A Christmas Tour… And a Featured Story

You may have noticed some changes that have happened, and are still happening, around the website. I wanted to take a moment and show you around, so to speak! Then, after the brief tour, I’ll repost the 2021 Christmas short story, Christmas in the Stars. I hope you enjoy!

What’s Changed?

There is much to see. Come, help me unlock The Archive. Our featured story here is “Four Christmases,” a story about two musicians through the lens of Four Christmases throughout their lives. It was the second annual Christmas short story, and is still one of my favorites of all time. I hope you enjoy!

Did you make it out okay? I know it’s easy to get lost in there!

Next, let’s visit our Short Stories! First of all, we have The Origins of the Gnome Brigade, which has always made me chuckle in bewilderment, so hopefully it does the same for you.

Next, we have “A Christmas Memory,” which is the very first Christmas short story I wrote. It’s written as an Ode to the Introvert at the special request of a dear writing friend. It still holds a special place in my heart for a lot of reasons, so I hope you enjoy!

Finally (as of this writing), we have The Miracle Mile. I’ll talk about this when we get to “What’s Coming.”

Over there is the Novellas! Here, we have a collection of short stories that I wrote for Christmas 2020. The challenge here was creating stories based off objects and ideas my friends gave me. It was… Interesting. Featuring pineapples (crushed, in a can?), carved wolves, mirrors, and lots more. Check it out.

What’s Coming?

Let’s walk back to the Short Stories. As of this writing, I am still planning (and hoping) to finish a story set in the same world as Miracle Mile. So keep your eyes peeled for that!

On the other hand – watch your step there, but let’s make our way over to Novel Excerpts – I’ll be moving a couple Christmas/winter scenes from some of my novels to replace Visti El Bulron. If you’re still finishing reading it, hurry up! I can’t promise how long it’ll last.

And, of course, in the Scribe’s Journal, we’ll keep posting (semi) daily updates on our Christmas Advent Calendar. Check out yesterday’s (posted today because I missed a day), A Christmas Prayer for All Seasons. Thank you for you interest and your submissions! Keep them coming, we love seeing them!

Now onto our story!

Christmas in the Stars

Neilson Yuri Venture (Third Generation Awakened) pushed his door open to the long hall from his room. His small studio sat in the heart of the Community, one of the few ones in Sector 5 that was still occupied. He didn’t mind it, though – he knew that the quiet wouldn’t last long.

A steady beeping noise alerted Neil to a Transit circuiting its way through the Sector. He closed his door, nodding to his only neighbor on the way, Hoison. Hoison nodded in return, and began to walk along the Transit tracks, toward the Command Nodule. Hoison was a full blood, who could trace his ancestry all the way back to the Departure. He was also one of the few full bloods with the ability to fly the Armstrong. Not that they were running out of pilots; there actually was quite the influx at the moment.

He had a few eccentricities, though, Neil thought as the Transit pulled into the Sector. For example, Hoison refused to use the Transit services, instead relying on his own two feet. “They’ll break down one day,” he’d growl, “And then all of you will complain about having to walk. Not me, though. I’ll be used to it.”

“Or I might be thankful I was able to use the Transit when I had it,” Neil would always say. With that said, he would occasionally eschew the ride to walk with Hoison. For all his oddities, he was a deep thinker and often had advice or counsel to give, if you listened long enough.

Today, however, was not a day to walk. There was far too much to be done. For today was Christmas, and the Armstrong space shuttle was ending its long journey through the cosmos, making the final descent to the destination planet Zeta 4456.

As he boarded the Transit, Driver Driver (Second Generation Awakened) frowned at him slightly. “If you and two others moved out of here, I wouldn’t need to pass through Sector 5,” he said. There was a slight accent to his voice, a callback to his mother’s ethnicity. Neil thought it was Hispanic, but he wasn’t sure.

“But there’s four of us who live here,” Neil said as he passed Driver to take his seat.

Driver shrugged. “The fifth is Hoison. When was the last time you saw him take a Transit?”

Neil knew, but didn’t say it. That day had been dreadful, not just for Hoison, but for all of them. While there was general peace and steadiness to life on the Armstrong, accidents happened. Hoison had lost both his parents in the incident. It was the first and only time Hoison had ridden Transit – he had even refused one to walk back from the site.

Neil didn’t dwell on it. He knew Driver wasn’t trying to dredge up old memories, so he didn’t linger. Instead, he took his seat in the Sector 5 area (the only one to do so) and watched the apartments blur together as they sped out.

There were a few others on the Transit, who hadn’t gone to work early today or stayed home. Most of them were Ags, who were going to the Lower Belly to pick up their shifts working on the farms. Given the nature of agriculture in space, the farms needed constant attention. These, the faithful remainder, made sure that there was fresh food for everyone on board.

