“You are certain this much clothing is necessary?” Commander Jilla Majiir asked, trying not to sound as nervous as she felt.

Captain Sulu looked up at her from the bed, where he was seated lacing on his boots, and grinned. “Most of the time I’d be only too happy to agree to your wearing less, hon,” he said, “but it’s cold in the mountains.”

“You said…”

“… about seven degrees below zero Celsius,” Sulu repeated. “And you’ve said the temperature on Indi has never gotten below around ten degrees above, so yeah, that much clothing is necessary.”

Jilla was wearing a ski suit with a patterned dark blue sweater over it. She touched the white scarf at her throat. “And the neckwear?”

“It’ll keep the wind off,” Sulu replied.

“You are not wearing….”

“I’m used to it,” Sulu cut her off. “I’ve done a lot of skiing.”

“In Los Angeles?”

The captain of the D’Artagnan laughed and stood up. “No, in the mountains. Usually at Snow Valley or Lake Tahoe, but sometimes at Aspen – which is where we’re going today.”

Jilla looked dubious, but said nothing more, even as Sulu donned a black cap with a dragon design on the front.

“If your ears get cold, I’ll lend you my hat,” he promised.

“At minus seven degrees, will they not freeze and break off?” the Indiian murmured uneasily.

Sulu laughed again, and grabbed her hand. “Come on, they’re waiting for us.”

The four-hour vacation had been hastily arranged. The five couples had served together for many years, not counting the past 11 months, and were soon to part ways onto the three Nest ships. Others had been asked, but Jeremy Paget, the Head of Security for the Nests as well as Chief of that section for the D’Artagnan, couldn’t be spared, and Uhura and Tomor Rand weren’t about to take any more time from their short reunion than they had to. Sakura Tamura hadn’t said so, but being an eleventh wheel wasn’t on her list of fun things to do, and she politely demurred. Pavel had started to suggest that Noel DelMonde be included, until Daffy had elbowed him sharply in the ribs.

Chekov had also wanted to take his new fiancé home to Moscow to meet his parents, and Ramon Ordona had wanted to do the same with Monique and his family in Cordoba, though he and Monique were not officially engaged. “And never will be, mon cher,” the pretty French woman had quipped. Ruth had most definitely not wanted to take Spock home to Haifa. Captain Sulu’s proposed skiing jaunt therefore suited most of them just fine. Pavel had almost thwarted the plan by insisting he and Daffy go to Moscow before the mountains of Colorado, and when he promised, “yes, Dafshka, you may choose your ring from my uncle’s stock,” she was only too happy to agree to the diversion. They had returned to San Francisco in plenty of time to make the ski trip.

“Okay,” Sulu said as he and Jilla stepped into the transporter room. “I’ve arranged for the equipment and an instructor for you heathens who never learned how to ski.” He grinned at Ruth, and ignored Jade’s sigh and Spock’s resigned stoicism, as well as Daffy’s, “Pavel and I are gonna sit by the fireplace in the lodge and watch my ring sparkle.”

“Not to worry, mes ami,” Monique added. “It is nothing more than a matter of balance and muscle control.”

“Sliding downhill on thin sticks through ice and rocks and trees…” Jim muttered.

“I thought you told me…” Jade began.

Jim glanced at her. She was eyeing him suspiciously. “Yes, I know how,” he countered her stare. “I just don’t like it.”

“Who cares if we ski or not,” Ruth put in. “The point is to show Jilla some snow.”

“I have seen snow,” the Indiian said. She pronounced the word ‘sah-noh,’ the Indiian tongue not having developed the consonant blend ‘sn.’

“Isn’t that just the most adorable thing…” Sulu began.

“Only in holos,” Ruth returned, ignoring Sulu’s romantic gushing.

Chekov snorted. “And when have you had occasion to see real snow?” he asked of the Antari.

Ruth scowled at him. “It snows in San Fran.”

“So why hasn’t Jilla seen it here?”

“Because she hasn’t taken her head out of engines in nearly a year, non?” Monique guessed with a smile at her Academy roommate.

“Except for a two-week side trip.” Sulu grinned at his wife, who, predictably, flushed.

“If we stand around here taking much longer, she won’t see it now,” Jade pointed out.

“Right.” Sulu clapped his hands together. “Come on, last one on the slopes is a womprat.”

