Pteron

The "Blue Labyrinth" of Pteron

The Linden Universe is filled with wonders, and I have come to suspect that no matter how long I travel through i,t I may never exhaust its possibilities. After leaving behind the cold, foggy streets of Cranberry Cove, the Fallen Hour took me to Pteron, the site of fantastic, awe-inspiring ruins that might have been some sort of city, religious complex, or work of art. Perhaps all three at once. Perhaps something altogether different. There is a truly numinous quality to the place, and noumenal as well, for what can be seen of it by the senses suggests some even greater mystery behind it.

Into the ruins

I arrived in what I will call now the Blue Labyrinth, a maze of elevated stairs and walkways that wind endlessly and often abruptly stop. Overhead were luminous wheel-like structures that may in fact have been living things...I have no idea. Likewise, in the depths of the city I found more luminous creatures that seemed to be organisms, but who took no notice of me.

Note the strange luminous wheels turning over the city...organisms of some sort?

More luminous beings beneath the city

In the center I found a complex that may perhaps have been designed for humanoids in proportion to a Terran or Gallifreyan. This was the only portion of the ruins of Pteron that in any way seemed recognizable to me. The rest was wholly alien.

A humanoid scale complex

With Humanoid scale Furnishings

In the Blue Labyrinth I came across a transmat system that teleported me to floating islands far above. Here the architecture was markedly different, and decidedly less human. My sense of the place was that is served some symbolic, religious function.

I have only scratched the surface of Pteron, and will definitely be back this way again.

The Transmat System

The Satellite of Love

Aboard the Satellite of Love

In the not too distant future, a mad scientist and his assistant were hatching an evil scheme. The abducted a temp assigned to their company and launched him into space, imprisoning him alone aboard a space station. There, they decided to test the limits of human sanity by forcing him to watch the most awful motion pictures ever made. To fight back, their victim cannibalized parts of the station to build his robot friends, and together they mocked the films they watched with the most scathing criticisms.

So runs the backstory of Mystery Science Theater 3000, one of the brightest, funniest pieces of comedy ever produced. To my surprise, I discovered in the Linden Continuum a replica of the Satellite of Love, the station that was the setting of this program. Inside this recreation, located on a sim called "This Island Earth," MST3K is shown episode after episode, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can drop in any time and catch the show.

The films are free, but as the movies are rented the owners do ask for donations to pay the operating costs. In the two years that I have been going, the patronage and donations have been enough to keep the laughter rolling.

So drop by "This Island Earth" and catch a showing at Squeebee's MST3K theater. You will be glad you did.

Catching a Show

The Satellite Outside

Cranberry Cove

An Emergency Landing in New England

I was in the Time Vortex aboard the Fallen Hour when a strange feeling of dread came over me. No sooner had this happened than the time capsule suddenly began the procedures for an emergency landing. I materialized on the rocky coast of a New England town, circa the early 21st century. The name of the place was Cranberry Cove.

It was, I believe, a 20th century Earth writer who observed that all sufficiently advanced science appears, to more primitive people, to be magic. This may be so, but the line between the two is nebulous. Is psychic power a form of magic? What about the sonic spells of the Carrionites? My entanglement with the Cult of Dagon in New Babbage proved to me that forms of magic can and do exist, especially within the bounds of Linden Space. So it was only mildly surprising to me to discover that I had been drawn to Cranberry Cove by a curse.

The Bed & Breakfast I used in Cranberry Cove

Taking up residence in a local Bed & Breakfast, I presented myself as a historian researching the colonial period of the town. Over time, I was to learn of the curse. In the 17th century the town fell victim to the witch hunts of the period, but apparently managed to ensnare one genuine witch, who laid a heavy curse upon the entire community. Their lives would forever be tainted by the thing they sought to stamp out..."magic." Worse, people descended from the original inhabitants of the town would find themselves inexplicably and irresistibly drawn back there once the older generation had died. For example, if you have a father in Cranberry Cove and he passes away, you will be compelled to return. As a result, the scattered descendants of Cranberry Cove went out into the world and were plagued by all sorts of supernatural phenomena...vampirism, lycanthropy, the fae, hauntings, etc. All these things they brought eventually back with them to the town.

The result is a picturesque New England town that is seething with the very darkest secrets.

Naturally, the question now is why was I drawn there? Certainly I cannot have any ancestors from the community. I have one suspicion...if I was present for the original curse it might affect me. And since I haven't been there yet, it means I will likely be paying Cranberry Cove a visit in the 17th century in the future of my own personal timeline.

In the meantime, however, I will continue to pass myself off as something else while exploring there.

Al Raqis: The Deep Desert

The Desert World of Al Raqis

The Fallen Hour materialized, and a simple scan of the outside reported an extremely arid atmosphere and soaring temperatures. Fortunately, I had just the thing to wear.

I had landed, apparently, on a barren desert world, but decided to explore it anyway. Things in the Linden Continuum are seldom as they appear. That truism proved correct again, as after wandering across the great wastes I discovered a very technologically advanced city.

