Wanderer's Gambit: A KSP Fanfiction [Part 1: Rover Maintenance]

[LittleBitMore]

Hello! This is a new fanfiction I'm writing, inspired by masterful works such as Project Voyage. This will be a long project and will take a long time to complete.

I make all illustrations myself using heavily modded KSP1. All craft I make are my own unless specified otherwise. All craft and bases function for their intended purpose and can perform the feats shown in the story unless specified otherwise.

Modlist (for illustrations):

Spoiler

NOTE: Modlist prone to extreme fluctuations. I add, remove, exchange, and replace mods basically every time I boot up the game.

Action Groups Extended (AGExt 1:2.4.1.3)
AirPark ReContinued (AirParkContinued 2:1.7.1.7)
Airships (Heisenberg v2.19.2)
AT Utils (AT-Utils v1.10.1)
B9 Part Switch (B9PartSwitch v2.20.0)
Benjee10 sharedAssets (Benjee10-SharedAssets v0.2.2)
BetterTimeWarpContinued (BetterTimeWarpCont 2.3.13)
BonVoyage (BonVoyage 1:1.4.1)
Breaking Ground (BreakingGround-DLC 1.7.1)
Camera Tools continued (CameraTools v1.34.0)
Classic Stock Resources (ClassicStockResources v1.2.2)
ClickThrough Blocker (ClickThroughBlocker 1:2.1.10.21)
Community Category Kit (CommunityCategoryKit v112.0.1)
Community Resource Pack (CommunityResourcePack v112.0.1)
Community Tech Tree (CommunityTechTree 1:3.4.4)
Community Terrain Texture Pack (CommunityTerrainTexturePack 1:1.0.5)
Configurable Containers (ConfigurableContainers 2.6.2.1)
Conformal Decals (ConformalDecals 0.2.12)
Cryo Tanks (CryoTanks 1.6.5)
Cryo Tanks Core (CryoTanks-Core 1.6.5)
Custom Pre Launch Checks (CustomPreLaunchChecks 1.8.1.1)
Deployable Engines Plugin (DeployableEngines 1.3.1)
Distant Object Enhancement /L (DistantObject v2.1.1.16)
Distant Object Enhancement /L default config (DistantObject-default v2.1.1.16)
Dynamic Battery Storage (DynamicBatteryStorage 2:2.2.5.0)
Environmental Visual Enhancements Redux (EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements 3:1.11.7.1)
EVE - Stock Planet Configs (EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements-HR 2:EVE-1.2.2-1)
Extraplanetary Launchpads (ExtraPlanetaryLaunchpads 6.99.3.0)
Far Future Technologies (FarFutureTechnologies 1.2.0)
Filter Extensions - Default Configuration (FilterExtensionsDefaultConfig 3.2.9)
Filter Extensions - Plugin (FilterExtensions 3.2.9)
Hab Tech Props (HabTechProps v0.2.0)
Hangar Extender (HangerExtenderExtended 3.6.0.2)
Harmony 2 (Harmony2 2.2.1.0)
Heat Control (HeatControl 0.6.1)
Heisenberg CRP Play Mode (Heisenberg-PlayMode-CRP v2.19.2)
HL Airships Core (HooliganLabsAirships 7.0.1.0R3)
HullcamVDS Continued (HullcamVDSContinued 0.2.2.1)
HyperEdit (HyperEdit 1.5.8.0)
JX2Antenna (JX2Antenna 2.0.5)
Kerbal Actuators (KerbalActuators v1.8.5)
Kerbal Atomics (KerbalAtomics 1:1.3.3)
Kerbal Attachment System (KAS 1.12)
Kerbal Engineer Redux (KerbalEngineerRedux 1.1.9.0)
Kerbal Foundries2 (KerbalFoundriesContinued 2.4.8.18)
Kerbal Inventory System (KIS 1.29)
Kerbal Joint Reinforcement Continued (KerbalJointReinforcementContinued v3.7.4.0)
Kerbal Konstructs (KerbalKonstructs v1.8.6.1)
Kerbal Planetary Base Systems (KerbalPlanetaryBaseSystems v1.6.16)
Kerbal Wind Tunnel (WindTunnel 1.3.1.1)
KerBalloons Continued (KerBalloons 1:0.5.0.15)
Konstruction (Konstruction v112.0.1)
Kopernicus Planetary System Modifier (Kopernicus 2:release-1.12.1-198)
kOS: Scriptable Autopilot System (kOS 1:1.4.0.0)
Kronal Vessel Viewer Continued (KVVContinued 0.1.1)
KSP Community Fixes (KSPCommunityFixes 1.35.0)
KSP GroundEffect (GroundEffect v1.1.1-catalpa)
