A Christmas Romance
by Jane Seaton
Chekov blew the snow off his mittened hands onto the floor of the transporter room and grinned widely at Montgomery Scott's exaggerated outrage. The engineer leaned behind the console and flicked open a locker full of maintenance gear. He jerked his head at the contents meaningfully.
Chekov pouted. "My boots are dry."
"My deck isn't."
There was a steady inflow of returning personnel arriving in twos and threes. Chekov dutifully mopped around them before stowing the appliance neatly back in its clips.
Lieutenant Nyota Uhura was just stepping down off the platform as he finished. She was holding an enormous parcel and her eyes were glowing.
"New dress?" The engineer asked, unfairly oblivious to the small snowstorm wafting around her.
"I've invited Thenel to the party on Christmas Eve. And I've invited him to Christmas lunch..."
"Have you not made a reservation for Hogmanay while you're about it?" Scott inquired.
"I've already invited Dalen. And she's accepted," Chekov said a little spikily.
"Chekov!" Uhura put her parcel down on top of the transporter console and dug her fists into her hips. "It's not even Christmas yet as far as you Russians are concerned. Why can't you see Dalen tomorrow?"
The two officers glowered at each other for a moment before the seasonal spirit prevailed. "Because I saw her today," Chekov explained simply. "It's your turn tomorrow."
Scott sighed. There was no one on the Enterprise who could still claim ignorance of the fact that two of her bridge crew were in love. They'd fallen simultaneously for the attractions of the little known race of Skketti, two of whom happened to be employed as data control engineers on the busy multi-species colony planet of Secundu. Thenel and Dalen took alternate shifts out of the planet's thirty six hour day, and Chekov and Uhura, enjoying ten days of R & R on Secundu over the Christmas holiday, had found themselves the butt of many good natured jokes as they tried to organise their social lives around their partners' availability. It was fortunate that Skketti didn't seem to need to spend much of their off duty time actually sleeping. Received opinion on the Enterprise held none the less that the backlog of unprocessed data must be nearing a dam burst as the aliens caught up with their sleep in the silent depths of Secundu's computer facility.
Uhura grabbed her parcel again, caught hold of Chekov by the sleeve of his battered leather jacket and pulled him with her. "Why don't we persuade them both to come? No one's going to need any data processed over Christmas. They must be entitled to some leave... Go on, Chekov. You talk to Dalen, I'll talk to Thenel. It would be fun for them too. They can hardly ever see each other as things are. I don't know how the Secundu authorities get away with employing them one in two anyway. The library can pay an agency if they have to. Let's do it."
Chekov maintained a disinterested exterior, knowing that so far all the high cards were in his hand. Strictly speaking, Dalen was the one who would be off duty from eleven pm Christmas Eve, ship's time, until five pm on Christmas Day. Of course it wasn't exactly Christmas down on Secundu, but Sulu hadn't needed much persuading to position the Enterprise over a resort town currently enjoying suitable weather and offering excellent shopping. The local shopkeepers hadn't needed to be told twice that it was Christmas either.
"I'm sure Dalen will be delighted, if Then can organise it."
Uhura kissed him and rushed off down the corridor. "Then's taking me out to dinner. I'll be late!" she cried over her shoulder.
****
Early the following evening, Chekov was beginning to be worried, which was making him bad-tempered. "Something's happened. There's been a memory core failure. The software patches on the secondary backup processor have degraded. Dalen said it was bound to happen this evening..."
"Don't be stupid," Uhura told him, exaggerating her own good cheer for his benefit. "She's keeping Then waiting while she makes herself twice as beautiful as usual for you."
The ensign smiled complacently. "Impossible."
"Thenel says she's quite plain, for a Skketti."
"Dalen said the same about him."
The two looked at each other and shook their heads.
The transporter twinkled and they both took an involuntary step towards it, only to be disappointed. Cartographer Roman Sykes materialised and promptly took the arm of his guest for the evening, a human Secundu resident. The visitor smiled at Uhura. "I saw Then just now. He's looking forward to lunch tomorrow."
