Forgotten Space Program

[NISSKEPCSIM]

"You are not allowed to give more than 25 likes a day."

[ruiluth]

Well, that was... exactly the surprise I was hoping for!  Excellent chapter. Looking forward to the next one.

[NISSKEPCSIM]

Hey, @Cydonian Monk. I had some free time on my hands, and I just had an itch to draw one of your spacecraft. So I decided to do the Nitrogen. So I did so using Microsoft Paint. And then realised that the orbital module wasn't supposed to be round. But whatever. Anyways, here it is. Feel free to use it for anything:

[cubinator]

Holy crap, this thread is a year and a half old! Wow!

[greenTurtle1134]

32 minutes ago, cubinator said:

Holy crap, this thread is a year and a half old! Wow!

... and has not yet been forgotten.

[Cydonian Monk]

21 hours ago, NISSKEPCSIM said:

Hey, @Cydonian Monk. I had some free time on my hands, and I just had an itch to draw one of your spacecraft. So I decided to do the Nitrogen. ...

Also cool, and close enough. I've added it to my growing collection of (so far 100% paint-based) fan art.  Thanks!

[Cydonian Monk]

Incidentally, I gave KSP v1.3.0 a spin on Sunday, and most of the mods I use have been updated and work correctly. A couple of them I need to recompile myself (one of them being my fork of Vanguard Parachutes, the other being EngineLighting, which I've made some tweaks to), but otherwise I think I'm ready to upgrade.

I'm moving on without Persistent Rotation (given the station-twisting bugs) and Trajectories (which is still wildly innacurate for the stock aero). Maybe one of is will think of a fix that works for both. (I think Persistent Rotation might work if I delete the angular momentum entry for ships when they dock and then recalculate for the new combined vessel... I just haven't tested that. I have no clue how to fix Trajectories aside from installing FAR, which I'm not doing for this save.)

I'm still on an old version of the Engineering Tech Tree (as the newer revisions to the tree badly break my progression), so I need to see if the old configs I'm using will work with the new version of the tree loader (which wasn't 1.3 ready when I checked, but might only need a recompile). There's also some weirdness going on with PlanetShine in relation to the new ambient light sliders, so until that's worked out I'll just continue without it.

I'm also using the new experimental build of Scatterer with the underwater and somewhat improved above-water effects, and I can't recommend it enough. 

[greenTurtle1134]

3 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Incidentally, I gave KSP v1.3.0 a spin on Sunday

I was going to say that I might want to update at last and stuff like that... but then I realized what an update means in this universe...

Cycle Crash time!

[NISSKEPCSIM]

Woah woah woah woah!!! What is that!?

Spoiler

I wonder... I'll be back in a minute to explain...

Edited June 22, 2017 by NISSKEPCSIM

[kerbinorbiter]

Missile or have I been watching too much Kolbritive ware fare bonus today?

[NISSKEPCSIM]

@kerbinorbiter close...

Spoiler

... It was a Blue Gemini! Honest! It wasn't just a small slip with the brush!

Here, see... zoom and enhance! Whatcha mean, it's still only 10 pixels!? Okay, thank you! Whew. Glad that's over. Anyway, here's that pic of the "mysterious object."

A Blue Gemini spacecraft docked to a heavily modified Agena target vehicle, equipped with a launchable nuclear missile, and a large arm for snatching other spacecraft and stations... it was going to snatch the Nitrogen out of orbit!

 

[rlin]

Well, I finally caught up on about 6 months of the story. *phew*

[Cydonian Monk]

An Update!

I think I have all the screenshots and set-work done for the next few posts, though I'm likely to go back and take a few more as I get the prose written. I'm hoping to have the next one ready tonight, but if not it'll be up sometime on the 4th. I already have most of the first part of it complete, as I cut it from a post a couple months ago. 

