totm aug 2016 Kerny Kerman's Journal (mission reports from a Kerbal's point of view) [Chapter 87: "Among the growing shadows."]

[Angelo Kerman]

Dr. Zarkov? Is there also a Flash Kerman?

Spoiler

 

 

[Just Jim]

Oh.... wow..... that was fun!

But I've seen way too many sc-fi movies to trust this:

5 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

"Captain, didn't Dr. Wernher say that life support would have to stabilize for thirty minutes before we can enter, right?" Hildi was right. It was supposed to take thirty minutes before it would be safe to enter the craft. As I told her she was correct, I wasn't prepared for what she said next. "Sir, my monitor is showing life support at nominal levels - although we've just docked, it's already stabilized!"

Do I detect a possible "Dun Dun Dunnnnn" moment ahead???  

 

[Angelo Kerman]

4 hours ago, Just Jim said:

Oh.... wow..... that was fun!

But I've seen way too many sc-fi movies to trust this:

Do I detect a possible "Dun Dun Dunnnnn" moment ahead???  

 

I think there is a stowaway. I don't think it was JJ Kerman (I wonder if he's directing any Lost episodes in addition to his claymation series), and I'm guessing Jeb isn't aboard- oh wait, Jeb does have a tendency to sneak aboard launches...

Edited July 4, 2017 by Angel-125

[obney kerman]

10 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

I think there is a stowaway. I don't think it was JJ Kerman (I wonder if he's directing any Lost episodes in addition to his claymation series), and I'm guessing Jeb isn't aboard- oh wait, Jeb does have a tendency to sneak aboard launches...

oh {REDACTED}

[Just Jim]

10 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

I think there is a stowaway. I don't think it was JJ Kerman

I don't know... but if there is, I don't think it can be JJ either.

I had to go back and double check, but if I'm reading this right, Kerny and the crew docked just with a ship that was already in orbit, and appears to have life support already running. If there is a stowaway, he and/or she would have had to come up on that first ship. And while I'm not sure when it was launched... I'll have to go back and re-read and see if I can find out for sure... we know at the beginning of the chapter JJ was still on the ground within the last day or so.

 

 

[StupidAndy]

only one reasonable explanation:

aliens

[adsii1970]

Plock 22, Y003 
"The unending anomaly" _{(Part 2)}
Chapter 45  

The last two days have been a strange paradox of things happening that defy explanation. If any Kerman would have told me I would end up back at the KSC and not on my way to Minimus, I wouldn't have believed them. But the good news is that in three days, we launch -- again. There has been so much happening, especially the non-stop briefings since our return to the surface of Kerbin early this morning. Gene and Dr. Haywood have insisted that I need to keep a "Captain's Log" of the events involving the members of my crew, their performance, and the evaluation of the craft. During this morning's briefings, Dr. Haywood added the requirement that I also evaluate the mission's performance and objectives. Halfway through this morning's briefing, Karloff let it slip that I've been keeping a personal journal. I also learned that not only had he been reading it, but that he's been sharing the contents of my journal with Gilti. 

"Commander," Gene began, "as his executive officer, you're required to keep one, too." Yeah, now he will see how difficult it can be to record everything. "But for the record," Gene continued, "Captain Kerny, I suggest you assign a bio-metric pass key to your logs. From this point forward, Dr. Haywood and Prime Consul Katrine want only your immediate chain of command to have access to your journals. And for now, that is Dr. Haywood, myself, and Consul Edmund."

"Yes, I understand, Gene. But..." I asked, "what if something I put in the log is personal, you know, for my own records?"

"That's easy," Dr. Haywood interrupted. "Just highlight it by saying "Personal Log" as you record the audio file." And with that, I now have to rethink the way I'm keeping my journal, as Gene calls it, my captain's log. 

On the 21st, we did dock with the Excursion, the unofficial name of our spacecraft destined to take us to Minimus. Immediately after we had hard dock, Ensign Hildi informed us that her instruments were showing the atmosphere in the Excursion were stabilized and fully compatible with the CTV-1. Based on the recommendations of my crew, I made the decision to remain on board the CTV-1 for the required thirty-minute atmospheric synchronization in case it was a faulty on-board sensor. As I asked her to do, Gilti sent our status to Mission Control in the routine data packet. Within ten minutes, we had Gene's response - he concurred with my decision.

The next twenty minutes went by pretty quick. Gilti poured over the telemetry coming from the command vehicle's computers, Hildi continued to monitor the progress, or lack of progress towards equalization, and the youngest member of our crew, Junior Lieutenant Obney continued to review his flight manual. Although he originally completed training for the Ground Expeditionary Forces, I felt his record and experiences, with the exception of his encounter with Captain Jebediah, could be vital for our future missions. Karloff spend most of the twenty minutes trying to figure out how to use his KPad to record his own log. Not only is he my executive officer but he doubles as the ship's chief engineer. He's about to find out how difficult keeping logs can be.