KSP Recall (KSP-Recall v0.4.1.0)
KSP Wheel (KSPWheel 1:0.16.14.33)
Making History (MakingHistory-DLC 1.12.1)
MechJeb 2 (MechJeb2 2.14.3.0)
Missing Robotics (MissingRobotics 1)
Mk2 Stockalike Expansion (Mk2Expansion 2:1.9.1.4)
Mk3 Stockalike Expansion (Mk3Expansion 1.6.1.4)
Moar Filter Extension Configs (MoarFEConfigs 1.0.5.2)
ModularFlightIntegrator (ModularFlightIntegrator 1.2.10.0)
More Servos (MoreServos v1.2.0)
Near Future Aeronautics (NearFutureAeronautics 2.1.1)
Near Future Construction (NearFutureConstruction 1.3.1)
Near Future Electrical (NearFutureElectrical 1.2.3)
Near Future Electrical Core (NearFutureElectrical-Core 1.2.3)
Near Future Exploration (NearFutureExploration 1.1.2)
Near Future IVA Props (NearFutureProps 1:0.7.1)
Near Future Propulsion (NearFuturePropulsion 1.3.5)
Near Future Solar (NearFutureSolar 1.3.2)
Near Future Solar Core (NearFutureSolar-Core 1.3.2)
Near Future Spacecraft (NearFutureSpacecraft 1.4.3)
Omega's Stockalike Structures: No Textures Required (StockalikeStructures 0.0.12)
OPT Reconfig (OPTReconfig 3.4.1)
OPT Spaceplane Continued (OPTSpacePlaneMain 1:3.1.1)
Outer Planets Mod (OuterPlanetsMod 2:2.2.10)
Outer Planets Mod - Parallax with Scatters (Parallax-OuterPlanetsMod v1.0.5)
Parallax (Parallax 2.0.6)
Parallax - Stock Planet Textures (Parallax-StockTextures 2.0.0)
Parallax - Stock Scatter Textures (Parallax-StockScatterTextures 2.0.1)
Parking Brake (ParkingBrake 0.4.4)
Patch Manager (PatchManager 0.0.17.6)
Pathfinder (Pathfinder v1.40.4)
Pathfinder CRP Play Mode (Pathfinder-PlayMode-CRP v1.40.4)
PlanetShine (PlanetShine 0.2.6.6)
PlanetShine - Default configuration (PlanetShine-Config-Default 0.2.6.6)
Planetside Exploration Technologies (PlanetsideExplorationTechnologies 1.0.2)
RasterPropMonitor (RasterPropMonitor 1:v0.31.13.4)
RasterPropMonitor Core (RasterPropMonitor-Core 1:v0.31.13.4)
ReStock (ReStock 1.4.3)
ReStock+ (ReStockPlus 1.4.3)
SCANsat (SCANsat v20.4)
Scatterer (Scatterer 3:v0.0838)
Scatterer Default Config (Scatterer-config 3:v0.0838)
Scatterer Sunflare (Scatterer-sunflare 3:v0.0838)
Servo Controller (ServoController v1.2.1)
Shabby (Shabby 0.3.0.0)
Smart Parts (SmartParts 1.10)
Space Dust (SpaceDust 0.4.4)
SpaceTux Library (SpaceTuxLibrary 0.0.8.6)
Stockalike Mining Extension (StockalikeMiningExtension 1.1.6)
Stockalike Station Parts Expansion Redux (StationPartsExpansionRedux 2.0.10)
System Heat (SystemHeat 0.6.0)
TextureReplacer (TextureReplacer v4.5.3)
Textures Unlimited (TexturesUnlimited 1.5.10.25)
Toolbar Controller (ToolbarController 1:0.1.9.11)
Trajectories (Trajectories v2.4.5.3)
TweakScale - Rescale Everything! (TweakScale v2.4.7.6)
TweakScale Companion (the "UberPaket") (TweakScaleCompanion 2024.02.20.0)
TweakScale Redistributable (TweakScale-Redist v2.4.7.6)
USI Tools (USITools v112.0.1)
VesselMover Continued (VesselMoverContinued v1.12.0)
Waterfall Core (Waterfall 0.9.0)
Wild Blue Tools (WildBlueTools v1.90.1)
WildBlueIndustries CRP Play Mode (WildBlue-PlayMode-CRP v1.90.1)

Without further ado, here's Part 1!

Part 1: Rover Maintenance

Spoiler

This world was not a vibrant or thriving one. Dull, lifeless, and bland. Winds blew and whistled, storms rumbled and churned, but there wasn’t even a semblance of something reminiscent of a bird singing or a wolf howling at the moon. Boulders and slabs of rock lazily dotted the rusty sands that covered this world, but there were no trees, no rivers or lakes, no wild animals searching for food. Nothing could survive in this frozen desert wasteland.

