Signifiers of the Verphidiae (audio story)

Signifiers of the Verphidiae was the fourth story of the audio anthology The Christmas Collection.

Publisher's summary
Bernice is enjoying planning a traditional Christmas party for her friends – and Bev, Jason, and Joseph are happy to join in. But Benny should have learned by now not to trust a mysterious alien artefact, especially at Christmas time...

Plot
Benny wakes up, hungover, and is invited by Joseph to meet with Braxiatel in his office. She agrees to join Bev in looking at the pile of items she found on the surface of a crumbling planetoid that Braxiatel bought at auction and finds, amongst the space flotsam, a stone slab that looks like it was once part of a wall. She and Bev move it to her research lab with anti-grav lifters and remove the sand, revealing twenty-four engraved symbols inside rectangles, one of which opens whilst she uses a radio carbon scanner. Inside is an empty cavity and another symbol.

When Benny wakes up at her console, Bev points out that another little door has opened, almost a full day after the first. She waits until the third day and finds that another cavity has indeed opened, confirming her theory that it is an emptied Advent calendar, and threatens Braxiatel with carols to celebrate Christmas after the last cavity opens despite it not yet being December. She eventually realises that the doors only open when she is away, asleep or distracted and that she has not yet actually seen one open and ensures that she does so one day; when one opens, Bev catches what falls out and hands Benny a piece of Draconian cutlery.

Benny takes a trip for several weeks to buy everybody Christmas presents and records the calendar whilst she is away. When she returns, she shows Braxiatel the footage; each time a door open, there is an electrical discharge and Bev catches or collects another item. As Bev failed to mention this, Benny becomes suspicious and wonders if she had deceived her with the Draconian cutlery and been taking the objects to Braxiatel. He denies this and suggests that they confront her the day before the final door opens.

After identifying the symbols as the Signifiers of the Verphidiae, Benny ignores Jason and begins translating them into Bespertarian before having a program translate it into English. The first part says "Bringing you sentiments of peace, love and tolerance from". On the twenty-third day, Joseph opens Bev's door and Benny and Braxiatel confront her and Bev shows them a model Christmas tree she made from the shapeless bits of metal that came out of the calendar. Benny remains suspicious, however, particularly after realising that Bev had started making the tree before she had convinced everybody to do Christmas.

On the twenty-fourth day, Benny, Braxiatel, Joseph and Jason celebrate and Bev arrives just before the final door opens. The last item flies into her hand and she completes the tree, wishing everybody a happy Christmas and promising a surprise at midnight. This also allows Benny to complete her translation and find that it is signed "from the stars". Wary of Bev, Braxiatel suggests that Benny translates the message not in the order that the doors opened but as read in the order the symbols are placed. This second message says, "These are the doors of the Verphidiae. The sequence is complete. Death and destruction upon you all" and her scan indicates that the calendar is sentient.

to be completed

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Joseph
 * Irving Braxiatel
 * Bev Tarrant
 * Jason Kane

Continuity
to be added