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A splatter of red paint flicked onto the floor as Rane Bebet hummed under his breath. He stood completely naked in front of a half-finished oil painting, his pale green skin illuminated by the overhead light. He tilted his head from side to side as he studied his new creation.

It felt great to be painting again. It had taken him a week to find somewhere suitable, where he could create his art without anybody interfering.

The store room on Prodigy was ideal for what he needed. Nobody else used it, it was quiet and out of the way, and he could make as much mess as he liked, and no one complained. It was also pleasantly warm. Rane took every opportunity to rid himself of clothes. He enjoyed the free feeling of letting everything hang loose when he painted.

He was attempting to recreate a picture from a book he’d discovered on Earth landscapes. The image he studied showed striking red leaves on trees. He had nothing like this on his planet, Saxet, and found the unusual colors appealing to his artistic senses. It would be somewhere he’d love to visit and see up close.

Rane doubted those trees were alive anymore. With Earth only a heartbeat from becoming uninhabitable, there couldn’t be many green spaces and beautiful landscapes to view.

He continued to hum, making a low tuneful noise as he looked around the rest of the room. Six new pieces of art were displayed around him.

Rane had to admit this was his best work. Maybe it was the environment he was in that stimulated him. He found most space stations plain and soulless, simply places to work and rest. On Prodigy, the atmosphere was different. There was a buzz in the air and a sense of excitement wherever he went.

He’d swiftly discovered it was due to the matchmaking agency that had its base here. Many of the visitors to the station were focused on finding love, and that meant lots of happy, positive vibes filling the station with hope and a whole lot of sexy times.

It was something that appealed to Rane. He’d even considered signing up to My Single Alien to see what kind of human might be interested in him. He wasn’t your typical Olickie, so any human that took a liking to him would have to accept his differences.

After an initial investigation into the agency’s services, he’d decided now was not the right time to find a mate. Rane had little spare time between his boring but necessary diplomatic work and his focus on his art.

That was his passion. Rane had plans to create enough artwork and then sell it. When people began to buy his work, he’d be taken seriously as an artist. His fellow Olickies would accept that this was what he wanted to do, not be some diplomatic stooge.

He didn’t have any plans to abandon his role as a diplomatic support advisor completely. It was what Olickies were known for. Their natural ability to calm even the most intense situation was a huge asset in negotiating intergalactic peace. It was long overdue. The war on the other side of the wormhole had been going on far too long. It was only in the last couple of years that progress had been made in calming the worst of the battles.

It was all thanks to the Olickie. Providing they could get the battling parties around the table and have them talk to each other, they could demonstrate that peace was possible.

That was the tricky part, actually getting the fighters in the same room, without them tearing off each other’s heads.

Rane always considered himself more of a lover than a fighter. He got a sense of satisfaction when a diplomatic mission was successful, but it was nothing like the satisfaction he gained when creating a new piece of art.

Images flowed from his fingers when he painted. He worked in all different mediums but loved nothing more than a traditional oil paint. It was something about the way he could blend colors and add texture and depth to his canvases that was so fulfilling.

Another twenty completed canvases and he would have enough for his own exhibition. Then he could talk to other Olickies and show them there was another way. He could be taken seriously as an artist, as well as a diplomatic support advisor.

He lifted his paintbrush and was about to place a stroke on the canvas when he heard footsteps in the corridor outside the store room.

Rane carefully placed his brush down. The green and red frill that adorned his neck lifted in an unconscious display as he assessed any threat. He grabbed cloths and threw them over the paintings. He wasn’t ready to showcase his work.

He ducked behind a closet, no mean feat when you were almost seven feet tall, realizing too late that he’d left his clothes on the other side of the room.

Rane wasn’t supposed to be here. No one knew he used this store room. If his boss, Cowes, discovered what he did in his spare time while on board Prodigy, he would rip him a new hole. He’d cautioned Rane on numerous occasions to stop wasting his time on something he wasn’t supposed to do.

When you were engaged in a diplomatic mission, you spent your time in meetings, massaging egos and convincing warring parties to come to an agreement, or you meditated to maintain focus, so your ability would not be compromised.

Rane had done enough meditating to last him a lifetime. He was one of the best at what he did. Maybe that made him a little slack when it came to maintaining focus, but he’d never failed a diplomatic mission.

He held his breath as he heard the door slide open. Someone stepped into the store room.

Rane peeked around the corner of the closet and was surprised to see a short, curvy dark-haired human enter the room. She looked vaguely familiar. He must have seen her around the space station.

Her expression was one of surprise when she discovered his covered paintings.

She moved slowly and cautiously as she stopped in front of the first one and slid off the cover.

Rane tensed, wanting to jump out and cover the painting. He did not want a stranger seeing his work before he was ready. It was his oil painting of a beach. Rane had discovered this image in the same book he was painting from. He wasn’t sure he’d gotten the light quite right, but it was a decent enough painting.

The woman stood in front of it for several minutes, studying his work.

Rane saw her nod slowly as she moved onto the next one and revealed it.