The Vault

Elite, The Dark Wheel, Chapter 1

From the moment that the trading ship, Avalonia, slipped its orbital berth above the planet Lave, and began to manoeuvre for the hyperspace jump point, its measureable life-span, and that of one of its two-man crew, was exactly eighteen minutes. The space station gently span away into the shadows...
Posted 07 Mar 2009 | The Dark Wheel | No Comments

Elite, The Dark Wheel, Chapter 2

In space, everyone can hear you scream . . . As long, that is, as you’re equipped with a RemLok survival mask. An instant after Alex Ryder hit the hard vacuum, a skin of plasFibre had been shot across his body from nozzles on the face piece, keeping him...
Posted 07 Mar 2009 | The Dark Wheel | No Comments

Elite, The Dark Wheel, Chapter 3

The best way to see the wreckplace at Tionisla is to approach it from the Sun (a reasonably safe thing to do since Tionisla, being a Democracy has few pirates in its system). Tionisla itself is a bright yellow world, and the cemetery is always between the planet and...
Posted 07 Mar 2009 | The Dark Wheel | No Comments

Elite, The Dark Wheel, Chapter 4

‘You’ve got a ship,’ said Rafe, ‘You’ve got money. You’ve got a co-pilot who’s a better shot than you, but not for long I hope. Now it’s up to you, young Alex. And one thing more. If Jason were here he’d have this to say. In time of trouble,...
Posted 07 Mar 2009 | The Dark Wheel | No Comments

Elite, The Dark Wheel, Chapter 5

Out of Witch-Space: the dizziness, the slight shudder, the brief disorientation. Ahead of them, the distant, red-blue disc of the planet Xezaor was only slightly brighter than the gleaming field of stars around. The planet’s sun was dim and very close by. It glowed red. A dying star, as...
Posted 07 Mar 2009 | The Dark Wheel | No Comments

Elite, The Dark Wheel, Chapter 6

They had been trading now for three standard months, and their Cobra craft, the Nemesis, was scarcely recognisable as the battered tomb-place of Trader Henry Bell. With new insignia, new welding, new colour and the pods and swellings of the armaments housings, it began to look like a fighter....
Posted 07 Mar 2009 | The Dark Wheel | No Comments

Elite, The Dark Wheel, Chapter 7

They had been set up, of course. And in a way, they went into the set-up gamely. Alex checked up on the planet Cirag and discovered that it was not listed with the Official Planetary Register. That was the reason for its unfamiliar name. Not to be registered was...
Posted 07 Mar 2009 | The Dark Wheel | No Comments

Elite, The Dark Wheel, Chapter 8

The holoFac of Rafe Zetter gleamed and shimmered on the bridge of the Nemesis, as if with pride. Behind it, the full face of Lave was a welcome and relaxing sight. The last of the Mymurth and their precious parasites had been off-loaded into two Navy Asp-type ships. The...
Posted 07 Mar 2009 | Elite, The Dark Wheel | No Comments