December 2029. Two months after Terri and Ferris’ engagement party (Ed: Sediment Terri #4)

Kimona brushed the flakes of pastry off from the chest of her red dress. It was a festive rouge sleeveless number which stopped just before her knees. She wore dark tights and a clashing cobalt blue heel. She walked over to the buffet table scrunching up her napkin for the bin.

The Secretary had organised a Christmas party which had been set up in the conference room at The Facility. The main group of Enhanceds were there, along with the staff and technicians that work behind the scenes. Kids were running around playing skittles and Christmas music played softly in the background. A long table had been erected, adjourned with a festive table cloth and dozens of platters arranged and displaying a whole selection of festive bite sized party food.

Blane and Ferris were hovering over near the savoury end of the table where Blane was emptying the contents of his mouth back into his hand.

Kimona looked at him grossed out. “Urgh, what was that?” she asked, pointing to the chewed mass being transferred into a napkin.

“One of the vole-or-vent.”

“It’s pronounced ‘vol-au-vent’ mate,” Ferris corrected, laughing. “I think you had the prawn one.”

“I won’t be making that mistake again then. Woah,” Blane said, swigging down some red wine from a clear plastic cup.

“I have to tell you, I absolutely adored mince pies at Christmas time. I loved them back in ‘my day’, but you just don’t find them here. Like, what do you even eat at Christmas if you’re not knocking down a mince pie or two?” Kimona said, sighing dreamily as she remembered the joy of mince pies.

“Nah, they’re not for me. They always sounded weird to me,” replied Ferris.

“What do kids leave out for Father Christmas over here then?” asked Kimona.

“Cookies and a glass of milk. Some carrots for the reindeer,” Ferris answered.

Brad joined the group, having escaped his conversation with Effie and the Secretary. “God please save me from having to endure more of that conversation,” he whispered under his breath, leaning over for a slice of cold pizza. “What are you guys talking about?”

“The different things that get left out for Father Christmas on both sides of the pond,” Ferris explained.

“Wait sorry, what is a Father Christmas?” Blane asked, visibly confused. Blane and his siblings, Holt and Mindy, had only been on this particular Earth for a short time and this was the first time they have come across the tradition of Christmas.

Kimona’s eyes lit up and Brad nodded, allowing Kimona to go ahead and continue. “Simply put- he’s this big, jolly old man with a long white beard in a red suit who during the night of Christmas Eve every year, travels across the world in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, going down the chimneys of houses giving presents to children.” she explained.

Blane frowned. “Wait... huh? A man does what? You’re telling me that one man gives presents to every child on this planet in one night? With reindeer? What are reindeer?”

“Well, that’s the story children grow up being told by their parents anyway. He supposedly only gives presents to children who have been well behaved. Naughty children get coal,” she continued.

“Ohhhh. So a story. There isn’t actually a guy?” Blane clarified, his confusion easing.

“No,” chuckled Kimona, enjoying the rollercoaster of confusion Blane was going through. “But it’s cute and magical. Kids love it. Parents do as well, as it gets them to behave.” Kimona looked up and saw Brad smiling to himself, shaking his head slightly as he listened. “What are you smiling at?” she asked.

“Oh no, nothing. Don’t worry,” he dismissed.

“No, go on.”

“Well, just you thinking that there’s no guy- that Father Christmas is just a story. I can’t blame you though. You've been missing for ninety years.”

Kimona laughed. “Oh come on, I can’t be the first person to be telling you that the jolly guy isn’t actually real? I know I was a kid a hundred years or so ago, but things haven’t changed that much when it comes to Christmas.”

“He’s real alright, Kimona. Believe me. And maybe one year, you’ll see for yourself.”

Blane, Ferris, Kimona and Brad exchanged quiet looks, Kimona suspicious of Brad’s level of sobriety.

“Is this the mulled wine talking Brad?” she mocked.

“I’ve only had one,” he responded, winking. Kimona looked at Ferris, who just gestured as if to say ‘don’t look at me!’

