When We Left kerbin - Chapter Twenty: Epilogue

[Pretorian28715]

Marked for reading. Am I missing 'some' back stories?

[roboslacker]

1 hour ago, Pretorian28715 said:

Marked for reading. Am I missing 'some' back stories?

Well, this is a sequel to an earlier mission report/story, Kerbin Elcano Exploration Project.

 

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter Two: Eve of New Pursuits

As the vonKerman tanker fleet arrived in Eve orbit and reported in, KSP’s Pioneer-4 quietly entered the purple planet’s gravitational sphere of influence, plotted and burned an inclination change, and made its capture burn. In both high and low orbit, the probe performed several science experiments before settling into a long-term orbital survey. KSC wanted a thorough scan of the surface before attempting to send down Pioneer’s lander...

Meanwhile, the Abenturer’s first tanker arrived with barely any fuel in its tanks, but the vonKerman ship took on all of it regardless. The tanker careened into Eve’s atmosphere to measure its destructive effects. It broke up at 40km altitude, spewing radioactive debris across the already irradiated landscape. The World’s First Organization even recognized Kerbin Galactic’s accomplishments around Eve.

 

The second tanker had less than half its fuel remaining when it docked with the ship. To reach their next destination and then go home, Lagatha transferred all the liquid fuel into the core tanks and discarded the outrigger fuel pods. They were originally intended to be jettisoned on the Abenturer’s journey to the Mun, but that proved unnecessary.

 

After lightening the load, they had 5.5km of delta left in the tank. They’d get a bit more once they discard the landers, Lagatha knew. They needed about 1,200m/sec to reach their next target, leaving about 4.2km for the trip home at the current mass. And if needed, Lagatha could make some drastic changes to the ship to get them home, but she hoped it wouldn’t come to that. After Irina confirmed her numbers, Lagatha initiated the transfer burn…

 

***

Captain James watched the video as the last Kerman States ship left Kerbin orbit. Then he turned his attention back to the Mk1 Munbus’s accident investigation report for the- well, he lost track of how many times he’d read the report. As with many times before, he shook his head. The Munbus left Minmus and arrived at Skybase safely, where Team Loner boarded the bus and boosted for the Mun. They arrived without incident, but the landing didn’t go well at all. In fact, Loner and his crew were lucky to be alive.

 

They’d made the landing attempt at night, which probably didn’t help any. Loner got disoriented and couldn’t figure out where the ground was. Additionally, the Mk1 Munbus couldn’t rotate fast enough from vertical to horizontal flight before hitting the ground. The resulting crash totaled the Munbus, but Team Loner survived unharmed and retreated to Munbase Enterprise.

 

“Spectacular sight watching the fleet leave orbit,” Loner said over the wireless.

“Yup,” Captain James responded. “But just wait until Duna Expedition Two leaves orbit in a couple of years. The preliminary designs for the Exploration Cruiser will put the Protector class to shame. We have to get the Lesser Flats Refinery and Minmus Shipyard up and running first of course…”

 

“How’s that going?”

“Well, we sent a starter module and a drill truck to the site, but we’re still working out the logistics on how to move Minmus Base and all the resources,” Captain James admitted. “KSC is still working on the Pipeline project, so we’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way. I’ve got a lot of respect for Valentina, but she chose a lousy spot to drop a base. Anyway, I called to say we owe you an apology about the Munbus. It-“

“Wasn’t a manufacturing problem,” Loner interrupted. “The workmanship was fine. It was the design that failed us. KSC over-engineered it in some places and under-engineered it in too many others. Nearly fatally so, I should add. I mean seriously, did we really need three Skippers? One is more than enough. And there just wasn’t enough torque to spin around for landing once I got reoriented.”

James nodded while Stelissa and Jane took notes. “We need more powerful RCS,” Captain James thought aloud, “fueled by the liquid fuel and oxidizer. That would pack a bigger punch. Add more reaction wheels for good measure… Huh. I just thought of something. Stelissa and Jane, can you two make a modular version of the Munbus?”

“Modular? Why,” Stelissa asked.

“The Mk1 is- was- essentially a flying fuel tank,” Captain James explained. “Almost 3k delta. We don’t need that much to make a suborbital hop, but if the central tank was cargo space, we could definitely use that. If it’s modular, we could string a bunch of cargo modules together and move the base, then reconfigure it for moon shuttling. Plus, if it’s modular enough, it could fit into the Exploration Cruiser’s payload bays instead of being launched separately.”

“I get it,” Loner said, nodding. “You could make any number of configurations. Swap out the center tank for more passenger capacity, for instance. Or swap in a science lab. Or add more center modules for more capability. Mulch, if you do it right, you can have modular command pods and engines, making it easier to upgrade.”

“Exactly,” Captain James agreed. “Stelissa, can you do it?”

Stelissa thought it over, did some mental math, and hemmed and hawed for a few seconds. It looked like she was having a conversation with herself. “Yes,” she said finally. “Ground reconfiguration will be tedious and slow, but orbital assembly and reconfiguration is definitely possible. The Munbus will need a lot of changes though.”

Captain James grinned. “Time to design the Mk2 then,” he directed.

***

A week later, the Abenteurer arrived in Gilly orbit. In contrast to the massive purple planet and its toxic atmosphere and radioactive oceans, Gilly was a small airless “potato” of a world- more like a large captured asteroid. And unlike their stay at Eve, the crew intended to set foot on the small world.

Their Falke landers were more than adequate for the job, so Lagatha decided to do something different- dock both together so that two crewmembers could make the trip! That way, the whole crew could set foot on the tiny world for their troubles, and the Abenteurer could make use of one Falke’s liquid fuel for their trip home.

As Alice made the necessary resource transfers and modifications to the “passenger Falke,” Irina worked the science instruments to glean as much as they could from orbit just in case something went wrong with the landing. By the time the Abenteurer reached its apoapsis, Alice and Irina both finished their tasks and the ship was on the light side of the moon once again.

 

Lagatha and Irina boarded their respective landers and undocked from the Abenteurer. After moving away from the ship, they docked them together. Lagatha ignited her lander’s engine and extended its landing legs. They aimed for the moon’s highlands and midlands. Irina thought that flying upside down during landing was a bit odd, but with a surface gravity of just 0.5% of Kerbin’s, she had no practical difficulties.

 

The landing proved to be tedious and slow, but eventually they made their way to the surface. Both kerbonauts exited the craft, planted the flag, took surface samples and EVA reports, and then boarded their tiny lander and returned to the ship. Even if they wanted to take an extended stay, they had neither the resources nor the equipment to do so. It was enough just to be the first to walk on another pristine world.

 

Back at the Abenteurer, Lagatha didn’t even bother to dock the Falke. Instead, the crew did the space borne equivalent of “hot swapping,” where crews are quickly swapped out of an idling aircraft for another sortie. In this case, Hanse and Alice took Lagatha’s and Irina’s place, and then promptly sped away and aimed for Gilly’s lowlands.

After what seemed like an hour of searching, they finally found the biome, landed, planted another flag and took surface samples.

 

With the low gravity, it didn’t take long to return to the ship. Alice undocked her lander and discarded it before spacewalking to the Abenteurer. Hanse docked his to the mothership to offload the last of its liquid fuel before also discarding the lander and spacewalking.

 

The crew spend the next several minutes dumping every non-essential resource no longer needed for the mission: soil, monopropellant, even spare equipment. For all their efforts, the ship had nearly 5k delta-v remaining in the tanks. The only thing remaining was to leave Gilly orbit and plot a course for home before returning to their cryogenic slumber…

***

As another week passed, the Minmus Expedition 2 team completed redesign and assembly of the Mk2 Munbus. It looked much like its predecessor except for the stronger RCS thrusters, modular design, aft fuel cell array, and redesigned command pod that could separate from the rest of the craft and perform a safe atmospheric entry in the event of an emergency. While it kept its extended range configuration, the team also designed a science lab module, logistics module, mining module and cargo flatbed module as well as the support vehicles needed for ground reconfiguration. If the new prototype performed well, they’d send it to the Mun and build another one to help move Minmus Base.

If it performed well. Captain James was about to find out.

“Captain, are you sure it’s a good idea for you to test pilot the Munbus? We can remotely fly it, you know,” Marnica said over the wireless.

“After what Team Loner went through, I owe it to them to make sure this thing flies as advertised,” Captain James transmitted back.

“But-“

“Captain’s prerogative,” interrupted. “Minmus Control, Munbus 2. Am I cleared for takeoff?”

James could hear Marnica’s sigh over the wireless. “Munbus 2, you are cleared to launch. Squad speed,” she said formerly. While there was no other “air” traffic in their vicinity, Minmus Base adopted air traffic control rules to avoid problems in the future. They hoped to set a precedence. After performing final systems checks, James activated the engines and set them up for vertical boost.

 

Munbus 2 lifted off the launchpad effortlessly. As soon as he had 20m/sec of upwards velocity, he flipped the fully fueled Munbus over.

“Uh, Captain…” Marnica called out.

“Just testing the new RCS and torque,” James responded. “She handles like a dream! Going vertical…” He rotated the ship vertically, switched to the Skipper, and boosted straight up. He let it fall back down and hit the main engine again, arresting his descent. Switching back to the landing jets, he set the new Munbus down on the landing pad.

 

Marnica breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, that was an impressive test flight. I thought you were going to just go up and come back down.”

“I did,” James called back over the wireless. “I just needed to test the improvements out. I’d say we’re vindicated. Even fully loaded, the Munbus is pretty responsive, albeit a bit fuel hungry with the new RCS thrusters. But she’s ready to head to the Mun.”

After he exited the vehicle and the team performed more system and safety checks, Marnica and Captain James certified Munbus 2 for flight. “Let’s build one of our own,” he said smiling, watching Munbus 2’s autopilot handle the ascent and head off to the Mun.

 

Three trips and two weeks later in their new Munbus, MEX 2 finished transporting and re-assembling Minmus Base’s components and combining them with newly printed components to form the Lesser Flats Refinery.  They also moved their Big Brumby- the last of the capsules- to the new complex. Captain James also sent the refinery’s drill truck 30km away to mine blutonium for processing into nuclear fuel for the facility’s Nukeworks. It would take another couple of weeks at least to fire up the nuclear reactor as well as finish building the tank farm, but the refinery finally found its feet.

