Bip is a shoes-off household.
Transcript
Talita looks around the airlock chamber, bewildered, as the interior hatch opens.
Talita: Is this gas mix breathable?
Bip: Yep! I pinched some O₂ from the electrolysis plant.
Talita starts to walk out of the chamber, but the swarm of worms frantically rears up, grabbing her feet.
Bip: HEY HEY HEY! Suit off! I don’t want you tracking regolith in here!
Talita rolls her eyes and unclips the oxygen lines off her helmet so she can remove it.
Talita: Sigh… this better not kill me.
Bip: Trust me, I have no interest in dragging more bodies out of here with the worms.
Talita finishes pulling her helmet and pauses in stunned horror, considering the implications. Slowly her shock condenses into sadness as she takes off the rest of her suit, leaving it in the airlock chamber. She steps out of the interior airlock door into the large, cross-shaped docking module room.
Talita: You... could have asked for my help.
Bip: Furniture removal is one thing, but I felt undertaker services was a bit too far.
Talita: But doing it alone seems so—
She looks at the overhead surface of the room and stops, staring. Bip's avatar climbs around the edge of the opening between the docking module and the habitat like a moving painting on the wall. The worms crawl through the opening and the avatar points for her to follow them, where lights are turning on and hatches are opening in sequence down the long elevator shaft of the spine.
Bip: This way. Watch your step!
Talita: ...Alright.
53 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 204”
ShadowW
Huh. I consider that for Bip, as an AI, having to handle/dispose of / take apart(???) their previous crew’s bodies might not be as emotionally difficult as it would be for an organic being. Bip’s sense of self is physically transferrable- they can inhabit any body their programming is compatible with. So, they could have a strong innate sense that one’s “code” is independent of one’s “chassis.” I’m sure they’re sad about losing their crew, their friends and companions. But disposing of their crew’s empty bodies? It’s just another task to do.
theplushfrog
Bip repeatedly has been blowing off emotional moments for jokes or straight up ignoring offers of empathy, except for, perhaps, the moment they asked about the escape pod, which still seemed like Bip holding back. While I’m sure that some AI in this setting take on the kind of view you’re talking about, I honestly doubt Bip feels that way, or at least they have made it extremely difficult to tell. With how much they’re pushing Talita to move on from the topic, I feel like they did find body removal upsetting. I think they just don’t like being emotionally vulnerable in front of someone who they’re still getting to know, even if she isn’t a complete stranger anymore.
kaittzie
Even feathered Talita is not safe from helmet hair. Great touch!
Fallingfeather
Where did… he put the bodies….?
Kitty
Oh poor Bip… They just explained that they can’t carry anything heavier than 25 kilos with the machines, and centaurs are probably at least 500… Those bodies couldn’t have left in one piece. How terrible. (Unless I misunderstood.)
Bip’s situation is so tragic but in a really understated way because of how they don’t really bring it up and seem so chipper despite it.
Payphone Call
Is Bip’s avatar diegetic here? or a tool for readers? Also poor poor Bip…
Teod
I think it’s intended to be diegetic, but isn’t portrayed realistically. It’s not possible to project black color onto a white surface. The only way their image could be this crisp is if every lamp is a projector.
petra
it’ll be explained later… 🙂
JoB
[pictures worms electrostatically clinging to the ceiling, carrying a 20-kg-or-less bucket of black paint and brushes] 😉
“Well, it was either this, or redecorating with MBHs!”
(… yes, I do know what e-paper is.)
Teod
Ooooh, interesting. Is it E-ink walls? That could be both technically feasible and not absurdly expensive.
Imp!
Oh damn, i guess people were right about the bodies of the previous crew still being in there…. poor Bip.
Jackie
I was wondering if the bodies would ever be mentioned after it was confirmed the previous crew didnt escape. Props for including that!
Though now one has to wonder where and how Bip disposed of them without being overly suspicious. Also did this centaur crew have any burial practices that might have been considered?
JoB
… say, Bip, how do those worms avoid “tracking regolith in” again? Solely by virtue of riding steering wheels well above Dirtball’s surface all the time?
Enai
In my headcanon, the worms have a cleaning routine much like insects do. It looks very cute. Also, maybe the Runaway possesses a vacuum cleaner or two?
theplushfrog
It didn’t look like any worms followed her from the outside, it’s possible Bip has been keeping some worms strictly for inside usage, possibly after cleaning them up themself. Kinda like having indoor shoes vs outdoor shoes, only it’s remote robot bodies.
