Christmas on the other side of the Galaxy

Naomi sat in the mess hall in the quiet of the mid afternoon or at least the shipboard equivalent. She was quickly adding things to a letter she was writing on a padd. Sometimes she stopped, deleted what she just wrote and then replaced it with something better after spending a little time in thought. It was during one of these periods of thought that Mezoti had come to the mess hall to find her friend. Simply because she was bored and didn't want to play the boring sports game Icheb and the twins, Azan and Rebi, were currently playing on the holodeck.

She covered Naomi's eyes from behind.

"Guess who?" she asked.

"Quit it Mezoti," Naomi said shaking off her friend. "I'm trying to do something important."

"Like what?" Mezoti asked sitting down beside the young half human.

"Write a letter to Santa," Naomi said with a seriousness that would have made even Captain Janeway impressed.

"Is that a relative of yours back in the alpha quadrant?" Mezoti asked.

"No silly," Naomi said. "The earth holiday called Christmas is soon."

"So?" Mezoti replied.

"So Santa needs to get my letter before he delivers presents to the good children who celebrate the holiday on Christmas eve," Naomi explained. "How else will he know to bring me a jigsaw puzzle of Deep space nine and the bajoran wormhole, some new pictures of my dad for my mom and some new pictures of my mom for my dad, some more deuterium for voyager, some bubble bath for the Captain and anything Seven wants because the borg made her miss a lot of Christmases."

"I don't understand," Mezoti said. "Every year on this holiday a single person delivers presents to every kid who wants one?"

"Yes," Naomi said. "But it's more important than that."

"How so?" Mezoti asked.

"It just is," Naomi said getting a little annoyed at her friends questioning. Sometimes it was hard to remember that Naomi was the younger of the two.

"Anyway every year on Christmas Eve," Naomi said. "He leaves the planet called Sha Ka Ree, the federation gave it to him and other similar beings after Captain Kirk had confirmed that the previous tenant a malevo...malevo.. bad energy being was gone. It's much more central than the Earth's North pole was and it made sense to move. He has a starship with the best replicator technology available, and it's cargo bays are somehow bigger on the inside to carry all the presents for the people who like their things made traditionally. But instead of a warp core the ship is pulled through space by a team of shape shifting cosmozoan lifeforms, that take on the forms of creatures that don't traditionally fly to add an extra sense of wonder."

"But you are very far away from the alpha and beta quadrants," Mezoti said. "How did he know to deliver a present all the way out here?"

"I asked my mom," Naomi explained. "She said that while Santa Claus uses all these things its mainly for show. She said it Santa was most likely a being capable of instrumentality and had perhaps learned how to turn that into omnipotence over the centuries."

"What's that mean?" Mezoti asked.

"It means he is like the Q but nicer," Naomi stated very sure that was exactly what those words meant.

"Wait, how do you get this letter to Santa?" Mezoti asked.

"All starship captain's are given his special subspace communication frequency," Naomi explained getting a little frustrated.

"Is that true?"
"Of course it is! Captain Janeway told me so!" Naomi said. "And she never ever lies unless its to trick bad guys and mean people."

"I don't know if a person like that could be really even if he is a Q," Mezoti said.

"He is to real," Naomi entered some commands on her padd. "See in this picture he is accepting the deed of ownership of Sha Ka Ree from Ambassador Spock and Commander Uhura and I saw him transport out of my room after leaving presents once."

The picture was captioned with a quote from ambassador Spock stating that it was only logical for traditions to change as the Federation changed. Mezoti couldn't help but notice the resemblance that Santa had with Montgomery Scott, who she had recently learned about while studying with Naomi. The young former borg decided not to mention it in case she upset Naomi after all it sounded similar to a holiday she celebrated on her home planet before she was assimilated. Although in her case it was a woman who delivered a bountiful feast during a dry season when all the crops had wither. In the story it was enough to sustain the family until the rains came and crops were grown and harvested.

Just then Seven came through the door, carrying a large artificial pine tree, followed by Neelix who was carrying several small cargo containers, glittering tinsel overflowed from the one sitting on top.

"Just over near were Naomi is sitting thank you Seven," Neelix instructed.

Seven gave a nod and set the tree down were she was told.

"Mezoti and Naomi Wildman, you will assist in he decoration of this," Seven seamed to think for a bit. "Christmas tree."

"Of course Seven," Naomi beamed, she grabbed Mezoti's hand and ran over to Neelix to grab the decorations as he set the containers down. As the girls thread the tree with Tinsel and hang baubles from its branches Seven sang some Christmas songs the Doctor had taught her. Neelix told the girls about how trees were important in Talaxian culture and holidays. And then when Icheb and the twins turned up and help hang the wall decorations Seven related a story about how every year the borg queen having learnt of Santa Claus would sit down and write a letter asking for coal. Because more carbon is always useful. However Santa Claus knowing how naughty the collective always is always gave the borg one pair of socks. Not only were socks irrelevant to the borg only one sock of the pair was given to the borg queen directly and the other was given to a random drone. Apparently it always forced the queen to expend resources looking for the matching sock other wise it would make a mess of the borg's monolithic collective thought process. Knowing it's there but not exactly where could be annoying.

"Mezoti can put the star on top this year," Naomi said.

"Are you sure?" Neelix asked. "I thought it was one of Voyager's fine traditions for you to do it Naomi."

"I'm sure," Naomi said as she handed her friend the star that would sit atop the tree.

Seven lifted the former borg child up and waited patiently while the girl set the star just right. Once Mezoti deemed it perfect Seven set her back gently on the ground.

"Naomi, Mezoti," Icheb said as they admired the work they had completed. "Lieutenant Paris is currently running a holodeck simulation called winter wonderland for all crew members, I was wondering if you would both like to come?"

"We would love to," Naomi said.

"Of course we will come," Mezoti said.

"And while I'm teaching you how to make Snowmen," Naomi stated. "I'll teach you about Christmas and other Earth holidays from this time of year."

"Can you also teach us how to have a snowball fight?" Azan and Rebi asked in unison as all the children walked out the door.

"Some how I think Santa may be getting more letters from Voyager this year," Seven commented.

"I don't have to wear the suit again this year do I," Neelix asked. "The beard makes my whiskers itch and Naomi nearly caught me last year because of that."

"Irrelevant," Seven said. "You are the perfect candidate to play Santa, in fact had my mother not read me the "Night before Christmas' before my assimilation I would have assumed it was written about you."

Neelix shook his head at that as he picked up Naomi's padd and hand it to Seven.

"I believe this needs to get to the Captain with the highest priority," he said with a smile.