* It may be a bit confusing when the captain tells Ula that she's “malfunctioning” and needs “repair.” It sounds like Ula is some sort of android or something. This is just the way they talk. Ula's brain, like the captain's and pretty much all other spacers' brains, is electronically augmented to do all sorts of cybertechy things that normal humans can't do, and the same goes for their bodies in a number of ways. So when a person is unwell, they'll often talk about it in machine terms.
* “Deactivation,” specifically, means she needs to shut down and go into her stasis or hibernation mode. Most spacers are modified either genetically or cybernetically to be capable of hibernating for long periods in order to conserve resources on long voyages or potentially if something goes wrong and they need to wait a long period for rescue. In this instance, the captain is requesting she power down for safety reasons, so she can't pose a further threat to herself or others.
* I went back and forth on that fifth panel as to whether or not the background cyberbabble was necessary. It's supposed to show that the captain is attempting some form of neural link with Ula and instead of finding Ula, it's finding… someone else. But it's equally effective without that detail, because maybe she could tell just from that super creepy look in her eyes that it's not Ula behind the wheel anymore. I ended up keeping it, even though it may kill some of the drama.
Just wanted to share this really neat Youtube video I stumbled upon by DrRhysy. It's a rigorous (but sadly incomplete) attempt at depicting a realistic space battle as viewed through a hard sci fi lens. What I find most interesting about it is that, despite it not relying on the ridiculous tropes that most space opera battle sequences rely on, it's still exciting and visually captivating. If Star Trek looked like this, I might actually watch it!
Btw, if you're wondering why parts of the spaceships are glowing red, those are radiators. In space, there's no air or water to help cool things down as there is here on Earth, so heat on a spaceship tends to accumulate rapidly, especially when the ship is doing something energy intensive like performing maneuvers or deploying weapons. To keep the whole ship from melting and roasting the hapless crew alive, they slap those big radiator fins on to direct waste heat away from the main body of the ship and dissipate it safely. It's been speculated that most space battles like the one in DrRhysy's video would typically end not when a combatant's ship is destroyed or damaged by enemy fire, but when their ship can no longer fight for fear of overheating. Here's another cool video of how hot a rocket engine gets after 80 seconds of continuous thrust.
Okay, so you've now had two weeks to cast your vote for the Drunk Duck Awards 2018. If you haven't voted by now, then you're probably a procrastinator. That's okay, I don't judge! But I do need you to vote! So… I guess it's gotten to that point now: shameless bribery. So, to encourage you to vote, here's some boobs.
So how does showing you bare breasts incentivize you to vote, given that you've already seen the boobs? I don't know. I don't think these things through. But please vote! You don't have to vote for this comic; just vote for all your favorite comics in the various categories, and you don't need to cast a vote for every category, so you can leave it blank if you don't know a good candidate for Best Drama or something like that. If you are thinking about voting for this comic, here are some of the main categories I'm campaigning for this year:
So, please if you haven't already, take the time to vote. The ballot link should be good for another week, I believe, so there's still time!
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