For the Children
By
Susan Sizemore
“Negotiations are continuing.”
Daddy’s voice sounded calm from his chair across the room, but it was the kind of calm that made Marcie nervous. She stroked the head of her Multi Maia doll, and its hair began to grow and turn dark red, like Commander Levy’s.
“That’s all they ever say, sir.”
Commander Levy sounded angry. Marcie didn’t like that. Her daddy was Captain Remy Duchene, and people weren’t allowed to get angry at him. He could get angry, but he didn’t very often. He had a soft voice. A Laconic Drawl was how she’d overheard commander Levy describe it. Levy had been smiling when she said it, so Marcie knew it wasn’t an insult. Commander Levy was nice – mostly. She smiled at Daddy a lot when he wasn’t looking, and he smiled at her the same way. She let Marcie call her Dixie when she was off duty. Which she wasn’t now, and there was no smile in her voice. Marcie couldn’t see the Exec’s face, not from her spot on the floor.
Marcie looked up as Commander Levy paced close to her hiding place behind the potted plants. Marcie wasn’t actually hiding, she just liked being close to her father and his office had the best private places on all of Station Five. Marcie Duchene knew how to find good private places because she’d spent most of her eight years exploring the ships and bases and space stations where her father’s assignments took them. She thought she was going to like Station Five, though they’d only been here three weeks. She liked it because there were other kids on Five, lots of them. She hadn’t made any friends yet, but she intended to. After the Changers stopped saying awful things on the comchannels and took their ships away. She didn’t want to be too far from her daddy until then. He needed her.
So she’d come to his office today as soon as her lessons were over and settled with her dolls and reader in the spot behind the plants and under the viewscreen that showed too much dark and not enough stars. Station Five was on the farthest far edge of the Commonwealth with no planets or anything nearby. Ships were supposed to come and go from here a lot, but now there was a blockade and there wasn’t anything to see. Marcie guessed Station Five was important – or why would daddy be posted here as the new commandant?
“I don’t trust the diplomats,” Levy said, standing very near to where Marcie crouched. Marcie saw the Exec’s pretty dark-eyed face through the flowering arch of vines, but the Exec turned back to face Daddy before catching sight of Marcie.
“It isn’t our job to trust.” Daddy spoke to his second in command with the same patient tone he used when Marcie stubbornly knew she was right about something that he didn’t agree with. Marcie couldn’t help but smile at that, though she felt sorry for Commander Levy. “Our job is to wait for further orders.”
“And make contingency plans, sir.”
“What plans do you suggest, Commander? We both know that Five will be the first place hit when the talking stops. If,” he added firmly. “To send reinforcements would be seen as aggression by the Changers.”
“I’m all for aggression, sir.”
“Do you really want to start a war, Dixie?”
“No, sir. Of course not. The last thing a real soldier wants is to fight. But if there’s going to be war anyway…”
“It’s not a certainty. We have to believe our differences can be settled peaceably.”
“Do you believe it, Remy?”
Marcie had never heard Commander Levy use her father’s first name before. She wasn’t sure it was proper, or if she liked it. She waited for him to reprimand Commander Levy, but instead he said, “I try, Dixie. We have nowhere to go. I’ve already been told that an evacuation would be seen as a sign of weakness by the Changers. To evacuate would be sure to bring on an attack.”
“But the civilians. The children—”
“No one can leave. I have my orders on that.”
“Your own daughter—”
Marcie drew her knees up, and grasped her Maia doll closer with every tense word. It had turned green, with bumps on its head. She strained to hear her father’s voice, though he lowered it as he cut the commander off again.
“Marcella stays with me. We face whatever comes together.”
Marcie realized she’d been holding her breath as she let it out in a very quiet sigh of relief. She fought down the urge to run to Daddy, knowing she’d be sent away if he knew she was there. This was a private meeting, after all.
“Is that wise, sir?”
“No.” He laughed softly. “Wisdom – well, love isn’t always wise.”
“I'm not the maternal type," Commander Levy said after a long silence. "But I really do worry about the children. The base children, and those refugee children that were brought in on the last transport."
"You're right," Daddy said. "The children deserve better than to be around a lot of tense adults. Especially the orphans. Those children have had quite enough trauma in their lives."
Jealousy stabbed instantly through Marcie. I've had trauma too, she wanted to shout at him for daring to think about kids other than her. I could be an orphan. I don't have a mom! That's close, half an orphan – which made her sad to think about. She was an only child and knew she was spoiled -- and liked it that way. She hadn't met the refugee kids housed over in Vesper Tower, but she decided she hated them if Daddy was going to make a fuss over them when they weren't all that much different than her. What made them special?
