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{{Infobox Story | {{Infobox Story | ||
|main character = [[Bernice Summerfield|Benny]] | |main character = [[Bernice Summerfield|Benny]] | ||
|featuring = | |featuring = [[Irving Braxiatel|Braxiatel]] | ||
|setting = [[Matryoshka]] | |setting = [[Matryoshka]] | ||
|writer = [[Peter Anghelides]] | |writer = [[Peter Anghelides]] | ||
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|prev = The Death of Hope (short story) | |prev = The Death of Hope (short story) | ||
|next = | |next = | ||
}} | |||
'''''{{StoryTitle}}''''' was the eighth and final story in the anthology ''[[In Time (anthology)|In Time]]''. | '''''{{StoryTitle}}''''' was the eighth and final story in the anthology ''[[In Time (anthology)|In Time]]''. | ||
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The eighty-two-year-old Benny heads into the Matryoshkan cave system with eight students, whose parents have paid for the trip at Perce's suggestion, to find the second mask. They find it on an [[altar]] carved into a [[glacier]] and Benny sends the students back when the ice begins to crack. She plunges into the [[crevasse]]. | The eighty-two-year-old Benny heads into the Matryoshkan cave system with eight students, whose parents have paid for the trip at Perce's suggestion, to find the second mask. They find it on an [[altar]] carved into a [[glacier]] and Benny sends the students back when the ice begins to crack. She plunges into the [[crevasse]]. | ||
' | Four years after Perce's death, Benny, now in her nineties and using an [[anti-grav wheelchair]], returns to Matryoshka with [[Perce (Old Ruins)|a robot]] named after him and containing some of his [[memory|memories]]. The robot locates the third mask before it goes offline. Benny goes after it and takes the mask, but something does not feel right when she touches it and she puts it back. The ground cracks and she falls into the abyss. | ||
Benny wakes up in a [[hospital]], forty years old, and is told by [[Fincher]] that she has been in a [[coma]] for several days whilst fighting a [[virus]] from the Matryoshka caves. [[Hadderford|Dr Hadderford]] has Fincher remove the memory device from a [[neuro imager]] and give it to an IT [[technician]] without a name badge. Fincher overhears the man on a commlink calling himself "[[Irving Braxiatel|Braxiatel]]" and uploading the locations of the masks for somebody else to find. | |||
Benny asks for the recordings to help her find the masks, but Dr Hadderford tells her that they have been destroyed as medical waste and the Matroshkan caves have been closed off. Fincher, however, discreetly indicates to her that this is not the case. | |||
== Characters == | == Characters == | ||
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* [[Oshra]] | * [[Oshra]] | ||
* [[Fincher]] | * [[Fincher]] | ||
* [[Hadderford|Dr Hadderford]] | |||
* [[Irving Braxiatel]] | * [[Irving Braxiatel]] | ||
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* Perce is a [[geologist]]. | * Perce is a [[geologist]]. | ||
* Benny and Perce are working at [[university (Old Ruins)|a university]]. [[Smithson|Professor Smithson]] is an [[alcoholism|alcoholic]] colleague of theirs. | * Benny and Perce are working at [[university (Old Ruins)|a university]]. [[Smithson|Professor Smithson]] is an [[alcoholism|alcoholic]] colleague of theirs. | ||
* Perce | * Perce is married to [[Lucien Monk]]. | ||
* Chaniak and Deming are [[Fodorian]]s. | * Chaniak and Deming are [[Fodorian]]s. | ||
* Benny believes that [[Tai-gon-lahr]] lost his virginity on the trip. | * Benny believes that [[Tai-gon-lahr]] lost his virginity on the trip. | ||
* Benny drinks [[red wine]]. | |||
* Benny remembers an unhappy incident with the [[Magic Roundabout]] in [[Swindon]]. | |||
* [[Hadderford|Dr Hadderford]] is a [[Killoran]]. | |||
== Notes == | == Notes == | ||
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== Continuity == | == Continuity == | ||
* | * Benny says that she once knew [[Irving Braxiatel|someone]] whose [[The Doctor's father|father]] had cellars of [[Draconian brandy]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Everybody Loves Irving (audio story)|Everybody Loves Irving]]'') | ||
* Benny remembers her escape from [[Artaris]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Plague Herds of Excelis (audio story)|Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Plague Herds of Excelis]]'') | |||
{{BFBS}} | {{BFBS}} |