The Memory Box (audio story): Difference between revisions

From Tardis Wiki, the free Doctor Who reference
No edit summary
m (External link template conversions)
 
(21 intermediate revisions by 8 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{DISPLAYTITLE:''{{PAGENAME}}''}}
{{title dab away}}
{{infobox episode
{{real world}}
|title = ''The Memory Box''
{{Infobox Story SMW
|image = [[File:Vien100_thememorybox_1417_cover_large.jpg]]
|image            = The Memory Box (audio story).jpg
|publisher = [[Big Finish Productions]]
|number            = 1.0
|starring = [[Chase Masterson]]
|range            = Vienna (series)
|writer = [[Jonathan Morris]]
|number in range  = 1.0
|director = [[Ken Bentley]]
|main character    = [[Vienna Salvatori|Vienna]]
|producer = *[[Mark Wright]]
|featuring        =
*[[David Richardson]]
|enemy            = [[Berkley Silver]]
|music = [[Jamie Robertson]]
|setting          = [[Animoi Ring Station]], [[planet (The Memory Box)|fourth planet]], [[Volcana]]
|sound = Jamie Robertson
|writer           = Jonathan Morris
|editor =
|director         = [[Ken Bentley]]
|cover = [[Anthony Lamb]]
|producer         = [[Mark Wright]], [[David Richardson]]
|series = ''[[Vienna (audio series)|Vienna]]''
|music             = [[Jamie Robertson]]
|season =  
|sound             = Jamie Robertson
|episode =  
|cover             = [[Anthony Lamb]]
|release date = 1 February 2013
|epcount          = 1
|previous = ''[[The Shadow Heart (audio story)|The Shadow Heart]]''
|publisher        = Big Finish Productions
|next = ''[[Dead Drop]]''}}
|release date      = 1 February 2013
'''''The Memory Box''''' was the pilot for the ''[[Vienna (audio series)|Vienna]]'' audio series, starring Chase Masterson as [[Vienna Salvatori]].
|format            = 1 CDs<br/>Download
|production code  = BFVIENNA001
|isbn              = ISBN 978-1-78178-106-7 (physical); ISBN 978-1-78178-632-1 (digital)
|series            = ''[[Vienna (series)|Vienna]]''
|next             = Dead Drop (audio story)
|soundcloudtrailer =
}}
'''''The Memory Box''''' was the first story of the ''[[Vienna (audio series)|Vienna]]'' audio series, produced by [[Big Finish Productions]]. It was written by [[Jonathan Morris]] and featured [[Chase Masterson]] as [[Vienna Salvatori]].


== Synopsis ==
== Publisher's summary ==
Berkeley Silver, one of the richest men in the Earth empire, lies dead in the Penthouse Suite of the Galileo space-hotel. Law Enforcement Officers Detective Captain McGinnis and Detective Sergeant Mead are called in to investigate – but it seems to have been the perfect crime. Even when subjected to a memory scan, everybody in the space-hotel has an alibi for the murder.
[[Berkley Silver]], one of the richest men in the [[Earth]] empire, lies dead in the [[Penthouse Suite]] of the [[Galileo Spotel|Galileo space-hotel]]. [[Law Enforcement Officer]]s [[Detective Captain]] [[Arned McGinnis|McGinnis]] and [[Detective Sergeant]] [[Roxanna Ceverley|Mead]] are called in to investigate – but it seems to have been the perfect crime. Even when subjected to a memory scan, everybody in the space-hotel has an alibi for the murder.


Which means it can only have been the work of one woman. The most accomplished – and the most glamorous – bounty hunter in the galaxy. Her name is Vienna Salvatori. And she has a little rule; nobody gets to hear her name and live...
Which means it can only have been the work of one woman. The most accomplished – and the most glamorous – bounty hunter in the galaxy. Her name is Vienna Salvatori. And she has a little rule; nobody gets to hear her name and live...


