Strip 741 -- First Seen: 2011-07-07
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
Enviro-suited Ernie is just outside the exterior airlock hatch on Sweet Liberty. He has a line with one end tied to a cleat on the hatch frame, and the other end around his waist, as he begins climbing down the ladder to the comet surface. Ernie is also wearing the jet-pack seen in the 'Leap of Faith' arc.
Caption: As Ernie takes the first EVA, he ties a line from the ship to himself, in case he cracks through the surface and sinks right into Eight-Ball, as the Crew has taken to calling this dark comet.
Ernie: Here goes nothing ...

Panel 2
Ernie is 'standing' on a firm, dark surface next to the base of the ladder (actually he has one hand on the ladder to hold himself in place in this micro-gravity environment). He's looking down at his feet.
Ernie: This crust must be half a meter thick.
Ernie: I guess Sweet Liberty breached it because she masses several hundred tonnes and was moving fast enough.

Panel 3
Wide shot of the surface, with the ship in the near background. In the middle-to-foreground we see six light-colored guide lines radiating from the base of the ship, held in place by meter-long collapsible spikes with pointy ends stuck into the surface, and the guides running through locking carabiners at the other ends. We can see Ernie as far away from the ship as the frame permits, planting one of the spikes. Closer to the ship, we can see several of the teenagers venturing forth, tethered to the guide lines by two 3-meter-long lines also tipped with spring-gate carabiners. They are not wearing jet-packs.
Also, the horizon should be a very slight curve rather than a straight line. The surface, as always, is nearly black, with just enough dark-grey highlights to indicate a gritty surface texture.
Caption: Ernie immediately set up a half dozen florescent green guide lines radiating out from the ship.
Caption: Anyone on the surface without a jet-pack would have to be tethered to one or more of these lines to keep them from drifting off Eight-Ball.