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Kerbin Elcano Exploration Project - Epilogue


Angelo Kerman

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21 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

Never knew such a thing was ever contemplated.  How'd you get it all put together without BARIS delaying the project several months? :D

 

K.E.E.P. doesn't have BARIS enabled. The save began before I made the mod. Plus, the game crashes on me when I enable it, and I haven't figured out why. But once I do, I'll have BARIS enabled but not for launch failures until I do a lot of static testing to catch up to where it should be.

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I was paring down my browser favorites this evening, killing lots of old KSP links, and I ran across this blast from the past: 

I have to say, both the mods and writing have come a long way - they all showed a lot of promise back then, and you definitely delivered.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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Two hours of searching did indeed locate the frightened worker and missing blutonium. She explained that she was assembling an RTG for an upcoming project, but was quickly silenced by Oskar vonKerman. The material was once again put away and securely stored- this time with assurances that it would be kept under constant guard. The vonKerman Republic still had a lot to answer for...

Several days of intense inspections later, the Akron’s crew was thoroughly exhausted- and annoyed at spending so much time away from home. At least until Dr. Munvan shared the literal fruits of his labor from the ship’s botany lab. Between that and raiding the ship’s liquor cabinet for “medicinal purposes,” the crew barely remembered anything after the evening meal.

Finally satisfied that Sterntal was in fact an abandoned space launch complex, the Akron’s crew said their goodbyes to the vonKermans and went aloft once more- this time into the Great Desert. Technically under maritime law, the vonKerman Republic claimed the desert as their own despite having little use for it, and the dispute was one reason for waging the Last War. And despite the war’s end, the land remained contested, this time in the World Court.

Few ventured into the wasteland due to its severe lack of vegetation and water, not to mention the oppressive heat. Evidence suggested that the area was once lush with vegetation and water instead of today’s barren land and seasonal lakes. Why it became a desert remained a mystery. Some think the desert was the result of global climate change- and there's lots of evidence for that. Others believe that the Ancients fought the Kraken and created the Great Desert during their conflict, and if Gregorio Kerman had any say in the matter, they used atomic weapons. Of course, there was no evidence of atomic attacks or radioactive signatures of any kind- except for the two anomalies on the Akron’s map.

“There’s nothing out here but broken and cracked desert,” Kelbin said, looking out the windows. “Are you sure we’re headed in the right direction?”

“You tell me, you’re flying the airship,” Liscella answered. “Check your instruments.”

It didn’t take long to do a systems check with all the practice he’d had over the past several months. “Nothing seems out of place, I- there, on the horizon, 12 o’clock.”

Liscella scanned the horizon for a few seconds. “I don’t see anything… Oh, there, by the ridge. There’s something glinting on that mountain peak.”

Kelbin continued to watch the instruments as he flew. The Akron was right on course. Several minutes later, they got a closer look at their quarry. “That’s no mountain,” he said and trailed off.

Liscella pressed the ship-wide intercom. “Captain to the bridge, you’re going to want to see this.”

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***

“That’s got to be half a kilometer wide at its base, and at least that as tall,” Payin said, looking at the scans. “It’s enormous! Radar can’t penetrate the interior, so I can’t tell if it’s solid or hollow. Who would build something that big?”

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“Isn’t it obvious? Its aliens,” Samalla answered.

“For once, I think I believe you, sis. Any idea what for?”

Samalla shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

Payin continued her scans, shaking her head at the readings. Then she sighed and nodded and it the intercom. “Captain, dosimeter readings show the same setup as we’ve seen at the tracking station sites. Probably the same type of power source. Radiation is concentrated at the apex of the pyramid. Limit exposure to no more than 30 minutes.”

“Very well,” then intercom spoke back. “Kelbin, as soon as we set down, take the JetWing and go have a closer look. Payin, Samalla and Liscella, take Fido and see if you can find an entrance around the base.”

Kelbin excitedly stepped onto the Akron’s flight deck, fueled up the JetWing, and strapped himself in. Designed by “Jet Kerb” Yves R. Kerman, the JetWing was a microlight aircraft- more like a pair of jet-powered wings strapped to your back than the world’s smallest airplane. It was so easy to fly, anyone could do it, though pilots loved it the most.

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Over the whine of the turbines, Kelbin hollered with glee as the tiny plane lifted off the deck. The KAF pilot quickly shifted over to VTOL mode and activated its RCS thrusters for his sortie to the pyramid’s apex. On the way up, he noticed that the pyramid had several sections divided by balconies or ledges. He didn’t see any obvious way in other than the spot where the Akron landed, however.

Kelbin estimated that the apex was 525 meters tall including the spike at the top. Made of a light colored stone, the apex was noticeably warmer than other sections of the pyramid- and more radioactive.

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“Uh, dude, you really need to wear a helmet,” Munvan radioed.

“Trust me,” Kelbin radioed back as he looked down at the airship, “I’m not staying up here long. There’s no sign of any entry point, this area looks sealed off. It’s also kind of sandy up here, I’ll grab a sample and head back.”

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Kelbin’s idea of “head back” involved flying around the pyramid.

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“Lieutenant, the Akron is not 10.2 klicks away from the pyramid,” Liscella scolded over the radio.

“Yes Ma’am, just trying to spot that other anomaly. It’s close by. No luck though, so I’m heading back.”

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“That was the most fun I’ve had in a long time,” Kelbin said, landing back on the deck.

***

Shortly after Kelbin returned, Liscella joined Payin and Samalla in the hangar deck for a trip in the Fido. The little rover circled the enormous pyramid, quickly spotting what looked like an entrance. It looked sealed though, so the trio drove around until they found a ledge that they could drive on. While it provided a nice view of the airship, they couldn’t find any other obvious entrances.

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They returned to the indented section to see what they could find.

“I’ve seen pictographs like this in some of my books on aliens,” Samalla said, “I told you aliens made this!”

“Great, sis, great,” Payin said and shook her head. “Can you get us inside?”

“Maybe.”

***

“Captain, I think Kelbin had the right idea to find that nearby anomaly,” Kimgee said, “but the JetWing doesn’t have the equipment to locate it. The Ganges does…”

Captain James sighed. “You’ve been bugging me to redeem the Ganges ever since that mess at Arekibo Crater.” He looked out the window. The desert was pretty flat… “Very well. Take the Ganges and find that other anomaly. Just fly out, find the thing, take a quick reading and head back. Get back here by sundown. Do not exceed four klicks, understood?”

“Yes Sir,” Kimgee said excitedly, “We won’t let you down, Sir!”

Kimgee quickly grabbed Mosa and Bobus for her excursion.

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She had to follow the maps until the modified air search radar stopped pinging the pyramid and started zeroing in on the other anomaly. Several frustrating minutes later- and a couple of close encounters with a sand dune- the explorers still couldn’t find the anomaly.

“Time to come back to the barn,” Captain James radioed.

“But-“

Now, lieutenant commander.”

“Aye aye, S-“

“THERE! Right there,” Mosa screamed into the headset. Kimgee shook her head in pain, then gave Mosa an annoyed look. Mosa just pointed to her sighting.

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“Captain, can we at least plant a flag so we can find this again,” Kimgee pleaded. There was a pause.

“You’ve got five minutes after you land.”

Kimgee wasted no time getting the runabout onto the ground. The trio quickly took a seismic reading and then scrambled out of the tiltrotor to look at the strange anomaly and plant a flag. It looked like a circular ring with symbols on it that also had glowing chevrons. The ring was set atop a stepped stone platform.

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“It looks like a movie set,” Kimgee noted.

“Except that this ‘movie set’ has an atomic power source,” Bobus pointed out. “It looks like one of the electromagnetic coils from one of Wild Blue's mass driver concepts.”

Kimgee looked puzzled. “A what?”

“A mass driver,” Mosa explained before Bobus could, “is a device that accelerates projectiles to a high velocity. It’s a way to transport resources and finished goods vast distances without the need for traditional rockets. Well, except for course corrections. With enough power, you could shoot stuff from a munar base into orbit. Just don't try to shoot a kerbal in one... But if this is a mass driver, where are the other coils? And what are the symbols for?”

Bobus shrugged, and Kimgee’s watch buzzed- they were out of time.

The explorers were speculating on the site’s purpose as the climbed back into the runabout when they heard Liscella’s radio call.

“Ganges, hurry back. Samalla found a way into the pyramid.”

