Embankment Station (audio story)
Embankment Station was the first story of the audio anthology Charlotte Pollard: Series Two. It was written by Nicholas Briggs and featured India Fisher as Charlotte Pollard, James Joyce as Robert Buchan and Dan Starkey as the Rogue Viyran.
Publisher's summary
A bumpy arrival, journalism, politics and a security crisis.
Plot
Charley, who says that she must be long dead if this message is being read, introduces her story as a general warning that one can never be sure of anything, particularly history.
As Charley and Robert's pod is torn apart whilst entering the Prolixity, people board a train on the London Underground and are told by the guard that it will not be stopping at Embankment station and that he could not care less why. Charley and Robert spot the Rogue Viyran, having lost his suit, falling into the Prolixity and, believing their deaths to be imminent, share a kiss.
On her way to the studio, Naomi Davies and her taxi driver feel some sort of tremor. Naomi calls a colleague, saying that she thinks there might have been a bomb and telling her of the presence of police, ambulances and the fire brigade. After requesting a camera team, she has her taxi driver follow the emergency services towards Embankment. The sirens wail.
A being detects an unexpected arrival.
Charley and Robert awake on the London Underground and, after Robert has been sick, they agree not to discuss the fact that they had sex in the pod and Charley tells him that she is a time traveller from the 20th century, not having realised that she had not told him yet. They wonder about where the pod has gone and where the Rogue Viyran is when they hear radio interference and are tranquilised on Captain Warwick's orders.
Naomi arrives at Embankment and is ordered back by a police constable, but she spots and records Charley and Robert being transported away on stretchers and into a black van.
Charley wakes up and finds herself with a man. She deduces that she is in the early 21st century and tries to find out where Robert is to no avail.
Naomi shows Madeline her video, but Madeline says that she does not believe that there is a story. She does not forbid Naomi from investigating further but warns her not to embarrass Night News. On the Lunchtime News, David Shillingford mentions the matter only briefly as "a minor earth tremor" amongst stories on overspending by NHS trusts and the popularity of the royal family. To Naomi's irritation, the main story is of six identical, almost simultaneous road deaths and storms out to speak to "a dubious friend".
When the man returns to Charley, she can tell by his demeanour that he has seen photographs of her from the early 20th century and wonders if this is part of a Viyran test. She sees something inexplicable and tells the man to check the camera to see what it was, refusing to answer any more questions until she sees Robert.
Naomi meets with Rab in a café and asks him what he has heard about the incident at Embankment station, which he suggests could somehow be connected to the simultaneous suicides. She presents him with the video she took of Charley and Robert and he uses homemade intelligent software to extrapolate their faces. He says that he will try to find out who they are and will come up with some form of payment in the future.
The being monitors "the first batch", saying that the modification was excessive and that adjustments are in progress.
Robert is sent in to see Charley and she asks him if he has seen the walls "ruffle" as she did, which he says he has not. Observing the pair, the two men rewind the footage and see what Charley did, after which one returns to the room and continues asking questions about their connection to the Embankment disturbance. Whilst they initially deny any connection, Charley wonders if their arrival was the disturbance.
The being has assessed the arrivals and labels them as a threat. He spawns two further beings from his body, calling them Factor 1 and Factor 2, and sends them to integrate themselves with human society and remove the threat.
The Minister picks up Woking on the street and he tells her that there was an "unprecedented and unknown percussive release of energy" near Embankment and that he has interrogated Charley and Robert.
to be completed
Cast
- Charlotte Pollard - India Fisher
- Robert Buchan - James Joyce
- Rogue Viyran - Dan Starkey
- Naomi Davies - Deirdre Mullins
- Woking - Kieran Hodgson
- Rab - Ashley Kumar
- Minister - Rachel Atkins
- Lysette Allegro - Helen Goldwyn
- Prime Minister - Pippa Haywood
- The Identical Men - Colin McFarlane
- Madeline - Karen Henson
- Captain Warwick - Gary Turner
- Sergeant Hunter - Ben Crowe
References
- Naomi works for Night News.
- David Shillingford is a newsreader.
- Lysette Allegro is Lunchtime News' Home Office correspondent.
- The victims of the road deaths are Angela Galliard, Stephen Ashcroft, Donald Hadley, Ricardo Gonzalez, Lynn Oliver and Najmieh Alawi.
- The correlation of the deaths was spotted by a junior reporter at the London Evening Herald.
- A barista serves a decaf latté and a bacon muffin with brown sauce.
- The Minister met Woking at a Home Office reception.
- The Minister mentions the Thames Flood Barrier.
- The Minister was at an anti-terrorism secret subcommittee session when the tremor occurred and says that the Home Secretary almost hid under the table.
Notes
to be added
Continuity
- The Minister references the "breaching of the Thames flood barrier". (TV: The Runaway Bride)
External links
- Official Embankment Station page at bigfinish.com
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