Forgotten Space Program

[Cydonian Monk]

Just now, KAL 9000 said:

I guess  

This is how we all ended up on every watch list in existence. "Hey, how do you create a cloud of Carbon Monoxide and Cyanide? And be a bit radioactive?" (Audience then runs off and cooks up several different completely terrifying options.)

[Geschosskopf]

1 hour ago, Cydonian Monk said:

This is how we all ended up on every watch list in existence. "Hey, how do you create a cloud of Carbon Monoxide and Cyanide? And be a bit radioactive?" (Audience then runs off and cooks up several different completely terrifying options.)

Well, other than the radioactive part, creating clouds of those 2 gases is quite simple and happens every day naturally, thanks to lightning and spontaneous combustion.  Both gases are products of combustion, especially of cellulose-based fuels.  Such as hay bales, grass, logs, etc  And  you get more of them if the fire is just smoldering so you get a lot of incomplete combustion.

As a matter of fact, I only just now returned from fighting a fire involving 2 big round hay bales, one of which spontaneously combusted, so there was a lot of smoldering going on inside and lots of CO and HCN in the smoke.  And of course the wind kept shifting the smoke onto us so we all got somewhat gassed.  I'll be off-gassing those things the rest of the day.

[greenTurtle1134]

1 hour ago, ruiluth said:

Unfortunately, according to this document, on page 8, the products of propane combusting with nitrous oxide "consist mainly of nitrogen, water, and carbon dioxide." This is because chemical reactions tend to favor the lowest entropic state they can find. HCN is a more complex molecule than N₂ or CO₂, so the atoms in the reaction will not form it unless there are no less-complex molecules they could form.

Because of this, I think what we need is something with only one nitrogen. If it can't form N₂, it'll have to form N-something, and if we can balance it right, that'll be HCN. The best way to find out what reactions will result in this to find how HCN is actually formed. A quick google search shows that sometimes in house fires it can be formed when household products containing nitrogen burn with the air.

Digging a little deeper, I found that CH₃CN is a combustible molecule containing only one N. Better yet (for our nefarious purposes), according to this document it actually produces HCN and CO₂ when it burns. That document describes in detail the various reactions that take place and three "zones" inside the flame, but I think for out purposes, fueling a rocket with acetonitrile (which happens to be liquid at room temperature and therefore suitable for fuel), we could get CH₃CN + O₂ = HCN + CO + H₂O. Since CO and H₂O have low entropy, there is little chance of this reaction producing large quantities of other products.

So, if we mixed acetonitrile and oxygen at approximately similar stochiometric quantities, we would get the required products, cyanide and carbon monoxide. To find the correct ratio, we can use the molar masses and densities of each substance to find that for each liter of acetonitrile we pumped into the engine, we'd need approximately 459 liters of O₂ at 20^oC, or 2190 liters of air. The nitrogen in the air might mess with our stochiometry though so this was probably a rocket plane!

 

Conclusion: This was a rocket plane running on acetonitrile and LOX.

And I thought I was overanalyzing this too much...

Now, the next thing to do is to mod a KSP engine to run on Acen/LOX. Anyone want to produce numbers for the exhaust velocity, chamber pressure, flame temp, and such?

[Cydonian Monk]

2 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

2 big round hay bales, one of which spontaneously combusted....

It's one of those things city folk just don't understand - that hay bales/stacks can get hot and wet enough for the various gunk living inside of them to catch fire. Pretty common occurance, and one I witnessed many times in my somewhat more agrarian youth. Especially in the wetter parts of the world.

Even recently - I was behind a fifth-wheel hauling bales here in Houston with one that was starting to smoke. Tried talking about it at work and everybody was convinced I was nutters. 

Edited November 30, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[Garrett Kerman]

Wait, really? Ummm... (backs away from hay bale)

[ruiluth]

4 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

This is how we all ended up on every watch list in existence. "Hey, how do you create a cloud of Carbon Monoxide and Cyanide? And be a bit radioactive?" (Audience then runs off and cooks up several different completely terrifying options.)

I love these forums and this thread, we have such fun conversations

3 hours ago, greenTurtle1134 said:

And I thought I was overanalyzing this too much...

