B00DPX9ST8 EBOK

by Parkin, Lance

  Cauchemar’s experiments had rendered him unsuitable as a host, and he was exiled. He returned to find his lover Jasmine among the reincarnated populace, but his “alien” presence disrupted the Creator and killed her. [292]

  c 2110 - Kursaal [293]

  Gray Corporation owned the planet Saturnia Regna, and was constructing the theme park/holiday destination Kursaal there. The eighth Doctor and Sam wanted to visit Kursaal, but erroneously arrived some years before it had been built. Gray Corp’s bulldozers unearthed the Jax cathedral, enabling the revived Jax virus to turn human corpses into animated were-creatures. The founder of Gray Corp, Maximillian Gray, was infected with the virus while he was still alive; moonlight catalysed his transformation into a Jax pack leader. A struggle led to Gray’s death, and the virus secretly passed into Sam, who departed with the Doctor.

  Because interstellar travel and communications were still relatively slow, colony planets were often left to their own devices. The founding fathers of these worlds were often important, and all sorts of political and social experimentation was attempted.

  Many colonies were set up and directly controlled by the corporations, and many others were reliant on them for communications, transport and technology. [294] The EB Corporation was among the first to offer an escape from Earth in their warpship, The Back to Nature, which was commissioned in 2112. Arcadia was a temperate planet, the second in its system, and was less than a thousand light-years from Earth. A number of years previous, the EB Corporation had set up a survey camp on the planet, the site of which would become the capital city Landfall, and set about terraforming the world. The planet came to resemble medieval Europe, and was ready for the first influx of colonists. Arcadia eventually became the Corporation’s centre of operations. [295] The eleventh Doctor took Amy to Arcadia at some point. [296]

  Early during Earth’s interstellar expansion, a colony ship landed on Demigest and contact was lost. A rescue mission was also wiped out, but only after one member, Trudeau, dictated a log entry that became known as The Black Book of Demigest. Space and time never settled on Demigest as they did on most other worlds. The original colonists mutated to become the Warlocks of Demigest, and obtained great powers. [297]

  No intelligent life was discovered on the outskirts of the galaxy, where the stars and planets were sparse. Before long, man abandoned all attempts to venture out past Lasty’s Nebula. Mankind’s colonisation efforts focused towards the centre of the galaxy - “the hub”, as it became known. A thriving interplanetary community grew up.

  The planet Evertrin was the site of the annual Inner Planets Music Festival, known as Ragasteen. The biggest bands in space attended to plug their discods: Deep Space, M’Troth, The Great Mothers of Matra, Is Your Baby a God and Televised Instant Death were all at Ragasteen 2112. The riggers on Earth changed the style of music every three years to keep it fresh. Zagrat, for example, were very popular during the “headster time”, but teenagers found their discod “Sheer Event Shift” embarrassing just a few years later. [298]

  Worlds such as the five planets of the Sirius system and Delta Magna rapidly became industrialised and overpopulated. [299] Burglars began to use computers, forcing people to install audio locks. [300] Tourism on Earth was a thing of the past. [301] The lethal drink Bubbleshake, invented by the unscrupulous Joseph-Robinson corporation, was originally an appetite suppressant. Unchecked, it was addictive, leading to memory loss, hyperactivity and compulsive behaviour. The substance was eventually outlawed. [302]

  c 2111 - The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People [303]

  On Earth, the Morpeth-Jetsan company set up industrial operations to harvest crystal-diluric acid. The process killed so many workers that Morpeth-Jetsan created the Flesh: a malleable substance used to create human clones, Gangers, that were remote-controlled by their progenitors. The Gangers were treated as expendable, although an electrical surge on the Isle of Sheppey had granted a Ganger enough autonomy to kill its controller.

  The eleventh Doctor brought Amy and Rory to an acid-mining facility built into a thirteenth-century monastery, as he wished to see the Flesh technology in its early days. A solar tsunami caused all of the Gangers present to became autonomous. Hostility arose between the workers and their Ganger counterparts, and the facility was destroyed. The Doctor took the survivors - one human and two Gangers - back to the mainland, where they held a press conference to call for Ganger rights.

