[Writing - Video - Pictures] PHADE - Phantom Debris Initiative, chapter 3: Lies

[ZootinZack]

Chapter 3, where Jeb, Bill and Tomson get a closer look at the anomaly. Feedback welcomed as always.

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

SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS 1 & 2

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

Strange readings from the Mun have revealed debris floating beneath the surface of the satellite. A capsule of three Kerbonauts were sent to investigate, but their mission was cut short by mysterious malfunctions and apparent mental breakdown of the crew. After Jebediah Kerman, from Kerbin, took the rocket down in a catastrophic landing, two of the Kerbonauts, obviously mentally unstable, disappeared on the surface of the Mun, leaving Tomson Kerman alone. (Read Chapter 1 here)

Sent on a rescue mission, Jeb and Bill Kerman managed to land near the crash site, only to see Tomson vanish as well beneath the surface of the Mun. After a heroic, successful rescue, they are ready to go on, when Bill discovered a photograph in the crashed capsule, showing a mysterious and seemingly unnatural structure. Tomson, agitated, vehemently refuses to leave the Mun, claiming they "have to be there". (Read Chapter 2 here)

====

LIES

====

Jeb, Bill and Tomson stood still, silent, for what seemed like a long time.

Bill leaned slowly towards Jeb and whispered:

"So... Should we head home?"

"You heard the man, Jeb shrugged. 'We have to be here.'"

"But..."

"COME! ON! Aren't you at least a little curious? We have plenty of fuel to make it to whatever the hell that is, and be back on Kerbin on time to catch 'Who Wants To Be A Kerllionnaire'."

"It has nothing to do with why we're here," Bill objected.

"For all we know, this thing has EVERYTHING to do with the reason we're here. It's not very far from the former Poseidon crash site. Not very far from where we landed five years ago. Not very far from where the phantom debris anomaly happened."

He pointed at Tomson, who was vacantly staring at the hatch, murmuring seemingly random numbers.

"Plus Tomson here is a few crayons short of a full box, if you know what I mean. He's not ready to return. Neither am I. And, admit it, neither are you."

Had they ever been ready to return to Kerbin? Being here, Bill felt as if he had never left. He remembered his first step out of the Poseidon hatch, back on Kerbin, five years ago. Remembered the heavy feel of his footsteps, the panic that almost overwhelmed him when he reluctantly removed his helmet. His prolonged disinterest in his family, his work, his long daydreams about being back up there. It had felt like the most pivotal part of his life was behind him, the moment Poseidon had lifted off the munar surface. He knew the three of them had dealt with it differently - Jeb with chasing highs and girls, Bob by immersing himself into a task that was way beneath him. Bill had just vanished. Disappeared. What was the point of even existing beyond this? He had walked on the Mun!

Where do you go from there?

The answer was right here: you go back. As insane as Jeb could be, he understood that they couldn't live with themselves with the knowledge that a few engine nudges away, maybe, just maybe, laid an answer to all their questions.

Bill got on the radio.

"Bob? You there man?"

A few seconds passed.

"Yep Bill. Congratulations. Champagne is popping all over the place here. Press conference in the morning, you guys are heroes already!"

"Yeah listen... We've come across something... Unexpected. Take a look."

Bill downlinked the photograph and waited a few seconds.

"What the Kerb is that?" Bob finally interjected.

"We don't know... But we'd like to find out."

"Why wasn't it in the original photos sent by the Tomson crew? This thing looks HUGE! You think it has to do with the PDs?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"Give me this mic, Bob."

The voice coming from Control was deep, authoritative, not unlike the growl of a pitbull. This could only mean one thing, and it wasn't good.

"Jebediah, Tomson, Bill? This is Space Center director J. Edgar Kerman. I hereby relieve you of your investigation in the Phantom Debris Initiative and order you to come back to Kerbin as soon as you can make the proper preparations. You guys have done good work. It's time to see you home."

"But we can't come back!" Tomson cried.

"Come back, the director replied. This is a direct order."

