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KSK

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  1. Squad's permission is precisely the issue for the reasons I outlined earlier. If they're OK with it then, with respect, your opinion on the matter is worth jack squat. Conversely if I'm completely wrong and Squad turn around and have Voyager taken down for whatever reason, then my opinion on the matter is likewise worth jack squat. Regarding fan fiction, I don't believe much of it does make money, probably because a lot of it is pretty derivative and too obviously close to the source material for the fanfic writer to get away with publishing it for money. There's one notable exception I can think of but that was also extensively re-written to the extent that I suspect most people wouldn't recognise what it was a derivative of unless they were told. Derivative works in general - again, if the original author (or copyright holder - not always one and the same) is OK with it then *shrug*. I might not bother with the works personally, but I have no objection to them in principle, still less to anyone getting paid to create them. I think we need to agree to disagree on that point however. Regarding your last point, I agree up to a point. KSP videos are hardly in short supply and most of them I probably wouldn't bother with. A Nassault KSP video on the other hand, I probably would go and watch - because I've seen his work before and I like it. The Nassault name is probably more important to me than the KSP name to me when deciding whether to watch a KSP video. I might well be an outlier there but I suspect not. In general, I think you're overstating the importance of the original work whilst understating the creative effort that can go into a derivative work, particularly when it comes to Kerbal Space Program. KSP was (obviously) the inspiration behind Voyager and I wouldn't deny the importance of that inspiration for a minute. Likewise, I would never deny the importance of anything Squad contributes, not least the Kerbals as recognisable and popular protagonist(s), and how valuable they are as a 'hook' for Voyager. However, for any story driven fan work, Squad only contribute so much. There really isn't much KSP canon at all beyond a collection of names (whether they be names of kerbals, rocket parts, planets or companies) and three pretty minimal characters. There's no canon for who the kerbals are, their characters and personalities, why they go to space, what they do when they're not going to space, how their space program is organised, how the rest of their world works, or anything. Therefore most of the work involved in creating that, falls on the writer of the fanwork. Therefore I think that the definition of a Derivative Work (which is always a bit blurred anyway) can get pretty tenous when we're talking about KSP. Hence, I have even less objection than I would normally, to anyone getting paid for Voyager.
  2. I only regret that I have but one like that I can award this post. Well said.
  3. Thank you for deleting the first part of my post which was included to address this very point. I'm presuming that either Squad are well aware of Voyager and have not objected to it or, more likely, that Nassault has cleared it with them first. In either case, if Squad aren't concerned about anyone making money from their IP then frankly, neither should anybody else. And if I'm talking out of my hat here then whatever the actual situation is is still a matter between Squad, Nassault and anyone who chose to participate in the Kickstarter. Everyone else - none of our business. Besides, if other people on this thread are correct then yes, Nassault would have been incapable of producing this movie, at least as currently planned or in any sort of reasonable timescale. New hardware doesn't buy itself. Lastly, I'm not sure what you mean by the 'main idea' here but as far as I know, Voyager includes plenty of original material too and if it is successful (which I hope it is), I suspect a lot of that success will come from having Nassault's name attached to it.
  4. Odd - it tends to hearten me. It implies that the creator of the derivative work has reached an amicable arrangement with the creator of the original. In this particular case, it heartens me that people are still prepared to pay for something they value or even to donate a little extra to help make something happen that might not otherwise have happened. More generally, 'derivative works' can be bloody good stories or films or other adaptations in their own right and I see no reason to be sniffy about them. Apologies if that wasn't your intent but it did sound like it to me at any rate
  5. News flash. Most successful artists, actors, writers or whatever started out by creating stuff whilst having a day job to pay the bills. The idea that none of them should have had the temerity to want to make money from their creative efforts is equally ridiculous. Declaring something to be a 'hobby project' and by implication, financially worthless is patronising and in very poor taste. But that's just my opinion. Also, this 'hobby project' which you deem to be unworthy of people's money is somehow also good enough to net millions of YouTube views. If you're going to be quite so spectacularly arrogant and condescending then you could at least do us all a favour and try to be coherent too. But that's just my opinion too.
  6. I'm sure Boeing simulated the heck out of the Dreamliner too. Didn't stop problems showing up once the design had been frozen. Likewise, why bother with test flying new planes if the almighty computer says 'yes this will work'. I'm pretty sure (without a shred of evidence to support this mind) that SpaceX would have simulated that last landing. If it didn't have a hope of working then they wouldn't have bothered. As it was, they very nearly pulled it off, so I'm guessing that the simulations were too close to call and they decided to run the test and get the extra data.
