Something I realized last week after reading some of the comments: I should have made a link to the last time we saw Fusella. Y’see, the hope is that in the finished book format it’ll be easier to make the connection that Fusella had previously been down to the engine room to see… oh, wait. These scenes are going to be in two separate books. Huh. Hmm. Well, anyway, for you wonderful diligent weekly readers, that scene happened months ago so a little reminder is a helpful thing. 
Don’t forget, today is the last day to enter in the “Name Con and Meg” contest! You have until midnight tonight, EST. With all the great entries, you guys sure are making it tough to choose a winner!
Lastly, an announcement: this year, as a Christmas present to myself and my family, I will be taking the last two weeks of December off– I will do absolutely no drawing at all! This is a big deal for me, and I’ll try my best not to go into withdrawal. Consequently, I will also not be doing normal updates for those weeks. (“Boo! Hiss!”) However, I thought it might be fun to do one of those things where you pose a roundtable-type question to the characters, and they all take a shot at answering. I see other comics do this all the time, and I’ve been seeing the fun Alex Robinson had doing these as I read through my Box Office Poison collection (he seemed to do one at regular intervals), for any of you who may be familiar with that series. So if you have any suggestions for such a question I could tackle, send ‘em my way. But don’t wait too long, because the goal is for me to get them done before Dec 17th!
Hmm… so is the lander to send down to pick up the General and SCT? Or something else entirely?
I seem to remember reading a round-table sort of thing you did a while back… hm… aha! Here.
Yes, I’m planning something like that! Only this time there will be only one question per round, and I will be adding pictures.
Sounds great!!
Oh great ! Another unexplained mystery !
Clunker refers to the Galaxion and the lander after the refit, not to Mal’s treasured lander. Furthermore, Fusella will probably figure out how to get IP to pay for the repairs to the lander after they get home.
Poor Mal. (Mal-adventurous?)
Like the story so far. Although I am not quite in agreement with the whole pacifist approach to first contact though. Of course, this is just my opinion and the effect of watching and reading Star Trek for more than four decades will do to you…Still, it was quite entertaining not seeing a red shirt get whack! Keep up the good work…but bare in mind, man (or his extra-terrestrial equivalent may not be) is not a rational animal, and one of these days Fusella and her contact team will need to arm themselves (preferably with stunners) and not only relay on hand to hand combat techniques to keep themselves safe from unprovoked attacks by other bipedal (or multipedal) beings. Even though they consider themselves expendable, their life is still a precious commodity and there loss will be felt for a long time by everyone involved. I know, I have been there before and have loss a good friend and colleague and it is not a pretty place to be…..
True…but you’re not looking at the whole picture, I think. The primary restriction isn’t on the *use* of weapons, it’s on the carrying of them as part of the team equipment. All the team needs is a bit of anthropological know-how and on-site procurement, and they’ll be as lethally armed as they need to be. As you’re a Trek fan, go hunt up the novel ‘Uhura’s Song’ and pay attention to Checkov teaching the rest of the team the art of flint-knapping as well as the concept of ‘Primitive does not mean stupid’. Or as others put it, ‘Soft words and a pointed stick are more effective than soft words alone’.
Ah, no further comment then. But have you consider making a regular comic out off your REAL MAGIC short story? That seems to be a very interesting tale…
TerSA’s approach to first contact isn’t popular with everyone (to characters within the story, I mean). I’m really looking forward to exploring this further, and I have to say, that’s due in large part to all of you readers who have been expressing their opinions on the subject.
There are lots of valid points that have been made on both sides, and for that matter, more than two sides to the debate!
Mal doesn’t want Anna handling his delicate equipment? Iiiiiii…probably shouldn’t go further with that thought.
You should’ve seen what the dialogue looked like before I edited it!
When you’re talking about guys and gals in space, the possible double entendres are endless. So much of the terminology seems to be custom made for such.
You want double-entendres? Just wait until they start talking about docking…
Indeed…especially with Anna talking about the size of his…lander like that.