[Fic} The Santa Sanction

[legios]

“The Santa Sanction”

by

Karl Thurgood

Snow drifted down from the overcast night sky. It hung in the still air making it crisp as new paper and as cold as the water in the streams that ran down from the mountainsides in this part of Oregon. As it fell it lay and gathered to swaddle the small town of Marshalls Hope, nestling deep in the arms of the surrounding hillside. Come morning the snow would be deep and the ice on the trees would glint as it caught the sunlight like finely spun glass. Even beneath the heavy overcast of cloud, illuminated only by the soft sodium glow of the street lights and the cold white light from its houses, the snow made Marshalls Hope feel new – as if the town was newborn and full of wonder. Which was as it should be. After all, it was nearly Christmas and for some people Christmas is a time of miracles, both large and small.

Squish, the terrain under Huffer's foot said. The soft white substance just kept falling out of the sky. Drifting aimlessly in the still air until it landed on the ground, where it built up as a thin all-covering layer. It was even settling on Huffer's exo-structure, forcing him to keep having to shake his head back and forth to shed it, and it was interfering with his locomotion as its powdery nature gave it a different traction coefficient to the ground underneath.
“What is this stuff?” Huffer complained. Up ahead of him Bumblebee paused,
“I think it is made of the same constituents as the liquid terrain features on this planet,” he replied, “at least, my sensors suggest that its chemical composition is the same as the stuff that Buster calls 'water'”
“In case you hadn't notice Bumblebee, this isn't a liquid,” Huffer shook another dusting of the strange substance off the hood-like shape of his truck-cab.
“Maybe it changes state when the temperature drops?”
“Oh great, so if the temperature rises it'll all turn into liquid and well be up to our foot joints,” Huffer grumbled, “just like being stuck in the out-regions of the mercury swamps.”
“Don't worry, it will probably just drain into the surface,” Bumblebee assured him, “Wheeljack was saying that it seems to be almost porous, as if it actually absorbs liquids.”
“I feel better already,” Huffer muttered, “answer me this though. If this powder started out as water, and then changed state to this, how did it get up into the sky in the first place?”
Bumblebee had to admit he didn't really have an answer for that.

Susan Corey shuffled her feet nervously. This wasn't the part of the job that she was good at. Not that she had gone in expecting car chases and shoot-outs, that wasn't really what Law Enforcement was all about in a place like Marshalls Hope. She was an absolute tornado with a filing system though. She'd got that office into the kind of shape that you would never find even in a big-city precinct house. That was the part of the job that Corey liked. She was never entirely comfortable in situations like this, standing quietly in someone's kitchen because Sheriff Tuturo had thought she would be a more comforting presence because of her gender.
“I'm sorry Deputy,” Mrs Hawkins looked up from the table, “did you say you wanted coffee?”
“That's alright ma'am,” Corey shook her head, “I'm on duty anyways.”
“Are you sure?” Mrs Hawkins asked, “it wouldn't take long to fix a pot.”
Corey thought for a moment. It would probably do Mrs Hawkins good to have something to take her mind off the situation,
“Actually that would be really nice, thank you Ma'am.” Mrs Hawkins busied herself emptying the dregs out of the coffee pot, rinsing it with a small stream of cold water from the tap,
“I can't understand why she'd do it,” Mrs Hawkins shook her head, “She never, ever, run away before. She a good little girl.”
“Your husband is out there with Sheriff Tuturo and half the town. They'll find her for sure.”
“Please let them, Lord Jesus,” Mrs Hawkins replied, watching the constant curtain of snow drifting out of the sky, “it ain't weather for any child to be out in.”

The sharp crack of the tree snapping echoed out through forest, it filled the quiet air even as the drifting snow captured and softened it.
“You alright?” Bumblebee asked. Huffer extricated himself from the remains of the medium sized conical tree.
“Fine, just fine,” a shower of needles and cracked wood fell away as Huffer dropped the half tree that had come away in his hand, “what are we doing out here in these conditions. Even the Decepticons aren't stupid enough to be out in this.”
“That's not the point though,” Bumblebee held out a hand to help Huffer. The other Autobot waved it away, shuffling his feet in the powdery surface. “It isn't that we're expecting anything to jump out from behind the hills,” Bumblebee continued, “but Prowl and Optimus need us to scout things out so that we can build up a better picture of this planet. We need to understand the world if we're going to protect it from the Decepticons.”
“If Prowl's so desperate to know this stuff why doesn't he come out here himself?” Huffer groused. He waved Bumblebee forward impatiently, “the sooner this is over the better.”
“But don't you think its fascinating? So many things we just don't have back on Cybertron.”
“No,” Huffer replied forcefully, “what I think is that if I stay out in this too long I'm going to come down with a nasty case of rust-spot rash. Can't we just get this over with.” With that Huffer brought the conversation very much to a stand-still. They walked on through the quiet forest in as much silence as they could muster, taking care to step carefully so as not to topple any more of the tapering trees. Their footprints stood out clearly, large depressions in the snow leaving a clear trail in the snow behind them. But there was surely nothing in the forest but a few birds and mammals who would see the tracks before the steady dusting of fine snow covered them over and made the ground pristine again.

