Strip 185 -- First Seen: 2009-05-29
Escape From Terra is updated with new pages every Monday through Friday.

QV on a short break

QUANTUM VIVE is taking a break for a few weeks, as we prepare for Part 2 of the Novo Palermo story, and also for a Kickstarter campaign for Part 1, which will start in September.

In the meantime, Not-Safe.Space will continue, as a murder mystery begins and the relationship between Eithne and Diana develops in unexpected directions.

Not-Safe.Space is a NSFW strip but more than half the pages are SFW so I've set those to *not* require a Patreon membership. Readers should be able to follow the story without seeing the NSFW pages. If I've done this right.

Kickstarter successful and closed

The Kickstarter campaign for Not-Safe.Space Chapter 3 concluded successfully on April 21, and Scott extended the time allowed for late pledges until May 19.

Books have been ordered from the printer and Scott will be spending the next week or so setting up and sending the PDF files to those who asked for them.

(There are still six of you who have not responded to the survey asking for e-mail and snail-mail addresses, he'll do the best he can.)

Thanks to all for supporting this Kickstarter!

The Transcript For This Page

Panel 1
Three-shot of Smyth, Ernie and Bert at the café table. Show some background to re-establish the scene. Smyth is holding up his wrist-PDA, flashing a small holoscreen where the brothers can see it. Ernie's eyes are wide, as are Bert's who blurts out a remark.

Caption: Using his wrist PDA, Smyth shows the Guzmán brothers how much they can earn delivering ice to a mysterious planetoid.

Bert: Hell, for that much gold, we'll deliver it to the Sun! On our backs!

Panel 2
Side shot of the three at the table again, where we can see Ernie kicking Bert in the shin, again. Ernie is trying to be smooth.

Ernie: Yes, that should be quite sufficient. Of course we will need a down payment ...

Panel 3
Two-shot of Smyth flashing his PDA holoscreen at Ernie again. Ernie is struggling to maintain his cool.

Ernie: Yes, um, that should cover our fuel, supplies and ship's chandlery costs.

Panel 4
Focus on Smyth, although we can see Ernie to the right, and the Pale Man in his booth behind Smyth.
Smith: Do you have a fast ship?
Ernie: Fast? It made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs!


Panel 5
Under the table, we can see Bert's foot kicking Ernie's shin.
Ernie: That is to say, we should have no problem making a rapid delivery.

Panel 6
A high-angle shot, from between Bert and Ernie, showing the entire table and the three men. Smyth has pulled a thin, flat pad about the size of an 8.5x14 sheet of thick paper out of his attaché case which is now laying open on the table. The face of the pad is 2/3 full of lettering (which we can't read from here) and Smyth is holding it forward to where the Guzmáns can place their thumb prints in a box at the bottom. (At this moment Ernie has his thumb on the box and Bert is holding his thumb forward.)

Smyth: If you will, gentlemen.


Panel 7
In the foreground, we see the three men at their table. In the background, we see the cashier's stand with Babbette standing behind it. Smyth is keying something into his PDA. Babbette is reacting to a “DING” sound coming from her cash register. The brothers are grinning at each other.

Smyth: A pleasure doing business.

SFX (cash register): DING!