Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Extinction Event (audio story)

Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Extinction Event, or simply The Extinction Event, was the ninth Bernice Summerfield audio story produced by Big Finish Productions. Irving Braxiatel appears for the first time on audio, portrayed by Miles Richardson.

The character of Irving Braxiatel had first appeared in the Virgin New Adventures novel Theatre of War. This story, written by Lance Parkin, is his first original Bernice Summerfield audio story; his novel Just War was adapted into an audio story of the same name for the first season of Bernice Summerfield stories by Jacqueline Rayner.

Publisher's summary
An exclusive auction house is offering the only known object to have survived the destruction of the planet Halstad.

Professor Bernice Summerfield goes with Irving Braxiatel to secure this unique object for the Braxiatel Collection. But this is not a straightforward sale ­-- there is a murderer on the loose, on the trail of whoever owns the Halstad Harp...

Plot
Benny is working on the planet Lavellin when Braxiatel joins her in his shuttle, having learnt that a harp from the destroyed planet Halstad is being sold at an auction house on Palastridon. He takes her there to authenticate the harp before he attempts to get it for the Collection and they are welcomed by the chief auctioneer, Davon, who hands them brochures for the Extinction Event. Benny confirms that the harp is genuine, if largely unremarkable and likely one of many.

Whilst investigating who is selling the harp, Benny meets a man who recognises her voice and calls her "Jemara". She saves the Gulfrarg Ambassador from a radiation weapon plugged into his life support system with Braxiatel's help and tells Davon about the man, although she only tells Braxiatel about the woman he mistook her for. They learn that the Ambassador has provided most of the items being sold and Benny finds the man she saw, Hulver, who explains that her voice is identical to his lover's. He claims to be a Halstadian, one of six who were taken before their planet's destruction and experimented on, but Davon interrupts and stuns him.

Davon finds the box for a radiation weapon on Hulver and has him arrested for attempted murder, for which he will be tried on the Gulfrarg planet. Benny speaks with him and confirms her suspicion that the Gulfrargs had captured and experimented on him and the last of the Halstadians, for which Davon thinks that he should be grateful, and accuses them of destroying their planet and forcing them to watch. He confesses to trying to kill the Ambassador as he was the one who gave the order. After Braxiatel gets a list of Halstad artefacts from the Ambassador, Benny argues that it would be immoral to purchase any and that Hulver is their legal owner.

Braxiatel pays the Ambassador to prevent Hulver's extradition and purchases the harp from Hulver, who was carrying it when he was kidnapped. He and Benny invite Hulver to work at the Braxiatel Collection and provide recordings of his music, which Hulver agrees to consider. When Benny returns to speak to him during dinner, she released him and is arrested by Davon under suspicion of orchestrating a second attempt on the Ambassador's life. Braxiatel pays for her to be bailed and told that the Gulfrargs will have her and Hulver if they do not leave Palastridon. He and Benny go to look for him and and the harp, believing he might be trying to kill the Ambassador again.

Hulver acquires a gun from a guard and confronts the Ambassador and Davon, who have stolen the harp and framed Benny. Benny arrives and the Ambassador admits not only to destroying Halstad with Davon's help to increase the value of the artefacts stolen from the Halstadians' galleries, but of doing the same to the other planets whose works are being sold at the Extinction Event. Hulver stuns Davon and fires at the Ambassador's force field; one of his shots bounces off and cracks the observation dome, exhausting the force field and allowing him to throw the Ambassador to his death.

The unrepentant Hulver is arrested for murder and taken to be executed by the Gulfrarg Conglomerate. Braxiatel tells Benny that he is not proud of his actions but that he is proud of hers. She plays the last tune that Hulver composed on his harp and promises that it will not be the only good thing to come from the day's events.

Cast

 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * Irving Braxiatel - Miles Richardson
 * Davon - Alexis Kahn
 * Hulver - Daniel Brennan
 * Gulfrarg Ambassador - Mark Donovan

Crew

 * Cover Art - Adrian Salmon
 * Producer & Director - Gary Russell
 * Executive Producer - Jason Haigh-Ellery
 * Music and Sound Design - Toby Richards and Emily Baker
 * Writer - Lance Parkin

Worldbuilding

 * According to Ms Jones, Braxiatel is on an economy drive.
 * Braxiatel is fond of third era porcelain.
 * Benny wrote a paper entitled "Halstad Musical Notation: Initial Thoughts and Questions".
 * Halstad was inhabited by the Halstads.
 * Balfa wrote Balfa's Planets.
 * Afternoon tea is served.
 * Benny examines a Martian war drum supposedly from Eridania, but she recognises that it is actually Carabreenian. It is owned by Mr Yarman.
 * Braxiatel has a stamp collection.
 * An Atlantean vase is being sold.
 * Hulver comes from the City of Meiznor on the Eastern River.
 * Benny believes that Hulver could claim diminished responsibility in an Earth-space court.
 * Jemara was a farmer. She grew fruit.
 * Hulver bought the harp from Olipper, a craftsman, for eight cultavas.

Continuity

 * Davon refers to Brax as "Lord Cardinal Braxiatel". (AUDIO: Zagreus, etc.)
 * Benny says that the planet that she was living on was destroyed. (PROSE: Twilight of the Gods)