The Eye of Horus (audio story)

The Eye of Horus was the third story in The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield box set The Triumph of Sutekh.

Publisher's summary
Ancient Egypt is enjoying a golden age - peace, prosperity and a powerful Pharaoh. But something is moving through the sands. A forgotten god requests an invite to the feast.

Plot
21 August 1924. Mars is at its closest point to the Earth in centuries and a radio blackout is instigated across the United States with the hope of picking up any radio waves being sent from the red planet. A professor picks up Benny's scream as she lands on a flying barge belonging to King Hatshepsut, Pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt and King of the World.

Hatshepsut was expecting a companion of the Doctor and presents Benny to her people as Hathor, god of hope and wine, and claims to have brought her back from the Land of Punt beyond the stars. Her stepson, Tutmosis, welcomes Benny and explains that he was briefly pharaoh as a child before Hatshepsut stepped in and introduces her to Hatshepsut's chief advisor, Senenmut, who is actually the Doctor. When the Doctor avoids her, Benny asks Hatshepsut about him and learns that he gave her the barge.

Tutmosis drinks with Kamose, who suggests that he marries Benny. In an old and decaying body, Sutekh approaches them and asks for entrance to the palace, which he can only do at the invitation of a king. By tomorrow night, Sutekh says, Tutmosis will be king.

Benny finds that the Doctor has been here so long that he cannot remember her and refuses to hand the Eye of Horus over to him until she can trust him, soon realising that he comes from earlier in his time stream and has not yet been to the Pyramid of Horus. She declines to tell Tutmosis about his future and, after finding Hatshepsut meeting with his generals and discussing supposed outlaws that he was unaware of, he overhears his stepmother and the Doctor talk about sending him away to Punt. Benny confides in him that she knows that a friend of hers is going to die and has been dropping hints, which he believes is in reference to himself.

Tutmosis goes into the desert with Kamose and kneels before Sutekh, agreeing to give him Kamose's life in return for the kingdom. Golden scarabs rise from the sand and devour Kamose, whom Sutekh claims was reporting back to Hatshepsut.

Benny speaks with Hatshepsut and learns that she has been trading with an Osiran colony, using the wealth that the new relationship affords to build the obelisks. When she finds out that the Doctor and Hatshepsut are to be married, she confronts him and gets the impression that he is indeed in love with her. Hatshepsut overhears the Doctor calling her a lost cause and, heartbroken, orders her men to destroy his obelisks in the morning.

Tutmosis invites Sutekh into the palace and declares himself king. Sutekh orders his scarabs to devour Hatshepsut, but Tutmosis, having the authority of the king, commands them to stop. Sutekh then sends them after the Doctor, who has been hiding his mind from him for almost twenty years and runs with Benny to his chamber. His mind is almost but not quite restored and, although he remembers that he is the Doctor, he still cannot remember Benny very well. She confronts Sutekh and tells everybody to ignore him as he is feeding on their fear and growing stronger. They do not do so, however, and Tutmosis cannot resist him.

After being knocked out by Sutekh, Benny awakens in a grand tomb with the Doctor. He tells her that he has been building a psychic network using the obelisks, but it requires the Eye of Horus and Benny has been refusing to hand it over. He takes it and goes into a trance. As he sleeps, she recognises a hieroglyph and writes herself the message that led her to the Pyramid of Horus.

Tutmosis bricks up Hatshepsut in her rooms and leaves her to die. He tells his people that Sutekh will lead them into a new age of glory, that they will destroy their enemies in his name and that Hatshepsut and her name must be completely erased. Sutekh gives him the Eye of Sutekh, containing all of his power, and asks that it is placed upon the Grand Obelisk. The Doctor visits Hatshepsut in her dreams and, whilst he cannot tell her that he loved her, he says that he would have broken the Laws of Time to have her as ruler of the world and to stand by her side. They exchange gifts and she gives him a kiss.

With the Eye of Sutekh in place, a space-time tunnel opens and Sutekh goes to the future to feast on the bloodshed that Tutmosis will cause in his honour. Hatshepsut, having escaped through a backdoor that the Doctor built, bids Tutmosis goodbye from her barge and flies off to Punt.

Benny says sorry to Peter as she runs out of oxygen and, when Ace arrives in the TARDIS, the Doctor awakens and helps her up. He reveals that the rest of his mind was stored inside Hatshepsut and that evil is spreading across time thanks to the Eye of Sutekh. Time begins to fall apart and Sutekh's face appears, telling them that he brings dust in his wake. The professor picks up the Doctor's murmurs about the triumph of Sutekh on his radio and hears people chanting Sutekh's name in his head. Sutekh is bringing his gift of death to all humanity.

Cast

 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
 * Ace - Sophie Aldred
 * Sutekh - Gabriel Woolf
 * Hatshepsut - Sakuntala Ramanee
 * Tutmosis - Matthew J Morgan
 * Kamose - Dan Bottomley

Worldbuilding

 * Hatshepsut mentions Dorothy McShane, Sarah Jane Smith and the Countess Roskova as companions of the Doctor.
 * Hathor is the god of hope and beer.
 * Hatshepsut mentions Jupiter.
 * Tutmosis does not like being referred to as King Tut.
 * Tutmosis's mother was a fat concubine who always cried.
 * The Doctor is Director of the Great Lands, Royal Scholar, Keeper of the Jewels, Architect of Public Works and Lord of the Chamber of the Outer World.
 * Sutekh calls himself Protector of Ra, Slayer of Osiris and Imprisoner of Isis.
 * Benny says sorry to Peter.
 * Hatshepsut's barge is the Ship of a Billion Years.

Continuity

 * Hatshepsut mentions Sarah Jane Smith as one of the people she is to expect. (TV: Pyramids of Mars)
 * An Osirian barge is called the Ship of a Billion Years. (AUDIO: The Ship of a Billion Years)
 * The Doctor removes many of his own memories to make more space. In this incarnation he has made a habit of removing unnecessary memories. (PROSE:  Genesys) In his next, as well, he would have most of his memory suppressed to store other information. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles)
 * Benny has seen what she believes to be the Doctor's death and has to keep it a secret from his past self. Charlotte Pollard, (AUDIO: The Condemned, etc.) Amy Pond and Rory Williams experienced the same thing. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut)