Tales of the Groundbound: First Small Steps, Chapter 1&2

[steuben]

Chapter 1

Direc Kerman stood with a shovel in his hands. It was a real shovel, not one of the little gold plated ones usually used for ground breaking ceremonies. He looked over the slightly rolling land, the occasional tree and bush. Around him flashbulbs went off recording the moment. The dignitaries behind him stood with their frozen smiles waiting for him to put the shovel in the ground.

“One last job,” he had told his wife when the offer came. “One last job and then I will retire.” Her response was a sniff and “You? Retire?” It was followed by the smile he always loved.

He smiled. Succeed or fail, it would be his last job. After he accepted the position he asked one of his friends about the whole project, a serious no non-sense kerbal.

“Wernher thinks he craps sunbeams,” Simplain said. “But…” He picked up his slide rule as he began to flip through the proposal. He precisely and rapidly flicked it back and forth in the one hand as he read. He scribbled some notes in the margins with the other hand. One third of the way through, he slowed down. Halfway through, he stopped.

“Problem,” Direc asked.

Simplain looked up, through the ceiling, focused on something far away. “No, beauty.” He shook his head serious and focused on the office. “Direc my teams are available if you need them.”

Direc smirked. “Business reasons?”

“Government money spends quite well, as you well know,” Simplain said. “But, this,” he tapped the still open proposal. “This holds the promise of some new answers, and many interesting questions.”

Direc looked down at the shovel. The flashing of the cameras slowed to a stop. All the talk, all the paper, all the dreaming, focused on him, on one action, on the very tip of the shovel. He chuckled. He considered what would happen if he did not put the shovel in.

He drove the shovel into the ground. He saw out of the corner of his eye a flag kerbal waving frantically. The workers in their equipment ignored him. The cameras started flashing again. He turned the shovel a quarter turn and drove it in again. It clanged against a stone in the soil. He turned the shovel a quarter turn again, and drove it in a third time. He lifted a clump of soil and grass out of the ground. The diesel engines of the earth moving equipment roared to life. He tossed the clump off the shovel. As the clump hit the ground the equipment moved into action

Chapter 2

Gus Kerman watched the three trainers approach. Even at a distance he could tell who flying one of the planes. The first six kerbalnauts were arriving. He wondered who had drawn the short straw to fly the front seat with Jebediah.

The planes flew by and circled back around. Two broke off and began approach to the runway. The third circled lazily overhead.  As the two planes approached one of the two planes rolled onto its starboard wing. The other plane remained flat and level. It touched down in a perfect 3 point landing.

“Looks like Valentina gets first smoke on this one,” Gus thought, one of the non-vulgar terms for the first landing on a runway. “Or first dust at least.” He watched the plane taxi down the gravel strip to the hanger.

He looked back at the other plane as the engine powered back up to full. It turned into a steep corkscrew climb towards the third plane. Together the two planes approached the runway. One of the planes lined up starboard  and aft of the other. They both touched down at the same time.

Gus climbed into the jeep and drove towards he hanger. He pulled up as the last engine wound down. He got out and walked over to the flight suited kerbals.

“Welcome to the Kerbal Space Center,” he said. “I’m Gus Kerman, head of operations. I’ll introduce you to the rest of the heads later. Right now there is the introductory briefing in forty-five in mission control. There’s showers and food in the Astronaut Complex." He gestured to an idling truck in front of the hanger. “She’ll run you around.”

The six picked up their duffel bags and walked to the truck.

“Jebediah,” Gus called after them.”

Jebediah turned around, “yeah?”

“You’re going to be flying further into the stamp than you can imagine. So you don’t need to push my airframes.”

“I don’t know. I can imagine pretty far.”

“You’ll be there, and further.”

Edited February 15, 2017 by steuben