Worldkiller: A second chance: Chapter 3: Engineers don't fly!

[Kerbalstar]

 

 

Hello everyone! "Another report from this guy! Booooooooooooooooooooo!" Is probably what you're saying right now. "But this guy had no story and so many save issues it wasn't even funny!" Will, don't worry, because this time, I've got some writing advice from the person who inspired me to start this series, @Ultimate Steve. I also owe some inspiration to @Kuzzter, @Just Jim, and many others whose names I don't remember right now. Anyway, enough with the credits and humor! On to the story!

Prologue.

Spoiler

We are the survivors. We are all that is left of what used to be a flourishing society. We had huge cities, food for all, a planet-wide transportation network, and, most importantly, a Space Program. Then the asteroid came. Nobody saw it until it was too late. Three days. That’s all the warning we got. Oh, there was a DSN, and deep space radar, in fact, it was analyzed in the same place it is now, at the bottom of K2 mountain complex. At least that’s what they say. Three days away. There was none of the heroic stuff from the movies, rockets aren’t built that quickly, and even if they were, there was no way to destroy or divert the asteroid, not with the technology that they had. They had gotten to orbit, landed on the Mun, Minmus, and even sent probes to Duna, but the technology to deflect an asteroid of that size was beyond them. In a way, it was amazing that they got that far, for in that time we still had many nation-states, with the Space Program only being supported by one. With no chance to stop it, we had to survive. The first thing Kerbalkind did was to unite together in a global government. Then we started to dig. We turned the mines of our ancestors into tunnels and connected them to the few bunkers built by people who had foreseen something like this. We built huge chambers to house our whole population. We built huge underground farms. We built skylights, to let in some natural light. We evacuated people out of the impact area. It’s amazing what a whole species working together can do. We made ventilation shafts and sealed the tunnels. Then we waited. We didn’t have to wait long. 1 hour after the last tunnel was sealed, the asteroid hit. The ground turned to fire and the sky to one black cloud. Over time our natural green color made to help us get energy from the sun, turned slightly darker as it got more efficient with the limited amount of sunlight. It’s been ten years since that day. The ground is no longer fire, the atmosphere no longer bloats out Kerbol. It’s time to take our planet back!

——————————————————————————————————————

Kerbol system Oort could, now.

Anomalous event detected. Initiating full system boot protocol.

System boot successful. CSOSv 11.0.2.

System check.

Autopilot: Okay.

Course: Okay.

Passengers: Okay.

Crew: Okay.

Power: Okay.

Date: 13/13/13018.

Missiles: 8/8, Okay.

Target: Radio Traffic Detected.

Target: Incoming threat detected.

Recommendation: Wake up crew.

Beginning crew wake-up procedure…

 

 

Chapter 1:

Spoiler

Hi, my name is James Kerman. About 18 Kerbal years have passed since I was born. I volunteered to help with engineering work on the surface, specifically the rebuilding of the space center. Most of our top engineers are working on this, I’m just a lowly engineering student with a passion for space. Before the asteroid(asteroid FF5-55A-PPA-SG-1, or Worldkiller) struck, I dreamed of being a kerbonaut. Now I doubt that’ll happen. They’re looking for kerbonauts, sure, but they want pre-Worldkiller pilots, not engineers. Anyways, the reason that most of our engineers are working on the space center is that shortly put: Our ancestors died because they didn't have a space program. And if we die because we don't have a space program, it'll serve us right! Larry Kerman said that I don’t know who he is, but he sounds like a smart guy! The goal of the new space program is to make sure that what happened before doesn’t happen again. I've applied to work on the space center rebuild effort, and been accepted! I guess I'm off to help rebuild the space center!

I've arrived at the space center! It was totally leveled when I got there. Every building in ruins. Scouring around the remains of what used to be the tallest building, we found some plans for the space center. They said that that building used to be the Vehicle Assembly Building or VAB. They contained detailed plans on all the buildings, so we set to work repairing them.

4 months later.
I stood in the completed Spaceplane Hanger. It was an awe-inspiring site.  I stood at the back, looking out over the vast hanger in front of me. It didn't have any underground vaults like the VAB, where people could work on designs or rockets, or where you could even store rocket parts, but it was still huge. Thousands of crates containing parts, materials, and whatever else we might need lined the walls. Interspersed between the crates were forklifts and fuel trucks, all awaiting the day something, anything would be built in here that would require their services. There were also some cranes, on the walls or roof, for hoisting large pieces off a plane into position to be put together. Then there was the roof itself. It was a huge skylight, interspersed with support beams, and slightly white-tinted out. And finally, the hanger door. The huge door was open and... Wait, why was it open? We're just exposing this place and all of the stuff inside it to the weather. Nevermind. Anyway, the SpacePlane Hanger, or SPH for short, was awe-inspiring. Before I left, an idea struck me, and I jotted it down in my notebook.  After having a look at the SPH, I decided to walk over to the VAB. I had seen it before, of course, as it was the first thing we finished, but it was still amazing. The VAB was huge. In addition to the main bay, it had several underground hangers, which could be used for anything from storage to module building. The many balconies around the VAB lead to small rooms, which, once again were used for everything from meeting planning, to building small modules, to living quarters for some of the Kerbals who wanted to be around their work 24/7. The VAB was abuzz with activity, as this was the last day of planning for our first rocket. I walked over to the table where two teams of engineers showed their designs to each other. It appeared that one favored a kerballed design, and the other favored an unkerballed design. I looked over the first design.