"Sir, if I may, Bill interrupted, we have plenty of fuel to make the trip and Jebediah here is the best rocket pilot in the universe. This is a rather unique opportunity to advance PHADE to the next level, and..."

"Retrieving Tomson was already quite the exploit, Bill, the director cut. And we appreciate that. This is probably just a lens flare, a small geographical anomaly that's been magnified out of proportion. Nothing for which I would risk the lives of my best Kerbonauts."

"But if I may..."

"You may not. This is not a democracy. I repeat, this is a direct order from your director. See you soon boys, stay safe. Bob, make sure that they have proper trajectory information to get back to Kerbin."

Bill turned off the radio and glanced at Jebediah. His face was flushed with anger and determination.

He turned the radio back on.

"Bob, you there? What the Kerb..."

"Yeah I'm here, Bob said, his voice quivering. I'm sorry, he... Surprised me. He must have been here already, uh, celebrating."

Everyone knew J. Edgar Kerman didn't get where he was by "celebrating". Wherever and whenever he was, his work was always his top priority. Jeb was right: something was going on, but Bill hesitated as to what exactly that was. Did the director have data they didn't know about on the "small geographical anomaly"? Or did he, as he pretended, have only safety in mind? Bill doubted it. This was the Kerbal who had sent multiple Kerbonauts away in old rackety rockets on numerous occasions, sometimes on trivial pursuits. Besides, safety wasn't really a "Kerbal thing".

"Listen guys, Bob said, I have to run. I'll get you your flight plan in an hour. Make sure to be ready if you don't want to miss the window. The nights are long up there."

"Uuuuh okay... Bill responded, puzzled, as he turned the radio off again and swivelled to face Jeb. Well that was weird."

"Bob is not exactly 'like' us, Bill. He was plainly terrorized. He's just doing his job."

The subtext being they shouldn't count on him - or anyone in Control, for that matter - for anything. They were clearly on their own. Jeb started checking the various flight instruments.

"Tomson, a hand over here?"

"A what?"

"So... Uh yeah. How are you holding up?"

"We have to go there."

"We've established that, yeah. On numerous occasions, actually. That wasn't my question."

"A hundred twenty one eight thirty one point thirty nine thousand forty... The light..."

"Uuuuh okay. Fine. Sorry I asked."

He took his hand to his left temple, looked at Bill and made a gesture like he was unscrewing something from his head. Bill shrugged. His heart felt like a hole.

Jeb tapped the fuel gauge and made a note on the computer.

"I know what you're thinking, that we should get out of here, he started. Be good little boys. But what is the director going to do? He can't exactly hop in a rocket and fire us. It will have to wait until we come back, and with any luck, we'll come back with something. You know what's gonna happen if we leave now."

Bill knew. They were going back to the soul-crushing reality, facing the terrible truth that, at some point, they had been sitting a few kilometers away from the greatest mystery they had encountered in their lives. Bill sensed that it would be too much. That he would snap.

The next two hours were spent quietly making preparations for what was very probably their last flight as Kerbonauts. Careful fuel calculations were crucial if they were to actually go back home. EVA suits had to be checked and rechecked. Emergency landing protocols were vital.

The radio light came on. Bill shot Jebediah a look, and flicked a switch.

"Guys?"

It was Bob.

"We're there Bob."

"I had to switch frequencies, I'm in the old control room. I have at least half an hour before the director suspects something. Listen to this. On the night of the first PHADE mission, Tomson sent 257 pictures that were RECEIVED in Control. Someone deleted number 213 almost immediately. That's the photo you re-sent."

"I knew it!" Jebediah shot between his teeth.

"You haven't heard anything yet. I snooped around old mission logs for clues, looking for stuff we could have missed, and stumbled upon the first low-orbital Mun mission... This video was filed under obscure references, it's quite lucky I found it. But I did. Uplinking it now."

"And guess who was the Kerbonaut in that one-Kerbal capsule."

"J. Edgar Kerman, Bill and Jebediah said in unison."

