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 the Rogue 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 Rogue, he says that she is alone and that she might be imagining things due to stress.
Charley refuses to move from the spot before the Viyran tells her what is going on, believing that the Rogue Viyran, the Obscurantist and the change in the Prolixity were connected somehow. As answering her would be beyond his function as laid out by the Viyran Commander, he refuses to do so and says that they could have her mind wiped to forget her "confusions". They hear a noise and, over a loudspeaker, a Viyran issues a warning of a time virus and says that energy from the Prolixity is affecting their technology. The Viyran with Charley is afflicted and, with the other Viyrans being told to head to the disembarkation area, Charley runs away with the aim to escape.
Running to find a pod, Charley hears an alert telling the Viyrans of her disappearance and that she should be taken to the command deck if found. She hears the sound of Viyrans nearby but is saved by a hidden panel behind her leading to a secret passageway and an escape pod which, when activated, identifies the Jolly Brewer as the nearest environment capable of sustaining life. It locks onto the Jolly Brewer and leaves the Transporter.
A Viyran tells the Commander that Virus KX Variant 243 had breached the vivarium deck, apparently heading towards the Prolixity, after the Prolixity's energy affected the experimental analysis chamber; the virus killed several Viyrans and the survivors have all been isolated and confined. The Viyran tells the Commander that a pod left the Transporter just before it docked, heading for the Jolly Brewer, and that Charley was most likely aboard. A unit is dispatched.
Charley tries to buy her way onto a spacecraft and bumps into Robert, who tells her that everybody is too focused on the Prolixity. As he has been treated by the Viyrans and thus had his mind wiped, he does not recognise Charley and she tries to pretend that they have not met before upon realising. She accepts his offer to take her with him to Earth in his ship and demands that they leave quickly despite Robert wanting to watch the Prolixity.
On the Fieldship's observation deck, the Viyran Commander records in the Viyran Data Almanac that the Prolixity is in flux, growing larger and giving energy readings at the edge of Viyran science. The Rogue Viyran, whom the Commander does not recognise, tells him that the meaning will become apparent in time and asks to speak to him in private about the Lamentation Cipher, something that the Commander does not believe he should know about.
Before leaving the Jolly Brewer, Robert admits that he is not a detective nor an adventurer nor a magnet for trouble as he had originally told her; he is actually an investment broker who works for his father, whom he does not get along with. A Viyran stops them from leaving and tells them that Charley will be returned to the Fieldship Prime whilst Robert has his memory erased once again.
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.
- The Viyrans contain the time virus in a Level Green-Gamma-9 containment field.
- Robert's ship is Indigo-class, Model 6 and, according to him, the fastest in the quadrant "under the right circumstances".
- Charley had a small savings account with Coutts.
- The Viyrans update the Viyran Data Almanac.
- Robert is an investment broker.
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 she has a mother, a father and two sisters, referring to Peggy and Sissy. (AUDIO: Zagreus)
- 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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