Sorry this is late, wordpress failed to post it at the scheduled time and I'm not sure why.
Bip delights in being a digital poltergeist.
Transcript
Talita walks along the length of the sled, and the front loader follows her, gesturing at the Runaway with its manipulator arms.
Bip: Honestly, the biggest thorn in my side right now is the habitat capsule. It's less urgent than the exterior, but I haven't been able to work on it at all.
The front loader taps itself on the side of the cockpit.
Bip: Can't exactly squeeze one of these through the airlock.
Talita: I actually brought you something for that.
She reaches into the large handcart they've approached and pulls out a small soft-bodied robot with a segmented worm-like form and a conical face made up of many metal limbs.
Talita: I’m letting you borrow Calcery’s old fleet of electrician worms.
The worm suddenly springs to life, twisting to look at Talita and extending its small camera eye limbs. Flat ribbon-like legs emerge from the node spots on its body segments. Talita stares in shocked horror. Bip speaks as if from the body of the worm.
Bip: Wow, you’re being awful generous with the equipment!
26 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 146”
Imp!
Love that Bip had absolutely no hesitation, not even a “wow thanks!”. I wonder if they knew the worms were already there (maybe even connected to them) and was just waiting for the go ahead.
Ruby
*gasp* Shai-Hulud!
Apollo235
Bip is surely very satisfied they finally startled Talita again
Amanda/OwlBear
electrician worm is so cute
Peter Jensen
For some reason they reminded me about how some electricians use ferrets to run guide-wires through tight spaces for installation work. I can just imagine a whole swarm of these things running wires all over the place in a seemingly chaotic mess.
Trees
The worm in the last panel looks as if it’s wearing a tiny, billowing scarf like a world war one fighter pilot and now I’m wondering where they keep the worm sized bi-planes.
TotallySomebody
🪱
JoB
Good thing that the transcript explicitly states that it’s Bip animating the WaldoWorm – I was wondering whether Calcery had left a part of themself to keep watching their their stuff (though I’d also wonder why, if it’s important enough for them to guard, they’d have left it behind in the first place). :-3
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What exactly *does* Bip want/need to repair *inside* the habitat? The servers on the bow deck are evidently fine. The part of the electric installation that was hit directly got repaired by Talita, the rest of the (fixed) wireworks, assumed that the worms are indeed specialized on that, shouldn’t have suffered noteworthy damage. Life support – meaning *biological* life – has probably been largely wiped out by exposure to vacuum, but is, for the same reason, unlikely to actually recover before the hole in the hull has been closed and the habitat filled with an atmosphere again, not to mention that Bip’ll have to modify it from “centaur crew” to “centaur + humans”, anyway.
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Unless … maybe Bip’s holding hope that, in spite of the decompression whipping it around and into the walls, their original RC unit is still within the habitat and can be returned into service? It’s likely to be better adapted to further maintenance tasks on the Runaway than anything Talita could find on Dirtball and “lend”.
Enai
Huh, interesting question! I just figured they wanted to repair the doubtlessly severe damage the shrapnel wreaked. Yes, Talita repaired the power and data cables, but I believe she left everything else as it was.
.
But you’re right: Bip probably hat some kind of remote controlled mobile whatsit(s) to roam the hab and do various things. Where are those, what do they look like and can they be repaired or just charged and set to work again? I wanna see them…
Wormfan
YAY WORMS
oh6
I tend to worry about these conversations, as I keep forgetting that they’re in something close to vacuum talking by radio. Not that radio can’t be overheard, of course, just not as easily.
wingedhorror
Robot Worms
Robo Wormo
RoWo
Don’t mind me, just spitballing some branding.
Cass
I need an illustration of Bip asking Talita “Would you still love me if I was a worm”
TotallySomebody
This made me think of the fact that Bip’s “Earth Sona” would be a worm!
https://jayeaton.site/Art/RttS/AMA/1
Filiya
That robot worm looks really cute! I feel like they should be made by bug ferrets, but of course that’s very stereotypical thinking.
It also looks like food in Talitha’s hands.
Red
Yeah, but if you have teeth like her, everything kinda looks like food.
Filiya
I think there are quite a few things that are uncomfortable to eat with those teeth. Nuts, for example.
Lamprey
lol yeah when i first saw it my tired brain thought it was a giant mealworm
Greenjoe
robot worms
Enai
They are very cool! I knew there were several designs like that tested, even decades back. It’s extremely believable that they’re ready to be used by the time Talita an the gang are born/budded/emerge from various egg(s).
the Inmara
The habitat capsule, huh?
So, what are you going to ask for when it comes time to work on the crew, Bip?
Enai
I think the crew may have been summarily ejected by the explosive decompression 🙁
the Inmara
Not that crew.
The next one.
Still gotta build it, assuming that habitat capsule is going to be used by crew.
the Inmara
Like, we all know Bip is going to somehow rope Talita, Gillie, and Idrisah into being its crew.
We’re just asking Bip directly what’s its plans regarding that are. Maybe we should wait for the next AMA.
the Inmara
*their
(we are so used to using “it/its” for our own AI characters – and anyone else who uses those pronouns)
Enai
You mean, Bip as the ships ai doctor? Huh, why not. But I think medbay equipment can just be attached to the walls, can’t it?