Mutabilis

Mutabilis A novella based on the space trading game Oolite Part 2 of the Oolite Saga, by Drew Wagar. Sequel to Status Quo. More ebooks available at http://www.drewwagar.com License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 You are free: To copy, distribute, display and perform the work To make derivative works Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must give original credit to Drew Wagar Non-commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes Share Alike: If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a licence identical to this one For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the licence terms of this work Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from Drew Wagar Contents License .....................................................................................................................................3 Contents....................................................................................................................................4 Thanks to:.................................................................................................................................5 Can you read?...........................................................................................................................7 Prologue ...................................................................................................................................8 Chapter One............................................................................................................................10 Chapter Two...........................................................................................................................21 Chapter Three.........................................................................................................................35 Chapter Four...........................................................................................................................55 Chapter Five...........................................................................................................................75 Chapter Six.............................................................................................................................92 Chapter Seven ......................................................................................................................110 Chapter Eight........................................................................................................................129 Chapter Nine ........................................................................................................................154 Chapter Ten..........................................................................................................................178 Author’s Note.......................................................................................................................196 About the Author..................................................................................................................199 Thanks to: My wife Anita and my two boys Mark and Joshua, for letting me have time to write this. David Braben and Ian Bell for the original Elite game. Robert Holdstock for his original no-vella ‘The Dark Wheel’. All the readers of Status Quo, particularly those who took the time to email back and tell me how much they enjoyed the story. To Neil Badman, who won the coverpage competition. To all those who provided an entry for the coverpage competition – you can find all the oth- er entries on my website, they’re worth a look To Bob Lavellee, who did a fantastic professional job in editing the text and provided some useful feedback into the bargain In particular I’d like to thank Captain Hesperus, Star Gazer, Cmdr Maegil, DaddyHoggy, Rxke, Magamo, Jack_H, TGHC, Cos, Cat and Littlebear for their most excellent feedback, and their typo obliteration service. To Disembodied, for his excellent ‘Rough Guide’ to planets in the Elite universe and amaz-ing proof reading skills. To Ahruman, for keeping Oolite going after a change of leader. High praise indeed. The sheer scale of work has to be seen to be believed. Oolite has changed enormously since I wrote Sta-tus Quo. Dave Hughes (Selezen), for his invaluable assistance all matters to do with Raxxla, time-lines, inconsistencies and the various factions in the Elite universe. I hope you enjoy having your own crisis! To Dr. Nil, for advertising Status Quo within the game itself, with his excellent ‘Your Ad Here’ OXP add on. To Commander McLane, for improving my Tianve Pulsar OXP add on and generally being a good egg. Thanks for the encouragement! To P.A. Groove, for creating the ‘Famous Planets’ OXP add on and providing some of the scenery referred to in ‘Status Quo’ to players of ‘Oolite’. To Killer Wolf, for the loan of a ‘Vampire Mk1’, a fearsome new ship for Oolite players. ... - tailieumienphi.vn