A Settlement

The residents informed me I was on Al Raqis, a world which orbits "Lo Parabirra, one of the binary pair of stars in the Mu Draconis stellar region...Al Raqis is a dry and hostile environment. Water is almost as precious as the planet’s most sought-after mineral, Raqismanna, colloquially known as “the spice.” It was a valuable and highly contested world because of this rare commodity, and lay "at the border of several large star-faring empires, each claiming some right to the planet but most unable to back up their claim and take full control."

Independent prospectors search for this spice while factions compete for control of planetary and off world trade. Political and economic competition sometimes flares into open warfare all under the watchful eye of natives who want Al Raqis for Al Raqians.

The major political and social powers on Al Raqis are the Great Houses. These powerful corporate noble families obsess over economic dominance of interstellar commerce to finance their private troops, luxurious living, and ambitions to power. Each House has private armies and large off-world holdings including other planets.

I spent some time in the presence of a moderately successful spice prospector, who explained the complex political intrigues woven through Al Raqui life. I was also warned of the dangers of the desert, including hostile life forms. I had been extraordinarily lucky in getting there in one piece.

Fortunately, my host offered to return me to my ship via his prospecting ship the next day. After a pleasant evening, I returned to the Fallen Hour with every intention of returning to this world again.

New Babbage

The Metropolis of New Babbage

I have mentioned previously that the steampunk city of New Babbage was the place the Fallen Hour chose to plunge into when first she carried me from the confines of my own universe into the strange parallel of Linden Space. As such, I came to think of it as a home away from home. The name I have taken belonged to one of her citizens (until steam-driven parallel Daleks destroyed him), and many of the affectations adopted by both my regeneration and my TTC were influenced by that city.

She is a bustling metropolis, technologically poised in the midst of the Industrial Revolution but with scientific anomalies and oddities that astound and amaze. Composed of Babbage Square, Babbage Canals, Babbage Palisade, New Babbage (proper), Clockhaven, Wheatstone Waterways, the Academy of Industry, the Vernian Sea and Vernian Deep, Port Babbage, and the forbidding North Fells, she is one of the larger places of her kind. One can wander endlessly among her streets, stumbling across shops and pubs, mansions and mad scientists, street urchins and secret societies. And of course there is adventure. I have found myself in peril several times there, such as "The Black Heart," "The Dark Aether Falls," and "Shadow of the 13." Not to mention my entanglements with the Esoteric Order of Dagon, which is active there.

I have since moved on, since the death of Flora at the hand of cultists there. But such is my bond with New Babbage that I know I shall return again.

A view of the city

Port Babbage, on the Vernian Sea

A view from above

A clockwork Dalek

The Fallen Hour

The Steampunk "Fallen Hour" console room after she reformed herself in the image of New Babbage (click on all pics to enlarge)

My memories recovered, it was a small matter for me to pilot the Fallen Hour from the warehouse she was being kept in, and conceal her in Dr. Draegonne's home. She assumed the outward form of a wardrobe in his attic.

This might perhaps need some explanation. My people, the Time Lords of Gallifrey, were an ancient and advanced civilization before their fall. Having mastered matter and energy millions of years ago, they turned their attentions towards time. It is said that Rasilon, using a stellar manipulation device created by the great scientist Omega, collapsed a suitable star into a black hole and harnessed the power of that singularity to create our famous Time Travel Capsules. These devices, on the outside no larger than a small booth, are considerably larger inside. Labyrinthine halls and echoing chambers can be fit into their seemingly small shells. They are living things, these devices, semi-sentient entities composed of pure autron energy that are able to change their outer appearances to blend into surroundings and their inner configuration to suit the needs of their pilots. In other words, each capsule is bigger on the inside than the outside, can disguise itself, and can create and discard internal rooms as needed.

But these are all the least of a TTC's attributes. Their true value, and the power that made my people "Time Lords," is that a Time Travel Capsule can travel virtually anywhere in time and space. This is difficult to explain, but the TTC "dematerializes" at one point in the continuum and "rematerializes" in another. They are capable of actual "flight," but this is not really what they are designed to do. In ancient times, my ancestors used these devices to travel the length and breadth of the time-space continuum, and though they developed a policy of non-intervention, nevertheless appointed themselves the guardians of time travel and the police over those who would attempt to abuse it. It was the growing use of time travel by the Daleks that brought us both to war.

Of course, the Time Lords were long in decline by my birth, and most of the TTCs were left to slowly gather dust. My own Fallen Hour was one of them. She had been used by many of my distant ancestors, but by the arrival of the Time War was in deep, deep slumber. The Time Capsules, you see, are psychically linked to their pilots. They share a powerful bond. Without a pilot, a capsule slowly falls "asleep," and drifts deeper and deeper into this coma as the centuries tick by. Eventually, the animating consciousness fades out and the TTC is "dead." The Fallen Hour was headed to such an end when my father revived her and sent her to me.

Because of the psychic bond we formed, and because we were both badly damaged by our escape from the Time War, the Fallen Hour remodeled herself following our crash landing in New Babbage, taking on--just as I had--characteristics of our environment. Just as I would take my new name and manner of dress from New Babbage, so too did the Fallen Hour initially manifest curious steampunk characteristics. Her rooms and halls began to mirror what one sees in New Babbage. For many years, while New Babbage was my home base, the place I returned too between my journeys throughout the Linden Continuum, she remained this way. Following Flora's death, and my decision to leave New Babbage, the Fallen Hour has begun showing more unearthly, Gallifreyan traits once more.

