Escape From Terra - by Sandy Sandfort, Scott Bieser and Lee Oaks! - Big Head Press, publishing Thoughtful Stories since 2002

Strip 11 – All ashore

Panel 1
Large panel, ship at left approaching Ceres at right. Actually the Burner is backing towards the planetoid, engines slowing her velocity. The planetoid surface is essentially one giant frozen water-ocean, covered with a layer of dust, with several small, rocky islands protruding here and there. The icy surface is peppered with thousands of small, shallow craters, and criss-crossed with small ridges and cracks. See the Wikipedea page for Ceres for details. Some astronomers believe Ceres resembles the Saturnine moon Dione Although the dust layer would soften the outlines of the craters and ridges somewhat. The planetoid is less than 1,000km in diameter, but still large enough we don’t see structures on its surface at this distance. The ice is overed with a layer of dust perhaps a few cm thick – if we were rendering in color we might see a subtle red-ochre mottling effect.

Captain (from inside the Burner ship):
All hands, this is the Captain. Prepare for arrival at Ceres Spaceport, landing pad 3. Please secure all loose items.

Panel 2
Panels 2 and 3 should be same size, side-by-side
At the gangway to Landing Pad 3 (there should be a sign close-by) Guy and Fionella descend on an escalator. Guy looks exuberant, and is starting to take a step forward and downward from the escalator landing. (there should be a pair of vertical bars in the foreground, one on either side of the hatch opening)

Guy: Ms. Stellina, do you realize that you and I are going to make an entire world pays its fair share for the care for Terra's …

Panel 3
Same view, but now we only see Guy’s lower legs going up out of the panel frame.

Guy: … needy masses?

Strip 11 - Click on page above to goto the next page. -- First Seen: 2008-09-29
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

Strip 11 – All ashore

Panel 1
Large panel, ship at left approaching Ceres at right. Actually the Burner is backing towards the planetoid, engines slowing her velocity. The planetoid surface is essentially one giant frozen water-ocean, covered with a layer of dust, with several small, rocky islands protruding here and there. The icy surface is peppered with thousands of small, shallow craters, and criss-crossed with small ridges and cracks. See the Wikipedea page for Ceres for details. Some astronomers believe Ceres resembles the Saturnine moon Dione Although the dust layer would soften the outlines of the craters and ridges somewhat. The planetoid is less than 1,000km in diameter, but still large enough we don’t see structures on its surface at this distance. The ice is overed with a layer of dust perhaps a few cm thick – if we were rendering in color we might see a subtle red-ochre mottling effect.

Captain (from inside the Burner ship):
All hands, this is the Captain. Prepare for arrival at Ceres Spaceport, landing pad 3. Please secure all loose items.

Panel 2
Panels 2 and 3 should be same size, side-by-side
At the gangway to Landing Pad 3 (there should be a sign close-by) Guy and Fionella descend on an escalator. Guy looks exuberant, and is starting to take a step forward and downward from the escalator landing. (there should be a pair of vertical bars in the foreground, one on either side of the hatch opening)

Guy: Ms. Stellina, do you realize that you and I are going to make an entire world pays its fair share for the care for Terra's …

Panel 3
Same view, but now we only see Guy’s lower legs going up out of the panel frame.

Guy: … needy masses?