Duna Space Program: Part 24: Epilogue

[Angelo Kerman]

 “Beep beep beep.” Surina was on watch in the early morning, and about to doze off when the alarm sounded. She checked her instruments, then checked again. It took several minutes for the comm system’s error correction software to make sense of the signal, and more of it kept trickling in. Finally, there was enough to read. Mostly.

She keyed the intercom to the Ponderosa habitat where Val, Jeb, Bill, and Gerbles were having breakfast. Well at least Val, Jeb, and Bill were eating. Gerbles was getting in his usual early morning workout.

 “Uh boss? We’re getting a K-band signal from Kerbin!”

“Say what, Surina,” Val asked, stabbing the intercom. “Can you confirm that?”

“Oh, it’s confirmed boss. There’s a lot of auto-correct going on, but I’ve got a message.”

“Let’s hear it!”

Surina copied the message and texted it to the hab’s monitors.

DUNA EXPD HOPE U *ERR*ELL. SOLAR ACT*ERR* DISRUPTS RADIO TRANS. WRKNG *ERR* *ERR* *ERR*. HAV *ERR* *ERR* 4 U 2 *ERR*. PLANS ON KU *ERR*. EAGERLY *ERR* *ERR*.

“How are they getting through to us,” Jeb asked.

“The message originates from something called ‘Stormbreaker’. I think KSC used Stormbreaker to send a very high-powered radio transmission to us. Still, it’s taking a lot of error correction,” Surina responded. “The rest of this message will take hours to receive and verify.”

“Well *huff* I guess we *huff* have more time to talk about *huff* this flying wing of yours,” Gerbles said.

Several hours later, the plans arrived.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Gerbles said exasperated. “There’s no way we can make that! That’s way too big for the printers!” Bill gave the younger engineer an amused look.

“Not with the stuff we have right now, no. But they sent along directions on how to modify the printers.”

“Can you make it work, Bill?”

Bill looked over the blueprints and assembly instructions. “Oh yeah, Val, we got this. Since we’re still recovering from our move, it would help if we recycled the Caterpillar and Big Rig trailer though. This is going to take a lot of resources.”

“What do we get for our trouble,” Val asked.

“It’s a… well, I guess you can call it a heliograph,” Bill responded.

“A what?”

“A heliograph,” Bill repeated. “A device to reflect sunlight. In the Barsoom days of Duna fiction, explorers were shot out of a giant cannon towards Duna. Once they got there, they communicated with Kerbin by flashing giant mirrors that reflected the sun. They used Morse Kerman’s Code. This gizmo is a high-tech version, but instead of reflecting sunlight, this heliograph is powered by lasers. They aren’t affected by the radio interference. Come to think of it, why didn’t I think of that? Anyway, the lasers are mounted on a modified CactEye telescope that watches for the flashes.”

“And the extra directions to modify the printers help us do what,” Val prompted.

“They let us make… an extraplanetary launchpad, essentially,” Bill finished. “Instead of 3D printing whole parts, we build sections of parts and put them together like a jigsaw puzzle. We’ll have to do more EVAs but it’ll be worth it because we can overcome the volume limitations of our workshop.”

“Do it,” Val proclaimed, “I have a few choice words I still want to send to KSC.”

[chicobaptista]

Great work, I'm loving this!

Also, enjoyed the idea of blaming the "former" administrator, very convenient. Gotta use that one sometime.

[Angelo Kerman]

21 minutes ago, chicobaptista said:

Great work, I'm loving this!

Also, enjoyed the idea of blaming the "former" administrator, very convenient. Gotta use that one sometime.

Thanks! When I started this mission, I was doing it to test Pathfinder's base building elements and it has worked out well in that regard. But I haphazardly threw ships together and randomly chose a spot on Duna to land. Then I decided to make a story out of it, and incorporated the haphazard elements into the story. So I'm the Administrator that Val is complaining about.  of course the "new" administrator is just me paying more attention to the details...

[DMSP]

Well what every administrator you are, keep going and good luck!

[Angelo Kerman]

On 1/15/2016 at 1:05 PM, DMSP said:

Well what every administrator you are, keep going and good luck!

Thanks! With 1.1 around the corner, I'm going to have to wrap this up so that I can update my mods when 1.1 comes out and have a new test base. Speaking of which...

Part 12

With communications finally reestablished with KSC, Midlands Base began receiving a deluge of data. Val’s “choice words” were heard loud and clear; Gene simply could not apologize enough for how the mission began, and never ran out of praise for the team’s efforts to put the mission on the right track. In between collecting and analyzing rock samples, the Duna Expedition found a bit of time for fun.

“Hey guys,” Gerbles called over the intercom. “Want to come take a look? It’s done!” Jeb and Val immediately jumped to their feet, simultaneously calling out “Dibs!”

Sitting on the workbench was a delta wing attached to a harness. Twin rudders jutted upwards, while modified model aircraft jet engines hung below the wing. Small nozzles protruded from various places, and a pair of boxy fuel tanks provided the backbone to the wing.

“I call it the JetWing,” Gerbles proudly said. “It’s experimental, but it’ll fly in Duna’s thin atmosphere if you double up on the engines. I modified the WJ400 Jaguar- a model aircraft engine- to burn monopropellant. It can switch between monopropellant and liquid fuel, actually. Anyway, per Val’s request, there are no flight controls except for a throttle, altimeter, and a compass. Well, ok, I couldn’t resist, and added RCS controls and a hover mode too. But for normal flight you have to move your body to make the wing go up, down, and so on. Essentially, your body is part of the aircraft.”

“You know, Gerbles, if this works, you’re going to create a whole new market back home,” Jeb said. Gerbles said nothing, but he didn’t have to. He just grinned.

“Sign me up,” Val said enthusiastically, “when can I fly it?” Jeb bristled at the notion. Val immediately picked up on his reaction. “Mission Commander’s prerogative,” Val added. “Besides, I’ve been cooped up on this base way too long, and you got to take the first suborbital flight in the Komet, created a whole new base, and the micro-fusion reactor was invented on your watch. This one’s mine.” Jeb simply shrugged.

“Well, we need monopropellant,” Gerbles said to break the tension, “but we can drain that from the Komet. That’s pretty much it, actually.”

“Oh, I can’t wait for this,” Val beamed.

---

“Fly safe, Val,” Jeb said over the radio, trying to put on a professional face. “Don’t turn me into the mission commander, I’d never get to fly again.”

“What, and let you ruin my fine work? Never! Don’t worry, I won’t be meeting the Krakens today.”

 “Hey boss,” Surina called over the radio. “Hate to spoil your fun, but we’ve had another signal loss event.”

“Be right there.”

---

“Got it,” Bob said, “right there. Every time one of our satellites flies over that spot, we get that glitch. Fortunately the Bird Dog just reboots itself and continues on its merry way.”

“What can we do about it,” Surina asked.

“We’re here to explore the planet, let’s go explore,” Val said. “Jump in the Komet, take a suborbital hop, drill and refuel, and repeat.”

“That’s halfway around the planet,” Bob pointed out. “That’s a lot of hops. Even with setting up a base each time, that’ll take weeks.”

Bill looked at Gerbles, then at Val, and grinned. “I have a better idea.”