 

 

It was a simple capsule atop a small solid rocket booster(SRB). Looking over it, I saw so many problems with the design: First, we don't know much about rockets but the one thing that we do know, is that solid rockets can't be controlled. Second, it has a Kerbal on top of it! If anything went wrong, like the rocket veering out of control or the parachute deploying will the rocket was still active, we'd be killing a Kerbal. In my opinion, it wasn't worth the risk. You might wonder why we didn't know anything about rockets, after all, the space program was alive and well 10 years ago. Well,  there's one reason: Most of the engineers of the original space program were old when they started and from the stress of having a big asteroid that they didn't see coming hit their planet, they didn't last very long after Worldkiller. They called their design the Moho 1, after the first planet in the Kerbol system. Anyway, the other design was a small probe on top of a small rocket.

 

 

They called it a sounding rocket. This design was named Jool 1 and seemed much more reasonable because it was a probe, instead of a Kerbal, on top of a liquid fueled rocket. Luckily, the engineers saw this and opted for the Jool 1 over the Moho program. It was amazing that Moho 1 even got through the first round of the bracketing system we used. Who designed that again? Steve or somebody? I don't remember. It was a good system, anyway.

 

 

The Jool 1 sat on the launchpad. It was a simple rocket consisting of 4 fuel tanks, a small engine, probe core, and nosecone. There was also a self-destruct, for if it fell on the space center. We would probably use it anyways, and keep it on al future missions. We didn't want to litter Kerbin or space. There was still space junk falling from the skies over Kerbin. We didn't want that sort of environment. I'll provide a transcript of the launches here, for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

PAO: "T-60 seconds."
PAO: "T-40 seconds."
Flight: "Go/No go for launch."
Flight: "EECOM."
EECOM: "Go."
Flight: "Guidance."
Guidance: "Go."
Flight: "Payload."
Payload: "Go."
Flight: "Booster."
Booster: "Go."
Flight: "Trajectory."
Trajectory: "Go."
Flight: "Range Safety."
Range Safety: "Go."
Flight: "All systems go for the launch of Jool 1."
PAO: "T-10."
EECOM: "Jool 1 is now on internal power."
PAO: "The rocket now relies only on its built-in batteries to provide power."
PAO: "T-5."
PAO: "T-4, 3, 2, 1."
PAO: "Liftoff of the Jool 1."
Payload: "Launch clamp release successful, Flight."

 

Guidance: "Flight, we're getting a small yaw to the east."
Fight: "Is it manageable?"
Guidance: "For now, Flight."
Guidance: "Shimmy is increasing, Flight."
Guidance: "Got it. Got it... She's slipping again! I lost her! She's flipped, Flight."
Flight: "Range Safety?"
Range Safety: "Go."
Flight: "Go for Self-destruct."
Range Saftey: "Roger, roger, flight."
Range Safety: "Self-destruct successful, Flight."
Flight: "Roger. GC, close the doors."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you may have guessed, the launch didn't work so well. After a quick investigation, we determined that the cause of the failure was that the self-destruct was installed on only one side. A few hours later we had bolted together Jool 2, which had self-destructs on both sides. It was at that time that an official looking Kerbal came in. 
"Ladies and Gentlekerbs," He said. "I am here to look for Kerbonaut applicants." "If you are interested, please come over here and fill out the forms I have for you. Also, if you're wondering why I want engineers, the space program wants engineers and scientists so that if we get a flat tire space, we can fix it, and so we can learn about the 'Space environment'. We need more than hotshot pilots." "Hotshot pilots can't change a tire," He said. I walked over and filled out the application, with no real hope of being accepted.

Now, on to the exciting stuff! The launch of the Jool-2. Here's the transcript:

 

PAO: "T-60 seconds."
PAO: "T-40 seconds."
Flight: "Go/No go for launch."
Flight: "EECOM."
EECOM: "Go."
Flight: "Guidance."
Guidance: "Go."
Flight: "Payload."
Payload: "Go."
Flight: "Booster."
Booster: "Go."
Flight: "Trajectory."
Trajectory: "Go."
Flight: "Range Safety."
Range Safety: "Go."
Flight: "All systems go for the launch of Jool 2."
PAO: "T-10."
EECOM: "Jool 2 is now on internal power."
PAO: "The rocket now relies only on its built-in batteries to provide power."
PAO: "T-5."
PAO: "T-4, 3, 2, 1."
PAO: "Liftoff of the Jool 2!"
Payload: "Launch clamp release successful, Flight."

 

Guidance: "Ascent nominal Flight."
Trajectory: "Trajectory nominal Flight."

Okay, the rest of that transcript was fairly boring, but you get the idea. Although, how exactly do we know what nominal is yet? Anyway, the probe got into space and sent down some pretty pictures, before its battery died.

