THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
The first rose and note arrived on December 13th. Twelve days before Christmas. I should have known it would drive me crazy when I was reminded of the old Earth Christmas carol The Twelve Days of Christmas. I accidentally stepped on the envelope when I walked into my quarters that evening. It had been a long day and all I could think about was bed and naturally I hadn’t expected a rose and hand-written note from some anonymous crewmember and I was really too tired to start investigating. Nevertheless my curiosity had been peaked. I asked the computer to list all crewmembers who had been in my quarters during the day. Obviously none. Had my mind been more awake I would have realised at once that the items had been beamed in. So I went to bed.
The next morning I thought I had dreamed it, then I saw the note and rose lying where I had left them the evening before and it occurred to me that I hadn’t even read the note. I opened the envelope, admiring the penmanship of the writer. I was used to seeing my name written on sterile padds and computers, never by hand with what I guessed was an old quilt pen. That presented a problem, since people rarely wrote things by hand I had no way of recognising the style. I opened it and read:
‘Tis the first day of Christmas and I hereby give to thee
A bright red rose so you might gaze at me.
I was stumped. Was it a joke? If not, what did it mean? Who had sent it? My mind was in a whirl as I headed to the bridge. As the day grew to an end I was getting all the more anxious to get to my quarters to see if I had received yet another rose and note. I had early on called up the Christmas carol on my computer terminal and if the anonymous author stuck to it I would receive these gifts for twelve days. As I entered my quarters I saw that I was partly right. I had indeed received another note but instead of one rose as before, I had received two.
Warily I lifted the envelope, yet again with my name written elegantly on it and started to read.
‘Tis the second day of Christmas and I hereby give to thee
Two red roses for you to gaze at contentedly.
Yeah right! I would be doing anything but gazing at them. I was determined to get to the bottom of who was giving me these. I sat up for hours, sifting through transporter data, sensor data and everything else I thought might give me the slightest clue as to who the author was. I sat up practically all night until my eyes were itching and blurry. And what, you ask, did I get for my trouble? Nada, zilch, nothing.
After a not so long night of sleep I realised I would have to change my tactics. I would never find X, as I had begun calling the author, by conventional means like sifting through data. No, I would have to be inquisitive, curious, and probably just a little bit sneaky.
And I was. Atleast a little. I brought up the subject of Christmas and Christmas carols at the most odd moments. As soon as there was a gap in any conversation I was there, asking questions, observing each face intently, while trying desperately to act cool and nonchalant about it. I looked high and low for a sign that one of my conversation partners was the person I was looking for. And I came to a conclusion, either the mystery person hadn’t been in
one of the conversations, or the person in question
had one hell of a poker face.
After the third fruitless day of investigating I was yet again greeted by a note and three, yes three, roses. It read.
‘Tis the third day of Christmas and I hereby give to thee
Three red roses so you may ponder me.
I thought they were making fun of me, they wanted me to ponder them! Hell that was all I was doing. My mind was never far away from the mystery at hand and I was sure the author knew this. Frustrated I went to bed only to dream of roses and riddles.
Day after day I was contemplating more and more drastic measures. And day after day the notes were getting more and more personal.
Day seven:
‘Tis the seventh day of Christmas and I hereby give to thee
Seven red roses so you may dance with me.
That didn’t really give me a clue. I hadn’t danced with a member of the crew. I continued with my investigation.
Day eight was even worse.
‘Tis the eighth day of Christmas and I hereby give to thee
Eight red roses so you might kiss me.
It was now official. I could panic. Someone wanted to kiss me! That, in itself was not a bad thing persay, but the fact that I had no idea who it was complicated things. Also the fact that I was one of the most senior officers wasn’t really the best place to start.
People were beginning to notice. They caught me staring at them suspiciously. I was growing more and more edgy. This could not have been “X´s” intent.
I already had a prime suspect. I didn’t really have anything to go on, just a hunch…okay, okay, wishful thinking.
So now my soul mission was to either prove myself right or wrong.
Neelix was organising a Christmas party and I had a gut feeling something would happen then. And I wasn’t disappointed.
The evening started with dinner and drinks in the messhall. Neelix had gone all out. It was a real feast. One unusual thing was the placement cards. He had decided before hand where each person would be seated. That immediately got me suspicious. If I could get him to say who’s idea that had been I would have lead. However I never got that far for I caught sight of my chair. On the seating lay a painfully familiar envelope with my name on it.
I looked around but nobody seemed to notice it so I opened it and took out the piece of paper.
Well my love it’s been fun. Don’t worry you’ll find out who I am at the party later. In the meantime, enjoy yourself. You’ll find twelve red roses waiting for you in your quarters. It would have looked strange if I had walked in carrying them now wouldn’t it? And here, for old times sake, is the last of the twelve rhymes.
‘Tis the twelfth day of Christmas and I hereby give to thee
Twelve red roses so you might fall in love with me.
The person was cruel, really cruel. I wanted to know, I wanted this to end! How was I supposed to enjoy myself?
Don’t ask me how but I actually did enjoy dinner.
At the party later however I was on high alert. Anyone who looked at me was a suspect. But I knew who I wanted it to be.
“Chakotay, would you like to dance?”
We danced in silence for a while. I wanted to ask, but how to? As it turned out I didn’t have to ask.
“Have you enjoyed the roses commander?” she asked in a low voice, almost whispering into my ear.
I stopped dancing. It was her! Thank the heavens! She was smiling at me. My mouth was gaping. I closed it as she put her lips on mine for a fraction of a second.
“Well Chakotay, what do you think of the Christmas present?”
I blinked away my stupor and pulled her off the dance floor.
“I think Kathryn Janeway that you are the devil incarnate.”
She just smiled.
“And it worked.” I whispered in her ear hugging her close. “I do love you”.
Her smile was gone but her eyes were shining.
I smiled at her and bent my head to kiss her softly.
“I love you too” she said softly in between kisses.
Sharing a last lingering kiss we headed for the doors to continue in a more private location. As we exited the holodeck she said.
“Merry Christmas Chakotay”
“Merry Christmas Kathryn”
THE END
By Emily November 2001
Only two days left. I had no idea what would happen after that. Presumably “X” would come forward and reveal their identity. But what then?
“I´d be honoured captain.”
“It’s Kathryn tonight Chakotay. The Captain isn’t here.”
