Freefall 3: Death Ray Byproducts

[Rockphed]

You mean they make him, or Sam takes the opportunity to steal?

How do you feel about both? Both is good.

[Rogar Demonblud]

And now we see the importance of bringing along a guide dog engineer. So they can tell you whether you need to run or it's already too late for that.

[Fyraltari]

Oh boy, this is bad. This is not the kind of negligence you can allow on a space station.

[Cazero]

On the bright side, it's labeled with a number. We can expect some redundancy and hope machinery #2 doesn't have all those station-wrecking issues.

[Fyraltari]

On the bright side, it's labeled with a number. We can expect some redundancy and hope machinery #2 doesn't have all those station-wrecking issues.

Of course not. It’ll have a completely different set of station-wrecking issues.

[Radar]

Of course not. It’ll have a completely different set of station-wrecking issues.

Still, I vote for panic.

[Lord Raziere]

I mean, looking at it not knowing anything about engineering....first panel looks like leaking water, don't want water leaking cause its like, useful for a lot of things , you want to constantly recycle that because there is no other water around. might be used for other things, but mainly you probably want it to remain hydrated.

panel two looks like a power electricity thing. that isn't connected. thats probably not good, because wires, you making a station that like needs to emulate a planets ability to maintain a living environment on a small scale and that must never stop ever. so. power. important. thing not connected means no power to a thing. that bad.

third panel has a steam leak? ahm. first of all steam is very hot. like, fire levels of hot. don't touch the very hot mist. second of all, steam is used for a lot of things like, generating power, because steams probably whats making the magnet that generates electricity go spin and thus gives you power. so. thats probably important to everything.

I dunno I just woke up.

[Radar]

I mean, looking at it not knowing anything about engineering....first panel looks like leaking water, don't want water leaking cause its like, useful for a lot of things , you want to constantly recycle that because there is no other water around. might be used for other things, but mainly you probably want it to remain hydrated.

panel two looks like a power electricity thing. that isn't connected. thats probably not good, because wires, you making a station that like needs to emulate a planets ability to maintain a living environment on a small scale and that must never stop ever. so. power. important. thing not connected means no power to a thing. that bad.

third panel has a steam leak? ahm. first of all steam is very hot. like, fire levels of hot. don't touch the very hot mist. second of all, steam is used for a lot of things like, generating power, because steams probably whats making the magnet that generates electricity go spin and thus gives you power. so. thats probably important to everything.

I dunno I just woke up.

Aside from the specifics, all three situations scream a single message: very sloppy maintenance. Things might kind of work for now, but it is more a question of when rather then if it will cause a disaster.

[Rockphed]

So we see a control valve (the big red wheel) that has a leaky housing. That ain't easy to fix. We have an electrical panel that is tagged out, but looks like it was abandoned halfway through work, and we have a steam housing that looks like it is over-pressure. Yeah, this shop is being run worse than anything I have ever seen, and I worked for a company whose motto was "safety isn't important if you do everything right".

Edit to add: And I love that the author keeps including pictures of what look like real hardware. I guess he is a nuclear engineer so he has lots of time to sketch the various industrial equipment around him between the occasional panic.

[Radar]

Edit to add: And I love that the author keeps including pictures of what look like real hardware. I guess he is a nuclear engineer so he has lots of time to sketch the various industrial equipment around him between the occasional panic.

He actually is as far as I remember. While there is no directly available information about the author, I kind of remember he did mention his occupation on a few occasions, when he had to delay updates.

[Rockphed]

He actually is as far as I remember. While there is no directly available information about the author, I kind of remember he did mention his occupation on a few occasions, when he had to delay updates.

Sorry, my post should be read as "he gets lots of chances to stare blankly at equipment since he is a nuclear engineer", not "he must be an engineer because he draws industrial equipment so well". And he is a nuclear engineer, though I couldn't find that information to save my soul. He frequently mentions his adventures in engineering on the forum linked on the comic page (with the most recent being about contractors trying to steal nuclear contaminated ladders). I even know where he works because he mentions it by name occasionally and it was the power plant that powered my home town.

[Rogar Demonblud]

It's never a good sign when people have internalized the hazards as 'normal'. How long to get the other reactor into the Angry Chicken and hooked up?

