Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Squire's Crystal (novel)

Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Squire's Crystal, or simply The Squire's Crystal, was the third novel published by Big Finish Productions as part of their Big Finish Bernice Summerfield series. This was Jacqueline Rayner's first full contribution to the Bernice Summerfield range; she had previously adapted all audio stories of series 1 except Beyond the Sun. This novel is the final novel to feature art by Carolyn Edwards; future novels' art would be done by Adrian Salmon whose work for the range began with The Stone's Lament.

This novel features Bernice Summerfield's body becoming possessed and having sex with Adrian Wall. She doesn't discover she's pregnant until The Infernal Nexus three stories later.

Publisher's summary
Legend tells of an evil sorceress who used the power of magical crystals to transfer her mind into the bodies of others. Her reign of terror was long and bloody, and her final defeat the cause of great rejoicing.

But that's just a legend. A story told to children. Isn't it? I mean, it's ridiculous. It couldn't have really happened... could it?

Finding the last resting place of the Crystal Sorceress is an archaeological dream on a par with discovering the Holy Grail. So it's hardly likely that someone will just offer the solution to Professor Bernice Summerfield on a plate.

But sometimes the unlikely actually happens. And one thing that's very, very unlikely is that Benny will suddenly find herself to be a member of the opposite gender...

Plot
Benny, who is standing in for Braxiatel whilst he is away on business, receives a call from Dominic Troy concerning his discovery of Avril Fenman's tomb. Avril, according to legend, was a squire who left her knight for dead whilst she ran off with a crystal with the power to steal souls. For this crime, she was to be executed, but she used the crystal to exchange hers and the executioner's bodies. She went on to jump from body to body to survive whilst embarking on a reign of terror which finally ended when the Knights of Rowan imprisoned her. Although Dominic works for Arsine de Vallen, Braxiatel's rival, he believes that Avril's prison is on the Braxiatel Collection's asteroid.

Although she is sceptical of Dominic's assertion, not believing that such a thing could possibly go unnoticed during Braxiatel's initial surveys, she arranges for Dominic to receive a visitor's pass. He arrives on the Collection and drinks with Benny until they are interrupted by Adrian, who tells them that the Killorans have broken into a previously undiscovered cavern. After an unsuccessful attempt to get in touch with Braxiatel, Benny goes to the cavern with Dominic and determines that Dominic was right; she is, however, suspicious of him as he is oddly concerned about his appearance and threatens her when she goes to touch Avril's body.

Benny leads Dominic back to the Mansionhouse and says that they will return to the tomb in the morning. She tells Joseph to keep an eye on him and to inform her should he attempt to leave his room during the night. When Dominic does so, he short-circuits Joseph and leaves whilst Benny realises that her wine had been spiked and falls asleep. When she wakes up, she finds that she has been sealed inside the crystal whilst Avril is in control of her body; Dominic wanted the crystal and used Benny to prevent Avril from taking his body, but Avril does not give him the crystal and instead smashes it to ensure that Benny cannot take her body back.

Benny manages to use all of her strength to keep herself in existence, albeit in a non-corporeal form, and she follows Avril and Dominic to Hera where Avril promises to take Dominic to the crystal cavern. At the Hera spaceport, they are joined by a female ally. Benny is unable to keep herself from being pulled into the crystal cave and soon finds herself trapped in another crystal with the souls of the previous victims of Avril Fenman. At the cave, Dominic begins to lose his mind to the crystals just as Avril had anticipated. Before she can kill his now empty body, the woman tries to shoot Avril and, in the confusion, Benny enters Dominic's body.

Avril and the woman fight and the cavern begins to collapse due to damage caused by gunfire. Avril escapes whilst the woman saves Benny, believing her to be Dominic. Before leaving, however, Benny makes sure to pick up a crystal. They fail to catch up to Avril and watch her take the shuttle back to the Braxiatel Collection, which Benny is unable to board due to Dominic's pass being for only one visit. De Vallen's guards take Benny and the woman, Dominic's girlfriend Poppaea Prince, to de Vallen's estate where Benny reads Dominic's research and learns that Dominic is actually war criminal Nico Lyence. Lyence had gained power in the Fifth Axis using his good looks and is now wanted dead by some of its members. Benny plans to get the crystal back from de Vallen, whose guards took it from her.

In bed, Benny hears Dominic's angry voice and realises that his soul is trapped inside of the crystal and that, if she lets her guard down, he will try to take his body back from her. However, he changes his plan upon hearing from the crystal that de Vallen plans to appoint Dominic as his heir before poisoning himself and transferring his soul into his body using the crystal. He bides his time, waiting for the ideal opportunity to take his body back from Benny.

Avril is at the Collection and has lit a fire in Benny's room and laid herself down on duvets and pillows on the floor. As she is unfamiliar with planets more technologically advanced than her own, she has been doing many such strange things, earning herself Ms Jones' ire. Adrian enters Benny's room to talk to her about the signs she had left for the Killorans to keep them from disturbing Avril's tomb and sees her lying there naked. He falls in love with her. At long last, Braxiatel returns to the Collection and encounters the irritated Ms Jones and lovesick Adrian.