"Lunch?" Uhura demanded, once the woman had gone. "What did he mean, lunch?"
"He meant," Chekov told her smugly, "that they've decided one of them had to be on duty, so Dalen is coming tonight, and Then will be here tomorrow. At least I assume that's what he meant."
"Well, I wish he'd told me," Uhura said. "That's not like him."
Before she could worry further, the intercom chimed. "Lieutenant Uhura, planetside call for you. Lieutenant Uhura..."
"I'm here," she responded, leaning over the console and helping herself to the communication controls as if the technician on duty didn't exist.
"Nyota?" A delicious, throaty Skketti voice rolled out of the ether and seemed to take on a substance all its own. "We have a little crisis. A crisis-let. A mere kitten of a crisis. Sufficient to detain me however. Tell me, star of my heavens, how can I ever atone?"
Uhura was too much in love to be angry. "Promise me you'll be here tomorrow."
"Unless the sky falls in. Unless the sea freezes over. And in general, barring acts of deity and urgent summonses from my ancestors. Dalen is bringing my Christmas gift to you. She says she is her own Christmas gift to Pavel. Tell him she looks like an icon. I adore you, Nyota. This is going to be the most miserable Christmas Eve I have ever spent."
"I love you too, Then. Don't worry. We'll have a great time tomorrow."
"Tomorrow! Tomorrow!"
The channel clicked closed and Uhura turned back to Chekov, resigned. "I was really looking forward to tonight."
He smiled with as much sympathy as he could spare. "I'm sorry. It'll still be a wonderful party."
"Yes, but I think I'll save this dress until tomorrow all the same," she said, heading for the door.
"Hold on. He said Dalen was bringing your present."
"Oh, yes." She stopped. "I wonder what he meant when he said..."
The transporter answered her unuttered question. Dalen was wrapped from head to toe in gold. Uhura heard Chekov's sharp intake of breath at the sight.
The Skketti's eyes danced with glitters of topaz, like a cat's. She skipped off the transporter pad and held out what Uhura at first mistook for a sculpture. "Gift wrapping is an ancient Skketti art form. Put it down on the floor and watch it."
The lieutenant accepted the gift and carefully did as she was instructed. The package promptly began to unwrap itself, generating a five minute light show and fanfare that terminated in restrained but lively fireworks. When it had finished, all that remained was a tiny, irregularly shaped bottle and a heap of coloured confetti.
"When do I get my present?" Chekov asked innocently, as Uhura enthused over the perfume. "Thenel said..."
"Oh, it's good." Dalen looked at Uhura and smiled. "Last night, I discovered something that I think you'll really like." She licked her upper lip with the very tip of her tongue. "You get it later, in private."
****
"So this is where the Skketti vanished to," Sulu's companion said.
"Only one of them," Sulu responded. "Only ever one at a time." In his current slightly drunken state, this seemed to be a line from a song, and he hummed experimentally to identify the tune that went with it.
"What do you mean? There is only one."
He sobered enough to focus on the Secundu's lovely green eyes. "No. Two. Dalen and Thenel."
She laughed. "Dalen? And Thenel? Well, well, well."
"What do you mean? I've met them. Sober. There were definitely two, of different kinds. Very, very different kinds. Significantly different kinds. Male and female kinds."
She smiled indulgently. "We've been arguing ever since the Skketti arrived which sex it was, if any. So, the answer is both. Well, well, well."
"Hold on. No. There are two Skketti. I've met them both. Definitely two."
The band stopped playing the last slow waltz of the evening and someone switched them off. With them went the stage illumination. Chekov and Dalen continued to smooch in the glow of the Christmas tree lights.
The few remaining dancers had slowed the waltz into a prolonged perambulating kiss.
"Hikaru, honey, I am the immigration officer for Secundu. I know how many rabbits we have on this planet, let alone how many Skketti. There's one. Name of Theneldalen, gender recorded as not applicable - no, 'not entirely applicable'. I remember that. Employed as Data Control Supervisor at the Secundu Library facility."
