Game Theory (audio story)

 was the first story in the audio anthology, Cyber-Reality, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Matt Fitton and featured Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, Ingrid Oliver as Petronella Osgood, James Joyce as Josh Carter, Ramon Tikaram as Vikram Shindi and Warren Brown as Sam Bishop.

Publisher's summary
Sam Bishop is missing. Lost at sea, imprisoned with a valuable hostage, UNIT's troubleshooter will need all his skills to survive. To save their comrade, Kate Stewart and Osgood are offered a deadly challenge. But this game might be impossible to win...

Plot
Months after his disappearance, Kate and Osgood receive a recording from Sam in which he goes to an Auctioneer warehouse in the Mendips before being shot. They go in search of him, alone despite Colonel Shindi's concerns, and find that the warehouse has been emptied. The Overseer contacts them on Osgood's supposedly undetectable communicator and commands them to enter a control suite and insert earpieces before destroying the communicator, threatening Sam's life. They order Osgood to put on virtual reality goggles and shows her information including a countdown and coordinates for a location near Bristol.

Sam wakes up in a crate with Julia Hartley-Price, whom he pats down for weapons, and picks the lock using her hairpin. They explore the ship that they are on, crewed by men with blank faces, and discover that they are in the Bermuda Triangle. Sam defeats three men and Julia shoots him with a gun, telling him that he is moving onto Level 20. He wakes up back in the crate with Julia and no memory of his recent experience.

Kate and Osgood arrive at a communications mast and are informed that the small capsule attached to it contains an alien virus, a form of intelligent rust which will dissolve the mast before spreading and destroying Bristol within hours. They climb the mast and Osgood puts on the gaming visor, giving her a virtual view of the capsule which allows her to disarm it. The Overseer sends them to switch off an emitter at Heathrow Airport which will soon cause every aircraft within a fifty-mile radius to fall out of the sky and forbids them from getting help from UNIT.

Sam feels a sense of déjà vu when he sees the men without faces and knows that he and Julia will find charts showing that they are in the Bermuda Triangle. The room keeps flashing and Sam takes a gun from Julia, knowing that she would pull it on him. She has the faceless men beat him up, telling him that he will get all the answers, and resets the loop. This time, Julia acknowledges that they have done this before and Sam realises that they are in a video game. She ends the game, saying that they have all the data they need, and the faceless men take on Sam's appearance and attack.

Unable to get to Heathrow in time, Osgood realises that they have to return to the warehouse and use the virtual reality technology there. Kate keeps an eye on the real world whilst Osgood flies a virtual jet to Heathrow and turns off the emitter. The Overseer congratulates them and removes the voice filter, revealing that they are Julia, before directing them to a communicator as a reward. Shindi makes contact, having received a coded message on Osgood's communicator, and tells Kate that a container with a countdown has appeared at Windsor Castle.

Osgood opens the container and finds Sam inside with a visor on. Julia appears as a hologram and tells them that Sam has been used to make a first-person shooter and that today has been a show of power. She disappears and Osgood traces the source of the transmission, but Shindi reports that the Auctioneers have disappeared once again. Osgood examines the technology and comes to believe that it might have been created in a parallel universe and is tapping into another power source. Sam, recovering from malnutrition, thanks Osgood for saving him.

Cast

 * Kate Stewart - Jemma Redgrave
 * Osgood - Ingrid Oliver
 * Lt Sam Bishop - Warren Brown
 * Colonel Shindi - Ramon Tikaram
 * Josh Carter - James Joyce
 * Julia Hartley-Price / The Overseer - Kerry Fox

Worldbuilding

 * UNIT have previously found Auctioneer bases in Vienna, Stockholm and Tangier, amongst other places.
 * Julia claims to have been on her father's yacht.
 * Julia's hairpin has a diamond.
 * Sam's father is an accountant and his mother is a teacher. He says that they are normal and good people.
 * Sam's great-grandfather fought in World War II.
 * Sam has had first-hand experience with the Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle.
 * Kate and Osgood found a Krillitane detonator in a power station last year.
 * Sam has seen time loops before.
 * Sam enjoyed playing secret agent video games as a child.
 * Malcolm Taylor tries scanning the shipping container but gets no signals.
 * Sam has to use crutches.
 * Josh takes Kate back to UNIT HQ.

Continuity

 * Osgood recalls the encounter with the Auctioneers in Vienna. (AUDIO: The Sontaran Project)
 * Sam recalls his great-grandfather. (AUDIO: Earthfall)
 * The Auctioneers intend to exact revenge upon UNIT for interfering in prior operations, including Monte Bosque. (AUDIO: The Dalek Transaction, The Sontaran Project)
 * Colonel Shindi has Malcolm examine the mysterious object left by the Auctioneers. (TV: Planet of the Dead)
 * The object gives Colonel Shindi bad memories of the Shakri cubes. (TV: The Power of Three)
 * Though not present for those events, Sam has been made aware of the encounter with the parallel universe. (AUDIO: False Negative)