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Woo, nifty anomalies.  I've never seen those before.  Have they recently been added to stock or are they from some mod?

I really love your mods but how do you manage to make tiltrotors stable?  Every one I've tried to make has tumbled forwards or backwards, even when using RCS build-aid and such things to try to make sure it's balanced.  Maybe a tutorial video or 3 is in order, for them and Jetwings (such as placing balanced RCS thrusters on them).

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37 minutes ago, Kosmonaut said:

It's quite cool, what you can do with your mods (and I love how they're all connected). I love this series.

Thanks! I've wanted to fly around Kerbin for a long time- it's not something I've done before. I went and made the Heisenberg mod just for that purpose. :)

33 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

Woo, nifty anomalies.  I've never seen those before.  Have they recently been added to stock or are they from some mod?

I really love your mods but how do you manage to make tiltrotors stable?  Every one I've tried to make has tumbled forwards or backwards, even when using RCS build-aid and such things to try to make sure it's balanced.  Maybe a tutorial video or 3 is in order, for them and Jetwings (such as placing balanced RCS thrusters on them).

They are from Kerbal Konstructs and they're really neat!

To make the tiltrotors stable, what I do is turn on both center of mass and center of lift in the VAB/SPH, and then tilt the rotors up. Then I just align things until they're both more or less in the same spot. You might notice that the tailcone parts have Lead in them- that's to help you balance your craft even further.

The JetWing already has built-in RCS thrusters.

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1 hour ago, Angel-125 said:

To make the tiltrotors stable, what I do is turn on both center of mass and center of lift in the VAB/SPH, and then tilt the rotors up. Then I just align things until they're both more or less in the same spot. You might notice that the tailcone parts have Lead in them- that's to help you balance your craft even further.

Didn't notice the ballast in the tailcones, but I tried the same thing with tilting the rotors up and adjusting centers.  That has so far never worked for me with just 2 rotors, although I've gotten quadcopters to work with Throttle Controlled Avionics balancing the thrust automatically.

 

1 hour ago, Angel-125 said:

The JetWing already has built-in RCS thrusters.

Never noticed that, either.  You really should do some tutorial videos :) 

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“For the tenth time, sis,” Samalla said annoyed, “I’m not a language expert. I don’t know what these pictographs mean. I think this is a like a keypad of some sort, but even if I could interpret the symbols, I still wouldn’t know the access code.”

“I know, but-“

“Payin, I’m clueless, ok? I could tap here and here and here,” the engineer said, randomly tapping on symbols, “and… uh... here, but who knows what the code could be.”

Click.

With a burst of dust and grinding stone, the wall suddenly jolted back a centimeter and slowly crept open.

No way,” Samalla said, astonished.

Liscella blinked. “Good job, Samalla.” She clicked her radio. “Captain, Samalla got the door open, we’re in.”

“What? How?”

“Pure dumb luck. Request permission to go spelunking.”

“Very well. Permission granted. Stay together. Anything looks suspicious and you run. And good job,” Captain James radioed back. “Ganges, hurry back. Samalla found a way into the pyramid…”

***

“Wow. Just, wow,” Samalla said, looking at the immense chamber inside. Easily 300 meters wide at the base, the chamber followed the contours of the outer walls up to the third “tier” of the pyramid. Lights lined the walls, though a few here and there appeared to no longer function. A large metal shaft extended from the roof of the chamber and pierced deep into the ground, while a crane assembly hung overhead. The interior felt comfortably cool despite the desert heat outside.

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The chamber floor appeared to be divided up into four quadrants. They started walking to their immediate right, to the first quadrant which had stacks of metal pipes, easily two and a half meters in diameter, resting between stone pillars. The kerbals kept walking. Behind the stacks of pipes in the second quadrant appeared to be a machine shop with large industrial tools for making more pipes. Additionally, a literal army of ant-like robots with kerbal-like arms, easily a meter long and as tall as a kerbal were stacked up atop each other to conserve space. The kerbals froze, terrified. Fortunately, they remained motionless to their approach. Seconds later, after they came to their senses, Payin looked to Samalla, who just shook her head and shrugged.

"Do not touch those," Liscella boomed as Samalla reached out to one. "Leave them be. Let's keep going."

Off to their immediate left in the third quadrant were a series of rounded buildings that looked like someone took a giant bucket of beach sand and turned it upside down. Their walls were covered in strange pictographs, with symbols and creatures that no kerbal had ever seen before. Most of the buildings were empty, but one of them had a pile of a metallic blue substance.

“Isn’t that Munvan’s ‘graviolium’ that we found at the Bruoso Monolith? It kind of looks like it,” Liscella said.

“Yeah, looks like it,” Payin parroted. “Maybe it has value other than as ornamental jewelry? Can we keep it?”

“Well, we’re in ‘international waters’ so to speak, so it’s legitimate salvage,” Samalla pointed out.

“We’ll make a note and keep moving. Let’s check out the other buildings,” Liscella responded.

In the final quadrant up towards the entrance was a series of trapezoidal buildings made of mud brick and stone and carved with various murals. One of those symbols depicted seven beings- definitely not kerbals- forming a group, with four in the front and three in the back, all wearing baggy clothing and what looked like helmets. Each member of the group was between 1.8 and 2-meters tall, with disproportionately long limbs and torsos, and small eyes and small heads. They all appeared to be smiling with their impossibly small mouths.

The explorers were speechless. They took pictures. Lots of pictures.

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They walked into one of the buildings and followed its passageways until they found several black granite slabs laying on their sides. Unlike the large monoliths they found, the smaller slabs were not radioactive.

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“Maybe they fit them together to make the big ones,” Liscella commented.

“Or they could be like seed crystals that you plant in the ground, and they grow,” Samalla conjectured. “Notice how they don’t have any radioactivity?”

“That also doesn’t look like black granite,” Payin pointed out. “Are these cores for the monoliths? The do have the same 1 by 4 by 9 proportions…”

“Maybe, I don’t know. Nobody has ever tried to do any detailed probes of The Monolith- er, the one at KSC,” Samalla answered.

Liscella made a motion with her hands and exited the room, with the student astronauts following. In the largest building, they found a single chamber with a central five-sided pedestal inside that was lit with glowing controls.

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She tapped one of them; it switched from a view of the solar system to a view of Kerbin. Markers on the display lit up around the globe, each with a readout of some kind. One of the markers was clearly the pyramid that they were standing in.

The display suddenly flipped to show a cross-section of Kerbin. Various symbols flashed across the screen. Parts of the cross section were drawn in with amorphous light blue shapes along the crust and at the core. A few seconds later, the display returned to its view of the solar system.

Samalla’s eyes went wide as she gasped. “This place! I- They- The monoliths mark deposits!

***

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“So I convinced Gene to let me hire Bigby Tools to modify a Brumby to seat six,” Bill continued, “and I got Wernher to allocate one of the Titan II boosters and Kapollo Service Modules for the test flight. Linus got really mad- he wanted two unkermanned tests of Kapollo on Titan and now he’s only getting one- and now there’s a big debate about why we even need Kapollo…”

“Why make the, uh, big Brumby to begin with,” Jeb asked. There was a slight delay as his transmission bounced through various Echo Relay satellites to reach Kerbal Space Center.

“Well, what have you, Val, and Major Paire been doing since you arrived at Dolores?”

“Val and Paire have been helping out in the labs. I’ve been gardening.”

“Seriously, Jeb?”

“Yeah, Bill, seriously. Not much to do up here.”

“Huh. Okay, well, you’ve answered your question.”

“How so?”

“Think about it. You need three pilots to bring three station crew members to Dolores. That’s two less seats for engineers and scientists to do what the Air Force wants. And our kermanned programs are halted because all you pilots are on orbit. ‘Big Brumby’ seats six…”

“Which means you’d only need one pilot,” Jeb finished for him.

“Exactly.”

“Ok, what do you need me for, Bill? Oh. You want me to fly the Big Brumby.”

“Yup, Kapollo can fly unkermanned-“

“Which I most certainly do not trust,” Jeb interrupted.

“But the Brumby can’t,” Bill continued without missing a beat. “I need you to convince management to bring you and Captain Gedra or somebody else home for a bit. I want to prove that one Big Brumby is better than three regular Brumbies, but it needs a test pilot.”