When it turned out that only he, Ramon, and Monique had any intention of even getting on skis, much less the slopes, Sulu grumbled, called the rest of them chicken, then sighed and turned his attention to introducing Jilla to the pleasures of winter outdoors, even sans skis.

“My wife,” Spock murmured, “while there is much snow on the ground, I believe most of it is artificially created.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s not real, does it?” Ruth whispered back.

“Technically, it has the same composition,” the Vulcan answered. “However…”

“Aw, you want Jilla to have real sah-noh,” Ruth giggled. “Do you want me to see what I can do about it?”

Spock glanced at her. “You can alter the weather?” he asked dubiously.

She shrugged. “I don’t know what I can’t do until I can’t do it.” She lifted her hand, testing the air. “Hmmm… it feels like there’s enough moisture. If I drop the temperature a degree or two…”

“Must you?” Spock complained, but his mouth was set in a faint smile.

“Do you really want to go skiing, mi amor?” Ramon whispered into Monique’s ear. He was standing behind her, his arms around her waist.

“Mon capitaine will be most disappointed if we do not,” she answered.

“If Jilla isn’t going to anyway, what makes you think he will?”

Monique’s eyes widened a little. “Ah, mais oui,” she concurred.

“Then why don’t we join Pavel and Daffy by that nice, warm fireplace?” Ramon suggested.

“And do you have a ring that I could watch sparkle, cherie?” she teased.

“One never knows, mi amor.”

When it didn’t immediately start snowing, Ruth shrugged. “You win some, you… no, wait, that’s someone else.”

“I would ask if you felt compelled to say such things, but I would be repeating myself,” was Spock’s wry comment.

“Womprat,” Ruth returned affectionately.

“As it is very likely I will be the last one on Sulu’s slopes, I graciously concede that I am, indeed, a womprat,” the Vulcan replied.

Ruth laughed and Spock placed his hands at her shoulders. “While the cold gives your face a beautiful glow, my wife…” he murmured.

“…It also gives your ears an unhealthy green tinge,” Ruth completed. “Let’s see if we can find that lodge fireplace.”

“A most thoughtful and considerate mate,” Spock said, and Ruth smiled at him.

“He couldn’t wear a hat or some earmuffs maybe?” she said in her best Israeli accent.

“James, you really don’t know how to ski, do you?” Jade asked.

Jim gave her a lop-sided grin. “Sure I do. I’ve just…”

“…Never actually done it,” Jade finished, then sighed. “Honestly, James, I married you. Do you still feel the need to impress me?”

“Every day for the rest of my life,” the captain of the Lincoln vowed.

“Ramon,” Monique sighed, “how many times must I tell you…”

“As many as you want,” the Spaniard answered. “Because one of those times I’ll catch you at just the right moment, and then you’ll say…”

“Never. Never, never, never,” Monique swore. “I adore you, cherie, I do, but marriage? I am not made for such a thing.”

“Ah, but mi amor, you were made for me,” Ramon replied, and gently tightened his arms around her.

“Do you see that ridge over there?” Pavel asked, pointing out a distant formation among the mountains. “That is just like the view from the steppes looking toward the Ural Mountains.”

“Wonderful, bubee,” Daffy replied, studying the way his eyes lit up when he spoke of Russia.

“The Urals are west of most of Russia, just as these are west of most of America,” he went on.

“Uh- huh,” Daffy murmured. Pavel’s face was already getting ruddy with the cold.

“You really should learn to ski, it is at times the only way to travel to the more remote areas of… Dafshka, are you listening to me?”

“Definitely. Learn to ski,” she repeated. “Go on, Pasha,” she added, very glad her quixotic mind had decided to lash on to something her fiancé had been saying. Otherwise she’d have to listen to the whole Mother Russia speech all over again.

After spending only a few minutes in the Colorado mountains, Jilla was freezing. Even with Sulu’s arm around her, pulling her close, she wondered how long her lungs would continue to function. It was disconcerting to find him so enthusiastic about this ‘sport’ he called ‘skiing.’ It looked very much like the summer ocean sport he engaged in, except with, as Captain Kirk had pointed out, sticks strapped to one’s feet instead of a wide board. When she had commented on it, Sulu grinned and told her that that was done on the ‘slopes’ too, and was called ‘snowboarding.’

She shivered, as much from the idea as the cold, and Sulu cried, “Look, hon! See there? Those people coming down the trails? That’s skiing!”

