Port Nowhere Geography

Port Nowhere is an interstellar free port located inside the atmosphere of a gas giant orbiting an otherwise insignificant red dwarf star. This free port sits outside the jurisdictions of every interstellar nation, making it a haven for smugglers, pirates, refugees, and those seeking autonomy and/or anonymity from their homes. It is often described as a city floating in the clouds, but this is hyperbole disguising its nature as a sealed environment keeping the gas giant's hydrogen-helium atmosphere from affecting the residents.

Physically, Port Nowhere appears as though the remains of several dozen orbital habitats and starships from every known interstellar culture, extant and extinct, crashed together and decided to expand organically after getting to know each other better. Overall the conglomerated station is roughly ten miles long and four miles wide, though these dimensions are not uniform. One of the more notable physical features apparent from the outside are a pair of half kilometer wide rings with three large docking spurs each rising above and below them, one with Shi'ar design and the other with ancient Mephitisoid Empire features, which have formed a figure-eight. Looking closer at a spur on the opposite end of the station from the figure-eight rings one can make out the rear of a Kree dreadnought hull welded to the front half of a Skrull battlecruiser with a Universal Church of Truth "conversion" cruiser mounted perpendicularly directly above them that has been beaten and reshaped into a gesture of defiance. Near the 'trailing' edge of the station, battered by the gas giant's winds, a half mile tall statue of a past Zn'rx Emperor has been attached to the outside of a cylindrical habitat by one hand's clawed fingers. However, it is the giant kilometer wide and half kilometer tall dome near the center of the station that draws the most attention from incoming ships.

This dome is the gladiatorial arena of the Grandmaster, one of the Elders of the Universe who has made Port Nowhere his home. The arena is not necessarily a deathmatch, though fatalities have been known to happen, but a place where the crowds of residents and transients can be entertained by watching champions and gladiators from all over face each other. Almost no rules exist in the contest; the fights continue until one side yields or is unable to continue the fight. As can be expected, gambling on the matches is constant.

In addition to the gambling on the Grandmaster's champions, all kinds of gambling occurs all over the station. Because it sits outside all other jurisdictions, if an item is illegal anywhere else in known space it can usually be found at Port Nowhere. There is no central authority on the station, just various groups that run things in their territories as they see fit. An unspoken agreement between the majority of the groups keeps the station's various life support and artificial gravity systems repaired – even when hostilities break out between the various gangs and cartels. Should the station be attacked, an immediate cease-fire between the groups is declared; during an attack, the most common reaction is to flee in whatever ships will fly.

Port Nowhere is home to a thriving black market starship dealership and upgrade operation. Anything from small starfighters and shuttles through medium-sized tramp freighters are available for sale, and occasionally even larger warships have hit the gray market (though admittedly due to the station's clientele the demand for these is not as great); rarely, one can even find a second-hand Kymellian Smartship for sale in the shipyards. In addition, after-market parts and quasi-legal upgrades are for sale and installation in the station's shipyards, for the right price of course.

The existence and location of Port Nowhere is an open secret; everyone in the greater galactic community knows where it is and what happens there, but no one really talks about it. Even adventurers from Earth have visited the station, though details have yet to come to light.

Port Nowhere was recently visited by the Kree Captain Mar-Vell and his girlfriend Una upon their escape from the Kree Empire after Vell was arrested and court-martialed for disobeying orders when he refused to execute surrendered opponents on Earth. Since then, Port Nowhere has become a kind of unofficial home port for his small band of renegades. During this time, large portions of the station were damaged by a brawl between Vell and Paibok the Power-Skrull, although surprisingly no critical systems were damaged nor anyone killed.

Even more recently, Port Nowhere was visited by Adam Warlock, Thanos, and various allies of theirs in their quest for the Infinity Gems, which put them in temporary conflict with the Grandmaster, revealed as the holder of the Time Gem. Thanos, Warlock and their allies joined with the Grandmaster and many ships docked at the station to repel an attack by the Magus and the Universal Church of Truth, who were also seeking the Infinity Gems for their own purposes.

First Post-Reboot Appearance: (mentioned) INFINITY QUEST #1; (first seen) CAPTAIN MARVEL #

Game-Mechanical Details

Port Nowhere is built as a TL11^ station using standard space opera supersciences – gravity manipulation, force shields, FTL communications, and FTL sensors – while lacking in several areas. Its very nature means it requires almost constant maintenance somewhere in the station. It is a cultural and technological melting pot – Rigellian psychotronics are found side by side with Kree brain uploads and Shi'ar nanotechnology.

Design Notes:

1. Port Nowhere should not be confused with Knowhere, built inside the head of a decapitated Celestial. I'm still uncertain as to whether the Celestials are part of the Reboot, so I decided to instead make Port Nowhere equal parts Cloud City (from The Empire Strikes Back) and a number of Star Trek stations (notably Station K7 from "The Trouble With Tribbles" and the title station from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), with a bit of everything else thrown in for good measure.

2. I debated whether to add a GURPS Spaceships stat block in addition to the City Stats block. I ultimately decided against it because of the highly decentralized nature of the station and coupled with its sheer size (a forty square mile area when viewed from above or below, and of variably thickness.