***

Christmas Eve, the next year. 2030.

Kimona looked up from her spot on the sofa, opposite the roaring fire. Mindy and Holt had returned from their walk, quickly closing the door behind them to keep the cold out. Or the warmth in.

Kimona, The Power of Three, and Do’Lânqwa with boys Ta’Balshén and Wo’Trendsont had booked a beautiful five bedroom wooden cabin in Gatlinburg, Tennessee to spend Christmas altogether. It had been a difficult year and this was the first proper opportunity to experience the Christmas traditions independently, they decided to spend the time together and create their own. As a sort of family of misfits.

The area was great for skiing and it was the first real snow that the other worldly members had been able to experience since their arrival. It was long overdue. Whilst the group were happy to be taking some time out together, and the children were excited for Christmas having learnt about present receiving, there was still a sombre atmosphere that hung in the ambience.

From the front door, the cabin opened up to a large double height, open plan living space. The front of the cabin was mostly glass window, showcasing the breath-taking views from its position on the mountain. There was a fire on the left, which Kimona had settled in front of and at the back of the room was the wide kitchen and dining area. There was a wooden staircase that led to the mezzanine where the bedrooms were situated. Downstairs was a basement with a games room and indoor pool where the boys were spending most of their time when they weren’t outside playing.

“How’d you get on?” Kimona asked the returning walkers.

“Oh, it’s sooo lovely outside Kimmy. I can’t get over it. The snow is deep and it’s just so good to get out. How's your evening been?” Mindy asked.

“Relaxed. I'm just losing myself in the fire.”

Blane came down the stairs in just some basketball shorts and a beanie hat. “Brad’s on the line,” he announced, tossing the baseball sized holographic sphere to Kimona who caught it effortlessly. She twisted it which activated a live projection of Brad’s head and shoulders.

“Merry Christmas everyone!” he said to everyone.

“Merry Christmas back at ya!” they all called out.

“What are you up to?” Kimona asked.

“Well we were just prepping the veg for tomorrow when I got called out for a job. And when I heard the details, I thought of you straightaway!” He smiled. “What do you say?”

Kimona sighed, torn between being reluctant to have to leave the cabin and spoil her break, but also not wanting to ignore coming to someone’s aide. Brad sensed her hesitation. “Trust me, you’ll want to join me for this one. Are the children asleep?”

“Yeah, they went up an hour ago,” Blane chipped in, sitting on the arm of the sofa.

“Ok. Well it’s Father Christmas who needs our help,” he announced, dead pan.

Kimona had a flash back to her conversation with Brad last year at the Collective’s Christmas party where he tried having her on over Father Christmas’ existence. That’s why he probably thought of her straightaway. He probably thought he’d have another go.

“Have you been on the eggnog?” she asked. But then she noticed he was in his jumpsuit.

“Ew, no way. Look, can you get airborne and head for Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada? Ferris is in Europe with Terri for Christmas, so it’s me who got the call. You don’t have to of course, I’ve got this... but I just thought you’d want to see this. See what Christmas is really all about.”

“Ok I’ll come. Are you able to get me because we drove here.”

“Errr Kim, you’ve got three of us here who can out fly any jet you humans use to get around.” Holt reminded her. “We can get you there.”

“I was about to sit on the toilet, so count me out,” Blane interrupted. The girls gave him a disgusted look down their noses.

“Well, Mindy and I will go with you then,” Holt said.

“Good, I’ll meet you there,” Brad said, before he signed off the call and his holograph blinked off.

***

Mindy, Holt and Kimona touched down in the midst of some dense snow covered forest. They had circled around for a bit before seeing Brad’s Eagle-One jet come into view and followed it down.

“You’re lucky we weren’t racing,” Mindy teased as Brad disembarked and joined them in the moonlight.

He made a playful show of ignoring her. “Good to see you. It’s just a short walk up here. I’ll fill you in on the way.” He indicated the direction and started walking off.

