They're sending me a present?

The Yule season, for me, has always been more about spending time with friends and family and exchanging gifts than anything else. I know there are quite a few deeply held religious traditions tied to the season, but the key word there is Season. The oldest traditions I've seen in the texts all revolve around the Winter Solstice on Earth that Was, which were only relevant in the Northern hemisphere. Perhaps more important, they were only relevant in Winter, in the Northern Hemisphere, on Earth that Was. Even with the massive scale geoengineering and terraforming projects made so many worlds in the 34 Tauri system habitable, the seasons on any given world rarely matched the old Earth calendar.

Which doesn't actually change most of the religious beliefs associated with calendar dates, or the calendar traditions of getting together with friends and giving each other presents. It's just that "Yule" and "Winter" don't coincide for a large fraction of the people in the verse.

Some of the folk I knew have already started exchanging presents. Lily gave me a pair of hand made mittens, and I got some lovely jewelry from Gray. Quite the surprise that, but much appreciated. There's others, of course. Like the set of custom machined extended fifty cal mags Genni Foxtrot gave me. Which, while quite practical, just shows how well we've come to know each other.

It's the ones you never expect that give you pause. Like when your Commanding Officer sends you a wave to tell you he's "sending you a present."

"I trust you're well, Lieutenant Colonel," Taggart started. Semi formal, which always meant he had something 'special' to talk about.

"Of course, General Taggart, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Respond in kind, of course. I was actually a little curious. We spoke usually once a week over a secure link. Keeping each other appraised of developments above and below each other's respective pay grades.

"I've been looking at your situation reports. All good. Just a little uncomfortable with nesting your operation on a civilian station."

He was right, of course. While I had multiple levels of control over the station and could isolate my own office and communications stack from the KHI operations, there was still a lot of civilian traffic. Someone was going to notice something. I'd noted it myself, but there weren't a lot of options available to me. The surface might be a little easier to secure, but there wasn't a ready made facility I could repurpose to my needs. Not since my needs had grown past what I could easily shoehorn into a safehouse.

"I've got a solution for you," he went on. Maneuvering closer to the point of the wave. "You're familiar with the Kamkamoss class Corvette?"

I was, actually. The Kamkamoss class was a dedicated ELINT ship. The hulls and drive sections were built by Kawanishi Heavy Industries, while the ELINT surveillance and Communications suites were sourced from several very specialized vendors. The Kamkamoss was as hard to spot as an ELINT Matagi, but carried a good deal more kit. The difference between a large lander and a small warship.

"IAV Saule Silencieuse has just finished her shakedown cruise, Sea. Hull number four. I'm sending her to you. Crew's still getting sorted out, but her mission will be under your control. She'll augment the capacity you've already got in place there and will give you a lot more capability than that little Matagi of yours can muster. Details are inbound with the next secure update."

"Thank you, General. This is . . . unexpected." Which was an understatement. While it wasn't unprecedented for a sector chief to have access to an asset like this, they were usually deployed as needed with a self contained crew. The section chief would request the asset and get it only if Command felt it was justified. Then, the asset would remain under her captain's control. They'd execute the mission and move on to the next. To put one of these boats under my direct control?

Completely unexpected.

"Thought you'd like that. She's technically a district asset. You'll have to deal with requests from other commands, but her Captain'll be direct report to you."

"Thank you, General. Don't know what to say."

Taggart chuckled softly, a warm smile on the screen. "Merry Christmas, Seana. "

"Thank you, Tag. And you."

Yup.

Completely unexpected.