Jingle Stars (Shamans & Shifters Space Opera Book 4) by Jenny Schwartz

Author:Jenny Schwartz [Schwartz, Jenny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-12-03T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

Aiden stumbled forward, eyes glued to the funny-shaped, talking robot held in one of Ollie’s strange new hands. “Santa got my message?”

“Who the turd is Santa?” Tir demanded. “And how did you send a message off-station?”

“I used the comm system on here. Before you told us to save the power core,” Aiden added hastily.

“Santa is a human story,” Zoe whispered. “We watched a vid of him, before the power levels dropped.”

“He makes toys for good girls and boys and delivers them everywhere on Christmas Day in a big sleigh pulled by reindeers. I told him we didn’t need presents, but if he had room in his sleigh, we needed a ride off-station. Cos Zoe’s sick and Ollie…but Ollie isn’t dead…” Aiden’s voice faded into a mumble.

Ollie wasn’t dead, but what he was, was almost worse.

While Aiden talked, Tir’s face slid through a number of expressions before settling on disgusted disbelief. “You risked a message on a human story? Are you an idiot?”

“But it worked! He’s here.” Aiden gestured at the robot caught in Ollie’s pincer. “Are you an elf?” he addressed it.

“No, I’m not an elf.” The voice sounded apologetic about that. “I’m an AI, an artificial intelligence. The ‘Doc’ you refer to, the one who hurt Ollie, is he Doctor Spenser?”

“Yes,” Aiden said instantly.

Tir moved restlessly, then stopped. He’d decided to allow the questions and answers.

“Has Doc experimented on anyone else?”

This time, Aiden didn’t answer. Or at least, not with words. He looked from Tir to Mia, and then, to Zoe.

“Three of you.” The robot noticed everything, but it sounded sad.

The children relaxed. Someone who was sad wasn’t immediately dangerous. Mia wrapped a blanket around her shoulders, including Easton in its warmth. Urda flew down to fetch the bottle of fruit juice and held it to Zoe’s mouth. Only Tir and Ollie stayed watchful and suspicious.

Aiden was simply in awe. Santa had sent someone to save him. For three years, since his mom died, Aiden had been the lone human on Station Elphame. But humans hadn’t left him to die. Santa had sent this robot…and it said it had a starship. “Do you really have a starship with room for all of us?”

“I really do. My name is Ahab.”

“I’m Aiden. This is Tir, Ollie, Mia, Easton, Urda and Dreki.” Aiden pointed at each of his friends.

“I look forward to getting to know you,” the robot said. “But we need to get you to safety first. If Ollie escaped, Doc will be looking for him.”

Aiden lost his awe at the robot’s presence. He panicked at mention of Doc, and looked at Tir for direction.

Tir was scowling fiercely, his knife out again.

“I’ll go with you.” Ollie carefully put the robot down on the floor of the starship and gave it a clumsy pat. “I-I kn-know I can’t s-stay here.”

“We all have to go,” Mia said. “If he can help Zoe.” She gestured at their friend, who was curled up coughing wildly again, ever since mention of Doc coming looking for Ollie.

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