Work Text:
John Koenig stepped outside of the prefab bungalow he was sharing with his wife, Helena, and he smiled at the Christmas decorations covering the house and the rest of the settlement. In the distance, were mountains while in another direction was a massive ocean the settlement was built on the banks of a river, separated by a couple of crude bridges that an Eagle had simply dropped on top of a few pilings and then anchored into place - there were plans to construct new ones, especially when they laid the tracks for the monorail there were plans to build, to prepare for the new settlements, and to help with the exploration of the planet, they already had the race banks readied, which would produce a new generation of people - while there was a small fleet of crude boats moored against the banks for fishing and for exploring the shoreline.
Koenig never got tired of the different views of the planet they had colonised a few months ago. The moon had passed through this solar system several months ago, just after they'd found out enough scientific theories and practical knowledge that would allow them to use other universes for faster than life, and for time travel, and just as plans were drawn up to explore ways of experimenting, building a drive capable of slipping sideways into other universes, where the laws of physics were so different they allowed faster than light without having to worry about things like the Theory of Relativity holding them back.
Instead of looking for wormholes, warp holes, space warps, or building generational ships powered by antimatter or fusion power systems, living on a rogue planet as letting it pass through space, or just building with a drive which pushed a ship to the speed of light and decided they didn't care one bit about time passing outside the walls of the spaceship, such a ship could drop out of this universe and slip sideways into a universe where the laws of physics were just a little bit different.
On the moon, they would have been hard-pressed to come up with the resources for such experiments in a long-term manner, but they had created a small device that allowed them to travel through time and space; before they arrived at this planet, the Alphans had fully intended to carry on with the experiments they'd begun, but on this world, they had everything they virtually needed in abundance. And they would; the engine represented the future of the human race's future.
Koenig knew it would take centuries of course, but soon not only would they be exploring this universe, they would also be travelling to other realities, unlocking hidden secrets inaccessible or unexplained to people in the normal world, and they would visit new cultures, accessing new technologies.
But that was in the future.
If they were lucky then within a few centuries, when their new home world
They had found a planet in a star system with several other worlds that Computer and the surveys had deemed habitable; there was a jungle world, two moons with oceans, one world with one vast ocean, and two worlds with varying climates like Earth. This was one of them. These two worlds had forests, jungles, rainforests, oceans, and deserts. It was perfect for them, and once they had spent enough time surveying it, calculating the long-term issues with settling, they put Operation Exodus into effect, they had colonised a small part of the forest near the estuary of a river. Expeditions had been sent to various parts of the planet already, satellites had been dropped into orbit and were already exploring other parts of the planet to lay down the groundwork for the work ahead, while work had been done to find out what was good to eat and what wasn't.
To the delight of Koenig and the other Alphans, this planet had been discovered as being similar to Earth in many ways, but the world's orbit was identical which meant the seasons were only slightly longer. The Alphans had been on the planet long enough to know the autumn and the summer were six to eight months long, and the winter was already slated as being longer.
The Alphans had spent weeks and months before the winter hit, to make sure they had enough fuel and energy, and food to get through it all. Their energy sources were a few water wheels, but they also had cut down several trees for fires. Every single house had been stocked with enough wood to burn for the winter.
It had been decided to have their first full Christmas on this planet; in the past, Christmas was a kind of love-hate thing, since so many people were reminded of home, and it would spoil morale. But here, with each of the Alphans having gotten married or courting someone, the rise of pregnancies and babies being born had grown.
Helena herself was already nursing their first child, a little girl as beautiful as her mother, called Catherine Helena Koenig. As he looked around the Christmas light-lit village, Koenig wore a grin as he walked with his wife and daughter through the streets, before they came to the town square, where a massive tree had been festooned with lights and crude decorations.
Catherine looked up at the tree and cooed.
Helena giggled at her daughter. "You love the lights, don't you, sweetie?"
Koenig smiled at his wife and daughter. "She loves them now, but imagine how she will feel on Christmas morning."
