Bill Kerman - a eulogy

[bigcalm]

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are gatherered here today to mourn the passing of Bill Kerman.

I had the fortune of meeting Bill at the KSP interview - we were candidates together nervously waiting for yet another round of gruelling tests, and we became firm friends from that moment on. I was a merely a test pilot - all bravado and little learning, yet he was a scientist of the highest calibre with degrees from both Karvard and Kambridge.

He struck me then as a quiet, reserved man with an iron will. What I never knew at that time was how determined and how loving of his friends he was - for this, he paid the ultimate price, and we should all remember his brave sacrifice.

Not just a cosmonaut, not just a scientist, he was a poet, a family man and a hero.

When I got caught for trying to steal a rocket from the hangar, who covered for me? Bill.

When I was stranded in space without fuel to get home, who came to rescue me despite it never having been attempted before? Bill.

I was the first Kerbal sent to land on the Mun - a huge and somewhat undeserved honour - I survived but The Hephaestus, my craft tipped over upon landing. Stranded on the surface and unable to take off, mission control advised I wait for a rescue. I performed the experiments I had been asked to perform with my heart heavy as I knew that hope of rescue was remote. Then, in the middle of the Kerbin night, I got a message from mission control, but oddly not on the normal frequency - it was Bill, without the authority of his supervisors. He said if I could somehow get myself into orbit - by scraping my horizontal ship across the ground at low speed I might get airborne and be able to get some kind of orbit cobbled together - and if I managed it Bill would be there to grab me from the heavens. This I did, and thanks to Bill's guidance got myself aloft and into an orbit. But the good fortune ended there - the orbit I'd managed to establish was insanely difficult to reach with the limited craft we had on Kerbin and as the hours ticked by, my heart sank again knowing that rescue was unlikely. Then suddenly - a message from mission control - Bill was already on his way!

He rescued me did Bill, stationing his craft nearby so I could jet across, and he gave me the biggest bearhug of my life when I grabbed hold of the ladder - almost making me let go! We boarded, and I waved goodbye to what remained of the good ship Hephaestus, happy I was with a friend again, and we set off together back towards Kerbin.

On re-entry into Kerbin, disaster struck. The fuel Bill had remaining after he had rescued me was so little that we were forced to make an obliquely angled descent. The roar of the compression heating from outside was unbearable despite the heatshield on the base of the craft. First the solar panels exploded, then the barometers, and then finally, the capsule underneath mine -the one containing Bill exploded due to the heat. Why God spared me from the same fate I can only speculate.

To many, Bill was the greatest scientist of his generation, or the greatest hero of his generation, or the greatest cosmonaut of his generation.

To me, he was my friend. I will miss him always.

- Jebediah Kerman

Edited May 10, 2015 by bigcalm

[KSK]

Sounds like one heck of a rescue mission - and that's one heck of a piece of writing to go with it. Very nice first post indeed.

[windows_x_seven]

My feelings...

[Rolanvorxariat]

*starts crying

why, why!

thatwas so beautiful.

bigcalm +rep

[Whirligig Girl]

I'm sorry, but eh... you're talking of the wrong Kerbal. Bill's the dumb engineer. Bob's the scientist.

[KSK]

That's the nice thing about a fiction sub-forum - you can write characters to suit yourself.

My headcanon versions of Bill and Bob have Bob has the easy going engineer and Bill as the slightly reserved scientist who's fond of some of the good things in life. So this eulogy was exactly the right way around for me. And yes - I do need to remind myself to put Bob - and not Bill - on board in-game if I want a scientist on the crew.

[Whirligig Girl]

That's the nice thing about a fiction sub-forum - you can write characters to suit yourself.

My headcanon versions of Bill and Bob have Bob has the easy going engineer and Bill as the slightly reserved scientist who's fond of some of the good things in life. So this eulogy was exactly the right way around for me. And yes - I do need to remind myself to put Bob - and not Bill - on board in-game if I want a scientist on the crew.

But the game actually says who's who. Why would your headcanon go directly against that. Bill has always been the dumb engineer, and Bob the less dumb scientist. Even since kerbals were added.

[KSK]

Bluntly - I wrote my headcanon a long time before kerbal specialisations were added and don't care to change Bill and Bob's roles and characters around now. In-game (according to the wiki at least), stupidity appears to equate to reaction to danger rather than intellectual ability, so I see no contradiction in having Bill as a 'stupid' scientist.

[Tw1]

But the game actually says who's who. Why would your headcanon go directly against that. Bill has always been the dumb engineer, and Bob the less dumb scientist. Even since kerbals were added.

And this is why I argue against having a set story in game.

While I do agree with the characterisation in game,

(Bob's frequent fear makes me think the only reason he'd want to risk rocket flight is because of a thirst for knowledge. Bill seems calmer, and has more idea what's going on.

it makes it possible for an interpretation to come across as 'wrong' when presented to someone else.

I do think the level of detail we've got now, with the defined roles is about right though.

This also could be another argument in favour of roles using a separate variable in the persistent file. Now I'm imagining a Jeb who's an explosion loving mad scientist....

But, what I came here to say, was this is a very nice bit of writing. Welcome to the kerbal forums, bigcalm.

[bigcalm]

*Beep*

"Come in, Moho Marooner, are you there, over?"

*Beep"

"Come in, Moho Marooner, are you there, over?"

*Beep*

"Come in, Moho Marooner, are you there, over?"

*Beep*

*Crackle* "Over control, I've just passed over the surface of Moho at an altitude of 60 kilometres"

[sound of celebrations in control room]

"Roger that Sigette - and huge congratulations - what was it like, over"

"Beautiful. I'm just transmitting the results of the experiments now but I'm awed to have come on this mission, over".

"Overjoyed to hear that Sigette - any issues?, over"

"None in the flyby, but I'm not coming home, over"

"What's wrong?"

"I don't have the fuel to get home. I don't even have the fuel to get myself into an orbit where you could potentially catch me, over"

"Oh no - we always calculated that the fuel load would be tight on that mission but we always thought you'd have ample to return"

"No dice - too much plane matching, not enough total delta-vee. No blame either way, over".

"We'll get you back Sigette. We will. We have better rockets already and we'll catch you."

"I'd love to believe that control but please - tell my family that I love them deeply and wouldn't have missed this trip for the world. I think the batteries have another 20 minutes in them as the solar panels haven't coped well so near to the sun, so I may not hear from you again. For the people back on Kerbin, I'd like to send a message from the Moho Marooner to all of you."

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."

"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

"And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."

"Over and out".

--

Obviously inspired by Apollo 8

- and yes, I did mean Bill earlier it was easier to write his eulogy with him as a scientist rather than an engineer