"Then you'll authorize evacuation of the children, sir?"
"I can't do that. Don't ask again."
Commander Levy sighed. "Yes, sir."
Levy sounded weary and defeated, and Marcie wanted offer the Exec a reassuring hug. Worry shook through her, strong enough to make her forget hating the refugee kids, almost strong enough to make her come out of hiding and run to her daddy for a hug for herself. Discipline held, though. It was not her place to disturb Captain Duchene when he was on duty. And she couldn't tell him she was scared, because then he might send her away. No, wait. That's what he and Commander Levy were arguing about -- because he couldn't send kids away. Good. Marcie smiled, and Maia turned pink and pretty again, though the hair she sprouted was spiky and green.
“We do need to do something for the children.”
Marcie perked up at his bright tone. “Like what?” Commander Levy sounded skeptical. No, suspicious. She hadn’t known Daddy long, but she already knew how he could be when he sounded so very enthusiastic. “Why am I not reassured by that look, Remy? What are you going to stick me with?”
“That’s ‘What are you going to stick me with, sir’, Commander.”
“Yes, sir. I believe I implied that, sir.”
“What about Christmas?” he asked.
“What about it?”
Marcie almost popped up to ask the same question. Curiosity and excitement bubbled up in her. Maia went all red and white candy stripes, and her dress went red with fur trim. Christmas? Marcie hugged herself. She remembered Christmas!
“It’s Christmas time back on Earth.”
“Really?” Commander Levy questioned. She sounded cool and distant as she added, “I wouldn’t know about that, sir.”
“You’re not from Earth are you?”
“Among other things, sir.”
After a pause he added, sounding contrite. “Christmas is the holiday I know the most about. Most of the children on Station Five have never celebrated Earth holidays that are part of their human heritage.”
“I suppose you’re right, Captain, but what does Earth holidays have to do with the Changer crisis?”
“Nothing.” Marcie heard the smile in his voice. “That’s the beauty of it.”
“You’ve lost me. No, you never had me to begin with.”
“That would be a pity, Dixie.”
“What?”
“Never mind. Let’s concentrate on Christmas. Commander Levy, I am authorizing you to organize the celebration.”
“What celebration?”
“The one that we’ll use to keep the children calm and distracted while this Changer thing works out – one way or another.” Much of the enthusiasm left his voice when he said that.
“One way or another,” Dixie Levy repeated, equally grim.
“We might not be here a week from now,” Daddy said. Marcie jumped a little behind her plants at the bang as his hand slapped down on his desktop. “But by God the children of Station Five will have pleasure and good memories if they have nothing else in the rest of their short lives.”
“You want me to organize a party for the children?”
“No, Commander, I want much more than that. I want you to give them the time of their lives. Do whatever you have to. The resources of the station are at your disposal. Find out what you need, use who you need, and go for it!”
“Go – for – it?”
It was very hard for Marcie not to jump up and explain in the dense silence that followed Commander Levy’s puzzled question. She knew exactly what Daddy wanted, what had to be done. She looked at her Maia doll and silently mouth, ‘We’ll help her.’, and made Maia’s head nod enthusiastically.
###
“I do not believe I let him talk me into this.”
“I thought you said Captain Duchene ordered you to do this.”
“That’s true. But I have the sneaky feeling that man doesn’t actually have to ‘order’ me to do anything. All he has to do is talk to me for a while and I melt.”
Marcie didn’t understand why Lieutenant Sanders laughed, or why Commander Levy joined her. She wasn’t lurking, she was waiting at the corner on Level 18 nearest the station school. She wasn’t eavesdropping, the officers who were approaching were talking too loudly. Still, she thought she should make her presence known before some invisible line was crossed between quietly listening and being sneaky. She would not be accused of being a sneak.
Then the Executive Officer went on. “I mean it’s not like he’s the best looking man I’ve ever seen. Too skinny, and going bald, with big hands and feet – like a puppy. Got those big hound dog eyes and droopy sad sack face.”
Marcie stayed very still a few seconds longer behind the shelter of the corridor wall, listening curiously to the women talk about her father. The one thing she clearly understood was the affection in Dixie Levy’s voice. She liked Daddy. Somehow that made Marcie feel very good.
“It’s the voice,” Sanders said. “That New Orleans accent’s killer.”
“And when he smiles I just— Well, I’m trying not to think about it. This is no time to be attracted to a man.”
“This is the best time,” Sanders said. “Celebrate life while we have it, I say.”
“In the middle of a warzone?”
“The war hasn’t started yet. Yes, Dixie, I heard the newscasts last night, and I was at this morning’s briefing about the Changer ultimatum.”
