Woo woo new chapter! And it features: a resplendently over-rendered zucchini plant. Exactly what you're reading this comic for.
Transcript
Chapter 4: Zucchini
Rasheed reaches through the large prickly leaves of a zucchini plant growing in a hydroponics medium to cut off a zucchini fruit with his pruning shears. Talita walks past the door to the administration wing warily as she leaves the recycling plant, watching Idrisah talking to an avian intern who is using a desktop computer. Idrisah doesn't appear to notice Talita.
48 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 111”
Jordan Aster
Love the details of that plant. I grew acorn squash for the first time this year and a groundhog ate one of them. Some bugs also ate the leaves and the eggs were difficult to find and destroy because the plant is spiny! Two years ago, the cats I feed outside decided to dig up all my radishes and use the pot as a toilet. Unexpected pest for sure. Amazing experience. I want animals to destroy more of my plants. I want to learn more about agriculture at home. I want more trial and error. I am very much a “city boy” and I have only lived in the south for a few years now. My partner’s the one helping me learn how to grow stuff.
Oops. The autism came out. I can definitely relate to Talita and her nerdy rambling.
I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how people were commenting with account names. I assume this is the way to do it and I’ll always have this name for commenting purposes? I guess I’ll see!
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HAL9000
see you space courgette…
DanielBro
The first image brings back memories. I can almost feel those prickles on my skin
veltzeh
It is such an excellent zucchini plant!
Filiya
I just noticed that you duplicate the text of the image below the page. Thank you so much for that! I’m not smart enough to learn English and I read you using autotranslation, and you make my job a lot easier!
Although it’s strange that I noticed this on a page where there is no text.
Also, these zucchinis are great!
Jay Eaton
Oh, that’s a use for the transcription I hadn’t realized! I add the transcription so that people who have poor eyesight have help understanding the images, and so people who have no eyesight can experience the story with a screen reader. I’m glad it helps with translation as well.
Though your comment has made me realize I forgot to add “Chapter 4: Zucchini” to the transcription. Oops, I will fix it now.
fishfacedterror
ohh the splendid zucchini…
yknow, ive been thinking of doing a garden on my balcony next season and was wondering if i wanted to do some type of squash. that is definitely putting zucchini in good favour
Origamigryphon
Everyone’s going ga-ga over the zucchini plant and I’m just sitting here wondering who the avian intern is
The Foolish Maker of Worlds
Whoever they are, I like their style.
Tyrone the Miner
The intern ? Sometimes a NPC is just that, a NPC….
But that Zucchini is Evil…Just look at its plotting little beady eyes…Its prickly stems!
Obviously planning to take over the station , then the Bug-ferret Empire then the entire Universe….
Can no-one stop this fiend ? We need some sort of SuperHeroes ASAP!!
JoB
Uhhh … with “NPC”, you mean “Nefarious Plotting Criminal”, right?? Just look at the (literal) writing on the wall … it’s *so* desperately trying to warn us of that guy that it outright *teleports onto* the glass pane between the last panels!! 😉
Paroxysmall
I guess it’s time to meet up with Gillie?
also Idrisah’s distance speech bubble interspersed with the device’s speech isn’t even the main focus of this page but it’s still a nice detail
Chrysalis
I made several happy noises when I first beheld the zucchini. I’m so looking forward to finding out more about space horticulture! But also I’m sad that Talita will never know the joys of eating zucchini, just like I will never know the joys of eating Talita’s chewy little snacksopods.
Carmenifold
beautiful zucchini :3
sugar-goat
This zucchini is so beautiful i have been staring at it for ten minutes
Uhhh
Overhead talita !!
Curona
My zucchini’s last year got wiped out by squash vine borer–one day I will win the war against them!
This does beg the question: if everything is grown in greenhouses in a controlled environment, how are the plants being pollinated? By hand? Or is there an agriculture arm dedicated to maintaining pollinator species, like bees?
And, another tangential thought: if there are bees in the hab and Talita or one of the avian citizens were stung by one, would the sting venom be super dangerous (with their differing biological chemistries) or basically do nothing?
Septemberdale
Probably do nothing. They’d have different biomolecules that it wouldn’t be meant to react with, it’d be like being injected with a random synthesized protein from a laboratory: Probably not great health-wise but unlikely to be especially dangerous either.
Hosp
I mean, it’s been said that sophonts can straight up die (from something like anaphylactic shock) if they eat other species’ foods, so I’d be inclined to believe that “mild” poisons from other evolutionary trees (eg. bees to, say, centaurs) could pack a rather nasty punch in contrast to the sting and itch we feel
gnffs
If you stood near the elphant’s foot in chernobyl you’d succum pretty quickly to radiation poisoning, but there’s a fungus there that has evolved to eat gamma radiation and lives just fine.
There’s no way to know how they would react to these substances unless you knew exactly what their biochemistry looks like and then mixed it with the poisons you want. Maybe nothing happens, maybe they have a very strong reaction, maybe it’s deadly; or maybe it reacts in a very analogous way to ourselves.
gnffs
If you stood near the elphant’s foot in chernobyl you’d succum pretty quickly to radiation poisoning, but there’s a fungus there that has evolved to eat gamma radiation and lives just fine. Birds, like us, are vertebrates; but capsaicin has no effect on them simply because their pain receptor that’s analogous to our trpv1 is slightly different.