Mary Hawkins pulled her hat down a little further over her ears. Its pink wool was comfortingly warm, even though it was becoming slightly damp from melting snow. She tucked the scarf that had come loose back up under Doggie's chin. She didn't want too much snow settling into his plush, it might give him a nasty cold.

The two Autobots walked on in silence. Bumblebee looked every which way, all his sensors wide to every nuance of the strange, still-new, world that surrounded him. Huffer contented himself with cursory glances around, enough to notice the kind of things that they might need to know if they had to fight Decepticons here, but mostly he concentrated on trying to ensure that the solid moisture didn't collect in the depressions and dents in his exo-structure. Being laid up in the repair bay with a bad case of corrosion was not something that Huffer felt had much appeal. There didn't seem to be much to look forward to on this particular excursion other than the unpleasant powdery white substance continuing to drop out of the sky, more of these green carbon constructions that seemed determined to get in his way and Bumblebee being aggravatingly fascinated by everything. Huffer could see it getting to the stage where he would be quite happy to see something leap out from behind a hill, just to break the monotony.
Even so, he wasn't quite sure how to react when his audio-receptors picked up a sound coming from the base of one of the needle-clad green and brown forms.
“Excuse me Mister Robot,” the voice asked, “are you a good robot or a bad robot?”

Mary heard them coming. They made a noise like none that she had ever heard before. A hissing like air escaping from a tyre, followed by a hard crunching sound as if something very heavy was trudging through the snow. She stopped, sheltered beneath the green roof of a tree, and listened. The noise continued and Mary realised that whatever was making the noise was coming closer. She wrapped her arms more tightly around Doggie. She remembered how in stories there were always bears hiding in the woods to eat people who got lost. But Mary wasn't afraid, she wasn't lost after all. She knew exactly where she was going. She just stood and waited, as the noise came closer.
They came through the trees treading as carefully as they could, or so it seemed to Mary. But then, they had to be careful. Giant metal people, they seemed to be almost as big as some of the tall trees and it seemed to Mary that they might be able to pull them down if they weren't careful – just like her brother had accidentally pulled down the fence around the yard when he tried to climb on it. One of them was dumpy and rounded looking. His bright yellow, rather plump-looking, chest making him seem quite jolly in appearance. The other one didn't look quite so friendly. His colours were darker, it was difficult for Mary to be quite sure what colour in the dim light, and his head with was set back under what seemed to be a giant hood rising up over his shoulders. There was something about him that suggested that he wasn't entirely happy. Even so, Mary wanted to laugh as she noticed that the constantly falling snow was settling on the broad, flat, hood that sat over his head. She had never seen that before. Even when the snow landed on the top of her woolly hat it didn't build up in a layer like that. The orange figure looked like Mister Anderson's car when he left it out on the driveway. Thinking about Mr Anderson's car made Mary realise something,
“I think I know what they are,” she whispered in Doggie's floppy ear. She took a step forward from under the tree.
“Excuse me Mister Robot,” she asked, “are you a good robot or a bad robot?”

Sheriff David Tuturo sank a bit lower into the collar of his jacket. The heavy down jacket was effective at keeping his torso and arms warm, but unfortunately it didn't do much to project vital extremities like the head and the neck. In weather like this he rather envied the dogs, at least they had a blanket of fur to walk around in. Indeed the they didn't seem too worried by the weather as they strained at the leash, pulling against their handler's restraint. They barked excitedly, eager to be allowed to do what they were trained for.
“Sheriff,” Wilson Myfield acknowledged him. Myfield wasn't a man of many words, and most of those he saved for the dogs on which he lavished so much care. But he was a good man and like Tuturo would have been out here in the gathering night even if it hadn't been his job. Someone was lost and at the mercy of the weather and nothing would prevent Wilson from doing what he could to help them. That was just who he was. That was the way their town was for that matter. Half the town seemed to have turned out to help in the search for the Hawkins girl. Tuturo was pleased about that, they might well need every body they could lay hands on to find her before this weather took its toll.
“Dog's have something,” Myfield offered.
“Let'em run it down,” Tuturo replied, “and lets hope we're in time.”