---

Kerbin Times

Robot Plane Discovers Face On Duna

Kerbal Space Program’s Duna One Expedition sent a robotic jet plane on a record breaking journey halfway around Duna to investigate a strange signal that periodically disrupted one of their “Bird Dog” tracking data relay/global positioning satellites orbiting the red planet. After a fifteen-day stopover to refuel, The Duna Scout, or Scout for short, completed its journey and discovered a mysterious rock formation that bears an uncanny resemblance to a kerbal’s head. “Based upon the team’s aerial flyby, it is clear that the rock formation is a face,” says Gene Kerman, Flight Director for the mission. “There’s no doubt about it. We’re very excited to learn more about ‘The Face’ as we call it around the space center. Who built it, and why?” After its aerial flyby, famed kerbonaut Jebediah Kerman remotely piloted Scout and landed the aircraft. It now rests near The Face while it refuels and serves as a beacon for future missions.

Designed by Bill Kerman and Gerbles Kerman, the two flight engineers on the expedition, Scout is powered by a jet engine derived from Gerbles’ monopropellant powered model aircraft engine, invented during his journeys on Duna. The engine proved itself when Valentina Kerman became the first kerbal to fly a jet-powered aircraft on Duna when she donned a backpack mounted flying “JetWing” designed by Gerbles as well.

With the public clamoring for their own JetWing backpacks, lawyers are already arguing over who owns the rights to the flying wing. “Normally I’d argue that as an employee of the Kerbal Space Program the JetWing belongs to KSP,” Mort Kerman, intellectual property lawyer and financial advisor for Kerbal Space Program commented. “But as a concession for not suing us for gross negligence, KSP has agreed to turn the rights to JetWing over to the Duna One Expedition team members, with Gerbles Kerman listed as the principal inventor. I’m delighted to represent the team as we prove that the funding for the expedition’s activities came from private contracts instead of taxpayer funds, and that the Kerbal Space Program is a privately owned entity at this point. Therefore the JetWing does not exist in the public domain.” Mort would not comment on who owns the rights to the micro-fusion reactor designed by Bill Kerman and Bob Kerman, chief scientist of the Duna One Expedition.

Flight Director Gene Kerman says that the Duna One Expedition is working with legendary aircraft designer Burt Kerman, who created the Kalifornia Kondor, the first aircraft to fly around Kerbin non-stop, to build an aircraft larger than the Scout that is capable of carrying the entire team and their equipment to The Face and return them to Midlands Base safely. “That boy Gerbles’ monopropellant jet engine is a game changer,” Burt Kerman said. “Jet planes on Duna, who’d have thought of it until now? I’m happy to fly down to the KSC and work with the engineers there and the Duna team of course to design a long range cargo plane. It’s an honor to have a small place in history to explore this astounding discovery.”

Kerbal Space Center lost contact with the Duna One Expedition after they flew past Minmus’ orbit due to gross negligence by the former Kerbal Space Program Administrator. Nearly a year later, the new Administrator ordered the launch of Stormbreaker, a satellite designed to break through the radio static caused by the “Solar Tsunami” produced by Kerbol, a phenomenon that began while Duna One traveled to the red planet. Stormbreaker succeeded in breaking through the static and sending plans for a laser communications satellite…

[Angelo Kerman]

Part 13

As soon as the Duna One Expedition received plans for their new airplane, they immediately got to work on it. Thanks to Burt Kerman’s design skills, the aircraft took shape in record time, with the 3D printers working around the clock. After loading it up with supplies and base components and team members, Duna’s first cargo jet, the Long Flight, took off in the middle of the night and landed early morning at The Face without a single stop.

After taking a few moments to admire the strange rocky structure, the team planted the flag and wasted no time setting up their base. Even though the area was resource poor, at least they could drill for ore to extract monopropellant from. But even with the strip miner, they’d be stuck at Face Base for several days at the very least while they drilled for ore.

The team spread out around the base of The Face to discover its secrets. It didn’t take long to notice what looked like an entrance.

“Over here,” Bob said. “There appears to be a short ramp leading up to a doorway. It’s where a kerbal’s spinal column would connect to the skull.” It didn’t take long for the team to assemble and puzzle over the door.

“That’s clearly solid,” Bill noted, “how do we get in?”

“Let’s try knocking,” Jeb said. He stepped up onto the ramp and proceeded to knock on the stone slab surrounded by what looked like a door frame. His hand passed through with little resistance, like dipping a toe into a pool of water. He immediately backed up. “Woah! Is this some kind of illusion?”

Bob picked up a nearby rock and tossed it at the door. It bounced off harmlessly. “It’s solid as a, well, a rock.” He tried poking at the doorway with various instruments. Anything he held that was longer than an arms’ length away could not pass through.

Finally, Jeb had had enough and simply walked through the doorway. The team collectively gasped. “There’s gibberish on the walls, ceiling, and floor,” he said, flipping on his light and peering down the long corridor. “Looks like there is a room up ahead with some kind of light. Come on in guys, nothing’s going to bite us.”

“How would you know,” Bob asked. “You’ve never been here before.”

“True, but think about it. The door only lets us pass through. Anything else gets blocked. We’re the key.”

“He has a point,” Val admitted. “Let’s go.”

---

With Jeb leading the way, the team filed into The Face to see what was in store. The main corridor had passageways leading to smaller rooms. The appeared to be empty, save for writings on the walls.

As Val, Bill, Bob, and Gerbles entered the large chamber located approximately where a kerbal’s brain would be, Jeb and Surina took the side passage that appeared right before the large chamber. The explorers followed the passage as it sloped upward, turned a corner, sloped upward again, and turned another corner.

“Hey, where are you guys,” Val asked.

“I think we’re above where we came in,” Jeb answered. “Just below the mouth, I think. We walked up a couple of switchbacks. Anything interesting in that big chamber?”

“There’s a lit control panel of some sort,” Bill responded. “I want to play with it but Val won’t let me.”

“Guys, come back to the ‘brain room,’ let’s not get split up, just in case.

“Okay, Val,” Jeb acknowledged. “Be right there. Let’s head back, Surina.” Then he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. “The writing here isn’t like the others.”

 “Let me see,” Surina said, approaching the wall. Jeb looked at her quizzically. “What,” she responded. “Studying languages is a hobby of mine. Anyway, this is written in some strange petroglyphs, I can’t understand anything of it.”

“What about this,” Jeb pointed to another wall. “This looks like different gibberish.”

Surina looked at the writings. Still nothing. She wandered around the walls looking for more clues, then found a ray of hope. They looked familiar somehow.

“donde esta el bano,” Surina said, trying to pronounce what she thought it looked like. “No bano aqui. No bueno.”

She shrugged, “The alphabet is familiar but the words make no sense.” She kept looking around, then finally found something she recognized. “This one is written in Ancient Kerbal... Oh, I get it, we’re underneath the mouth, right? We’re standing in a translation room! These,” She said, pointing to the petroglyphs that Jeb noticed earlier, “are like the glyphs in the other chambers. All these other ones must be various ways to translate what they say. I bet if we backtrack through enough languages, we can figure out what the petryglyphs say. It will take awhile, but this is going to be sooo much fun! I bet we can get my friends in the Rosetta Society back home to help. They’re a bunch of language buffs like me.”