“You know I love to test new ships, Bill,” Jeb responded, “but I hate to be the plywood in your spokes. Why wouldn’t the Air Force just use Kapollo? It’s automated- Duh, Jeb, we Air Force pilots like to fly…”

“That, and sharing Kapollo with the military means less available for Munshot, and further delays,” Bill pointed out.

“Of course, with fewer pilot slots on missions, there's going to be some fierce competition, and the Air Force might just opt to use regular Brumbies just for that reason. But money might beat politics in this case. Okay, Bill, I’ll see what I can do.”

***

While the KSP board of directors listened to Bill and Jeb pitch their idea, they elected to not make their decision right away. If anything, they reasoned, the Air Force could use two of the new Kapollo craft instead of a single Brumby. Instead, KSC proceeded as planned, first with a test launch of the brand new Duna I launch vehicle, carrying a new Sentinel asteroid scanner, designed to look for Near Kerbin Objects. For it to be effective though, it had to orbit between Kerbin and Eve.

Launching at noon, the rocket went straight up.

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Its six Fulcrum engines and the single new Skipper engine performed flawlessly, though the vehicle experienced some pogo oscillations that would have to be corrected before the next flight. Duna I’s upper stage ignited shortly after first stage burnout, nearly cooking the interstage adapter.

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Its five Fulcrum engines put the Sentinel satellite on escape trajectory, but that wasn’t enough. Sentinel promptly dropped the upper stage and ignited its OMS engine for the final boost to its target orbit. KSC mission planners then scheduled a circularization burn for 71 days later. Sentinel was on its way.

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The next day, after reconditioning the pad, Kapollo IA (nobody would explain the “A” suffix for the first Kapollo flight) rolled out to launch. The Titan II performed nominally, boosting the combined Kapollo Command Module and Kapollo Service Module out of the atmosphere with upper stage propellant to spare for orbital insertion.

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Unfortunately, the auto-sequence failed to jettison the launch abort system, but ground controllers managed to manually disconnect it.

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About a minute later, Kapollo IA performed its circularization burn, achieving a 138km by 116km orbit. The Titan upper stage then promptly de-orbited itself.

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With its relay antenna deployed and monopropellant power units activated, Linus congratulated his team for a job well done. Now it was just a matter of giving Kapollo an orbital shakedown over the next several days...

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1 hour ago, Geschosskopf said:

Haven't your Kerbals learned not to push buttons on mysterious but obviously powerful alien machinery? :D

 

Not in this save. In Duna Space Program, they didn't either; they activated the doomsday weapons, the kraken woke up, and reset time...

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2 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Not in this save. In Duna Space Program, they didn't either; they activated the doomsday weapons, the kraken woke up, and reset time...

OH, so they've Forgotten :)  Some of the inside of that pyramid has familiar textures with the DSP doomsday thing.  But this story is just getting good going so you can't blow up the universe so soon :D 

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  • 3 weeks later...

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“This rock isn’t going to suddenly fall and break something, is it? Do we need to move the Akron,” Captain James asked.

“No sir, it’s safe,” Mosa answered, looking at the strange rock floating in the air above the desert floor.

“What makes it float? Does it have any of that ‘graviolium’ of Munvan’s?”

“Oh yeah it does, Jim. It’s the weirdest thing. When we picked up samples of the stuff at the Bruoso Monolith, Dr. Munvan zapped the graviolium flakes with electricity and they floated. At the time, we attributed it to the small sample sizes and ion wind. Now, we’re not so sure.

“Why is that?”

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“This rock,” Mosa pointed skyward, “has as a core of graviolium based on our radar scans- which are very weird, by the way. On some frequencies the core is hollow, like it has no density. On others it registers as a superdense core. The samples in the lab do the same thing, which is how we know the rock has a graviolium core.

Anyway, this rock masses several tonnes. Physics says that it should be laying on the sand, not hovering meters above it. We’re sure that the graviolium is what is making it hover, and electricity is involved somehow, but we’re not sure how it works.”

“Can’t you just zap the new samples like you did before?”

“We tried that, Jim,” Mosa admitted, “but the larger samples didn’t even budge. It might be that we need a much larger electric charge, but we really don’t know.”

“Speaking of budging, why doesn’t the rock move in the wind?”

“It probably does, just not very much. But there’s also lots of magnetism here, so maybe it’s trapped in one of the magnetic fields... Anyway, like I said, the rock masses several tonnes. Right now, it’s pretty much weightless but it still has mass.” Captain James gave Mosa a puzzled look, so she continued her explanation.

“In physics, mass represents an object’s resistance to acceleration when a net force is applied to it. It also determines the strength of the gravitational attraction between objects. Normally, the two go hand in hand, but it appears that graviolium somehow cancels out the gravitational attraction- its ‘gravitational mass’ if you will- while retaining its resistance to acceleration- its ‘inertial mass’.”

“Wait, Mosa,” Captain James put up his hand, “why is that so special? Astronauts float around all the time in orbit, aren’t they separating gravitational and inertial mass?”

“Actually, no, Jim. Objects in orbit are affected by the pull of gravity, but they’re going so fast they just fall around Kerbin without hitting the ground. In that case, both gravitational and inertial mass apply- small RCS thrusters impart small momentum changes and all that, while big changes can reach escape velocity. But with graviolium cancelling the pull of gravity…”

“The object would just fly off into space as if you had a rocket on a string whirling around your head, and you let go of the string,” Captain James finished for her, finally remembering his orbital mechanics class. Of course, he couldn't tell her about it... “The whole ‘fall towards the ground and missing’ thing reminds me of a book I once read…

“Alright, this is all pretty fascinating stuff- and we’re definitely claiming the graviolium cache as salvage. We’ll stash it in one of the fuel bunkers away from prying eyes, just in case. In the meantime, what’s the status of the pyramid investigation? Do we need to set up a base at the ‘movie set,’ or are you ready to move on?”

“We’re about done here, Jim,” Mosa answered. “There’s not much more that we can do with the instruments we have. I’ve got the cadets imaging every centimeter of the complex and they’ll be done in a couple of days. After that, we can hop over to the ‘movie set’ and see if there’s anything we can learn from it.”

“Very well,” Captain James said, “let me know when you’ve completed your investigation.”

***

Three days later, the cadets still weren’t done and had to redo several sections. It was tedious work, so Akron’s crew took a break from their investigation to watch a momentous event- for the first time ever, a space probe from Kerbin entered Duna’s sphere of influence!

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Elcano 1, a hastily assembled Duna lander that was launched six months ago shortly after the Pioneer probes, arrived at Duna first in a twist of fate courtesy of orbital mechanics. There was barely any signal strength available to control the probe- it was designed to use the Pioneers as relays- so Mission Control had to be extra careful when they radioed Elcano’s next set of maneuvers. If it successfully entered Duna orbit, it would still have to wait for the Pioneers to provide communications before attempting a landing.

After marveling at the images sent back, the crew got back to work. A day and a half later, they finally finished their survey of the Great Mining Pyramid, just in time to watch Elcano-1’s attempt to orbit the rusty planet. The landing probe coasted ever closer to the planet with eyes around KSC, in orbit, and aboard the Akron watching their displays intently.

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Ten minutes to go Duna Insertion Burn (DIB). Pioneer 3 reached out to the probe and established a firm connection, much to the relief of the Elcano science team. Five minutes to DIB. Elcano 1 oriented its engine for the insertion burn. It needed 804.5 m/sec of delta-V to achieve orbit. Luckily the transfer stage had nearly twice that. Images relayed back showed a dusty atmosphere. An enormous canyon looked like a crack in the planet.

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One minute to go, and the planet loomed ever larger. Would BARIS- the legendary angry kraken from Scripture- give his blessing to the probe? Or would he cast it off into solar orbit? BARIS was all just superstition of course, but if systems failed, the probe would have a bad day.

Elcano received commands to run its temperature and pressure instruments. If something went wrong, at least they’d have some data to return.

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T minus 0. Elcano’s transfer stage started the burn. Several tense seconds passed while scientists and engineers held their breath.

Cheers rang out throughout Mission Control as Elcano 1 entered a 311km by 156km orbit around Duna! Data from the temperature and pressure instruments started to stream in.

“Well done, Elcano team,” Gene shouted out. “Drinks are on us!”

“I guess I owe you 50 kerbucks,” Wernher said to Linus, “your team did a good job on that probe.”