As for posts after the next three or four.... I'm likely going to take a nearly complete hiatus in August, as I'm going to be on the road for almost the entire month. At a minimum there will be no posts from the 5th through the 27th, and I'm most certainly not going to be playing KSP during that stretch. (I'm not even sure yet if I'm taking my laptop with me, but I haven't been able to play KSP on that for 2 years now.)

Here's a bit of geometric screenshot art to tide you folks over until the next post:

Cheers.

Edited July 2, 2017 by Cydonian Monk

[Cydonian Monk]

Ghosts On The Ice

It was a dream, Thomlock could tell that much. It was too unreal to be reality. They had just landed on Vall, and he had just gone to sleep. Yet now Agake was ready to gather surface samples and for some reason Thomlock had to go out and get them. Thomlock. Tired Thomlock. Thomlock who had just landed on an alien moon in the pitch black darkness. Thomlock who had just climbed to the bottom of the shuttle to take a long nap. That Thomlock. The landing was exhausting, and all he wanted to do now was sleep it off. But no! Agake had to have her samples, and she had to have them now. Now! Never mind that it was still impossibly dark outside.

Except... It was entirely unlike Agake to pass off the science stuff. Something was fishy, something was wrong. He knew he was asleep so this had to be a dream. One of those weird, strangely lucid dreams where nothing goes quite as you'd like it to. Reluctantly he crawled back into his EVA suit, climbed up to the cockpit, and stuck his feet out into the cold.  There were a few instruments to get readings from on his way down, so he took those first. Or he would have, had the glow from the horizon not interrupted him. It was a strange glow, a soft blue, nothing that anyone should expect from a dead moon.

He quickly dropped to the bottom of the ladder. A sense of euphoria took him, the glow grew only brighter. It called to him. It started as a soft whisper, then grew louder. "Blue light, Thomlock. Follow the blue light." Barely louder than an exhaled gasp. "Thomlock." "Thomlock."

The ground shook, or something was shaking him. The ice underneath started to crack, and before he could grab hold of the ladder he fell through. Down. Down, down, into the darkness. He reached out to grab at the ice, but his hands only passed through it. He could still see the blue glow, cold still hear it calling to him. "Thomlock." It lit up the ice, glowing brighter the further he fell. He could sense a great darkness below him; black nothingness rushing up to meet him. Water. The ocean of Vall. He crashed into it with tremendous force, the impact shaking him violently. The dark ocean swallowed up the light just as it called to him one last time. "Thomlock."

He blinked. He was back inside the Sulphur, cabin lights blindingly bright. Gletrix was trying to wake him and was shaking him by his helmet collar. He blinked again and looked around, nary an ocean to be found.

"Thomlock! Wake up you old geezer! The sun is up!"

It was true; outside the distant sun had risen, its cold rays breaking over the frozen horizon. It was still dark on the ice, the surface itself still in the shadow of a mountain, but he could make out a few key formations. No craters, only ridges rising out of the ice. And in the center of the valley there stood several spires, like teeth biting their way upwards out of the ice.

The rest of the crew was fully awake, and he wondered if any of them had slept. Gletrix was pulling him out of his slumber, collar first. Agake was taking science data and other samples from the internal sensors. Macfred was doing his usual drill of failing to contact Kerbin. Three or more years they had been gone now, without so much as a whisper from Kerbin. At this point he could only assume the entire planet was dead. And yet Macfred persisted. Commendable. Useless, but still commendable.

Eventually they suited up, crawled out of their lander and completed their usual chores. No one heard the flag planting ceremony, no one except the four of them and possibly the kerbals back at the Edge of Infinity. They grabbed some supplies, stored their first set of surface samples in the lander (ice that would no doubt be melted before they returned), and then set off into the valley. 

The surface was oddly pristine, no cracks or craters to be found. Agake suggested that meant it was a new surface, that an ocean swirled deep below them. Thomlock's dream flashed back to him momentarily, the endless darkness, a soft whisper from some distant point. Or was it Macfred? Was his headset acting up? He turned to face the rest of the group, patting at the side of his helmet.