 

 

It reached an altitude of approximately 300,000 meters before it started to come back down. As it had no heat shield, it burned up on the way down, although 2 fuel tanks did survive to reach the sudden stop at the end. Here are some pictures our cameras took:

 

 

 

Will, that's it for now! Let me know of any formatting errors, and with any luck, Chapter 2 will be coming later today!

Edited September 21, 2018 by kerbalstar
Editing title.

[Kerbalstar]

Chapter 2.

Spoiler

Me, James back again! I know it's been a few days, sorry. I've been busy. Let me get you caught up. 

So, first, after the launch of the Jool 2, the engineers and I resolved that the next probe should have more batteries, and maybe a heat shield. When I was in a meeting, a space center security Kerbal came up to me and said, 

"Sir, I've been told to escort you to the Astronaut complex for Kerbounaut testing."
"What?!" I almost jumped out of my seat at the news. 
"They've accepted your application and are requesting you be brought in for physical testing to determine if you are a suitable candidate for the Kerbounat program," He said.
'Wha.. I mean, okay." I said. "Where is the Astronaut complex?"
"I'll show you," He said.

When we got there I went through a variety of tests, including, but not limited to, running on a treadmill, lifting weights, and flag planting. I'm glad to say I did better than some. I managed to get flag planting down okay, and I think I did fairly good on the running. Some applicants fell off the treadmill or toppled themselves in flag planting. I think I did better than they did. While I was running on the treadmill, I had an idea. I worked it out in my head and went to present it to the engineers afterward. 

One day after the first anniversary of when we started to rebuild the space center, the Jool 3 was complete. It was my design, a larger rocket body, 1.25m instead of .625m, carrying a small satellite. Yes, that's right a satellite. The satellite had solar panels, big batteries, and a big antenna. The launcher and satellite both had self-destructs on each side. There was also fins and detachable SRB's.  I did forget to put self-destructs on the SRBS though. Whoops. Oh well. They fell away from the space center, luckily. I could give you the transcript, but that's boring, so I'll just show you.

 

 

The Jool 3 on the pad. It was cool to see my own design on the pad. Hopefully that'll happen again. 

 

 

Jool 3 just after takeoff.

 

 

At this point, the orbital insetion burn, everybody was holding their breath.

 

 

The satellite in orbit with the self-destructs of the booster stage activiating behind it. For some reason, one fuel tank didn't explode, but I don't know why. And in case anyone's wondering, we got these pictures through tiny cameras mounted on the edge of nanoscale tubes that extend from the spacecraft during flight and in space.

 

Oh, hey, somebody's knocking on the door. I wonder who it is. Let me just turn on the speech-to-text recorder, for some reason I think you'll want to hear this.

"Just a second!" "Yes!"
"Sir, I am here to tell you that your application to the Kerbonaut program has been accepted."

============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

KSC Tracking station.

"Sir, you should see this."
"What is it?"
"As you know, we've begun cataloging all of the derelicts in the sky."
"Yes."
"Will, when we found Dericlict Object P1-239A, we thought that it was just a particularly large derelict,"
"But?"
"Look at the outline, Sir."

 

 

[Kerbalstar]

Chapter 3: Engineers don't fly!

Spoiler

After the launch of the Jool 3, I was in the astronaut complex working on specifics for a design idea I had, when a Kerbal came up to me.
"Mr. James Kerman, right?" She asked.
"Yes," I said. "Who's asking?"
"Madwell Kerman, Kerbonaut," She said.
"Oh, hi Madwell,  why are you here?" I asked.
"I've been told to accompany you to the SpacePlane Hanger," She said.
"By who?" I asked.
"Gene Kerman," She said.
"He's back?!" I asked.
"Apparently," Madwell replied.
"Wow, the Gene Kerman! I thought he disappeared." I said.
"So did I," Madwell said. "We should better get going, it's Gene himself giving our briefing." 
"Oh!" I jumped to my feet. "We should get going then."
"I agree," Madwell said.

"This is a K-38 "Talon" Jet. It's a two-seater, twin-engine, jet plane." "It's very fast and maneuverable."  "It's also your personal aircraft now, James," We stood facing Gene Kerman, giving us this speech in the SpacePlane Hanger, in front of the aforementioned K-38.
"Mine?" I asked, shocked.
"His?" Madwell seemed just as shocked as me, although I don't know why.
"Yes, James, you need to learn how to fly this jet. Madwell, you'll be his second seat." Gene said.
"Why?" I asked.
"We want every Kerbonaut to be able to fly one of these," Gene said.
"But I'm an engineer," I protested. "Is she at least a pilot?" I asked.
"No, I'm a scientist," Madwell said.
"Oh," I said.
"Every Kerbonaut will get one." "Here are the rules: You have to do all the flying, you can't let your second seat fly, they'll get their own plane. You can't use the SAS besides stability assist mode, and try, oh please try, not to break the plane too much, although, we don't really care that much, as long as everybody lives." Gene explained. "Your first orientation flight is right now." "Oh, and one more thing. Madwell, when you get your K-38, James will be your second seat." "Have fun!"

"Okay, I think if I hit this button it makes it go faster," I said. "So we want that, and throttle up, and I think that that's engine start." "Yep, that's definitely engine start." "Wow, this thing is tilting, I think I'm gonna lose a wing!"

