Dead Man's Switch (BFBS audio story)

Dead Man's Switch was the fifty-second Bernice Summerfield audio story released by Big Finish Productions. It was the fourth story of the eleventh season.

Publisher's summary
26 years ago, a team of scientists came to a moon to unearth the secrets of a long-dead civilisation. They were later found to have died in what the authorities called an anti-matter explosion. Alone and desperate, Bernice Summerfield will do anything to get back home. But where is home?

The capital world of Zordin seems to offer the only chance of answers, but that's a long way away. The offer of a job could be her best way of paying for the voyage but... archaeology is illegal... and there's a quarantine... and she'll have to leap from a spacecraft in orbit. But what does that matter?

On a world guarded by armed satellites and patrolled by defence drones on the surface, Benny's going to have to use all her knowledge, skill and wits. And that's just to get there! Because it's not the moon itself that's the problem. It's what happened there; what remains there; what might escape. What matters? Nothing.

Plot
Matka tells Benny about an anti-matter explosion that destroyed a pre-Year 1 moonbase twenty-six years ago and which was used as evidence that the past was dangerous; she hires her as part of an illegal archaeological expedition to find out what the purpose of the moonbase was and what the people there found. They take a shuttle and Benny jumps out to the moon in a shielded suit to plug a wave generator into the base's transmitter and deactivate the quarantine satellites with an electromagnetic pulse, allowing the shuttle to land.

Upon entering the atmosphere in a shielded suit, Benny parachutes to the ground and uses her geophys to scan the soil and to disable defence drones with an electric shock when they come after her. She finds the most concealed excavation and is escorted by Robot to Otek Pron, who has had his finger on a button for twenty-six years due to his belief that the universe will end if he stops. He explains that he was hired by Hyren Borsch to steal the base's wormhole technology and that the explosion was actually caused by an experiment involving the universe of nothing. He pressed the button to contain the nothing but, with the base severely damaged, he has had to keep his finger on it ever since.

Otek has Robot show Benny to the transmitter so that she can disable the quarantine satellites, although he is sceptical that Matka will be able to help him. When Matka lands, she starts cutting into the particle manipulation chamber despite Benny's warning of the nothing, believing it to be full of anti-matter which she can feed to her children who, like her, are Sonshi. Benny plans to use her Time Ring to place the moon in a time loop to prevent the spread of the nothing upon its release and, after being pinned down by Matka and her children, she uses it to teleport herself into the particle manipulation chamber to wire it in.

The Sonshi kills Otek and Robot and Benny escapes as the nothing is released and the time loop is put in place. She gets to the shuttle and departs, taking Otek's messages and the fee that she was paid by Matka to his daughter. Using money from the sale of the shuttle, Benny enters stasis for three years on a flight to Zordin. She awakens and looks out of the window at Zordin, which she recognises as Earth, and is told that it has been redesignated as Atlantis by order of the Great Leader.

Cast

 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * Matka - Maria McErlane
 * Otek - William Whymper
 * Robot - Alex Mallinson

Worldbuilding

 * Otek has a nutrient bar and an injective of caffeine for breakfast.
 * Otek records message for Ema and Vumi.
 * Raster has several moons.
 * Benny has a new diary.
 * Benny says that salmon bisque is her speciality.
 * Benny performs a HALO (high atmosphere, low opening) jump in a shielded suit.
 * Benny has a respirator.
 * Benny scans the soil with a geophys.
 * Hyren Borsch was chief operator of Esiop Technologies. He died in a particle manipulation chamber.
 * Benny has been in a few wormholes.
 * Benny compares Peter's fate to Schrödinger's cat.
 * Benny once spent a weekend in 21st century Coventry. She did not enjoy it.
 * Matka is Sonshi.
 * Rema is one of Matka's children.

Continuity

 * Benny does not know if Peter is alive. (AUDIO: Escaping the Future)
 * Benny is not married anymore. (PROSE: Eternity Weeps)
 * Benny mentions Irving Braxiatel and how the two of them should be dead. She bets that Braxiatel is still alive as well. (AUDIO: Escaping the Future)
 * Benny mentions Pallis. (AUDIO: Year Zero)