It was a clear and crisp Christmas Eve at the North Pole. All the elves were busy with last minute preparations. Emily Elf wrote replies to Christmas letters; Erin and Cindy Elf were finishing off games to load onto Santa's sleigh; Sharon and some smaller elves made crafts and wooden toys; Carol, Anise and Sara Elf were wrapping away; and Alecia entertained the small elves, while the littlest baby elf slept in his cradle beside her.
They all nodded their heads
in time to Christmas melodies. Santa and Mrs.
Claus had their feet up by the fire, taking a brief rest while they
worried about how to deliver the gifts this year. Those
silly reindeer had gulped down several batches of Mrs. C's
delicious cookies and mincemeat tarts, and they were all
lying in the straw, groaning with tummy aches. None of Mrs. C's
medicines helped! Mrs. Claus had just finished baking another huge batch
of treats, to keep Santa going through the night, and the
air in Santa's Workshop was perfumed with seasonal aromas of cinnamon
and ginger!
Suddenly an eerie green light filled the room and a screeching siren
drowned out the Christmas carols. The elves, Santa and Mrs. C all
dropped what they were doing and rushed to the windows. Even
the reindeer looked up and forgot their misery for the moment.
"That ... that ... that looks like a flying
saucer" spluttered Emily Elf, watching in awe as it buzzed the
Village. All the lights flickered and the reindeer started jumping,
leaping and bounding around in a panic.
Tig, who was visiting Rudolph from the 1000 Acres Wood, gave her
highest bounce yet and banged her noggin on something hard.
"Ouch!!" she exclaimed, sprawling in the snow! Well, her
bounce had knocked the saucer off course, and it zig-zagged wildly
before crash landing in a clearing right on top of the Snowman the
elves had built that afternoon. The Elves, the Reindeer, Santa, Mrs. C
and Tig all watched in amazement.
The saucer (it really was shaped like a saucer and was about
20 feet in diameter) settled on the ground, and a ramp came down from a
dark opening on the side. It filled with an ugly fluorescent green
light, and out marched a line of little metallic men. They were 2
feet tall and looked like miniature R2D2's except for the first
one. The green light seemed to come out of the front of its head, which
had eyeplates on either side. It kept swivelling around to see better,
making the ugly light dance as it did! It marched right up to Cindy Elf,
with the line of little bots following behind.
" Robot Menace is your end, Human. Take me to
leader."
"Well, technically we're not human, you know" replied Cindy
"but I guess Santa Claus is our leader - you'd better talk to
him.".
The line of robots swivelled in place and marched over to Santa.
"Robot Menace is your end, Entity.".
"Ho! Ho! Ho!" said Santa.
"Ho - does not compute. Ho - does not compute. Ho - does not
compute." replied the bot whirling its head and its gears at
the same time. "Robot Menace take over planet. Instruments sense
this Headquarters and you Head Honcho."
"Hey that's a great name ..." laughed Anise Elf, "usually
we just call him Big Red around here!".
"What should we call it?" mused Cindy Elf.
"How about BEB for Bug-Eyed Bot?" returned Tig.
"Ho! Ho! Ho!" laughed Santa.
""Ho! Ho! Ho not compute!!" replied BEB loudly,
frustration in its machine voice "Take over planet, first
Christmas, then World. Nothing stop Robot Menace.".
"Ho! Ho! Ho!" roared Santa.
Mrs. C stepped in, all smiles "Poor BEB, you look like you've
had a jolly, long journey to get here. Come and sit by the fire, and
enjoy my egg nog and mincemeat tarts before you start invading
us."
"Egg nog ... mincemeat" echoed BEB, gears whirring
noisily "compute - compute - ah - fuel. Yes. Bots need fuel.
Di-xenium batteries run down. Bots take fuel now."
And Mrs. Claus, wreathed in smiles, led the line of bots in to the
Workshop kitchen.
Anise, Carol and Erin Elf had their heads together. "Those bots
look a lot like the droids we were playing with on the
computer yesterday. You know that game where you had to organize the
droids with arrows and numbers in the right spots? Wonder if we could
control them the same way ... hmmm ... let's make some signs
...".
Sharon and Sara's pointy ears wriggled "We'll go and help Mrs.
Claus ply them with mincemeat - you never know!".
"Ho! Ho! Ho!" agreed Santa with an enigmatic grin.
Back in Mrs. C's kitchen, BEB and the little bots had finished off all
the tarts and cookies and were behaving strangely. They staggered
all around the workshop, knocking over piles of gifts and crashing into
each other. It was a mess! Sharon and Sara Elf ran around
retrieving Xmas presents and Alecia Elf was trying to get the
small elves out of the bots' way. But the little ones thought this was a
great game and kept dashing through the chaos. Finally BEB
staggered out the door and crashed head first in the snow beside Santa's
sleigh.
The other Elves had been consulting with Santa and were busy
painting arrows and symbols on cardboard squares. Now they laid
them out carefully in the workroom. Lo and behold, all the little
bots followed the arrows and ended up organized in 2 long lines in front
of the sleigh. Elves quickly loaded on the gifts. The Craft Elves' busy
fingers adjusted the reindeer harness to fit the smaller bots. Santa sat
down in the sleigh.
"Ho! Ho! Ho!" he called loudly and the sleigh took off! Anise
and Erin Elf looked at each other "That was fun, but don't we need
to play - 'em - research that game some more? We'll need ideas for when
they return!" "Go ahead" sighed Mrs. C, sitting by
the fire, too tired even to make cookies.
In the meantime, Santa's bots were busy delivering gifts. In one home,
little Johnny rubbed his eyes as he peered down the staircase, hoping to
catch a glimpse of Santa. And ... finally ... yes ... there was a
black boot and a red leg emerging from the chimney. Johnny rubbed his
eyes again in disbelief, as 2 bots flew down with a load of gifts and
deposited them under the tree. Santa added a Pikachu with a
Christmas hat to the top of the pile and winked at Johnny's beam of joy.
"Pika - pika - pika" it called as Johnny ran down the stairs
and curled up under the tree to fall asleep with his favorite
Pokemon.
Finally, all the gifts were delivered and Santa flew his robot
sleigh back to his Village at the North Pole. As it settled down in the
snow, all the elves cheered, and BEB staggered upright, shaking
off snow as it swivelled its head and the green light shone
weakly.
"Must be secret weapon" he muttered "Does not compute -
not compute - not compute -".
"Here, have some more cookies, I mean, fuel." said Carol Elf,
reaching into the sleigh and passing around a pile of cookies left
for Santa by kids all around the world.
BEB stuffed down a hundred or so cookies and staggered off to its
saucer, head still swivelling. They could hear BEB's machine voice in
the distance "secret weapon - not compute ...", and the
saucer took off erratically. The Elves' ears perked up as they looked at
the little bots and then at Santa. "Do you think we could play with
them?" asked Cindy Elf.
"Ho! Ho! Ho!" called Santa cheerfully, "Merry
Christmas!!!".
And that was how Santa got his bots and his Elves had their best
Christmas present ever! But Mrs. C and Tig had the last words as usual
...
"I always knew that 1999 would be a very special Christmas, but I
didn't expect it to be quite so droid-full."
"Bot it turned out just fine" grinned Tig.