Vinemaple
If I were Bip, I’d have a frontloader waiting outside the airlock to receive the bodies. The worms just have to Nac Mac Feegle the bodies (sorry!) through the interior. We’ve also seen Bip use robotic arms in the ship, in old short comics and the preliminary work.
Teod
I am absolutely baffled that nobody checked the ship for bodies. That’s, like, the very first thing you should do with a derelict.
The only reason I can come up with is that it’s a deliberate murder and cover-up, with the sellers involved. But if it was a rival pirate gang, they’d probably loot the valuables and there’d be no phones to find. And if they just wanted Runaway gone, not caring about profits, then they’d leave it adrift, not capture and sell.
JoB
Technically, nobody has said that the bodies were still out in the open when the salvagers came aboard the Runaway. The actual attackers stuffing them into a closet or somesuch way-back-when would also explain why Talita, rummaging through the ship while Bip was still confined to the phones, didn’t see them. Why they would want to do that instead of pushing them out into open space, never to be found again, is another question, however. Maybe they thought they knew who would find the ship, and wanted to send them a message. Or maybe they did know and Bip is who they wanted to find the remains?
And then there’s the possibility that Bip is not exactly truthful and there actually were no bodies to remove anymore …
malmo
I have to imagine the crew were hiding themselves in a last ditch effort to survive
JoB
Against hull-puncturing missiles? To cut a long and depressing train of thoughts short, their best bet would have been to board the “emergency boat”, which seems to serve the purpose of being an escape pod when needed, and thus equipped with independent life support systems. But that is still docked to one of the airlocks.
Claire
On an unrelated note, the Ag on dirtball has been doing quite well lately.
JoB
On a somewhat more related note, the Runaway has a mini centaur ecosystem to get up and running again, too. Note that Bip didn’t say that ALL of the bodies went out …
TotallySomebody
Oh, bip..
Ruby
That’s… a daunting task to do alone, specially with the remains of your friends/family.
On a more cheerful note, the worm committee holding back Talita is adorable.
JoB
I wonder how many electrician worms Bip would need for a total pull of 1800 kg … 😉
Teod
After a lot of time in a vacuum they would probably dry up and not weigh as much. Still, a terrible task.
JoB
… I’m referring to the 1800 kg it’d take to forcefully keep Talita (as stated on the previous page) from walking in sans undressing …
Enai
Yeah, shoes off! You’re an engineer, you know full well how horrible regolith dust is, Talita!
malmo
Pretty sure she even chastises a temp over it in chapter 1
malmo
or maybe I’m thinking of her getting chastised over wheeling those phones through the office later on
halley
wait. what did bip do with the bodies
Enai
Dehydrate them (water is precious) and bury the remains next to the slag field?
…
Wait. The Runaway’s interior spent quite some time in vacuum or near vacuum conditions. They’re probably already dehydrated, so just burying the remains next to the slag field sounds like the way to go. If Bip’s a romantic, maybe bury them by the beginning of the space loop, so that their souls may run among the stars eternally?
Also, poor Bip. That must’ve been rough, even though they did not expect any of their crew to survive.
Vinemaple
Oh, poor Bip. And they don’t want to talk about it…
I guess I assumed that Bip’s crew were… sucked out… in the decompression. Even though I know decompression doesn’t always work like that.
Okay. So, without water, the bodies would be significantly lighter, mummified. Don’t think about that too hard. Definitely don’t try to visualize it.
I think we might find out, eventually, a bit more about what happened. I just wish Bip would *open up* about their crew. Even if Talita has no frame of reference, she’s seemed… curious… about Bip’s crew.
Or don’t sentient AIs take emotional damage, get traumatized? I guess we don’t know.
Arcstone
I suppose it’s a good thing talita didn’t explore any further into the ship when she found those phones.
Enai
Yeah, I also thought that the explosive decompression swept the crew into space. But that’s only true for the ones in the part of the habitat with the big ol’ hole in it, no? If anyone was elsewhere behind a closed door or even a bulkhead when the “fast moving object” hit, they’d still be killed by the loss of atmosphere but not sucked out.
JoB
> bury the remains next to the slag field?
Nah – given that stuff is dropped onto the slag field from orbit, there’d be a chance of a slight miscalculation “digging” some parts back up that workers could subsequently find as they reclaim metals from the slag.
