O Christmas Tree

A story of Christmas in space...

A snippet of science fiction, and Merry Christmas to all who are reading it!

Three days after they had begun the slow process of checking every system in detail, Jem was lying under the cargo hold decking, tracing the cables that were hidden there. Crispin stuck his head down into the confined space. 

“Captain?” 

“Yes?” Jem twisted his head up a little to better see his young crewman. Crispin’s probationary period was going very well. He worked hard, matching Jem’s endurance, and never complained. Jem had made sure he scheduled rest breaks to keep the young man from exhausting himself. It had, he admitted to himself silently, improved his own ability to keep going on this grueling process. 

“Got the galley checked over and thought I might attempt coffee in it.” 

“That’s a plan.” Three days of cold rations and coffee bulbs hadn’t hurt his motivation to get the galley running. “I’ll be out of here once I’m done this trace.” 

“S’long as I don’t let the magic smoke out, there’ll be a cuppa waiting on you.” Crispin’s face, with the streak of dirt on it’s cheek, vanished again, and Jem could hear his steps headed away in the direction of the galley. 

Jem could smell the coffee - and no smoke or burning plastics - as soon as he opened the galley hatch. Aboard the Tanager, they left the hatches open most of the time, with tested and trusted systems. The Robin hadn’t yet earned that kind of laxity. 

“Ah, ambrosia!” her captain saluted his only crewman with his mug. “Good thinking, Crispin. My morale is already raised.” 

Crispin ducked his chin, and did the sort of wriggle sideways that Jem associated more with Eby when he’d been a puppy. Jem raised his eyebrows. 

“What is it?” He took a sip of the hot, black coffee and then sighed. “There’s something on your mind, boy, spit it out.” 

Hearing his father’s voice come from his own mouth made Jem laugh internally, but some of his amusement must have showed on his face, because Crispin brightened back up. 

“Well, sir, you see... it’s almost Christmas.” 

Jem had forgotten. It hadn’t been part of his own childhood, and only in the recent years had he come to appreciate it. Maria and Julia’s doing, of course. He lifted the mug to his face to hide his smile, and remembered the first time they’d had Christmas aboard the Tanager. 

It had been a few months since the girls came aboard, and they had been shy and silent around Jem. Only playing with the puppy got them to really bloom into laughter, but if he walked into the compartment they would stop as though a switch had been thrown. 

Ed told him, when Jem got him to open up about it, that their father didn’t like noise. Jem had decided not to push for more details, thinking about his own childhood up until Walter had literally pulled him into the Tanager. Even then, there was little warmth and play in his memories. He’d been learning, as much and as fast as possible, to earn his way. Jem sat on the bridge and contemplated ways to get his little crew to warm up. 

Through Ed, he’d let it be known that adding some personal touches to the galley and mess, where they all spent the most time together as a communal space, would be appreciated. Shortly after that, some handmade art had appeared on the walls, and Jem made a point of admiring it. So when Julia, always braver than her sister, had whispered that they were making a surprise, and could he eat his lunch on the bridge? Jem had grinned, taken the box she offered, and even closed the bridge door so he wouldn’t hear whatever they were up to just down the corridor. 

When he’d emerged near dinnertime, there had been a fragrance of baking, and something else he wasn’t certain of, in the corridor. Jem followed his nose, curious and hungry, into the mess. He’d stopped just outside the hatch, unsure the girls were ready for him, and peeked around the corner into the mess hall. 

Then, he walked into the hall, confused. There was a tree in there. A tree, which was covered in bright decorations and had been wired for... lights? Jem walked up to it and looked closer. The tree wasn’t actually a tree, which was a small relief as he didn’t remember one in the garden and had no idea where they would have come up with one. It was definitely Ed’s work, though. The boughs were all tubes, leading to many small hydroponic pots that held various greenery, and from a distance it made an effective simulacra of a conifer. Ed had small wires, with numerous LEDs of all colors, wrapped in and around the ‘boughs’ and someone, Jem thought the girls were responsible there, had made ornaments of paper and various materials. These were hooked onto the boughs. At the very top of the tree was a spray of fiberoptic strands that scintillated with color. 

“Captain!” Julia skidded into the compartment. Her eyes were very wide. 

Jem turned from the tree, to see she was holding a package wrapped in paper in both hands. “This is very pretty,” He started to say. 

Ed followed his sister into the mess hall at a much more sedate pace, scolding her quietly. 

“You know not to run...” He broke off, seeing Jem. “Captain…” 

Jem held up a hand. “Why is there a tree, and what are the gifts for? Is there a birthday I missed?” 

Julia’s mouth dropped open. Her brother elbowed her, and whatever she’d been about to say came out as a squeak. 

Maria walked up behind her siblings, and smiled sweetly at Jem. She was holding a stack of similarly-wrapped gifts. 

“Merry Christmas, Captain!” She called to him. 

“Christmas?” Jem looked at each of them, seeing that they were nervous about his reaction. “It looks as though it’s a celebration, and smells like cookies, perhaps you can explain?” 

That broke the forming ice of their concern, and Julia visibly melted. 

“You don’t know about Christmas?” She headed for him, and as she moved around him, he realized that she was going to the tree, not him, so he stepped out of the way as they all piled gifts under it. 

“I’m afraid not,” Jem shook his head. “I’m not angry, girls, I told you to make it homey, and you are. I just don’t know... this.” 

“We will explain,” Maria looked up at him shyly, through her long dark lashes. “There are cookies, and cocoa, and there’s a story.” 

“I’d like that.” 

Jem had gotten the spirit of the season, and every year since, by an archaic calendar, he and his crew had celebrated the birth of a Child on a planet far away and long ago, whose promise still held, wherever men might be. 

Julia had been the one to explain that if it was His universe, why shouldn’t He be with them? Jem had smiled at her over his mug of cocoa, as he was smiling at Crispin now. 

“Yes, I think being home for Christmas is a good plan.” His smile got a little crooked. “But you know what this means...” 

Crispin laughed. “No more lollygagging over coffee. Yes, sir!” He snapped to attention, but didn’t salute, to Jem’s relief. “I am on it. I know the family would love to have you...” 

Jem shook his head. “Perhaps, but my own crew will expect me to be there. The tree should be decorated already, so I’ll have missed that...” 

“A tree? On a spaceship?” Crispin boggled a little, and Jem couldn’t help it, he laughed. 

“Come on, let’s get that last array in engineering checked out, and I’ll explain.” He racked his mug after rinsing it. “We’ll have to get a tree going here, once hydro is started up. They take time...” 

(this is from the Tanager universe, set some years after the events in Tanager’s Fledgling, during Tanager’s Flight)