Her more recent, Gallifreyan console room, in the colors of my family's Chapter House (Arcalian Green and Brown)

The Fallen Hour's New Babbage inspired console

Her latest Gallifreyan console.

New Babbagesque steampunk halls.

Her current halls.

The Cloisters, a massive, multi-storied vault at the center of the machine where the animate autron energy that makes up the Fallen Hour's living matrix is held.

The swimming pool.

A drawing room.

A quiet gallery.

The library.

A meeting room.

The Stardust Ballroom (Flora's request...she so loved to dance).

A cinema.

A dining room.

My suite.

The Infinity Room, from which any point in time and space can be observed.

A guest bedroom.

Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself...

My name is not "Damien Draegonne."

That name belonged, actually, to the kindly physician who cared for me when I was fished out of the Vernian Sea. Lacking a name of my own, I took his when he suffered his untimely demise. But it was Flora, of course, who gave me my nom de guerre. "Aside from the rather obvious pun, it is perfect for you, given that you are erratic, enigmatic, extraterrestrial, and an exile." She dubbed me Mister E.

Sorry, I seem to have gotten ahead of myself. Linear time can be so constraining, you understand.

Where was I? Ah yes, fished out of the sea. It was the steamship Panthalassa that found me (a splendid name for a vessel, I think). I was curiously undamaged, without a nick, bruise, or scar, but half-drowned and with no memory. How I came to be there in the sea was anybody's guess. It was assumed I fell from some ship. At any rate, the Panthalassa was there searching for a meteorite that had plunged from the sky. It had been seen by several local fishermen, accompanied by what was called the "groaning" or "wheezings" or a Great Engine. Given the proximity of these waters to New Babbage, a city filled with Steamlords and Evil Genii, it was possible the meteorite in question had actually been yet another Infernal Engine. The Panthalassa was there to make certain that was not the case. I was transferred to a smaller vessel and sent into the city while the crew continued their search.

Doctor Draegonne took me in, and in the confines of his sanitarium I attempted to recover from my amnesia. I could recall only the vaguest impressions--a terrible War, ships burning against a black sea, death all around. During one session, the good doctor pressed me for the name of the place I was born. I produced "Gallifrey," but neither of us could locate it on any map.

What was clear, however, was that my knowledge of medicine and science was extraordinary, even in a setting like New Babbage. It was this knowledge that won Dr. Draegonne over, allowing me even to assist him in the treatment of other patients. As he came to trust me I made the acquaintance of his daughter, Flora.

She was, in retrospect, rather smitten with me, and I suppose the first indication that I was something other than a man should have been the fact that I was not, like all the young men falling over themselves to court her, captivated by her beauty. I appreciated her first class mind, her will, but her physical endowments were all but lost upon me. She began calling me "Mister E" even before my true nature was discovered, finding it tedious to refer to me as her father did as "Patient 23."

Only when the Panthalassa returned to port, and the newspapers made much of her curious discovery, did I begin to remember who I was. For she had discovered, at the bottom of the Vernian Deep, a strange stone vault, an artifact marked with strange runes and which hummed and vibrated as if alive. When they dragged it on board, many of the superstitious sailors claimed the relic "sang" to them in their sleep, giving them dreams of impossibly distant places. Only when she came ashore in New Babbage did I too hear her siren song, and understood that it was meant for me.

She was calling.

Dr. Draegonne and Flora assisted me, at great personal effort, in getting into the warehouse where the artifact was being stored. All New Babbage's finest minds were studying her, but could not, in fact, even figure out how to open her doors. But in the dead of night, the three of us sneaking in, she opened for me at the slightest touch, and I remembered it all.

...I had been a member of the Arcalian Chapter at the Academy, a student in my one hundredth and sixty-seventh year when the Time War broke out. Like so many others, I was drafted. Stationed aboard the black hole carrier "Regulon's Wrath" I was at the battle of the Laughing Darkness when the Horde overcame us, led by the Could-Have-Been-King. We were destroyed, the ship was burning, collapsing into a singularity, when the Fallen Hour came to save me. She was one of the ancient Travel Capsules our ancestors used to make themselves the Lords of Time, a relic that had been gathering dust in my family's ancestral estate. My father had woken her and sent her to rescue me. And so, to my great shame, badly wounded and dying of radiation poisoning, I boarded the Fallen Hour and escaped. Programmed by my father to "save me," she followed her instructions the only way she knew how. She fled the confines of our own space-time continuum, sensing that Gallifrey and my people would all be lost, and bore me into a parallel one, this "Second" or "Linden" space. Badly damaged by the effort, she materialized near the city of New Babbage and fell into the sea...

And so it all came back. I was a Time Lord, one of the few remaining ones, a survivor of a destroyed planet and civilization. And the Fallen Hour, my living, semi-sentient Time Travel Capsule, had saved me from joining my race in oblivion.