The BFGC (the Bug Ferret Galactic Community, the outermost layer of the Matryoshka doll of bug ferret political bureaucracy) is broadly disliked in galactic politics for acting like other species' business is their responsibility to "improve."
Transcript
Idrisah: At least you aren’t eating entirely from that food printer anymore.Talita: I’m still shocked I could find enough info on centaur invertebrate farming to set it up here! Bugs are a lot better than just printed meat.
She takes a bite of the smoked meat. A diagram shows the food printer machine and the hexapodal invertebrates that look somewhere in between a sea cucumber, a caterpillar, and a guinea pig.
Idrisah: You’d think 80 years after first contact with centaurs there would be more spacer resources.
Gillie, who has been following the conversation via live captions on the phone in her lap while chewing on a chabbit leg, taps Idrisah's shoulder.
Gillie: Nm-m-mh.
Gillie: (ASL) Bug ferrets shouldn’t have contacted a sapient species in their radio age in the first place. At least humans and avians already had space infrastructure from colonizing their local star systems.
Talita: Mel used to joke that I must have gone into engineering because I had to build all my own accommodations anyways.
Idrisah: That seems too true to be funny.
42 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 49”
Amanda/OwlBear
(doing a reread) those “bugs” are so so cute, 100% friend shaped
chirp
Those little centaur-planet invertebrates are spectacularly cute but also i wanna eat them real bad. you just knowww they’re squishy and full of protein.
NotOkapi
I mean you did get the centaur avatar so hopefully you’d be safe to actually try them!
zofifi
In today’s episode: Prime directive discuss over hot chabbit wings! We are so here for that!
FluffiestBugs
Woof, we relate to having to build your own accommodations way too hard
Gar G
Gillie has a point. Humans and Avians were more prepared to join the galactic community, both by being more open to the idea of alien contact *and* have the infrastructure to keep up with them
The Centaurs would’ve had quite the shock and would need plenty of time to adjust, both to the existence of aliens and to all the new technology available to them
Truther
Man, considering the “contact uplift” – imagine how terrifying accidental contact (ex. colonizing a “unhabitated”, life-containing planet) with pre-civilization culture would be. And Im talkin about it for both sides
From one side, a race of gods from a place most cultures would only think of as a single, flat plane dotted with stars and planets. One that does not rely on religion, either giving themselves a new meaning or just succumbing to the nihilism
From the other, a sophont race, but one without written down history and their own science (yknow, it just feels better to know something from your own people), which doesnt let them learn from the mistakes of others (except some told tales). After the
contact, any science will be considered a sign of colonialism, thus possibly locking any “stubborn”, “conservative” societies for long years
Bound to their own planet, yet so free in comparison to these civilizations above
Hunter
Heh, fun utility for sign language; talking while your mouth is full!
Claire
Talita can talk with her mouth full, too!
Idrisah is the only one in that room who cant
Origamigryphon
I love that this page answers the unasked question of “can Gillie move her ears.”
Also, Talita seems so chuffed at Mel’s joke/observation, lol
dokki
“That seems too true to be funny” :’[
eden
bug farming! good for her!! where’s her bug farm set up? how big is it? does she have any specific breeders she’s named?
Zuorai
Obdnsnsnn I would loveeee to see more centaur bug info they’re so cute
Does Gillie’s neck hurt from looking at her phone to read what people say?
Jay Eaton
There will be an info page later 😉 Gillie’s neck is fine, but relying on CC is inconvenient anyways.
Guest
I’m imagining it’s difficult if not illegal to transport alien livestock species onto habitats/planets without a metric ton of paperwork. Not to mention the expenses of shipping them out there. I wonder if there are any centaur invert farms on Jovia, but judging by Talita’s upbringing I don’t think there was. I may be wrong, though.
Ruby
The centaur bugs are adorable.
Doing the quick math, gosh. This means that Talita was taken into spacer custody less than 60 years after her species got contacted by the bug ferrets. Imagine hearing from your grandma about how she was traumatized by the culture shock resulting from the “War of the Worlds” aliens turning out to be real and taking away her traditions or even her wellbeing.
Boolah
(Idk if someone already said this but) I find it very awesome that centaurs and talk with their mouth full ( I think?? ). Although Gillie can do that too lol
J
I know this might sound dumb to say, but I’m so glad Gillie despite being a bugferret translator (who I believe also enjoys a lot of aspects about their culture and tech) is the one in this scene bringing up and then criticising bugferret governmental decisions. Idk I just really like it.
hal9000
ah. the eternal ethical debate.
On another subject, has Talita eaten around Idrisah and Gillie before? I’m sure they’ll be fine with it, but it must be slightly intimidating to watch an alien hypercarnivore thrice your size crunch apart massive great bones, in much the way watching tigers eat feels. It’s probably something else Talita’s self conscious about…
hal9000
also out of curiosity what timezone are these comments in? because it was definitely not AM when i posted that lol
sugarbox643
i think probably mountain time (mst) which is jay’s timezone (and also mine)
Jay Eaton
It’s PST I think.