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***

With their investigation completed, the Akron lifted into the sky but kept low; the ‘movie set’ anomaly was a mere 25km away. They set down to take a look, but there wasn’t much that the crew could discern from the atomic-powered device beyond the realization that it had an inner ring of symbols that appeared to rotate with great effort. The explorers recorded their observations, spotted another floating rock lazily drifting by, and headed to the next desert anomaly on their list.

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The airship had to backtrack across the Great Desert and head towards the coast to reach its next destination. As they weaved their way between the desert hills though, the Akron encountered something unexpected…

“There, off to the left,” Liscella pointed out, “about ten o’clock. What’s that?”

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Captain James spotted it as well. “Looks like an airfield of some sort.”

“Out here in the desert?” Liscella checked her charts. “There’s nothing listed out this way. The nearest one is Dead Kerbal Pit, and it’s about 131km away, back the way we came.”

“Anything on ATC?”

“Checking… ATC is pinging ‘Kerbin Galactic’ at 35km away.

“Who the Moho is Kerbin Galactic?”

“Don’t know, Jim, never heard of them. Want me to hail them on the wireless?”

“Yeah, let’s see who they are.”

It didn’t take long for them to get a response…

“Akron, this is Kerbin Galactic ATC,” the air traffic controller said in his thick vonKerman accent. “You are entering restricted airspace. Turn left immediately to heading 180 and land on runway 090 for inspections.”

“Captain,” Liscella asked, “can they do that?”

“Bridge, Flight Ops,” Kimgee blurted out over the ship’s intercom, “radar contact, fast mover, bearing 180, headed straight for us. It’s breaking the sound barrier! Estimated contact in less than 30 seconds!”

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The sonic boom rattled the Akron as the jet sped by.

“There’s your answer, Lieutenant Commander,” Captain James replied. “That’s a KE-162 Kraken, one of the first jet aircraft. It was built at the tail end of the Last War.”

“Aircraft is turning and slowing down,” Kimgee reported. “It’s lining up on our tail.”

“Kerman airship, this is Kosmodrome Patrol. Follow your instructions and land on Runway 090 or you will be shot down,” the jet’s pilot demanded over the wireless.

The Kraken flew just above the Akron’s cruising speed and came dangerously close. It buzzed the command gondola as it roared past. It was clearly armed. The pilot repeated his demands.

“So much for the little training cruise,” Captain James quipped. He sighed and pressed the ship-wide intercom.

“All hands, this is the captain. Prepare for landing and inspections.”

***

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“The Great Desert is considered international waters. You have no sovereignty here,” Captain James argued. “Forcing us to land is highly illegal.”

“Technically the Desert Protectorate is a condominium- a political territory with joint ownership,” Gerwin vonKerman, the VKR case officer responded. “But that is beside the point. The Kosmodrome is in territory claimed by the vonKerman Republic for scientific purposes as allowed by treaty and is owned by Kerbin Galactic. You are therefore trespassing on private property, and our security force is permitted to defend our property.”

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“The vonKerman Republic military is a security force here? Right, sure,” Captain James said sarcastically. "Isn't forcing us down for tresspassing a little excessive?"

“We are hired contractors,” Gerwin pointed out, “How the Republic utilizes its forces is none of your concern.”

James scoffed at the notion. “If you’re so concerned about trespassing, why not just turn us away from your airspace?”

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“My employer is on the verge of launching orbital rockets but isn’t ready to make a public statement. Had we let you go, your reports it would’ve created a public relations catastrophe.”

“So we’re your prisoners then,” Captain James stated.

“You are our guests.”

“Right. You realize that having rocket launch facilities is a treaty violation, don’t you?”

“Of course,” Gerwin retorted. “No nation is permitted the possession or use of rocketry of any kind. That was a condition of the Total Disarmament Treaty. That is why the Republic discontinued its rocketry program, and, as I said, Kerbin Galactic is a commercial space company, much like your own ‘Kerbal Space Program’ is. Perhaps the Republic should take a closer look to ensure that your company is abiding by international law, eh?”

James remained quiet. If the VKR looked too closely, they’d notice that KSP was a commercially funded government agency. That could create problems. He tried a different tactic. “The Akron’s command staff are officially sanctioned TDT compliance auditors. By forcing us to land, you are interfering with a government investigation. My team is en route to a TDT surprise audit site to verify that the suspected site contains no atomic weapons. Your interference in an official investigation will cause an international incident unless you release us immediately.”

Now it was Gerwin’s turn to change tactics. “Yes, I’ve read about your exploits, but only your experiences about traveling around the world are public, not any of the audits. Why is that?”

“We aren’t required to release our findings,” the captain retorted.

“No, I guess not. But… you are required to allow observers from the host nation to accompany you on your audits if so requested. Your site is just inside the Republic border, is it not? I think that if the Republic sends observers with you, we can avoid an international incident- and clear up this trespassing issue as well. Your arrival here could be seen as part of the process.”

Mulch, walked right into that one, Captain James thought to himself. We won’t be able to hide anything we find.

“I’ll have to consult with my government,” Captain James finally answered.

“Of course. As will I. That might take a day or two. In the meantime, I will ask my superiors to provide you with good viewing of Kerbin Galactic’s launches. As a gesture of good faith.”

“About that,” Captain James asked. “We had no idea that you had a space program of your own. How did you build those rockets so quickly? Sterntal was shut down years ag-” Except they had those ‘RTG’ things, He thought to himself.

“Ah, yes. The vonKerman Republic was on the verge of launching craft into space before the Great War ended and the Total Disarmament Treaty was signed. In the interests of diplomacy, we stored our vessels until the time was right for them to fly, which was not long after your nation began flying rockets. If things went differently, my nation would’ve been the first to achieve orbit, not yours. Who is to say that we didn’t, eh?”

***

As they awaited word from KSC, Captain James and his crew were shuttled to a viewing area for the launches. The crew could see not one, but three launch pads, two of which had vehicles readied for flight.

“To your left is the Elektron,” Irina vonKerman, the Kerbin Galactic liaison said from the viewing booth. “It is our cargo rocket. It carries the Hause space station. It is uh, like your ‘MOLE’ station.

The Launch Control Officer counted down… “Drei, zwei, eins, EinfÜhrung!” Fire and steam erupted from the pad and the Elektron quickly cleared the tower. Moments later the roar of the engines rattled the building’s windows. The Elektron left a trail of fire as it clawed its way into the sky.

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For several minutes, Irina translated the launch events. “Elektron has turned towards the horizon… the rocket has breached the atmosphere… fairings deployed…

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Rocket has circularized its orbit- 125.9km by 122.6km… Hause has detached from the carrier rocket… Elektron is performing its de-orbit burn… Hause just flew over your Kerbal Space Center,” she said triumphantly. She listened to the announcer.

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“Hanse and Alice report ready to launch.”

“Wait,” Liscella said, holding up her hand, “You’re conducting two launches today?”

Irina simply smiled. “Watch.”

Moments later, the rocket from the central pad lifted off of its platform and roared into the sky.

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A minute and a half later, it jettisoned its side booster and continued its climb into orbit.

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“Alder has breached the atmosphere… Oh no… Control reports abnormal fairing deployment. The solar arrays are broken, and Alder detached from its carrier rocket prematurely!”

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“Are they going to abort,” Captain James asked. Irina listened to the announcer.

“Nein, Control reports that the kerbonauts are unharmed, and the Alder capsule can finish the orbital insertion burn. If there are no more malfunctions, they will continue to the station.”

Four minutes later, the Alder spacecraft completed its orbital insertion burn. “Systems are acceptable,” Irina translated, “they’re headed to Hause…”

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An hour and a half later, Alder reached the vonKerman space station. Irina continued to translate. “Alder lacks reaction control rockets, so Hanse may try an unorthodox technique to dock- they originally were simply going to practice rendezvous and then return to Kerbin. They are losing battery power though.”

“That sounds risky,” Kelbin said aloud.

“Without risk there is no reward,” Irina responded.

“Yes, but isn’t that a bit too risky for your first mission,” Kelbin pressed.

“Is it our first mission?” Irina grinned. “We’ve had one other launch before today, without kerbonauts aboard.”

The crew listened to Irina’s translations for several tense minutes until she squealed with delight. “Oh my, Hanse did it! Our first successful docking, despite all the damage during ascent, in a capsule not equipped with control rockets!”

“Impressive,” Captain James admitted. “Congratulations. What happens now?”

