Latest blog post: Redraw of chapter 1 is happening (2024-05-11)
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Prisoner tracker bonds to the arm on a molecular level via Van der Waals forces; it cannot be forcibly removed without peeling the rest of the skin off with it.
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Comments (5)
I think Gharr has a romantic personality, and this feels like poetic justice. He also might be doing Zane a favor by getting himself out of Zane's hair as quickly as he can. If he didn't take this exile, I imagine he'd spend a year or more stuck in the brig, in legal limbo, until the fleet can justify spending the resources to load him onto another messenger ship heading home. It's depressing either way, but at least this way he's stuck where the action is at.
Gharr, hunched over it, power tools in hands: "Alright, you damn armscrew, funny thing is that I know full well that my arm's gonna heal. Let's see how well you can!!"
... seriously, though, why an extra tracker when you can just add some firmware code to the military¹ implants he already has, powerful transmitter included? Or ... is that handcuff just a distraction from the actual homing device?
¹ "Military" as in "no way you have any say over what we equip the ones we implant into you with."
Gharr is well known to turn off his implant, I think this tracker does not have an "off" switch. Also I think Gharr has the civilian implants.
Took me a second read to work it out but panel 5 is effectively a time skip of Gharr explaining everything.
BUT now he may well find out about these "Ghosts". I'd be curious to know if Gharr already knew as the Xenopsychologist/biologist or if he was in the dark but might now have some insights.
I'd be interested to see if the fleet stays around longer than intended, even for bringing a new civilisation into the alliance (or at least, into the path towards possibly joining the alliance). Their secret mission was to find the "Ghosts" and now they have the first traces. Even better, the "Ghosts" were probably only intending to account for hiding from human technology, so alliance technology showing up might just catch them off guard.
Yeah, took me a bit to determine it’s a time-skip over his explanation, and not just a shocked silence followed by “and now I’m screwed”. Probably could’ve used a small blank speech bubble (or one with squiggles or something) to indicate they are talking in the interim.
I think I'm on Hekhat's side with this...
Geez, things went so fast in the previous page, but I think it represents how serious this case was to require such a quick and unilateral resolution.
I don't think I've seen anyone talk about it, but Ahshu is going to be in an absolutely and immeasurable rage. So Yes, she'll respect Gharr's choice and Zane's sentence in the end, but she'll do it by squeezing the pong really hard and damn she'll yell loudly at Zane for all of it.
Else, I imagine that Ahshu and Hekaht will request to be part of the diplomatic team sent down on Earth, and then once they're properly established, presenting a full resignation, so that it's a good excuse to stay there as civilians and not leave Gharr alone.
Beside, I can't help imagining Gharr's father's reaction to Zane after all this (since they're close friends). However "fair" this punishment may be, given the severity of the fault and the consequences, it's impossible to remain rational when it's announced.
"Oh THIS tracker ? Well turns out No means No even on Terra" =)
Yes the last 3-4 pages skipped most of the political "thingy" and thank the Ancients for that, even if exactly those bits determine the future happenings.
Maybe his friends will go with him but erasing someones entire existence & academic publications/research seems very extreme even by old Terran "Purge" standards.
Why throw away perfectly usable knowledge ?
I think Gharr´s parents is long gone, that's the impression I had for some reason?
Not the publications/research itself, only the authorship, it probably become Anonyous work.
I agree that this part is particularly harsh, but however, I recall that "erasing someones entire existence" is a common option for an exile, just a least know consequence.
It's essentially damnatio memoriae, and about as outdated here as it sounds, too. (Jurisprudence's fondness of other Latin terminology like "nulla poene sine lege" notwithstanding.)
Yeaaah, it really is excessive. Exile is one thing, "erasing from existence" is just... I can't comprehend the motivation. I really hope this wasn't done purely so Zane could avoid backlash himself (he mentioned that his career would be in shambles if he covered for Gharr).
I suspect its a default part of the punishment. They indicate that its something in their society which dates back to fairly ancient times so probably a full part of the package. Exile and errase all mention from history.
Yeah, Zane only seemed to indicate it would jeoperdise his own career if he tried to cover for Gharr. If anything I think even affording this punishment as opposed to imprisonment will likely land Zane in hot water, not to mention all the explaining he needs to do about making contact with a pre-space age civilisation.
Erasing someone's history seems like something that should be left in the dark ages even if exile itself wasn't. For one thing, it's a much bigger reach than criminal punishment, since it reaches so far beyond Gharr himself. Doing this requires censoring databases throughout the Alliance, many of which will be owned by other people, and affecting the information available to everybody.
Also, this is something we didn't do to the freaking Unabomber, and he murdered people with malice aforethought.
This assumes that the Alliance government either doesn't have a lot wider censoring powers than current western countries on Earth, or it's more of a symbolic measure. Or mixture, in case his field of study is highly dependent on the government(s) of the Alliance, then there would be a lot less 3rd party databases to censor, if there'd be any at all.