Mister Dilsby

Well, then. There's nothing preventing me from burning for home right now, other than that I feel the readers deserve a proper ending to the Kerbulan story that I've spent so much time and effort building towards. If that's taking too long for you, you could always go back and review the earlier pages. Then you might be able to figure out which Kerbulan is the one making the plans, and if you're really clever you might find a page where Kurt and Melgee Kermulan are playing a game that looks a lot like cheks. But, are the Bad Guys playing the same game as Good Guy Kenlie? As you said, don't touch that dial! We don't actually know what it does! Most of the staging isn't even locked! Not quite sure what you mean there Jim. For those who don't know Chess, the term "Queen's Gambit" may be a bit misleading. It is not the same as a queen sacrifice. White is just offering the queen's bishop's pawn, the one on c4 on the "real" board as shown in the comic. Black accepts the gambit by taking the c4 pawn with their pawn on d5. Like Nimzo explains, it's a very common opening. There are whole books on QGA (queen's gambit accepted) and there are whole books on QGD (declined) Myself, I don't actually ever play either. If I have White I always open e4 (king's pawn), and if I have Black I always respond to d4 with the Nimzo-Indian defense (1. ...Nf6)

Hey! First things first--Emiko Station is the Forum Thread of the Year! Get over there NOW and show Jim some love! As for me, I guess I'll just have to work a little harder--there's always 2017, right?

Wow, congrats! Well done, man!

I shouldn't have to tell you, Counselor, that a patent doesn't actually give anyone the right to practice an invention; rather it enjoins anyone who is not the patent holder from practicing it. Moreover, isn't it more likely that we're talking about a design patent on the corners rather than a utility patent? Remember, you can only infringe on a design patent if your design is close enough to confuse a "reasonable" consumer. Rather than resort to misunderstandings of IP law, I'd suggest you seek a more plausible explanation--maybe it's just a lot easier for the author to make squarish objects in Powerpoint than round ones...and/or that kerbals' tushies are as sensitive as their heads are indestructible.

Thank you! So glad you like it! Well we don't have a PDF, but if you go to the first page you'll find links to imgur albums for every chapter which may be the next best thing. Also note that there is some overlap between this story and the next, which means you might read things in the wrong order if you do it by Forum page but you'll get them all in right sequence if you go by the links on the OP

I dunno, could be either. Myself, I like to call up a friend and tell them "This is it--it's time!" whenever I'm about to do something totally routine. It keeps them guessing. Oh, that wacky Kenlie! Calling the lab instead of flight control, leaving his k-pad behind... unlocked... with a sharp corner sticking up where no one could possibly miss it... oh, he's just FULL of lols! Undoubtedly just some random stuff, I needed to pad out the rest of the chapter because nothing else interesting is going to happen. Serves me right for accepting that totally legit rescue mission!

Well... maybe it's exactly the same as the Kerbin monolith, and maybe it's not. Has the team thoroughly searched it for strange surface patterns, convenient serial ports, or any other evidence of author handwaving?

I would dispatch a team of KuzzCorp lawyers with a "cease and desist", but it's too darn funny. You may proceed.

I'm getting there, I'm getting there...

I thought it might be interesting to post about my process for making a page--normally I go through several iterations, all of which get deleted except the last one. This time I saved a couple, and here they are: This is how the page for today started: Panels and dialogue is mostly laid out, whether I have the pictures or not. I know at this point that I'm going to have timestamps but I don't know the values. Now I get the rest of the pictures and start moving text around: In the second iteration you can see that I've broken up the big block of text and redistributed it among the panels. Words are also getting cut--having to work in the dialogue without blocking all the pictures is a really great forcing function for brevity And finally, this is what I posted: More text cuts, and Gene's speech changed a lot once I picked a picture and then had to work around it. Val's balloon also moved in the second panel, when I decided to make the signal delay more explicit by splitting up the end of Gene's speech. Curious to see how others do it, both for graphic formats and text-only

Indeed. Canonically, they don't...Wernher didn't think to call himself "von Kerman" until he saw the writing on the side of Gene's plane. And you may have noticed in the writings of both Kenlies that names have never been used. It's always been "murdery writer" or "spy boss" on the one hand, and "weak, smooth-faced coward" on the other. Anywyays-- FORUM: "But the Kerbulans know that their enemy is called Kerbfleet" AUTHOR: Yes, they've known that ever since Kenlie Kermulan found the Evestation, and saw its flag. FORUM: "But they know the ship's name! Explain that!" A VERY OBSERVANT READER: "Stop pestering! It's written on the front, back and sides of the ship, and Murdery Scout Lisa got close enough to read the name way back in this panel!" FORUM: "Oh! Sorry! There's so much Kerbfleet history I can't be expected to keep up, despite the fact that it's been remarkably clear and consistent for years now!" AUTHOR: That's all right, just keep reading

I'm not sure I'd go THAT far What I've seen Jim do--and what even I, who am notoriously curmudgeonly and resistant to reader "ideas" have done--is to acknowledge a reader's observation in the story. The case of Thompberry's fake gurgle was really just a classic case of lampshade-hanging. That's miles different from incorporating a plot idea or introducing a character, which is what you'd see in a "community story"

^Well, I'm listening to THIS guy--remember, before he was a Moderator, he was a Rescuer! And I bet he's also reviewed the beginning of Chapter 16...possibly even the last Interlude...

