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

Strip 62

Panel 1
Very large panel. A complicated-looking machine, large enough to fit in an imaginary box 6 meters long and 4 meters wide and high, is “floating” in a large, dark cavern (dark because the walls are mostly iron and nickel), and firing a twin high-power laser beams into the far section of the cavern. This digging machine is also a spacecraft, and we can see its currently-inactive thrusters on the end opposite the lasers (Actually this “cavern” is a bowl-shape carved into one of the mega-boulders, with one side open to space, but we don’t see that here.)

The laser impact-point is white-hot, liquid metal streams away from it. Those streams are being collected by five smaller machines (each about 3 meters across). Long, thick tubes lead from the smaller machines to a much larger container vessel (20x10x10meters) positioned behind the digging machine

In a part of the cavern away from where the lasers are firing, we can see a glass-and-metal panel embedded in the cavern wall, though which our characters are watching the goings-on.

Lorna (from inside the view port): In this section, one of our cutter ships is mining metal ore.

Lorna (2): The laser liquefies the metal ore so it can be collected by the gatherers and deposited in the container vessel.

Panel 2
Looking in through the viewing port at Lorna and company. They are holding onto unseen handrails around the perimeter of the viewing glass. Guy and F and Lorna are oriented more or less “vertically” in the panel, but Bert is turned around at an odd angle opposite them. Fiorella is asking Lorna a question. Lorna smiles as she responds.

Fiorella: How do the gatherers work? You can’t “vacuum” up something when you’re already in a vacuum.

Lorna: An astute question. The gatherers get most of the dust via magnetic induction. From time to time, we stop the lasers and sweep sticky-membranes through the cavern to gather up non-ferrous bits that escape the gatherers.

Strip 62 - Click on page above to goto the next page. -- First Seen: 2008-12-09
Escape From Terra is updated with new pages every Monday through Friday.

Not-Safe.Space Kickstarter 2

The epic Not-Safe.Space story continues with Part 2, and Scott requires funds to publish a print volume of _Not-Safe.Space_ Chapter 2.

This large-format, 48-page trade paperback is a must for fans of Eithne Lamdagan, aka The CUSH Queen, and her friends

The campaign begins Sunday, April 6 and concludes Tuesday, May 8.

Click on this link or on the picture to see the campaign preview page where you can sign up to be notified of the launch next week.

On Their Way....

This is a message for the IGG QV9 backers! For those of you who ordered physical perks, they are on their way via USPS. For those of you who selected one or more of the PDF perks, you should have received an email from DriveThruComics.com. That email contains links to the vouchers you need to download your copy of the PDF you requested.

If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to check your spam folder. If you still can't find the email from DriveThruComics, let us know and we'll get the links you need.

The Transcript For This Page

Strip 62

Panel 1
Very large panel. A complicated-looking machine, large enough to fit in an imaginary box 6 meters long and 4 meters wide and high, is “floating” in a large, dark cavern (dark because the walls are mostly iron and nickel), and firing a twin high-power laser beams into the far section of the cavern. This digging machine is also a spacecraft, and we can see its currently-inactive thrusters on the end opposite the lasers (Actually this “cavern” is a bowl-shape carved into one of the mega-boulders, with one side open to space, but we don’t see that here.)

The laser impact-point is white-hot, liquid metal streams away from it. Those streams are being collected by five smaller machines (each about 3 meters across). Long, thick tubes lead from the smaller machines to a much larger container vessel (20x10x10meters) positioned behind the digging machine

In a part of the cavern away from where the lasers are firing, we can see a glass-and-metal panel embedded in the cavern wall, though which our characters are watching the goings-on.

Lorna (from inside the view port): In this section, one of our cutter ships is mining metal ore.

Lorna (2): The laser liquefies the metal ore so it can be collected by the gatherers and deposited in the container vessel.

Panel 2
Looking in through the viewing port at Lorna and company. They are holding onto unseen handrails around the perimeter of the viewing glass. Guy and F and Lorna are oriented more or less “vertically” in the panel, but Bert is turned around at an odd angle opposite them. Fiorella is asking Lorna a question. Lorna smiles as she responds.

Fiorella: How do the gatherers work? You can’t “vacuum” up something when you’re already in a vacuum.

Lorna: An astute question. The gatherers get most of the dust via magnetic induction. From time to time, we stop the lasers and sweep sticky-membranes through the cavern to gather up non-ferrous bits that escape the gatherers.