Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Stone's Lament (audio story)

Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Stone's Lament, or simply The Stone's Lament, was the eighth Bernice Summerfield audio story produced by Big Finish Productions. It featured for the first time in audio form the Killoran, Adrian Wall, played by Harry Myers.

Publisher's summary
Bratheen Traloor, reclusive billionaire, has lived alone for over twenty years on the planet Rhinvil.

Now he has broken his isolation, inviting Bernice Summerfield to examine a mysterious artefact unearthed during building work at his sprawling mansion.

Accompanying Benny is Adrian Wall, the Killoran construction manager from the Braxiatel Collection. Adrian is responsible for overseeing the work, but his construction crew has vanished, and soon he and Benny discover that Traloor is not as alone as they might think...

Plot
Benny and Adrian come out of cryo-stasis as they approach Rhinvil, the home of Bratheen Traloor, an eccentric billionaire and amateur archaeologist who has requested Benny's advice. Adrian cannot see any of his Killoran workers who have been building Traloor's extension and takes a detour to investigate and move some of their expensive tools out of the rain. As he does so, Benny looks at the sea from the clifftops and slips, but Traloor catches her.

Traloor invites Benny and Adrian into his home and accuses Adrian's men of vandalising artefacts in his collection and leaving without giving any notice, which Adrian refuses to accept. He shows Benny and Adrian to their bedrooms and they hear a strange noise but, when they go to investigate, the House interface tells them that dinner is ready. Afterwards, Traloor shows Benny his collection and the mysterious artefact that the Killorans unearthed whilst Adrian remains in the dining room with the alcohol, but Adrian believes that he hears Benny calling for him and goes after her.

Benny believes that Adrian was hearing things because he was drunk and House has no record of the lights going out as Adrian claims. In the early hours of the morning, Adrian comes to Benny's room claiming that he received a message from her and attempts to initiate sex, but she hits him and sends him away. She has difficulty sleeping afterwards and goes to see where the artefact was unearthed, eventually being joined by Traloor and heading back to the house for breakfast whilst Adrian goes to look for evidence in the Killorans' cabins and tells Benny that something strange is going on.

Traloor has House run a diagnostic check after it temporarily locks Benny in her room and Adrian tells her that he has found his men's shuttle buried, meaning they must still be on Rhinvil. Benny breaks up a fight between Adrian and Traloor and returns to the house where she hears Adrian's voice, which becomes increasingly monstrous, telling her to leave. When she hears a woman crying, she decides that it is time to leave and she and Adrian go to find Traloor. During their search, they enter a room full of photographs and recordings of Benny and her lectures. Traloor joins them, warning them that House has gone mad, and reveals that House's voice is based on Benny's as he has seen her as a kindred spirit.

Benny deduces that House is jealous of her and believes that she will take its place as Traloor's companion. It locks her in a room and attacks her by using telekinesis to throw furniture at her, but Adrian and Traloor direct her to a secret panel which allows her to escape to the basement where she sees all of the walls bleeding and hears House's sobs. She is reunited with Adrian, Traloor having gone to try to disable House, and agrees with him that this phenomena is beyond a simple computer. House reveals that the artefact was made to lure Benny to Rhinvil and that it attempted to get rid of his feelings for her by having him walk in on Benny and Adrian having sex.

Benny and Adrian flee to their shuttle which House destroys with an electrical storm and they instead head into the caves where they find an altar made of the Killorans' bodies. House takes over Traloor's body and tells Benny and Adrian that it is the planet; it is confused by its own feelings and Traloor's and Adrian distracts it as he primes quarry charges and runs with Benny as House is buried and Traloor's home collapses into the sea. Adrian decides to leave his men on Rhinvil where they would have enjoyed the view and asks Benny to get her trowel to dig up the Killorans' shuttle.

Cast

 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * Adrian Wall - Harry Myers
 * Bratheen Traloor - James Lailey

Worldbuilding

 * Benny gives Adrian her coffee.
 * Traloor was once an actor.
 * Adrian mentions the pleasure stations of Ansu and private islands of Coralee.
 * Traloor has been in contact with Braxiatel.
 * A Stempson Multi-Blade is an expensive shovel.
 * The Killorans use an autojack.
 * Adrian drinks wine.
 * Traloor does not enjoy caving.
 * Adrian says that Traloor's house is the size of New Paris.
 * Adrian's men include Tuck and Warwick.
 * Adrian uses a survey scanner.
 * Rhinvil is a Grade Three planet.
 * Adrian has matches.
 * Traloor's walls are reinforced with detronite in case of assassins.
 * Traloor has considered suicide.

Continuity

 * On examining an artefact that Adrian's team had excavated, Benny noted that it looked like some of the Ziggurats in the Kar-Charrat system. (AUDIO: The Genocide Machine)
 * Adrian mentions Coralee as a holiday vacation. (PROSE: Storm Harvest)
 * Adrian refers to Benny and him having sex whilst Benny was possessed. (PROSE: Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Squire's Crystal)