Five Twenty-Nine (audio story)

 was the second story of the audio anthology, The Diary of River Song: Series Two, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by John Dorney and featured Alex Kingston as River Song and Salome Haertel as Rachel Burrows.

Publisher's summary
River has made a terrible discovery.

Billions of lives hang in the balance. But if she can save just a few, then it might just help her solve the conundrum of Earth's destruction.

But how can she win when survival becomes a race against time itself? A race against Five Twenty-Nine?

Plot
On a remote island on Earth, the Burrows family - Emmett, Lisa and their daughter Rachel - are about to have dinner. Emmett is worried because he can't reach Colin, a friend who works on a nearby oil rig, for their usual evening game of chess. As they are sitting down to dinner, there is a knock at the door: it is River.

The archaeologist pretends to be a survivor of a shipwreck and is greeted by the Burrows. Emmett calls a friend of his, Steven Goodbold, to take her back to the mainland, but he has to go and look for some fishermen who has been lost at sea and is out of contact. River notices that Rachel is actually a synthetic, state-of-the-art android, and the Burrows admit that they adopted her because they were unable to have children, and were forced to move to the island because of the huge expense. As the elderly couple go to prepare the couch for River to spend the night on, Rachel notices River looking at her uneasily, and thinks it is a human distrust of androids. The archaeologist explains that no, it's just that she's encountered another of her kind in serious condition (actually Rachel herself), and fears that something very bad is about to happen to her within twenty-four hours at most: she's gone back in time to find out what it is.

At night, River continues to observe the scenery, not noticing nothing out of the ordinary on the surface; she makes the acquaintance of Steven, who flirts with her and offers her a place to sleep on his boat (she declines). The next morning, River and the Burrows family are about to have breakfast when Emmett hears on the radio that communications with entire continents have been lost: a strange, unexplained phenomenon is putting an end to all life on the entire planet, always at the same time, 17.29. River guesses that this is the catastrophe he's been waiting for, and also that it started from the platform where Steven's friend worked, going in the opposite direction to the family. With some difficulty, she convinces the Burrows family to trust her and leave their home in order to save themselves.

River goes to Steven and, after convincing him, makes some modifications to the engine of his boat, upgrading it. Her intuition is to navigate by following the direction of the wave, so that she is always ahead of her zone of influence and not involved. She sends Steven to try to convince the island's inhabitants to escape, but he fails; reluctantly, River agrees to leave only with Steven and the Burrows, in the direction of the oil rig where it all began.

In the area where the wave has already passed, everything is still, dead; even the birds that touch the water die with a simple touch. Too late River realises that this applies to every element within the area, including the surface of the platform: Steven touches it, and it dies as he falls into the water. River takes the boat away, hoping to at least save the Burrows and figure out what's going on and how to stop it, but after a few hours the elderly couple, seeing no way out, beg her to stop and instead boost Rachel's circuits so they can at least give her a chance. Realizing that this is how Rachel was saved long enough to give her, in her future (but in River's past), the location and date of the catastrophe, River agrees.

The Burrows and River have one last meal together before the wave arrives. Moments before, River picks up a directional signal, suggesting that what is happening is being piloted by someone. Following its trail, River dematerialises, while the Burrows raise a glass together for one last time before they die.

Cast

 * River Song - Alex Kingston
 * Rachel Burrows - Salome Haertel
 * Lisa Burrows - Ann Bell
 * Emmett Burrows - Robert Pugh
 * Steven Godbold - Aaron Neil
 * Announcer - Dan Starkey

Technology

 * Rachel is a synthetic. She mentions to River that most people perceive her as strange due to the uncanny valley.
 * Synthetics/androids are all the rage on the mainland.
 * River uses her sonic screwdriver to upgrade Godbold's motor on his boat so that it can run forever.

Food and drink

 * Lisa opens champagne to celebrate their last meal.
 * Rachel is able to drink water.
 * Rachel and Emmett prepare a lamb dinner for the family the night before events take off.

Continuity

 * River Song states that her marital status is complicated. (TV: The Wedding of River Song, The Husbands of River Song)
 * However, she tells Godbold that she's married.
 * River asks the family to simply call her "Professor". (TV: Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead)
 * River Song tells Rachel that something is going to happen to her within twenty-four hours. She saw the end result in her previous adventure and wishes to understand how by travelling back in time. (AUDIO: The Unknown)
 * River claims her "means of time travel" can only transport her and no-one else. (TV: The Big Bang, et al.)
 * River Song drinks champagne. (TV: The Name of the Doctor)