  7. Somebody needs to make a mod for your R&D team! I can just picture the backdrop to the VAB and how it would be enlivened by the occasional chunk of twisted metal bouncing off the ground outside or one of those powersliding vehicles. All with appropriate comments appearing in speech bubbles of course.
  8. Last one before bed! With grateful thanks to Sir Nahme who wrote the original and let me include it in my fanfic. Good kerbals, I give you - the Ballad of Kerbal 1! At first I was afraid. I was petrified... Thought we would never make it back, if we let Jebediah drive. And so I spent oh so many nights, thinking what could all go wrong. But I got onboard - and I brought parachutes along... And now we're back! From the edge of space. I rode shotgun on the launch with my friend Bill in the far left place. We saw the Mün. We saw the stars. And we even made it home without too many scars! Oh yeah we're back. From the edge of space! We soared across the sky - and you should have seen Jeb's face. We saw the Mün. We saw the stars. Even if the capsule seat, got imprinted on my...
  9. Thankfully, I was not drinking coffee at the time, else you'd owe me a new keyboard. Good job! Oh - and with apologies to Michael Stipe: Kerbin spinning on the edge of the night. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. My capsule drifts towards the morning light. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Life support, parachutes - and boosters I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Feeling pretty happy that we aint made a mess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, Lodan* did you hear about this one? Tell me, are you watching us, son. Hey, Lodan - we aint goofing off early. Not when we're having fun! And you'd better believe, We'll put a kerb' on the Mün! A kerb' on the Mün. And you'd better believe; there's plenty up here to see! And all of it's cool... *Character from my fanfic.
  10. Bookmarked - and thank you!
  11. NERVA apparently had a TWR of about 7. Which is low compared to chemical rockets but seems to compare very favourably to jet engines. With modern materials it could probably also be improved. So that atmospheric speed boost doesn't look very likely. You might as well just use a nuclear engine all the way up rather than faffing about with a SABRE. If you do need to use air as reaction mass, you'd be better off just heating it in the reactor directly.
  12. There doesn't seem much advantage in a nuclear SABRE. The whole point of a nuclear thermal engine is that the propellant is heated by the nuclear reactor rather than by combustion. Hence they have no need for an oxidizer and therefore the whole reason for using SABRE (ability to use atmospheric air as an oxidizer) becomes moot. I suppose you could go for a hot-air rocket that uses air as a propellant whilst in atmosphere but I don't know how efficient it would be. From a materials point of view it would be difficult since you'd need to find something that was resistant to hot oxidizing conditions and hot reducing conditions - assuming you're using LH2 or NH3 as your on-board propellant - and if you're not, then why bother with nuclear at all since most of your ISP advantage disappears with other propellants.
  13. KSK

    Story Time

    Best news I've had all day! Hope you manage to recover everything and look forward to reading more whenever Real Life lets you up for air.
  14. You could try a bit of careful aerobraking at Kerbin. That should lower the delta-V requirement by quite a bit if your ship can take it.
  15. If I remember right, Wattpad was one of the sites that Jake mentioned. I'll check it out - thanks! Not sure if folks are going to be relieved or disappointed by this one but here goes with... A Thin Red Line It was, reflected Dunney, a great convenience that some of the equipment had been left behind after the latest expansion to the Probodyne facilities. A forklift truck rumbled slowly past, deposited its cargo and backed carefully away. Stacks of bricks and timbers sat on wooden pallets under lean-to shelters, their corrugated steel roofs extensively guttered. Other pallets held woven plastic sacks of sand, gravels and assorted other aggregates. Yellow-hatted kerbals squatted by the sacks, checking the labels stencilled on their sides in thick black type. Others were slitting open the sacks, dumping their contents onto shallow steel trays before wheeling them over to a row of heavy, free standing electric kilns. A buzzer sounded. One of the workers hauled a kiln door open, pulled a tray out on its runners and began shovelling hot gravel into a wheelbarrow. Behind her, pairs of sweating workers loaded new trays into another kiln. Nearby, a row of smoking barrows stood by a pair of portable concrete mixers both resting on heavy weighing platforms. Directed by a clipboard wielding supervisor, a team of kerbals were busily loading the mixers, taking great care to shovel in just the right amount of sand or grit from each barrow. Above their heads, a Hope interplanetary probe hung from its towering scaffold, jointed metal legs and folded sample arm