The Weather on Versimmon (novel)

 was the tenth full-length novel published by Big Finish Productions as part of Bernice Summerfield. It was written by Matthew Griffiths.

Publisher's summary
Inveigled into a survey of botanical art on Versimmon, Bernice is disappointed to get bogged down in an unseasonal cold spell – and to discover that Ruth has some radical ideas about how the living archive should be managed.

Why is a hailstorm bringing back memories of a war two generations gone? Where are Versimmon's first animals appearing from? And who can Bernice trust on a planet full of budding artists?

As the forest world is bombarded by ice and the collection's guards start disappearing, the archaeologists find themselves getting back to their roots and branching out into local politics. All the time, the weather on Versimmon is changing, and its inhabitants will find that revolutionary times demand revolutionary works of art...

Plot
Benny and Ruth visit Versimmon, at Ruth's suggestion, to survey the Tree Archive on behalf of the Palastoran Council with an accompaniment of Guards. During an unseasonal hailstorm, Ruth takes cover under the Tree and is pulled into an underground cavern by its roots, as are Canoptin Abenoke and Staff Isko. Isko searches Ruth's backpack when they see her holding a keepsake which, she is surprised to see, transforms into a small statue when they find it, and go to investigate the sound of howling.

Injured by the hail and having a strange reaction to the forest, Benny is taken by Carpel Verral to a doctor and exposed as being from somewhere other than Versimmon or Palastor. Verral keeps her secret for now and they find what look like giant molehills, indicating that some creatures have dug their way down to the Archive; however, there are no animals on Versimmon. They return to Crowne where Orderly Hastren sees to her injured arm and her difficulty adjusting to the power of the trees. Benny dreams about being shown Sosostris in the aftermath of the war against Palastor by a silhouetted figure who claims to have recruited Ruth.

Verral welcomes Arbitor Hordenza, the Culture Minister urgently summoned by Abenoke, who tells him that her shuttle was damaged by the hail and that the weather is being sabotaged. Benny is vouched for by Hordenza and runs from the sickbay, but she is found and brought back. A giant branch has fallen and Hordenza's shuttle is lost, ; Hordenza's pilot, Merla, arrests her on suspicion of being behind the weather and disposing of the evidence, but Verral and Hastren incapacitates before going after Benny, who has escaped again. Benny hides with the technician Kendis and learns that he was the one who cut the branch. He then tries to throw her from a window, but Hastren stops him.

Ruth encounters non-hostile mole-creatures and enters the Archive, noticing that her hand has been cut and the wound is thick with shoots. She tries to take a cutting from the Tree Archive, but her hand is repelled and she instead examines what she assumes are bundled works of art. The Archive uses its roots to turn Isko and Abenoke into were-moles and the keepsake that Ruth has been carrying around starts glowing green. She realises that one of the bundles that she took is the Worldseed.

Benny, Hordenza and Hastren head to the Archive in Benny's shuttle and are contacted by Ruth. Ruth calls Hastren "Teregela", a name that Hordenza recognises from Lyndyaz but which he does not explain. In the Archive, Hastren finds Ruth and takes the Worldseed, revealing that he has used the keepsake that he gave her to record her thoughts as part of an art project. He transforms into his normal Sosostrin form when the were-moles attack him and, when Benny and the others arrive, he asks to take the now-wet Worldseed to Sosostris to grow a new Versimmon.

Versimmon is evacuated due to the hailstorms. Ribnor, the Defence Minister who has been bombarding the planet with the seeds of energy crops, comes to evacuate Hordenza and Benny and her group plant evidence against him on his shuttle. Benny and Ruth leave Versimmon with Hordenza, Hastren, the Guards and the were-moles. Once everybody else has been dropped off, their next destination is Legion.

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Ruth
 * Clell Hordenza
 * Merla
 * Abenoke
 * Fren Verral
 * Isko
 * Kendis
 * Baltor
 * Sintor
 * Teregela
 * Ribnor

Worldbuilding

 * Versimmon is in the Versimmion system.
 * Palastor is a planet.
 * Merla's father and grandfather served in the Guard.
 * Council wanted Ribnor as Defence Minister and Hordenza as Culture Minister.
 * Benny trained with the Lucid Nuns of Putra XVII.

Continuity

 * Ruth remembers Melville Trout. (AUDIO: Bad Habits)