December, Year 19 of the Anglo-American Alliance
Three and a half years had passed in the small California town once named after a Catholic saint since a young man called Spock had escaped from the local experimental facility. The rain drubbed against the pavement on that late afternoon, the eve of the holiday once widely known as Christmas – also, this year, the fifth day of Hanukkah. The whole week was now called “Winter Festival”.
But no Enforcers or laws could stop the many private, solemn religious ceremonies held around the country, several right there in the California town. Priests, ministers and rabbis who had been smart and lucky enough to keep a low profile held Masses and services in private homes, and those who hadn’t gathered their fellow prisoners in the XP together and led prayers.
The 21st Street Mission still stood, but no lights burned in the windows this evening, and every door was locked tight. Mrs. Mary Keeler and her twenty-one-year-old daughter Edith, returned from university for Winter Break, had removed themselves to the cellar to share Christmas with those of their “tenants” who were celebrating it at home. The Protestant Uhura and the agnostic Sulu could not go out anywhere, and the Methodist Dr. Piper had decided to stay and keep them company.
Scotty and Pike, however, had left to attend a Presbyterian service, and Kevin Riley and Janice Rand, the only new people to join their group for the past three years, had gone to a Catholic Mass. The fact that Janice was not religious hadn’t seemed to matter. The only two who had elected not to attend any service at all were Number One and Spock, who now walked down a side street together.
“Are you sure you don’t want to find some family to celebrate Hanukkah with?” Number One asked for the twelfth time.
“I do not celebrate Hanukkah.”
“You are Jewish.”
“I am Jewish by race. Or half-Jewish, rather. But I have told you many times that while logic suggests that there is indeed a God, to speculate on the specific nature of that God is not logical. You used to agree with me.”
“I do agree with you, Spock.” Number One lifted her face to the dark sky, allowing the rain to hit her squarely. “It’s just that it might be good for you to see more people.”
“I am constantly inundated with people, Number One. We are now nine people living in a cellar and attempting to build a warp-capable spaceship.” Spock shook his head, shoving his hands into the pockets of his thick coat. “What do we expect to find out there? Space aliens? A habitable planet?”
“You’re being very fatalistic, Spock. It’s Christmas.”
“And you are acting very illogically, Number One.” He glanced at her. “Do you remember my mother?”
“Amanda? Of course.”
“I am… concerned about her,” he admitted. “I have not been in contact with her in three years, and…” He exhaled heavily. “The XP…”
“I understand,” Number One said quietly. The XP was not a pleasant place, and Amanda Grayson was not young. But it was honestly easier to escape from the facility than to sneak in to rescue someone, illogical though that was.
Number One glanced at her wristwatch, illuminated by the weak light of a streetlamp and blurred by the water falling on it. “It’s quarter to eleven,” she said. “They said they’d patrol at eleven to make sure nobody’s having an illegal Christmas service, so they’ll start patrolling at ten to, to catch people. You’re not safe out here – no one is.” She turned and started back down the road, turning onto 21st Street. Spock followed after a moment’s delay and jogged to catch up.
“Number One?”
“Yes?”
“Why do you embrace logic?”
She blinked up at him. “Because it’s something the human race needs more of. Why do you?”
“I don’t know,” Spock said. “I… I always have.” His dark eyes were narrowed, squinting, and he looked suddenly as though he were in pain. Number One stopped, laying a hand on his arm.
“Are you all right, Spock?”
He stepped away from her touch. “Yes.” Now it was his turn to stride purposefully up 21st Street, her turn to jog to catch up.
They slipped into the alley that ran behind the street, counting doors until they reached the mission. Spock unlocked the door and held it open for Number One, then entered after her and shut the door. Everyone else was already there.
“Thank God you’re here,” Pike said, stepping forward and almost unconsciously taking Number One’s wet hand. “We were just starting to worry. They said they would patrol at eleven, so they’ll start to patrol at 10:50.”
“We know,” Spock said, moving further into the room and dripping on the carpet. “Were your religious observances well-attended?”
“Very,” said Kevin Riley, who was sitting on the edge of the desk. “Seems everybody’s going to church now that there’s no church to go to.”
“People need hope,” Uhura said softly.
Mary Keeler stepped forward. “Well, Edith and I had better be going to bed. Thank you, everyone.”
“No, thank you,” Pike said at once, stepping forward. “Mrs. Keeler, Miss Edith, we can’t do much to repay you, but here’s a Christmas present from all of us.” He handed Mrs. Keeler a neat parcel wrapped in brown paper.
The two women glanced at each other, and Mrs. Keeler carefully opened the package. Inside was a copy of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, all three books in one large, hardbound volume.
“Mr. Pike!” Edith cried, and flung her arms around his neck. “This is a banned book! Fantasy is banned!”
“Exactly.”
“Thank you so much! I’ve always wanted to read Lord of the Rings!” She looked around. “Thank you all!”
“Thank you so much,” Mrs. Keeler said. “This was my favorite as a child. But how -- ?”
“Ask us no questions,” said Sulu, “and we’ll tell you no lies.”
“Merry Christmas,” Dr. Piper said sincerely.
Tears in their eyes, mother and daughter said their goodbyes and disappeared upstairs to their rooms. The remaining inhabitants of the cellar all sat down on whatever surfaces were available, wrapped in their own thoughts. Spock removed his customary knit cap and stuffed it in his coat pocket; by now, his companions were all used to the unusual physical deformity that made his ears pointed and his eyebrows oddly slanted and that had earned him the names of “freak”, “subhuman mutant”, and “devil’s child” in the XP. Also, for reasons no one could explain, his blood was green and his internal organs were arranged somewhat differently from most people’s. All Dr. Piper had been able to offer was “Something went seriously askew when you were in your mother’s womb, Spock, and it’s a miracle you even exist”.
Which was, of course, very comforting.
Scotty sighed. “The Enforcers…” he began suddenly. “How could they have corrupted so much o’ this country? Of England, and Scotland, and Northern Ireland, and Australia and New Zealand?”
“Their leader was a very charismatic and very disturbed man,” Pike said wearily. “We’ve been over and over this, Scotty. Can’t we give it a rest? It’s Christmas Eve.”
Janice Rand stood up, twirling a strand of her blonde hair around her finger and looking at the ground. She was the newest addition to their little group, having been previously a secretary in the mansion of a high-ranking Enforcer. Though she was Anglo-American and though all her family were sympathetic to the Enforcers, she had lost her job for spurning her employer’s advances and had ended up on the street, where she had seen firsthand the horrors of the Enforcers. Even now that she was friends with several “foreigners”, she was sometimes plagued with doubts about which side was right.
Kevin Riley went and put a hand on her shoulder. He hailed from South Ireland, the only English-speaking country apart from Canada that had refused to join the AAA, and as a “foreigner” and a staunch Catholic Christian had been locked in the XP for two years. He was Rand’s best friend and the primary reason she was still part of their group. As he patted her shoulder, communicating without words, her worried expression changed to a small smile and she went to sit with Uhura.
They had no Christmas tree, no menorah, no lights or decorations. No one was laughing or even talking. But slowly, one by one, faces broke into smiles, no doubt triggered by private thoughts. Rand, Riley, Sulu, Uhura, Scotty, Piper, Pike… even Number One allowed herself a small quirk of the lips.
Only Spock didn’t. And when the smiles turned into giggles, and then laughs and hugs, he quietly slipped into the next room.