jimmymcgoochie

Enable advanced tweakables in the main menu settings. Add autostruts to all those wobbly tanks while it’s still docked, I suggest to grandparent part. If it starts twitching again, autostrut anything attached to those tanks to the root part. Brief stints at x5 time warp can often cause wobbly parts to snap back to their correct positions and stop the wobble long enough to add more autostruts.

In the VAB and SPH you can set ‘name priority’ for each command part which will determine what the vessel as a whole is named. For station control points, set it to 20 to always keep that name when you dock more stuff to it.

Try to find the Player.txt (or Player.log) log file, you’ll find that in C:/users/your username/AppData/LocalLow/Squad/Kerbal Space Program. AppData is a hidden folder so enable hidden folders if you can’t see it. Player.txt has more information in it, there’s nothing in that log file you posted to say why it crashed and with a plain stock install it should be fine.

There are some mods that might help you - Where Can I Go, Slingshotter, Astrogator, Transfer Window Planner, MechJeb to name a few. Transfers vary wildly in their delta-V requirements depending on where the planets are and most transfers take a lot longer than a month (or did you mean a real time month not ~30 game days?). Or use a warp drive mod to warp yourself there, or the cheats to ping your vessel across the solar system at will. Why do you want to fly by Eeloo, Moho and Dres in one go without refuelling? I would send separate probes to each.

Use the object thrower VERY CAREFULLY to destroy the terrier engine- saving before attempting this is highly recommended! Pause menu > show version info > cheats tab > object thrower, arm it and keep that window open but unpause the game. Right click will chuck a cube or sphere into the scene, with enough force (higher mass or velocity) it will break the Terrier engine but careful aim is needed to not break anything else either. Or set radial out hold when landed which might be enough to keep it balanced if it has enough reaction wheels; pump fuel to the lowest tanks on the descent stage to make balancing a little bit easier.

Here’s an idea that might work: - Try to rotate the plane to point directly downhill. - Put something immovable directly in front of the plane so it can’t slide downhill. One of those descent modules would do if it’s nearby, as you don’t need it any more and it may get damaged. - Drive the rover behind the plane and position one of the cockpits under a wing. - Set the plane to hold radial in so it tries to stand on its nose. - Move all fuel to the front of the plane if possible to reduce inertia at the rear and make it easier to move the rear part of the plane. - Maximum nose-up on the rover to give the plane a shove towards vertical. Setting the front wheel spring strength to minimal before doing this and then maximum when you pitch up might give a little bit more oomph. - The combined efforts *might* be enough to get the plane to stand on its nose. The nose can’t move because it’s blocked by something else, so instead of sliding downhill it rotates and hopefully lands on its wheels; switching off radial in hold may be necessary to make it fall in the right direction. Alternatively, rotate the plane to point uphill, retract air brakes, stand it on its tail (radial out hold plus RCS if possible or a rover assist if not), redeploy air brakes and fire the engines to get a little bit of altitude to roll the right way round before landing again. Or if you just want the quick fix, hack gravity to 1% and rotate it that way.

Eve has higher gravity than Kerbin, this could explain why it felt different- your plane needed a greater angle of attack to generate the additional lift to counter the extra gravity which in turn can make it behave differently than at the same speed and atmospheric pressure on Kerbin.

Pretty sure that in order to post a challenge, you have to prove that it’s possible first. Also sounds a lot like Zero-X from Thunderbirds/Captain Scarlet but I would be VERY impressed if anyone could dock horizontally while flying at supersonic speed in the atmosphere!

Scrape every last science point off of Kerbin, Mun and Minmus while you wait. Labs are basically cheating but there is more than enough science on Kerbin itself at high multipliers and within its SOI even at low multipliers to complete the tech tree. Complete contracts to rescue Kerbals from Kerbin’s SOI then level them up by flying them to the Mun and Minmus before sending them to Eve. Build your Eve ship, landers and other useful vessels like probes and rovers and assemble it in Kerbin orbit ready to leave for Eve when the window opens. Take up contracts for Eve ready to be completed when you get there. However, for a first landing on another planet I’d recommend Duna over Eve as while it’s a bit further away and comms will be more difficult, it’s a whole lot easier to land on and escape from plus there’s Ike to explore as well which is a lot easier to reach than Gilly is around Eve. Duna’s thin atmosphere has next to no effect on rocket ISP but is just enough to make aerobraking and parachutes useful, plus at 1/3 gravity it’s easy enough to get to and from its surface as well as to capture into orbit and escape again; Eve has a very thick atmosphere and high gravity so capturing into orbit is difficult, landing is tricky due to re-entry heat and getting back from the surface requires a highly optimised design.

The contracts window in mission control will tell you how much you’ll earn from all three stages- advance money they give you up front, rewards for each step in the contract (for example, measure temperatures at sites A, B and C will reward you separately for each site) and a final reward for completing all the individual tasks. Failing the whole mission will mean you have to pay the penalty fees but that only applies to the contract as a whole and not the individual tasks. If you feel that you’re getting too much money, turn the funds multiplier down lower.

@Joe Kerbal probe cores have feeble reaction wheels in them, and certainly won’t be enough to control a rocket during launch. Even a Mk1 crew pod isn’t that great, you’ll save a lot of mass by using a dedicated reaction wheel (or wheels) in your rocket stack to control it instead of having to put crew in the rocket instead which is unnecessary payload mass and you have to get them back down again. Engine gimbal can help too, but it’s still better to use reaction wheels and fins/winglets on the first stage to keep your rockets pointy end up.

Why did you make another new thread instead of posting in your last one? Multiple threads makes it harder to keep track of what has been suggested and the original description of the problem. You can change the game graphics settings by opening the settings.cfg file inside the KSP folder; lower numbers for graphics mean lower graphics settings, try reducing them by one and see what happens. The log files get overwritten every time you start the game, that’s meant to happen. It will be continuously updated in the background even if you open the file in an editor and unless your file explorer auto-refreshes you won’t see the file size change there. Try running the game, wait until it crashes, then upload the log file to a file sharing site and post a link to it so someone can look at it and see if there’s an obvious cause. You should also try to find Player.txt (or .log) and/or output_log.txt and upload those too as they have more information than the basic log file.

A picture would help here as without seeing the rocket in question it’s hard to give specific advice. I can suggest a few things that might help: MOAR REACTION WHEELS! More torque = more control, use the biggest wheels you can (surface attach some cubic struts and then add large reaction wheels if you can’t put them in the stack e.g. if you’re using a 3.75m rocket) and put them mostly in the first stage as it sounds like you’re having trouble shortly after leaving the pad and they will be overkill at high altitudes or in orbit. Don’t worry too much about power, unless you’re using an obscene number of reaction wheels the engine alternators will be more than enough to power them all. MOAR FINS! And the bigger, the better. Controllable fins like the AV-R8 winglet will provide additional control when lower in the atmosphere, but are heavier than fixed fins. Any aero surfaces add mass so become a hindrance at higher altitudes which is why you should only put fins on the lowest stages. MOAR GIMBALS! Use engines with a greater gimbal ability to keep your rocket under control. Add vernier engines like Thuds or Cubs if you have to and consider either adding a mod that gives SRBs some gimbal or using LF/Ox boosters on your first stage. MOAR- er, I mean, LESS DRAG! Try to make your fairing as tight fitting as possible to minimise its surface area and try to avoid a blunt tip which adds drag- a slightly heavier but pointier fairing might help you. MOAR STRUTS! With advanced tweakables enabled in the settings you can add auto-struts between different parts; unlike the strut part these autostruts have no drag and can help your rocket stay the right shape. Add some autostruts between the base of your rocket and the payload to keep it rigid and prevent it bending which will quickly cause a tumble; add some more struts between your boosters and core stage, with struts from the booster nose cones to the root part which will suppress their tendency to oscillate which can also cause instability. Use regular struts if necessary to hold your payload still inside the fairing as a payload that flops around inside the fairing can easily become unstable and if the payload includes your control point that will make the rocket very hard to control. And if none of that works, try launching the payloads in smaller pieces and assembling in orbit.