And yet, there was an allure to the void of life. An unscathed world, entirely devoid of the influence of biology and biochemistry, left to the whims and mercy of geology. A world which never dealt with root erosion, oxygenation events, or chalk deposits. A world of untampered silence, a world with a purity never before experienced by a living creature. This ethereal quiet and peaceful serenity of the Duna landscape, untouched and pure for billions of years, was birdsong in and of itself, and nothing could ever shatter its sterile tranquility.

CLANG, CLANG, CLANG!  “Agh, you lousy good-for-nothing bucket of bolts, WORK already!”

That is, until the kerbals found it and began colonizing it.

By some means, either through skill, tenacity, or dumb luck, the kerbals managed to establish a permanent presence on Duna. There were multiple small outposts erected on Duna’s surface. They were self-sufficient, though they all relied on the support of eachother to prevent shutdown-- one base was good at extracting water from the soil, one base was skilled with refining radioactive materials, one base was capable of assembling rockets.

This base, the PREcious MInerals and Exotics REfinery (PREMIERE), had the capability of refining many resources-- iron, silver, water, even gold. This majestic facility, a testament to the skill/tenacity/dumb luck of kerbalkind, happened to be the longest-operated permanent establishment of several on Duna’s surface. It was comprised of 4 primary structures: a habitation tower, an ore collection tower, a logistics/refinery building, and a majestic solar array tower to keep it all powered.

It wasn’t easy to forget how impressive such an accomplishment and feat was, but Sidnie Kerlin, one of the few engineers operating the skeleton crew at PREMIERE, managed it anyways. Despite its immense capabilities, she could only focus on what it unfortunately lacked, and what it unfortunately seemed to be incapable of supporting: zeonium extraction.

Sidnie threw another wrench at the atmospheric sieve from the vantage point of the boom arm of the maintenance rover. CLANG! Impressively, even after having already thrown four wrenches, she procured more from the pockets of her utility belt. CLANG, CLANG!

“Sidnie, what’s all that racket?” crackled a voice over the intercom-- namely, one of the other few members of the skeleton crew, Cambin Keremone. Since he was in the water refinery room, overseeing machinery extracting water from raw ore, he was attached to the same building the sieve was, and probably heard Sidnie’s attempts at percussive maintenance and/or anger management. “Is the sieve fan stuck?”

Sidnie sighed, collected her bearings, and spoke into the intercom, “No, it isn’t-- listen, the sound and whatever caused it is not important right now. I think this zeonium filter for the sieve is designed for Kerbin’s atmosphere.”

“Pardon me? It-- huh?” Cambin stammered incredulously. “You’re telling us we got shipped Kerbin equipment for our Duna refinery, from a Duna construction facility, through Duna logistics? You do understand how this sounds completely bonkers, right?”

“I was stuck on that too,” replied Sidnie. “I’ve been troubleshooting this kraken-posessed sieve for days now, and I suspected this from the beginning. Like you, I didn’t believe it. It seems to be working fine, except it has some stuff to work around the presence of oxygen, and nothing to deal with Duna dust.”

Cambin, still very confused, responds, “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would it be like that? How could anyone have made this kind of mistake along the supply chain?”

Sidnie defended her judgement and snapped, “Beats me. Do you, for whatever reason, need to come up here and check for yourself?”

“No, no, I trust your expertise. Listen, you sound stressed, do you need a break?”

Sidnie sighed, and replied, “Yeah, maybe that would be for the best. Let me go pick up my wrenches.”

“Wrenches?”

“Never mind that.” Sidnie said, using the EVA seat controls to lower the arm to a point where she could hop off of it safely.

Were they ever going to do anything about the old solar panel tower? Probably not. It was heavy and there were more important things to do with the big construction vehicles on or around Duna.

She walked around, picking up her wrenches, thinking of what she could do next. She could brew a cup of tea, that usually helped her calm down. She could watch some KerbTube, though she hadn’t downloaded any new videos, and the bandwidth out here was so terrible that she typically had to do that in advance if she wanted to watch anything at a better resolution than 144p. She could just hide in bed with her soft blankets and be done with the world. Once she collected all her projectile percussive maintenance tools, she headed back to the habitation module.

But just as she was entering the airlock, the small display on her wrist lit up as she heard a notification beep.

She tapped on the notification on her wrist display, opening up an email. It read:

URGENT NOTICE: Duna Logistics Rover unit J-7 has stopped responding. Suspected to be a computer malfunction. Currently carrying hazardous materials (1 canister of spent nuclear fuel, 1 canister of explodium). To all civilians, scientists, and pilots, for your safety, please do not approach it. To any available engineers, please visit the rover and assess the damage, and please report if you were able to successfully return it to operation. - Kirvey Kerfen, Head of Public Safety (Duna Branch)

Immediately after she read the message, several other beeps continued-- replies to the original email.