Huffer looked down at the small human, who looked back at Huffer.
“What?” was the only response Huffer was able to marshall. The human seemed undersized for its species, and wasn't doing either of the things that, as far as Huffer was aware, humans did when confronted by a Transfomer – namely either screaming and fleeing or firing weapons in his direction. Huffer wasn't quite sure how to react to a human who wasn't doing those stereotypically human things. So he stood and stared in confusion at the human. The human didn't seem typical of those that he had encountered before in physical design as well as behaviour. Mind you, in terms of personal interaction Huffer didn't have a lot of data to go on. The only humans he had made much close contact with were Buster Witwicky and his father. It was smaller than them for one thing, and was clutching another organic creature firmly to its chest with both arms. The humans exostructure was slightly different to Buster's, being a much darker colour, but Huffer vaguely remembered that humans were a bit like Transformers in that they came in a range of shades (even if the variation didn't seem as broad on Earth as it was on Cybertron).
“Mister Robot, I said are you a good robot or a bad robot,” the small human repeated, “my momma says it isn't nice to ignore someone when they are talking to you.”
“Are we....?” Huffer looked across at Bumblebee incredulously. The other Autobot seemed to be trying hard to not laugh.
“We're good robots,” Bumblebee said, “my name's Bumblebee, what's yours?”
“Mary,” the small human replied.
“Greetings on behalf of the Autobots Mary,” Bumblebee knelt down so as not to loom over the human, Mary, quite so much, “this is my....comrade, Huffer.”
“Hello Mr Bumblebee,” Mary said. She turned toward Huffer and looked at him for a moment, “hello Mr Huffer.”
“If you're good robots will you help me?” Mary asked Bumblebee. Bumblebee thought for a moment. They were supposed to be on a reconnaissance mission, but if it didn't take them too far out of their way then what would be the harm?
“What do you need help with?” Bumblebee asked, at almost the same moment that Huffer objected,
“Bumblebee, we haven't got time for this.”
“I want you to help me find Santa Claus,” Mary declared.

Deputy Corey sat down on the sofa opposite Mrs Hawkins. She cradled the mug of coffee in her hands. The living room, like the rest of the house, was small but strangely comfortable. She could feel the sense of warmth and family that had infused itself into the furniture and the walls. It was a room that said that the houses owners might not have much, but a visitor would never go short of a warm welcome. A tree in a pot stood in pride of place in the room. It didn't groan with new decorations, instead it was hung here and there with ornaments worn with time and love, and the string of lights woven through its branches was spliced and patched to keep them in working order. It wasn't the most lavishly decorated tree that Corey had seen, but it was a strangely comforting presence.
“Mrs Hawkins, are you sure that there is nowhere that Mary might go to,” Corey asked, carefully, “any friends, or relatives nearby.”
“Its like I told Sheriff Tuturo, Mary's a good girl. She ain't never run away before and she always ask before she go to friends,” Mrs Hawkins took off her small, oval glasses, “she's always been such a good girl. I don't get why she would run off like this.”
“Kids do some crazy things sometimes. I remember when I was young I took it into my head that I was going to build a raft and float downriver like Tom Sawyer. I didn't get that far,” Corey covered took Mrs Hawkins' hand in hers, “they're doing everything they can.”

“So,” Bumblebee summarised, “you're looking for this Santa Claus, and you were wondering if we could help you find him. Is that right?”
“Yes. Its really important I find him,” Mary replied, “Doggie and I have something really important that we have to ask him.” Bumblebee thought for a moment. Then he replied, ignoring Huffer's wordless note of exasperation as he spoke,
“Yeah, I think we can help you with that.”
“Bumblebee,” Huffer transmitted across the Interautobot radio, “weren't you the one reminding me how important a mission we had? And now you want to detour and trudge around in more of this weather?”
“We're supposed to be getting an idea of the terrain and the situation around here, we can do that while we're helping Mary,” Bumblebee replied, “besides, if this Santa Claus turns out to be something important then maybe we need to know about it.” Switching back to his vocoder Bumblebee asked Mary,
“So, which way do we need to go to find this Santa Claus?”. Mary thought for a moment. She looked in one direction, then the other. Then she pointed Doggie's head in the first direction and replied,
“That way.”
“Right then,” Bumblebee stood up, “we go that way then.” Bumblebee and Mary started to walk. Bumblebee taking short strides and Mary almost running to keep up. Huffer trailed behind them reluctantly. “Uh, Mary,” Bumblebee asked after a moment, “how will we know when we find Santa Claus, what does it look like?”
*****

