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IMPORTANT CONTEXT This takes place in the universe of the NationStates Kerbin Region, which is a modern-day, geopolitically diverse collection of nations inhabiting the planet Kerbin and based on Kerbal Space Program in the online browser game NationStates. However, Kerbal physiology is... weird, to say the least, and as such they have such been replaced with humans. A bunch of little green aliens with comically large heads isn't exactly conducive to the tone of this fairly serious story, and I'm not going to stick K's in front of every word or name everybody Kerman. While some of you may have a problem with that, I have this to say to you: that's kringe. While the name "Kerthenia" is used by my nation, there is no association with TAPE Gaming, TheBeardyPenguin, or Kollaborative Warfare. I just went with the name a few years ago because it sounded cool and I am unoriginal as heck I couldn't come up with my own, and have since gotten quite attached to it. I. PROLOGUE The year is 1985, and the worlds of the heavens are for the first time within reach. The year is 1985, and among the heavens, tragedy has struck. Sixteen sols after the Sirius III landing, as millions around the world watched the astronauts of Sirius III on an extravehicular activity in Duna's Great Canyon, an unexpected rockslide completely buried Flight Engineer Nathaniel Moreau and crushed the left leg of Mission Specialist Kassandra Tzetes on live television. Contact with Moreau's suit telemetry was lost almost immediately and he was declared Killed In Action. While the astronauts attempted to clear the rock pile to retrieve Moreau's body, events would transpire forcing them to abandon the effort. Tzetes' leg was broken, and while her counterpressure suit had thankfully not punctured, she was suffering from a significant degree of internal bleeding, jeopardizing her life. Flight Surgeon Dr. Scott Miller was forced to amputate and tourniquet Tzetes' left leg at the Habitat Module in an extremely improvised and completely unanesthetized procedure, but she was unable to be completely stabilized with the limited resources groundside and would likely need a blood transfusion. Unfortunately, the only universal donor aboard the mission had just been killed in action. The presence of a better-equipped medical bay in the spin-gravity section of the Duna Transfer Vehicle and its stock of O- type blood prompted Mission Commander Kevin Ochoa to perform a medical abort of the Sirius III mission. Public support for the Kerthenian Space Agency was only barely beginning to form. A failure to secure early, high-profile victories in the Space Race due to the KSA's long-game, interplanetary-focused approach to its development resulted in a public opinion of them as sluggish bureaucrats at best and dangerously incompetent idealists at worst. The explosion that destroyed their fifth Mun landing mission, Arcturus V, and killed all three souls aboard with the eyes of the world watching did not help their case, and the accident board convened after only narrowly cleared the KSA as an institution of responsibility for the accident. This was largely due to the Congressional testimony of astronaut Michael Shepard, who during the Arcturus V hearings gave a fiery, impassioned speech that became legendary across the country and who would later would go on to become the first man to walk another planet. The public was furious about the Sirius III incident, demanding the KSA tell them what had transpired even as the Agency was only just getting the information themselves. Unlike the military space programs of the defeated empire of Dolfiklund and the two Communist powers of Anderia and Blorbs, the Kerthenian Space Agency is entirely civilian in nature. Both their successes and their failures have been completely within the view of the public eye. This civilian program almost never came to be, but after the Great War ended in 1934, the 1940s-1950s saw a renaissance of space research and the beginning of the ongoing Space Race. During these two decades, the KSA competed against the Navy's Naval Space Command and the Air Force's Extra-Atmospheric Flight Technology Development Center for control of the space program. Miraculously, the KSA won, and authority over the flagship space program of Kerthenia was transferred to it. All military astronauts joining the KSA Astronaut Corps would temporarily resign from their commissions, and the KSA would venture forth with open arms rather than martial armaments. Antochi means "endurance" in Greek. The Sirius III disaster has caused an existential threat to the future of Kerthenia's civilian space program, the only one of its kind. Antochi: The Sirius III Files will follow the story of the people on the ground and in space working to save not only the life of one person, but the future of many millions more, and to ensure that the dream of peace would endure. This is the story of the brave people who dared to go, not by force of arms, but by trust in peace. TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 UTPKA Territory. 