== Plot ==
== Plot ==
Entering warp, the captain of a ship complains of yet another headache. His colleague offers him medical assistance but he declines. His assistant tells him that they are headed for the [[Galileo Spotel]] at the [[Animoi Ring Station]] to investigate a suspected homocide of Berkley Silver, one of the richest men in the empire who owns half a dozen planets. The captain gives the order to begin their investigation.
[[Arned McGinnis|Detective Captain McGinnis]] and [[Roxanna Ceverley|Detective Sergeant Mead]] travel by warp to the [[Spotel Galileo]] at the [[Animoi Ring Station]] to investigate the suspected [[homicide]] of technological entrepreneur [[Berkley Silver]]. [[Orval Ignashus]], a [[Slithergee]] and [[manager]] of the [[spotel]], informs them that a room hygienist found the body that evening, that a [[lockdown]] has been in place since then and that the spotel has no [[security camera]]s due to it being used for [[prostitution]]. In the [[penthouse]], they find that the [[corpse]] is unrecognisable due to him having been killed by a [[laser bolt]] through the head, but McGinnis's scan confirms that the [[DNA]] is Silver's and that there is no trace of anybody else having been there. He deduces that it is the work of a professional [[assassin]] who must still be in the spotel.


Idenitfying themselves as Detective Captain [[Arned McGinnis]] and Detective Sargent [[Roxanna Ceverley|Lois Mead]], they speak to the [[Orval Ignashus|manager]] of the now crime scene. They exchange details of the finding of the body. McGinnis orders the continuation of the lockdown, to which the manager complies. However, when Mead asks for all camera footage, the manager states that the establishment does not record footage due to the discrete nature of their business.
McGinnis decides to request voluntary [[memory scan]]s on everybody inside the spotel and performs one on [[Vienna Salvatori|Vienna]], who is going by Miracle Valentine and using an [[accent]]. The memory scan exonerates her and a scan of her luggage and her person detects nothing, so she is permitted to leave for the [[spaceship]] to [[Colossos]] whilst McGinnis and Mead scan everybody else and find it suspicious that Silver seems to have been alone wherever he was. Also believing that Vienna was too eager to leave, McGinnis reviews her memory scan and learns from Ignashus that Vienna watched ''[[The Infernal Prince]]'' two nights in a row, both at the same time. He wonders if the memories he and Mead have viewed are actually of the previous day and puts all units on maximum alert to capture Vienna, grounding all spaceships.


The two of them make their way to the Penthouse Suite. McGinnis informs Mead that the Slithergee race use their auras of guilt to make those around them pity them. They come to the conclusion that Silver was shot by a single laser bolt through the head, making a post-humous brainscan impossible. After establishing further evidence, they come to the conclusion that a trained and hired assassin must have done this murder, and that they are also still within the [[spotel]].
Vienna boards her [[D-class fighter]] and the [[computer]] plays a recording of her saying the key phrase for her [[memory box]]. She remembers how she shot Silver, melted the weapon in the [[shower]] and cleared away her DNA traces before locking her memories of the previous twenty-four hours away inside the memory box, which she has play back its contents to her [[assignment crystal]]. The assignment crystal confirms Silver's death and gives her the coordinates for where she can collect her payment, but she is unable to leave as a [[J-class star yacht]] is blocking her from leaving. She erases all of her ship's data and threatens [[Norvelle Spraggott]] into giving her access to the star yacht, keeping him aboard upon learning that the ship's controls will only respond to him. McGinnis and Mead attempt to have the star yacht's navicomputer overridden, but Vienna and Norvelle manage to get away and enter warp before McGinnis and Mead can hit them with [[missile]]s.


McGinnis comes to the conclusion that they must get a [[memory scan]] from everyone within the spotel. The two head downstairs where they are met with a woman calling herself Miracle Valentine who insists she must leave. The investigators inform her that if she wishes to leave first, she must consent to their memory scan. They take their scan and appears clean. Letting her leave with her service robot, they then begin to round up the other suspects.
Following the assignment crystal's coordinates, Vienna and Norvelle arrive at the [[planet (The Memory Planet)|fourth planet]] in an uncharted [[star system]] in [[Angelo's Spiral]] and head towards an energy trace near the [[equator]] whilst McGinnis and Mead track them through [[anti-matter]] analysis. Vienna gives Norvelle an [[internal thermal heater]] to deal with the cold and they enter the apparently abandoned [[Research Base Algor]] where a [[croco]] pays her in cut [[diamond]]s she recognises as fakes. Discovering that the croco is [[revenant|a corpse reanimated by an implant]], she realises that she has been lured into a trap and fights off the attacking corpses of the base's crew. She sends Norvelle back to the star yacht, threatening to remotely burn him to death with the thermal heater if he leaves without her, and he runs into McGinnis and Mead whilst she escapes the revenants through a [[ventilation shaft]].