I'm not saying they did, and I'm not saying they didn't. However, Whether it's a "legit" contract or not, I think we've all seen rescue contracts come up for places where agencies have no right to be. How do these clowns get into Kerbin orbit, much less other planets and moons? And we've never seen an intact craft from any of them! It's one of the great unsolved mysteries of KSP The Admiral doesn't generally get involved with financials, so no probably she doesn't even know about the contract yet.

Excellent! This is a great way for Kerbfleet pilots to work on their space carrier landings. I might just orbit a version of your 'gym' for use in our training program.

Don't worry--everything's fine! Took me forever to get the contract system to do what I wanted for this page In response to the other part of the Emperor's post--yes, KSS stands for "Kerbal Space Ship". I've never canonically described the political structure of Kerbin, other than introducing the "Kerbin Federation" back in the Zweischenspiel--mostly because that level of worldbuilding would just pin me down and not add much to the narrative. But this much is consistent with what I have shown in canon: there is a single political body on Kerbin, the Kerbin Federation. It was formed in "the year before Year Zero" at the culmination of an economic crisis between the various corporations and agencies competing in the Race to Space. Kerbfleet operates as an independent agency of the Federation, much as NASA operates in the United States--and since there is no "navy" on Kerbin other than Kerbfleet, Kerbfleet has the sole right to the KSS prefix. Sure, all space ships from Kerbin are "Kerbal space ships", but only Kerbfleet ships represent the Federation and therefore all the Kerbals.

At the risk of sending this thread FAR off topic for KSP-themed writing, I'll reply: if they have access to killable animals, they have access to bags. Animals are made of very convenient stretchy bags which we call "organs". Just chop them out, clean them up and you're ready to go. I hear that bladders work very well as... well, bladders. There's also the skin, of course. You can make a more durable bag out of skin. What's that you say? They have nothing they can use as rope? Wrong, if there are killable animals to be had! Just rip out some convenient sinew and stitch up that carry-all. What now, you've got no needle to sew it? Argh, you're standing there in front of a steaming, partially disassembled buffalo corpse and you can't make a needle? Make one out of the bones, silly! Again, before the thread goes off the rails into a detailed discussion that might better belong on a "Clan of the Cave Bear" fanfic site, here's a convenient link to primitive crafting techniques for all kinds of objects. If you're serious about this, you need to do your own research and get your own knowledge rather than ask a bunch of people you met playing a cute alien spaceship game

Observations indicate that's not probable--salt would make things float better, not worse, and I happen to know things float worse there

Hm... significance? Well, I think I've been reasonably consistent in using the *ping* effect...there may even have been an entire panel or three just about pings... and hey @Dman979 if it doesn't feel like I'm giving full credit for your perspicacity in my replies, remember that I'm not just replying to you, I'm replying to the Forum, and may be adding some words to help others along Hm, I think Jim might be on to something! Actually, it's-- BZZZZZTTTT!! I mean--no, nothing to see here, no significance at all, just a red herring yeah...

Regarding the first question: @Dman979 is correct. The delay between the stamp at the end of Gene's line and the one right before Val's line is indeed 187 seconds, which if you think about it is pretty close to what you get if you divide 56,000,000 by 300,000. The next time stamp is at the beginning of Wernher's line, and the delay between that and the previous one (which, remember, was at the beginning of Val's) is 192 seconds, five seconds longer. There are a lot of possibilities to explain that. It could be that the solar system is expanding. It could be that the Kerbulan bloaking technology is affecting the speed of light! It could also be that it took five seconds for Val to finish speaking Similarly, if the *ping* Bobak detected came at the speed of light from roughly the same distance, then that *ping* must have initiated about ten seconds after the timestamp given in the previous panel. So yes, I'll confirm it, the delays I've selected are not random, and I appreciate Dman taking the time to puzzle it out. As to the second question ("Why did Kuzzter put [them] in?") you may recall we had a discussion on the subject of signal delays some weeks ago. Somewhere in there I agreed that there are, in fact, signal delays in Kuzzterverse, and I gave my reason for eliding them up to that point in the story. Apparently that reason must no longer be operative.

Cool update... um, have "I" always been that Scottish? And, since breathable Laythe atmosphere is used under license from Kuzzter Greenscreen Technologies Ltd, you'll have to alsi ask Gene or Kerenna to drink the water and tell me what it's made of.

Well, I don't speak Deutschekerb myself. Knowing that we sometimes see "gut" and sometimes "guten" as in "guten tag", I wanted to make sure I had the correct declension so I Google translated the phrase "find a good use for it" and received back "Finden Sie eine gute Verwendung für sie" Anyway, that's what Wernher meant. Unless he didn't. Lol, excellent. You may have hit upon the one and only provocation that would make our pacifist Kerbals turn to violence.

Hm, what did Bobak just see? Write your responses on the back of a 500-fund banknote and send them to Mort, care of this station!

Oh, poor Jim. I'll play you a sad song on my 1600 ton, 800 part count violin.