 

Edited June 9, 2018 by Angel-125

[The Minmus Derp]

The suspense builds!

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter Three: Return on Investment

“Flapjack 1, you are cleared for takeoff on Runway 090. Have a good flight,” KSC Control said over the wireless. Kelbin felt the excitement building. This was no rocket saucer simulator, this was the real thing! With its initial test flights behind it and its upgrade to the Block 2 standard, Flapjack 1 roared down the runway as its linear aerospike engine ignited and built up to full thrust. Kelbin pulled back on the stick at 100 meters per second, and the saucer leapt into the sky.

It consumed nearly all its propellant, but Flapjack 1 settled into a 100km orbit ten minutes later.

“Dude, that was smooth,” Munvan said.

“As Squad and @Kuzzter Kerman intended,” Kelbin responded. “Ninety seconds to the plane change maneuver. Lining up for the burn…” The saucer made a right turn around its axis, then performed a quick burn. Kelbin cursed as the saucer went right past the needed delta v. He spun the ship around and corrected the oversight with a burst from the engine.

 

Munvan checked the propellant levels. “458 delta-v remaining, dude. We’ll need a couple hundred to reach Skybase. Transfer burn is in an hour.”

“That’s not bad,” Samalla called out from the aft flight station. “Our payload is still safe and secure in the trunk. I can’t wait to see what the station looks like now! Hearing the technical discussions and seeing the rendered images don’t really do justice to seeing it up close.”

“Totally looking forwad to checking out my botany experiments too,” Munvan added. “Zero gee does some gnarly things to plants.”

“Speaking of space stations, Kelbin, what’s going to happen to Dolores? Have you or any of your Air Force friends heard anything,” Samalla asked.

Kelbin shook his head. “There aren’t any more flights to Dolores that I know of,” he answered. “It’s past its useful design life, so the Air Force will probably de-orbit it.”

“That engine explosion I read about was really weird,” Samalla said. “Engines don’t normally do that, especially when they’re not running.”

“Yeah,” Kelbin agreed, “but some think that it wasn’t just a burst pressure vessel. There’s a rumor going around that it overheated before exploding. Nothing on the station could’ve caused that.”

“Dude,” Munvan looked surprised. “Seriously? Is there any truth to the rumor?”

“None that I could find,” Kelbin answered. “My uh, source says there is an addendum to the accident report but it’s classified.”

***

A little over an hour later, Samalla got her wish as Flapjack 1 brought Team Kelbin back to Skybase. She marveled at the station’s new storage tank extensions that were used to fuel the fleet on its way to Duna.

The station also had a new storage node on the front that Kelbin was now aiming the saucer towards. Moreover, the station’s aft docking port was now taken up by its new 3D print shop and a prototype space dock. If it worked, they’d be able to build vessels in orbit instead of launching them from the ground piece by piece. The engineer had a lot of work to do first though.

 

Team Kelbin transferred propellant into Flapjack 1’s tanks for the trip home and shut down its systems for its slumber before moving into the station. While everything was in the same place they left them since their last visit, she had a number of repairs to perform before the orbital laboratory could be converted into a rocket part factory. The engineer spent the day repairing internal systems while Kelbin and Munvan unpacked, but it took a spacewalk to get Skybase fully operational. By the time she was done, Samalla installed Scrapper 2’s new grabbing unit, removed unneeded RCS thrusters, and inflated the Mk 1 Drydock, verifying that the hardening foam formed a solid structure. Skybase was ready for its next phase of operations.

***

“All systems go,” Kelbin said from the Scrapper Pod’s cockpit. “Ready to undock.”

“Scrapper 2, you have a go,” Samalla called back from Skybase’s command station. “Have fun and come back safe.”

Kelbin undocked the train of cargo pods from Skybase while Samalla commanded the atomic tug- the same one used on Kapollo 5- to undock as well. Thus far it was only one of two ever built- environmentalists protested launching atomic materials on rockets, citing the potential for rockets to explode and spread their deadly cargo across the surface. With off-world vessel construction, atomic rockets might get a renewed interest.

The two craft connected into one vehicle, ready for its first operational salvage mission. Kelbin’s first targets were a series of objects orbiting just above Kerbin’s atmosphere. Whatever their purpose before, they were just useless space junk destined to be recycled into something useful again.

He met the first piece of junk a half hour after undocking and in the dark. “As is right and proper,” Kelbin mused aloud.

“What was that,” Samalla asked over the wireless.

“Nothing,” Kelbin responded. “Just something I read once. Arm extended, recycler primed. Going in for the kill… Mulch! Contact, but I bumped it. No damage to the Scrapper, but the pod is getting away,” Kelbin commented as he yanked the control stick around to make another attempt. He closed in again. “Got it!” Kelbin cheered and breathed a sigh of relief. "One less piece of VKR space junk floating around."

He swung the ship around to prograde for a quick burn “upstairs.” About 20 minutes later, he circularized his orbit and found another target. The transfer burn was half a day away.

With nothing else to do but wait, Kelbin watched the ground go by. Up here, he could see no borders. No indication of the growing political turmoil below. Everything was peaceful, though he could see the effects of climate change too- the Great Desert was enormous even from space and growing every year.

A few orbits later, Kelbin practiced his meditation. He started to feel relaxed when the alarm went off- time for the transfer burn. Several minutes later, he found it: a Mk 2 cockpit prototype that KSC shot into space for some undocumented reason. It too fell to Scrapper 2’s recycling arm.

“The Scrapper definitely gives pilots something to do while we’re waiting around for you engineers and scientists to do your thing,” Kelpin radioed. “What’s next?”

“Hang on,” Samalla responded. While she checked with KSC Tracking, Kelbin initiated a burn to a higher orbit. “Here we go, sending you the orbital data now. The manifest says it’s a random payload from one of the early Titan tests. A Mk 2 inline cockpit.” The Air Force Major approved of the target. Twenty minutes for the alignment burn, then another 50 for the transfer burn and another 13 minutes after that to match velocities. Perfect. He set up the autopilot and tried to meditate again… and jerked himself awake as he felt like he was falling- just in time to capture and recycle the junk. It disappeared in a puff.

“Ok, let’s go after another one,” Kelbin decided.

“I got one already,” Samalla answered. “Sending you the orbital data and suggested burns. Want to know what it is?”

“Not this time,” Kelbin radioed back. An hour and a half to rendezvous with the mystery target. Time to meditate again, Kelbin thought to himself. He wasn’t having any luck, thoughts kept creeping into his mind. But soon enough, he saw his prey. He couldn’t believe his eyes…

“Is that… a Buffalo Crew Cabin? What was KSC thinking,” Kelbin radioed.

Samalla laughed. “It’s one of the test payloads from the early Titan test launches,” she radioed back.

“They might as well send a rover with an empty space suit in the driver seat into space,” Kelbin quipped. He sighed. “What’s next?” After two days of orbital rendezvous followed by brief moments of tearing up test payloads, Kelbin finally grew tired of the thrill of being a “Space Privateer.” Now he thought of himself as a glorified trash collector. The next set of Low Kerbin Orbit objects were simple mass simulators. He knew that Kerbin orbit needed O-DeRP to clean up the mess, but it was getting old. Another two days later, Kelbin was feeling pretty cooped up in the orbital command pod.

“Skybase, Scrapper 2,” he radioed. “I’m nearing bingo fuel, I’ve got about half my cargo pods full of scrap, and I’m getting antsy. One more salvage run, and head home?”

“Uh, ‘bingo fuel?’ What’s that,” Samalla responded.

“Sorry, that’s Air Force for ‘time to go home or I’ll run out of fuel before I can get home.”

“Oh! Ok, Kelbin, since you got all the test payloads, how about YAML Rescue? It was supposed to be a backup craft for the early YAML missions in case their command pod broke down and couldn’t re-enter. KSC never needed it, and apparently forgot about it after the Brumby started flying.”

“Sounds good enough for me,” Kelbin radioed back. A few seconds later, he received the orbital data. “Four hours until the transfer burn? Mulch.” Once more, Kelbin set the autopilot up and decided to try meditating again. His mind kept wandering and thwarting his attempts- is the autopilot set correctly? Do I have enough snacks? Will I run out of fuel? Those fans are loud. Should I recycle the YAML Rescue piece by piece or just bring it back to Skybase? Valentina is really attractive. I can’t believe she married Bob. That autopilot alarm sounds off key. This isn’t working, next time I’ll just take a nap…

He opened his eyes, froze, and looked around in utter confusion.

Edited July 17, 2018 by Angel-125

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter 4: The Secret Lives of Kelbin Kerman

“Kelbin, snap out of it! Disengage the centrifuge before we miss our entry window.”

“Uh…” Kelbin looked around utterly confused. A moment ago, he was in the cockpit of Scrapper Two, and now he was… seated in the copilot seat of an airship gondola orbiting Eve? He stared at Valentina Kerman sitting in the gondola’s left seat. And she did not look happy. Wasn’t she on her way to Duna?

Valentina rolled her eyes, cursed, and reached over to flip a switch. A faint thump and a blinking light later, the space-airship freed itself from the centrifuge. She flipped a couple of other switches.

“Command Gondola in standby. Crew, we’ll be headed to the EDLA capsule momentarily.” She switched off the intercom, then bore her eyesight into Kelbin.

“What is wrong with you,” Valentina said icily. “You’ve been distracted lately. A lot. I’ve caught you daydreaming many times. It’s like you’re not even here. What’s the matter, are you bored with this mission?”

This is too real to be a dream, Kelbin thought to himself. There’s no jumping around in continuity like there are in dreams. Where am I?

“I, uh,” he looked outside of the window. Eve… “I’m uh, anxious about what’s down there, and um, making it down safely,” Kelbin fumbled his response together.

“You were one of the most enthused astronauts about investigating Eve. Now you’re having second thoughts?” She gave him an incredulous look. “Uh huh. Look, whatever’s really bugging you, stow it! We need everyone pulling their weight on this mission, and I can’t have you distracted. Especially when we’re about to land. I need you focused and committed to the mission. When you’re flying the Skydancer around Eve, I want you laser focused. When we’re on the ground, you can daydream to your heart’s content. Can I count on you?”

Kelbin nodded his head.

“Good,” Val said sternly. “Now go aft, let everybody see that you’re on the team, and for the gods’ sakes, stay focused.”

