Slight Glimpses of Tomorrow (audio story)

 was the first story of the audio anthology The Diary of River Song: Series Eight. It was written by James Goss and featured Alex Kingston as River Song and Salome Haertel as Rachel Burrows.

Publisher's summary
River feels responsible for synthetic person Rachel, left alone on a dying world. So she shows her the history of another, and teaches her the responsibilities of time travel.

Plot
River is showing Rachel history, currently giving her a view of a band of cavemen. Though the cavemen are boring according to Rachel, they leave to go on a hunt, leaving River and Rachel to study the cave women, who River notes to be less boring and the ones doing the hard work. One of the cave women is making the first piece of jewellery. Rachel wonders whether that is more important than the dinosaurs, to which River answers an enthusiastic “Oh yes!”.

Rachel asks River why they are doing this, and River answers that she thinks Rachel should learn about eternity, because Rachel lives forever. Rachel seems fairly used to living alone forever, having done so after everyone she knew grew old and died. She had wondered whether River would come back for her, and River notes that she would, as Rachel is her responsibility. She is going to teach Rachel how to live in the time she has, instead of letting it pass. To that end, she is showing Rachel the history of a planet.

They reach the top of a dune, and see a beautiful bustling city in a river delta. The pair are there to visit a woman who loves pyramid, though she has not built any yet: Lady Armis.

Lady Armis asks whether the two are gods. The pair deny it, and tell Lady Armis they are travelers. Lady Armis, encouraged by River, tells the pair what she is doing. She is indulging in a hobby: making jewellery. She explains about how the light bends through her jewellery, and Rachel dubs the strange stones Lady Armis is making and studying “glass”. She is close to making a looking glass, but before she can tell more she is interrupted by her husband, Dubontis, who dismisses Armis’s hobby derisively and upon a question by Armis launches into a tale about grain silos. Rachel and River feign interest and are invited to dinner, but they make excuses and leave.

Later, Lady Armis brings River and Rachel to a spot where she wants to build a tower. She wants to build a tower to use her sky-glass, which Rachel names a “telescope”. She wants to use her newly named telescope to study the stars. She wants to know what the stars are, and River stops Rachel from spoiling it.

The trio lament the way men get in the way of progress, and Lady Armis notes that at least Dubontis is trying his best to not be embarrassed by having a clever wife. Still, she isn’t allowed to build her tower, she notes, before having to go suddenly.

River and Rachel hop forward in time, on the top of Lady Armis’s her pyramid, which she designed as Dubontis’s tomb.

They meet Lady Armis again, who notes it has been five years. Rachel names the first observatory, and the two get to see through Armis’s telescope, while Armis tells them about the stars and about the metal on the top, which are star charts she left for the future.

Soldiers are coming to the pyramid, with Dubontis, who is angry with Lady Armis for upsetting the gods by staring at them. After Armis refuses to come down, the soldiers come up to retrieve Armis. River and Rachel leave before they can do so.

They hop to a thousand years later. The pyramid’s star charts have been stolen, and Lady Armis has been thrown off of the pyramid. River proposes going to a party to Rachel.

They go to a party in the floating City of Jade, at the other side of the world. Rachel likes it there and wants to stay, for which River notes they will need some friends, for which they go shopping.

Rachel meets a girl named Cassie and together, they have some fun. A while later, Rachel tells Cassie she and River went to the Starving Shores, which made River sad. Cassie doesn’t seem to care about the people in the Starving Shores being hungry and poor; not everyone can live in the Jade City. She tells Rachel to not dwell on them and ruin the night, before Rachel notices the metal sheets on the ceiling of Cassie’s room. They are a star chart. Cassie does not understand why anyone would make a star chart if you can look at the stars every night.

Later, the Jade City is struck with sickness, and Cassie is affected. Cassie drinks water, against Rachel’s warning that the water is bad. Cassie questions whether the people of the Starving Shore have cursed River and Rachel when they went there, having them bring the sickness to the Jade City. Rachel denies this, she is not designed to catch illnesses. Rachel and Cassie discuss the star chart together, as Cassie confesses she likes watching the star charts. Cassie and Rachel watch the chart, Rachel holding Cassie’s hand.

