In company with some excellent science fiction of the short variety, as well as a few fun serials and more awesome artwork, Episode 8 of Thieves' Honor is now available in Ray Gun Revival, issue 53.
Though no shorter than previous episodes, "Endgame, Part One" is a little more terse, a little less humorous, and more focused on the mission and the action.
Episode 9, "Endgame, Part Two" -- already in the hands of the RGR Overlords -- is much the same as 8, but with perhaps more humor and more detail, so the story has a looser feel as Kristoff and the crew move closer to their goal: get fuel, and rescue Finney. There's still tension, though, and a fair amount of action.
Episode 10 is still being written, doesn't have a title, and may be longer than any other episode to date, though I try to keep them short; thus, the terseness, and the pared-down details. However, I want to keep the humor. After all, we humans can always find something to buoy the spirit, even in tragedy or trouble.
Minor spoiler: I'm kicking around an idea for later in the story, and it may require the sacrifice of Kristoff's dearest possession: his ship, the Martina Vega. She's a tough old girl, but -- well, I'll say nothing more.
5 comments:
Ah, yes. Thinking the unthinkable. I grappled with that myself:
http://raygunrevival.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=1992
It's akin to sacrificing the Millennium Falcon. It's a last resort kind of thing, something there's no recovering from. Once you go there, there's no turning back!
Ow! No more spoilers, please!
Phy - Yeah. I'm not jumping up and down with joy about the notion, but if it serves the story, weeeeelll, I have to make the sacrifice.
Thanks for pointing me to Issue #44. I didn't start saving them until #45 (what was I thinking?), so I need to go back and grab copies of all the archived issues. 44's a good one -- despite the death of Alacrity!
Jade -- "Ow!" is right. I'm just considering the option, though. It's not written yet!
I can tell you why I burned Alacrity—she represented a chapter in Cooper Flynn's life, and when he finally faced the nightmarish character called The Riven by himself, he was overmatched, and he knew it. To that point, he'd been a marginal subject loyal to Queen on paper but a free agent by his actions. By choosing to save the Queen at the expense of his ship—and, it seems, his life as he knew it—he actually severed his last ties to the Crown, to Haddirron. By luring the Riven onboard Alacrity and then taking her past the point of no return, he performed his last, most loyal act of all as a subject of Haddirron, which, in turn, released him to be a true free agent no longer answering to any Mendan authority. It was his last true act as a privateer. From then on, he would truly become The Sky Pirate.
And about time, too. I've spent 2/3s of the series getting to this place, it was time to make a grand statement of his identity, and I did it in the most dramatic, personal way I knew how; giving him a baptism of altitude and fire. After all, Alacrity was just a ship; her true 'soul' resides in the people that comprise her crew. In that sense, Alacrity will rise again, just like her captain.
That makes perfect sense, and is a much more reasoned summary for her demise than I have plotted out for the possible death of the Martina
Vega. And it resulted in a good bit of storytelling, too!
In recent episodes, I haven't really played up the Vega's importance to Kristoff, so that must be addressed before / if the ship is sacrificed, because only then will the matter have any true tension or drama.
I thought he'd have to give her up to save the life of a crewman, but then I considered a crazy irony: What if the Vega died to save his antagonist, Zoltana? Or to prevent her being taken / used by a full-on enemy like Tarquin or Bat'Alon? What if the only way to save Martina is to destroy her?
I don't know. I haven't written far enough yet!
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