Authors: Lance Parkin,Lars Pearson
The planet Vulcan suddenly vanished in 2130.
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= In one alternate universe, a hydrogen accident had devastated America. Racing spaceships around the solar system was a spectator sport by 2130.
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2130 - The Face-Eater
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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.
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The eighth Doctor, Sam and Fitz arrived in London during the summer of 2134, and confirmed that the Earth was free of the Beast.
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A second wave of colonists was expected on Proxima 2 in 2136.
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? 2135 - The Space Pirates
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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.
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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.
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A string of fundamentalist Jihads killed many people on Earth.
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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.
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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 soon rendered their electronic equipment useless. The colony regressed to a medieval level, in which certain people - unknowingly tapping the Avalonian technology - performed “magic”.
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Dolphins’ ability to think in three dimensions made them ideal pilots for Earth’s first interstellar fighters.
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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.
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2146 - The Murder Game
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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.
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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.
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The Daleks Discover Earth
c 2146 - “The Daleks: The Terrorkon Harvest”
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On Skaro, one of the unknown creatures from the Lake of Mutations, the Terrorkon, attacked an underwater Dalek defence station. The Emperor and the Red Dalek watched as another mutation attacked it, saving the city.
& 2146 - “The Daleks: Legacy of Yesteryear”
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The Daleks begin a new survey of their home planet, discovering mineral riches and wiping out a race of sand creatures. One hoverbout inadvertently revived the group of original Daleks who had been in suspended animation for centuries, since the neutron explosion. These were the scientists Lodian, Zet and Yvric, who quickly determined that the new Daleks were without conscience. Even so, Yvric was keen to join the Daleks, but they exterminated him before he could even explain who he was. Zet realised that the Daleks would want to know about the Earth, a planet teeming with life and energy, and handed himself and Lodian over to them. Lodian escaped to a spaceship, planning to warn Earth of the Daleks. The spaceship exploded, killing the last two original Daleks and preserving the secret of Earth’s existence.
& 2146 - “The Daleks: Shadow of Humanity”
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The Emperor ordered the building of a road to the Lake of Mutations, but one Dalek questioned the order and sabotaged the destruction of “beautiful” plant life. The Emperor feared that the introduction of human qualities could prove a disaster to the Daleks. The rebel Dalek exploited the natural Dalek to obey by issuing a new command to “protect beauty”, and soon led a faction of Daleks as their Emperor. The Emperor quickly reasserted his power and destroyed the rebel.
& 2146 - “The Daleks: The Emissaries of Jevo”
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A space expedition from Jevo headed to Arides to prevent the spread of deadly pollen from that world. Their ship passed close to Skaro, and was snared by the Daleks’ magnetrap. The Emperor assumed the pollen wouldn’t affect Daleks, but the Jevonian leader Kirid tricked him into thinking otherwise. Kirid saved the universe from the pollen, but was tracked down and killed by the Daleks ... who nevertheless had started to worry about the strength of the human spirit.
& 2146 - “The Daleks: The Road to Conflict”
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The Daleks engineered a meteorite storm that damaged the Earth passenger ship
Starmaker
, which made a forced landing on Skaro. The Emperor was now obsessed with finding Earth - a planet hidden from Skaro by “skycurve” - as he was convinced that it was rich in polar magnetism and aluminium. Captain Fleet was captured and rescued by the children Jennie and Tom, but the Daleks destroyed the
Starmaker
. The three humans escaped in a Dalek transport ship to warn humanity about the Daleks... but the Daleks had now discovered the location of Earth, and planned its conquest.
& 2146 - “The Daleks: Return of the Elders”
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The Daleks attacked Colony Five on Titan, and experimented on six humans as another alien fleet entered the solar system. The mysterious aliens identified themselves as Elders, and explained that they have tended Earth and warned that the Daleks would soon invade. The Earthmen destroyed one Dalek ship in the rings of Saturn, but another escaped. The Dalek Emperor vowed not to fail in his second attempt to conquer Earth.
By 2146, the Supreme Council of the Daleks had become concerned by the rapid expansion of humanity. They would monitor the situation carefully for ten years. The Martian Axis sprang up on Mars and turned to terrorism, bombing Coventry.
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3D cameras were developed around this time.
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2148 - St Anthony’s Fire
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A mothership of the Chapter of St Anthony moved to pacify Betrushia, breaking up the planet’s artificial ring system to wrack Betrushia with meteorites. Loosed from its shackles, the organic catalyser became active and threatened all life that it encountered. The seventh Doctor convinced the Chapter as to the creature’s threat, and arranged for Betrushia’s destruction while instigating an evacuation. Appalled by the Chapter’s zealous actions, Bernice and Ace sabotaged the mothership’s engines, crippling it to suffer the same destruction as Betrushia and the organism. The Doctor helped the Betrushia survivors relocate to the sister planet of Massatoris.
Earth funded a small Transit station on Charon, a moon of Pluto. The Martian Axis terrorists destroyed the Montreal monorail system, resulting in many deaths.
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The Arcturans attacked the Martian colony on Cluut-ett-Pictar.
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A premodernist architectural revival occurred in the mid-twenty-second century.
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The fashions of the 1970s had a revival in the mid-twenty-second century.
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c 2150 - “The Grief”
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The seventh Doctor and Ace landed on the dead planet Sorshan and met some marines from the Earth starship
Rosetta
. They worked for the Cartographic Historical Exploratory Service (CHEX). A device used the marines as material to recreate the voracious Lom - the Doctor and Ace escaped as the planetary shield and toxin were reactivated, killing the aggressors.
In the 2150s, the Cybermen invaded the colony world of Agora, making it one of their breeding colonies. Human Overseers were in charge of harvesting people to become Cybermen.
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Eurogen Butler withdrew from Dimetos in 2151. A group of miners and officials remained behind to continue establishing the colony.
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