Cirrus@Austlit

'When a starship decides to play Santa Claus…

'Ahab is a mLa’an artificial intelligence embedded in the starship, Orion.

'The campaign for AIs to be recognized as full citizens of Galaxy Proper is within reach of its extraordinary goal. The only thing that could stop it now is if an AI did something foolish…like take a space station hostage to save eight orphaned children.

***
'And this is the letter to Santa that starts it all:

'Dear Santa

'I don’t know if your reindeers work in space. But if you have room in your sleigh after you finish delivering presents to the lucky kids with parents and homes, can you come and get me and my friends? Please?

'We’ve been good. Well, we haven’t been really bad. We’re on Station Elphame, in the junkyard, and Zoe is sick. She’s bad sick. I think she’d be better on a planet. We don’t need presents. We just need a way out of here. Ollie tried to sneak onto a trampship…he died.

'Please, Santa, I don’t want any more of my friends to die.

'Aiden.'

Source : publisher's blurb