When We Left kerbin - Chapter Twenty: Epilogue

[Alchemist]

An entire base disappearing only to quietly reappear at another location - now that's the real Mun conspiracy. Fortunately for them, telescopes on the surface just don't have the kind of resolution due to atmosphere to see such things going on on the Mun (so unless somebody would use a high-aperture orbital telescope knowing where and when exactly to look - chances of somebody spotting it in action would be pretty much zero).

One thing about the saucer prototype I'm a bit concerned of - shouldn't there be some kind of backup propulsion system in case the prototype antigravity drive fails? Of course, one may argue that it's not very safe to carry chemical fuel on something spewing electric discharges in all 6 directions either, however a small fuel leak would be much less of an issue without atmosphere, but to worry about possibility of the fuel exploding on very hard landing - if you already have a nuclear reactor running, some propellant won't add to much mess to the worst-case scenario (as opposed to the possibility of preventing the crash)

[Railgunner2160]

1 hour ago, Alchemist said:

An entire base disappearing only to quietly reappear at another location - now that's the real Mun conspiracy. Fortunately for them, telescopes on the surface just don't have the kind of resolution due to atmosphere to see such things going on on the Mun (so unless somebody would use a high-aperture orbital telescope knowing where and when exactly to look - chances of somebody spotting it in action would be pretty much zero).

One thing about the saucer prototype I'm a bit concerned of - shouldn't there be some kind of backup propulsion system in case the prototype antigravity drive fails? Of course, one may argue that it's not very safe to carry chemical fuel on something spewing electric discharges in all 6 directions either, however a small fuel leak would be much less of an issue without atmosphere, but to worry about possibility of the fuel exploding on very hard landing - if you already have a nuclear reactor running, some propellant won't add to much mess to the worst-case scenario (as opposed to the possibility of preventing the crash)

Well one thing to consider is whether the added weight of Tanks/Fuel/Oxidizer/Engines outweighs the added potential of even WORSE damage from a crash. Remember they are testing the saucer prototype on the Mun. Where the gravity is much less and it looks like the saucer had a relatively low test ceiling for the hieght it was tested at off the surface. Does all the extra weight for the backup propulsion actually counteract the enhanced risk of a crash? Would it offset the extra risk of explosion compared to a low speed impact? Remember that the pilots that were lost died when the prototype gravitic drive exploded when they couldn't shut it down in time, rather than in crashes with terrain...

 

Edit: It's not the nuke powering it that's the problem, but the part that turns the electricity generated by the nuke into an anti-gravitic force...

Edited August 25, 2019 by Railgunner2160

[Angelo Kerman]

1 hour ago, Alchemist said:

An entire base disappearing only to quietly reappear at another location - now that's the real Mun conspiracy. Fortunately for them, telescopes on the surface just don't have the kind of resolution due to atmosphere to see such things going on on the Mun (so unless somebody would use a high-aperture orbital telescope knowing where and when exactly to look - chances of somebody spotting it in action would be pretty much zero).

One thing about the saucer prototype I'm a bit concerned of - shouldn't there be some kind of backup propulsion system in case the prototype antigravity drive fails? Of course, one may argue that it's not very safe to carry chemical fuel on something spewing electric discharges in all 6 directions either, however a small fuel leak would be much less of an issue without atmosphere, but to worry about possibility of the fuel exploding on very hard landing - if you already have a nuclear reactor running, some propellant won't add to much mess to the worst-case scenario (as opposed to the possibility of preventing the crash)

 

15 minutes ago, Railgunner2160 said:

Well one thing to consider is whether the added weight of Tanks/Fuel/Oxidizer/Engines outweighs the added potential of even WORSE damage from a crash. Remember they are testing the saucer prototype on the Mun. Where the gravity is much less and it looks like the saucer had a relatively low test ceiling for the hieght it was tested at off the surface. Does all the extra weight for the backup propulsion actually counteract the enhanced risk of a crash? Would it offset the extra risk of explosion compared to a low speed impact? Remember that the pilots that were lost died when the prototype gravitic drive exploded when they couldn't shut it down in time, rather than in crashes with terrain...

 

Edit: It's not the nuke powering it that's the problem, but the part that turns the electricity generated by the nuke into an anti-gravitic force...

The flying saucer at this point is like the Wright Flyer. The engineers barely understand the science and engineering behind it. And the gravitic engine is underpowered even in the Mun's lesser gravity. The more mass you add, the harder it is to make it fly. Adding backup rockets would be more mass for the gravitic engine to accommodate.

Plus, I've had many a work project where an issue cropped up from something that is obvious now, but wasn't while the thing was being designed. As Railgunner pointed out, the engine failures were from static charge buildup, something the kerbals didn't think of. Everything was running fine, then boom, dead. So in these situations, backup rockets would just make the problem worse as fuel and oxidizer combined and ignited.

[Alchemist]

On 8/26/2019 at 1:28 AM, Angel-125 said:

And the gravitic engine is underpowered even in the Mun's lesser gravity. The more mass you add, the harder it is to make it fly. Adding backup rockets would be more mass for the gravitic engine to accommodate.

True. Of course, Mun's gravity and low altitude also means that it doesn't take much propulsion for emergency landing either, to the point a good RCS system could be enough (and also work as backup in case of attitude control issues).

On 8/26/2019 at 1:28 AM, Angel-125 said:

the engine failures were from static charge buildup, something the kerbals didn't think of. Everything was running fine, then boom, dead

I agree, backup thrusters wouldn't help with that (although, crewed test of something you are pretty much checking if it blows up again or not is quite the Kerbal practice. But pretty much everybody playing KSP sometimes does that - having the revert button causes some specific habits)

On 8/26/2019 at 1:28 AM, Angel-125 said:

The engineers barely understand the science and engineering behind it

That pretty much was my point - what if it manages to lift off and not blow up, but the controllability goes haywire (because if you don't fully understand how it works, chances are it would do something unpredicted)?

Yeah, there clearly is a bit of Kerbal logic involved:
1) crashing into ground is already a progress compared to blowing up mid-air (where? On Mun??) mid-flight, we'll think about it when we get there.
2) why to bother with ensuring softer landing if most equipment is lithobrake-certified for such impact speeds? (which also has the implication of structural elements already having a few tons of extra weight spent on this sort of rigidity...)

 

On another topic: the explanation about pouring electricity into graviolium to produce gravity waves and static discharges forming as a side effect - is this a Mass Effect reference? There was pretty much the same explanation for how all such tech works

[Angelo Kerman]

28 minutes ago, Alchemist said:

True. Of course, Mun's gravity and low altitude also means that it doesn't take much propulsion for emergency landing either, to the point a good RCS system could be enough (and also work as backup in case of attitude control issues).

I agree, backup thrusters wouldn't help with that (although, crewed test of something you are pretty much checking if it blows up again or not is quite the Kerbal practice. But pretty much everybody playing KSP sometimes does that - having the revert button causes some specific habits)

That pretty much was my point - what if it manages to lift off and not blow up, but the controllability goes haywire (because if you don't fully understand how it works, chances are it would do something unpredicted)?

Yeah, there clearly is a bit of Kerbal logic involved:
1) crashing into ground is already a progress compared to blowing up mid-air (where? On Mun??) mid-flight, we'll think about it when we get there.
2) why to bother with ensuring softer landing if most equipment is lithobrake-certified for such impact speeds? (which also has the implication of structural elements already having a few tons of extra weight spent on this sort of rigidity...)

 

On another topic: the explanation about pouring electricity into graviolium to produce gravity waves and static discharges forming as a side effect - is this a Mass Effect reference? There was pretty much the same explanation for how all such tech works

You’re assuming there are enough margins for the mass of rockets. There isn’t. When the craft crashed, it was going slow enough to be recovered without too much damage (that was fixed off screen). The prototype doesn’t have much crash tolerance...

As for the static charge, yup, that is a direct reference to Mass Effect.

[Railgunner2160]

Another thing to keep in mind is that while the kerbals may not necessarily understand the science behind it all that well, They did have the saucer's user and maintenance manual. Also the control systems are all kerbal designed and built, it's the gravitic drive that they don't really understand. But like most species, that doesn't really stop them from plugging alien tech into their own control systems and getting something that "works?". I've seen my fair share of manga and anime where they can build a control system for alien tech out of their own tech, but never really quite understood alot of the alien tech until far later in their plots, The Macross for example. I'm of course referring to the TRUE Macross series, not the frankensteined Robotech.....

First time they fired up the reverse engineered anti-grav units, well the units worked as intended. But the mounts holding them into the ship didn't work quite so well, they had to use the old fashioned chemical rockets to take off. Then there was the Macross main gun and ftl drive, the gun would fire on it's own, and the ftl drive? Well it jumped the Macross alright, but it failed to transition itself back to realspace with the rest of the ship. And in the process left a great big hole in the power grid which rendered the main cannon inoperative, until they came up with the Transformation hack based on the Macross' modular design. That was the reason for it's iconic "Robot" mode, an workaround hack to get the main gun working again!!

Edited August 28, 2019 by Railgunner2160

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter Fourteen: Ups And Downs

As it had done many times before, the Nautilus began to skim Kerbin’s upper atmosphere in order to slow down from its trip to Minmus. Her pilot and spacecraft commander, Chademy Kerman, was new on the job, but his flight engineer, Derry Kerman, was and old pro. As DSEV-03 cooked its way through the atmosphere, Chademy noticed something wrong…

“Uh, Derry, where are you,” he asked.

“Portside greenhouse,” Derry answered, “why?”

“We’re getting major overheat warnings across the board,” Chademy said agitated. Nautilus’s metal groaned as if to prove Chademy’s point.

“We’re supposed to have a peri of 45,” Derry responded, “what does the readout say?”

“36.”

“Not good, Chademy, we need to be higher next go around.”

“Uh, ok, I’m going to turn us around and raise our orbit,” Chademy said with more panic in his voice. He hit the RCS and began to flip the ship around.

“No, wait,” Derry yelled. It was too late.

The ship lurched violently. Derry was thrown against the bulkhead as Nautilus turned around in the slipstream. The last thing he saw was the module hatches automatically slamming shut as the hull screamed in protest. Or was Chademy screaming? It was hard to tell. Getting knocked out had a tendency to cause confusion.

