There weren’t many Scandinavians among Cloudbase’s complement – but those there were constituted an important minority. The most prominent one was – ironically – Captain Blue, who, although American by birth, had close family connections to Sweden and Norway, and spoke enough of the language to get by. There were also
several technicians, Lieutenant Silver, the head of the administrative staff,
and two cooks. Doctor Fawn, who had spent a few years working in Scandinavia for the World Medical Organisation, was, thanks to his ex-wife, both proficient in the language and familiar with the culture, so he was considered ‘one of us’ by the others. When a new
administrative lieutenant – Lieutenant Jasmine - arrived in the summer, she made
a welcome addition to that select group.
Pernilla Lantz was
Norwegian, tall and slim, with long, naturally blonde hair; she was young and
pretty, and, as it turned out, sweet-tempered and charming. She was given the responsibility for
monitoring duty timesheets and quickly became a familiar figure to everyone,
from the elite captains down to cleaning staff. She was undoubtedly popular, especially with the men, and it
was well known that Captain Ochre had her name at the top of his legendary – and
almost certainly fabled - list of ‘potential dates’.
One day, in late
autumn, Captain Blue was making his way from the officers’ lounge to the
canteen, when he saw Lieutenant Jasmine walking towards the escalator from the
opposite direction. He stopped,
waited for her to join him, stepping onto the staircase after her and, as they
rode up to the canteen, he asked her in Norwegian: “How are you
settling in, Pernilla?” “Very well, thank
you, Captain.” She smiled, but
answered him in English. “I’m
getting very good at finding my way around now; I haven’t got lost for… ooh,
days.” He laughed. “It is a bit of warren, isn’t it? But always remember, if Lieutenant
Flaxen can find her way about, anyone can.” She gave an admonitory shake of her head. “Flaxen has been very kind to me. She is not as bad as you make out.” Blue gave an
apologetic shrug and replied, “No, I
know she isn’t – but you will never convince Captain Scarlet of that fact.” Lieutenant Flaxen
was a senior admin Lieutenant and an efficient, if slightly accident-prone,
member of the Cloudbase team.
She was renowned for having caused Captain Scarlet more injuries than the
Mysterons, due to her seeming inability to function properly in his presence. This was not her fault, but was –
according to Captain Ochre, her somewhat unlikely champion – because Captain
Scarlet was too scary for normal people to cope with, and ‘Flax’ was a sensitive
soul. Lieutenant Jasmine
spoke up in defence of her colleague. “Well, I can say that I sympathise with
Flax, I get a little tongue-tied in his presence too; the captain is an awesome
person.” “Awesome?
You don’t know the half of it, ‘Nilla.” Even on Cloudbase
the full truth about Captain Scarlet’s powers of retrometabolism, which rendered
him virtually indestructible, were a closely guarded secret. Few people, outside of the medical staff
and the senior officers, knew that Scarlet could recover from even a fatal
wound. His seeming invulnerability
had given him a fierce reputation amongst the other staff and the continuing
need for secrecy, as well as his own lingering feeling that he was not quite
human anymore, meant that he generally chose to stay aloof from the hurly-burly
of life on the base. “You’re his field
partner,” she continued, “I don’t suppose he seems that way to you.” “No, you’d be
wrong. I think Captain Scarlet’s
pretty awesome too. You’re
forgetting I’m the guy who has to bring him home after a mission.” Jasmine saw the
momentary flicker of sadness in her companion’s pale-blue eyes, and she laid a
sympathetic hand on his shoulder.
“Everyone says that you are his best friend; it must be hard for you to
see him get wounded so often.” Blue smiled at her
and patted her hand. “Yes, it’s not
the kind of thing you can easily get used to; but every Spectrum agent takes on
the job willingly, knowing they may be called on to risk their lives.” “Easy for us to
say, safe on Cloudbase; I don’t think the field officers can be so blasé about
it.” He shook his head,
thinking of this last time he’d brought Scarlet back to Cloudbase, crushed and
bleeding. He’d sat out the hours
until his friend had recovered consciousness, as he always tried to do, and now
he was on his way to get something to eat - and a change of scene from the room
in Sick Bay dedicated to Scarlet’s recovery. “Will he be all
right this time?” she asked him gently. Blue nodded. “Sure, he’ll be up and about before you
know it.” “That is good
news.” He glanced into
her attractive face and saw the genuine concern she’d expressed mirrored in her
clear, blue eyes. He smiled at her. Just then, they
entered the field of vision of Symphony and Melody Angels, making their way on
the down escalator, from the canteen to the Amber Room. Blue turned
towards to acknowledge them as Jasmine removed her hand from his shoulder. “Hi girls,” he
called up to them. When Symphony did
not reply, Melody called back. “Hi, Captain.