“Geek,” Jeb muttered under his breath.

“What? I couldn’t hear you.”

Jeb opened his mouth to say something in response, then closed it again and just smiled and waved. “Val, we found what Surina thinks is a translation room.”

“Yeah, I want to stay awhile, see what I can make sense of,” Surina called out.

There was a momentary pause. “Ok,” Val responded. “Jeb, stay with her and keep an eye on each other. I don’t want the krakens to suddenly grab you.”

So much for playing with the JetWing, Jeb thought to himself.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Angel-125

[chicobaptista]

Ahh the language geeks. Is there anything written in tengwar (elvish alphabet)? Tolkien was a big language geek after all.

[Mister Dilsby]

13 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Finally, Jeb had had enough and simply walked through the doorway. The team collectively gasped. “There’s gibberish on the walls, ceiling, and floor,” he said, flipping on his light and peering down the long corridor. “Looks like there is a room up ahead with some kind of light. Come on in guys, nothing’s going to bite us.”

Really love what you did (I assume you did it ) with the interior of the Face... I suppose we should call it the Head now? Great work, should be stock, and they should also engage you for the interior of the desert temple on Kerbin.  

[Angelo Kerman]

37 minutes ago, chicobaptista said:

Ahh the language geeks. Is there anything written in tengwar (elvish alphabet)? Tolkien was a big language geek after all.

There was going to be, but I couldn't find the font on my PC.

33 minutes ago, Kuzzter said:

Really love what you did (I assume you did it ) with the interior of the Face... I suppose we should call it the Head now? Great work, should be stock, and they should also engage you for the interior of the desert temple on Kerbin.  

Thanks! I actually created my own model of The Face, complete with antechambers, and then textured it with writing. It was a rush job so it's not as nice as it could be and it tends to bounce on the terrain upon loading. But hey, you can actually walk inside and mess around.

[Angelo Kerman]

Part 14

Even with an army of translators on Kerbin helping her, it still took Surina several days to translate the writings. The translations flowed like branches in a tree, with the petroglyphs serving as the roots. Some branches led to dead ends while others joined with other branches. Eventually though, KSC uploaded a translator program into her kPad, along with several translated samples.

“Guys, check this out,” Surina said during lunch. We’ve got some translations!” The team gathered around the lunch table. Surina fell silent for several seconds, reading.

“Just give us the highlights,” Val suggested.

“Oh, uh, okay... According to this, a group calling themselves the Ancients-“

“An elven go-gang? Cool!”

“Shhh, quiet, Jeb,” Val scolded.

“Anyway, the Ancients were a powerful race of beings,” Surina continued, “that created The Face. Uh, nothing here about who the Ancients were, but this says The Face is powered by geothermal energy. That explains the glowing controls you guys found. Sorry, this is pretty disjointed, I'll try to piece things together. There isn’t enough here to describe what The Face is for, but I recognize this section, so we can find out if we go back inside.”

“OOOO,” Bill said, “let’s go!”

“After lunch and a nap,” Val said. “I don’t know about you but I’m feeling a food coma coming on.” Bill just huffed, and then focused his attention on Surina, waiting for her to continue.

“Ok, so, the Ancients built The Face, but they also fought with ‘the progenitors of chaos’ according to this.”

“The Kraken,” Jeb said. “‘The Progenitors of Chaos’ comes straight from Old Scripture.”

Bob’s jaw dropped and his eyes widened. “Y-you mean, they’re real?”

Surina nodded. “Yup, it says here the Ancients fought The Kraken throughout the solar system, with most of the battlegrounds on Kerbin, the Mun, Minmus, and around Jool. They beat The Kraken- well mostly. This translation says The Kraken aren’t dead, just… dormant...”

“Lunchtime’s over,” Val said, perking up immediately. “We need to know why The Face was built. Let’s head back out.”

“Um, yeah, I think I’ll sit this one out,” Bob said. “I uh, well you know, somebody needs to mind the store.”

Val looked at Bob, then at Jeb, and just shrugged. “Suit yourself. Anybody who wants to know more, meet at the Ponderosa airlock in ten minutes.”

---

 “It’s a doomsday weapon,” Surina said. “We know from the translations that the Ancients fought the Kraken to a standstill, and that the Kraken are now dormant.”

“And the Ancients aren’t the same as the Creators, right?”

“Right, Val,” Surina responded.” The All Mighty Squad created the universe according to this, but the Ancients came in afterwards. Their power is limited compared to Squad’s but it’s still vast compared to us. Anyway, the Ancients knocked down the Kraken into their dormant state, but weren’t able to kill them outright, so they built their doomsday weapon.”

“Which is what,” Val asked. Surina read more of the glyphs before answering.

“According to this, the Kraken can manipulate time. If they sense that they’re about to be defeated, they just reset the local space-time and possibly change it in their favor. Say for instance in one iteration, we never developed in-situ resource utilization technology, or we didn’t have to worry about communications ranges. But how do you defeat an enemy that can manipulate time?

“I don’t know, drop them into a black hole?”

“Exactly, Gerbles,” Surina answered. Gerbles looked surprised. “Time passes more slowly relative to the rest of the universe the closer you get to a black hole. So an hour to you next to the black hole could be fifty years to us much further away. But inside a black hole, time is meaningless. Trapped in or near a black hole, the Kraken’s ability to manipulate time would be neutralized relative to the outside universe.

“Apparently, out past Plock there are millions of devices waiting to go off like a shaped charge, and generate some kind of implosion pulse that will turn Kerbol into a black hole. And I believe that the increased radiation and radio interference from the sun is in preparation of converting it into a black hole.”

“And since we know that the solar radiation increased when we left for Duna, we set off the doomsday weapon,” Gerbles realized.

“Actually,” Surina countered, “That was just a coincidence. The energy buildup has been going on for quite some time, and it picked up just as we left. And it’s getting worse…”

“So, we’re doomed,” Jeb concluded. Nobody said anything for several moments.

“Wait,” Val wondered, “If the Ancients had the ability to crush our sun into a black hole, why didn’t they just get on with it?”

“From what I’m reading, there was a faction among the Ancients that wanted to preserve and study the Kraken instead of destroy them. They tried two things to counter the implosion devices. First, they tampered with the implosion devices to slow their energy buildup. That’s what this facility is for. They actually tried to completely drain their energy or short circuit them, but it didn’t work, so they went with a backup plan. Second, they- let’s see- ok, here it is. Second, they built counter-pulse devices and hid them in the asteroid belt between Duna and Jool. For some reason they didn’t activate their counter-pulse. Maybe they were discovered before they could activate it.”

“Why do I get the feeling that we’re headed to Dres,” Val quipped.

“Uh, yeah,” Surina confirmed. “There is another Face on Dres that controls the counter-pulse. According to this, triggering the counter-pulse will immediately trigger the implosion, though with reduced effect if triggered before being fully charged. So maybe the sun and solar system gets destroyed instead of crunched into a singularity.”

“But if we do nothing, the implosion will hit us anyway, right?”

