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Gift
Year: 2190; Date: December 25
Setting: EDF Base on Great Island, Japan
Nine year-old Derek Wildstar sat with his arms on the window sill, staring out at what little scenery he could see from the room he shared with his brother at the EDF base here on Great Island. Ever since their parents had been killed a little less than a year ago the commander of the base had seen fit to let Derek stay here with his brother.
Derek sighed, resting his head in his folded arms. School was over for the week – thankfully. It was boring now that he couldn't go to classes with anyone. The only lessons he had now were pre-recorded videos. At least he could skip what he wanted. That was the only advantage he could see in it.
He would have gone outside, but there wasn't anything to do. Oh, sure, the officers at the base were having a Christmas party sometime this evening, but who knew how long that would last, especially with more and more bombs coming in every day. Sometimes they went weeks without hearing of any bombings nearby, and sometimes they could hear the detonations come one right after the other, even in the cafeteria.
Derek sighed again and glanced at the time – 2 PM.
He got up and paced.
Alex was on duty for another three hours; until then, he was by himself.
After twenty minutes of wearing a path in the floor he finally got tired of seeing the same four walls over and over, so he stepped over to the door. It hissed open and he peeked his head out, looking both ways down the hall. A few men and women were milling about talking or heading out to eat a late lunch.
The boy stepped out into the hall and looked both ways again for good measure. Then, he picked a direction and headed down the hall, not knowing where he would end up, and not caring either. Anything was better than the unending boredom of his brother's old dorm room.
He walked for a while, looking around at the various things going on in the building. He looked in every door that would open for him. He saw people his brother's age and a little older talking, laughing, handing each other small packages – doing everything he couldn't now.
He sighed and continued walking every time he saw a happy gathering.
He walked and walked. The hall was quiet now; it looked like no one was in this part of the building.
Derek came to the end of the hall. There was a single door. He went up to it. Just like all the others, it hissed open.
The boy stepped into the room and looked around.
It was dark and much different from all the other rooms he'd seen on the hall. This one, unlike the others, had the windows closed and covered, and crowded in the far corner he could barely make out the silhouettes of a host of lab equipment dumped in one corner.
Derek started towards the strange equipment. As he came closer he saw an odd glow coming from behind the odd mess.
He slowly crept towards the light, not knowing what it could be, but not wanting to disturb whatever it was if it was dangerous.
He reached a desk and crouched down behind it, waiting and listening for anything that might tell him what the light was.
He didn't hear anything so he slowly edged around the corner of the desk and looked.
He almost laughed at himself. The light was only a small Christmas tree, decorated and lit with a bright star topping it. He stood up and walked over to the tree to look at it more closely. Why was a Christmas tree all the way out here in an empty lab?
He came up to the tree and reached out to touch it. His hand passed straight through its branches.
"It's a hologram."
Derek jumped nearly a foot straight up in the air. "Who's here?!" he exclaimed upon his landing, looking everywhere for the source of the voice. Then he saw him. A young man was sitting in an office chair not five feet away, staring into the light of the small tree.
"My name's Stephen." The young man replied.
Derek noted that this other young man was a little older than Alex and he looked a little odd. It took Derek a second to realize why though in the dim light. Then he saw the reason. Derek pointed at his own eyebrows and said, "What's with the no eyebrows thing?"
Stephen chuckled, "Allergies. If I let them grow the dandruff makes me break out."
Derek shrugged, "So what're you doing here – in the dark?"
"This is my lab. I closed the windows so I could see the tree better. Just moved in a couple days ago. Haven't been able to move everything around yet though – nobody to help these past few days with it being so close to Christmas."
"Oh… yeah." Derek said, then pointed back at the evergreen. "Great tree."
"Thanks." Stephen said from his comfortable desk chair. "Just something I designed when the bombs started getting worse. Didn't know how long we'd be able to use real trees, so I made sure I'd always have something, even if it wasn't real."
"So why're you here for Christmas and not home?" Derek asked abruptly.
Stephen sighed. Derek thought it sounded a lot like his own sighs these past several hours.
"Not safe to travel that far." The young man replied. "I don't live nearby like a lot of the others. My home is in Russia – at least, it is now. My parents and sister moved there when the bombings started. They have a secure underground housing area near where Moscow used to be."
