Strip 828 -- First Seen: 2011-11-18
Escape From Terra is updated with new pages every Monday through Friday.

Indiegogo Campaign Has Begun!

Second times a charm. The epic QUANTUM VIBE: This Means War story concludes with Part 3, and we require funds to publish a print volume. To sweeten the pot a bit, a 3 pack of the print and PDF copies of all three parts of the This Means War story is a new perk. The stickers and magnet add-ons for the Project for a Free Cosmos concept (explained in the story) are available. And one final incentive for the first 20 who get there first, an add-on for a Free Cosmos Project coaster (1 per perk).

The campaign starts today, Sunday, November 10th, and will conclude in 31 days.

Click on this link or on the picture to back our campaign!

QV9 KickStarter Campaign Has Begun!

The epic QUANTUM VIBE: This Means War story concludes with Part 3, and we require funds to publish a print volume. To sweeten the pot a bit, we have added stickers and magnet add-ons for the Project for a Free Cosmos concept (explained in the story).

The campaign started Monday, October 7 and will conclude in 30 days.

Click on this link or on the picture to back our campaign!

The Transcript For This Page

Panel 1
The hearing room, re-establishing the scene: Pablo (camera is facing him this time) seated at his desk: before him sit Guy Caillard, to Pablo's right, and Emily Rose, to his left. Behind Guy and Emily the room is packed full of witnesses. In the front row, not far from Emily, sits 'Madame Defarge,' a woman looking like she came straight out of A Tale of Two Cities, but with some 22nd-Century updates. She is knitting something unrecognizable.
Pablo's manner now is softer than before.
Pablo: Emily, I cannot in good conscience cut you loose, because it was an 'accident.'
Pablo: And you cannot in good conscience turn your back on what you have done, can you?
Panel 2
Emily sits in her chair, slumped forward a bit, looking defeated.
Emily: No, I can't.
Emily: But I don't have any money – what can I do to make things right?
Panel 3
Flashback panel: Libby (still bruised and bloody from her fall) and Emily holding a stretcher carrying the comatose Anton and lowering it into an auto-medic. The auto-medic looks something like a sleek, futuristic, open coffin, with six fat little impellers where the wheels on an earthly ATV would go; the body is large enough to hold a person laying flat, and has a clear retractable canopy.
Caption (Pablo): 'Well, I am going to give you credit for helping Libby get Anton into the auto-medic, once you understood how badly you fouled things up.
Caption: 'Damn, girl, you cut his spine and destroyed his aorta.'
Panel 4
More flashback: The canopy is closed over Anton, the auto-medic activates, various lights flash. The girls look at the lights expectantly.
Caption (Pablo): 'He was clinically dead from blood loss in less than a minute.
Caption: 'Only Libby's – and your own – quick action stopped this from being a far worse tragedy.'
Panel 5
Medium shot of Madame Defarge in the front audience row, knitting, and listening to Pablo speak from off-panel.
Pablo: As it is, Anton is in an induced coma in an autodoc until it can micro-splice most of his spinal cord and rebuild his aorta.
Pablo: But the emotional trauma of feeling himself die, will be much more difficult to make right.

Panel 6
Emily and Pablo, focus on Emily. He can see that she is now looking very ashamed.
Pablo (thought): Shame. Good.
Pablo (thought): This opens the opportunity for Emily to grow, ethically.

Panel 7
Close-up of Pablo, standing up and speaking to the audience.
Pablo: Okay, unless anyone else wants to put their 2-mill's worth in, I'm going to recess this hearing for four centimes while I deliberate.
Pablo: Be back by noon, if you want to see how this gets wrapped up.
Pablo: Hearing recessed.