You've digested a whole heap of food, now it's time to digest some reading. Feast your mince pies on these 8 delectable tidbits. Please be kind and vote on these stories for us. It's the nice thing to do. Your votes are much appreciated. It's multiple choice to allow you up to three votes.
Put it this way: if a stranger came up to him and begged for a vote, what would Jesus do? Well I think he'd actually just wave his chubby little arms in the air, wiggle his chubby little legs, poop his nappy, then gurgle happily... But that's beside the point. Please vote!
The results of this contest will be announced Monday morning. Good luck to my fellow contestants. Anyone found voting for themselves will have their baubles hanged from a Christmas Tree.
01 - azdour - The wrong place at the wrong time
Presents in the hold, check.
One Santa Claus outfit, check.
Jay had three stations in this system to visit where parents had paid him to arrive and hand out presents to their children.
The last Santa had disappeared, but the credits were good enough to cover his expenses including the sidewinders new Santa based skin.
As the ship left the station, the sidewinders hull was immediately torn apart by the beams of a nearby falcon.
The novice bounty hunter knowing there was a large contact on Santa’s head had targeted the wrong Santa.
The stations weapons soon confirmed his mistake.
02 - Galactic Midden - Looking a gift horse in the eye... and spitting at it!
Elbert and Elmond walked purposely, bright red and green uniforms rustling as they approached the doorway.
A bank saying a gift was rejected was unheard of.
The hydraulic door whispered open revealing a tall stern woman before them. She looked down glaring at the small functionaries. “Listen right! I’m not interested”.
“But you committed no crimes, you’ve had zero bounties and all clean commanders are rewarded today by the Gift Father.”
#@!#!! off! Next thing you’ll !#@!# say the #~$##! gift was earned by Elfs directed by %!#@# Jameson himself!!!
Elbert raised an eyebrow… “Elmond, take her off the list”
03 - Frank - This Time Next Year We'll Be Millionaires
The time was now right for Carol to show Noel what she'd been doing during the long haul. "I've been magnetising CO2"
Noel was puzzled "What's the practical application?"
Carol beamed "I can't think of any. Have you ever noticed how precise these magno-governors are?" She released CO2 into her test rig. Typing at her keyboard had the rig hold the gas as a random collection of white dots.
More typing got the dots gently falling, whilst playing "Walking in a Winter Wonderland"
Noel held an ear to the rig then smiled bemusedly, "Singing snow?"
Carol kissed him, "Merry Christmas!"
04 - Rog - The eternal night before Christmas
The defence turrets had taken the would-be hijacker out, but not before fatal wounds had been suffered.
Systems out and remlock active, he'd retreated to the relative warmth of the inner hold as his ship slowly vented and cooled.
Amidst the luxuries, booze, the supertoys, the novelty probulators and 'real live trees' (toxic ferns really- no genuine earth evergreen could survive the local micro fauna of these systems), came boyhood memories of holidays long forgotten under a hot blue star.
Cold now... Pressure dropping again...
Slipping into his last sleep before Christmas, he smiled faintly as it started to snow...
05 - Splendour - Christ Mass
It was the salvage find of a lifetime, a treasure hunter’s dream. Thrusters strained once more as Frank opened the engines up to full. The sidewinder steadfastly refused to budge one inch.
"Come on, Come on!" he urged, and in desperation stabbed the boost button.
There was a lurch, an awful scraping, tearing noise as the ship jolted, then suddenly shot forwards and upwards spinning wildly. Left behind with a section of the hold a fourty tonne golden statue of the Messiah, arms outstretched, stared up from the surface of the planet at the new star forming in the east.
06 - MrMogadon - The Swedish Yuletide Miracle
Life support failing.
Ice forming on the cockpit.
Bleke felt the numbing cold caress his body.
A system failure, had scrambled his sidewinder’s systems; leaving him drifting near Polaris.
Soon Death's embrace would claim him.
Slipping towards coma, he glimpsed imagined movement. Heard footsteps on the hull. Then, blackness.
350LS away, Erik was startled to find a barely working sidewinder catapult towards him from the Dark. Inside, Bleke, frost-bitten but alive. A note pinned to him, read, “Annual Review: Nice! Cmdr Jultomten”
Later, Bleke was incredulous when shown the note. Couldn't be Jultomten, Not Jultomten. In his native Swedish: Santa!!
07 - Bleke - Thereafter there were none
There came a time when a group of Christian fanatics called Knights of the New Crusade arose and caused mayhem amongst all factions of human civilization.
One astronomer scrutinized their scriptures and discovered a way to rise among their ranks. "Every knight should converge at CD-78°25527 on christmas eve 3329, when the Righteous Sun will embrace those with fidelity in their hearts. With its blessing we shall finally tread down the wicked.", he said.
He didn't say that CD-78°25527 was a rare type of variable star, and that the wing-like gas clouds around it were remnants of earlier cataclysms ages ago.
08 - Erik Marcaigh - Arrival
The couple had paid extra to take up residence in the shielded room and pretty much kept to themselves for the trip. So it surprised Kalran when he heard the knock on the cockpit door.
"We have a little gift for you. According to Earth time, it's Christmas morning." The couple gave Kalran a music box with a rotating Christmas tree.
"It is very kind of you. I am Hindu myself, but I have a present for you too. Look."