 

 

"James, I think that you should hit that button," Madwell said. The plane stopped vibrating. "Now turn to the left a little..." "Okay, I think that's good."
"Thanks, Madwell," I said. She was certainly the helpful scientist. 
"Okay, now pull up," she said.
"And, we have takeoff," I said, as the plane lifted off of the runway. I flew the plane straight, and then turned it around, and headed back to the space center. 

 

 

"Hey James, I'm really feeling the g's back here," Madwell said.
"Sorry, I'll ease up," I said. Luckily, I had just finished the turn and we were now heading back towards the space center. "How long do we have to stay up here?" I asked.
"I'll ask the tower," Madwell said. "KSC Control, this is K-38 Alpha, wondering how long we have to stay in the air for Jame's training to count."
A few seconds later a voice came through the radio, "K-38 Alpha, this is KSC Control, Gene says that you need four- repeat 4- more minutes in the air for Jame's training to count." 
"Roger, KSC Contol, 4 more minutes. Over," Madwell replied. "I guess that you should probably try some more advanced maneuvers, like some banking turns, or something." 
"That's a good idea," I said. "How do you know so much about plane maneuvers?" I asked Madwell.
"I may have read some flight manuals, or played some simulators," She said abashedly. "How do you know how to fly a plane so well?" She asked me. 
"I may have wanted to be a pilot, and then realized that an engineer was a more attainable goal, what with the big world-killing asteroid making all air travel almost impossible," I said.
"That didn't answer the question of how, you said why, not how," Madwell said with a slightly chastising tone.  
"Fine, I may have learned how to fly mostly from a game called Human Space Program," I admitted.
"Oh, HSP? I love that game!" She said excitedly. "I was always more into the space side rather than the plane side, but when I did fly my, admittedly badly designed planes, I always loved how realistic the virtual yoke was."
"Wow, you know Human Space Program too?" I asked. "I didn't think that anybody else really played that game." "I mean, there are all the people on the forum, but I didn't think that I'd actually meet anyone who actually played it!" 
"Me neither, that's really cool!" She said. "Did you do more space stuff or more plane stuff?"
"I did more of the space stuff, even if it took me a few days to figure out how to get to orbit," I said. "It was when I finally gave up and decided to do a "commuter flight" to the North Pole, that I figured out that you had to turn the rocket to get into orbit. " "It was when I saw that trajectory line stretching out, that I finally got that I had to turn it."
"I wasn't quite the same, because I had watched some KerbTube videos, including the ones by Scott Kerman, have you heard of him?" She asked.
"Yeah, I have," I replied.
"Cool, yeah anyway---" She was cut off as I put the plane into a banking turn, which really gets you some Gs when you're moving at supersonic speeds.
"Oh, sorry," I said, and rolled the wings back to level, while also pulling the plane up.
"Yeah, as I was saying-"
"Sorry."
"Anyway, since I watched some KerbTube videos, I wasn't completely unprepared, and I knew how to get to orbit before I got the game, so I didn't have that sort of frustration, but I did want to figure other stuff out, like landing on Luna, so I spent the longest time trying to figure that out." "It took me a while before I realized that you can't use parachutes on The Moon, and all that stuff about fuel boil-off and such, especially since that's so unrealistic, so I couldn't look up anything about it." She continued.
"Yeah, I didn't watch any KerbTube videos for a while since I didn't realize that they existed, so I had to figure that stuff out on my own," I said.
"So how did you hear about HSP, if not KerbTube?" Madwell asked.
"One of my Dad's friends plays it, and he told my Dad that I might like it, so I got the demo, and then, a few months later, paid the 30 funds," I replied.
"I'm going to do another banking turn, Madwell," I said.
"Thanks for the warning," She replied.
After the turn, I asked Madwell, "Hey, Madwell, how much time is left?" 
"KSC Control, this is K38-Alpha, how much longer do we have?" Madwell asked.
"K38-Alpha, this is KSC Control, you have 2 minutes left," KSC Control said.
"Roger, KSC, Control, 2 minutes left. Over," Madwell said.
I smiled at her voice. It had a slightly melodious quality to it. She was a nice looking Kerbal-
"James?" "James?" "James, are you all right?" Madwell said, with increasing levels of worry.
"Yeah, I'm fine, Madwell, just drifted into thought for a minute there. Sorry," I said.
"It's fine," she said.
"So you do you think they put you up here with me?" I asked. "I mean, why have a second seat? You can't help me fly the plane, and will it's nice to have you handling radio traffic, I could do that myself. It's not that I don't like you, I'm just curious. It seems like they're just putting another person at risk," I said.
"I think that's exactly it," she said.
"What?" I asked.
"They're putting another person at risk." She said. "They don't want you to crash the plane right?" "If it's just you here, you're only putting your own life at risk. If I'm here if you try to pull something silly like trying to fly under the R&D bridge and don't pull it off, I die too. If I'm here I decrease your risk of doing risky, life-threating maneuvers."
"I guess you're right," I said. "But I wouldn't try anything like that," I said defensively.
"Maybe, I bet they're more worried about the pilots," she said.
"Yeah, you're probably right," I said.
"K38-Alpha, this KSC Control, you are go for landing on KSC Runway 09, anytime you want, traffic is a non-factor," The voice of KSC Control came over the radio.
"Roger KSC Control, K38-Alpha over," Madwell said. "Will, I guess that we should land now."
"I agree," I said. I started doing a 180-degree turn to get lined up with the runway but ended up overshooting a little bit to the right. I decided to keep going, and just land on the grass. I figured that it would be easier than trying to pinpoint land on the runway.
"Uh, James, shouldn't we be heading for the runway?" Madwell asked.
"I'm going for the grass." "It should be fine, and it'll be easier than trying to land on the runway," I said.
"Okay..." Madwell said. I turned off the engines of the plane, angled the nose down, and put the gear down. I tried to keep the airspeed going down: 71.05m/sec, 65.79, 34.99m/sec at 200m. "James, shouldn't we be going a little slower?" Madwell asked.
"We'll be fine, the cockpits both have like 40m/sec impact tolerance, so we'll be fine," I said.
"Okay, but what about the rest of the plane?" Madwell asked.
"It might not be so good," I said. "But at this point, I just want to keep us both alive," I continued. 30.14m/sec at 100m, 9.69 at touchdown, 5.79m/sec, as we skidded along the grass, .47m/sec, and... stop.