"Are you sure? I've seen them both," Sulu repeated yet again. "They're two different people."
"Have you ever seen them together?" she asked.
"No. They work opposite shifts to each other."
"Shifts? You must be joking. The library all but closes for lunch on a slow day."
Sulu took her arm and pulled her round so she was facing the dance floor. "That's Dalen. Girlfriend to my very good friend, Pavel Chekov. She's the female one. Chekov is young, inexperienced, I might even go so far as to say that you could pull the sexual wool over his eyes with alarming ease, but I think he'd notice if Dalen wasn't a girl. Hell, I can tell from here that Dalen is a girl. It's the way she moves." He fell silent as he contemplated the way Dalen was moving. "She's of the lady persuasion."
"Mm," his companion agreed non-verbally. "Persuade me."
***
Cleaning his teeth the following morning, Sulu realised he still hadn't decided what to do about the Skketti. He wasn't even sure he should do anything. Uhura and Chekov were both happy, if ignorant, and the Skketti certainly seemed happy. Presumably the species simply didn't require any sleep...
He yawned. Christmas Eve had been his fourth party in a row and his visitor had only just left.
No one was getting hurt.
He gargled.
On the other hand, his two best friends were innocently cheating on each other.
He looked at himself in the mirror and realised he was smiling.
***
"No Dalen?" Sulu asked, taking the seat next to Chekov for breakfast.
The ensign smiled tiredly. "She's taking a shower, but I'm on duty in a few minutes, so I had to leave her, and she has to return to the planet shortly to initialise a data pulse to Memory Alpha," he explained gullibly.
"But you're not going to see her again. Haven't you said goodbye?"
"Oh, we said goodbye earlier. Twice."
Sulu smirked but Chekov didn't notice.
"Merry Christmas!" the ensign said suddenly. The greeting was addressed to a passing blonde ensign from Astrosciences. Sulu grinned at her too, then frowned disapprovingly at Chekov. "I don't know. Last night's date still splashing about in your bathroom and you're already back to flirting with Jenny."
"I wasn't flirting. I simply wished her a merry Christmas."
"Well, I'll believe you this time," Sulu conceded. "But only because Dalen is so much prettier. Are Skketti common on Federation worlds?"
"Apparently not. Very few leave their home planet. Dalen was encouraged to take an assignment here as part of an exchange of information theory, and Secundu is quite like her home."
"Mm." Sulu buttered a piece of toast. "And Thenel?"
Chekov shrugged, as if the male Skketti didn't much interest him. "Same reason, I imagine."
"And are you..."
"Yes?"
"I was going to say, are you the first human she's..."
"Yes."
"First contact," Sulu summarised succinctly.
"We appear to be... compatible." Chekov looked up and beamed broadly. Dalen grinned at him from across the rec room, looking over her shoulder to smile at him as she collected breakfast from the replicator. She slid her tray onto the table between the two officers and sat down in the rather too small space between them. "Do you think Captain Kirk might not notice if I stayed on board when you leave Secundu?"
Sulu looked at her breakfast. She seemed determined to try everything from the menu but no one appeared to have given her any guidance on how to put it all together. The tray looked like the spoils of a small child who had raided the 'fridge. "Is the food really good enough to tempt you?"
She shook her head seriously. "Not the food, Hikaru." She made it clear what the main attraction on board the Enterprise was by giving Chekov a long kiss.
Sulu concentrated on eating his rice dumplings until they'd finished.
"I don't have time to beam down with you," Chekov started to tell her apologetically.
"Oh." She smiled. "Oh, well. Never mind."
"In fact I really have to go now..."
"No one's going to yell at you for being a couple of minutes late on Christmas morning," Sulu pointed out.
"Farrell will. I'm relieving him and he's going glacier walking or something. He told me if I made him late he'd put me on report."
"He probably didn't mean it," Sulu said soothingly.
"Yes, but... We'd better say goodbye... again."