"Captain, the ship's computer is showing our thirty minutes has passed," Ensign Hildi called out to me. "It's safe to enter the Excursion."

"Sir," now it was Karloff's turn to add to the formality of the moment, "as the chief engineer, I should be the one who opens the hatch..."

"Make it so, Commander," and with my concurrence, Karloff opened the hatches. Within a couple of awkward minutes, I followed him into the main hub of the Excursion, followed by the rest of the crew.

"Captain," Karloff added, "she doesn't appear to have ever had her environmental controls in standby mode." And he was correct. Normally, after docking and the equalization process, a fine mist would cover the internal surfaces of any craft or platform. It was typical and normally disappeared within an hour or two of equalization and was the result of the internal temperature changes. But this wasn't the case within the Excursion. It was as if her environmental controls had remained at Kerbin-standard for at least an hour before our arrival, if not longer.

"Commander," I replied, "take Lieutenant Gilti and Junior with you to the command module. Ensign Hildi, you come with me. Gene wants us to get familiar with this ship. I can't agree more. But let's see if we can figure out why the life support systems were left on and their status. We don't need a surprise halfway between here and Minimus..." 

As most of the crew worked their way to the command module, Hildi and myself worked through the forward crew compartment and into the small lab. As we made our way into the aft crew compartment, the communications panel came on. "Captain, we're on the command module," Karloff began. "There's nothing here out of the ordinary to report. There's no moisture on any of the surfaces and the Excursion's onboard computer shows the environmental controls were overridden about the same time the anomaly began."

"Could it be some sort of glitch with the program..." but before I could even get my question out... 

"Sir, I think I just saw something back there..." Hildi began.

Hildi and I entered the rear crew compartment and there, in one of the berths, was Gene's missing Kerbalnaut -- Cadet Triy! I invited her to join us in the command module. This was something that didn't need to wait until Gilti sent the next data packet. And nearly as soon as we had confirmation that Gene had received our data packet, we began receiving direct communications from the space center.

"Captain, Gene's signaling us..." Gilti began. "Want me to open the frequency?"

"Might as well get this over with..." I responded. What else could we do? 

"Captain, you put her butt in the CTV-1 and drop her down. Wait - is she ok?" It had been a few days since I heard Gene this mad -- and that was at Jim. "If she's not dead, she will wish she was when I get finished with her!"

"Yes, Gene, she is ok... and is why our environmental..." I couldn't even get a statement out before being interrupted again. 

"I'll have the boys put up another CTV;" Gene was screaming. I could see the veins sticking out on his forehead. Yes, this was well beyond the anger I had seen during the showdown with Jim. 

"But Captain, I just had to get into space! I couldn't wait any longer!" Triy had begun to plead her case. And for a brief moment, I wonder if this was how Bob felt when he became entrapped between Gene and Jebediah as they argued. For nearly ten minutes, Gene screamed and Triy cried and pleaded to be allowed to stay on the Excursion. 

"Gene," It was time to put an end to this argument. I continued, "I'm the captain of this ship, right?" and with Gene's acknowledgement the ship and mission were both within my power, I made him and her an offer. "As captain, can I simply keep her and you assign her to my crew? Even you said eventually I'd have a crew of ten when I go to Duna..."

After another ten minutes of debate, Gene agreed. "You might as well keep her. With this stunt, when she got back, I'd throw her out of the program..." And with that, Cadet Triy became an official member of my crew. For the next three hours, we would have to inventory the supplies on the CTV-1 and the Excursion. We now had to make our supplies last for the twenty-day mission and with an extra crew member. After that was done, we transferred the emergency rations from the CTV-1 and prepared for the next part of our test flight. The Excursion was in orbit at an altitude of 150,000 meters above the surface. Our first test would adjust our orbit to a height of 250,000 meters, or as Dr. Haywood said, standard orbit.

"Captain," Gilti called out to me as the three-hour orbital period came to an end, "Mission Control says we are clear and free to begin orbital adjustment tests..."

"Lieutenant, plot our new course and prepare to adjust our orbit at the maneuver node..."

"Aye, sir," Gilti answered. "Main engines coming on line now. Preparing to fire in 45 seconds..."

Commander Karloff began counting the seconds down, "three...two...one..." Gilti applied full throttle to the engines and that's when the problems started. Instead of a slight burst of speed, the Excursion began a slight roll to the port. Gilti tried to pull the craft out of the roll by increasing the throttle and activating the RCS thrusters on the CTV-1, still docked to our vessel. But all that did was to release a kraken - those mythical creatures of old responsible for any number of bad things.

