A Not So Silent Night

Posted on Tue Dec 24th, 2019 @ 7:50am by Lieutenant JG Shaille Levine & Ashe Zachariah & Captain Abigail Laurens & Lieutenant Mica Rue & Lieutenant Nikki St. John & Chief Petty Officer Benjamin Thor & Commander Ichiko Gail & Lieutenant Commander Calvin Morgan & Lieutenant Tavis Styvek & Lieutenant Commander William Rogers & Ensign Jaimie Nolan & Warrant Officer Koh Ottasu & Warrant Officer Callisi Veera & Crewman Telleon Venn

Mission: Astraea Jollification
Location: The Raging Deity Lounge

As the doors to the lounge parted, Abigail stepped through then stopped, eyes widening as she glanced around, taking in the festive decorations. A massive tree stood in one corner, covered in delicate ornaments and twinkling lights. There were lights hanging from the ceiling along with more decorations, every table had had centerpieces placed that were themed to suit the festive decor, it was definitely an impressive sight to behold.

With a smile she walked across to the bar and ordered a drink. "Nice job on the decorations," she said to Ashe with a grin.

The rainbow haired bar keep shook her head. "I can't take the credit for it," she replied, pouring the spring wine the Captain had requested. "It was like this when I came in this morning. No one seems to know who did it. It just, happened. I was going to ask security to pull the footage and find out, but I figure if they wanted to be found out they'd make themselves know."

Taking the glass of wine, Abigail nodded, offered her thanks and headed toward the table Ichiko was occupying with a large collection of crew members. "Looks like someone got festive," she said with a smile as she took a seat.

Ichiko sat, looking over at the large tree in the lounge. "There's a tree... in the lounge." Ichiko commented. "As far as I can tell, it's not a hologram. It's real, and it wasn't there previously."

"I'm guessing an Earth holiday. Very festive." she complimented.

Mica Rue walked into the room, enjoying being out of her uniform and into a casual short caftan, waist cinched with a sparkling belt and hair flowing free. She had requested that her new engineering folks join her for a drink in a casual capacity. She hoped becoming more familiar with them would open the doors to a more open communication and quick-thinking comfort professionally.

But now that she was there and viewing the strange decorations around the space, she wondered if it would have been better done in her office after all. :A tree inside, covered in atoms and genome references: she thought to herself, eyeing the glassy balls covering the tree in red and blue and green.

She sat at a table in the back, sweeping her hair over her shoulder, holding a finger up to a nearby server. Then she waited for her people, hoping they would be able to enlighten her on the strangeness of the room.

"Christmas tree," Abigail explained with a smile. "Earth tradition, kind of religious, kind of pagan, kind of commercial, but it's a celebration."

As she walked into the lounge with Koh, Shaille paused and glanced around at the freshly decorated lounge. "Wow," she exclaimed, turning toward Koh and laughing. "You thought I went all out? This is incredible. Look at the size of that tree!"

She grabbed a drink from the bar and carried it across to the main table in the middle of the lounge and joined the others. "So who's the interior designer?" she asked, glancing around.

Koh looked about, in awe of the sight before him. It was exactly like the entire spread in their quarters, except magnified. A larger tree, a wider display, lights and tinsel and silver and red and green. "It really is something else." Koh found himself whispering. Not from a weak voice, but awestruck silence. After a moment to realize it was just him at the moment, he walked over to the bar to snag a drink of his own before joining the others.

"Everyone...." he started, then turned to the Captain and the Ship's second. "Ma'am."



Ben walked in wearing a uniform undershirt and trousers, despite the invite from Mica saying it should be casual. He saw the tree and while it felt unusual to him to see the tree, he had noticed others on previously and while the style was significantly different to what he had grown up with it was still vaguely familiar. He orders a warm citrus flavoured drink, before having a look around the room to see if he can spot any others.

The next to walk into the lounge was the other Daughter of Ts'usu, and the other blink fighter pilot: Callisi. Sporting her Stetson hat, ears pressed down rather than damaging the hat to accommodate, the rabbitess looked up, and up at the tree. Confusion and splendor crossed her living eye instantly, surprised to see something like this in the lounge.

It wasn't unheard of to bring pieces of home with them on a Ts'usugi Naval ship, but to see Starfleet do it was a step. Maybe this was them moving to accept Ts'usu's traditions? She wasn't certain. She made her way to the bar and almost absently ordered a drink before she made her way to the large gathering of crewmembers. "So, this is.... pretty." she took a sip, "But what is it?"

"Christmas Decorations," Abigail said easily, momentarily forgetting that not everyone was familiar with the concept of Christmas.

Shaille laughed, her hand resting lightly on Koh's forearm. "We just had this conversation," she said brightly. "It was originally the celebration of a religious icon, but really it's just about the presents. On Christmas Eve, a fat man in a red suit comes down the chimney and if you've been nice all year, you get presents, if you've been naughty, you get lumps of coal."

To say that Callisi looked unconvinced was an understatement. So much so that she removed her hat to let her hair flow out a little. "So... there's a man?" she started. Koh, however, raised a hand to hold her off.

"Remember the last time you celebrated the Emperor's Birthday?" he started, and that got a nod out of her. "Now, imagine instead, if the Emperor herself visited every house in the moons personally."

