Dancing in Light - Chapter 8.3 - Evolution vs. Revolution

[MinimalMinmus]

FYI, SCANsat can indeed detect green monoliths.

[NCommander]

Don't have enough content for an update today and tomorrow is iffy. I finally got my Luna Lander working with what I would considerable an acceptable (though still thin) margins (with the added bonus it can reach Minnus now). HS Duna set a new speed record for me personally as I sent it shooting out of Kerbin's SoI after a 4700 m/s ejection burn (though total fuel usage was somewhat higher because the very long burn meant Mr. Orbeth wasn't helping as much, I was already screaming into high orbit when I reached the end of the burn).

I had the first kraken strike of this series during the first attempt on ejection; decoupler failed to actually detach the booster tanks so I had to do the rather painful 10 minute burn twice plus the transfer to Ejection Transfer Orbit. The staging was correct, and it worked on the second try so "meh" after the quickload.

Went right down the center. Just need a 17 m/s burn are perihelon to get it trimmed for close approach.

It looks like Bob and one of the whitesuits are our lucky volunteers for the first Mun landing and ten day stay. I intended to send Val and Bill, but I need to get their plot moving a bit more before I can risk killing them in space. I did have the next "plot" chapter planned out, and after Mun and Minnus, I'm going to have to grind some contracts for cash. The space program has about 300k in the bank, but I really want a lot more. Launchpad 3, and possibly Admin 2. Val has a decent chance of the first manned Minnus mission of any sort though and I may have her lead the next stage of munar exploration.

[NCommander]

Chapter 7 - Excelsior

Spoiler

 

Longshot - HS Duna 1

Despite Bill's earlier comments, it took nearly a month before the HighSpeed mission to Duna finally got off the planning ground. Arguments back and forth on how to handle the ejection burn went until a solution was finally found. As such, nearly 32 days after it was launched, the probe relit it's booster stage, and transferred to what was being called the Kerbin Departure Orbit.

KDO essentially parked the space craft just short of a lunar intercept, and a small burn was done to raise periapsis to 125km above Kerbin. The reason for this is the departure burn was estimated to take over 10 minutes to complete. The higher periapsis would allow the probe to begin accelerating while still approaching Kerbin and getting as much advantage from the Orberth effect as possible.

As the probe swang around the orbit, it lit up for departure.

The side tanks detach, and the probe begins screaming away from Kerbin at previously unknown velocities.

After nearly 10 minutes of near constant acceleration, HS Duna kills the booster terrier, and begins reviewing the data. Gene spoke to the room, "CAPCOM, Flight, how are we looking?"

"Right down the center, Gene!"

After much review, a small correction burn was setup at perihelon to trim the orbit, the Mission Control breathed easy. Bill, now dismissed, started looking for Val; they didn't have that much time before the first LEM series spacecraft would begin it's trip to the Mun.

---

Endurance - Dreamchaser

To say the first manned mission to the munar surface caused a stir could be at best considered an understatement. Up until this point, only a single probe and one successful orbit had managed to go to low Mun orbit and return safely to the planet. In addition, Dreamchaser's mission was rather extreme; to test the endurance of the spacecraft, the mission planners at Endurance decided that they would stay through one lunar night to gather science and temperature data, and then a large portion of the following munar day. That is to say five to seven days in space in total. To build a safety margin into the mission, the LEM design was extended to hold nearly 40 days of food and water, and a single solar panel had been hastily bolted on. This would allow the craft to remain in orbit just long enough that rescue in the form of the spare LEM frame could be launched. However, this safety margin would only exist while in orbit, as the fuel cell would consume too much oxygen and hydrogen.

More conservative elements of the KSC were again sending an untried craft on such a mission, but Gus and Gene felt the mission had enough merit to greenlight it. Furthermore, heavy computer simulations confirmed that Dreamchaser would live up to expectations. Bob, as the astronaut's corps best (and only) scientist and Natalan Kermin, one half of the wayward duo were selected for the mission. Surprisingly (at least from Bill's point of view), this arrangement was meant with little complaint from Val. After final safety checks, and final tweaking, Dreamchaser was mounted to the still experimental Stellar Mk 2 launch vehicle.

Stellar Mk. 2 went screaming through the lower atmosphere, and began picking up an incredible amount of speed as it passed through FL50. 90% of the way to orbit, it detached, and Dreamchaser's four Twitch engines took over.

After a long and slow ascent, Dreamchaser settled in a 80x70 orbit with total delta V expenditure of 3501 m/s from the pad; better than expected. The solar panel and comm dishes were deployed, and the burn to the Mun was lit. It had been decided to maximize margins, a prograde Mun orbit would be used; with four separate redundant trust sources, the extra fuel required for the free return was deemed unnecessarily.

The external tank steadily drained as the four and half minute burn ticked by. On the ground, FC was watching the clock, and called for SECO. The burn had been good, and Dreamchaser was making it's way across the stars.

Settling into a 10x10 lunar orbit, Dreamchaser went once around, and the crew decided to go for the target of opportunity. The anomaly spotted by the Luna 1 probe.

Unf

Unfortunately (though not unexpectedly), pinpoint accuracy was not something the space program was specifically good at, and Dreamchaser landed nearly 10 kilometers west of the target. As the descent burn continued, the external FT was jettisoned. 

Dreamchaser's velocities began to null out. Mission control waited with baited breath when Bob finally came on the radio. "Dreamchaser to Kerbin. We have touchdown. Repeat. We have touchdown!"

Cheers broke out at home as the first two kerbins descended the latter, and planted the flag.

After Natalan confirmed the ship was in good working order. "Control, I'm going to walk in the direction of Luna 1's readings; there's a ledge pretty close that will give me a good view."

"Roger that, remember, you only two hours of oxygen in your suit so be quick."

Bob nodded to himself, and slowly made his way on the ridge-line. His pulse was racing. They had done it, they had reached the Mun. Kerbin, and and Kerbol shined above him, and he began to think just perhaps they would see it all. He had named Dreamchaser; the end-result of everything they had accomplished since the Lawndart series of rocket. Kerbalkind would explore this brave new world, the Minnus, and onward. The happy thought gave him purpose and drive as he reached the edge of the Northwestern Crater. As he looked over the ridgeline, he spotted it.

 

"Bob to Control, I'm two kilometers west of the landing site. I can see the anomaly on the surface.; it's on the far-side of the crater. It's some sorta white structure, I can't really make it out from here, and it's too far to EVA to."

"Roger, *bzzt* to  *bzzt?"

"Control, you're breaking up somewhat. Please repeat."

"Anything else to report?"

"Negative. I'm at 60% on suit reserves, heading back to Dreamchaser. Recommend we fly over this location with Dreamchaser on our ascent burn. See if we can make anything out."

"Copy that."

Bob began heading back to the lander, watching the sun slowly set ahead of him.

As he climbed back into the landing module, Natalan ribbed him. "So, find any aliens? And ... gzzt, that mun dust reeks ..."

The foul smell invaded the lander can as Bob's dust encrusted flight suit kicked loose bits into the cabin.

"Sorry; it's not like mission control knew the smell of the Mun in advance, else we'd have air fresheners. And as far as your first question. Nope, just something white on the surface. Might just be some regiloth kicked up by a recent micrometeor. Are we all set here?"

Natalan pointed at the gauged for the fuel cells. FC1 was reading nominal, while FC2 would only be used in case of critical part failure. "Yeah, FC1 is running, and we're linked to the probes in orbits; we'll have at least one window to contact home every 30 minutes. Pity we couldn't get a full comm network, would have loved to been able to discuss this in-depth with the guys back home.". If both cells died, they'd immediately abort to orbit.

Bob nooded,"Yeah, Val took it surprisingly well she wasn't going on this mission. She really wanted to be the first one to step foot on the Mun."

"Well, you know, people change. Look at me, never thought I'd get to go into space, and here I am, one of the people who just went into the history books."

"Heh, anyway, we only have about two hours before the sun sets. Let's get the hammocks setup and tuck in. The OKTO will record data but we have our first go/no-go discussion in three hours.

"Copy that."

