The Lamentation Cipher (audio story)
The Lamentation Cipher was the first story of the audio anthology Charlotte Pollard: Series One. It was written by Jonathan Barnes and featured India Fisher as Charlotte Pollard, Michael Maloney as the Viyrans and James Joyce as Robert Buchan.
Publisher's summary
Charlotte Pollard — once the greatest adventuress of her generation — is terminally bored. She is tired of life as an emissary of that powerful and mysterious race, the Viyrans. She has grown weary of her role as an expendable agent in their ceaseless quest to eliminate contagion across the universe. Her work is repetitive and gruelling and has come to feel as if she hardly recognises herself. Very quietly, and without fuss, her heart is breaking.
So when the Viyrans arrive at the edge of galaxy Brouhaha-Nine-Nine-Five, besides the bizarre and enigmatic space-time anomaly known as the Ever-and-Ever Prolixity, Charley is overjoyed at an opportunity for escape. It is a chance that she will be grateful to seize — but given what awaits her, she may, before long, come to wonder if she might not have been more careful about just what it is she has wished for...
Plot
A distorted message from the Viyran Commander says that Charlotte Pollard is the Viyrans' greatest treasure and that she must be recovered as she is the key to the Lamentation Cipher.
Millennia after her own time and billions of light-years beyond the perception of Earth's most powerful telescopes, Charley is at the Jolly Brewer looking into the Ever-and-Ever Prolixity and writing in her diary, waiting for a particular man to enter. She is greeted by a flirtatious Robert Buchan, who tells her that he is a detective and an adventurer, and she cryptically tells him that she is employed by terrifying people not unlike librarians. He begins saying words that he is unfamiliar with without realising and Charley realises that he is the man she has been waiting for - a man who has just visited the fifth moon of the Indecisive Torrent.
Charley takes Robert with her to a medical suite that she has prepared on the floor below and tells him about the explosion of the Amethyst Viral Containment Station and subsequent spreading of the viruses within. Robert was infected with one of these viruses, the Obscurantist, on the fifth moon and will be reduced to a puddle of DNA and slime once the virus has gained a foothold on his system through his race memory. They are watched from the shadows by the Viyrans, who sedate him and tell Charley to leave. However, Robert's last word before going under is "Vortisaur", reminding her of Ramsay and making her wonder why he said it.
Returning to the Fieldship Prime on a Viyran Transporter, Charley feels that she is not needed by the Viyrans and that she has simply become a glorified pet. She admires the Prolixity when she is joined by an unusual Viyran who is friendly with her and strikes up conversation about the Prolixity, which changes shape as they watch. Another Viyran appears and, when Charley mentions the unusual Viyran, he says that she is alone and that she might be imagining things due to stress.
to be completed
Cast
- Charlotte Pollard - India Fisher
- Michael Maloney - Viyrans / Viyran Commander
- James Joyce / Computer Voice - Robert Buchan
- Nicholas Briggs - Bert Buchan Snr / Phone Alarm / Docking Station Loudspeaker Voice
References
- Brouhaha-Nine-Nine-Five is at the furthest regions of known space, billions of light-years beyond the perception of Earth's most powerful telescopes.
- Charley describes the Ever-and-Ever Prolixity as looking like a "cauldron of broiling darkness" roughly the size of Jupiter. It is a place of pilgrimage and scientific research.
- No probe or spacecraft that has ventured close to the Prolixity has ever returned.
- There are satellites and viewing platforms around the Prolixity, including the Jolly Brewer.
- Charley drinks orange juice. She has never and will never drink alcohol.
- A bushel is a bowl.
- Charley had a boarding school education.
- Charley likens the Viyrans to librarians.
- Cribbage is an old Earth game.
- Robert went to the fifth moon of the Indecisive Torrent in the TK system.
- The Obscurantist (or Virus Signal 10847 Variant 104) is airborne and takes over the infected by working through their race memory and accessing their ancestors' vocabulary. With a foothold on their system, it breaks down the infected's cells until they are a puddle of DNA and slime before moving on.
- The Viyrans sometimes give Charley Earl Grey and shortbread fingers.
- Charley had an account with Coutts.
Notes
- This story was recorded on 11, 18, 19 and 20 November 2013.
Continuity
- Charley refers to the fact that millions of viruses stored in the Amethyst Viral Containment Station were accidentally spread throughout the universe. (AUDIO: Patient Zero)
- After Robert mentions Vortisaurs, Charley recalls travelling with Ramsay in the TARDIS. (AUDIO: Storm Warning, Sword of Orion, The Stones of Venice, Minuet in Hell)
- The Viyran Commander refers to his people's ability to alter the minds of sentient life forms. (AUDIO: Mission to the Viyrans, Blue Forgotten Planet)
- Charley tells Robert that her family lost her a long time ago. (AUDIO: Storm Warning)
- Charley refers to the fact that she was once frozen by the Viyrans. (AUDIO: Patient Zero, Paper Cuts)
- Charley recalls taking a risk by boarding the British airship R101 on 4 October 1930. (AUDIO: Storm Warning)
- The Rogue Viyran faked his own death in order to allow Charley to escape. He drifted in space for over a year before he was picked up by Millicent Belanger III. (AUDIO: The Viyran Solution)
External links
- Official The Lamentation Cipher page at bigfinish.com
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