Now, the next thing to do is to mod a KSP engine to run on Acen/LOX. Anyone want to produce numbers for the exhaust velocity, chamber pressure, flame temp, and such?

*rolls up sleeves*

Okay, so the first thing to do is figure out how much energy is released in the combustion. Before, I had CH₃CN +O₂ = HCN + CO + H₂O.

The structure of a molecule of acetonitrile is like this:

So we have 3 C-H bonds, 1 C-C bond, and one C≡N bond. The total energy of these bonds in 1 mole of CH₃CN is 3(413) + 347 + 891 = 2477 kJ/mole. O₂ has 495 kJ/mole.

Hydrogen cyanide is like this:

Here we have 413+891 = 1304 kJ/mole. H₂O has 2(467) = 934 kJ/mole. CO is a special case and has 1072 kJ/mole. So we have:

CH₃CN = 2477 kJ/mole

O₂ = 495 kJ/mole

HCN = 1304 kJ/mole

CO = 1072 kJ/mole

H₂O = 934 kJ/mole

Total energy of reactants: 2972 kJ/mole

Total energy of products: 3310 kJ/mole

 

Uh oh! Our change in enthalpy is +338 kJ/mole. That means that this reaction actually absorbs more energy than it releases. So it will not actually produce any energy at all and in fact if water, carbon monoxide, and cyanide are combined, they're more likely to produce acetonitrile and oxygen than the other way around.

Since water is present in the air, I think it's safe to say that if there is carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide present in any exhaust, it will not be present in large quantities for long because it will mix with water and oxygen in the air to form much less dangerous compounds.

New conclusion: the plane uses some other form of propulsion and the reason that there's cyanide and carbon monoxide in the exhaust is because it was placed there to seed the atmosphere with poison for nefarious reasons!

Edited December 1, 2016 by ruiluth

[cubinator]

46 minutes ago, ruiluth said:

New conclusion: the plane uses some other form of propulsion and the reason that there's cyanide and carbon monoxide in the exhaust is because it was placed there to seed the atmosphere with poison for nefarious reasons!

It's probably from the cooking apparatuses on board, then.

[greenTurtle1134]

2 hours ago, ruiluth said:

I love these forums and this thread, we have such fun conversations

*rolls up sleeves*

Snipped Enthalpy calculation.

Since water is present in the air, I think it's safe to say that if there is carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide present in any exhaust, it will not be present in large quantities for long because it will mix with water and oxygen in the air to form much less dangerous compounds.

New conclusion: the plane uses some other form of propulsion and the reason that there's cyanide and carbon monoxide in the exhaust is because it was placed there to seed the atmosphere with poison for nefarious reasons!

Impressive knowledge of chemistry. Did you look those stats up, or do you just know em off the top of the head?

Either way - yes, the stuff's useless as rocket fuel.

[Geschosskopf]

5 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

It's one of those things city folk just don't understand - that hay bales/stacks can get hot and wet enough for the various gunk living inside of them to catch fire. ...........

Even recently - I was behind a fifth-wheel hauling bales here in Houston with one that was starting to smoke. Tried talking about it at work and everybody was convinced I was nutters. 

 

4 hours ago, Garrett Kerman said:

Wait, really? Ummm... (backs away from hay bale)

@Cydonian Monk, yup, there are only 2 things in my experience that will cause city-slickers to give you stranger looks than saying that hay bales often spontaneously combust.  One of them is averring that a goose is a foul-tempered minion of Satan with a homicidal streak a mile wide.  Then they regard you as King Arthur did Tim the Enchanter, but that's not the worst one.  No, the real taker of the cake is stating quite truthfully that ranchers these days often pasture a few donkeys with their paying livestock as protection from coyotes.  City-slickers think hay bales are totally inert, that geese and donkeys are cute and cuddly, and that a donkey attacking and stomping a coyote to death is even more far-fetched than a goose trying to kill a human for no damn reason.  And I regard all this as hilariously mis-ordered because a goose can and will kill you, a hay bale can and will ruin your year's income and possibly destroy your house (possibly while you're asleep in it), and donkeys won't attack you because you're not a coyote.

