I’m sure everything will work out juuust fine. Happy Halloween!
(An aside: to those eagle-eyed readers who can’t help but notice the panel corners do not match between this page and the last, this was a mistake on my part. This page’s panel corners are correct. I’ve fixed p.435′s panel corners to match these ones, but like most errors caught post, uh, posting, I don’t upload the corrected image. But in the distant future when this page gets printed in a book, it will look right.)
Yes, no diplomatic disaster created. Except you just gave yourself a chance to make an even bigger one.
I mistrust that ‘interesting’…
Chinese curse kind of interesting? Uh oh.
Oh, rfaramir, I think they passed the border of that old curse, long LONG ago!
Creepy doll smile interesting? Oh dear…
I… think it went very well, too!
She got out of the conversation without causing any diplomatic incidents; she established a baseline of permitted activity which is good and useful; and she did not close off any avenues of action going forward which they truly require.
Ambassador Whiddon? So they’ve successfully gotten a message to Earth? Or at least an Earth affiliated outpost?
Andy, I would guess he is the ambassador to Myrad. When they got within communication range of the planet they contacted him and explained their situation.
It depends on the method of communication, but plain radio does work at lightspeed. If they were heading to Myriad, it would make abundant sense that they’d communicate and send reports to anyone they can.
Of course, the comic is a bit vague on just how the distances work out and what technology is involved.
Let me clarify: with a good radio (more or less plain radio) you are not limited by range, only you have to wait more the farther you send it. Light traveling at lightspeed and all. So if they are not in a hurry and not traveling at FTL speeds, they could have simply sent and kept sending messages all around before they got anywhere. There is nothing limiting range because they are in space, there is no horizon or sky or atmosphere limiting communication range. All they need to know is where to aim the radio and possibly communication laser (lasers work great for communication in vacuum), which they probably do if they have a map to Myrad.
So there was nothing really stopping them from communicating in the first place.
What is the planet in the background? Is that an image of Myrad from their central viewscreen?
I expect so.
I assume “toward the water” is a Myradi idiom of some sort, but I’m at a loss as to what it could mean.
I would wager, it would be “to the point” or “down to business”.
Coulda gone worse. Definitely could have gone worse. Sounds like the Myradi might be considering holding them to ransom though – nit literally, but effectively so.