Neil, on the other hand, was a Dreamer. He monitored the several hundred thousand beings – human and animal – they had locked in cryo-sleep. It was a very safe occupation, without the hazards of live, well, Awake animals and humans. The most nerve-wracking part had come in the past few months, when people had to be Awakened again.

Awakening wasn’t a terribly difficult thing. They did it a few times every generation these days. But there was always the chance it could go wrong. He had seen it happen once – thankfully only once. Once thoroughly thawed, there had been no life in the man’s bones.

Today, Neil knew, was not going to be one of those days. Today, they Awakened the Architect, Ren Manyin. Within the Armstrong, however, they called him the Space Genghis Khan, based on the recordings of his last speech, where he said that he would conquer the stars, just as Genghis Khan had conquered the Earth.

The Transit slowed, and Driver Driver popped the door open. Neil was the only one to stand. He nodded to Driver, then stepped out to the Freezer. He didn’t like the name (none of the Dreamers did), but he accepted it philosophically, just like he did the title “Dreamer.”

Here, the door was automatic, hissing open and alerting everyone within to his entrance. “Morning, Neilson,” his best friend, Dip, said from the control room.

Neil nodded, then surveyed the scene. They had begun the prep during the night shift (he said night, though day and night were arbitrary in the Armstrong), and Ren’s pod was in one of the Awakeners.

They avoided using terms that referenced the process, and thereby made people uncomfortable. The pods were based off of freezing someone, so they were called Freezers by the common folk. The Awakeners worked by thawing the person out, but the Dreamers actively avoided calling it “the Melting Pot” or any other such title, rampant as they were throughout the Community.

“Will you get annoyed if I check your work?” Neil called to Dip.

“I’d be disappointed if you didn’t,” Dip said, grinning back. He was quite a few years older than Neil, and had trained him how to be a Dreamer. One of the first rules Neil had learned was that, when entering the Freezer, you checked all work done before you. That way, you couldn’t be blamed if something went wrong.

Neil checked the Awakener over. To his relief, all the fittings were tight and the machine was running smoothly. He walked back to Dip, leaning against the doorframe to the control room. “When’s he supposed to be out?” he asked, nodding toward the pod.

“Shift after yours,” Dip said, looking down at an Awakening chart. “The outer layer is just starting to come off. You can’t-“

“Rush art,” Neil finished. “I know.” He blew out a breath. “You gonna be here for it?”

“No,” Dip said. “You think I want to hear another politician be Awakened?”

Neil snorted a laugh. “You’re still not over having to wake up Berchack?”

Dip ran a hand through his hair. “That idiot was the worst mistake two people could have ever made.”

“I wish I could argue with you,” Neil said. “But I really can’t.”

Windelow Berchack had been a famous legislator when the Armstrong had launched. Two years prior, they had found it necessary to Awaken a few governing officials, and she was on the list. Unfortunately, she seemed obsessed with trying to make things the way she remembered them on Earth, despite having listed ‘Open-Minded’ on her application. Fortunately, the government had stopped her from trying to instate a currency, at least while the Armstrong was traveling. Once it landed, and factions began to form (as Neil was sure they would), who knew what kind of madness they would come up with.

Neil entered the control room and took a look at the diagnostics. Everything was running correctly, without any dangerous fluctuations.

The Freezer was split into three different parts. The first was the Subs, those who had volunteered that, if needed, they could be woken up during the journey to replenish the workforce or the gene pool. Whenever one of them entered the family line, it was marked into your family forever. Neil’s grandfather had been a Sub, which meant that he was the Third Generation from an Awakened, or 3G. Driver Driver’s mother was an Awakened, which meant he was Second Generation. Dip’s family… Well, Neil had never been able to get Dip to talk about his family any more than he had been able to pry any name other than “Dip” from his lips.

Beyond the Subs was First Class, or the Elites, as the Dreamers called them. The pilots that had been Awakened the month before, Windelow Berchack and now Ren Manyin had all come from this area.

Finally, there was Second Class or the Norms. They were the average citizens that would fill Zeta 4456 when the time came. It also included some of the Crew, which had opted to sleep, in order to see Zeta 4456. Neil’s family was in there, somewhere. Almost all of them had gone to sleep, all at varying ages. Neil wasn’t looking forward to meeting a great-great grandfather that was younger than his father, but he supposed it was one of the oddities that he would have to get used to.

“It seems fitting that we’d be coming to a planet on Christmas,” Dip said, breaking the silence. “Don’t you think?”

“I’m not sure I know what you mean,” Neil said, looking over.

Dip rolled his eyes. “Come to Mass with me sometime. That’ll explain everything.”