When Derry regained consciousness, he tried to hail Chademy to no avail, then performed a damage diagnostic. The ship as a whole survived its trip through the atmosphere. But it didn’t take long to determine that the battered craft’s ventral SAFER was gone along with the primary science antenna, and the command module had sheared off and exploded, taking Chademy with it.

 

With no time to grieve, Derry opened the emergency terminal and contacted Mission Control for help. They instructed the autopilot to circularize the ship’s orbit. He hoped that the fuel tanks were intact and the engine wouldn’t explode. It didn’t. A few burns later, Nautilus limped to Skybase where the station’s harbor master brought the ship to a successful albeit somber docking.

 

***

With the next target in sunlight, Valentina wrestled the Duna Flyer 2 back into the air, taking readings in the Western Canyon as it went. As it continued westward, the relay satellites went over the horizon, leaving the flyer with no remote control. It flew along for dozens of kilometers until DSEV-02 finally cleared the horizon. Relieved that their atomic powered aircraft was back under control, she made a note to build a communications relay network around Duna as soon as possible.

The Duna Flyer 2 veered left into the Northern Basin in search of its next anomaly. The BTDT sensor began pinging shortly thereafter. “There,” Payin said, pointing at the monitor, “Off to the right.”

Valentina dove the plane, extended its landing gear, and banked hard to the right. What they saw was unmistakable- a kerbal’s face carved in stone.

***

“Captain, I am receiving an EAM from Mission Control,” Jane said.

James cursed, he’d just stepped into the zero gravity shower. No vessel or base had ever received an Emergency Action Message before. Whatever was in the message had to be serious. “Route it to Starboard Habitat, he answered over the intercom. A minute later, he finished dressing and read the message:

EAM EAM EAM
AUTHENTICODE: NCC1031
TO: DSEV-04 DISCOVERY/CPT JAMES T KERMAN
FROM: KSP MC
SBJ: NEW ORDERS
CAPTAIN, YOUR MISSION IS CANCELED. YOU ARE HEARBY ORDERED TO REVERSE COURSE AND RENDEZVOUS AND DOCK WITH MINMUS ORBITAL SHIPYARD ASAP. UPON ARRIVAL YOU WILL RECEIVE NEW ORDERS.
SIGNED: BOBAK KERMAN FLT DIR KSC MC
EAM EAM EAM

“So much for the little training cruise,” James muttered, quoting an obscure science fiction movie. He tapped the ship wide intercom channel. “All hands, this is the Captain. Prepare to come about and burn for Minmus Station. We have new orders…”

***

 “That’s a face. The Face,” Bobus said astonished. “JJ Kerman wrote about it in the Duna Space Program. How did he know..?”

“That is a good question,” Valentina answered, not taking her eyes off the screen. She finished landing the aircraft and parking it next to the strange rock formation. “This was clearly meant for us. Bobus, you said JJ Kerman wrote about this?”

“Yeah,” he responded. “In the story, you- uh, fictional you- and Jeb-"

"Wait," Jeb interrupted, finally putting two and to together. "JJ Kerman got sued over using our likenesses in the Duna Space Program, right? I thought he just made Galaxy Trek."

"He did," Bobus confirmed. "He made Galaxy Trek afterwards. Anyway, fictional you and several others found The Face on Duna. You- uh, the characters flew over to it and went inside and found out that it was a control center. In the story, there was this doomsday device going on that would turn the sun into a black hole and trap the kraken forever inside its event horizon. All of kerbalkin would’ve been exterminated too.

“But there was a way to stop it. The characters traveled to another Face, this one on Dres, to trigger a counter-explosion and stop doomsday.”

“Sounds pretty elaborate,” Jeb quipped.

“Uh, yeah…” Bobus admitted.

“Did it work?”

“Mostly, Val,” Bobus continued, “the counter-devices placed out past the story’s outer planets did fire, but the kraken woke up and reset time.”

“Naturally,” Jeb snorted.

“Anyway, the story ended soon after that,” Bobus concluded. "He didn't make a sequel on account of the lawsuit..."

“Right... Ok, so we can’t just send a probe to the face,” Valentina decided. “I guess that means we need to check it out ourselves. Which means bringing the Flyer back to modify it. But to do that we need better satellite coverage… Bill, contact KSC and ask them to send us plans for a satellite constellation launcher. Once we get that built and deployed, we can bring the Flyer back without worrying about an uncontrolled atomic airplane flying around. Meanwhile, we need to expand the base to add fuel production and storage. After that…”

***

By the time that Discovery reached Minmus Station, members of the newly formed Nautilus Accident Investigation Board had already arrived. After the usual Navy traditions to greet an arriving spacecraft concluded and a quick debriefing of DSEV-04’s crew, the investigators got to work. They started by examining the exterior of the craft, paying particular note to how the atomic reactors were attached as well as noting the orbital command pod’s construction. James and his crew had their hands full answering all their questions at first, but after several days of furious activity, they had little to do now but wait.

“Full dwelling,” Jane said, laying her magnetic cards across the display screen.

James grinned. “Ah, but today is Solday,” he said, beaming. He put his five cards on the table. Jane cursed and James swiped the digital pot of Funds over to his ledger. He dealt a new set of five cards and the two players filled the pot once more. They traded cards and tried to fool each other.

“Rumor has it, Capt- uh, Jim- that Mission Control recalled us because they couldn’t find any asteroids to capture,” Jane said while organizing his cards.

“Don’t believe everything you hear, kid,” James retorted. “Unless we’re playing Five Cards and it’s a Munday. We’re here because the Discovery is a Protector-class at heart despite her modifications. The investigation needed a working ship to compare the Nautilus to, and ours was the nearest, with the class’ namesake still at Duna and all… I’m sure we’ll be out of here in a few days once they get done. In the meantime…” He put his cards on the table.

Jane cursed again. “How are you so good at this,” she asked.

“I’ve been playing Five Cards since before you were born…”

***

 

The construction arms retracted into the Rangeland construction pad, leaving the new vehicle to stand on its own.  The low Duna gravity enabled the launcher to rest on its engine bell with ease, standing ready to launch. The team went through their checklist, and Jeb took the controls.

“Erm, you eh, fly car iz bad,” Karl vonKerman said in broken Kerman. Bobus looked surprised.

“You speak Kerman? This whole time…”

“Eh, some,” Karl admitted. He pointed to the remote-control station. “Eh, bad fly car.”

“Jeb glared angrily at the vonKerman. “You people have done nothing but eat our snacks, breathe our air, and take up space,” he growled. “Seriously. Why don’t you take a long walk out a short airlock! Comm Bus Launching in three, two, one…”

The launcher lifted off. Then everything went south.

Jeb immediately noticed temperature warnings. “Uh…” Before he could ask his question, the launcher exploded. Individual communications satellites sped off in different directions while the main body became an uncontrolled missile, landing and exploding several kilometers away.

Valentina just shook her head. “And…. What did we learn,” she asked.

Jeb looked positively embarrassed. “Check your staging,” he said sheepishly. Fourteen days of work, gone in a flash.

“Well, time to build another one,” Bill said simply. He pointed the vonKermans. “Hey Karl, do you and Alzer and Ernst want to help?”

The vonKermans beamed with excitement.

***

The Nautilus Accident Investigation Board's report concluded that Chademy Kerman erroneously dipped Nautilus (DSEV-03) too far into Kerbin's atmosphere during her aerobraking return from Minmus. He then made a critical error when he tried to rotate the ship prograde to raise its periapsis. That act resulted in the spacecraft tumbling out of control in the upper atmosphere and caused excessive overheating, which resulted in numerous structural failures. Those failures resulted in the destruction of the ship’s Orbital Command Module and the death of Chademy Kerman, pilot and spacecraft commander of DSEV-03.

The investigation could find no inherent flaws in the S1 Orbital Command Pod design or its method of attachment to the rest of the vessel. The destruction of Nautilus’ command module was the result of structural forces being applied to it that were beyond its design limits rather than a manufacturing or engineering defect. As a result, the NAIB cleared Discovery (DSEV-04) for continued operations.

As soon as they got word, Discovery’s crew powered up DSEV-04 and cast off, burning for escape orbit as soon as they were able. They had a target and a short time to catch it.

The NAIB also recommended that the Protector-class Deep Space Exploration Vessel and its derivatives use propulsive captures in the future, and that aerobraking is to be used only in an emergency and limited to no more than 50km altitude.

Finally, damage assessment to DSEV-03 declared it serviceable after an extensive refit. To that end, Barfal "Barf" Kerman began refitting DSEV-03 several weeks later. She replaced the lost SAFER and its RTG auxiliary power unit and capped the central corridor with a docking port.

Lemley then clipped DSEV-03’s Space Transportation Main Engine and Barf bolted another docking port in its place. These changes gave DSEV-03 the unique ability to utilize modular construction.

Three days later, Skybase’s drydock finished assembling the new command module, and Lemley docked it to the front of Skybase. A few days after that, the Skybase crew completed Nautilus' refit and she set out for trial runs with a new crew to verify its repairs and upgrades.

***

“Ok, let’s try this again,” Valentina said. “Jeb, you’re up. And check your staging…”

Jeb was determined to not fowl up again. He was meticulous. The satellite booster launched.

At 15km altitude, it flipped upside down in the slipstream. Jeb gritted his teeth. He was not going to lose this ship.

He calmly waited for the booster to rotate more or less vertical, and then hit the engine throttle again. The booster aligned itself back on its flight path, then burned its way out of the atmosphere.

At 100km, Jeb circularized its orbit, then immediately aimed for a 1000km apoapsis. The communications network was finally on its way…

***

Several days later, Jeb couldn’t sleep. He got up, grabbed a very early breakfast, and did his usual exercise routine. Then he checked the satellite network. Then he got bored; everyone else was still asleep.

He checked the duty list for the day. Valentina was scheduled to bring the Duna Flyer back home for refit. With nothing else to do, he decided to take care of it himself. After a brief power up and systems check, the Duna Flyer 2 lifted off of the rusty desert and into the air.

Flying in the dark, he lined up the navigation indicators and trimmed the aircraft to cruise back home. Everything was going perfectly…

…Right up to the point where he remotely flew the aircraft straight into a mountain.

Valentina was not going to be happy.