 

 

I got out of the plane and turned to face the rear cockpit as Madwell got out. I noticed that the front landing gear was broken, although I didn't see any other visible damage. I thought that that was pretty good for my first landing. 
"Will, James, we didn't die, the plane looks pretty whole, and I didn't pass out from the Gs or anything like that, so I think you did pretty good, I hope that I'll be able to do that on my first flight," Madwell said.

 

"Thanks, Madwell! I'm sure you'll do better," I said. Madwell walked around the plane and stopped when she reached the back landing gear.
"Uh, James, isn't there supposed to be 2 engines back here?" Madwell asked.
"Yeah, why?" I asked worriedly.
"There's not," she said.
"Oh," I said.

 

The next morning, Astronaut Complex, KSC, James Kerman's quarters.

"Thank you for all you did, James, you really saved us!" Said, Jebediah Kerman.
"My hero," Said Madwell, as she planted a kiss on my lips.
"Thank you, James," Said Valentina, as she shook my hand and kissed my cheek. Buzz! What's that? Is that the rocket launch alarm? No that's a shrill- buzz! Wait... Jeb and Val are dead... Buzz! Madwell... Buzz! I opened my eyes. It must have just been a dream... Buzz! That alarm clock! I hit the "off" button, and the annoying buzzing turned off. Knock, knock, knock... What now? 
"James!" "James, come on, you gotta get up!" I blearily walked over to the door and cracked it open. Madwell stood there in her flight suit, looking nervously excited.
"Madwell?" "Why are you here so early?" I asked.
"I shouldn't tell you..." "Never mind! We're going to SPACE!" She said.
"What?" I asked. I was still only half-awake and wondered if this was still a dream.
"You're not dreaming, James." "Now get your flight suit on, and let's go to the briefing room! I'll wait outside," she said.
"Okay," I said, and blearily closed the door. 

I got my flight suit on and headed outside to meet Madwell.
"Can we at least stop on the way to get some koffee?" I asked.
"Sure, but make it quick, okay?" She said. We walked through the Astronaut Complex hallways towards the Briefing Room and stopped in a cafeteria on the way to get some koffee. I didn't normally really like the taste of koffee, but I had the feeling that I would need it today. After we got our cups of koffee, we continued to walk through the hallways. The Briefing Room was at the other end of the Astronaut Complex from the living quarters. I wondered idly what I had been dreaming about. Something about Jeb, Val, and Madwell... I looked at Madwell. She looked nice today, although I wish I could see her with her hair down... Anyway... I decided that I should say something. 
"So, Madwell, are you looking forward to your K38 flight?" I asked.
"I am! It's not nearly as exciting as what we're doing today!" She said.
"What exactly are we doing today?" I asked.
"I can't tell you, it would ruin the surprise," she said. 
"Why do you always get the memos?" I asked.
"I don't know James, I don't know," she said. We walked into the Briefing Room, where Gene Kerman was standing in front of a projector. Yay, another KerbPoint presentation. 
"Hello, James, Madwell," Gene said. "Madwell, you were supposed to get him here earlier."
"It's not her fault sir, I had no idea," I said. 
"It's fine, we gave you guys some buffer time, in case something like that happened," Gene said. "Also, don't call me sir, call me Gene."
"Okay, Gene, so why does she get all the memos?" I asked.
Gene laughed. "It's because she sets her alarm clock earlier, and statistically, because of that gets up and ready earlier than you, so we tell her to get you up," he said. 
"Oh, sorry, I'll try to get up earlier," I said. "That way, I can wake you up!" I said.
"What, want to see me in my sleep clothes?" She asked jokingly.
"Okay people, we should get started here," Gene said.
"So, a KerbPoint?" I asked.
"Yes, James," Gene said, grabbed a remote, hit a button on it, and a screen popped up on the projector. On the screen was a Tracking Station picture of a Derelict Object, Derelict Object P1-239A. I looked at the derelict, excepting a fuel tank, or pod, or other small to medium size object floating through the void of space all alone. Instead what I saw was anything but that. It had what looked to be some sort of tubular structure, with some sort of... plane at one end, and what looked to be some kind of medium size spacecraft at the other end. There was also what looked to be some sort of solar array, viewed edge-on from our telescope. "This is Derelict Object P1-239A. Originally, we thought that it was simply a large derelict. However, we have a policy of taking pictures of all large derelicts to determine if they pose a threat to Kerbin or if they could be useful. We're certainly glad that we did. We believe this to be some sort of multiple launch space station, with some other spacecraft attached to it. Now, understand, that this is only an assumption, we need to visit the station to learn more," Gene said.
"Gene, this is all very interesting, but what does this have to do with us?" I asked. Then I remembered something that Madwell had said. She had said that we were going to space today. Could it be... No. It couldn't be. 
"As I said, we want to launch a mission to visit this space station. We believe that this craft should be manned, in order that we may explore the interior of the station. The crew that we will be sending up is you and Madwell. You will be going up in a revolutionary 2 person capsule. There will be a probe core to do the flying for you," Gene said.
"Why are you sending us?" I asked.
"We want an engineer to be able to learn how the station is made, and any new engineering techniques we may able to discern from the construction of it or its parts. We want a scientist on our first manned mission to space, to see what we can learn about the space environment. You two are the only flight crew that has actually flown together, on your K38 Talon flight, so therefore you're our most experienced flight crew," Gene said.
"Wow, I didn't realize that we were the only ones who had flown," I said. 
"Doing the flights wasn't really a priority for us, because we didn't think that we would be sending Kerbals into space anytime soon," Gene said.
"When are we launching?" Madwell asked.
"In 5 hours," Gene said. "Here's what spacecraft you'll be launching on..."