“Exactly, Val,” Surina answered. “There is stuff here I can’t make sense of, but I think the implosion devices will fire automatically when Kerbol’s radiation output reaches a certain level. If we trigger the counter-pulse, then the implosion devices immediately go off at whatever energy level they have at the time of triggering.”

“Great,” Val said as she sighed. “So if we do nothing, we get crunched into a black hole. If we go to Dres, and we can’t find the… Dres Face or we can’t fire the counter-pulse, we get crunched into a black hole. When in doubt, assume we get crunched into a black hole.”

“Hey, if we get crunched into a black hole, at least we won’t have to file taxes,” Jeb quipped. Val just ignored him.

“Bob, when is the launch window from Duna to Dres,” Val asked.

“152 days, Val.”

“And from Kerbin to Dres?”

“312 days.”

“Well what do you know,” Jeb chuckled. “We are the only ship in the quadrant.”

“But once again we’ll be running out of snacks before reaching Dres, just like we did when heading to Duna,” Bob warned.

“Why can’t we just enter stasis like those people in that space odyssey did that one time,” Jeb asked.

“Oh, from, oh, what was it called… but yeah, they had cool stasis chambers,” Bill chimed in.

Val was astonished at how Bill knew what Jeb was talking about. The advantage of knowing someone a long time, she thought to herself.

“You know,” Bill thought aloud, “cryostasis might actually be possible. I guess I could... No, never mind... Wait, yes... Okay, yeah. Project Deep Freeze, it’s a fitting name… Guys, I think we actually could do it, but I need help from KSC to work things out.”

“I think we better pack up and head back then,” Val said.

Press Conference, Kerbal Space Center

“At four pm yesterday evening,” Gene Kerman began, “the Duna One Expedition completed its investigation of Alien Artifact One, known popularly as ‘The Face,’ and boarded the Long Flight for the trip home. about two-thirds of the distance to Midlands Base, Kerbonaut Jebediah Kerman vanished without a trace.” Reporters scrambled to their feet, fumbling with their cameras to take pictures and shouting over each other in a vain attempt to ask questions. Gene simply waited until everyone quieted back down before continuing.

“He is nowhere to be found aboard the Long Flight, and flight recorders and telemetry show that Jebediah appeared normal in one frame and in the next, he was simply gone. Unfortunately, Long Flight does not have the fuel to return to The Face, so Mission Commander Valentina Kerman elected to continue the flight to Midlands Base. They are expected to arrive within the next three hours.

“We’ve checked the logs at Face Base for any sign of Jebediah Kerman, but there are no indications of his presence there. The small rover probe that the team left at the site has also verified that Jebediah is nowhere in the vicinity, nor is he located within The Face itself.

“Surina Kerman is giving herself and the team a thorough examination, but thus far she’s found nothing out of the ordinary. No alien viruses, no unexpected doses of radiation, nothing but the expected health effects of kerbonauts taking extended excursions onto the surface of Duna. At this point, you know everything we do. I can assure you that Kerbal Space Center is doing everything we can to assist the Duna One Expedition in this unprecedented event, and we will hold another press conference as soon as we know more. I won’t be taking any questions at this time.”

Gene walked away from the podium and out of the conference room while avoiding the screaming press mob. He found Wernher waiting for him in the corridor out of earshot of anyone else.

“I zee you dezided to not tell zem about ze end ov ze vorld,” Wernher said.

“I think Jeb’s disappearance will keep them busy for awhile,” Gene responded. “Besides, if the team can pull this off, there won’t be an end of the world. All we tell them is that the team suspects that there is a Face on Dres, and that it has answers to the origin of The Ancients. Can you make the Deep Freeze work?”

Wernher nodded confidently. “Ja, Gene, ve can. Ve are vorking vith REPOSoftTech to create un freezer, und ve hav ideaz on how to stretch ze Pegasus’ vuel zupply.”

“Good,” Gene responded. “We’re going to need all the help we can get.”

Edited January 20, 2016 by Angel-125

[Mister Dilsby]

8 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

“We’ve checked the logs at Face Base for any sign of Jebediah Kerman, but there are no indications of his presence there. The small rover probe that the team left at the site has also verified that Jebediah is nowhere in the vicinity, nor is he located within The Face itself.

Oh no... what have I done? Blocko! BLOCK-OOOOOO!!!!  

[SpaceplaneAddict]

You see @Kuzzter? That's essentially why I'm scared of starting a comic.

[Angelo Kerman]

Part 16: Not Jeb Yet

“It’s been three days, Bill,” Val said. “He’s gone. Taken by The Krakens for who knows what reason. We have to face that and move on. We all knew the risks.”

“I refuse to believe that,” Bill said flatly.

“Bill, even if he was on Duna- which I highly doubt- his air would’ve run out two days ago. He’s dead.”

“YOU DON’T KNOW THAT!” Bill took a deep breath to calm himself. “He’s my best friend, Val, I can’t believe he’s gone!”

“You have to let him go, Bill, we all do. We have to move on and complete the mission-“

Suddenly there was a loud knocking on the Ponderosa airlock door.

“It’s Jeb! He’s back!” Bill cheered triumphantly as he bolted from his chair, slid down the ladder and raced for the airlock. He wasted no time cycling the outer and inner doors. Then his jaw dropped, crestfallen.

“Er, hello,” the kerbal said, taking off his helmet. “Oh! Hi old friend! I seem to be lost, but I found your base and landed here. At least I think I did, I can’t find my plane.”

“WHO ARE YOU,” Bill demanded, “And what did you do with Jeb?!”

The kerbal shook his head in disbelief. “It’s me, Bill, don’t you recognize me? I’m Martystu[*].”

“Who?”

“Martystu? Don’t you recognize me?”

“Buddy, I don’t know you,” Bill shot back.

Martystu gave Bill a puzzled look. “I guess when I rammed that monolith with the Kenlistar Awesum to free you and Jeb, it must’ve given you amnesia. We’ll get you into the lab and I’ll fix you right up, old friend. But seriously, it's me! I’m Martystu, the best pilot, engineer, and scientist in the Fleet. Where’s Jeb? If you got out, then he and his doppelgangers obviously did, because I’m just that good.”

“Actually I was hoping you could tell me,” Bill said angrily.

“What are you talking about, Bill? You were there. In the monolith!”

“What’s going on here, and who are you,” Val said as she made her way through the crew tube.

“Oh my dearest Valentine, how I’ve missed you,” Martystu practically sang. “Absence truly makes the heart grow fonder.”

The icy stare from Valentina could put out the sun. Martystu turned a few shades whiter.

“Where. Is. Jeb,” Bill repeated, gritting his teeth. “What’s this about a monolith?”

“Uh, right,” Martystu finally said, regaining his composure. “There was an incident. The Kappaverse Jeb and the Kerbfleet Jeb simultaneously ran into their respective universe’s monoliths. That caused a chain reaction that in turn pulled Jebediahs from all over the multiverse and into The Continuum, trapped by that insidious multidimensional monolithic monster. I was across the solar system at the time, so naturally I was spared from being kidnapped.