Miracle Valentine is heading for her inter-planetary cruise ship, itself heading for [[Colossos]]. Managing to pass security, she rushes to board her flight. Back at the spotel, Mead informs McGinnis that she's memory scanned every guest but to no prevail. All memories point to Silver being alone wherever he was, which McGinnis points out is itself suspicious. McGinnish approaches Ignashus to ask about Valentine, who states that she had watched ''[[The Infernal Prince]]'' two days in a row, both times at the exact same times, much to the confusion of McGinnis. McGinnis suggests that maybe Valentine has used her memory from the day before to override her memory from today, and immediately gets to hunting her down.
Mead is separated from Norvelle and McGinnis and Vienna orders her to take her off of the planet in the enforcers' ship, forcing McGinnis and an uncomplaining Norvelle to leave in the star yacht. Making Mead access the ship's computer, Vienna learns that the planet was recently purchased by [[Flaming Sword]] and remembers how Silver told her that the Flaming Sword [[terrorism|terrorists]] on [[Volcana]] were likely the ones who put out the hit on him. She had accepted his offer to double her bounty in return for her keeping him alive and killing whoever put out the hit and then put her memories in a memory box triggered by the name of the group, after which he shot himself with her gun. Now aware of her true mission, she has Mead fly to Volcana and inform the authorities that she has captured Silver's assassin to draw Flaming Sword out.


Meanwhile, Valentine is rushing for her cruise ship. Instead she boards her own ship. Her accent drops and her true identity, [[Vienna Salvatori]] is revealed. Upon her ship, the ship reminds her to release an assignment crystal, and fill it with her recent memories. Her true memories state that she entered his room, informed Silver of the seven million poldaks bounty on his head, and then shot him through the head. She then somehow melted the gun in the shower cubical and removed all of her DNA in the room. Returning to her room, Salvatori then locked the memories inside a [[memory box]]. She is then given verification of the murder and co-ordinates for where she can collect her bounty. Before she can leave, however, all passengers are made aware that there is a murderer at large, and all flights are grounded, including her own.
Hearing a message from a [[hologram]] of Silver, Mead remembers that she is Roxanna Ceverley, a [[refugee]] of the [[Wrath Empire]] and member of Flaming Sword who opposes Silver's [[murder]] and reanimation of refugees to serve as a workforce on factory planets like Volcana. She believes that Silver had a copy of his mind stored in a memory box inside of somebody else's mind and attempts to shoot Vienna, believing that she is said person, but Vienna has removed the [[power pack]] and they are both captured by the revenants and locked in Silver's [[office]]. They are soon joined by Norvelle and McGinnis, who followed them to Volcana, and the view of the [[Burning Sea]] opens a memory box in Norvelle's mind, replacing his mind with that of Silver's. Silver reveals that he hired Vienna as his previous body had become unsuitable, has Ceverley taken away to become a revenant and prepares to shoot Vienna and McGinnis.


Mead informs McGinnis that there is a positive identification on a 'Miracle Valentine' at the gate for the Colossos cruise ship. However, no-one by that name actually went aboard. Mead confirms Salvatori's current location and together, her and McGinnis head in her direction. Vienna becomes panicked when another ship is blocking her path, causing her ship to refuse to take off.
Vienna activates a memory box in McGinnis's mind by saying "[[Open Sesame]]", reminding McGinnis that he had agreed to delete records of Vienna's wrongdoings in return for her helping investigate Silver as she suspected all along that she was being used. Before Silver can push the two of them into the Burning Sea, Vienna uses the thermal heater to force him to hand over his gun and then uses her name as a key phrase to restore Norvelle's mind. She gets Norvelle to deactivate the revenants with a panel in the office and then makes him, McGinnis and Roxanna forget her name and most of what happened. From her ship, she anonymously donates her fee to a [[hospice]] on [[Miracle 3]] and is given a new assignment: finding the [[Grand Vizier of Tellis Stellaris]]'s puppy.
 
