The Judas Gift (audio story)

 was the thirty-sixth Bernice Summerfield audio story released by Big Finish Productions. It was the second story of the eighth season.

Publisher's summary
The Braxiatel Collection. Once it was a home, a haven, one of the 800 Wonders of the Universe. Not any more. Draconia and the Mim are at war and the Collection is caught in the crossfire. Its future hangs in the balance as Bernice tries to fathom the motives of a new Draconian ambassador. Director Bev Tarrant must use every trick she knows if the Collection is to survive. She's been a smuggler, a killer and a thief, but all that's behind her now. Isn't it? Beware your sins will find you out. Especially when you accept the Judas Gift. They'll just have to do something impossible...

Plot
Whilst a diplomatic team prepares to travel to the Mimsphere, Bev welcomes Draconian ambassador Kothar to the Braxiatel Collection, which Braxiatel is restoring by making repairs to his time machine. Benny gives Adrian her blessing to propose to Bev, whom Kothar gives a gauntlet as a sign of friendship between the Draconian Star Empire and the Collection. Benny soon deduces, however, that Kothar wants the Collection's support in convincing the courts that the Mim are non-sentient and weapons that have thus far been forbidden may be used against them as a result. She and Bev consult Braxiatel, but he deems the matter unrelated to his reasons for being at the Collection.

Bev finds that she is unable to remove the gauntlet and goes with Benny to ask Kothar for help, not wanting to risk a breakdown of diplomatic relations by destroying it, and he assures them that there will be no such repercussions. A laser cutter proves ineffective, however, and Bev goes to consider Kothar's plans for the Mim in the wake of Doggles' reports on the Draconian fleet's movements whilst Benny and Braxiatel decide what to do about the gauntlet. Bev receives an update from Hass and Joseph, whom she has sent to the Mimsphere instead of Dr Khalifa and his team at Braxiatel's suggestion due to their immunity to the atmosphere, and attempts to contact John Fletcher, a doctor at Stonehauser who has tended to Mim.

After hearing a man's voice calling her "Butterfly", Bev collapses and is found by Adrian, who takes her receive medical care and blames Kothar upon being told that the gauntlet has embedded itself into her forearm and is targeting her nerve clusters. Benny and Braxiatel learn from the Draconian Public Archives that Kothar was once a cultural attaché to Earth and made progressive speeches before the Earth Parliament, but Braxiatel suggests that he was being manipulative. They also deduce that the gauntlet is the Judas Gift, a lie detector given to the now-dissolved House Kaitar by the first Emperor, and that Kothar must want to restore his house's honour by using it to distract Bev whilst she considers cooperation. Upon awakening from dreams about her former lover and partner in crime, Ethan, she decides to oppose Kothar.

Bev once again attempts to contact Stonehauser without success and learns that it has been destroyed by the Draconians. The Draconians occupy the Collection and Kothar reveals that there are no plans to have the Mim ruled as non-sentient; he has come to get revenge on Bev for her alleged role in the death of Ethan, a human who was raised as Kothar's brother and died during a raid on a weapons facility on Ataxia. She manages to steal a combat flier and records a final message containing a subtrack in which she warns Benny that Kothar could not have known about how she left Ethan to die for betraying her and that somebody must have been using him. She confesses and the Judas Gift cuts off her arm before putting on an EVA suit and sneaking aboard a Draconian ship, asking Benny to meet her on Port Royal.

Braxiatel presents the black box to Benny, but she does not feel ready to listen to it yet. He does so without her and finds the subtrack, leading him to delete the message to prevent her warning from reaching Benny.

Cast

 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * Bev - Louise Faulkner
 * Kothar - Michael Fenner
 * Adrian - Harry Myers
 * Irving Braxiatel - Miles Richardson
 * Reporter - Gary Russell
 * Doggles - Sam Stevens
 * Joseph - Steven Wickham
 * Hass - Paul Wolfe

Worldbuilding

 * Bev sends Dr Khalifa to the Mimsphere with a diplomatic team.
 * Braxiatel merged his ship with the Collection.
 * Jason looks after Peter during Kothar's reception.
 * Bev is friends with John Fletcher at the Stonehauser Medical Facility.
 * Benny describes the Draconians as an archaeologist's wet dream.
 * Benny and Bev try to use a laser cutter to remove the gauntlet.
 * The Draconian razorhawk is a bird on Draconia. It is a common symbol in Draconian heraldry.
 * Books that Benny looks at include The Draconian Lexicon, Draconian Heraldry, The Rough Guide to Draconia, The Time Out Guide to Draconia and Twitching for Draconians.
 * Sophisticated opiates were an important part of feudal Draconian life.
 * Kothar was appointed as cultural attaché to the Draconian embassy on Earth in 2582.
 * Kothar once spoke before the Earth Parliament.
 * Braxiatel mentions Errol Flynn.
 * The first Emperor of Draconia united the warring houses and was ambushed by the traitorous Lord Salak, who was executed and, according to some, had his house dissolved. As Salak was left-handed, fighting left-handed only became acceptable for the royals.
 * Bev mentions Galactipol.
 * Marcus Hall runs a bar on Port Royal, past the Bethesdan Rim.
 * Galyari traders and Cahlian pirates died on Stonehauser.

Continuity

 * Braxiatel mentions what Jason did to his office in The Two-Level Effect, while Benny counters with what Braxiatel did to Jason in The Crystal of Cantus.
 * The tension between the Mim and the Collection is set off from the events of Old Friends.
 * Kothar was part of the video conference that occurred in Summer of Love.