The renewed farewells were lengthy, silent and boring to an observer. Sulu moved on to fresh fruit and yoghurt and calculated that by the time Chekov reached the bridge, he was going to be at least five minutes overdue.
The ensign eventually tore himself away and Dalen turned back to her breakfast with a sigh. "I don't have any appetite now."
"He's going to miss you after today."
"I shall miss him." She stared pensively at her bowl of muesli and grilled bacon.
"And Lieutenant Uhura? Will you miss her too?"
She turned her luminous eyes on him. The gold specks glittered dangerously. "I... I'm not sure what you mean."
"Well, I may have this wrong, so excuse me if I'm being offensive or anything, but you and Thenel are actually one and the same person, aren't you?"
She swallowed. "Sort of."
"I'm not criticising, but I am kind of curious. I don't know much about Skketti."
"There isn't much to know," she assured him quickly.
"And Nyota and Pavel are good friends of mine. I'm not saying that you're doing anything wrong, but in situations like this, it's possible to hurt people, human people that is, without ever doing anything obviously wrong."
"I'm not hurting them. I'm very fond of them, both of them."
"Yes, yes. I can see that. It's just that, in this sort of situation, humans generally have to make a choice and just be fond of one person."
"Yes, I know. That was the problem. I couldn't make up my mind, and..."
"And?"
"When I met them both, at the reception last week, I was just doing what I usually do, experimenting with making myself look different, learning the best way to get on with humans and other species. It's one of the things I'm here to do," she said defensively. "The Secundus know I do it."
"You mean you're a shape-changer?"
"Only in a limited way. Colouring, skin covering and hair..."
"You mean you're not wearing clothes, that's just part of you?"
"No, I can do that, but I don't have to. I can make myself a little taller, or exchange muscle for fat, which makes me look a little more or less feminine. I could have more fingers, things like that. I often do, when I'm in a hurry with some programming or wiring. Anyway, I noticed, I mean, really, for the first time, felt the difference it made when I talked to Nyota as... well, I introduced myself as Thenel, it's short for..."
"Okay. I understand."
"Well, I liked her. And when I met her the next evening, like this, I still liked her just as much but I didn't get the same reaction from her at all. But I did from Pavel. It was odd. I'm sure it had happened before but... but I hadn't been interested enough in the people it was happening with to really notice it. So I thought, ah, this is sex. This is what they're always talking about."
"Skketti don't have sex?"
She blushed, very prettily. "It's not... it's not quite the same. It's good, but it's different."
"Ah. So what did you do then?"
"Well, I wanted to... to try more of this sex thing, but I didn't know how to do it. So I went back to Pavel and took careful note of how he behaved towards me, then went and tried it out, with some variations of my own, on Nyota. She seemed to like it, so I went back to Pavel and used... and used what I'd learned from Nyota to get to know him better. And so on. I think I made some mistakes, but I got it right in the end." She looked at him, as if trying to gauge his reaction. "Have I done something wrong? Will I have hurt them?"
"I don't know. It sounds like... like they've been sleeping with each other without realising it. Hm. Perhaps you shouldn't tell them."
"But you found out. If they're going to find out, it might be better if I tell them first."
Sulu nodded sagely. "As a general rule I'd agree, but I've never come across a situation like this before." He shrugged. "You're having lunch with Nyota, and then we're going this evening. You could tell them, and I'm sure they'd get used to the idea. But they may take some time to get used to it, and either one of them, or both, might decide they don't want to share you with someone else. Humans mostly tend to make exclusive sexual relationships at any one time. If they really like someone, they don't have sex with anyone else, or expect their partner to be doing that. So, they might enjoy lunch more if you don't tell them. But now you've started worrying about it, you might not enjoy lunch unless you do."
Dalen thought about it. "If I'm going to tell them just so that I can feel better, maybe I'd better not. And now, I have to go to work..."
"Who is really doing your work today?" Sulu asked, grinning at her. She smiled. "I forgot. My secret is out. I have to go and alter my appearance."
Sulu stood and put her tray together with his. "I'll look after this. Take care. I'm fond of both of them too."