***

“Are you guys sure that you don’t need me to do more test flying? I’m happy to stick around some more,” Kelbin pleaded. “

“Not for a while,” Lodory answered. “Now that we know what’s wrong and that the technology works, it’s a matter of refining it. Right now, the saucer can barely fly on the Mun. We need to improve the micro-singularity projector for higher acceleration and better mass displacement. Then we need to restore the saucer’s structural bracing, and upgrade the power distribution network to reduce static charge buildup…”

“Besides,” Parie added, “you’re wanted back on Kerbin. Something about an archeology expedition.”

“Are you heading back with me,” Kelbin asked.

“No, my tour just got extended and won’t be done for months. But Loner and Wenbles will head back with you; you were flying two tourists, after all, gotta keep up appearances. They’re due to be rotated back anyway.”

A few minutes later after suiting up and stepping outside, Kelbin took one last look at the A-51D. He wasn’t the first to fly the gravitic Flapjack, but he was definitely the first to fly it without crashing. And he had a hand in figuring out what was wrong. That was something. After the trio boarded the rocket saucer that he arrived in- still sitting on its landing legs- Kelbin performed his pre-flight checks and warmed up the craft for launch.

“Flapjack 1, you are cleared to launch and return to Kerbin via Groom Lake Air Force Station,” Parie said over the wireless. “Have a good flight.”

In the dead of munar night, Flapjack 1 lit its linear aerospike and began its trip into orbit. Kelbin wondered if he’d ever see the Saucer Works again.

Edited September 15, 2019 by Angel-125

[Dragon5]

Hey! This is really good!

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter 15: Vapor Trails

 “That doesn’t look like an asteroid,” Lizchel said, “It’s definitely a komet. That’s probably a vapor trail of water.”

“What about those… veins on its surface,” James noted. “Is that normal?”

Lizchel shook her head. “No, that’s… something else. Can we move in closer?”

James swung the Discovery around to approach the komet and tapped the thrusters. A few seconds later, he stopped the ship just shy of the vapor cloud.

 

Lizchel activated the spectrograph sensors. Sure enough, the komet’s tail was made of water vapor, traces of rock, and something else…

“What’s the verdict,” Captain James asked over the intercom, “is it safe to proceed?”

“Uh, yeah, Jim,” Lizchel responded.

“Why the hesitation?”

“We’re safe to capture the asteroid, Jim, but when we’re done, I’d like to rerun my tests to confirm a theory.”

“Ah, ok then. Jane, you’re up.”

Jane was anticipating the directive and was already in the dorsal observation cupola. She closed the hatches, depressurized the module, and stepped outside, making her way to the Kerbal Maneuvering Unit. After strapping herself into the KMU, she undocked it from its cradle and jetted over to the ship’s upper sensor palette. After a brief flight, she docked the sensor suite to the ship’s bow docking port, then went back inside.

 

“Nice job, Jane,” James said. “Solid dock on the suite. Ok crew, standby for capture.” He activated the RCS controls and closed on the strange looking komet, arming the grabber claw along the way. He called out the distance every ten meters until…

“Capture! We got it,” James said triumphantly. He took a few minutes to carefully align the Discovery along the komet’s center of mass. Finally, he was satisfied. “Ok, Lizchel,” he said, “Do your thing.”

This time, Lizchel stepped outside and hopped into the KMU. She grabbed the ventral sensor suite and undocked it. But instead of attaching it somewhere on the ship, she flew it around to the other side of the komet. She found a nice spot for the instruments and latched them onto the surface. She undocked the KMU and spun it around to check her handiwork.

“Looks good,” she said finally, “wireless receivers are active and responding.”

“Confirmed on our end,” Jane responded, “we're getting some great readings. You’re go to return to Discovery.”

 

“Copy that, I want to grab a sample first though.”

Unstrapping from the KMU, she jetted over to the komet to grab a sample. “I wonder if you’re made of what I think you are,” she said to herself. She couldn’t wait to get back inside and study it.

 

***

“Jeb, the only reason I’m letting you pilot the Duna Flyer 3 is because I’m the mission commander, and regulations won’t let me,” Valentina fumed.

“Don’t worry, Val,” Jeb said confidently, “I won’t let you down. Let the mission down, I mean…”

The Duna Flyer 3 lumbered off the Rangeland construction pad and struggled to gain takeoff speed. At 45 meters per second, he pulled back on the control stick. The plane lifted into the air. Briefly.

“What theee-“ Jeb said over the wireless. A moment later Duna Base felt it too. It was as if the whole universe decided to pause and think. Then suddenly, time returned.

“..eeee,” Jeb continued. Then the aircraft came back down, hitting the ground hard and clipping parts of its tail before bouncing back into the air.

 

“I got this, Jeb said calmly.” The Flyer reached 70 meters per second.

“No heroics, Jeb,” Valentina said. There was definite concern in her voice. “Set her down.”

“You got it,” he called back. He could see the hill up ahead. He had to land soon, but the plane was fighting him. He pulled up. It was too late.

The universe paused again. Jeb’s cockpit camera went out.

 

***

 

Several days later, Lizchel finished running all her tests. She couldn’t believe what she found. There was no mistaking it.

“It’s a typical carbonaceous asteroid,” Lizchel continued her briefing. “But we’re seeing water vapor from the interior. It isn’t significant, which suggests that this komet is nearly dead. But what’s left behind is very interesting. The komet is comprised of 28.67% Ore, so we can refuel our LFO tanks, 0.85% Hexagen, 1.96% Zeonium, 27.4% MetalOre, and…”

“You always had a flair for the dramatic,” Jane quipped.

 

“29.27% Graviolium. That’s what those glowing veins are made of. I suspect they’re glowing from cosmic ray bombardment.”

James whistled. “Looks like we have ourselves a magic boulder,” he said. “So Graviolium comes from asteroids? Wow. We’re definitely bringing this one home. Ok, let’s finish up, pull the safety locks on our Explodium fuel and burn for Kerbin.”

***

 

“Again,” Bobak’s transmission repeated, “We let you guys down. Our design team came up with the Duna Flyer 3, which we thought would take the extra mass,” Bobak’s transmission paused. “We made a bad call, and Jeb paid for it with his life. We’re just as responsible for this tragedy as you. Maybe if Wernher were still here, we could’ve avoided this, but he and Gene and the rest are still on special assignment.

“But this is why we double up on crews sent on missions away from Kerbin,” Bobak’s transmission continued. “And why we don’t send more than one team out on an away mission if we can avoid it. Losing Jeb hurts all of us, but you all knew the risks when signing up to become an astronaut. And, for that matter, when you became part of Duna Expedition One.”

Valentina nodded and understood. But losing Jeb on her watch might also affect her career moving forward. Bobak received her response 21 seconds later. “You’re starting to sound like Gene,” Val’s transmission said. Bobak smirked. Gene taught him everything he knew about being a Flight Director but also let him foster his own leadership style. But some things were bound to rub off.

Val’s response continued. “With Jeb… gone… we’re short a pilot, so I’ve set up a cross-training program to train Ernst vonKerman on our spacecraft systems. Bill and Bob are working with Karl and Alzer to bring them up to speed as well. It would go a lot faster if you could arrange for some experts in science and engineering who also speak vonKerman to work with them. Also, I’m suspending further exploration of The Face until we’ve assembled the Castillo. The vonKermans aren’t trained to handle confined spaces like we are and it’s starting to show. Cross-training will keep them busy for now, but they really need some open space.

 

“Which brings up the matter of how to bring everybody home. We have enough space in the lander for everybody, but Protector is too small for the vonKermans to come home in with their sanity intact. But their cryo-sleep chambers were intact after the crash. I intend to salvage them, hook them up to some new support systems, and build a new module to house them on the Protector. It would be great if you could appease any objections that ‘Kerbin Galactic’ might have.”

 

Given the distance between Kerbin and Duna, mission commanders had a lot of leeway with what they could do. Raiding the Das Wanderer for her cryogenic systems could be an act of salvage or piracy depending upon who is doing the raiding, so Bobak made a note to contact Kerbin Galactic sooner rather than later.

“One last thing,” Valentina’s transmission stated, “Just before Jeb crashed, his live transmission… slowed… for lack of a better word. We all felt it too, like a wave of… molasses passing over us. Time slowed to a crawl for a moment. Karl called it a ‘Krakenstrike’ after the curses made by the Kraken. He says that in vonKerman legend, Kraken curses heralded their return. Obviously, that’s all just doctrine, but there might be a grain of science buried in legend. It might be something worth checking out.”

Bobak listened to Valentina’s reply, took notes, then swallowed hard. He had to ask the question. “Have you recovered Jeb’s remains,” he asked. The forty-two seconds it took to receive a response seemed like an eternity. She shook her head. “We found the wreckage of the cockpit,” her transmission stated, “It was pretty mangled. We also found the hatch, it’s explosive bolts had fired. But there was no sign of his body…”

***

The first operational test of the Trinity engine’s Explodium mode didn’t go quite as planned. While it both high specific impulse and thrust, it tended to overhead quickly. Captain James had to perform “wind sprints” with the engine; burn at full throttle, then cut the throttle before the Trinity exploded. That worked for the most part but it was tedious. Fortunately, DSEV-04 had a 3D printer aboard and a supply of material kits- standard issue for all interplanetary spacecraft. Jane was able to print up several radiators to alleviate the heating issue.

As Jane stepped out to install the radiators, her jetpack sprung a leak. She began spinning uncontrollably.

Lizchel was about to step outside to assist when Jane switched to the backup thrusters and closed the stuck valve. It took her several minutes to stop the spin and reorient herself. After the universe stopped spinning, she resumed her work.

“You have nerves of steel,” James said.

Printing defects prevented Jane from bolting the radiators just anywhere, so she improvised and mounted them to the sensor suite docking ports. It wasn’t the most elegant solution, but it worked. Discovery had an encounter with Kerbin in 12 days. They were going home.

 

Edited October 30, 2019 by Angel-125

[fulgur]

Is Jeb dead? Or is he [dramatic chords] krakened?
Didn't something like this happen in Duna Space Program, but in reverse? (goes to check) (spends hours and hours reading) (is sidetracked into K:JO)

[Angelo Kerman]

39 minutes ago, fulgur said:

Is Jeb dead? Or is he [dramatic chords] krakened?
Didn't something like this happen in Duna Space Program, but in reverse? (goes to check) (spends hours and hours reading) (is sidetracked into K:JO)

Something similar did indeed happen! In Duna Space Program, there was a tie-in with a crossover event with @Kuzzter’s stories. Eventually he came back, right as the story, and my KSP 1.0.5 play through, ended. This time it’s quite a bit different though. Jeb tried a last ditch effort to bail out of a dying airplane...