"You're damn right it was. First Kerbal around the Mun. The Agency has known about this thing for at least twenty years. Painstalkingly erased every single piece of evidence they came across. There's more. There's a lot more. Twelve years ago, records exist of early efforts to land on the Mun: Project Odysseus. We're not talking theory either: a team was assembled, studies were made. Officially they never went for undisclosed reasons, but records didn't match, hear this. Of the three Kerbonauts on the team, only one is still on record, and I couldn't find a single piece of evidence of the very existence of the two other, after the supposed cancellation of the mission. Says here they retired after Odysseus got scratched, but I couldn't find financial records of their retiring packages. Not to mention spending mysteriously skyrocketed during this time period. There's at least 5000 liters of fuel, amongst other things, that simply disappeared. 'Clerical error'. I think Project Odysseus went to the Mun, and I think they didn't like what they found. Care to know who is the Kerbonaut who's still on record, or are we past the guessing games?"

"Our dear director, I presume?"

"Exactly, Bob answered in a hushed voice. Soon after that he became Agency director. I don't have anything else. I'll go back to Control now and update you with your 'flight plan'. Over."

Bill strapped himself in his seat.

"Let's go sight-seeing."

"Spoken like a true Kerbal, Jeb replied with a laugh. Tomson you ready?"

"I am," Tomson answered, curiously lucid for the first time.

"Alright. Here goes nothing!"

After disabling the automated update system that was downlinking their position to the Control Room, Jeb got the rocket off the ground the only way he knew how: full throttle. He shifted the trajectory ever so slightly and, a few seconds later, cut the engines with confidence. Bill marvelled at Jeb's assurance: never a split second of hesitation, he'd go exactly for the right button, would turn a knob exactly the right amount - and that had always been, too. Back in training, Bill remembered a younger, quieter Jebediah, repeatiedly correcting the default orbits they made apprentice Kerbonauts learn. "Inefficient," he used to say practically all the time. Jebediah had long been the unofficial pick for the future direction of the Kerbal Space Program. Everything changed when he came back from the Mun. He was always as brilliant - even moreso, as a matter of fact - but to say he had problems with authority (both receiving and administering it) was an understatement. He could get on board any rocket and make it dance through the air, but he wouldn't have been able to muster the organization skills to get another Kerbal to unscrew a light bulb.

The rocket soared through the Mun's lack of atmosphere. Soon, they could see the strange formation in the distance.

"Holy Kerbol, Jeb said. I couldn't believe it until I saw it."

Seeing as they were almost eight kilometers up, the structure seemed immense, made of a light grey material that clashed with the dull sand of the surface.

"We're here. We're here," chanted Tomson, trying to see through the porthole.

Almost simultaneously, the rocket jolted violently to the side.

"What the..." Bill started, before another, more powerful tremors threw him up in the air, only to be caught by his safety belt.

"Don't worry, got it," Jeb said, although his voice was thinner that usual.

"Activate the ASAS!" Jeb shouted - the first time Bill had heard him say that in ten years. He executed the command promptly, but the Stability Augmentation System - also renamed Sickness Avoidance Solution by the Kerbonauts themselves - did nothing to quell the increasing shaking.

"Can you hear the walls? Bill shouted. I don't think we're supposed to HEAR the walls."

"Chill out. Chill out."

From all around them, the joints were shrieking as if some force was trying to tear the ship apart.

On the bright side, Tomson, glued to the porthole, had never been more ectstatic, repeating "We're here" at the top of his lungs.

Jeb turned the rocket around in a swift motion and increased the amount of retro-burn, working hard to keep the rocket in a semblance of trajectory. His half-smile made him seem all-knowing whereas Bill, on the other hand, was ready to treat his spacesuit to a diversified array of bodily fluids. The deafening roar of the rockets, the excited shouts of Tomson, the high-pitched shrieks of the metal plates, produced a nightmarish cacophony that paralyzed his thoughts. The only sane thing to do was to watch Jeb's quick hands try to steady the ship: calm, his eyes slimmed down to a tight slit, as if he was conducting an orchestra. He was whistling. Bill couldn't hear it over all the racket, but he could swear the bastard was whistling.