Seeing you out and about must mean Scarlet’s on the mend?” Blue nodded. “Yeah, he’s conscious again. I’m going to get something to eat while
Fawn does his never-ending tests. Apparently, Göran promised he’d make kjøttkaker today and I
haven’t had those for years… since my grandmother used to make them, in fact.”
He glanced at Jasmine and gave her a wink, “That’s if Pernilla leaves me any…” She laughed.
“You’re teasing me, Captain.” She
pushed her fist into his shoulder as they approached the top of the escalator. Blue grinned and
wagged a reproving finger at her.
“Assaulting a senior officer is a serious offence, Lieutenant. I might well have to place you in
solitary confinement.” She laughed and
said, ‘Oh, go on with you; you are a tease…” As she stepped
from the moving stairway she saluted the Angels, moving on with a glance over
her shoulder to see if Blue was following.
He paused long
enough to say, ‘See you later, älskling.” And he disappeared from their view. Melody glanced at
Symphony’s stony expression with some trepidation. “Hey,” she
drawled, “I think it’s kinda cute that since Jasmine arrived the Scandinavians
have been celebrating their culture a bit more; don’t you? If those ‘K-yut-Kake’
things were the meatballs I had – they were nice.” There was no
response. “Symphony?” Melody shrugged and said in a
dispassionate tone, “Okay,
honey, you can kill him later if you want to, but right now we have a shift to
do… come on, Karen.” She put her hands
on the taller woman’s shoulders and guided her off the escalator.
Symphony walked
into the Officers’ Lounge later that week and stared at the scene before her
eyes. Doctor Fawn – a
rare visitor to the Lounge - Captain Blue and Lieutenant Jasmine were sitting in
a huddle on the upper level bench at the far side of the room, while Captains
Scarlet and Grey were sitting in the main area, reading magazines and drinking
coffee. Scarlet looked up
and raised his hand in a welcoming gesture.
“Hi, Symphony,” he said loud enough to be heard around the room. Lieutenant Jasmine
started to get to her feet to salute her superior officer, but Blue’s hand on
her shoulder pushed her back into her seat. Symphony heard him say something and Jasmine gave a barely
suppressed chuckle. Fawn looked up
from the conflab, gave her a quick smile and returned to the discussion. Blue didn’t look
at her at all. Captain Scarlet
knew this wasn’t as astonishing as the look on Grey’s face suggested; he knew
there had been a particularly lively argument between Symphony and her fiancé a
few days ago, and that – for once – Blue was not prepared to do whatever she
demanded in order to placate his jealous lover. Usually, his
friend took Symphony’s tantrums in his stride, riding out her wild accusations
until she calmed down and apologised.
Whatever had caused this breach in relations – and Blue wasn’t saying –
was obviously something he felt strongly enough about to dig in his own heels
over. There was a stubborn streak in Adam Svenson - if you mined deep enough –
and Karen Wainwright was hot-tempered enough to keep digging where wiser folk
would stop. Scarlet studied
Symphony’s expression and deduced that the fact that her demands were not being
met this time must be making her more wretched than ever. She slammed the
report she was delivering down on the table between Grey and Scarlet, turned on
her heel and stormed out. Grey glanced at
the trio on the sofa and then at Scarlet.
“What was all that about?” Scarlet shrugged.
“I haven’t a clue. She’s not happy about something, I
suppose.” “Hmm. Blue does seem rather taken with
Lieutenant Jasmine… you don’t suppose…?” “You gossip like
an old fishwife, Brad.” Scarlet turned the page of his magazine. “Take my advice and leave things well
alone.” “Oh, I’m not going
to get between Symphony and her prey… either of them,” Grey muttered, and
returned to his article on diving off the coast of California.
First of December
was the unofficial start of Cloudbase’s Christmas season when the timetables
went up for Christmas leave and duty rotas.