If you always have to think outside the box to get anything done, then you need a bigger box

There are a whole lot of variables that will determine how high your rocket will go- mass, fuel quantity, fuel efficiency, thrust, thrust to weight ratio, aerodynamic drag, launch profile and many more, not to mention what planet/moon you're on. Launching straight up will get more altitude from your stages, but you need to go sideways to reach orbit which gains velocity instead of altitude.

Deployable science parts need to be deployed by a Kerbal to do anything. Right-click the SEQ-3 (or SEQ-9) and pick any of the parts inside it, then hover over a Kerbal and drop it into the empty square in their personal inventory. Move the Kerbal somewhere on the ground and then click the little icon beside the deployable part (it looks like an arrow with a circle) to deploy it. When the part appears in front of your Kerbal, press space to deploy it. For best results, deploy the central control station FIRST, then power supplies, and finally science experiments. If using CommNet you will probably need the deployable comm dish anywhere beyond Kerbin's SOI. You should also set them up on the Kerbin-facing side of the Mun to maintain communications. Note- science experiments should be deployed by a scientist for faster science generation and solar panels/RTGs should be deployed by an engineer for greater power production; in both cases higher level Kerbals give greater rewards but for engineers they really need to be level 3 or above to make a noticeable difference.

If they're all in the same place (or at least within 2.3km physics range), switching to one and hacking gravity to 10x will make them all crash into Kerbin. Alternatively: Find KSP/saves/your save name/persistent.sfs Copy the file somewhere outside the KSP directory tree- your desktop would do Open the original file at the above location Replace every occurrence of 'SpaceObject' with 'Debris' which will turn all asteroids into debris Start up KSP and switch persistent debris to zero in the main settings menu (from the main menu) The game will automagically destroy all objects classed as debris, which should remove all the asteroids. This worked for me in a blank save game in KSP 1.9.1, but make sure to back up your persistent.sfs save file in case something goes wrong! (There are also backup saves inside saves/backup but they won't be fully up to date)

I launched a 750 ton payload to a 750x750km orbit in JNSQ. 43 first stage engines, over 100,000kN of thrust at sea level and the 8 strap-on boosters were each 5m diameter with a 7.5m core,. My last attempt with that design ‘only’ got 600 tons to a 200x200km orbit; with a bit of optimisation I reckon I could crack a kiloton of payload, although the rocket itself already weighs 6 kilotons on the launch pad and the only way to add thrust is to stick boosters on the boosters. Also got an SSTO design working with a 60 ton payload, although I’m not sure it technically counts as an SSTO as it uses 4 bolted on Whiplash ramjets and 4 small solid boosters which all get dropped when they’re spent. Plus it uses nuclear air-fuelled engines that use the atmosphere itself as fuel which feels a little bit like cheating.

Yesterday I discovered that ore is the perfect ballast for rocket tests (and recording launches with KSTS for future automation) as it’s heavy yet compact and extremely cheap; previously I was using oxidiser only fuel tanks which are much more expensive and less mass dense making the rockets bigger and more awkward to build. I also ‘discovered’ the sound made by 43 engines producing over 2MN of thrust each (about 100,000kN total thrust ).

I don’t see a line. Unless you’re talking about the circle? Check graphics drivers, try a different terrain texture setting, run in OpenGL?

I can neither confirm nor deny that I forgot to add that bit in But I CAN confirm that we haven't seen the last of Tebal... EDIT: Chapter 5 has been edited slightly to include the missing explanation of what happened to Tebal between chapters 4 and 5. We still haven't seen the last of her though... @Misguided_Kerbal I can neither confirm nor deny your hypothesis

@Nertea found a bug with the NFLV ER-U2 cluster mount, I'll explain it in Gherkin syntax since I don't have time to do screenshots. GIVEN I set the ER-U2's outer mounts to 8 AND I set the inner mounts to 4 WHEN I attempt to add a part to the inner mounts with symmetry on THEN the part symmetry matches the outer mounts (8-fold symmetry in this case) AND the part cannot be attached This happens with every combination of outer and inner nodes and also affects the 'floating' node in the middle (not the attachment node at the base of the interstage). Symmetry for those nodes is coming from the number of outer mounts. The parts are in the right places over the inner mount points, just with extras superimposed to make up the numbers.

