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.
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
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.