Too real to be a dream, Kelbin repeated to himself. He undid his seat harness and floated aft, making his way through what looked like crew quarters and a science lab. He immediately spotted a small circular hatch and tunnel. The tunnel ended in a Brumby capsule. There was a hole in the aft bulkhead where a hatch would be in the soon-to-be-retired Big Brumby. He gave a thumbs up to what looked like Bill, Bob, and two strangers, then took the cockpit's right seat. Moments later, Valentina joined him in the Brumby’s cockpit.

“Arm the mains,” Valentina commanded. It took a few moments for Kelbin to study the flight controls. Fortunately they were nearly identical to the Brumby trainer he once practiced on. “Armed,” he said, finding the right switches.

Valentina wasted no time. “Crew, standby to pull some gees. Here we go!” Somewhere aft of the “EDLA Capsule,” Kelbin could hear the roar and felt the vibrations of some powerful engines. He was instantly pinned with slightly over one g of acceleration.

Within minutes the Skydancer braked its orbit until she stood on her tail, and the engines kept burning, trying to slow her descent.

“Hitting the denser atmosphere,” Valentina said calmly. “Keep an eye on our temp-“ The master alarm screamed.

Kelbin studied the readout. “Overheat warning in the, uh… ISUR,” he said nervously as hot plasma sped past the windows. “Rest of the ship is uh, is heating up too! Should we abort?”

“Negative! Passing thirty thousand. Come on, Big S,” Valentina encouraged. She fought the controls to keep the airship vertical as she struggled to slow their descent before burning up. Kelbin watched the temperature gauge go critical. Just when he thought the ISRU would explode, the temperature backed down.

“That’s twenty thousand, cut the engines,” Val commanded. Kelbin reached for the kill switch. Immediately the roaring stopped.

“Drop the boosters.” A loud thump and sharp lurch forward told Kelbin that he’d found the right button.

Valentina started the electric fans and leveled out the airship. She did a quick systems check, then nodded satisfactorily. “Crew, welcome to Eve!” He could hear cheering from the passenger compartment. “No emergency ascent needed, we’re at Stable One. She’s all yours, Captain…” She gave Kelbin a don’t fail me look.

“Uh, right. Ok, let’s move back into the gondola.” And give me time to figure out what to do, Kelbin thought to himself. Fortunately he could see his next step out the window of the command gondola. After taking the pilot’s seat and discovering that the controls felt sluggish compared to the KSNS Akron, Kelbin brought the airship down for a soft landing.

Right next to a large pyramid!

Not long after, the crew exited Skydancer and posed for a publicity shot before Bill led the effort to assemble their Pathfinder base. By the time they were done, Kelbin dropped his helmet on his bunk and collapsed into bed…

…and woke up back in Scrapper Two’s cockpit! Its recycler arm was centimeters from YAML Rescue. He scrambled to back the scrapper pod away from the derelict. Too late.

“Mulch!” he cut up the central fuel tank by accident. The remaining parts flew in formation, but not for long. He had to act fast. Kelbin cursed again as he missed the aft fuel tank and engine completely, but some quick maneuvering managed to catch both parts. But when he tried to catch the free-flying solar array, it escaped the recycler’s grasp and in a desperation maneuver, Kelbin accidentally flicked it away.

“The point is to clean up the debris, not create more,” He said to no one in particular. Kelbin quickly stowed the recycler arm and activated the recently installed grabbing unit, using it to grab the remains of YAML Rescue. A quick burst from the atomic engines let him chase down the fleeing solar panel. Several tense minutes later, he maneuvered the recycling arm in just the right place to grab and recycle the wayward panel. Kelbin finally sighed with relief and then smiled.

“That was fun,” he said after keying the microphone.

“Uh, what,” said a familiar voice.

“Nothing, Samalla, never mind,” Kelbin quickly answered. “I’ve got a candidate to test the drydock’s scrapping functions with. Time to head home.”

Five days after he left- and one wild trip to Eve- Kelbin returned to Skybase with a treasure trove of salvage. And a lot of questions about what had happened.

[The Minmus Derp]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! me likey! Oooooh, the suspense!

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter Five: Salvage Runs

What was that, Kelbin thought to himself, was it real? It wasn’t disjointed like a normal dream, it was continuous. But if it was real, where was I? KSP hasn’t gone to Eve, only the VKR has. But even they didn’t land on the planet- I was piloting an airship! And that pyramid looked like the one we visited in The Great Desert, the one with a gateway to “Thel” or ”Gael” or something. And if it was real, how do I go back?

Kelbin sighed. His reflections had to wait, he had work to do. For the past several days, Samalla had been testing the building arms of the drydock and making use of the salvage that Kelbin snatched from orbit. Now his efforts were paying off- the first module built in orbit was finally “rolling” off the production line. It consisted of a large storage tank ringed with solar arrays designed to power Scrapper Two’s magnet arms. In theory, one arm can hold some space junk while the other tore it apart. But more importantly, the new storage module replaced the two older units which proved to wobble around too much as the salvage craft pivoted in space. Those two had already been recycled; their salvaged resources waited to be melted down and reborn as part of the new “Pier” docking extensions.

Mission Control was excited at their progress, and delighted that orbital construction was working out better than they’d hoped. In fact, they decided to try something more complicated: build the Density Lab in space! Part of the planned Skybase expansion, the Density Lab would serve as a new, highly configurable “Omni” laboratory capable of both scientific and industrial applications. It also doubled as the strong back to shoulder the station’s truss assembly and solar array wings. Density was scheduled to fly as a payload on the upcoming Cormorant shuttle, but if the lab could be made in space, then they wouldn’t need to haul it or subsequent components into orbit- or continue developing the expensive cargo shuttle.

“Scrapper Cargo Pod released,” Samalla said triumphantly. The new pod hung motionless in space as the drydock’s build arms retracted.

Kelbin launched in Scrapper Two and carefully maneuvered into the drydock where he docked with the new pod and hauled it over to the awaiting nuclear tug. Several minutes later, the refit garbage scow sped off in search of its next salvage target.

Kelbin spent the next several days salvaging the remaining Echo Relay satellites in low Kerbin orbit (he left ER-1 for posterity), several spent upper stages that delivered DSEV-2’s components into orbit, and even found and salvaged Kapollo 2’s service module. It still had the command module’s heat shield attached, and it was clear that the emergency shield separation bolts had fired, but it was otherwise still intact. That confirmed KSC’s accident investigation results- an electrical surge caused the emergency bolts to mistakenly fire and sent Kapollo 2’s service module into its own orbit.

His salvage runs were having a noticeable effect on low Kerbin orbit- the orbit lines of all the space junk rapidly dwindled while Skybase’s construction resource reserves bloomed. But despite his best efforts, he couldn’t shift his perceptions back to his… other self, the one exploring Eve. He gave up for now though, and focused on his next navigation target.

***

The six astronauts of MEX-2 looked proudly at their latest accomplishment, a tank farm designed to hold a variety of different resources.

Marnica, MEX-2’s second in command, drove the assembly off of the construction pad and over to its permanent spot. Jane then went on EVA to configure the tanks to hold various products, perform a few repairs around the Minmus Flats Refinery, and then went back inside. The team looked at the tank farm’s telemetry data. Everything looked good.

“Hit it,” Captain James said, and Marnica pressed the button to detonate the farm’s rover wheels. The complex settled onto the ground without protest.

Then it shook violently as structural forces tore it to pieces.

For several seconds, nobody breathed as parts went everywhere, damaging everything in their path. One of the large tanks barely missed crashing into the base itself.

Captain James sighed. Weeks of work, wasted.

 “I told them, we needed more struts,” Jane said simply.

***

“That’s not one of ours,” Kelbin said as he pulled up next to the derelict. The booster looked burnt from skimming the upper atmosphere one too many times. It was on its way to apoapsis but if uncorrected, it would keep skimming until air drag forced it down. “Are you sure we can claim it?”

“Definitely,” Samalla answered over the wireless. “Kerbin Galactic lists all its ‘Alder Probe’ craft as debris. We’re free and clear to salvage it.

“Good,” Kelbin said and nodded. “I wouldn’t want to cause an international incident. Ok, it’s too big for the recycling arm, I’m going to latch onto it and haul it back to Skybase.”

“Uh, Flight would like you to EVA and get a close look before you do that, just in case.”

“After I latch on,” Kelbin retorted.

“…Copy that Scrapper Two…”

A few seconds of careful maneuvering later, Kelbin grabbed the spent booster.

He wasted no time going outside. The rocket looked like it could’ve been made by KSC engineers and it reminded him of the old YAML boosters from the early days- at least until he approached the business end. Its guidance fins were pretty standard, but where a YAML had a single engine bell, the VKR booster had eight. Four large bells sat at the base while four much smaller nozzles surrounded them. They appeared to swivel to help guide the rocket.

Kelbin checked his chronometer. He had to get back inside and circularize his orbit. He snapped a few more pictures before heading back. A couple of hours later, Kelbin began maneuvering the booster into Skybase’s drydock. Off in the distance he saw two bright lights appear and vanish just as fast.

“What was that,” he thought aloud.

“What was what, dude?” That was Munvan on the wireless, Samalla was on her snack break.

“I just saw something light up the surface briefly. Now it’s gone though. It was like a flash. I don’t suppose the solar observatory saw it…”

“No way, dude. Like, the observatory is totally pointed away from Kerbin.”

“Mulch. Ok, let me park this thing so we can take it apart.”

***

Mainer Kerman looked at his screen, shook his head in disbelief, then looked at his screen again. Then he ran a system check, then ran it again. His board showed no issues on his end.

“Uh, Flight, Telemetry,” he called out.

“Go ahead, Telem,” Debdan Kerman, the team’s Flight Director responded. She was standing less than 10 meters away, but standard procedure was to speak into their microphones in order to record everything.

“Flight, uh, I’ve lost all telemetry with Munbase Enterprise. One moment everything was fine, the next, nothing. It’s like they’ve gone offline. I’ve already checked my systems and everything is working fine.”

“Hm,” She pondered. No sense in asking what steps he took, she trusted her people. “Might be a glitch on their end. CAPCOM, can you raise Munbase Enterprise?”

“I’ll give them a call,” Trixi Kerman replied. Several minutes later, she had no luck. Mainer ran diagnostics on Munbus 2. It was still in hibernation mode, but it responded with a clean bill of health. Ditto for the rover. Even the DSEV-1 wreck chirped back a solid response.