Broke the 10,000 word barrier on this one Chapter 5 – Gatecrash “I can't believe you did this.” Dad was staring aghast at the new and improved DAGGER Mk3 as it sat on its makeshift launch pad, wisps of condensation drifting from its skin. Five munths of effort had gone into the upgrades, but Tina had hidden what she was doing for as long as possible to avoid having her parents worrying about it- or worse, stopping her entirely. She suspected that they knew what she was up to, especially when she started taking flying lessons, but had said nothing because they knew they couldn't talk her out of it. But now that they could see the finished article... “You took that beautiful machine that we made-” “That I made!” “- and welded an old fridge on the front. Then stapled wings on the sides and a shopping trolley on the bottom.” “A vertical landing is impractical. Look how long it took them to get the Skyseeker to come back down and land vertically, and they had nearly twenty tests and huge development budgets.” “She has a point, Martin.” Mum waddled over, by now only a munth away from her due date. She grasped Tina by her shoulders and looked straight into her eyes. “Fifteen minutes, and not a single second more. Understood?” “Yes, Mum.” “And no detours either, especially not over that Darryl's house.” Tina was appalled. “Muuuum! For the hundredth time, there is nothing going on between me and Darryl. At all.” “Between Darryl and I, not 'me and Darryl'.” Mum suddenly turned serious. “No heroics up there, OK? Anything goes wrong, anything at all, you hit that abort button right away.” “I will, Mum. Don't worry about me.” She smiled, trying to be reassuring. “Tina, no matter how old you get, I'll always worry about you. But, I know that you know what you're doing. Now go and fly your rocket.” There was no mistaking the pride in her voice and Tina suddenly felt rather emotional, and gave Mum a surprise hug (which lasted just long enough to start feeling a bit awkward) before doing the same to Dad. She climbed into her fridge- er, pod, using a stepladder, turning backwards and sticking her head in first before stepping her feet inside. An old bucket seat from a crashed sports car and a few flight instruments from a scrapped microlight were the only features inside the pod, with a mirror to see out the window on top for landing and a second window in front of her head. And of course, the obligatory BIG RED BUTTON which triggered the abort procedure- engine off, parachutes armed, fan to idle, control surfaces to airbrake mode. She fastened the seat straps as Dad followed her up the ladder and closed the hatch and locked it, gave her a thumbs up, then removed the ladder and retreated to a safe distance. Tina started the fan first, spinning it up to operating speed and making the DAGGER vibrate slightly but keeping the blades feathered, before Dad started a countdown on his walkie-talkie. “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six- fan blades to power pitch, four, three- starter, two, one- ignition!” The engine roared into life and built rapidly to takeoff power. Liftoff was flawless, the extra weight of the command pod making little difference to its rate of acceleration. The vibrations weren't as bad as Tina had expected but it was still uncomfortable inside her home-made command pod with exposed wires and crudely filed down edges. When the altimeter said 2000 metres, she nudged the controls to pitch down towards level flight. Or at least, she tried to. The control stick was unresponsive and no matter what way she moved it, nothing happened. This wasn't good: the controls had worked perfectly when she tested them yesterday, and all the other times before that; but since she was still fairly low and slow it wasn't too bad yet- The speedometer said 522m/s and was still climbing, altitude already 6km. She had forgotten how much more powerful the engine would get as it gained speed and was now pulling a sustained 2.5g of acceleration. The DAGGER was slowly pitching over, but in the completely wrong direction, heading north and further inland instead of south towards the sea and the beach where she planned to land. Tina pulled the throttle lever back to idle only for it to snap off in her hand leaving the thrust set to full power. She immediately went for the big red abort button and slammed her fist down on it; with the extra force from the continued acceleration, she hit it much harder than intended and punched the button itself straight through the panel and out the bottom where it dangled by its wires, out of reach. Altitude 12km, speed 887m/s, engine operating nominally but starting to struggle with the lack of outside air. It was getting extremely cold inside the pod, causing both windows to freeze over and making each breath hurt. She was profoundly glad that she had installed that emergency oxygen supply, even if wearing a scuba mask while flying a rocket looked ridiculous. She should be panicking: hurtling at several times the speed of sound at an altitude most airliners could barely match in the completely wrong direction while sitting in a rocket-propelled fridge with no controls to speak of should have been absolutely terrifying, reducing her to a quivering wreck, but instead she was almost alarmingly calm. When the engine flamed out due to lack of oxygen, she could retrieve the abort button and shut it down before cranking the handle that would deploy the control surfaces to their full extent and lock them there for air braking, deploy the drogue chute first and then the two main chutes mounted on the top the fridge/pod and near the back of the engine cowling between two of the fins. It would be an awkward landing, being stuck facing up and totally blind to what was under her, but still totally feasible. Then she would have to fix the throttle lever, find and fix the control issue followed by adding a more robust abort system, and now that she thought about it an engine gimbal mechanism wouldn't be a terrible idea... But the engine didn't flame out. Cruising at over a kilometre per second and 23km up, a delicate balance was found between the wings and the engine. At this altitude the engine was producing a fraction of its sea level thrust, only 4kN, but the air was so thin that 4kN was enough to keep the speed up; if it rose slightly, the engine faded more and the airspeed dropped slightly, resulting in the altitude decreasing and feeding more air to the engine which produced more thrust, causing it to level out and then rise again. Tracing a gentle wave across the sky, the DAGGER raced north above rolling hills and forested valleys, a tiny speck leaving a thin contrail behind it. This was going to take A LOT of explaining. Tina could see a year of dish washing, grass cutting and house cleaning in her future. In the more immediate future, though, she could see a horrendous cramp in her back and a dull headache that might have been caused by the friction heating the nose cone, precariously close to her head. Head first was a good idea when launching vertically, but for landing horizontally it might prove to be... Problematic. Still, there was no denying that it was incredibly peaceful up here, the continuous whoosh of the air flowing around her and the dull rumble of the engine were as quiet as a whisper, the sky tinted a deep blue, like sapphire. She was floating far above even the highest cloud-tops, peaceful, calm, relaxed- Lonely. She started at the unexpected interruption. Lonely? She wasn't lonely! Alone, yes, but not- Lonely. You are lonely. “No I'm not.” A lone, lonely loner, up here all alone. “I'm not lonely!” She heard laughter in her head; unfriendly, almost cruel. Yes you are. You have nobody down there. “I do! I have Mum and Dad and, and-” And..? Who else? “Well, there's, um... er...” She sensed a smug satisfaction from the... whatever it was. Her conscience? Her imagination? See? Nobody. “Erliwise, the boy I sit next to in Science class.” Really? “Fine then, what about Darryl?” There's nothing going on between you and Darryl; your exact words. “Sasha then.” Your unborn sister? That's just sad... Well, then there's... Um... What, nothing? Smugness intensified. Not one single person? I... The only one who paid you any attention down there was Tebal, and after that public humiliation she got at the patent hearing even she won't look at you. You have nobody. A tremendous weight seemed to settle on her chest and start squeezing, slowly suffocating her. Dark waves of despair rushed over her like tsunamis, picking her up and hurling her around before dumping her back on the ground with a thump before the next one came along and repeated the process. The sun came through the little window in front of her, but it felt like ice on her face and stabbed at her eyes even when they were tightly shut. And through it all, that voice- You have nobody. You are nobody. Nothing. “stop” Nobody! “Stop.” NOTHING! “ENOUGH!!” And suddenly everything was silent, except the pounding of her heart, the swish of blood in her ears and her ragged breathing, using up the oxygen supply far too fast. In fact, it was a bit too silent, and it took a while for her to realise what was missing. The engine was silent; after over 20 minutes of high-altitude super-cruising, the fuel reserves had finally run out. Once again, the DAGGER continued to make usable thrust for a while after that until the latent heat in the combustion chamber dissipated. Speed and altitude dropped steadily but slowly, giving