Fractures (audio story)

Fractures (identified on the cover simply as Chapter Ten) was the first story of the third series of Big Finish's Gallifrey audio series. It was written by Stephen Cole.

Publisher's summary

 * It learns. It evolves. It wants. It hungers. And now Romana has delivered herself to its very door.

Gallifrey is a world at war with itself. The Pandora entity, clothed in the body of President Romana's first incarnation, seeks to control the populace through mind control and manipulation. The real Romana has resorted to destroying key parts of the Capitol, hoping to weaken Pandora's power base.

But when one such attack goes horribly wrong, Leela is left injured and Romana's base of operations is exposed. Hunted by their enemies, Leela must make for a medical outpost on the fringes of the fighting while Romana seeks a desperate solution in the planet's Anomaly Vaults. But what each discovers will alter their lives, and Gallifrey's future, forever.

Plot
In the older levels of the Capitol, Lord Gerber reports on the civil war raging on Gallifrey, one side led by President Romana and the other by Imperiatrix Pandora, and warns his viewers that the only just cause is to support Romana as Pandora will only lead Gallifrey into war. Whilst Pandora converts Time Lords to her cause using fear and the Dogma Virus, Romana has, since defending the condemned off-worlder students at the Gallifreyan Academy, been using sabotage and regularly causes power outages in the city. Gerber believes that she is alienating her supporters and that persuasion would be more effective.

Leela and Narvin place percussion grenades in the empty Artron Forum, one of which detonates sooner than intended and before the pair can escape.

In the presidential suite, Pandora is told by Chancellor Valyes of the explosion at the Forum and that Inquisitor Prime Darkel and her guards are heading there. K9's assessment is that the Forum has not suffered extensive damage, leading Pandora to wonder if it is a distraction or a trick to lull her into a false sense of security.

Romana and Commander Hallan await Leela and Narvin's return in the Maelstrom Cloisters. When they finally do arrive, they find that Narvin has suffered serious cranial damage and that Leela is blind, although she believes that she will get her sight back just as she did when she suffered pigmentation dispersal.

Valyes informs Pandora that more bombs have been found at the Forum and that a trail of blood leads into the lower levels, likely showing the way to Romana's base. To alienate Romana's supporters, they agree to leave some guards in the Forum to be killed by the imminent explosions and to arrange for other innocents to be caught in the area, including her own supporters. Pandora sends K9 with the guards to find Romana, ordering him not to kill his former mistress but giving him permission to kill Leela, Narvin and Lord Matthias.

Romana and Matthias discuss Leela and Narvin's injuries, with Matthias telling her that he has heard of a neutral medical station in the Outlands which could help them. Leela hears them calling her helpless and, whilst she agrees that Hallan should take Narvin there, she insists that she will recover. The group feel the explosion at the Forum and are attacked by Pandora's guards and K9, who has stunned Henzil; Romana orders Hallan to find Captain Annos and take Matthias through the labyrinth to safety, his survival being important due to his status as a figurehead to be rallied around. As Romana and Leela prepare to escape to the Outlands, they are threatened by K9.

Pandora is pleased that forty people were killed by the explosion of the Artron Forum and tells Valyes that she will make a public address once she has allowed the fear and confusion to build. She contacts K9, whom Romana and Leela were able to evade by tricking him into believing that an image generator was a weapon.

Romana, Leela, Narvin, Hallan and Annos are in the Outlands. Romana decides that Leela, Narvin and Annos will go to the medical station whilst she and Hallan enter the Anomaly Vault and take possession of the only TARDIS unaffected by her scrambling of the imprimaturs: the TARDIS that Wynter used to travel to Davidia. The groups head out on skimmers placed there by Narvin in case of an emergency.

K9 updates Pandora on the events in the Maelstrom Cloisters and tells her of the two skimmers and their directions. Pandora asks him to trace Romana's recent movements around the Capitol in the hopes of working out her plans and learns from him that Romana has been mainly active in the Outer Labyrinth and the Pazithi Cloisters. She has Valyes arrange for Leela's skimmer to be intercepted so that she can be interrogated and her words used against Romana, but Valyes also suggests that they could send Darkel to try to get the support of one of Pazithi's most outspoken residents.

