Synch Christmas was a Tactical and Operations officer on the Pathfinder Ship Lexington Keeler . He was a native of Sapphire’s Panrovia province.
On the planet Wolf’s Head , he rescued a woman named Muffy from an attacking Rokshasa. In adherence to the customs of the Sisters of Virtue, she chose to become bound to him and to devote her life to satisfying his sexual needs. Since leaving her behind would have implied rejection, and social disgrace, he took her on board Lexington Keeler when the ship departed.
First Death[]
Synch Christmas died on the planet Electra IV when he fell into the whirling blades of a high-atmosphere solar/wind energy generating station.
The inhabitants of Electra IV had once been human. However, the colony was ill-suited to human life and in order to assure their survival, a race of sentient machines on an adjacent planet had transformed the human colonists into a new life form that derived energy from the system’s sun. (WA Short Story: “Electra IV”) The crew of Lex Keeler referred to them as ‘Electroids.’
The Electroids repaired Synch Christmas by merging the intact parts of his body with quasi-cybernetic materials like their own. He retained his memories and thoughts, but had no soul. He described his condition as “a horrible parody of life.” But Muffy accepted his condition.
He returned to duty on Lexington Keeler as the ship left the system.
Life as a Cyborg[]
Synch Christmas adapted to life as a cyborg, but apart from Muffy, the rest of the crew had difficulty accepting him. However, his condition proved helpful as it made him immune to, for example, the mind control of the ghosts of the planet Archangel, and enabled him to rescue the crew from servitude to them. (Book 06: Crucible)
He became a bitter enemy of the Lex entity that had manifested itself in his ship’s braincore; being extreme distrustful of its intentions. When the crew was forced to evacuate the ship, Christmas stayed behind to shut down the Braincore and deny Lex the ability to take control of the ship. However, Lex regained control when the repair crew from Pegasus reactivated the Braincore. (Book 06: Crucible )
Second Death[]
The Lex entity seized control of Lexington Keeler and took the ship to the frontier of the Perseus and Carinae Quadrant (the star void between the Perseus and Carina Arms of the Milky Way galaxy) where there was a probe. The probe appeared very similar to the Caliph probe found outside the Sapphire system several centuries earlier. Lex intended to merge with it. He held the ship hostage and threatened to shut down life support if he was not provided with a shuttle to meet the probe and further ordered that Synch Christmas be put into stasis to prevent him from interfering.
When his orders had been carried out, Lex left Lexington Keeler in a shuttle. Unbeknownst to him, Synch Christmas had put himself in stasis in one of the shuttle’s escape pods, timed to bring him out of stasis before he reached the probe. Lex and Christmas fought in the shuttle and Lex was (probably though not certainly) destroyed before he could merge his consciousness with the probe. In the battle, Christmas was severely, mortally damaged. The probe departed the area using a form of propulsion unknown.
Christmas was put into stasis and returned to Electra IV, but the inhabitants said the damage was too great and the only way to preserve him was to completely transform him into a life form like their own, which they did. (Book 11: Charlemagne )