Huffer trudged up the hill behind Bumblebee. This was a truly colossal waste of time. If they were going to do the grid reconnaissance that Prowl had sent them out to do then that was one thing. Huffer didn't like it, but it was an order after all. But this was another thing entirely. Following this small human didn't seem like it was going to gain them anything tactically useful at all. Indeed, the only thing that Huffer seemed to be gaining from this was a distinct feeling that a rust spot was forming on the top of his cab.
'Bumblebee, this is far enough from our orders that it isn't far from desertion. If were going to give up on our mission then can't we just go back to the Ark and get out of this precipitate?' Huffer commed, 'I know that you are getting fond of humans but c'mon, enough is enough.'
Bumblebee ignored him, whether deliberately or because he was too wrapped up in talking to the human it was difficult to say.
“So,” he addressed Mary, “as far as I understand it:- Santa Claus is a human being right?”
“He's a man with a biiig fat round belly, like Uncle Georgie but always laughing and he's got a big white beard.”
“What in the name of Iacon is a beard?” Huffer asked in exasperation.
“It's like hair but growing all over your face Mr Huffer,” Mary explained, “Santa's beard is all bushy and tickly and it is white.”
“Like the solid precipitate,” Bumblebee suggested,
“What's a pretipicate?”
“The solid that is falling out of the sky,” Mary stood still and looked at Bumblebee for a moment ,
“You mean the snow?” she suggested.
“Snow,” Bumblebee looked at Huffer, as if to say 'see, we've learnt something.'
Mary started walking again, and the two Autobots followed,
“Santa Claus sees everything you do all year, and he knows if you've been a good person or a bad person,” Mary explained, her tone careful and clear just like when she was telling Doggie how you had to behave at school and in church, “if you've been a good person then Santa Claus leaves you presents at Christmas.”
“What happens if you haven't been good?” Bumblebee asked.
“My momma says that if you haven't been good then Santa doesn't leave you any present, but Beverly Cleaver says that if you've been bad then Santa puts you in his sack and takes you away for ever and ever,” Mary hugged Doggie at the thought of that, “but I think that Beverly Cleaver is a mean, naughty old liar.”
“So this Santa monitors everyone in this area, or is it the whole continent?” Bumblebee asked, tugging at his faceplate thoughtfully.
“I don't know what a condiment is Mr Bumblebee, but Mrs Simmers at the Sunday School says that Santa is like Jesus and he can see the whole world.”
“The whole world, everywhere on the planet?”
“Yes, he can see the whole world and he gives presents to all the good children everywhere in the world,” Mary nodded, “I wrote him a letter jus like everyone else in class, but I'm afraid he didn't get it so it is real important that I find him.”
“It must take a long time for this Santa to go around the whole world if he has to stop and deliver presents to everyone, I mean, even if he is only slowing down so that he can aim them properly his average airspeed won't be that high.”
“I'm only a kid and I don't understand all those words Mr Bumblebee,” Mary said, “but it only takes Santa one night. You go to bed on Christmas Eve and when you get up Santa has been”
“So he goes around the whole world, in one night. And he delivers presents to all the newly built humans.”
“You're funny Mr Bumblebee. Everybody knows about Santa.”
“Huffer and I come from a long way away, and we don't have Santa there,” Bumblebee replied.
“And what I wouldn't give to be back there,” Huffer muttered.
“No Santa, that's really sad,” Mary replied. “you mean that you don't ever get presents at Christmas?”
“No, I'm afraid not,” Bumblebee told her.
“And neither do we care,” Huffer added. Not that anyone, even Doggie was actually listening to him, 'Bumblebee, this is a colossal waste of time.'
'Huffer, think about it a cycle. This Santa Claus has a surveillance network that can monitor this entire planet, and he has access to technology that lets him fly all over the world in twenty-four hours. That is much more advanced than anything we've seen from the humans so far. With those capabilities I think he might make a good ally.' Bumblebee commed back.
'I guess, if we could see whenever the Decepticons made a move and get there before they even got started.....' Huffer agreed, 'but we should head back and get the big guns on this. It should be Optimus or Prowl doing the negotiating on something as big as this.'
'I'm not talking about negotiating with him, but it wouldn't hurt to learn a bit more.' Bumblebee added, 'and maybe we can help out Mary into the bargain.'
'Fine, whatever,' Huffer responded. It was clear he wasn't going to be talking Bumblebee out of this, so short of bodily dragging him away there didn't seem to be much he could do about it.

