Today on Quantum Vibe: State versus mercorp Strip 702 - Click strip above to goto the next strip.
First Seen: Thu 2013-10-31
Story & Art: Scott Bieser - Colors: Zeke 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.
Panel 1
Back to Murphy, Nicole and Gus.
Gus: I don't really understand the L-5er cynicism towards politics and government.
Gus: Every grouping of people has politics. And L-5 City does have a government, whether you want to admit it or not.
Panel 2
Nicole objects as Murphy listens with interest.
Nicole: That's absurd. We have governance, sure, but it's a lattice-work of competing agencies, contracts and customs. Nothing like your monopolistic nation-state.
Gus: Oh no? What do you call Muc Ar Foulain?
Panel 3
Nicole goes professorial.
Nicole: It's a mercorp, roughly analogous to HuoJinGong, or even OmegaTek, except it has two and only two functions:
Nicole: One, maintaining the integrity of our air system; and two, negotiating trade rules with the other mercorps on behalf of L-5 City businesses.
Panel 4
Gus thinks he's won the argument, but Nicole is not conceding, speaks through clenched teeth.
Gus: Sounds like a monopolistic nation-state to me.
Nicole: Except that Muc Ar Foulain doesn't throw people in cages for non-crimes or force us to use phoney-baloney so-called 'money' or disarm women so we can be raped.