Bernice Summerfield and the Christmas Adventure (audio story)

Bernice Summerfield and the Christmas Adventure was the eighth story of the audio anthology The Christmas Collection.

Publisher's summary
Helping test a festive VR game should be fun - and Bernice considers herself a bit of an expert on 20th Century traditions. But as she explores a virtual Christmas in this odd little basement on Legion, it's possible she might have bitten off more than she can chew...

Plot
In a basement in Legion City, Benny provides Mr Minchen with her expertise on 20th century Earth to test a Christmas simulation of his and, after meeting a teenage girl calling herself "Zarquelle, Destroyer of Stars", she realises that he has reused code from an earlier project. With Zarquelle changed to Zoey, Benny returns to the simulation and joins Chrissy and her family for dinner, asking them questions about the Christmas decorations and the story of Jesus Christ, whom they believe to be the son of Santa Claus and a victim of hypothermia.

Benny pauses the simulation when Zoey's prayer involves avenging deaths and crushing the "star scum", but Mr Minchen assures her that the issue has been dealt with and she returns. Giant, tentacled starfish arrive and kidnap Toby, leading Zoey to hand Benny a bazooka and take her to save him, which Benny resigns herself to until she sees a walking Christmas turkey. She stops the simulation again but, upon finding herself trapped, alone and unable to leave until she completes the simulation, she returns to it and sees that the turkey is being ridden by a tiny Braxiatel.

After killing the Queen of the Starfish and saving Toby, Benny, running out of oxygen, wakes up. Mr Minchen removes a bit of packaging from the oxygen tube and expresses surprise when she says that she is an archaeologist and adventurer, saying that he only got her help because she had the "right look". When she leaves the building, she sees that Mr Minchen has actually been making a game and that he has used a photograph of her starved of oxygen to advertise it.

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Minchen
 * Minchen's brother
 * Chrissy
 * Zoey
 * Toby
 * Grandpa

Continuity
to be added