CatastrophicFailure

Were you expecting ...? My top 3 authors are Stephen King, Terry Pratchett, & the late Robert Jordan. Should give some idea of where things are heading....

See, now I rather like the "everyone is Mr. Kerman" bit. I think there's loads of room there for both humor ("Mr Kerman?" to a room full of Kerbals. They all say "yes?" Or only does), and a bit of other-worldliness or "alien-ness" like that old Far Side comic, of which I can only find this horrid reproduction:

Shadows of the Kraken, chapter 4. "Edgas watched the rover trundle off past the perimeter of the base from the only window on the ops deck, its wheels throwing up little puffs of Mündust as it went." "He watched as the rover shambled off across the grayness, monitoring telemetry from his tablet." "The rover bounced and tossed its way up the crater wall. Edmund was beginning to regret his decision to make the entire trip in the outside observer's seat. The rover's suspension wasn't as effective so far from its center, and each jolt felt like it was going right up his spine. When he wasn't simply getting tossed around like a rag doll." The rover was just about to crest the lip of the crater when Edgas crackled over the comm link, "Hounddog, Jailhouse, hold position please." "Ed I...I can see something." "What do you think it is, Ed?" Asked Billy. "I don't know, son. I do not know." "I'm afraid..." "Billy?" Uncertain. "B...Billy?" Trembling. "Billy?" Pleading.

