Today on Quantum Vibe: The Murphy Drive Strip 1055 - Click strip above to goto the next strip.
First Seen: Fri 2015-03-20
Story & Art: Scott Bieser - Colors: Lea Jean Badelles Sci-Fi Adventure Monday & Thursday.
Quantum Vibe
A thousand years in the future, humanity has colonized worlds in nearly
100 galaxies, thanks to Quantum Vibremonic technologies developed five
centuries earlier. Other new technologies have created various
off-shoots of humanity and extended life expectancies five-fold. The
story begins with how a mad scientist and his plucky assistant, along
with their robot friend, brought humanity to the stars, and continues
with the adventures of some unique people in fantastic places.
Kickstarter successful and closed [ May 19, 2026 ]
The Kickstarter campaign for Not-Safe.Space Chapter 3 concluded successfully on April 21, and Scott extended the time allowed for late pledges until May 19.
Books have been ordered from the printer and Scott will be spending the next week or so setting up and sending the PDF files to those who asked for them.
(There are still six of you who have not responded to the survey asking for e-mail and snail-mail addresses, he'll do the best he can.)
Panel 1
Maureen, Li, Nicole and Murphy holding station inside the monitor room.
Caption: Not long afterward:
Li: A teleportation engine! Amazing!
Nicole: We've been calling it a displacement engine.
Murphy: Actually we've never really formally named our invention.
Panel 2
Same scene, different angle.
Maureen: It should have both your names on it.
Li: How about, 'The Oresme-Murphy Discontinuous Displacement Drive'?
Nicole: Could as easily be 'The Murphy-Oresme Displacement Drive' I suppose.
Panel 3
Murphy won't have any false modesty, somewhat to Nicole's annoyance.
Murphy: Suits me. We can call it 'The Murphy Drive' for short.
Nicole: Um, well ...
Maureen: Don't take this personally, but Li pays me to be skeptical. Can you prove this drive of yours works?
Panel 4
Now the four of them are in the star-boat, strapped in. We see them through the closed canopy. Murphy and Maureen in front, Nicole and Li in back.
Caption: And, so:
Murphy: We should be clear of the moonlet and ready to transit in three minutes. Engaging EM cloak.
Maureen: This boat of yours doesn't look like it could get as far as the Belt from here. Is there even a toilet aboard?
Panel 5
Inside the cockpit, Nicole grouses as Murphy looks at her instruments in alarm.
Nicole: We wont' need a toilet, we ...
Murphy: 300-tonne mass at 2 o'clock high, closing fast!
Li: What is it?
Panel 6 boat): Looks like a frigate. I can't tell whose since we have our shield up.
Murphy: But they definitely can 'see' us judging by its movement.
Murphy: Transiting now!
Panel 7
External view: The boat's EM-shield drops as our heroes find themselves in a starry void.
Murphy (from boat): Dropping EM shield.
Nicole (from boat): That was close!
Maureen (from boat): Where are we? Where's the Sun?!
Panel 8
Inside the cockpit. Murphy is calm, Nicole is somewhat amused as Li and Maureen look about, wide-eyed.
Murphy: Oh, it's out there somewhere.
Murphy: Give me a minute to get our bearings and I'll take us back to our place.
Maureen: Good, because I could definitely use a toilet right now.