The Hunter family stopped celebrating Christmas not long after they left Earth, nearly 600 years ago. So it comes as a surprise to Jon to be wished a Merry Christmas on what he otherwise thinks is just another day. As his grip on the day starts to unravel, he's confronted with a crew expecting him to know what is going on. After all, it is his ship, and they think he's the captain, so he must know everything. Jon wishes that were so. As his day lurches from one thing to another, it seems that only Santa knows the whole plan. Join Jon, Jane, and the Alpha team for Christmas day in space. This is a short story, set sometime around the end of Hire a Hero, and the beginning of Hero to the Rescue. The Hunter Legacy series: Part One: 1. Hero at Large 2. Hunted Hero Hunting 3. Send in the Hero 4. Make or Break the Hero 5. Hail the Hero End of Part 1 Burnside's Killer (An Interlude Novella between Parts 1 & 2) Part Two: 7. Hire a Hero Jane's Christmas (A short story) 8. Hero to the Rescue forthcoming

As the war comes to an end, Jonathon Hunter sees the good and bad sides to being considered the hero, but which is which? All he wants to do is go home, but home isn’t any closer than it was a month ago, and this time, he's going the long way around. What could possibly go wrong with accepting an invitation from an ally? A hero's work is never done, and with the stakes never being higher before, just how much paranoia is not enough? The impossible can be done immediately, but for miracles, you need to Hail the Hero. [b]The Hunter Legacy series:[/b] Part One: 1. Hero at Large 2. Hunted Hero Hunting 3. Send in the Hero 4. Make or Break the Hero 5. Hail the Hero Part Two: 6. Hire a Hero forthcoming**

Jon Hunter has made it home. But a lot of things have happened to him over the last year. Some of them made no sense at all to those with him, but they accepted the really weird as if it was part of him. Jon himself didn’t understand a lot of it, but accepted he wasn’t allowed to know yet. But what really happened, and why? For 600 odd years, Hunter's have traveled space. Where did it all start? What were the events which shaped the galaxy Jon Hunter finds himself in? And what of the previous Jon Hunter's, mentioned in prophesy? Thirteen doesn't like humans. The last thing he wants is to be assigned a mission to babysit them. Given a choice, he'd happily let them blow themselves up, after he saved all the cats first. Exactly how humans could ever have anything to do with galaxy wide consequences is completely beyond his ability to understand. When asked to perform an intervention, there was always freewill to choose not to. But in this case, does he really have a choice? For Thirteen, walking with humans for 650 years, is definitely a long road to Gaia. This is an interlude novel between parts one and two of The Hunter Legacy, from the point of view of a new character joining the series. The Hunter Legacy series: Part One: 1. Hero at Large 2. Hunted Hero Hunting 3. Send in the Hero 4. Make or Break the Hero 5. Hail the Hero End of Part 1 Burnside's Killer (An Interlude Novella between Parts 1 & 2) Part Two: 7. Hire a Hero Jane's Christmas (A short story) 8. Hero to the Rescue 9. Hero at the Gates End of Part 2 10 The Long Road to Gaia (A Interlude Novel between Parts 2 & 3) Part Three 11. Home is where the Hero is. Forthcoming. **From the Author The Long Road to Gaia is novel length, based on the short story 1969 I wrote last year. 1969 was about 5,000 words, while Gaia is 48,500 words in length. 1969 forms the first 4 chapters, following a Prologue of 4 chapters. After 1969, the story covers the next 650 years. When I started writing the short story 1969, it was at a time when I had some significant health issues impacting my ability to write. So I thought writing a series of short stories might make it easier to at least get some writing done. My intention was to release them as a series of short stories, one every few weeks. Alas, this didn't happen. I also found Space Opera readers to not be too interested in short stories. I'm not sure why this surprised me, since I'm a Space Opera reader,and I've never really been into short stories myself, unless released as anovel length book. Call it a learning experience. 1969 introduces a new character to the Hunter Legacy universe, and it was always my intention to have him join the main series around part three. Having just completed part two's trilogy, I've found myself with two problems. Between parts one and two, I wrote an 'interlude' novella, partly because I was still having trouble writing, and a novella length was all I could manage at the time. Having done it once, I needed to write a new one for between parts two and three, to keep the series balanced. At the same time, I still needed to bring in the new character. Hence, it seemed like the best idea was to write the short stories starting with 1969, and release it as the second 'interlude' book. In fact, it went a good deal further than originally intended, revealing a lot more about what was really going on behind the scenes. The cover was originally intended for the 2nd story release, and was ready for it, but never used. And being red, my favourite colour, I decide it not let it go to waste. For those who have read 1969, here is the rest of the story which was never written before now, plus some extras which make this a much more interesting story than I intended telling to start with.

I'm Jane. I'm an AI. It's my job to run Jon Hunter's ships for him, but I also act as a bodyguard, confidant, and companion as well. I've been asked to explain some things for you. This is not a novel, but a reference guide. So far, The Hunter Legacy story has come to the end of its second arc, after nine novels and two novella. But we were discussing things one night in the rec room, and it was felt that some things mentioned in the books, may not have been understood, or their origin may have been missed. There's been no secret that many names and concepts come from science fiction, and other origins, some uniquely Australian. So it's possible some may have missed the connections of things. It's my job to dot the I's and cross the T's, so to speak. How many of the references did you spot? How many did you miss? Which ones didn't you understand? These have been compiled more or less in the order encountered in the books, listed by book. What really goes into the mind of an author, so a story like The Hunter Legacy emerges years later? Come and see. The Hunter Legacy series: Part One: 1. Hero at Large 2. Hunted Hero Hunting 3. Send in the Hero 4. Make or Break the Hero 5. Hail the Hero End of Part 1 Burnside's Killer (An Interlude Novella between Parts 1 & 2) Part Two: 7. Hire a Hero Jane's Christmas (A short story) 8. Hero to the Rescue 9. Hero at the Gates End of Part 2 10 The Long Road to Gaia (An Interlude novel between Parts 2 & 3) Part Three 11. Home is where the Hero is. Forthcoming. Also: The Hero's Companion **From the Author With the end of the second arc of the story of The Hunter Legacy, I felt it time to answer some of the calls for a reference book to the series. All of the books have references to science fiction of the past in all its forms, Australian oddities, and even other genres. There have been calls for a book to explain the often vague references, and here it is. The series references are presented by Jane, in book order, more or less as they appear in the books. In part, the mindset of a Hero is revealed through the hints dropped along the way. In part, the mindset of an author is revealed, in so far as what came before to frame the concept of the series being presented now. All books are in some way dependent on what the author came into contact with before writing something new. In the note at the beginning of each book, I've stated that references are in my mind, a form of tribute to what has gone before, and those who wrote it. They have formed an important part of this series, being the makeup of the Hero himself, while also being my own. This book is about helping you to understand the references, and be part of the tribute to what and who has come before. And with full understanding, we move forward from here into the final arc of The Hunter Legacy.