It came upon a mightnight clear (back post)

Posted on Sun Jan 12th, 2020 @ 10:06pm by Lieutenant Commander William Gunnison & Cole Gunnison

Mission: Dead Moon
Location: Gunnison quarters
Timeline: not long after "Conspiracy Continued"

(OOC: Back post - figured I'd better get this posted before too much more time past the holidays IRL went by.)

Cole awoke early. He always seemed to every year on this particular day. It was a day that he and Mom had always seemed to get excited over, though Cole was, of course, getting too old now to believe in Santa Claus. Dad had done his best to keep the spirit alive the past couple of years, and Cole had appreciated it, though it hadn't been easy for the 2 Gunnison men, as it had been a reminder of what they'd lost.

He dressed quietly and decided to just head into the main area of the quarters, where he planned on just sitting and enjoying the decorations. He didn't want to wake his dad - it may have been a notable Earth holiday, but Starfleet still moved on, and his dad could use the rest after the two had stayed up late the night before singing carols (rather badly, since neither one could really sing) and watching a couple of older holiday movies.

Cole entered the main area and had moved a few feet in when he froze. Near the artificial pine tree that had been set up, there was a rather large man in a red suit with white trimming, bent over as if he were setting something underneath the tree. The man stood up, turned towards Cole. Smiling, the man put a finger up to his lips in a universal sigh of "Shhh" before moving around behind the tree. Cole remained frozen in place for several more moments before rushing around behind the tree to find the man gone. Cole stared. It couldn't really have been....

Could it?

"Computer," he said quietly, "excluding myself and my dad, how many other people have been in these quarters in the past 8 hours?"

"There have been no other individuals in these quarters within the timeframe stated," the computer replied.

A little while later, Will entered the main area to find Cole sitting wide-eyed on the couch. "Morning, Cole," Will said, then, noticing the expression on Cole's face, hesitantly asked, "Everything all right?"

"Dad," Cole said quietly, "I know this might sound crazy, but...I think we were just visited by Santa Claus."

"Hmmm," Will said, putting a hand over his mouth to cover up the smile forming. Apparently the holographic Santa that had been developed seemed to have worked well here. He'd have to quietly check around to see if some of the others on board who'd requested its services had experienced similar success. "That is definitely interesting. Should we open the presents and see what he left us?"

Cole's head whipped around. "You believe me?" he asked incredulously.

"Well, I think our recent encounters with those aliens and their holographic cloaks reminded me that a great many things are possible," Will said. "And there seem to be some additional presents under the tree that I certainly don't remember having put there, so unless you're willing to take credit for their existence..."

Cole moved over to the tree and began eagerly examining the various packages as Will replicated a couple of mugs of hot chocolate.