Latest blog post: Update on the comic (2026-05-28)
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Comments (4)
Pondering that implant malfunction in the last panel some more ...
The only other Raharr we've seen post-boom (the admiral) is even worse off, so chances are that there are a lot of them with problems similar to Zane's. As far as we know, it's those implants that provide them with the radio communication they're used to (see page 9), as well as their ability to speak and understand Terran languages (p. 46).
So, communication with the survivors to coordinate the rescue efforts may be severely hampered, and after the last panel's BZZZZT, Zane might be reduced to Armflailese to talk to the half of the human delegation near him. (Is it just me, or is Quantum already jumping in to help translate in panels two and three?)
Speaking of Quantum, his preferred (only? only one apart from implants-mediated radio?) means of communication is that talking hologram - which gets projected from a couple drones floating overhead thanks to having rotors (p. 46). I doubt that there's a bajillion of those drones waiting to be used everywhere across the Dawn, not to mention that they will lose lift and gradually become nonfunctional as the ship atmosphere thins.
Whereas Quantums "core" is immobile and dependent on an external power source (p. 196). I hope that the Alliance crew won't fall to the "save the face we've been talking to!!" fallacy ...
Zane can at least speak Armflailese at 2x.
And I can totally see the Rharr "saving" Quantum by carrying some of those little holoprojector drones with them.
Gee, I wonder what kind of Valentine cards Quantum gets ...
The hologram is also dependent on air, though I think it can handle lower densities than the drone rotors. The hologram would fade, however. And without radio and air, so will Quantum' voice. Quantum will go the way of the elves… the Dawn is even moving westward, it seems.
Depends whether the implant actually does the work itself, or it relies on remote systems*, and now they are either offline, or it's local comms network the implants use, that's down. Both can be perceived by the user as the implant not working.
* or it's a mixed bag, so the more common Alliance languages are supported internally, at least a subset that allows basic communications, but Human languages are too new, that they aren't so it's done by remote systems.
If I had to guess, if there is one of those ships, there are more, and that is why the synth is panicking slightly as he probably knows how they'd fight.
He said the events were important and must be backed up. This might be a cultural imperative, or a fear that critical evidence of 'criminal conduct' (?) was not backed up, and fixing that lack was more important that speaking with Zane.
My guess is a backup containing Vagabond's personal experiences, senses, and memory, are going to be taken much more seriously by his species's government than faulty organic senses/memory and the claims of a primitive AI like Quantum.
Ah the ship is going down.
[waiting to see what the Alliance equivalent of rats looks like, and whether they have vacuum suits of their own]
I assure you, they are so freaking cute!
... whaddya mean, "cute"? Haven't you seen that those pointy whiskers pierce right through the helmet?!?
Things are escalating. I think they have to evacuate the entire station.
in 1 hour. Its gonna look like an invasion seen from Terra.
Lets hope people remain calm....Could not write that with a straight face.
Also, by "backup" does Vagabond means his info/data as is this recent event will be send to the Collective ? I think so.
Not necessarily to the collective (a.k.a. reclusive main faction of the Azinarsi), because of the whole "effectively an exile" business, though it's nonetheless possible. But otherwise, using some secretly-prepared channels to backup the data to so-far-secretly [ahem] repurposed [/ahem] storage units aboard a number of other ships of the fleet would be very much in character.
I'd hope that the bright beam of the attack and the fact that the Dawn suddenly is in several parts on everyone's and his dog's radar screen should set impressions right ...
Neither everyone nor his dog needs a radar screen to see that the dawn is in twain. It was very much visible to the naked eye, remember?
You need radar to determine that those fireballs obscuring direct sight of the (bigger parts of the) Dawn are debris entering the atmosphere on random trajectories and not missiles aimed at planetside military targets.
I have my orbit mechanical doubts about that. Any pieces getting low enough to enter the atmosphere would be on faster orbits ahead of the higher orbiting dawn by that time, unless they are spraying away from the impact at several kilometers per second. But that shot to me looks more like it sawed/vaporized through the Dawn, and the detached larger pieces are still nearby, moving not too fast.
Disclaimer: I am not an astrogator. But I WAS level 1 STK (Satellite Tool Kit) certified by AGI. And I got laid off from a job where I almost got to work on tracking space junk. And I found a semi-mechanical flaw in "The Descent of Anansi". So, totally qualified to talk about this, right?
Yes, of course it needs that at least part of the debris gets accelerated away from the ex-Dawn at a higher velocity than we see in the large chunks. And preferably decelerated per the orientation of its orbit, which is questionable because the Dawn seems to have been hit "from behind" on page 291.
Nonetheless, on the same page, we do see small debris already having spread out farther than the big chunks. Especially Hekaht, who did not have a surrounding ship atmosphere to accelerate him by grace of an explosive decompression, as the other bodies supposedly experienced.
No opinion on what delta-v would be needed on my side ... Especially since the only figure on the exact orbit we have ("400-500 km", the author commented on page 262) might be from before the Dawn started the planetside erection of Meetup Island (on the next page) ...
I doubt they need to evacuate the entire Dawn in 1 hour, only the sections that were severely damaged; and we know that this control room was close to the impact. Besides, they don’t even need to evacuate to Earth, just to move into a secure section.
However, I think the damage taken by the Dawn means that it has completely lost its ability to serve as the headquarters of the Exploration Fleet. Especially if the drum is not working. Not immediately, but in the long term, we will certainly have to evacuate to Earth, which can therefore be done over a reasonable period of time.