Rachel meets up with River and tells her history is sad. She asks why the two came here. River gives Rachel a lecture in which she notes that if Lady Armis’s work had continued instead of died with her, the Jade City might have figured out what caused the plague: poor people died in the lake and contaminated the water. Now, the Jade City is dying and the richest inhabitants, who fled, are spreading the sickness further.

River is interrogated by a torturer, 400 years after the fall of the Jade City. Only the strong survived the sickness, the torturer proclaims, and now the strong are locking people up in prison camps. River has been caught by “the strong” to find someone.

Rachel shares a cell with a slightly deranged man, who is making a star map. He seems surprised Rachel figures out that he is making a star map, and the man notes people reproduce the star map over and over again, even though very few recognize it. The knowledge of star maps is not taught in the current civilisation. Those who know must spread the pattern, the man says, and Rachel notes that that is dangerous, which the man does not deny. Still, the pattern must be spread. The pattern is lost, the man says, even though Rachel can see them. His eyes have dimmed and he cannot see the stars clearly anymore. He wants to bring the stars close again. He notes that the original creator of the map must have had a device to see the stars far more clearly than he ever could, for she saw more stars than he ever did. He sadly notes he sees fewer stars every day.

River defeats her torturer and escapes her cell, staging a mass prison break. Afterwards, she finds Rachel and notices the star charts on the wall. Rachel notes her cell mate made them, but that the guards came for him a few minutes ago. She notes River just missed him, as a shot rings out on the background.

The two escape the prison. River lectures Rachel on why the prison camp exists, which comes down to power and discrimination. Rachel beseeches River to stop the practice, but River says they cannot interfere. Rachel questions whether it can get any worse, and River proposes to find out.

Rachel brings tea to a botanist trying to find the right place to grow medicinal herbs, Bandolian. He lectures Rachel on medicinal herbs and complains about the attitude of the others on the island, who believe themselves perfect because they have survived plague and war. They think they are strong and mistakenly conclude they are invulnerable because of that.

Bandolian asks after his daughter, Alstra, the prime minister. She is held up by a meeting discussing power stations. Bandolian complains about power stations, getting into a rant about the power stations polluting the world, trailing off into a sad comment about how it makes the soil acidic.

Meanwhile, the energy minister, Darion, makes unwelcome advances on River, causing River to lock him in a cupboard to his anger. She then gloats about it, but is interrupted by the minister’s sister, Alstra, who unlocks the cupboard’s door and defuses the situation, having Darion thank River for trying to free him from the cupboard in which he locked himself. She sends River away and berates her brother.

Darion holds a speech at a rally. The land is dying, and Alstra, as prime minister, has made a statement that this is caused by the inhabitants themselves. Darion rejects this, telling the crowd they are under attack, being poisoned by the neighboring countries, who vie jealously for the way of life of this prosperous island nation. He undermines the government, noting the kind of government needed now is not one that appeases, but one that fights.

River and Rachel look at a plant, planted by Bandolian. He wants a garden but only the patch of soil in which he planted that single plant was viable. River makes a joke when she hears Bandolian wanted a herb garden, but Rachel tells her off for joking about Bandolian’s efforts.

Rachel notes Bandolian wants to study the medicinal properties of the plant. She notes and hopes that Bandolian will be enough to save the world, even though, as River notes, his children squabble about the world while destroying it.

Alstra holds a speech in parliament, standing against her brother’s warlike policies. She asserts that there are no neighbors massing to attack the island, as the lands beyond are barren and dead and they have nothing to fear. The public does not agree, and boo her when she announces they will send a delegation instead of making fantastical weapons of war.

Darion is eating soup, threatening River and going on a power trip. River is not intimidated and spills scalding hot soup over him. Darion tries to force River into cleaning the soup up but fails.

