[Writing] PHADE, chapter 2: First Kerman in the Mun

[ZootinZack]

Second chapter of the Phantom Debris Initiative story. It got pretty insane up there.

You can read chapter 1 here !

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FIRST KERMAN IN THE MUN

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Bill carefully took a whiff of his flight suit. The smell was reminiscent of the time he had spent up there, on the Mun, years ago, but it also had a strong touch of... something else.

"Jeb! he shouted. What the heck did you do to my suit?"

Jeb turned around with an inquisitive look on his face, already in full attire - except the helmet. He seemed to try to remember something, and then burst out laughing.

"Oh well, he exclaimed, now THAT's a funny story. You remember that time I took the new guys 'up for a little test drive' of the Icarus rocket and got them up to 100 kilometers, spinning super fast, and then one of the guys couldn't stop screaming his face off, and when he came back we realized he had a little uh, 'accident'? Well..."

"Aw man..."

Bill put a leg up his suit, with extreme precaution.

"I didn't know you'd be putting it back on, Jeb justified. You should learn to have more fun in life."

"If having more fun is making recruits pee in other people's flight suits, I'll pass."

"It wasn't pee."

They stepped outside. Hundreds of cameras were rolling under the scorching heat of Kerbol, as all of Kerbin watched their heroes walking purposefully towards the revamped Poseidon IV shuttle, attempting what no Kerman had attempted before: a controlled, precise landing on the Mun surface to bring back one of their own.

Melman and Duncott, who had stepped out on the surface of the Mun to never come back, were assumed lost - no communication had been received from them, and their spacesuits could only hold oxygen for a few days at most. Their emergency remote EVA - which could be controlled from the capsule, and were implemented in case a Kerbonaut lost consciousness - were unresponsive. Of course in the official reports, only Tomson had gone to the Mun.

"This is fishy, Bob had said at the time. And Bill, Jeb's craziness has clearly rubbed on you. No way I'm restepping in that nightmare factory."

So Bill and Jeb, after not so much deliberation, had been the ones chosen for this extremely delicate mission. On paper, their mission was simple: retrieve Tomson Kerman, escape the Mun orbit, and return to Kerbin. Unofficially, they were also to report on the mysterious phantom debris that were orbiting the sub-surface's satellite.

Tomson had been communicating his findings on a daily basis. It seemed the number of PDs had been reduced to only two according to his readings. He seemed to get more unstable by the day, grumbling incoherences and often passing the time by banging his head against his helmet. The "thud, thud" sound of it had soon became a sinister staple in the command control room: he was holding it together, but not for much longer. The Center's psychologist was attributing both Tomson's present behaviour and the missing Kerbonauts' to "stress-related brain trauma", and training of new recruits had been adjusted to include seemingly impossible scenarios... such as encountering objects orbiting inside the Mun. Jeb was of the opinion that "their minds just broke, it happens you know."

Since the debris was moving inside the Mun quite independently from the surface, they had a very small window of time to make the trip, get Tomson, get all the info they could get their hands on about the PDs, and jet back to Kerbin. The good news was the debris' orbit had finally brought it under sunlight; it was actually going to stay there for a while, facilitating its study.

Jeb strapped himself in the pod with an elated smile on his face, and watched as Bill did the same, a little more begrudgingly. He patted his shoulderpad.

"Come on man, this is going to be SWEET!" Jeb said.

"That's how you call an absolutely dreadful flight with a borderline sociopath to a small lump of rock thousands of klicks away?"

"Lighten up, Jeb scoffed. You could be in the monitoring room, sitting next to our half-brain dead friend here. Hi Bob!"

"Screw you, Jeb, I hope you crash!" Bob said in a light-hearted tone.

"I love you too!"

"Good luck you crazy bastards."

Bill had to admit, for all his reserve, that his blood hadn't pumped in his veins in this fashion for a long time. Even Bob, who, as Jeb gently stated, had been rather extinguished since they came back from the Mun - immediately requesting a transfer to another branch of the Space Program - , was showing hints of excitement towards the mission, planning courses, even devising a more precise back radar to study the debris' movement under the surface.

"All systems a go, Jeb said, verifying the controls for one last time. Command?"

"Command stand-by for launch in ten..."

The engines started heating up, and soon roared. Around them, dust and smoke was forming and rapidly evaporating in a chaos of white flashes. The rocket lifted itself, ever so slowly at first.

They were going to the Mun.

All the while they were travelling to the Mun, Jeb kept Tomson occupied.

"So man, what's new in your life?"

"Uuuh..."

"I'm telling you there are ALL SORTS of freaky girls just waiting to jump on you when we go back."

"Uh, ha ha. Ok. Cool."

"No, I don't think you understand. There was a SEA of sexy vixens at the launchpad, throwing us their panties and screaming 'Give this to Tomson!' It was pretty awesome."

Jeb had neglected to mention that the panty throwing had been, first of all, mostly directed at him, and secondly, was the handiwork of two or three old grandmas.

"So we're going to have one hell of a party when we come back. Listen, have you ever been to Kerlifornia? It's beautiful out there. The sea, the babes, there are stands where you can buy sunglasses for like 3 kerbucks, and a literal infinity of surprising drinks like the Space Kraken, do you know what that is?"

