*Lost *is a sci-fi Christmas story about a veteran who’s left adrift. He fought an intergalactic war, defended his people, and lost parts of himself in the process. How is a half-man, half-robot supposed to find his place in a world scarred with the poison of the invaders who hate anyone who isn’t 100%, biologically human? Even his family doesn't want him anymore.
Adrift and depressed, Rye wanders the space station in search of direction when he finds a little robot boy and his guardian—a 100% biological human trying desperately to keep custody of Percy and give him a better life. That’s not the only people he finds though—his old commander shows up offering him a job of more violence.
Will Rye take the easy route the one he knows and has been finetuned to excel at, or will he fight for love, justice, and kindness?
My only complaint with this story is that the threat the antagonist poses is short-lived and only half-felt. I get that it's a short story, so there isn't much time to build up the suspense, but I would have liked more out of the tension.
Beyond that, great read. Wonderfully short and well-expressed in a fun and festive way.
First of all—I loved this novella. I never expect to like Christmas stories because I'm not here for a corny, run-of-the-mill Christmas story, but this is none of that.
Rye is a veteran struggling with PTSD and his family’s abandonment. He falls into anger, self-pity, and even the savior complex, but he doesn’t get away with any of it.
After receiving an email from his family that he’s not welcome home because of his life-saving augments, Rye wanders aimlessly. How is he supposed to reconcile that his family would rather he had died floating in space than that he survived with metal augmentations?
He stumbles upon Percy, a robot boy who escaped his daycare to climb the giant Christmas tree. Naturally, Rye makes him get down and returns him to his guardian, Deirdre. Percy’s mom was a nurse and she died in the war. When he finds out the officials are trying to take custody of Percy because Deirdre is a single parent, Rye stifles the desire to help.
He continues in his pity party until his ex-commander, Sylvester, shows up and offers him a security job. He’d be good at it. But Rye didn’t want to rely on violence any more than he wanted to mine rocks alone on some asteroid belt. So, instead of answering, he tells Sylvester about Percy and Deirdre. Sylvester takes an interest. Too much interest. A robot as well-kitted as Percy could make a valuable asset.
Before he knows it, Rye finds Sylvester with Percy and he panics a little, as he should. He offers to take partial financial responsibility for Percy to help get them onto a new planet, but she declines. He learns a hard lesson that day, you can’t play the hero and the victim at the same time.
Rye has to take a good hard look at his life and what he wants out of it. He finally settles on his passion for baking and a spark of life returns to the grizzled soldier. He goes to find Deirdre to tell his realization and hopes for the future, not to save her this time, but is interrupted by Sylvester.
There’s a moment of tension before Sylvester explains that he respects how Deirdre is raising Percy and offers to sponsor their immigration.
A Christmas miracle.
My only complaint with this story is that the threat Sylvester poses is short-lived and only half-felt. I get that it’s a short story, so there isn’t a lot of time to build up the suspense, but I would have liked more out of the tension.
Otherwise, this goes down as one of my favorite Christmas stories! Let me know what you think!
