Chapter 5 – Thunder for Christmas
Chapter 5 - Thunder for Christmas
The main display of the Thunder in paradise was light up with a view of space, the rainbow fringes of light were shown as they dances across the fore end of the ship's bow, the usual indicator that Slipspace had been attained. There were thousands of bright stars whizzing by them, passing at light speed, each planet its own colour.
The command station was dark, except for the odd flicker of light on the main system's holo-pad, where either Becka or Serina was working to keep the ship on course, while at the same time, working to discover all of the ancient systems, tools and equipment that was aboard the ship.
Meanwhile, inside the ships observation deck, Skye was sitting silently on one of the many couch-like chairs which lined the deck. Deep in thought, staring absentmindedly into the depths of space before him, he sighed resting his head on his arms, which were wrapped around his legs. From his crouching position, Skye couldn't hear Josh as he slipped onto the deck; after he noticed Skye he turned to leave.
"Don't leave Josh," Skye mumbled.
Josh was taken aback, how had Skye known he was there, his head was down; and he hadn't made any noise.
"I was just..." Josh's voice trailed off.
"Don't worry about it, just, come here." Skye replied.
"Oh... okay." Josh replied timidly.
Josh walked slowly over to Skye, kind of excited that Skye had asked him to sit with him. After Josh sat down, Skye lifted his head from his hands; his eyes were red and his face tear-stained.
Josh was shocked, he had never seen Skye cry, from what Ryan had told him he rarely cried; when he did it was few times and far between.
"Are you okay?" Josh asked timidly.
"Yeah..." Skye whipped his eyes, and smiled.
"How're you holding up, I know traveling in space is a hard transition." Skye asked changing the topic.
"I'm alright." Josh replied, looking down at the deck.
Skye wrapped his right arm around Josh's shoulders. Josh flinched like he had been electrocuted by the touch.
Skye looked at him, his amber eyes showing an expression of his regret.
"No its not you Skye!" Josh quickly stumbled, "It's just..."
"I know, don't worry about it, you don't need to say anything." Skye comforted, placing his hand over Josh's slightly smaller one.
"Um... Skye?" Josh asked.
"Yeah?" Skye replied, looking deep into Josh's delicate emerald eyes, you could almost see hazel around the pupils, something that really accented his hair.
"Why do you look so down?" Josh wondered.
"Well it's just..." Skye started, finding no other words to express himself he sighed deeply. "I get really down this time of year, it's Christmas to everyone else on Earth, but up here, there is no Christmas, decorations, there's nothing." Skye stated, "And to boot, no one even knows about it or us, we're on our own, and no one remembers us."
Skye broke the gaze and dropped his head once more; causing Josh to realize he had been staring into Skye's eyes, there really was a soft, pure soul underneath all the torment that he and Ryan had undergone, the angel of death, did have a soft side.
Josh leaned in towards Skye; he closed his eyes and forced himself to remain calm, he then briefly pecked Skye's cheek. "Merry Christmas Skye!" he said, before quickly getting up and trotting out of the room.
Skye sat there, not quite frozen, a slight blush breaking across his face, Josh certainly was full of surprises, he thought that touching Josh's shoulder had freaked him out; kissing him must have been tough.
Skye sighed again, and crouched up on the couch once more; staring out at the stars flying by their ship, even at light speed, each star was still capable of showing its true colours to the Thunder in Paradise.
The day passed quickly, the boys kept mostly to themselves, all seeming to catch the Christmas blues, they just couldn't believe that at mid-night it was all over, Christmas was here, and they were light years from home, and anything close to friends or family.
Finally night had set in, well night for space, the clocks on the decks of the ship all showed 23:00, one hour till the day they were dreading, defiantly a good time for bed. The three boys settled into their beds, silently thinking about what the morning would bring.
***
The morning crept up faster than any of the boys wanted, the alarms on the ship blared, waking everyone up, the clocks all read 06:50, not the best time to wake up on Christmas, why would Becka and Serina get them up so early.
Slowly but surely the boys made their way down to the bridge, they were a little shocked, each stood there, mouths agate. The bridge had been transformed, the room was fully decorated for Christmas, including a massive tree in the middle of the room, there was even snow falling from the ceiling, which melted and disappeared before it hit the deck of course.
"What is all of this?" Skye asked, shocked.
"It's Christmas," Becka said, appearing on the main holo-pad, "Merry Christmas boys!"
"Thanks... I don't know what to say." Skye replied, saying what all three had been thinking.
"We both knew how down you boys all were," Serina said appearing beside Becka, "So we thought we would bring some Christmas to you!"
"That's really considerate for an..." Josh started.
"A what, an AI?" Becka shot back, "Oh we can do so much more, just you wait."
"What do you mean?" Josh asked as he and the other two picked up a glass of eggnog and began drinking the sweet beverage.
"You will see soon enough." Becka replied.
"Dropping out of slip space in twenty seconds." An automated voice filled the command deck.
"Where are we going?" Skye asked, "We never really specified where to, just away from Earth and that was days ago."
"Like we said, we know," Becka replied, "We have something you're going t love planned, ever since we..."
"Becka, you'll ruin the surprise!" Serina scolded.
"Fine I won't say a thing!" She returned.
"Say a thing about what, where are we going? Ryan asked.
"Just look!" Serina replied, gesturing to the main viewing screen.
The streams of coloured light suddenly stopped moving, and then exploded into a bright light, they we're leaving Slipspace. The dark night colour of regular space resumed on the screen, except for something dark, moving in the top corner of the screen."
"Becka, zoom to maximum magnification, top right screen, rotate it 180 degrees." Skye ordered, something wasn't right.
"Aye sir,"| Becka said, a sense of accomplishment and appreciation that Skye had noticed the object.
The image grew larger, and suddenly it filled the screen. Skye dropped his cup of eggnog he had picked up, the cup shattered on the deck.
Skye bolted for the command panel in front of him, "Becka get the docking clamps ready now!" Skye shouted.
"Merry Christmas boys!" Serina and Becka chimed in unison, as they too glanced at the image on the screen. There before them, was unmistakably the only frigate-prowler hybrid in existence.
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