"Captain," Karloff shouted to be heard over the moaning of the vessel, "She's going to break up! She cannot handle much more!" And I knew he was right. The ship was now rolling and tumbling on two axis. 

"Lieutenant, deactivate the engines..." It was the only thing I could think to do. 

"Yes, sir!" Gilti called out. "Velocity has increased by 145 meters per second and rotation is slowing... but our altitude...sir... we are in an elliptical and unstable orbit!"

"Captain," Karloff added, "this whole design is not balanced..."

"Ok, can we adjust the engines?" 

"No, sir, we cannot." The disappointment was heavy in Karloff's voice. "The engines are underpowered. And the design is not balanced. Even if we were to burn the engines at one-quarter power, it would still cause us to tumble but would not get our orbit stabilized."

We prepared a data packet and sent it to the tracking center. Unfortunately, Dr. Wernher and Harrison agreed with Karloff's assessment of our situation. The Excursion had a serious design flaw with symmetry and underpowered engines. If we were to go to full engines again, we would most certainly tumble on two axis. There was no salvaging this mission. 

So, earlier this morning, the decision was made.

 

"Mission Control, this is Excursion," we have separation from habitation and drive units..." Gilti reported.

"Roger, Excursion," Gene's disappointment was evident. "We're tracking you now..." For the next thirty minutes, communications between the command module and mission control filled our ears. As the emergency drive unit exhausted its fuel, Gilti began the roll required to place us in a heat-shield-down orientation in preparation for our reentry. 

Soon, the familiar red-plasma glow of super-heated air enveloped the command module. We were on our way back home. 

[Angelo Kerman]

I hate it when a design doesn't come together!

[Just Jim]

6 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

I hate it when a design doesn't come together!

yeah, but isn't it great when you can use it in a story anyway? 

[adsii1970]

7 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

I hate it when a design doesn't come together!

Yeah, me too, but if you look back throughout the journal, there are a few crafts that I did that didn't work quite right. Why not include the failures as well as the successes? Besides, the Excursion's crew evacuation module functioned flawlessly. 

51 minutes ago, Just Jim said:

yeah, but isn't it great when you can use it in a story anyway? 

Exactly! It's easy to write a storyline without including craft failures and everything goes nearly perfect for the crew. But in reality, we all have had the "dead car battery" mornings and nothing from that point through the rest of the day goes quite right. I kind of imagine this is how Kerny felt. He has the largest non-orbiting space station crew, a new ship design, and instead of going down in the history books as a great mission success - this mission became a lesson in how not to design a spacecraft. 

Let me share this:

This is a screen shot of the same craft used in the last chapters but without the two landers and CTV. If you notice, the basic configuration is tri-symmetric - and this is where the problem is. For this design to be stable, the lab module should have also had a fuel tank and engine assembly to make it the same length as the other two engine assemblies. Once the two landers are added, then the CTV at the front docking port, a huge weight imbalance is created. The docking hub acts as a giant pivot point, sending the entire vehicle assembly tumbling. Then the RCS thrusters kick in, and you get a tumble with a spin...

So, with that said, this design is seriously flawed. I've already got the sister ship in orbit; I solved one problem, but still have the rolling to port issue. But since the sister ship is already on it's way to Minimus and Kerny and his crew are able to compensate for the roll, I'll worry about the redesign when they get back... 

 

Edited July 11, 2017 by adsii1970

[Angelo Kerman]

1 hour ago, adsii1970 said:

Yeah, me too, but if you look back throughout the journal, there are a few crafts that I did that didn't work quite right. Why not include the failures as well as the successes?

That's a good point, actually. I ran into a situation last night playing in my career (bugs not withstanding): My quad tilt-rotor couldn't take off again no matter how hard I tried! I had to send Bill, Bob, and Jeb in a modified Fulton airship (the real Fulton is out on a mission) to retrieve it:

The airship was kind of a rush job and is unfinished. I might put this into the next chapter...

[Pretorian28715]

Loved the last chapter. Was expecting a 'Damn it Kerny, I'm a ..... not a ....' type line in there somewhere. Oh well Maybe next episode time.

Edited July 11, 2017 by Pretorian28715
Typo

[adsii1970]

Hahaha, I almost did that; I did have Karloff sound a bit like Scotty - but then again, I am a Trekkie! But if anyone is going to say that line, it HAS to be the ship's doctor, Ensign Hildi!

