Status Quo
This is a short story based on Oolite. Currently a work in progress, written by Drew Wagar
It is set in 3138, prior to current Oolite time (3142), but after the events of Elite (Year 3125). Dates for these events are given in Selezen's excellent hypothetical [Elite/Oolite chronology] and based on his interpretation of GalCop history.
The subject of the story is the how the Q_Bomb came to be invented.
Notes:
For readers familiar with Oolite, the story includes the Imperial Courier and SuperCobra OXP vessels. Whilst theses are well known and relatively common vessels by 3142, the author has made the assumption that these vessels didn't become a commonplace sight in GalCop space lanes until after the events of this story. Thus their appearance provokes alarm and surprise to the characters portrayed. The justification is that these vessels did not appear in the original 8-bit Elite computer games with which the author was familiar.
Unfortunately this doesn't quite gel with [Ewtkaticawata], which has the first Courier prototype coming into service around the year 2899, so somebody needs to provide a rationalisation of why the Courier wasn't seen in the original Elite (3125). This authors view is that perhaps it was always engaged in Galcop/Empire skirmishes outside of GalCop planetary space, still being a Navy only vessel, and not available to the general public. [Ewtkaticawata] has the Courier being available on general release in 3250. So an explaination of why it appears as an OXP in Oolite is also required... ;-)