@Garrett Kerman, yes, really.  To expand on what CM said, hay baled either green or wet rots and this decomposition process is exothermic.  The heat release rate is a minuscule amount of sub-Watts but it's happening deep in the depths of the bale, so the surrounding hay acts as insulation.  This means the heat can't escape and the on-going rotting adds a little more every day, so the internal temperature of the bale increases.  After a week or 3, the internal temperature will reach the autoignition temperature of the hay and it will start combusting.  Being deep down inside the bale, it hardly gets enough oxygen to keep even smoldering combustion going, but over a day or 2, as the hay immediately involved pyrolysizes and crumbles away, more air gets in.  And also in a day or 2, smoke starts leaking out.  Give it another day or 2 and the bale will have visible flames on the outside, which means the wind will blow burning embers along and spread the fire, and so it can become a major problem.

Edited December 1, 2016 by Geschosskopf

[KAL 9000]

News from Air Kerbal: 

"Plane flights #1,237 and #7,321 (yes, really) crashed together in midair due to both pilots being distracted by a donut. They were both on approach to KSC 2 Airport when the crash happened. All Kerbals within 1,000 kilometers from KSC 2, including most of the Ussari Union, are advised to evacuate immediately."

[DarkOwl57]

5 minutes ago, KAL 9000 said:

News from Air Kerbal: 

"Plane flights #1,237 and #7,321 (yes, really) crashed together in midair due to both pilots being distracted by a donut. They were both on approach to KSC 2 Airport when the crash happened. All Kerbals within 1,000 kilometers from KSC 2, including most of the Ussari Union, are advised to evacuate immediately."

Valentina Kerman is on scene with more, Val?

Thank you Kal. Behind me, you can see the crash site, where just a few minutes ago, emergency personnel arrived on scene. Currently, at least 60 have been pronounced dead, while another 120 have been labeled 'MIA'. The crash happened early this morning, and so far no statement has been made by the CEO of Air Kerbal. More on this story as it develops.

[Cydonian Monk]

1 hour ago, DarkOwl57 said:

More on this story as it develops.

Let's not. Digging into bizarre chemisrty is one thing, but we should stop this here before you folks fall too far down the kerbal rabbit hole. 

 

In other news, I discovered the new KerbNet display flickers really badly when displaying the full network if you have ~400 ships all with green connection lines. 

Beyond that and other issues I've already mentioned everything seems ok. Should have an update in a day or two, after which we'll be rolling again. Maybe I'll wait for the 1-year mark on Saturday...... 

Edited December 1, 2016 by Cydonian Monk

[KAL 9000]

36 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Let's not. Digging into bizarre chemisrty is one thing, but we should stop this here before you folks fall too far down the kerbal rabbit hole. 

 

In other news, I discovered the new KerbNet display flickers really badly when displaying the full network if you have ~400 ships all with green connection lines. 

Beyond that and other issues I've already mentioned everything seems ok. Should have an update in a day or two, after which we'll be rolling again. Maybe I'll wait for the 1-year mark on Saturday...... 

1-Year mark! w00t! @Cydonian Monk, you are a STRUTTY-EYED BOOSTER KERB!

[cubinator]

1 hour ago, Cydonian Monk said:

1-year mark on Saturday

What do you mean, it takes like four just to reach Jool...wait...you mean... Has it been that long?  

[monophonic]

16 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

One of them is averring that a goose is a foul-tempered minion of Satan with a homicidal streak a mile wide.  

They are, and they have developed a liking to city centres around here. Thankfully it is winter now so they have moved somewhere warmer for a while. But they will be back...

Otherwise on the topic of minions of ancient evil gods, have you seen what swans will do to geese if they happen to nest at the same pond?

[Vanamonde]

Please keep the discussion on-topic, folks. Don't make readers work so hard to follow the story. 

[ruiluth]

21 hours ago, greenTurtle1134 said:

Impressive knowledge of chemistry. Did you look those stats up, or do you just know em off the top of the head?

Either way - yes, the stuff's useless as rocket fuel.

Just what I remember from high school and a bit of Google although high school wasn't very long ago for me and I enjoyed it.

2 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

Please keep the discussion on-topic, folks. Don't make readers work so hard to follow the story. 

I wonder if @Cydonian Monk would be willing to put the story up (or let someone else do it) on an external site so it's easier to read just the story? Maybe a Google doc or some fanfiction site or something. I know for me it was a bit difficult navigating this thread to find the story posts when I found it.

