that were being devoured by the paunch of her belly.

"Couldn't stay away, eh?" she said with a smirk.

"Don't you have to man your stall?" Miller asked, gesturing to her now empty shop.

"I'm self-employed," she replied, "I can check out any time I like."

She took him by the arm and began to march him away from her store, the crowds of shoppers and off-duty personnel in the tourist quarter parting before her like the Red Sea.

"Where are we going?" Miller asked.

"Somewhere I like to go to relax after a hard day's work."

"So you're not going to tell me?"

"You'll find out soon enough!"

He had no guess as to where she might be dragging him, and so he wracked his brain trying to remember everything that he knew about Polars. What did they like? Food and drink was a possibility, but they couldn't go to a bar and get wasted in the way that humans did, because the aliens could barely tolerate alcohol. They had already visited two restaurants, and so it was unlikely that she would take him to another one. Movies maybe? No, there was no cinema on the Pinwheel, the inhabitants watched movies in their own quarters. There were no concert halls on the station, no live music, there wasn't much of anything that required a large venue.

She led him through the tourist quarter, stopping at a building that was only a ten-minute walk from her store. The door was Borealan-sized, which was surprising to him. As an engineer, he was intimately familiar with the layout of the station and its facilities. Besides the barracks in the military quarter and the apartments in the residential quarter, there were very few buildings that were built specifically to accommodate the giant aliens.

There was no sign hanging above the door, and there were no obvious indications of what the building might contain, but the exterior had been modeled after a log cabin. The white hull material had been shaped into what looked like stacked logs, left unpainted, creating an odd contrast between the rustic facade and the space-age construction materials. There were no windows, only the large door, which Kofe pushed through as she tugged him along behind her. Despite the size of the door, her wide hips still caught on the frame, she was chubby even by Polar metrics.

The interior was similarly decorated, but with a little more color, making Miller feel like he had stepped into a hunting lodge. There were paintings of icy mountains and frozen pine forests on the walls, the theme of winter was omnipresent.

Kofe stopped at a counter to their right, greeting a human woman who was standing behind it. She was clad in plain, white clothes that reminded Miller of a nurse or maybe a masseuse.

"Welcome back, Miss Kofe," she said as she smiled up at her. "You want the usual? Rooms five and three are available."

"I've brought someone with me today," the grinning Polar announced. She reached over and slipped her hands under Miller's arms, lifting him off the floor and depositing him in front of the counter so that the woman could get a look at him. "This is my boyfriend!"