Tears of the Oracle (novel)

Tears of the Oracle was the eighty-first Virgin New Adventures novel.

It was a return to the "main narrative" after the two previous novels, which went down different avenues. Irving Braxiatel, Clarence and Chris Cwej returned.

Publisher's summary
"Benny, you're ill. Let us help you. We want to help you. Really we do. This paranoia. These delusions. What you've done — it's driven you insane. Nobody wants to hurt you. We're your friends."

On Dellah, the shattered former home of Bernice Summerfield, only the Advanced Research centre survives — the last remnant of the once famous university. But it's under siege from fanatical groups of religious inquisitors, searching for new converts or dangerous heretics.

Benny would have to be mad to go back.

Jason Kane, Bernice's one-time husband and all-time opportunist, has found the ancient remains of the Oracle of the Lost on an obscure planetoid known only as KS-159. Or so he says.

Benny would have to be mad to believe him.

The mysterious Irving Braxiatel is looking for somewhere quiet to house his huge collection of... everything.

Benny would have to be mad to suggest KS-159.

The Oracle of the Lost, legend says, can answer any question. But the cryptic answers she gives are never helpful, and often dangerous.

Benny would have to be mad to reawaken her.

Or ask a question.

Or believe the answer.

Chapter titles

 * 1) Finale (1)
 * 2) An Account of a Meeting of the Funding Council of the Colloquian Museum of Ancient Artefacts
 * 3) Conversations
 * 4) Faith Healing
 * 5) Storage Facility X One Nine
 * 6) Transcript of a Lecture by Professor Edward Watkinson at the Colloquian University (Extract)
 * 7) Communication
 * 8) A Plea for Help
 * 9) Finale (2)
 * 10) Rescue and Survival
 * 11) Escape and Death
 * 12) A Visitor
 * 13) Jason's Story
 * 14) Mikelz's Message to Watkinson from the Delfus-Orestes Expedition (Extract)
 * 15) A Gamble
 * 16) Arrivals
 * 17) Extract from the Diary of Bernice Summerfield
 * 18) Departure
 * 19) Recollections of Divson Follett
 * 20) Excavations and Discoveries
 * 21) The Oracle of the Lost
 * 22) Finale (3)
 * 23) Post-Mortem
 * 24) Mikelz's Second Message to Watkinson (Fragment)
 * 25) Heat Seeking
 * 26) Report of Captain Riva Gordenski, Duty Officer Extraction Unit Five, Cavanora System - 11 September, 2515 (Extract)
 * 27) Links
 * 28) Gregor's Log (Extract)
 * 29) Correspondence of Louisa Mikelz (Fragment)
 * 30) Questions
 * 31) Merely Players
 * 32) Diagnosis
 * 33) Anomaly
 * 34) Research
 * 35) Extract from Living Archaeology, the Biography of Edward Watkinson, by Herve Pottle
 * 36) Conversation
 * 37) The Oracle's Story
 * 38) The Ship
 * 39) Visual Log
 * 40) Evidence
 * 41) Guilt
 * 42) Finale (4)
 * 43) Discovery
 * 44) Changes
 * 45) Answers
 * 46) Contacts
 * 47) Paracletes
 * 48) Personal Journal of Professor Edward Watkinson (Extract)
 * 49) Personal Journal of Ableet Gorvalis (Extract)
 * 50) Background Reading
 * 51) Transcript of Watkinson's Final Lecture (Extract)
 * 52) Observations and Arrivals
 * 53) Freedom of Information
 * 54) Identity Crisis
 * 55) In the House of God
 * 56) Confrontation
 * 57) The Tears of the Oracle
 * 58) Showdown
 * 59) Preoccupations
 * 60) Last Message to God
 * 61) Data Input
 * 62) Sanctuary
 * 63) Simulation
 * 64) Poisoned Chalice
 * 65) Finale (5)
 * 66) Fallout
 * 67) Question and Answer
 * 68) Closure

Plot
Although the People have negotiated a new treaty with their rivals, God is 87% sure that war remains inevitable because of the religious fervour spreading across Dellah. He has !Cin-ta!x of the Temporal Interest Group help engineer time travel, which is permitted by the new treaty, and it is rumoured that he is receiving advice from a man outside of the People whom he decides to send to KS-159. He also sends Clarence to give a small box to Benny.

On Dellah, Commander Skutloid, Garshal and Drexton defend the people hiding in St Oscar's University's Advanced Research Department from the religious fanatics, protected from the madness themselves by alpha-wave suppressors. Skutloid realises that Director Silvera too has succumbed to the illness and decides to defy his orders and send a message to Braxiatel for help despite the planet being in quarantine. Joseph hears the message and comes to find him.