looming over them. The last of the array of plateaus, steps and angled ramps used for the drop tests had finally been chipped away and the space beneath the scaffold now resembled nothing more than a kerblet’s sandbox, albeit one large enough to satisfy even the most demanding kerblet. For the moment though, it was empty, with only traces of dark brown grit scattered over the neatly joined boards. The rumbling, scrape-hissing noise stopped. With an effort, a pair of workers trundled the concrete mixers over to the scaffold and dumped their contents into the sandbox. The dirty gravel bore only a passing resemblance to Dunan soil but Dunney was unconcerned. Good matches on mineral composition, rheology and particle size distribution are all I care about. We can throw some dye in later if we need it to look pretty too. He watched the simulation team spread the heap of gravel into an even layer, one of them walking slowly over it, stopping at regular intervals to jab a slender steel spike into the mix. Dunney clambered over the newly built brick wall surrounding the scaffold and knelt down beside the sandbox. He scooped up a handful of simulated soil, letting the now cool, dry grains run through his fingers and listening to spadefuls of fresh aggregates thudding into the mixers behind him. Tracing a line in the dirt with one finger, he watched the edges of the shallow groove crumble and subside. Hmmph - doesn’t look too bad. Let’s see how it does on the sample arm tests. -------- Concrete gushed ponderously around the rebar, between the formwork panels, and over the heavy plastic sheeting that lined the bottom of the shallow, rectangular pond. The thick grey stream quivered jelly-like as it hit the already poured mass, too liquid to stand, too solid to splatter. A gang of kerbals armed with long-bladed spreaders, stood in the wet concrete, shovelling it into place and smoothing off the surface. Erlin watched them work. Across the field, a group of great domed glasshouses were slowly taking shape, five arranged in a cloverleaf pattern, linked by tubular walkways, three others standing apart from the main complex. Cranes reared up against the skyline, steel girders suspended from lattice-work jibs, poised over the nest of scaffolding that surrounded the glasshouse frames. Construction crews swarmed over the steelwork, bright yellow hats dotted over the structures like clumps of flowers. Rows of low-slung, corrugated steel sheds squatted at the edges of the construction site, providing equipment storage and temporary accommodation for the workers. Much of the fresh produce from the Berelgan agricultural research institute had been requisitioned for the on-site canteen and Erlin strongly suspected that the building work had been deliberately timed to coincide with the harvest season for most of their main crops. In the distance, a line of trucks wound slowly along the narrow country road leading to the Berelgan, bringing more construction materials for the Project. Somebody coughed politely. Erlin turned to find Halsy accompanied by Gusemy and another kerbal, both very obviously equipped for outdoor work. He clasped Gusemy’s hand briefly in greeting before studying his companion curiously, taking in the shortened grey cloak worn over a heavier jacket. “Erlin. Pleased to meet you, Keeper.” The stranger nodded. “And you also, Professor. Obrett Kermol, Accident Investigation Department.” “Obrett and her partner were the reason for my last visit,” said Gusemy. “You remember the village we discussed?” Erlin’s features clouded over. “All too well,” he replied. “And more often since then than I care to think about.” He dipped his head respectfully. “Forgive me, Keeper, but the Kerm - was it…?” Obrett shook her head. “We tried,” she said sadly, “but there simply wasn’t enough left to work with, even for our most experienced Keepers. We couldn’t save the new sapling either - we think it was probably weakened by its battle with the older Kerm and by the time we got a team to it, it was beyond their ability to heal. What remains of the Grove is under quarantine - the Department was actually hoping for your advice on how best to reclaim it.” Erlin lifted his head. “Of course,” he said, “I don’t have any immediate ideas I’m afraid but I’ll put a working group together as soon as we return from Barkton.” He looked at Halsy. “Would you mind?” Halsy nodded. “I’ll get right on it, boss. Mallas is away until next month and most of Lowig’s group are at that conference. Willin and Lenoly are just back though and I don’t think they have anything else on for a while.” “They certainly don’t now,” said Erlin. “We can do without Lowig for the moment I think… but we can discuss this later.” He looked at Gusemy. “We do have time for a short tour of the Project before we leave? Not that there’s a great deal to see at the moment.” “All the better for a short tour then,” said Gusemy. He eyed the cement truck behind them, concrete still pouring from its hose. “It’s a lot bigger than I was expecting for all that." “It’s bigger than I was expecting,” said Erlin ruefully. He pointed at the glasshouse