“I believe Hanse and Alice will spend a few days at Hause to thoroughly assess the damage to their craft and activate the station, though they weren’t trained for that mission. I am sure my company will ready Alder 3 for launch as well, just in case the kerbonauts need a rescue.”

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***

The next day, the Akron and her crew, along with Gerwin vonKerman, set out once again in search of the next anomaly after some cursory inspections. They resumed their previous course into the desert. Gerwin enjoyed the view from one of the last surviving airships, one that his nation built prior to the Last War prior to selling it to the Kerman States.

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“Contact, anomaly bearing 0 degrees, 225 true, range 19.2,” Kimgee called out over the ship’s intercom.

“Wunderbar! This is so exciting,” Gerwin pressed the talk button and said excitedly. “How soon until we reach this suspect site of yours?”

“Just a few minutes,” Kimgee responded.

“I have a visual,” Samalla said, pointing out to the horizon. She clicked the cockpit mics off. “Looks like another pyramid, Kelbin.”

Kelbin nodded. “Yeah, this is above our paygrade.” He clicked the intercom. “Captain to the bridge,”

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A few seconds later, Captain James relieved Kelbin, who took the copilot seat, Samalla went to the Gondo Hab. “Crew, this is the Captain, we’re beginning our descent. Audit Team, prepare for inspections,” Captain James said formally.

The Akron Majestically set down on the level ground next to the pyramid complex.

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Liscella, Mosa, Raphia, and Gerwin boarded the Fido rover- its design definitely approved for future space exploration- and set out to explore the complex. There first stop was a giant statue of a kerbal with a long and pointy beard.

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“Erstaunich, what an interesting statue,” Gerwin vonKerman said with a thick accent. “The construction is very crude, clearly ancient kerbals made it.”

Raphia walked forward to touch the statue. “I wonder- oomph!” She abruptly stopped, as if she ran into a glass windowed door. “I can’t approach the statue!”

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“Some kind of force prevents me to touch it as well,” Gerwin said, reaching out. “Perfectly smooth, and slippery.”

Rapha wiped her hand on the force field. “It’s frictionless,” she concluded. “I guess we know what the atomic signature is for: to power this force field.”

“I wonder if your other ‘audit sites’ are like this one,” Gerwin mused. “The Republic should request all the sites you visited within our borders.”

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Liscella, Mosa, and Raphia exchanged glances but said nothing. “Let’s see if this force field extends any further,” she said, trying to deflect the conversation.

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The inspection team piled back into the rover for a trip around the pyramid. They drove around the pyramid but found no strange force fields protecting it. Instead they found that the entire structure was made of dried and cracked dirt, with a hodgepodge of stonework peeking through were the dirt had fallen away. The stonework had several gaps in between the stones.

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Liscella guided the rover to the other pyramids in the complex. Four small stepped pyramids stood out from the larger middle two like sentries guarding the larger ones. Not seeing anything standing out, the team drove to the smaller of the two big pyramids. It too had a half-wall, and it too was made of dry cracked dirt and had no obvious entryway.

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They returned to the statue to investigate it in more detail.

“There, up on the chest, to its right,” Mosa noticed. “Is that an inscription?”

“Looks like it,” Liscella answered. It appeared to be petroglyphs of some sort. She took some images. “Anybody recognize the writing?” Everyone in the rover answered no. Nobody aboard the Akron knew either.

“Perhaps someone in the Republic knows the language,” Gerwin suggested. “My government will be quite excited to have such an important find within our borders!”

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***

They sent the images to their superiors in the vonKerman Republic and the Kerman States and then spent a week investigating the site but had little to show for it. Like the rest of the temple, the force field guarding the statue remained a mystery. With little else to discover, the Akron took to the skies once again, heading back to the Kosmodrome to drop off Gerwin vonKerman and take on some fuel before heading back to the Kerman States and on to the Glantri Principalities to seek out the final anomalies on their list.

Along the way, KSC held a conference call with the Akron’s crew and guest. Bobfel Kerman, one of Wernher’s scientists, recognized the writings right away.

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“That’s Ancient Kerman,” Bobfel said confidently. “The glyphs state that the statue is of Tut-Un Jeb-Ahn, Gatekeeper to the ‘Otherworld Thel.’”

“Tut-Un Jeb-Ahn? Is that a joke,” Liscella asked.

“It’s no joke, this phrase spells out Jeb,” Bobfel retorted.

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope. I’m an expert in Ancient Kerman. So I know what it says. Though that last bit could be 'Gael.' The two are pretty close and that section is rather weathered.”

“Wow,” Liscella said simply.

“Oh, it gets better,” Bobfel said excitedly. “One of the competing theories about the origin of Scripture is that Kerbin, Giver of Life and Knowledge, grabbed a seer named Jeb by the head and shown a bright light into his eyes. After the encounter he wrote down his visions.”

Now it was Mosa’s turn to say “wow.”

“I wonder if Jeb’s parents knew about this theory,” Mosa mused. “So you’re suggesting that this Tut-Un Jeb-Ahn wrote Scripture?”

“Maybe,” Bobfel answered. “Other more practical theories suggest that Scripture was written and added to over time as ancient kerbals tried to understand the universe and their place in it. The Tut might have been the first to write down some of those stories. But like playing telephone, they morphed over time as others revised Scripture.”

“What about this Thel or Gael that he’s guarding,” Raphia asked.

“It’s the ancients’ version of the afterlife,” Bobfel said. “Thel is what we call Moho in modern Scripture, while Gael translates to Paradise. Uh, Eve, in Modern Kerman.”

“This is all really interesting,” Liscella said. “I can’t believe-“

“Liscella to the bridge,” Captain James interrupted over the intercom, “we’re landing at the Kosmodrome.”

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1 hour ago, insert_name said:

Is the Gael refered to by the ancient kerbals the one from gallileos planet pack?

It's Ancient Kerman for Eve. :wink:

15 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

Curiouser and curiouser....   Why didn't they try to find out more about the force field?  Or did both they and Gerwin think it better to do such investigations in private at a later date?

There's no obvious entry points into the pyramids, and no useful information on the force field that their instruments could detect. It would take more advanced science instruments to do any detailed analysis. There's only so much that the airship can do, even with the refit done before K.E.E.P. began...

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4 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

It's Ancient Kerman for Eve. :)

If Eve is Paradise, and everything there is purple, then I guess your ancient Kerbals were all Prince fans :D 

 

4 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

There's no obvious entry points into the pyramids, and no useful information on the force field that their instruments could detect. It would take more advanced science instruments to do any detailed analysis. There's only so much that the airship can do, even with the refit done before K.E.E.P. began...

Well, I suppose so.  And with the force field being frictionless, you've kinda excluded yourself from climbing it, which is possible in a couple of places.  But I keep thinking that characters from both countries are fiendishly twisting their moustaches and thinking seriously non-Totally Disarmed thoughts.

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14 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

If Eve is Paradise, and everything there is purple, then I guess your ancient Kerbals were all Prince fans :D 

 

Well, I suppose so.  And with the force field being frictionless, you've kinda excluded yourself from climbing it, which is possible in a couple of places.  But I keep thinking that characters from both countries are fiendishly twisting their moustaches and thinking seriously non-Totally Disarmed thoughts.

Purple (acid) rain, purrrple (acid) rain...

Oh definitely! Between the force field and the mining pyramid, I suspect that the contested desert is about to heat up, so to speak...

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  • 4 weeks later...

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“Akron, welcome back to the Kosmodrome,” the Air Traffic Controller cheerfully said, “Please set down next to the main hangar.”

“Copy that,” Captain James said, and clicked of the mic. “Big difference from the last time,” he quipped.

“Of course, we’re all friends now, especially with the pyramid we discovered inside their borders. Watch them spin it so it looks like they discovered it first,” Liscella said sarcastically.

“Director Oskar vonKerman invites you to watch the Alder 3 launch, you’re just in time,” the Controller radioed.

Director Oskar vonKerman? I didn’t know he ran this complex,” Captain James said. Liscella just shrugged.

Captain James keyed the mic. “Please tell the Director that we’d be delighted to watch the launch, and we invite him to tour the Akron afterwards.”

There was a pause for several seconds. “The Director happy accepts your invitation. Be sure to check in with the front office once you land. Kerbin Galactic ATC out.”

A short time later, the crew was once again in the VIP lounge awaiting a rocket launch. Irina vonKerman again provided translations.

