Infinity on 30 Credits a Day

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  1. Jimmers, after holding Schroedinger for several minutes, has accidently acquired some feline traits and gone off to rest 'somewhere warm.' Damage from one of the heat outlets being blocked is marginal, but may come up again later; the real emergency is from him turning over in his sleep, kicking off a partially connected plastic panel (Jake: eh, it's good enough. Nobody's going to be messing around in there anyway) and coming in direct contact with an important, powerful electrical cord. The resulting blackout costs the crew the early lead their mil-spec drive (courtesy of Dazer's jury-rigging from memory) had gotten them, shows Dazer and Jake's mechanic work in action and demonstrates Jimmer's two most important abilities; he survived it, right?

  2. The ships start close together and after a few minutes three ships already have been destroyed because of hostilities between the pilots. Our friends see this and although happy because they have less opponents they do realize that this race is far more dangerous then they thought. Jake seems to be more worried then the other two, maybe because something happened in the past that left him some enemies. The commentator of the race chit chatters about non related events and makes stupid jokes while the racers get more distance between each other. Suddenly a blow from within the ship and we see Jake getting up to fix it while Dazer takes over the helm, warning Schroedinger not to do anything stupid. The spider cat looks suspiciously towards Jimmers.

  3. The starter's pistol fires. The race commences. The massed ships surge forward. One of them explodes. Infinity pulls away to an impressive early lead.
    Inside, the crew are overjoyed with their start. Their celebrations are interupted by a flashing alert on one of the displays. "FALSE START!" then "ILLEGAL DISQUALIFICATION!" then "ALL COMPETITORS RETURN TO START LINE!"
    The crew become crestfallen. Jimmers asks what happened. Daisy explains that one of the bigger competitors destroyed one of the smaller ships before the starter's pistol fired.
    The ship turns, heads back, slowly. A chance for exposition? Jake: "Good start, though."
    The ships reform the line. The crew look excited, expectant. The starter's pistol fires. Once more the ships surge forward. Pan back to the start line. Infinity is stationary. There is the sound of an ignition failing to catch.
    A pause.
    Daisy: "Damn."

  4. After what seems to be a smooth start, the ship's engines fail but are easily fixed with a metaphorical (or physical) swift kick or hammer swing, and the ship makes it out the starting gate. The first stop has been identified as a planet with a thriving marketplace based on a large agricultural sector, which is good, since Jimmers followed his orders to purchase food for the journey by stocking up on foodstuffs meant for anything but humans, including manure, large manure-producing livestock, and feed for said livestock. (Not necessarily earth-life)

  5. Alarm! -- drop in auxiliary power coolant pressure. Aux power offline. Jake and Daisy run to engine room, see leaking coolant line. No time to fix now -- tape up, do proper fix later. Jake grabs roll of duct tape, starts wrapping, but no adhesive on tape! Daisy sees Jimmers in corner, by pile of loose duct tape, licking underside of tape from roll. 'Dinger playing in pile.
    Daisy scolds Jimmers for eating glue off duct tape -- doesn't care if "spit" sticks better. But Jimmers says it always treats duct tape this way - will roll back up, wipe "spit" on as needed. Daisy and Jake look, horrified, at all duct tape around engine room.
    Jake tells Jimmers wrap leak -- Jimmers does, efficiently secreting adhesive onto tape from hand as it wraps. Later Daisy goes to repair coolant line. Duct tape-"spit" wrap is like epoxy fiberglass.

Poll 15

21 March 2007 - 30 March 2007

Instructions to voters were:

The race has begun! Now what?

I asked a group of story volunteers to describe what happens after the Great Zzybak Race begins. The word limit was 150 words. The results are on the right.

Now it's up to you to decide which of these events actually happens to our heroes. It's likely that each of these story options will take several pages of art to get through - we won't be cramming it all into one page.

Outcome

Scene 3 has been chosen as the next event to occur once the race begins, written by Infinite Monkey Kevin Paul Jones.

Results

Total number of votes: 224

Number of preferences: 5

Round 1

Option 1: 48
Option 2: 31
Option 3: 88
Option 4: 34
Option 5: 21
Leader is option 3, with 88 votes.
Total exhausted votes: 0
Votes needed to win: 112
Minimum vote is 21 votes.
Options eliminated: 5,

Round 2

Option 1: 54
Option 2: 34
Option 3: 96
Option 4: 38
Leader is option 3, with 96 votes.
Total exhausted votes: 0
Votes needed to win: 112
Minimum vote is 34 votes.
Options eliminated: 2,

Round 3

Option 1: 61
Option 3: 111
Option 4: 46
Leader is option 3, with 111 votes.
Total exhausted votes: 4
Votes needed to win: 110
We have a winner!

