Strip 55 - Click on page above to goto the next page. -- First Seen: 2008-11-28
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

Strip 55
Panel 1
Large panel re-establishing scene at the ice-hockey arena. Two hockey teams in pressurized suits are engaged in play. We can see the Guzmán’s viewing box (one of 8 actually) set up over the mid-field line, the rest of the arena stands also encased in steel/plexiglass pressure enclosures.

Announcer: As the second quarter begins it’s the Rock Hunters in the lead, 1-0. Hosely passes to Griepp, Shanower flanks Ennis as Griepp leads the charge.

Guy (from inside the viewing box): I must say I’m astounded by the risks these fellows are taking for, well, entertainment.

Panel 2
Inside the box, Guy and Ernie converse.

Ernie: What’s astonishing? These guys make good money and the women adore them.

Guy: But, but they’re so -- exposed.

Panel 3
Looking again at a hockey player on the ice, posed at about a three-quarters view. Close enough in we can see his helmeted head in suitable detail. It looks something like a motorcycle helmet with a glass bubble in the front wrapping around to the sides, and tucked into a segmented collar. A gridwork of metal stems in something like a baseball catcher’s mask pattern lay outside of the glass, reinforcing it.

Ernie: Our modern exo-suits rely mostly on the suit’s own tension to provide pressure on most of the body…

Ernie: Only the helmets are pressurized, and they can take a beating.

Panel 4
G and F and E and B in the box. G and E are still conversing while the women watch the game.


Guy: But they are not unbreakable, yes?

Ernie: Well, a sharp whack with a hockey-stick can break a face-plate, but …
Guy: Ah. So what would happen if a player’s faceplate were broken during a game?

Panel 5
Closer angle on Guy and Ernie. Guy is looking at Ernie with an arched eyebrow, signaling the obvious next question, which Ernie answers.

Ernie: There’d be a very good chance he would die from the vacuum and cold before we could get him back inside.

Ernie: But ‘high-sticking’ isn’t permitted.

Panel 6
Guy persists, following up like a district attorney grilling a witness. But Ernie doesn’t lose his cool.


Guy: But what if someone, uh … high-sticks anyway. Is there a penalty?

Panel 7
Shift back to a view of four hockey players, two from each team, in close-quarters action. We can see a fifth leaping across the background.

Ernie (from out of frame): They’re beaten.

Guy: Do you mean their team is beaten, they lose?


Panel 8
Guy and Ernie in the viewing box. Ernie is looking deadly serious and Guy is looking a bit queasy.

Ernie: No, the offending player is physically beaten by the other players. We take a dim view of potentially fatal fouls.