Chapter 4: An Excursion Edgas awoke with a start. For a moment, he didn't know where he was. In rising panic, he peeked out the window. Still daylight. The shadows appeared not to have moved at all. Did I have a nightmare? He thought. He couldn't remember. But something....well, it was gone now. He put on a fresh flightsuit, and was about to head down to the galley, when he heard Edmund and Billy on the ops deck above. "Hi Ed!" said Billy as he came up the ladder. "Well, morning sunshine!" said Edmund, leaning against a console with a mug of coffee, "So nice of you to join us. I was about to come looking for you." "Wait, what? Why?" Asked Edgas. Edmund nodded towards the mission clock. His jaw fell open. "Told you that sleep debt would catch up with you," Edmund said with a smirk. "We're almost finished here." "Fine, fine, I'll eat later," Edgas said, putting a palm to his face and picking a procedure manual from the map table, "what're the call signs for today?" "See for yourself," Edmund pointed toward the manual with his mug. Edgas opened it and flipped to the "Designated Callsigns by Mission Day" section, running his thick finger down the list. His jaw fell open again. "You've got to be kidding." Edmund threw his non-coffeed hand up, "hey, you can't make this stuff up." For the first of many times that day, Edgas wished it was over. He looked at the line in the book again. Hounddog. Jailhouse. Engineers. Pfft. *** From the only window on the ops deck, Edgas watched the rover trundle off past the perimeter of the base, its wheels throwing up little puffs of Mündust as it went. "Jailhouse, Hounddog, how do you read?" Radioed Edmund from the rover's observation seat. Edgas could see his small white form wobble back and forth as the rover went over lumps in the terrain. He cringed. "Hounddog, Jailhouse, you're in the pipe, five by five. Telemetry looks good." Mission control was monitoring the excursion on a satellite uplink, so Edgas refrained from lamenting the pointlessness of silly callsigns when no one else was on the same frequency. Or body. "You're cleared to continue." He was acting commander while Edmund was on the surface. He could call the rover back at any time if he thought it warranted. That fact brought him little comfort as the rover passed out of view from the window. He had a very bad feeling about this. Edgas smirked as a thought occurred to him. He grabbed his tablet from the counter, flipped the telemetry readouts over to it, then bounded to the ladder and up towards the lab. Standing order is only two EVA's on the surface, he thought. Doesn't say anything about... Something caught his eye as he ascended through the lab. A small container of Mystery Goo on a shelf was glowing. That's....odd, he thought. Not particularly unusual, Mystery Goo did odd things all the time. No one really understood it. Just...odd. It seemed to be silently judging him. Edgas put the thought out of his head as he climbed to the small, unused contingency airlock at the very top of the lab. There, he donned one of the quick-use emergency EVA suits, depressurized the lock, and stood up through the top hatch. Banging his helmet against the uplink comm dish in the process. He watched as the rover shambled off across the grayness, monitoring telemetry from his tablet. Then, suddenly, it disappeared. That always disturbed him, how objects simply disappeared when they got more than a couple of kilometers away. It was still there, of course, still feeding telemetry. He just couldn't see it anymore. Some strange quirk of physics. Perfectly normal. *** The rover bounced and tossed its way up the crater wall. Edmund was beginning to regret his decision to make the entire trip in the outside observer's seat. The rover's suspension wasn't as effective so far from its center, and each jolt felt like it was going right up his spine. When he wasn't simply getting tossed around like a rag doll. "Bring it (oof) down another (grunt) meter Billy, getting real (ack!) rough out here," he said through the intercom. "Ok Ed!" replied Billy from inside the relative comfort of the cupola at the front of the rover. The rover slowed just slightly. This'll be a long day, Edmund thought to himself. He was already getting sore. His suit was connected to the rover by an umbilical life support line, sharing its resources and saving the EVA pack on his back. He could theoretically stay like this for days. That's not happening, he thought. Still, it was an ideal place to observe the terrain. Billy could only see a fairly narrow area directly in front of him from the cupola. From up here, Edmund had a nearly unrestricted view of the landscape all around. He'd already been able to guide Billy around some of the larger bumps. He turned and looked back towards the base. It had disappeared some time ago. Edmund felt a small tinge of isolation that was highly unusual for him. He pushed it away. Probably just nerves. His head was really killing him today. The rover was just about to crest the lip of the crater when Edgas crackled over the comm link, "Hounddog, Jailhouse, hold position please." Edmund nodded to Billy in the cupola, and the rover slowed to a halt. "Jailhouse, Hounddog, holding. What's the issue?" "Mission control just lost the telemetry feed, standby... standby... I'll try recycling the signal" "Copy Jailhouse. Control, Hounddog, all my lights are green, the problem's not on our end." No response. "Control, Hounddog...Control, Hounddog, do you copy?" Still nothing. "Jailhouse, Hound...dammit. Ed! I seem to have lost audio with control too, do you have them? "I still have them... They're not able to copy you either. Might have to rethink this." "If you've still got them it's probably just an uplink glitch. As long as you can act as relay we're still good to proceed. Only a couple more clicks now, just over this ridge." There was a pause. "All right, they concur. You're cleared to proceed but be careful." Edgas sounded annoyed. "Copy, underway." Edmund nodded again at Billy and the rover moved on. They finally crested the crater wall, and were starting down the other side. Edmund thought he saw something just beyond the next rise. "Hounddog...hold...loosing ... signal," flashed with static. "Billy, back it up few meters, slowly." Edmund said, "there, that any better?" "Affirmative, got a clear signal now. Was loosing audio too," Edgas crackled, "I think we're gonna have to call this one off for now. Can't proceed with no comms." "We're just cresting the crater lip. Probably a dead zone on the lee side. We're almost there, nothing to worry about." "We can't continue without comms. That's a standing mission rule." Edmund was getting irritated. His head was pounding. "Now don't go making me pull rank here. It's a minor thing, everything's green here." "With all due respect, I have rank right now. There's too many red flags here." "Ed I...I can see something. It's in a depression just over the next rise. Can't tell what it is but it's there." His head was splitting. "Tell you what, just give us one hour. That's plenty of time to get the data points and get back. It's less than... 800 meters now. That's easy walking distance even if something goes wrong." "Edmund, this is against..." "Just one hour, please!" Why was he pushing so? This wasn't like himself. His head felt ready to explode, getting hard to think. "One hour, then we get to forget all this hoopla and move on." Another pause. "All right Ed. One hour. And if I don't hear from you then I'm getting in the mini rover and coming after you. Agreed?" "Agreed! Hounddog out." Edmund again nodded to Billy, and the rover moved off down the slight hill. A moment later, a brief burst of static indicated the loss of signal. And with that, Edmund's headache disappeared. He jerked, startled. He had been through a lot in his life. Aircraft crashes, training accidents, and the very public in-flight breakup of his first mission that still haunted him. But he had lived though things he shouldn't have, and seen things beyond his understanding, yet this was something new. Something he'd never felt before. Edmund was terrified. *** "What do you think it is, Ed?" Asked Billy. "I don't know, son. I do... not... know." "I'm afraid..." "It's just a thing, nothing to be scared of..." Edmund wished he believed it himself. They were standing at the base of a massive cubic structure that loomed over them. Whatever was on top, he couldn't make out. What was it made of? Stone? Metal? He couldn't tell. The Object seemed to resist being looked at, as Edmund tried to his eyes would slide off, focus on something else. If he forced himself to look, the form went all fuzzy and he started getting nauseous. Hesitantly, he reached a gloved hand out towards it, then made a fist as he yanked it back. No. No, I do not want to touch that. There was a growing feeling in the back of his mind, something he couldn't quite place. Foreign, yet somehow... familiar. It chilled his very bones. He was beginning to think he'd made a horrible mistake in coming here. "L...lets get the data and get out of here," he said, "Ed's right, this thing gives me the creeps." He turned, and started back towards the rover. It took him a moment to realize Billy wasn't with him. He looked back, and saw Billy still standing before the Object, staring up at it. "Hey Billy!" Edmund said as he started towards him. A cold dread was creeping up his spine. "Billy!" He reached out towards Billy's shoulder. "Billy?" Billy suddenly spun around. "You ok?" Asked Edmund, "you look like you've seen a ghost." "Yeah, I'm fine." Billy's face was pale, eyes wide and searching, "I don't like it here." "Me neither," said Edmund, "let's just do what we came to do and go." "Yeah..." Billy sounded a thousand kilometers away. Edmund led him back over to the rover, detached a tripod and handed it to him. "Set this up, I'll get the imager." Billy took it and started back to the Object. Edmund tried to compose himself. This awful feeling... what is..? He detached the imager unit, turned it over in his hands, trying to concentrate. His hand passed over the angular logo stamped on the housing. Wutani-something-or-other. What kind of name is that anyway? Why would they need... The device dropped from his hands, and fell slowly to the dust. Billy was back in front of the Object. The tripod lay at his feet. Edmund went towards him, reaching a gloved hand out. "Billy?" Uncertain. "B...Billy?" Trembling. "Billy?" Pleading. His hand touched Billy's shoulder. In that moment, that awful moment, realization crashed into him like a falling star. He knew. He knew. And he knew it was already too late. It was the feeling from a nightmare, right before the monster gets you. Slowly, Billy turned. Edmund Kerman screamed. And screamed. And screamed.

