Something tells me that when John hoped Zed would fix his rocket, he planned on being inside. Ah, the best laid plans. The quote “Freedom Lies in Being Bold” is from the great poet (and my wife’s favorite ever) Robert Frost. I couldn’t actually find the source of it, whether it was just something he said or whether it was part of a poem. It appears to be a quote from him.
Anyway, it seemed just what I wanted here. The message from the Automatic Pilot wasn’t only for his own experience, it was also a message to John.
The last strip in “Rocket Science” will be this Thursday. After that, there will be some kind of short break before the next episode. I’m not sure how long, but hopefully not much. I will be posting some other things, though. So I will mostly have something for you. See you Thursday for the conclusion!
New Readers
You can simply watch the introductory video to get up to speed, it’s fun and just a couple minutes!
Captain John and his robot Asimov have been stranded on Mars for quite some time. In episode 8, “Brains From Another Planet,” we met Zed of the Baro, who is a master of technology. Unfortunately, his communal brain upbringing leaves him with very little common sense.
John has asked Zed to help repair and fuel his rocket so he and Asimov can return to Earth, where Lian Fisher (also known as The Hearing One) a woman captain who crashed on Mars 15 years earlier, has discovered that both Mars missions have been sabotaged by insiders.
Meanwhile, John, Zed and Asimov are attempting to retrieve part of Zed’s wrecked ship which may have some technology that will allow John’s ship to fly – and to get him home to Earth.
how cruel.
I can really feel for John in Panel 5. Great job as usual Tom!
Haha John seems to be floating in the first panel, does he have a jetpack?
Nicely done! Really like how you handled the last three panels.
The sky is beautiful in those last couple panels…great color work Tom! This strip is funny, but really sad too. Best laid plans and all that…
Did the ship’s AI become sentient and then go rogue? hahaha
You are correct, that quote wasn’t in a poem, it was something Frost said. http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/robert_frost/quotes
Been enjoying this story arc, gotta say!
I, Spaceship…
Nooooo! How will John ever get home now?
BTW…how come no one’s asked where is the space ship GOING?
Thanks for the nice comments! For John in panel one, I just didn’t do a real good job of showing the smoke from the ship surrounding him.
Rogue indeed, who know what went wrong with Zed’s autopilot implementation.
And yeah Coderkid, everyone just assumes the ship is going to Earth. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. Only the autopilot knows!
equally apropos –
freedom’s just another word for…nothin’ left to lose
I know we like the funny, but these sorts of strips are always my favorite Marooned strips. Nice emotional beat and a bit of Frost to boot… way to go, Tom!
Right spas
@Og – thanks buddy!
I’m with you all the way.
Ah
Well maybe he’s better off right? The sky looks really good especially the last panel. I really like the blue 
Stunningly beautiful last panel. That sky is great! This strip just keeps getting better and better.
Sad and awesome at the same time – love it
The Robert Frost quote added a nice touch too.
Thanks all
But IS that the autopilot??? or…
Tom did mention that we were going to see an old enemy again. The only time I can think of that they’d have to face an enemy (not counting plain old bad luck) was….Dare I speak his palindrome-ed name?
Aww, man. Really great job, Tom. The bottom three panels (especially)just work so well in portraying John’s disappointment. I mean, we knew that it wasn’t going to work out for him, but I’m right there with him.
Thanks Jim! Thank you everyone for the really nice comments on this strip. It’s really encouraging to see, and it makes doing this all worthwhile!
LOL! Poor John!
And the moral of the story is, never make an autopilot self-aware.
By the conclusion you mean the end of this chapter not the comic right?
Yes, tomorrow will end this episode/chapter (whatever you want to call it.) Then a small break while I finalize the next story, and then we start up again with a new story, and the new page format.