The NEW Adventures of Tex Kerman

[Tex]

Waves slowly crash along a peaceful shoreline overlooking a vast ocean. The salty sea breeze sends small ripples along the tufts of grass that break up the pristine, sandy beach, the only other inhabitants of which consist of only an umbrella and wooden lounge chair. Next to the chair, a bottle of some amber liquid. Root beer. The figure residing in the chair sports a set of khaki beach shorts and a floral print shirt, colored green, with the top three buttons undone. On the being's chest, shiny, but dimmed by the shade, was a dogtag necklace. It was stamped with three letters on one side: KSP. The other side bore his name. 

A land rover (home built, Toyota doesn't exist, remember) silently glides along the coast on electrical power only. It is driven by a Kerbal dressed in a work shirt, nice shoes, and dress pants. It seems that he had just come from a meeting of sorts. When the rover comes to a stop, a ladder extends to the ground, and the driver disembarks holding only a letter. In silence, he clambers to the ground, and runs with a funny waddle over to the chair and umbrella. Sand flies as his feet kick off the ground,and he stands in front of the seated figure in the shade. The figure peeks over his chrome aviator sunglasses.

"Esoj Kerman..... It's been a while, man..." The shaded Kerbal says, shifting the glass in his hand, which contained more root beer. "Looks like you've been hard at work." Esoj says nothing. He never said nothing. Er, anything. He was the silent partner of the team, reunited now for the first time in a long time. He extends his hand, holding out the letter. There is no address on it, but the feel of the envelope is familiar. The seated Kerbal gave Esoj a look when he accepted the letter. It was a wordless exchange, but both of them knew perfectly well what the letter meant. It was a call to action. The seated Kerbal carefully set his glass on the arm of his chair and used a bulbous finger to pull the tape sealing the letter off and open the envelope. He pulled it out, threw the envelope on the ground, and unfolded the letter.

"Mmhm..... Mmhmm..... Mm," he said, after reading for a few minutes. He took a deep breath, and spoke to Esoj without looking up. "So Wernher's...... Blown up the entire spaceport. Again. They're gonna have to rebuild from scratch, are they? Mmm......" There was a long silence after this revelation. The letter was signed by the head of the Kerbal Space Program, whose name was obscured by the seated Kerbal's thumb. The letter was brief, but to the point. The Kerbal looked over the letter several times, even turning it over to see if there was a post script. He took the letter, crumpled it up, and sat forward in his chair before tossing the letter down to join the envelope in the sand. He sat for several more moments before he looked up at Esoj.

"Well, Esoj, ol' buddy...." He began, and then took his drink and threw the rest of it back. He set his glass down hard and sighed, cowboy style. "Looks like we better get to work. But first thing's first, we've gotta find my hat. Think it blew down the beach a half hour ago. Oh, and I'm driving." The Kerbal stood up, shook Esoj's hand firmly and formally, and began to walk to the rover. The dogtags turned over and glinted in the sunlight.

The name read: "Tex Kerman."

Edited October 16, 2018 by Tex