The Dream Nexus (audio story)

The Dream Nexus
Doctor:	Sixth Doctor
Companion(s):	Mel, Hebe
Main setting:	Zoda-Kappa, 3895
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Adam Christopher
Producer:	Jacqueline Rayner
Music:	Steve Foxon
Sound:	Jaspreet Singh
Read by:	Toby Hadoke
Cover by:	Mark Plastow
Release details
Release date:	17 May 2022
Interludes
← Previous	I, Kamelion
Next →	The Haunting of Bryck Place

The Dream Nexus was the second audiobook released in the Interludes series. It was released on the bonus downloads of the audio anthology Water Worlds. It was written by Adam Christopher and featured the Sixth Doctor, Melanie Bush and Hebe Harrison.

Publisher's summary

In the distant future, Earth's empire is held together by the Network, an AI interface that connects all its citizens. But the Network has collapsed, trapping millions in a dream with no way out. Could there be an answer in the fungus forests of Zoda-Kappa? While the Doctor and Hebe use their scientific training to help the research, Mel joins the research too – in a far less pleasant way...

Plot

The Doctor, Mel and Hebe materialise on a planet covered in giant phosphorescent mushrooms which the Doctor finds are all part of a single organism. Mel goes for a walk whilst the Doctor and an unenthusiastic Hebe study the organism; eventually, after some time has passed, Hebe becomes concerned that Mel has not yet returned and suggests that they go after her. They soon find a woman, seemingly infected by the fungus, who says that "she did it" before dying, and are taken away at gunpoint when several soldiers appear.

After being ambushed by soldiers in the forest, Mel is taken to a nearby temporary base and questioned by Captain Koppenberg, who sends her to Professor Charles Feige's laboratory upon learning that she is a computer programmer. She learns that the Network, an AI interface to which everybody is connected by brain implants, went down two years ago and caused about half of the population to enter a comatose state known as the Dream. Feige has discovered that a fungal serum can awake the Dreamers when combined with a computer algorithm to reset the implants; he injects Mel, rendering her unconscious.

In another hut, Captain Koppenberg accuses the Doctor of treason, terrorism, conspiracy and espionage, believing him to be responsible for a transmission the Space Marine Corps detected some days ago. The Doctor learns about the Dream and that the planet they are on is Zoda-Kappa.

Hebe is alone in a hut and starts hearing voices and feeling as though somebody is stood behind her when there is not. Dr Sakho Cato, Professor Feige's chief assistant, enters and tells her about the fungal serum. Hebe disassociates, feeling herself move and talk but knowing that she is being controlled by something from the forest. The entity controlling her goes outside with Dr Cato and tells Hebe that they are the Holomorph, imprisoned on Zoda-Kappa for a hundred thousand years.

to be completed

Characters

• Sixth Doctor
• Melanie Bush
• Hebe Harrison
• Lydia Bettencourt
• Brooke
• Dr Sakho Cato
• Professor Charles Feige
• Captain Koppenberg
• Norris

References

• The air tastes like cocoa.
• The Doctor has a silver teaspoon in his coat pocket commemorating the grand opening of Llandudno Pier in Wales on 1 August 1877.
• The Doctor mentions the Daleks.
• Hebe wears a watch.
• Feige asks Mel if she knows Absin 6 Reprieve.
• The soldiers belong to the Space Marine Corps.
• The Doctor asks if they are in the late 26th or early 27th century.
• The Earth Empire is under martial law.
• Zoda-Kappa is the fourth moon of Agrana Prime.
• Space Beacon Gamma-7 was the first to go down. The Doctor asks if it was the work of argonite pirates.
• Dr Sakho Cato is Professor Feige's chief assistant. Talia Rue is another assistant.
• Dr Cato writes notes on her data pad with a stylus.

Notes

to be added

Continuity

to be added