Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Skymines of Karthos (audio story)

Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Skymines of Karthos, or simply The Skymines of Karthos, was the tenth Bernice Summerfield audio story produced by Big Finish Productions.

This was the first audio story to mention Bernice's pregnancy — she fell pregnant in the novel The Squire's Crystal but did not become aware of it until the novel The Infernal Nexus. This was writer David Bailey's second Bernice audio story; he wrote the first story of this audio season, The Secret of Cassandra.

Publisher's summary
When Bernice receives a message from her old friend Caitlin, saying that she's found evidence of a ruined civilisation on the mining colony of Karthos, the good professor is naturally intrigued. After all, the planet is meant to be barren, with no life other than the colonists.

Arriving on Karthos, Bernice finds that Caitlin is missing, and the colony is under attack from vicious creatures that seem to have come from nowhere. Bernice has no choice but to set out for the heart of the ruins to discover just why Karthos seems to have sprung to life once more...

Plot
Benny leaves a voicemail for Braxiatel letting him know that she is taking his shuttle to Karthos, a planet supposedly uninhabited prior to colonisation, to investigate a possible ruin that Caitlin Peters has found. As Benny nears Caitlin and her husband Michael's habipod, she sees several skyminers in skimmers flying into a firestorm to mine thulium and, upon landing, is chased by a bat-like Firefly which suddenly stops and flies off.

Benny learns from Michael, who does not like her, that the colony has been under attack from the Fireflies and that Caitlin disappeared three weeks ago. Although he believes that she left him because of their money troubles, Benny is doubtful and, the next day, she finds a holophoto that Caitlin has taken of a cave painting depicting Fireflies and humanoids. They go to see Dr Konstantin, who was sent to Karthos by the ConTech Corporation to study the Fireflies, and wake him up with a stimulant spray upon finding him passed out. He provides them with the navigational scans that Caitlin followed to the mountains and a Geiger counter to detect any approaching Fireflies and suddenly decides to join them.

Benny, Michael and Dr Konstantin take a skimmer to the mountains and, during the journey, Benny continues to look at Caitlin's research. They see hundreds of Fireflies and Konstantin demands that they land, crashing the skimmer when Michael refuses and disappearing whilst he and Benny are unconscious. Armed with guns and explosives, Benny and Michael go in search of Caitlin and Dr Konstantin in a cave full of thulium and see a Firefly burst from the rock. It calls itself Only and leads them to Caitlin before dying suddenly. Caitlin is wearing a crown like one seen in the cave paintings and is inhabited by an intelligence called Authority whilst Dr Konstantin is inhabited by Counsel.

Authority allows Caitlin's personality to take over to tell Benny and Michael about how the Maralians created the Fireflies as weapons from carbon and thulium and how Caitlin took the crown to control the Fireflies and scare Michael's competition away from the firestorms, but the technology does not understand and has been killing them. Whilst Michael sets up explosives around the caves, Benny makes Authority realise that she and Counsel are humanoid and, in the confusion, Caitlin removes the crown and flees with Benny and Dr Konstantin. They destroy the caves and the Fireflies select Konstantin as their new leader, but Benny has him send them away.

Caitlin apologises for her actions and thanks Benny for saving her, although Benny regrets that doing so necessitated the destruction of the Maralian ruins. Before she leaves, she feels her baby kick and remarks that it takes after its father.

Cast

 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * Irving Braxiatel - Miles Richardson
 * Caitlin Peters - Rebecca Jackson
 * Michael Peters - Jimmy Wilson
 * Doctor Konstantin - Johnson Willis

Worldbuilding

 * Caitlin studied Braxiatel's Ambretian cave painting exhibit.
 * Caitlin is a research assistant.
 * Michael drives a skimmer.
 * Michael mines thulium. The Fireflies have high traces of it in their blood.
 * Caitlin and Michael live in a habipod.
 * Caitlin once took Michael to a dig on Baleriphon.
 * Michael mentions El Dorado.
 * Michael and Walker volunteer at the Crisis Squad.
 * Konstantin has a cleaning bot.
 * Benny asks for tea given that she is pregnant.
 * Michael was hired by the ConTech Corporation.
 * Benny was Caitlin's maid of honour.
 * Michael mentions Benny's attention-seeking cat.
 * Caitlin has a holophoto of a cave painting.
 * Benny wakes Konstantin up with a stimulant spray.
 * The Ostarans are famous for using inwards-moving lines to denote authority in art.
 * Michael sarcastically asks Benny if she is the titular character of Alice in Wonderland.
 * The Maralians made the Fireflies from the stone of the mountains.

Continuity

 * Benny is visibly pregnant. She conceived in The Squire's Crystal, discovered that she was pregnant at the end of The Infernal Nexus and will give birth in The Glass Prison. The liner notes state that she is about five months along at the time of The Skymines of Karthos.
 * Michael asks about Jason Kane. Benny tells him that he is "alright... now." (PROSE: Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Infernal Nexus)