frames in the distance. “We’d been working on it for quite a while of course - the KSA commissioned the Project after Pioneer 2, as a facility for developing biological life-support systems for long duration spaceflight. Director Lodan carefully avoided saying too much about the flights he had in mind but from the size of the facilities he wanted and the system specifications that he asked for, we had a pretty good idea that we were looking at voyages to Minmus and quite probably a Münbase of some description.” Erlin gave a short laugh. “Then came Pioneer 4. And Obrick’s Speech. And all the updates to the Project plans.” He flicked his fingers at the construction crews busily levelling the freshly poured concrete. “Welcome to the first of our eventual low pressure laboratories.” Obrett frowned for a moment and then nodded slowly in understanding. “Yes - and it would make more sense to have two.” “A reduced pressure and a low pressure,” agreed Erlin. “Crop plants aren’t going to grow at six percent atmospheric but the lower the pressure we can grow them in, the easier it’s going to be. And if we can get anything to grow at six percent - we’re thinking lichens at the moment - it’ll be a valuable boost to soil conditioning and nutrient capture.” Gusemy’s face cleared. “Duna,” he said incredulously, “you’re talking about building a Duna simulator? “Yes,” said Erlin simply. “Self contained glasshouses - or as near to a glasshouse as we can manage for the low pressure lab. We may have to use artificial light to compensate for the smaller window area, although that might just make for a better mimic of ambient lighting on Duna.” He shrugged. “That’s one of the first things we’ll need to test once it’s built. Anyway, the idea is to have self contained buildings, isolated from the local environment - especially the local soil - that we can use to develop a Dunan agronomy. I suspect the KSA will also want to use it for kerbonaut training at some point.” “What are you planning to use for soil?” asked Obrett. To her surprise, Erlin just grinned. “The KSA have got a whole research team mixing up sands and gravels to put under one of their spare space probes. According to Dunney, they’re testing each mix using the same set of tests that they’ve already run on Duna and comparing their results with the data they got from Hope 4. He thinks they should be able to whip up the next best thing to actual Dunan soil at the actual colony site.” Obrett blinked. “That sounds…feasible,” she admitted. Erlin nodded. “Even if Dunney’s crowd don’t get it quite right, it should be a pretty good approximation.” He checked his watch. “Anyway, we’d better get moving if you want to see any of the Project up close before we set off.” -------- Think that’s about all I can do for now. At least the gingergrass is good for cooking even if it’s not crowding out the damsonwire as well as I’d hoped. Or the wretched knotweed. Seem to spend half my life keeping that under control. The kerbal’s eyes snapped open and automatically turned towards the ceiling, checking for spots on the leaf clusters overhead. Its hands fumbled for the tap on the pedestal in front of it and then, more confidently, reached out for a mug. Jonton sipped his water, scratching absently at the ridged weals running across his stomach. He briefly contemplated refilling the mug then, with a sigh, put it back on its shelf. Four mugs a day keeps the green spots away. But they don’t do a thing to balance the pollinator beds. They'd survive for one more day though. Bet the breadfruit fields could use a good working over instead. Hmm - just like the sapwoods needed checking last week. And the leatherbarks the week before that. He shook out his branches. Guess I’m starting to run out of excuses and Fred’ll never forgive me if I let the prickleberry season run late again. Reluctantly he let his awareness drift outwards through leaf and root and then down, down through the myriad scented soil. The kerbal's head slumped against its shoulders, eyes closing. That's odd. Jonton floated amidst the invisible latticework, brushing gently against its strands, letting its forms and patterns come to him, feeling for a balance that already seemed to be there. He shifted, testing the food webs, the scented gossamer threads of prey and predation, nutrients and water; alert to any ragged patches, any unravelling or over-tightening. The pollinators are fine. Better than fine in fact. Maybe I am building that muscle memory because I definitely don't remember doing any of this. Carefully, Jonton drew back from the lattice, slipping wraithlike through its nets, then letting them fade into his subconscious. He cast his thoughts back to the breadfruit vines and sapwood trees, to the herbs and newly blossoming sunfruit. Something tugged at a corner of his mind - something about the sapwoods taking longer than usual - but the more he tried to remember, the more his thoughts slipped out of reach. The memories seemed curiously soft somehow, like a half-remembered tale of something else long forgotten. Jonton shook his head. However I managed it, I certainly made a good