December 24, 2118
Annie Darksaber pulled her helmet off and greeted Missy with a hug.
“You’re finally here!” Missy exclaimed with joy.
“Of course I am,” Annie replied. “Did you ever doubt?”
“Well, I don’t know,” said a familiar voice as Sonus walked into the room. “Your flying skills are to be feared,” he finished with a smirk.
“Nice to see you too, hero.” Annie gave her old friend a hug.
“Either way, you’re both here in one piece. That’s what counts,” Missy said as she helped Annie out of the spacesuit and led her and Sonus to the service module. “Are you two hungry?”
“Starving,” replied Annie as she sat in a high stool bolted to the ground.
“Great! I’ll get the food out.” Missy headed over to a cupboard and pulled out a few cans and packages.
Sonus sat in a stool opposite Annie and asked, “What’s for dinner?”
“Well,” Missy started as she rummaged through the cupboard. “The last cargo ship brought a bunch of Christmas food, along with the usual shipment.” She pulled out two cans and placed them on the table. “I think these are supposed to be ham or turkey.” She put a few more items on the table and sat down. Missy held up a packet. “Eggnog.” She then held up a small silver tube. “Oh, and here’s frosting.”
“Someone’s in the Christmas spirit.” Sonus said while taking the tube from Missy and examining it. “Odds of Annie accidentally replacing it with a tube of toothpaste?” Sonus and Missy both raised a hand and looked at Annie, who only rolled her eyes and responded, “That only happened once.”
“Once is all it takes.” Sonus placed the tube on the table.
“I’d watch it, Blueray,” Missy said with a snicker. “It may not be an accident next time.” Missy and Annie both laughed at the prospect while Sonus simply smiled.
Lighthearted conversation and updates on the past few weeks were exchanged as the three friends relished finally being reunited. Although the following meal could hardly be considered homemade, it was still quite appetizing to the hungry astronauts. After dinner, the three ventured to the control room where Sonus promptly seated himself behind the main computer and brought up one of his oft-used playlists.
“All right,” he said while turning up the volume. “It’s time to get this party started!” He leaned back in the chair with a triumphant grin as The Pretender by Foo Fighters blasted through the station’s PA system.
Missy shook her head in feigned disbelief and crossed her arms. “You can’t possibly be serious.”
“What? It’s a classic,” Sonus said with an innocent shrug.
“But it’s so old!” Missy protested. “Besides, it’s Christmas Eve. Where’s the Christmas music?”
“Oh, fine.” With a disgruntled sigh, Sonus sat up and changed playlists. Once Jingle Bells could be heard, he turned to Missy with raised eyebrows. “Happy?”
“Very,” she replied with a grin. Missy grabbed Annie’s arm and pulled her to her feet. “Now help me decorate the tree!”
“We have a tree?”
“Not yet, but we will!”
After scouring the station, the three managed to find a small tree near the cargo module as well as some garland. The tree was one of those mini artificial Christmas trees and looked fairly old, but it would do. There wasn’t much they could do as far as decorating the station, but they did their best.
Despite the fact that it was Christmas Eve, there were still a few odd jobs to be done around the station. For instance, one of the small exterior panels of the station was starting to chip and needed to be replaced. It was while carrying out this task that Sonus first realized something was wrong outside the station.
Missy was in the control room filling out the daily report when she noticed an odd blip on the scanners. When Sonus finished the task and came back inside, Annie helped him get the space suit off.
Veiling any urgency, he asked, “Is Missy on the monitors?”
Having seen an odd light out the window, Annie replied, “Yeah. Did you see something out there too?”
A questioning glance was exchanged before Sonus made for the control room, with Annie in pursuit. When they entered the room, Missy turned down the music and faced her friends. “Something’s coming our way.”
“Can you tell what it is?” Sonus inquired as he read over the information Missy pulled up.
“From what the scanners tell me, it’s nothing more than a normal comet.” Before Missy could continue, Annie interjected. “It won’t hit the station, will it?”
“It shouldn’t,” Missie replied as she scanned for more information. “It’ll be close, but not close enough to hit us. Ack!” The scanner and computer screens started wavering for a few seconds and blinked once or twice before resuming normal operation. “It’s been doing that ever since the comet came within range,” she explained.
“That’s not good.”
“No, it really isn’t.” As Missy spoke, Annie checked the wiring and started going through the computer files to make sure the cause of the disturbance wasn’t with the equipment itself.
While she worked with the computers, Missy and Sonus checked other major machines aboard ICEE. The investigation brought no light on the subject. At the end of their search, all equipment seemed to be running properly. That is, aside from the celestial sojourner’s disturbances, which increased in frequency as the time went on. Missy started trying to contact Houston, but so far, she wasn’t having any luck. Annie looked out the window at the foreign space traveler with a sigh.
“Just when I was starting to enjoy myself too.”
~ SMS ~
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