Tina plenty of time to deploy the air brakes, scrape the ice off the windows and check her location. The last activity sent a cold chill down her spine as she realised just how far she had flown- almost to the equator in fact, and a few degrees to the east too. This was going to take A LOT of explaining. And at least three years of bin duty. She hit the switches to arm the parachutes, then just had to wait as the DAGGER slowly lost speed and altitude, dragged inexorably down by gravity and air friction. Hopefully she wouldn't end up in the sea, because she was a terrible swimmer. Nothing she could do about it though; all she could do was wait... *** Erbo Kerman was bored. It was his own fault, really. He had been sent on a coffee run and had spiked his friend Cammore's coffee with salt instead of sugar, only to get them mixed up and give that cup to his boss instead. After spraying a mouthful of it across the room, she had sentenced him to one week of tracking station duty as penance, looking after Kerbin's SOI, which was interminably dull when nothing was actually happening. He was currently tracking: – One busted probe, waiting for a team to go up in a Dynawing and inspect it next week; – Four old communications relays, parked in orbits just in front of or behind the Mun and Minmus; – 12 GPS satellites in their synchronised orbits, unchanged since their launch eight years ago; – One little blip in the atmosphere, heading towards him; – And nine commercial satellites providing anything from TV signals to telecommunications for ships at sea. Wait, what? He looked at the screen again. One little blip, flying too high and fast to be an airliner, heading almost directly towards him. That wasn't there the last time he'd looked up from the other screen surreptitiously hidden under the desk, which had been just after he'd read something about a cold, wet frog to the face and sneezed coffee all over said desk, which takes some doing when you don't have a nose. He tapped the screen but it didn't go away. He switched the screen off and back on, but it was still there. He pulled up the flight list but found nothing that could be causing this mystery blip. How odd. He brought the controls for Dish 3 online and swung it around to point at the blip, firing a pulse of signals at it to identify, classify, communicate, interrogate and/or otherwise turn it from a blip into something intelligible. To his consternation, it had no effect at all; the blip remained stubbornly blippy and held its course. He picked up the phone and dialled an internal number. “Harbour tracking, Lenemone speaking.” “Harbour tracking, this is Erbo in KSC tracking. I have a weird blip on my screen and can't make head nor tail of it. Bearing, hmm, 190 from your position, altitude 16 klicks, speed just above 700.” “I'll point the dish over thataways, wait one.” Erbo heard many computer keys being tapped, followed by the distinctive sound of the backspace key being furiously bashed about 20 times along with some choice swearing, and then more typing. “Uh, say again, Harbour Tracking?” “ahem... Dish is pointed in the right direction, but I don't see any sign of your- no, wait, there it is! Huh, pings didn't get a response. That's odd.” “I got the exact same thing. Any ideas what it is?” “Kerm knows, but I reckon you're about to find out.” “Why's that?” “Well, if this trajectory is right, it's going to come pretty much right over your head in approximately,” pause “ninety eight seconds.” “And what exactly is 'Kerm', anyway?” He heard a strange sound, something like 'pffffp' that face to face would be accompanied by a shrug. Or at least, he hoped it was that, although the canteen menu did say they were serving 'extra-hot five bean chilli surprise' so you never knew... “Too much internet. Eighty nine seconds and counting. Take a picture and send it over, I can stick it on that 'What did you do at KSC today?' forum thread. Can you do that Erbo? Erbo?!” But Erbo was already out the door and running for the exit. *** At two thousand metres, the drogue chute deployed perfectly. At fifteen hundred metres, it opened fully and began to slow the DAGGER's descent. At a thousand metres, the two main chutes opened and the drogue detached, but a slight timing error meant it immediately tangled in the rear chute which failed to open at five hundred metres. With only one parachute at the front opened, the DAGGER fell tail-first and much faster than intended. She considered cutting the fouled chute but that would just make her fall even faster. All she could do was watch the altimeter drop and brace herself. *** “And now we are entering the Vehicle Assembly Building, where all the rockets get built.” Jeb smiled his trademark smile (which was also trademarked, and was bringing in a nice little side income from the merchandising deals) for about the fiftieth time, and silently wished he hadn't taken Val up on that bet, for about the hundred and fiftieth time. He could still see that smug smile on her face as she watched him watch the gaggle of unruly children pile out of the bus in a perfect illustration of Brownian motion, everyone going in different directions with no obvious pattern or purpose. And why did he have to wear a spacesuit to do a tour? It was swelteringly hot and stuffy in the suit even indoors; under the midday summer sun, he felt like one of those boil-in-the-bag ready meals. And why, oh why, did he need the helmet? That thing was heavy! He kept it on for about thirty seconds then pulled it off and carried it, which was only slightly less uncomfortable. “This is the biggest building in the Space Centre, big enough that even the biggest rockets can fit inside it without touching the ceiling.” “Where's the rockets?” “Yeah, we want rockets! We want rockets! We want-” He cut off the chant before more than three of them got involved. “Well, unfortunately there aren't any rockets being built right now, but when we get over to the Spaceplane Hangar you can see...” He spotted the looks on the teachers' faces. “Um, anyway. This is the tallest building in the entire Space Centre, and if you look waaaay up there, those yellow things on the ceiling are huge cranes that can lift entire rocket subassemblies-” “Boooooring!” “I hafta pee!” “Gift shop?” “Where's the rockets?” “Why are you wearing a spacesuit if you're not going to space?” “Who ate my gummy bears?” “I'm boooooored!” The grin was decidedly forced now. Famous kerbonot or naut- Kerbonaut or not, those infuriating children were making him have thought typos!- Jeb's patience was wearing thin and without a big shiny rocket to distract them the infuriating children were free to pester him with inane questions. Fortunately, he spotted two familiar faces and hurried in their direction to dump the school tour on someone else for a while. As he approached, gaggle of children following in his wake, he picked up their conversation. Gene, flight director and general Space Program manager, was even grumpier than usual; Mortimer, head of finance, was looking even more flustered than usual. “- possibly keep up with that kind of schedule without increasing the budget!” “Yes, Gene, I did raise that point on several occasions. Might as well have been talking to a brick wall. 'Safety costs money', 'Costs more to fail than to succeed', the whole shebang, but none of it mattered. 'Do more, with less money, and hurry up about it!' is all I got out of them.” “Bah! New rocket parts don't grow on trees, it takes time- and funding- to get them approved for use and run the test launches, and those private corporations are all too happy to drop the bill for actually testing their new creations in our publicly under-funded lap.” “Not to mention the bills for all those clerical staff we keep having to employ to shift all that ludicrous paperwork, tracking every penny spent on toothbrushes and toilet rolls while we employ a small town just to dot each T and cross every I.” “Well, boys and girls!” Jeb broke into their conversation very loudly. “Look who we have here: it's Gene and Mortimer!” “Who?” “They're not spacemen!” “Boooooring!” “Where's the rockets?” “I hafta pee!” “Gift shop?” Gene and Mortimer glowered daggers at both Jeb and the gaggle of children behind him. “No, Jeb, we still won't have games konsoles on the Trailblazer.” said Mortimer; Jeb sighed. “Frankly, it's a miracle we're getting the Trailblazer at all, and even then that's mostly because the deposits are non-refundable.” “The meeting with the Board didn't go well then?” Gene chuckled humourlessly. “They didn't shut us down, so at this point I'd say it was a roaring success. Bureaucrats,” he spat the word out like it was a fly that had just flown into his mouth, “seem to think that brand new, flight qualified rockets just parachute out of the sky straight into the VAB.” CRASH! Everyone looked up at the sound as something came, well, crashing, through one of the skylights in the roof. CLANG!!! It hit a support girder with a crane mounted on it just below the ceiling, snagging a parachute on said crane which meant that the rest dropped half way to the floor before becoming stuck. That final jolt made Tina's teeth rattle. She wasn't sure exactly what she had just landed on, or in, but at least she was still in one piece. Until her seatbelt pinged open, dropping her onto the door of the pod which opened immediately and presented her with a very long drop to a floor far, far below. And the other parachute, which she fell straight into, tangling in it enough to slow her descent but not enough to stop it, until she fell out the other end but got her foot snagged in one of the parachute lines and continued downwards as the parachute slowly ripped in half before she finally came to a sudden halt with a most undignified squeal, upside down. Eyeball to eyeball with a rather surprised Jeb. She let out an even less dignified sound that wasn't so much squeal as squee. All that blood rushing to her head must be to blame. Must be. Quick, quick, say something clever about your amazing rocket that you made yourself! “You owe me a phone.” What was that!?!? Jeb looked at her blankly. So did the- are they children?