job of it. A pity there won't be any silverlace for Joenie's birthday though - I'll have to find something else to show her. His branches rustled in happy anticipation. Which reminds me - I'd better have a look at Gerselle's worm trap. -------- Gusemy leaned against the gate and inhaled deeply, letting the mingled scents of leatherbark and sweetleaf fill his lungs. The scene was as idyllic as any on Kerbin, clouds scudding across a clear blue sky, casting dappled shadows on the meadows below. Kermol working the fields, their ponchos distant splashes of brown agains the greenery. Insects dancing in the grass, flitting from flower to flower, their soporific droning a melodic counterpoint to the rustle of branches in the wind. And none of it made the slightest bit of sense. Least of all the star poppies by his feet. Gusemy stared at them, curving away into the woods and, he knew, out the other side. Behind him, the trail of scarlet flowers marched unbroken across the landscape, shrinking to a thin red line before vanishing over the next hill. He caught a flicker of movement from the corner of his eye and looked up to see Erlin and Obrett walking slowly towards him, eyes down, following the line. Erlin squatted down, running his fingers over the nearest poppy, tugging gently at it’s petals. Obrett shook her head and joined Gusemy at the fence. She saw his raised eyebrows and spread her hands helplessly. “As far as we can tell, they’re absolutely fine.” She picked at a splinter of wood. “Even the sapwoods - and their surface roots are normally the most vulnerable.” Erlin straightened up. “I’d want to take samples to be sure,” he said, “but everything looked fine to me too. Trees looked healthy and well cared for, good mix of undergrowth species, no obvious fungal overgrowth, dead spots or insect attackers. No trace of Blight at all in fact." "We are in the right place aren't we?" said Gusemy. "These are the right woods?" Obrett nodded. "No question. That new Grove was exactly where we expected from the KSA map. These woods should be dying but it seems that the KSA were right about that as well. "Jonton," murmured Erlin. He looked at the others politely enquiring expressions. "The Keeper that we're due to visit. According to Lodan - and Kerm knows how he got mixed up in it - Jonton survived a Blight incursion but became 'unusually dependent' on his Kerm in the process." He tapped his fingers against a fencepost. "I got the distinct impression there was more to it than that - and Lodan admitted that that was his impression too but he'd told me everything he knew." "Maybe it was bad enough that he managed to persuade his Kerm to pull back from a second battle," mused Obrett. "Drew up a border and agreed to keep out of the other Kerm's way." She saw Erlin's bewildered expression. "I know - it doesn't make any sense to me either. The poppies are at about the right distance from the new village and they'd make a pretty distinctive border from a Kerm's point of view. I just don't understand why Kerm would need such a visual borderline." "It sounds too good to be true," said Erlin. "We've been searching for a Kerm repellent ever since the first Blight reports - and now it turns out you can just ask them nicely not to fight?" "Yes," said Gusemy thoughtfully, "And you contacted us before Pioneer 4 and, more to the point, before Obrick's speech. Project Starseed wouldn't be such a priority if we could prevent any further Blight that easily." "Agreed," said Obrett. "I think there's more to this than we - or Lodan - have been told. I'm very much looking forward to talking to this Jonton." -------- "I can't see them, Daddy - I can't see the worms!" "I know, Joenie, I know. Let me think for a minute." Kerm, learning to see again is even harder than learning to not see. Okay, soil and worm trails. Jonton let the earth scents fill his mind, leaning back into the synaesthesia that he'd taught himself to suppress. Colours bloomed in the darkness; blurred pastel greens, blues and greys rapidly overlaid by a dizzying lace filigree woven from a hundred clashing hues. Hastily he clamped down on his link to Joenie. "Sorry sweetheart - are you alright?" "I saw rainbows, Daddy but they're gone now." To Jonton's relief, Joenie's mental voice just sounded disappointed. "Do the worms live under the rainbows?" "Sort of, Joenie." Right - soil only. Minerals, water, humus. Nothing else. He let the pastels wash over him, struggling to stay focused. Dimly, in the background, he heard ragged breathing, which gradually slowed to a more measured pace. Gathering himself, he opened the link again, feeding a thin trickle of colour along it. "Can you see anything?" Joenie sounded puzzled. "I can see the sea, Daddy but worms don't live in the sea." "It does look like the sea," Jonton agreed. Slowly the colours drifted past, blurring and streaking. "Do you remember the little sandpit you made with Mummy last week?" He sensed Joenie nodding. "Well this is what the sandpit looks like to the tree." He and Joenie floated over a rectangular patch of greenish grey. "Sand looks grey and water looks green. Your