Taking a different approach, Vienna erases all files on her ship and pulls out a weapon. She approaches the owner of the other ship. With the officers fast approaching, Vienna learns that the ship belongs to [[Norvelle Spraggott]], and then forces Spraggott at gun point into his star yacht. She then forces him to take off as the officers fail to shut down their computer. The officers board their own ship in an attempt to follow them. Spraggott inputs Vienna's co-ordinates and they set off.
 
Upon their own ship, McGinnis orders the firing of a missile towards the star yacht, which doesn't deter Vienna. The star yacht enters warp, leaving the other two to analyse the anti-matter residue, allowing them to work out Vienna's destination. On the star yacht, Vienna forces Spraggott to scan their location. They are orbiting the fourth [[Planet (The Memory Box)|planet]] of an unchartered solar system. Spraggott notes an energy trace near the equator, towards which Vienna orders they fly.
 
Mead identifies the location as being in the [[Angelo Spiral]]. The two officers enter warp in pursuit of Vienna. Meanwhile, the star yacht lands at their destination. Spraggott notes that the planet is freezing cold, to which Vienna offers him a capsule which will raise his interal temperature. When Spraggott asks to return to the ship, she refuses and forces him to come along. She tells Spraggott that she is a bounty hunter, which Spraggott is horrified. Vienna reads the sign on the building: 'Research Base Algor'. They enter, with the officers hot on their tails.
 
Although Spraggott notes that the base seems abandoned, Vienna isn't convinced. She notes that the generator is still running. Investigating the base, they come across a [[croco]] from the [[Gulbos System|Golbos System]]. Vienna gets Spraggott to turn on his translation device, revealing that the croco has been expecting her. The croco opens a door revealing diamonds, much to Spraggott's delight, and much to Vienna's disappointment. She knows that they are fake. Vienna notes that for a warm-blooded species, the croco's breath isn't misting in the air like theirs, leading her to belive that it is a [[revenant]], a cadaver reanimated by an electronic implant. She reaches the conclusion that she's been set-up. The person behind it simply wanted to find out who murdered Berkley Silver.
 
Within the other ship, Mead is noting that besides the two lifesigns of Vienna and her hostage, at least a dozen other non-human signs are also appearing out of nowhere. From all directions, the reanimated corpses of the dead research base workers come to attack. Vienna notes that shooting them is pointless as revenant are already dead. She tells Norvelle to run back to his ship and to save himself. Asking what's stopping him from leaving her behind, she notes that she'll use the thermal heater to burn him from the inside. The same will happen if she dies. Norvelle then runs back to his ship to wait for her.
 
Now on the planet, McGinnis and Mead deduct from the tracks that the two of them are inside the base. Meanwhile, Vienna is analysing her surroundings and finds that by following the ventilation shafts, she could reach the surface, so she breaks her way into the ventilation and escapes. The revenant climb up after her. Within the building, McGinnis notes that the building was one of many from the [[Gadoral Empire]]. At that moment, Spraggott runs in, informing them of the situation, which is soon confirmed by the rucus caused by the revenant behind him.
 
The three of them run back to the officer's ship before McGinnis and Spraggott are cut off. Mead makes her way outside and the other two get trapped inside. Mead notes that she is surrounded by the revenant and can't return to the ship. At that moment her coms shut off, leaving deadly silence. Spraggott uses his technical knowhow to hotwire the hatch and they both enter a debate about which ship to take when McGinnis' ship takes off. They head for the star yacht.
 
On the other ship, Mead is being forced at gunpoint to pilot away by Vienna. Using this opportunity, Vienna forces Mead to look into the computer for the owner(s) of this planet, so that she can work out who set up the trap. Much to their surprise, the desolate world is owned by a group called [[Flaming Sword]]. This sparks a memory in Vienna's mind.
 
