Luna
“Welcome to the Augmented Reality Simulation Environment!” I announce proudly while opening the door to the special room Khephren created with his mad programming skills.
Gemma looks around in confusion. “What is this place?”
On initial glance, I will admit, it isn’t terribly exciting. The large room is, in fact, empty and entirely white—and on the surface might seem boring as fuck. But looks can be deceiving; this place provides experiences that will knock your socks off, all through the wonders of advanced technology. The source of all the magic, a compact computer terminal, is mounted on the wall and serves as the mainframe that runs the different program simulations.
I clear my throat and wave a tentacle with a flourish. “Ahem. Think of this as an immersive virtual reality experience that’s light-years ahead of those you may have experienced on Earth.” I lead her over to the mainframe, where I type in my access code and then pull up the program I worked on with Khephren to create my surprise gift for Gemma.
If my tentacles could sweat, they would be doing so right about now. Despite my bravado, I’m stupidly nervous aboutshowing this to Gemma, worried that I maybe went way too cheesy with this plan.Too late now!
As I tap the last command button, the white walls around us disappear, and we’re standing on the sidewalk of a small town decked out in Christmas holiday decorations.
It’s visually reminiscent of many a quaint setting in a Hallmark Christmas romance movie, but with a little twist I’ve added just for us. Gemma gapes, blinking furiously as she tries to adjust to the sudden transformation of the room. She turns to me, face slack with amazement.
“Oh, my fucking god. You have a holodeck on your ship!”
That makes me laugh. “Funnily enough, that’s exactly what Sasha said the first time he came in here. From everything he’s told us about that fictional room on the Enterprise, the Augmented Reality Simulation Environment is quite similar.”
Gemma smirks at me. “Augmented Reality Simulation Environment, huh? You are aware, I hope, that such a name has a somewhat unfortunate acronym.”
I wince. “Sasha also pointed this out to us when he first arrived on the ship, but Khephren stubbornly refuses to change the name of his creation. It’s kind of his baby.”
“Leave it to a man to be fixated on asses,” Gemma says dryly, rolling her eyes.
We high-five one another in total understanding.
Gemma looks around again, whistling. “You weren’t joking about loving Hallmark Christmas movies, were you?”
My cheeks warm. “Too cheesy?”
“Nah, it’s kind of sweet.” She winks. “And I happen to like cheesy.”
My tentacles shimmy happily and those butterflies in my stomach are back.
I hurry to explain things. “Those movies certainly gave me a lot of inspiration in creating this scenario for us. Of course,I didn’t design it entirely by myself. I had a lot of help from Khephren since he’s our master programmer on the ship, but I chose all the details of the town.”
Gemma’s lips twitch. “I see. So that’s why this is an intergalactic Sapphic Solstice Winter Wonderland?”
Heh. That was my signature touch. All around us, walking along the sidewalks and going in and out of stores on the Main Street, are women couples, some of them human, some of them extraterrestrial. There are also quite a few interspecies pairings. I’ve never been one for subtlety, after all.
“I went for the lesbian Christmas utopia angle,” I admit.
Gemma chuckles and links her arm through mine. “I’m totally on board for that. Show me around and let’s enjoy ourselves.”
We stroll arm in arm down the Main Street, enjoying the immaculate Christmas displays in a couple of the storefront windows—a particular feature I have often enjoyed in human Christmas movies and wanted to replicate here. There are two that stand out most for me. One contains an elaborate Nutcracker-themed display while another uses the setting of the North Pole to imagine Santa’s workshop, featuring the elf helpers and their toys, Santa’s sleigh, and the eight reindeer. Even I’m impressed by how well they turned out. The realism is uncanny.
Note to self: Share my Christmas candy with Kheph to thank him.
We turn down a side street in the town and find a Christmas market in full swing. Gemma’s blue eyes sparkle with excitement as she drags me along to explore the different booths. Eventually, we stop at The Celestial Cocoa Cart run by a blue-skinned alien with a matching feathery mohawk that trails down her back.
“Welcome to our cart! I’m Zeema and this is my wife, Nala,” she says, gesturing toward a lizard woman with shiny red scales all over her skin.
“Merry Christmas to you both. Would you like to try some of our cocoa?” Nala asks.
“Merry Christmas to you too. We’d love to,” Gemma agrees gamely.
Zeema prepares our disposable cups and serves us piping hot cocoa with marshmallows on top that shift to form different constellation patterns on the surface of the liquid.
