The Eleven Day Empire (audio story)

The Eleven Day Empire was the first Faction Paradox audio and — along with The Shadow Play — half of the first story of The Faction Paradox Protocols.

Faction Paradox website
The Unkindnesses discuss the future over dinner; the Sontarans decide to give extinction a push in the right direction; Justine gains an opportunity by losing her 'closest friend'; Godfather Morlock makes his last appearance in Parliament, and spots a trap just in time to walk into it; the founder of the House leaves a legacy; and the doomed end up dancing on the walls while the Faction prepares for war.

BBV Productions website
PRIMER FOR THE SPIRAL POLITIC (POST-WAR EDITION)

1: FACTION PARADOX

Era: Non-specific.

Technology: Post-linear (subtle), time-active.

Even before the outbreak of the "War in Heaven", Faction Paradox was regarded as the most unpredictable (and opportunistic) of the time-active powers. Aware of the precarious nature of history -- but under no obligation to protect it -- while the other Great Houses were still attempting to uphold a "universal order", the Faction was following its own, far more ambiguous, protocols. Ruthless, secretive and at times difficult to understand, it's hardly surprising that the Faction should have eventually found itself under siege from its rival powers...

Plot
Cousin Justine meets with the Unkindness on behalf of House Paradox. The Unkindness tear apart her gift of Dodo meat and use it to show her a prophecy of the future where the Eleven-Day Empire is under attack. As the attack begins Cousin Eliza warns Godfather Morlock who then leads a briefing. Meanwhile Godfather Sabbath has already started to mobilise his forces.

Justine and Eliza board the attacking mothership and discover that the Empire is being invaded by the Sontarans. After taking them down with her shadow-weapon, Godfather Sabbath arrives with reinforcements and the Sontarans flee back through the rift. Having escaped, Justine and Eliza report back to Morlock. He believes that the assault on the Empire was a distraction for a more devious play. Consulting the Catalogue, Morlock realizes that a specimen jar has been replaced with a fusion bomb. With minutes left before detonation, Justine drops her shadow sword and, at Morlock's instruction, bonds the bomb to her shadow. The bomb detonates, destroying the shadows of both Morlock and herself.

Back on the mothership, General Kine and his advisor Lolita receive report of the fusion bomb's detonation. While Kine is irritated by Lolita's arrogance and the presence of her child, he continues with her plans. Meanwhile, Morlock and Justine have returned to the surface. The skies above them open, with representatives of the six Ruling Houses emerging from the rift. The Houses have offered to negotiate the recognition of House Paradox as an equal. Despite the suspicious timing of their offer, Morlock recommends that Parliament engage in negotiations.

Cousin Eliza warns of imminent danger to the Empire, based on her own planet's destruction by the Great Houses. Morlock sends Eliza to meet Lord Ruthven of House Tracolix while he observes their biodata. Meanwhile, Morlock takes Justine to the Ritual Hall to prepare for the trap that they have walked into. Parliament decides to reveal the Faction's special weaponry, including Grandfather Paradox's knife, which holds the last remaining physical trace of the now-erased Grandfather. Godmother Quelch has failed in every previous attempt to bond the weapon to a soldier. Despite Quelch's protests, Justine is ordered to bond with the weapon due to her lack of a shadow.

Cast

 * Cousin Justine - Suzanne Proctor
 * Godfather Morlock - Ellis Pike
 * Lolita - Caroline Burns-Cook
 * Cousin Eliza / Godmother Quelch - Emma Kilbey
 * Lord Ruthven / General Kine - Nigel Fairs
 * The Voice - Linda Bartram

Worldbuilding

 * The Unkindnesses lived in the Eleven-Day Empire before Faction Paradox moved there.
 * Cousin Justine offers the Unkindnesses dodo meat.
 * Faction Paradox uses flying machines against the Sontarans.
 * Justine says that the Sontaran Warship is like something out of Jules Verne.
 * The Sontarans often steal time-technology from the Houses.
 * Morlock uses a tracking-knife.
 * The Sontarans plant a fusion bomb in the Faction's biodata catalogue.
 * Lolita compares General Kine to Humpty Dumpty.
 * Ruthven is from House Tracolix.

Continuity

 * It is mentioned that Justine was sent on a mission which she failed. In the Eighth Doctor novel, Justine fails to retrieve the Relic from Qixotl's auction.
 * Justine remembers the suicide of Father Sanjira, which occured in
 * The Eleven-Day Empire previously appeared in PROSE: and
 * The Sontarans are used as shock troops to pave the way for the invasion of the Eleven-Day Empire by other interested parties. Ironically, they themselves had earlier used the Vardans for the same purpose in TV: The Invasion of Time)
 * It is later revealed that the War King hired Lolita to destroy the Eleven-Day Empire in the audio story
 * Lord Ruthven was previously mentioned in PROSE: Alien Bodies.
 * Eliza tells Justine how her world was destroyed by one of the Houses, alluding to her identity as "Christine Summerfield" and the events of the novel