That gave Debdan an idea. “Telem, can you access the Mun Rover’s camera?”

“I’ll see what I can do, flight,” Mainer responded. It took a few seconds for the software to load. The image came up on the control center screen. The team collectively gasped.

Something was more than wrong at the Munbase. It was gone.

[roboslacker]

Yay content!

[BRAAAP_STUTUTU]

oh I love a good ksp story

 

Is your modlist still the same as it was in K.E.E.P? (and do you use snacks! in your playthrough?)

[Angelo Kerman]

23 hours ago, BRAAAP_STUTUTU said:

oh I love a good ksp story

 

Is your modlist still the same as it was in K.E.E.P? (and do you use snacks! in your playthrough?)

Yes, and yes.

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter Six: Missing Persons

This time, the tank farm had plenty of struts. As soon as it was complete, Marnica rolled it off of the launch pad and started to maneuver it over to its intended parking spot. Along the way, several tires exploded from the weight- even in the low Minmus gravity. She decided to keep going and try to reach the parking spot, but to no avail. The other tires gave out as well. With nothing left to lose, she hit the detonation switch, and the wheel stumps exploded. This time though, the tank farm held together.

“Close enough,” Captain James said and shrugged.

 

***

With their supply of Liquid Fuel nearly gone, Scrapper Two stayed at Skybase, but that was just as well. There was work to be done! The drydock produced a pair of Pier docking tubes, and the scraper pod positioned them on Node 1’s dorsal and ventral docking ports. Three days later, after Flapjack 1 moved out of the way, the Density Lab emerged from its blanket of construction arms, and Kelbin maneuvered it to Node 1’s forward port. Next came the hard part.

 

“Here we go,” Samalla said, flipping a switch. Munvan grabbed a handhold and Kelbin gripped the flight controls. There was a loud clunk as Node 2, attached to the Bigby Orbital Workshop, detached.

As the remaining space complex cleared the area, Kelbin engaged its RCS thrusters and spun it around. He cursed as he pivoted too far and had to rotate a bit back the other way. The complex then crept forward. With a satisfying clank, Skybase rejoined with its wayward drydock section.

 

“Hard dock. Seals look good,” Samalla said. She smiled. “See? That wasn’t so bad.”

“Easy for you to say,” Kelbin responded, wiping the sweat off of his forehead. “You didn’t have to line everything up and avoid smacking anything against the outrigger tanks.”

“Point,” she conceded. “Well, with that out of the way, we’ve got the aft port freed for the tank farm. Once that’s done, we can move the drydock aft and recycle the outriggers. Then it’s on to the truss and greenhouse, and then we’re done!”

“Don’t forget about the new airlock,” Munvan pointed out.

“Oh yeah, that too-“

“Skybase, Flight,” Gene called out over the wireless. Kelbin hit the transmit button. They were watching the station’s latest aerobatic maneuvers.

“Skybase, go ahead.”

“Go to Secure Two.”

Kelbin blinked. He was expecting a congratulatory call for pulling off a difficult maneuver, not a terse directive. He switched channels, and the station’s interior lights turned blue. “Skybase on Secure Two. Go ahead, Flight.”

“Skybase, there’s no easy way to say this. Munbase Enterprise has vanished without a trace,” Gene said simply. If he was at all nervous, he hid it well.

“Uh, say again? Munbase has what now,” Munvan spoke up. Gene repeated himself. “Woah,” is all the scientist could say.

“Yeah,” Gene continued. “We’ve learned all we can from the ground- we don’t really have the science gear we need. Or the astronauts. That’s where you come in. Munbus 2 is on its way to you now. Give it a thorough systems check, and if there’s nothing wrong with it, you’ll reconfigure it for a recon mission with hardware that we’re prepping for launch. We’re sending a tanker up to you too.

“Major, you and your crew are headed to the Mun. You’re the only available team for this mission...”

***

 

Samalla, Munvan, and Kelbin couldn’t find anything wrong with Munbus 2, either inside or out, its scorch marks from aerobraking notwithstanding.  Once both they and Mission Control were satisfied, Kelbin moved it out of drydock and over to Pier 1 for refit- the dock was fine for making new craft, but too cramped for the orbital ballet that they needed to perform. A day later, Team Kelbin pulled the craft apart, removed the central tank, installed the lab sent up via Delta rocket, and put the Munbus back together. The modular system worked perfectly.

 

While they waited for KSC to finish the Duna Tanker stack- and its associated stack of paperwork (yes, the boosters and first stage will de-orbit, no, the second stage won’t, yes it will be recycled…), Kelbin practiced simulated flights in the Munbus while Samalla supervised the construction robots and Munvan continued his science experiments. Four days later, they were still waiting.

But in that time, the drydock finished making their tank farm, so Kelbin hopped into Scrapper Two and gingerly maneuvered it into position. After shuffling resources around, Team Kelbin recycled the outrigger tanks, re-positioned the drydock and built the central truss node. By the time they were done, KSC finally launched a Duna Tanker into orbit.

 

A day later, Team Kelbin was on their way to the Mun.

 

***

With the tank farm finally completed MEX-2 got to work on the first expansion module for Minmus Station- the Long Duration Habitat. One of the occupational hazards of being an astronaut was microgravity. Spend too much time in a zero-gee environment, and your muscles atrophy and your bones become brittle. As a result, KSC flight surgeons restrict crews to a maximum of 200 days on orbit, though kerbals could survive up to a year without irreversible effects. The MEX-2 crew noticed that Minmus’s 5% gee environment slowed the atrophy down, which meant that they could remain deployed longer, so KSC decided to try an experiment.

When the Long Duration Habitat lifted off three weeks after construction began, it carried with it an experimental living section that could unfold and spin to generate artificial gravity! Its deployment would have to wait for MEX-2 to finish up on the ground, but the module rendezvoused and docked with Minmus Station without incident.

 

With the Long Duration Habitat out of the way, the Minmus Flats Refinery crew began work on the next expansion module…

***

 

“There it is,” Samalla said, pointing to their destination. Up ahead, the Munar Gateway space station hung motionless about 35km above the Mun’s surface. The station was sent by KSC- Munbase Enterprise’s first-generation production facilities couldn’t fabricate its advanced technology, and Skybase’s facilities were busy expanding the station.

The Munar Gateway was designed to become the orbital hub of the Munar Transportation System, with endpoints in Low Kerbin Orbit and Low Munar Orbit. Visiting spacecraft such as Munbus 2 would stay at Munar Gateway to take on or deliver supplies before heading to their destination, be it LKO or to the munar surface. The station was also going to test a Pipeline orbital mass catcher, able to receive payloads from its ground-based Pipeline that was going to be built and tested at Munbase Enterprise.

Those plans were now on indefinite hold.

A few minutes later, Munbus 2 docked with the station. They had some work to do before going aboard, however.

The central fuel tank’s small docking ports weren’t designed for crew access, so Kelbin carefully undocked the Pressurized Mating Adapter and parked it on one of the side ports before undocking Munbus from the tank and taking the forward port. He had to be careful not to hit the tank; there were only a few centimeters between it and their spacecraft. A loud clunk told him that they had a hard dock. The crew eagerly opened the hatch to their temporary home.

“Dudes, that radar mapper is totally awesome.  I’m so looking forward to playing with that,” Munvan proclaimed.

“Rumor has it, that radar was derived from an Air Force spy satellite,” Samalla said. “They’ve been launching them from a secret site.” Kelbin chuckled and shook his head. Ever the conspiracy theorist, he thought to himself.

“You’ll get your wish, Munvan,” Kelbin responded. “Flight ordered us to stay here a few days until the site enters daybreak. They want you to map the area and look for anything out of the ordinary as well. And while I would’ve wanted better circumstances to say this, in a few days, we’ll be walking on the Mun!”

***

As Munbus 2 approached the Arch, Team Kelbin could see the platform built by Bill, Bob, and Jeb. Kelbin could see DSEV-1 and the rover off in the distance, and as expected, there were no obvious signs of damage. Nonetheless, the Air Force pilot cautiously landed beside the konkrete platform.

While Kelbin and Samalla recorded visual observations, Munvan ran the science lab’s suite of experiments. The new seismic scan and gravity scan produced intriguing results but nothing that explained the disappearance of Munbase Enterprise.

After planting the flag and posing for a publicity shot, the trio jetted over to the platform.

“Baris. It’s just, gone,” Samalla remarked. “No sign at all. It’s like the Kraken decided to have a snack.”

“Let’s go inside Enterprise and see if we can find anything,” Kelbin said simply, trying not to sound equally in awe. He stepped up to the port side airlock and tried to open it. Nothing happened.

“Gotta use the passcode, dude,” Munvan pointed out.

Oh, right, Kelbin thought to himself. Bill wired in a passcode lock to keep tourists out. Kelbin couldn't help but feel like a tourist breaking into the historic spacecraft that was never intended to land. He opened the keypad cover, punched in the code, and opened the door. The team huddled inside while the airlock went through its cycle.

“Our technology has changed so fast, we barely had time to fly Enterprise before Protector was on the drawing board,” Samalla said. “Think we’ll get our own ship someday?”

“I hope so,” Kelbin replied. “The next two ships will be Protector-class. Maybe we’ll get to crew one of them.”

“Dudes, they better not shut down the program because of Munbase Enterprise,” Munvan said.

The airlock dinged before Kelbin could reply. Unlike the exterior, preserved as much as possible as the craft crashed into the Mun, the interior looked like a den being used to store random junk. There were no signs of struggle, just random stacks of electronics, spent material kits, and scavenged parts packed into every nook and cranny. Kelbin went forward to the cockpit to pull the flight recorder while Munvan checked out the lab and Samalla downloaded service logs from the engineering station. They would have to be analyzed later.

The team exited Enterprise and surveyed the rover. Aside from normal wear and tear, nothing looked out of place.

Samalla took pictures of the platform. It had numerous scuff marks. “Seems like some heavy machinery was here,” she noted.

“Wouldn’t that be caused by normal activity? They did move the base once they built this platform,” Kelbin pointed out.

“Of course,” Samalla answered. “Maybe somebody took the base?”

“Why just the base though? Why leave Enterprise, the rover, and the Munbus?”

Samalla shrugged. “I don’t know, Kelbin. Maybe the aliens didn’t need them.”

