I can’t even think about what to blog about. Just trying to catch up on work. haven’t been online enough to have much idea what’s happening online.
If you like Krazy Kat, Calvin & Hobbes, and Little Dee, go read the whole archive of Road Apples Almanac. You won’t be disappointed.
Well, this was one of those moments like when Yuri was being tortured. You know, where the reader is reminded that serious shit can and will happen at any moment.
I know Martina’s death is pretty much certain, but I’m still hoping for an unreliable narrator…
Very disturbing. Incredibly disturbing.
I think the plotline has become irretrievably dark by now.
Brrrr … *shivers*
Such is life.
Oh, and by the way, a couple of minor editing things that need to be done …
“But it’s programmed to not let any beings to return on it …” You need to remove the “to” between “beings” and “return”.
“I’m not leaving the base and letting those unstable eebs kills the thousands …” You need to remove the “s” from “kills.”
Good work … in a nasty and evil way … this week, Chris.
Thanks, @Eris_Lobo, I’ll fix those in the morning! 🙂
Holy cats! O_O
Yep, time for Martina to die. And take Red-9 with her.
Red-9 ordered her to not stop them from killing the station’s populace. She did not order her to not help the Eebs to kill everyone, including the Eebs.
I was starting to think this earlier, but now, I’m sure about it.
This is going to be a story about good people freeing something they don’t understand.
The Eebs didn’t deserve Spacetrawlering, but that doesn’t mean that they are good people.
As shown, they are a danger to themselves and others. They have boundless creativity, and no system to guide it, other than ‘I want it’, or ‘its funny.’
I noticed it when the Eeb clamped Martina with the order to obey him. And from what it looks like, he’s not going to give it up.
This was all a terrible mistake, and everyone is going to end up regretting freeing the Eebs.
Especially, Martina, as she is going to understand that RED-9 seems to only object to his own people being clamped.
OTOH, this could also mean that eventually the galaxy’s sophont population will only comprise eebs and humans. And anyone else too backward to ever have enslaved an eeb.
Honestly that doesn’t look that bad, certainly treatable given their level of technology. She didn’t even lose an eye.
Love you, Martina, and we’re going to miss you, but charging at unclamped Eebs with anything less than a fully-armed space station? Just suicidally stupid.
Martina, noooooooooooooo! Even if they shut down my nerve endings, I think I would still be screaming just looking at my arm.
Thanks lots for the RAA shout out, Chris! What a time to do it though; Don is away on business this week! How sneaky of you. 😉
*sent whilst sipping coffee from SpaceTrawler mug.
Oh shit.
Well, we know it’s coming but really–I was hoping for a clean, painless death. This is just gonna hurt more. It’s gonna be really painful watching her pay for trusting Red 9 to clamp her. Only the good die young.
even after the torture of yuri and the full knowledge that Martina was going to die, I was not expecting this. jaw dropped. I continue to await every installment of this amazing story.
Oh poor Martina. This is SO not going to end well.
This update made me sad, because I was sort of hoping Martina’s death would be plot-twisted in her favor (maybe she chose to remain with IA indefinitely and wanted her family to think she was dead to spare them from not knowing where she was), but it looks now like her death scene is coming closer and closer. Unless she decides to join Yuri’s cyborg club now. XD
Okay, so, theory/speculation time.
According to this: https://www.baldwinpage.com/spacetrawler/2011/10/09/spacetrawler-175/, Martina was brain clamped on the right side of her head on the top.
Martina just got burned very badly all along the right side of her head, including the top part where she was brainclamped.
I suspect that brain clamps don’t go LITERALLY on the brain, because that would require a skull puncture. The clamp application appears to be painless, more like a very quick small piercing of the ear than a puncture of the skull.
I suspect the brain clamps are actually sub-dermal implants that lay under the skin.
If I am correct about this, that brain clamps are sub-dermal implants instead of literal brain surgery attachments… then Martina may now be clamp free, since the skin and subcutaneous layers where she was clamped have now been destroyed, and the clamp most likely is a useless blob of melted steel right now.
If she is clamp free, she would be free to press the detonation button on the Last Resort Red-9 made for her earlier…
This is why I like this comic so much. It can be funny but this isn’t a comedy. People can an will die. Some just get mutilated or clamped. We are told that Martina dies. One of my most favorite of characters. But we are not told how. So there the unexpected is always lurking since people die every minute from all kinds of things. Very rarely are they in the news paper or on the Internet. (But they are more likely to be on the Internet. We usually hope the bad die young but not always do they. Keep on Space Trawling!
Well, now is the time for Cornflower-94 to invent a tissue-regeneration machine that can rebuild and repair Martina, and maybe give Yuri back her limbs.
Then again, if it’s Cornflower-94 building it, the machine could swap her feet and hands, and they’ll still need duct tape to hold the limbs on to the body…
And @Mog, I remember when the Disney “Aladdin” came out, having to explain to people WHY it is a VERY bad idea to give Djinn their freedom. Suffice to say, there was a reason why Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, gave them slave bracelets and stuffed them into lamps and bottles. I guess Nogg only watched the Disney cartoon and never actually read any of the stories.
she is just being stupid now.
Damn, Chris. You’re really experimenting with the dark side. Still, I have to say I like this comic because of the same reason.
I feel for Mr. Zorrilla.
This is a tale being told to him, as a history.
Near this point Nogs life will be in danger , unless he can outrun Martina’s dad.
@Dave
If brain clamps were that easy to remove I don’t think they would be trying so hard to clone unclamped eebs.
I don’t know if Mr. Zorilla would want to kill Nogg outright. At least not right away. I think his first reaction will be shock and horror about how gruesomely his daughter died despite being warned beforehand that she was dead. That will stun him for a while.
He knows the thelbian is not evil–if anything a naive, rather ineffectual bleeding heart really. But then again Nogg is responsible for stealing his daughter away and is at least indirectly responsible for circumstances of her death. Of course feelings of revenge and anger will bubble up, but everyone is different.
Once Zorilla’s brain is working again, that’s when Nogg should fear.
i haz a sad.
Yikes, poor Martina.
Also, I note some people referring to red-9 as “he.” Red-9 is a girl, at least according to Dmitri: https://www.baldwinpage.com/spacetrawler/2011/02/22/spacetrawler-121/
(Do eebs even have human-equivalent genders?)
I was all sad seeing what happened at first, but when I started through the comments that changed into so much anticipation! Chris has brought the comic deliciously close to potential over-the-top save and counter save loops so many times before and always handled it brilliantly. I suppose Martina had to get burned once because that’s in her character.
“stop! what you’re doing is wrong!”
Probably just a coincidence, but that immediately reminded me of star control 2’s “Hold! What you are doing to us is wrong! Why do you do this thing?,” which is a phrase the player can use to temporarily stop the overwhelming strong antagonists from attacking.