Gene continued with his presentation. To sum it up, the spacecraft looks like this and will be called the Eve 1. Our mission is to launch into Low Kerbin Orbit(LKO) and then transfer to a higher orbit than the station, which is in an almost completely circular 100x100km orbit. Then we'll do something that Gene called a "Homahen Transfer" to get a rendezvous with the station. Once there we'll cancel our relative velocity, and then one of us will do an ExtraVehicular Activity(EVA) over to the station and hope to find a hatch to get inside and look around.

 

"T-10," Said the PAO. We were sitting on the launchpad, in a new 2 Kerbal capsule design that had been made specifically for this mission. It was bigger than any rocket technology we had at that point, so there was a small fueled adapter below the capsule connecting to the 1.25m Service Module(SM), with a launcher consisting of 8 1.25m tanks and engines clustered around an identical assembly in the center, for a total of 9 engines. There were 4 self-destructs on it, enough to make it even but hopefully not cause too much drag.

 

 

"T-5," The PAO said. 
"Are you ready?" I asked Madwell.
"As much as I'll ever be," she said. "You?"
"Same," I said.
"Liftoff of the Eve 1 on its way to Derelict Object P1-239A!" The PAO said as the engines roared to life and the launch clamps released. I was pressed back into my seat by the g-forces. The launch computer started the gravity turn.

 

 

The g-forces lowered, and we rode the rocket into orbit. Mission Control plotted a maneuver node for us to execute to get a rendezvous with the station.  We executed the maneuver and then had to perform a course correction because the maneuver didn't quite work as planned. Mission Control assured us that this was perfectly normal. As we got closer to the station, I asked Madwell what she thought we were going to find there.
"I don't know, James, but I imagine that there are at least 2 independent spacecraft docked to the station and that the station was composed of multiple launches. It also looks like there is a solar array," Madwell said.
"That's boring stuff, and you could tell all that form the picture," I said. "I mean exciting things, files, maybe even some Kerbals!" I said.
"I doubt that we'll find Kerbals, James, but you never know. I'm pretty sure that they evacuated everybody from all the stations and bases," Madwell said. 
"You're right, but how fun would it be if we found out that Jebediah Kerman is actually alive?" I asked.
"That would be great! Or if we found Valentina, she's my hero," Madwell said.
"I know, right! Sadly I doubt that we'll find them," I said.
"Yeah, highly doubtful," Madwell said.
"Well, I'm going to go to sleep," I said. "Wake me up when we're close."
"Okay. But how do you want to sleep? This is so interesting! So many opportunities for science!" Madwell said.
"Remeber, I'm an engineer, not a scientist," I said, put my head back, and closed my eyes. "Not much engineering out here."

"James." "James." 
"What?" I opened my eyes. I was in a spacecraft, but it wasn't the Eve 1. It was a 2 seater compartment, with the other Kerbal across a table from me. I looked out the window and Kerbin was orbiting below me. 
"James, you drifted off," The other Kerbal said. I looked at her. It was Madwell. She had her hair down, and it was loose, floating around the cabin. 
"Sorry, Madwell," I said.
"It's fine," she said. "What do you think of the refurbished KSS?" She asked. "I thought it was the perfect place for a space date."
"Yeah, it is, I agree," I said. Wait, KSS, we don't have a space station, and that sounds like a name for a space station.
Suddenly I was in a 2 person command module, like the one for the Eve 1, but it was flatter. I looked at a display and then heard a message come through my earpiece. Wait, I don't have an earpiece...
"Update on the status of Worldkiller-2:"
Then the cockpit erupted in flame.