GreyWater Absolvement and Habitation cannot spare an engineer, we are busy unclogging our greywater pump. - GWAH

Fuel Outpost Of Landers and Spaceplanes has no engineers. All our engineers are civilians with engineer licenses given to them by a reputable engineering program, much like licensed engineers, giving them the illusion of legitimacy. Unfortunately they are not suitable for this task. - FOOLS

Russet Skies has no available engineers. Our engineers are all celebrating the holiday Moar Boosters Day. We did not make it up. - Russet Skies

Dust Falls is a tourist site. We do not have engineers. We have tour guides. Why did you CC us? - Dust Falls

Every single establishment on Duna which had engineers said they were all busy, despite the fact the excuses were obviously empty and silly excuses.

Cambin appeared on the comms again. “Hey, Sidnie. So, you know how I just told you to take a break? About that--”

Sidnie hopped out of the airlock and hurled a wrench a good 20 meters in order to hit the wall of the room in which Cambin was working, interrupting his speech with a CLANG.

Sidnie shouted, “FINE. I will get in the STUPID MAINTENANCE ROVER and drive HALFWAY ROUND THE STUPID PLANET to FIX THIS STUPID ROVER, if you are simply TOO LAZY to do it yourself, just like everyone else on this STUPID PLANET.”

A quiet “Thanks,” was all Cambin could respond with.

Without another word, Sidnie collected multiple days’ worth of supplies, shoved them in the rover, sat in the chair, set a waypoint, and hurtled along the rough Dunatian terrain at a safe and healthy 25m/s.

She’d been piloting this rover for several years now, ever since she got hired to stay on Duna (a dream come true, one would incorrectly imagine), performing routine maintenance and helping to install new modules to existing bases. Usually, she worked at PREMIERE, seeing as her master’s degree was in geological engineering, perfect for a complicated base involving machinery and rocks.

This mission wasn’t abnormal (she often found herself going on maintenance trips to fix some poor tourist’s rover whose tires shredded themselves on a rock), though this was certainly one of the longer ones she’d had to perform via rover. If she didn’t need her equipment and repair arm, she would’ve just hailed a propellor plane to take her there in fifteen minutes. Though their speed and convenience were valuable assets somewhere as barren as Duna, she could probably have found one that wasn’t in use for anything important. Alas, it was not meant to be, as how else was she going to bring at least six projectile percussive maintenance tools?

She packed a few days’ worth of rations, perfect for 130km of driving. The service rover was a solar-powered rover that slept as she did, unable to drive for very long in the night before running out of battery, and thus the trip took much longer than it would have with a fancy nuclear rover. That’s fine, it’s not like she could’ve driven 6 hours a day without some sleep anyways. A 2-hour long sleep was more than enough for her, and she continued as soon as the sun appeared over the horizon.

After another hour of driving, she finally caught sight of the rover in question.

Sidnie didn’t usually have to send maintenance trips to unmanned logistics rovers. Those had been largely phased out a while ago for the convenience of VTOL cargo planes. Some short-term routes still used logistics rovers, but this one was relatively isolated, in the middle of a massive basin with too few resources to consider setting up refineries.

As she got closer, she saw the warning signs plastered on the resource canisters. Ah, of course, dangerous goods like this weren’t really put on SSTOs because pilots often benefitted from a high degree of stupidity that often was inconducive with the safe delivery of things like explodium or nuclear waste.

Of which this rover happened to be transporting both. This might be a fun repair session.

Her goal today, as the email outlined previously, was to assess the damage and get this rover operational again. It also stated the suspected cause was computer troubles, so she’d start there.

Sidnie steered the rover to align it next to the logistics rover and set the parking brake. The maintenance boom’s servos whirred quietly as they slowly maneuvered themselves to lower the chair at the end to a reachable position as Sidnie commanded with the controls. She put on her suit and exited the airlock.

To possibly save herself some work, she did a quick walk-around of the derelict logistics rover, and inspected for physical issues, inspecting and scrutinizing every detail she could. She turned on her recorder so she could play back and write down her notes later.

“Tires fine, intact, not much wear,” Sidnie spoke into the recorder installed in her helmet after looking over each tire and prodding them with wrenches. “Battery indicators on, batteries full. Solar panels are fine, clean enough for sure, sun-tracking working fine. Comms looks good from the outside.”

Sidnie crawled down underneath the rover and began inspecting its undercarriage for signs of damage. “Drive train looks fine, though a bit rusty. Axles fine too. Suspension looks okay, but front left tire needs some repairs soon. Steering looks okay.”

Sidnie stood back up and went down the mental checklist of things to work on next. Unfortunately, all signs pointed to her having to check the rover’s navigational systems, causing her to mumble, “Software. Figures.” and conjure mental images of incompetent programmers playing video games instead of fixing some obscure edge case she now had to deal with. She entered the chair on the maintenance boom, positioning it to allow herself to look at the computer interface from above.

