Absence (audio story)

was the forty-sixth Bernice Summerfield audio story released by Big Finish Productions. It was the second story of the tenth season.
== Publisher's summary ==
Cluster worlds are one of the great mysteries of space travel – planet-sized objects that have spontaneously fused together from the detritus, junk and flotsam left behind by both human and alien space travellers. The archaeologist who solves the mystery will become rich and famous overnight.
Professor Bernice Summerfield just wants to live.
Bernice and her son Peter are stranded on Absence, a cluster object that has been settled by a cartel operating beyond human space. It's an artificial world where everything is at a premium and nothing comes without a price. For the wealthy few who can afford it there is the relative freedom of the world beyond the sterile cartel domes, but Bernice is almost penniless.
The reclusive entrepreneur Lamarque Aslanides is leading a mission to explore the largely uncharted interior of Absence. For Bernice it will mean a long and painful period of separation from her son – but the money will pay for their passage off this world.
As the expedition descends into madness and death, they discover that they are not the only ones interested in the mysteries at the heart of the cluster. Then when Peter's life is placed in danger, Bernice is powerless to help.
== Plot ==
On the way to Venus, the power cells of Benny's spaceship fail and she and Peter are forced to stop at Absence, a cluster world. She applies to join an Interspatial Systems Acquisitions research expedition to the interior of Absence to be able to afford the necessary repairs to continue the journey and makes the unwilling Peter do so as well after Cindy notes how useful he could be at heavy lifting, not wanting to leave him alone with a hand-to-mouth job. Several days later, the names of those whose applications were successful are made public and Benny is surprised to find that Peter has been accepted whilst she has not, which Cindy explains is due to her uncertain background and gaps in her CV.
Benny is given the task of serving burgers at a stand whilst Peter undergoes suit training, at the end of which Benny threatens Cindy, whom she distrusts, into keeping him safe during the mission beneath the surface. In her free time, she tries to recover data from the portrait of Braxiatel she took from Vingus Bank without success, only getting access to a logic game which industrial spy Aaron Keep advises her is simply keeping her playing. Meanwhile, Peter discovers that Lamarque Aslinedes, the owner of ISA and leader of the expedition, has brought a crate full of guns because of his paranoia and is saved from falling to his death by Cindy. He starts to worry about the suit he is wearing, which breathes for him and keeps him from having to eat, and decides that he wants to leave.
One night, Peter sees a transparent Cindy without her suit and she tries to convince him he is dreaming, but he reports having seen something to Aslinides. The team find evidence that somebody has been beneath Absence and traversing with a web of cables, some of which snap and cause Cindy to fall. Peter is greatly upset and is told by Aslinides to throw away his diary, which Aslinides claims is a crutch, to set himself free, but he is hesitant. The two continue the mission and reach the interior of Absence whilst Benny finds, in Keep's possession, an advanced radio which picks up the expedition's communications. When two spaceships enter the cluster's orbit, the Technocult virus causes the robots on Absence to attack and Keep, a member of the Technocult in a body assembled from purchased parts, explains that they have come to free the machines.
Peter and Aslinides are attacked by war droids and attempt to fight back with guns. Cindy returns, destroys the war droids and starts patching up Peter's damaged suit, but he realises that Aslinides' mission has been to destroy the machines evolving beneath Absence and Aslinides decides to leave him behind to die. Cindy refuses and carries him back to the surface where he sleeps for days, the Technocult having been defeated by an electromagnetic pulse, and tells Benny that she is a sentient ISA suit. She also reveals that she snapped Aslinides' neck so he would die happy, believing that he was still in control of his company, and intends on learning from Keep, who visits Benny and Peter as they leave the cluster. He asks Benny to help him and Cindy liberate the new life beneath Absence, but she declines and they head to their ship.
== Cast ==
* Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
* Peter Summerfield - Thomas Grant
* Cindy - Rachael Elizabeth
* Aaron Keep - Paul Thornley
* Lamarque Aslinedes / Newsreader - Trevor Littledale
== Crew ==
* Cover Art - Adrian Salmon
* Director - John Ainsworth
* Executive Producers - John Ainsworth and Jason Haigh-Ellery
* Music and Sound Design - Martin Johnson
* Producer - Eddie Robson
* Writer - Daniel O'Mahony
* Line Producer - David Richardson
== Worldbuilding ==
* Benny is heading from the Bethesdan system to Venus.
* Benny's spaceship's power cells are "knackered".
* Benny drinks water.
* Benny suffers a headache.
* Aslinedes owns Interspatial System Acquisitions.
* ISA is a major partner of the Absence Free Zone Cartel.
* Keep plays the guitar.
* Keep orders a cheeseburger with salad.
* Benny offers Aaron fries.
* Cindy does not eat meat.
* It is said that every breath one takes has a bit of Julius Caesar, Napoléon and Martin Luther King in it.
* Benny dreams of her mother and father.
* Peter starts a diary.
* Bodie and Massoud are scientists whom Peter does suit training with.
* Peter says that Aslinides is not an atheist as he is his own god.
* Keep is a spy for Tristrow Thermodynamics.
* István falls to his death.
* Benny asks Keep about his aftershave.
* Benny has an employment slip.
* Benny has a credit chip.
== Notes ==
* This audio drama was recorded on 21 December 2008.
* A download version of this story was released on 23 May 2022.Weekly Deal announcement for Bernice Summerfield Series 9-11 available on download
== Continuity ==
* Benny and Peter are heading to Venus to collect monies owed bequeathed to them by Jane's will, which they learnt about in .
== Footnotes ==
== External links ==
Category:Series 10 (BFBS) audio stories
Category:Bernice Summerfield sources
Category:Stories set in the 27th century
Category:One part audio stories
Category:Bernice Summerfield audio stories