Unknown to either, the world around them subtly changed ...

---

CALCULATING PROBABILITIES ...

------

Notes:

A quicksave was used on HS Duna 1 as I ran into a kraken as the tanks failed to detach. SVE was swapped out for AVP+KSRPC as I found the Mun really looked bland from the surface. I'm changing the rules for quicksaves; I'm going to let myself use them, but simply note them; I had a screw-up trying to get a plot-relevant screenshot and crashed Dreamlander on it's ascent and rolled it back. I keep reframing from F5/F9 for the most part, but I don't think I can write a cohertant narrative without a bit of leeway for a good story. If people want to see me stay with true hardcore though, we'll go with that. Let me know. Part 7.1 will deal with Val, and  7.2 will be Dreamchaser's return.

 

 

Edited February 16, 2018 by NCommander

[Geschosskopf]

5 hours ago, NCommander said:

Unknown to either, the world around them subtly changed ...

That's quite creepy

 

[NCommander]

Chapter 7.1 - Holding Retrograde
---

Spoiler

 

As the celebrations for Dreamchaser's successful Mun landing wound down, Bill couldn't help but notice the distinct lack of Valentina in Mission Control. Her behavior as of late could be best described as erratic. She spoke at length about seeing some sort of abandoned runway in the middle of the bay. This, combined with her recent obsession with the so-called Kerbin Magnetic Anomaly, was at least confusing if not outright concerning. As both a bush pilot, and later the premier test point for the space program, Val was not one to shy away from scientific or engineering endeavors, but her interests had always lay with the "here and now".

That being said, her recent work on helping design and test the guidance systems of the OKTO probe core had been nothing short of elementarily. Bill had no idea when Val had picked up those kinds of skills, but her contributions and suggests were inspired to say the least. They were already close to rolling out the HECS to replace the OKTO because of her contributions. What really concerned Bill was her rather apathetic response to being passed over for the Dreamchaser mission; He had expected anger, or at least resignation at the absolute minimum. It was in stark contrast to his expectations. 

As things stood, it was just pass midnight when Bill finally found her in the tracking station. From his vantage point, he could see a simulated flight path of Dreamchaser ascending from the Mun. Or more specifically crashing into a hillside. It was only after another simulation failure did she finally notice him, "Bill! When did you get here?".

Sliding into an empty chair beside her, he answered, "Not long, was watching the failure reel. I thought you got the ascent guidance for Dreamchaser worked out ..."

Val sighed, "I did, but I didn't expect them to find something on the Mun. You heard them, they're eleven kilometers short of a mystery, and they have no way to check it! I was seeing if there was some way they could get Dreamchaser closer but ..."

Shaking her head, Val looked resigned, "The margin was already thin. Hypothetically, they've got the fuel to do it, but I either end up short in orbit, or come down too hard. Dreamchaser was simply not built to take off and land more than once. May see if they can kick themselves into a high Kerbin orbit, and intersect the Mun to get a free-return, but ..."

Bill saw the problem, "Too much time, right? The absolute minimum burn would take weeks to get a munar interception, and then they're out of food or water."

The pilot looked glum, "Yeah. I mean, it's likely nothing. Wernher thought it might just be reflections from the DSN on the lunar surface, but something about this feels important."

The Mun Anomaly had been a minor point of debate among the staff. The leading theory was some sort of masscon in the munar surface that had thrown off the probe's instruments. Orbital surveillance had revealed nothing of note. It was only happenstance that the chosen landing site was even close. Thus Bill asked the obvious question, "Why'd you think that?"

"I dunno, gut feeling, I suppose."

Bill leaned in and threw out an off the wall theory, "Maybe it's related to the Kerbin Magnetic Anomaly."

Val took a blank look, "The what?"

"You know, the thing you were researching in the stacks.", Val looked very lost all of a sudden, "Val ... are you OK?"

Val blinked several times, "I ... yeah, I don't know. Maybe?"

Bill glanced around; they were alone, "Talk to me, Hermes. You get obsessed over some small thing in the stacks and ... well, you've been acting odd. I mean, I like seeing you driven, but I was expecting you to smash your locker when Gene put you on the backbench."

Val wasn't looking at Bill, "I ... it didn't seem important. There will other munar missions, or even Minnus. I'll get there ..."

Panic was beginning to rise, this was completely out of character for Val. "Look, we're both off tomorrow, the backup crew is handling Dreamchaser ops. You said you wanted to check an island off the coast. We'll fuel up Skipper and go tomorrow."

"I did?"

"You don't remember?"

Val shook her head, and suddenly seemed more focused, "I remember now. I was dead tired flying home. Probably hallucinated it."

"Well whatever it is you saw, you were insistent on taking a look. You need a break from this, Val, so here's what we're going to do. You're going to the astronaut complex, getting in your bunk, and going to sleep. First light, we're getting in Skipper, and going flying. Am I clear?"

Val still looked disturbed, but tried to object, "Look, I'm sure I can get this to work-"

"No, Valentina. You need to get some sleep. Gene is unlikely to approve a change in the flight plan. They're going to overfly the anomaly on the departure burn. If there was something there, they'll send a follow-up mission. Now you, bed."

Val surrendered, and Bill lead her back to the Astronaut Complex.

***

"Brings back memories, being on Skipper, doesn't it, Hermes?"

Despite his calm town, Bill was more than a little nervous. Officially, Bill had called in a marker with Gene to get approval for this field trip, but if something went wrong, it was on his head. As a precaution, he had remounted the VSL kit on Skipper; essentially a drogue shoot that would allow it to stop on the narrowest of runways. If there was really an island runway (Bill remained skeptical), it might be useful.

"Yeah ... old memories ..."

Val was working through the preflight checklist after taxiing onto Runway 09. For his peace of mind, Bill was rechecking her work; he wasn't much of a pilot but Val had drilled the basics of flying while they were at Homestead. In a pinch, he could crash in a survivable way. "Ok, preflight and departure checklists complete. Where are we going?"

Bill nudged her memory, "You told me you saw a runway in the dark in the bay just before lining up the ILS beacon for the space center. Figures whatever you saw is pretty close off the runway centerline, about 10 or so miles out."

From the top seat, he could see Val nod. He picked up the radio handset, "KSC Traffic, N8724-Delta departing runway 09 now."

Val floored the throttle and Skipper took off into the air. Val's voice broke into the intercom, "Bill, I remember this, I remember seeing something out of the corner of my eye as I did the takeoff climb with Gwen."

"Well, fly that way, and let's see if we see anything."

Bill was fairly sure this was something of a snipe hunt; the charts said there was nothing but water and rocks for hundreds of kilometers. Seconds stretched into minutes as Val began a set of angling turns, trying to recreate her flight path from the previous night. After a good twenty minutes though, she shouted, "There, look, that small island, with the sharp peak, do you see it?"

Bill raised his hand to block the glare of the sun. As his eyes focused, he saw a gravel strip and what appeared to be rusted buildings nested in a valley. "That's ... that's ..."

Val sounded excited, "A runway! I didn't imagine it!"

Bill had been shocked silent. He had been planning on using the imaginary runway to get Val to open up, and admit something was wrong. "I'm going to bring us for a closer pass." As the swung around the island, no other structures became visible.

Skipper banked and turned, and Bill could see the radio frequency changing to 122.9, the MULTICOM frequency. "N8724-Delta to Island Traffic, Anyone there?"

The radio remained silent. Idly, Bill turned the knob on the secondary radio, seeing if he could find something. A blaring tone suddenly went off as Skipper intercepted the Island's Middle Beacon. "What the? There's an active ILS down there!"

Val's response came back "The whole place was lit up. Glowing. It's how I managed to pick it out before landing at the KSC."

"But look at it!"

Val went around for another pass, swinging outward. There was a deep tone, and from his panels, he could see Val lining up over the Outer Marker. "Val, what are you doing?"

"Landing. We're not going to get answers up here. Hold on- Island Traffic, N8724-D on Short Final, Runway 27."

"Val, this is not a good idea ..."

