A Lacson Family Christmas, Part 1
31 Dec 2022Ember Lacson
While Nicole and I were chilling aboard Hutton Orbital, we joked about having Christmas aboard the station and forcing our families to load up and travel all the way out there. But we were about as serious about that as the promise of a free Anaconda for making the trip. A few days ago, my dad's brother Rogier called me up and invited me to join the rest of the family at his vineyard for Christmas. I agreed with the proviso that I could bring Nicole along. He said of course, so we loaded up on mugs and gin to hand out as gifts and headed back to the Morningstar. But we didn't leave before meeting Ellie Wineman and her parents, the whole reason we went to Hutton in the first place. Sweet girl. I think she's going to make a hell of a pilot one day.Turns out, when I asked if I could bring Nicole along, Uncle Rogier decided to call up the Wolffs and invite them along as well. (He had already invited my parents.) I thought getting even a box of mugs and a box of gin planetside would suck, logistically speaking, since none of my ships are rated for dense atmospheric flight. But when I called up Uncle Rogier for recommendations, he just said to haul it to Abraham Lincoln and he would pick us all up. So, that's what we did.
We did meet with Rogier briefly last month, though not at his vineyard, so it wasn't like we hadn't seen him in years. But when he met us in the concourse he gave us a huge hug as if that were the case. We didn't spend a whole lot of time with pleasantries, and we loaded up the pallet of gifts and headed down to the surface. The family vineyard is on eight hectares of land in the heart of Napa Valley, California's premier wine country for over 1300 years. They don't get much snow, but on the bright side, they don't have to worry about sub-zero temperatures as often. And if we wanted to go have fun in the snow, the Sierra Nevada mountains were just a couple hours away.
We had a nice reunion with everyone once we arrived. I hadn't seen the Wolffs in about five years, and I hadn't seen my parents in two, and we shared hugs all around. While Uncle Rogier was picking us up, Aunt Erin, my cousin August, and his wife Melody had finished making preparations for dinner. The food was ready to eat, the table was set, and the presents were wrapped. All that was left to do before we ate was for Nicole and me to settle into our bungalow. Just one. At her insistence. Much to her parents' chagrin. This was the first sign that things weren't going to be as problem free as I thought.
Rogier offered to set up two anyway to keep the peace. After all, there were a dozen on the property and only a few were in use since they were closed for the holidays. I gave my assent to the plan, but Nicole again refused. She insisted she was an adult and needed the freedom to make adult decisions. They conceded, but it set a sort of fog in the air. It cleared a bit as everyone started passing the food and wine around, but it took another turn when Rogier offered to have us all stay long term due to the war.
He explained that most of their guests had dried up due to the looming threat, but their cash reserves were fine and people were still buying wine, so there would be no need to have the income stream from the bungalows. But I had to decline. I explained that I had a sense of duty to the people living under immediate threat, and I said that Earth wouldn't be safe forever if people like Nicole and me weren't on the front lines doing not just humanitarian work but fighting the enemy as well. I said that every day we stayed was one more day that the Thargoids might gain ground. I think it was a pretty good speech. But what I had forgotten was the fact that nobody at the table knew I was doing AX work. Most of them didn't even know I had this logbook. Uncle Rogier seemed to understand, but it came as a shock to my parents, and Nicole's mother was livid.
She demanded to know what I meant by "the front lines," to which Nicole answered with the admission that we had been on the front lines for about five months, starting in HIP 22460. She said that I had saved her life, first at the Varian Scott, and then after the Proteus Wave went off. I have never seen a woman as angry as Mrs. Wolff when she learned her daughter was in system during that fiasco. I thought she was going to leave her seat to strangle me, but she left to powder her nose instead. Rogier took control of the situation and said we were welcome to fight on our own time, but there would be no further animosity at his table. At this, Nicole said she understood before getting up to take a few moments of her own. Aunt Erin got up either to head Nicole off at the pass or to protect her from her mother. I apologized for it, but he told me it wasn't my fault and no apology was necessary. He thanked me for my service and asked how many people I'd evacuated from burning stations. I had to check my records, but I confirmed the number to be 7,316 so far with many more in the future. Those left at the table applauded my efforts, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth to know that my girlfriend and her mother were at loggerheads over everything she had been doing with me.
Anneliese Wolff is a good woman, don't get me wrong. But she had always wanted a less dangerous life for her only child. I understand her reaction to hearing that I wasn't just putting myself in harm's way. And she did blame me for it. Eventually both of them returned to the table and tried to maintain an atmosphere of civility. Aunt Erin must have given them a come-to-Jesus talk, complete with manager voice. But Mrs. Wolff still had a little bit too much wine that night, and she confronted me in the den after Nicole had gone to bed.