Edited October 30, 2019 by Angel-125

[fulgur]

So he is barely metres above the ground, at 45 to 70m/s... That is also practically unsurvivable. Major kudos therefore if you saved him without creative use of [ALT] + [F12] or [ALT] + [H] menus.

[KerballingSmasher]

IT BACK!

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter 16: Loop de Loop

“He fought to the last,” Valentina said. “Most would’ve bailed out well before he did. But that wasn’t Jeb. He tried to save his plane right up to the millisecond where there wasn’t any more that he could do…” her voice wavered. She didn’t like Jeb one bit, but he was a coworker- and a fellow pioneer. The first into space. The first to set foot on the Mun. And now, the first to die on another planet… She tried to say something more but couldn’t.

“You were my best friend,” Bill said somberly, breaking the silence. “I’m going to miss you, buddy. Keep climbing.”

Jeb despised the vonKermans. Ironically, they were the ones who painstakingly combed the crash site and beyond for days on end to finally find his mangled remains. Near as they could tell, he tried to bail out at the last second but to no avail. His body had been savagely thrust into the desert. They carefully recovered his remains and brought them back to base. And now he laid to rest at last. It was time to let go.

Valentina finally spoke again. “Jeb was not one to dwell on the past. So today, we look towards the future. Let it be known to all kerbalkin that from this day forward, Duna Base, now the first permanent settlement on Duna, will be known as the Jebediah Kerman Arcology.”

It was too long between the crash and the funeral, but Jeb was finally at rest. They had closure. With the funeral proceedings concluded, the Duna Expedition One team got back to work. There was always work to do.

*

“She’s not the Akron, but she’ll do,” James said as he looked at the aircraft. The large cargo plane, dubbed the Starlifter, had four enormous tiltrotors that gave it VTOL capability and combined it with high speed. It had both front and rear cargo ramps for easy loading and unloading. Today it carried a new experimental fusion reactor along with the equipment needed to assemble it at the destination. And given the distance they had to travel, it also carried internal fuel tanks as well.

James wasn’t particularly happy about being a transport pilot, but KSC’s special project was short on pilots and they needed all the help they could get. On the plus side, both he and Kelbin, his copilot for the trip, were finally going to be let in on the big secret.

“We’re headed over the Whoops Too Short Mountain Range,” Kelbin said as he checked the flight plan, “then off to the middle of the Great Desert- I think I know where we’re headed.”

That piqued Jams’ interest. “Oh?”

“Remember that giant pyramid that we discovered during the Kerbin Elcano Exploration Project?”

“The one with the graviolium mining and the murals of those aliens? Is that where we’re headed?”

“It looks like it,” Kelbin answered.

“Well we better get started then,” James said.

***

An hour- one-sixth of a Kerbin day- was a long time for a kerbal. Kelbin and James took turns flying the new cargo plane and listening to the drone of the tiltrotors. It was a boring flight, but the Starlifter was considerably faster than the Akron. They made the long trek from KSC to the Great Desert without incident.

Following the coordinates, the transport arrived about 30 kilometers short of the Great Mining Pyramid. The two pilots immediately recognized the landmark but were puzzled by all the activity…

“Why would they set up a base next to a movie set,” Kelbin asked. During their exploration project, Kimgee discovered what appeared to be a large stone ring out in the middle of the desert. She thought it was the set for some science fiction movie.

“I’m guessing we’ll find out,” James said simply. “Is that a Castillo facility? Why does the base look... bent?”

“Let’s land this thing and ask someone,” Kelbin answered.

The Starlifter eased its way onto the ground. After shutting the plane down, James and Kelbin disembarked and met with the gathering crowd.

“Gene! Wernher! How are you guys doing,” James asked.

“Just fine, Jim,” Gene said, “I heard about your ‘Magic Boulder’ that you guys found. Is it true about the graviolium?”

“Yup, about 29% by mass.”

“Wow,” Wernher whistled and said. “That’s a lot.”

Kelbin looked at Samalla and Munvan. He also noticed Wernher's new glasses. “Hey you guys, long time no see! Uh, what’s with the glowing arm guards?”

“Dude,” Munvan responded, “they’re totally awesome! We call them Omni-tools. We can reconfigure them for whatever tool we need. And they’re a personal communicator and a digital assistant! Mine does science instruments, Samalla’s is an engineering tool.”

“That’s seriously advanced tech,” Kelbin said approvingly.”

“It was aliens,” Samalla said. “We built them based on similar alien devices. They’re really handy.”

“Do pilots get one,” James asked.

“Eventually,” Gene lamented.

“So uh, why does the base look so… disjointed,” James asked.

“Let’s get inside, I’ll tell you all about it,” Gene answered.

As the group filed into the base, Samalla got to work unloading the Starlifter’s cargo and setting it up. She setup one of the walkways and then grabbed the packing box for the base’s new experimental A.R.C. fusion reactor. It self-assembled- another miracle of alien tech- using the equipment and konkrete stored in the cargo plane.

After transferring fusion pellets to the reactor and starting up one of the Starlifter’s gas turbines, she was able to jump-start the reactor. She checked out its systems and certified that it was working properly and then went back inside. Finally, the base’s tracking station and observatory had the power that they needed to come to life.

*

“You’re now officially a part of the Kerbal Gateway Program,” Gene began after everyone got seated. “As of now, you cannot discuss anything about the program with anyone outside of the program.” He let his statement sink in a bit before continuing.

“What we’re about to discuss is highly confidential. For the better part of a year now, we’ve been studying the Pyramid of Tut-Un Jeb-Anh, the pyramid that Jim and his crew found during the Kerbin Elcano Exploration Project, as well as the Great Mining Pyramid, also discovered during K.E.E.P. Our language experts have been slowly piecing together the writings of the ancient kerbals as well as a language that’s much older, that of the aliens themselves. Thanks to Kelbin’s… visions… we’ve cracked the code on some of it. There’s still a lot of missing pieces, but we’ll get to that later.

“We stumbled upon a secret entrance to the Pyramid of Tut-Un Jeb-Ahn, and eventually made our way into the burial chamber. You may recall that Tut Jeb was the gatekeeper to Paradise, according to legend. That word translated into Gaia, among other things… Anyway, inside the burial chamber we found glyphs describing the device next to our base…”

“What is it,” Kelbin interrupted and asked.

“It,” Wernher responded, “is called a ‘stargate’ according to the ancient language. It forms a Harvestr-Mu bridge to…”

“It’s a portal to other worlds,” Gene interrupted and translated. “We think that it can go to many different worlds, though Gaia appears to be the most-often traveled. We don’t know why it was moved from the burial chamber out to here, or who did it, only that it’s been sitting out here for thousands of years...”

“Maybe somebody wanted to use it,” James suggested.

“That’s our speculation as well,” Gene nodded and said. “But this story is just beginning…

When we realized that the ‘movie set’ that you guys found was the stargate, we packed up and set up shop out here with the intent of opening the gate. We didn’t get very far, so Samalla and her team went back to the Pyramid to try and find more clues…”

“I was a tomb raider,” Samalla interrupted and joked. “We decided the Moho with it and opened the Tut’s sarcophagus. We found more clues all right…”

“What clues,” James had to ask.

“Jedediah Kerman’s flight suit,” Samalla deadpanned.

James looked dumbfounded. “How…”

Gene held up his hand to silence everyone. “Samalla’s discovery happened three months ago, well before Jeb’s crash on Duna. She also found a diary of sorts from Jeb. He carved stone tablets describing his life in the past- our past- and that he’d had a good life…”

“But they found his body on Duna,” Kelbin interrupted and pointed out.

“True,” Wernher confirmed, “but past Jeb… uh, Jeb-Ahn- is not the same Jeb that died on Duna. Jeb-Ahn traveled into the distant past…”

“This hurts my brain,” James lamented. “The stargate is a time machine? I thought it opened portals go Gaia.”

“It does both, dude,” Munvan explained. “like, the portal goes through space and time. But like, I think Jeb... Jeb-Ahn, connected the gate from his present day to itself- it’s past self. Which totally blows my mind, dude. Like, I don’t know how Jeb or whoever figured that one out, but, like, it worked…”

“What was Jeb doing in the past,” Kelbin asked.

“According to Jeb-Ahn,” Gene continued, “Kerbin, uh, his Kerbin, was dying. There was an ecological catastrophe that began long ago. Something called the Green Goo was spreading across their world. Their space program discovered that the Green Goo originated from the ancient aliens. It was used to ‘grow’ devices from a supply of resources. The Goo ran amok after our ancestors tampered with it. Jeb somehow dialed the gate in the distant past, stepped through, and stopped the disaster from happening, which subsequently altered the timeline…”

“Wait,” Captain James interrupted, “is mystery goo the same stuff as the ‘Green Goo’ that took over the planet?”

“We believe so,” Wernher answered. “We think that Jeb altered it to be mostly inert though. Mystery goo can make more of itself, just not very quickly. And unlike Green Goo, mystery goo is easily contained...”

Gene again continued. “After averting disaster, Jeb began experimenting with the stargate by dialing addresses left by the ancient aliens. Most didn’t pan out. Towards the end of his life though, one of them did…”

“Gaia,” Kelbin blurted out.

“Exactly,” Gene confirmed. “Jeb-Ahn had the Pyramid of Tut-Un Jeb-Ahn built as a sort of time capsule for us to discover. Presumably, he also included the Gaia address, but as we mentioned, someone removed the stargate from Jeb-Ahn’s tomb and apparently took the gate address with them.”

“And kraken-strike on Duna,” James asked. “Was that you?”

“No,” Gene said and shook his head. “But it happened at the precise date and time that Jeb-Ahn said that he stepped through his stargate. The kraken-strike happened here as well. It warped and distorted our base. A section of it, including our atomic reactor, was just… gone… along with some good kerbals…”

“Because he altered the past, our past,” Wernher added, picking up where Gene trailed off, “the result was a… clash… in space-time…”

“Like, dude, a kraken-strike,” Munvan chimed in. “I’m, like starting to think that, like, kraken-strikes, are totally points in space-time where divergent timelines grind up against each other like tectonic plates and cause quakes.”

