Object Auction (short story)

Object Auction
Main character(s):	J Frinkstein, Jenny Maguire
Main setting:	United Kingdom, 2006
Key crew
Publisher:	BBC
Writer:	BBC webteam
Release details
Genre:	Science fiction
Part of:	U.N.I.T.
Release date:	30 April 2005
Format:	Online short story
U.N.I.T. website fiction
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Next →	untitled
Operations Board
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Next →	Rose Tyler

Object Auction, also called Object Auctioned and prefixed as Operations Board: Object Auction on the story's page, was the eleventh short story and fifteenth release exclusively published on the U.N.I.T. website on 30 April 2005 by the BBC webteam to coincide with the broadcast of Dalek. Object Auction was the fourth release in the Operations Board series of in-universe chat logs between UNIT personnel.

Plot

In an operations board, Sgt J Frinkstein shares that an auction for something called "The Object" has been spotted. He states the the seller and the buyer are currently trying to be identified by UNIT. Major Jenny Maguire replies, expressing that it would be "great" able to aquire it, especially given its reputation, but the price was too expensive for UNIT's budget. She mentions the fact that UNIT's interest always causes the price to climb and she expresses pity for the alien.

Characters

• Sgt J Frinkstein
• Major Jenny Maguire

Referenced only

• The Object
• The buyer

References

• The auction mentions that The Object is still alive, still unresponsive, and still deadly.
  • The P&P is included in the price.
• The Object has been traded around for decades.

Notes

• It is odd that Maguire expresses pity for the unnamed Dalek, given UNIT's history with Daleks.

Continuity

• The Object is the "Metaltron", that passed around from collector to collector for decades. (TV: Dalek, PROSE: Dalek, The Secret Lives of Monsters, et al.)
• UNIT had been tracking the Object, known also as a "Code D", for years. (AUDIO: The Dalek Transaction)

External links

• Object Auction at U.N.I.T. via the Wayback Machine