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 ship. 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.

to be completed

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

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.