"I'm sorry, kid, I didn't quite hear you."

"Hear what?"

"Didn't you just whisper something?"

The other three traded looks and then looked at him with a bit of confusion in their eyes. 

"No? Okay then, never mind the crazy old kerb behind the visor. Let's get back at it."

They started off again, but only made it a few steps before the ground shook. It was just like his dream. Thomlock looked around for cracks in the ice, and was happy to find none. He noticed a thin dusting of blue ice had caked his boots and his legs, no doubt kicked up by their trek to the anomaly. He reached down to brush it off just as another whisper leaked its way into his ear. He patted at the side of his helmet, hoping to shake loose whatever was making noise. Nothing. They all started walking again, this time more carefully. 

He pulled his wrench out and adjusted the radio contact on the side of his helmet. Perhaps that was it. No more whispering that he could tell, but maybe that wasn't it. He started on one of the microphone mounts on the other side of his helmet.

He dropped the wrench when the light show started.

A blue glow, just like in his dream. Each of the teeth, each of the spire of this ice castle they were making their way towards now had an intense blue orb hovering atop it. He reached down and picked up his wrench, knocking the ice and dust off of it by pounding it on the side of his helmet. Macfred and Agake were debating whether or not to continue onwards, but he knew what they'd decide and starting walking towards the anomaly again. Following the blue lights.

The whispers started again almost immediately. They were never loud enough to understand, but they were there. They seemed to come in between the pulses from the energy show ahead of them. He tried smacking his helmet a few times, a bench-thump as one of his old friends would've called it, but that only caused his helmet to ring. Maybe it was an equipment issue? He had Macfred check the back of his EVA suit, but everything came up green so they pressed on. 

"... Clark to Mark Twain...."

It was louder. Not as loud as his suit radio, but definitely audible. And he recognized the voice. It was Bob. Bob Kerman. He stoped and looked back at the others.

"Ok, you had to have heard that."

They all three just shook their heads, Gletrix raising her hands in confusion. Macfred started towards him and took another look. "I'm still not hearing anything." Thomlock could feel him patting at the back of his helmet. "Are you sure you're alright? Maybe we should head back to the ship and..."

He waved him away. "No way. I'm fine kid, just... just don't worry about me. Let's go. I'm sure it's nothing." 

Nothing. Just like that endless abyss below the ice. No, he was absolutely certain he heard something. A voice. A kerbal voice. Bob Kerman, the same Bob Kerman that was presently at the Edge of Infinity. Something was up, and the closer they got to the ice castle the more answers he seemed to get. He picked up his pace. 

"... It's much larger than I expected."

That time it was Bill. The unmistakable Bill Kerman. He stopped and looked around.

"Bob? Bill? Are you here?"

At first he received no response. And then...

"... No one's panicking, Bob..."

"... Get a picture!"

"... Does command know this is here?"

The voices were so close now it was as though he was standing right next to them. Those last few didn't sound as familiar as the others, but he looked around for a source anyway. All while doing so he continued to inch closer to the strange anomaly. Why was he looking? What was he looking for? Faeries? Gremlins? Green Goo? He knew he'd find none of those here, but something told him to look. It was fun.

"... but we are skedaddling!"

"... They never answered the question."

"... Repeat, the Annabel Lee has landed. I can't believe this worked!"

The ground was now thumping at a vigorous pace. He started to spin with the rhythm. He would chase the voices for a few steps, stop at a pulse, freeze until the next, and then go back to chasing the voices. It really was fun. Fun, in a weird and frighteningly insane sort of way. If he was going to go mad, he might as well enjoy it, right? He heard Macfred's voice on the radio, but it was drowned out amongst the chaos.

"Ok, folks, that's enough. We're going back to the ship and we'll watch the light show from there. Where it's safe."

"... It hasn't got a bottom... It's full of stars."