Vienna recalls that during her stay in the Spotel Galileo, just before she murdered Silver, he doubled the bounty to fourteen million poldaks to not only keep him alive, but also to kill those who have placed the bounty upon his head. She asks Silver who would want him the dead the most. As far as he is concerned, at the top of the list is Flaming Sword, a terrorist cabal based on the planet [[Volcana]]. He warns her that if they suspect she's failed in her mission to kill him then they'll no doubt kill her. Cryptically informing her that he has contingencies for being murdered, he instructs her to place her memories into a memory box using the thought code 'Flaming Sword'. That way she can go about thinking she has completed her original assignment. He then orders her to murder him. When she politely refuses, he takes the gun and does it himself.
 
Back in the present, Vienna recalls to Mead that she has a memory box, which enables her to lock away compromising memories within subfolders inside her brain. With her new memories of her new assignment firmly in back in place, she tells Mead that their new destination is Volcana, where she intends to hunt down and assassinate all members of Flaming Sword.
 
On the space yacht, Spraggott and McGillis are soon hot on the tail of the other ship. Mead and Vienna arrive at Volcana, a planet covered in volcanos. Despite this, Mead tells Vienna the place is inhabited by settlers. As part of Vienna's plan, Mead calls Volcana command station, telling them she has caught the murderer of Berkley Silver, in an attempt to gain permission to land and also to flush out Flaming Sword.
 
On Volcana, the two stage their plan. They note that the workforce is entirely made up of revenants. They suddenly see a huge grinning hologram of Berkley Silver, causing Mead to remember something. Her real name is Roxanna Ceverley, a worker for Flaming Sword. Not long after, the other two make their way onto the planet. Ceverley reveals to Vienna that she wanted Silver dead because Flaming Sword is opposed to the use of the revenant in his workforce. She reveals the revenants are the refugees from the [[Wrath]] Empire.
 
Ceverley reveals that she is one of those refugees who was saved from the system. Her memories of those terrible times had been placed inside a memory box and the key to unlock it was the hologram. Ceverley then placed herself inside the murder unit so that when Silver inevitably died, she would be assigned to his case. She would then find her way to Volcana, the hub of all his business, where she would no doubt find a back-up copy of his mind in someone else's body. Ceverley then reveals that whoever brought her to this planet must therefore be Silver in a new body, much to Vienna's surprise. Before they could finish this thought, the revenant approach and take them inside.
 
Locked inside Berkley Silver's office, the four of them are soon reunited. Looking out at the burning seas from the office window, Norvelle Spraggott's voice changes and it becomes clear that he was Berkley Silver all along. Silver reveals that Norvelle's mind is locked away deep inside his head. Blocking Vienna's ship with his, and the fact that he had a means of finding the other ship after warp, were all parts of Silver's elaborate scheme to get him back to his office. Silver explains that if he could lure Vienna to Volcana, he would most certainly lure the Flaming Sword operative back too. Silver explains that he is currently in his twentieth body, hence his lack of fear of death. Futhermore, Silver was the one who employed Vienna to kill him in the first place, thus setting his elaborate scheme into effect.
 
Silver calls the revenants to take Ceverley away and turn her into a revenant. He then reveals that the only thing left to do is to shoot them both. Vienna tells Silver that he's going to deactivate the revenants from here. With that, she uses the code 'Open Sesame' to open McGinnis' memory box. He remembers his and Vienna's secret alliance to bring down Berkley Silver in return for certain deletions regarding Vienna's wrongdoings in the datalogs.
 
A revenant then takes the two of them out to the balcony, where Silver intends to push them into the lava sea below. Vienna smuggly activates the thermal heater inside Silver's stomach. Vienna blackmails Silver to give his gun to McGinnis and return his mind to Norvelle. She then deactivates the thermal heater. Escaping the revenants, Vienna shows Norvelle around the panels in the office and orders him to deactivate the revenants. He does so and they become dead again. They send Norvelle to check on "Mead". She then wipes her name from McGinnis' mind to avoid Silver returning.
 
Much later, McGinnis and Mead are heading to find Berkley Silver's killer and stumble across a stationary star yacht. Mead notices that McGinnis hasn't complained of a headache recently. Ignoring it, they go to investigate the star yacht. Inside is Norvelle, who states there was a woman who has recently got disembarked to go to the Animoi Ring Station. They ring the Ring Station to find that all ships left over an hour ago, including Vienna's. McGinnis makes a promise to Mead that will find this "woman", before returning to his quarters.
 