  Back on the TARDIS, the Doctor revealled that for several months now, the Amy travelling with him and Rory had been a Ganger planted in their midst by the Silence. He dissolved the duplicate into Flesh as the real Amy went into labour...

  2112 - The Gemini Contagion [304]

  Zalnex Corporation’s researchers on the ice planet Vinsk used cloned Meme-Spawn to create Gemini: a dual-purpose handwash that made anyone who used it fluent in every known language. Gemini was only tested on the native Vinskians, and turned humans into savage mutants. The eleventh Doctor and Amy helped to stop an initial shipment of Gemini from reaching Earth, and used heat to destroy some giant Meme-Spawn.

  & 2112 - Martha in the Mirror [305]

  The planets Anthium and Zerugma had been at peace for twenty years, and were scheduled to sign a peace treaty in Castle Extremis. The tenth Doctor and Martha were present as Zerguman soldiers hidden within the interior dimension of the Mortal Mirror stormed Extremis, but were killed by a combination of sonic waves and combat with troops from the Galactic Alliance. Manfred Grieg emerged from the Mirror’s interior. With the treaty assured, the Alliance planned to turn Extremis into a theme park.

  Earth discovered universal concrete in 2115. [306] Welford Jeffery invented antigrav technology. [307] In 2115, human archaeologists found the Martian city of Ikk-ett-Saleth completely abandoned. [308]

  2116 - Nightmare of Eden [309]

  Interplanetary standards and conventions were set up that applied to the whole of Human Space. The Galactic Credit (z) was a convertible interplanetary currency. Credits resembled colourful blocks of plastic, and were used for everything from buying a drink to funding an expedition to a new planet. None of this prevented a recession from hitting the galactic economy.

  Laser technology advanced during this period. Stun laser weapons became available for the first time. Entuca lasers capable of carrying millions of signals were now used for telecommunications. Finally, vast amounts of information could now be recorded on laser data crystals.

  Crime was a problem in the galaxy. Drug trafficking increased when the drug XYP, or Vraxoin, was discovered. Vrax addicts felt a warm complacency at first, followed by total apathy and thirst. Inevitably, its effects were fatal. The narcotic ruined whole planets and communities until the planet that was the only known source of the drug was incinerated. A Vraxoin merchant (drug trafficker) risked the death penalty if caught. Molecular scanners were developed that could detect even minute quantities of the drug. All citizens were required to carry an ident-plaque.

  Interplanetary tourism developed at this time. Government-subsidised interstellar cruise liners, each holding nine hundred passengers, travelled between Station Nine and Azure. Passengers could travel either economy or first class, the former seated in “pallets” and forced to wear protective clothing, the latter allowed a great deal more freedom and luxury.

  The scientist Tryst attempted to qualify and quantify every lifeform in the galaxy. As Tryst’s log (published to coincide with a series of lectures given by the zoologist) recounted, his ten-man expedition travelled to Zil, Vij, Darp, Lvan, Brus, the windswept planet Gidi and the temperate world Ranx. Finally, Tryst’s ship, the Volante, travelled past the Cygnus Gap to the three-planet system of M37. The second planet contained primitive life: molluscs, algae and insects. As well as taking visprints, they used a Continuous Event Transmitter (CET) machine - a device that encoded samples on laser crystals, enabling people to physically interact with them.

  Six months before arriving at Azure, the Volante visited the planet
Eden. They lost a member of the crew, Stott, who was secretly working for the Intelligence Section of the Space Corps. It was later discovered that Mandrels from the planet Eden decomposed into Vraxoin when they died, and that Tryst had partnered with Dymond, the pilot of the Hecate, to smuggle the material. Owing to intervention by the fourth Doctor, Romana and K9, the two of them were arrested.

  The prison moon Erratoon was forgotten about during the galactic recession. The thousands serving life sentences there had families, and the robot wardens monitored their descendents, making them do maintenance. [310]

  2118 (April) - The Art of Destruction [311]

  Earth risked famine, and Agriculture Technology research was underway to prevent this. The tenth Doctor and Rose thwarted the Wurms in Chad, but the Wurms had tracked down a warren of their archenemies, the Valnaxi, to Earth.