She investigated the rover’s chassis. DLV J-7, it read. Duna Logistics Vehicle unit J-7.

The J class of logistics rover was a relatively recent one. Logistical engineers designed it for the use case of transporting volatile or fragile goods like this, in the likely event pilots are too incompetent to transport them safely. She recalled all the details she could: redundant battery systems, redundant solar panels, the most advanced navigational system for any rover, extra bracing for the hazardous material canisters, extra wide wheelset. It even had an emergency nuclear reactor to keep its most expensive canisters’ systems powered in the event of panel dusting or rollover. Everything on this rover is perfect for preventing unintended disasters.

The navigational system thing specifically meant this was going to be a fun debugging process.

She pried open the doors concealing the fragile electronics of the rover.

She sighed exasperatedly as she noticed the computer’s interface keyboard was glued to the wall of the computer. It would seem as if she would have to operate it by leaning over into the computer compartment and using her clumsy space suit gloves to operate a keyboard that has been glued to a wall. Perfect.

Sidnie left her chair, balanced herself on the rover’s chassis, and clumsily reoriented herself to access the computer keyboard. “Accessing computer, running syscheck.” Sidnie said, as she ran the command for systems check and read out each line into the recorder.

DESTINATION: RUSSET SKIES

BATTERY A: FULL

BATTERY B: FULL

BATTERY C: FULL

CANISTER A: SAFE (EXPLODIUM)

CANISTER B: SAFE (SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL)

SOLAR A: NOMINAL

This continued through all of the rover’s systems, until eventually, Sidnie noticed one thing amiss.

NAVIGATION: BUFFERING (1D 1H 21M 39S)

“Navigation systems buffering... for an entire day? What happened? ...Checking sensors,” Sidnie continued, reading out her findings.

She ran the commands to see the readouts of each sensor. The navcams were fine, they weren’t even dusty. The barometer, tachometers, and motor diagnostics sensors all seemed fine too. GPS was working great. So what was the issue?

“I’m going to try turning it off and then back on again,” Sidnie announced to her recorder.

navsys shutdown -r, she typed into the terminal.

The terminal responded with a simple message reminding her she forgot to say “sudo”. ERROR: Permission denied. User “externalcomputer” does not have the required privileges.

Sidnie sighed and facepalmed her suit helmet with her padded spacesuit glove. It was not a very effective facepalm.

sudo navsys shutdowmn -r, she tried, not noticing the typo caused by her bulky gloves.

ERROR: Unknown command “shutdowmn”.

“I HATE YOU,” Sidnie shouted at nobody in particular. Maybe the software engineers, maybe the engineers who are forcing her to uncomfortably lean over the edge of the rover to access the terminal, maybe the people who made her do this annoying task in the first place.

sudo navsys shutdown -r, she typed in once more, but before she could hit the enter key, the rover terminal interrupted with a NAVIGATION: ONLINE, and the rover rumbled beneath her.

The motors sprung to life, reversing sharply at full throttle. The jolt of the acceleration threw Sidnie backward. She slid down the nose of the rover as it reversed, scrabbling for anything to grab onto with her clumsy space suit gloves. By some miracle, her hands found a ledge to latch onto near the batteries.

Sidnie was not expecting this sort of behavior from a nonfunctional rover. She mentally cursed the software engineers once more with some very choice words as she tried to get a sturdier grasp on the rover before she fell off.

Unfortunately for her plans to hang on, the rover then decided to drift counterclockwise as it reversed, and Sidnie’s grasp on the battery was lost, and she fell off the nose of the rover.

Sidnie hit a boulder with a THUNK and an “OW”, and pain from the landing jolted through her ankle, which seemed to take the most of the impact. She stayed there for a bit, dazed, the wind knocked out of her. She turned her head and looked over at the automated rover, which drove off in the direction of Russet Skies to finish its delivery.

Sidnie took a breath and said into the recorder, “...Sidnie Kerman, reporting. I think rebooting it fixed it. Please tell the software engineer of the J series that they should go -- “

BEEEEP, sounded the alarm on her suit. She checked her wrist display.

SUIT PUNCTURE DETECTED. ESTIMATED TIME REMAINING WITH OXYGEN: 9 MINUTES

“Great, just great,” she said to nobody but herself. She shut off the recorder, shouted a few expletives. She looked over her suit, and noticed a small cut in the suit near one of her forearms, just barely big enough to be seen. “Today is going great.”

She slowly and unsteadily got to her feet. Her ankle vehemently disagreed with this choice and instead decided to not let her stand up. She fell back down on the ground with a pained few more expletives.