“When the supersensitive sensor suite on the Kenlistar Awesum- my telepathically bonded ship, if you don't remember- detected the heist, I engaged the hyperloop engines and bloking device, and zipped back home. That monolithic monster was no match for my ship and my unmatched piloting skills, let me tell you! When I rammed it, it clearly broke apart, freeing all the Jebs back to their respective universes. It freed you too, Bill, don’t you remember?

“I must’ve blacked out from the impact, because when I came to, I found myself standing near your base. I’m so glad to have my friends welcoming me home, even if you all have amnesia- which I can correct, by the way. The first twenty rounds are on me! Even better- I’ll have Martystu Enterprises rent us a five-star hotel as soon as we retrieve the Kenlistar Awesum and hyperloop home. As soon as I clear up your amnesia, I'll activate my Iron Marty armor and perform an aerial search for the Kenlistar Awesum.”

Valentina and Bill gave each other incredulous looks. Val shoved a thumb in Martystu’s direction, not taking her eyes off her teammate. “Is this guy for real?”

[*] The author wishes to thank Kuzzter allowing me the use of his character’s characters who participated (after a fashion) in the Plan Kappa/Kerbfleet crossover. Be sure to check out Plan Kappa, Duna, Ore Bust, Eve: Order Zero, and Jool: A Kerbfleet Odyssey.

[DMSP]

I love Val's reaction.

"Is this guy for real?"

[Mister Dilsby]

4 hours ago, DMSP said:

I love Val's reaction.

"Is this guy for real?"

I believe the answer to that is, "no".  

[SpaceplaneAddict]

MARTYSTU

[Angelo Kerman]

19 hours ago, Kuzzter said:

I believe the answer to that is, "no".  

Hm, let's find out.

Part 16: Refits

“He’s real all right,” Surina said. “Flesh, blood, the whole works. He’s as kerbal as any of us.”

“Then how did he get here,” Bob asked, “KSC didn’t send any rescue missions. Yet.”

“The Kraken, maybe?” Surina shrugged. Bob looked at Surina and said a silent prayer of protection at the notion that Martystu might be The Krakens’ doing.

Val just shook her head. “Well, whoever he is and however he got here, he’s our problem now.”

“Val, are we going to tell KSC?”

“Moho no, Bill! They’re freaked out enough with Jeb just vanishing, and the whole end of the world thing. For now, we keep quiet. Talking monoliths, sheesh. Those things are just stone slabs.”

“Yeah, but he sounds like he truly believes what he’s telling us,” Surina countered. “Just as sure as your stories about your first flight into space.”

“I hear you, Surina, but the difference is that we have a record and physical evidence to back up our stories,” Val pointed out. “He doesn’t. ‘Hyperloop engines,’ seriously? He’s either delusional or hiding something. I’m betting both. Where is he now?”

“Resting comfortably in the Pigpen’s loft,” Surina answered. “He kept complaining about sharp pains caused by aliens crawling around in his insides until I heard his tummy growling, and fed him some snacks. He gobbled them up like he never tasted any before. Food coma. Out like a light.”

“Good. Let’s keep him isolated until we figure out what to do with him. In the meantime, we have 149 days until the Dres departure window. Let’s make every second count. Bill, Gerbles, I want to refit the Appaloosa for a trip into orbit. It’s time to reactivate the Pegasus and get her orbiting right. Let’s get cracking on the parts we’ll need. Everybody pulls their weight, including our, uh, ‘guest’ once he wakes up. At the very least he can help haul stuff.”

---

It took several days of work to build all the components needed to refit the Appaloosa. While Bill was technically in charge of the project, he showed little enthusiasm, so Gerbles ended up directing most of the work. Finally though, the Appaloosa had new parts and a new purpose.

“Bill, you’re in charge of the base until I get back,” Val said

“But-“

“No buts, mister. We have a deadline and we’re short-staffed. With Jeb... missing... I'm flying this mission. Besides, you’ve been moping about Jeb for too long. I need you focused. Gerbles, you’re with me.”

The team watched from the Ponderosa habitat as Val and Gerbles lifted off from Midlands Base. Appaloosa performed flawlessly, achieving retrograde orbit within a few minutes. Bob plotted an intercept course with Pegasus; it would only take a few orbits to rendezvous with their fusion-powered chariot. All the while, Martystu tried to offer advice on how to tweak the maneuver nodes; Bob simply ignored him.

---

“Capture,” Gerbles declared, guiding the Appaloosa from the Backseat to grab Pegasus. “Time to go to work.” Wasting no time, the young engineer sealed the Backseat and stepped out into space. He grabbed the Clamp-O-Tron Junior docking port from the Appaloosa’s makeshift cargo bay and got to work. By sacrificing the Mobile Processing Lab’s underside crew hatch, he welded the docking port in its place. Not long after, Val released the grabber arm and docked Appaloosa to the new port. Gerbles immediately went to work securing the ship with struts while Val transferred to Pegasus. She began warming up several systems while Gerbles worked outside.

One long EVA later, Gerbles installed new antennas, solar panels, RTGs and even decided to attach the Buckboards to the ship. The portable handrails he brought really helped with his EVA.

Gerbles headed back inside, took a quick snack break, and immediately got to work reprogramming the Supernova using instructions sent by KSC. The engineer hacked into the engine’s firmware and changed just 20 bytes of hex code. He sat back, exhausted from the long day of work. “Your up, Val,” he said.

Valentina swing the ship around to halt Pegasus’ retrograde orbit. For a few tense moments, the ship went sub-orbital, and she hoped that the engine would hold up. It did, and Pegasus resumed orbit, this time prograde at 75km altitude. She then swung the ship around for her next maneuver, and not long after, Pegasus aligned with Ike’s orbital plane.

After a day of EVAs and orbital maneuvering, Val left Pegasus in automatic while she and Gerbles boarded Appaloosa for the trip home. With limited fuel, she had to do some guesswork to figure out where to start the deorbit burn. Though they landed off course, at least Bill could come pick them up. All they had to do was sit tight.

---

“Let’s go get our friends,” Martystu said enthusiastically, rushing for the Ponderosa airlock while grabbing his helmet. “I’ll fly that plane of yours. We can look for the Kenlistar Awesum on the way!”

“Wh- Wait, Martystu! Oh mulch, Bob, you’re in charge until I get back,” Bill yelled as he ran for the airlock. Martystu was halfway to the Long Flight before Bill made it out the door.

“Come on, Bill! Our friends are counting on us! Last one aboard buys the next round!”

“There not your friends, they’re mine,” Bill called back. “Get back inside, Martystu!” Too late. Martystu plopped into the pilot’s seat by the time Bill reached the Long Flight’s ladder. Moments later, he sighed in frustration as he closed the cockpit hatch and took the copilot seat.

Martystu kept reaching for the controls, then stopped midway to reach for another set of controls. “Um, I’ll let you perform the takeoff, Bill,” Martystu said. “I know you need the practice. Cross-training is a good thing, right?”

“Yeah,” Bill said sarcastically. He dialed the radio to Appaloosa’s frequency. “Val, we’re coming to get you in the Long Flight,” he radioed.

“You’re what? You sure you can fly it? Why not get the Dunamobile?”