  During the second and third decade of the twenty-second century, the Western Alliance banks foreclosed on Earth and the World Civilian Police Corps was formed. The Oceanic-Nippon bloc was working on interstellar flight, and the first supra-light vessel New Horizon was launched in 2126, taking five thousand colonists on a two-year journey to Proxima 2, the first colony in an alien environment. Proxima City was founded there. The second human colony world was called Earth 2.

  UNIT had been disbanded by this time. The records of Global Mining Corporation listed the Doctor as a security consultant from 2127 (adding that his female companion graduated Geneva Corporate University in 2124) following an unrecorded incident in Albania. [312] Proxima 2 was the first of the settled worlds and humans would come to share it with the Centauri. [313] The Particle Matter Transmission (Deregulation) Act was passed in 2122. [314] The first humans to arrive on Hitchemus, a planet on the edge of explored space, were hunters in pursuit of the tigers that lived there. The colony of Port Any was built shortly afterwards. It became famed for music and attracted musicians from across human space. [315]

  & 2125 - Kursaal [316]

  The eighth Doctor and Sam returned to Kursaal when it was open for business. Sam mentally succumbed to the Jax virus within her, but was stymied in her attempts to bathe in moonlight and complete her transformation. The Jax cathedral was obliterated, and the destruction of technology beneath it caused the Jax virus to perish. Unknown to the Doctor and Sam, the founder of the ecoterrorist organisation HALF, Bernard Cockaigne, remained at large as a Jax drone.

  The exploration vessel Hydrax was lost en route to Beta Two in the Perugellis Sector. Its officers included Captain Miles Sharkey, science officer Anthony O’Connor and navigation officer Lauren Macmillan. It fell through a CVE into the pocket universe of E-Space. [317] The Hydrax disappeared around 2127. The InterSpace Incorporated ship had a crew of two hundred and forty-three. InterSpace refused to pay out pensions for the lost crew, claiming they might be found. IMC later claimed to have discovered traces of the ship in order to blackmail Piper O’Rourke - whose husband Ben had been an engineer on the Hydrax - into revealling details about the Eden Project. The ship was never discovered. [318]

  The planet Vulcan suddenly vanished in 2130. [319]

  = In one alternate universe, a hydrogen accident had devastated America. Racing spaceships around the solar system was a spectator sport by 2130. [320]

  2130 - The Face-Eater [321]

  The eighth Doctor and Sam discovered the F-Seeta, a telepathic gestalt of the ratlike natives, was responsible for a series of murders on the first human colony world of Proxima 2. The colony was saved, but at the cost of the Proximans’ group mind.

  On Betrushia around the year 2133, as it had done many times over the centuries, war broke out between the Ismetch and the Cutch. Millions died in the conflict, which became the longest and most bitter struggle the planet had seen for three hundred years. The Ismetch had an early success at Dalurida Bridge under Portrone Ran. [322]

  The eighth Doctor, Sam and Fitz arrived in London during the summer of 2134, and confirmed that the Earth was free of the Beast. [323] A second wave of colonists was expected on Proxima 2 in 2136. [324]

  ? 2135 - The Space Pirates [325]

  As space travel became more common, the Earth government introduced a series of regulations to better control the space lanes in its territory. Space was divided into administrative and strategic Sectors. All flights now had to be logged with Central Flight Information and a network of Mark Five Space Beacons were established to monitor space traffic. The Interstellar Space Corps was given the latest V-Ships, armed with state-of-the-art Martian Missiles (H-bombs were considered old-fashioned by this time) and carrying squadrons of Minnow Fighters. The V-Ships were powered by Maximum Boost atomic motors. The Space Corps routinely used mind probes to interrogate their prisoners. The resources of the Space Corps were stretched very thin: they fought brush wars in three sectors, acted as customs and excise officials and attempted to curtail the activities of space pirates.

  For two years, pirates were active in the Ta system and hijacked five of Milo Clancey’s floaters, each of which contained fifty thousand tons of argonite ore. Despite a dozen requests, the Space Corps did little to help. As an old-timer, Clancey was suspicious of authority; he had lost his registration documents thirty years before and he didn’t maintain his feedback link to CFI.

