Strip 520 -- First Seen: 2010-09-03
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
The sleeping quarters of Little Toot. It's a sort of bunk-bed arrangement, with a full-sized dresser on one wall, and along another, a desk with holoscreen and keyboard. Bert is in the bunk, in t-shirt and shorts, just waking up, stretching and rubbing sleep from his eye. Ernie, in day clothes, (and a holstered gun strapped to his thigh) is standing close by. (Ship is under normal acceleration, so we have 'gravity.')
 
Ernie: It's .35, sunshine. Shift change.
Bert: {yawn!} Have we hit turnaround yet?
 
Panel 2
Bert is pulling on his slacks. Ernie is over at the desk, looking at something on the holoscreen.

Ernie: A couple centimes ago. But we still need to water the rats.
Bert: {Sigh.} All right.

Panel 3
The brothers are standing by the door to the pressurized compartment where they're holding the prisoners. There's a heavy door with no window. Bert is opening the door (it swings outward) while Ernie stands a few feet away, his Heckler-Koch semi-auto drawn and ready for trouble. Bert also has one hand on his own holstered side-arm but hasn't drawn it.

Bert: Okay, rats – water and toilet break! One at a time.

Panel 4
Bert is standing by the open door, looking into the compartment. It's dark inside but we can see the back wall – it appears to be empty. The Brothers are momentarily perplexed.

Bert: Huh.
 
Panel 5
Switch views. Now we're inside the compartment, looking out the doorway. We can see Bert peering around the open door. Just inside the doorway, arrayed around the edges where they can't be seen from the outside, are the three men (since it's dark inside we can't see them distinctly), laying in wait to ambush anyone who would poke his head through the doorway.
 
Bert: Well I'll be a monkey's uncle.
 
Panel 6
Back outside the compartment, Bert is closing the door, flashing a wry smile at Ernie, who grins in response.
                       
Bert: Looks like our prisoners have escaped!
Ernie: You don't say!
 
Panel 7
Bert stands next to the closed door, speaking so that the prisoners inside can hear. Ernie stands on the other side, his gun still in hand.
Bert: Might was well decontaminate the compartment.
Ernie: Ok, you pump out the air while I set up the radiation sweep.

Panel 8
View from outside, as Little Toot flies backward, decelerating towards its destination.
                       
SFX: Thump! Thump! Thump!
Voices (from inside ship): Hey! Don't! We're in here!
Ernie: Whaddaya know, Bert, they're still in there!
Bert: Are you sure, Ernie?