“You’re not going to use the gate for time travel, are you,” Kellbin had to ask.

“Oh no,” Gene put up his hands and explained. “Now that we have the new fusion reactor, we’re going to try and open a gate to Gaia though. No time travel, thank you.”

“With your help, Kelbin, ja,” Wernher added.

“That’s where you come in, Kelbin,” Gene took over the conversation. “We need to you have more of your visions. Munvan says you triggered one when you touched a green monolith on Duna. I recall that you guys found one on Kerbin that I want you and a team to travel to. See what you can discover. It could be the key to unlocking the alien language- and the Gaia address.”

“I’ll do what I can, Sir,” Kelbin agreed. “You said that some of my visions were already helpful?”

“Oh yes,” Wernher said, beaming. “We know the name of the aliens. We confirmed that they called themselves the Annunaki…”

“That’s a name that Giorgio used,” Kelbin recalled aloud.

“And one of the reasons he’s here,” Gene responded. “his knowledge of ancient kerbalkin helped fill in some of the gaps.”

“What happened to the Annunaki,” Kelbin asked.

“That part is still vague,” Gene admitted. “But we know from ancient kerbal writings that the Annunaki had a war and then came here, but little else. But with luck, your visions will help us unlock their language, and we can translate their writings…

*

The Arcology’s new storage depot was nearly ready, and the factory was coming along nicely as well. Future researchers would also like the upcoming observatory. There were other components to build, but once the bare minimum could be constructed, the team would be free to pack up several Pathfinder base components and ship them to The Face. Getting them there would be another challenge.

After the latest accident, KSC designers began to rethink the problem. They suggested building a Munbus and filling it with the needed equipment and sending it unkermanned to The Face. After completion and loading, Valentina took remote control of the craft and powered up its systems.

The craft lifted off and went through its ballistic arc briefly losing communication during atmospheric re-entry.

Valentina held her breath until she regained control. She landed it a good 4 kilometers away and taxied the remaining distance, with a scant 57 meters per second remaining in the tanks. It worked, but it was a little too close for comfort. KSC’s engineers went back to the drawing board.

Several days later, they completely redesigned the Duna Flyer. Since the thin Duna atmosphere required dangerously high landing speeds, the engineers went around the problem by inventing new tilt-fans that provided both horizontal and vertical thrust along with a new larger atomic reactor to power them.

Extensive testing on Kerbin along with simulations using an updated Duna atmospheric model proved that the new Flyer designs would work. Still, Valentina insisted upon several unpiloted test flights before risking any more crew.

After completing the new storage depot and packing up several of the Pathfinder components, Bill loaded them into the new cargo flyer. In addition to hauling the base to the Face, the cargo flyer gave Valentina another opportunity to verify the new design. It proved to be safer to fly and landed near the Munbus.

Three weeks later, the investigation team, consisting of Bob, Ernst, Alzer, and Bill as the team lead, boarded the new crewed Duna Flyer IV and made the trek. Valentina really wanted to go but she knew that if anything happened, she still had to make sure that the rest made it back home. She found herself biting her lower lip for their entire flight. But like the cargo flyer, Bill and his team reached The Face successfully. Before long, they set up shop.

*

“It’s good to see you guys again,” Kelbin said as the Starlifter floated into the air. They were headed back to KSC to pick up fuel and cargo for their flight up to the arctic. Raphia and Mosa, the team’s engineer and scientist, had been Kelbin’s instructors during the initial phases of K.E.E.P. They’d met Giorgio, Kelbin’s copilot and the resident expert on ancient aliens, during one of their investigations.

“Likewise,” Giorgio said, “It’s nice to get the band back together, so to speak. Plus, I’m excited to be helping you with your visions!”

Kelbin looked embarrassed about that last part. He didn’t like the attention drawn to his “superpowers” as he put it. He shrugged it off; he had a mission to fly.

It took an hour to launch another Starlifter after stupidly recovering it fly back to KSC to refuel and pick up their science outpost, then another hour to reach the field refueling point- the player didn’t give the thing enough fuel Starlifter lacked the range to travel non-stop in its current configuration, and there were no airports to refuel at.

The team waited a good ten minutes before another Starlifter arrived from the North Pole Research Station and gave them some gas.  

After the tanker headed back to base, Kelbin powered up his Starlifter and continued onto their destination. The crossed over to the Northern Ice Shelf and flew on for a half hour, passing 26km near the World Court UFO Research Base.

They could go no closer; an international coalition fiercely guarded the alien spacecraft against anyone who tried to approach the site. The lawyers were still arguing over how research should be conducted, who would pay for it, and how its secrets would be distributed. If they only knew about the crashed saucer on the Mun, Kelbin mused…

Still they flew on. Kelbin recognized the mountain range they passed over as the same area where the Akron discovered the atomic-powered alien “V-GER” probe. He thought about paying a visit, but their destination was less than 100km away, and the crew was tired. If there was time, perhaps they would stop on the way back. Then he remembered that the site was contaminated.

At long last, after half a day of flying, they spotted their destination. Kelbin set the big cargo plane down gently onto the grassy plain and taxied back around to the green monolith. With the sun setting, Raphia wasted no time getting the outpost set up while Mosa checked her omni tool.

“The radiation is far lower than expected,” she noted. “It’s like it’s dormant. Will that be a factor?”

Kelbin shrugged. “I don’t know,” he answered. “Are we safe here or do we need to back off further?”

“We’re fine,” Mosa answered, double checking her omni tool. “We can stay here for days.”

Not long after, Raphia put the team to work setting up all the buildings.

[RealKerbal3x]

@Angel-125 Great chapter!

[KerBlitz Kerman]

And here I was earlier today yesterday, complaining I had no fan art to read. Now I have no sleep. 

@Angel-125 Wow this is amazing! Please, keep up the amazing work! 

 

Edit: The time stamp on there is different from where I live. Where I live, this was posted at about 1 in the morning.

Edited December 17, 2019 by KerBlitz Kerman

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter Seventeen: Going Home

“I still don’t get the time travel thing,” Kelbin admitted, “and how it’s related to kraken strikes. What if my visions are a form of time travel? Could what I do cause a kraken strike?”

“Well, I’m no quantum physicist,” Mosa responded, “but the way it was explained to me, you need a portal- a wormhole is what Munvan called it- to travel back in time. The only known way to do that is with that stargate. Munvan believes that you can only travel back as far as when the stargate was first created. Remember his Superimposed Alternate Variant Existences theory?”

“Yeah,” Kelbin answered, “he made it up as a joke over dinner as I recall.”

“It’s no joke now,” Mosa chuckled. “The existence of Jeb-Ahn proves that. Anyway, Munvan said that when you travel back in time and alter history, you create a Point of Divergence, a ‘PoD’ if you will. The timeline diverges and a new SAVE is created. It creates a ripple effect as events play out differently. Maybe we land on the Mun before the vonKermans did, for instance. Or as we know, the Green Goo disaster never happened.”

“What happens to the other S.A.V.E.” Kelbin asked.

“It’s still around, I think? Maybe it's erased, but echoes still exist? When that ripple effect spreads out from the PoD, it creates fault lines, places where in one SAVE things go one way, and in another SAVE they go a different way. I guess that when an event is significant enough, it causes a kraken strike as SAVES grind together and release energy along the fault line.”

“So, whenever we get hit by a kraken strike, it’s a point where timelines diverged. Interesting… What happens if you go forward in time instead of backwards,” Giorgio asked.

“That’s a good question,” Mosa answered. “I don’t really know. I guess that if you returned to the present and use what you learned from the future, you would create a new PoD.”

“You said that you don’t think that my visions are time travel,” Kelbin said, trying to get the conversation back on track. “Then what are they?”

“The last time you had a vision, you were on Minmus,” Mosa said. “If what you do was time travel, given what your report said, there should’ve been a kraken strike- going to Eve is pretty significant… But there wasn’t any... Plus, time travel involves physically going to the past or future, and you did neither on Minmus. So, whatever these visions are, they aren’t time travel. Personally, I think Munvan is right; your visions are your brain interpreting what these monoliths show you. They’re like dreams.”

Kelbin sighed. “Ok,” he said finally. “I guess I won’t destroy the universe then. Let’s get this over with.” He placed his hand on the green monolith…

*

After Valentina’s crew launched and delivered their Buffalo rover- Bill was not going to walk up and down a half-kilometer hill- Team Bill installed the rover’s science instruments and made their way to the strange structure carved like the head of a kerbal. Bob ran the science instruments through their paces, but nothing stood out.

They piled out of the rover, planted another flag, and posed for a publicity picture before getting to work. It was the first official joint mission between the vonKerman Republic and the Kerman States, so the whole world was watching live- or rather, 21 seconds after the broadcast was beamed from Duna…

“Ok, guys, let’s spread out and look around,” Bill said. “Nobody goes alone. Alzer, you’re with me. Bob, you take Ernst.” Bill waited for the translators to do their thing. Alzer and Ernst acknowledged their directives.

“Bill,” Valentina said over the wireless, “Mission Control would like you to start with the ‘chin’ area of the structure. See if there’s any opening or doorway.” Bill already had that item on his checklist. Val was just saying that for the kerbals back home.

He thought that JJ Kerman’s prediction that there was a face on Duna was an incredible coincidence. So did many in the media, and they interviewed him incessantly about it. But he couldn’t explain it as anything but coincidence.

In his Duna Space Program story, the explorers entered the structure through a strange door that only allowed kerbals to go inside. Bill stifled a tear, Jeb was the first to enter the structure in JJ’s story…

“Copy that, Commander,” Bill answered, bringing him back to the task at hand. Ratings were great and all, but he hated the formality. Bill searched the chin for any signs of entry but found none. He smashed his fist against the stone, but it was as solid as rock. He tried various sensors including ground penetrating radar, but nothing showed up. Either the Face was solid or whatever was inside was too deep to be detected. Bill even took a core sample for good measure.

“There is nothing that our sensors can detect,” Bill said carefully, “it appears to be solid rock. We’ll need more sophisticated sensors to look deeper. There doesn’t appear to be any doorway or blocked entrance. Bob, see anything?”

“We’re about three-quarters the way around the base of the Face,” Bob answered, “nothing so far. Just carved sandstone. We’ll be right there.”