“We could be dead in two days.”
“Maybe. You ain’t dead yet, Levy. Go for it, I say. Of course, he has a kid.”
“I like the kid.”
“Well, then—”
“I’m a career officer.”
“So’s Captain Duchene.”
“Yes. But—“ Commander Levy stopped speaking abruptly and blushed a little when Marcie stepped out from around the corner. “Hello, Marcella. And Maia,” she added as Marcie swung the doll gently by its currently long red hair. “I got your message,” Levy went on as Lieutenant Sanders backed up a few steps so that Marcie could walk next to Commander Levy.
Marcie liked it that Commander Levy took her by the hand without even seeming to notice she was doing it. They walked along the corridor toward the bridge that arched over the hydroponics park between Terce and Vespers. Commander Levy’s hand wasn’t particularly soft, but it was large and strong, and nice. Like Daddy’s hands.
“Thank you for volunteering to help, Marcella. I’m glad your father mentioned our plans to you. I can use all the help with Christmas I can get.”
“You’re welcome,” Marcie answered. She didn’t think it would be smart to explain that Daddy hadn’t exactly told her about organizing the celebration. “We talked about it all day in school. The orphans were in class today,” she added. “Caroline is my age. She hated being in quarantine for a whole two weeks. She says Daddy’s mean for making them stay isolated in Vespers all that time. I told her Daddy was only following standard procedure. Daddy isn’t mean.”
He’d been too worried last night to talk much. Oh, he’d tried to be cheerful. They’d read together and watched an interacvid where he’d let her save him from space dragons, but his attention had been elsewhere the whole time. She’d had to pretend to go to sleep while he read a storybook she’d outgrown a long time before to get him to leave her room. He needed his rest, too, after all. Only, he’d been up staring out the living room viewport with all the lights off when she’d gotten up to go to the bathroom hours later. The view from the big round window of their quarters showed the tall silver spikes of Matins and Lauds Towers and all that too empty space beyond. Marcie’d been almost scared to look into space herself, because she was worried there’d be Changer ships hanging out beyond the space station towers.
So, she’d looked at the lights in the towers across the way and made herself think about Christmas trees. “We need a Christmas tree,” she told Commander Levy now. “That’s the first thing you need.”
“We do?”
Marcie was remembering how Daddy tried to make her forget about being scared. She was thinking that it would be nice if there was someone who could make Daddy forget about worrying. She bet Mommy used to make everything all right. That was what mommies were for. She looked thoughtfully at the hand holding hers. Then she looked up at Commander Levy and said, “Why don’t you know anything about Christmas?”
“Oh, I know something about it,” Levy answered. “But we don’t celebrate the same holidays where I come from.”
“Neither do we,” Sanders chimed in from behind them. “My family’s Wiccan.”
“Really?” Levy asked. She smiled at the lieutenant. “That could prove useful.”
“I said I’d help you round up the kids—”
“What’s a Wiccan?” Marcie asked Lieutenant Sanders. But most of her attention was on Commander Levy. “Don’t you like Christmas, Dixie?”
“I don’t know that much about it, Marcie,” she answered. “Or about Wicca,” she added to Sanders. She laughed. “I don’t even remember that much about Hanukkah. I meant to look all of this stuff up last night, but then the news announcement came and – Well, we’ll manage, I guess,” she added with one of those trying to be reassuring smiles grownups had been giving kids all over Station Five lately.
The three of them walked on to the communal room on the other side of the bridge. “This is the largest public space on Station Five,” Sanders said. “Plenty of room for your party.”
“Big enough for huge tree,” Marcie said as she looked around. She slipped her hand out of the commander’s and ran around the room with Maia bouncing by her hair. The doll had stars in her hair by the time Marcie circled the huge open space, and Maia’s dress was dark green and belled out. “A Christmas tree looks like this,” Marcie said, standing Maia up on the short round table nearest to where Levy and Sanders stood. “See, Dixie?”
Dixie took the doll from her and studied it. She looked toward the center of the room. She sighed. “Yes, I see.” She glanced at Sanders. “I suppose Operations and Maintenance are already hard at work constructing something like a tree?”
Sanders grinned and nodded. “Engineering also volunteered their services. Everybody I’ve talked to is pretty enthusiastic about this.”
“I don’t get it.” She looked down at Marcie. “Do you get it, kid?”
Marcie nodded, and spun happily around until she was dizzy. “Christmas! Christmas! Christmas!”
She just barely heard Dixie Levy mutter indulgently, “I guess it does keep their minds occupied,” over her own enthusiastic babbling.
