Today on Quantum Vibe: Rinse and repeat Strip 2030 - Click strip above to goto the next strip.
First Seen: Fri 2019-12-06
Story & Art: Scott Bieser - Sci-Fi Adventure Monday & Thursday.
Dark plans fall like thunderbolts.
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.
What Comes Next [ Mar 18, 2024 ]
The war is over, but This Means War has a ways to go. Novo Paolo/Bubbleopolis is still in a nebula/stellar nursery, no one knows what happened to the planet Sharen (center of the Intergalactic Council), and the status of the now-surrendered Invaders is yet to be resolved. What will they do when they learn their homeworld is basically destroyed? Will Alyss and Li be re-united? How about Diana (the real one) and Otto?
These questions will be resolved in the next few weeks, before This Means War part 3 wraps in late May.
After that, I plan to go BACK in time about 400 years, to when Alyss and Li left their home in the Sol System to colonize a new world on the far side of the galaxy. As one might expect, hijinks ensue. New subtitle yet to be determined, start date sometime in around the start of July. Stay tuned!
Panel 1
Same view as in previous panel, but the asteroid has popped away via Displacer.
Caption: After half a Standard Year of guided falling into the black hole's gravity well, the asteroid has built up a velocity of 1000 kilometers per second.
Caption: Then, while still 5 million kilometers out from the event horizon, it pops away using its onboard Displacement Engine ...
Panel 2
The asteroid pops back into view, now the black hole, is much more distant.
Caption: … only to re-appear more than 250 million klicks farther out.
Caption: One characteristic of the Displacement Engine is that an object retains its momentum (or lack of it) relative to the local gravity well, after Displacement.
Caption: So, it starts moving towards the black hole again at 1000 klicks per second, and also still accelerating.
Panel 3
Now the black-hole and its halo loom large in the panel again. Speed lines behind the rock are more intense.
Caption: After a good bit less than half a year, the rock is once again 5 million klicks from the event horizon, now moving at 3050 kilometers per second.
Caption: If it gets closer, time dilation effects from the gravity incline would become, well, inconvenient.
Panel 4
The asteroid pops into a position 250 million klicks away, and zooms off towards the black-hole.
Caption: But the drive systems, following their programming, pop the asteroid back out to a 250 million kilometer distance.
Caption: 'Rinse and repeat,' each cycle shortening in duration as the rock's velocity builds.
Caption: Eventually, the object is moving at close to nine-tenths of light-speed, relative to the local gravity well.
Caption: Time for the second phase.