[Cydonian Monk]

3 minutes ago, ruiluth said:

I wonder if @Cydonian Monk would be willing to put the story up on an external site so it's easier to read just the story.

I'm considering it, and it'd be simple to compile the text out to a PDF or ePub or even HTML from Scrivener. Getting the images into it? Not so easy unless I break it up into smaller projects. Scrivener is for some wacko reason still built as a 32-bit executable (or at least my version of it is), and trying to compile anything with lots of images such as Ad Lunam or Forgotten always causes it to hit the 4GB memory cap.

I know it's tough to navigate on the forums now, and I half suspect if I put a table of contents link on the first post it'd just break eventually. And maintaining such a list can be a real pain.

I do have an idea that'll make things easier: when I get the chance I'll put "Next Post" links at the end of each chapter. Won't be until this weekend though.

[Mister Dilsby]

1 hour ago, Cydonian Monk said:

I do have an idea that'll make things easier: when I get the chance I'll put "Next Post" links at the end of each chapter. Won't be until this weekend though.

A very good idea. I've been archiving mine as Imgur albums, but of course that's easier in my format (all images) than it is in yours. Starting in Jool Odyssey I've also put links to the first post of each chapter in the thread OP.

You know, you could put an index on your OP with links to the first post in each chapter, along with a "back to index" link at the end of each one, like @Just Jim does. I think that would word well also.

[DarkOwl57]

21 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

the 1-year mark on Saturday...... 

Dang! 1 whole year of this?! That's dedication right there; It normally takes oh.... about 3 weeks for my stories to finish, but 1 whole year?!?!? Dang bro, take a break!

[0111narwhalz]

On the Limit Theory forums, it is convention to create two threads for each long work: the one with the story itself, and the one with comments. This, I feel, could work well with a work such as this one. However, it's a little late for that, and Staff might feel it is thread bloat.

[DarkOwl57]

5 minutes ago, 0111narwhalz said:

On the Limit Theory forums, it is convention to create two threads for each long work: the one with the story itself, and the one with comments. This, I feel, could work well with a work such as this one. However, it's a little late for that, and Staff might feel it is thread bloat.

What's thread bloat?

5 minutes ago, 0111narwhalz said:

On the Limit Theory forums, it is convention to create two threads for each long work: the one with the story itself, and the one with comments. This, I feel, could work well with a work such as this one. However, it's a little late for that, and Staff might feel it is thread bloat.

Well, personally, I think it would be easier to have the comments on the original page, as people don't have to go searching for where to put comments, or to reply to something that was on their notifications tab.

[0111narwhalz]

25 minutes ago, DarkOwl57 said:

What's thread bloat?

Thread bloat is when you have far too many threads describing the same thing. It makes it difficult to find information and participate effectively. Moderators commonly combat this by merging threads.

[DarkOwl57]

4 minutes ago, 0111narwhalz said:

Thread bloat is when you have far too many threads describing the same thing. It makes it difficult to find information and participate effectively. Moderators commonly combat this by merging threads.

ah. That's a good thing. It keeps people from spamming one thing into the front page of the forums page.

[Cydonian Monk]

== Begin Kerbal Space Program version 1.2.1 ==

Forgotten Space Program

It's happened again. Those well meaning kerbals ran off and completely forgot about their space program. Not much was happening, and they all lost focus. Or maybe they went on vacation and forgot to come back. Or perhaps the game kept updating and they couldn't keep up with the mod changes. Unfortunately nobody remembers exactly what went wrong because nobody that was there to see it go south still remembers.

Munths pass. Eventually a group of kerbals stumble on the ruins of the long-forgotten space program. Trailers. Sheds. Run-down labs. A dirt runway. Factories scattered here and there in the nearby countryside. Exploding barrels of fleas. Sharp metal bits. Gumball machines. Nuclear waste.  The usual rust of a long forgotten industry. A tiny jet parked near the monolith. The giant monolith. A few quick phone calls and the Continuum Council was picking up the pieces and moving forward once more.

And that's when the fun begins.

--

The Bosses

"I don't understand where they went." Cartina, The New Boss, was pacing back and forth in the run down tracking station, prattling on while the others watched as Jonbald worked to bring the radio system back online. "One minute we were talking about the new buildings, and then they were gone. Gene, Wernher, that new astronaut... whatever her name was."