"Uh, no..."

"Well, see, they take this whole gallon of vodka and a big bag of Skerttles..."

This went on for a few hours. The Mun was closing by. Bill piloted a textbook orbit around it and managed to get their landing point within two kilometers of Tomson's capsule. (Writer's note: hey, it's the best I can do for now)

"Control, we got visual on Tomson. Can you see?"

Bob's distant voice cracked through the speakers.

"Affirmative, we got visual. All eyes on you, guys."

"Tomson, you ready to rejoin the world of the living?"

"Preparing for EVA as we speak. I'm going out."

All in all, it had been a month since Tomson had first landed on the Mun. He was hopping the surface happilly. Everyone could hear him hum an enthusiastic, albeit wildly musically incorrect, rendition of "Fly Me to the Mun".

And right after what sounded like the second chorus, it stopped abruptly, followed by a loud screeching noise. Then, nothing.

Bill looked frantically at all the readings.

"He's gone, Tomson's gone. He was there, RIGHT THERE - Bill pointed at the screen -, a second ago. He just up and vanished."

"He didn't vanish, Jeb said in an uncharacteristical, hushed voice. Sweep a back radar."

"But..."

"Do it!"

Bill gasped, then slowly put his mouth to the microphone.

"Uuuh Control, we've got a problem."

Jeb looked at Bill in disbelief.

"A "problem? No. Nononononono. Your wife's fat butt is a "problem". Not having clean underwear when you're about to go on a date with Kerstina Aguilera is a "problem". Dude's trapped on an orbit here. Under the surface. OF THE MUN. We are far beyond Problemland here, and fast heading to Crapstatic City."

He paused, and let out a high-pitched laugh.

"The kid's got me beaten! He's the first Kerman IN the Mun!"

Then, regaining his composure, continued:

"Bill, you got this? You have eyes on this right now?"

"Yes, although they can't believe what they're seeing."

"Now that's what I call a sub-orbital trajectory, am I right guys? ... No? Okay, okay. Too soon... Uuuuh can you send us readings from above?"

"Okay, got it. We're going to try and retrieve him."

Bill protested as Jeb pressed a few buttons, initiating the engines.

"But you know what happened to those PDs when they tried to approach them!"

"Yeah. They exploded and disappeared. But I'm waging it beats ramming through the surface of the Mun repeatedly. If anything we OWE him the right to explode. Plus, this is an unknown phenomenon. It might not react the same way with organic tissue."

Bill pondered. Jeb was right. Considering all the unknowns, they had two choices: leave Tomson there, or try to go save him. There was no other way.

"Okay, Bill said, suppose we could do it, what do we do next?"

"Check it out. You remember those new emergency remote-controlled EVA suits they brought out, a few years after our trip?"

"Yes, Bob had fainted on the surface, and you had to go and bring him back before he used up all his oxygen."

"Snoring, might I add. So yeah. We'll have to gain access to his command pod..."

"Because that's where the only remote control for the suit is."

That was a precaution, ironically, that had been necessary due to Jeb's intempestive misuse of this very entertaining function to send various recruits flying off in random paths.

"Then, Jeb continued, we'll have to get near his position. You'll be in the pod, controlling Tomson's jetpack, and I'll get as near to him as I can to guide you. Now go."

Bill put on his EVA suit, and stepped outside.

"Should take me about a minute to get there," Bob said, activating his jetpack. Jetting was a tricky business in general, and the uneven surface of the Mun made it all the more treacherous. The, shall we say, "experimenting" nature of the average Kerman made the whole thing downright dangerous, but Bill, except from a brief period in college, had never really been the experimenting type.

After their successful Mun landing, an inordinate amount of the time had been spent analyzing and re-analyzing their various personalities, to try and recreate the feeling of the "Three Munketeers", as they had been called in the press. Jeb had been the fire, of course, and Bob the earth. Bill was the water, flowing through obstacles, never putting himself in an unsafe zone, always leaving a door open. Of course to Jeb, this was beyond infuriating.

"Bob, trajectory please?" Jeb said.

"There is... There is no trajectory," Bob replied. Jeb interjected:

"I didn't say a 'safe' trajectory, Bob. I said 'a trajectory'."

"Okay well... Uuuh... There you go, 32 degrees north, 5 degrees west, and keep it at about a 43 degrees inclination, and also..."

Jeb pushed the lever to the top. The engines roared.

"...Don't go full throttle!" Bill completed.

"Bill, you're there? I've got Tomson in about one minute here... and if you're right, and if he's going to smash back on the surface, we got one shot at this."

Silence.

"I'm in, Bill grunted. Got the emergency remote... Right there."

"Okay let's roll."

Jeb caught a glitter of light, as if it came from the surface of the Mun itself. Kerbol refraction, he thought.

Off Tomson's helmet.

He saw the Kerbonaut shoot out of the surface at an impossible speed.

"Got it. I got visual."

"So now?" Bill shouted.

"No, not now."

"He's only going to build up altitude!"

"Yes. He will also lose speed, that'll make him easier to control. Give him momentum right now, he's gonna shoot up like a rocket."