Hiding the bodies where no biologicals will ever look would probably be best, but there shouldn’t be any actually radioactivity-contaminated parts to the hydrolysis plant, as deuterium is a stable isotope. And without some kind of no-go area effect to “protect” it, whichever part of the derelict mining ops’ infrastructure might get selected for dismantling+recycling Any Day Now™.
There’s an outer side of the berm protecting the near launch loop terminal with no rails running along it, with a chance that the berm hides it even from the eyes of someone riding the launch loop itself, that’d be my choice of a burial site …
Enai
Good point. Adjacent to the launch loop is the more appealing location anyway, and can easily be reached by the vehicles without anyone thinking too much about some extra tire tracks.
…
Unless… Ixion does have a rather Mars-like atmosphere. How often do dust storms coat everything liberally in regolith, I wonder? That might rather have the effect of a single track on freshly fallen snow… At least until the next dust storm blows in.
JoB
> How often do dust storms coat everything liberally in regolith, I wonder?
I don’t think that the resident feather duster would keep all those scrap heaps dust free if that were the case, and the rat’s non-canon, unfortunately. 😉
zaratustra
Assuming Bip is not lying about what he can lug out of an airlock, they got removed in at least forty pieces each.
INFANTEATER
BIP ON THE WALLS I REPEAT BIP ON THE WALLS
Vinemaple
Yeah, the emotional impact is sort of distracting us from the fact that Bip has the ship rigged up to project themself on the walls. I wonder if we’ll actually see much of the screens-with-arms that appear on Patreon and in short comics…
0xabad1dea
Missing the zillion spacedollars’ worth of phones is one thing, but the fact that a salvage company sold a spaceship still full of DEAD BODIES OF PEOPLE as bulk scrap to a recycling plant seems like… criminal negligence? I realize Bip seems extremely unwilling to engage with the legal system right now, but the righteous claims are piling up. So I guess those centaurs are… just buried on Dirtball now? Probably the only people to be buried there?
Adrienne
Yeah what the heck would happen if those bodies were discovered?? Talita might find herself in deep water if she were associated with the area…
Limulid
I’m extra sure those bodies won’t cause any problems with the centaurs Mel is inviting too……
Enai
Unless said (possible, until we lay eyes upon them we’re all still just speculating) centaurs go digging up random spots for no real reason, they won’t even know the spacefarers’ remains are there. Seriously, dirtball is BIG if all you’re looking for is some horse-sized bodies. And if you don’t even know there’s anything to find (Bip sure isn’t telling! They’ll not even talk to people if they can help it!), why dig at all?
JoB
> dirtball is BIG if all you’re looking for is some horse-sized bodies.
The planet’s also quite big for someone whose only means to transport those bodies to a nondescript place are the exact same battery-powered frontloaders everyone else uses to get around, especially with the extra disadvantage (compared to the “seekers” later) that there’s no atmosphere to obscure the tracks they leave in the process.
Part of why I’m favoring the “dark side” of the launch loop berm is that it has tapered ends and rails running along the entire inside, so that the rails-running crane that lowered the Runaway into the pit might manage to lower a frontloader onto an out-of-view flat surface on the berm’s outside to begin with.
Holothuroid
Do centaurs care about that?
Vinemaple
Oh, right… wasn’t there something in Chapter 1 about the salvage company getting rid of the bodies? Maybe someone just made an assumption… Or maybe the crew were *hiding* somewhere?
DasGanon
Awww poor Bip.
This is the first real look at the interior of the Runaway right? I wonder why the ladders are right in front of the airlock, that seems like a massive pain for Cargo/boarding in gravity environments.
Jay Eaton
There’s four airlocks.
ghostwhitehorse
Gul Madred: 5 actually.
Teod
Still seems like a flawed design. If you have four airlocks it might be better to position the ladder diagonally.
JoB
Agreed, but: The ship is not designed for experiencing (pseudo)gravity in the current direction in the first place. In the two nominal modes (zero-g and 1 g towards the engine section), Talita/longshoremen could choose the one airlock not blocked by either a ladder or the emergency boat. (Yes, the dinghy’s docked to one of the airlocks not encumbered by the ladders, logical choice IMHO.)
The part that surprises me is that the ladders’ beams are not segmented so as to allow the hatches to close in an airtight fashion.