Then Marcie got herself under control. She was here on assignment. She was a Duchene, and Duty came first. There were work crews to deploy, assignments to be assigned. “What about presents?” she asked Commander Levy. “And cookies? Hot chocolate? Christmas stockings? Carols? Christmas cards? And decorations? Someone to pretend to be Santa Claus? Daddy’s too skinny. We need an angel for the top of the tree.”
“A Yule log,” Sanders said. “And mistletoe. We Wiccans need our mistletoe.”
“For Christmas?” Levy looked terribly confused.
“For Solstice,” Sanders explained. “We celebrate Winter Solstice around the same time as Christmas.”
Levy scratched her jaw. “Solstice? I see. No, I don’t. I’ve never been much for holidays. I don’t get the fuss about any of them. Still, the captain did say—”
“Excuse me, Commander?” a man’s voice cut in before she could finish. “I was told I could find you here.”
Marcie turned to look at a trio of newcomers. The man who’s spoken was slender and had a shiny bald head. He wore an orange robe and a polite, gentle expression. She didn’t know him, but she recognized the little round woman in the brown dress. That was her teacher, Sister Angela. Her order had built Station Five as one of their convent outposts before the Commonwealth took it over as a military base. Dr. Agrawal was with them. He smiled at Marcie, who smiled back politely.
“I am Lama Rinpoche,” the man in orange said. “A passenger on one of the ships in Docking Bay C.” He didn’t sound resentful, which was the tone Marcie was used to hearing from the civilians lately. No ships were being allowed to arrive or depart Base Five since the Changer trouble started. The people from the civilian ships didn’t like it, and they were always sending people to Daddy’s office to complain.
Commander Levy looked surprised at Lama Rinpoche’s mild tone, too. Her gaze flicked from Sister Angela to Dr. Agrawal, before she focused on the stranger again. She gave him a cautious nod, and her eyes were expressionless when she said, “Yes?”
“There is a great deal of concern and hostility among the trading ship crews, Commander. A feeling of being shunned, ignored by Commonwealth authorities, even threatened. There is fear of war, of course, but many also feel imprisoned and helpless. There is a rumor in Docking Bay C that I’ve been asked to have you confirm or deny. It’s about—”
“It’s unfair, you know,” Sister Angela cut in. “First you take our home and now you’re co-opting our religious holiday, no doubt for some military purpose.” She crossed her arms and looked stern. “Well, we won’t have it this time. Not with Christmas!”
“And what about Diwali?” Dr. Agrawal demanded. “What are you going to do about Diwali, Commander Levy?”
But before she could answer another pair of people entered the room and came forward. Both of them spoke at once.
“This is offensive,” the man in the black turban said. “It is clearly written that this is the time of the—”
“And what about Mithra’s birthday? Why is it that Persian beliefs are always ignored?” asked the man in the floppy red hat.
“Wait a minute.” Commander Levy held up her hands for quiet, but people started arguing among themselves instead of listening to her.
In a couple of seconds, a woman in a veil came hurrying in and joined the crowd. Three more people showed up before Marcie decided Daddy needed to know about all the riot and ran of to find him.
“Sorry about this, sir.”
Daddy still held Marcie’s hand when he took Commander Levy by the arm and drew her away from the crowd.
“Maybe Marcella shouldn’t be here,” Commander Levy said as they moved back and the security people and the crisis intervention specialist Daddy’d brought with him moved into the shouting crowd.
“Of course Marcie’s safe here,” Daddy said. “She’s with me.”
Levy smiled, then glanced back. “I doubt it’s going to turn violent, but they’re all very angry. My fault, sir,” she added. “I’ve never let a situation escalate like this before. In trying to plan a children’s party I misunderstood the importance people give to their ethnic traditions.”
Marcie was proud of Commander Levy for not making any excuses. She thought Levy was a very good officer, and Marcie knew Daddy thought so too when he said, “I made that mistake first, Dixie.” He glanced at the crowd of people that occupied the center of the huge circular room. “All right, people,” he said, stepping briskly forward. “Let’s discuss what’s really bothering all of us, shall we?”
Nobody spoke while he picked Marcie up and set her down on one of the tables. Her legs dangled and she clasped Maia tightly to her chest. Marcie didn’t pay much attention to the doll. She was much more aware of the warm feeling that went through her when Commander Levy put her arm around her shoulder. They watched Daddy together.
He didn’t actually give anyone a chance to discuss anything. He was good at that. “The real problem is fear,” he told all those watching people. “>From what my daughter told me you all came here today to protest that you were getting no respect, that no one cared about your faiths, beliefs and feelings. That you have the impression the history and customs of your people meant nothing to the rest of us. That we were having a party and you weren’t invited. You weren’t s...
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