Chapter 3: Preparations The airlock was a half circle on the EVA deck, and most of that was space for the dust mitigation systems. They worked quite well, but couldn't still stem the tide of dust tracked into the rest of the base, that inevitably found its way to the galley. It confounded Edgas. The scientist in him found Mündust endlessly fascinating. So much to learn from such a simple substance. But the practical Kerbal in him didn't like it at all. It was coarse, and rough, and irritating, and it got everywhere. It stuck to every surface like a magnet, since it was electrically charged. Once it got out of the airlock, there was no getting rid of it. Edgas and Billy-Bobrim were in the airlock now, getting suited up for their EVA. "Do you think Ed's right? That there's really nothing there?" asked Billy. His movements were fluid, precise, almost careless, as he connected various hoses, turned various dials, checked various fittings. "Oh, I don't know, probably," Edgas replied. He fumbled wit his suit. Engineers. Pfft. Put everything in the worst possible places. "Just makes me uneasy." "But there's nothing out there but dust and rocks, nothin' to be scared of, no sir-ee. Check me!" Billy grinned as he spun around. Edgas began safety checking Billy's suit. He knew he needn't bother. Every fitting, switch, and knob was always perfect. Even the ones Billy could barely see, let alone reach. "Fear's not always a rational thing," Edgas said as he finished the checks. "OK, check me." Billy almost instantly began clicking and fiddling with things where Edgas couldn't even see. "'Fear always springs from ig-no-rance', that's what Annazzzzzzzz..." Billy's breath caught. Edgas couldn't see his face, but his own heart dropped. Billy was always cheerful. Setbacks, disappointments, flat out insults, nothing got to him. Nothing got through that shell. It was impenetrable. Except for one thing. Billy had trouble with big words. Never in his life could he pronounce his sister's full name. Edgas opened his mouth, was about to speak, when something behind him clicked. "Whoops! Don't wanna go outside like that, no sir-ee, that'd spoil your day real quick like!" Edgas closed his mouth, and for a moment turned a slightly darker shade of green. "All set now!" Edgas turned, and Billy was once again his usual self. "How is she?" Edgas asked. "She's ok," he paused, "she says the burrow-craps are arguing about us again." Bureaucrats. Pfft. The only thing worse than engineers. "They're always arguing about us. It's what we pay them for." "She says they say Duna's more important, that we should just come home instead. Especially that guy in charge. She says he's a squid-licking son of a-" Edgas gasped. "That's not a very nice word." "Well it's what she said!" Billy pleaded. "Well, he is one, but still" Edgas grinned, "that's not nice." Billy laughed. Edgas switched on his commlink. "Edgas here, how do you read?" "Read you loud and clear Edgas," said Edmund from the ops deck above. "Billy?" "Billy-Bobrim here, how do you read?" "Read you loud and clear Billy. Comm checks complete, everything looks good, advise when ready." They put their helmets on and did a final check out. Once Edgas depressurized the lock, the pair made their way out to the surface. There were several hours of work ahead. Two contingency rover chassis were detached from the main body of the rover. One decoupled incorrectly and landed upside down. After much struggling, the pair simply left it as it was, as a problem for another day. Even in the low gravity, it was too heavy to right. The other unit worked properly, and was outfitted with seats, power, and extra life support from the storage containers. If the mission rover became disabled, this small unenclosed buggy could retrieve the stranded crew. Once the mini-rover was tested and secured, Edmund replaced Edgas outside to assist with the installation of several instruments on the mission rover, including an externally mounted observer's seat. Edgas supervised from the ops deck. Finally, they made their way over to the old Isfjell 1, to repurpose some of its instruments. When they had finished, Edgas was glad to see the lights were still on. The crew were exhausted after such a long work day. In planning the rover's route to the anomaly on the edge of the crater and back, it was Billy-Bobrim who pointed out that while the rover would have no trouble making the climb, the soft regolith could pose a hazard when descending. An alternate return route was added, following the lip of the crater back to a nearby survey site they had already visited, knowing they could return from there. When he finally crawled into his cot, Edgas was happy for the low gravity. He didn't think he would have gotten that far otherwise. He closed his window shade against the Münar noon, leaving just a crack so a slim beam of light shown on the opposite wall. He was still uneasy, but that night he slept like the dead.

