House of Silents (audio story)

 was the first story in the audio anthology, Silenced, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Matt Fitton and featured Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, Ingrid Oliver as Petronella Osgood, James Joyce as Josh Carter, Ramon Tikaram as Vikram Shindi and Tracy Wiles as Jacqui McGee.

Publisher's summary
There is no record of the presence of an alien species known as 'The Silents' on Earth. UNIT has never engaged hostiles capable of editing themselves from observers' memories.

There is no evidence that such an opponent, if real, is regrouping and beginning a new plan of infiltration and manipulation.

Kate Stewart and her team are in no mortal danger. How can they be, when they don't even know the enemy exists?

Plot
On his ninth day observing the residence of the blind Helena Faversham because of energy pulses, Colonel Shindi, using a wheelchair following his injury, records his report regarding the visitors to the building and sends photographs of them to UNIT. A homeless man enters the house and, when he flees sometime later, he is killed by a Silent. Shindi calls Osgood to tell her what he has seen, but he forgets after looking away and tells her that there is nothing to report.

Miss Faversham receives a phonecall from the Eyewitness telling her to tell the truth about the people disappearing from her house. She claims not to know what the Eyewitness is talking about, however, and puts the phone down after a Silent orders her to be silent.

Kate takes shooting lessons with Josh to make sure that she is not getting rusty. Osgood shows her a message from the Eyewitness, a blogger and conspiracy theorist known to UNIT, in which they show that they know about Shindi's mission and ask to meet Kate in a carriage on the London Eye. Osgood visits Shindi, feeling responsible for his injury, whilst Kate goes to meet the Eyewitness with Josh keeping an eye on her. Jacqui jams Kate's radio and joins her, revealing that she is the Eyewitness.

Using technology supplied by Osgood, Shindi listens to Miss Faversham's house and hears her talk to a Silent, who says that he and his kind will soon leave Earth. He records his report, but has forgotten the Silent and misremembers what he heard as Miss Faversham talking to herself. He hears the Silent when he replays the recording and immediately forgets, assuming that she was talking to her cats.

Jacqui shows Kate footage of dozens of hooded people entering Miss Faversham's house and not leaving, but they are impossible to count and somehow distort the image. Osgood and Josh fly a helicopter over Miss Faversham's house with a device that detects life signs whilst Kate and Shindi listen to a recording with the Silent's voice in which he senses that he is observed and falls silent. They forget about it but are reminded by notes that Shindi has written.

Wearing earpieces, Kate and Osgood pose as government officials and visit Miss Faversham. Osgood looks around the house and encounters more than twenty Silents in the attic and, when Shindi informs Kate that Osgood seems to be in danger but she returns without mentioning anything, Kate gets Miss Faversham out of the house by telling her that the Deputy Prime Minister wishes to speak with her. Osgood leads Miss Faversham to the car and sprays her with a truth enhancer which works on her subconscious memory; she says that she thinks that the group staying in her house are called the Silents and realises that they have been killing people for nourishment.

Shindi listens in as Kate and Josh search the house and meet the Silents. Although Kate orders him to lower his weapon, Josh feels that he has to shoot them on sight and a fight breaks out. A Silent tells Kate that they do not wish to kill any humans at the moment as humanity are still of use to them. Josh escapes the house and a Silent uses its powers on him, believing him to be ideal to the Silents' plans. Osgood and Shindi go to the house and find everybody unconscious; a Silent tells them that they only want their silence for now and knock them out as well. When Miss Faversham enters, the Silents kill her as she is not required for the next stage of their plans.

Cast

 * Kate Stewart - Jemma Redgrave
 * Osgood - Ingrid Oliver
 * Colonel Vikram Shindi - Ramon Tikaram
 * Captain Josh Carter - James Joyce
 * Jacqui McGee - Tracy Wiles
 * Miss Helena Faversham - Joanna Wake
 * Kenneth LeBlanc - Nicholas Day
 * Homeless Man / News Reporter - Aaron Neil
 * Soldier - John Banks
 * The Silence - Nicholas Briggs

Worldbuilding

 * Sam is owed leave but returning in several weeks.
 * Josh compares Miss Faversham to Mother Teresa.
 * Miss Faversham lives in the Hampstead Heath area of Hampstead.
 * The Prime Minister is facing calls to resign.
 * Kate meets Jacqui in a private carriage on the London Eye.
 * Shindi will make a full recovery thanks to Osgood's pointers on nanosurgery.
 * Miss Faversham's earliest memory is of her mother's eyes.
 * Miss Faversham's longest-held secret is that she stole a pencil from the newsagent's.

Continuity

 * Kate mentions Cerberus Global Solutions. (AUDIO: Ice Station Alpha)
 * Osgood mentions how Shindi got his injury. (AUDIO: Armageddon)
 * Shindi mentions that Kate and Osgood had been to Antarctica. (AUDIO: Ice Station Alpha)
 * The Silents note that they have been hunted by humans for a generation. (TV: Day of the Moon)