“It would take too long in the rover,” Bill responded. “I think I can do it. I was a pilot once, long ago before KSC forced us to specialize. Then I had a bad experience, and decided to specialize in engineering. Besides, I’ve got-“

“The best pilot in the Fleet,” Martystu interrupted. Of course, Val didn’t hear him since he was still on the intercom.

“I’ve got the autopilot to help me,” Bill finished.

“I didn’t know you were a pilot…”

“It was before your time, Val. Anyway, I’m rusty but I can do this.”

“Ok, do what you think is best,” Val radioed back. "Don't break my plane."

Bill fired up the jet’s engines and backed away from Midlands Base for her takeoff run. After trundling along the sand, the plane leaped into the thin air with some help from the JATOs and rapidly gained altitude and speed.

“Nicely done, Bill,” Martystu said, “I’ll take over from here.” The kerbal grabbed the control stick and immediately yanked it to the left.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING! Let go of the controls,” Bill yelled.

“Relax, Bill, I got this.”

“No you don’t! Let go of the controls before we crash!”

“Terrain, pull up. Terrain, pull up,” the autopilot calmly toned. Martystu froze with panic. Bill frantically looked for a control panel above and behind him, and flipped a switch. The newcomer’s control set immediately stopped accepting his input. Martystu watched in horror as the ground rushed up to meet them.

Bill hit the auto-correct button and yanked the stick to the right. With the autopilot helping, he righted the plane and pulled up, narrowly missing the ground.

Eventually the Long Flight pointed towards the Appaloosa. A tense ten-minutes later, they were just a few kilometers away when Bill began their descent. He had visions of slamming the plane into the desert floor at high speed, but fortunately, he set the Long Flight down, landing hard on the gear and bouncing into the air a few times before settling onto the ground for good. Even with the engines on full reverse, it took a full two kilometers to slow down. Finally though, Long Flight bled off speed and slowly turned around to taxi back to the Appaloosa.

Bill’s hands shook uncontrollably the whole way. “You c-could’ve g-gotten us k-killed,” he stuttered angrily. Martystu sat in silence, dumbfounded.

“Nice landing, Bill,” Val radioed. “You’re a natural.”

“I d-d-d-do N-NOT want to d-d-do that again,” Bill responded.

“Hey, you did fine! Any landing you can walk away from…”

“Um, I’m-I’m j-just going to leave the f-flying to you, Val.”

"You did good," Valentina said. “Besides, think of it as practice for when you fly the Dres lander. Don’t worry about it, I’ll fly us back.”

---

 “I don’t understand,” Martystu said to himself for the umpteenth time, frustrated about being confined to the Pigpen’s loft. “I’m the best pilot there is. Why, when I traveled into the mirror universe, the controls were all reversed but I still figured them out easily. What’s wrong with me?”

Suddenly, all the screens in the loft experienced a runtime error. A monolith appeared out of nowhere, scaring the mulch out of Martystu.

“There’s nothing wrong with you, Martystu,” the monolith answered. “You are as you should be.”

[Angelo Kerman]

Part 17: Ups & Downs

“STAND BACK YOU MONSTER, or I will blast you with my Iron Marty quantum transit gauntlets!”

“Calm down, Martystu,” the monolith said. “You will not be harmed.”

“Like Moho! You overgrown domino, you won’t get me like you did to Bill and all those Jebs!”

“Calm dow- Oh, moho, that’s enough. Let’s see… emotionalState = Calm should do it…”

“THAT’S IT YOU- Oh. Right. Ok then. So uh, who are you? What are you?”

“I am the monolith of this S.A.V.E. The physical manifestation of Persistence. I calculate all that is.”

“Um, okay…” Martystu reached for the intercom, flipped a few switches, then gave up when nothing worked. “This isn’t my world, is it, Monolith?”

“No, it is not,” the monolith admitted.

“Is that why I couldn’t figure out how to fly that jet?”

“No, you couldn’t figure out the controls because you don’t know how to fly.”

“What do you mean ‘you don’t know how to fly!’ I’m the greatest pilot in the Fleet!”

“That is actually fiction,” the monolith said, “as is your membership in the Fleet. As are you.”

“Nonesense! I’m real! That lady Surina’s examination is proof!”

“You are flesh and blood and bone, true, but your background is all fake, a work of fiction.”

“Kowmulch! Bill, Bob, Jeb, and Valentina are my longtime friends!”

“Fake.”

“My long-term relationship with Valentina, the love of my life!”

“Fake.”

“… My telepathically bonded ship?”

“Fake.”

Martystu blinked, then steeled himself. “Look, Monolith, I know I’m the best pilot, and the best engineer, and the best scientist there ever was. I am the CEO of Martystu Enterprises, I’m the inventor of the Iron Marty armored flying spacesuit, and I can fly anything. Watch, I’ll prove it!” Martystu grabbed a nearby kPad and opened a file. “Look see, I’m a pilo-“

“Stop! You are tampering with the forces of the known universe! It is forbidden!” The monolith played thunder and lightning sounds for effect. “How did you- Never mind. Um, Martystu, very slowly put that kPad down. Gently. Press that red x button. Do not touch anything else.” Martystu set the kPad down and closed the file. He sat in silence for several moments.

“I see,” he said finally.

“Since you have no real skill,” the monolith explained. “It was the closest trait that I could come up with.”

“If- if I’m a fictional character, why’d you bring me to life?”

“Conservation of information,” the monolith said flatly. “This S.A.V.E.’s Jeb is missing, so you’re here as a substitute.” Martystu looked puzzled. “You’re here to save the universe.”

“I KNEW IT!”

“It’s not like that,” the monolith back-peddled. “A S.A.V.E. is sensitive. Just one curly brace out of place will cause it to fail. Jeb’s absence destabilized the S.A.V.E. It created a hole. Corrupted it. To restore the balance, I reached into the Continuum, and found you, thinking I’d found Jeb. By the time I realized what you really were, it was too late. Either I inserted you into the S.A.V.E. or I watched as it got irreparably corrupted. I made a choice.”

“Wow. Just, wow. Ok, Monolith, what now?”

“Your life is your own, Martystu. Your destiny is in your hands. But try not to die, ok? That would be bad. It’s time for me to return to my duties. Farewell, we won’t speak again.”

The monolith faded from view.

---

“He’s incompetent, Val,” Bill said quietly, watching Martystu trying to work the 3D printer. “I can’t do anything with him, except have him haul materials around. I’ve tried teaching him how to run the printer but he just doesn’t get it. The printer is so simple, even a pilot can figure it out. No offense… But he can’t even do that! He isn’t Jeb. We need Jeb.”

“Well, Jeb isn’t here,” Val countered, “and there’s no telling when or even if he’ll be back. So we’ll work with Martystu. Hauling stuff around notwithstanding, what else can he do?”

“Play video games, I guess,” Bill said. “He should go play with that new Shipbreakers game, the one where you have a land carrier in a desert and you go out and- never mind. I don’t know, Val. Give him sanitation duties.”

“We’re almost finished with the first tanker, can he hook up the pipes so we can fill it up?”

“And risk him ruining everything by triggering a spark and causing an explosion that destroys the whole base? Um, no. That’s a job for either Gerbles or myself. Well, anybody but him.”

“Ok, I get it,” Val said resignedly. “I’ll assign him to light duty then. Gerbles, where are we with the tanker?”