*****

Over hill and down dale they walked. The two Autobots behind Mary as she cut across country, leading the way to this 'Santa'. The snow continued to fall, and to cover the ground. Not to such a depth that impeded the steps of the two Autobots, but deep enough that Mary was beginning to sink into it up to her knee joints. She pulled her scarf tighter around her and her hat down further over her head. Doggie nuzzled in deeper against her face, the plush of his fur comforting and warm. The mismatched group left the trees behind them as they steadily ascended a slope. Here there were only stumps, buried beneath the snow, to show that once trees had grown here. The slope led them upwards, until finally it crested into the form of a ridge. On the other side the slope descended again, much more steeply, into a deep valley through which the shape of a road winding its way along the side of a frozen river could just be discerned beneath the blanket of snow. Mary looked dubiously at the valley below, and at its steep side spread before them. Bumblebee looked over the edge and made a dubious sound. It looked like treacherous footing at the best of times, and with all this “snow” coating every surface and making things more slippery and treacherous it was hardly the best of times.
“I think we'd better go around,” he suggested.
“We have to be quick though, I need to get to Santa real soon,” Mary suggested.
“What is so important that you have to get to him so quickly?” Huffer wondered, then shifted uneasily as he realised that he had said that out loud.
“I have to get to Santa before bedtime because that's when he starts out to deliver the presents. And I need to make sure that he knows to get someone the best present ever,” Mary explained, “because it will be real sad if she doesn't.”
“Well then, we'd better be making tracks,” Bumblebee observed, “how about that way?” he pointed to his left, along the line of the ridge. Mary looked at Doggie for a second, checking to see what he thought about that. Then she nodded,
“Ok, we'll go that way,” and she started walking. They hadn't gone far when it happened. Whether it was a tree stump hidden beneath the snow that tripped her up, or the slippery and treacherous footing of the snow itself they never knew, but it was the same either way. Mary tumbled forwards and to her right, stumbling and half-falling. Then her momentum carried her over the crest of the ridge and she tumbled onto the snow of the steep descent, her momentum carrying her in a precipitous slide toward the valley below at ever-increasing speed.
“Mary!” Bumblebee was momentarily shocked into immobility. He moved to try to catch her but he was too slow, she was already out of reach. All was not lost however, before Bumblebee even moved, Huffer was throwing himself forward in a dive over the edge of the valley.
If anyone had asked him later (and they did), Huffer could only say that he must have momentarily had a systems glitch. Before he even processed what was going on he had dived after Mary. He hit the snow face first and continued to slide, at an ever increasing pace. The snow made what would otherwise have been a bumpy descent much easier, and he built up considerable speed. The snow that was being pushed ahead of him was building up in front of his optics, and Huffer had great difficulty seeing where he was going. He reached out his arms and by some feat of circumstance managed to snatch Mary up in one hand. He held her up, away from the snow being thrown up by his rapid descent, and started to wonder what the best way of bringing himself to a halt would be. Then his leg caught on something, absorbing much of his kinetic energy, and he felt his head collide with something. Whatever it was shattered and Huffer found himself partially immersed in a liquid medium.

“Anything?” Sheriff Tuturo asked. His moustache was speckled with white flecks of snow , not that he noticed.
“Nothing Sheriff,” Wilson Myfield shook his head, “them dogs have lost the scent, and with all this snow coming down any tracks have filled right up
“But we know she came out here into the woods at least.”
“Yeah, but we got no idea which way she went then,” Myfeld observed, “and in this weather....”
Tuturo acknowledged with a nod what they were both thinking.
“Ok, what we're going to do is this,” he said, “we're going to spread out the search from here like a circle, widening out as we go, that way whichever way she went we should find her, like as not.”
“Ok sheriff, I'll let folks know.”

Bumblebee scrambled down the slope, as much in a controlled fall as a planned descent. He had thought about transforming, to get down the slope more quickly, but had rejected the idea as it seemed likely that he would just roll and end up arriving in a worst state than Huffer had. As Bumblebee neared the bottom he could see that Huffer had plunged through what appeared to be a layer of solidified water, into the still-fluid layer below. His cranial component was completely immersed, as was one of his arms. Fortunately the other arm was raised up into the air, holding Mary safely away from the surface of the water. Bumblebee regained his footing and hastened over to take Mary carefully from Huffer's hand.
“I've got her,” he told the other Autobot. Huffer made a sound in response that sounded something akin to 'glub'.
“Are you ok? Do you need a hand?” Bumblebee asked.
“Glub! Glub!” Huffer replied. Bumblebee put Mary down carefully, checking to see first that the area underfoot was proper ground, rather than more of that solidified water. Then he took hold of Huffer by the arm and heaved. It took two attempts before he was able to haul Huffer clear of the liquid water and back onto solid ground.
“Are you ok?” Bumblebee asked.
“Am I ok?” Huffer stared at him, “first I go rattling down the side of a hill, then I crash straight through the ground and into a ditch full of liquid. I'm going to get rust seizure in my neck armature, I just know it.”
“Mr Huffer?” Mary said. Huffer either didn't hear or paid no attention to her,
“Did you see that, the ground just shattered and I went straight through into all that liquid,” Huffer continued.
“Mr Huffer!” Mary stamped her foot. It didn't make much in the way of a satisfying stamping sound, but did throw up a small puff of snow. Huffer looked down at Mary. “Thank you very much for catching me Mr Huffer. That was a very brave thing to do,” Mary told him. Huffer stared down for a moment. He made a gesture of surrender,
“Yeah, I'm a real hero,” he turned to Bumblebee, “so what now?”
“Um. Well...” Bumblebee looked up the very steep sides of the valley, covered as they were with snow, except for a track scoured temporarily clear by Huffer's precipitous descent. Then he looked across the floor of the valley, and up the other side, “any ideas?”
“You and the human seem to have taken charge of this mission,” Huffer replied, “my audio-sensors are open.”
“Umm. Ok,” Bumblebee thought for a moment,” Mary, which way do we need to go?” Mary and Doggie looked first one way and then the other along the valley. Finally she pointed up the valley in one direction,
“That way,” she declared. Bumblebee followed her finger, and then looked across the frozen river for a moment.
“Ok, that looks like a road over there under the snow, we might make better time on that,” he suggested.
“Bumblebee, its on the other side of the fluid,” Huffer pointed out. Bumblebee stepped into the river, his foot vanishing into the water up to the ankle joint,
“It's alright, it isn't very deep,” he assured Huffer, “give me a hand helping Mary and Doggie across.”
“That's ok for you to say,” Huffer muttered, “you're designed to operate in fluids.” Nevertheless he dutifully forded the river behind Bumblebee as the former carried Mary, holding tightly onto Doggie so that he didn't fall in the water, across the river. Bumblebee put them down on the other side and, stepping onto the road, warned them,
“Stand back.” With a shifting of gears and a whirring of motors he seemed to fold in on himself until where a yellow robot had stood there was a bright yellow Volkswagen that seemed to gleam in the snowy night, “Get in,” Bumblebee told Mary, as he popped open his drivers door “we'll make better time this way.”
“Wow!” Mary stopping in amazement for a moment, she whispered to an equally awestruck Doggie, “they're magic robots.” She belted her seatbelt as she climbed into Bumblebee's interior.
“All set?” Bumblebee asked.
“Uh-huh.”
“Then lets go find this Santa Claus,” Bumblebee's wheels threw up snow in their wake as he rolled out. The snow impacted on Huffer's exostructure as he transformed into his cab-mode. Huffer's wheels spun as he engaged his engine,
“Well, wait for me,” he muttered, “I'm having problems getting traction here.”