The improvements to the Alder ensured that it experienced no abnormal staging events, and its new launch fairing didn’t cause any issues with its solar arrays. Unfortunately, the Alder carrier rocket’s transmitter failed, and the core stage was stuck in orbit. It would be yet another item to address on a future launch.

 

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Alder 3’s RCS thrusters and docking radar passed inspections, so the spacecraft headed for Hause 1. Unlike KSP’s Brumby spacecraft, the Alder required no crew- this flight was fully automated.

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Once it docked with the VKR space station, cheers went up around the Kosmodrome- the vonKermans performed their first successful automatic docking!

 

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Hanse and Alice checked out the new arrival vigorously for any signs of damage. Fortunately, nothing appeared out of place. The next day, the Kerbonauts transferred their custom seat cushions into the new craft before casting off their damaged Alder. Kosmo Control then de-orbited Alder 2 as close to the space center as possible.

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They got within 4 kilometers. No KSP landings ever came that close to their own complex.

 

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***

“And now, the grand finale,” Captain James said as he, Gerwin, and Oskar toured the Akron. “The hangar deck.” The group climbed up the ready room’s ladder and entered the cavernous hold of the giant airship. Bobus looked up from his work on the Ganges and approached them.

 

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Director Oskar nodded, looking down the deck. “Most impressive,” he said, “interesting to see how your government converted this freighter into a flying aircraft carrier. A most formidable warship in its day, nein?”

“Yes, it was,” Captain James responded. “But she’s been converted into a peaceful exploration vessel.”

“Ah. Much like our Valkyrie.”

Captain James raised an eyebrow. “Valkyrie?”

“The Valkyrie was a flying fortress during the Great War,” Oskar explained, “but now she serves to recover our space capsules- when they don’t land so close to the Kosmodrome. But this craft,” he said, pointing to the runabout. “It recovers your capsules, ja?”

 

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“Yup,” Bobus chimed in. “The Ganges has been used on numerous occasions. We even recovered a Brumby when we began our tour around the world.”

“I would be interested in seeing your other, eh, run around craft,” Oskar said smiling.

“Runabout, but sure, this way,” Captain James gestured. They walked a good 20 meters to the opposite end of the hangar deck. “The tiltrotors-runabouts- just barely fit inside the hangar. We can only carry two of them, the Ganges, and the Rio Grande. Just behind the Rio Grande is our rover, the Fid-“

 

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“What is that,” Oskar said, pointing to a finned object mounted to the deck and walked towards it. Captain James glared at Bobus, whose eyes went wide with panic.

“That’s the RTG you gave us at the abandoned Sterntal Launch Complex,” Captain James said evenly. “Proof that the nuclear materials were being used for peaceful purposes. Although it’s illegally using weapons grade blutonium…

 

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“I- I- I was studying it to see how it w- worked,” Bobus stammered. “I- I think a more p- powerful and s- safer version could be made. It- I- Uh, I f- forgot to put it away when I was d- done,” he said sheepishly.

Gerwin looked at Director Oskar. The political officer gave him a curious look. “Is this true?”

Oskar shook his head. “Nein. I would never give such a potentially dangerous apparatus to a foreigner.”

“But, you were there, at Sterntal” Bobus blurted out.

“Of course I was,” Oskar answered, “As liaison to your inspections. But I never gave such as thing.”

Captain James started to sweat. “There’s obviously a misunderstanding here…”

“A ‘misunderstanding’ you say? Nein, this is espionage,” Gerwin yelled. “I will summon the guards immediately! Captain, you and your crew are under arrest!”

 

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***

Ten days after being incarcerated, the crew heard the roar of another rocket launch.

 

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“Sounds like another one of their Elektron rockets,” Payin pointed out. “I wonder what they’re launching?”

“They’re moving fast,” Kelbin noted while reading a reprint of Kerbfleet: A Jool Odyssey by @Kuzzter Kerman.

“Their rocket, or their space program,” Payin asked.

“Yes,” Kelbin said simply, not looking up. He really liked the part where Bill Kerman and Bill Kerbulan dueled each other in the Persistence, and the Monolith had to intervene. Who would’ve thought that the science fiction author would go on to form Kuzzter Instruments, or that their kPad would be so successful?

“How are they tracking their spacecraft,” Raphia asked.

“My guess is that they’re using our tracking satellites,” Samalla conjectured.

“My sister, ever the conspiracy theorist,” Payin quipped. “Although you were right about the aliens, so maybe you’re right about them using our satellites.”

Unbeknownst to the crew, with the success of their first automated docking, the vonKermans launched a space station module to Hause 1, a science lab known as Quantum. A small fortune of bench testing and careful vehicle integration ensured that BARIS left the station- built during the Last War and mothballed- alone.

 

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A day later, Qantum arrived at Hause 1 and docked to its aft port- previously vacated by Alder 3 when Hanse and Alice boarded the craft and flew it to the station’s forward port.

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The crew then unpacked the lab using specific instructions from Kosmo Control. They started some basic research to verify that the lab worked as intended in microgravity, but it was proving to be tedious and slow- it was time to bring a trained scientist up to the station, so “Kerbin Galactic” began pulling another Alder out of storage and integrating it…

 

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***

Two days later, on Moha 33, 1968, Pioneer 3 entered Duna’s sphere of influence. The satellite had an experimental communications antenna as well as several experiments for magnetosphere studies. The probe arrived in a very high orbit, requiring a significant burn to circularize. Luckily, Pioneer 3 had plenty of propellant for the maneuvers ahead, and arranged for a low-orbit pass in 23 days before settling into a survey of the rusty planet.

 

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Lagatha and Irina vonKerman headed to Hause 1 in Alder 4 on Eva 1 after their vehicle took 7 days to go through integration.

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They arrived without incident- finally their launch system was working as intended.

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After docking their spacecraft, Lagatha and Irina took over for Hanse and Alice and finally beginning the vonKerman space station’s research mission while Alder 3 returned the previous occupants home safely.

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The roar of an engine test heralded the entrance of a visitor to the Akron crew’s cell block…

 

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“Mortimer Kerman? What are you doing here,” Payin asked.

“Securing your release,” KSP’s Chief Financial Officer answered. Payin blinked her eyes and shook her head in disbelief. “I was a trial lawyer before switching careers into finance,” Mortimer explained. “Less stress. Anyway, you, Samalla, Bobus, Kelbin, and Munvan are free to go. The vonKermans will escort you to the Akron and out of vonKerman airspace. You’ll receive your orders afterwards.”

“Wait, what about the rest of us,” Kelbin asked. “Commander Liscella? Captain James?”

“I was able to negotiate the release for you student astronauts,” Mortimer responded, “but releasing the Akron’s command staff will take more time. The only reason why I got you guys out so quickly is because you’re not Treaty Inspectors, and trying accessories to espionage doesn’t sound as impressive as trying spies.”

“Um, we did help-“

“Crew the Akron, learn to work as a team, and conduct research, which you’ll continue to do,” Mortimer finished for Kelbin. “Walt tells me that your flight around the world is trending in the Lattice. People want to see how it ends.”

“Right,” Kelbin said sourly. “How will KSC explain the captain’s absence?”

If we can keep this mess out of the news, then they’ll be ‘called away on important business.’ Treaty Inspectors have to inspect…”

“I see.”

“Kelbin, you’re in charge,” Captain James called out from one of the cells. “Get your crew back to the ship and get the Moho out of here. You all passed my certification course long ago. You’re ready for this.”

“But-“

“That’s an order, lieutenant! Get to the ship and go,” the captain practically yelled. “Don’t worry, Mortimer is an excellent attorney,” Captain James added more softly. “He’ll get us out of this jam. And hey Morty.”

“Hey, Jimbo. Got yourself into a mess again, I see.”

“Yeah. I… let old hurts and prejudices from The Last War cloud my judgement. It started when we went in-country back at the Arekibo...”

Mortimer looked around. He must really trust these guys to say that, he thought to himself.

“Well, you’ve got time to put them to rest. We’re building a solid case to get you and your team out, but it’ll take a while. In the meantime, I’ll go get the guard to unlock the cells. Kelbin, let’s get you and the rest the students out of here.”

 

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The journey around the world is almost over, only 3 stops remain!

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  • 1 month later...

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“Gene, I’m just saying that I might not be the most qualified to complete this mission,” Kelbin said. He’d flown the Akron to Coaler Crater to offload her hidden cache of Graviolium to the Fulton and to refuel. “Maybe Fredegan or Priscella should take over,” he said, referring to the Fulton’s skipper and first mate. On the monitor, Gene shook his head.