Curona
With Talita’s size and caloric needs, how much does she need to eat in a day? I would think its even a bit more than the average centaur considering her physically demanding job and weight lifting hobby.
zaratustra
fun story, the very first version of the strip released on Patreon claimed Talita only ate every two or three days before it was revised for the reasons you pointed out! (everyone should be sponsoring the patreon btw)
Jay Eaton
Yeah, I was thinking of how large predators tend to eat infrequent large meals, then realized that if they had the option to they probably wouldn’t do that lol
un_pogaz
The question of making contact and the possible “uplift” that follows is a complex one. Realy, their is so many thing to say on the subject, there’s enough here to make a multi-page essay. Many books have taken this question as a central element, and none them have the same answer. Damn, the most difficult part is not how to intervene, but how your will NOT intervene while you had the knowledge to easily spare much suffering and death for many of them. And than after the contact, look at them in the eye and admit you could have helped them sooner but you didn’t.
My short, quick (and uncomplet) opinion, is that the lowest bar consists of two technological feats: mastery of the atom and rockets. Because if you combine them, you can made some MAD thing and it will be nice to avoid that. Bonus that the rockets say that your want to go in space.
But, if it’s hard to say how it should be done good, it’s easy to see how it have been done badly. And Yup, the Bug Ferret are realy wrong here.
Jay Eaton
The BFGC could be doing worse, but yeah, there’s obvious issues with the route they have been taking. First contact’s a complex problem, to say the least.
zaratustra
I assume there’s a lot of in-universe debate as well regarding good intentions and their utility as pavement material.
topHatSurgeon
Whilst i agree the heavy handed approach of the bug ferrets is wrong, i do wonder to what degree not making contact likewise robs them of agency?
Whilst forcing contact and technology on them robs the centaurs of their right to autonomy/sovereignty, not contacting them means they don’t have the option to engage with the wider galactic community if they want to do so. It’s a matter of what sort of contact the centaurs want, and what sort of first contact policy offers them the most control over how contact goes.
As such, i’m wondering if a limited first contact protocol might be better? This would involve a few things:
A) A WIDE exclusion zone around the contacted species world. This would also strictly prohibit all economic and political ties/agreements with them until they reach some technological/economic/geopolitical parity with other members of the galactic community. This thus ensures they have a geographical area to themselves and prohibits any sort of potentially exploitative/colonialist relationship from developing.
B) First contact would be initiated as soon as is safe, however this would only involve introducing the species to the wider galactic community, and giving them to ability to contact the wider community on their own terms. This would give them the context and ability to communicate with the wider community on their terms (I.E, for limited cultural/academic exchanges), whilst otherwise leaving them alone.
This is all my own opinion, so grain of salt, however i’d imagine such a “native led” contact policy would respect the native species autonomy whilst still giving them the option to engage with the wider galactic community if they’d want to.
Such a policy would of course be difficult to balance, but i feel it may better respect and empower the native species autonomy?
Redacted
I mean, if I was put in charge I’d make contact as soon as possible, to hell with the consequences I wanna talk to aliens! I should probably not be put in charge of first contact.
0xabad1dea
I personally feel that if a society has unlocked radio on the tech tree, they’ve got enough general scientific principles under their belt to tackle the Revelation of space age aliens. In fact, it’s probably better to introduce yourselves before they get to the “planet bristling with nuclear weaponry” stage…
Greenjoe
Keeping them in the dark doesn’t feel ideal, yeah.
Jay Eaton
As opposed to contacting them in your own stage of nuclear weaponry? You’re thinking about the possible threat the other poses instead of thinking about the threat you pose to them. Bug ferrets are relatively non-violent, but their paternalist attitude is its own form of colonization. Alien ideas and presumptions are imposed on centaurs by giving them technology that’s been developed by other sophonts, and agency is denied over their own future by expecting them to behave in ways that meet the acceptability standards of other species as a condition of giving them “miracle” tech.
squidpizza
I particularly like this plot/lore point. It can be easy to forget that colonialism takes more forms than direct violence, and this is especially true through the lens of science fiction.
SIGSTKFLT
Now I want an exhaustive list of exactly what tech centaurs had before contact. Were they still on vacuum tubes? Transistors?
SIGSTKFLT
Sophonts > Centaurs > Culture has a whole section on it
eden
from what I understand because of centaurs culture where clans relatively keep to themselves save cities, tech and infrastructure varied and was pretty inconsistent. they were making progress but still a waaaaaays off.
Claire
Being able to talk whilst eating… That’s the dream.
Claire
WITHOUT FEAR OF CHOKING
friendly spacer
Talita is sort of (I assume unintentionally!) disregarding Gillie here. I noticed Gillie isn’t as involved in the conversation yet … likely due to having to stare at her phone for assistance. Talita is intimidated by ASL and therefore keeps closer to Idrisah, which must make Gillie feel excluded to some degree? I wonder have Idrisah and Talita known each other longer or has it always been the three of them?
I also appreciate the “phone on knee balancing act” wobble. Lovely attention to detail as always.
Jay Eaton
Gillie and Talita don’t know each other very well, though Talita has been studying ASL a lot out of boredom and anxiety that she’ll “mess up” socially with the wife of her few friends. But yeah, this setup is far from ideal. Issues may ensue.
Claire
Something funny- I was talking about Talita, what with the separated digestive/respiratory tracts, but your comment made me realize this is also technically true for anyone who signs like Gillie