The pilot ignored him, and Skipper continued to descend. Two more tones sounded as they crossed the remaining beacons. At the very edge of the runway, the jet shook and rattled as Val fought for control. The gravel runway was in poor repair, and the VSL shoot fired off to bring Skipper to a stop.

They were down. Taxiing beside the control tower, it took Val just a few minutes to silence the jets, and run through the shutdown checklist. Annoying, Bill hadn't fixed the ladder, requiring her to raise the gear to actually disembark.

Now able to take in their surroundings, Bill looked around at the rusted hangers. "What is this place? Why would anyone build a runway here?"

Val shrugged, "That's what I wanted to know. How could I think this wasn't important ... Look ... There was something else I wanted to talk to you about, but I want to check this place out first, OK?"

Bill nodded as Val continued, "I'm going to head up to the tower, you take the hangers. We'll meet back here in ten. Stay on comms."

As far as Bill was concerned, this hadn't been the plan but Val had obviously been right about something. He started walking around.

***

The stairs to the top of the control tower were chipped and worn. It was a long and slow climb to the top.

The control room was essentially barren, but had shown signs of recent use. Rust marks in the floor showed that a not insignificant amount of equipment had once sat here and the tower offered a wonderful view of the bay; KSC launches would be brilliant to watch from here. Below her, sunlight gleamed from Skipper's white paint.

Her radio flared to life, "Val, where are you?" 

"Top of the tower. Pretty view, but nothing here. Looks like someone bugged out recently."

"Yeah well, I found something you're going to want to see."

Making her way down past Skipper, she called out for Bill. "Over here. In the hanger."

As she stepped under the overhang, her eyes took a moment to adjust to the shadows. Bill was standing next to some odd shaped pieces of metal. As she approached though, the shapes became recognizable.

"A Command Pod? And ... engines?"

Bill nodded, "If I didn't know better, these were prototypes that we were working on for Lawndart and the LD-V2. But we never built a boilerplate like this."

Val walked around the pod, "It's scotched ..."

Bill pointed to the flare marks along the side, "Yeah, at first, I thought it was just rust or residue, but that's carbon scorching from heat-shield abaitor. Based on the angle, the pod was holding at about 80 to 70 degrees retrograde as it experienced atmospheric entry."

"Meaning?"

Bill obviously was building up to something, "If it was a controlled test, like we do at the VAB, the pattern should have been level. There's only thing I know that would create scorching like this."

"What are you suggesting ..."

"Val, this flew in space and experienced re-entry heating. Nothing else I know of can create this kind of pattern."

"But we never used this type of pod, Bill."

"I know that, and this isn't a standard LV-30. It's close, but the nozzle shape is off."

Val gave Bill a sharp look, "Are you suggesting that someone else has a viable space program before we launched K-3?"

Bill shook his head, "I have no idea. I'm just saying, this isn't one of our pods, and it went through the atmosphere."

"Well, can you get anything out of it's computer?"

Without waiting for a response, there was a sharp hiss as Val opened the hatch. A charred odor emanated from the pod but it otherwise looked undamaged. Waving the air around her, Val peered in. "Well, what do you see?"

"Darkness.", she fumbled through her pockets for a small flashlight and clicked it on, "Pretty standard set of avionics, it's not that different that what we're using at first glance. Think there's any chance of getting data out of it Bill?"

Bill peered into the pod and carefully climbed into the command seat. Several moments passed followed up by the whirling of several gyros. "Huh, guess the batteries have a charge ... not much here. Root directory is essentially empty, no flight logs, not even a name ..."

Val was growing impatient, "So a dead end?"

"Maybe ... wait, here. The inertia guidance system still has profiles for launch sites, um, write this down.", he read out a set of coordinates for something called Balkerbanur."

Some time later, Bill and Val stood beside Skipper. Neither really knew what to say at this point; the strange capsule had been unexpected by either. Bill finally broached a question, "You said there was something else you wanted to ask me?". They both stepped back out into the sunlight.

Val twiddled her thumbs, "Yeah ... this is kinda awkward, but why do you call me Hermes?"

The answer was on the tip of Bill's tongue, "It's because ... no ... it's ...", Val put her hands in and stared off into the distance, "Because it's something that feels familiar, like it's right, but you don't actually know why?"

Bill nodded, but seemed shaken, "Honestly, I didn't know if it was just me at first. I began to suspect though when I went digging in the stacks. Names, events, things that I should have known, but didn't. Tell me, how'd we meet?"

Bill blinked, "We met at the KSC ... wait ... that's not right ...". He began to pace, "No, I remember we used to fly together, but ..."

Val put his hand on his shoulder, "Can't remember the details, right?"

Bill shook his head. "I remember working as a bush pilot, but I couldn't remember you at all. Still don't, it wasn't until you told me about Skipper did I even know it was in the hanger at the KSC."

That got a surprised exclamation, "You forgot about your plane?"

Val shook her head, "I thought you were having a joke on me that we had a jet in the hanger. I still don't remember owning a jet, but I know my own handwriting, and she feels like mine.", she reached for the maintenance logs, "I'm assuming these are yours. Our names are on the CAA paperwork, but it's all a blank.". She lead them back to Skipper, and retrieved the paperwork from the back seat.

Bill glanced at them, "Yeah, that's my chicken scratch, but this is crazy. Are you telling me that you forgot Skipper or even meeting me?"

Val shook her head, "No, I'm saying we both forgot, and I'm fairly sure we're not the only ones. Tell me, can you remember your home, or anything beyond your time at the space center with any certainty? Can you tell me why you joined the astronaut corps? You can't remember how we met, I forgot about owning a jet. Neither of us remember KMA-1."

"I ... I wanted to go into space ...", Bill sounded less than sure, "And ... and what does that anomaly have anything to do with this?"

Val laid it out as best she could, explaining how the KSC was originally founded and her involvement in the original project. She detailed what Gwen had said about the monolith, as well as Jeb's involvement with the original expedition. She also made a point on highlighting the recurring theme that anyone who became involved with the project became a seemingly permanent resident. Bill took it relatively well, "Val, this is crazy! You're crazy! Are you seriously suggesting that they dug up some strange black rock, and suddenly formed a space program and forgot about it?"

With a serious tone, Val responded, "Yes, I am. Think about it. We rescued the Wayward Twins from LKO, who have no memory on how they got into space, one of which is currently on the Mun! We're standing in an abandoned airport just off the KSC that someone should of known about. An airport that just happens to have parts that suggests that just maybe someone else has possibly has been to space. I know how it sounds, but think about it, can actually you say that I'm wrong?"

Bill was about to tell Val off, but bit his tongue. He turned the facts over in his mind. Now that Val had pointed them out, the gaps in his memory were blindly obvious. Everything seemed suspect. "To what end, Val? You must realize this sounds like some bad movie?"

Val shrugged, "I don't know, but don't you think it's just a bit odd? Think about how far we've come in the last three years. We've gone from subsonic aircraft to putting two kerbals on the Mun. We already have the technology to go to Minnus. It's not hard to believe in a few more years, we might even see the first landing on Duna."

The retort was simple, "Because we've learned so much just by studying Kerbin and the rest of the solar system. The probe we sent to Eve told us more about atmospheric flight than a hundred simulations ever could."

Val actually got angry over that, "And we both know that breakthroughs are never that quick! Look around us, Bill. Skipper is practically a dinosaur compared to some of the things coming out of R&D. I know there's been talk of a usable SSTO spaceplane. Look, I don't know if any of this is connected, but I don't think it's just us who's being affected by whatever is going on."

"What do you mean?"

"I think Jeb was affected as well, and well, I don't need to tell you about the Wayward Twins. Wernher talked about Jeb in his notes, he was something of a nomad before the KSC, and was hired to get the original team to the cape. I'll show you when we get back, but the person Wernher talks about doesn't mesh well with what I remember with Gung-go Jeb. I haven't asked him, but I would bet a month's pay that Wernher was affected, I can't see him just giving up on a mystery, can you?"

Bill shook his head, Val went on "Possibly Bob as well. He wasn't mentioned by name in the reports I read, but there were a lot of researchers involved with KMA; I won't be surprised if he was there. Gwen said Gus was part of the original team as well."

