Telepresence (audio story)

 was the second story in the audio anthology, Cyber-Reality, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Guy Adams and featured Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart and Ingrid Oliver as Petronella Osgood, James Joyce as Josh Carter, Ramon Tikaram as Vikram Shindi and Warren Brown as Sam Bishop.

Publisher's summary
Testing salvaged equipment, Osgood leads Colonel Shindi and Josh Carter on a strange expedition into uncharted territory. A virtual world. When the team is attacked, Kate tries to assist. But it seems the technology itself is doing all it can to keep her apart from her people.

Plot
Kate and Osgood arrive at Fortress Island where Shindi has moved all of the Auctioneers' virtual reality technology and Sam is cared for in the medical facility by Lt Commander Parsons. Osgood confirms that the technology is receiving power from an external source and rushes to tell Kate that the technology is actually a bridge to another universe. Osgood, Shindi and Josh enter the other universe with the knowledge that harm caused there could cause cardiac arrest. They arrive in a ruined civilisation in a desert and encounter a pack of mutated dogs, but Kate is unable to bring them out.

Sam wakes up and hears a voice that Parsons cannot, talking about data transfer. Assuming that it is a lingering effect of the virtual reality technology, Parsons goes to let Kate know, but she receives an electric shock whilst trying to save Osgood, Shindi and Josh and is rendered unconscious. The voice locks his cerebral function and accelerates the data transfer with reprograming as the top priority. When he wakes up, he hears Shindi's voice in the other universe and something with Parsons' form tells him that he is the link.

Osgood, Shindi and Josh scare the dogs away by throwing rocks at them and are chased into a ruin by a giant worm. They get to the roof and jump to another building where they see that the worm has converted one of the dogs into a cyborg and flee from it. Believing in mind over matter, Shindi is able to defeat the dog and the group can run far quicker than normal. Josh finds the ruins of Piccadilly Circus, indicating that they are on a parallel Earth, and the technology in the London Underground is no more advanced than on their Earth. Shindi deduces that the virtual reality technology was thus not created by humans.

In the tunnels, Osgood, Shindi and Josh find cocoons containing humans and the Voice of the Machine tells them that they are alive and useful to the hive. It uses Osgood and Shindi to connect to their universe through the metal worms and activates the nearby humans. The trio wake up, with Josh remaining in control, and join with Sam, who has been given minimal upgrades and is under the Machine's control just as Osgood and Shindi are. A portal opens between the dimensions and Kate and Josh fire their weapons as beings begin to emerge.

Cast

 * Kate Stewart - Jemma Redgrave
 * Osgood - Ingrid Oliver
 * Lt Sam Bishop - Warren Brown
 * Colonel Shindi - Ramon Tikaram
 * Josh Carter - James Joyce
 * Lt Commander Parsons - Louis Tamone
 * Voice of the Machine - Katherine Jakeways

Worldbuilding

 * Kate tries to get the Super Soldier Sam app pulled.
 * After escaping the Mechanising Worm, Osgood, Shindi and Josh come across the ruins of the Piccadilly Circus of the Parallel Earth.
 * Osgood loves pigeons.
 * Upon inspecting a map, Osgood notices there's a "Magellan line" in the parallel London Underground network.

Continuity

 * The experiment is conducted on Fortress Island which, as Osgood is informed by Kate, was the site of first contact between humanity and the Sea Devils. (TV: The Sea Devils)
 * Colonel Shindi has read the report on the last crossover with a parallel universe. (AUDIO: False Negative)