Glory to the Reborn King (audio story)

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

Publisher's summary
Bernice has dragged her assistant Gavin away from his home planet's winter celebrations to help with an archaeological expedition to the mysterious planet Telway. But as the team dig in the dust, it seems that something sinister is stirring in the dark reaches of space...

Plot
On an orbital platform above the uninhabited planet Telway, Benny coordinates an archaeological mission funded by Magion. They have been promised a bonus if they get a breakthrough at all of the locations at the same time, so Benny's research assistant, Gavin, has Gwen move Perce and Argie to another team on the planet's surface. As it is Christmas, Gavin gets Benny some spiced synthahol.

Gwen and Dr Baldwin's teams find devices transmitting into space and Gavin's tests reveal that the snow is actually bone, solving the mystery of where the missing Telwayns are. The readings show that the devices are identical and Gavin sends them to the other sites so that they know what they are looking for, assuming that the same devices will be found there, and Benny becomes suspicious of the company's motives. When another team finds a third device, Benny tells Perce to cover it up, but it protects itself with a force field.

The three signals split into distinct arcs, forming a crown above the planet. Benny and Gavin believe that the Telwayns sacrificed themselves to power the devices and that the platform has been configured to send out cancellation waves to disable them. When Gavin says that the signals are creating a way in from the dark space, Benny wonders if the company planted him and they receive a message from somebody calling themselves "Magion" and "the Last Light". Gavin remembers the story of the Spiriting: that the light was born when the women drove the Agnomes into darkness with the sun.

Gavin extracts the environmental data from the original Telway probe to recreate it as a signal to suppress the transmission and cancel the cancellation wave. Magion's reality is locked away once more. Benny tells Gwen to have the devices covered once more before she sends a shuttle to pick the teams up. As she scans the surface, she hears Gavin contact his mother and father with a Magion microphone to tell them what has happened.

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Gavin
 * Gwen
 * Perce
 * Dr Baldwin

Worldbuilding

 * Gavin's people celebrate the Spiriting.
 * Gavin gets Benny some spiced synthahol.
 * Gavin used to study exophysics before attending one of Benny's lectures.
 * The Telwayns were the inhabitants of Telway. They had a Level 5 civilisation.
 * Benny mentions Boxing Day.

Continuity
to be added