Processing, processing, processing. "But how? There's billions of citizens of the Empire. How would she do it in one night."

Koh's response was prepared. "Flying reindeer."

Blink. Blink.... "You're having fun with me, aren't you?"

Abigail somehow managed to keep her face straight as she looked across at first Callisi and then Koh, before her gaze moved to Ichiko and then back to Callisi. "No, Santa goes to every house on Earth in a sleigh pulled by flying Reindeer. Pops down the chimney and leaves his gifts, eats the cookies and drinks the milk then goes along to the next house."

"Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!" Calvin exclaimed walking up to the group, the normally more reserved officer obviously having pre-gamed for the party. His face had the rosy look that was only confirmed by his eyes that he had a solid buzz going. His blue undershirt sleeves were pushed up giving a more casual appearance whilst still wearing his uniform. A flask appeared to which he took a swig before it disappearing again.

"Wait wait wait." Buck eyed the doctor suspiciously. "You guys still have Rudolph?"

Callisi blinked her one good eye. "So... what's a Rudolph?" another pause, "And wait, he goes to each house, on Earth? That must take forever."

"A Red, Nosed, Reindeer," Calvin replied with the subtlest slur. "He pulls Santa around to get to every house in a night. Super fast. And can see because his nose glows," the last part accentuated with hand gestures. "Alcohol," he muttered to himself as he left the group to go to the bar.

Buck watched the doctor head for the bar and shook his head. "Someone's gunna need to get that boy some water." He muttered, mostly to himself before turning back to Callisi. "Doc's not entirely wrong. Santa's sleigh is pulled by...I think its seven reindeer. Rudolph goes up front because they use his nose as a headlamp."

Callisi listened, ears perked, and then she held up her one free hand, "Okay okay, wait wait wait... hold on." she took a moment to process. "So, Santa... visits every human on earth... in one night, thanks to super fast flying reindeer." she started, "And the one in the lead, Rudolph the Red Nose... allows them to see, since it's a headlamp?"

"So, okay so ... did he get the lead position BECAUSE of his unique nose? Or is Red Nose a title, like Red Bishop or Red Lance?"

"Because of his nose. It's all in the song." Buck frowned and turned towards Abigail. "Hey Cap, did the song survive the Atomic Horror?"

"Songs like that can't be destroyed, trust me," Abigail said with a wince. "Computer, play audio file Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer."

The computer chirped in response then remained silent for a moment before a boppy rendition of the over five hundred year old song started playing, the music seemingly making the rest of the patrons of the lounge fall silent.

A trio of alien creatures listened in rapt attention to the jingle tune of a creature born unique. Ostracized and branded by his peers for the crime of being born different, in the end his unique qualities helped save the day and earned him the respect of his peers.

Koh enjoyed the tune for its musical cadence. At the end, he could even be heard humming the final reprieve. It matched the pattern, so he picked it up quick. Even Ichiko figured that this was important enough to pay attention to. Important enough to be a part of. To remember.

Forever.

Callisi, though, was struck hardest by the story of a member of society left to the side due to a defect. An injury. A difference. As the song was declaring Rudolph's place in history, Callisi had visibly relaxed her usual guarded posture. She reached up gently to touch her eye-patch, almost tugging at the edge of it. Then the moment was over, the song had ended, and her hand returned to her tea. "It's..... it's a lovely song."

"There was a stop motion TV special based on the song too." Buck volunteered the information, hoping to keep things from getting too sombre.

Returning with a drink in hand Calvin piped up again, "Those other reindeer were jerks." He chuckled at the comment and took another sip of his drink.

Nikki, still in uniform, walked up to the bar, smiling inwardly at the name choice, and ordered a sparkling water. Being security and off-duty while a very deserving crew had a chance to unwind, she had already decided to forego the idea of wine. Even if it was only synthehol, the idea of being aware of her surroundings had merit. She found a quiet enough spot, close enough to listen but not close enough to be seen as intruding, and took a sip, repressing a shudder as she did so. Wine would have been ever so much better but what can you do? Duty calls.

"Lieutenant St John," Abigail called with a smile. "Come join us, I'll introduce you." While she may not have agreed with Starfleet's desire to insert Nikki into her crew the way they had, she certainly wasn't going to make things any more awkward for her than they already would be.

Carrying her glass with her, Nikki walked over to the group, the habitual reserve that was so much a part of her work in Security falling away to reveal the much more relaxed individual beneath. She found an empty seat the table and slid into place, setting her glass in front of her, as she smiled, warmth that telegraphed upward into the depths of her midnight blue eyes.

Tavis stepped into the lounge in his normal uniform, he didn't see the logic in wearing something different. Arriving at the captain's invitation he viewed it as a chance to meet some of the crew, in their environment or comfort zone rather than his office in a counseling session.

"New people!" Calvin said with some excitement, sipping at his drink. "Obviously quite new since I haven't met you yet. I'm Calvin. And some people think I'm a Doctor." He shrugged.

As the counselor arrived, Abigail motioned for him to join them as well. "Lieutenant Styvek, Lieutenant St John," she said calmly as they joined the table. "Meet some of the crew. I'll let them introduce themselves."