*****

The road wound its way through the valley, the lying snow making for treacherous driving conditions and forcing the two Autobots to keep their speeds down. Even so they were making far better progress than they had been than when they, and the human, had been on foot. Mary sat in Bumblebee's passenger seat, Doggie tucked safely under the seatbelt, with his fuzzy plush muzzle under her chin. It was strange watching Bumblebee drive himself. The steering wheel turned every time they came to a corner just like it did when her father drove them to church on Sunday, or the way the driver of the school-bus turned it when they came around the big bend into the yard, but there was nobody turning it – the wheel just moved all by itself. Doggie was fascinated and didn't want to tear his shiny button eyes away, but Mary reminded him that it wasn't very nice to stare at people, even if they were cars. They drove for what seemed a long time, but Mary didn't have a watch and it was very late – long past Doggie's bedtime – so she wasn't entirely sure. Mister Bumblebee kept talking to her all the time, asking her what things were as they passed them. Mary explained to him as best she could, but sometimes she didn't know all the thing he was asking her about how all the different trees were not the same. But Mister Bumblebee said that it was alright to not know, and that there were lots of things he didn't know. He even said that he hadn't ever seen snow until just recently. But Mary wasn't sure how that could be – after all there was snow every winter wasn't there? Mister Huffer had said – and it was very strange hearing his voice come out of Mister Bumblebee's radio just like the announcers who introduced all the records – that he wished he still didn't know anything about snow because it was making him co-road. Mary had told Mister Huffer that she liked snow because if you didn't have snow then you wouldn't be able to make snowmen, or throw snowballs. Then Mister Bumblebee had wanted to know about how you could have men made out of snow, which had led to questions about carrots and scarves, and so it went on.
*****
Sheriff Tutoro looked along the floor of the valley. They had covered a fair amount of ground , but still hadn't managed to find any trace of the Hawkins kid. When they had found the deep track in the snow of the side of the valley he had been worried, perhaps the kid had fallen and triggered some kind of slide. For a heartstopping moment he had worried that they were going to find her buried under the snow or under the broken ice of on the river. But a careful search had confirmed that there was no sign of her. Although that was disquieting in and of itself. The weather still hadn't lifted and the night was drawing deeper. It wasn't the kind of night for an unprepared adult to be out, let alone a child. Tuturo wasn't a particularly religious man but at that particular moment, if God could see his way clear to get the Hawkins' child out of the weather then he knew he would be grateful indeed.
*****

