Tap (audio story)

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

Publisher's summary
Bernice has a spooky story to tell about her expedition to a junk world where, looking for archaeological treasures buried in the garbage, her team disturb remnants of an old culture that, perhaps, should have been left to rot...

Plot
At St Oscar's, Benny decides to follow an Earth tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas and tells the faculty about an adventure she had years ago on Rikadell, a junk world where the season changes every three days.

Benny is the most junior member of an expedition to Rikadell, where Professor Alaman hopes to find Vashar game disks dumped there by the Pentakians. After they manage to dig a number of them out from the rubbish, they take them to a refuse services outpost for analysis and, during the night, Benny has a nightmare about the oppressive corridors of the outpost. Meldon recharges the disks with a solar lamp over the next day and Benny has a good night's sleep until she is awoken by Meldon's scream.

''Benny recounts how Meldon told her that something had touched him with its long fingers. When questioned, she says that she remembers exactly what he said because she took notes later and was entirely sober. She continues with the story.''

After calming down, Meldon explains that he found the disks building tremendous power and decided to monitor them. He fell asleep in his chair and was awoken by a stranger matching the description of a Vashar tapping him, making him scream and go for help. Benny does not dismiss the story as being due to sleep deprivation due to him having small bruises where he claims the stranger touched him, but the group soon moves on and the disks are soon ready for use. Emru uses one and experiences a simulation of the Vashar homeworld. The others soon use them as well.

Benny dreams of the Vashar homeworld and being able to use psionic energy and is awoken by a tap at the door. Nobody is stood there and Benny looks along the corridor before hearing a tap on the other side of the door. There is nobody in her room either and she returns to bed, forgetting about it by the next day. The group find a trail of wet footprints, but they assume that it was a leak and return to using the game disks to learn more about Vashar culture before having Christmas dinner. When they hear the tapping, they return to their rooms and decide that two people should stay awake at any one time. Benny and Alaman get the first shift.

Thinking about the game disks, Benny wonders if the Vashar streamlined and simplified their lives as their psionic abilities increased before being absorbed into the psionic force. By using the disks, they might be bringing them back. They destroy the disks with an electromagnetic pulse in the morning and find that they have been snowed in and are unable to leave until it thaws. Emru, who has technological implants, collapses and the walls become translucent, with the shadows of Vashar tapping to be let in. Benny releases a second pulse to damage Emru's implants and the Vashar disappear. They leave the next morning, unsure of whether the Vashar had been attacking them or attempting to communicate with them.

''It took Benny several years to be able to hear a tapping without thinking about her experience on Rikadell. Joseph taps on the door and Benny wishes everybody a merry Christmas.''

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Professor Alaman
 * Gwin
 * Meldon
 * Emru
 * Joseph

Worldbuilding

 * During a Christmas holiday on St Oscar's University, Benny tells a story from one of her expeditions to her students.
 * Rikadell is located in the Pentak system.
 * Pentakians come from Pentak. They are blue-skinned and have four eyes and white moustaches.
 * Professor Alaman is an archaeologist, Gwin a geophysicist, Meldon a tech expert and Emru, a cyber-linguist.
 * The Vashar disappeared over two centuries ago. It is believed that they might have transcended to another level of being or were wiped out after trying to convert their sun into psionic energy. They had wide heads, giant eyes, long arms, squat bodies and short legs.
 * The Vashar produced game disks.

Continuity

 * Benny mentions Heaven, which she says would be a much longer story. (PROSE: Love and War)