The first Christmas cards started to arrive, tinsel started to appear on workstations, the menus were published for Christmas dinners, invitations were sent out for the various ‘events’ that celebrated the season and the post room began to take delivery of innumerable parcels. Everything
officially started with Captain Scarlet’s birthday party – on December the 17th
– which was an unofficial precursor to the ‘proper’ Christmas parties: the
Christmas soirees in the Officers’ Lounge, the Amber Room, and various staff
rooms over the base, but the planning and preparation went on for weeks
beforehand. The atmosphere in
the Amber Room was unusually sombre as Rhapsody and Melody started to discuss
this year’s decorations and the imminent arrival of their Christmas tree and -
most importantly – the mistletoe that came from Rhapsody’s parents’ estate. “You do know that
she’s going to spoil it,” Melody said heatedly. “She’s going about like a wet weekend.” “She’s fallen out
with Adam,” Rhapsody explained. “He
seems to be spending more and more of his time with Lieutenant Jasmine…” “Can you blame
him?” Melody sniped. “Karen makes
his life a misery. Pernilla’s is a
nice girl; I know which I’d prefer, if I was Adam.” “She loves him,
Nolie. Have a heart.” “Well, she sure
has a funny way of showing it sometimes.”
Melody sighed. “Oh, I know
she adores him, Dianne, but it gets so wearing when she’s forever acting like a
tiger with a cub. Any woman who
goes within shouting distance of Blue gets the evil eye.” Rhapsody laughed.
“I know; but we have to support her right now, Nolie; she’s really miserable.” Melody rolled her
eyes. “She always is when she gets
herself into these situations.” She
saw Rhapsody’s unspoken appeal to her better nature, and continued, “Tell you
what: let her hang the mistletoe this year… then she can trap him under some,
and I bet you, within five minutes they’ll be all over each other – again.” “Oh, I never bet
against stone-cold dead certainties,” Rhapsody remarked, as she wrote Symphony’s
name against the mistletoe box of her task-list.
Symphony was sitting in the Amber Room with Harmony. It was less than a fortnight to Christmas, and they were using a quiet spell of their standby-duty to wrap the Christmas tree presents the Angels gave to the Captains on Christmas Eve. Their select gathering was the final event of the Christmas festivities, spilling over into Christmas Day itself, often enough – Mysterons permitting. Harmony was
concentrating on producing the intricate and exquisite parcels for which she was
rightly known, while Symphony was holding the scissors and sticky tape,
preoccupied with her own gloomy thoughts. Her quarrel with
Captain Blue had still not resolved itself.
She’d bumped into him in the gym the other day and although he’d been
polite, he hadn’t gone out of his way to talk to her. Finally she’d asked him if he intended to continue spending
his free time with ‘his new friends’, at the expense of their friendship. She closed her
eyes against the remembered image of his unsympathetic expression as he’d told
her that he didn’t see any of his friendships as exclusive, and if she didn’t
like him occasionally getting involved with something that couldn’t include her,
she’d have to act as she thought fit. When she’d
mentioned Lieutenant Jasmine, he’d simply given an exasperated sigh and walked
away. She’d felt as if the whole
world was suddenly a very dark and lonely place.
It was Harmony who
first heard the distant sound of singing. “Someone has their
music turned up very loud,” she commented, taking the next sliver of tape from
Symphony’s outstretched finger. Symphony turned
her head and strained to listen. The music got
louder: there were several voices, singing unaccompanied in a language she
didn’t know. It came closer. As the door to the
Amber Room opened, the lights went out and both Angels sprang to their feet in
surprise. Standing in the
doorway was a young woman, dressed in a long, gown; the vivid red sash that ran
from her shoulder to the floor looked like a trail of blood against the
brilliant white of the silken fabric.
Her fair hair was loose and flowed over her shoulders. She was holding an imitation flickering
candle in her hand and around her head was a wreath of evergreens, sporting
seven small candles that also flickered light.
Natten går
tunga fjät rund gård och stuva; kring jord, som sol förlät, skuggoma ruva. Då i vårt
mörka hus, stiger med tända Uus, Sankta Lucia,
Sankta Lucia.
She sang a verse of song as she led a small procession of similarly dressed women into the room. Then the others joined in, their voices ringing round the Amber Room in a spine-tingling weave of sound.
Natten går
stor och stum nu hörs dess vingar i alla tysta rum sus som av vingar. Se, på vår
tröskel står vitklädd med ljus i hår Sankta Lucia,
Sankta Lucia. Mörkret ska flyta snart urjordens dalar så hon ett
underbart ord till oss talar. Dagen ska åter ny stiga ur rosig sky. Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia. Symphony gasped to
see Doctor Fawn amongst the men who now came into the room at the tail end of
the procession. He was wearing a
long white tunic over, what looked like, baggy white pyjama trousers and he had
a tall, star-studded pointed hat on his head, as did all the similarly-dressed
men in the group. Everyone was
carrying an imitation candle. The tallest member
of the group was Captain Blue; and as he ducked his head to enter the doorway,
he reached up to make sure the tall wizard’s hat was still on his head.