"I will," she said. "Don't worry."
***
Christmas lunch passed off well. Thenel behaved as if the whole conversation had never taken place, but that couldn't be considered sinister, Sulu decided, since Uhura stuck to the Skketti like glue, never allowing him a moment alone with anyone. Chekov greeted the man warmly enough and settled down to eat lunch surrounded by other junior officers. After that, if the Skketti and the human male paid any attention to each other, Sulu didn't register it.
Chekov and Uhura were with one of the half dozen groups of revellers who remained in the room. A few couples were dancing, someone was optimistically offering mince pies and Christmas cake to the spectators. Occasional romantic twosomes had decided, now that things were quieter, to take advantage of the mistletoe hanging among the paper streamers. Both the helmsman's friends looked a little melancholy, as if someone had cast them adrift in a sea of spent crackers and torn paper hats. He began to pick his way towards them.
Just then, Uhura said something, and Chekov replied, and they both looked up at the conveniently placed mistletoe above their heads. Sulu wondered whether to shout out a warning but it was too late. They exchanged a friendly kiss. And looked at each other.
He realised that this wasn't a good time to be walking quickly in their direction with a concerned expression on his face, but Uhura had already noticed him.
"You know something," she accused.
"I... Me? What am I supposed to know?"
Chekov seemed to have got locked into a programming loop. You could almost see his brain trying to process the sensory information through every available filter.
"About Thenel," Uhura said. "And Dalen."
Sulu decided to go for limited disclosure. "Well, yes. You see, he... she... neither of them had much experience with humans. So... so apparently they were trading hints. I mean... only like teenagers helping each other out or..."
"Were they just kissing each other?" Uhura demanded impatiently. "Or were they..."
"Uh... I don't know that. Dalen just told me they didn't know much to start with and..."
Chekov rebooted and rejoined the conversation. "They didn't have time."
"What?" Uhura and Sulu asked simultaneously.
"Apart from an occasional ten minutes between shifts, one of them has been with one of us constantly for the last eight days. They can hardly have spoken, still less..."
"Still less..." Uhura repeated, giving the ensign a long, slow, considering look from the top of his head to the toes of his Starfleet boots.
"They could have written detailed notes to each other," Sulu suggested helpfully.
"Hikaru Sulu, you know something," Uhura said flatly.
"Look, you both had a good time the last few days. Don't spoil it."
"What are you going to tell me that could spoil it?" When Sulu didn't answer, she went on. "Are you saying that everything Thenel knew he got at second hand from Dalen who learnt it from a twenty-two-year old Starfleet ensign?"
Chekov's mouth dropped open as only a mortally offended twenty-two-year old ensign's mouth can.
Sulu decided on a policy of complete transparency and male solidarity. "Nyota, Thenel and Dalen were the same person. Skketti are shape shifters. If Pavel here did something Dalen liked, she - he - just did the same for you on the next shift -- I mean date." He also added impartially, "And vice versa, of course."
Uhura thought about it for a moment. "Oh."
Chekov closed his mouth and turned a greenish shade of white. "Are you saying... I've been... with a man?"
"No. Not at all. Dalen was a girl, Thenel was a man, ThenelDalen -- the Skketti -- the one-and-only Skketti -- wasn't either. Didn't even have the beginning of an idea how to be either until you showed him. Her. It."
There was a prolonged silence from both Chekov and Uhura before she said firmly, "We both had a good time the last few days. Let's not spoil it."
Chekov gave Uhura a long, slow, considering look from the top of her head to the toes of her elegant, high heeled shoes. Then he shook his head. "Of course, Lieutenant Uhura, you are a more senior officer, and a valued colleague, and also a very good friend. So it would be inappropriate for me to suggest..."
"Unfortunately, for the reasons you state, I would have to agree that the proposal you've decided not to make, however enticing, would be wholly and entirely out of order, Ensign Chekov."
Sulu scratched his head. "But neither of you is on duty tonight, and it is Christmas," he suggested mischievously.