sandpit is nice and wet after the rain yesterday, so it turns into that funny greeny-grey colour. Now let's get a bit closer." Jonton let the rectangular patch swim towards them. Closer up, its edge was ragged, almost frothy, with shades of blue churned up and swirling into the grey-green; here like the foam on the crest of a wave, there like stirred milk, spiralling into a glass of sapwood. Feathery, pastel tunnels insinuated themselves deeper into the sand, twisting and turning for no readily discernible reason. Joenie stared entranced at the patterns. Gently, Jonton steered them towards the nearest tunnel, before checking their slow drift and waiting patiently. Before them, the tip of the tunnel turned blocky, jumping forward into the soil in abrupt fits and starts, grey-greens fading into colourlessness and emerging again, some distance away, all churned up and flecked with blue. "Why is it going longer, Daddy?" "Because it's a worm tunnel, sweetheart. Can you see where it changes colour? That's where the worm is - it's eating the sand and mixing it all up before... passing it back out again." "Where's the worm?" said Joenie, "I wanted to see the worm." "I'm afraid the tree can't see the worms," said Jonton gently. "It can only see where they've been, where they've eaten the soil or where they've been talking to each other." A sudden wave of curiosity washed over the mental link. "What do the worms talk about, Daddy?" "Mostly about food," said Jonton. "Or sometimes one worm wants another worm to chase it." He sensed Joenie frown as she turned the idea over in her head. "Do the worms want to play, Daddy? Like when I want Mummy to play chase with me?" "I think they do, sweetheart. Or maybe they just get lonely and want another worm to keep them company. Shall we see if we can listen to what they're saying?" Jonton felt the link flicker suddenly. "Remember to talk to me please, Joenie. Moving your head too much will pull the leaves out." Carefully he reached out into the sand, straining to find the subtle chemical cues without letting the great clamour of other signals intrude on his thoughts. Slowly, a string of irregularly shaped amber beads appeared along the worm tunnel, most of them pale and transparent, a few dark and rich where one of his sensory fibres happened to cross the pheromone trail. "There you go sweetheart. The worm is playing chase - it leaves the yellow beads for the other worms to follow." Joenie giggled. "I want some yellow beads for Mummy to chase!" "Well, you'll have to ask her first, " said Jonton. The image of the worm tunnel flickered for an instant. "Hello, love." "Mummy! Look at the worm talking, Mummy!" "I can see it, sweetheart but we have to say goodbye to the worm now. It's lunchtime for intrepid explorers and Daddy needs to get ready for his important guests." -------- Cinnamon. Nowhere near as bad as at that first village but bad enough. Obrett listened to Gerselle with half an ear, staring curiously at the rows of bunk beds as they walked past and into the sleep room. A pleasant-faced if somewhat careworn looking kerbal greeted them from his place by the Kerm trunk, legs and waist mostly hidden by unusually dense foliage. He raised a hand in greeting. "Everyone, this is my partner, Jonton," said Gerselle, "Jonton, this is Professor Erlin Kerman from the Berelgan Institute, Keeper Obrett Kermol from the Accident Investigation Department..." Jonton looked up sharply as Gerselle continued, "and Ambassador Gusemy Kermol," She looked at Gusemy apologetically, "Although I'm afraid I didn't catch the name of his Grove." "Welcome to our Grove," said Jonton, "Forgive me for not coming over to join you but I'm rather indisposed at the moment." Obrett eyed the water stand placed conveniently next to him. Jonton noticed the direction of her gaze and sighed. "We might as well get this over with I suppose. How much have you already been told?" "That you and your Kerm survived a Blight incursion," said Obrett carefully, "and that you'd become unusually dependent on your Kerm as a result." Behind her, Gerselle snorted softly. Jonton nodded. "That's one way of putting it," he conceded, "even if it's a little simplified." He twitched his branches to one side and Obrett's eyes widened. Gusemy's jaw dropped for a moment, snapping shut with an audible click. Erlin swallowed hard, staring at the vines wrapped around Jonton's torso and legs. Tentatively, Obrett stepped forward. "They look like healing vines," she said, voice only betrayed by a faint tremor, "but I've never seen them so developed. Was there an accident?" Jonton shook his head and Obrett's eyes widened again at the mass of Kerm leaves anchored to his scalp. "Not a physical one, no. The vines attend to my ker... to my needs whilst I remain in Communion." "You're in Communion now?" said Obrett, "Whilst you're still talking to us?" "In a manner of speaking," said Jonton, "It's a long story." "But one we need to hear I think," said Gusemy quietly. "Especially if it concerns the line of star poppies along the edge of your Grove, Keeper." "It does," said Jonton, "but please - take a seat. I