Wise Women (audio story)

Wise Women was the tenth and final story of the audio anthology The Christmas Collection.

Publisher's summary
Bernice's plans to join her friend Gilly for a traditional Qiyotian holiday is scuppered by a less-than-festive crash. Soon she finds herself trekking through the desert on the back of a Nurmash in search of engine coolant. Whoever thinks Christmas is boring has never spent the holidays with Benny!

Plot
On her Christmas holiday, Benny is invited to Qiyos by Gilly to celebrate Three Sisters, but the pod malfunctions and she, the pilot and Callie land some distance from where they intended. Gilly and a group of other Qiyotians find them and take them on giant caterpillar-like Nurmash that Benny, Callie and Gill fall from when Benny's, who is in season, mates with another.

Gilly explains to Benny and Callie that the Three Sisters are a trio of stars, called Grandmother, Mother and Daughter, which align once a year. They meet the Mother of the Waters and gift the three newborn queens of Qiyos with Benny's rum, Gilly's ukelele and Callie's jar of mountain snowmelt. In return, the Mother of the Waters takes them back to the pod by hovercraft and they find that the pilot has called for a replacement. They celebrate the alignment.

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Pilot
 * Andrea McCallister
 * Gilly
 * Mother of the Waters

Worldbuilding

 * Qiyotians look like geckos.
 * Qiyotians worship water.
 * Gilly plays the ukelele.
 * Benny plays I-spy.

Continuity
to be added