Braxiatel, no longer with Renée Thalia, invites Benny to meet him at a spaceport and informs her that he intends on establishing a permanent collection with her help. He also shows her to Clarence, who updates them on goings-on in the Worldsphere and tells them that B-Aaron is looking into the new treaty and that God believes that she and Braxiatel are to be key players in the war. He gives Benny the box from God, which contains a holocube of one of Edward Watkinson's lectures, and Braxiatel later receives Skutloid's message.

Benny and Braxiatel return to Dellah to extract the Neo-Aretians, protected by Braxiatel's mental barrier, as a battle begins between the fanatics and Silvera's men. Drexton, already injured, sacrifices himself and Skutloid dies on Braxiatel's ship after returning Joseph to Benny. Braxiatel discovers that the alpha-wave suppressors were a placebo and Benny finds Jason waiting for her at the warehouse with evidence of where Oleg Mikelz allegedly found the Oracle of the Lost. He says that he has already visited the planetoid, now called KS-159, and found the temple and the Oracle.

Braxiatel wins KS-159 from Hayward Denson at a casino and Benny asks Divson Follett and Emilia Winston to join her, Braxiatel, Jason, Clarence, Joseph and Garshal, which they agree to. Denson, having placed a tracker on Jason, sneaks into the warehouse and offers to provide funding and to serve as their medic, telling them that they will not get past the satellite defences without him. Benny and Braxiatel agree.

On KS-159, the group find Mikelz's base and the eighty-year-old remains of a man and woman killed by shots to the head. They reach the temple and Braxiatel decides that they will each ask of the Oracle one question. Denson asks the Oracle if she is alive and Winston asks how old she is, both questions which she does not give a straight answer to. Braxiatel asks if he will ever return to his people, which he already knew that she could not answer. She tells Garshal that he will die alone in the dark, tells Clarence that he was once !C-Mel, but that who he will become is more important, and tells Follett that he will soon be finished. Finally, she tells Benny that the future war is not certain.

Denson discovers that the remains are that of Mikelz's wife, Louisa, and his assistant, Gregor and looks through Mikelz's files before somebody interrupts him. Garshal and Joseph find his body, mummified, and Benny notices that he is holding a letter from Mikelz to Edward Watkinson in which he discusses how the Oracle indicated that he would kill Louisa and Gregor and, with this knowledge, he came to believe that they were having an affar.

to be added

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Irving Braxiatel
 * Clarence
 * Divson Follett
 * Emilia Winston
 * Hayward Denson
 * Chris Cwej
 * God
 * J-Kibb
 * B-Aaron
 * Skutloid
 * Drexton
 * Garshal
 * Oracle of the Lost
 * Oleg Mikelz
 * Louisa Mikelz
 * Gregor

Food and drink

 * !Cin-ta!x makes pancakes.
 * Braxiatel drinks coffee.

Locations

 * Braxiatel wins KS-159 in a card game on Vega Station.

Mythology

 * The Neo-Aretians believe that the dead need to pay a coin to the Journeyman to be taken to Kinova.

Species

 * Skutloid, Drexton and Garshal are Ice Warriors.

Time travel

 * Lack of telepathy hinders the People in mastering successful time travel.

Titles and offices

 * Bernice holds the Watkinson Chair of Archaeology, named in honour of Edward Watkinson.

Continuity

 * God mentions the "Babylon incident". (PROSE: Walking to Babylon)
 * Braxiatel uses a communication cube to contact his people for assistance in the same way the Second Doctor does in TV: The War Games.
 * Chris was exposed to the lethal dose of radiation in PROSE: Dead Romance.
 * Benny mentions getting a Mary-Sue. (PROSE: The Mary-Sue Extrusion)
 * Demontage features the Vega Station.
 * There is a brief revisit to Benny's wedding in PROSE: Happy Endings.
 * !C-Mel (the ship Clarence once was) first appeared in PROSE: The Also People.
 * When discussing his imminent regeneration of Chris Cwej, the Time Lord mentions Chris had a body bepple to appear as a giant teddy bear in PROSE: Original Sin.
 * Skutloid, Drexton and Garshal all first appeared in PROSE: The Medusa Effect.
 * Emilia Winston first appeared in PROSE: Dragons' Wrath.
 * In The Book of the War Cwej's new form was explained to have been designed by the House Military to be resistant to the Fat.