- behind him, before she somehow rotated round and came face to face with an equally bemused Gene and Mortimer. She squee-ed again- what is WRONG WITH YOU!?!?- then blurted out: “Hiiii, I want to be a spaceman. Girl. Woman. I like spaaaaaace, why is everything going red? Am I leaking? I feel like I'm leaking.” There was a chorus of “Eeeeewwwww!”s from the children. “Not like thaaaat...” Something high above slipped slightly, dropping her closer to the floor with a sudden lurch and yet another undignified noise in the general vicinity of squuurk. She rotated to face Jeb again, who was still looking utterly befuddled. And so were the children. Apart from one who looked inexplicably relieved and slightly uncomfortable at the same time. “What, have none of you ever seen someone hanging upside down by their ankles before?” One kid piped up. “Well there was that one time I got home from school early and-” before suddenly realising that this might not be the time or place for that particular anecdote and closing his mouth with an audible clack. “You still owe me a phone.” Stop with the phone already! “I owe you a phone?” Jeb was utterly bewildered. “Uh-huh. Because you broke it.” Seriously, just drop it. “I broke your phone?” “Yep.” Drop. It. Now. “Really?” Slightly exasperated “Yes.” I give up. This is entirely on you. Sincerely, your conscience. Slightly indignant “When?” “When you did that thing with the parachute.” “...nope...” “And then you did some silly pose.” “...nope...” “And then you said 'something something land a Dynawing backwards' and Val said 'brick through a plate glass window more like' and you-” Jeb's eyes widened, an impressive feat in itself given his previous bewilderment. “Wait- you!?” Snap. Squeal. THUD. Tina was now lying on the floor but with one foot still hoisted in the air by the parachute, which was somehow even less dignified than before. “Yup, it's me. Now pay up.” She let loose a ridiculously childish giggle for no apparent reason. “I still don't see how I owe you a phone th- ohhhh. Right. That.” Jeb looked rather sheepish. Tina looked utterly ridiculous, flailing around on the floor trying (with limited success) to free her foot from the parachute. She scowled at Gene and Mortimer and said: “Don't offer to help me or anything.” Something high above them finally gave out and the DAGGER began falling straight towards her. Without hesitating, Jeb grabbed her arms and dragged her out the way just before a fridge landed right where she had been, followed by the rest of the rocket which floated down surprisingly gently as the remaining parachute billowed and caught the air as it fell. Tina spotted Jeb's discarded helmet rolling past her and said “Hey can I-borrow-thisblaaaaaaagh” before realising that the visor was open and the curved interior had splashed most of it back to spatter across her legs. But she felt much better! “Eeeeeewwwww!” chorused the children. Mortimer looked decidedly green... -er. “What is that?” Gene asked, pointing at the now-fridgeless but otherwise intact DAGGER. “That's my rocket.” Tina replied. “Your rocket?” “Yes, my rocket.” “You built this? With a fridge on the top? And you flew in it!?” Jeb asked, incredulous. “Yes- ooh, hang on...” Tina's neck hadn't taken kindly to her suddenly turning her head the other way and had seized up. She tilted her head to one side then slowly circled it back and around to tilt the other way, eliciting a sound like splintering wood as she did. “Eeeeeeewwwwww!” Mortimer turned another shade greener. “It's an air-breathing rocket. I called it DAGGER- Dual-mode Air-Guzzling Gas Engine for Rockets.” “Booooring!” a kid shouted. Tina turned on him. “Oh yeah? Did you build a rocket? In your shed? And launch it into SPACE?” “no” “You launched that thing into space with a fridge on it!?” Jeb was even more incredulous, but also looked like he really wanted to try it for himself. “No, silly, I put the fridge on after so I could fly around in it. Just had a teensy bit of trouble with the controls not working and went the wrong way.” Someone burst through a door on the far side of the VAB. “INCOMING!!! WE HAVE INCOM- oh.” Jeb saw an opportunity, and seized it with both spacesuit-gloved hands. “And now I'll hand over to my colleague” he squinted at the newcomer's name badge- “Erbo here, who will give you a tour of the” more squinting “Tracking Station. Isn't that exciting?” “Who?” “Booooooring!” “Gift shop?” “You're not a spaceman either!” “Where's the rockets?” The school tour left with the hapless Erbo leading them out the door he had just entered by, and Jeb let out a huge sigh of relief. “Aaaaaanyway...” Gene gave the DAGGER a close inspection and was clearly impressed with what he saw. “So this is the rocket that Desdas was raving about at that family party last munth.” “You know Desdas?” “Yes, he's my aunt's cousin's step-daughter's cousin's uncle, once removed.” He noticed the looks everyone else was giving him. “It was a really big party.” He turned to Mortimer. “Have we given out the Kanopus scholarship yet?” “I've been asking you to do that for the last three weeks.” He turned to Tina. “Have you done your Level 3 exams yet?” “They're called B-levels now, and they're next munth.” “Hmm. OK then: if you can get five A grades-” “They're graded by numbers now, not letters. Old grade As are now grade 1s” “Who makes this stuff up!? Fine, five grade 1s. If you get five of those including maths, physics and at least one more science, then I'll get you a place in the winter intake for the Rising Stars program.” It took a few seconds for that to sink in. Rising Stars took in school leavers, or in some cases school students, and in the space of half a year gave them in-depth learning on all things space-related and plenty of hands-on experience to back up the theory plus considerable physical training and assessments throughout. The entry requirements were strict, the learning curve precipitous and the drop out rate rarely dipped below 80%, but those who completed it were fully qualified to enter the Astronaut Program and had guaranteed places if they wanted them. Which a surprisingly small number actually took up; for many of them, the idea of spending a couple of years doing even more intensive training was enough to make them realise that space wasn't for them, and were soon spoilt for choice as major corporations lobbed job offers at them. Aaaaaaand it's sunk in. Tina leapt up from the floor and shook Gene's hand so rapidly he thought his wrist had just been dislocated. “ThankyouthankyouTHANKYOUthisisAMAZINGIAMSOHAPPY- oh...” And fell to the floor face first with a THUD. There was a stunned silence as the three of them looked at her, trying to work out what had just happened. Jeb poked her with his foot and got no response. “Is she dead?” Mortimer asked, looking even greener-er than before. “Just passed out. All that dangling upside down would push blood to her head, then when she stood up too quickly it all drained away again et viola, face plant.” “Uh, Jeb? It's voila, not viola.” “Aaagh! Those infuriating children are making me make speech typos now too! How is that even possible!?” Gene pulled an old brick phone from his pocket and punched in a number. Literally punched; the keys were clunky and required brute force to operate. “I need a medic and an engineering team to the VAB right away.” He looked over at the puddle oozing out of Jeb's helmet. “And a janitor. No, make that three janitors.” “And the smallest command pod we've got!” Jeb shouted before Gene could hang up. “No, Jeb.” “But she flew it!” “No, Jeb.” “In a fridge!” “No, Jeb.” “But-” “No. Jeb.” Jeb gave up and walked off, already plotting his dastardly plan to get hold of that tiny little command pod and take the DAGGER for a spin. The medical team arrived and scooped Tina up on a stretcher before whisking her off to the medical centre in the Astronaut Complex, then the engineering team arrived and began checking the DAGGER over for damage and any potential hazards like fuel leaks. Gene gave them strict instructions not to let Jeb anywhere near it before he and Mortimer left to deal with yet more paperwork and left the janitors to clean up the VAB floor. *** Tina woke up with a thundering headache. Her mind felt fuzzy, everything after the parachutes deployed a featureless blur. A face slowly came into focus over her, shining a bright light into her eyes and saying something that sounded like they were speaking underwater. A few more minutes were needed before tina_kerman.exe had fully reloaded; during that time she wondered idly why it was written in K-sharp, and indeed how she knew it was K-sharp since she had only ever seen KOBOL and learnt Kobra; then she wondered why all those code languages began with K, and that started her thinking about why so many other things inexplicably seemed to start with