A couple of minutes later, Bob and Ernst rounded the corner with nothing else to report. Not wanting to wait on the translators, Alzer pointed to her eyes and then pointed up. Bill nodded, pointed at Bob, and pointed up. “Bob and Alzer are going to check out the top of the Face,” he stated.

The kerbalnaut and astronaut activated their jet packs and slowly ascended to the top of the Face. They noticed that like the base of the carving, there were no chisel marks; the Face appeared smooth. It reminded him of the ground stations that Captain James and his crew discovered during their Kerbin Elcano Exploration Project. Like those stations, the Face appeared well preserved and somehow maintained in pristine condition.

The duo made their way across the top of the structure. Alzer suddenly exclaimed something in vonKerman that the translators decided not to translate. The didn’t have to.

“Bill, you’re going to want to see this,” Bob began. “There’s writing of some kind carved into the forehead of this thing, and it’s not ancient Kerman. I think it’s the ancient aliens’ language…”

*

The buzzing in his ears and tingling in his body subsided. Kelvin opened his eyes. He was back on Eve, staring at the green monolith. He looked around. Nobody else was around. The Buffalo rover was nearby.

“Are you done, Kelbin,” Valentina called out over the wireless, “we’re packed up and ready to leave. This place has nothing left to teach us, our weather instruments are all calibrated to receive data, and our launch window is opening.”

Kelbin looked at the monolith. It didn’t appear out of the ordinary.

“Kelbin?” Valentina sounded insistent.

Kelbin looked back at the monolith. Still nothing. “On my way,” he said finally.

A few minutes later, Kelbin secured himself in the airship that he’d arrived in. Valentina told him to hurry up and strap himself into the capsule. While he sat down, Valentina was already cycling through the pre-launch checklist.

“All systems go,” she said finally. “We won’t need to come back here anytime soon. Air envelope is filling. Ascent engine is primed. Crew, standby for liftoff.”

It was good that they were leaving, Eve’s corrosive atmosphere was beginning to break down the airship’s outer covering. The airship lifted off Eve without a sound and slowly gained altitude. Since they had a station to catch, Val powered up the airship’s propellers and redlined them. Skydancer leapt into the sky.

“Vertical speed is slowing,” Valentina said. “Crew, prepare to drop.” When the vertical speed reached zero at about 26km altitude and the airship leveled off, Val pulled the release lever. Kelbin’s stomach lurched as the airship’s booster dropped away. He yelped when the booster engine ignited early and shot hot exhaust right into the airship’s aft gondola. The crew could hear debris pinging on the engine.

“We’re ok,” Val yelled over the noise. The booster dropped rapidly as the engine burned.

Just when Kelbin though they were going to plummet to their death, the ship arrested its fall and gained slowly altitude. Then it began to rapidly ascend- so much so that its nose nearly melted from overheating. That too subsided as the booster finally clawed its way out of the atmosphere and circularized its orbit with barely 200m/s of delta-v remaining in its tanks.

An hour later, the booster and awaiting Korion spacecraft matched orbits and the two spacecraft docked. And an hour after that, the Eve Departure Stage docked.

One by one, the crew settled down into cryosleep until only Kelbin was left. He took one last look around, then tapped the freeze button. The next thing he knew, they were swinging around the Mun and on their way to Kerbin. A day after, Kelbin still had no visions of alien symbols- just a lot of reading to do to pass the time.

Finally, the Korion spacecraft approached Kerbin on a re-entry trajectory. The crew transferred to the command module and separated from the rest of the vehicle.

The fiery atmospheric entry consumed the propulsion stages and habitat module, but the Korion survived its trip unscathed. It deployed its chutes and dropped its heat shield to perform a gentle landing. They were home.

Kelbin looked at the computer monitor. There were no alien symbols to be seen.

Disappointed, he looked out the window again. But instead of grass and trees, he saw the curvature of the Mun.

“Kelbin, you ok,” a voice asked. Kelbin shut his eyes as the buzzing returned. He opened them again and recognized that he was on Kerbin again. Giorgio looked concerned.

“Yeah,” Kelbin answered, “why.”

“You’ve been saying ‘go to the Mun’ for the last three minutes…”

*

“When Team Valentina established Minmus Station,” Lemley Kerman began, “they scrounged everything they could to build out the station as much as possible. The station was only designed for 180 days, but with regular maintenance, Minmus Station far exceeded its design life. Indeed, it expanded into the Minmus Orbital Shipyard.

“But today, with great sadness, the core of our station, the original Minmus Station, is being retired. The core has served us well, but even with regular maintenance, it has become unsafe for regular use, and its replacement is awaiting installation. So, we say thank you to our station core and goodbye. But it’s not entirely farewell.

“The station core will be broken up in our shipyard along with the aging atomic tug, and their resources and materials recycled to become a part of newer vessels. So, while original core will be gone, its legacy will live on in its progeny.”

[fulgur]

Cool EAV! I love the way that you are simultaneously running several different missions For Science! Is it possible that you'll have an Eve mission based off that 'for real'?

Also, some of the writing inserted on the Face goes over the Kerbals, which unless it's floating neon hologram writing, is a bit distracting. What language is it by the way?

EDIT: I think it's Futhark! You've got some Norse aliens! Run away, the Vikings are coming!
(Futhark alphabet below for reference).

Spoiler

 

Edited December 29, 2019 by fulgur

[RealKerbal3x]

@Angel-125

I'm totally stealing that airship-launched ascent vehicle idea when I eventually do an Eve mission

[Angelo Kerman]

7 hours ago, fulgur said:

Cool EAV! I love the way that you are simultaneously running several different missions For Science! Is it possible that you'll have an Eve mission based off that 'for real'?

Also, some of the writing inserted on the Face goes over the Kerbals, which unless it's floating neon hologram writing, is a bit distracting. What language is it by the way?

EDIT: I think it's Futhark! You've got some Norse aliens! Run away, the Vikings are coming!
(Futhark alphabet below for reference).

  Hide contents

 

The Eve mission was all in Kelbin's head as far as anybody can tell. However, there is a launch window for Eve opening in about 159 game-days, and I do have another interplanetary expedition gearing up to go... Not sure if I'll depict those or not. I currently have my eye on JNSQ, but that would also mean starting over and explaining all the anomalies encountered in some new way. Kopernicus isn't updated for KSP 1.8 yet (please don't bug the mod authors about that), so depending on when I wrap up this storyline- I have the last three chapters outlined- I might get to finally try JNSQ or update this save to KSP 1.8.1/1.9. Fun fact: When We Left Kerbin was supposed to be an interim mission report until Kopernicus was updated to KSP 1.4.5, but then I got busy with modding and real life stuff.

Yeah, the overlayed text is an oops on my part... According to Photoshop the font I used is Angerthas, which looks similar to Futhark.

5 hours ago, RealKerbal3x said:

@Angel-125

I'm totally stealing that airship-launched ascent vehicle idea when I eventually do an Eve mission

Steal away! The design is inspired by NASA's High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC). I currently don't have an inflatable airship envelope in my Heisenberg mod. I did create an experimental design a couple of years ago but I couldn't figure out how to properly animate the envelope's guidance fins deploying, so I shelved the project. I had to very carefully de-orbit the Skydancer into Eve's atmosphere to keep it from overheating..

[RealKerbal3x]

13 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

I did create an experimental design a couple of years ago but I couldn't figure out how to properly animate the envelope's guidance fins deploying, so I shelved the project.

In that NASA paper it looks to me like the blimp's fins are simply for stabilisation and don't actuate. If you ever reconsider adding an inflatable envelope to Heisenberg, you might be able to get around that problem by simply having the fins integrated into the envelope (instead of as separate parts).

It's your mod and your choice, but personally I would love to see inflatable airships in Heisenberg

[Angelo Kerman]

Chapter Eighteen: Explorations

Marnica and her team were running a simulation aboard DSEV-01 when Enterprise’s flight computer caught her attention. “Huh,” she said. “That’s odd.”

“What,” Stelissa, the team’s engineer asked.

“Enterprise is saying we have a convergence in ten minutes,” Marnica responded.

“With what?”

 

Marnica queried the intercepting object. She looked surprised. “Munar Gateway,” she said simply. “Dicie, can you confirm?”

Dicie, the team scientist, ran the numbers. They looked awfully close. “Uh, boss,” she said nervously, “Munar Gateway is pretty likely to land on us!”

Marnica cursed she hit the emergency line to KSC. “Flight, Munbase Enterprise. Munar Gateway is inbound to our location. Reason unknown. We are evacuating.” She tried to sound calm but Inside she was frightened.

 

Team Marnica immediately exited DSEV-01 and raced to the Munbus. Dicie plowed through the base’s solar arrays as she fled. Nobody cared. The crew piled into their transport.

 

“This place is cursed,” Marnica said for the last time as she lit the VTOL rockets and boosted to safety.

Thirty seconds later, the Munar Gateway space station crashed a scant 9 kilometers away from Munbase Enterprise.

*

 

Alzer vonKerman raised her hand and made the “ok” sign, indicating to Bill that she had completed calibration of the Surface Experiment Package. It was one of the last things they needed to do before heading back to the Jebediah Kerman Arcology. Bill gave her the thumbs up and switched on the command core. The system checked out.

The two hopped back into the Buffalo rover and drove up the hill to the campsite. Bill then got out and began transferring the rover’s science instruments to the Duna Cargo Flyer IV. It would hunt for more anomalies before winging its way back to the Arcology.

 

Alzer inspected Bill’s handiwork. The exo core drill was mounted upside down, but the laser scanner was oriented correctly. Bill scoffed and went back outside to fix the drill and mount a couple of extra battery packs to the plane. He returned to the habitat soon after.

“Looks good everybody,” Bob was saying as he reviewed the EVA. “We’ve got solid telemetry from the SEP. Ground radar is pinging- The Face still looks solid as far as it can go. And the Cargo Flyer’s science gear is ready as well.”

Bill looked at the stores list. “Munbus is fully fueled with nearly 3k delta in the tanks. She’s ready for Val to fly her back to the Arcology. Once the Cargo Flyer’s Hexagen tanks are full, it can fly back as well. I think we’ve done all that we can here-“

Suddenly, the intercom screamed- loudly- with a modulated sound like a data transmission. It lasted for thirty six seconds before abruptly shutting itself off. The silence was deafening.

“Bob, was that us,” Bill asked.