Chapter 2: Dawn Dawn finally came. Edgas hadn't bothered trying sleep. Too many bad dreams lately. Not horrible, but just enough that he didn't want to sleep until the day returned. He watched it now, from the small window of his cubicle. Just as the darkness had conquered the land, now it retreated, but ever so slowly, straining to keep every last centimeter. Finally, the three tones signaling the start of the duty cycle sounded over the intercom, Edgas zipped up his flight suit, and headed down to the galley. The base was a pair of stacked cylinders. The smaller one, the lab, was on top, with three floors of workspace. The main hull was huge, based loosely on the core module from the highly successful space station, but whereas the space station was all smooth plastic and padded surfaces, the Münbase was entirely utilitarian. Metal grating divided the floors, the only exception being the nominal privacy of the crew quarters. The crew called them cubicles, though they were really more like triangular sectors spaced around the top most deck of the main hull, with open sectors filled with supplies separating the three. A tall metal ladder ran down the center of the cylinders, from the docking hatch at the apex of the lab, to the node at the bottom of the core module. Below the crew deck was the operations deck, filled with flat displays, walls of gauges, and a large map of the immediate area displayed on a round table off to one side. Below that was the airlock, taking up most of the deck, the rest being suit and equipment maintenance shops. At the bottom of the hull, was the galley. This meant a continual rain of Mündust from the open grating of the airlock above, despite the abatement blowers and containment procedures inside the airlock. The crew had long since gotten used to the gunpowder-like smell of fresh Mündust that now permeated the place. But not the grittiness it imparted to their food. Edgas was convinced it was an intentional design flaw so the engineers could study the long term effects of habitual Mündust consumption. Pfft. Engineers. And finally, below the galley and beneath the main hull, usually sealed by a hatch in the floor, was the node. It was a dimly lit, spartan section that split off into four docking tunnels for future modules. At the end of one was the crucial life support module, its hatch kept closed to keep noise down. The other three were just used as storage space. Edgas slid slowly down the ladder and gently thumped to a stop on top of the hatch in the middle of the galley floor. "Hi Ed!" said Billy, with his usual cheerfulness. He was seated at the wall-mounted table, eating mush from a bowl. "Morning, Billy" Edgas said with a smile. Edgas liked Billy. He thought it would be impossible to not like Billy. He had that enthusiastic exuberance people so often mistook for stupidity. Billy was uneducated, that was true enough, the Corps took practically anyone with a pulse. But Billy was sharp as a tack. Edgas knew about the comic books, of course. Billy kept them stashed underneath the massive copy of Field Geologist's Guide to the Biomes of Kerbin that Edgas had given him when they graduated training. The comics were always pristine, but that old tome had been read so much it was starting to fall apart. Engineers. Pfft. They scoffed at a comic book massing a few grams but had no trouble approving an ancient textbook that must have been a couple of kilos. How much had it cost to put that thing on the Mün? A new kar? Small house maybe? Big house? Probably more than- "Edgas!" said Edmund sharply. Edgas realized he had been staring off into space again. "Huh? What? Oh, morning Ed, sorry." Edmund was organizing boxes next to a pantry bin. "You all right, son? Still not sleeping?" Edgas shrugged. Edmund drifted past, clapped him on the shoulder, and sat down at the table with his own bowl of mush. "You should try the sleep aid. That's why they provide it. You don't look well." Edgas sighed, "nah, makes me loopy." He ambled over to the coffee machine and slowly poured himself a mug of thick, syrupy coffee. Everything was thick and syrupy in this low gravity. At least it still tasted like coffee. Horrible, burnt, grainy, industrial coffee. Just like home. He took a long sip. "Edmund says we're going to see the anna-molly today!" And promptly sprayed it all over the metallic cupboards. "Wait, what?!" coughed Edgas, "already?" Edmund rolled his huge eyes at Billy. "Not today, today. Next duty cycle. Need to do the final setup & planning today." "So soon?" "We've been up here almost three weeks now. The rover's been checked and re-checked, logged a couple dozen clicks on sorties, never so much as a hiccup. It's ready." "But..." "And the financier is getting impatient. They blew a gasket after they crashed their satellite trying to image it up close. They want real data, and that's our gig." "That thing gives me the creeps." "It's just a thing. Pretty sure whatever it is plenty dead by now, if it was ever otherwise. Might be nothing there at all, just some magnetite playing havoc with the scanners. But they paid for us to find out, so that's what we're gonna do. "Yes, sir" Edgas said flatly, staring at his coffee. "Ed," Edmund rolled his eyes again, "you know your input is important to me. But this is what we signed on for, this is what got us here. Sooner we get it out of the way, sooner we can focus on the real science. They paid for data, not results. Get 'em that, the contract's complete, and they can shove off. Besides, you won't need to see it. "He won't?" said Billy, frowning. Edgas looked up. "I need you here monitoring the mission. Still not ready to risk the full crew on an excursion that long. Maybe after." "I won't argue with that" Edgas said, sitting down with his own bowl of mush. "Look guys," began Edmund, "that thing gives me the shivers too, but I don't put much stock in it. I think there's nothing there. One way or the other, in 48 hours, it'll all be behind us. Objective complete." Their fresh food had run out last week, nothing but everything that can fit in a can, bag, or box from here on out. But the mush was, well, good. Even the grit couldn't spoil it. They ate it happily. Edgas glanced toward to pantry, filled with uniform, nondescript boxes. He hoped it would last. The three finished their meal, and went over the plan for the day.

What couples the cars? Just docking ports?

[mic drop] Gru.

I seem to have given birth to an actual story. Too much mulling over the fates of my Kerbals whilst sitting in traffic. So if anyone's following my 6.4x Münbase posts, the story is now here: Shadows of the Kraken I'll probably post brief illustrated mission reports here unless it fully devolves into *gasp* literature. Now, to await the inevitable afterbirth: the critic. Meanwhile, this is what's in store for Ed, Ed, & Billy: "...what is it Ed?" "I don't know Billy. I do not know." "I'm afraid...."