1 hour ago, Angel-125 said:

That's a good point, actually. I ran into a situation last night playing in my career (bugs not withstanding): My quad tilt-rotor couldn't take off again no matter how hard I tried! I had to send Bill, Bob, and Jeb in a modified Fulton airship (the real Fulton is out on a mission) to retrieve it:

The airship was kind of a rush job and is unfinished. I might put this into the next chapter...

I think it needs to go in! It adds a depth to the story; and in your case, it would be totally in line with all the other stuff your crew faces!

As I said, personally, I'd use it...

[StupidAndy]

so its a captain's log now?

fancy

[adsii1970]

24 minutes ago, StupidAndy said:

so its a captain's log now?

fancy

Hehehe - and this is where Gene and Kerny will have some tensions. As you can tell, Kerny has kept his own journal as he always has.  And it will stay that way... and there is a plan!

[Thedrelle]

22 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

Hehehe - and this is where Gene and Kerny will have some tensions. As you can tell, Kerny has kept his own journal as he always has.  And it will stay that way... and there is a plan!

Kerny's gonna start annoying Gene too? great!

It seemed like Kerny could do no wrong in the eyes of the higher ups, so a bit of conflict was bound to happen sooner or later!

pity about the ship, and poor Cadet Triy! she almost got on that mission! how is she going to get out of being reassigned to kerberia  after this last stunt!

[adsii1970]

4 hours ago, Thedrelle said:

pity about the ship, and poor Cadet Triy! she almost got on that mission! how is she going to get out of being reassigned to kerberia  after this last stunt!

 

You must have missed this:

Quote

"Gene," It was time to put an end to this argument. I continued, "I'm the captain of this ship, right?" and with Gene's acknowledgement the ship and mission were both within my power, I made him and her an offer. "As captain, can I simply keep her and you assign her to my crew? Even you said eventually I'd have a crew of ten when I go to Duna..."

After another ten minutes of debate, Gene agreed. "You might as well keep her..."

She is now "officially" a part of his crew. Oh, and Gene isn't happy about having "captain's privilege" thrown at him as Kerny did.   And we all know how well Gene likes to be challenged...

Edited July 12, 2017 by adsii1970

[Thedrelle]

Ah, I did read that, It just did not seem likely that Kerny's decision to keep her would not hold up once they returned to Kerbin. I would expect it would take some serious arguing to keep Gene from send her northwards despite captains prerogative.

[Kerbinchaser]

On 4/20/2017 at 5:09 PM, adsii1970 said:

Howdy, folks! Just wanted you to know that I've got the images ready for the next chapter. I've decided to do something very... unique this time. In every other chapter, there will be a small walk-on "cameo" made by those who regularly read this story. I'm not promising the characters will become a "key" character or used in multiple chapters, but they will be there. If you're user name is chosen, you'll be tagged in a footnote of that chapter.

With that said, there are some "regulars" who are friends whose characters have already appeared (or planned to have been used). These are:

• J. Jim Kerman: (@Just Jim). Television producer, independent researcher...
• Kuzzter Kerman: (@Kuzzter). Works at the KSC tracking center. He is known for his uncanny ability to track where space debris will impact within 50 meters. It's not time to panic or evacuate until you see him grabbing his snacks and hat and rapidly leaving the building...
• Angelo Kerman: (@Angel-125). He's an engineer and systems designer who works with Dr. Wernher. There will be a falling out in a few chapters over his belief that Dr. Wernher is being too "cautious" in his development of new equipment. So, at the prompting of Dr. Haywood, he founds his own company... You'll start seeing some of this in the upcoming chapter.

Nice to see that some authors are playing Cameo.

[adsii1970]

2 hours ago, Thedrelle said:

Ah, I did read that, It just did not seem likely that Kerny's decision to keep her would not hold up once they returned to Kerbin. I would expect it would take some serious arguing to keep Gene from send her northwards despite captains prerogative.

Hmm...thanks for an idea!

[Thedrelle]

21 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

Hmm...thanks for an idea!

uh oh, what have I done?!?

 

i'm sorry Triy, I think i just changed your destiny!

[adsii1970]

On 7/13/2017 at 1:10 PM, Lo Var Lachland said:

Nice to see that some authors are playing Cameo.

There are also a forum member I've added in a few chapters - @obney kerman! So he actually is now a part of Kerny's crew...

[Kerbinchaser]

4 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

There are also a forum member I've added in a few chapters - @obney kerman! So he actually is now a part of Kerny's crew...

Poor me. I'll never get in. 

[obney kerman]

On ‎7‎/‎20‎/‎2017 at 10:16 AM, Lo Var Lachland said:

Poor me. I'll never get in. 

Lo Var Kerman?

[Kerbinchaser]

Just now, obney kerman said:

Lo Var Kerman?