Freefall

I doubt it. Florence is just letting her wolf-pack instincts show. Her getting to decide when (and what, and if) everybody else gets to eat designates her as the Alpha... and she likes that feeling!

Humans are indeed hard to build for◊

Why would they even have included lions tigers and bears in the animal stock sent to a terraforming planet?

Ecosystem diversity.

You need a minimum level of biodiversity to support large predators and omnivores. Can't just unfreeze 'em out of the ship and expect 'em to live.

Yes, but those are plans for the future. And seemingly of some city-wide open zoo rather than a wild forest.

But basically, they have those things ready to be put on the ground, planning for the ground is a separate question to be handled.

edited 27th Jun '16 8:46:37 AM by Adannor

They might not have initially. The robots have shown themselves to be very creative... and DNA is sort of open source.

You also can't grow large animals in test tubes and expect them to prosper in the wild without an existing social structure to teach them how to, y'know, survive and stuff. Parental rearing among mammals exists for more reasons than purely the transfer of genetics.

edited 27th Jun '16 8:48:39 AM by Fighteer

Winston outright detailed that they are bringing predators for ecosystem completeness. So it's not robots jurrasicparking some tigers from housecats and scrap dna, they got original ones.

That's one of the things that are bound to be planned for as well in some fashion by the colonists.
I mean, even if they didn't at first, this isn't the first planet, they've got some experience.

...Oh yeah and that one time a wild fox chomped down a released rabbit without any problems.

edited 27th Jun '16 8:49:41 AM by Adannor

There's something to be said for the peace and quiet of someone who doesn't mind if you're not really listening◊.

Direct Orders and Wardrobe Malfunctions◊

Varroa, Mr. Kornada, and pancakes◊. And the nature of greed.

With that logic I'm surprised Kornada isn't trying to steal his pancakes.

A judge can order someone to take anger management classes. What Kornada needs is greed management classes. (Of course, being as obtuse as he is, he'd flunk them...)

It would not surprise me if he were to make perfect scores while not learning a thing. He is the sort of fellow who effortlessly games systems.

And even Dr. Bowman and Henry(?) are getting in on the fun◊.

I'm fairly confident that they both know it's a game to both of them at this point.

They're like the new Ralph and Sam.

Green banana pancakes?

Sad idealist Florence◊. Just enjoy the fact that you brought so many people together for an amicable meal. It was an admirable achievement.

Those poor humans living on planets :P

So ends Chapter One◊...

What, really? All this was supposed to be "just" chapter one? Mark sure is ambitious.

18.25 years * 52 weeks * 3 strips a week = 2847 pages. Or maybe 712 pages if you put it in a physical book. 700 pages that took him 18 years to write.

Even Andrew Hussie is sitting there going "That's not how chapters work, dude."

edited 11th Jul '16 4:32:13 AM by Brickman

*Looks around shiftily*... it's not secretly April Fool's Day, is it?

I like how the Everybody Has Pancakes ending substitutes for the "Everybody Laughs" Ending here. Fitting.