"... What question?"

"... Do the Kerbals know it's only a game?"

And then it clicked. These structures were building some sort of portal. He had no idea where large blocks of ice could get this much energy from, but that was the only thing that made sense. He looked over his shoulder at the lights as they continued to throb and pulse with raw energy and then looked back at Macfred.

"I understand now."

His friend shook himself as though he was trapped in a heavy web. "Maybe you could explain it to us?" Thomlock could see the fear and frustration in his eyes, but knew he couldn't help. He needed to go, and they needed to stay. It was as simple as that. There was nothing, absolutely nothing, he could say to them that would change that.

"I can't. Not yet." He smiled at them again. "You probably shouldn't follow me." 

And at that he turned and walked directly towards the ice castle. The radio crackled with static and the voices returned...

"... This is going swimmingly."

"... this file, that file, persistence? Strange. Oooh, a github link!"

"... there will be many questions..."

... so he turned off the radio and kept moving. He'd have no need for it until he got wherever it was he was going, assuming he was going anywhere. It didn't stop the voices, and he didn't really expect it to. He knew those voices were a by-product of the process, whatever the process was. Something told him to hurry up, so his walked became a trot and his trot turned into a run.

"... I wonder what mysterious force... Ouch!"

"... It tells the beings who made it when snack time is."

"... Exactly which direction does it point?"

Overhead the light show intensified. Electricity was now intermittently arcing between the surface and the spheres of plasma, between the ice spires and the blocks. His ice castle was bathed in a cold blue light. 

"... You ever stand here and think about kerbality..."

"... concentric circles of anomalies..."

"... some of which do not have answers."

Everything changed when he reached the inner ring of the anomaly, as though a trigger had been tripped. The spheres of blue atop the blocks arced out to the others, forming a solid torus of bright blue, white blue. He'd never seen anything as beautiful and blue as it in his life. It was warm here, near the spires. Warm inside his suit, but not warm on the ground. The ice remained cold, the blocks and spires pulsated with the warm blueness of this new reality. 

"... three forty nine point two..."

It was his blue. A warm blue. A happy blue.

"... How do kerbals get to space?"

The warmth lifted him upwards, upwards into space.

He was spinning as he rose, spinning amongst the many tiny stars. From here he could see the eternity beyond and all of Vall below, near and far simultaneously in focus. He spotted Macfred, still struggling against some invisible force, the others doing the same. Why? He should warn them, he really should. This was dangerous.  This was blue. This was meant for him alone. He turned his radio back on, his ears filled with static. The voices continued. He spoke over them.

"Stop. Everything will be ok."

His voices echoed.

"Stop."

"STOP."

Louder still. He laughed at it, at himself. It was all a kerbal could do under the circumstances. His voice was now added to the symphony of chaos that had greeted him. Echoing now, across all of time and space, all connected at this point. Euphoria, the same euphoria he felt in his dream, it was now taking over his everything. He was rising into the stars, floating on pure energy. He had never felt better. The light grew brighter still, reaching out to fully envelope him. One final pulse and then...

"STOP!"

... And then he became the stars.

--

The Other Side

The trip was seemingly instantaneous. One moment he was being lifted into the air over Vall, the next he was in this small, round room. The voices stopped the instant he arrived here, and none too soon. The euphoria he felt on Vall had faded too; his mind now returned to it usual old grumpy state.

The walls felt cold through his mittens. A check of his suit's sensors showed he was still in vacuum. There was a light on the far end of the room, blinking red. A slow blink at first, but its frequency increased quickly. As the it approached one blink per second he started to hear a very low noise. A quick glance at his sensors and the room was now at one fifth of an atmosphere.  

He was in an airlock.

Eventually the blinking turned into a solid red color, its frequency much faster now than his eyes could see. The low sound he was hearing before increased in frequency until finally the light turned green and the noise stopped. A door opened on the far end of the room, opening into a much larger space. Thomlock noticed a small amount of water on the airlock floor, no doubt ice dust from Vall that had melted under the sudden pressure.