Now alone on the bridge, Roxanna Ceverley reports to the Flaming Sword that Berkley Silver has been successfully neutralised. She tries to recall the event but can only recall the name of the bounty hunter. Back on her ship, the computer tells Vienna that all of her recent funds have been sent to the hospice on Miracle 3. She receives another crystal, meaning another assignment.


== Cast ==
== Cast ==
Line 83: Line 54:
* [[Norvelle Spraggott]] - [[Tom Price]]
* [[Norvelle Spraggott]] - [[Tom Price]]


== References ==
== Worldbuilding ==
 
=== Places ===
=== Places ===
* Berkley Silver's body was found in the Penthouse Suite.
* Berkley Silver's body was found in the Penthouse Suite.
Line 91: Line 61:
* Spraggott notes that Vienna's payment is enough to buy one of [[Saturn]]'s moons.
* Spraggott notes that Vienna's payment is enough to buy one of [[Saturn]]'s moons.
* [[Volcana]] is a planet so named due to its surface being covered solely in volcanos.
* [[Volcana]] is a planet so named due to its surface being covered solely in volcanos.
* Vienna sends her fee to a hospice on [[Miracle 3]].


=== Individuals ===
=== Individuals ===
* The crew are attending a suspected homocide of [[Berkley Silver]] at the [[Galileo Spotel]] at the [[Animoi Ring Station]].
* The crew are attending a suspected homicide of [[Berkley Silver]] at the [[Galileo Spotel]] at the [[Animoi Ring Station]].
* Berkley Silver, who was in his late-sixties, was a rich entrepeneur, who was recognised for being one the richest men of the empire. He owned half a dozen planets. He was a trillionaire.
* Berkley Silver, who was in his late-sixties, was a rich entrepeneur, who was recognised for being one the richest men of the empire. He owned half a dozen planets. He was a trillionaire.
* Silver's time of death was approximately 18 hours, 30 minutes and 40 seconds, according to Mead's device.
* Silver's time of death was approximately 18 hours, 30 minutes and 40 seconds, according to Mead's device.
Line 110: Line 81:


== Notes ==
== Notes ==
* Unlike most Big Finish audio stories, this story does not feature any death of any of the four main cast members. However, other minor characters do die.
* The [[Slithergee]] originate in the Big Finish ''Doctor Who'' audio story ''[[Flip-Flop (audio story)|Flip-Flop]]''.
* The [[Slithergee]] originate in the Big Finish ''Doctor Who'' audio story ''[https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Flip-Flop_(audio_story) Flip-Flop]''.
* This story was made available as a free download as part of Big Finish's Weekly Freebies, or ''lockdownloads'', from 29 March,<ref>[https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/this-free-download-s-a-bounty This FREE download’s a bounty!]</ref> to 4 April 2021<ref>[https://x.com/bigfinish/status/1376972494700183555 https://twitter.com/bigfinish/status/1376972494700183555]</ref>, Its page is still online, though has no purchase widget.<ref>https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/vienna-the-memory-box-2021-promo-2481</ref>


== Continuity ==
== Continuity ==
* During her stay at the spotel, "Miracle Valentine" watches a film entitled ''[[The Infernal Prince]]'', a film regarding the true story behind Prince [[Kylo Sorsha|Kylo]] and Princess [[Aliona]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_Burning_Prince_(audio_story) The Burning Prince]'', ''[https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_Acheron_Pulse_(audio_story) The Acheron Pulse]'', ''[[The Shadow Heart (audio story)|The Shadow Heart]]'')
* During her stay at the spotel, "Miracle Valentine" watches a film entitled ''[[The Infernal Prince]]'', a film regarding the true story behind Prince [[Kylo Sorsha|Kylo]] and Princess [[Aliona]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Burning Prince (audio story)|The Burning Prince]]'', ''[[The Acheron Pulse (audio story)|The Acheron Pulse]]'', ''[[The Shadow Heart (audio story)|The Shadow Heart]]'')
* The revenant workforce are made up of the deceased refugees from the [[Wrath]] Empire. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_Burning_Prince_(audio_story) The Burning Prince]'' et al)
* The revenant workforce are made up of the deceased refugees from the [[Wrath]] Empire. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Burning Prince (audio story)|The Burning Prince]]'' et al)
 
