[Scenario Seed] The Borderland Smugglers.

[Catsmate]

Another quickie from my notes, I have a more elaborate idea which I'll post as I bash it into shape.
Vaguely inspired by Hodgson’s The House on the Borderland and partially by the idea of things from elsewhere 'leaking through', or otherwise impinging on our universe.

The Borderland Smugglers.
A long, long, long time ago They rampaged through the Local Group¹ of galaxies, ravaging, killing and enslaving² everything in Their path. But some of the people on those planets survived. Eventually Something stopped Them, none of the survivors are quite sure who, or what, let alone why or how, and a place emerged (or was created) for the refugees and survivors.
It’s called the Borderland.

Most of it’s inhabitants aren’t quite sure what the Borderland actually is, it’s much more than a city but less (or perhaps more) than a planet; it’s a pretty big place, sprawling atop and around a cluster of barren mountains, their interiors a mass of caves and tunnels, some natural and many not.

It’s a violent place, populated by scatterings of poorly adjusted refugees from the numerous worlds destroyed by Them, and the descendants of those survivors; beings of a mess of species and motivations, including slavers and thieves.
And worse.

A long time later, when new life had emerged, in one of the galaxies some of it started looking up and noticed something odd. On Earth it’s called the Local Bubble, or Local Cavity³, a relative gap in the gaseous ‘interstellar medium’ of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy. Scientists attribute it to a series of massive supernovae. They’re almost right in that.
There are many other such cavities in the Local Group.

Mostly the new generations of life ignored the Borderland, if they even knew it existed. Until some of the inhabitants learned the surprisingly simple trick of how to leave their pocket universe and reach elsewhere.

A few of those inhabitants tried conquest or escape, this generally didn't work well. Some of the inhabitants turned to trading, odd substances and odder technology from the Borderland for resources from Outside. Technology, weapons, materials and people.





1. The Local Group of galaxies consists of three large galaxies, the Andromeda Galaxy (largest), our own Milky Way and the Triangulum Galaxy (third largest) along with about fifty far smaller 'dwarf' galaxies.

2. And worse. Much worse.

3. The Local Bubble is a relative cavity in the interstellar medium (gas and dust, mostly lone hydrogen atoms) that fills the space between stars and planets of the Orion Arm in the Milky Way.  It is at least eighty parsecs years across and possesses a density of ionised hydrogen of about 50,000 atoms per cubic metre, less than one-tenth of the average for the Milky Way.

[Catsmate]

Further thoughts on the Borderland.
The Borderland has more of a Cthulhu-esque flavour than classic Doctor Who. Odd magic and Gates rather than spaceships. But then the Whoniverse, especially in the EU, has distinct Lovecraftian elements; Doctor^VII effectively used a magic spell, complete with group chanting, to transport something from Ry'leh to San Francisco that time.

Plus I see the pocket universe of the Borderland as being from the early stages of the universe, when the rules and physical laws were a little looser. Also the effects of the pocket have significantly slowed the passage of time, preserving things, species and technology long gone from the main universe.


The smugglers.
A small group, perhaps analogous to a Magician's Guild, figured out the way to open a Gate (i.e. an artifical wormhole) and members of their organisation travel to Earth, and elsewhere, to trade, steal and explore.
They have a few 'local contacts' who arrange to obtain needed goods in advance and have them ready.

• This provides several 'hooks' to involve UNIT, the Misfit Mob, the police, Torchwood and other groups, as well as such contacts purchase, or otherwise obtain, odd items; drums of chemicals, kilometre coils of copper wire, bottles of heavy water, frozen containers of animal carcasses, seeds, human blood samples, weapons, slaves et cetera.
• In exchange they trade odd alien drugs, odder animals, slaves, weapons, medical technology and weird artefacts. These can cause strange effects on humans...

These Gates can only be opened periodically, "When the Stars Are Right".....

• Easily predicted by a suitable piece of software like Stellarium.

To open a Gate from Earth, with our without a corresponding one on the other end, requires some basic electronics, a number of large super-capacitors, a power supply of around 25 kilowatts (more than the common domestic but well within the scope of a small industrial  connection or a couple of generators), some scaffolding to hold the elements and rather a lot of wire (steel, aluminium, copper and silver) that's braided together appropriately and various small, powerful, magnets (common RE magnets are fine).

Most of the smugglers operating on Earth are humanoid, in the upright biped sense anyway, using concealing clothing and/or advanced disguises to hide their alien nature. Of course they aren't necessarily familiar with humans and their culture.
Such smugglers may have psychic powers, abilities analogous to 'magic', strange powers and weird alien technology.

• Their most common gadget is the "hollowskin", a form of  disguise similar to the skinsuit used by the Slitheen. This is produced from a human, or animal body, or (more commonly) a clone thereof. Smugglers often keep a few spares, in a refridgerator or tank of nutrient solution. These suits leave genuine fingerprints and genetic traces, though these may be slightly 'off' compred to humn norms.

The pocket universe.
The 'planet' is an artifical construct, analogous to an Alderson disk¹, though with no star in te centre.

The inner surface of the spatial pocket glows continuously with a reddish light, the result of trapped photons losting energy when bouncing around. Outside on the Borderland this provides a dim red illumination about equal to twilight.

The atmosphere outside is more-or-less human breathable, a bit low in oxygen (penalise heavy exertion) and high in the noble gases, krypton and xenon (the latter can have odd effects on humans, as I mentioned here).
There are chambers, some of them enormous, with very different  atmospheres; high-oxygen, chlorine/fluorine et cetera, for alien races.

The gravity is also a little (~11%) higher than Earth. Due to the cold, temperatures average about 4°C, winter clothing is appropriate, air masks are recommended.









1. A hypothetical megastructure (wiki).The concept appeared in Stross's Missile Gap..
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