And then it happened. The rocket shimmered with a loud clunk, and red lights flashed on the control board. As Bill shot a look through the porthole he saw something grey and metallic flash by.

"Was that a..." he started.

"Just a landing leg," Jeb shrugged, shouting in his microphone. "We're still five out of six. We're good."

Bill checked the altimeter. We are far from good, he thought.

And just as they went below the 4000 meters bar, it all got quiet. Jeb sat back, slowly pulling on the engine throttle with his right foot. He let out a laugh as the remaining legs touched the Munar surface ever so gently.

"Well, that was close, man," he said.

"You don't have anything more historical to say?"

They looked through the window.

"Here's for history," Jeb whispered.

"Wow. Have you ever even heard of something like this?" Bill said in a hushed voice.

The structure was awe-inspiring, defying the very perception of their incredulous eyes. One of its bases only looked almost four times as big as their rocket. It was towering over them even though it was still much in the distance.

The radio beeped. Jeb flicked a switch.

"What's up Control, he said, trying to control his voice. It seems we uh, didn't receive any further instructions from you, we're sitting still. No sign of Phantom Debris anywhere. Our A.U.S. is also malfunctioning, but all systems are ready to go otherwise. Want to update our flight plan?"

"We were getting worried over here, Bob said. Glad you're okay."

"Oh we're okay, Jeb said with a smile. We're okay alright."

"Nice to hear it. Uplinking your flight plan back to Kerbin. As for the Automated Update System, have you tried..."

"Yup, turned it off and back on again. It looks fried."

"OK. We're going to radio it for the adjustments then."

"I don't need 'adjustments', Bob, we'll be fine and back soon. I'm going to go for a walk... You should do the same."

"Uh... Bob hesitated, then lit up. Yeah. I'll go for a walk."

"Talk to you later. Over."

As he turned around to Bill, he just had time to see Tomson hurriedly opening the hatch.

"We're... Jeb started. Hey man, don't do that!"

Tomson shot him a look.

"We have to go! We have to be there!"

"Sure, sure, we'll go have a look but..."

Tomson stepped out. Bill soon followed.

"Sweet Kerbol help me," Jeb sighed as he jumped after him.

"Tomson! he shouted in his microphone. Stop and think for a second, what's so urgent!"

"The world, the world is urgent, Tomson rambled. A hundred twenty one eight thirty one point thirty nine thousand forty... Find it, find it here. We have to be here, we have to be here because... You're the only one who can stop it."

"Stop what?"

Tomson didn't reply. He fired up his EVA and shot to the Arch. Jeb screamed, but it was too late.

"Bill... Bill, you saw that?"

Bill couldn't speak. He was fixing the point, under the arch, where Tomson had simply disappeared.

"He... He poofed," Bill stuttered, after what seemed like an eternity of silence, a silence more deafening than any sound he knew. He thought the verb ridiculous, half expecting Jeb to burst out laughing, but his companion was mute.

Jeb took a step and started to approach the arch, when the beeping of the radio stopped him in his tracks. he turned it on.

"Bob?"

"Guys, you want to stay AWAY from that thing."

Jeb and Bill shot a look at each other. It was a little late for that, Bill thought.

Bob continued:

"I know what happened to Project Odysseus."

Edited September 11, 2012 by ZootinZack
grammar

[LaydeeDem]

This is amazing. The suspense is killing me!

[ZootinZack]

Thanks man, glad you liked it !

[Accelerando]

I saw the poof coming so hard as soon as Bob started showing them the real significance of the Mun Arch. A portal to another universe, perhaps, as some have suggested?

Getting quite excited, I must say! And I think you satisfy my earlier suggestion about character development quite well in this update. I will be interested to see what kind of mindsets Bill and Jeb take by the end of this story.

[ZootinZack]

Glad you appreciate it!

As for the Mun Arch, I can tell you that it's definitely not a portal to another universe.

[Grand Lander]

Very Very awsome man!