SHADOWS OF THE KRAKEN Part 1 of the Kraken Trilogy Compiled by @qzgy Offline PDF compilation available here. Chapter 1: The Three Chapter 2: Dawn Chapter 3: Preparations Chapter 4: An Excursion Chapter 5: Shadows & Mündust Chapter 6: Interludes Chapter 7: Duna Rising Chapter 8: A Change of Plans Chapter 9: The Shadow Falls Chapter 10: A Seed Chapter 11: The Call Chapter 12: Mountain Chapter 13: Into the Halls of Madness Chapter 14: The Shadow Stirs Chapter 15: Per Aspera Chapter 16: Answers Chapter 17: What Dreams May Come Chapter 18: Ad Astrea Chapter 19: Shadow's Pawn Chapter 20: Voices Chapter 21: Chadvey Kerman Chapter 22: Buford T. Kerman Chapter 23: 'So Much Universe, and So Little Time.' Chapter 24: Lighting the Candle Chapter 25: Space Oddity Chapter 26: Revelations Chapter 27: Shadows of the Kraken Chapter 28: A Fairy Tale Chapter 29: The Two Chapter 30: To Boldly Go... -Elsewhere....- Chapter 31: Emptiness Chapter 32: Insights Chapter 33: Speed Chapter 34: We Have a Problem Chapter 35: So Far Away Chapter 36: Alone Chapter 37: Unintended Consequences Chapter 38: Jool Chapter 39: The Shadow over Bop Chapter 40: Betrayer Chapter 41: The Kraken Chapter 42: Edgas Kerman Chapter 43: The Place He Arrived At (Reprise) Chapter 44: Homecoming Chapter 45: Shadows and Mündust (Reprise) Epilogue: A Memory of Light ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Lost (Early) Chapters -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Since I keep mentioning such, here's the map of the place names I use. Credit goes to the author. Due to a deplorable excess of imagination and getting paid to sit in traffic all day with nothing else to occupy my mind, a string of mission reports is apparently morphing into an actual story. So before I loose my nerve, here's the first installment. Nothing that interesting yet, just character intros. I had no idea three semi-random Kerbals I stuck in a pod & sent to a station weeks ago would turn out to be such, well characters. If there's any interest, I'll put down the rest. Here's the lead up WDYIKSPT posts since it kinda picks up in the middle: So without further ado, I give you chapter 1 to Shadows of the Kraken --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1: The Three Edgas Kerman stared out into the darkness. It had been 14 days since they landed. Well, 14 24-hour cycles. Time was strange here. The crew still kept to a 24 hour day, but the day/night cycle on the Mün was well over four Kerbin days. Two days of light, two days of darkness. Edgas figured he'd eventually get used to it. Or he'd have a psychotic episode. He was already growing to hate the nights here. Even the darkness itself wasn't....right. It was darkness like he'd never known. It seemed to draw in, to consume the light as it crept across the landscape like a blight. Now it hung thickly around the base once again. Edgas could see the stars, but he tried not to. The way they sank down, then just disappeared into the inky, unbroken blackness of the distant horizon unsettled him. The base had floodlights, of course. They cast a pallid glow around the floorplate. But even that seemed to shrink back from the darkness. They were supposed to have installed long range spotlights by now, but hadn't gotten to it. Edgas wished they would. He had one friend in the darkness. From the window of his tiny cubicle on the hab deck, he could just see the old descent stage from Isfjell 1. It stood as a brave, lonely beacon out there in the night, its own floodlights fighting back against the consuming darkness like the desperate defenders of a besieged fortress. It was just a derelict now, there was no probe core to control it, but the departing crew had left the lights on. The base crew were supposed to have shut it down and stripped it for parts already, but hadn't gotten to it. Edgas hoped they wouldn't. The lights ran off the batteries. Only for a few hours each Münar night, not nearly long enough. It was a silly thing, yet it gave Edgas some small comfort. Then, just as he was thinking this, the voltage dropped below some threshold, the castle wall was breached, and the lights winked out. Darkness rushed in like a conquering army. Edgas sighed, closed the window shade, and leaned back on his small cot. He rubbed his stubby fingers where they had been pressed against the cold hull. It was always cold in here, but he didn't mind. The cold never bothered him anyway. Edgas liked the cold. He stared up at collection of wires and tubing covering the ceiling. Nothing to do now but wait for the next duty cycle to start so he'd have something to occupy his mind and take it off what was outside. Now, the night truly began. * * * Edmund Kerman was at his station in the lab, near the top of the towering Mün base. He usually was, even if not on duty. There was just too much work to be done. He didn't like the nights here. They were too long, caused delays. He'd forbidden night EVAs shortly after arriving. Too dangerous, he wouldn't risk his crew like that. They needed to get those spots up. Even then, too much out there that could catch a Kerbal off guard in the dark. Work outside would just have to wait. So he busied himself here, in the lab, surrounded by small grey rocks and containers of soil. He reached over to the little infrared space heater next to his station and turned it up another notch. Always so damn cold in here. Edmund liked it warm. He dreamt of retiring someplace tropical, with white sand and warmth. Maybe up the coast, just north of the KSC. Where he could sit in a beach chair and watch the rockets go up. Then come back down. Then go up again. And occasionally stay there. A drink in his hand and-- bah. No time for such idle thoughts now, he had work to do. Besides, if wishes were RatSquirrelFishes then beggars would gag. That's what his ol' Gran-pabbie always used to say when Edmund was a boy. Hadn't made any sense to him then, either, but if Gran-pabbie said it, it must be true. He had gotten a little fuzzy there in his later years. Always strong like steel though. Why, at his age he could still-- Bah! he pushed the thought away. Edmund closed his round, bulging eyes and rubbed the smooth skin between them. His head was thrumming today. That was better than thumping like yesterday. His headache had come and gone ever since taking that tumble off the ladder on Day 1. Damn fool thing to do, a trained, experienced Kerbonaut like him. Rookie mistake. But that's what did it, alright. Blow to the head can cause lasting headaches like this. No doubt. Certainly wasn't that other thing. Damn fool doctors, what did they know, anyway? Probably read the test results wrong. Edmund was the pinnacle of physical condition. Why, he could out run, out distance, out lift Kerbals half his age. Everything on his last physical exam was perfect, except-- BAH! He slammed his fist down on the table. Something flew off and bounced around the room in slow motion. His head was making it impossible to concentrate. Calm yourself, he thought. Edmund picked up a small gray rock and turned it over in his fingers, tiny crystals sparking in the light. Mission Commander. He was lucky to have pulled this tag. But this, this was a high point to end on. No one would remember the fifth commander of the space station. First permanent presence on the Mün, now that was something special. Something memorable. Chadvey should have had it by rights, but he turned it down. Hmph. Chadvey. Big damn hero. First in space, first on the Mün. Edmund had logged more time passing gas here than Chadvey spent doing anything useful. Then there was the anomaly. Edmund grinned under his mustache, trimmed exactly according to Personal Grooming Regulation OU812. Now that... that could outshine even Chadvey. Satellite couldn't image it, even with a pass so low it smacked into a mountain. He didn't believe in that "tall pink men" nonsense, but whatever was there, it was something extraordinary. Something that would be remembered. The Company was getting impatient, they'd funded a good chunk of this base. But procedure would be followed. The rover was nearly fully checked out, just needed the final instruments installed. Should be ready on the next day cycle. Edmund would not risk his crew with an improperly tested vehicle. Then it was an easy 8.2 click jaunt up the crater wall, and-- He sat back and sighed. This was pointless. A good commander knew when to call it quits. He couldn't get any work done like this anyway. He set the rock down next to a jar of gray soil tinged with orange. That was a real bonus, he thought. Hoped for, but not expected. Billy had literally stumbled across it on a short rover excursion. Edmund looked over the collection of other samples on his table. So, so much data here. Right outside that hatch, just laying all over the ground like, well, powdery gray dirt. He got up and moved carefully to the ladder in the center of the cylindrical room. This place really is a geologist's soggy dream, he thought. He shut the lights off, went down the ladder to his cubicle, and went to sleep. * * * Tall pink men. Billy-Bobrim Kerman liked tall pink men. They weren't real, course. He knew that. But he still like the stories. This one was called, "Duna Attacks!" He flipped through the colorful booklet. He weren't s'posed to have this. Wasn't. Wasn't supposed to have this. He'd snuck it aboard along with some snacks he kept hidden under his cot. He hoped the Eds (he called them the Eds) didn't find it. They were too serious for picture books. He knew he wasn't dumb, but he wasn't smart like the Eds. He didn't understand alloys and compositions and things with molecular structures. But he was a good driver, and he could fix anything, and when he fixed something, why, it stayed fixed, by gum! Billy looked out his window into the darkness. He didn't mind the dark. He didn't know why it scared some folks so. Why be scared of what you can't see? Nothing but rocks out there, he knew that. Rocks never hurt no one. Well, 'cept maybe for those mi-cro-me-te-o-roids. He'd seen some since they been here. Be looking out at the surface when suddenly POOF! Didn't really go POOF, course. The Mün was still space, and there weren't no sound in space. Wasn't. Wasn't no sound in space. He knew that. But it looked like the kinda thing that would go POOF if you could hear it. That could probably hurt a fella. No sense being scared of that either. Can't see 'em coming, either it gets you or it don't. It was dangerous up here. He knew that. But he was happy to be here. Being somewhere was always better than being nowhere, yes sir-ee. Billy was a Kerbonaut, and he knew there was always a risk of suddenly being nowhere. Or everywhere. Just one of those things. Being scared won't help. Besides, it was pretty up here, in its way. And interesting. He got to see interesting stuff that no one had ever got to see before. He didn't always understand it, but he got to see it and other folks didn't, and that was something. The Eds didn't have no family. Any. Didn't have any family. That was too bad. Billy had a baby sister. She was all growed up now, course. Grown up now. But she'd always be his baby sister. He talked to her every chance he got on the uplink. Those controllers were always pretty good about that. She was so proud of her big brother the brave Kerbonaut. Maybe they'd let him bring her back a rock. So many rocks up here. He liked the ones that sparkled. Those scientists didn't really need all of them, did they? She would really like a nice, sparkly rock.