“They’re supposed to be long gone. The murals we found were thousands of years old, as was that skeleton.”

“Do we know that for sure though?”

“They were pretty advanced-“

“Uh, dudes, can we like, check out the SEP now?” Munvan pointed to the Surface Experiment Pack deployed next to the Arch. If he didn’t interrupt them now, they’d keep arguing for hours.

The astronauts jetted over to the experiments to check on their status. Each experiment tested something unique such as x-rays, infrared, and gamma rays.

Munvan noted that the SEP was offline and devoid of logs. He went to each experiment. None were active. “Bogus. Either Bob forgot to turn them on, or somebody totally turned them off,” Munvan proclaimed. He calibrated each of the experiments and started the command processor. The diagnostics reported no issues. With not much else to do, the scientist jetted to the top of the Arch. While he had a great view of the area, he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

“We have one last thing to do before heading home,” Kelbin called out. “Meet us at the lander.”

The trio touched down next to Munar Lander 1. They could see the scorch marks and shrapnel damage that occurred when Jeb and Bob tried to lift off and their engine exploded. Kelbin went inside to see if it had recorded anything, but as expected it was unpowered.

With their data gathering complete, Team Kelbin lifted off the Mun and headed back to the Munar Gateway.

After refueling the Munbus and disposing of the station’s transfer stage, they boosted back to Kerbin orbit and returned to Skybase. Since they had to wait a few days in quarantine, the astronauts received permission to complete their mission to expand the station. By the time their quarantine ended with no surprises and their replacement crew arrived, Team Kelbin had built and installed all of Skybase’s expansion modules.

Edited November 11, 2018 by Angel-125

[roboslacker]

Yay content!

[lunardog15]

looks good so far

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter Seven: Pipelines

“Take good care of Skybase, Lemely,” Kelbin said, shaking hands with the new station commander.

“Don’t worry, Kelbin! She’s in good hands,” Lemely said, beaming. “You know, I’ve never met a celebrity before, let alone three!” Kelbin, Samalla, and Munvan were famous for discovering the crashed saucer in the Arctic Circle.

“We just uh, got lucky,” Kelbin said awkwardly.

“I bet! But hey, you guys did a great job with Skybase. You know they cancelled the shuttle program because of how well you guys did!”

Kelbin winced. There goes an opportunity, he thought to himself. “Ah, I didn’t know that...”

“Oh yeah! Walt is making the announcement today. We’ll be receiving raw material shipments via expendable rockets- which themselves will be recycled- and we’ll build whatever we need. Eventually Minmus Flats will ship us the raw materials instead, which should make the environmentalists happy. So instead of being launched from the ground, we get to build Nautilus!”

“Congratulations,” Kelbin said flatly, still reeling from the news. “I’m sure that’ll be fun to fly around.”

“Thanks! We’re just the dock crew though. Somebody else gets to take her out on her shakedown cruise. Gene said that from this point on, Skybase will be continually occupied.”

“Ah.”

With that, Team Kelbin boarded Flapjack 1 for the trip home and undocked from Skybase. The rocket saucer performed flawlessly.

After lowering its orbit to 100km, a well-timed deorbit burn put the saucer on course for a landing at KSC. Kelbin had no trouble at all lining up with the runway and making a perfect landing.

He taxied the spacecraft over to its parking spot, where ground crews immediately began servicing procedures.

Kelbin was unsteady on his feet after half a year in space, and he nearly toppled over from surprise when two figures stepped out of the Astro Van.

“Gene? Wernher? What are you two doing here,” Kelbin asked.

“Wernher’s here to interrogate- er, interview you guys about the Flapjack’s performance,” Gene answered. “And I don’t get out on the flight line much these days, so I gave the drivers the day off. We need to debrief you about the Munbase imediately- and your Skybase mission too, of course. Hop into the van. We’ve got to clear you through Medical and then debrief right away.”

“We gave our reports during quarantine,” Kelbin pointed out.

“I know, Major, but we need to hear it from you guys again. Plus, there’s been some new developments.”

Kelbin sighed. He almost blurted out how much he despised meetings.

***

“Naturally we get these plans after we moved here,” Captain James lamented, studying the blueprints. He set them aside and watched as Minmus Station’s new tank farm and drydock lifted off the pad.

Minutes later, it achieved orbit, and within an hour, it took its place at the station.

After the evening meal and launch party, Captain James gathered the team to brief them on the next project.

“Alright, team, we finally have a Pipeline to build. Only thing is, we get to test the concept. We need to build two of these, one here and one at the Blutonium Mining Outpost, which we’ll have to expand to support the Pipeline. And we need to build the orbital Pipeline for Minmus Station. Once that’s done, we’re heading home.”

“No pressure,” Marnica quipped. Captain James’ attitude was starting to rub off on her.

“That explains why KSC wanted us to get our konkrete processors worked out,” Stelissa noted.

“Right,” Captain James continued. “Our mission has been extended another 45 days to complete the refinery, expand the mining outpost, and stand up Minmus Station’s orbital shipyard. Lizchel and Dicie, can you two finish up your research by then?”

“We should be able to,” Dicie spoke up. “Valentina and her team left us with a lot of data on Minmus, but we should be done by then.”

“Good,” Captain James said, nodding. “Let’s get to work.”

***

“Try it now, Jim,” Jane said. Captain James tapped in the launch request into the trajectory computer, then hit the go button.

“Same error,” he said, frustrated. “We have a NO-GO on the liquid fuel and oxidizer, and we just don’t have enough power to launch the ROC.”

“I think we need to rig up some larger capacitors then,” the engineer replied.

“Which means heading back to the Refinery to print them,” Captain James grumbled. He sighed. “Well, we’ve made four trips out here and back, what’s one more among friends?”

After completing their closeout procedures, Captain James and Jane hopped back into the Munbus for yet another trip to the Lesser Flats Refinery and back. They’d spent the last several days expanding the Blutonium Mining Outpost to support its new Pipeline mass driver, and it had taken several trips to haul the necessary components, equipment, and konkrete to the site. A few hours later, they returned, this time with additional Chuckwagons to increase their rocket fuel storage and electrical capacity.

The Pipeline mass driver both simplified and complicated delivery of goods and resources between bases on the ground and between stations in orbit. It simplified things by launching Rocket-assisted Object Canisters (ROCs)- automated delivery vehicles- between sites. The delivery system removed the need for more traditional tanker or freighter flights. But it also complicated things as well; setting up a Pipeline was no small feat, and it required copious amounts of power along with a modest amount of propellant and trajectory data.

Jane quickly got to work installing the new Chuckwagons and configuring them while Captain James went back into the mining facility to prepare the Pipeline.

“All done here, Jim,” Jane said over the wireless. “You can launch as soon as the batteries charge up. Are you gonna fire the blutonium?”

“Um, how about no,” Captain James responded. “Definitely not for our first attempt. I’m thinking just some ore.” He programmed the trajectory computer once again, this time selecting some ore. He hit the go button. “All systems go,” he said triumphantly. He watched the status display.

Outside, the mass driver aligned with its target. A few seconds later, the trajectory computer had a firing solution. It pulled the ROC from the loading bay and chambered the round. The base shook as the payload canister shot down the mass driver coils and rocketed towards its destination. A few minutes later, Marnica confirmed safe arrival of the canister. Their mass driver caught the round.

“It worked! It almost never goes well on the first try,” Captain James said, patting the trajectory computer.

***

A day later, Team James boarded the last operational Brumby- built before the Flapjack and Munbus took over its role- and launched towards Minmus Station.

They arrived a little under an hour after they launched and immediately began setting up the shipyard.

The skydock and centrifuge deployed without incident. The crew celebrated by enjoying the view outside the centrifuge windows. Captain James discreetly kept his eyes away from the window- the spinning made him dizzy.

Mission Control congratulated MEX-2 for completing Phase Two of their mission. “And from this point onward,” Gene said over the wireless, “Minmus Station and the Lesser Flats Refinery will be continuously staffed. Well done, MEX-2! You are go for Phase Three. Now let’s finish strong. Complete the expansion while we prep MEX-3 to relieve you.”

To do their job, Minmus Station needed additional resources that they planned to receive via the station’s orbital Pipeline. That required more power. But when it became clear that the solar array truss they planned to add didn’t have enough room to fully pivot, MEX-2 decided to go nuclear. As a result, the Blutonium Mining Outpost shot a few payloads of blutonium over to the Refinery for processing, and Team Marnica got to work on a pair of new modules for the station.

Several days later, the Power Tower launched into orbit and docked with Minmus Station. After hooking up all the power connections, Jane activated the nuclear reactors.

The station’s new workshop followed next, but not without incident. The tank farm suffered an over-pressurization failure and exploded.

Fortunately, nobody got hurt. Despite the accident, their Pipeline was operational. Resource payloads began to flow soon after.

***

“So, like, the SEP was totally wiped and turned off,” Munvan concluded. “No way Bob forgot to turn it on.”

“Bob said the same when I spoke to him right after their mid-course correction,” Gene agreed. “The instruments are working. We’ve been getting telemetry updates as the various experiments complete their analysis.”

“Why would they do that,” Linus Kerman, Wernher’s former intern turned assistant asked.

“To cover their tracks,” Kelbin said simply.

“Who though,” Linus pressed.

“The aliens, of course,”

Samalla blurted out.

“We don’t know that, Samalla,” Gene pointed out. “There’s no evidence that they’re still around and plenty suggesting they’re long gone.”

“Maybe not here on Kerbin...”

“Show me evidence and I’ll believe it,” Gene challenged. Samalla said nothing. “Wernher, could the vonKermans abduct our people and property, and make it look like aliens?”

“Yes and no,” Wernher answered, his thick accent making him hard to understand at times. “We know they conducted atomic tests- the flashes of light that Kelbin reported- und ‘covered it up’ as you say. But my source says that the vonKerman Republic is focused on a replacement for their ‘Hause’ space station, returning the Abenteurer from Eve and ensuring that Das Wanderer reaches Duna. So they could enact such deception, but they lack the resources to do so.”

“I see,” Gene responded. “We’ll have to keep digging then. In the meantime, Major, do you remember the atomic space probe that you found during the Elcano Project?”

“The vonKerman one? Yes.”