She started by saying that she just wanted to talk, and she wasn't there to lecture me. I knew that was a lie, but as the man of the relationship I needed to confront my future mother-in-law head on. Once she knew I wasn't going to take off, she lit into me. "I just want to know what right you have to my little girl," she said, "to drag her with you all over the galaxy, to put her within spitting distance of a genocidal alien menace, to take her to bed with you without so much as a ring...." She shook her head and sighed. "She was destined for so much. But she will never achieve it all as long as you have her...chasing you."
"Well, it's been a few years," I said, "so can you remind me what she was destined for?"
"To be a mover and a shaker," she said. "To make a difference in this galaxy. To be somebody, not some...pilot's wife."
"Well, you may have been her mother," I said, "but I've been her friend for years. She used to talk for hours about flying starships, seeing the far reaches of the galaxy. This is exactly the kind of derring-do she's always dreamed of. I'm the only one who's ever believed in that dream for her. I fronted the cash for her Sidewinder. She's the one who approached me about a taste of AX combat. She's the one who initiated this relationship. She's the one who crawled into bed with me. Sure, when we met Princess Aisling for the first time, we had stars in our eyes, but when we went to her gala neither one of us really enjoyed it." The mention of Aisling Duval piqued her interest, but then her expression went back to general upset. "Could it possibly be that this is the life she wants, not to be some rich bitch noble kissing Imperial ass just to knock a tiny chip off the whole corrupt superstructure?"
She scoffed and shook her head. "And how do you know what she wants? You've been chasing her for twenty years and she's never wanted you. I remember when you were this tall and you were just getting interested in girls. She told me you had a crush on her. I asked her if she had one on you and she said no. I said it's okay; you can still be friends. You never stopped chasing her. She never started liking you in that way. How long have you been dating?"
"Since the end of July, I guess. After the conflict zone incident."
"Ah, when you saved her life after nearly bringing it to an end." She nodded sarcastically and took another sip of wine. "And when did she...'crawl into bed with you?'"
"None of your business," I said.
"No doubt, it was after the second time you nearly killed her when the Wave went off."
"For your information, we were both having nightmares. Just sleeping. Fully clothed. But she wanted to be there that day. We both did."
"So, every escalation came after a major traumatic event," she said. "It's obvious what's going on. She owes you her life. And she's putting her own aspirations aside to be in your shadow. She's too pretty for you anyway."
"That hurt, Mrs. Wolff," I said as she took another sip of wine.
"Don't patronize me, Ember."
A few seconds later her husband Jonathan entered the room and said, "Anneliese, there you are. I've been looking all over the house for you." I turned to face him, and when he saw my sour expression, he took a slow look at her and asked, "What's going on, darling?"
"Don't worry about it," I said.
"Just having a chat about our daughter," she said flippantly.
He looked at the glass in her hand, then to me, and he said, "I don't know what she told you, but don't take it to heart. She's had a little too much wine and is saying things she doesn't mean."
"I'm pretty sure I did," she replied. She held her glass up. "The Elixir of Truth."
He stepped up to her and held out his hand. "Give it over, love," he said. "I'm not asking. I'm cutting you off." She grudgingly handed him the glass. "Off to bed, darling." As she walked away, he finished the contents and sighed in exasperation. "I'm so sorry this night didn't turn out so well. I'd stay and talk it out with you, but I have to take care of my wife. This has been in the crockpot for a while."
"Has it?"
"Ever since she got that Sidewinder."
"So it is my fault," I said.
He shook his head. "No, Ember. Nicole begged us for the money. I wanted to at least help her, but...the budget is a decision for both of us to make, and there was no way she was going to agree. She doesn't like that her baby chick has flown the nest." He patted me on the shoulder. "It'll work out. Sleep well, son."
That was the first time he had called me "son." I don't know if it was a sign of approval for the relationship or just a generic use of the word, but I'd like to think it was the former. I found my parents in the dining room still talking with Rogier and Erin, and I said goodnight. Mom asked if something was wrong, and I said I didn't feel like talking about it right then. It probably would have done me good to stay and talk a little, but I was drained. A woman I had always looked up to had dressed me down in a way that played directly to my deepest insecurities, and they came rushing back in full force.
This one is getting a little long, so next entry I'll get into the reason Nicole is still on Earth without a ship, while I'm back on the Morningstar and spending New Year's Eve alone. Again.