Here it is, the set that made me hate tower cranes. Also reminder that the Runaway is considered "small" for an interstellar vessel, a dinky 200 meters long.
Transcript
The building foundation pit hiding the Runaway is abuzz with activity. RC front loaders and dump trucks mill around processing and carrying scrap material. Two tower cranes have been erected next to the Runaway; one holding a vehicle hoist with an RC front loader in it welding part of the spine. Talita is up on a large scaffolding platform that has been erected along the radiator wings, welding near the extension joint. One of the front loaders is on the ground next to the scaffolding, gesticulating excitedly.
Bip: It feels SO GOOD to be back in my servers!
16 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 140”
Hunter
Ah, space scale. The ship is the length of two football fields but it’s “small”.
Zuorai
Is Bip rebuilding themself with the automated vehicles or are the temps around? I always wonder how Bip avoids getting into their frequencies
Did Bip always know how to put themself back together?
Zuorai
Nevermind I just remembered the temps are probably not around because of Idrisah’s schedule, but I’m still interested on Bip’s aerospace engineer knowledge. Is Talita directing them?
JoB
I’m not sure that with the procession of RVs bringing parts from the Vspear vessels and the illumination of the Runaway’s lair
https://www.runawaytothestars.com/comic/rtts-page-137-and-138/
the temps could be anywhere near at the same time and still fail to notice something odd/different going on – short of having put their helmets on rotated 180°. 😉
·
(And while *most* of them have questionable qualification, at least Clayton *does* seem able to live up to the “appropriate level of competence” mentioned in his character bio.)
PineCat
I saw a big background and immediately started looking for a secret rat… I have not found it. :,3
Half Phased
As someone who works in the construction industry, seeing that vehicle, suspended from a crane, welding using its manipulators is a real “you should not be doing that, that violates practically all possible health and safety legislation”.
But then again, the contractor is a rogue AI, the employees are the same rogue AI and its associates, the equipment is all stolen and it’s being used to repair a space ship in a dubious legal state…
Scolopendra
[“Shake Hands With Danger” riff plays]
gnome_artificer
Ah, a fellow Safety Third enjoyer.
JoB
And *then* there’s the fact that, at least until Talita joined the fun, the only on-site individual whose “health” and safety legislation could possibly be concerned about was Bip, who is unlikely to suffer much damage even if that front loader were to suicide-jump into the Runaway’s spine from as high as the cranes can get it. :-3
·
… thanks to the lack of an (oxygenated) atmosphere and the elaborateness of getting nuclear fusion started, not even if it were to plow into those *fuel tanks* (more or less full of hydrogen/deuterium). =8-U
·
I *do* wonder, though, what the difficulty prompting Bip to ask Talita for help could be. Those hinges are obviously within the reach of the cranes, the spot Talita’s currently working on in particular even has a *scaffolding* leading to it, and we’re certainly not talking about fine mechanics that require tweezers and a watchmaker’s magnifier …
·
[… he said, fearing that the next page’ll show Talita holding up the radiator’s weight with one hand while welding with the other]
Peter Jensen
Could be she was called to help with a different part, and this is more of a “since I’m already here, what else needs welding” situation.
Enai
I love a good contraption. And the Runaway’s extensible solar sails are excellent examples. One imagines them going whirrr-chunk, but of course in the vacuum of space they won’t make a sound at all. Love that you gave the telescope extenders those little stepwise reductions in diameter. Generally, all those details are *chef’s kiss* superb.
JoB
> in the vacuum of space they won’t make a sound at all
·
I’m afraid that you’re underestimating how well *solid*-borne sounds travel. :-3
(As events ranging from some neighbor of mine firing up their percussion drill to my region’s invention of “eggs”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clouth_Gummiwerke#Postwar
will happily demonstrate.)
godspeed
Dat jute kölsche Ei.
This wasn’t the place I expected to learn something about Cologne’s history tbh.
AnormalADN
Hats off to you Jay for making such backgrounds in your comic
Kayjack
The little raised arms on the RC unit is so good lol
JoB
[snaps fingers like to say “hey! Look here! That’s *me* talking!”, momentarily forgetting that there’s no atmosphere to carry *either* sound to us]