Torus

The Torus was the common name for the supra-orbital facility that triggered the Cataclysm.

The Torus was officially named the Murgowsky Temporal Intervention Station. Powered by a magnetically contained black hole, it used an extended network of quantum filaments to create a gravitational distortion field capable of bending space time back on itself. Its original design was only intended to create a lensing effect through which all moments in human history could be observed. However, once activated, the Torus detected multiple timelines. Attempts to focus on and collect energy samples from a convergence of these otherwise distinct timelines led to the Cataclysm. The convergence itself was a paradox as it was both the cause of and the direct result of the attempt to investigate it by the Torus.

## Name Origin

The Torus is so-named because when represented in three-dimensional displays, the space-time distortion created by the station appeared vaguely toroidal in shape. Since the distortion was actually an eleven-dimensional event, it’s actual geometry was much more complicated than any three-dimensional shape.

## History as part of The Plan

After The Custodian inadvertently granted The Doctor and The Engineer entrance to the Torus through a fissure, The Doctor and The Engineer spent several years aboard the facility learning its basic principles. Once they established that it was safe to use the fissures to travel to other timelines, they were only able to make limited trips into other realities at first. They used the Torus to return to their own timelines a year before leaving it and established false identities in order to infiltrate Apex Solutions, the technology firm that The Refugee was using to advance his own agenda. They were able to secure basic understanding of how the Refugee planned to navigate the fissures (though not his final destination) and even procure a working prototype of a device he used to map the fissures. With this information, they were able to expand their travels. Assisted by Willis, they eventually located a biochip processor that would allow them to expand the Refugee’s mapping strategy to a massive scale.

With the biochip, The Doctor, The Engineer, and The Custodian entered what they called the Akasha. The biochip was able to translate the data coming through the lensing effect created by the Torus and create a sensorium in which the human mind could process the multi-dimensional space. The physical interface for this experience involved being fully wired into the hardware in the Torus and connected to the biochip itself. Once wired into the Akasha, extraction was difficult, so all three spent an extended period surveying various timelines.

The Torus was briefly occupied by a hostile force when operatives from the UEB used a fusion portal to enter the station. Most of the active team on the Torus was detained by the invading forces, but The Doctor, The Engineer, and Taffy escaped. Though it took them several years, they gathered the intelligence and resources needed to subdue the intruders. The UEB forces were ultimately only on the Torus for a few hours before The Doctor, The Engineer, and Taffy wrested control back from them.