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Chapter: Chapter 4: Zucchini

  • Talita pushes up the shutter of a slot-shaped peephole on her door and sees that the bright, grinning face of Gillie is behind it. Talita opens the door. Both Gillie and Idrisah are standing on the ramp of her apartment. Talita: ...Idrisah? Gillie gestures excitedly while Idrisah watches her with a disgruntled expression, blushing slightly. Gillie: (ASL) A bunch of gaps opened in the outgoing schedule! There’s nothing stopping us now! Talita stares knowingly at Idrisah, suppressing a grin. Idrisah sweats nervously, and turns a darker shade of red. She folds her arms and scowls, looking away. Idrisah: I’m here to make sure you two don’t get arrested. Talita: (grinning sardonically) Whatever helps you sleep at night.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 132

    Feb 13, 2025

  • Gillie: (ASL) I think they gave up. It’s not like there’s any slots for them to leave, anyways. Idrisah freezes with her shoes in her hands, staring at Gillie, wide-eyed and sweating guiltily. Gillie stares back. She suddenly lunges at Idrisah, causing her to scream and reflexively fling her shoes in the air. Gillie: (ASL) Tell me TELL ME TELL ME TELL ME TELL ME! Idrisah: SHRIEK! Talita, still in her apartment sitting at her drafting tablet, stares nervously at the ellipses animation that indicates Gillie is still typing a response to her text. Talita: …Is she typing a dissertation? She jolts upwards as there's a loud noise at the roll-up metal door of her apartment. SFX: BANG BANG BANG Talita: hgk

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 131

    Feb 11, 2025

  • Gillie is playing an FPS horror video game on her computer, firing a gun at a monster in a dark hallway. The game has audio captions on. Her phone buzzes on the desk next to her hand, and she glances down at it and picks it up. It's texts from Talita. Talita: (text) Fixing the Runaway is possible. I think I might do it.  Talita: (text) Don’t tell Idrisah. :( Gillie starts typing back, gleefully excited. Then the lights flick on and off, curbing her enthusiasm. Idrisah has returned to the apartment. Gillie gets up to greet her. Gillie: (ASL) No zucchini? Idrisah: (ASL) I escaped this time. Idrisah takes her shoes off, and Gillie kneels down next to her and holds her face to give her a kiss. Gillie: (ASL) How are you feeling? Idrisah: (ASL) Well, work stress rather than… you know. Did that AI contact you again?

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 130

    Feb 08, 2025

  • Cheevwut: Man, the orbital station grandma polycule is gonna be pissed. Inset panel: A group of four old tailed spacers in a weightless space station hallway with disapproving expressions. Cheevwut: Too much incoming inertia will make the skyhook spin too fast. They’ll look for any excuse to not burn fuel slowing it down! Inset panel: The skyhook spins through space, firing small rockets to ease the spin. Idrisah looks off to the side with a thousand yard stare. Cheevwut: I gave you something new to worry about, huh? Idrisah: (hysterical) Worry?? About what? Talita arrives home and sets up her drafting tablet. She begins to create a mockup of the Runaway in a drafting program, scratching her lower jaw thoughtfully.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 129

    Feb 06, 2025

  • Cheevwut: Wow! You look like shit! Idrisah: I’m fine! I’ve just been. Worrying about stuff. Cheevwut: Like that’s new. But here’s something that is! They show Idrisah their phone. Cheevwut: Ohwitiil fucked up big time! They lost us our aluminum buyer! Idrisah: Oh… yeah, that would void the contract. Cheevwut: It would be funnier if damage control wasn’t my job! Idrisah: Did they have a backup buyer? Cheevwut: Nope! All those slots in the outgoing schedule are just empty now! Idrisah's eyes widen and she freezes in place. Behind her, an inset panel shows a day-by-day schedule of shipments, with over half the bihourly slots highlighted.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 128

    Feb 04, 2025

  • Mel: They’re liquidating a competitor. Sold us a bunch of perfectly functional prototype vessels for pennies. To scrap! What a waste, right? Talita: (sweating nervously) …Yeah! Such a waste!! She ducks out of the office and stands with her hand on her chin, thinking deeply. Suddenly, the two dark spots on her lower jaw begin to itch. She scratches it and grimaces. Talita: Dammit. Again? Already? Back at admin, Idrisah types on her English-Tiiliitian keyboard in her cubicle. She looks dead tired, with dark circles under her eyes. Cheevwut approaches her. Cheevwut: Idrisah. Idrisah: Cheevwut?

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 127

    Feb 01, 2025

  • It's the next morning. The bing bong chime sounds and the lights turn on in the dome. Later, Talita is outside in her exosuit with the temp work crew, staring in astonishment at a row of new junkyard arrivals on the rails. It's a wide variety of ships in different makes and models, but all appear completely undamaged. After she returns to the plant, Talita pays Mel's office a visit. They are discussing something with Ohwitiil with the door ajar. She knocks cautiously and ducks though the human-height office door. Talita: …Mel? What’s with the fleet of immaculate ships in our yard? Mel: Oh! You know Vspear, that Martian aerospace company?

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 126

    Jan 30, 2025

  • Bip's avatar pops up on her tablet, as if climbing up from underneath the bottom edge of the screen. Bip: You rang? Talita: What does the writing on the hull of the Runaway mean? Bip: That’s written in a logographic signage script shared by most of the nomadic centaur clans. It's a boast about both ship and crew: "We are faster than you!" Talita: Oh! Haha. She pauses wistfully and looks at her surroundings. The great blank semi-cylinders of the dry storage units rise up around Talita's cranny of yard space, dwarfed further by the huge dome of the habitat's opaque ceiling overhead. Talita: Couldn’t outrun everything, huh.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 125

    Jan 28, 2025

  • The speed of the treadmill surpasses typ human limits, and Talita transitions to a hexapodal gallop, only one foot contacting the ground at a time. She breathes heavily, in through the nostrils on her face and out through the nostrils on her lower torso. SFX: HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF 50 km/hr 70 km/hr The sprint rolls down her body, and her muscles work in time with her breathing like the pistons in an engine. Her hooves dig into the surface of the treadmill, the steely elastic tendons of her limbs taking on the weight of her entire body with each stride, wrists practically bending to touch the ground. SFX: HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF 90 km/hr 120 km/hr The yard is gone. Talita is alone in her mind while her body works like a machine taken to its physical limit. Memories of the centaur script from the outside of the Runaway and its cluttered interior flash past, simultaneously meaning nothing and too much. The sprint program begins to wind down. 100 km/hr 80 km/hr 40 km/hr 0 km/hr She comes back to standstill, all six limbs touching the ground. Then she leans heavily on the tablet stand, panting with her forehead against her arms. The yard begins to fade back into existence. Talita puts her glasses back on and picks up her tablet to make a call. Talita: Hey, Bip?

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 123 and 124

    Jan 25, 2025

  • Gillie and Idrisah watch Talita leave, blankly surprised. The front door latches with click. Gillie: (ASL) What did she say? Talita selects the "10 km SPRINT" program on her tablet, and plugs it into the stand in front of her treadmill.  She's in the private backyard behind her dry storage unit apartment, and has stripped down her underwear in preparation of working out. She begins to jog quadrupedally on the treadmill as the speed increases. SFX: tic 5 km/hr SFX: tic 10 km/hr SFX: tic 15 km/hr She switches to a hexapodal run, the yard melting away with her intense focus. SFX: BADA TUMP BADA TUMP BADA TUMP SFX: tic 20 km/hr SFX: tic 30 km/hr SFX: tic 40 km/hr

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 122

    Jan 23, 2025

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