Meeting Symphony’s astonished gaze, he gave her an affectionate smile.
But even Harmony was surprised when he joined in the singing in a clear,
high-tenor that was nothing like the singing voice they expected to hear from
him. Bringing up the
rear was the chaplain, wearing red vestments, and when the singing stopped, she
read out a verse, a translation of the song.
The night
goes with weighty step round yard and hearth; The darkness
shall soon depart from the earth's valleys, Thus she speaks wonderful words to us. The day shall
rise anew from the rosy sky.
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia. And then the whole
procession chanted: Now the
light is carried forth, proud on its crown.
Harmony was
enchanted and clapped her hands, smiling in recognition as Lieutenant Jasmine
approached her and took a small bun from a large basket being carried by Göran
Janssen, one of the cooks from the officers’ canteen, who was immediately behind
her. She presented it to the
diminutive Angel and moved on to Symphony.
The American met
the Norwegian girl’s friendly gaze with some embarrassment, yet she reached out
to take the cake Jasmine offered her.
Smiling sweetly, Jasmine moved on, and the singing broke out again, as
she processed back to the door and turned out into the corridor, her train of
followers in her wake. Symphony watched
the door close behind the last to depart and sat down heavily as the lights came
back on. “What was all that
about?” she asked Harmony. “I do not know,”
her friend replied, biting into the small bun.
“But the cake is good.”
The next day,
Symphony went along to the Officers’ Lounge and to her relief, found Captains
Scarlet and Blue alone in there. As the door closed
behind her she said a general ‘hello’ and when Scarlet returned her greeting,
she gave him a pleading glance. “Hi, Karen… ah, I see… Well, I’ve just remembered something and I’ve just got to… go… somewhere. I’ll be back in about ten minutes,” he said, adding in a whisper as he walked past her, “Don’t kill anyone, will you?” She walked down
onto the main floor and stood facing Blue, who was sitting in an armchair, his
long legs stretched out before him, and a cup of coffee and one of Göran’s buns
on a plate beside him. He looked up at
her, the tiniest of smiles on his lips.
But he didn’t speak. She sat down in
the seat Scarlet had vacated. “You going to eat
that cake?” she asked. “Yes – you got one
last night,” he responded, but there was no antagonism in his voice. “It was nice.
Mind telling me what it was?” “It was a Lussekatt.
They’re the traditional gifts handed out by the Kinken Jes, who process on Saint Lucia’s Day.” “Is that what you
were doing last night?” He nodded. “When I was a kid we always used to take
part at the Church service. For obvious reasons Saint Lucia has to be a girl,
and until Kate was old enough, we just took part in the community celebrations,
in later years we did it at home as well.
I haven’t done it for decades… it brought back a lot of memories.” “How long had you
been planning this?” “Oh, for some time
– there were costumes to make and we had to get permission from the colonel,
and… well, you know how it is.” “I would have, if
you’d told me,” she commented wryly. He gave a shrug,
his fair eyebrows rising in concert with his shoulders. “We wanted it to
be a surprise, so it was a big secret. When Lieutenant Jasmine heard that we
never celebrated Sankta Lucia, she
thought it was a shame, and suggested we do it this year, and take the Lussekatt around the base. It seemed like a silly idea at first,
but Pernilla convinced us all to give it a try.
Göran and Jan Bengtsson agreed to make the cakes and the gingerbread, and
when everyone had agreed to join in, we asked the Chaplain to come along too.” “So that’s why you
were spending so much time with Jasmine…” “Hmm.” He nodded. “Sorry,” she said. “Uh-huh.” “It was a magical
thing to see the procession. Harmony talked about it all evening. Destiny was disappointed to have missed
it, but I gather someone gave her one of the …Lussekatt?” “Pernilla made
sure everyone got one.” She nodded. “I bet she did.” His expression
hardened and she raced on, “It was even more magical to hear you singing - especially like that…” He shrugged. “I didn’t know you
could…” “I learnt to do it
as a kid, but I generally chose not to do it, as a rule - but Sankta Lucia’s is special.” He gave a rueful smile. “When I’m not singing in the upper
register I really do sound a rusty saw on a wet log, though.” She sniggered at
him. He grinned at her. “Forgive me?” she
pleaded. “Don’t I always?” “Hmm.” She nodded.