Jeb waited until Tomson shot up, now only a glimmer over the black sky.

"Okay now."

He could see the trail of vapor come out of the jetpack.

It was working.

"Okay we got him. Control, we got him. We're going to lower him down to the surface, then I'm landing this thing. Bill? Slow burn to the ground. Slow... Kill some momentum left..."

Tomson violently shot sideways.

"Sorry, right... Okay stop. Now straight down, 2 seconds intervals, one shot. One, two, three... There you go. He's stable. Control, he's stable. I'm taking this baby down."

Jeb slow burnt to the surface, passing Tomson on the way. His limp legs were jittering with every shot of jetpack. Lifelessly, Jeb thought. Jittering lifelessly. His heart sank, as he felt the landing gear bite into Mun dust. Hard as he tried, this wasn't a game anymore; it hadn't been since Duncott and Melman had disappeared.

"Go on Bill. He's at two hundred, descending. Nice and slow."

Tomson's body hit the ground softly. Jeb tried a half-hearted shout out:

"Tomson? You there, buddy? He's not responding, Control. Bill, I'm gonna go check it out. Look out for those debris in the meantime, it seems we created one more when we let our lower stage go."

This was good news to the monitoring room back home: it meant the phenomenon was probably repeatable. But it was of little comfort to Jeb at this time.

"It's over man, it's over... Jeb said, to no one in particular. Let's get you outta here now..."

He scooped the lifeless form in his arms.

"Aren't you gonna buy a guy a drink first?"

Tomson opened his eyes slightly. They were bloodshot, his skin was pale as a skinny top model. But he was alive.

"Dude, Jeb said, a tear rolling down his cheek, we are SO going to have the party of a lifetime when we come back!"

Tomson got agitated.

"No. No we can't go back. We can't go back. We can't."

He struggled with Jeb's grasp, escaping him. Jeb tried to laugh it off.

"Uh, we kinda have to, buddy."

"We can't. We can't."

"Okay okay okay. We're not going back. Alright? We're not. I brought a few cases of beer, we got umbrellas, we got beach balls... You know what, we're good right here. Okay?"

That seemed to calm him down.

"Okay," Tomson said.

"But we have to get them from the pod, okay? I'm gonna need your help. Bill, you joining us?"

"Uuuh sure. Gimme a minute. Checking out something here."

Tomson started walking towards the capsule, mumbling to himself.

"The light... We can't go back... We have to be here... We HAVE to be here..."

"What the hell is going on, Jeb?" Bill's voice cracked in his headphone.

"I got no idea, but I think it's going to be an interesting flight back."

They boarded the capsule. By that point, Jeb was honestly considering giving Tomson a taste of his own medicine, and knocking him out for at least long enough to de-orbit the Mun, and get on with their lives.

Not that he didn't know how Tomson felt. Okay, he had NO idea how Tomson felt. Being the first Kerman in the Mun was totally something else, and the kid probably deserved a break from the multiple orbits he did right to the Mun's core. But he knew the feeling of wanting to stay, wanting to see, wanting to understand. And it seemed about the Mun like there was so much more to understand than they initially thought. Was it too much? Jeb had always asked himself the question. Going for "too much" had always been his style though. That was why he had become a Kerbonaut.

The hatch door opening made him jump. Bill's head popped in.

He removed his helmet, his eyes glowing from a mixture of excitement and apprehension. He shot a quick nod at Tomson but, oddly, it seemed like there was more important matter at hand. He went to the screen and typed a few keys.

"I uplinked a picture from Tomson's capsule. I started to go through the pictures they took from last mission, wondering if we missed something, I thought he had died, so..."

He turned to Tomson.

"...Sorry." He continued: "Remember how we went over those pictures again and again back at Control?"

Jeb remembered vividly the countless nights spent perusing every pixel of every single of the hundreds of pictures from the PHADE mission. Both Bill and him had them committed to memory.

"Well, Bill said, I found one picture that wasn't at Control."

"When I saw it I just thought it was bizarre and out of order. But then I remembered what PHADE-1 told us, right before they entered the PD hot zone. That they saw something unusual..."

"...By the crater, cut Tomson, rocking himself. We have to be here. By the crater."

"So check it out. It's right there. Here, let me zoom in."

"Holy Kerballs." Jeb whispered.

Tomson was still rocking himself but, on catching sight of the picture, became suddenly very still. He pointed towards the hatch.

"The light, he said. We can't go. We have to be here."

[Accelerando]

This really deserves more love! Sorry for the late response. Your dialogue formatting is shaping up nicely in this installment~ Story's doing a good job of keeping my attention and bringing focus to the characters, too, in my estimation.

Good luck with the next chapter!

[ZootinZack]

Thanks! I'm keeping it coming, might include a video next time.

[Tommy99534]

Awesomeness. Keep it coming.Any idea when the next one comes out?

[Tommy99534]

Love it. When the next coming out? I think i have an idea what the PD's are! afgushuyfrsafishrmunolithgudh8reyghre <-------Hint

[ZootinZack]

Emulating the KSP devs, I will say it's gonna come out... when it's ready