== External links ==
{{bigfinish|releases/v/vienna-the-memory-box-843|The Memory Box}}
 
== Footnotes ==
<references />{{Vienna}}
 
{{TitleSort}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Memory Box, The}}
[[Category:Vienna audio stories]]
[[Category:Vienna audio series]]
[[Category:2013 audio stories]]

Latest revision as of 23:19, 17 November 2024

RealWorld.png

The Memory Box was the first story of the Vienna audio series, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Jonathan Morris and featured Chase Masterson as Vienna Salvatori.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

Berkley Silver, one of the richest men in the Earth empire, lies dead in the Penthouse Suite of the Galileo space-hotel. Law Enforcement Officers Detective Captain McGinnis and Detective Sergeant Mead are called in to investigate – but it seems to have been the perfect crime. Even when subjected to a memory scan, everybody in the space-hotel has an alibi for the murder.

Which means it can only have been the work of one woman. The most accomplished – and the most glamorous – bounty hunter in the galaxy. Her name is Vienna Salvatori. And she has a little rule; nobody gets to hear her name and live...

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Detective Captain McGinnis and Detective Sergeant Mead travel by warp to the Spotel Galileo at the Animoi Ring Station to investigate the suspected homicide of technological entrepreneur Berkley Silver. Orval Ignashus, a Slithergee and manager of the spotel, informs them that a room hygienist found the body that evening, that a lockdown has been in place since then and that the spotel has no security cameras due to it being used for prostitution. In the penthouse, they find that the corpse is unrecognisable due to him having been killed by a laser bolt through the head, but McGinnis's scan confirms that the DNA is Silver's and that there is no trace of anybody else having been there. He deduces that it is the work of a professional assassin who must still be in the spotel.

McGinnis decides to request voluntary memory scans on everybody inside the spotel and performs one on Vienna, who is going by Miracle Valentine and using an accent. The memory scan exonerates her and a scan of her luggage and her person detects nothing, so she is permitted to leave for the spaceship to Colossos whilst McGinnis and Mead scan everybody else and find it suspicious that Silver seems to have been alone wherever he was. Also believing that Vienna was too eager to leave, McGinnis reviews her memory scan and learns from Ignashus that Vienna watched The Infernal Prince two nights in a row, both at the same time. He wonders if the memories he and Mead have viewed are actually of the previous day and puts all units on maximum alert to capture Vienna, grounding all spaceships.

Vienna boards her D-class fighter and the computer plays a recording of her saying the key phrase for her memory box. She remembers how she shot Silver, melted the weapon in the shower and cleared away her DNA traces before locking her memories of the previous twenty-four hours away inside the memory box, which she has play back its contents to her assignment crystal. The assignment crystal confirms Silver's death and gives her the coordinates for where she can collect her payment, but she is unable to leave as a J-class star yacht is blocking her from leaving. She erases all of her ship's data and threatens Norvelle Spraggott into giving her access to the star yacht, keeping him aboard upon learning that the ship's controls will only respond to him. McGinnis and Mead attempt to have the star yacht's navicomputer overridden, but Vienna and Norvelle manage to get away and enter warp before McGinnis and Mead can hit them with missiles.

Following the assignment crystal's coordinates, Vienna and Norvelle arrive at the fourth planet in an uncharted star system in Angelo's Spiral and head towards an energy trace near the equator whilst McGinnis and Mead track them through anti-matter analysis. Vienna gives Norvelle an internal thermal heater to deal with the cold and they enter the apparently abandoned Research Base Algor where a croco pays her in cut diamonds she recognises as fakes. Discovering that the croco is a corpse reanimated by an implant, she realises that she has been lured into a trap and fights off the attacking corpses of the base's crew. She sends Norvelle back to the star yacht, threatening to remotely burn him to death with the thermal heater if he leaves without her, and he runs into McGinnis and Mead whilst she escapes the revenants through a ventilation shaft.

