Mainlining Christmas

If you're just joining us, every midnight between the 1st and 25th brings a new piece of genre fiction, always about Christmas Eve. This series is called 25 Christmas Eves, and we're on night 16. Today, I've got something especially Christmasy: a piece of far-future military SF called, CHRISTMAS CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE! Enjoy. By: Erin L. Snyder Admiral Belle Samson stepped onto the lift, coffee in hand. A small, green holographic image of the Blitzen-6 appeared before her. The lift shaft was highlighted in red, and she motioned towards the bridge and braced her coffee as she began accelerating upward. “Would the admiral like to view Captain Yuleson’s report on the status of the Spruce Queen?” The computer’s voice was clear and brisk, as always. “No. No thank you,” Samson said, blowing on her coffee. She then removed a flask from her coat pocket and added a modest amount of Irish Cream. A light blinked while she put the flask away. “Notice. It is against regulations f

Today's installment of holiday cheer in our "25 Christmas Eves" series is a nice little zombie survival tale, set in a post apocalyptic wasteland. Just in time for the holidays. By: Erin L. Snyder Deb woke up while Keeve was strapping the shotgun to his back. She stood up, stretched, and came towards him. There wasn't a lot of light in the room - just what seeped through the boarded up window - but it was enough to see she was worried. Keeve, satisfied the shotgun was secured, held her and kissed her on the lips. “Uh,” he said, laughing. “Your breath’s not too good.” “Yeah,” she laughed back, before growing serious. “Where are you going, babe?” “Oh. Yeah. I left you a note. Thought I’d grab some supplies from town, you know.” “Jesus. I should come,” she said. “No. Look, I love you, but we both know I’m faster.” “I can outrun any bee,” Deb replied. “I know you can, but I don’t want them following us back here, clawing at the door and all that. Re

This is the conclusion of the title story of '25 Christmas Eves'. Please note this only concludes the STORY, not the series: there will be more fiction tomorrow night, same Christmas channel, same Christmas time. If you missed parts 1 , 2 , and 3 , you'll want to give those a read before proceeding. By: Erin L. Snyder PART 4 The following year was even better than the one before. Hector took a job in the video store just as business took off. He was promoted to manager soon after. And, even better, he met Laurie. Laurie was one of their best customers. She came in almost daily to rent some old monster movie or science-fiction flick. She’d ask him questions about films he’d never heard of, and he found himself pretending he’d seen them, just so he’d have something to talk to her about. Then he found himself taking home movies as soon as she returned them. And then it was movies he thought she’d be interested in before she got to them. Pretty soon, they were go

This is part three of '25 Christmas Eves'. If you missed parts 1 and 2 , you'll want to give those a read before continuing. By: Erin L. Snyder PART 3 When they met a year later, Hector was renting an apartment with two friends, both of whom were fortuitously attending a Christmas Party Hector had feigned a stomach ache to avoid attending. Things were going well with Vanessa, and they’d started talking about moving in together. They hadn’t figured out next year yet - she was applying to colleges in the area, and he’d already dropped out of high school to work at a department store - but they were optimistic they’d figure it out. The devil gave him a brief rundown of political developments in hell, of how various demons were vying for power and of how the economy there was tightening. “None of it really adds up to much. It gets repetitive after a while. Not so bad as in heaven, but close some days.” He sat down on Hector’s couch, taking care not to damage the uph

The title story of 25 Christmas Eves continues. If you missed last night's installment, you'll want to start this story from the beginning, which you'll find here . By: Erin L. Snyder PART 2 Turning fifteen brought a host of disappointments to Hector’s life, not the least of which being his failure to make the cut for his school’s baseball team. His more athletic classmates seemed to experience life far fuller than he, and he began to consider - quite seriously - whether this might be a direction worth pursuing. But trading one’s immortal soul, he reasoned, was not something to be undertaken lightly. When the devil appeared, Hector was ready with elaborate checklists, notes, and charts. He began grilling his visitor right off the bat. “What can I expect to be bench-pressing?” “That depends how hard you work at it. I can guarantee more than triple your current maximum.” Hector made a note. “What about throwing?” “I can improve eye-hand coordination at leas

I'm sorry: did I give you the impression this series was entitled 25 Christmas Eves simply because it contained 25 stories about Christmas Eve? That's nowhere near confusing enough! In addition, it's also the title of the series's longest story, a sort of magical realism piece I'll be sharing over four nights. By: Erin L. Snyder PART 1 It would have been somewhat inaccurate to say that Hector Stewart did not want a red bicycle with silver handlebars for Christmas, but no less accurate than to say he did. Hector did want a bike eventually, but there was little rush, particularly since he wouldn’t have a chance to use it until spring. The fact he’d have no other opportunity to get a bicycle before then was little consolation, nor was the knowledge there’d be nothing he’d rather have when May finally came around. Because Hector was eight, and at eight May is as distant from December as college or retirement. It is a future beyond sight, beyond imagining. W

25 Christmas Eves pushes on. Today's installment is a short piece of near-future science fiction titled, "Last Minute." By: Erin L. Snyder Adam’s car broke down on the way home, courtesy of a faulty valve. It took the internal diagnostic system almost twenty minutes to identify the issue and, thanks to the strain the holiday season was putting on the network, another five to download the schematics. And of course the emergency 3D-printer in the hatch required another fifteen to replicate a replacement. Then the site streaming the walkthrough crashed twice while he was installing the damn thing. All of this in the middle of a snowstorm, too: it was like something out of an old holiday movie. It was after seven before he made it home, which meant arming his eleven year-old son with a world-class extortion scam: “You left me alone... on Christmas Eve! I had to order my own dinner! I had to watch a movie... by myself!” And so on and so forth. Fortunately, Adam was u