Sidnie would start panicking right now, except she already was panicking. Was this it for her? Would she just die here? Of course she had to make the idiotic mistake of trying to access the computer like that. She could’ve just grabbed a USB cable and used the rover’s laptop. There were so many things she could’ve done better, but she failed at this very simple task of typing the reboot command into the rover, and now she was destined to die.

“No, quit, stop. Just breathe.” Sidnie said to herself, snapping out of it. She steadied her breathing as she repeated a mantra her mother often told her: “What’s done is done, what isn’t done isn’t done. Do the stuff that isn’t done.”

Sidnie mentally scrolled through her options.

Hopping on one foot back to the maintenance rover would be difficult with this big clunky suit, even ignoring the fact she’d somehow have to use a ladder with only one foot. Not feasible.

She could hail an emergency plane from Russet Skies. Then she could also get medical attention for her ankle in their medical bay. The only issue was that Russet Skies was something more like a 20-minute flight, one-way. No guarantee she’d last until it landed.

There wasn’t anything in a nine-minute drive from here, so she couldn’t ask anyone to drive here, help her into their airlock, and bring her to a clinic. Nobody closer than Russet Skies had a regular supply of aircraft capable of picking her up.

So what else was there? Cover the hole in her suit with something? ...Might as well.

She looked around for something that could patch the hole. Nothing but rocks around her, and a shard of metal she must’ve pried from the battery casing. Not usable for patching a hole in a suit.

She checked her suit’s tool belt. Wrench, drill, screws, arc welder, hammer, rope, wrench, spare connector port, wrench-- aha! Duct tape! She quickly tore a strip of it and applied it to her suit. After applying this simple and temporary fix, the display on her wrist changed its value:

SUIT PUNCTURE DETECTED. ESTIMATED TIME REMAINING WITH OXYGEN: 43 MINUTES

“That’ll do,” she said, sighing a breath of relief. Wasting no time, she started a call with Russet Skies’ medical bay and requested an emergency plane.

Reluctantly, Sidnie let herself relax a little bit. Maybe she’d make it out of this one after all.

Let me know if there are formatting issues! That's been the biggest hurdle in getting this onto the forums, is the difference in formatting standards between Google Docs and the forums.

I expect to upload at least monthly. If I go more than a month between chapters, you're allowed to pester me about it.

Edited May 5 by LittleBitMore
formatting troubles

[LittleBitMore]

Part 2: Russet Skies

Spoiler

An ultra-lightweight and skeletonized glider flew high over the russet, sandy surface below. The constant chopping whir of the propellors as they spun at several hundred revolutions per minute resonated through the craft. The sleek solar panels on the spine of the low-mass plane constantly refuelled the aircraft’s generous batteries, allowing it extended flight times whilst the dull sun filtered through the dusty atmosphere.

Its massive wings spanned over a dozen meters, despite its resemblance to a malnourished pelican. Duna’s thin atmosphere required such a wingspan to have access to higher altitude regimes and make rescues on desolate mountains, Sidnie noted. This craft was a marvel of engineering-- a fast, agile rotor-powered plane on Duna of all places. Though, she’d have more time and mental energy to properly appreciate the craft’s majesty had her ankle not been Killing Her.

“So, what were you doin’ all the way out there?” said the paramedic, trying to make small talk.

The paramedic, a Minmusian kerbal by the name of Edlin Kertop, had managed to quickly load her into the cramped interior of the craft after landing. The ambulance plane’s interior space was miniscule: a cot next to the hatch in the back which Sidnie laid on, and a swiveling seat next to the front window which Edlin sat. The rest of the interior space was littered with various first aid supplies, including the splint being used to keep her fractured ankle straight. She’d recieve proper medical attention in Russet Skies, but for now this would keep it from further damage.

Sidnie expressed her disdain for Duna’s resident engineers, saying, “All the kraken-posessed engineers on this kraken-posessed planet were too lazy to fix a rover, so I went out to go fix it.”

Edlin nodded. “I see. What happened t’ break yer ankle anyways?”

“I fixed the rover, apparently, since it drove off while I was on it, and I fell off. Punctured my suit and broke my ankle.” Sidnie explained. Luckily, the rescue craft had gotten there so quickly that she didn’t even experience any oxygen deprivation before being loaded into the pressurized craft.

The paramedic grimaced. “I could never do what you do, Sid. I doubt it’s easy, y’know, getting out every day and hammering bits and bobs together to fix some complicated machine or doohickey or whatnot. ‘Specially since some of those things keep kerbals alive.”

Sidnie gave a bit of a snort. “I could sa the same thing for you. A wounded kerbal that a paramedic fixes isn’t much different from a damaged rover that an engineer fixes. And don’t call me Sid.”

Edlin gives a chuckle, and nods. “I s’pose you’ve got a point there.”