Something felt strange about this place. Something felt strange about himself.

The larger room was impressive. Eight walls with eight sets of doors, fourteen round and two square. A plaque and a large display monitor of some sort were above each of the round doors. All of the plaques were identical, and bore the Kerbal Space Program insignia. The monitors showed what he could only guess was the status of the airlocks under them. All but the one he had just crawled from were red, many slowly flashing an !!ERROR!! message.

The square set of doors were to his right, a Kerbal Space Program sign hanging above them. The room itself was a dull bluish-green color, nearly the color of Vall. The floor appeared to be mostly concrete, itself a grey and bronze color. A triangular platform rose to meet each of the eight sets of doors, each offset slightly to one side as it rose from the floor. This produced a pleasing iris pattern, culminating in an impressive bit of art in the center.

He checked his suit sensors one final time, and then tossed his helmet back into the airlock. The air was damp and had a musty smell to it. He wondered if the walls were originally green, or if there was some sort of algae growing on them. The bronze coloring on the floor appeared to be some sort of oxidation, and felt rough under his feet. He took stock of the many doors, "portals" if the monitors were to be believed, and decided the other two doors must be the exit. 

He guessed he must be alone, as no welcoming party had come to greet him. He called out a sheepish "hello" and received no response. Just flashing monitors and the soft sound of forced air. There was nothing to give away his location, either. Almost certainly he was still on Vall. Perhaps he was underground, just beneath the anomaly? He checked a couple of the other airlock doors and found them locked. The square doors under the large flag were the only way out.

The hallway behind those doors was dark and wet. A very thin layer of water covered the floor, and it took a while for his eyes to adjust. He thought about going back for his helmet so he'd have a light source, but decided there was no reason to. The hallway itself was large, much larger than the portal room. Another set of doors were across the hall from his, locked. A large glass wall was to the right, nothing but darkness beyond. He put his hand to the glass, trying to see something on the other side. Nothing greeted him but his own reflection.

A light flickered to life behind him, beckoning him down the hall. That strange feeling returned to him; a feeling of choice. He had a choice here. He could walk down the dark, damp, frightening hallway, or he could go back, get his helmet, and wait for something to find him. Choice. He couldn't remember the last time he felt like he had a choice in anything. He shook off the feeling and made his way towards the light.

He passed several other sets of doors as he walked, each set of them locked as tightly as those behind him. Eventually he reached the light, and found that it led to another hallway. This one was dry, better lit, and ended at a single, open door. It was lined by a number of other doors, fourteen or so, all of them closed. He poked his head into this new hallway and listened.

"Hello?"

Again, no response but the silent sound of softly circulating air. He wondered if perhaps he wasn't being led into a trap, though he had no idea who or what would set such a trap for an old kerbal such as himself. He looked back into the hallway he had just emerged from. At one end the light from the portal room glinted off of the large glass wall, at the other only darkness. 

What choice did he really have?

Again he tried each of the doors as he made his way down the hall, all of them locked. He became aware of a deep hum, an electrical or mechanical sound that was growing in amplitude the closer he got to the open door. He slowed to an amble as he got close, as the door was obviously another airlock. He stopped just short, put his hands on the side of the door and took a look inside. 

He wondered if he shouldn't go back for his helmet, and was about to when the opposite door opened, revealing an even larger room beyond. He couldn't see much of the room from this angle, but could already tell that one word described it: Blue. Blue and nearly spherical. 

He stepped through the airlock and into the blue.

A smiling and very old face greeted him; another kerbal. His eyes looked familiar, yet Thomlock couldn't quite place him. He was sitting atop a conical dais in the center of the room. The raised center appeared as though it could rotate, itself seeming to hover inside a shaft at the core of the room. A series of monitors lined the walls, sixteen in all, and a blue glow emanated from the dome ceiling and from beneath the floor. He started into the room, yet jumped and spun around when the door slammed shut behind him. 