The Autobots drove on, winding their way through the snowy night, their headlights scattering from the crystals of the snow to diffuse a crisp white light across the scene. They hadn't been driving for that long by Huffer's estimation when a thought occurred to him. Inside Bumblebee's passenger compartment the radio crackled to life as it relayed Huffer's voice across Interautobot radio,
“Maybe this seems like a silly question, but where exactly is it that we are going?” he asked.
“Well,” Bumblebee replied, “we're going to where this Santa lives right?”
“Yes, we have to go and see Santa before he starts off to take all the presents or it'll be too late,” Mary agreed.
“I understand that, but where is this Santa actually based?” Huffer pressed, “I'm just thinking that if we knew that it would make navigation a bit easier.”
“We have to go to where it is coldest and most snowy,” Mary replied, “he lives right up where it is always winter and there are penguins and polar bears,” she added, “right up at the very North Pole.”
“North Pole,” Bumblebee mused, “that'd be right up at one of your planets magnetic poles I take it?” Mary thought for a moment about that,
“I don't think there are any magnets at the pole,” she replied, “its where Santa lives and makes all the toys,” at Doggie's suggestion she added, “it's towards the top of the world.”
“Top of the world,” Bumblebee pondered, “yep, that would be towards one of the magnetic poles. The top of the world. Now thinking about it from the way you humans have laid out your world maps that would mean that this way in front of us was...”
“South,” Huffer broke in, “which would mean...”
“We're going the wrong way,” Bumblebee finished.
“Oh,” Mary said.
“It's ok,” Bumblebee reassured her, “we'll just turn around and see if we can't find a route back the other way. Bumblebee slowed cautiously, aware of the lower traction of the snow-covered road, and arced around to face the other direction. Huffer turned as well, but his higher mass gave him greater inertia and he skidded around on the road in a rather longer arc before he was facing the right way. The snow under his tires crunched as they dug in, as he headed off after the the receding Bumblebee.

*****

“Is that your daughter's?” Susan Corey indicated a framed certificate on the wall.
“That's from the spelling bee this year,” Mrs Hawkins confirmed, “Mary won the top prize. She good with her words.”
“I envy her that. I was never the academic one in my family,” Corey confessed, “it was always my brother working his way through the homework while I was outside playing ball in the yard.”
“Mary good at her spelling,” Mrs Hawkins allowed, “but she need to work on the math and her geography. She not even sure of the capital of this state, let alone Maryland.”

*****

Bumblebee came to a stop at the crossroads.
“Hmmm,” he observed, “I don't remember this from the way out.”
“Are we lost?” Huffer asked,
“Not lost as such,” Bumblebee replied, “we're heading in the right direction. Just by a slightly different route than I intended.”
“So we're lost.”
“We're still heading north, that's the important part isn't it?” Bumblebee once again managed to find a bright side in the situation.
“Uh-huh, Mr Bumblebee,” Mary replied, and Doggie nodded in emphasis.
“North it is,” Bumblebee headed off across the crossroads, following the road in a generally northerly direction.

******

Bumblebee would normally have slowed down as he approached the town, trying to be a little bit inconspicuous. But tonight the atmospheric conditions and the ceiling of snowclouds up above seemed to have driven the humans into the warm sanctuary of their dwellings. There was no one to see them, not that Bumblebee could have gone much faster than a slow crawl in any event, given the inclement conditions. The roads were empty, with not a vehicle moving, except for Bumblebee and Huffer. Their head and tail -lights created a bubble of light in which they moved, the visual environment around them illuminated with the cool glow of their lights until it slowly faded away at a boundary enforced by the falling snow. Behind them their tracks in the snow stretched out in the direction they had come, a testament to their progress northward. In Bumblebee's passenger compartment Mary Hawkins' head nodded intermittently. She was trying very hard to make sure that Doggie stayed awake, because it was very important that they stayed awake to help the robots find the North Pole. But it was way past Doggies bedtime and he kept nearly falling asleep.
“What's that sound?” Huffer asked suddenly. It was so unexpected that Mary started and was wide awake,
“What sound?”
“Hang on,” Bumblebee's window rolled down and Mary could here the tolling of a bell. The sound carried across the empty night air, the echoes muffled by the softness of the snow giving it a strange tone, but Mary recognised the sound.
“It's the town hall bell,” she said, “this must be Marshalls Hope.”
“So is that near where Santa makes his base?” Bumblebee asked.
“Uh-uh,” Mary shook her head, “Marshalls Hope is the town where I live and mom says that it is a looong way from the North Pole.”
“Oh,” said Bumblebee, “well I'm pretty certain this road is taking us in the right general direction so I figure that if we just keep going....” Mary had been listening to the bell and counting in her head,
“I don't think it matters now,” she said, “I think it's too late.”
“What do you mean?” Huffer asked.
“I'm pretty sure that the bell must have gone twelve times.”
“So?”
“So that means its midnight, we're already into Christmas Day so Santa will have been and gone. We'll have missed him.” Mary replied. She was dimly aware that she was starting to cry, but Doggie wiped up the tears with his comfortingly big plush ears. He was kind that way.
“Wait a minute though,” Huffer pointed out, “you said that this Santa's base was the North Pole – so if he is finished his mission then won't he be heading back there?”
“Of course,” Bumblebee agreed, “we could head there, and catch him when he's coming back.”
“No, Santa isn't about after Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day he goes away and doesn't come back until next year,” she explained, “so its too late. And I so wanted to make sure he brought the bestest present ever.”
“Are you sure we still can't get to him?” Bumblebee offered, “perhaps we could make some sort of signal on the ground and when he flies past he might see it and come down.”
Mary just shook her head silently, her tears dripping down onto Doggies furry head.
“I think maybe we should make sure she gets back to her Hab Unit,” Huffer suggested.
“I think you're right,” Bumblebee agreed.