the letter K as well, which nearly krashed tina_kerman.exe until some prokesses were prioritised to allow it to kontinue to funktion korrectly. More or less. Which is why when the doctor tried to check her pupil responses again she suddenly lunged forwards and tried to kiss him. He only just responded in time and retreated, tripped over a stool and ended up in a heap on the floor. The nurse setting up an IV on Tina's other side found that hilarious. Until Tina spotted the needle. *** Tina blinked and suddenly the world snapped back into focus. Her head hurt, her face hurt, everything hurt. She tried to move but couldn't and when she looked down she was horrified to see her arms and legs had been strapped down to the bed with restraints. When the door opened she was sure it would be a group of black-suited agents wearing sunglasses ready to cart her off to some secret base for interrogation, or else a group of hazmat-suited scientists with pointy things to poke at her with. Fortunately, it was just a young looking doctor who checked her vitals on a medical monitor then almost timidly approached her. “I'm going to take those restraints off now, as long as you promise not to kiss me again.” “What? I didn't-” Yes you did. You tried to kiss the doctor. What!? And you nearly got killed by a fridge. How did that happen? And you shouted at a small child. ...should I feel bad about that? Small children are infuriating; everyone knows that. AND you threw up in Jeb's helmet too. No, no, this can't be true... And then she remembered it all, and wished furiously that the ground would open up and swallow her. An older doctor entered the room. “So, there's some good news and some bad news.” She told her. “The bad news is, we found a small blood clot in your brain, most likely because of all that dangling upside down.” She spotted Tina's terrified look and continued. “The good news is, we gave it a quick blast with that laser thingy and it's gone now. It's also good news for you, because it explains why you tried to kiss poor Lewwise here-” she patted the young doctor on the shoulder, who blushed nearly as deeply as Tina- “and why you tried to pick a fight with two nurses, three orderlies and a fire extinguisher.” Tina's blush shifted to a similar colour to said fire extinguisher. “We've already contacted your parents and they're on their way. I've also been asked by the Director to give you this, and to tell you 'five 1s'.” She handed Tina a plain brown envelope, which she opened to reveal a glossy promotional leaflet for the Rising Stars program and an application form. A little thrill of excitement raced down her spine- he actually did mean it! This was her ticket to the Space Program! A shadow loomed outside the window. The older doctor glanced towards it, did a double take, then her eyes widened and she grabbed the younger doctor and threw them both to the ground just before there was a tremendous BANG from outside. The window shattered an instant before something large and white crashed through it, accompanied by a shower of debris. A hatch opened in the large white thing and Jeb emerged from inside it, speaking with the excess volume of someone who's just witnessed a loud explosion at close range. “Wow, that little thing had some kick! That's the most fun I've had in a rocket in years! Just don't tell Gene or-” he spotted Tina staring at him. “Well, hello again. Fancy meeting you here, heh. I'll just be... going...” The door he was trying to open was blocked by the pod meaning he was trapped in the room. Tina spotted something on the floor next to her bed, stood and picked it up: it was part of the DAGGER's thrust chamber, and then it all made perfect, terrible sense. “You...” She advanced slowly towards Jeb, who was still smiling but looked decidedly nervous. “You... you stole my rocket?” The smile was slipping. “You stole my rocket?” Jeb shot a pleading look towards the two doctors, but neither of them moved to help him. “And you crashed it!?” Jeb was cornered now, but Tina's IV stand had snagged on the corner of the bed and she couldn't get any closer without either removing it or damaging herself. It was a comical sight: Jeb, fearless astronaut and test pilot, cowering in a corner from an angry teenager. An emergency team forced the door open and tried to get into the room but were nearly flattened by Jeb as he clambered over the pod, through the door and disappeared down the corridor at triple speed with “You better run!” echoing down the corridor after him. *** “He broke it...” Tina said sadly, looking out the hole where the window had been at the debris field scattered across the road all the way down to that bridge in the middle of the R&D complex. True to form, Jeb had tried to fly under it, but on this occasion he misjudged the DAGGER's top-heavy design and couldn't make the turn before clipping a wall and losing part of one wing, sending him hurtling out of control down the road, bouncing and breaking more parts off before crashing through the window of the medical centre at the south end of the Astronaut Complex. There was little hope of repairing the damage as the fuel tank had ruptured and blown out, obliterating everything in front of the central bulkhead in front of the combustion chamber in an instant. The chamber itself had shattered on impact, the rocket nozzle cracked into pieces and one of the fan blades was now buried in the wall of the VAB, ninety metres up. “He broke it...” All that work, all that effort, the tests at Darude and then her flight that morning, now so much scrap and shrapnel. She noticed a strange sound from the corridor beyond her room, something that sounded like 'ow-ow-ow-ow-ow' getting louder and louder until two Kerbals walked in and Tina's mouth dropped open. Gene entered first, one hand firmly grasping the back of Jeb's spacesuit and towing him along backwards in an uncomfortable and undignified way. Jeb looked like he desperately wanted to be somewhere else- in fact he looked exactly like a misbehaving child who had just been given a good telling off. He couldn't meet Tina's eyes, and some part of her found it incredibly funny. “I didn't mean to crash your rocket.” He said, staring at the ground in front of her feet. “And?” Gene prompted him. “And, I shouldn't have taken it without your permission.” “And?” “And, it was wrong of me to do that.” “And?” Gene looked like he was struggling to keep a straight face; Tina immediately understood why and only just managed to keep her own face neutral as she thought of her reply. “And, I'm very, very, very...” Jeb took a deep breath. “Sorry.” Tina took a step forwards and Jeb tried to take a step back but a sharp shove from Gene propelled him forwards again. “Look at me.” Jeb's eyes flicked up to her face, then back to the ground. “Look at me, Jebediah.” He reluctantly obeyed, looking just like a scolded child. “I'm not angry with you, Jeb. I'm just-” she desperately suppressed a giggle and managed to keep a straight face- “I'm just... disappointed.” Gene was making an odd, high-pitched whine and his face had turned a strange colour. “Very disappointed in you, Jebediah. Now go stand in the corner and think about what you've done.” Gene seemed to explode, and one look at his face was too much for Tina who started laughing hysterically too. The two doctors joined in, and after a while Jeb saw the funny side and laughed as well, though his was a slightly nervous laughter as if he expected everyone else to suddenly turn serious. Just when they seemed to be stopping, Gene and Tina would look at each other and start laughing again until there were tears running down both their faces and Tina had an uncontrollable fit of hiccups, which only made things worse. “Well now, young- giggle- young lady, Jeb here has agreed to fully reimburse you- chortle- for the costs of your rocket.” This was clearly news to Jeb, but for once he said nothing. “Really? That's- hiccup- very kind of- hiccup- of you, Jebedebed- hiccup- ebediah. Although there is one- hiccup- small problem with that idea. Hiccup. I don't know what it- hiccup- is actually worth.” She tried holding her breath to suppress the hiccups. “If you have a blueprint or assembly scheme of some kind, I'm sure we'll be able to calculate the costs. Then I'll personally see to it that the funds are deducted from Jeb's wages directly and sent on to you.” Hiccups defeated. “That is an excellent sugges- HICCUP!” She clapped both hands over her mouth. Hiccups- 1, Tina- 0. She spotted a jug of water and a glass, poured herself a glass of water, then thought again and just drank straight out of the jug in another attempt to suppress the hiccups. “An excellent suggestion. I can send over a full schematic by tomorrow.” Well, since we're all in agreement.” Gene ignored Jeb, whose face said he was anything but in agreement, and turned to the two doctors. “Please ensure miss Tina here is provided with lunch and that her clothes are returned to her when they're cleaned.” Tina blushed brightly, but nobody seemed to notice. “Jeb, you are dismissed.” Jeb couldn't get out of the room quickly enough. “I look forward to meeting you again, Tina, although possibly not under the same conditions.” Tina blushed even brighter, and Gene gave her a wry smile before leaving. He was half way down the corridor when he heard a tremendous HICCUP! behind him and chuckled to himself. About half an hour later a messenger arrived to tell Tina that her parents' plane was on final approach and to reunite