NEWS
The Intergalactic
Space Chronicle
The Story of a Christmas Space Tree
By M.B. Alexander
Once upon a time, people would buy fresh-cut trees and prop them up in their living room. The trees would add joy and comfort to the families that surrounded it, but by the new year dead lifeless trees would adorn the curbs of every house and apartment building. T’was a bit of a bummer. So when rapid-growth pine trees were invented, everyone rejoiced.
It was the beginning of a new exciting tradition. On the first of December families around the world would receive their bio-engineered seeds and plant them in specifically extra nutrient soil. The trees would then grow to a perfect size by Christmas Eve, and when the holidays were done the trees were replanted in their grower's yards or at the up-cycled former parking lot. It was a wonderful tradition that served people year-round.
But no one anticipated what would happen if someone would decide to upgrade their Christmas tree. Who could have imagined that child engineer Oki Gamen would be cable of such extreme chaos.
It all started when Oki decided that an upgrade was necessary to his little tree. It needed to be bigger, faster, and much, much, much brighter. So when his parents were busy working, Oki was happily tampering with the tree, adding accelerator agents and removing the growth limiters that were added to the original tree design.
At first his parents paid no notice to the changes in their tree. Sure it was a bit taller than what they had expected, but it looked happy and healthy. Of course, by the week before Christmas, it was clear things weren't right, as the tree broke through the living room ceilings and broke a few windows.
The next few days were not the jolly Christmas preparation Heidi Gamen had planned, as the roof of her house rose to the sky and the walls flattened out to the sides. Finally, the National Guard had to fly the tree up into space where its growth was stifled, at least partially, by the lack of oxygen.
With Heidi in tears and his family homeless for the holidays, Oki regretted wanting more. After all, the original design was very satisfactory. Luckily, Oki’s journey did not end in disaster. People all across the world rose to the dark heavens to cast their eyes on the tree. A lightweight dome was placed upon it and the first Christmas Space Tree was born.
Oki and his family stayed in a newly constructed spacecraft for the Holidays that had been gifted to them by people all across the world. They spent the holiday gazing at the tree up above, and a new chapter of space travel opened for the family.