He gloats about his sister’s downfall, and his impending rise to power. He tries to dismiss Rachel but Rachel states she likes to listen to powerful men talk. River calls Rachel a keen student of people, and Rachel asks Darion how he wants to save the island.

Darion wants to build really big fireworks and fire them at the enemy, all around. He goes into another power trip while imagining destroying all the neighboring shores with his big fireworks.

Bandolian’s plant grows, even though it is slightly unhealthy. He also seems to be slightly unhealthy himself. Rachel asks him to go inside, and promises to tend his plant for him if he does so. Bandolian goes inside, coughing heavily, while River meets up with Rachel. They discuss Bandolian and how his children let him down.

The missiles are firing over the sea, and River calls it the end. The fireworks are ingenious but invented too soon, and they destroy the island as well.

50 years later, Rachel asks River whether it is the end. River says endings are new beginnings, and life has spread out from the ruins of the island. They see a band of raiders fight, and the winner holds up a bit of glass. The winner uses the glass as a weapon to fight more.

The pyramid is still there, and the pair reminisce about Lady Armis. Rachel says she cannot do this anymore and tells River she is not like her. Rachel cannot be this aloof and walk through time as River does.

Something moves in the sand, a proto-dinosaur. Rachel is not pleased to see them, which confuses River. Rachel says she’s learned about eternity and walks away, ignoring River’s pleas to stop. Rachel has stolen River’s vortex manipulator and runs away.

She visits Cassie, who has no time for Rachel, embroiled in a game with Prince Rapu.

Eventually, she gets Cassie to look at the stars. Cassie does not get it. Rachel stresses she has to really look, and Cassie names some constellations. Rachel tells her to come inside, where she has coloured the stars on the star chart, including the ones Cassie couldn’t see.

Rachel notes that whoever made the panels could see more stars than Cassie, which Cassie thinks doesn’t sound right. She tries to guess how the creators did it, but fails. Rachel hints at the invention of the telescope, but Cassie does not get it and gets fed up with Rachel’s puzzles leaving for the party.

Back in the time of the island nation, Rachel speaks to the parliament, showing them a map of the stars. The parliament is not amused by this distraction and ridicules Rachel. Rachel predicts that the missiles do not work, and Darion demands an explanation. Rachel tells them that they do not know enough about science, like how they do not know the world is round. She continues to tell them about space while the parliament does not believe her.

She then goes to the torturer and tries to get him to not shoot the artist that was her cellmate earlier. The torturer is not interested, at first, before he surprisingly relents and lets Rachel talk to the artist. He then has Rachel arrested to have her shot next to the artist.

Rachel keeps trying many times, but fails every time. River catches up with her, and gives her tea. Rachel vents about not being able to stop the end, and asks whether River is angry with her. River says Rachel needed her so she was here. Rachel tells River she has learned that time travelers need to learn humility and says River that she wins and that they cannot interfere with history. River denies this, and tells Rachel she’ll show her how to win.

They go back to Lady Armis, who has seen her husband coming for them. River asks Armis what she would give as advice to her younger self. They discuss it a bit and Armis settles on advising her younger self to build the pyramid somewhere else.

Lady Armis builds her pyramid on a mountain near the nearby port city of Sinearchti. Rachel and River visit the finished product: a school in a pyramid on the mountain. It is very successful. This way, Armis spreads her knowledge and telescopes far and wide.

River and Rachel return to the end of the world again, to Rachel’s confusion. This time, the end of the world is caused by a solar flare. Thanks to Rachel and River, the better educated people saw the solar flare coming, and escaped the end of the world with a rocket.

Rachel asks whether she can join the people in the rocket on their adventure, as she feels responsible for them. To that end, River brings Rachel to the rocket.

Cast

 * River Song - Alex Kingston
 * Rachel Burrows - Salome Haertel
 * Armis / Cassie / Alstra - Isabella Inchbald
 * Dubontis / Bandolian - Stephen Critchlow
 * Darion / Prince Rapu - Stewart Clarke

Worldbuilding
to be added

Continuity
to be added