“I’m just going to dump a load of information on you, but there’s no other way to tell you what you need to know,” he warned. “An alert came through from the NoPo-SRART, which stands for North Pole Santa Rescue and Response Team, reporting a downed Santa at this location we’re heading up to, and they couldn’t get to as quick as we could.”

“You said ‘a downed Santa’? Not the Santa?” Holt commented.

“Very perceptive, 10 points for the good listener,” Brad joked. “We are going to the aide of one of St Nick’s clones.”

“Who is St Nick now?” Holt asked.

“St Nick is just another name for Santa right?” Kimona clarified.

"Who is also called Father Christmas?" Holt asked again with a furrowed brow.

“St Nick, St Nicholas, is the Santa. The original ‘Father Christmas’. The one and only. St Nick is one of the oldest beings on Earth, and is in fact one of us. An Enhanced. An immortal with the ability to create enough clones of himself to be able to get around the globe delivering presents. He remains back at the North Pole under armed guard while the clones go out. Fun, eh?” he marvelled.

He was taking great joy in explaining this, and in doing so, proving Kimona wrong. Although, it wasn’t that he wanted to go out of his way to prove she was wrong, it was more wanting to show that there is a magical truth behind what she thought was essentially a myth. “Up here will be a downed sleigh, be on the lookout.”

“I didn’t see anything from above before we landed,” Mindy said.

“Invisibility cloaking. That’s also why you didn’t see any in the sky whilst you were flying over here.”

“So how will we know if we’re close to the sleigh?” Kimona asked. "How can we be on the look out for something invisible?"

“Tracks, of course. Like these ones,” he said, pointing to two tram lines that crossed their path ten metres ahead of them. “We’ll split up. Mindy and I will go left, Kim and Holt, you two go right. If we see anything, let the other group know. Especially if it’s you two. I’ve got a code word that we need to use to engage with the clone. And then I’ll finish explaining all the cool stuff later.”

“Great, because my curiosity keeps growing,” muttered Kimona.

“So it says here that St Nicholas was born in the year 270, and supposedly, according to this NatGeo website, entered an inn whose keeper had just murdered three boys and pickled their bodies in the basement. St Nicholas then resurrected the kids, and that’s what made him the patron saint of children,” Holt read from his phone as he and Kimona followed the sleigh tracks. “He’d be 1760 years old, and he’s sat in the North Pole right now!” They’d been following the tracks for around a hundred metres, and they hadn’t come across anything that resembled an invisible crashed sleigh.

“I’m hoping Brad’s going to take us to see him. I need to see it for myself now,” Kimona hoped.

Her phone started ringing. It was Brad. She answered it, putting it on speaker phone. “We got it guys, follow the tracks back the other way. We’re about hundred metres from where we left each other,” and he hung up.

Holt wrapped his arm around Kimona under her arms and he took off, speedily flying to join the others.

When they arrived, Holt put a thankful Kimona down. Being underwater for long periods of time, she was happy with. Being flown around in the bare breeze at the speeds the triplets could reach, she was still getting used to.

It definitely looked like something had crashed at the end of the tracks, but it looked like there was nothing there.

“Jeg er ikke på den frække liste,” Brad stated, saying the codeword required. Kimona shrugged at Mindy.

The hidden sleigh instantly appeared, the cloaking deactivating and revealing a bashed and beaten sleigh, along with the eight reindeer. One of the reindeer was wounded and laid out on the floor.

Turning to his friends, Brad said seriously, “keep an eye out on our surroundings. Whatever caused it to crash could still be closing in on us.”

A Father Christmas appeared from the sleigh, still wary of his surroundings, but relaxed in the knowledge that the codeword was used which meant he was dealing with friendlies.

Kimona was impressed- he looked exactly as he did in the mainstream pop culture media, but knowing he was just a replication of the real thing, and seeing him holding a Steyr AUG Para submachine gun took away a part of the magic.

“Brad, why does he have a gun?” Kimona whispered. He shot her a look that said ‘not now.’

He was working now.

To be continued in Part 2 tomorrow...