Lt. Col Alex Anderson, chief engineer of the Jump Engine project, explains what’s going on without using any engineering terminology at all. Ostensibly this is because he’s trying to speak in layman’s terms, but really it’s because if I attempt to write it the result will sound all wibbly-wobbly spacey-wacey. And no one wants that. You may think you do, but trust me, you don’t.
And now here’s your quick guide to this rarely-seen character! Alex made his first appearance for a scant couple of pages back in Chapter Two, and we met him again briefly during the Pathfinder flashback. He was next spotted talking with the Galaxion’s chief engineer Anna Ito in the opening page of Chapter Three, and then he vanished into the background until he showed up in Fusella’s office in Chapter Seven. It’s rare for his orbit to extend beyond his work zone.
If you’d like to read about my weekend at the Ottawa Comiccon, check out this week’s blog post!
That’s the most dialogue Alex has gotten on a page since p. 212…
Darvin is undoubtedly about to remind Col. Anderson that the engines on Pathfinder did not work the same way…
Hmmm, I recall that the Pathfinder had to reverse the engine sequence during the test run. That would explain how they ended up in our universe instead of the parallel one.
The dialogue on this page means that Mal’s explanation on the previous page makes a lot more sense now! I’m sorry for hassling you last week, Tara
Given that two differently-constructed engines – in ships with different mass, size, etc – were able to hit the same universe, there is probably a limited choice of destinations, universes probably being layered or chained together. Going back is then feasible, as long as they manage to switch the direction they’re going in by inserting a minus sign at he right place in the equation.
In conclusion… I believe they need to Reverse The Polarity. Go on, Mal, you always wanted to say it
I haven’t gone looking for it, but I am quite confident there must exist a TV Tropes page for “Reverse the Polarity.” And that Galaxion will, sigh, end up on it.
It does exist…and Galaxion is not yet part of it at this writing.
Ah… but do they need to Reverse the Polarity of the Neutron Flow? :p
In Star Trek terms of reversing the polarity that seems like the right thing to do.
But what if the Universe is “One Way?” Take the examples of Thermodynamics and Entropy. You can’t put things back where they were. If anything, they might have to go back the long way, like going around the Earth to get across the street because you can only travel in one direction.
Please re-work the first panel so the dialogue balloons make sense. It distracts from your otherwise fantastic work.
Is it the actual words that aren’t working for you, or is it the balloon tails (and the fact that a person on the right is talking before the person on the left)? I did spent some time contemplating whether I should break the supposed cardinal rule of not “crossing the streams”, but I eventually decided to run with it because I wanted to have that image.
Honestly, I think the balloon panels work just fine the way they are. Yes, the balloons aren’t closest to the person talking (and I can see where that might be confusing) but the dialogue order makes sense as things stand. To keep the dialogue in the correct order, you would have to do some vertical layering or something….and I think that would be more work than it may be worth.
On a semi-related note: I did go back and re-read the flashback sequence leading into this scene, and I still feel there needs to be a little more transition. It doesn’t need much: even the small bubble like you used to transition out of the flashback would probably be enough but as it stands the transition from the scene with Fu and Darvin to the flashback is a little jarring. (Sorry for not replying sooner: I was sick and got sidetracked from the comic for a while).
Thanks for your insight, Cassie!
I eventually decided I agreed with you, which is why I ended up putting that end-flashback bubble there. I plan to do something similar for the opening, but it’s going to be one of those corrections that won’t appear online, but instead in the e-book and print copies of what will one day be Book Four.
Sorry to hear that you were sick! It must have been pretty rotten if it pulled you away from your comics.
Perhaps you could consider making the tails longer, so they go closer to who is speaking, and have Anderson’s tail go behind the General’s. Although I had no problem reading it and understanding who was speaking, my eye sees both tails as pointing to Nelson.
Perhaps, if the second balloon began “General,…” that would help make it clearer who was talking, for those who find it difficult.
It does kinda look like the general is speaking both lines.
If you’re avoiding crossing the tails (or worse, redrawing the panel!), one potential solution would be to remove the second bubble from the first panel, and compress the colonel’s first and second bubbles into a single, slightly longer, bubble.
Ooh, that give me another idea – instead of moving or compressing Anderson’s bubble in the first panel, connect his bubbles in the first and second panels, kinda like they do from four to five?
I think I’d have to see connecting the bubbles before I know whether I like it, but crossing the tails seems like it would work okay to me.
“reverse sequence” gets a mention towards the end of Chapter 2
Remember : Just because it’s the best theory you have, doesn’t mean it’s not completely crazy!
It turns out hyperspace is a lot like regular space.
I think this would all go better with the TerSa space-anthem playing in the background!
*grins foolishly* Yeah! One of my dreams from all the way back to Galaxion’s beginning is to have full orchestral theme music. The music from Star Blazers (or Space Cruiser Yamato, whichever you like) has always been my benchmark for awesome space opera themes, for some reason.
A little mp3 file as an option to click might work!
-But the difficult part would be finding music that you like that isn’t copyrighted, that you could use.
I would think that the Official TerSa Space-Anthem would be vigorously inspirational, go big on the french horns, with some impressive work in the percussion department (only NO COW BELLS, please !!!)
It should be noted that the TerSa Administration also has an Official-Anthem “Hail Bureaucracy!” that just pretty much sits there and does nothing. We don’t want that one!
I’m fairly certain that John Williams won’t be available, but you might know somebody who could cook something up on their computer. I know that this could be easy having done this kind of audio work, but things that I do sound like John Cage, and not so much super-futuristic as from some other dimension, that don’t much sound like music.
Who’s the guy who composed the theme from Traders?
Okay, so at the risk of speaking out of turn, I will say that in a way more interesting than the actual answer to the question “how did we get here” is the deft way we explore two rather different styles of collaboration, their relative strengths and weaknesses, and the continued friction and misunderstandings that result when the two cultures collide. Fusella has to “decode” Admiral Nelson’s question for Mal Garneau on page 306. Then on Page 308, we get Anderson’s re-articulation. It’s also interesting that different readers found one or the other articulations more or less effective. So we are exploring two “standard” space-exploration social frameworks: the “military/structured” framework represented by Nelson and her subordinates and the “scientist/engineer/cooperative” framework that is more characteristic of Mierter’s crew. Both are sort of standard SF frameworks. Sometimes they work well together, sometimes not. Interesting.