"So us, Wernher, Gus, possibly Bob. We just woke up one day and suddenly forgot what we were doing?"

Val shook her head again, "I don't think it a one off event. Whatever is happening is still happening Bill."

Bill moved up to face her on the wind, "Explain."

"I was beginning to forget about KMA-1, this island, all of it. It just stopped being important! I put it in the back of my mind. Had you not nudged me to go out looking, I might have forgotten entirely."

Bill was very much in two minds about this, "Assuming for a moment I even believe this, why us? You said Gwen could remember."

Val shrugged, "I don't know. I don't have all the answers, Bill. What I do know is that I have gaps in my memory, and you do as well."

The engineer was obviously not satisfied by this answer. "We need to report this Val-"

"And tell Gene what? Oh, hey, we just realized we're missing something short of a decade of memories, and we think the entire KSC is as well. You do realize they'll think we're crazy."

"We *are* crazy, Val ... We can't keep this to ourselves."

"No, but we need to figure out who we can trust.", Val paused, "Wernher, I think we should see if he's been affected as well. If he has, we can show him his own research. Might be enough for him to hear us out. Assuming you believe me ..."

Bill was silent for a time, "I do, Hermes. Against my better judgment, I'll keep my yap shut. Let's talk to Wernher, and then take it from there ..."

Val nodded, "I really wish we knew where that nickname came from ..."

***

Getting off the Island required Val to taxi to the far end of the runway to get enough ground to get the jet up to speed.

As they passed V1, for a moment, he though Skipper wasn't going to get in the air in time, but just past the tower, the jet gingerly left the ground.

The flight back to the space center was in relative silence, but for Val's part, she felt much lighter; she wasn't alone in whatever web they were caught in. As the space center loomed into view, the intercom came alive. "Wait, what's that?"

"Hrm?"

"On the coast, Val, that small black thing, do you see it?"

As they flew overhead, both kerbals realized where the Kerbin Magnetic Anomaly had gone ...

---

Chapter 7.2 will conclude Dreamchaser and the Mun return, and then it might be awhile before the plot picks up again. I like having a narrative but it's a timesink. These screenshots were (mostly) taken back in Chapter 5, but I ended up fleshing things out quite a bit. I didn't discover until I wrote this up that I accidentally left the KAC window so I ended up having to crop a lot of the photos and lost a few that were essentially unusable and I wasn't a fan of waiting to get this out any more. I also should come up with a proper title for this thread, I was sorta thinking going with "Dancing in Light", since it was the first chapter where the plot became relevant.

 

 

Edited February 16, 2018 by NCommander

[Geschosskopf]

2 hours ago, NCommander said:

I like having a narrative but it's a timesink.

Well, I'm glad you took the time.  Good mystery  

[NCommander]

Chapter 7.2 - Through the Night

Spoiler

 

Unaware of Val's plight on Planet Kerbin, Natalan and Bob had settled in for the lunar night.

Temperatures dropped to a blitzing 67 degrees kelvin, and the fuel cells kept Dreamchaser's heaters and radios functional. Being on the dark of the Mun was incredibly eerie for the two kerbonauts, and both had reported the feeling of "being watched". Idle chitcat was made as various automated sensors reported and confirmed the findings of the Surveyor I probe a year earlier.  Finally, after three days, the sun rose again.

Bob stepped outside.

Staying on local comms, Bob spoke to his companion, "Nathan ... is it just me, or is something ... different?"

"Different?"

"I dunno ... it's hard to explain ... I'm going to walk for a bit, maybe see if I can get a better look at the anomaly."

Despite going to the absolute limit of his spacesuits endurance, Bob was forced to concede defeat. Val had radioed in during the munar night that she was unsuccessful in figuring out how to bring Dreamchaser closer to the site. With some mild disappointment, Bob and Nathan settled in until they're return date five days after landing. The departure burn had been calculated to bring them over the site, and Bob would be responsible for any visual sightings. At the right hour, the four twitch engines lit up.

Over the comm link, Gene's voice broke in, "Dreamchaser, any visual?

For a moment, Bob thought he could spot "something" in the distance, but his eyes seemed unable to focus. "I ... unknown. I can't see anything KSC."

There was a sigh, "Alright, Dreamchaser, throttle up, and head back to LMO, and prepare for departure."

Their ascent and departure burn brought them back to Kerbin. Bob watched the Mun get smaller as they began to fall back into Kerbin's gravity well.

Before long, Kerbin was looming in the window.

With a thunk, the engines detached, and Dreamchaser reached it's entry interface.

Heavy overcast conditions came around as the landing chutes deployed.

Back on solid ground, a flag was left marking the achievement of finally having a kerbal walk upon the mun.

Many wondered what would come next ...

End of Chapter 7

---

Ugh, didn't mean to let this thread sit for a week without updates. Life just got annoyingly busy. I've been doing a fair bit of grinding when I played on the weekend to get the facilities upgraded. So Chapter 8 probably will simply be a recap, followed by 8.1 where we dig further into the mysteries of this series. Need to update the badges since we've successfully landed on the Mun. As always, leave comments and love :).

 

 

Edited February 16, 2018 by NCommander

[NCommander]

So, following up on this, I ended up playing a lot over the weekend, but an update is not coming together. I managed to crash a probe into Minnus (lost radio signal at the worst possible moment), actually landed on Minnus, turned a failed solar probe into an Eve->Moho flyby (which is going to attempt to re-establish contact with the Leaf lander), and I've sent an orbiter (which MAY attempt a landing) to Dres. We've also done two more kidnapping rescue missions, and I hired a pilot before the price got too silly (it's at 250k right now).

HS Duna is 17 days from SoI encounter, so that might be where I finish random gameplay. If HS Duna actually works the way it's supposed to, I'll get both Duna and Ike science followed up by Mun landing II. I'm putting together an Apollo Style mission for Minnus as we're heading to the poles for a contract, as well as a larger Mun lander. I need another 300 science tech node I'm hoping HS Duna will provide followed up by a long duration mission to the Mun.

 

EDIT: ... so ... um, note to self. Check antenna ranges when you're doing high speed flybys. HS Duna reached Duna and had no signal to allow me to repoint the probe retrograde (and due to the OKTO, I couldn't reorient the probe to point retrograde; it crossed into the SoI facing prograde). I did get a fair bit of science that I'll be able to send back to mission control as the probe flies back towards Kerbin. Playing with maneuver nodes, I actually can get a reasonable Kerbin flyby and use to to send it into a low solar orbit getting science from down there, so yay that.

Edited February 5, 2018 by NCommander

[NCommander]

Chapter 8 - Communication Difficulties

Spoiler

 

A newspaper lays lying open on the desk, reflecting the last six months of KSC progress.

As the space program reached it's third year, missions became more elaborate and the road has been paved further exploration, as well as the first civilian in space. After the success of Dreamchaser, Gene decided that the time is to focus on exploration and study with newer SCANsat technologies to help identify sites of interest, with a long duration mission to the Mun hopefully happening before the year was out. The first post-Dreamchaser launch was a spare LEM spacecraft carrying an advanced scanning satellite heading to Minnus to help locate resources in hope of identifying water rich environments and the first tourist in space, lead by veteran Kerbalnaut Valentina Kerman.

With the TMI stage removed, the Stellar LV lofts the three ton probe and the capsule to LKO.

Tito Kerman, as the first tourist in space, was most impressed as the probe decoupled, and began burning for Minnus, powered by two Puff monoprop engines.

Although difficult to see in pictures, the Minnus SCANSat also had a small lander to facilitate the first sample return mission from Minnus. As the probe sets up for it's departure burn, the Stellar Mk2 kicks back to a suborbital path and the crew comparement detaches (clean orbits are happy orbits).

With a three day stay in LKO, Val and Tito pass the time playing 20 questions. Meanwhile, the Commercial Contract Division crosses their fingers; they haven't exactly had a lot of luck with the small moon in the past. Towing the Sample Lander, MSS begins it's escape burn.

As the probe begins it's ten day cruise to Minnus, Tito's time in space comes to an end with another successful landing for the LEM spacecraft.