Rosuki smiled a painful smile. "Zeldrien."

"Right." The New Boss almost tripped over a set of cables in the dimly lit radio shack. "Does it ever get easier? These disappearances?"

"No. Especially not for your type, the tourists. The randoms. Usually they just snap. Ever see a crazy kerbal in the gutter, screaming about aliens? The end of the world?"

Cartina nodded back. "Of course."

"That's what usually happens. Once we realized how bad the tourists had it, we stopped..." Just then the lights came n full-strength in the tracking station and the building groaned. Jonbald popped up from underneath the operator's station and sat back into the control seat. 

"Ok, now let's see if we can't find somebody to talk to." There weren't many contacts in orbit that were talking to them at first, just the Neon relays. Soon other contacts lit up, and the space around Kerbin was filled with little dots. They tried a few of the stations, Baile Speir, Kelgee, the transfer stations, but there just wasn't anybody there to talk to. The silence at Kelgee was particularly strange, and Jonbald kept trying.

And then he started scanning for contacts around Kelgee. 

--

Ghost Attack

It had been a quiet day on Kelgee Station so far. The usual routine of waking up, trying to call their friends on the ground, then going about doing not much of anything. Only the scientists were busy, always devising some experiments to keep themselves busy in the lab. Right now Barbara was deep into some strange genetics experiment involving a Mystery Goo and some cheese doodles. It wasn't one of Rozor's experiments, and he wasn't sure he really wanted to know where she got the idea. All he wanted right now was kaffeine. Koffee. Khokolate. Anything to give him that kick. Maybe he could work something up in the lab? No, best not.

It had been years since their last resupply. So far the important supplies had held out, the snacks and water, but they were seriously lacking in the luxuries department. Rosuki had left many munths ago, promising to make contact with some of her friends on the ground. Arrange for a new supply launch, or perhaps even a rescue. None of them had heard much from her since. Just promises that disappeared into nothing. 

Over the last year or so their prisoner, The Party Boss, had fully integrated into the crew. At first they had kept him confined to one of the broken Nitrogen orbital modules. That proved to be more trouble than it was worth, so they agreed to let him join them in the station if he promised not to steal a ship or kill them in their sleep. This approach worked better than munths of interrogation, and he soon opened up to his new crew mates.

The Party Boss turned out to be an ok kerbal. He had once been a simple tourist, Enwise Kerman, husband of Kaigh. They had both taken an orbital vacation aboard the Exploration 13 O3. It was a simple flight; their craft rendezvoused with another couple aboard the Exploration 14 O3 and then returned to Kerbin. And yet sometime later, long after they landed, everything went horribly wrong. In the chaos Kaigh had been killed, and Enwise was taken with anger. They kept him locked away in an asylum, only to be released by The First Citizen himself. That was many cycles ago.

Now he was just another Forgotten Kerbal.

Rozor spent most of the morning staring out at the stars, hoping a tin of koffee would float past. He wasn't sure at first, but he thought the stars were moving. They were always moving, he guessed, but now they weren't moving like they should. Or was it the ship? He tried not to look at Kerbin, tried to avoid that feeling of vertigo. Too late. One glance and his stomach turned. He snapped his head back up at the stars, hoping the feeling would subside. And that's when he noticed the solar arrays were waving at him. Oh dear.

The next few minutes were a blur. An alarm sounded as one of the station's seals broke. The atmosphere was holding, mostly, but the vibrations were tossing kerbals around violently. After one particularly hard hit Rozor decided to pull the plug and issue the evac order.

"Abandon ship or abandon hope!" 

Or perhaps both at the same time. There were ten of them including Enwise, leaving only one empty seat between the Sulphur and the Titanium. Five in each. Rozor didn't grab anything except a helmet. How could he? It was a minefield of small debris inside the station now, and anything he wanted would've been impossible to find. By the time they were moving down the tube to the Titanium 4 the station was shifting so much that anything they tried to grab was in a different place by the time their hands reached it. 

The only good news was the whole ordeal had made Rozor forget his vertigo.