On the skimmer, Narvin's hearts are beating irregularly and, due to the Dogma Virus, Annos hopes that he will not regenerate. They are ambushed by enemies hidden from sight.

Gerber is visited at his home by Darkel and, threatened by her guards, allows her in. Because of his pro-Romana vidcasts, Darkel has him arrested and tells him that he will soon be speaking in favour of Pandora, blaming Romana for the massacre at the Forum.

Leela calls out for Annos, drawing one of Pandora's guards to her so that she can kill him with her blade. Hiding behind the overturned skimmer with Narvin and Annos, Leela kills more of the guards and only Captain Janartis, with whom Annos had trained, escapes. They head to higher ground.

Romana and Hallan arrive at the Anomaly Vault and, uncertain as to whether or not Pandora has already visited it, Hallan prepares to transmat in using the access point.

K9 informs Pandora of the medical station to which it would seem that Leela, Narvin and Annos are heading and that Romana is headed to the Anomaly Vault. Darkel contacts Pandora and tells her about Gerber and his seditious vidcasts which she believes she can re-edit to show Pandora in a better light.

Approaching the medical unit, Narvin regains consciousness and says that Romana must not enter the Anomaly Vault. Leela and Annos are unable to understand what he is trying to say and rush to get him to the unit.

Romana and Hallan are in the Anomaly Vault and, aware of the telepathic circuits, Romana thinks about Wynter's TARDIS in the hopes that it will be presented to them.

Leela, Narvin and Annos are stopped by an armed Dr Elboncaveldron and turned away due to the station being full. When Leela tells him that Narvin is on the High Council, Elbon demands remuneration in return for his medical care and his silence when Pandora's guards come looking for them. Narvin awakens again and promises Elbon his eye-scan uplink which will give him access to all of the Capitol's restricted files and technologies, an offer which Elbon accepts.

Romana and Hallan are presented with honeycombs holding various bodies of the gestalt entity Aesino. Romana wonders if she could be of use in defeating Pandora.

Darkel has edited Gerber's vidcast, painting Romana as the villain rather than Pandora, and tells Gerber that there is a special, live transmission that he will have to make. K9 informs Darkel that Leela, Narvin and Annos have reached the medical unit and that Pandora is supervising modifications in the visualiser suite, although he is unable to comment on the purpose of her modifications and says that Darkel will find out for herself.

Narvin's condition is improving thanks to Elbon's dermamites and medigel, but Elbon checks Leela's eyes and finds that her blindness is permanent; the damage caused to her retinas by the flash of the explosion was exacerbated by vestigial artron energy in the Forum's siphoning equipment, the blast tearing them open and the energy releasing super-intense photo emissions. Elbon thanks the trio for the uplink and leaves them, knowing that Pandora's guards will soon be coming in search of them. Leela asks Annos to leave her alone and, once he has gone, she cries.

to be added

Cast

 * Former Lady President Romana - Lalla Ward
 * Leela - Louise Jameson
 * K9 Mark II - John Leeson
 * Imperiatrix Pandora - Mary Tamm
 * Inquisitor Prime Darkel - Lynda Bellingham
 * Coordinator Narvin - Seán Carlsen
 * Chancellor Valyes - Steven Wickham
 * Lord Matthias - Stephen Perring
 * Commander Hallan - Michael Cuckson
 * Elbon - Paul Grunert
 * Captain Annos - Dickon Tolson
 * Captain Janartis - Charlie Ross
 * Henzil - John Dorney
 * Commentator Gerber - Charles Pemberton
 * Aesino - Lisa Bowerman
 * Robersuun - David Cromarty

Continuity

 * When blinded, Leela states that this is the second time that she has been so afflicted. (TV: Horror of Fang Rock) Her sight would eventually be returned through the infusion of vampire blood on the Gallifrey of an alternative timeline. (AUDIO: Annihilation)
 * Raldeth, who previously appeared in AUDIO: The Sirens of Time and AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element, is mentioned but does not appear. He would later return in AUDIO: Appropriation.