Originally posted 12/24/07Last year I wrote a holiday letter from Aeryn to Crichton family friends (
Dear Friends), and I thought I'd do an update for the new cycle. However, Aeryn didn't cooperate, and I ended up with a new author!
Rating: G
Setting: About 5 cycles after PKW
Spoilers: Through PKW
Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my universe, no money being made, and no disrespect intended....
This is basically an unbetaed piece of fluff for the holidays, but MadScientist did give it a once-over for me. Thanks, sweetie!
Hi, All!
It's John here, and it's time for the second annual Mid-Winter Purification Rite letter from the Sun-Crichton family. I suppose right now you're wondering why I’m writing this year instead of Aeryn. Well, you know, these things happen. She was staring at the data pad and grousing about not knowing what to write, and I said, "How hard can it be?" and....well, here I am! (There, that's gotta be at least 100 words, right, honey?)
Okay, seriously, it's amazing how fast a cycle goes by. The kids are growing like the proverbial weeds. Little D is five now, and has announced that he's no longer, "Little." I have to confess, it's hard for me to remember to call him "D," but I'm trying. The kid has great coordination. He's got a great throwing arm on him, and we spend a lot of time tossing a football around. I've set up a little baseball diamond in the docking bay so we can play two-man baseball, too. (Aeryn says to mention that D's an even better marksman this year! I wasn't even allowed to
touch a gun at his age, but, hey, life in the UT's, eh?)
Our baby girl Hope is goin' on two cycles old. She is a beautiful little girl – takes after her mother, thank goodness! No, really, when I look at her running around Moya, I can easily picture Aeryn as a kid, with her hair all done up in braids. No kid her age on earth would sit still for braids, but Hope is definitely her mother's child. She loves to go flying with Mom (or Dad), and Pilot is still her best friend. I swear, that little girl can run just about any of Moya's functions that it's possible to access from Pilot's console! Scary and wondrous at the same time!
Aeryn spends a lot of time keeping her skills sharp, and seeing to the kids' education in all things defensive. (Ouch! And cultural, too, she says to tell you! She says thank you, Noranti, for the Eidelon records that chronicle the creation of the Peacekeepers! I'll second those thanks, by the way – it's amazing to hear about the primitive humans they brought here from earth.) And just by being here, she keeps my head on straight, which is a pretty big job. (Ouch!)
I'm looking at Aeryn's letter from last year, and I'm reminded how hopeful I was then that I'd cracked the wormhole problem. Well, as it turns out, I'm still working on it. The trick isn't navigating wormholes – I can do that with one hand tied behind my back, and so can Aeryn – it's finding or creating a wormhole that goes where I want to go! Much as I'm real content to have my brain back, that would go a hell of a lot faster with the knowledge the Ancients gave me. Well, it gives a guy something to do, right?
The big news is, we're thinking about settling down on a planet somewhere, at least for a while. Aeryn still worries about our security if we're in one place, and she'd much rather be in space than on a hunk of rock, but we both think it would be good for the kids to live a less-vagabond life for a while. Ryge, you don't happen to have any good real estate lying around, do you? (That's a joke! ...I think!)
Oh, and Chi, Jothee – We're sorry that sending last cycle's letter put the Establishment onto the location of your base! We'll send this one through a bunch of decoy addresses!
All our love,
John, Aeryn, D and Hope
Author
