One-Way Trip - Odyssey of Chris Kerman

[Philae_Rosetta2021]

Hello everyone and welcome to my first Kerbal series!

I am very excited to start this, where we will be following the journey of a certain Chris Kerman. I will try to upload new sections every 2 weeks, and possibly add an imgur album at the end of each chapter (opinions on this welcome). 

 

DISCLAIMER: This is all my own work, and any similarities to any other Kerbal fan fiction is entirely unintentional

Prologue

Chris looked out of the capsule's tiny window. The surface of the Mun stretched boundlessly, slightly curving at the edges of the window. His destination. Probably for forever. Everyone had said it was lunacy. That he was mad, a weirdo who had lost it. Not that he cared what they thought. He was here in his own bubble, encased for the rest of time, cut off from the rest of Kerbal-kind. He noted the grey, blotched surface, pockmarked with craters, and bumpy with mountains that stretched out to the stars. There was something so serene about it, Chris thought. So much like himself. Bland, nothing of interest. Nothing compared with its parent planet.

He felt like a moon without a planet, floating endlessly through unlimitless time, ready to be affected by a planets gravity, moving him in a new direction. He thought of his family, and what they would think of him, if they could see him. A small tear welled up, but he shook it away. Or, rather tried to shake it away. It just balled up on his eye, growing slowly. He snatched a towel from the DISPOSABLE crate, and stuffed in a bag after wiping his face. He floated over to his seat and strapped himself in. 

A new stage was beginning for him...

[Philae_Rosetta2021]

Chapter 1 - Nightmares Never Go Away

The doorbell rang, a piercing noise cutting through the still house. Chris Kerman sat up in bed groggily. Damn, he had just slept so well, and now someone had decided to disturb his slumber in the most annoying way possible. Who could it be? The doorbell rang again, even more urgent this time. Whoever was there wasn't giving up.

"Alright I'm coming" He called out as he slipped a shirt over himself. He clumped down the stairs, when he noticed the flashing blue lights outside. The hell was going on? A pit started forming in his stomach as he undid the door and opened it, peering around the edges to see who it was. The lights were blinding, and he squinted as he looked at the two figures in front of him. One took his cap off, with a KUPD badge on it, and both looked very solemn. Chris was having a tough time taking this all in. The lights, the sombre figures, the badge of the Kerbal United Police Department. The Kerbal on the right, looked at him and said softly:

"Mr C Kerman? May we come in?" Chris only nodded, and opened the door quietly. The pit in his stomach deepened. What was going on?

"Please sit down" the Kerbal said, in that same soft voice. Chris didn't recognize it, but it was the kind of voice parents use to tell their children that their favourite pets are dead, and not coming back. A thought occurred to Chris that they were ordering him about in his own home, in a patronising sort of way, like he needed to be told what to do. He didn't like where this was going. The two Kerbals opposite him, looked awkward and looked at each other. The one on the left spoke up this time. 

"Mr C Kerman, we uhh..." he trailed off, not knowing quite what to say. Chris only looked confused. "We need you to be brave, Chris, okay?" Chris nodded numbly. " We have reports that there was a plane crash earlier today, and we think your wife and daughter were on board." Chris' stomach dropped, and all the breath went out of his chest. He couldn't think straight. His... What? How? They're wrong, they have to be! This couldn't happen, they were coming tomorrow, for Kraken's sake! He almost didn't hear the figure on the right speaking again. "We don't know how many survivors there are, and not all have been found, but we are expecting the worst. We are very sorry. We are doing all we can at the moment but..." He lifted up his hands in a gesture of defeat. 

It was all over. Chris still couldn't comprehend what had happened even after the two policekerbals had left. Then the enormity hit him. HIS wife. HIS daughter. Both gone. They would never come back. He leaned on the wall of the living room, where the meeting had just taken place. On the mantelpiece was all three of them at the Kerbal Space Centre, after they had witnessed the launch of the new Black Arrow rocket that both he and his wife, Linda, had worked on at Rockomax. He took it down, looking at both their faces. So happy. He slid down the wall, clutching the photograph, sobbing uncontrollably....

 

With a start, he jolted awake. He woke up in a cold sweat, with tears streaming down his cheeks. He just stayed there, trembling. He got out of bed and shakily made his way over to the kitchen. Oh Kraken. That same nightmare again. It had only been four weeks since then, and he was still not getting any sleep. It haunted him at every corner. He could barely even go in the living room any more. He opened a cupboard and got down a small jar. He cracked it opened and took out a pill, and swallowed it. Filled the glass and gulped it. The same pills that he had been taking for the past four weeks. He took out another one, even though it was over the prescribed dose, recommended by the doctor. He swallowed it slightly painfully, and drained the glass of water. He sat himself down in a chair. 00:21 am. He wouldn't bother to go back to sleep. He put his head in his hands and stayed there till morning...