First, the secret you must take to your grave: The empire can never know the origin of the drive. The drive is the foundation of our power, the center from which all authority flows. If we lose control of the drive, we lose the empire, and we slide back to the starving days that haunted humanity.
Second, the secret within the secret. And Pablo, it is something I have never even told your father. But you have a wisdom about you that he lacks. An insight. And I think this bit of knowledge will serve you well when it comes time for you to rule:
Pablo, I do not know how it works.
Oh, of course, I could reverse engineer it. I could scale it up and scale it down. I could even vary the materials and sometimes get results. But as to how it works, I do not know. I have stared at it for 58 years, and I feel I understand it less and less. It is beyond me.
But with the hope that it won't remain beyond you, let me give you my best guess. Or, at least, my best imagery.
Take a coin, and slide it across a long tablecloth at a low velocity. It would take hours to make it across the table. Now, take the tablecloth and pinch it up in the middle. The coin maintains the same low velocity, but makes much further ground across the cloth. That, I believe, is how the drive works, Pablo. We skirt across the crests of pinched space.
- Emperor Conrado I, in a letter to his oldest grandson. (Unpublished. Held in the Biblioteca Privada de La Familia.)
Ooooh - secrets!
A small request: Do you think it's possible to set up navigation in a way that allows us to go through only the Saturday strips? I know I could just put in the date by hand, but I'm lazy.
Absolutely brilliant. I love the additional info & the manner in which it is presented! It's a wonderful build-up & detailed intro into a new world.
It just keeps getting better & better. Thanks for the pass into this new world & keep up the awesome work!!
Que viva Conrado! :)
Wow, I love this. I hope you'll be doing more of these strips.
The text in the post is good in that one doesn't have to read it to follow and enjoy the story, but it adds additional detail.
Great way to start; I like how even in the prologue the story has traveled to a new planet in a fascinating manner. I'm hoping for more travel and changing environments (I like new places, people, and things - one of the reasons I read Schlock Mercenary too), but either way this is looking quite engaging.
Since it's been a week since the last strip, I was a bit confused at first as to who was looking at the ship. However, "These are the eyes of a failed man." jogged my memory and tied it to the fellow in the car. Clever use of novel (book) techniques.
I'm suddenly a lot more interested in this story.
A lot more.
And now we wait.
Jesus H. Christ! When the ship started landing I felt my stomach jumped. Then the face of Conrado Cruz appeared. Man! You have the gift! The gift of story-telling.
Keep it coming! Way to go man, way to go.