Wilny looks underwhelmed.

As far as I understand, I can only use their router. DSL obviously, not sure if that makes any difference. Always has creeped me out how they can access & tweak the router remotely. I probably should touch bases with them again about exactly what they want me to do to get that damn port open.

I took the afternoon off from work, and diligently tried to cram as much goofing off astrophysical research in as possible:D: Yet another restless night for Edmund, Edgas, & Billy-Bobrim. This is becoming a bit of a habit. Trying to sleep in 1/6th gravity in a tin can that now has an actual "floor," and limited space thereof, probably had something to do with it this time. Billy-Bobrim was actually quiet for once. They all hope this was the last "night" sleeping in the pod, and blearily get to work. First on the list, Billy-Bobrim powers up the rover and backs the lift support trailer up to the downhill-most docking port of the base, while Edgas spots him: The rover is wide and ungainly, but after much backing and turning the docking clamps make contact and the LST is finally secured. Edgas deploys the support struts from outside, then unhooks the rover. Next up is getting the critical power generators online. The base has around eight hours of standby battery power available, not nearly enough for the long Münar night, so solar power isn't an option. The base will run on two clusters of RTGs. Here, Edgas locates a base pylon. Then Billy-Bobrim links it. Followed by several hours of unpacking the individual RTG's from their KAS containers, and securing them to the pylon. It's boring work, and Billy-Bobrim's humming is gettin on Edgas's nerves. Once all 9 RTG's are installed, the two tiring Kerbals load KAS packs full of more parts to the rover. Then more setup. Even in the low gravity, moving the heavy parts around is difficult. The pair are nearing exhaustion. Edmund expresses his concern while he monitors them from the pod. Finally the last connection is made, and Edgas & Billy-Bobrim can stand back and admire their work. Mission Control says all systems check out, but Edgas has noticed a problem. This connection wasn't located well. It's a simple task, but more work to move it. The main tasks are done. Edgas unpacks the comm dish and climbs the 15 meters to the top of the base to install and activate it. He double checks the alignment and admires the view.... At last all is in readiness. Mission Control says all systems check out, so they give Edmund the go-ahead to power down Selena into hibernation, and join his team on the surface. His first steps onto the surface are somewhat less than graceful... The crew pauses for publicity shots before the inaugural hatch opening. As Mission Commander, Edmund is first through the hatch. His head is still smarting from the tumble he took earlier. Edgas & Billy-Bobrim follow behind, clean off their suits, then crawl into their new home. It's a lukewarm low-flow shower and proper beds tonight! They check and recheck the base systems, and bring the air & water recycling in the LST online. Even without recycling, they have 240 days of supplies on board, plus emergency extras in the lander and rover. Mission Control gives them a go for at least 230 days on the surface, pending funding for a resupply at the 200-day mark. With the cargo lander unable to return to orbit, that's no longer a given. Once they've had some time to settle in, one major planned goal remains: examination of the anomaly detected some ten kilometers away to the northeast. But that's a task for another day. For now, they're home. Billy-Bobrim is still humming.

