The Very Dark Thing (audio story)

The Very Dark Thing was the third story in The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield box set The Unbound Universe.

Publisher's summary
Tramatz is an idyllic world – the rivers hum to themselves, unicorns prance through the emerald forests, and, at the very corner of your eye, is a horrible secret.

Plot
With the Empire of Tramatz burning, Captain Idratz and Aramatz activate a device that they never thought they would have to. Fleet Admiral Effenish of Combined Ninth Fleet arrives above Tramatz, a world of singing rivers, talking skies and unicorns, after five years and asks the people below to surrender. She receives no response and begins bombarding the planet.

The Doctor is camping out near a village on Tramatz and speaks with Megatz, who is aware that the rivers, skies and unicorns are strange and does not understand why nobody talks about them. Benny tracks him down several weeks after he came to save the planet from the very dark thing and is brought up to speed, but she cannot understand why she is the only one able to hear Effenish's demands for surrender and threats to drop reaper bombs. Similarly, only Benny and the Doctor are able to see the very big, very dark thing, which has always been here, until they point it out to Magatz.

As the very dark thing is in the corner of one's eye, Benny and the Doctor do not know how to reach it. Benny hears Effenish making planetfall and, when a unicorn approaches, the Doctor asks her to talk to it and believes that it is a representation of a war machine. Benny and Magatz follow the unicorn whilst the Doctor goes to find and reason with Effenish, whose entire attack squad is humming along with the river.

Benny explains to Magatz how there was a Great War which disrupted the universe and admits that the Tramatzians were the "bad guys". The unicorn leads them to a door before leaving.

to be completed

Cast

 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * The Doctor - David Warner
 * Megatz - Kerry Gooderson
 * Fleet Admiral Effenish - Deirdre Mullins
 * Colonel Neave - George Blagden
 * Gallario - Richard Earl
 * Aramatz - Aaron Neil
 * Idratz - Laura Doddington

Continuity

 * Benny mentions Ace, saying that she would be proud of her calling a unicorn "Dobbin". The two were recently travelling together with the Seventh Doctor. (AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro, etc.)