Raw votes

1,3,5,4,2
5,3,1,2
1,3,4,5,2
1,3,4,5,2
2,3,4,1,5
4,5,3,1,2
1,3,5,4,2
2,3,4,1,5
3,1,5,4,2
3
4,1,3,5,2
2
2
2,1,4,3,5
5,3,4,1,2
3,1
4,1,5
4,2,1,3,5
3,5,1,2,4
1,5,3,2,4
1,3,5,2,4
3,5,1,2,4
142,5,4,3,2
3,1
4,1,2,5,3
2,1,5,4,3
3,1,2,5,4
4,3,1
1,3,4,5,2
3,5,4,1,2
5,1,2,4,2
1,3,5,2,4
3,1,5
2,3,4,5,1
2,3,5,1,4
1,3,4,5,2
3,5,1,4,2
1,3,5,4,2
1,5,3,2,4
5,1,4,2,3
3,5,4,2,1
2,4,3,5
4,5,3,1,2
3,2,1,4,5
3,2,1,4,5
3,5,2
3,1,2,4,5
5,4,2,1,3
3,1,4,2,5
3,5,4
4,3,1,5,2
3,5,1,4,2
3,5,2,4,1
5,1,3,2,4
3,2,4,1,5
3,1
2,3,1,4,5
3,1,2,4,5
4,3,5
3,5,4,2,1
3,2,1
1,4,2,3,5
5,1,4,2,3
2,3,1,4,5
1,3,2,5,4
1,3,4,2
3,2,5,4,1
1,3
26,5,3,1,4
3,1,5
1,5
3,5,2,1,4
3,2,1,5,4
3,2,1,4,5
3,5,4,2,1
2,3,1,5,4
3,1,5,2,4
3,5,4,1,2
4,5,3,2
3,1,2,5,4
3,4,5,1,2
2,3,1,4,5
2,3,1,4
3,1,2,4
1,2,3,4,5
2,1,3,5,4
1,5,3,2,4
3,5
1,5,3,4,2
3,4,5,1,2
3,1
3,5,4,2,1
1,5,4,2,3
2,4,1,5,3
5,3,2,4
3,5,1,2
1,2,4,5,3
1,3,5,4,2
3,1,5,4,2
5,3,4,1,2
3,2,1,4,5
4,1,3,5,2
1,5,2,4,3
4,3,2,5,1
3
4,2,3,5,1
3,4,2,5,1
1,3,4,2,5
1,5,4,3,2
4
3,2
1,3,4,5,2
2,4,3,5,1
1,3,4,5,2
3,1,5,4,2
3,1,2,4,5
1,4,3,5,2
2,3,1
3,2,1,5,4
1,3,5
1,3,2,4,5
3,4,1,5,2
5,3,1,4,2
1,5,3,4,2
3,2,1,5,4
3,2,5,1,4
1,5,3,2,4
5,4
3,2,1
3,4,5,1,2
1,4,2,5
1,4,5,3,2
2,4,3,1,5
3,2,4
4,3,2,1,5
2,1
3,4,5,2,1
3,2,1
3,1,4,5,2
5,2,1,3,4
3,4,5,2,1
3,2
2
2,3,1,4,5
5,1,3,2,4
3,4
3,1,5,4,2
5,3,2,1
4,3,1,2,5
3,1,4,5,2
3,1,5,4,2
4,2
4,1,5,3,2
4,1,3,2,5
1,4,2,5,3
3,2,4,1,5
4
4,2,1,3,5
2,1,4,5,3
1,3,4,5,2
4,2,5,3,1
4,5,1,3,2
3,1,5
4,2,1,3,5
5,4,3,1,2
1,5,3,2,4
1,3,2,5,4
3,1,5,2,4
3,5,1,4,2
3,1
2,4,3
3,2,4,5,1
1,4,3,2,5
1,5,4,3
3,5,4,1
5,3,1,4
2,5,4,1,3
4,3,5
3,2,1,5,4
4,2,5,1,3
3,2,5,4,1
3
3,4,5,2,1
1,3,5,4,2
4,5,1
5,2
3,2,4,1,5
3,1,5,4,2
1,4,2,5,3
3,4,1,2,5
2,4,3,1,5
1,3,2,5,4
3,2,4,5,1
5,3,2,4,1
3,5,2,1,4
5,2,3,1,4
3,1,2,5,4
3,1,2
3,1,4,2,5
2,3,1,5,4
3
3,5,4,2,1
1,4,5,3,2
4,5,2,3,1
2,3
1,5,4,2,3
4,3,2,1,5
4,3,1,2,5
4,3,2,5,1
1,3,2,5,4
5,4,3,1,2
3,4
4,1,2,5
2,3,4,1,5
3,5,1,2,4
2,1,5,4
4,1
3,2,1
1,2,5,3,4
4,3,2,1,5
1,3,4,2,5
3,2,4,5,1
2,4,3,1,5
5,1,4,3,2
Infinity on 30 Credits a Day