Put it on Eve.

Yup. I actually ordered Comcast when we first moved here. They called me back, told me there was no line on this side of the street, and cancelled my order. So I went thru the phone company. Next day the Comcast guy shows up to hook up the canceled order, points to the pole right next to my house and says, "yeah, the line's right there."

My ISP sucks. I'm lucky to get a third of my nominal 14-meg speed, my router constantly has to be rebooted cuz it "forgets" what's connected to it, and I'm stuck with wireless-g and "not in the area eligible for upgrade." The joys of doing business with an independent, small-town phone company. I think the hardware supports it, but the ISP does not, and they have full control of the router. I can't even access it. I do have a router/modem, but the ISP controls it. They can't/won't simply open the one port for outside access.

Here's a more IT specific question if anyone can help. I'd like to be able to access my IP security cameras when I'm off my home network. Should just be a simple matter of opening up port 80 according to my software. However, my ISP sucks and tells me they can't open up just that port, that I'd have to buy & configure my own hardware firewall, then they just open EVERYTHING up and wash their hands of it. So fine, whatever. So Can anyone recommend a good, easy to setup hardware firewall or give me some other pointers (other than "get a new ISP")? I'm no IT guy but I'm comfortable configuring IPs and switches & such.

Edgas, Edmund, & Billy-Bobrim wake after another fitful "night." But they are encouraged, today they set foot on the Mün. Selena undocks, and with plenty of fuel now, makes an uneventful descent to the build site. Also visible is the descent stage from Isfjell 1 nearly a year ago. Selena settles to a perfect touch down, with only a hint of wobble on the uneven ground. The crew spend a couple of hours checking systems and EVA suits, then open the hatch. Rover driver Billy-Bobrim descends the ladder first. He spend the last rest period mumbling in his sleep again. Ed & Ed are a bit worried about him, but he's enthusiastic and ready for work. Billy-Bobrim inspects the rover thoroughly. No obvious damage, he gives Mission Control the go-ahead to drop the gear remotely... ...and the rover leans over, then bounces lightly on its wheels, as designed. They even remembered to set the parking brake. Billy clambers aboard and begins checking over the systems, everything looks good. The first order of business is to decouple that docking port that's blocking most of his view... ...it explodes satisfyingly a few meters away. Meanwhile, Edmund has descended the ladder and made his way to the toppled life support trailer. The damage doesn't look as bad from out here. He attaches a spare RTG from the rover to restore power, then backs off, while Mission Control tries futilely again to flip it with the built in reaction wheels. Edgas can see the trailer is hanging up on a pylon. He detaches it, Mission Control tries again, but still no luck. It's time for MOAR BOOSTERS POWER! Billy-Bobrim brings up the rover, and attempts to nudge the trailer over. He backs off, tries another angle, then tries again. The trailer weighs half again as much as the rover, and every time he starts making progress, the front-wheel-drive rover just lifts up & bounces. Out of frustration, Billy-Bobrim channels his inner redneck, gleefully yells, "Hey y'all, hold mah non-alcoholic-fermented-space-beverage-in-a-bag and watch this!", pops the rover into 4-lo, and guns it! The extra traction works, and after some bouncing & scrabbling, the trailer finally flips over onto its wheels. With only a few extra dents. Now it's just a simple matter of hooking up... ...and raising the gear. Edgas climbs aboard the rover, and they do another systems check. Despite the rough handling, the life support trailer is still in good working over. The two drive it up to the still powerless base, but further assembly will have to wait. It's been a long work cycle. Even with their eagerness for more space, Billy-Bobrim & Edgas retreat to Selena while Mission Control runs more checks on the LST. Tomorrow, if all goes well, they'll finally open the hatch to their new home. Billy-Bobrim is still practically bouncing off the walls...

