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!

UPDATE to the UPDATE: The problem has been solved, all rewards are now available. I've extended the campaign an extra day, to April 21. Thanks for bearing with me!

UPDATE: There has been some strange glitch in the Kickstarter launch, so Scott is cancelling the campaign temporarily and will re-start as soon the cause of the problem can be determined and corrected.

Scott is gearing-up for his third Not-Safe.Space Kickstarter campaign!

(Not-Safe.Space is Scott's sexy spin-off of QUANTUM VIBE.)

For those of you who haven't signed up for one of the NSFW Patreon tiers, this will be the best way to get in on the action for a very reasonable price.

Go to THIS link. The campaign starts March 16 and runs through April 20.

One Dollar Sale Continues!

Hard to believe it, but Big Head Press published it's first novel, over 20 years ago. To commemorate our stubborn longevity, we continue to stubbornly offer each of our non serialized graphic novel stories for just one mere American dollar (plus shipping). Start your holiday shopping early and light up some body's mind with one or more of these titles.

Offer only available in the United States.

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.