Bob looked stunned. He checked his readouts. The SEP was rebooting itself after suffering an electrical overload. The campsite’s computers were doing the same. A few moments, they both resumed as if nothing had happened. He looked at the logs.

Bob shook his head, “That wasn’t us,” he declared. “The power output was way higher than what we can output.”

Alzer waited for the translation and heard Bob’s response. She studied the wave patterns on her monitor. She said something in vonKerman. “Tight beam transmission,” the Kerbin-side translater said several seconds later. It was late at night on the other side of the planet and Valentina was asleep…

“What was it aimed at,” Bill asked, “Kerbin?”

Not waiting on the translator, Alzer understood what Bill had asked. She called up a map of the solar system and shook her head. Kerbin was blocked by Duna’s bulk, as were the other inner planets. But there was one other planet that could be reached…

Jool.

*

“We suspect that the vonKermans are responsible for the recent mishap with your Munar Gateway station,” General Dolores said. She was not happy about justifying her decision. “The K.I.A. believes that despite the rising good will, there are factions within the vonKerman Republic who don’t want our nations to be cordial. As a result, tensions are heating up. Again. So, I need every available pilot-astronaut that I can get in case space becomes the new battleground. That includes Major Kelbin.”

“We need him too,” Gene said. “He is critical to our research. We are close to a breakthrough. Kelbin is the key.”

“Why exactly is an Air Force Major critical to your research,” General Dolores asked.

Gene sighed, then looked at the transmission status. It was secured. “Is anyone else with you?”

Dolores shook her head. “No, why?”

Gene told her about the Kerbal Gateway Program and how Kelbin was instrumental in translating the Annunaki language. He conveniently left out the part where Kelbin's visions were the real key.

General Dolores was shocked and surprised. “Wow, just… wow… ok, Gene, you can keep him. But we want in.”

“Fine,” Gene said tersely, “as long as it stays a KSP project.”

“A joint civilian and military project works for me,” General Dolores negotiated. “Now, regarding Major Kelbin’s mission. How can we help?”

“Kelbin needs to head to the Mun,” Gene answered. “With our Munar Gateway gone, I wonder if you can arrange for a refueling stopover at Groom Lake.”

“You know about Groom Lake?”

“Even though I'm retired, Dolores, I still hear things now and then,” Gene admitted. “Besides, who do you think made sure that your launches to the Mun didn’t show up on our tracking scopes? We also know about your missile base at the south pole…”

Dolores was relieved. The missile base was a cover story for their activities. Gene still didn’t know the base’s true purpose. She played along. “Ok, you got me,” she feigned surprise. “Sure. Kelbin can stopover at the Lake. We can support him at the base as well, seeing as Munbase Enterprise is now evacuated.”

“We’d appreciate that, thanks,” Gene responded. “I’ll have my staff work out the details with yours…”

*

With time on his hands as he flew to the Mun, Kelbin caught up on the news. Hearing about the Face on Duna intrigued him. Then a question hit him: how did JJ Kerman know about the Face?  He had his number and no doubt others asked him the same question, but he had to know…

“You heard that they found The Face on Duna,” Kelbin asked. “Just like in your story.”

“Yes,” JJ Kerman sighed and confirmed. “The reporters have been grilling me about it for weeks...”

“If you don’t mind one more person asking, how did you know that it would be there? Was it really coincidence? The details are far too perfect for it to be a coincidence like the media says.”

JJ smiled. “When I was at the Kerbal Gateway Program, I read your file…”

Kelbin’s eyes widened. “You have visions like me?”

“Had,” JJ corrected. That piqued Kelbin’s interest even more. JJ continued. “I had the visions like you. They were vivid. The felt real. I was terrified at first. One moment I would be having breakfast, or staring at a blank page, or getting ready for work, and the next I was… elsewhere… I lived another life, then came back to this one. The only way I could cope was to write it all down. And from that I created stories like the Duna Space Program.

“In my case, I kept visiting The Face on Duna. I could see it, but each time I got close, I would return to our reality. I became obsessed with it. In retrospect, the visions tried to steer me in one direction, and I kept going back to that Face… The one time that I finally got close enough to touch it… that’s when I snapped back into my body for the last time. After that, I stopped having visions.”

“Wow, sorry to hear that," Kelbin consoled.

"I'm not sorry," JJ responded, "Those visions were driving me crazy."

"I see... Which character in the story was you,” Kelbin asked.

“All of them, really,” JJ answered. “Mostly I saw things from Jeb’s point of view. I really should’ve used fictional characters instead of real astronauts, but it was my first go at writing… My visions were chaotic and disjointed like normal dreams typically are. From what I’ve read, yours are much more continuous, like you’re truly living an alternate life.”

That gave Kelbin pause. Was he seeing an alternate reality? Did JJ?  “So, the bits about the doomsday devices, the chamber inside The Face, the outer planets were they…”

“Not real,” JJ interrupted. “I had to create something to chain the random visions together. I had planned to visit the outer planets that I created for my story but never got around to it.”

“I see,” Kelbin responded. “Did you ever have visions of a green monolith? Did you see alien symbols?”

“No, never,” JJ said. “Only the Face. It seems that your visions are more… advanced… than mine were, like you passed a test that I did not. Like I said, I’m glad, because the visions were driving me crazy…”

*

This time around, Kelbin’s munar landing wasn’t as precise as he’d hoped due to a lack of visibility. Flapjack 1 landed behind the crashed Annunaki flying saucer, but still easily within distance of the Saucer Works. After setting the rocket saucer into hibernation mode, he depressurized the cockpit and stepped outside.

Activating his thruster pack, Kelbin jetted upwards and towards the research base. When he crested the rim of the crashed saucer, Kelbin gasped.

 

“Holy mulch,” Kelbin said aloud.

“You’ve seen our latest project, I take it,” Lt. Colonel Parie said over the wireless.

“Uh, yeah,” Kelbin answered back. “It looks nearly as wide as the crashed saucer!”

“She’s 30 meters in diameter and 5 meters thick at her tallest,” Parie proclaimed.

“Is it flyable?”

“Sadly no,” Parie responded. “Excalibur is a structural test article. A mockup.”

“Excalibur, eh,” Kelbin said. “Liberated from stone. A fitting name.”

“Yeah, we thought so too,” Parie answered. “She’s built to test out large-scale engineering techniques with reverse-engineered technologies. Unlike the A-51D, which incorporates bits of scrap from the crashed saucer, Excalibur is completely home grown. Lodory wants to modify her into a fully flyable prototype, but we have a lot more research to do before we can do that.

“In the meantime, let’s get you inside and briefed on the upgrades to LGM 4 so you can continue with your mission.”

*

Emil vonKerman looked at his control station in surprise. For some reason, Hause 1’s Orbital Space Taxi began firing its rocket motor! He tried to initiate the shutdown command, but it wouldn’t respond.

With the engine as a rudder, Hause 1 swung around until the motor fired in the direction of travel, lowering its orbit. If the engine kept burning, the computers predicted that the station would drop out of orbit- and impact the Kosmodrome!

Emil reacted quickly and sent an emergency command to shut the fuel tank valves using the backup frequency. It worked, and the engine stopped firing.

But it was too late. Hause 1 would skim the atmosphere for a few orbits, gradually lowering its periapsis until it took its fatal plunge. At least the computers predicted that the station would impact the ocean…

Emil couldn’t help but notice the similarities between Hause 1’s unplanned de-orbiting and KSP’s reported mishap with their Munar Gateway station. The Kermans must’ve thought that the vonKermans brought down their space station and decided to retaliate.

That had to be it. The Kermans were using satellites as weapons. Emil called his supervisor…

 

*

Kelbin couldn’t help but stare at the monitors showing the Excalibur. The new saucer was simply enormous! He hoped he could fly one someday…

“Hey, Kelbin, pay attention,” Lodory said, breaking Kelbin’s reverie. He was not happy that he had to relinquish control over his saucer for a joyride. Kelbin snapped his attention to Lodory. “As I was saying,” he began, “we’ve upgraded LGM 4. I’ve made a few special modifications myself… Anyway, we’ve increased its maximum acceleration to 20 meters per second squared- a little over 2 gees- which is more than enough to overcome Kerbin’s gravity, let alone the Mun’s. The plasma contactors can handle the extra static charge buildup if you keep the xenon tank filled. We’ve also restored the saucer’s structural reinforcements to be on par with a standard Flapjack- but that’s not an excuse to crash my saucer! I can’t think of anything else. You flew it once before, so the controls should already be familiar to you.”

Parie handed Kelbin a navigation map of the Mun, several areas were marked. “Courtesy of the Kerbal Intelligence Agency,” she said. “When they staged the Munar Science Rover 2’s accident, they took over control of it and drove around the Mun in search of anomalies. They cataloged all the ones they found, but you’ll note here and here that they didn’t investigate- finding the saucer put a halt to their explorations. I’m sure the monoliths are of interest to you, but you might want to check the ones that they missed.

“One last thing,” Parie said. “I can’t just let you go alone, so Danrick will be going with you. She’ll monitor you for signs of distress and make sure you don’t die out there by yourself.”

Kelbin nodded, understanding. “I appreciate the company,” he said.

 

A short time later, they were on their way...

*

 

The A-51D gravitic flying saucer carefully lowered itself into a deep crater in the Munar Lowlands in search of an anomaly. Thus far, the anomalies that they’d found had all been black monoliths. That was good for potential graviolium mining sites, but they didn’t help Kelbin have another of his visions. When they finally reached the bottom, they spotted their quarry: another black monolith.

 

Kelbin sighed as he hovered the saucer next to the monolith, then shot straight up and out of the crater. Once clear, he plugged in the coordinates to the next anomaly and floored it. The gravitic saucer leapt forward, trailing plasma discharge as he went. They caught a fantastic view of Kerbin rising above the munar landscape as they sped towards their next destination.

 

Not long after, they arrived. “Looks like another black monolith,” Danrick said disappointingly.

“Yeah,” Kelbin responded, “on to the next one.” He tapped in the coordinates to the final anomaly and spun the saucer around while it hovered. He really liked the true VTOL capabilities of the saucer; it could hover upside down if he wanted!

Once more the saucer sped off. A few minutes later, they arrived at their destination.