Edgas, Edmund, & Billy-Bobrim did not sleep well during their rest period. Edgas awoke to Billy-Bobrim drifting about the cabin, muttering loudly in his sleep, "ItlookslikehesgonnathrowitwhyishethrowingitdontthrowitNOOOO!" then waking up screaming in a cloud of sweat, waking Edmund too and scaring the crap out of him. The three lonely Kerbals, so far from home, felt as if a great crowd of dread was floating over them, as if thousands of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. They all feared that in some distant, parallel universe, something terrible has happened. SO with no one getting any more sleep that night, they woke up Mission Control to begin the day's activities early. They will be mostly supervisors for the semi-autonomous landing procedures. First, they undock the node from the rest of the stack, back away, and hope for the best: The landing stack then separates from the transfer stage. The crew re-docks the node to the partially fueled stage. It will remain on orbit for possible future use as a fueling station. The landing stack begins its decent. The rover is attached to the top of the base module, making for a very heavy, ungainly craft. The lander struggles to control it as it brakes towards the surface. The crew is tense as the assembly approaches touchdown. The land is uneven here, and many things are about to happen very quickly. Initial touchdown is a success... ...but even with the powerful Vernor thrusters, it begins tilting. A few heartbeats later, the lander/rover decouples and blasts away from the base... ...then settles to the ground safely nearby. One more hurdle for the first round... The rover decouples from the lander and settles onto its gear, then with very little clearance the lander blasts back towards orbit. The crew can breath again for a moment. The lander rendezvouses and docks with the transfer stage to refuel. Shortly thereafter, the life support trailer that had been waiting in a parking orbit, also meets up and docks, transferring what's left of the fuel from it's transfer stage as well. Then the trailer undocks, decouples from its transfer stage, and holds attitude as the lander undocks & approaches. It's an even tighter fit than the rover, but soon the trailer and its crucial life support supplies are secured. Now begins another tricky descent. The trailer is actually balanced its self, but the lander is unevenly fueled, which will soon have ramifications. The lander touches down again, everything still nominal so far... Then the trailer is decoupled, but it bounces more than expected, and knocks against the lander's fuel-tank-leg. Only a minor problem so far. The orbiting crew gives the automated control system the go ahead to lift off, and land nearby. But immediately after it lifts off, the unbalanced fuel in the lander causes an engine failure. It spins wildly, knocking the trailer over and bouncing across the surface of the Mün. Amazingly, despite several hard landings, it hasn't been damaged, and the control system is able to use the remaining fuel & thrusters to stabilize the tumble so at least it lands upright. But the situation still doesn't look good. The fragile life support trailer has also taken a tumble, and is now stuck on its back like some sort of shelled alien reptile. Mission control attempts to use the reaction wheels to right it, but they lack the power, and soon the trailers batteries are drained, and it too is also dead on the surface. How much damage the internal systems have sustained is still unknown. The crew is given the go-ahead to attempt landing the next day. They'll have their work cut out for them. Selena only has 7 days of life support remaining, leaving only 6 to get the base up & running or they'll have to abort and return home defeated. For now, it's been a full day, and Edmund, Edgas, & Billy-Bobrim take their next rest period.

I stayed up entirely too late last night reading this.

Today began the real work on getting a Mün base up & running. All the components are assembled in low Münar orbit. After their assistance with the impromptu repair, Edmund, Edgas, & Billy-Bobrim were indeed selected to be the inaugural crew. Aboard Isfjell 4, they ready for launch. The liftoff is mostly nominal, after the usual first-stage lagfest, however the third stage intentionally inserts to an unusually low 110x95km orbit. The crew are again called on for an impromptu repair. Due to an, er, software error, Wyvern 6's solar panels never deployed, and its batteries ran dead before it could rendezvous with Highlab II. So the Mün crew get some extra practice maneuvering the massive Isfjell third stage to within a few dozen meters of the crippled science ship. Edgas, being closest to the hatch, EVA's out to manually deploy the solar panels and save the little ship and its lucrative science experiment. With the Wyvern back on its way to the space station, the crew finally burn for the Mün! In another unusual move, the transfer stage is kept all the way to the capture burn, where it would normally be discarded after TMI. There's still a couple hundred m/s left after the burn, it's just enough to capture into an eccentric orbit, and it will save fuel for the lander. The stage is decoupled, and the lander descent stage finishes circularizing. An extra cargo still attached to the spent stage will be an orbiting science package. Once the stage swings back into daylight, the little satellite separates. The transfer stage is left in a mostly harmless eccentric orbit, high above normal LMO operations. Asymmetrical Sciencey Bits™ deployed! This new, long-duration Isfjell lander has received several upgrades. The solar panels have been nixed in favor of full RTG power to keep all systems running during the long Münar night, the shiny bare metal tanks have received a coating of protective paint, and extra RCS thrusters for full translation control have been added. It's also loaded to the hilt with KAS boxes, containing the nuclear power generator for the new base, as well as various odds and ends. The crew has dubbed her Selena, since a ship like this needs a proper name. After a few maneuvers, Selena rendezvouses with the assembled base hardware, and docks to the end of the node. Total mass in LMO is just over 190 tonnes, nearly as much as the Highlab station. With the first hurdle completed, the crew settles in for a rest period before the real work begins.

I will post a pic of the launcher when I get a chance. I used the transfer stage as a Relay, since the rover doesn't have the range to respond to Earth. Skycrane? Just what happened there? Inquiring minds want to know!

Hey just a quick question. IIRC, RT-configured antennas always stay deployed even after transmitting. I'm guessing this is a tweak in the part.cfg somewhere. Can someone clue me in on what it is plz?

Sorry, my own personal aesthetic neuroses there. The .625 docking port is "too small" for a Kerbal to fit thru. So a ship with that design would have to "back in" with a docking port behind the heat shield like the Soviet TKS. So Both that & the real Big G had hatches in their heat shields. That bugs me, even tho it's not modeled and completely irrelevant in game lol. But I was thinking a Big G type adapter would have gone to 2.5m. That would leave plenty of room on the "side" for a cut out or flat spot, like kind of a cargo bay. Room for a docking port, KAS container, maybe one of those inflatable wings if someone ever made one. See what I'm getting at?

Awesome. If I could make one odd request then, a "cutout" on the Big-R/service module for a docking port. I hate the idea of "hatches" in heat shields if it has to go on the back. Maybe could double as storage for that mini lander, if it's the one I'm thinking of.