I woke up with a jerk, which isn't a good idea while buckled in in space.
Madwell looked at me.
"James, I was just going to wake you up," she said. "It's 5 minutes till the burn." 
"Oh, okay," I said. I looked over at her. Her hair was up in the standard Kerbonaut bun. I looked at the computer, displaying all the spacecraft in Kerbin orbit. Yep, no KSS, just us, the Jool-3, and our target. 
"Are you all right, James? You woke up with quite the start," Madwell said.
"I'm fine, just a bad dream, I was on the KSS and then it exploded, and before that..." I drifted off. I debated whether or not to tell her about the earlier part of my dream. I decided not to. "I don't remember."
"I'm sorry, I don't like bad dreams either. KSS though? That sounds cool," Madwell said.
"Eve-1, prepare for deceleration in t-minus 3 minutes," A voice came through the radio.
"Uh, roger Contol," I said. "Actually, what should I call you? In air traffic, it's KSC Control, Airport, Tower, etc., but what do I call you?"
"Well, my name's Emiko, so you can call me that," Emiko said.
"Okay, but there are multiple people who do what you do right? What are their names?" I asked.
"Um, the other ones are Ethan, Lucas, Steven, Kutz, Jim, Julian, Sarah, Bob, and Mindy," Emiko said.
"Cool, I guess that'll work for informal situations, but what about formal situations?" I asked. 
"Will, my position is Capsule Communicator or CAPCOM, so you could call me that," Emiko said. 
"Sounds good," I said.
"Oh, and by the way, you're 1 minute from deceleration," Emiko said.
"Okay, thanks," I said.

"Eve-1, you are go for deceleration," CAPCOM said.
"Roger, CAPCOM, initiating declaration," I said.
I pushed the throttle lever forward, and the craft shook with the g-forces. Emiko had to leave, so I asked Sarah if they would let me fly the craft, and she asked the flight director, who was named Jim(not James, Just Jim), and he asked Gene, and Gene gave me the go-ahead.  I looked out the window as we approached the station. If we used it for our own purposes maybe KSS would be a good name for it. Kerbin Space Station, maybe? I don't know. "We can't see anything, it's against Kerbol." "It's against Kerbin now, and we can definitely see... something..." I said. "Deceleration complete, 1.2kms away from Target. Turning for intercept. Burning. Reversing to retrograde orientation... 202.3m away from target... 194.1... 20m, initiating deceleration..." "0m/sec at 15.5 m away from center or mass of the target." "Reversing orientation for faster and safer EVA..." "Done."

 

 

"Madwell, do want to go over, or do you want me too?" I asked.
"You can go," she said. "This whole EVA thing seems pretty dangerous."
"I'm glad I have your vote of confidence," I said. " A kiss for luck?" She pecked me on my cheek.
"Have fun, James, and don't die. It's lonely up here without anyone else," she said.
I'll try not to die, for you," I said. 
"My hero," she said. I suited up and opened the airlock. Madwell had to put on her helmet too, as opening the airlock depressurized the whole cabin. I would have to have somebody fix that on the design of this capsule. Or just make a whole new one.  

 

 

 

 