"Hello, old friend."

That voice. After all these years? He turned back to face him, to look deep into those eyes.

"Albro?"

"The one and only. So very nice to be remembered, especially by the famously dead Thomlock Kerman." The old kerbal chuckled. "Please, do come in, my very old friend. We have much to discuss."

 

--

Navigation: Next Post

Edited July 14, 2017 by Cydonian Monk

[Just Jim]

Oh... wow... that was great!  

[GDJ]

Good chapter!

 

[Cydonian Monk]

On 7/3/2017 at 6:43 AM, Just Jim said:

Oh... wow... that was great!  

Thank you!

On 7/3/2017 at 7:39 AM, GDJ said:

Good chapter!

And another thanks!

 

 

For the curious, here's a set of links to the "whispers." In general these were spoken by kerbals at the Vallhenge in mission reports or other such posts on this forum. There are a few that I didn't copy a reference link to (if one of those is your's, please speak up - I vaguely recall one of them being Parkaboy, but I don't have time at the moment to go back and read through Plan Kappa to find if/which panel it was in....), and there's a few others that I lifted from the end of Ad Lunam. Some were "paraphrased," as the kerbals weren't directly recorded as saying anything, while one of them was said or suggested by something that was "beyond" the Vallhenge.

There are others I would have referenced, but for this to work I needed to find some evidence of (living) kerbals at that specific place. So if you've visited Vallhenge and I left you out, please know I didn't intend to. (I might come back in the future and add more of these "whispers", and will most certainly update the three unknowns once I find the sources.)

Spoiler

Brotoro: "Clark to Mark Twain…" http://www.mindspring.com/~sportrocketry/ksp/tylovall.html

Brotoro: "It hasn't got a bottom... It's full of stars." http://www.mindspring.com/~sportrocketry/ksp/longtermlaythe17.html

Kuzzter: "... No one's panicking, Bob..." http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/126293-kerbfleet-a-jool-odyssey-interlude-zero-gee-club-9-pg-complete/&do=findComment&comment=2812815

Kuzzter: "... But we are skedaddling..." http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/126293-kerbfleet-a-jool-odyssey-interlude-zero-gee-club-9-pg-complete/&do=findComment&comment=2812815

Kuzzter: "... three forty nine point two..." http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/126293-kerbfleet-a-jool-odyssey-interlude-zero-gee-club-9-pg-complete/&do=findComment&comment=2809315

Just Jim: "Repeat, the Annabel Lee has landed. I can't believe this worked!" http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/27292-what-did-you-do-in-ksp-today/&do=findComment&comment=2239782

KAL 9000: "... Do the Kerbals know it's only a game?" http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/124161-2001-a-kerbal-odyssey/

Jouni: "... It's much larger than I expected." http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/27292-what-did-you-do-in-ksp-today/&do=findComment&comment=3092944

nestor_d: "... Ever wonder what mysterious force... Ouch!" http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/142304-arriving-at-vallhenge-first-crewed-landing/

Alchemist: "... concentric circles of anomalies..." http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/101092-photoshoot-with-the-vallhenge/&do=findComment&comment=1752489

Death Engineering: "... You ever stand here and think about kerbality..." http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/101092-photoshoot-with-the-vallhenge/&do=findComment&comment=1752508

togfox: "... Exactly which direction does it point?" http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/97348-yet-another-vall-mission/

GreeningGalaxy: "... This is going swimmingly." http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/27292-what-did-you-do-in-ksp-today/&do=findComment&comment=1393417

Angel-125: "... this file, that file, persistence? Strange. Oooh, a github link!" http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/122162-13-deep-space-exploration-vessels-214-build-nasa-inspired-ships-in-ksp/&do=findComment&comment=2968079

SpenSpaceCorp: "... It tells the beings who made it when snack time is." http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/61327-valls-stonehenge-meaning/#comment-923156

?: "... Does command know this is here?"