“We’re approachin’ Russet Skies now,” Edlin commented. “Keep a hand on the railing here, it’s a windy day today.”

Sidnie obliges. She’s never had to land a VTOL during windy conditions, but she can’t imagine it’s very easy, especially if the VTOL is propellor-powered.

The propellor servos slowly clanked as the rotors shifted to an upright position. The craft’s horizontal velocity was cancelled by clever control of the plane’s attitude as Edlin tilted it to and fro. The plane descended from its vantage point in the sky, and Russet Skies came into clear view through the front window.

“Easy does it…” Edlin mumbled to himself. Sidnie wisely let him focus.

As she looked at Russet Skies, Sidnie noticed one interesting trait. The loading/unloading pad (designed for VTOLs like this one, no doubt) was obviously not large enough to comfortably fit this large aircraft. How was Edlin expecting to land it there? She could estimate the pad’s size by eyeballing it, and if the plane landed on it diagonally, it could fit, maybe. Potentially. Assuming all goes good.

“Ah, hmm. That’s no good.”

Sidnie raised an eyebrow. “Edlin?”

“Ahm, nevermind that, Sid. The right rotor is not really, ah, slowing down when I put on th’ propellor brakes.” Edlin mumbled. “No matter. I’ve flown worse craft.”

“Edlin, we’re coming in a little close,” Sidnie pointed out as the plane drifted through the air, strafing towards the construction crane of Russet Skies.

“Trust me, I--” KLANGKRUNCHSCRRRTCHBONKTHUNK

The jolt of the crash hadn’t been very comfortable for Sidnie (whose ankle was very vocally protesting this change), but she survived. Edlin also survived without injury.

To Edlin’s credit, the plane successfully landed on the helipad, though notably one of its wings was truncated and its propellor had careened off into the distance. The other propellor had its blades stripped by collision with the helipad.

“We’ve arrived!” Edlin said cheerily after several seconds were taken to process the event. “Now we can get yer ankle fixed up in the medbay.”

Sidnie sat there, stunned. “...Of course.”

---

In the past century or so since Jebediah Kerman landed on the Mun, kerbalkind’s technology had rapidly accelerated as individuals from around the world studied the sciences and made unprecedented alliances with their enemies for the common goal of exploring the stars. This led to a massive leap in medical sciences too, as kerbals studied methods of preventing and treating injuries and illnesses in the harsh environment of space.

Incredibly, broken ankles were relatively quick fixes-- a bit of open surgery, a dollop of bone repair formula, a bit of lasering to set the formula, and some patching up, and your bones were as good as new (with, of course, a recommendation to go easy on your new ankle for a few days). It was only a few hours after she woke up from the surgery, and she was already capable of going home if she really needed to.

Of course, she didn’t need to (nor necessarily want to) make the trip all the way back to PREMIERE to continue her infuriating and tedious job. Not when she could be enjoying medical leave in one of Duna’s finest establishments, watching the horizon of Duna as the desolate planetary base breathed.

(Author's note: It was at this point I installed Magpie Mods and TUFX. The illustrations therefore become Snazzier.)

Logistics rovers came and went, taxis and buses ferried tourists to and from different destinations across Duna’s surface, rotorcraft came for quick and urgent trips to remote establishments, and spaceplanes carried individuals and cargo to and from low Duna orbit every few hours. This wasn’t something Sidnie often got to see in her little boring refinery. Sure, rovers came every now and then to pick up the stuff PREMIERE made, but they were usually automated. Crew transfer only really came when people went on leave, quit, or were hired.

It got pretty lonely out there. No people. No adventure.

Sidnie took one last glance out the window. Ah, the J-7 rover was here. The rover that nearly killed her. Probably dropping off its goods and getting repairs.

Sidnie left the window behind and headed down to the cafeteria room, hobbling a little so as to not put too much pressure on her recently-reassembled ankle. After travelling down the small elevator in the spine of the main tower, she looked over the cafeteria. Edlin was there eating some sort of salad.

Edlin looked up from his meal, and gave a friendly, “Howdy!”

“Hey, Edlin! Thanks for saving me back there, I owe you one.” Sidnie says, grabbing a sandwich from one of the nearby food counters.

“Course! It’s what paramedics do. Wouldn’t’ve signed up fer the job if I didn’t enjoy it,” Edlin responds with his characteristic Minmus accent, giving Sidnie a thumbs up.

Sidnie pulls up a chair to continue small talk. “Yeah, speaking of, that talk in the plane got me thinking. Isn’t it scary, being a paramedic?”

Edlin nods. “That it is. Took me a lot o’ thinkin’ before making the call and choosing being a paramedic. Figured it’s just more exciting than being a pharmacist.”

“Being a first responder… I couldn’t do it if I tried. I don’t think I could stand the risk of someone not making it.” Sidnie responds bluntly.