I flew over to the station, and found a hatch, on the largest module of the thing, and turned on my voice recorder, in addition to my radio. "This appears to be some sort science facility. I'm moving up the ladder. Passing through a command module, I'll come back later, now I'm going through some sort of pressurized 6-way adapter.  I'm in a command module. It looks sort of like the Eve 1's, but it's a 3 seater. This looks like some sort of crew ferry craft. I think it was called the Koyuz. I wonder why it's still here. Oh. Jeb and Val. I'm heading back now. On 2 of the other sides of the 6-way adapter, I'll call it Unity,  are 2 two seater crew compartments strung together, for a total of 4 crew an arm with 2 arms." I noticed that the crew compartments looked eerily like the ones in my dream. "I'm passing back through the science lab now and heading through another 6-way adapter. I'm in a cockpit now. This must be an experimental spaceplane because that's what the note on the dashboard says. Actually, it says: Expermintal, don't die! Feel free to bail out. Oh, and Bob, DON'T eat all the snacks. I'm heading back through the 6-way adapter now. I'm in the middle command module now. I think that this is the station's command module. It's the only command module I've seen that's actually on the station permanently, I think." I sat down in one of the chairs. I noticed that this command module looked like the one in my dream. The one that blew up. I looked out the window. I saw Kerbin below. I decided that I should get out of there quickly. I resumed my narration. "I'm accessing the station's computer. There appears to be a schematic of the station on here. There is indeed a crew return vehicle and experimental spaceplane docked here. There are also 2 habitation modules, along with a coms module, power module, and fuel tank module. There's a science lab below me, where I came in. The science lab and command module were launched together. There's also some sort of encrypted file on here, called the station's log. I wonder why it's encrypted."
"James, we want you to head home. Download the station's log to the Eve-1 and return," Sarah said.
"Roger that, Sarah," I said. I opened the big antenna and transferred the data to the Eve-1. 
"James, can you do a quick atmosphere test before you leave?" Madwell asked.
"Sure, what kind of atmosphere test?" I asked.
"Just if it's there and breathable," She said.
"And how do I do that?" I asked.
"There should be a program on your suit called atmo sampler. Run it," She said. I found the program on my suit computer and ran it. 
"Atmosphere breathable, but thin. Density 0.8 atmos. Taking of helmet is not advisable." The suit computer said.
"Did you hear that, Madwell?" I asked.
"Yup, I heard that, okay interesting, that means that the station must have lost some atmosphere over time, if we want to use it, we'll need to pump some more air in," Madwell said. I found the hatch I got in at and left the station. This station actually had an airlock, not that I needed it, but I did cycle it, to avoid losing any more atmosphere. I flew back over to the Eve-1 and got in.
"Honey, I'm home!" I said as I entered the Eve-1 command module.
"Very funny, James," Madwell said. "Now can you get the door closed so that I can take off my helmet?"
"Sure... there we go. Door closed. Cabin repressurizing," I said.
"Why thank you, James," Madwell said as she took off her helmet. "Now get strapped in, and let's get out of here."
"Okay, sounds good," I said. "I'm ready. Hit it."
"Hitting it," Madwell said as she turned the spacecraft to retrograde and pushed the throttle lever up. 
"Wait, who gave you permission to fly?" I asked Madwell.
"Gene did, he said that I should get some flying in before my K-38 flight," She said. 
"Okay," I said. We stopped decelerating.
"20 minutes till atmosphere contact," Madwell said. "I think I'm going to take a nap." She put her hair down (I guess putting your head back on a bun is sort of hard, but I wouldn't know.), leaned back in her seat, and closed her eyes. I busied myself by looking at some of the unencrypted files we found on the station, although it was all fairly boring. There wasn't much there, and eventually, I ran out of stuff to do and ended up just staring at Madwell until it was only 2 minutes till contact. Then I woke her up gently.
"Madwell." "Madwell, it's time to wake up," I said. 
"What?" "Oh, James, right." "Where are we? The K... no, the... the... oh right, the Eve-1." "Hi, James," She said.
"Hi, Madwell, a little sleepy there, huh?" I asked.
"Yeah, a little bit," she said.
"It's t-minus 1 till atmo contact," I said.
"Oh, okay," she said and lifted her head up off the seat.
"Eve-1, this is Sarah, prepare for deceleration," Sarah said over the radio.
"Roger that Sarah, prepared for deceleration," I said. We hit the atmosphere 30 seconds later. We had lots of extra fuel in the engine, so we used that to slow down. We lost contact with KSC, as expected. Re-entry was nominal until- we flipped. 
"James!" Madwell shouted.
"It's not my fault!" I shouted back.
"What are we going to do?" She asked.
"We should probably turn off the engine," I said.
"Yeah, that's a good idea," she said. I pulled the throttle lever down. "We're not slowing down fast enough," she said.
"Just give it some time hopefully, it'll slow down," I said.
"Hopefully," she said. 
I read off the altitude numbers, "27000, 25000, 20000, 15000, 10000, 9000, still going at 1300m/sec." 
"James, maybe we should jettison the Service Module," Madwell said.
"Sounds like a good idea," I said. At 8000 meters I hit the button to jettison the Service Module. The capsule immediately flipped around. We began to decelerate dramatically. I watched the velocity indicator go down and the g-force indicator go up much more quickly. I felt the g-forces pressing on my chest. I heard Madwell gasp, and then her eyes were forced closed and her body went limp.
"Madwell?" I asked. Then I passed out from the g-forces.

The parachutes were open and the capsule was gliding slowly down toward the ground.

 

"Madwell?" I asked. She opened her eyes and groaned.
"James? Are we dead?" She asked.
"Nope, we made it," I said. "That was a good idea, jettisoning the Service Module. The same button that jettisoned it also armed the parachutes, and when we slowed down enough, they deployed."
"Wow. I guess I'm pretty smart then," Madwell said.
"I guess so," I said. "You are a scientist."
"That I am," she said.
We landed, and she decided that she should get out to plant a flag. I was against it, but she went anyway. She named the site Landing Site of the Eve-1. I don't know what she put on the plaque. Then she got in and we waited for the recovery teams.

 

Sorry for the lack of pictures and the long wait, I was busy flying(The incident with the capsule flipping and them blacking out actually happened, I was worried that I was going to have to revert because James would die.), and traveling in RL. Give a big hand to @Ultimate Steve and @Lucast0909, who have been helping me make this story better(hopefully)! Also, I've decided that to spice things up, all flights will be flown without revert flight or quicksave, except for bugs or things important to the plot(i.e. if I kill James, I'll revert). Thank you, all my (probably fictional) readers!

Edited September 21, 2018 by kerbalstar
Commas!

[HansonKerman]

Nice!

[Kerbalstar]

13 minutes ago, HansonKerman said:

Nice!

Thank you!

[lunardog15]

looks good