On of those days.

[Wolf Baginski]

Jeb was hammering at his typewriter with what seems to be enough energy to orbit a Mun-probe. He was muttering things as well. Gene peered anxiously around the office door, nodded slightly, and quietly walked away.

Wernher looked up from his desk. "He is annoyed", he suggested. "Well, I am not pleased, Gene. This should embarrass all of us." Then he smiled slightly. "But the verbal reports. It could have been a movie from the old days, something Buster Kerbal might have made." He held a palm-up before Gene could comment. "Not The General, but perhaps The Minmus Rover."

Gene stifled an urge to giggle.  "Perhaps so," he agreed. "I think Bill is correct about the proximate cause. But nobody is admitting anything. Are we so terrible?"

Wernher shrugged. "We can afford to laugh. Nobody was hurt. And we learned a great deal from the mission. I expect you want it on your checklists."

Gene nodded. "Rover parking brake set On."

"I was watching on the camera." Wernher sighed. "The deployment light came on. The Kerbal Standard Initiators fired. We had weight on wheels. It all looked so good from Mission Control. And then the Rover appeared, visibly accelerating, followed by four kerbals, running as fast as a kerbal can in Minmus gravity."

"I know", said Gene.

"Somebody at the Kerbal Broadcasting Corporation has already sped up the tape and added a soundtrack." He sighed. "I have been earwormed."

"Yackety Sax?"

There was a long silence.

"It wasn't quite the science we expected," said Gene, "but it was science."

Wernher smiled. "And it was funny, but I shall not say that to Jeb."