Sphere of Freedom (audio story)

 was the first story in the audio anthology Ravagers, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Nicholas Briggs and featured Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor, Camilla Beeput as Nova and Jayne McKenna as Audrey. This story marked the first time Eccleston reprised the role of the Ninth Doctor for Big Finish.

Publisher's summary
On the Sphere of Freedom, the Doctor is about to shut down an evil Immersive Games business empire. He's assisted by a valiant galley chef called Nova. But his plan spectacularly fails... And who exactly is Audrey?

Plot
On the Sphere of Freedom, the Ninth Doctor communicates with a woman called Nova whom he is waiting on to escape a series of drainage tunnels. She explains she is running as fast as possible as he waits outside the TARDIS for her after promising, explaining that they have stopped some force "unless something goes very, very wrong". Nova surfaces one block away from the TARDIS and the Doctor warns her to be careful of the gamer guards, but she explains that with the damage to the central arc they have caused, they will be hunted down in ten minutes. While waiting, a woman tries to sell a gaming headset to the Doctor, but he turns her down. Just as the alarms go off, the TARDIS detects time eddies - the things they have been attempting to prevent. Nova explains that she did everything the Doctor said and does not know what went wrong, but just as she arrives and the Doctor reaches out for her hand, she disappears.

The merchant attempts to resume her conversation with the Doctor. She realises he has lost his friend, explaining that she is just an elderly gamer called Audrey that is looked down upon; she knows the Doctor must be new if he does not know her. The Doctor explains to her his current predicament, and when questioned about Nova, says that she works here as a chef but is no friend of his and just someone he happened to be working with over a spot of bother. He explains that the time eddies should not be occurring and that his trouble started with the planet Earth.

Flashing back to before these events, the Doctor flies the TARDIS, hearing his own voice in his head. He follows a time eddy to 1959 London, in which eighty Roman Centurions have been seemingly displaced in time to Piccadilly Circus. Captain Halloran of the British Army listens to a radio broadcast calling the events the work of bombs, being pleased with the cover story. The Doctor arrives, pretending to be from the War Office. Halloran cannot believe he is being faced with real Romans, even in the wake of 300 dead civilians, and suspects it to be the work of the Russians. Exasperated, the Doctor takes a walk with Halloran.

Observing the scene, the Doctor and Halloran are stopped by Lieutenant Farraday, but the Doctor's credentials let him through. He tries to explain how the Romans are just confused and alarmed, but Halloran suggests shooting them. The Doctor realises the Centurions cannot understand the instructions of Halloran's men because they are not speaking Latin, and the army plans on sending in a tank to deal with them. The Doctor, thanks to the TARDIS's translation circuits, can communicate with one scared Roman named Marcus Aurelius Gallius who was due to follow Boudica's forces at Colchester and believes he is in another realm fighting spirits. The Doctor explains he can help and stop them from getting wiped out, but negotiations go awry when they decide to attack anyway. Halloran ends up slightly injured and the century retreats into the West End. The Doctor tells the British troops to stop marching so they can go undetected and uses his sonic screwdriver to tend to Halloran and detect time particles on the Romans that he followed to land there. He realises he can follow this source to stop the situation from ever occurring, so heads back to the TARDIS, followed by Farraday. Although the Doctor does not wish for his help, another time eddy arrives and hits Farraday before he can escape to the TARDIS.

Farraday is transported to a futuristic battle arena, where he is introduced as a contestant in front of a cheering crowd to battle a large robotic warrior. Farraday is forced to fight back. In the TARDIS, the Doctor assesses the situation and tries to find the source of the time eddies, leading him to the Sphere of Freedom, accidentally following Nova on her way to work in the galley.

In the present, Audrey comments on having seen Nova before and questions how she was able to get the Doctor into the central arc. In the past, the Doctor asks Nova about where he is. Although baffled by him, she tells him he has landed on the Sphere of Freedom and that the central arc controls everything for all gaming experiences, as the planet is gripped by immersive reality games. The Sphere generates the gaming interfaces for consumers on over a thousand star systems, although Nova does not play them much because of her work. He convinces Nova to take him inside.

Once inside, the Doctor learns about the tight security and lack of pay for workers, discovering that Nova was a refugee who took up an opportunity for indenture at the cost of leaving her family behind on an outer world. The Doctor promises to give Nova a better life in exchange for her help. Later, inside the central arc, the Doctor follows Nova to the "clever stuff" during her break. Knowing they are already on camera, the Doctor uses his psychic paper to get them inside as systems spot-checkers. The Doctor discovers that the time signature that sent him to London is everywhere inside, with technology "engineered by a genius". An unseen watcher follows their motions to help her with the "Ravagers". The Doctor admits that the immersive reality tech is fine on its own, but it is controlling something powerful.

In the present, Audrey continues to press the Doctor for details of what he found, and although he finds her acting as his therapist suspicious, he continues recounting his story. In the past, the Doctor realises that some stolen technology is feeding information from the billions of time eddies into the planet's central game reserved for rich aliens, Fugitives, and causing problems throughout history that could lead to the destruction of space-time. The Doctor discovers a strange control node which he keeps as he sends Nova back to work an hour late.

Audrey presses the Doctor for further details on his plan, which he explains. In the past, the Doctor goes into the TARDIS and when he comes out, three weeks have passed according to Nova, and she admits she knows "this and that" about time travellers. The Doctor gives her a device he rigged up, saying that her job is to plant it in the server room to stop the time eddies now he has altered the security to let her in, while the Doctor activates it with a wave of temporal energy from the TARDIS. He also gives her a watch to synchronise their actions and a comms system to get in touch with him after she is finished. The Doctor explains that their plan will simply mess up Fugitives and nothing else.

The Doctor explains in the present to Audrey that the plan succeeded, however, Nova was swept up in a time eddy a few minutes ago. The Doctor and Audrey talk some more, and as they do, he becomes even more suspicious of her for knowing his and Nova's names in advance. At last, Audrey reveals her deception, her accent and demeanour changing dramatically as she reveals herself as Audrey Mohinson, the CEO of the Sphere and the cause of the time eddy problems, though she dismisses the Doctor's accusations as fake stories. She then attempts to summon armed guards, which the Doctor calls predictable as he takes off in the TARDIS. She then uses a targeting beam to interfere with its flight.

Inside the TARDIS, Audrey contacts the Doctor to tell him he has entered a time eddy and dodges his questions, instead prompting him to look at where he is. The TARDIS has been transported to a neutron star, which Audrey reveals is actually alive with incalculable lifeforms that want to devour all matter in the universe. After confirming this with a scan, the Doctor tries to find out Audrey's plans before he is crushed by the star's gravity, but she refuses to explain her motives to him, taunting him to try and find out in time.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Christopher Eccleston
 * Nova - Camilla Beeput
 * Farraday - Ben Lee
 * Audrey - Jayne McKenna
 * Captain Halloran — Jamie Parker
 * Marcus Aurelius Gallius — Dan Starkey

Continuity

 * The Doctor is able to speak Latin to the Roman Centurions due to the TARDIS' translation circuits. He would later use this ability to communicate with the people of Pompeii when taking Donna Noble there in his tenth incarnation. (TV: The Fires of Pompeii)