 

Meanwhile, at Minnus, MSS enters orbit, and the lander is detached.

The lander begins it's descent burn.

It lost signal at the worst possible time.

Amazingly, the bulk of the probe survived the crash at 30 m/s though with it's solar panels destroyed by the impact, there was no hope of either getting data back or returning the probe to Kerbin.

(OOC: I'm still having some issues with AVT, and the original crash screenshot was lost so this was taken later)

At this point, the eggheads at CCD screamed bloody murder, went into the source code for the world, and changed physics to allow partial control of probes when radio control was MIA. Determined to prove they can do something right, a bigger better Minnus lander was quickly shoved out the door 20 days later.

Going to land on Minnus, not going to crash, going to land on Minnus, not going to crash.

CCD's flight controllers were chanting. "Made it to Minnus, Stellar LV on suborbital path. Must stick the landing ..."

Gentle ...

The LV crashes ahead of the probe, contributing to the litter problem on Minnus.

It's looking good ...

TOUCHDOWN! After several days on Minnus's surface (waiting for the planet to rotate so the entire ascent will be facing Kerbin), the surface probe lights it's terrier and overflies it's fallen brethren.

The probe burns for Kerbin.

Two weeks later ...

SUCCESS!

---

Of course, in what is proving a running theme, we can't have a success without another failure. Or in this case, a double failure. In this case, nearly a year ago, HighSpeed Duna was sent on an extremely fast ejection path to reach Duna within a year without a launch window. Commerical Ops checked *very* hard to make sure it would have the fuel to successfully. What they failed to check was if Duna would be within the 25G distance limit when HS Duna crossed the SoI.

Due to the older OKTO probe software, it was impossible to command the probe to face retrograde for the entry burn. As such, Duna flew by as the on-board instruments collected science waiting for the ability to transmit it back to Kerbin.

This is a partial failure, though CCD is convinced that as the probe swings back towards Kerbin, they will be able to get a large download of data from the probe. Experimenting with maneuver nodes show that the probe can make a relatively small burn to get a second Kerbin flyby. By doing so, it might get a second lease on life exploring low Sun data (or possibly melting. The tech boys aren't sure).

Next up on the failure train was the very expensive SENTINEL satellite. With a contract to put it in a 5.2x5.4m solar orbit, the SENTINEL was the debut mission of the NERV engine to the space corps. Due to it's ionizing radiation, it's not usable on manned missions for any long duration, but great for when you want to get as much bang for your buck.

Unfortunately, a slight miscalculation means it ended up about 200 m/s of fuel short of being able to reach it's target orbit. After lots of swearing, SENTINAL was sent on on an Eve->Moho flyby. Might as well get SOMETHING for it. Longshot, finally tired of CCD FAILTRAIN decided to steal the next launch slot, and send a scansat to Dres taking advantage of a relatively gentle transfer window.

Equipped with redundant probe controllers and comm arrays for the two year cruise to Dres, it's hoped the Dres Explorer will manage to get science. In theory, the probe has enough excess dV to attempt a landing so as a bonus goal, after completing it's orbital mission, it will in fact try to land on it's small twitch engines. We'll get back to that at some point.

 

---

I also flew a bunch of missions that weren't really notable, new SCANsats for Kerbin and Mun, bunch of building upgrades. 8.1 will cover Val's continuing memory loss, though I'll keep you'll to apprised of any notable fumbles. I'm very much re-enacting the Soviet Union's space program (they had quite a few similar problems with Mars probes failing to get into orbit due to stupidity. At least I can re-purpose mine into flybys of other bodies). Looking at the launch schedule, I'm going to do a Mun mission, and then start shooting a bunch of probes at Duna/Ike. That will likely be followed by long duration Mun missions, and Apollo-style to Minnus. Assuming I got the timing right, SENTINAL 1 should flyby Eve in time to uplink with the lander which lost it's high gain antenna so we should have some more science there as it heads towards Moho.

As always, comments, feedback helps keep motivated :). Craft, mission names, and kerbal names accepted.

Edited February 16, 2018 by NCommander

[Geschosskopf]

On 2/2/2018 at 1:26 PM, NCommander said:

Staying on local comms, Bob spoke to his companion, "Nathan ... is it just me, or is something ... different?"

Seriously, that a an awesomely creepy Munar sky.  Where'd you get it?  I want one  

 

On 2/5/2018 at 4:34 PM, NCommander said:

It lost signal at the worst possible time.

(heavy sigh)  But hey, the blue and purple shades of Minmus looked very cool on the way down.  I've never seen that before.

 

On 2/5/2018 at 4:34 PM, NCommander said:

At this point, the eggheads at CCD screamed bloody murder, went into the source code for the world, and changed physics to allow partial control of probes when radio control was MIA.

EXACTLY!  A pox on clockwork probes  

 

On 2/5/2018 at 4:34 PM, NCommander said:

Of course, in what is proving a running theme, we can't have a success without another failure.

Yes, the karmic balance must be maintained.  it's better in the long run that way  

 

On 2/5/2018 at 4:34 PM, NCommander said:

8.1 will cover Val's continuing memory loss

Unless she forgets about it.  What happens if an amnesiac forgets she has amnesia?

[NCommander]

4 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

Seriously, that a an awesomely creepy Munar sky.  Where'd you get it?  I want one  

 

(heavy sigh)  But hey, the blue and purple shades of Minmus looked very cool on the way down.  I've never seen that before.

 

EXACTLY!  A pox on clockwork probes  

 

Yes, the karmic balance must be maintained.  it's better in the long run that way  

 

Unless she forgets about it.  What happens if an amnesiac forgets she has amnesia?

Most of it is Astronomer's Visual Pack + KSPRC with Scatterer. Was an utter pain to setup and get going I'm actually still having some issues with it despite multiple attempts to futz with it; Minnus will randomly loose it's aura and such and go back to stock blandness. I've also gotten some interesting pictures where Kerbin sorta ... dissolves. I might loose the eyecandy though for the next update; I'm moving and that means playing KSP on the laptop. It has enough oofph to run the game but the GPU is lacking. It's also been a really busy week so I haven't had spare time to write.

It's actually fairly unrealistic (stock/SVE mun is generally closer to what the mun looks like in RL), but it makes driving/flying around a heck of a lot more interesting. I've been itching to send a rover mission but ATM I'm seriously lacking on parts since stock tech tree puts the structural parts, big wheels, and the command seat in rather silly places. I need R&D 3 to get the very large wheels, and a bunch more science for the medium ones. I actually used some down time to design the first munar output base, but I haven't decided if I'm happy with it. With the necessary shielding to survive multiple years, the blasted thing + descent skycrane weighs in at nearly 80 tons. Once I get long duration Mun down, we'll likely be looking at our first far-rays into interplanetary space, but I might cave and install EPL, and houserule that I won't mine for rocket parts.

I dislike Exterplanary Launchpads because it's stupidly complex, but none of the other construction mods aside from USI handle orbital construction very well, and being able to throw the entire ship in a recycler and rebuild it will work nicely with kerbalism since I can essentially treat it as an overhaul period.

As for the first interplantary mission, Duna is usually choice A, but I might go to Moho or Eve instead. The largest problem is reliability. Assuming I use standard transfer windows its roughly 2-3 years total mission time. Eve and Moho have much more frequent launch windows for return, and the penalties for off-time transfers are nowhere near as large as Duna. Moho is the easiest in this regard for a manned flyby since you can get there in 180 days and get back pretty easily. Eve landing is probably out, but exploring Gilly is always fun. We haven't been there yet.

[Geschosskopf]

5 hours ago, NCommander said:

Most of it is Astronomer's Visual Pack + KSPRC with Scatterer.

Ah, OK.  I've tried Scatterer but for some reason my computer doesn't like it.  Never tried AVP, though.

 

5 hours ago, NCommander said:

I've been itching to send a rover mission but ATM I'm seriously lacking on parts since stock tech tree puts the structural parts, big wheels, and the command seat in rather silly places.

Yeah, that's a bother.

