Today on Quantum Vibe: No time for argument Strip 156 - Click strip above to goto the next strip.
First Seen: Mon 2011-07-25
Story & Art: Scott Bieser - Sci-Fi Adventure Monday & Thursday.
Quantum Vibe
A thousand years in the future, humanity has colonized worlds in nearly
100 galaxies, thanks to Quantum Vibremonic technologies developed five
centuries earlier. Other new technologies have created various
off-shoots of humanity and extended life expectancies five-fold. The
story begins with how a mad scientist and his plucky assistant, along
with their robot friend, brought humanity to the stars, and continues
with the adventures of some unique people in fantastic places.
What Comes Next [ Mar 18, 2024 ]
The war is over, but This Means War has a ways to go. Novo Paolo/Bubbleopolis is still in a nebula/stellar nursery, no one knows what happened to the planet Sharen (center of the Intergalactic Council), and the status of the now-surrendered Invaders is yet to be resolved. What will they do when they learn their homeworld is basically destroyed? Will Alyss and Li be re-united? How about Diana (the real one) and Otto?
These questions will be resolved in the next few weeks, before This Means War part 3 wraps in late May.
After that, I plan to go BACK in time about 400 years, to when Alyss and Li left their home in the Sol System to colonize a new world on the far side of the galaxy. As one might expect, hijinks ensue. New subtitle yet to be determined, start date sometime in around the start of July. Stay tuned!
Panel 1
Exterior view of the shuttle in its reflective cocoon, from a frontal angle. We can see the bogey approaching in the far distance. Its laser is no longer firing.
Nicole: Bogey is now 1100 meters away, closing at 160 meters per second.
Nicole: At its current rate it will come up along our top side at about 50 meters away.
Panel 2
Nicole, Seamus and the Pilot inside the shuttle. Nicole is peering at her holographic display.
Seamus: Tap the lowest left icon again, to bring up the EM-shield requester.
Nicole: OK, now what?
Panel 3
Focus on Nicole and her display, but we can still see Seamus in the right background.
Seamus: Now, dial in a new range setting, 300 meters, but wait until the bogey is 400 meters away before executing.
Panel 4
Nicole and Seamus, focus shifted a bit to include more of Seamus, who is getting angry.
Nicole: But once they get inside the EM-Shield, won't they be able to take control of our shuttle?
Seamus: No arguments! We have seconds! Do it!
Panel 5
Close-up on Nicole, there's a small requester box in the display in front of her face. She touches a finger to the 'execute' button.
Nicole: All right, then. Here goes nothing ...
Panel 6
Exterior view. We can see the bogey now – it's a large, rather evil-looking ship, now only a few dozen meters away from the expanded EM-shield boundary. It has an open bay on her underside large enough to engulf the small shuttle, although for now it is flying a bit above the shuttle's path, avoiding the thruster flare.
Nicole: Shield now at 300 meters.
Nicole: Bogey now at 350 meters ...
Panel 7
Same shot. As the bogey intersects the shield boundary, electrical arcs flash all over the bogey's hull.
SFX: BZZARRKK!!!
Panel 8
Inside the shuttle, Nicole, Seamus and the Pilot, looking quizzically at his instruments. Seamus is grinning somewhat evilly.
Pilot: It – came briefly within 250 meters, then stopped accelerating.
Pilot: It's falling away now. What happened to them?
Seamus: I happened to them.