Strip 858 -- First Seen: 2011-12-30
Escape From Terra is updated with new pages every Monday through Friday.

Halfway there!

The Kickstarter campaign to print the next volume of Quantum Vibe: Novo Palermo - Part 1 is now halfway to our goal. We need your help getting the rest of the way there. Tell your friends, family members, and your pets to back our campaign.

Every little bit helps! The campaign ends midnight (US central time) November 18. So there's still time to get the word out, or maybe add another item to your current pledge.

Your reward for backing our campaign starts with a personalized signed copy of the perfect bound printed collection of the online strip. You may also choose the ebook edition, a PDF downloadable from DriveThruComics.

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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.

The Transcript For This Page

Panel 1
Back to Tobi at his desk, now sitting in the chair again and leaning on the desk on his elbows.
Tobi: So, Nowra got past the listeners, but how did his family get an unlocked comm to him?
Panel 2
Resume flashback: An aboriginal woman and a teenaged-girl relative are at an open-air market, by a stand with various types of fruit, including a bin of durian fruit. The woman holds up one of the fruits, examining it critically.

Caption (Bert): 'They inserted it into a durian fruit.
Caption (Bert): 'Durians are from Southeast Asia, readily available in Australian Chinese markets, and ...
Panel 3
Cut back to Tobi at his desk, wrinkling up his nose.
Tobi: … smell like shit, literally.
Tobi: Know it, hate it, but I'm sure it would be great for smuggling black-market comms.

Panel 4
Another flashback panel. A man with a badge has a box opened and is holding up the durian fruit. He turns his head and wrinkles his nose, clearly offended.
Caption (Tobi): 'Anyone who examined it would be repelled by the smell.'

Panel 5
Cut to Bert at his desk.
Bert: So, we have a man inside, secure communications, and we know the layout of the place.
Bert: All we need is ...


Panel 6
Cut to Tobi at his desk, looking resolute.
Tobi: … me. Okay, I'm in.
Tobi: Last question: What do you need from me?

Panel 7
Medium close-up of Bert, with a wry smile.
Bert: Lawyers, guns and money?