In case you don’t remember who these people are, that’s OK! It’s been a while since Anna and Ewan last appeared. (Actually, this is technically the last time Ewan showed up.) Didja miss ‘em? 
Man, I knew the Name Con and Meg Contest would be loads of fun! I am loving the entries so far. Contest closes midnight December 7th, so get your entries in!
And while I’m about it, I wanted to call your attention to another awesome contest running right now. Well, not exactly a a contest, but there is some amazing loot to be had, if you’re a sci-fi and fantasy book nut. For the third year running, Patrick Rothfuss– author of the so-good-I’ve-reread-this-a-bunch-of-times-already book The Name of the Wind–is running a really great fundraiser for Heifer International. It’s called Worldbuilders. It works like this: for every $10 you donate to Heifer, Worldbuilders will match 50% of your donation and enter your name into a lottery to win some great books. There are lots of books– mainly fantasy/sci-fi novels– that have been donated to the lottery, many of them signed by the author. There are also some truly special items– like a chance to have professional editors read and critique the opening chapters of your novel– which you can bid on. And then there are some items you can straight-out buy, and the money will go to the charity. Really, this is an incredible thing. Go have a look, and help make the world a better place.
Can you believe another month has vanished already? Well, look on the bright side, it means there’ll be a First Friday of the Month Bonus Update. Please visit us again on Friday, Dec 3rd for the next page.
Sounds to me like Mal doesn’t like being in Engineering.
Well, obviously they have tighter cleanliness standards than whatever we shall call the science department. Does it have a special name like engineering?
Mal is a physicist. I have long observed a playful antipathy from physicists towards engineers. I suspect it is because the disciplines overlaps but to a physicist’s mind, the other lot typically get paid so much more to use their brains so much less…
To quote mone of my cosmologist dad’s favourite jokes, “failed physics students make the very best engineers”
This is obviously Engineering. If an area that requires you to work, tinker, and overhaul equipment dictates workers don a fully pressurized suit, then it is Engineering.
How can I tell those suits are pressurized? They have full body harness straps.
Yes, but do they have hot chocolate?
Of course not!
And if they did they wouldn’t be allowed to sip it (unless those clever engineers have figured out how to get it inside their pressure suits!)
Is there a reason why certain parts of the Engineering Plant are kept at a vacuum that would necessitate wearing a pressure suit? Also, kudos Tara for the detail of the safety harness that clips by D-ring into a stanchion while “aloft,” but that ladder to get up there should probably terminate a little higher up the column. I can’t imagine how awkward that must have been to pull one’s self up over the lip of the platform like that in a pressure suit.
Neat link!
Now if only Rothfuss would finish book two…
My first take on the suits is that they’re anti-radiation in nature (to protect against the mu-rays or whatever). The harnesses are simply safety equipment for when they’re climbing around the engine (though it does seem a bit much so close to the floor; maybe they’re in low-G?).
As for the atmosphere, I assumed it was still breathable air (albeit, highly radioactive). This is partially based on the glass doors which don’t seem strong enough to handle a 15psi pressure differential (then again, this is the future). However, now I suspect the room is filled with some inert gas (no idea…argon?) to prevent trouble when things go wrong.
Scratch that – the suits don’t have air bottles or hoses. Thus the atmosphere must be normal (or at least breathable with in-suit filtration).
That was my understanding too — that it’s freaking cold in there. Note also that the doors only have a level 5 danger level warning – so it’s not a vacuum or similarly deadly environment in there. Likely the suits are as much for maintenance of a cleanroom type environment inside to protect the equipment as for protection of the people working inside. You’d want to keep a high level of cleanliness around high power equipment that can suddenly be in 0g — everything that was on all the surfaces becomes suddenly airborne due to ventilation (with nothing holding it down anymore).
IIRC the original version–I’m not sure about vaccuum, but the space past the doors is supposed to be very *cold*…these are thermal-protection suits. And I think they have Anime Air Supplies, given that Tara’s shown that her designs were somewhat inspired by Leiji’s designs in general and Yamato in particular.