?: "... Get a picture!"

?: "... Have you ever seen something like this?"

 

Edited July 11, 2017 by Cydonian Monk
Added two.

[Angelo Kerman]

Great story! Really love all the portals and the room designs. They reminded me of Contact by Carl Sagan in a way.

 I haven't been to Vall since February, and that was a test mission. Technically it was the ship's hologram that landed...

 

Edited July 3, 2017 by Angel-125

[Zhetaan]

5 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Great story! Really love all the portals and the room designs. They reminded me of Contact by Carl Sagan in a way.

Thank you.  I was trying to figure out what else this was tickling in my memory, aside from the obvious.

Though I think @Cydonian Monk would be better served following the film rather than the book; eighteen hours of recorded static would be much easier to do in KSP than finding rasters in the millionth place of pi, what with double-precision numbers ending at--what was it, sixteen places?

[Just Jim]

5 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Just Jim: "Repeat, the Annabel Lee has landed. I can't believe this worked!"

I can't believe you found that picture!!! OMG, that's pre-Emiko..... and a ship I seriously need to rebuild!

Thank you, I'm honored to be a Whisper... 

[greenTurtle1134]

21 hours ago, Just Jim said:

I can't believe you found that picture!!! OMG, that's pre-Emiko..... and a ship I seriously need to rebuild!

Thank you, I'm honored to be a Whisper... 

Wait, wasn't the Annabel Lee the name of a ship in Emiko? Namesake, right, @Just Jim?

Also, if this is fully canon, it would confirm that the Forgotten Space Program is in the same Multiverse as Kerbfleet and possibly Emiko Station. It was already stated by the Kerbfleet Monolith in Crossoverlude that Plan Kappa, Kerbfleet, Emiko, and Forgotten were connected. I say "fully canon" because in universe, these whispers could just be explained as random words, with the references just a reference on the part of the author.

Also, lemme recap so far, to clear up some points I'm confused about:

Each KSP version destroys Kerbin but leaves everything in space unscathed. To mitigate the effects of this, the Forgotten and Continuum space programs start up, Forgotten based in Laythe orbit and Continuum seeking to preserve information as much as possible.

Then the "bug-filled" versions... devouring black squares, ravenous cockroaches, then a Communism-like cycle. These events were cast into doubt by Jonbald, accusing The Boss of making them up in space madness. Later, Jonbald admits that he himself is not what he seems and that at least some of the events are real. The Party Boss sends The Boss into space before (paradoxically quickly) appearing in space himself. I seem to recall something about the Party Boss not being real... too lazy to review everything, did anyone else catch that? One of the party members escapes, and meets The Boss.

Then suddenly portals.

I can't really seem to make a list of the anomalies surrounding the Communism cycle... can anyone help me on this? Was it ever mentioned that the Party Boss was not real or has disappeared?

[cubinator]

3 minutes ago, greenTurtle1134 said:

Also, if this is fully canon, it would confirm that the Forgotten Space Program is in the same Multiverse as Kerbfleet and possibly Emiko Station.

Sure, and there's a sort of virtual "portal room" for this multiverse that you and I are typing in right now!

[Just Jim]

52 minutes ago, greenTurtle1134 said:

Wait, wasn't the Annabel Lee the name of a ship in Emiko? Namesake, right, @Just Jim?

Yes, both are named after my favorite Edgar Allan Poe poem.  

[Cydonian Monk]

Hope you US-folks are enjoying your 4th today. (And I hope the non-US folks are having a good day too.) It felt like it was a million degrees in Central Texas, and Houston doesn't feel much better either. At least the clouds aren't too thick so we should still get to Blow. Stuff. Up.

 

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Also, if this is fully canon, it would confirm that the Forgotten Space Program is in the same Multiverse as Kerbfleet and possibly Emiko Station.