have water here if anyone needs it." He waited until his visitors were settled before clearing his throat. "Before we start, you should know that the Twelve Pillars - through Chief Ambassador Donman - are already aware of the early parts of this story and have passed judgement on it. You see, it all begins with me breaking the Law of Territory and it doesn't get a great deal better from there." Jonton sketched out the struggle against Gerselle's Kerm, watching Obrett wince at his description of the sparks. He described the decision to plant a thirty-eighth Kerm in his Grove, the black leaf spots, the Shattering and it's aftermath. He told his horrified listeners about the melting shards, the beginnings of his slide into madness and eventual decision to go an-Kerm. Gerselle blinked back tears as he described the silverlace, Joenie's birthday and the anchor to kerbal reality that she was to provide. Finally he described the long process of learning to be Kerm, the mass Communions and planting the thin red line. Gusemy rubbed his eyes. "That," he said, "is a catch and a half." He saw Jonton's raised eyebrow. "Sorry - we were discussing your poppy line before we arrived. It seemed like such an easy solution to the Kerm crisis that we thought there had to be a catch somewhere." "Jonton," said Erlin. "You deliberately pulled back your territory to give that other Kerm room. I don't suppose you know any way of doing the opposite - of peacefully repelling a Kerm from your own territory?" Jonton shook his head. "I'm afraid not," he answered. "Not without causing it permanent damage." Erlin sighed. "We were beginning to suspect as much," he said. "My team at the Berelgan have been searching for a repellent - something we can use to close-plant Kerm whilst keeping them apart - but without any appreciable luck." "I'm not sure how much this helps on a Kerbin-wide scale then," said Gusemy. "With respect, Jonton, I think you've been extremely lucky." Jonton nodded in heartfelt agreement as Gusemy ticked off the points on his fingers. "Assuming we could get enough volunteers to try going an-Kerm and even assuming they were all successful, there's a huge moral and ethical issue here." He looked at Jonton. "For a Kerm of thirty-eight trees and one kerbal, you seem remarkably kerbal-like to me. Which makes me wonder what happened to your awakened Kerm personality." Gusemy lifted his hands. "You weren't to know and you did your best, but to even contemplate the possible destruction of nascent Kerm minds on a global scale." Gusemy's voice shook. "Nobody could - or should be forced to - countenance such a solution. Jonton and Gerselle stared at him bleakly. Erlin was pale. Obrett just looked grim. "That might be an easy choice if it comes to it." She nodded at Jonton and Gerselle. "I've seen the aftermath of Kerm struggles that did not go as well as your own. Better one dead Kerm than two dead Kerm and a pair of insane or dead Keepers." Erlin swallowed the bile at the back of his throat. "Then let us hope it does not come to it." He cast about for a change of topic. "You told us about learning about your umm, duties, as a Kerm, Jonton. I would very much like to hear about that if you had the time. Kerm micro-ecologies are a study of mine you see - actually being able to discuss them with a Kerm face-to-face would be a tremendous boon." "And I," added Gusemy, "would be extremely interested in visiting your history of Kerbin if we had the time." "That's another long story I'm afraid,” said Jonton. “Although you'd be more than welcome to stay the night and sit in with the first group tomorrow." "First group?" asked Gusemy. "Yes," said Gerselle, "Somehow, word got around after he shared our history with the rest of the village. Ever since then, we've had a steady stream of visitors hoping to see it too." She pointed at the rows of bunks lining the wall. "We had to make special arrangements." Gusemy's face cleared. "Ahhh," he said, "I think we spoke to some of them on the way here. They were looking for the Sage of Barkton - I presume we've just met him?" Jonton stared at his feet. "Yes," he admitted. He looked up at Erlin. "You wanted to know about being a Kerm? If you don't mind a rather simple example, I could show you that now?" Erlin nodded enthusiastically. "In that case please take a bed and make yourself comfortable," Jonton looked at Gusemy and Obrett, "Please - you're welcome to join us, although I'm sure it'll be nothing new to you, Obrett." Obrett was the first to lift her head into the leaf cluster above her pillow. Encouraged by her example and by Gerselle's assurances, Erlin and Gusemy followed suit. Even communing with her own Kerm hadn't - couldn't have - prepared her for Communion with two other kerbals by her side and Erlin and Gusemy were thunderstruck. The link wavered, began to fragment, blown this way and that by excited tempests of thought and spiralling emotional storms. Eventually, aided by Obrett, they were able to form a stable bond and Jonton fed them a first tentative thread of colour. "As I said, it's a little simplistic," Jonton said apologetically, "but