Challenge #02591-G034: Conspiracy to Spread Joy

There are those that are not fans of the holiday season. The reasons are as myriad as the individuals themselves. But then there are those who not only enjoy the seasons, but absolutely revel in them. All around the station they were showing up outside of doors. Showing up at people's workstations and amongst ship supplies. Carefully wrapped gifts. It only had three words on it "From a friend"

No one claimed responsibility for these actions and no one was usually around by the time they were found, but when the gifts were opened, they would be gifts appropriate to, and for, the individual the gifts were meant to be for. They were safe, they were lovely, and each item was always carefully settled in their gift boxes by a hand that obviously cared a great deal.

And yet, for some odd reason, surveillance could never find out who was doing this. On occasion one might catch a shadowy form, they obviously knew their way around enough to avoid getting caught, but that was all. And, through the month of what humans called "December", through the month that was the holiday of gift-giving, this continued. And the gift giver? Each time they heard of people discussing the gifts, they smiled softly to themselves as they went about their work. Why did they do it? No reason, it just felt good to make people smile. -- Anon Guest

Space, as a philosopher once wrote, is big. Really, really big. In the gulfs of darkness, the only spots of civilisation are the ones you bring with you. Nevertheless, it is there. Far from home, you bring home with you. Far from love, you share love with those you happen to be with. Well. That's the Human philosophy.

Human pack-bonding is weird like that. Which the crew of the Twitching Whisker found out during a period of three Standard weeks[1]. They didn't precisely know it was one of the Humans, but this particular level of chicanery fit almost exactly with other Human nonsense, so the odds were high.

The whole thing started with a box. Just a box, wrapped in bright coloured paper, and the whole thing was topped with a bow. This was immediately treated with suspicion. It had been left just outside of G'harth's door and the Vrothiin was uncertain of what to do about, or with it. This was not the usual season for Human Pranking, and the calendar showed no other nearby events of significance in the Offensensitivity calendar.

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