“Well, a follow-up team found this buried in the snow.” He produced two photos from an envelope and showed it to Team Kelbin. One depicted a broken golden disc. Another was a plaque with lines converging on a single point that was set below two circles joined by a single line. Below the lines were a series of worlds, with a line indicating where the probe came from. To the right of the lines was a simple drawing of the space probe, and two figures standing upright, one of which held up a hand.

“The aliens made the probe? This is what they look like? That’s amazing,” Samalla said, astonished. “But why aren’t they wearing any clothing?”

“We think their homeworld is quite warm,” Linus answered, “so they have no need for clothing to keep them warm. Another theory is that their technology is so advanced, they don’t need clothing.”

“I guess they don’t worry about being modest,” Samalla chuckled.

“What’s this have to do with us,” Kelbin asked, trying to steer the conversation back to the topic at hand. Gene handed them another photograph, this one of the back of the plaque. It had writings of some kind.

“Some of the symbols match those at the pyramid of Tut-Un Jeb-Ahn,” Gene said.

“The Gateway to Thel,” Wernher added.

“Exactly,” Gene continued. “We’re assembling an expedition to investigate the pyramid more thoroughly than you could during the Kerbin Elcano Exploration Project, and we need all the experts that we can get…”

“Oh, so you want my team to lead the expedition,” Kelbin interrupted and nodded.

Gene cleared his throat. “Not exactly, Major. I hate to say this but I have to break up your team.”

[roboslacker]

So the Pioneer ended up on Kerbin. Reminds me of Veeger.

[Railgunner2160]

Hmm, what mod are you using for the Mass Drivers? Also very good read so far.

[Angelo Kerman]

33 minutes ago, Railgunner2160 said:

Hmm, what mod are you using for the Mass Drivers? Also very good read so far.

That would be the Pipeline mass driver from Pathfinder.

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter Eight: Dopplegangers

With Munvan and Samalla training for their now classified expedition, Kelbin was assigned to ferry the MEX-3 crew from the KSC to Minmus. On paper it was a plumb assignment: take the new A-51C, known as Flapjack 3, on its first operational flight to Skybase, board DSEV-03 for her shakedown cruise to bring MEX-3 to Minmus, and then come back home with MEX-2. Kelbin should’ve been happy to fly two different spacecraft on a single mission- a first for KSP. He wasn’t. And even with six other astronauts aboard the modified Flapjack, Kelbin felt alone.

The Air Force pilot watched as the fuel reserved dropped critically low. Flapjack 3 had the unique ability to deliver up to 11 astronauts at a time into Low Kerbin Orbit, but to do that it sacrificed the forward fuel tanks in favor of crew cabins. As a result, extra fuel had to be carried in external drop tanks. But while KSC engineers thought they allotted enough fuel, Kelbin fought for enough altitude and delta-v to achieve orbit. In the end, Flapjack 3 fell 50 meters per second shy of reaching orbit, but Kelbin compensated by burning the RCS jets. The rocket saucer settled into a 100km by 97km orbit and out of fuel.

“And tell Wernher that pilots need to be informed of all last-minute changes before missions,” Kelbin quipped at Mission Control while he awaited Skybase’s atomic tug. “This issue should’ve been sorted out before sending so many on a mission. We could’ve had to make an emergency landing, sprung a leak, or worse!”

“Actually, Linus is in charge of the A-51C project,” Bobak said in his trademark calm voice. “Wernher has been training for a special assignment. So has Gene for that matter…”

“Well tell Linus that we need bigger drop tanks,” Kelbin said, agitated. “We also need to audit the design reviews and preflight briefings so that this never happens again!” He took a deep breath. He saw the tug approaching. “I gotta go. Talk to you later, Flight.” He switched off the wireless in disgust, then activated the remote docking system for the tug. Seconds later, the two craft joined together.

With an hour and a half, Flapjack 3 arrived safely at Skybase.

After the preflight briefing by the station crew, Kelbin took command of the brand-new Deep Space Exploration Vessel. Again, he felt alone, even with six other astronauts aboard the Nautilus- the largest crew to date. It made commanding the new ship bittersweet. Forty-five minutes later, DSEV-03 was on its way to Minmus.

 

***

Eight days after she left Low Kerbin Orbit and half her fuel gone, the Nautilus docked with Minmus Station. For the first time in the mission, Kelbin didn’t miss his teammates. The view of the Mint Mun was simply breathtaking.

After completing his post-docking checklist and shakedown report, Kelbin sat in on the handoff meeting between MEX-2 and MEX-3.

“It will take us a couple of days or so to provision your ship, Captain,” Captain James said. Kelbin blinked. He was a Major. It took a few moments for Kelbin to remember that Navy tradition demanded that the commander of a vessel be called “captain” regardless of rank. “Why don’t you take Munbus 4 and fly Team Catlas down to the refinery, then bring Marnica and her team back up? You could look around while you’re down there…”

“Um, I’m qualified to fly the Munbus,” Catlas interjected. James gave her a dirty look. “I uh, could use the extra time to familiarize myself with the base before taking command…”

“Exactly,” James said, smiling. “The Nautilus isn’t going anywhere, and we have to finish her provisioning, so you might as well see the sights. If you ask nicely, Marnica can guide you to the monolith down there or to one of the other anomalies before heading back…”

Both Kelbin and Captain James encountered numerous monoliths on Kerbin during Kerbin Elcano Exploration Project, and they determined that they marked mining spots for graviolium. But finding monoliths on Minmus was definitely a surprise. It also made sense since the ancient aliens had flying saucers, and they needed graviolium wherever they could get it.

Kelbin watched the station rotate in the window- actually, he was rotating in the centrifuge- and marveled at the new technology. His mind drifted, feeling the spin-induced gravity. The Protector-class wouldn’t get a centrifuge, but its successor would.

 

“Kelbin,” Captain James prompted. “You with me?”

Then his mind snapped back to the present. He remembered where he’d felt spingravity before- at Eve.

 

“Huh? Yeah... Right. Checking out an anomaly would be a nice trek,” Kelbin said finally.

“Great,” Captain James said. “I’ll make the arrangements.”

***

“Munbus 4 you are cleared for landing on Pad 1,” Marnica called out on the wireless. Kelbin made a few course corrections with the RCS to line up with the pad. A few seconds later, the craft touched down effortlessly, then taxied off to the parking area. Team Catlas exited the craft with Kelbin, who took a moment to plant a flag.

 

“Say, I think you’ve just started a new tradition,” Catlas said approvingly.

The Refinery launched several ROCs towards Minmus Station- nobody called it Minmus Orbital Shipyard, it’s new official name- while Marnica passed command over to Catlas. Officially relieved of duty, Team Marnica was free to take a detour with Kelbin over to an unexplored anomaly- Kelbin saw no reason to visit yet another monolith. After taking on extra fuel and making a suborbital hop, they found their quarry despite the dimming light. Naturally, it was yet another monolith.

 

“It’s, um, it’s green,” Kelbin said as they touched down next to the monolith. “Valentina didn’t find this one?”

“No,” Dicie responded, “they were busy investigating the poles but ran low on resources and had to return to base. They knew about the anomaly but skipped it. And in all the effort to establish a permanent settlement, we kind of forgot about it too.”

“Let’s check it out,” Kelbin sighed and said. At least it was green. Nearly all the other ones on Kerbin were jet black.

Dicie ran a quick gravity scan but didn’t find any telltale signs of graviolium in the area. Still, some data about the local gravity conditions was better than nothing.

The explorers filed out of the airlock for a closer look at the green monolith. Spectrometer readings suggested that it was mostly made of granite rock. A close look at its surface showed it to be polished and untouched by weather- not that Minmus had any weather… “Is it radioactive,” Kelbin asked.

Dicie checked her readouts. “Definitely, though nowhere near as much as the monoliths on Kerbin. We’re safe, we can be out here all day.”

Kelbin walked over to the green granite monolith and reached out his hand. “I wonder if it’s warm to the tou-“ He shut his eyes tight and froze.

***

His head buzzed with an electrical shock that danced on the ragged edge of pain. It abruptly stopped a few moments later. The deafening silence startled him. Then noises returned. His suit’s air circulators sounded different. Kelbin opened his eyes and then looked around, his hands dropping to his sides. Eve. He was back on Eve…

 

“Well, is it cold?”

Kelbin didn’t know the kerbal who spoke, but he was wearing a green camouflaged space suit. It stood out in the purple environment. “Uh, yeah,” Kelbin said finally. He touched the monolith again. Nothing happened. But it was definitely cold despite the runaway greenhouse heat. “Yeah, it’s cold to the touch.”

“Huh,” the kerbal said. “Lodory, what’s your take?”

“Lodory,” the kerbal in a gray-striped suit, looked at the monolith and shrugged. “You’re the scientist,” he said simply.

Kelbin heard the camouflaged kerbal sigh. “Well, there’s no radiation to speak of, the rover’s gravioli sensors aren’t detecting anything unusual, and the atmosphere appears to be normal too- at least 'normal' for Eve. Whatever this thing is, it doesn’t look like it’s made like any of the pyramids here.”

“It’s odd that the monolith has no radioactivity like the ones on Kerbin do,” Kelbin said.

“Er, what ‘monoliths’ on Kerbin,” the scientist in camouflage asked.

“You know, like the one at KSC,” Kelbin pointed out.

Lodory looked to the other kerbal, who shrugged. “Have you been snacking in the greenhouse again? There’s no ‘monolith’ at the space center or anywhere else on Kerbin,” Lodory said. “Macfreid, you want to check his air?”

The camouflaged one apparently called Macfreid looked at a display on his arm. Then he checked Kelbin’s suit readout. Then he shrugged. “Kelbin’s air is fine,” he responded. “If this is another one of your stories…”

Kelbin held his hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay! I don’t know what I’m talking about. Forget it, okay? Let’s keep looking around.” His companions weren’t amused but they said nothing.

The astronaut trio climbed into their rover- it wasn’t around the first time he was “on” Eve- and drove around the pyramid complex. Kelbin had to hold his tongue; the larger pyramid, shaped like the mining facility out in the Great Desert, wasn’t there before either, but everyone acted like it had been there all along. Was this an alternate S.A.V.E. but one slightly different than his last vision? Was it an elaborate hallucination? Or was it just another lucid dream? The Air Force Major couldn’t tell. All he knew was that exploring Eve was as vivid and real as exploring Minmus, and there weren’t any continuity jumps like dreams had.