  The Space Corps became involved when the pirates began to break up government space beacons to steal the argonite. The V41-LO was more than fifty days out of Earth, under the command of General Nikolai Hermack, Commander of the Space First Division. The ship was ninety minutes away from Beacon Alpha 4 when it was broken up by pirates. Clancey’s ship was detected nearby, and he was questioned but quickly released. The second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe were recovered from Beacon Alpha 4, but they too were innocent.

  The real culprit was Maurice Caven. His pirates were organised enough to equip themselves with Beta Dart ships, costing one hundred million credits each, that could outrun virtually everything else in space. Some time ago, Caven had kidnapped Dom Issigri and blackmailed his beautiful daughter Madeline, the head of the Issigri Mining Company, into providing facilities for him on the planet Ta. The Corps hunted Caven down and executed him.

  After this, the Issigri Mining Company was renamed the Interplanetary Mining Company, or IMC for short. [326] Humanity’s contact with the Arcturans was proving fruitful. The Arcturans allowed limited human settlement in their sector, and supplied humanity with specialised drugs. Some humans became interested in studying Arcturan literature.

  On Earth, however, things were getting desperate. The Islam-dominated Earth Central, based in Damascus and led by an elected president, was unable to prevent society from collapsing. An unprecedented energy crisis led to draconian restrictions on consumption and the foundation of the Energy Police. The invention of the vargol generator did little to relieve the demands for fuel.

  In 2137, with Earth desperate for energy, corporations successfully lobbied for the repeal of all the anti-pollution laws brought in over the last century and a quarter. Three years later, an American subsidiary of Panorama Chemicals filled the Carlsbad Caverns with plastic waste, and the oceans of the world were a sludge of industrial effluent. Mineral water became a precious commodity. The whale finally became extinct, and auto-immune diseases - “the plague” of over a century before - returned.

  Despite this, human life expectancy was now one hundred and ten years, and the population was soaring. Although it had religious objections to gambling, Earth Central introduced the Eugenics Lottery, and couples were forbidden from having children unless they won. [327]

  A string of fundamentalist Jihads killed many people on Earth. [328] Eurogen Butler colonised Dimetos in 2142, and plundered the planet’s mineral wealth, including aragonite. The indigenous population wouldn’t accept relocation offworld, so Eurogen Butler all but exterminated them. [329]

  A colony ship made landfall on the planet Avalon in the year 2145. The colonists discovered an ancient Avalonian technology which allowed them to perform miracles, but so
on rendered their electronic equipment useless. The colony regressed to a medieval level, in which certain people - unknowingly tapping the Avalonian technology - performed “magic”. [330]

  Dolphins’ ability to think in three dimensions made them ideal pilots for Earth’s first interstellar fighters. [331]

  Humanity designed Leviathans - enormous multi-generation ships to the stars, with an independent ecosystem inside - in the mid-twenty-second century. Several prototype Leviathans were built until the interstellar drive was invented, and photon-speed travel made Leviathans obsolete. With Earth’s governments moving against them, the Sentinels of the New Dawn populated a disused Leviathan with clones and slept in cryo-freeze as the Leviathan travelled toward the planet Flegathon in the Nyad system. The biomechanoid Herne, the Sentinels’ chief assassin, kept watch over the clones. Zeron, a computer programme designed to control prison vessels, oversaw the Leviathan. [332]

  2146 - The Murder Game [333]

  The European Government and the Terran Security Forces (TSF) were established by this time. The First Galactic Treaty had been signed. The Selachians had menaced Terra Alpha.

  The second Doctor, Ben and Polly answered a distress call and landed in the Hotel Galaxian, a space station in Earth orbit. Two scientists, Neville and Dorothy Adler, were trying to sell assassination software to the Selachians. Neville Adler was killed and the space hotel burned up in the atmosphere. Dorothy Adler could not work the software without her husband.

  In 2146, the American economy collapsed, and there were food riots. [334] The Doctor was in America at the time, and he was powerless to stop cannibals from killing Sonia Bannen shortly after she saved her son. Mark Bannen was placed on board a huge colony ship bound for a new star system. The stardrive misphased in the Elysium system and the colony ship crashed there. [335]