[Fyraltari]

Spoiler: The people running this place

Show

Edit to add: And I love that the author keeps including pictures of what look like real hardware. I guess he is a nuclear engineer so he has lots of time to sketch the various industrial equipment around him between the occasional panic.

A nuclear engineer never panics. There is no state *between completely calm assessment of the situation* and *dead*

[Rockphed]

A nuclear engineer never panics. There is no state *between completely calm assessment of the situation* and *dead*

And this is why I wouldn't make it as a nuclear engineer.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Wow. Sam meets someone who does not have the conditioned response to grab their wallet and flee.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

A nuclear engineer never panics. There is no state *between completely calm assessment of the situation* and *dead*

Or, to quote Terryandneil:

[The nuclear engineer] didn't say "That's weird." He wouldn't have said "That's weird" if a flock of sheep had cycled past playing violins. It wasn't the sort of thing a responsible engineer said.

Grey Wolf

[Kantaki]

Wow. Sam meets someone who does not have the conditioned response to grab their wallet and flee.

It's his first time there.
Give it a few minutes.

[Lord Raziere]

It's his first time there.
Give it a few minutes.

Indeed. he is kind of the troublemaker that is good for inciting a plot and he just saw a bunch of things that he could tell Florence. Sams not the gullible type and he should at least some experience from working with Florence, the question is, what mischief he will do before and after he does so. I doubt he fully believes the engineer saying its normal. it'll be interesting to see how he causes mischief in a fragile environment like a space station that requires precise maintenance and control without killing everyone.

[lord_khaine]

I suspect Sam will show he can indeed behave himself for a visit.
In this case he was given the challenge to figure out whats going on with the station.
And he seems pretty content to work on unraveling that mystery.

[sihnfahl]

Oh, Sam will behave himself ... mostly ... because if there's something Sam would probably love to see, it is how this particular scam is run.

And see if he can take advantage of it.

[Rogar Demonblud]

If he can take advantage of it. It's sounding more like a general liquidity crisis.

[Lord Raziere]

If he can take advantage of it. It's sounding more like a general liquidity crisis.

Yeah, incompetently managed finances can be very devastating, and its possible that a competent scam would at least try to make sure the station keeps running to save their own skin....unless the scammer isn't on the station.but yeah, this doesn't seem like a scam thing is, this all sounds like stuff that could be managed with a proper balanced budget. so whatever is happening, someone is misspending too much on certain things and not enough on the practical stuff to cause this kind of imbalance.

[Kantaki]

Clearly what Sam needs to do is to help them getting the station to run properly so scamming them is actually worth the effort.

I mean as things are now people are unlikely to form a mob when he tries something.
And without a proper chase there isn't really a point to pulling a scam.

Also, they kinda need the station to keep the planet running and to get to other worlds.
So Sam can scam them.

[sihnfahl]

If he can take advantage of it. It's sounding more like a general liquidity crisis.

You can take advantage of a general liquidity crisis ...

Consulting fees!

[Rogar Demonblud]

Yeah, incompetently managed finances can be very devastating, and it's possible that a competent scam would at least try to make sure the station keeps running to save their own skin....unless the scammer isn't on the station. But yeah, this doesn't seem like a scam thing is, this all sounds like stuff that could be managed with a proper balanced budget. So whatever is happening, someone is misspending too much on certain things and not enough on the practical stuff to cause this kind of imbalance.

Oh felgercarb, and Sam just took his Accounting I final...

[Lord Raziere]

Oh felgercarb, and Sam just took his Accounting I final...

Yup. he just needs to balance their budget to look like a hero, convince them that he should be the one to ALWAYS do that, then start salami-slicing their money after so he gets a cut of everything they do while they don't miss the one dollar he takes from everyone. it fits perfectly in his philosophy of "save a life to scam them over and over again forever".

[lord_khaine]

Also, they kinda need the station to keep the planet running and to get to other worlds.
So Sam can scam them.

Do we have any evidence thats the case?
As i recall it were just a space station. Not the space station.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Since it's the one where Winston's parents live, it's an asteroid that was foamed over and hollowed out.

[Rockphed]

Since it's the one where Winston's parents live, it's an asteroid that was foamed over and hollowed out.

Are they permanent residents or are they travelers like Sam and Florence?

And this is the P/N junction, which I thought was only part of the way along their journey.

[Rogar Demonblud]

If memory serves, they homestead. So this is their home.