her with her newly-washed clothes. She got dressed as quickly as she could, glad to be rid of the scratchy and horribly thin medical gown she had been wearing before, and then followed the younger doctor- Lewwise, she remembered- along to the main cafeteria for a plate of 'extra-hot five-bean chilli surprise', which she demolished at a speed that left everyone around her amazed, and even went back for seconds, which was unheard of. Nobody had seconds on chilli surprise day! She didn't even hear the plane landing, but Lewwise got a message on his pager and led her towards the rear entrance of the Astronaut Complex towards the waiting jet. Just as they were about to walk out the door, Tina heard a familiar voice behind her. “Did you think you could just leave without saying hello?” She turned around, a big silly grin spreading across her face. “Val!” “Who'd you expect?” Tina only just stopped herself from running over and hugging her, wary of embarrassing herself in front of another Space Program legend, and instead walked over and offered her hand for a handshake. “Is it true? Did you really crash a rocket through the VAB skylights right in front of Gene, Morty, Jeb and that school tour?” “Well, yes, but-” “And did you really puke in Jeb's helmet in front of them too?” Blushing furiously, Tina said nothing, which made Val laugh. “And then to cap it all off, after Jeb stole your rocket and crashed it, Gene actually dragged him- by the scruff of his neck, no less- back to you and made him apologise?” “Yes! He looked like a kid who got caught raiding the cookie jar, and I told him I was very disappointed in him and- GET BACK HERE!” Jeb had appeared round a corner, spotted Tina and immediately turned on the spot and raced back the way he had come, leaving a confused looking- Bob? Bill?- standing in the middle of the hall. “Do NOT make me come over there!” Bob/Bill made the connection and laughed. “Oh, Jeb, you're in trouble!” The only reply was loud footsteps disappearing at a run. “Don't worry, I'll make sure he gets reminded of his misdeeds at least once every, hour? Is that too lenient?” “Hour and a half. He did apologise, after all.” “Fair enough. So what exactly made you think it was a good idea to try and drop a rocket on the VAB?” “It was an accident. The controls didn't work and it just flew until it ran out of fuel. I couldn't even see where I was going when the chutes opened. Just pure blind luck.” “Tina, threading a needle first time is luck; flying a rocket plane for nearly half an hour with no controls only to drop straight through an eight-by-two-metre window on top of the VAB... The odds of that happening are astronomical- and believe me, I know a thing or two about that.” Tina smiled, but it faded as a memory resurfaced from the flight. “Val, when you first went up there, did you ever feel...” She struggled to find the words to describe what she had felt. “Lonely?” Val finished her sentence. “Just you, all alone in a tiny tin can, hurtling through the sky at ridiculous speeds with nothing but those pessimistic voices trying to make you doubt yourself?” Tina was startled at her insight. “First time, second time, and every time since. Doubting yourself is just part of being Kerbal, Tina; down here it's easy to drown them out, but up there with no distractions, you have plenty of time to think and that's when they rear their ugly, metaphorical heads.” “How do you deal with them?” Val's smile looked slightly sinister. She made a twirling motion with her finger in the direction of Lewwise, who obediently turned around and began intently studying the pattern of scuff marks on the floor. Val leaned in close and whispered to Tina. “I give them all spectacularly rude names, and whenever they try to talk to me I throw every swear word I know at them. And with so many people from all around Kerbin working here, I know a great many of them.” Tina just stood and gawped at her. That was not the answer she had expected at all! “Of course, I never actually say anything out loud. Except that one time I accidentally called Gene an 'Arstotzka', but as far as I know that's just a type of cheese from somewhere up north.” “Erm, Val?” Lewwise broke into their conversation. “It's really... not.” “Then what is it?” In response he came closer and whispered something to Val, who suddenly blushed brightly. “oh” Seeking a quick change in subject, Val turned back to Tina. “So are you going to rebuild your rocket?” She thought about it for a moment before coming to the logical, if unpalatable conclusion. “No.” “No? Why not?” “I have exams next munth, and I need to do really well in them so that I can get that Kanopus scholarship and get into the Rising Stars program.” “Scholarship? When did this happen?” Tina whirled around to see her parents walking through the entrance. She was a little apprehensive at first, but it was soon clear that they were far more interested in hearing about what she had been doing at the KSC, and how she had got there in the first place, than telling her off for flying away and making them worry about her. “I met Director Gene Kerman and he said he'd give me the scholarship to pay the entry fees for Rising Stars, but only if I got five grade 1s in my exams.” “Well, in that case I'm putting you two in charge of making sure she gets those grades.” Val blinked, then added: “Wow, I just had this really weird feeling of déjà-vu.” “Me too,” Dad added, “and for some reason I'm thinking about Minmus sorbet.” “Some things never change.” Said Mum. “And while we're on that subject, why don't you explain to Tina why her controls didn't work.” Dad blushed and stammered, “Er, we don't even know that that that was the problem. That was too many thats in that sentence, I know that much.” “This electronics genius,” Mum pointed her head in his direction, “dropped the walkie talkie when you launched and then stuck the batteries in the wrong way round. He was also in charge of putting fresh batteries in your control joystick last night and must have put them in the wrong way as well.” “You don't know that!” Dad protested. “Well, why don't we go and have a look at the DAGGER and prove it one way or the other.” She spotted Tina's expression. “Tina, what's wrong? What happened? They told us the DAGGER was intact when it landed.” “It was, until Jeb stole it.” “He did what?” “And then he crashed it.” “He did what!?” “And it got smashed to bits.” Mum spotted Jeb trying to sneak past by hiding behind a janitor with a cleaning trolley. “Jebediah Kerman, you get over here RIGHT NOW, YOUNG MAN!” Jeb bolted back into the corridor and there was a loud crash as he knocked over a second cleaning trolley in his haste to escape. “It's alright, he's going to pay for it when I send a schematic over; Director Gene said so. Apparently he's also a distant relative of Desdas and already heard about me and the DAGGER.” “See? It all worked out well even if I did put the batteries in wrong. Which is not an admission of guilt, just so you know.” Val looked at her watch. “Well, it's been great to see you again, Tina, and I look forward to seeing you around here more often in future.” With a final flurry of handshakes, Team Tina turned and headed towards the waiting plane and were soon airborne and heading home again. It was at that point that Tina discovered why nobody ever had seconds on chilli surprise day as she felt something deeply unpleasant happening inside her; she spent most of the flight locked in the toilet at the back of the cabin, emerging just before landing looking dishevelled and slightly traumatised. It took her a while to realise that they weren't driving home. Her suspicions were aroused when neither of her parents would tell her where they were going but they seemed to be heading to the beach where she was supposed to have landed. They parked in a deserted back street and walked through the dunes towards the beach, and as they got closer Tina could hear loud music and see a large kite that looked suspiciously rocket shaped. Then they crested the final dune, and Tina's jaw dropped. The entire town seemed to be there, spread across the whole beach. There was a large stage setup in the middle just in front of the water with speakers blasting music; at least a dozen vans and trailers selling burgers, hot dogs and ice creams; hundreds of children swimming or splashing around in the sea; a fifty-a-side game of football- the proper football where you actually kicked the ball instead of that weird version with the body armour- which was slightly complicated by the fact that there were at least four different balls in play at any given time and nobody seemed to know whose team they were on; and huge screens scattered around which were showing a hundred different views of the DAGGER's launch that morning. Someone on the beach spotted her arrival and within seconds the beach erupted with cheers and applause. Before she had a chance to react, she was lifted off her feet and carried through the crowd towards the stage as thousands of people chanted her name. Waiting on the stage was the town mayor and the police chief. “Everyone!” The mayor's voice boomed out through the speakers but was barely audible over the noise of the crowd. “Our very own junior astronaut, Tina! Who built her own rocket out of junk and scrap and blew up a Science Fair!” There were a lot of laughs, but by now almost everyone knew the story of what had happened at the Science Fair and the laughter wasn't aimed at her. “Who rebuilt said rocket