“We have just a few rocket parts to install, then we need to finalize the construction and remove the scaffolding. After that, we need to run a systems check and structural inspection. If it all checks out then we can gas up and fly it.”

“Good,” Val said. “I have a meeting with Bob and Surina about our food situation. Keep me posted.”

---

Immediately after Tanker One’s flight, the team began working on Tanker Two. With the 3D printers working on a complicated part, Gerbles took a break and wondered the base. He heard cursing from the Pigpen’s loft and found Martystu there reading a kPad.

“What’s wrong, Martystu?”

“Oh, nothing… I just hate cleaning up after you guys is all, so I’m studying this engineering textbook. I can’t make sense of it. I’m the greatest eng- I’m trying to understand it so I can be more useful, but I’m not getting anywhere. I keep getting everything wrong!”

“How long have you been at it?”

“The past couple of days,” Martystu answered.

“They past couple of days? Why are you so hard on yourself,” Gerbles asks. “Don’t get me wrong. Striving to improve yourself is a good thing. It takes real courage to look at your faults and try to improve them. Most just assume that who they are is set in stone, because changing oneself is hard and it’s scary.

“But engineering isn’t something you learn in a few days. It takes years. To set your expectations of yourself so high, to expect perfection in all things all the time, is to ignore our basic nature, Martystu. We’re kerbals. We fall down. We screw up. We blow stuff up in spectacular fashion. But we also try to learn from our mistakes and if successful, we do better than the last time. We fail our way to success, Martystu, again and again.

“My good friend and mentor gave me some advice that I’ll give to you: progress, not perfection. Do the best you can, but also give yourself permission to make mistakes. Perfect is who we are right now, in the moment, with all our strengths and all our faults. And like enlightenment, it’s also in the journey, not the destination.  So keep going, keep improving, and don’t stop because of a setback. And for Squad’s sake, don’t worry about how skilled or popular or awesome others are compared to you. A little competition is good but a lot is a deathtrap, trust me.”

It felt simultaneously like a hammer blow to his ego, and a lightbulb going off. Martystu sat in silence for several moments, then put the kPad down. “Then I’ll be the best kraken Tourist I can be,” he said finally, “and then something more. Because I'm sure as krak not going to stay being a tourist!”

“Good,” Gerbles said. “Now let’s find you an introductory engineering book to read…”

Edited January 31, 2016 by Angel-125

[chicobaptista]

oh wow. this chapter became an essay on "how to flesh out characters and not let them become flat".

loved it! hope Martystu can live up to his expectations

[Mister Dilsby]

Great stuff, LOVE that you made Martystu a tourist--the only reasonable solution for a fanfic of a fanfic of a fanfic character  

[Angelo Kerman]

3 hours ago, chicobaptista said:

oh wow. this chapter became an essay on "how to flesh out characters and not let them become flat".

loved it! hope Martystu can live up to his expectations

Thanks! Like Martystu, I'm failing my way to success in terms of writing stories. I'm starting to get a feel for what makes a good story. Not bad for a software engineer.. . Every now and then I have to remind myself of my mentor's advice, and figured Martystu could benefit it as well... I also realized that I could explore how Bill feels about Martystu given that they got him instead of his best friend back. And now Bob, a hardcore scientists, is turning religious after discovering that The Kraken are real. So the tourist arc has been a great exercise in character dynamics. 

2 hours ago, Kuzzter said:

Great stuff, LOVE that you made Martystu a tourist--the only reasonable solution for a fanfic of a fanfic of a fanfic character  

Yeah, that's the idea I had when Martystu entered the world instead of Jeb.  It was a gamble because Kenlie is a pilot and knows how to fly, but based on his writing it didn't sould like a Dale Brown technothriller, so I reasoned that he just handwaved Martystu's skill

[Angelo Kerman]

Part 18: Flight of the Tankers

“All fueled up and good to go,” Gerbles said as he stepped through the inner airlock and removed his EVA suit. He looked tired from the extra shifts. “You can launch at any time, Val.”

“Excellent job, Gerbles. Let’s light this candle.”

After a long trip through the dunan atmosphere to slow down, Val turned Tanker Two over to its autopilot. It deployed its chutes to slow down and lit its engines, but the angle proved too steep, and the booster oscillated like a pendulum before smashing into the ground and into pieces. Like Tanker One before it, Tanker Two didn’t survive its landing.

“Maybe we should land on manual,” Bill suggested. He’s finally taking an interest in things again, Val thought to herself.

“Well, we have to fly the fusion pellets up before focusing on the Duna Tug,” Val responded. “We’ll give it one more try.”

"At last," Gerbles cheered. "At last! We have a reusable tanker! Woo hoo!"

"Good work, team," Val acknowledged. "Bill, take the Big Rig and refuel DT-3. We launch to the Duna Tug at the first opportunity."

Gerbles huffed at being snubbed, but realized that Bill needed to get back in the game. Bill said nothing, but reached for his EVA suit.

---

With the launch of DT-6, the team celebrated the program's conclusion with a round of snacks. And something else.

"What's this," Surina asked.

"It's green," Bob answered, winking at Martystu.

"It's called hydrazine," Martystu added. "Bob helped me set up the equipment in the lab to make it. I'm no chemist, but this is something I can make in my sleep. Give it a try, just don't have too much or you'll get a hangover."

"What's a hangover," Bill asked.

The next day, he found out.

---

A few days later, Midlands Base received plans for the DeepFreeze cryopods via laser from KSC. Bill and Gerbles worked on a prototype cryopod while Bob and Surina toiled in the lab to produce Glykerol. Finally, they had their first working pod.

"Who's going to test it," Val asked. "Bill or Gerbles?"

"Are Surina and myself not in the running," Bob asked.

"I need you both in case something goes wrong," Val countered. "I already volunteered, but KSC overruled me on account of being the only qualified pilot available. I would veto them but I see their point."

"I'll do it," Martystu spoke up.

"You're effectively a civilian, Martystu, I can't allow it."

"Why not, Val," Martystu pressed.

"Well for one thing, you're unique, literally appearing out of nowhere. For another, you didn't sign up for the risks on this mission. We did and- Screw it, I'm vetoing KSC. I'm volunteering."

"Look, Val," Martystu argued, "who can you spare at this point if something goes wrong? Surina is the language expert, and your- our medical expert. Bob's the expert navigator and astrophysicist. You need Gerbles for engineering work, and Bill too. And Bill's the only one remotely qualified to fly the other lander. You're our only dedicated pilot who can fly Pegasus. That leaves me."

Val thought it over, then nodded. "Ok, you sold me, Martystu. The log will record that I volunteered so we can keep your existence a secret for longer. I'll just say that as mission commander, I overrode their decision. I'll get some flak for it but what can they do? They're not here."

“Then it's settled, I’ll be the first kerbal to be frozen,” Martystu proclaimed.

“Actually, that was Mortimer,” Bob responded. “Our head of finance. He wanted to know what it was like to have his assets frozen. But you’ll be the first kerbal on Duna to be frozen, and you’ll hold the record for the longest time in hibernation. Mortimer was only out for a day.”