“Uh, that’s no monolith,” Danrick said. Kelbin stopped and hovered the saucer a few meters above the ground. He looked up from his instruments- it was pitch black outside. The anomaly lit up by the landing lights was definitely no monolith…

 

“Oh wow,” Kelbin exasperated. He circled around the… monument… and found a plaque with strange writings on it. He recognized the alien language as Annunaki. Kelbin set the gravitic saucer down and the two astronauts exited the craft.

 

“What nation is that,” Danrick asked, pointing at the flag after they took a documentary image.

 

Kelbin shrugged. “Presumably, it belongs to the Annunaki,” he suggested. Whatever this monument was, he knew that it was the anomaly that they were searching for.

Without a second thought, Kelbin bent down and touched the “ground” of the monument…

*

“Say hello to our friends,” Major Tomlin Kerman said. Ever since the vonKermans launched their orbital warship, the Kerman States have kept a trio of Avengers co-orbiting nearby. If it made a move, the Avengers made a countermove. Today, Major Tomlin brought Avenger 18 in close, less than a hundred meters. As others have done in the past, he wagged the Avenger’s wings as they flew by, and as before, there was no response.

“I don’t think anybody’s home,” Captain Bertrand Kerman said. He was right, but the vonKermans were watching from the ground. The good will building between the two nations required trust, and after what they discovered, that trust was broken. It was time to place another strategy piece on the board…

 

At the Kerbin Galactic Launch Complex, a new vehicle took to the skies, its payload shrouded inside a large fairing. After a brief time in orbit, the craft burned for the Mun, arriving in orbit a day later. Within an hour the vehicle made a series of burns that made it readily apparent where it was headed...

Edited December 30, 2019 by Angel-125

[fulgur]

So these are Norse American aliens? Love the flying saucer. But they are all going to die of some idiot sparking a war between the two nations. (Are they like WWII or like the Cold War? I'm still not quite sure).

[Angelo Kerman]

11 hours ago, fulgur said:

So these are Norse American aliens? Love the flying saucer. But they are all going to die of some idiot sparking a war between the two nations. (Are they like WWII or like the Cold War? I'm still not quite sure).

Norse American is a great way to put it. Not quite our real-life but there are a lot of parallels. It's definitely Cold War era, 1970-ish. The great thing about being on vacation? More time to play!

Chapter Nineteen: Revelations

As with the green monoliths, Kelbin's view of the world shifted. But this time, it was different. The images flooding through Kelbin's mind were a torrent (as in a lot, not a torent ). It felt like he lived a lifetime as someone else. Several lifetimes. Not as a kerbal, but as an Annunaki...

He saw a president give a rousing speech to visit Annunaki homeworld's natural satellite.

He saw a spacecraft orbiting a moon, with their homeworld in the background:

He saw two Annunaki walking the surface of the moon for the first time:

He saw a space station created by several nations:

And many more images. He lived as several different Annunaki from many diverse cultures, nations that were at time at odds with other, and other times they worked in unison. Not unlike the nations of Kerbin...

 

That unity proved to be a great strength of the Annunaki. They worked best together, embracing their diversity instead of letting it divide them. And it was needed, for the Annunaki's homeworld was invaded..

Something one of their presidents had hinted might happen someday. As one, the Annunaki fought back:

And the conflict was brutal and bloody...

Unsure of the survival of their species, the Annunaki reverse-engineered several of the invader's craft and used them to escape..

Two such craft arrived in the Kerbol system nearly two hundred thousand years ago. But the craft were fatally struck by a Kraken strike- a fault line in the local space-time slipped at just the wrong moment, sending one craft crashing into the Mun and the other into Kerbin. There were only a small handful of survivors on Kerbin, and none of the precious cargo needed to restart their civilization survived impact.

Facing extinction, the Annunaki built monuments to their legacy, found a promising semi-amphibian species and, they infused Annunaki DNA into the amphibians' own...

Kelbin blinked and looked up. He was back on the Moon. Er, the Mun. He checked his watch, then looked around. What felt like lifetimes passed in just a few seconds.

"Are you ok, Major," Danrick asked.

"Yeah," Kelbin said finally. "I think so."

"What did you see?"

"Everything," he said simply. He paused a few moments, lost in thought. "There's nothing else for us here, let's mark the location and head back to the Saucer Works."

The two astronauts returned to their flying saucer, and Kelbin took one last look at the Annunaki monument.

His vision gave him a slight headache, so he pressed his hand to his forehead and briefly closed his eyes to quell it. When it subsided, he looked up again.

"Neil Armstrong," Kelbin said. He recognized him as one of the first to walk on the Moon.

"Armstrong? Isn't that the name of MSR-1," Danrick asked, "one of the gods from ancient Kerman scripture?"

"Yeah," Kelbin chuckled. "I guess the ancients learned some Annunaki names and wrote them down."

The gravitic saucer lifted off of the munar surface. A few minutes later, they were back at the Saucer Works.

Not long after, they had company...

*

Major Gedra hit the alert siren. “Action stations! Action stations! All personnel to your action stations! Don your EVA suits! Stand by to repel invaders! Lt. Colonel Parie to the command center!”

Immediately, base personnel began scrambling into their space suits and running to their designated areas. By the time the base was ready for combat, an armed rover had landed nearby.

“Lt. Colonel,” Gedra began, “It’s the vonKermans. They demand our immediate. surrender or they’ll open fire. They also say that anything lifting off the surface will be fired upon without warning.”

“This isn’t the Arctic research station,” Parie retorted. “Let’s show them what we got.”

Suddenly, another armed rover appeared, this one from under the konkrete platform supporting Saucer Works. it turned towards its vonKerman counterpart. Both vehicles locked onto each other.

 

*

After the wireless signal ended and the base’s computers returned to normal, numerous diagnostics concluded that nothing was wrong. Team Bill tried unsuccessfully to reproduce the signal to no avail. Since they could continue their tests remotely just as well as being on site, they decided to return to the Arcology.

Ernst activated the remote controls on the Munbus to guide it on the first part of its journey. She armed the VTOL rockets and taxied the craft away from the campsite before launching the Munbus into the sky.

After exiting the atmosphere, she turned the ship around in preparation for landing. A few minutes later, she accidentally hit the emergency chutes, but either Karl or Bobus could repack them. Seconds later, the Munbus was safely on the ground about 8km away from the Arcology.

 

“Not bad, Ernst,” Bill said. “It’s the middle of the night there, let’s taxi the Munbus to the Arcology and give them something to wake up to.”

An urgent message on the communications panel caught Bill’s attention. It was Bobak. Bill started the recorded video. He looked very pale.

“There’s no other way to say this,” Bobak began. “Our desert research station, where the KSC special project was located…”

 

*

The next day, Team Bill woke up early and boarded the Duna Flyer IV, taking the results of their science experiments for further analysis. Nobody spoke; they’d heard the news of the accident at KSP’s project in the Great Desert. There were rumors that it was no accident, but no proof. But so many good people were gone...

The flight around Duna took the better part of a day and landed without incident. Valentina gave the whole team a couple of days off to process the news.

 

The next evening, the team got together and deployed the Arcology’s first factory facility and some new drilling rigs. It gave them something to focus upon. With the factory churning out equipment and konkrete, it didn’t take long to accumulate enough resources for the second factory. With both churning out resources, the remaining elements of the Arcology came together quickly.

 

There was nothing more to do to finish the Jebediah Kerman Arcology, but Valentina’s mission to establish Minmus Station taught her to maximize the infrastructure before the next crew arrived. With a year left before they boosted for Kerbin, she set her sites on Duna Tanker Station as well as Duna’s natural satellite…

*

“The vonKermans are hailing us again,” Gedra said, “they want to talk to you.”

It had been several days since they arrived. They must be getting low on supplies. “Put them on audio,” she responded.

“This is Lieutenant Colonel Parie Kerman of the Kerman States Air Force,” she began. “To whom am I speaking to?”

“I am Oberst Lagatha vonKerman,” the responder stated. Her accent was light. And professional.

“The Lagatha vonKerman who went to Eve and landed on Gilly,” Parie asked.

“The same,” Lagatha responded simply.

“Well, it’s an honor to speak with you,” Parie began. “How can I help you?”

There was a brief pause. “I would like to discuss the situation with you in person.”

 

*

 

 “… And our atomic forces will launch the moment your orbiting craft do,” Lagatha retorted. “We can verbally spar all day until someone shoots, or…”

“Or what,” Parie asked.

Lagatha sighed. “My country is going bankrupt competing with yours in this space race,” she began. “How many launches have you seen us conduct of late?”

“Not many,” Parie admitted. “What does this have to do with your alternative to a shooting match?”

 

"When we celebrate our diversity and work together, we are at our best," Kelbin said, remembering the images from the Annunaki.

Lagatha smiled. He understood. “If we cannot compete,” Lagatha continued, “do you think that we’ll let you keep this saucer? We will fight for it and that fight will escalate. With your orbital atomic ‘Avenger’ craft and our atomic undersea missile boats and planes, the next war will truly be the last war for all Kerbalkin.”

Parie looked surprised, nobody knew that the VKR had undersea boats armed with atomic rockets...

Lagatha spoke again. “We both know that the World Court will spend years determining who will be able to research the Arctic Saucer,” she added. “If the existence of this saucer were revealed, do you think the World Court look favorably upon your country? I think not.”

“Go on,” Parie replied.

“But if this saucer were kept secret, both of our nations could reap the benefits,” Lagatha suggested. She looked at Kelbin. "And we can find a way to subtly share what we learn with the rest of the world."

“So instead of killing each other, you want to blackmail us to keep our saucer a secret in exchange for what, joint custody and shared research?”

“Exactly,” Lagatha responded. Then she pointed to everyone and added, “we are all explorers, yes? We seek knowledge. We seek our place in the cosmos…

She pointed to her crew. "When we orbited Kerbin, we saw no borders confining our countries. Instead we saw only a single fragile island in a vast sea of stars. When we left Kerbin, we did not see ourselves as giants. We were humbled as our world became small... Our orders are to secure the saucer through force. But we know where that path leads.

“So, before us we have two paths. We can destroy each of our nations over this wondrous technology. Or we set aside our differences, study this technology, share our knowledge, and use it to explore the cosmos. Together,” Lagatha proposed.

Parie nodded. Her idea had merit.

 

Edited January 1, 2020 by Angel-125

[RealKerbal3x]

@Angel-125 you are really cranking out chapters! It's interesting how you've linked the history of Kerbin with the history of Earth.