“You do know that it’s because I know I couldn’t live without you that I
get so… scared when you’re with another woman.” He shook his
head. “I don’t know why; I couldn’t
leave you – and I don’t want to.
Can’t you trust me just a little bit?
You should know by now that I’m a one-woman man, and you – älskling – are that woman.” Symphony looked
down and blushed. “I should, I know
that. I will try.” “Why do you
continue to doubt me so much? I do
everything I can think of, and as much as I’m capable of doing from what you ask
of me, yet you never seem to accept that I love only you.” “I don’t know.
I want to believe you, because I love you too. But I guess I’m just ornery – and way
too cynical for my own good.” “Could well be.”
He gazed at her for a long moment. “I just wish you would trust me.” “I wish I could,
believe me. I want to, I really, really do!” “Then why can’t
you? How much ‘proof’ do you want? You know I’d marry you tomorrow if it
was possible. Is that what this is
about?” “No. We agreed that working for Spectrum was
important to us both; we have both made that commitment. It’s not about getting
married, Adam. These days it isn’t
shocking to spend your life together without tying the knot, after all. I don’t know… I guess I just don’t
understand why you love me and one of
the few characteristics I share with you is that I like to understand what’s
going on.” “Is that all? Älskling, for millennia people have used aphorisms like ‘love
is blind’ to try and comprehend why two people fall in love. My favourite is probably ‘opposites
attract’, and I suggest that, quite apart from the obvious difference, we’re
almost diametric opposites. Isn’t
that enough?” Karen shook her
head. “I don’t think so. I wish it
was that simple. Sometimes it seems to me that I can’t live without you, but
then, there are times when I can hardly live
with
you.” “Well, I’m no
saint…” he began. “But that’s just
it!” she interrupted. “Compared to me, you are!” She flushed. “I know I’m a first class bitch
sometimes, Adam, you don’t have to pretend otherwise.” He reached out
and took her hand, bringing it to his lips.
“I love you; for better or worse.
I can’t help myself, that’s just the way it is. You’re stuck with me, I’m afraid.” She smiled and
drew his hand to her lips. “Thank
God for that, at least. Whatever
I’ve done – or will probably do in the course of our lives – you have to know
that you’ll never find any one who loves you more than I do.” “I don’t even want
to look.” He drew in a deep breath.
“ You know, Karen, Sankta Lucia’s the patron saint of the
blind – maybe she could perform another miracle and open your eyes so you can
see just how much I love you, älskling.” She slid from the
armchair to kneel beside him, wrapping her arms around his torso and resting her
head on his chest. He stroked her
golden hair for a long moment, and then gently tilted her chin up, so the he
could lean forward and kiss her lips.
Captain Scarlet
peered in round the partially open door and saw the couple wrapped in their
embrace. He closed the door again,
and turned to smile at Captain Grey who was standing behind him, waiting to
enter the lounge. “Give them another five minutes, Brad,” he said, adding with considerable satisfaction, “It looks like Christmas is on again. I’d better tell Rhapsody to double the mistletoe order or no one but those two will get a look in, this year…”
Author’s
Notes:
When the
Webmaster sets you a challenge, you have to respond, don’t you? Chris Bishop set me a challenge on
Friday night: to write a really short Christmas Story. Well, here we
are on Sunday morning and this is the story. I don’t know about ‘really short’ – but it is short by my
standards! The
Scandinavian celebration of Saint Lucia takes place on December 13th. I got the details of it from researching
the Internet, and, as I don’t speak any of the Scandinavian languages, I have to
hope the hymn quoted, and the translation I found, are the real thing. My sincere apologies if they’re
wrong, it is never my intention to offend anyone. The
characters of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons ™ belong to Carlton
International – or they did, anyway – and they were created over 40 years ago by
Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. My own
imagination may have warped them somewhat from the originals, but if that’s the
case, it was done from nothing but a sincere admiration for those originals, and
grateful thanks for all the pleasure they’ve given me over the decades. Thanks – as
always – to the indefatigable Chris Bishop, who is an inspiration to us all! So finally,
may I – in the spirit of the story - take this opportunity to wish everyone a
‘God Jul’, and a Happy New Year.
Marion Woods 30th
November 2008.
Other stories from Marion Woods
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