He crawled into the Titanium to find Tetris bringing the ship online. Two other kerbals followed him in: Mardi and their prisoner, Enwise. Edsel called from the Sulphur, reporting they had five and were at capacity. Rondous, Steve, Verly and Elkin were with him. Rozor gave him the order to undock and strapped himself into the Titanium's cabin. Still missing one kerbal.

Rozor heard a strange hissing sound just moments before Edsel reported the Sulphur was clear. He radioed back the acknowledgement, then unlatched himself and turned to check the hatch. The lights blinked, casting the station into darkness. A dark shape appeared as he looked into the docking tube, working its way down towards them. Barbara. Had to be. A screech filled his headset as he reached up and pulled her in. Once the tube was clear he closed the hatch."

"All aboard and accounted for. Get us out of here Tetris."

"Don't have to ask me twice!"

The docking arm the Titanium was docked to acted as a strong lever arm, and they were instantly sent spinning when Tetris unlatched the docking port. It took a few moments for her to get the ship under control. The station's writing and roiling only worsened as they backed away from it. Perhaps Sieta had been right about her ghosts. Kelgee was either haunted or cursed. Best to leave it behind and find saner lands. He didn't think it was possible, but the further from the station they got, the worse it deformed. No sane force could be responsible for such.

Edsel called them up to report he had worked out a rendezvous, and would dock with them before they passed the terminator. Once docked back up they could decide where to seek shelter. Most likely they'd need to go to the transfer station where the Titanium 3 was waiting. Assuming it hadn't disappeared over the last couple years.

"Hey! Where's the ship!?" It was Barbara, voice coming across the ship to ship radio. Rozor glanced around the cabin doing a quick head count. Tetris was in the cockpit; Mardi and Enwise were across the aisle. He unstrapped to look at the kerbal seated behind him, and was surprised to find Tetris looking back at him. Terror filled her face. He turned around and looked at the cockpit again, where Tetris was looking back with her hand raised up as if to ask "what the hell?" Another glance to the seat behind him and it was empty.

"She," Rozor pointed at the empty seat, "She was JUST HERE!" Oh dear, oh dear. Now what?

"Jump for it Barb," Rozor heard Tetris say, "We'll be back around to pick you up."

Rozor held onto the back of his seat, staring dumbfounded at the empty seat. He was sure it was Barbara when he pulled her into the ship. Dark hair, just like... just like Tetris. And Barbara. He was sure it was Tetris just moments ago. Before she disappeared. Before. Before. Before. The ship turned as Tetris moved to pick up their wayward scientist, only to be waved off by the same.

"Nevermind. I'm outside now, I'll come to you."

Rozor was sure of what he'd seen. Absolutely. There had been a kerbal in that chair. He had held her hand as he pulled her aboard. He didn't move from his position. Not when the Sulphur docked up. Not even when Barbara slipped into their airlock, hands full with her Cheesy Puff Goo abomination experiment. She strapped into the seat Rozor was staring at, tried to break his focus.

"Hey boss, for a scientist you're not terribly observant."

He heard her, or at least he thought he did. He slumped down into his seat, stared at his mittened hands. A noise from the cockpit caught his attention, and he looked up to see Tetris working the radio. And another Tetris in the copilot seat next to her. Looking back at him. Grinning. 

And that's how Rozor lost his mind.

--
 

Data Recovery Services

Verly knew she'd have to go back after those boxes eventually. The whole point of leaving them on the Mün was so somebody could go back and get them. And somehow when she left them, she just knew she'd be the one going back after them. Except the way she'd figured it, they(d have all been back on Kerbin by now, and it would be many years later. Not this soon.

Some new kerbal named Jonbald, The Boss, and some other new boss lady had called them just shortly after they docked up with the Titanium. They weren't as concerned about the insanity at Kelgee as Verly thought they should have been, but what did she know? She was just a lowly engineer. Sure enough, some unknown crisis had hit Kerbin, and everybody had lost everything. It was now up to them to go fetch their records from the Mün while Jonbald and Rosuki went looking for Gene and Wernher. 

And that's exactly where they were going. The however many kerbals aboard the Titanium 5 were to meet up with the Transfer Station in low orbit, while the five in the Sulphur were to head to the Mün at the first opportunity. That first opportunity would have to wait until they'd refueled though, as at present they didn't have enough to even leave LKO. And so they made their way to the Chlorine stack.