Neil cocked an eyebrow, but said nothing. Instead, he returned to his work. As it was Christmas, the shifts were shorter, but work still had to be done. Dip left an hour later, and was replaced by Rachelle. They passed the time as they always did, sharing gossip from the crew and playing, “I Imagine,” a game where they would say what they imagined life would be like on Zeta 4456. Rachelle was much more imaginative than Neil, but Neil was more realistic. She painted a world where the trees were purple, fairies roamed the woods and there were secret caves that led to ancient wonders. Neil saw a slow spread of industry and growth, which would work for the first few years, then slowly turn into competing countries.

“Pessimistic as always,” Rachelle said, shaking her head. “You have to have faith that things will be better, Neil.”

“Your “better” is the dream I had after I ate some bad tacos,” Neil replied dryly, pushing back from his desk.

Rachelle’s reply was cut off by the hiss of the doors, allowing Omar, Neil’s replacement, to enter. “Merry Christmas!” he shouted, a wide grin across his face.

“Merry Christmas, Omar!” Rachelle said cheerily. Neil responded in like, standing up from his chair.

“How are you going to enjoy the rest of your day?” Omar asked as he walked to the Awakener and began checking the work.

Neil grinned, coming to lean against the doorway again. “I’m going to go watch the landing,” he said. “Enjoy watching the Architect melt.”

“Have a good day!” Rachelle said. “And remember! Look on the bright side!”

Neil flashed her a smile. “I’ll try. Merry Christmas, you two.”

He left the Freezer and, avoiding the Transit, made his way back to his studio. As he entered Sector Five, an automated voice came on over the speaker, telling everyone to find a place to sit or lie down, as the true final part of the descent was about to begin.

Neil hurried into his apartment, making sure the door was sealed, then laid down in his bed, turning his television on. The Armstrong streaming service had nearly all recorded movies and TV Shows, but they also had cameras across the hull to film their descent. While there wasn’t much to see other than the hull and the ground rushing toward them, it still filled Neil’s heart with wonder.

The ship shook as it passed through the atmosphere. Neil looked around his sparse room, making sure there was nothing that was going to fall over and break. Seeing nothing, he turned his attention back to the screen. The ground was getting closer now, a billowing cloud of dust rising to meet them and blocking his view. They were slowing down, he could tell, but that was it. Time seemed to take no meaning as they fell. It could have been minutes, or could it have been hours, Neil had way of knowing.

Then, with sudden finality, the Armstrong landed. The rockets cut, and their full weight was on Zeta’s surface.

The typical hum of the machines kept running, but feeling of motion was gone. Neil sat up, staring at his screen in shock. The dust was billowing around, but for brief moments, he thought could see the land in the gaps. “We made it,” he whispered.

A feeling blossomed in his heart, rich and vibrant. It slowly worked its way throughout his whole body, causing him to jump. He threw open the door and vaulted into the empty street, screaming with excitement. He danced, he cavorted – he did things that he had no name for, but they just felt right.

There was a blur of motion and sound, and he was nearly tackled by one of his other neighbors, hugging him tight and screaming, “We made it! We’re here!” over and over into his ear. Neil hugged them back, grinning like an idiot.

Another announcement came over the speaker. This time, it was their captain, Mevis Sheldon.

“Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Zeta 4456, our new home. As you’re able, please come to the Command Nodule. As you are all well aware, we will be remaining on the ship until we are given the all clear from the ground crew. We expect this to be within the week. In the meantime, continue work as usual.”

“The Command Nodule?” Neil asked, finally getting a good look at who he was hugging. It was Bin Terlov, one of the Ags. He had, as far as Neil was aware, never shown any sign of emotion before this day. “What do they want us up there for?”

Bin shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.” He motioned with his head. “Wanna find out?”

Neil nodded, still stunned that they had actually made it and the amount of enthusiasm Bin was displaying. He was an Old Soul, which meant that he, like his family before him, had decided to age naturally and pass away, instead of going to sleep to see Zeta. People like that were even more pessimistic than Neil was, a shocker to most people.

He followed the older man through the Sectors, to the Control Nodule. There was already a group of people there, all standing in line. And then Neil saw it, rising in the center of the large antechamber – a metal obelisk, glinting in the light. On all four sides, including the pointed tip, there had been etched a Christmas tree. At the base, it read “The Crew of the Armstrong Voyager, arrived at Zeta 4456 on Christmas Day, V. 1245. This landing represents the ending of the Voyage Era and begins Zeta Era 001.”

As the line moved forward, Neil could see that they were signing their names into the metal, leaving an eternal marker that they had been some of the first arrivals on this new planet.

How fitting it was, he thought, that it was Christmas that they had come. This metal marker would be their Christmas tree, and the entire world would be their Christmas present. In fact, they had been given the best gift of all.

Though it was new and unknown, with their landing, they were wanderers no more. This Christmas, the Crew of the Armstrong had finally reached what their ancestors had dreamed of for over a millennia.

They were home.