As they made their way around the pyramids, they took numerous pictures. Several wall sections on the pyramid of Tut-Un Jeb-Ahn had inscriptions on them- unlike the corresponding pyramid on Kerbin.

And unlike the mining pyramid in the Great Desert, its doppelganger on Eve had no visible entries- or they might just be buried, it was hard to tell.

 

After the reconnaissance, the team headed back inside the base. It was built atop a konkrete platform- definitely not like his last vision of Eve.

After cycling through the airlock and stowing their EVA gear, they headed to the main conference room to discuss their findings with Valentina. As the meeting dragged on for hours, Kelbin found himself incredibly bored and stared at the equation-filled monitors as Valentina droned on…

 

***

 

The buzzing shock returned with a vengeance and faded just as fast. He lifted his hand from the surface and immediately felt dizzy. He closed his eyes momentarily and shook his head.

“Kelbin, you ok,” someone asked. His hand was gloved, and he felt cold seeping into his suit, only to be battled back by the suit’s heaters. He recognized the voice. It was Marnica. He was back on Minmus.

Kelbin looked around, confused, then regained his bearings. He checked his chronometer. I was away for hours, he thought to himself. How could only seconds have passed?

“I’m… fine,” he finally replied, stumbling over his words as his brain woke up his speech centers again. “I- wow, uh, Marnica, can you get us to Minmus Station?”

“Of course, why?”

“I’ve- I’m- I’m… I’ve got some… ideas… that I need to write down before I lose them.”

 

Edited February 10, 2019 by Angel-125

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter Nine: Landfall

“I saw a vision of myself on Eve,” Kelbin stated. On the monitor, Munvan blinked but said nothing. Kelbin looked out the porthole at the Nautilus- his ship, at least temporarily. Here goes, he thought to himself. He looked back at the image of his perplexed friend. “Remember the meditations you taught me, to travel to other SAVEs? Well, I immediately fell into a meditative trance when I touched the monolith. I- or alternate I- was exploring a pyramid on Eve…”

“Dude, seriously, I was just messing with you about that,” Munvan interrupted. “Let it go, dude it was a joke.”

“Are you sure? Because it worked, Munvan,” Kelbin retored. “It was real. As real as I’m talking to you now. And it’s not the first time. The last time I had a vision, I was entering Eve’s atmosphere in a modified airship. The time before that, I was flying a shuttle mission to a space station. It was real!”

Munvan gave Kelbin an incredulous look. “Uh huh,” he said simply. “It’s a faaaake,” Munvan hissed, quoting an old sci-fi entertainment video. Kelbin gave him is best “are you serious” look, then snorted, recognizing his friend’s sense of humor. The two shared a laugh before getting serious again.

“Look, I know what you’re thinking,” Kelbin continued, “but it was as real and as vivid as it is for me now talking with you, and I’m not crazy. The Flight Surgeon cleared me for this mission, after all.”

“Ok, like, something is going on,” Munvan conceded. “So, like, what happened on Eve?”

Kelbin gave Munvan a quick recap of his latest vision. “Anyway,” he summed up, “when I got back to the Munbus, I wrote furiously on my tablet. It’s almost all just a bunch of math symbols that Dicie and Stelissa understood as gizmos for some type of experimental science. Linus and his team are deciphering it now.”

“Almost?”

“Yeah,” Kelbin said. “One sec.” He flipped through the images until he found the one he was interested in. He held up his tablet.

“I’m no scientist but this drawing is one of several that are clearly not math symbols,” he said, holding the tablet up to the camera. “It’s nothing like any of the symbols we’ve seen in the pyramids we explored.”

Munvan looked surprised. Very surprised. Then his look became serious. “Kelbin, send me everything you wrote down. I want all the details, even whatever you remember from your past visions.”

“Uh… okay...” Kebin responded, started by Munvan’s abrupt attitude adjustment. “You got it. Why?” Munvan said nothing. “Is this related to your pyramid expedition?”

Munvan looked like he was about to say something but he stopped himself.

“What aren’t you telling me,” Kelbin asked.

“Just send me what you wrote.”

***

“Nautilus, you are free to undock and maneuver. Have a good flight and get home safely. Minmus Orbital Control out,” Ribbles said over the wireless.

“Crew, this is the captain,” Kelbin said over the ship’s intercom, “standby to undock in 3… 2… 1…” He hit the undock button, and moments later, the Nautilus was free from its perch. A brief pulse of the maneuvering thrusters pushed DSEV-03 away from the station.

Kelbin waited for the Minmus Station to recede a safe distance before performing his next maneuver. With the last Brumby Lander docked to its nose, Nautilus lit its main engine, sending it falling back towards Kerbin. Orbital mechanics dictated that they’d arrive 15 days later. It was plenty of time for Captain James to argue with KSC to let him land the Brumby. Unsuccessfully. Like it or not, technology advanced so quickly that his state-of-the-art capsule was already obsolete in the slightly more than half year that he and his team were away.

Instead landing it like a steely-eyed missile-kerb, Captain James watched disappointedly as the Nautilus adjusted its trajectory and unceremoniously dumped the Brumby on a suborbital track before raising its own periapsis to something more survivable.

Days later, the Nautilus arrived in low Kerbin orbit, lined up with Skybase, and docked with the station with little fanfare. Kelbin then ferried the MEX-2 crew back to KSC after ensuring that the rocket saucer had plenty of fuel for the trip to the space center.

During the mission debriefing, Bobak let slip that Linus’ design team made an unexpected breakthrough in propulsion that meant that Nautilus, with her newly obsolete engine, was now demoted to being a fancy taxi for to trips to the Mun and Minmus while the last of her class, Discovery, would be the only other of her type to go interplanetary. With the successor to the Protector class on the way, it was unlikely that the Nautilus would ever receive a refit.

“So much for Nautilus being a deep space exploration vessel…” Kelbin quipped. “Just one trip and she’s already obsolete.”

“Welcome to rapid progress,” Bobak answered back. “Just imagine what we could do if we crack open that flying saucer that you guys found. We could go to the stars!”

“That’s if the World Court ever lets us inside,” Kelbin pointed out.

“True.” Bobak changed the subject. “While you’re here, I might as well tell you guys now what’s up next,” he began. “After you get some recovery time, and MOS- er, Minmus Orbital Shipyard- finishes building and provisioning Discovery, Team James will take the new ship on a shakedown cruise out of Kerbin’s SOI. Your mission will be to rendezvous with an asteroid and attempt to redirect it.”

“Does this have anything to do with the Sentinel telescope finally becoming online?”

“Indeed, Jim,” Bobak replied, “with tensions between us and the vonKermans getting worse, the President is concerned that an asteroid strike might spark the Next War. The Sentinel will help us find them. With that done, our next job is to watch the skies and learn how to make sure nothing hits us.” An asteroid strike packs a mighty punch if dropped from orbit. Nobody pointed out that if an asteroid can be deflected away from Kerbin, it could be directed towards it as well. Bobak continued his briefing.

“Marnica, you and your crew are headed to the Mun. We’re rebuilding Munbase Enterprise. Your experience at Minmus will definitely help us reconstruct the base.”

Marnica nodded silently, not wanting to show her nervousness. Astronauts aren’t supposed to be superstitious, but when an entire base vanishes without a trace, it’s hard not to get spooked about putting another base on the same spot.

Bobak looked at Kelbin, who waited for the Flight Director to say something. There was an awkward pause. Bobak smiled politely. “Don’t worry, Kelbin,” he said finally, “We’ll find something for you to do.”

***

Several missions reached their destinations within a few weeks of each other. First, the Abenteurer trekked across interplanetary space, reached Kerbin’s sphere of influence, and entered orbit.

Hause 1’s space taxi then brought Abenteurer’s awakening crew to the space station, where their Alder spacecraft awaited. Both Lagatha and Hanse made pinpoint landings near the Kosmodrome, where the vonKerman Republic’s explorers received a hero’s welcome. Media outlets universally hailed them as the first kerbals to return from another planet.

And after exceeding its design life by a wide margin, the Abenteurer was de-orbited for a Viking burial at sea.

Next, with its mission long completed, the Kerman Air Force finally decided the fate of Dolores Air Force Station. A surplus Titan Tanker met with the abandoned polar orbiting space station and dumped it into the Eastern Sea. The Air Force wouldn’t comment on what, if anything, would replace the station.

Finally, after months of coasting through interplanetary space, the Duna One Expedition Fleet arrived at the Rusty Planet. The Protector arrived first, beating their vonKerman rivals by a wide margin. But there was a problem.

“On our current trajectory,” Bob continued, showing the computer projections, “a capture burn will put us a little over 34,000 kilometers above Duna in a retrograde orbit, and cost us just over 1,400 meters per second of delta-v. For about 70 meters per second more, we can swing by Ike-pretty closely- and end up in an elliptical orbit with an apoapsis of 15,888 kilometers. Either way, we don’t have the velocity in Protector’s tanks- just 1,074 meters per second at present. I spoke with Bill, using all the fuel in the lander, we can get up to 1,371 meters per second. If we can’t get more delta-v, we’ll shoot past Duna and into solar orbit.”

Valentina frowned. This was not sounding good. “So we have to lighten the load,” she concluded. Bob nodded. “How bad,” Valentina dared to ask.

Bill spoke next. “Not bad, but not great either. We can’t dump the snacks of course, but if we dump the extra research kits- sorry Bob and Payin- and use all the lander fuel, we can get just enough to circularize our orbit. After that, we won’t be going anywhere. If we’re lucky and the Duna Tanker makes a retrograde orbit, we can refuel, make landfall, and set up ISRU operations. If not, we’ll have to tap into the Tanker’s contingency fuel, to reach us, which means even less for our maneuvering.  We won’t know our luck until it arrives in another 29 days.”

“What about the rest of the fleet,” Jeb asked.

Bobus spoke up. “The Drill Truck is in worse shape velocity-wise, but if we jettison its building equipment we can get more. The Recon Orbiters have plenty of fuel, the Bulldozer might make it if we can send it straight in, and with only 881 m-sec in the tanks, we’ll probably lose the Duna Flyer to interplanetary space if it ends up on a bad trajectory.”

“Mulch,” is all Jeb would say.

“The Tanker’s fuel was supposed to help us get home in an emergency,” Valentina stated, “how much life support do we have?”

“1 year, 3 months, 18 days,” Bob replied, “more if we can scavenge the reserves from the rest of the fleet.”