Jilla blinked, seeing what she had thought were some kind of animal becoming the distinct figures of humanoids weaving through the trees, bending and swaying with fluid grace. Her eyes widened in amazement, and she glanced at Sulu, mentally imaging him moving in the same manner.

Suddenly, she was not quite so cold.

She bent her head to hide her blush and studied the white substance packed beneath her booted feet.

“I do not see what is so special about your snow,” she began, and felt Sulu moving behind her, his hands at her shoulders.

“Wait for it,” he murmured.

“Come on, sweetheart, you’ll freeze with just that sweater on,” Jim urged.

“I’m from Minnesota,” Jade replied archly. “This is Spring.”

Okay, I give,” Jim laughed. “If I agree that Minnesota winters are ten times worse than Iowa winters, will you come to the lodge with me and get some hot chocolate?”

“Only if you mean it, James,” she returned.

“Womprat,” Jim sighed, shaking his head.

“What did you call me?”

“Well, Ruth said – and we’re not on the slopes, so…”

“And if Ruth Valley’s pronouncements are going to have any influence in our lives…”

Jade held onto her feigned indignity as long as she could, but with her husband’s broad, knowing smile, that wasn’t very long. “Oh, very well – but that makes you a womprat as well.”

“Honey, I’ve been one for years,” he chuckled, and placed his arm around her. She reached up, squeezing his hands tightly for a moment.

“All right, James. Let’s get to the lodge. It’s freezing.”

Jilla touched her face as something wet and cold landed on her cheek. She glanced up, blinking as soft flecks of white seemed to float out of the sky. With a soft inhale of surprise, she held out her hand, watching as tiny, perfect crystalline structures landed there. From what she could see, there were no two of them that were exactly identical, though they deformed into drops of water as she watched.

“Sulu?” she asked, her voice conveying all her amazement.

“That’s snow,” he said, his own tone just as reverent. “And when it piles up, it makes the firm base you’re standing on, and the trails people ski and snowboard on, and children can pile it up into balls and make snowmen and forts, or lie down in it and make snow angels…”

He stopped talking because Jilla clearly wasn’t listening. She was lost in the beauty and wonder of her first snowfall. And with so much in her short life that had not been beautiful, he was more than content to let her enjoy it as long as she wanted.

“Pavel, could you stop talking now?” Daffy asked.

“It is important, as my future wife, that you know as much about…” Pavel answered.

Daffy lifted her arm to caress the back of his head. “If you keep talking, I’ll have to smack you,” she warned in a soft, sweet voice.

“Will you indeed?” he asked, his gaze softening as he looked at her.

“Yes. And if I don’t get to see my Rostov diamond sparkle in the firelight in about five minutes, the engagement’s off.”

Pavel smiled. “Ah, well I cannot have that.” He put his arm around her. “Come, let us find the lodge.”

“I love you, Pavel Andrevitch.”

“I love you, Daphne Esther.”

“You’re getting cold, mi amor,” Ramon said as Monique shivered in his arms.

“I was planning on the physical exertion of skiing to keep me warm,” Monique confessed.

The Spaniard grinned. “Shall we find another kind of physical exertion?”

“Here, in the outdoors?” she teased back.

“Maybe they have rooms at the lodge?”

“That would not be something fun we could all do together, cherie.”

“Newlyweds, newly reunited, newly engaged – I don’t think they’d object.,” Ramon confided.

“You can be so wicked, mon amour,” Monique giggled.

“Wicked enough to marry?”

Before she could object, he pulled a small box from his pocket. “I asked Pavel to get this for me,” he continued, and opened it. The brilliant solitaire diamond glittered as the snowflakes danced around it. “Monique, I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life loving you. Will you accept this? Will you agree to be my wife?”

“You’re really not going to stop asking, are you?” she replied, and though her mouth was frowning, there was a gentle light in her eyes. She glanced into his, then sighed.

“Oh, very well – but I plan on a very long engagement.”

With a smile wide and bright enough to rival Sulu at his most devastating, Ramon took the ring and placed it on Monique’s finger. She smiled and reached up, placing her arms around him and kissing him.

“However did you get her to say yes?” Sulu asked as Daffy, Jilla, Ruth and Jade admired Monique’s new ring.

Ramon grinned. “It must have been the magic of sah-noh.”

The End