 

5 hours ago, NCommander said:

I dislike Exterplanary Launchpads because it's stupidly complex, but none of the other construction mods aside from USI handle orbital construction very well, and being able to throw the entire ship in a recycler and rebuild it will work nicely with kerbalism since I can essentially treat it as an overhaul period.

Pathfinder / DSEV have some nice orbital construction parts that work with whatever resources-to-rockets mod you use.  You still need the dll from one of the construction mods, though.  Personally, I like Simple Construction for its simplified version of EPL (ore --> metal --> rocket parts) and lack of additional parts.

OSE Workshop might also be useful with Kerbalism, allowing you to fabricate replacement parts when the originals break down.  Again, Pathfinder / DSEV play nice with this.

[NCommander]

On 1/27/2018 at 10:43 PM, Geschosskopf said:

Well, I'm glad you took the time.  Good mystery  

Despite my intentions, I actually have a fully formed narrative in my head, and I know exactly where it's going; I'm a huge fan of the "fair play who's done it"-style of story, and so there's a reasonable chance that someone can figure out what exactly is going on well before the kerbals do. 

Anyway, I was getting screenshots for the next story mission, and um ... Kerbin got drunk.

This might be a side effect of playing over Steam Streaming (I just moved, no desk for the desktop and I want the eyecandy so ...), followed shortly by a game crash. But still, what?

I've never seen THIS kraken before.

[NCommander]

Chapter 8.1 - Balkerbanur

Spoiler

 

"So this is KMA-1 ..."

Val was standing a respectable distance back from Bill who was more than a little creeped out. The strange writing and symbols only added to the air of mystery about the artifact. As Werhner's reports suggested, it was definitely not a natural phenomenon.

Val cut in, "Yeah, it was supposedly buried not far from where the launchpad was now. It was dragged here probably to be loaded onto a ship and forgotten about ..."

Reaching out, Bill placed a hand on the stone before Val could even call out a warning, "Bill, what are you doing?!"

 

"Experimenting!"

Val glared at Bill but he continued, "Look, we know a lot of kerbals handled this thing, and none of them were harmed. At least not directly. It's cold to the touch ..."

Val blinked, it was a rather balmy day out, but she had no desire to confirm Bill's findings. "Can't even tell if it's a metal or stone. It's ... unique."

Bill walked along the sides of it. "You'd think someone would have noticed this here. It's larger than I expected."

"Maybe someone has ..."

Bill remained silent for a moment, "So, we speak to Werhner?"

Val hesitated for a moment but nodded, "Any ideas on how to do it? I can't seem 'Hey Werhner, do you remember this weird artifact you dug up before we built the space program?'".

"We'll figure it out. When Dreamchaser returns, we'll all have some downtime since the next launches are all probes."

Val nodded.

---

"I must say, receiving an invitation to eat with two of the three elites of the corps is not something I expected! I'm curious though why your friend Bob isn't why with us?"

Val was silent, over the last week her anxiety over this meeting had nearly consumed her. Bill took charge, "Well Bob is the man of the hour, and we didn't want to bore him with some historical questions."

Wernher looked confused, "Historical questions? Hrm ... did young Valetina find something of note in the stacks?"

Val finally plucked up the courage to speak, "Yeah, the Kerbin Magnetic Anomaly has always been something of a curiosity for me, especially since they found the artifact ..."

Werhner blinked, "I know of the anomaly, but what do you mean artifact?"

Val released a breath she didn't she was holding. Reaching into her backpack, she pulled out the photocopy of the Wernher Commission from the archives and handed it to Werhner. Glancing at the paperwork, the elder scientists face went from surprise, to confusion and concern over the course of the next ten minutes. Val nervously nibbled on one her tacos until Wernher looked up at her at confusion and finally spoke with no trace of accent.

"What is this?"

Val spoke first, "I was hoping you knew."

Bill, not willing to dance around the issue, was more direct, "More specifically, do you remember this research?"

Wernher looked at the two of them as though they had a collective four heads, and then looked back at the report. "I ..."

"Can't remember, or at least not all of it, right?"

Wernher just managed to nod. Bill finally spoke, "Congratulations, you're the third person who seems to have a spot of retrograde amnesia."

"Then you two?"

Val nodded and finally found the courage to speak, "Both of us." Over the course of the next hour, the two of them explained everything they found and their own respective stories. Wernher sat in silence, and his eyes seemed to glaze over as he debated his next sentences, "Let me make sure I understand. Valentina has managed to forget nearly her entire life prior. Bill, you remember more, but your own early memories are spotty. Both of you seemed to be involved in this ... research ... and neither of you can remember it?"

Val nodded, "Yeah, that about sums it up."

Wernher spoke, "The magnetic anomaly, yes, I remember it, but I don't ...", he looked at the report again, "I lead an expedition here, and found an artifact?"

"It's over on the beach; can't see it from here, we found where you put it the other day. We can bring you over if you want."

"No ... I'll take your word for it it."

Val spoke up, "Do you remember how you got involved in the space program?"

Wernher paused before speaking, "It was presented to me as a challenge, I think. Yes, it was. An intellectual puzzle to see what exists beyond the confines of Kerbin's gravity ..."

"Do you remember who spoke to you ..."

"It was ... He was ...", Wernher trailed off.

Val sighed, "Yeah, three for three on that specific count. We aren't sure if Bob was involved in the KMA research or if he came later."

Wernher shook his head, "No, that I remember. Bob was a long time associate of mine; I knew him prior, I suppose in a way similar to yourself and Bill."

Val glanced at Bill and had an unspoken conversation. "Suppose we'll need to have this conversation with him."

Wernher nodded, "Yes, I can understand your hesitance to bring this up. Even though I hold evidence of your story ...", he waved over the papers, "... I find it hard to come to terms with what you've told me."

Bill smiled, "Welcome to the club."

Wernher took off his glances and idly cleaned them on his sleeve. "I find I have many questions, and very few answers. I find myself agreeing with Bill that perhaps this monolith is perhaps responsible, although that is pure conjecture at this point. We know from this Gwen that at least some kerbals are unaffected by these amnesia events, as Val puts it, but it's unclear at best right now just how widespread this effect is. Furthermore, aside from the discrepancies in the records, records that as best we can tell we all had a part in, there is no actual evidence of foul play."

Val followed to the logical conclusion, "We come forward about this, and we all look crazy, is that it?"

"Ja, a blunt, if accurate description. Still, this is a mystery, and we are not without leads. We must break this problem into questions that we can prove or disprove."

Val leaned in, "Do you have a plan?"

"Ja. Of all the many questions, there are two that we can both study. The first, 'How widespread is this effect, and what exactly is it doing?'. I will speak to Bob, and discretely speak with members of the research team. We must establish a baseline. This will be my task."

Bill followed up, "And us?"

"How do our Wayward Twins factor into this mystery? It was only when you put everything in context did I begin to question their presence. There must be a group of some sort that has the ability to launch rockets beyond what we have here at the cape. Your exploration of the Island seems to suggest that we are not the only organization with launch capabilities. This Balkerbanur you spoke of, I think a flight is in order."

Val nodded, "It's a long way off. Skipper can get us there, but I need an excuse to get out there."

"Ja, you leave that to me ..."

---

Wernher's excuse came in the form of a contract request from R&D to gather "Rare Scientific Data" from the area around the coordinates. It also requested one pilot and one engineer for the flight. Unfortunately, it also came in at the same exact time as Tito Kerman paid his way into space, leaving the expedition to Balkerbanur on the backburner. Nearly a month after their first conversation, Skipper was fueled up on the runway. In the months since Skipper's re-discovery, the KSC had found the money to *finally* pave the runway. It was still something of a work in progress.

"Pre-flight checklist complete, we're ready to roll."

"Copy that, Bill, let's get this party started"

Reaching V1, the small jet took off into the sky and began turning westward.

As Skipper reached it's cruising altitude of 10,000 meters, Bill glanced down at the world below them.

"How long 'til we get there?"

"Hour and change I think. Feels good to finally be trying to figure this out ..."

Bill nodded in his seat, "Yeah, I know what you mean. I kept thinking about what we've talked about, wondering what else we've forgotten. Though ..."

