Wrote a Short Story About a Kerbal Flight

[Redrumsalad]

Kerbal Flight 1793.587

“Attention KF one-seven-nine-three point five-eight-seven, there seems to be a slight problem,†a deep, nasally voice sounds through the loud speaker in the front of the command pod, “the duct tape on the fourth stage has begun to come off, there will be a slight delay in launch.†The kerbals within the command pod tense up as yet another problem has delayed their flight plans. The pilot, in the middle, speaks up, “Relax, guys, it’s nothing major. I’m sure our good engineers will just slap on some super glue to make sure it doesn’t happen again.†This makes the Kerbonauts feel a little safer, and they relax a little.

* * *

The Kerbal species closely resembles that of the human species. They stand at a low height of two and a half feet tall. Their body structure closely resembles that of a human, but their head has the same circumference of their neck; this gives off the image of Kerbals not having a neck, which makes their head look around one foot and six inches tall. The color of their skin is a light olive green. Kerbals have large eyes about the size of baseballs, and large mouths that could fit at least two softballs inside. Kerbals do not have a nose, and therefore can only breathe through their mouths, with a little help from their skin cells.

The trees on the planet in which the species inhabits, Kerbin, are not like the trees on Earth: they never die. In fact, the trees are essentially the “parents†of the Kerbal race. The current population of Kerbals on the entire planet of Kerbin is only 1,000,000,000. The population is kept at this number at all times; it never shrinks, and it never grows. When a Kerbal dies, it is immediately dropped from the branches of a tree, and has to find its way back to where it lived. Due to this, every Kerbal never really dies. The species lives easily on its little planet. They do not need food because since they are part plant, photosynthesis takes care of that for them. The species only needs water to survive. There are restaurants in the cities, but only the rich Kerbals can afford luxuries such as french fries and hamburgers.

The Kerbal species is completely dedicated to space research, and developing their space program. They are, unfortunately for them, utterly terrible at it. The first directors of the space program used to count even failed flights as a flight, and would move on to the next whole number. After they realized this would run the numbers up too high after reaching fifty failed rocket launches in the first week, the directors of the program started using a system they called the Screwy Mecimal System, where they would only advance to the next whole number after a success.

If you were to look at a map of objects orbiting Kerbin, besides the Mün, you would see mostly debris from failed launches and a few jerry-rigged satellites to transmit information from the half-wrecked landers on the Mün back to the space center on Kerbin.

* * *

The voice comes back in through the loud speaker, “Come in KF one-seven-nine-three point five-eight-seven.†The pilot responds, “Yes, what is it? Can we launch now?â€

“Everything seems to be alright now, Jebediah. How does everything look in there?†the Space Program Director responds. “Well, the glue for our seat cushions seems to be working a bit less than it’s supposed to, but other than that everything is ay-okay.â€

“Roger that, one-seven-nine-three, you are ready for launch. You know your mission, right?â€

A dumbfounded look suddenly appears on all three of the crews’ faces. “Uh, no sir, we didn’t receive a description of our mission,†says Jebediah into the microphone. “Okay, hold on.†Silence fills the small command pod and Bill, Jebediah, and Bob Kerman sit in suspense. A loud screech and a crackle suddenly sound through the loud speaker, making the crew jump. “Ow! I think it would be in your best interest to not kill your crew before the launch!†yells Bill in frustration. “Sorry about that,†says another slightly higher pitched nasally voice, “Now, on to your mission. You are to get into an orbit of about eighty-seven kilometers high and meet up with the Kerbonational Space Station. You are then to board the Space Station, along with the supply of hotdogs, grilled cheese, and water. After the other Kerbonaut crew undocks from the station, you are to conduct the experiments on the list provided in the glove compartment. You will be up there for about twenty Münar cycles.†“If you really do not want to blow out our ear drums, then don’t respond to this, but yes sir,†said Jeb into the microphone. There was silence, and then a lady-like voice sounded through the speaker, “T-minus twenty seconds.†“Here we go, get ready boys,†said Jeb to Bill and Bob, “are you alright, Bob? You’ve been quite.†Jeb looks over and finds Bob sound asleep. “Well I guess he’ll have one loud wake-up call.†The lady’s voice came on again, “T-minus ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…four…three…two…one…ignition!â€

The engines start, igniting the liquid rocket fuel that flows through the fuel lines from the tank to the engine. The smoke and dirt starts to fly as the exhaust flies through the launch platform and out the sides. Jeb’s face lights up as he pushes the boosters to full throttle. Bill starts turning a darker green, and Bob wakes up screaming. The rocket starts to climb. The altimeter reads one kilometer…two…three…soon it hits ten kilometers and Jeb turns the rocket to a near thirty degree angle.

The rocket starts to violently shake. It turns uncontrollably and the fourth stage inter-stage piece detaches, sending the engine rocketing upwards towards the rest of the rocket. The exhaust ignites the fuel from the tank it passes and it blows up in flames. By this time, Jebediah is frantically pressing the “Next Stage†button to get to the parachute stage before the explosion reaches the pod. The crew feels the last inter-stage part fling the pod forward slightly and they use the small boosters on the pod to move it out of the way of the quickly expanding explosion of rocket debris and liquid propane. The command pod slows down, and starts to fall. The parachute deploys one kilometer from the ground. The pod touches down half a mile from the Space Center.

Jeb kicks the door open, throws his helmet on the ground and stomps off, muttering obscenities about the design of the rocket under his breath. Bill and Bob roll their eyes and the trio walks away, with forty-five tons of flaming rocket debris falling to the ground behind them.

I did this for an english project and my teacher loved it, what do you guys think?

[GoodGuy]

Wow, this is pretty good. It could be a series. However, the only problem is that it was too short.

[Jon Tash]

That was fantastic! I really enjoyed the story and like GoodGuy said it was too short.

[Redrumsalad]

I know it was too short, but since my English teacher had no clue what Kerbals were, I had to spend about 3/4 of the story describing them. He liked the ending cuz it was just so abrupt that it was funny

Thanks for the feedback.

[TerranCmdr]

Nice! I really enjoyed that. Write a few more! (maybe earn some extra credit )

[Redrumsalad]

In a way, I did earn some extra credit, cuz part of our 9th/10th (i\'m in 10th) grade necessities (for lack of a better word) is to publish something.

[VincentMcConnell]

You\'ve inspired me to make one. I will begin writing right now. Good story, by the way. Reminds me a lot of quite a few launches I had experienced when I first downloaded the game. *spams for parachutes*.

[Thobewill10]

We ought to have a short story or poem contest. Could be very interesting.

[VincentMcConnell]

We ought to have a short story or poem contest. Could be very interesting.

Mine is coming along very well. I will post a thread when it is done.

[Redrumsalad]

Well good luck on the story Vince. Can\'t wait to read it!

[VincentMcConnell]

Well good luck on the story Vince. Can\'t wait to read it!

I was a little more serious with it than I wanted to be. I may began writing a new one with some more explosions! haha

[Zephram Kerman]

I was a little more serious with it than I wanted to be. I may began writing a new one with some more explosions! haha

I really enjoyed the explanation of the numbering system. When I first saw '1793.587', I just assumed it was random techno-babble. But after the system was explained, I realized that meant there were 586 failed launches since the last success! That kind of dry wit really works for this.

May I suggest: Jeb probably wouldn\'t be angry at all about the crash, but more like 'another day at the office'. Right?

Keep up the good work!