*****

“This is my street,” Mary told them. Without warning she yawned a deep, involuntary, yawn, “my house is right at the end, on the corner.”
“I wish we could have done more to help you,” Bumblebee told her as he drove slowly down the street.
“Yeah,” Huffer added, “sorry about that.”
“It's ok Mr Bumblebee, you did your best which is what is important,” Mary assured him, “and you saved me when I fell down that hill Mr Huffer, that was really brave and nice of you. Mrs Simmers says that we should always help people when they need it and you helped me when I fell down. Thank you.”
“That's,” Huffer began. He paused before finishing, “ok.”
Bumblebee pulled up a few doors up the road from what seemed to be Mary's house.
“I am really sorry Mary,” he told her.
“S'okay,” Mary snuffled as she got out and stood on the pavement.
“Maybe if we get the chance we can help you meet up with this Santa next year,” Bumblebee suggested.
“Preferably without the hostile precipitation,” Huffer suggested.
“Maybe,” Mary hugged Doggie tightly – even though the snow wasn't falling so fast anymore he was still finding the night very cold indeed, “thank you for trying to help anyway.”
“It's no problem, it's what an Autobot should do,” Bumblebee replied. Huffer reminded himself of his manners and stifled a long-suffering groan.
“Merry Christmas Mr Bumblebee , Merry Christmas Mr Huffer, “Mary told them, “I hope Santa brings you a really nice present seeing as you've never had Christmas before.”
“Merry Christmas Mary,” Bumblebee replied. There was a silence. Bumblebee switched over to Inter-autobot radio,
'Huffer, it would be polite....'
'Alright,' Huffer added out loud, “Merry Christmas Mary,” then asked Bumblebee 'satisfied?'
“Merry Christmas,” Mary replied. She helped Doggie to wave his paw at the two Autobots to say goodbye, and then turned and started down the sidewalk towards her house.

*****

Rose Hawkins was out of her seat and moving almost before she heard the front door opening, almost running into the hall. She was stopped in her tracks by the sight that greeted her. Standing in the threshold, bundled up in her coat and hat and hugging to her the care-worn plush dog that she had been inseparable since Rose had bought it for her four Christmas ago was Mary. Rose rushed to Mary and gathered her and Doggie both into a fierce embrace, sobbing quietly,
“Oh Mary, thank God”
“I'm really sorry mommy,” Mary said, “I tried really hard to find Santa Claus and then I got lost in the woods and Doggie couldn't find the way back and then I met some magic robots who said that they came from space and didn't have Santa Claus where they came from and then they tried to help me find Santa Claus because they wanted to meet him and then we got lost and Mr Huffer realised that we were going the wrong way and Mr Bumblebee turned us around but then we realised if was after midnight so it wasn't Christmas Eve anymore so we were too late to find Santa and it isn't fair because I wanted to ask him to make sure that he gave you the best present in the whole world because you are the best mommy in the whole world.” The whole story came tumbling out of Mary breathlessly. Rose Hawkins released Mary and took hold of her hands firmly, feeling how cold they were even through her gloves. She looked at Mary and told her,
“I've got the best present in the whole world, right here.”

The clouds above Marshalls Hope were beginning to clear. Starlight was filtering down to illuminate the town swaddled in a blanket of snow. In the soft light of the clearing night sky the blanket of white snow made the whole town seem fresh and new, as if it had been remade all over again for the inhabitants who would soon wake up to their town newborn and full of wonder. That was, perhaps, the way it should be. After all, for some people, Christmas is a time of miracles – both large and small.

*****

Somewhere on the roads between Marshalls Hope and Mount Saint Hilary a yellow Volkswagen Beetle, and an orange truck – the latter carrying a cargo of pristine snow gathered on its roof, which remained stubbornly festive despite its occasional attempts to dislodge it – wound their way carefully along the treacherous carriageway of a snow-covered Christmas morning road.
“I don't know what that human saw in this stuff its cold and wet and I'm sure its going to give me rust in my axles if we don't get back to the Ark soon,” Huffer told Bumblebee, after a moment he added, “and could you please take it easy, this stuff is slippery and it won't let me get any traction.”
“Merry Christmas Huffer,” was the only reply Bumblebee made as the two drove on into the lightening Christmas Morning.