"Though what, Bill?"

The hesitation in Bill's voice was palatable, "Isn't it possible we already did this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we know we're forgetting things. Isn't it possible we've already done this? Talked to people, gone to Balkerbanur, and then forgotten?"

Val digested that rather disturbing fact. "Possibly, but does this feel familiar to you? I mean, despite everything Skipper, you, everything we've done before feels 'right' for want of a better word. Plus I would have noted in the flight log that I went here before."

Bill's response was a chuckle, "Yeah, I think you were always a stickler for logging things."

"Hey!"

It wasn't long before the Great Desert began looming in below.

Val broke in, "So what do you think we'll find there?"

"I have no idea. Knowing our luck, this is nothing short of a wild goose chance ..."

"Yeah well, those parts on the island had to come from somewhere and I want to know where. Even if I have to turn all of Kerbin upside-down."

Bill couldn't help but make one final crack, "READ ALL ABOUT IT, VALETINA KERMAN TURNS PLANET UPSIDE DOWN!"

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up wise guy."

As they came within fifty kilometers of the site, Val began to lower their altitude. "We should be close to ... whatever it is. I see a valley, but not much else. Wait ... my compass just went crazy, what about yours?"

Bill looked at the small metal ball, "Yeah, just like the KSC. I think we just hit paydirt."

"Wait, those specs, isn't that something, Val?"

"... Yeah, I see it, bringing us around."

"Definitely some buildings of some sort. Too small to see."

Val however made a call on the radio, "N-7824-D to All Traffic, anyone in the area?"

Silence answered back.

After a pause, Val spoke up "Guess no one is home. Bringing us for another pass."

"Uh, Val ... it's a little hard to make out, but doesn't that look like a launchpad to you?"

Val was silent, and began trying to find a spot flat enough to touch down.

There was a thunk and the entire plane shook as it rolled to a stop in this strange valley.

After preparing Skipper for disembarkation (the ladder had accidently been installed the wrong way), Val spoke to her comrad,"Well, we're here, wherever here is ..."

Bill nodded, "Yeah ... if I didn't know better, I'm guessing that large building is a VAB, though it's a lot smaller than ours, and a tracking station over there. The dish is moving. Obviously there's power ..."

Val nodded, "Yeah, but I haven't heard or seen anyone here."

Heading off towards the VAB-like building, she noticed Bill had stayed in one spot, "You coming?"

Bill shook his head, "Want to see if I can find anything on the radio first, or see if I can raise anyone. You go check the VAB, and the launchpad, I'll walk over to the tracking station. We'll stay on comms and meet back in here 30."

Val wasn't sure she was happy with the idea of splitting up, but eventually nodded, "Alright ...", and headed off towards the launchpad.

"Bill, comms check."

"I hear you 5 by 5, Hermes."

"Yeah, this is definitely a launch complex. Been used too based on the scorching, though there's a fair bit of rust. I'm guessing this has been out here for awhile ..."

"Yeah, grab a sample. We need to do that anyway for our mission."

Val nodded.

"Any luck on your end?"

"Nope, this place is locked up tighter than Mort's wallet."

"Heh. I'm going to walk over to the other structure."

Tapping on the doors showed them to be securely locked, but the large folding door suggested this was in fact an assembly building, though there was no path for a crawler. She was just about to call Bill when the radio came alive.

"Val, you copy. Get over here NOW!"

"Bill, what's wrong?!"

"You need to see this. Now!"

Val broke into a run and quickly crossed the grass fields.

Bill's radio had gone silent, and Val was now beginning to panic for her friend,"BILL, WHERE ARE YOU?"

In the distance, she could just make out Bill's orange flight suit standing in front of something small and black. "Bill! What in the-"

She suddenly realized what she was looking at and fell silent.

Bill glanced at her, "Yeah ..."

 

 

Edited February 16, 2018 by NCommander

[Geschosskopf]

3 hours ago, NCommander said:

Bill glanced at her, "Yeah ..."

Interesting.  I haven't been to KSC 2 in a while.  Didn't know it now had a monolith, or that any of the small kind still remained.

Anyway, I hope they're taking pictures and all and put them in a safe place so they'll have them if they forget again  

[NCommander]

I was actually surprised to find it in game; I've never bothered going to KSC2 in a career mode and I think the last time I hyperedited something there was 1.0 before they fixed all the easter eggs. Looking with Google/YouTube, it looks like the Monolith was there in 0.18 (or whenever the navball pointed to KSC2 by default).

 

I'm going to hunt for the other monoliths as I've never actually done this on Kerbin; I vaguely remember one of them is on or near K2 and pretty much requires a VTOL or a very good rover to get. I dunno about the other ones but there will be missions. I also need to visit the temple, crashed alien ship, and ... I feel like I'm forgetting one, but those are the big ones.

Mun has a bunch, Minnus has two monoliths + green monolith, and the rover tracks, but I don't think that shows up in SCANSat.

[NCommander]

Chapter 8.2 - Nightmares in Real Time

Spoiler

 

Val could only stare at the small monolith, "This can't be a coincidence ...". Bill nodded, "Two monoliths, two launch sites. Didn't you say that there were roughly five known magnetic anomalies on Kerbin?"

"You don't think there are another three sites like this on Kerbin?"

Val shook her head, "Who knows? The CAA investigation only managed to get a fix on the cape with a lot of time, effort and luck. The anomalies were a lot bigger then; easier to spot."

Bill blinked, "Bigger?"

"Yeah, it used to cause compass drift from hundreds of kilometers away. We only saw our compass go mad when we were basically on top of it and we only found this place because we knew where to look."

Bill scratched his chin, "So, we have an abandoned airport near the cape, a second abandoned though likely functional space center, and two monoliths that connect the two. Do you think this is where the Wayward Twins got launched into orbit?"

Val shrugged, "Your guess is as good as mine. I feel like the rabbit hole got a lot bigger."

"Yeah, I know the feeling ..."

"So, the question is, what do we do now? We could try and get in-"

Val shook her head, "No. Let's ... let's just get back to Skipper."

The duo walked in silence as they crossed the fields. The sun was beginning to dip lower in the sky and Val frowned at it. "Look, it's going to be well past dark at the KSC if we leave now. I rather not go night flying after last time. Any objections if we bunk down for the night and head back in the morning?"

"Well ... beside this place is creepy as hell, not really, but you've never had issues flying in the dark before ..."

"Just a feeling. Can't explain it, but I really don't want to go back to the KSC right now."

"Alright ..."

The two climbed into Skipper, ration packs were consumed, and theories on the monoliths became more and more outlandish until sleep overtook them. Unaware, the monolith was watching ...

---

DISCOVERY OF LAUNCH SITE BETA NOT WITHIN EXPECTED MISSION PARAMETERS. CALCULATING PROBAILITY FACTORS.

"Relax. They'll dig at this, but it's not going to sidetrack the program. If anything, it will drive them further."

PROBAILITY CALCULATIONS IN LINE WITH STATEMENT.

NOTE: PRIMARY ASSET HAS 87% CHANCE OF CONTINUING INVESTIGATION.

"One of these days, you'll trust me without running a million simulations. Can't blame them for being curious."

The second mind was silent. "Anyway, what's next on the launch schedule?"

SENTINEL II INFRARED TELESCOPE HAS COMPLETED INTEGRATION TESTING. LAUNCH EXPECTED IN TWO HOURS, TWENTY MINUTES.

"Well this should be interesting to say the least. Pity the calculations were off on the first one, but at least they managed to do something useful with it."

SENTINEL I FLYBY OF EVE IN 13 DAYS, MOHO CORRECTION BURN IN 272 DAYS. HS DUNA 1A HAS RE-ESTABLISHED DOWNLINK WITH KSC.

"At least they know more about radio communications now, should prevent that specific screw up. Now let's watch."

Silent, the two minds watched as sun broke over the cape.

LAUNCH COMMENCING IN T-3 ... 2 ... 1 ... 0 ...

"Go baby go ... wait ... do you feel that?"

SCANNING ... DANGER! DANGER! RD EVENT IN PROGRESS.

