Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Extinction Event (audio story)

Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Extinction Event, or simply The Extinction Event, was the ninth Bernice Summerfield audio story produced by Big Finish Productions. Irving Braxiatel appears for the first time on audio, portrayed by Miles Richardson.

The character of Irving Braxiatel had first appeared in the Virgin New Adventures novel Theatre of War. This story, written by Lance Parkin, is his first original Bernice Summerfield audio story; his novel Just War was adapted into an audio story of the same name for the first season of Bernice Summerfield stories by Jacqueline Rayner.

Publisher's summary
An exclusive auction house is offering the only known object to have survived the destruction of the planet Halstad.

Professor Bernice Summerfield goes with Irving Braxiatel to secure this unique object for the Braxiatel Collection. But this is not a straightforward sale ­-- there is a murderer on the loose, on the trail of whoever owns the Halstad Harp...

Plot
Benny is working on the planet Lavellin when Braxiatel joins her in his shuttle, having learnt that a harp from the destroyed planet Halstad is being sold at an auction house on Palastridon. He takes her there to authenticate the harp before he attempts to get it for the Collection and they are welcomed by the chief auctioneer, Davon, who hands them brochures for the Extinction Event. Benny confirms that the harp is genuine, if largely unremarkable and likely one of many.

Whilst investigating who is selling the harp, Benny meets a man who recognises her voice and calls her "Jemara". She saves the Gulfrarg Ambassador from a radiation weapon plugged into his life support system with Braxiatel's help and tells Davon about the man, although she only tells Braxiatel about the woman he mistook her for. They learn that the Ambassador has provided most of the items being sold and Benny finds the man she saw, Hulver, who explains that her voice is identical to his lover's. He claims to be a Halstad, one of six who were taken before their planet's destruction and experimented on, but Davon interrupts and stuns him.

Davon finds the box for a radiation weapon on Hulver and has him arrested for attempted murder, for which he will be tried by the Gulfrargs. Benny speaks with him and confirms her suspicion that the Gulfrargs had captured and experimented on him and the last of the Halstads, for which Davon thinks that he should be grateful, and accuses them of destroying their planet and forcing them to watch. He confesses to trying to kill the Ambassador as he was the one who gave the order. Meanwhile, Braxiatel gets a list of Halstad artefacts from the Ambassador.

to be completed

Cast

 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * Irving Braxiatel - Miles Richardson
 * Davon - Alexis Kahn
 * Hulver - Daniel Brennan
 * Gulfrarg Ambassador - Mark Donovan

Continuity

 * Davon refers to Brax as "Lord Cardinal Braxiatel". (AUDIO: Zagreus, etc.)