Yule's Tyd

Yule’s Tyd

A Christmas Short

A.M. Griffin

Yule’s Tyd© 2014 A.M. Griffin

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Publisher, Three Twenty-One, LLC

Editing services were provided by Anya Richards, http://grammargoggles.blogspot.com/

Dedication

Thanks to all my readers for your continued love and support. May you have a very merry and blessed Christmas.

Yule’s done what was asked of him, so soon he’ll be free and able to travel the universe, or return to his ancestral home, Earth. He should be ecstatic, but what fun will there be in discovering what lies beyond the remote outpost if his best friend, the station’s Artificial Intelligence sentinel Tyd, can’t come with him? Tyd’s taught Yule so much, has kept him sane during his service, and Yule can’t imagine life without his friend.

He also doesn’t know how much longer he can go without some kind of physical contact. Projected images of women on his wall and fantasy encounters just can’t satisfy him anymore. But Christmas is coming—although Yule neither knows what it is nor cares—and Tyd has arranged a very special gift. One that will change everything.

Yule

Yule sat in the uncomfortable work chair and stared at the computer screen. He watched the green scanner as it completed another circle around the monitor. At first glance a person wouldn’t be able to tell that the area encompassed within the circle spanned half a light-year’s distance, but since he’d been watching this screen for almost two years—two complete cycles—he knew what every blip on the monitor meant.

The blip on the top right corner was the planet Respeth. The one in the lower right was the meteor fields of Huntu. The blip to the left, near the middle, was the planet Mayna and the blip in the center, well, that was him. Not him physically, but the small outer space outpost not very far from the home planet Mayna that he’d been relegated to.

He had to stay here for another three moon rotations to complete the job that he’d been assigned. After his assignment was over the councilors of Mayna would pay him enough credits to allow him to travel the galaxy—which was what he really longed to do. But he had