A Deadly Little Crisis is a canonical short story set on December 24, 2600, after Starship Dominatrix: Flesh and Steel. The Dominatrix II answers a distress call from an Eisgait colony robbed of BioGel and winter supplies. Jack, Talonor, and synthetic crew members assault the raider encampment.
Jack spares Frosnik Volzen after Frosnik's son Branel shields him. Father and son return the stolen property. Three winters later, a visitor strongly indicated to be Jack arrives dressed as Santa and leaves Branel genuine gifts.
¶ Plot
Jack rejects Christmas as commercial hypocrisy and a reminder of childhood trauma. Talonor decorates the Galley, while Yvonne presses Jack to answer Eisgait's call even though it lies outside their jurisdiction.
The raiders occupy an old mining facility and block Jack's implant with an electromagnetic field. Jack, Talonor, and AI crew members attack, killing most of the group.
Frosnik has stolen a password-locked H.E.A.D. for Branel, claiming raiding is necessary to provide for him. Branel rejects the gift because it belongs to someone else and demands that his father stop.
¶ Mercy
Frosnik surrenders after realizing Branel would be orphaned. Branel runs between him and Jack. Recognizing his younger self in the child, Jack spares Frosnik and removes father and son from the official report.
Frosnik and Branel return the BioGel, supplies, and devices. Jack reframes Christmas as care, protection, hope, courage, and mercy.
¶ Meanwhile
Approximately three winters later, Frosnik tells Branel Santa is not real. A visitor with one organic eye and one red cybernetic eye emerges through a blue wormhole and leaves a HoloConsole, games, gadgets, drones, a DataPad, candy, and a new H.E.A.D. Branel never learns the visitor's identity.
¶ See Also
- Christmas — Christmas appears in the documented history of A Deadly Little Crisis; A surviving Earth holiday tied to gifts and family, but also to Jack Kaiden's grief and the Eisgait crisis.
- Dominatrix II — Dominatrix II appears in the documented history of A Deadly Little Crisis; The SSS Dominatrix II is the successor ship commanded by Jack Kaiden after the Chimera Kyria's apparent fall.
- Biogel — Biogel appears in the documented history of A Deadly Little Crisis; A medical substance used to stabilize, protect, or repair damaged bodies and tissues.
- Datapad — Datapad appears in the documented history of A Deadly Little Crisis; A handheld computing tablet used for records, diagnostics, messages, research, and system control.
- Eisgait — Eisgait appears in the documented history of A Deadly Little Crisis; Eisgait has a biological eye and a cybernetic ocular implant, severe trauma, migraines, and medication-sensitive hypotension.
- Frosnik Volzen — Frosnik Volzen appears in the documented history of A Deadly Little Crisis; An Eisgait raider called Krampus whose love for his son Branel brings him into conflict with the survival economy of his colony.
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