TITLE: Faith and Beauty

AUTHOR: parisindy (parisindy@yahoo.ca)

RATING: G

NOTES: Response to ZS Holiday Theme Fic challenge on Slipstream

ARCHIVE: Please ask first

SUMMARY: Rev waits for a miracle

Rev sat on the observation deck surrounded by star charts. He had the lights dimmed and watched expectantly out the viewing port. It was the middle of the night and he was enjoying the solace.

He heard some one walk up behind him.

"Can I be of service Master Harper?" Harper was a night owl and so it wasn't such a surprise that he was still up and about.

"What are you looking at Rev?"

"Well, I'm waiting for a comet to appear."

"Oh, I've seen thousands of comets. What so special about this one?" Harper sat himself down on the floor besides Rev Bem not bothering to be invited.

"Are you aware of the old earth calendar at all?"

"A little, my mom used to try to teach me a bit about it when I was a kid. I didn't pay much attention though. I was to interested in making little electronic stuff." He shrugged his shoulders.

"Well the old earth calendar was based on a month year and day system." Harper already looked bored so Rev jumped his explanation to the next part."There were 12 months in a year and in the last month of the year there was a holiday and a celebration."

"A party?" Harper perked up a bit.

"Yes, a party," Rev smiled. "You see there was this story about a great prophet was born one night in that last month and every year there was a birthday celebration."

"What does this have to do with a comet?"

"Well when the prophet was born people wanted to see the child. Legend has it great star appeared in the Eastern earth sky and it guided people to see the child."

"I see." Yawned Harper. He lay down on the deck to get a better view of the sky."So you think this comet is the same one?"

Rev nodded his head.

"Rev that's crazy! You say it's an old earth legend? Man I never heard of it so it must be really old."

"Thousands of years."

"Well how could possibly know if it's the same comet?"

"A lot of research and faith."

"I wonder why people quit celebrating it."

"Earth went through a lot of trauma as you well know I think humans became to wrapped up in the horrible things like war and

poverty that celebrating something good just seemed inconvenient and inappropriate."

"Yeah, it was pretty hard to be happy about anything down there."

"But you had faith that thing would one day get better?"

"Well sort of." He paused to think. "When I was really little it was easier but after my parent were ..um.. gone it got a lot harder to think that. I had pretty much given up until Beka." He paused for another moment. "It was a pretty planet at times despite all the destruction... There was this ocean ... that was still blue even after the Nietzschiens used it for chemical waste dumping. ..... Sometimes.... there were birds."

"Ah you see hope, beauty, even amongst destruction. That is faith."

Moments passed and the two continued to watch the night sky.

Slowly the room started to fill with a soft light that grew brighter and brighter.

"Harper" Rev whispered in an awed voice "The comet..."

He glanced over to the young man who had been through so much.His face glowed softly in the starlight. He slept softly and quietly. His blonde hair disheveled.

This boy slept with the innocence of a child, with out night mares in the presence of a Magog.

After all that had happened.

"The divine is mysterious." Rev whispered "beauty even amongst destruction." He put his hand lightly on Harper's forehead and said a prayer.

"Merry Christmas Master Harper."

Rev Bem sat in silence and watched the comet till it disappeared once more into the night.

The End