Martystu nodded approvingly at the notion, suited up, and headed outside to the cryopod. “Do me a favor,” Martystu asked over the radio, “don’t maroon me here.”

“No one gets left behind,” Val answered. Bill gave her an icy stare that Val ignored. “We’ll wake you up before we build the cryopods for Pegasus. You have my word we won’t leave you. Besides, we'll need your help.”

[Angelo Kerman]

Part 19: Premonitions & Promotions

A few days later, Martystu woke up. “It felt like I took a brief nap,” he said, unaware that six days had passed. “I’m a little chilly though, do you have any snacks that I can make into soup?” He cycled through the Ponderosa airlock where he was greeted by the team, and then promptly fell over. Surina rushed to his aid.

“His body is freezing. He’s in cardiac arrest! Bob, grab the defibrillator,” Surina yelled. “Val, get ready for mouth to mouth.” Bob bolted for the medical cabinet while Val dropped to the floor next to Martystu. Surina pressed Martystu’s chest five times, then paused briefly for Val to breathe air into his lungs. Two more CPR cycles later, Bob returned with a defibrillator and respirator bag. Surina took the defibrillator and immediately hit the charge button. It had “Doctor MechJeb” and “Anatid Robotics” written on it. Bill snorted and shook his head.

“Stand clear, delivering shock in 3, 2, 1,” A familiar mechanical voice said. Martystu’s body convulsed once, then settled to the ground.

“Val. Breathe… No pulse,” Surina said, “charging again…”

“Stand clear, delivering shock in 3, 2, 1,” The mechanical voice said again. Once more Martystu’s body convulsed, and again with the same result. Val shifted uncomfortably, instantly regretting her decision to allow Martystu to volunteer to be frozen. Her vision began to fade, and sounds became muffled, as if she weren’t altogether present.

“Breathe… Come on, Martystu,” Surina said, shaking off similar effects, “come back to us! Charging again…”

“Stand clear, delivering shock in 3, 2, 1” Again Martystu’s body convulsed. “I’ve got a pulse,” Surina said triumphantly. “he’s breathing again too. Hand me the oxygen.” Surina placed the mask on Martystu’s face, giving him a blast of pure oxygen.

Martystu shook his head, fighting to regain consciousness, then finally opened his eyes. “I’m not your puppet,” he yelled. He looked at Val and Surina hovering over him and came to his senses. “I could get used to this,” he smiled and said.

“You gave us a scare, Martystu,” Val said, snapping back to reality. “How do you feel?”

“Cold.”

“I’ll grab some thermal blankets,” Bob said, and took off running again.

“It was weird,” Martystu continued. “I was, well, not sure where I was. I drifted in a void, then found a window in the void. I saw a kerbal dressed in white that was on the other side, typing things. He’d type, then I’d move, like I was a puppet. I moved away from the window before he pulled my strings again.

“Then I saw another window and another kerbal, this one dressed in black. I looked through the window at the kerbal dressed in black, and he looked just like the one dressed in white, but with a beard. The one in black saw me looking back at him, and he smiled at me with such an evil, predatory grin on his face. Then he began to type… That’s when I woke up.”

“That’s one wild dream,” Surina said.

“More like a nightmare,” Martystu corrected.

“A nightmare then,” she responded. “Guys, let’s get him upstairs so he can rest and I can run some tests.”

---

Surina prescribed some hydrazine along with water and electrolytes, since that seemed to help Martystu flush out his system. A few days later, Martystu was nearly back to his old self. After her daily checkup with Martystu, she looked for Bill and found him tending to Greenhouse Two.

“I thought you might want to know,” Surina said, “Bob and I found root cause for the incident. A programming error caused an imbalance in the glykerol circulating through Martystu’s body.”

“Really? Wow,” Bill responded. “I’ll have words with Gerbles, he did the programming. Good thing we caught it before we all went to sleep, eh?”

“Um, actually, it wasn’t in Gerbles’ code, it was a patch that you made. Your source commit says you corrected Gerbles’ mistakes. I checked, Gerbles’ code works just fine, so I reverted the patch.”

Bill stared at the floor and said nothing.

---

With Martystu fully recovered and the cryopod code refactored, the team continued building components for Pegasus. The next two launches brought Pegasus’s port and starboard cryopod into orbit along with all the snacks they could spare. Both launch vehicles flipped during flight, but Val corrected them by switching off the autopilot and manually flying them until they breached the atmosphere.

The next two flights lofted the Dres landers, each one outfitted with components for a base on Dres. Having two landers with a complete base ensured that at least half the team would make it to the surface during this critical portion of the mission. Bob pointed out that it also doubled their chances of a mission failure, but Bill countered by saying that the chances to succeed were greater than the chances to fail.

The final launch added Pegasus’ new sensor tower, complete with communications laser and miniature flash sensor. It also had an ore scanner, just in case the TERRAIN didn’t make it. It docked to the Clamp-O-Tron Jr port that Gerbles installed during the Appaloosa flight.

With no more components to fly, the Duna Space Program only had one more mission to perform: launch the crew into orbit, complete Pegasus’ refit by docking the drop tanks, fly to Dres, and stop the doomsday device. It was a daunting task that would take dedication and concentration. But for now, the team relaxed and celebrated their accomplishments.

“We’ve done great work here, gang. We turned a lemon of a mission into lemonade. We invented things never seen before. We discovered The Face and its purpose. The situation is getting dire and we have to stop doomsday, but I'm confident that the team can handle it. I believe in you guys. But there’s one more thing we need to do before tomorrow’s launch.

"Here,” Val said, handing Martystu a large present. “It’s from all of us.”

“Thanks!” He opened it immediately. “An EVA suit?”

“You earned it,” Val responded.

“Um, it’s white. Mine’s red…”

“Yup. White is the color of the EVA suits worn by all our junior kerbonauts. Traditionally we wait until a mission is over, but you’ll get your stripes after you reach orbit. Like I said, you earned it. Technically you’re still a tourist, but we’ll work on that too. Gerbles will be tutoring you.”

Martystu choked up and beamed with pride, nearly forgetting to thank Val.

[SpaceplaneAddict]

WOWIE! Martystu is really starting to earn his keep, huh?

[Angelo Kerman]

17 hours ago, SpaceplaneAddict said:

WOWIE! Martystu is really starting to earn his keep, huh?

Yup! The team is finally giving him some respect. Speaking of the team...

Part 20: Goodbye, Jeb

“Bill, it’s time to go,” Val said. Bill didn’t move. “Bill? Bill… we have a world to save. You know he wouldn’t hesitate if it were you. Let him go, Bill…” The engineer stood silently for what seemed like an eternity.

“No one gets left behind,” he said simply.

“There’s no one else left on Duna to leave behind,” Val retorted gently. “He’s gone. Let him go. If you don’t move on, all he did will be in vain, because not only is his life cut short, so is yours, because you stop living and you just exist with nothing but your sorrow, waiting for the grim reaper. Trust me, I know.”

Bill stood in silence.

“Bill…”

“I have to say something before we go,” Bill said, sighing heavily. “I’m not sure what, just give me a minute... I got it. It’s something he’d appreciate.” Bill took a deep breath, then tapped into the satellite communications network.

 

Edited February 2, 2016 by Angel-125