Darkness: Diving to the bottom of Laythe's oceans

[Wizard Kerbal]

     SPLASH! The carrier craft had splashed down at Laythe, after an uncomfortable re-entry in a submarine.

     Jeb had been far away from kerbin before. he never really thought it was lonely, until he landed on Duna. On the Mun, Minmus and Gilly, there was the company of the stars, which always warranted a smile, looking out of the command pod, or in rare cases, the observatory's windows. But there was only a hazy red atmosphere. The thought truly dawned on him. The closest kerbals, beside his friends next to him, were about 20 billion kilometres away. The same thought happened here, as he exited the landing craft and only saw ocean, blue skies, and the green giant.

     He throttled up the engines, and pointed down. At 800 meters, it was getting dark, but there was no clear sign of the bottom. Bill, next to him was terrified, refusing to look out of the windows. He was 2 kilometres deep when he saw the bottom. He requested bill change the altitude relative to terrain, but refused as that would require him to look up.

    Jeb started to get it. There was nothing on Laythe. The oceans were completely silent, other than the engine. Back on Kerbin, there were tons of fish and whales that could be heard, and he was just off the coast of the KSC(If he looked, he could probably find vectors from failed booster recoveries)! The oceans weren't even deep enough to be close to what one could call darkness. But here, the only light was of the sub's own. 1. The sun was dim this far away, and 2. it was blocked out by the ocean. Jeb looked up, confirming this. He was too terrified to continue the mission. He ditched the ore tanks, opened the ballast tank, and ascended at 8.0 m/s. It was too slow, but going faster would result in damage.

     Ever since this mission, my mind process has been different. Before, I went wherever my next milestone is, sending small crewed missions with 1 or 2 person landers. Now it's all or nothing. Beyond kerbin's SOI I send proper teams of kerbals, 5 - 7, with longer stays, the longest being 20 days. And they have pre-sent infrastructure like rovers and habitats, exploring multiple biomes. Not just, " K bob do science, re-dock and return home "

Edited April 15, 2021 by Wizard Kerbal