"Oh hell! Come on big guy, brace yourself."

ATTEMPTING TO CONTACT SISTER STATIONS. CALCULATING NULL CORRECTION.

"It's getting bigger, if you don't do something-"

CORRECTION CALCULATION COMPLETE. ATTEMPTING STABILIZATION ....

The world changed.

The Launch Complex was standing as it always was with no sign of the SENTINEL II satellite.

"That was close, these events are getting worse. Alright, now we need to determine the damage ..."

TRACKING ... NEW ASSETS DETECTED.

"Lovely ... locations?"

LUSEN KERMAN - PILOT - KSC
ALDWELL KERMAN - SCIENTIST - LOW KERBIN ORBIT
NELRICK KERMAN - SCIENTIST - LOW KERBIN ORBIT
HARUKI KERMAN - SCIENTIST - MUN SURFACE

"Great ... just great ..."

NEW ASSETS MEET 1-A CRITERIA.

"Well, could be worse ..."

DANGER, ALDWELL AND NELRICK SUSPENSION FAILURE. ASSET LOST IN 4 HOURS.

The second mind swore his head off. "Spoke to soon ... Damn it, damn it, damn it. We can't afford that! Lusen is a pilot, right?"

AFFIRMATIVE. RESCUE MK. 2 CRAFT AVAILABLE. STELLAR LV AVAILABLE. RESCUE POSSIBLE. RISK OF DETECTION 88%.

"Can't be helped. We're not going to loose anyone if we can stop it. Make it happen. Send Lusen up in the Mk2 and we'll have to keep an eye. We'll deal with this as things go on."

INITIATING ...

 

 

Edited February 16, 2018 by NCommander

[Geschosskopf]

7 hours ago, NCommander said:

SCANNING ... DANGER! DANGER! RD EVENT IN PROGRESS.

"Oh hell! Come on big guy, brace yourself."

Bizarre.  I suppose that's a Scatterer issue?

Anyway, you've got an interesting conspiracy going on here.  It reminds me of the common mythological pairing of the Trickster with the Strong God interfering in the affairs of mortals.  Or like Rocket Racoon and Groot  I'm curious to know who the "Trickster" is here.  I suspect a Kerbal...

Very intriguing.

[NCommander]

(somehow, I lost the screenshots of the rescue mission. This wraps up Chapter 8; hoping you all enjoy this installment. I expected this all to be a single update but it mutated as I was writing it. Feedback would be welcome as I'm really not sure how well this is coming together or how the anomoly hunt is coming together. Chapter 9's primary mission will be be Mun Redux, and visiting an old spacecraft)

Chapter 8.3 - Evolution vs Revolution

Spoiler

 

As dawn rose over Balkerbanur, Val finally stirred from her fitful sleep. Throughout the night, vivid dreams and strange distorted landscapes had woke the veteran pilot several times. Bill, as per usual, was snoring in the backseat. Using a chemical heater and a pack of instant coffee, Val felt her body beginning to wake up as the brown substance began to work its magic. As she watched the sun rise over the mountains, her mind was trying to process the revelations of the previous day. So far, this minor mystery had ballooned to a rather absurd extreme. So far, they had found an abandoned airport, two monoliths, and a second space center.

If that wasn't enough, there was the rather concerning fact that both space centers were built near or around one of these monoliths was simply too big of a consequence to ignore. The odds of this simply being a coincidence were just slightly north of Jool's orbit.

As the first cup of coffee was sacrificed, Bill began to show signs of life; he twitched, he stretched, stretched, he mumbled, before simply lazily watching the rising sun. A quick breakfast of dehydrated eggs, dehydrated coffee, and freshly hydrated air finally revived both kerbals to functional levels. Stepping out on the wing, the two of them made small talk before agreeing it was time to head home. Cracking her neck, Val got behind her controls, Bill locked the hatch, and Skipper's engines began to spool up as Val taxied towards flat ground.

It wasn't long before they were airborne, and Val headed for Vx to get the jet over the mountains as quickly as possible.

Just before leaving, the sunlit finally reached over the peaks, providing a striking image of light and shadow.

A few minutes later, Skipper reached it's cruising altitude of eleven thousand meters, and Balkerbanur disappeared behind them.

"Val?"

"Yeah Bill?"

"I've been thinking."

For reasons unknown to her, that statement caused a well of dread to pool in Val's stomach, "That's always dangerous, Bill."

"Funny. But in seriousness, I want your opinion on this. Do you think the monoliths are responsible for all this?"

"You mean our memory loss or ...?"

"Well, that, but more on how we got into space. I mean think about it. It's been three years since we strapped Jeb to the Lawndart, and eventually sent you into orbit around Kerbin. We've landed on the Mun, the Minnus mission is looking solid, and we've managed to send probes to both Duna and Eve."

Val paused, "I'm not sure I'm seeing your point Bill ..."

"Well, isn't it just a little quick? Maybe it's because I'm an engineer, but we're moving faster as a species than ever. We're fairly close to having our first outpost on the munar surface, and I won't be surprised in a few years time if we're launching manned missions to other planets. If you plotted our technological breakthroughs on a graph, it would basically look like a slow curve, and then a vertical line."

Val mulled the statement for a bit, "You know, I never thought about it like that. The sudden spike sure, but I thought it was most of R&D having the smartest minds in a generation more than anything else."

"Well, something Wernher said made me think about it but I didn't make the connection until I saw Balkerbanur. Progress is supposed to be iterative; you build something, then improve it. Instead we're basically coming up with one new idea, and then another, and then another. It's not so much evolution as revolution. That's not how it's supposed to work."

"So what? We're getting help somewhere?"

Unseen by Val, Bill shrugged, "I dunno. Just another data point in all this. Maybe Wernher has some more ideas, but I can't help but feel like we're being pushed towards something."

"Something? Now who's being vague ..."

"Yeah well, I studied under the master, Hermes."

Val chuckled, but Bill's statement was resonating with her, but she couldn't put a finger on why. Before she could come to any solid answer, the space center loomed into view. Making her typical callouts on the radio, Skipper lined up with the runway and touched down.

As she taxied Skipper back towards the SPH something seemed off. 

"Bill ... where is everyone?"

The space center seemed oddly quiet. "I dunno, lunch break?"

---

As the two kerbals stepped into mission control, both were shocked at how crowded it was. On the map was a crafted labeled Rescue Mk. 2 with three kerbal's biosigns onboard. Val didn't recognize any of the names.

"Rescue to KSC, confirming three kerbals on-board. All systems are nominal."

Gene nodded, and spoke into his headset, "Copy that Rescue. We're calculating your retrograde burn to bring you close to the KSC. Standby.". He tapped his mic off, "Bobak, we have the parameters?"

"Great, get them uploaded."

Bill and Val glanced at each other. This didn't look like a simulation. Leaning in, he tapped Gus on his shoulder, "Uh, Gus, what's going on?"

"Oh, Bill, you just got back? Unexpected urgent launch. CCD notified us that their were two kerbals in orbit with failing life support. We scrubbed the SENTINEL launch. Fortunately, we had the Rescue Mk. 2 craft built and integrated for its testing flights. Lusen went up since you were out of radio contact."

Val blinked, "Who's Lusen?"

"New hire. Just finished her flight training. Was easier to send her than retrofit a HECS ..."

Gene clipped his headset back on, "KSC to Rescue, you should have the parameters, you're cleared for retrograde burn at T-1 hour 57 minutes. Expected Kerbin landing 45 minutes later."

"Copy that KSC. Keep the lights on for us."

"Roger that Rescue."

Val stepped out of the room with Bill shortly behind, took a deep breath, and turned towards Bill. "What the hell?!"

---

In the days that followed, the KSC had acquired three new astronauts, and Val had developed powerful urge to beat things until the world started making sense again.

 

 

Edited February 16, 2018 by NCommander

[Geschosskopf]

Damn unstable multiiverse, dragging Kerbals willy-nilly between universes without concern for their welfare.  Or so I'm thinking from the musings of the gods and the fact that no launches happened while Skipper was as KSC2