The Frosted Deer (audio story)

 was the fifth story of the audio anthology The Christmas Collection.

Publisher's summary
Hot on the trail of an ancient artefact, Bernice goes undercover on the planet of Teilan. But it's not long before she starts to have some doubts about Braxiatel's real motives for finding this mysterious object...

Plot
On Teilan Sec, Benny and Braxiatel are tied up in a storage cupboard after their paperwork is found to be fraudulent and Benny spat in the customs clerk's eye and will soon be moved to a secure cell. They escape after almost two hours and steal a hoverbike with a sidecar, eventually getting away from the authorities and reaching the starliner to Teilan Prime. With boarding having ended and their paperwork confiscated, Benny goes to sneak on board whilst Braxiatel instead elects to speak with the captain.

Benny follows a staff member and steals a uniform to board a shuttle to the starliner and Braxiatel gains access to another by presenting his credentials, which identify him as a cardinal and get him a personal suite. They meet on the starliner's observation deck and Braxiatel tells Benny that his informant was correct; they are on the largest starliner between the two halves of the planet on the fifty-seventh cycle of the Fallen Festival, indicating that the Frosted Deer, a symbol of peace between Prime and Sec, is indeed on board.

Benny and Braxiatel head to the loyalists' suite and gain access with Benny's staff ID. They meet twin children whom Benny persuades to give her the small box containing the Frosted Deer, which their grandfather told them not to ever open. They find the small reindeer statue inside and Braxiatel storms out after realising that it is made of plastic. Benny gives it back to the twins, telling them that it is far more important than Braxiatel is and they must continue to look after it.

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Irving Braxiatel
 * Captain
 * Boy
 * Girl

Worldbuilding

 * On Beta XII, Benny fought convicts in deep space.
 * Deep inside a Tectunian moon, Benny saved a teenage tribe whose ancestral histories were being devoured by an eldritch scientist.
 * In Ancient Rome, Benny learned to play the lyre, ran away from three slavers and poisoned a councillor.
 * Teilan was almost torn apart during the Blood War. The two halves, Prime and Sec, have been held together by gravity wells since then.
 * The Frosted Deer is moved between the two halves of Teilan every fifty-seven cycles.
 * Braxiatel drinks wine. He is not impressed by it.
 * Braxiatel wears a suit and tie.

Continuity

 * Braxiatel is a cardinal. (AUDIO: Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Extinction Event, etc.)