Happy Solstice, Ben Merasska!

[Shuvin Undhi]

The Planet Pantora

“...And conditions will only be getting worse folks. As you can see, this high and this low will be creating something like a transport's nightmare: all sky traffic will be grounded while the upper atmosphere continues to experience wildly violent swells and windstorms. Again, if the satellites weren’t experiencing technical issues, or if the control towers weren't losing communication signals due to the loss of the antennae, this would have been simply another shaky take-off for most. Without them though, everyone must be grounded until the storm breaks.”

Most stories like this begin with the child. In this story, the child is sixteen year old Shuvin Undhi, a Togruta girl with a mischievous smile, by the lucky and completely coincidental fact that she is the youngest person involved in this tale.

Shuvin at the moment was ignoring the loud warbling voice of her captain while he swore at the radioman and while Cerie alternated between angry and amused, at the situation and at Ben respectively.

“...flown through tougher conditions back when I was training!”

Shuvin was completely focused on her task. Nothing could distract her. It was a critical mission; failure would be catastrophic, and just a moment's delay would mean —

“At least the snow will be nice,” Cerie’s voice drifted in during a lull in the cycle between the static-riddled radioman and Ben’s voices.

“Hm? Snow?” Shuvin perked up and left the open access panel and walked the few steps out of the reactor room and across the corridor into the galley. “There's gonna be snow?”

“Yes!” Ben exploded. Shuvin held back a laugh. Even when irritated like this Ben just could not intimidate her. “Snow! And they're grounding us for it! It's not that special!”

“Actually, I've never seen snow before,” Shuvin admitted. “I've only ever heard of it. I lived on the wrong part of the planet for snow when you found me.”

Ben quieted, and looked at Shuvin in consternation.

“Huh,” he said after a moment. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Shuvin said with a grin. “But what I mostly heard of it was when it was almost Winter Solstice. The Solstice specials would come on and I'd watch them all if I could. Teddy the Tan-Nosed Tauntaun, Miracle on Level 34, the Solstice Without a Father Harvest…”

She trailed off.

“I'd watch all these shows saying how getting presents and gifts wasn't the point of the Solstice, but the thankfulness for food and family and all that jazz.”

Ben frowned.

“I can't rail against anything anymore, can I?” He grumbled good-naturedly.

“Hey, whaddaya say we celebrate Solstice, since we're stuck here?” Shuvin asked. “You know, presents, cocoa, carols. The works!”

[Ben Merasska]

Ben looked up at the ceiling.

“I'm not trying to be a curmudgeon here Shuvin, but I don't know, we don't have a lot of creds to throw around…”

[Shuvin Undhi]

“Well, thinking about Solstice will keep your mind off the malfunctioning climate controls.”

Ben's expression became haggard and he slumped bonelessly against the countertop, before growling and stomping off to the reactor room.

“Karking climate controls? Now? It's not like I don't have a million other things I have to get fixed in here too!”

His voice grew louder as he started banging around in the reactor room, metallic crashes mixing with his rising voice while he shouted unprintable curses at not only the machine, but it's designer, the engineers who put it together, and various other unrelated people and things.

[Cerie Moreau]

The anger had easily shifted to amusement at the exchange between Ben and Shuvin, and as Ben had opted to retreat to the engine room, Cerie gave a crafty look to the young Togruta.

"Now that," she leveled a finger at the girl while slipping from her own seat, "... is a good idea."

The thought of Life Day festivities tickled her in such a way that... well, it'd bee a very long time since Life Day had been anything more than any other day during the 'colder' time of the year. Course, you go to Hoth and it was cold all year round; same with Pantora. In her estimation though, being on Pantora was just a happy accident. It made Life Day that much more special, like all those old songs extolling the need for snow and chilly weather.

"We can make decorations if you want; like how I used to make when I was little." She stood up straight, biting her lower lip in thought as she gave a look around.

"Can string them up in the doorways and everything."

[Shuvin Undhi]

"Yes! That's exactly what I was thinking!" Shuvin bounced around. "With little green leaves and red bows! And presents! And hot cocoa!"

Shuvin stopped.

"Cerie, we should go get hot cocoa. Like, now, yeah? Hey, Ben!"

Shuvin spun around.

"Yeah?" Ben shouted back from the reactor room.

"We're going to get hot cocoa and decorations! You find us a tree! Bye!"

Shuvin reached out to grab Cerie's hand and pulled her towards the cabins for their coats.

"What?"