Tales From the Hunter Legacy Universe 1: Jane's Christmas Read Online Free Page A

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reindeer, flying in from space, and landing on the Flight Deck. It was taken
down one of the lifts to the Launch Deck, where it was unloaded by the elves.
    "A few?" questioned BA.
    It was more than a few. Jane seemed to be
learning how to use an understatement.
    Seeming to deny the laws of space, more
packages came off the sleigh than there seemed to be room for them. When
unloading was complete, the sleigh was moved into a launch tube, from where it
sailed back out into space.
    No-one commented on the apparent
impossibility of a sleigh with a large man in red on it, being pulled around
space by Earth animals.
    The elves picked up the larger packages,
and deposited one each in front of the Alpha team.
    They all looked at me.
    "Don’t look at me," I said, with
my hands raised. "They're obviously for you, so open them."
    Eyes turned to Annabelle instead. She
started ripping paper, and quickly revealed a grav chest. She keyed open the
top, and froze.
    "Boss?" asked BA. "What's in
there?"
    Annabelle wasn’t listening. She reached in
and started pulling things out. She lovingly hugged a framed still hollo, and
looked towards me with tears streaming down her face.
    "What is it?" I asked her, now
feeling worried.
    "This isn’t possible," she said
softly.
    "What the…" came from BA, and was
repeated in one form or another by the rest of the team.
    They all looked at me, with more than half
of them crying.
    "How?" demanded Amanda, wiping
her cheeks.
    "How what?" I said.
    "How did you do this?"
    "What?"
    "Have you been holding out on us
Jon?" demanded Alison.
    "Huh? I've no idea what you're talking
about."
    Annabelle looked me straight in the eyes.
    "Jon, how much did you collect from
where Moose was destroyed?"
    "Moose? What are you talking
about?"
    "How much?" demanded BA.
    "Nothing. There wasn’t anything
recognizable to collect. All there was, was dust."
    "Don't lie to us Jon," said
Aline.
    "What? I'm not lying to you. Get Jane
to show you the debris field record if you don’t believe me."
    "Well how have you done this?"
asked Annabelle.
    "Done what?"
    My voice was raised now. I honestly had no
idea what was going on. Dick and the others were sitting there looking totally
mystified. I shared the feeling.
    Annabelle rose, and took a quick tour of
each of the grav chests. She stopped in front of me.
    "These are our things from Moose. When
Moose was destroyed, we lost everything. With the life we lead, we don’t get
much chance to accumulate possessions, but we all had important things from our
past. Things which couldn’t be replaced. Lord knows we have enough funds to buy
anything we want now, but what we all wanted most, shouldn’t have been
available to buy. And yet, here it is. Not all of it for sure, but enough. How
did you do this?"
    "I keep telling you, I didn’t."
    "Jon's right," said Jane.
"He didn’t."
    "Who did?" asked BA.
    "Santa."
    The room was dead quiet for a full minute.
    The elves broke the silence by depositing
more packages, this time at the feet of those who hadn't had one yet.
    "Have it your way Jon," said
Annabelle. "Whoever pulled off this miracle, thank you."
    She bent down and hugged me, before returning
to her seat.
    An elf placed a large package at my feet.
Trying not to disturb Angel, I pulled off the paper and found a large box. It
looked vaguely familiar. I looked to see if one side slid open, and it did.
Inside I could see antique style circuit boards. A screen popped up, asking for
permission to upload a menu. I let it do so, and looked it over. I was only one
screen in, when I realized what it was.
    I looked over to Jane, who was placing a
small package in front of Dick.
    "Jane, is this what I think it
is?"
    "Yes."
    Her grin was threatening to become larger
than her face.
    I kept going through menu after menu, not
believing what I was seeing.
    "Jon, what's up?" asked Amanda.
"Now you're the one who looks like crying."
    "This is a computer," I said.
"A mixture of the antique and obsolete,