Arrival

Arrival  (E) A Writer's Cramp entry 12-23-2016 #2106351 by Chris Breva

994 words

I had just recently been reassigned as part of my military duty. My new assignment was not of this world. I was assigned to a colony on Mars. Alpha One Port was a science colony on Mars. It's mission was to gather information about the red planet and send it back to scientists on Earth. Man planned to colonize Mars one day but doing so was impossible at that time. Mars was subject to storms with winds that made the category five hurricanes of earth look like nothing more than dust ups. The atmosphere on Mars was also poisonous and the climate uninhabitable. The mission of the scientists assigned there was to find solutions for all these problems. Companies on Earth were paying out large amounts of money to solve the many problems with colonizing Mars. I was assigned as part of a squad of grunts meant to police the scientists and solve any issues that might arise. It was a pretty dull job. The most excitement we usually got was to listen to scientists banter with each other about things that were far beyond us.

It was the year 2245. Christmas season had just started on Earth. I knew that this was going to be another of those years when I would spend Christmas in a state of deployment. My family would miss me and I would miss them. The scientists on Mars didn't celebrate Christmas. Most of them considered themselves too intelligent for religion, others simply didn't want to take the time off. So Christmas was going to be just like any other day for me. It would be boring. There was a freighter coming in from Earth that day. To escape some of the boredom I volunteered to help off load it and put the goods in storage. I watched as the freighter blasted its way to a landing.

"Airlock is secured," the computer announced in it's mechanical voice as the ship docked. "Proceed with unloading of passengers."

The squad and I entered the airlock and tapped the controls to open the airlock of the freighter. The airlock opened and the inside of the freighter appeared to be pitch dark before us. Thinking it unusual to be met with such conditions I held up my hand to stop the men from moving forward. Then I rolled my fingers into a fist, which was the silent signal to my men that I considered the situation unusual and a possible threat. I didn't have to look to know that each of the men set his weapon for "stun" at that point. If we encountered any hostiles on board the freighter we would attempt to subdue them before setting our weapons to the"kill" setting. I then signaled the men to advance and PFC Florence, a red headed marine from Texas took point. He entered the freighter and found the control panel for the lights. Soon the interior of the cargo bay was flooded in red lighting as the lighting cut in.

I heard something beyond the cargo bay doors and signaled for four of the men to check it out. I watched cautiously as they pressed themselves against the wall on either side of the bulkhead. One of them toggled a switch and the cargo bay door withdrew itself into the wall leaving a large opening to exit the bay and see the interior of the ship. What awaited there was a surprise to even the most seasoned soldier. The floors of the passageway were covered in a blanket of snow. The entire ship was decorated with Christmas decorations. In fact there were more Christmas decorations on board the ship than I had seen in most cities on Earth. Standing in a control room just across from the cargo bay was what appeared to be a man. This wasn't any ordinary man though. This man appeared to be some sort of cookie, perhaps a gingerbread man. He motioned for us to enter the ship and the squad I had sent proceeded to secure him. I ordered the rest of the platoon to back them up since the situation was way beyond suspicious. I left a soldier to secure the cargo hold. I approached the cookie man thinking that this was probably just a hoax. After all it was Christmas season on Earth. It was likely that somebody on board the ship had programmed the computer to emit a holographic image of a gingerbread man and all the Christmas decorations on board. Holographic technology had advanced enough that holographs looked and even felt real. The only way to tell the difference was to scan them with a sensor.

"Sir," Private Barnes reported. "I think there's a problem with the sensor. It says that this gingerbread man is a living, sentient being."

"That's because he is a living, sentient being," a voice to the right of me said.

I turned to see a man dressed in a Santa Claus costume standing there. "How did you get in here," I asked. "How did you slip past the pickets?"

"It's my job to get into places unnoticed," Santa Claus answered. "My name is Kris Kringle. Some people call me St. Nicholas or Santa Claus. I heard that this bunch of Martian scientists was trying to establish the Mars colonies without Christmas. I've come to bring the Christmas spirit to Mars. Now if you'll be so kind as to help us we have a ship full of supplies, gifts, and other things to off load. I'd like to get my reindeer off first. They'll need to go take care of business. Don't worry. The Martian atmosphere won't hurt them a bit. After all the survive the time they spend in San Francisco every year just fine."

I looked at this man with disbelief. Then he put his finger beside his nose. A fireplace suddenly appeared in the bulkhead wall and he flew up it like a flash!