Kalran rolled the ship and the colored lights from the dark side of Lave came into view, dazzling the eyes.
Put it this way: if a stranger came up to him and begged for a vote, what would Jesus do? Well I think he'd actually just wave his chubby little arms in the air, wiggle his chubby little legs, poop his nappy, then gurgle happily... But that's beside the point. Please vote!
The results of this contest will be announced Monday morning. Good luck to my fellow contestants. Anyone found voting for themselves will have their baubles hanged from a Christmas Tree.
01 - azdour - The wrong place at the wrong time
Presents in the hold, check.
One Santa Claus outfit, check.
Jay had three stations in this system to visit where parents had paid him to arrive and hand out presents to their children.
The last Santa had disappeared, but the credits were good enough to cover his expenses including the sidewinders new Santa based skin.
As the ship left the station, the sidewinders hull was immediately torn apart by the beams of a nearby falcon.
The novice bounty hunter knowing there was a large contact on Santa’s head had targeted the wrong Santa.
The stations weapons soon confirmed his mistake.
02 - Galactic Midden - Looking a gift horse in the eye... and spitting at it!
Elbert and Elmond walked purposely, bright red and green uniforms rustling as they approached the doorway.
A bank saying a gift was rejected was unheard of.
The hydraulic door whispered open revealing a tall stern woman before them. She looked down glaring at the small functionaries. “Listen right! I’m not interested”.
“But you committed no crimes, you’ve had zero bounties and all clean commanders are rewarded today by the Gift Father.”
#@!#!! off! Next thing you’ll !#@!# say the #~$##! gift was earned by Elfs directed by %!#@# Jameson himself!!!
Elbert raised an eyebrow… “Elmond, take her off the list”
03 - Frank - This Time Next Year We'll Be Millionaires
The time was now right for Carol to show Noel what she'd been doing during the long haul. "I've been magnetising CO2"
Noel was puzzled "What's the practical application?"
Carol beamed "I can't think of any. Have you ever noticed how precise these magno-governors are?" She released CO2 into her test rig. Typing at her keyboard had the rig hold the gas as a random collection of white dots.
More typing got the dots gently falling, whilst playing "Walking in a Winter Wonderland"
Noel held an ear to the rig then smiled bemusedly, "Singing snow?"
Carol kissed him, "Merry Christmas!"
04 - Rog - The eternal night before Christmas
The defence turrets had taken the would-be hijacker out, but not before fatal wounds had been suffered.
Systems out and remlock active, he'd retreated to the relative warmth of the inner hold as his ship slowly vented and cooled.
Amidst the luxuries, booze, the supertoys, the novelty probulators and 'real live trees' (toxic ferns really- no genuine earth evergreen could survive the local micro fauna of these systems), came boyhood memories of holidays long forgotten under a hot blue star.
Cold now... Pressure dropping again...
Slipping into his last sleep before Christmas, he smiled faintly as it started to snow...
05 - Splendour - Christ Mass
It was the salvage find of a lifetime, a treasure hunter’s dream. Thrusters strained once more as Frank opened the engines up to full. The sidewinder steadfastly refused to budge one inch.
"Come on, Come on!" he urged, and in desperation stabbed the boost button.
There was a lurch, an awful scraping, tearing noise as the ship jolted, then suddenly shot forwards and upwards spinning wildly. Left behind with a section of the hold a fourty tonne golden statue of the Messiah, arms outstretched, stared up from the surface of the planet at the new star forming in the east.
06 - MrMogadon - The Swedish Yuletide Miracle
Life support failing.
Ice forming on the cockpit.
Bleke felt the numbing cold caress his body.
A system failure, had scrambled his sidewinder’s systems; leaving him drifting near Polaris.
Soon Death's embrace would claim him.
Slipping towards coma, he glimpsed imagined movement. Heard footsteps on the hull. Then, blackness.
350LS away, Erik was startled to find a barely working sidewinder catapult towards him from the Dark. Inside, Bleke, frost-bitten but alive. A note pinned to him, read, “Annual Review: Nice! Cmdr Jultomten”
Later, Bleke was incredulous when shown the note. Couldn't be Jultomten, Not Jultomten. In his native Swedish: Santa!!
07 - Bleke - Thereafter there were none
There came a time when a group of Christian fanatics called Knights of the New Crusade arose and caused mayhem amongst all factions of human civilization.
One astronomer scrutinized their scriptures and discovered a way to rise among their ranks. "Every knight should converge at CD-78°25527 on christmas eve 3329, when the Righteous Sun will embrace those with fidelity in their hearts. With its blessing we shall finally tread down the wicked.", he said.
He didn't say that CD-78°25527 was a rare type of variable star, and that the wing-like gas clouds around it were remnants of earlier cataclysms ages ago.
08 - Erik Marcaigh - Arrival
The couple had paid extra to take up residence in the shielded room and pretty much kept to themselves for the trip. So it surprised Kalran when he heard the knock on the cockpit door.
"We have a little gift for you. According to Earth time, it's Christmas morning." The couple gave Kalran a music box with a rotating Christmas tree.
"It is very kind of you. I am Hindu myself, but I have a present for you too. Look."
Kalran rolled the ship and the colored lights from the dark side of Lave came into view, dazzling the eyes.
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