De Vallen names Dominic as his successor and summons Benny to his rooms. He knocks her out, drinks poison and gets ready to use the crystal, but Poppy, suspicious of her boyfriend's behaviour, has followed her and saves her. Dominic enters the body of a guard, Bill, before de Vallen can and chases after Benny and Poppy. He falls behind when he sees his reflection and is mortified at his new appearance, allowing Benny and Poppy the time to get to the spaceport. When de Vallen's chauffeur mentions Dominic being named heir, Poppy surmises that "Dominic" only wants to go to the Collection because he is in love with "Benny". She knocks Benny out.

Dominic catches up with Benny and Poppy and tells his girlfriend about the body swap. Benny escapes by threatening to damage Dominic's body and sends photographs of him to Keri, telling her to expose Dominic if she does not hear back from her within a certain timescale. Dominic arrives and confirms for de Vallen's guards that Benny murdered de Vallen before realising that he has incriminated himself and will not be able to return to his body without being arrested for murder. Benny offers him and Poppy a deal: to let them quietly disappear with Dominic's inheritance in return for helping her get her body back from Avril. They agree and Dominic says that he was mistaken about Benny being responsible for de Vallen's death.

Benny, Dominic and Poppy are unable to get to the Collection as a lack of passengers has meant that the shuttle has been cancelled. The pilot resigns when they impress upon him the importance of them getting to the Collection, as he has already been incredibly stressed by Avril, and he allows them to fly the shuttle themselves. They are chased by police from Hera and de Vallen's guards, Chevy and Rix, who have found Bill's fingerprints on de Vallen's vial of poison. Benny tells Dominic about the photographs that she sent and has him lock the crystal away in a safe, ensuring that he will not try to take his body back prematurely.

As they approach the Collection, the pursuers begin firing at them. To protect his original body, Dominic renders Benny unconscious, pads a locker with pillows and sheets and stuff her in there. Dominic attempts to fly the shuttle but, not being as skilled as Benny, crashes. Adrian helps them all get to safety before the shuttle explodes, seemingly destroying the crystal and leaving Dominic suicidal at the thought of being stuck in Bill's body permanently. Benny, Dominic and Poppy are locked up as intruders and, although Benny is able to negotiate a meeting with Broderick Naismith, she breaks out upon seeing Avril and Adrian skinny-dipping. She flirts with Ms Jones to get a pass and writes a message for Braxiatel before confronting Avril, who loves being in Benny's body and refuses to leave.

Avril attempts to seduce Benny, arousing Dominic's body, and Adrian flies into a jealous rage upon seeing them. Braxiatel arrives in time to stop Adrian and sends him to bring Dominic and Poppy to him. Whilst Benny has never met Naismith, Dominic and Poppy indeed had their meeting with him and were suitably impressed. Braxiatel attempts to determine who is who and asks Benny and Avril questions about Benny's life; Avril has read and burnt Benny's diaries but does not know the meaning of Benny's sticky notes, which she uses to replace details with her preferred version. This gives her away. They search for Avril's crystal and find that she has put it in the pond, which is now full of soulless fish.

Benny enters the crystal to see if Bill's mind is still in there and, when she does, Avril jumps into Dominic's body and tries to destroy the crystal. Braxiatel is able to stop her and Benny returns to her own body, having found that Bill was unable to hold on and that his soul has dissipated. Dominic and Poppy force Braxiatel to give them the crystal and Dominic switches bodies with Avril, who then smashes the crystal. A shard embeds itself in Dominic's face and, horrified, he smashes Benny's mirror and scars his hand for life. He and Poppy are arrested.

Braxiatel permits Avril to remain on the Collection and to reside in her tomb. She tells them that the legend about her is untrue and that she had tried to save her knight from goblins and used the crystal to project herself to the countryside to ask for help. She was accused of witchcraft and, without trial, sentenced to death. She then dedicated her life to destroying the Knights, having realised that they were corrupt. Benny does not trust Avril, who has humiliated her and Adrian.

Poppy has found another crystal and has put an advert in the newspaper. A young prostitute on Syal is contacted by an old man who warns him about the advert, which is in truth an offer to transfer the souls of the rich into younger bodies. He warns the prostitute not to answer it.

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Adrian Wall
 * Joseph
 * Avril Fenman
 * Irving Braxiatel
 * Dominic Troy
 * Wolsey
 * Arsine de Vallen
 * Poppaea Prince
 * Chevy
 * Rix
 * Calvin Jersix
 * Broderick Naismith
 * Clarissa Jones

Worldbuilding

 * Awablooms are native to the planet Hephaestus VI.
 * Frogfish Spacelines is a bargain fleet.

Continuity

 * Benny mentions swapping bodies and ending up in a small white cat. (PROSE: Warlock)
 * Benny recalls her wedding day. (PROSE: Happy Endings) Her and Jason Kane's subsequent divorce (PROSE: Eternity Weeps) and Jason currently being lost in another dimension (PROSE: Twilight of the Gods) are also repeatedly referred to.