“Priscella will be taking command of the Liberty when the Fulton gets back, and Fred is the most experienced skipper of the Fulton that we’ve got. We need him to support you. Transferring him to the Akron is out of the question. Besides, your team has the most experience on the Elcano Project. Mortimer says that Captain James vouched for you personally. That’s high praise. Your transfer request is denied.”

“But-“

“Kelbin, you’ve got three anomalies left to check out before you head home. Is there any reason you’re not technically capable of completing the mission?”

“No,” Kelbin said quietly.

“Then you have your orders, lieutenant, the President wants those remaining anomalies identified soonest, and you and your team are the best for the job. Mission Control out.”

The link went dead. Kelbin sighed. He’d hoped that he could disembark and resign after returning the airship to the Kerman States. That was out of the question now. He left the ship’s briefing room and went down the ladder to the hangar deck, barely acknowledging Bobus on the way. He kept to himself after blurting out that bit about the RTG, and Kelbin didn’t feel like giving him a pep talk. He needed a pep talk right now…

He went through the hangar deck’s forward crew hatch and down to the command gondola, where he relieved Munvan from watch.

“What’s the word, dude,” Munvan asked. “We like, going home, or what?”

“We’re to find and identify the remaining anomalies ‘soonest’ according to Gene. I don’t know why we bother, there are no atomic weapons at any of the sites we’ve visited, and the last ones are probably just a monolith or tracking station. But whatever.”

“Awesome, dude, we get to see this thing to the end. No atomic weapons also means no world ending doomsday or something. Unless we awaken the Kraken and, like, reset space-time or something.” Kelbin gave Munvan a confused look. “It's from Duna Space Program. One of JJ Kerman’s novels. He wrote it when The Original Four were first announced, and he used their likenesses in the story. That got him in trouble, but it also led to Galaxy Trek. Anyway, I’m gonna water my plants.”

“Take some extra snacks in case you get the munchies,” Samalla joked. She was checking the airship’s systems. She frowned.

“Yeah, girl, I’ll totally do that.”

“Before you go,” Kelbin interrupted, “can you give us a plot to the next anomaly? It’s in the mountains of the Glantri Principalites.”

Munvan brought up the map, glanced it over, and traced out a course in a matter of moments.

“How’d you do that so fast,” Samalla asked.

Munvan just smiled. “I’m just that good.” He left, leaving Kelbin and Samalla in the airship’s cockpit.

“Uh, skipper, we should probably do some overhauls before too long,” the engineer said. “The Akron hasn’t had maintenance in a while, and The Great Desert did a number on her engines.”

“Oh no,” Kelbin retorted. We’ve been stuck sitting and waiting for long enough. Besides, Flight wants us to investigate those anomalies ‘soonest.’”

Samalla shrugged. “You’re the boss, boss.”

The next morning, the airship parted company with the Fulton and headed towards its next quarry. The flight took them over the Glantri Mountain Range and deep into one of its valleys before Kelbin finally spotted the anomaly. Another monolith, Kelbin thought to himself. Swell.

 

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After the Akron landed, Munvan and Kelbin trekked up the hill to check out the monolith. They didn’t find any graviolium, but Munvan did spot a small deposit of aurum. KSC did some brief treaty checks before clearing the Akron to stake the claim and mine the resource.

“Smile for the camera,” Munvan said.

“Uh huh,” Kelbin responded. His fake smile disappeared as quickly as the click of the camera shutter.

 

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That’s when an aircraft flew into the valley, buzzed the airship, and set down on the uneven terrain and taxied up to the Akron. The pilot got out of his plane.

 

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“Fancy meeting you guys here,” he said.

Kelbin looked at the newcomer and did a double-take.

“Aren’t you Gregorio Kerman?”

 

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***

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Two days after Bob and Jeb returned home- KSC approved Bill's Big Brumby flight in light of recent events- Bill and Jeb strolled out of the launch tower elevator towards their destination. Bill took a moment to admire the view.

 

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“The last time we did this, we were testing the Brumby. Now we’re putting a new variant through its paces,” the engineer remarked. “Thanks for being willing to pilot her.”

“No problem, old friend,” Jeb answered. “Besides, I can’t let Val or Major Parie have all the fun. Speaking of which, are you still up for some cross-training?”

“Oh yeah, Jeb. Flying terrifies me, which is exactly why I want to learn how to fly. Run towards your fears, you know?”

“Yeah, I get it. There’s no courage without fear. I get scared too, but I’m really good at hiding it. Anyway, they’re going to have to create a new profession for astronauts, you know. Flight Engineer. Part engineer, part pilot. You’ll be the first.”

“Yep. Guys like me can handle the basics, but leave the advanced stuff to the professionals.”

“Exactly. I hear that the Air Force isn’t excited about the Big Brumby, by the way.”

“Well Jeb, they’d be less excited about Kapollo. It can fly without a pilot. Plus it’s more expensive. But if Big Brumby works, then Munshot is back on. Major Parie can handle the flying tasks and we can get back to going to the Mun.”

The Big Brumby lifted off with only minor difficulties; the launch escape tower deployed too early in the flight and was carried up all the way through first MECO 1.

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Once in orbit, Jeb gave Bill some on the job training. The astronauts wanted to fly by the vonKerman Republic’s Hause space station, but Mission Control overrode them. Instead, they plotted a course for the Echo-1 Relay satellite that was deployed on the YAML-12 mission by Jeb. An hour later, Bill performed the transfer orbit burn under Jeb’s watchful eye. With Jeb continuing to provide instruction, Bill rendezvoused with the obsolete relay satellite.

 

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Mission Control decided to take the opportunity to visit another spacecraft, a Titan upperstage, to check on the effects of its long exposure to space. Again, Bill performed the orbital maneuvers with Jeb’s help. Not long after, Big Brumby not only found its quarry, they docked with it. He could see his handiwork- he’d modified the Titan upperstage into a tug during the first Brumby flight.

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Despite the year in space, the upperstage had held up pretty well. It was time to return it to Kerbin, however, so Bill reprogrammed the guidance computer to perform a de-orbit burn after the Big Brumby undocked. As it sped away into the black sky, Jeb took over the Big Brumby to prepare for its return to Kerbin. A navigational error placed the craft about 100km away from KSC, but the Liberty quickly retrieved the craft.

With the success of the Big Brumby, the Kerman Air Force allowed KSC the use of its pilots again. Major Parie and Lieutenant Janchell returned to Kerbin, leaving Val and Captain Gedra in charge of Dolores.

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After training on the new craft, the Major returned with Janchell and Air Force Captain Nelberry Kerman- hastily trained to replace Bob. Not long after, Valentina took the remaining Brumby home. Munshot was back on!

 

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***

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“You’ve heard of me, eh? Splendid. That’s my producer and camera woman, Pepe,” he said and pointed to the lady emerging from the airplane. “Her job is to tell me what to do.” Pepe introduced herself to Kelbin.

 

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Kelbin motioned to the mission patches on their arms. “Planning on impersonating a KSC worker?”

Gregorio grinned. “Not at all! We’re big into ancient aliens, but we’re also fans of Kerbal Space Program! We got these in the gift shop when we were there last.”

Gift shop? Kelbin shook his head and changed the subject.

“Um, how did you find us?”

“Sheer coincidence,” Gregorio answered. He handed Kelbin a navigation chart with markings in it. They closely matched where the SCANSat noted the anomalies. “We did extensive research on Ancient Scripture to find these monoliths. On a recent episode of Ancient Astronauts, I revealed that these monoliths are most likely beacons for ancient aliens. Do you watch the show?” Gergorio wasn’t revealing everything. While he did do the research, his source at KSC gave him a map showing where the anomalies were.

“No…” Kelbin sheepishly admitted.

Gregorio tried not to look disappointed. “Well, you’ve probably been busy with your around the world trip. Find anything interesting?”

Kelbin rolled his eyes and nodded. “You could say that, though nothing I can really talk about right now…”

“Not to worry, I’m a video journalist, not a nosy reporter. If you’ve got something we can’t print, then we don’t. Plain and simple. Although it would be great to tag along on your adventures!”

“Uh, I don’t think that’s possible,” Kelbin said.