"Oh, yeah. I see why you wouldn't be able to get there. Can't fly anymore unless you're EDF, and driving would be hard with all the craters. Boats aren't really running to the mainland anymore either." Derek stepped back over to the tree and sat down beside it, studying the lights and decorations it wore.
"I can make you one if you want." Stephen said, "They're not hard to design."
Derek looked away from the tree, "Sure! My brother and I need something to liven up that dorm room we're staying in."
"Your brother?" Stephen asked, "What's his name?"
"Alex Wildstar." Derek replied.
"Oh, you're Alex's brother." Stephen nodded, "I remember you now. I met you when you last came to visit him."
"Oh, right." Derek replied, vaguely remembering the young man now that Stephen mentioned it. "You were kinda off by yourself until Alex pulled you over to eat dinner with us."
"He's a good friend." Stephen said, remembering the encounter, "I never was one for socializing."
A silence fell between the two as Derek went back to staring at the tree, remembering Christmases at home with his parents and how much fun it had been to spend time with them – even the hard years when it hadn't been the most pleasant thing to be around his mom and dad. There was the time when his dad had gotten laid off a month before Christmas and he and Mom had fought the entire time, but… at least they'd been there. This year… they weren't.
Suddenly a thought occurred to Derek and he stood up and said, "Hey, you wanna move your stuff today? I've got time. I'm just waiting on Alex to get off duty."
Stephen looked back at the boy, stunned by the seemingly random offer of help. "Sure." He said, "But you don't have to do that."
"I know." Derek shrugged, "But where else am I gonna hang out? Everyone else has somebody to do stuff with."
Stephen smiled a little, and then got up out of his own chair. "Okay, then. I'll make you a Christmas tree, then we'll move some lab equipment."
Year: 2199; Date: December 25
Setting: Onboard the Argo somewhere outside our solar system
The Christmas party onboard ship wasn't anything too elaborate. They all had pitched in a little bit to make the mess hall look just a bit more festive than it usually did. A few of the crew had made some paper chains to hand around the doors and viewports and there were some holiday displays on one side of the room. A couple people had even made red and green hats to wear for the gathering.
Derek and Mark had just finished an unsuccessful Hanukah game with Homer and were heading over to the Christmas display to get a closer look at it.
"This tree looks awfully familiar." Derek said, walking up to the Christmas tree and staring at it, noting the brilliant star that sat atop the short tree. "Don't remember where I've seen it before though"
"Well, I know I've never seen it." Mark said, "Haven't seen a real tree in over ten years."
Derek reached out to touch one of the tree's branches. He lowered his hand and was astonished when it went right through the thing. "Hey! It's a hologram!" he exclaimed.
"Yes, it is." Sandor said, coming up behind the two young men.
"This is yours, isn't it." Derek said, pointing to the tree, a vague memory tugging at his brain.
"It is." Sandor nodded.
Derek stared first at Sandor, then at the tree, then back at Sandor, the memory finally rising out of his foggy childhood enough for him to grab it. "You made me one once."
Sandor looked at Wildstar oddly, "I don't think I remember that."
"You probably wouldn't." Derek shook his head and laughed at himself, "It was almost ten years ago. It was the first Christmas Alex and I spent without our parents. You remember – the day I helped you set up your lab."
Sandor contemplated this, his face blank as he thought back to his Academy days.
"Yeees…" he said slowly, "Yes, now that you mention it, I do remember that day. Moving my lab was the only gift I got that Christmas, but it was one for which I was thankful for years afterwards." Sandor smiled. "I never did tell you 'thank you' for that."
"Me and Alex used that holographic tree you made us every year, then I used it when he graduated. It was the best gift I got my entire time at the Academy." Derek replied, "So you thanked me already by giving me that. I think I might still have it."
Mark looked at the two officers with a confused look, "So you two met before this trip?" he asked.
"Yeah." Derek said, remembering more about the odd science officer, "We met a few times. He was one of my brother's best friends at the Academy."
Sandor chuckled, "I'm sure there are many more onboard the Argo who've met, but don't remember meeting." Then his face fell, "The bombings made the world a much smaller place after all."
"Ah, cheer up, Sandor. We'll make it back." Derek gave the XO an uncharacteristically friendly slap on the shoulder, "And the world'll get back to being a bigger place when we do."
At this Sandor nodded. "Yes, Wildstar. I'm sure it will."