Somebody ought to notify Elon Musk that his rockets are actually missiles.

LOL. Yeah, that's what you get when you grab the first 'sound bite' that pops up on the internet.

Both rockets and missiles are guided - just in different ways for different purposes. This wiki explains the differences in more depth than the snippets that oversimplify to the point of getting it wrong...

I thought about Kusari helping them, but I don't think she knows they are there. I am assuming she is still offline, with her awareness being in the army-Sasha on earth. I think Torg and Zoe are on their own. But they are both smart, they can figure it out. Zoe might actually use her tether to get back to the ship. I wonder if they will tie it off to the space station. hmmm

WTF are you all talking about? A rocket doesn't have to be guided and a missile sure as heck doesn't have to be guided. A missile doesn't even have to have any kind of modern technology. If I throw a rock at you, that's a missile.

I apologize, I misspoke: Rockets are passively guided, ie: Fins, or variable nozzles (like a V2, Zuni, or Saturn 5), and missiles are generally actively guided, either internally, or externally, like an AIM-9, Musky, or AIM-54.
A rock is a projectile: No integral propulsive force. Once released it assumes an unaltered ballistic arc, like a bullet. Unlike the rockets and missiles, which can and do alter their own ballistic arc. Although a lot of the old AIM-7's did that too...

Was that better? I know, the examples were mostly military, but I use what I know from personal experience...

My prediction: Riff will, despite all Schlock does, get closer to the station.
I'm not sure how/why, but Shankraft and Dr. Daiyu might point out something seemingly obvious (they are rather sympathetic villain-scientists and want to live). Somehow I don't expect/want this to be the end for the two of them.

Or the ship is close enough to make a "jump" for the station.

Or Riff has rigged some explosion that will send them there.

It's obvious to everyone else that the spiders are pulling strings like crazy right now, right?

And it looks like it is going to keep happening for a while yet.

In non-jargon language, a missile is something launched at a target while a rocket is something propelled by matter out the back at high velocity. So most modern missiles are rocket-propelled, and most rockets could be used as missiles. It's not an either or thing, they just describe completely different aspects of an object.

There's also plenty of technical and jargonistic definitions, but they contradict themselves from field to field and sometimes within the same field based on the etymology, so the only one I'll mention is the military one:

The things the military generally refers to missiles nowadays are specifically guided, jet propelled munitions with warheads. There's a bunch of different types and classes. To my knowledge, all modern military missiles are still rockets. But the military term "rocket" is used to refer to any sort of rocket that doesn't meet the definition of missile, just saving words when saying "non-missile rocket".



And when launched from a sling, a rock is in common language classified as a missile.

Welcome to the world of technological terms, where words have been reused and repupurposed so frequently that they often end up just shy of the cleave situation.

("Cleave" is a word with two meanings: To firmly attach together, and to violently cut apart.)

It doesn't seem like Schlock knows about Torg and Zoe being on the space station, in the airlock. That's cool. I guess Zoe must have untethered herself somehow? Hopefully Torg is able to get through the airlock with Chaz and they can move around undetected for a bit. The comment that there are bulkheads down in different sections and people are trapped and cut off leads me to believe that maybe the airlock might be sealed off and unnoticed at the moment?

It's good that Gwynn is safe, and NOW she is onboard. And that means the XT-34 is as well, so hopefully that means the BunBun fun box is as well. Finally. He can cause some well-deserved trouble. Hopefully he stays away from the O.A.S.I.S. satellite, though. And Schlock certainly is not being smart by bringing Gwynn into his personal quarters. Does he think she is harmless? He obviously doesn't remember/know much about her powers, I guess. You would think he would remember her kicks well. That along is dangerous. Sheesh.

And I am not counting Riff and the Musky-5 out yet. I am sure they will come up with a plan. They have some of Torg's toys with them (maybe the ferret wings can be helpful?), and Riff is good with coming up with ideas. And they have a gymnast assassin with them. And as someone suggested on the Reaction boards, Shankcraft wants to live, I am sure, and may have some ideas as well.

Prediction: By the end of this storyline-in-space, Dr. Schlock gets kicked in the nuts by Gwynn and Riff somehow ends up surprising him with a laser cannon to the head.

re: Bun-bun destroying Oasis's satellite, its possible, but he doesn't even know about that yet.

Someone seems to be manipulating things. The fact that the airlock Roberts got dumped out of being the same one Torg and Zoe got into seems TOO coincidental.

And considering the title of this sub-chapter..."The Sparkless Void"...

Didn't Riff accelerate the Musky-5 a pretty fair amount on trajectory to the Station? It should continue the speed and trajectory it had attained when the engine section got blown off, no? Maybe some alteration of the trajectory due to the rocket's impact, but how much?
So, Riff et al should be getting to the station in a bit, I would think. Or at lest close enough maybe Oasis can throw everyone onto it. Then they can "climb", or hand-over-hand it to an airlock.
I don't think the average airlock would have a lock on it, would it? Whose gonna break in? Normally, anywho...

Now that I think of it, though, I would think their relative velocity to the station might be awfully high for a human to grab it as they run into/sail on past it.
By the same token, isn't it inflatable? Maybe they will just go "PHLuuuuMPH! into it, and be able to grab onto something? Or get tangled up one of the bare girder sections? Cover themselves in duct tape, sticky side out, and when they "PHLuuuuuuMPH" they'll stick to whatever they hit...

Heck, I'm getting headache. I will just have to wait, as usual, with baited breath for the next installment, drat it all.

GOOOO PETE!

I love that you used "et al."


Oasis' gymnastic skills might help with this.


Indeed!

So Torg and Zoe ARE sealed off from the main command station, etc. I didn't think the airlock was actually unlocked, but I guess with that broken wire, that automatically unlocked it? That's cool.

Zoe totally rocks. As does Torg. And Chaz needs to get over himself. Just because he was rejected by Oasis? Torg does a pretty good job wielding him. I AM wondering how he is still powered up...it seems he has "shut down" faster than this in previous times. Or maybe it just seems like a lot of time has passed. Or maybe Chaz is super-charged from all that blood.
I suppose it would be gross and inhuman for Torg to carry around a bottle of innocent blood to sprinkle Chaz with when needed, eh?