The paramedic gave a solemn nod. “Not everyone can do it. It’s… not fun if something turns sour. You start blamin’ yourself for having a slow plane or a leaky respirator.” Edlin adds with a bright smile, “But that’s too sad to talk about right now! How’re you enjoying your stay at Russet Skies? It’s a big tourist hub, y’know.”

“I’ve been here a lot, it’s basically the only big spaceport that isn’t for specific things, like launching--”

Sidnie is interrupted by a blaring alarm, immediately followed by someone speaking over the intercom.

“ALERT: Cargo SSTO E17-23 has taken off without authorization and refuses to respond to queries. It is suspected to have been hijacked. Please report any suspects to me, Kirvey Kerfen, Head of Public Safety, and visit my office, room 402. Stay calm, as we at Russet Skies are in no danger, and it is headed south.”

“E17 class? But those don’t have any seats, do they?” Sidnie wondered out loud. “How do you hijack a plane with no pilot seat?”

Erlin jokes with a chuckle, “Maybe it’s one of them ghost possession situations!”

Sidnie gives a small laugh in response, but is still lost in thought. Nobody can sit in the unmanned cargo plane, so it obviously couldn’t’ve been illegally boarded. Plus, they must know the identity if the cameras caught someone leaving Russet Skies and boarding the plane. So, obviously, none of that happened.

So what else? Did someone stick a cockpit in the cargo bay? That makes no sense, someone would’ve noticed it, and it would’ve had to come from somewhere.

That leaves pretty much one option, and that’s that someone is remotely accessing and controlling the plane. She looks outside at the window where the plane once was. The plume from the VTOL engines left stirrings in the dust, and the landing legs left deep footprints where the plane once stood.

And then she looked towards the construction area. You know, the big rocket pad with a big crane on top. Can’t miss it.

Next to it was the disassembled corpse of the J-7 rover, missing several parts-- most noteworthy, the canisters of hazardous materials.

This was very fishy. Something was up. Someone took some hazardous canisters, shoved them in a spaceplane, and launched it to who knows where. The Head of Public Safety knew, obviously, since this was all on camera, so she didn’t feel the need to head up to his office. Instead, she felt the need to do something insane about it. She had an idea. A very reckless idea.

She quickly ran (very lopsidedly) to the public radio in the cafeteria, used for calling nearby ships on public bandwidths.

“Sidnie? Whatcha getting up to?” Erlin asks, a bit confused, and a bit sad that his conversation partner clearly had something they were about to do.

Sidnie turned to Erlin. “Erlin, I’m about to do something very crazy. It’s gonna be kinda insane. It’s gonna be super bonkers. I might get on the news.” She then punched in the frequency used for taxi planes, such as the one just outside.

“Ah, uhm, be safe, alright?” Erlin responded.

Sidnie didn’t respond, because she was already on the phone. “Hey! You! Taxi pilot. The one outside Russet Station. You there?”

“Uh, yes? What can I help you with? I want to take a shower at Russet so I might be a bit.” How convenient, Sidnie thought to herself.

Sidnie asks with a neutral tone, “Can I steal your entire plane?”

The taxi pilot replies, “Pffft! Hah! Yeah, right, sure. That’s a totally reasonable thing to suggest.”

Bingo. “No takesy backsies,” Sidnie replies with a smile, and hangs up.

Being public airwaves, this was recorded by Russet Skies’ traffic control. Therefore, it was effectively in writing. Contracts have been signed over radio like this before, though not usually accidentally like this. If it came to court, she could claim that he signed a contract saying she could steal his plane.

She quickly heads downstairs to the airlocks, puts on her suit, and heads out the airlock, slowly limping over to the plane. She climbs into the cockpit (abandoned due to the taxi driver taking a shower), straps herself in, and examines the controls.

Flying a plane should be easy, right? You just use the knobs and dials and levers and switches to keep speed and angle in check. She could think of it like resource flows. Speed is energy, energy is a resource. She has to manage the resource and make sure it doesn’t go so low that the plane stalls or so high that the plane overheats. Drag is a resource you don’t want if you want to go fast. Point prograde to drain this resource, but you’ll lose your upwards velocity if you don’t nose up. Great, fine, easy. Easy peasy.

She flips the switches necessary for takeoff. Stability assist on. Engine mode: VTOL. Throttle up-- woah that’s a lot of thrust throttle down right this instant. She sets the navigator to fly in the same direction the cargo plane flew off to, switches the engines to flight mode, and throttles up.

Ignore the fact that Russet Skies keeps moving around, it's accidentally exploded approximately 5 times now.

Edit: Might do a second pass over this chapter and rewrite it a little, I'm not too proud of my writing here

Edited May 31 by LittleBitMore