“Of course. I had to ask. Like I said, we’re fans… Anyway, we’re here to take a look at that monolith. It would be nice if we could compare notes- assuming there’s stuff you can share with us, of course.”

Kelbin and Gregorio trekked up the hill to the monolith. Gregorio described what he knew of them, which gave Kelbin the opportunity to share what he could. Mostly he stuck to the publically available information and confirmed some of Gregorio’s findings, but left out the fact that the “beacons” as Gregorio described them marked graviolium deposits instead of meeting sites for aliens. Neither explorer knew what the etched lettering meant, but Kelbin knew that the etched image wasn’t that of the ancient aliens.

 

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Kelbin invited Gregorio and Pepe to dinner in the ship’s briefing room, where they swapped stories about flying around the world and conspiracy theories- something that Samalla absolutely loved. Bobus interrupted the dinner and handed Samalla an engineering report. She frowned.

 

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“What’s up,” Kelbin asked.

“Captain,” she began, addressing Kelbin. Navy tradition designated the ship’s commanding officer as “Captain” regardless of rank. “Remember that overhaul I warned you about? We definitely need it. Things are worse than I thought. We need to do a lot of maintenance on the Akron before we fly again. We’ll be grounded for at least three weeks. Both runabouts have failing SAS units and turboshafts, and the Ganges 's starboard tiltroter is gummed up with sand. They’re grounded as of now as well.”

Listen to your people, Kelbin thought to himself. Lesson learned… “Uh, ok, can you conduct field repairs?”

 

“Well, I could do the repairs if I had the equipment,” Samalla said, “but someone didn’t fill up our reserves back at Coaler Crater...”

Kelbin tried to not look too embarrassed. And there’s another lesson learned…

 

Gregorio saw an opportunity. “I know you said ‘no’ earlier, but we’d really love to join the team and help out. Let us earn our keep,” he pleaded. “You need equipment? I can go get that for you. You can reimburse me when I get back. And Pepe is an excellent mechanic, she can help you with the repairs. Many hands, short work, and all that.”

Kelbin shook his head. “Samalla, how soon can we get the Fulton out here?”

“Not for a while, Kelbin. She’s undergoing refits. The makeshift storage tanks on her top deck didn’t work out too well.”

The acting captain thought it over, nodded, and then looked at Gregorio. “We do need another pilot… I’ll have to clear it with my superiors, but if they agree, then you can come along- if you can deliver the spare equipment, and we get veto rights so you don’t air sensitive information.”

Gregorio beamed. “So long as we can discuss things before you veto, you have a deal. You won’t regret this, Captain.”

The next morning, Gregorio flew back to Coaler Crater, slung a couple of shipping crates under his plane, and hired a ferry pilot to return the plane- he wouldn’t need it after delivering the equipment.

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Since the load was too heavy to safely land, as the plane flew overhead once more, Gregorio airdropped the crates before landing in the valley (shout out to @JustJim, thanks for showing how this is done! :) )

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Samalla, Bobus, and Pepe retrieved the crates and got to work right away. It would take a few weeks, but the Akron would return to the skies…

 

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***

 

KSC rolled out DSEV-1’s core module to the launchpad, and after preflight checks, it roared into the sky atop a Titan rocket.

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Kapollo 2 followed two days later with Bill, Bob, and Jeb headed to the fledgling Deep Space Exploration Vessel.

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When Enterprise’s first hab module arrived a day later, Bill stepped outside for a walk and flew the Kerbal Maneuvering Unit over to the new module, docked with it, and tried to park it in place at DSEV-1.

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Unfortunately, it proved too unwieldy, so Bob and Jeb hopped into the Kapollo to rescue both Bill and the module. Jeb then did some orbital acrobatics in the Kapollo to redock with the lab and connect it to its proper place on DSEV-1.

 

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“That’s why we train for these contingencies,” Jeb remarked. “We’ll get it next time, the modules just need more maneuvering thrusters.”

Kerbal Space Center wasn’t the only space company busy in orbit. The vonKerman Republic lofted another module to Hause 1 on Eva 17, nearly doubling the amount of habitable space. Its Elektron booster had plenty of fuel remaining, so it became part of the fuel depot.

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The VKR didn’t stop there though, they launched a pair of dedicated fuel pods to the station as well.

Meanwhile, Pioneer 3 successfully circularized its orbit- and transmitted back some unusual findings. Gene wondered if the ancient aliens hadn’t visited Kerbin exclusively, but he said nothing. Perhaps someday they’d visit the Rusty Planet, but right now he had the next mission to Enterprise to run.

 

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Learning from the mishaps of the last mission, the second lab module had additional RCS thrusters to aid in docking, and the Titan upper stage had solar arrays and additional batteries to help it properly deorbit. When it arrived, Bill had no problems docking the module. The hab modules enjoyed a similar success.

 

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The first fuel tank was another matter. A manufacturing error based on old plans meant that the launcher had no extra batteries or solar arrays. Careful management of the electric charge delivered the tank successfully though, and Bill expertly guided it to its docking port. That’s when the fun began.

 

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A loud bank reverberated throughout DSEV-1.

“Hey, we have a problem here,” Bill called out.

“Uh, say again,” Jeb answered.

“Enterprise, we have a problem. Kapollo 2 just jettisoned its heat shield and the service module with it.”

 

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Jeb could hear the engineer’s concern in his voice. “Well, at least we didn’t uncontrollably spin out of control, causing everything to fly apart,” he said calmly. “But both of Enterprise’s reaction wheel modules are dead, and we lost an RCS thruster. Or four. Kapollo’s autopilot is mulched too. Looks like we’ll be stuck in orbit for a while, fellas. The good news is that we’ve got plenty of supplies, and there are no seal breaks. Any idea how it happened?”

 

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“I don’t know,” Bill responded, thinking through the problem. “I had just finished docking tank 1 and completed my hard dock check. I was just about to undock and fly the KMU back to the cradle when I saw the service module drifting away.”

“Ok. Bill, do a quick look around Enterprise to make sure nothing else is broken, then get back inside,” Jeb ordered. “We’ll get KSC involved and do a full systems check too. Good thing you designed the Big Brumby, eh?”

***

A complete investigation revealed a faulty design in Kapollo’s autopilot coupled with maligned auto-struts a software bug had caused a power surge in the system which triggered the heat shield’s explosive bolts to fire, carrying with it the service module. Enterprise’s flight control computer immediately engaged SAS to compensate. It worked, but both torque modules failed when the surge hit them. The surge also shorted out several RCS thrusters. A save game edit The Enterprise’s safety systems tripped the circuit breakers before the power surge caused further damage.

The Kapollo program was grounded until further notice pending a thorough safety review. They also recalled the next fuel tank mission to correct design flaws. Fortunately, Big Brumby didn’t suffer the same problems as Kapollo.

A week and a half later, Valentina arrived at DSEV-1 in a thoroughly checked out Big Brumby 3, carrying with her some equipment for repairs and a kit to de-orbit the Kapollo 2 command module.

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Bill made the necessary repairs, installed the de-orbit kit- minus a couple of unnecessary engines- and cast off the now useless module. Mission Control then de-orbited Kapollo 2.

 

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***

As the Kerbal Space Center recovered from their mishap, the Von Kerman Republic pressed forward with their own space program. Alder 5 launched to Hause 1, quickly followed by another Elektron launch.

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At Dolores Air Force Station, Captain Gedra watched her radar display as the Elektron delivered its payload to the VKR station. Not long after, the radar blip grew until two images appeared.

“Major, we have a development,” she called over the intercom. “Something separated from Hause 1. You might want to take a look at this.”

A few moments later, Major Paire drifted into the lab. “What you got?”

“Ma’am, we’re tracking two objects from Hause 1’s position. Computer is flagging the new object as Hause 1 Probe. It initiated a plane change maneuver about five seconds ago. Permission to task a DenEye sat for a closer look?”

“Granted,” Major Parie responded. “Let’s see what they’re up to.” Twenty minutes later, DenEye 3 zoomed its telescope on the VKR craft. The image came up on the monitor. They caught it performing another burn, and it looked like there was a mishap with their Alder spacecraft. Its service module floated away and struck a solar panel. The ship continued on though…

 

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“…Is that… a lander?”

“Sure looks that way, Captain. Where is ‘Hause 1 Probe’ headed,” Paire asked.

Gedra took some measurements and did some calculations. She gasped. “They’re headed to Minmus!”

 

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Edited by Angel-125
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