Helena grinned back at him. She didn't remember her earliest Christmases, but giving her baby daughter some presents was bound to make things magical for her before she grew up. Catherine and several other babies were going to wake up amazed, and likely confused and then excited by the toys and gifts they'd be given.
Speaking of which…. "Did you get it, John?"
"Get what?" Koenig asked quizzically.
Helena rolled her eyes, "Catherine's present, dummy. Have you got it?"
"Oh, yes," Koenig replied.
Helena quirked a brow, but before they could say anything more, they met Dashka Kano, one of the Kano twins, holding hands with Sandra Benes. They were pushing their large pram. They had recently used one of the birthing tanks to grow two embryos taken from their DN, and grown two children. Their daughters, Ami and Leia, were breathtakingly beautiful, and they were friends with Catherine.
"Hello, you two," Koenig smiled at them.
"Hello, John, Helena," Sandra grinned, waving at Catherine, who laughed at her auntie. "Looking forward to Christmas?"
"Yeah. These two," Dashka grinned at her daughters before lifting her eyes back up to stare at the Koenig family, "are restless. They've been watching old Christmas movies we brought with them. I can't wait to see them all at the celebrations."
"Neither can we," Helena replied.
After meeting a few more of the lucky families, especially Victor and his wife, a lovely woman from hydroponics, called Lisa, and their son, Nathan, the Koenig's returned to their bungalow. The small house was decorated in a mixture of styles and tastes from Helena and John, and there were rough-cut wooden sculptures, made by Koenig after he had decided to give it a whirl after being given the chance on this planet and found joy in it. The electrical heaters were working in conjunction with the fire, in warming up the house. The prefab was made to hold in heat.
Helena took Catherine and sat her down at the table, watching as John went to the decanter. "I can't wait for the feast in a couple of days," she said.
"I can't either, all of the other feasts have brought this community closer together. I like that," Koenig swilled down some of the local brandy, and he gasped and smacked his lips at the fiery taste.
-8-
The day before the feast, everyone was busy setting up the decorations. On Christmas Eve, the children and the adults were treated to watching some of the best Christmas movies the Alphans had available. There was also a bonfire party, and there was also a Christmas play for the children, with some adults dressed in ridiculous but colourful costumes. It worked in entertaining the children perfectly.
Some of the children had been roped in to play some of the characters; in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Sandra played Snow White while some of the kids played the dwarves, making them laugh. This was one of the things Koenig and the others wanted, for the children to be immersed in the traditions and magic of Christmas, and to see this place as home.
Koenig laughed and cheered as his daughter played one of the characters. There she was, squealing with joy and delight as she was dressed in an outlandish costume, and he made sure to snap dozens of pictures of her, to embarrass her in the future.
-8-
Catherine loved her presents. She had been given several dolls made from the local cloths, and she had been given a new rattle and a picture book. But her favourite present was a small musical instrument like a guitar. Catherine loved music, and Koenig had learnt she had a thing for the guitar in general.
Later in the day, just around the evening, the feast was ready. The hunters of the Alphan community had worked for a long time to gather as much meat as possible from the local game; they had found birds like chickens, ducks, geese, swans, pheasants, and turkeys, but they had also found herds of animals like reindeer and buffalo, and they had spent some time hunting and killing them while capturing enough of them for their milk, eggs, and whatever they needed. They'd found this world's version of sheep and had adopted the old methods of gathering their wool to make clothes, and there were plans already to refine the wool and mass-produce jumpers, scarves, hats and gloves.
In the meantime, everyone was still using the resources they'd brought from Alpha before the moon had left orbit, and gone on off to heaven alone knew where.
Vegetables and fruit were also served up in bowls and old concentrate cubes were being washed down with the local ales and brandy they'd recently made.
As they ate and made merry, the Alphans celebrated their first Christmas on their new world, laying down the traditions that would allow it to be celebrated forever.