The Joy Device (novel)

The Joy Device was the eighty-third Virgin New Adventures novel. It was written by Justin Richards. Published in October 1999, it was the penultimate Virgin-published Bernice Summerfield novel.

Publisher's summary
"Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes... it's worse than Samuel Beckett."

Benny has had enough. Enough of the angst and the heartache. Enough of Jason and the others. She needs a holiday, and so she's heading to the Eastern Rim, a part of the galaxy where there is still a frontier, and adventure to be had. She's packed her trowel. She's off.

Her friends are concerned. Drug barons, war lords, criminal cartels and outlaws have fled to the Rim from authority and order. There's a distinct risk of getting into trouble, not to mention life-threatening peril. It's not so much that Benny might come to harm; she might find she likes it out there.

But Benny finds the Eastern Rim almost suspiciously ordinary: no violence, no action, no excitement. So when she is asked by a shady curio dealer to help him find Dorpfeld's Prism, it seems just another cursed relic to recover before retiring to the bar. In a place this dull, nothing dangerous can possibly happen. Can it?

Plot
Benny has lost some of her memories but chooses to read explorer Dent Harper's books instead of her diaries, not wanting to know the full extent of what she has lost. At dinner, she tells Braxiatel, Jason, Cwej and Clarence that she intends on leaving the Braxiatel Collection on her own to rediscover herself in the Eastern Rim. Braxiatel is the only one not to protest, but privately he shares with the other men that he too is concerned that she will not come back.

In truth, Benny has no intention of leaving and asked Domistos Tours to arrange for Dent Harper to act as her tour guide, a request which she expected them to refuse and which she could use as an excuse to stay on the Collection. However, the request is granted and she meets with him on Virabilis, which she finds surprisingly peaceful and free of crime until her wallet is stolen, but the thief soon returns it with his apologies. She wonders if Harper's books exaggerated the danger of Virabilis, but he too is surprised by how polite everybody is. When Harper finds the thief again, the thief tells him that he was told to return the wallet by an angel.

Unbeknownst to Benny, Braxiatel, Jason and Clarence are working to ensure that her trip is a boring one and had her flight delayed to enable them Jason and Clarence to reach Virabilis first. When Benny accidentally knocks the table of Heath Canley, the leader of a major drug gang, Jason tells Canley that she is with Bruiser Mulrooney of the Assassination Bureau and intimidates him into leaving her alone.

Gang leader Mrs Winther sends Powlo Vertutes to steal Dorpfeld's Prism, which she wants to ensure her happiness in retirement. However, Powlo finds that it has been stolen by Miklos Frunt, who has been hired by businessman Jericko Klench, and Luggar tracks him to the Xcelsior Hotel where Benny and Harper are staying. Powlo shoots Frunt with an anaesthetic dart, inadvertently causing him to fall to his death, after which Powlo and Luggar discover that he was not carrying the Prism. Klench hires Benny and Harper to locate it, explaining to them that it is supposedly cursed.

Clarence overhears him and Linn Sekka talking about how dangerous the mission is and continues to follow Benny and Harper whilst Jason contacts Braxiatel using a supralight microwave link that he gave him. Braxiatel tells him that the Prism is a relic of the Smermashi, who developed technology which could improve reality and went extinct after ignoring their planet's environmental difficulties as a result. Calling himself Professor Fred Bloggs of St Oscar's University and having Braxiatel feed him information, Jason manages to infiltrate Mrs Winther's cartel as an archaeologist; Mrs Winther has Dr Creer scan Frunt's brain and sees Benny in the hotel, whom Jason identifies for them.

Benny realises that Frunt hid the Prism in Klench's rubbish and goes with Harper to get it from Landfill Major. Mrs Winther finds them but lets them both go as, unbeknownst to the two of them, Jason has a knife to her back and threatens her before escaping. Benny and Harper give the Prism to Klench, who gives it to Linn; she sees the world as a beautiful place and tells Klench that she loves him like a father, which devastates him. Having tracked Frunt's final communication to Klench, Mrs Winther has her men torture and kill him before having Creer scan his brain. Linn is thrown out and gives the Prism to Benny at the spaceport, to which she and Harper have returned after a visit to Prevoria where Jason bribed the natives into treating them well, as payment for their services.

Upon removing the Prism, Linn realises what has happened to Klench and runs away, which Benny, now affected by the Prism, does not think is strange. Mrs Winther captures Linn and sends her thugs to chase Benny and Harper, but Jason and Clarence distract him so that they can escape to the Xcelsior. Jason is captured and sent by Mrs Winther to her villa whilst she follows his suggestion and politely asks Benny to hand the Prism over; she does so and Mrs Winther realises that she already has everything that she needs out of life, so she hands it back to Benny. Not wanting her to leave empty-handed, Benny slips the Prism into her pocket as she leaves.

Mrs Winther has Jason released and, when she starts talking about health benefits for her thugs, Nikole Medak accuses her of wasting time and money and intends on supplanting her. Trying to save Mrs Winther, Jason ends up falling off the balcony with her, but Clarence saves him and the Prism whilst Mrs Winther falls to her death. Jason and Clarence then keep Benny from having sex with Harper by causing numerous distractions until she falls asleep. She returns to the Collection and Clarence destroys the Prism.

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Dent Harper
 * Jason Kane
 * Clarence
 * Irving Braxiatel
 * Chris Cwej
 * Rula Winther
 * Nikole Medak
 * Heath Canley
 * Miklos Frunt
 * Fronz
 * Luggar
 * Powlo Vertutes
 * Linn Sekka

Continuity

 * Benny has lost some of her memories. (PROSE: Return to the Fractured Planet)
 * Braxiatel mentions that, in God's simulations, Jason is the only one who can convince Benny to do or not do something. (PROSE: Tears of the Oracle)