overnight, took it out to a test range and fired it into space!” A loud cheer went up from the crowd. “Who was so impatient to join the Space Program, she had to fly that very same rocket straight to the Kerbin Space Centre and make her case directly to the Program's director.” The big screens played a video, obviously recorded by one of the kids from the school tour, showing the DAGGER come crashing through the ceiling and Tina's extremely undignified arrival. Fortunately for Tina, it didn't include any of the conversation that had happened just after that. “Whose rocket was so incredible, even the famous Jebediah Kerman, test pilot and Kerbonaut, couldn't last more than three minutes at its controls before, well...” The mayor pointed up to the screen above their heads and a video from a camera on the VAB roof played, showing Jeb's disastrous attempt to fly under the R&D bridge and the audience gasped at the impressive fireball that resulted. “Don't worry, folks, I've been assured that he walked away from that unharmed.” “No he didn't.” Tina interrupted. “He RAN away, as fast as he could, and had to be dragged back by the scruff of his neck to apologise for stealing and crashing my rocket.” The crowd cheered even louder than before. The mayor waited for the noise to die down slightly before speaking again. “However...” There was a chorus of boos and jeers. “However, even Kerbonauts are required to obey the law. Chief Dibella, over to you.” The police chief walked up to the microphone and waited for the booing to quiet down. “Martina Kerman, this morning you were observed in operation of what eyewitnesses described as, and I quote, 'A Spaceship'. I need to see a licence and registration for said vehicle.” Tina saw the chief wink at her, out of view of the audience, and understood where she was going with it. “But Officer, the documents were in the rocket when it was destroyed.” “That is no excuse, young lady. Operating a spaceship without a licence or proof of ownership is a serious criminal offence.” More booing and jeering from the crowd greeted that statement. “I'm afraid there's only one thing for it. Prepare the slide!” A number of generators sputtered into life and the big screen behind the stage split in half and folded away to reveal a gigantic inflatable slide extending out into the water and inflating to its full height. Chief Dibella guided Tina to a small changing room hidden behind the stage where she changed into a wetsuit before being escorted to the top of the slide by a pair of police sergeants. The slide was a lot steeper when seen from the top and Tina suddenly felt nervous. The whole slide was swaying slightly in the light breeze and the far end of the slide was visibly moving with the waves. A cameraman appeared to provide the video and audio feeds for the big screens, clipping himself onto a safety line to avoid falling off the narrow platform at the top of the slide. The two sergeants grabbed an arm and a leg each and prepared to throw Tina down the slide, but then paused. “Are we going on three?” “Yep, sounds good.” “OK, in one-” they swung her out over the edge and back again, “two- wait a second.” They dropped her unceremoniously to the floor. “Is that one, two, three and then go or one, two, go on three?” “One, two, go. That's what we said- go on three.” “I always thought it was one, two, three, go. Maybe we should count backwards instead?” “Oh, HURRY UP!” Tina told them. She saw a look pass between them before they picked her up again. “Aaand, THREE!” They hurled her down the slide. She accelerated at a dizzying rate before hitting the ramp at the end and flying up through the air. She screamed in terror and exhilaration in equal measure, seemed to hang in the air for ages before dropping into the sea with a tremendous splash. She surfaced several seconds later and a huge cheer went up from the crowd. Someone paddled up to her on a paddle-board wearing a lifeguard's uniform and after blinking sea water out her eyes she recognised him. “Darryl?” He responded by diving off the board and into the sea- totally unnecessary as she was barely a metre away, but it looked good from her vantage point - and reappeared behind her. She was quite happy to let him push her towards the board and help her up onto it before he joined her. He knelt down to keep the board balanced and began paddling towards the shore with Tina sitting behind him clinging on to his waist. She found that to be a very enjoyable experience even when people in the crowd started wolf-whistling to them. More huge inflatables were deployed and soon there were queues waiting for a turn on each one; everyone moved aside to let her through and somehow every time she splashed into the sea it was Darryl who picked her up and carried her back to shore. Later in the afternoon they ended up sitting with Darryl's family eating hot dogs and having a wide-ranging conversation about everything from rocket launches to rocket salad and on occasions venturing into contentious territory, such as the correct order of ketchup and mustard application on hot dogs- Tina and Darryl both argued that ketchup should come first, but Darryl's parents and sister Marta were adamant that mustard should precede ketchup. It also turned out that Tina's dad and Darryl's dad were in the same pub quiz team so he passed on a message to Tina that her parents had gone back home and gave her strict instructions to be back before it was dark. The sun was beginning to set by the time they left the beach, and they were some of the earliest to leave. They walked back into town until they reached a point where Darryl's home was to the right and Tina's was to the left and split up, with Tina and Darryl continuing towards her house together. At some point along the way he started holding her hand and an unfamiliar but pleasant tingling sensation spread up her arm and then out through her whole body. She confided in him about that strange feeling that had come over her during the DAGGER's flight and he listened attentively without making any patronising or 'helpful' comments. In no time at all they were standing outside her front door and to her surprise she was reluctant for the walk to end. They just stood for a while, facing each other and holding both hands, then at some unspoken signal they kissed. That little tingle when he had first held her hand paled into insignificance next to the incredible rush of sensation that suddenly surged through her. Each second felt like hours, every nerve felt like it was extra sensitive and conscious thought was just along for the ride. Until they heard the door being unlocked and broke apart suddenly before it opened. Darryl said “See you on Munday.” then turned and walked away, and Tina just said “Bye.” and watched him leave. She felt... different. Different in a good way. She felt like she was floating above the ground instead of standing on it. Not even the rush of hurtling down that huge slide could compete with what she was feeling now. She walked inside, completely missing the look on Dad's face that on any other occasion would have provoked embarrassed outrage, walked upstairs to the bathroom, peeled off the wetsuit and stood under the shower marvelling at how she could feel every individual little jet of water and every drip from the nozzle that didn't work right, every little grain of sand stuck between her toes, every crystal of salt in her hair. She wandered through to her room afterwards and was asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. Dad chuckled to himself as he climbed into his own bed. “The love bug has bitten at last.” “Like you're one to talk, Martin. How many years did it take you to pluck up the courage to ask me out?” “It wasn't talking to you that scared me, it was the thought of having to talk to your mother. I once saw her scowl at a bottle of milk and it instantly turned into cheese!” Mum laughed quietly. “I admit, she can be a bit intimidating at first, but once you get to know her... She's still terrifying.” “Still, better for Tina to get it out of her system now.” “What do you mean?” “She's dead set on going to space, Jeanette. She could be gone for weeks or munths at a time; if she gets assigned to one of those interplanetary missions they're talking about, she could be away for years. I worry that one day, she'll have to choose between her love for someone here, and her love for space. And no matter which choice she makes, she'll regret it for the rest of her life.” “So do I, Martin, so do I.” Chapter 6

Radiators don't tend to help all that much for re-entry heat. Parts have two heat values- skin and core; re-entry heats the skin temperatures quickly and the core temperatures slowly, and skin overheating is usually the cause of heat-related explosions. Radiators can only pull core heat out of parts, they don't affect skin temperatures. Regarding time warp, things can get a little bit weird when you're using physics warp (x2-x4 speed), so it's entirely possible that the heat is being generated and dissipated at different rates with different time warp speeds which would explain why it heats up less at x2 speed.

On a related note: engines are no use on Eve, the atmospheric pressure will make most of them function poorly and a vacuum engine like the Terrier will be essentially useless. If the heat shield alone doesn’t slow you down enough, a couple of parachutes certainly will, but rockets are dead weight and jets don’t work either as there’s no oxygen in the air.