We'll get to that in future posts. I'm onboard with the "Sliders" kerbal idea, at least as far as Forgotten goes.....

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Each KSP version destroys Kerbin but leaves everything in space unscathed.

Kinda-sorta. I've never really fleshed out entirely and exactly what happens or the limits of each new cycle's effect on Kerbin itself. [It's bound by the limits of plot and my memory.] It's important to note that some kerbal-built structures survive the new versions, particularly things that have been to space such as the North Pole research facility. And this is another thing that'll have to wait for a future post.

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Later, Jonbald admits that he himself is not what he seems....

Not all Jonbalds are what they seem. Not all Jonbalds are really Jonbald.

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I seem to recall something about the Party Boss not being real...

Enwise Kerman (The Party Boss) is very much real. And possibly a liar. Or possibly words words redacted plot point words words.

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I can't really seem to make a list of the anomalies surrounding the Communism cycle... can anyone help me on this?

If they can please be sure to share the notes.  

 

On 7/3/2017 at 6:46 PM, Just Jim said:

I can't believe you found that picture!!! OMG, that's pre-Emiko..... and a ship I seriously need to rebuild!

Thank you, I'm honored to be a Whisper... 

 I found it through a forum-wide search for Vallhenge (also searched for Icehenge and Vall Henge). I'm sure I missed quite a few, also since the original Vallhenge posts were lost in the Forum crash. I also realized I couldn't be 100% all-encompasing and had to draw a line somewhere. There are only so many hours in the day. I'll eventually add a couple that have turned up since.  

 

On 7/3/2017 at 1:19 PM, Angel-125 said:

Great story! Really love all the portals and the room designs. They reminded me of Contact by Carl Sagan in a way.

Thanks! Very nice compliment there.

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I haven't been to Vall since February, and that was a test mission. Technically it was the ship's hologram that landed..

Ohhhh, so that's what that box does. I stumbled on it while looking around for props for the sets, and made a note to come back and check it out.

 

On 7/3/2017 at 6:27 PM, Zhetaan said:

Though I think @Cydonian Monk would be better served following the film rather than the book;

It's one of those stories where I like both versions. The book has some nicer points, but both work well for their medium.

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...finding rasters in the millionth place of pi, what with double-precision numbers ending at--what was it, sixteen places?

I'd have to go grab the book that's about 10 feet away on my bookshelf to say exactly, but I think it had something to do with a binary string in some several-millionth expansion of Pi in base-11. It's been at least a decade since I read Contact, but.... Obvious spoiler is spoiler:

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The ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything lies somewhere in Pi. It was an incredibly devious twist by Sagan to suggest the entire universe was created by Intelligent Design, thus disproving much of Ellie's points by proving them correct. That was one of the nicest things they had to leave out of the movie because it would've been a much too Star Child 2001-ish type of ending. It's almost something Phillip K Dick would write - at the end of the book it leaves not just the reader, but the characters themselves questioning reality and their own sanity.

 

Edited July 5, 2017 by Cydonian Monk

[Zhetaan]

Yes, I recall that it was extremely obscure; several million places in base-11, and it was nothing more than a raster of a circle.  Though what was specifically hinted at was that the answers are in the transcendentals, of which pi is only one.  In fact, it can be proven that most numbers are transcendental.  That raises interesting questions regarding the sines of weird angles and natural logarithms of the entire integer set--the very idea of answers hidden in transcendentals itself is almost enough to make most sane people quit right there.  What if we had chosen to adopt tau instead of pi?  It's maddening--and it's a good thing that Contact is fiction.

Edited to add:  Now that I think about it, though, it does put the whole SETI search into perspective.  Maybe Fermi was wrong and there is no paradox.

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You're right, though.  There was no way that they could have put that in the film; truthfully, it was brushing very close to 2001 as it was.

On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with a book that makes you question reality.  It reminds you that there's more to learn.

 

Edited July 5, 2017 by Zhetaan