“Not enough to wait out the transfer window and get home. So if we do nothing, we shoot into interplanetary space and die, if we circularize and the tanker can’t reach us, we’re stuck and we die. If we Slingshot around Ike, we end up in an elliptical orbit and probably die when the tanker can’t reach us. I wonder how the vonKermans are going to handle this situation?”

They knew that “Kerbin Galactic” sent two spacecraft chasing after the Duna One Fleet. They also knew that they’d had this conversation many times before. “We’ll find out in 47 days,” Bob said simply.

“Alright,” Valentina said, “we dump the spare research kits, transfer the lander fuel, and circularize our orbit, then wait for the Tanker to arrive. I hate the idea of being stranded, but this is our best chance of survival.”

A day later, the Protector burned all of its remaining fuel and half of its monopropellant to circularize its orbit. The crew celebrated their achievement- they were the first kerbals in history to orbit the Rusty Planet! Whatever happened next, nobody could take that achievement away. But elation quickly turned to anxiety as the crew awaited their fate.

[roboslacker]

How did the DV budget mess up that much?

[Alchemist]

2 hours ago, roboslacker said:

How did the DV budget mess up that much?

I suspect a suboptimal ejection angle (which is easy to mess up with too low TWR), probably coupled with attempt to get arrival earlier (which can increase capture cost quite a bit).

Besides, aiming for low periapsis straight from interplanetary transfer and capturing at the said periapsis is always much cheaper (although, circularization into low orbit might be quite expensive, especially if you don't need to bring everything down there). Yeah, even if intending to put the main ship in high orbit I'd still aim for low pass, capture at Pe into elliptic orbit and then circularize at Ap.

[Angelo Kerman]

4 hours ago, roboslacker said:

How did the DV budget mess up that much?

 

2 hours ago, Alchemist said:

I suspect a suboptimal ejection angle (which is easy to mess up with too low TWR), probably coupled with attempt to get arrival earlier (which can increase capture cost quite a bit).

Besides, aiming for low periapsis straight from interplanetary transfer and capturing at the said periapsis is always much cheaper (although, circularization into low orbit might be quite expensive, especially if you don't need to bring everything down there). Yeah, even if intending to put the main ship in high orbit I'd still aim for low pass, capture at Pe into elliptic orbit and then circularize at Ap.

That's the thing. I thought I had it set up right but when it came time to do the burn, it seems that I miscalculated. I think it has something to do with loading and reloading the save, but I'm not sure. I'm pretty bad at interplanetary transfers, and next play through I want to try using Transfer Window Planner..

Anyway, I'll have to wait and see what happens once the rest of the fleet arrives. I'm glad I sent a tanker along too!

[Alchemist]

1 hour ago, Angel-125 said:

I'm pretty bad at interplanetary transfers, and next play through I want to try using Transfer Window Planner..

Don't worry, once you set the ISRU for spice mining you'll be able to afford proper navigators

...oops, wrong Dune

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter Ten: Counter Moves

At the Round Range launch pad, the Kerman States Air Force launched a new rocket into space. It was one of many Air Force flights that recently launched from the facility according to nearby vonKerman spies. VKR’s newly established Missile Command tracked the new satellite as it orbited Kerbin and then headed for the Mun. Curious, the vonKermans rerouted a satellite network originally intended to orbit Kerbin to watch where all the flights were going.

Officially listed as communications relay satellites, they took up polar and equatorial orbits around the Mun and then waited.

A few weeks later, one of their spy satellites caught a glimpse of something on a suborbital trajectory near the Mun’s south pole. The vonKermans wondered where it was going. Was there an anomaly there? If so, why was the KSAF flying to it instead of the Kerman States’s Kerbal Space Program?

They checked the published reports on anomalies on the Mun, and the KSC Munar Survey Rovers never went near the area. And the acquired SCANSat data didn’t reveal anything either. Could it be that the Kermans were building an atomic missile base on the Mun? There were talks of building such a base for the vonKerman Republic for a similar purpose. Maybe the Kerman States discovered their discussions and decided to build one of their own before they did?

The vonKerman Premier decided that the only reason for the KSAF to fly to the Mun was for military purposes. That had to be it. And they had to be countered. He gave an order to Kerbin Galactic. They began to plan, and build, and launch…

***

“Flight 292, you are cleared for takeoff on Runway 090,” KSC Tower called out over the wireless.

“Acknowledged,” Kelbin responded. His job was to fly over to Donna Katalina Island, pick up two Very Important Passengers, and bring them back to KSC. They let him have his pick of airplanes for the trip and he knew exactly which one he wanted. If he was going to be a taxi driver, Kelbin decided, then he might as well have some fun.

He gripped the controls of the aircraft. They were laid out much like those on the Buffalo tilt rotors that he flew off the deck of the KSNS Akron just over two years ago. He throttled up and the engines responded with a high-pitched whine. Kelbin pulled back on the collective. The aircraft flew straight up.

The aircraft that Kelbin flew was used to validate the concept of winged flying saucers. Test pilots flew it around and evaluated its various handling characteristics. After the initial testing, it was modified to include a VTOL jump jet at the request of the Air Force. Once that testing concluded, it seemed destined for the scrap heap until today.

Kelbin carefully transitioned from vertical to forward flight, losing only a few meters of altitude in the process. After clearing the runway, he angled the craft towards Donna Katalina.

A few minutes later, he approached the island and prepared to land. That was when he saw the old airship.

The sight reminded him of his first trip to the island airfield aboard a tilt rotor, and how Captain James had him land it vertically on the airship, something he’d never done before. That had been several tense moments as he wrangled the tilt rotor onto the deck. Nowadays he was a pro at it. Kelbin didn’t land on the airship today though, the Akron was now a museum ship. Instead he set the jet saucer down on the dirt runway and taxied over to the old hangars.

Kelbin climbed out and looked up to see the small crowd of tourists that gathered to gawk at the jet saucer.

He recognized one of them immediately. “Hey Gregorio, long time no see!”

“Kelbin! Good to see you too,” the kerbal shouted. Several tourists immediately began taking pictures of the Air Force pilot. They knew that Kelbin was one of the astronauts who flew the Akron and discovered the arctic saucer. At least that’s what the signs said. “I go by Giorgio now, I can’t convince the media types to use my middle name.”

He has a middle name? Huh, Kelbin thought to himself. “Ah. So what brings you out here, uh, Giorgio?”

“My colleague wanted to tour the Akron,” he said, pointing to a scholarly looking kerbal, “but we’re mostly just killing time until called to interview. Have you met Adsii Kerman?*”

“Can’t say I have,” Kelbin answered, shaking Adsii’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Adsii said, drawing out his vowels. “Are you here to take us to the space center?”

Kelbin checked their temporary badges. Their ID codes matched his travel orders, as did their pictures. “Yup, looks like it. Climb aboard.”

“It’s fitting that the world’s leading expert on ancient aliens gets to travel to the space center in a flying saucer,” Adsii chimed while grabbing the ladder. “But aren’t they supposed to be rocket powered? This one sounded like a jet airplane.”

“The A-51 Flapjack is rocket powered,” Kelbin replied, “but the T-51 training saucer is jet powered just like this one. This is the X-51, their predecessor.”

Adsii blinked, and nodded politely. “I see,” he said, “My specialty is astronomy, not engineering, so I’ll take your word for it.”

“Don’t be modest, professor,” Giorgio chided, “When he’s not busy teaching world civilization, paleoanthropology, geopolitics and history, Adsii spends his free time making stars and planets,” he said to Kelbin.

“Discovering stars and planets, thank you,” Adsii said, feigning his annoyance. He smirked and disappeared through the saucer’s top hatch. “Wow,” they heard faintly. Giorgio and Kelbin followed him.

The crowd stepped back as the saucer’s engines screamed to life and taxied back to the runway. They were airborne and headed back to the KSC moments later.

“So, what are you two interviewing for,” Kelbin couldn’t help but ask.

“Top secret conspiracy theory type stuff,” Giorgio answered. Kelbin didn’t take the bait. “I have a theory that the ancient astronauts- the Annunaki, I think they called themselves- visited nearby star systems, picking up whatever they needed, before heading here. They might have even moved on after visiting us.”

“Like Valentine’s Star,” Kelbin asked.

“The one that Valentina is named after? No,” Giorgio said. “Well, maybe. Adsii has been helping me find likely candidates based on ancient texts. Anyway, the KSC scientists are interested in talking to us about our research.”

“I think they’re just doing research for a movie,” Adsii countered. “JJ Kerman was brought to the space center earlier…”

***

One by one, each vessel took turns either aerobraking or performing capture burns around Duna. The first Recon Orbiter arrived 16 days after the Protector, woke up from its interplanetary slumber, and took up position in polar orbit. A few test scans later to stretch and warm up its sensors, it began mapping the surface.

The Buffalo Bulldozer and Duna Flyer arrived next and within an hour of each other. Both spacecraft selected an aerobraking maneuver to conserve fuel. The bulldozer ended up in an 870km retrograde orbit. The flyer wound up in a much higher orbit.

Three days later, the vonKerman Das Wanderer arrived- its tanker already quietly waiting in low Duna orbit. Neither vessel was part of the Duna One Fleet- the vonKermans wanted simply to beat their rivals to the ground. They got their wish. Das Wanderer careened into the atmosphere to slow down but despite what the trajectory analysis said would happen, the craft dipped too low. Then it kept falling further into the atmosphere. There was no doubt about it, Das Wanderer was headed for the ground- and a sudden stop at the end.

***

“She’s coming in prograde,” Bill concluded.

“Mulch,” Valentina cursed.

“I can correct it,” Jeb declared. He programmed some maneuvers. A few minutes later, the legendary pilot had the Tanker on course to aerobrake in Duna’s atmosphere.

She’d still need to slow down and circularize, but at least she’d be going the same way as the Protector. All they could do now is wait for the tanker’s next move.

Three hours later, the second Recon Orbiter entered Duna’s SOI. A short burn at the edge of its gravity well enabled the orbiter to round the planet with an aerobrake to conserve fuel. Shortly after the orbiter’s maneuver, the Tanker blasted its way through the atmosphere, then set up a maneuver to solidify its orbit.

The Protector’s crew exhaled explosively as the tanker settled into its orbit. Yes, they were still stranded, but the Fleet was coming to their rescue.

*(named in honor of @adsii1970)