There’s no way to know how they would react to these substances unless you knew exactly what their biochemistry looks like and then mixed it with the poisons you want. Maybe nothing happens, maybe they have a very strong reaction, maybe it’s deadly; or maybe it reacts in a very analogous way to ourselves.
JoB
> how are the plants being pollinated? By hand?
That’s at least a *possibility* for zucchini … maybe not so much for the other plants they grow …
> is there an agriculture arm dedicated to maintaining pollinator species, like bees?
Well, “animal agriculture” – more specifically, of *invertebrates* – *exists*
https://www.runawaytothestars.com/comic/rtts-pages-27-and-28/
though the purpose we’ve been *shown* so far is to produce food for sophonts. I suppose that also having two or three small beehives (quarantined from each other so as not to result in a single point of failure) wouldn’t be a problem in terms of space, but it might get tricky to provide the bees with enough of a selection of plant species to keep them going year ’round …
… and now I’m wondering whether there might be dedicated beehive ships wormhole-hopping from habitat to habitat, similar to how beekeepers on Earth relocate their hives into orchards etc. in current major need of pollination services …
> if there are bees in the hab and Talita or one of the avian citizens were stung by one, would the sting venom be super dangerous (with their differing biological chemistries) or basically do nothing?
I vote for “do nothing”, the rationale being that *if* their ongoing presence were needed *and* they were a danger to them, it would’ve been noticed and rectified *somehow* (GMBees?) *ages* ago.
Ruby
Jawas when you ask them if a droid is in good condition:
Thylacereal
The new main character of the comic appears
JoB
… captain, is that you??
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4872166/
wingedhorror
The idea that terrestrial plants like zucchini made it off-world to live amongst the stars, utterly delights me.
Plus, that’s a gorgeous panel.
Martin
The resplendently over rendered courgette has my entire heart and soul (apologies. not american enough to call it anything other than a courgette. just feels weird). The LEAVES the little SPIKES the FLOWER the FRUIT ough it captures the plant so well…. if this entire comic became loving portraits of vegtables I would be so seated for that honestly that plant is just too gorgeous I gazed at it lovingly for quite a while before I moved onto the rest of the page. And I will gaze at it some more after I post this comment no doubt.
And another avian outfit!!! I love their fashion.
Montydragon
My goodness, I could look at that zucchini for hours. Any agriculture worldbuilding in RTTS has me rattling the bars of my enclosure
dokki
Rasheed the noble warrior fighting the good fight against the spider mites indulges in a great victory: the humble zucchini
the Inmara
When we get our printed copy of this book, and are avidly and enthusiastically subjecting our friends and family to it, this zucchini plant is going to be one of the very first things we make them look at.
“Look at it! Look at this! LOOK AT THE ZUCCHINI! This is a COMIC!”
And they will understand.
Peter Jensen
While growing zucchini in an entirely controlled environment has the obvious benefit of avoiding seasonal gluts, it has unfortunately spelled the end of National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day.
gnome_artificer
Oh the day when my zucchini grows onto the neighbors porch and they ask me why I haven’t harvested it day?
Chrysalis
Or maybe it’s made EVERY day into National Sneak Some Zucchini Into Your Neighbor’s Quarters Day.
Bear-on-a-tricycle
I love your resplendently over-rendered zucchini plant! It’s beautiful! If, in between chapters, you just drew a bunch of over-rendered vegetables, both from Earth and other planets, I would definitely be here for that. Artists doing art is always welcome. (And I love the way you art!)
TotallySomebody
I can SMELL the zucchini plant
Mr. Son
Saaaame. With an added “augh” because I don’t like the smell. :p
TotallySomebody
I like the smell! It’s got good memories associated with it. They should make zucchini plant scented candles
Caspeon
Your horticulture background is showing 🙂
Tumorhead
ZUCCHINI!?! MY BEST FRIEND COMPACT BUSH-FORM ZUCCHINI!?! IN SPACE?!
Solanuma
its nice to look at a gorgeously rendered plant after the last chapter leaves you thinking about the grim fate of bip’s crew
0xabad1dea
Can’t wait to find out what especially high-resolution zucchini has to do with this escape heist.
JoB
[comic promptly takes an unscheduled detour through a strangely familiar plotline]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1925_serum_run_to_Nome
Amanda/OwlBear
that is exactly what squishes look like, wonderful! and it looks like it’s fruiting well
Gar G
Huh, so that’s what zucchini plants look like
Aries
Resplendently over-rendered plants is exactly what I’m hoping for every time I open a new webcomic page 🙂
Mica
Honestly, if I didn’t want to see resplendently rendered organisms, who would I be? Fortunately: when a whole chapter is named after something, it’s important to feature the titular eponym!
……right?
Joysweeper
Using gloves to protect against the fearsome defenses of the zucchini plant… smart. Something I think I’ll do every time and yet somehow every year I end up in there, wrenching the fruit off the stems with my bare hands…
Guest
That zucchini plant is marvelous.