Mead is separated from Norvelle and McGinnis and Vienna orders her to take her off of the planet in the enforcers' ship, forcing McGinnis and an uncomplaining Norvelle to leave in the star yacht. Making Mead access the ship's computer, Vienna learns that the planet was recently purchased by Flaming Sword and remembers how Silver told her that the Flaming Sword terrorists on Volcana were likely the ones who put out the hit on him. She had accepted his offer to double her bounty in return for her keeping him alive and killing whoever put out the hit and then put her memories in a memory box triggered by the name of the group, after which he shot himself with her gun. Now aware of her true mission, she has Mead fly to Volcana and inform the authorities that she has captured Silver's assassin to draw Flaming Sword out.

Hearing a message from a hologram of Silver, Mead remembers that she is Roxanna Ceverley, a refugee of the Wrath Empire and member of Flaming Sword who opposes Silver's murder and reanimation of refugees to serve as a workforce on factory planets like Volcana. She believes that Silver had a copy of his mind stored in a memory box inside of somebody else's mind and attempts to shoot Vienna, believing that she is said person, but Vienna has removed the power pack and they are both captured by the revenants and locked in Silver's office. They are soon joined by Norvelle and McGinnis, who followed them to Volcana, and the view of the Burning Sea opens a memory box in Norvelle's mind, replacing his mind with that of Silver's. Silver reveals that he hired Vienna as his previous body had become unsuitable, has Ceverley taken away to become a revenant and prepares to shoot Vienna and McGinnis.

Vienna activates a memory box in McGinnis's mind by saying "Open Sesame", reminding McGinnis that he had agreed to delete records of Vienna's wrongdoings in return for her helping investigate Silver as she suspected all along that she was being used. Before Silver can push the two of them into the Burning Sea, Vienna uses the thermal heater to force him to hand over his gun and then uses her name as a key phrase to restore Norvelle's mind. She gets Norvelle to deactivate the revenants with a panel in the office and then makes him, McGinnis and Roxanna forget her name and most of what happened. From her ship, she anonymously donates her fee to a hospice on Miracle 3 and is given a new assignment: finding the Grand Vizier of Tellis Stellaris's puppy.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Places[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Berkley Silver's body was found in the Penthouse Suite.
  • "Miracle Valentine" is headed for an inter-planetary cruise ship headed for Colossos, taking off from Stardock 4.
  • Vienna assumes that the research base was built during the Gadoral Empire, going by its design.
  • Spraggott notes that Vienna's payment is enough to buy one of Saturn's moons.
  • Volcana is a planet so named due to its surface being covered solely in volcanos.
  • Vienna sends her fee to a hospice on Miracle 3.

Individuals[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The crew are attending a suspected homicide of Berkley Silver at the Galileo Spotel at the Animoi Ring Station.
  • Berkley Silver, who was in his late-sixties, was a rich entrepeneur, who was recognised for being one the richest men of the empire. He owned half a dozen planets. He was a trillionaire.
  • Silver's time of death was approximately 18 hours, 30 minutes and 40 seconds, according to Mead's device.
  • Vienna tells Spraggott that she has one little rule: no-one who knows her name lives to tell the tale.
  • Spraggott works for Wills, Probate and Trusts.

Species[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The manager of the crime scene, Orval Ignashus, is a Slithergee.
  • Inside the research base, they stumble across a croco from the Golbos System. Crocos are warm-blooded.
  • According to Vienna, a revenant is a cadaver reanimated by an electronic implant.
  • Revenants can perform brain scans to identify known people.

Technology[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Vienna Salvatori owns a D-Class fighter ship, and Norvelle Spraggott owns a J-Class Star Yacht.
  • Vienna provides Spraggott with an internal heater, shaped liked a boiled sweet, to raise his body temperature.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Slithergee originate in the Big Finish Doctor Who audio story Flip-Flop.
  • This story was made available as a free download as part of Big Finish's Weekly Freebies, or lockdownloads, from 29 March,[1] to 4 April 2021[2], Its page is still online, though has no purchase widget.[3]

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ This FREE download’s a bounty!
  2. ↑ https://twitter.com/bigfinish/status/1376972494700183555
  3. ↑ https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/vienna-the-memory-box-2021-promo-2481
v • e
Vienna
Pilot
Series One
Series Two
Series Three
Series Four
Retrieved from "https://tardis.wiki/w/index.php?title=The_Memory_Box_(audio_story)&oldid=3898078"