Verly pulled out her HP 32S and started playing games to kill time. It was hard to write games for such a small screen, but her and a few others back in school had managed. She'd kept as many of them as would fit in the tiny calculator's memory ever since. Many of them were likely the last copies in existence. Simple games, mostly math puzzles, but it was enough to keep one form going crazy. Before she knew it they were approaching the dark mass of recycled metal that was the Chlorine fleet.

In the dark.

As was only right and proper.

There wasn't as much fuel left as they thought there would be, at least until they remembered the pirates. Of course Hallock and Sieta had been siphoning fuel off from the Chlorines. Where else would they get it from? It's not like you could make fuel from empty space or the bits of rubble that populate it. No, it was much easier to just take somebody else's.

No matter, they were fueled up now and on their way to the Mün.

They received word from Tetris just after they'd completed the transfer burn. The Titanium was safely docked up with the Transfer Station. 

In the dark.

As was only right and proper.

As always.

The six hours between Kerbin and the Mün passed faster than Verly thought possible. She'd spent most of it playing some game one of her friends had written. It was a text-based game, about little green creatures trying to build a fortress underground. These slightly larger pinkish creatures would occasionally invade, trying to steal all their metals and gems. Somehow it worked on the tiny calculator, for reasons she had never understood. It was addictive, despite the lack of a user interface. It was also impossible to win. No matter what you tried, the pinkish creatures would always get the best of the green ones. 

The only way to have fun was to enjoy losing.

The plan was to drop their three passengers at Pequoni 2. There was a lab there, which would hopefully entertain Elkin. They would also refuel at Pq-2 before dropping down to Pequoni 1. With luck, the lander at Pequoni 1 would still have all of their data in its memory banks.

The first part went off without a hitch. Pequoni 2 wasn't far off of their capture orbit, and Edsel had them there in no time. They transferred their friends into the station, made sure they were all settled in, topped off the tanks and then made a break for it. If anything went wrong there was another, fully working Sulphur lander at the station. And if that failed, the three of them could always EVA down to them at the Pq-1.

The second part didn't go as well as Verly had hoped. Mostly because she didn't want to land on the Mün again just now. The station was still there, in the same shape they'd left it. The dead Sulphur was there, its cockpit still stripped of all its electronics. The old lander was there as well, still docked exactly where they'd left it.

Except its memory was empty. No notes, no designs, no science results. Nothing.

What now?

Nothing to do but go to the surface. Edsel seemed eager, but Verly wasn't so sure. Why bother? If the mystery shuttle had lost its mind, then what hope would their little memory boxes have? It didn't make sense to her, but she had to admit she'd only been through a couple of these events so far. Whatever they were. What made that lander special? Why did it have data then but not now? There had to be some answer.

She was lost in thought over this new problem while Edsel was busy landing them on the Mün. This should be simple, really. All the pieces were in play, but when she tried to put them together something came along and scattered them again. Almost as though her own mind didn't want her to solve it. And there was something. Something strange. Something she couldn't place. She just shrugged and played more games on her calculator while they came in for the landing.

And then there they were, on the Mün. She still didn't have an answer. 

They least they had the data they were looking for. All of it. Verly had to hardwire the small box into the ship's computer to read it (why oh why hadn't they used some standard plug?). As luck and fate would have it there data was there. Somehow. For some reason. What made this little square box important? Surely it wasn't the small plot of land it rested on. What could their dead Mün possible have to do with anything?

And they had a good radio link back to Kerbin. Somehow Jonbald had managed to wrangle all the various communications satellites into his corral in just the last day. Verly was impressed, and she guessed Macfred would be impressed too. It was no easy feat to convince some far distant lump of metal and silicon to do your biding, especially when it doesn't want to talk to you in the first place. She started streaming the data back to Jonbald. 

She could almost hear his smile through the radio. Even with his soft, scratchy, ghost-like voice.

The Agency was officially back in business. Just as soon as they found a chief engineer. And a flight director. And somebody to run the gift shop. And a cook. You know, the important jobs.

Maybe they could even find some koffee for Rozor. He sure sounded like he needed it.

 

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Edited January 22, 2017 by Cydonian Monk