'Phoenix' shuttle on the pad at KSC, with its 'Odyssey' core booster and 'Artemis' side boosters. Year 1, Day 123, 03:08 PM GMT. As he turned the tuner on the radio, static crackled across the speakers. "... I need a hero, I need a hero 'til the end of the flight..." "... Fly me to the Mun and..." "... When the sky falls, and the stars rise..." "... In other news, we sadly mourn the death of Deswin Kerman, one of the best Kerbonauts in the KSA. He died today during an in-flight accident during the circularisation burn of STS-3. A pipe, which was directing fuel into the main engines of the Artemis-I booster, became clogged, and the buildup of fuels burst the pipe. The hypergolic fuel mixed with the oxidizer, and the entire craft exploded in a shower of flames. Streaks of flames were seen in the sky as the debris re-entered the atmosphere..." Deswin Kerman casually switched off the radio. He spoke into his helmet mic: "CAPCOM, I'm astonished. I can't believe they fell for the flares, over." "Copy that, Des. Transfer burn T-minus 1 minute 30 seconds, over." Deswin clumsily removed his clunky suit gloves, before skillfully maneuvering the shuttle to line up with the maneuver node on the black-and-green navball. "Maneuver node aligned. Burn in T-minus 1 minute and counting, over." "Copy that, Control is watching your every move. Or, at least, the portion of it that knows..." The capsule communicator didn't even need to finish his sentence. Deswin understood what he meant. His fingers rested on the throttle. "T-minus 30 seconds." "T-minus 20" "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2..." Deswin rammed the throttle forward, and the shuttle accelerated with a jolt of power. He had his eyes tuned on the fuel balance, and his other finger on the 'Stage' button. The fuel ran down rapidly. "Cutoff T-minus 40" "30" "20" "15, 14,13..." The fuel in the 1st stage depleted, and Deswin flicked the 'Stage' switch. The 6 Thrustmax 200 engines roared to life, giving another half a G of acceleration. "11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1..." He carefully nudged the throttle lever backwards as the seconds ticked down. The map in his cockpit's LCD screen displayed his current trajectory, on an encounter with the Mun. He couldn't help but smile a sly smile, with the knowledge that he was only one in a handful of people who knew the Artemis Program's true goal. The 'Artemis' core booster separation during the transfer burn: Day 124, 01:23 AM GMT. "You're approaching the node for orbital injection, T-minus 3 minutes, over." "Copy that, CAPCOM. Pre-burn check complete, all systems nominal. However, somebody forgot to pack the sunscreen, over." Chuckles over the radio. "No, I'm serious. The guys back at R&D can't afford visors on the EVA suits, so we have to cover ourselves in sunscreen and wear a pair of those huge, blocky sunglasses that a dentist puts on you before they shine a giant light in your face." More chuckles. 02:50 AM GMT. The heads-up display showed a small object, highlighted in green, approaching the shuttle at 23 metres per second. "Capricorn Station approaching, close approach T-minus 50 seconds," chimed mission control. "I've got my hand on the throttle, ready for velocity match, over." The gap between the 'Phoenix' and the station grew smaller and smaller, as indicated by the heads-up display. 1.5 kilometres. 1 kilometre. 0.8 kilometres. Deswin nudged the throttle lever forward slightly. The relative speed on the HUD grew smaller. "Close approach T-minus 20" 20 metres per second. 15 metres per second. 10 metres per second. "T-minus 15." 5 metres per second. "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1..." 0 metres per second. "Zero!" The shuttle, approaching the station after ditching the 2nd stage: 03:00 AM GMT. The docking ports inched closer. Deswin watched eagerly from the LCD screen, displaying the docking port's camera. He fiddled with the docking joystick as he attempted the align the Latch-o-matic ports with each other. As the distance grew closer, the magnetic clamps kicked in, doing the rest of the work for him. The two ships floated gracefully towards each other, and the clamps safely secured themselves around the shuttle. "Phew," sighed Deswin, switching off the LCDs and opening up the hatch with a pull of the latch. "That was tense." Gene Kerman at mission control smiled carelessly to himself in his office chair. "Good," he said. "Phase one is complete." The 'Phoenix' docking and docked: Author's note: Please give me your thoughts! I would love to see the feedback these stories get; I have a much bigger project (and I mean HUGE) ready to come this way if you guys enjoy 'Kontakt'. If you think anything is bad, or needs to be changed, say so. I want the truth, even if it hurts. Kind regards, N.