Gerselle and I only intended it as a first lesson for Joenie. Our daughter," he added. Obrett decided not to comment. What is there to say - I'm communing with two kerbals and some kind of... Kerm, whatever Jonton is now. Communing with children seems almost normal compared to that. She turned her attention back to Jonton, who was describing Joenie's sandpit. For a fleeting second, the landscape around her flickered into a familiar tangle of colour and she sensed Erlin and Gusemy reeling back in shock. The colours blanked out, replaced by a thick scattering of orange droplets. "Worm pheromones," said Erlin wonderingly. "You know what this means, Gus? With enough time we could unravel everything. Entire micro-ecologies, mapped out to the last detail, ready for us to duplicate on Duna." His voice glowed with enthusiasm. "Experimental ecology - like this sandpit here, with an experimenter who can tell us what's happening in real time! No more clumsy sampling. No more fiddling around with chromatographs!" "An experimenter who still has an entire Grove to tend," Gusemy reminded him. A wave of awed disbelief rolled through the link. "But still - today we learn that the deepest secrets of the Kerm are ours to decipher. Yesterday we watched kerbals walking on the Mün. And tomorrow we visit the forgotten depths of our history. We live in an Age of wonders my friends - I only wish it were a more tranquil one." "Imagine how much the kerbals could learn about their history, or their environment! This could be as big a paradigm shift as the day a kerbal sets foot on the Mun." - JakeGrey. << Chapter 58: Chapter 60>>
  16. 700 tons seems a lot - how massive is your spacecraft?
  17. There's a Songs and Poetry shelf in the Fanworks Library if that's any use? Although, thinking about it, that might work better linking to a dedicated thread rather than having ad-hoc links to a grab bag of posts from many assorted threads. Happy to go either way. Oh - and here's my stab at verse 2. So we flew around the sun, Till we found a world of green (world of green!) And we sailed, the waves of Laythe In our Skimmer-roomarine. Edit. Getting my shout-outs a little jumbled perhaps but really - that one just wrote itself.
  18. Happily. I am kinda curious about this one. As a fight movie it makes zero sense, so presumably it will be more of a 'but what is heroic?' kind of movie.
  19. Depends what it was I guess, and how easy it was to remove. Assuming that debris was the problem, presumably it didn't get far enough into the engine to break anything important. Musk is usually fairly open about calling an explosion an explosion, so I'm inclined to believe that one tweet I found. Fingers crossed anyway.
  20. Um, what? Unless that's a spellchecker gone wonky, SABRE is a hydrolox engine last time I checked. I suppose you could decompose the peroxide to generate hydrogen in-flight but you'd then need to liquefy it too. Besides, hydrogen peroxide is far from being 'not terribly hazardous' at the concentrations needed to be a useful propellant or source of hydrogen.
  21. Was that a second test fire? My understanding is that they did a hot fire after recovery and it generally went OK apart from some thrust fluctuations in one of the engines, which was initially blamed on ingested debris. I haven't been able to find links to anything they did to it after that.
  22. I just tipped over the 1000 rep mark too, once the list generator is back to generating. I was in the light green group back in the day, so there might be some text for me kicking around already.
  23. Obviously, there's no official word from Squad on this but I suspect that they're happy leaving KSP without an official story and letting everyone create their own stories within the game. I could be wrong - it may just be something that they haven't got around to yet. For the moment, JakeGrey and I have been pondering a total conversion mod based on my First Flight story. That would certainly provide one set of answers about kerbalkind whilst giving them a fairly compelling reason to go to space - and keep going to space. Plus it also builds on some familiar KSP memes - for example, the ubiquitous Kerman surname has a deep historical reason behind it. We think that most of what we'd need is already present in other mods but getting everything to work together would be a challenge. It would be a big job, apart from the story itself - which would most likely need to be adapted to include more space stuff and less Kerbin-side stuff - we'd need to rebuild the tech tree, with massively overhauled flavour text, have new buildings appearing at various sites around Kerbin in response to scripted events, possibly even have some elements of multiplayer worked in, or at least have some sensible looking AI ships flying about. I don't know if the new Kerbalpedia will be moddable but that would be really helpful for fitting a lot of the background story in in a relatively player-accessible way. If anybody is interested, please feel free to drop by the First Flight thread - linked in my signature.
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