First Flight (Epilogue and Last Thoughts)

[Daelkyr]

This will not end well.

[briansun1]

I wonder if kerbals have cults.

[KSK]

Heh.

Thanks for the comments folks! No spoilers obviously but all three are fairly close to the money.  

[OrtwinS]

Kerbin's very own brand of eco-terrorism: Kerm-planting without a permit!

 

The 'children of Kerbin' don't seem to be taken by the idea of Project Starseed. Defying all logic, authority and wisdom and just go plant Kerm-seeds all over the place.

Dem kids' gunna start 'nuther damn war I say!

 

I do understand the objections of keeping kerm seeds (potential sentient beings) in a cooled storage for an undefined duration. But if it's that or starting the next Age of Madness...

[KSK]

10 hours ago, OrtwinS said:

Kerbin's very own brand of eco-terrorism: Kerm-planting without a permit!

 

The 'children of Kerbin' don't seem to be taken by the idea of Project Starseed. Defying all logic, authority and wisdom and just go plant Kerm-seeds all over the place.

Dem kids' gunna start 'nuther damn war I say!

 

I do understand the objections of keeping kerm seeds (potential sentient beings) in a cooled storage for an undefined duration. But if it's that or starting the next Age of Madness...

Indeed... And without wishing to give too much away - we've not seen the last of the Children.

Next chapter is rolling along. You all ready to get a little LOST in space...?

[fire219]

15 hours ago, KSK said:

Indeed... And without wishing to give too much away - we've not seen the last of the Children.

Next chapter is rolling along. You all ready to get a little LOST in space...?

The words I just uttered would get the forum mods angry at me if I repeated them.

[KSK]

Well, the end of an era is upon us. I didn't want to put this on the main farewell thread since that, rightfully, is all about HarvesteR but I still wanted to post my thanks somewhere for writing a computer game that inspired me to write a novel and this thread seemed as good a place as any.

Best of luck with your future ventures, sir and may you have the strength to follow your course.

Speaking of which, the next chapter has been somewhat squashed by a pair of back-to-back sixty hour weeks (if you count commuting in with working hours) but it's slowly taking shape. In the meantime, I can highly recommend @SCE2AUX2's tale of Kavy Kerlem if you've finished the latest twists in Whispers of the Kraken and are looking for some new KSP fiction to read!

Edited May 30, 2016 by KSK

[SCE2AUX2]

Thanks for the endorsement! 

[CatastrophicFailure]

On May 30, 2016 at 1:41 PM, KSK said:

Well, the end of an era is upon us. I didn't want to put this on the main farewell thread since that, rightfully, is all about HarvesteR but I still wanted to post my thanks somewhere for writing a computer game that inspired me to write a novel and this thread seemed as good a place as any.

Best of luck with your future ventures, sir and may you have the strength to follow your course.

Speaking of which, the next chapter has been somewhat squashed by a pair of back-to-back sixty hour weeks (if you count commuting in with working hours) but it's slowly taking shape. In the meantime, I can highly recommend @SCE2AUX2's tale of Kavy Kerlem if you've finished the latest twists in Whispers of the Kraken and are looking for some new KSP fiction to read!

Twist, me? Naw, HarvesteR has me WAY beat right now, unfortunately. 

[KSK]

On 5/31/2016 at 12:45 AM, SCE2AUX2 said:

Thanks for the endorsement! 

You're more than welcome. Glad to see your thread picking up some well-deserved traffic!

Next up - a big thanks to superstrijder (I think I spelled that right  ) for all your endorsements. Posting elsewhere on the forum whilst watching the 'likes' popping up in real-time was a wonderfully heartening experience!

And finally - the next chapter is up.

 

Hopes

Enely stared at the multi-storey Keeper’s hut, its three stacked rings braced against the trunk of an enormous Kerm tree; the upper tiers built from a pale wood that stood out sharply from the Kerm bark and darker, more substantial lower tier. He looked up at the mesh of ropes suspending each level from the ring of branches above it and the ropeways winding round the trunk between them, and shuddered. 

“That third storey is new,” said Cal happily. “Wonder if they’ll let us up there afterwards? I bet the view is just sathy from that height.” He noticed Enely’s fixed expression. “Don’t worry - plenty of bunks in the main hut and there’s almost no queue yet. With a bit of luck we may even snag a bunk in Jonton’s room and you’ll get to meet him!”

Enely fingered the square of cardboard in this pocket. “I hope so,” he said. “But if we don’t, perhaps I can meet him anyway whilst you’re enjoying the view from upstairs.” He and Cal reached the top of the hill and stopped to wait for Tivie and the rest of their group to catch up.  Cal checked his watch, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. The others strolled up the hill in ones and twos, talking amongst themselves and enjoying the relative cool of the early morning. Enely suppressed a smile as Cal grabbed Tivie by the hand and trotted off along the winding path leading to the hut, before following them both at a more sedate pace.

Closer to, he noticed that the irregularly interlocking planks making up the hut walls were peppered with odd whorled designs between a more regular pattern of knots. Puzzled, he traced one of them with a finger, the tightly wound spirals a rich dark black, stained by layer upon layer of varnish. Then he started in sudden understanding. Kerm wood - the whole thing is built from Kerm wood. But nobody’s done that for… How old is this place?  The hut door opened and for a fleeting instant Enely found himself face to face with a tired looking kermol. Her eyes swept the gathering crowd in front of her, tiredness banished behind a warm smile.

“Greetings, good kerbals and welcome. My name is Gerselle - please come in.”

Enely braced himself and followed the queue inside, looking around curiously at the plainly decorated kitchen and eating room. The kerm wood walls were polished to a soft glow and colourful homespun rugs littered the toy strewn floor. A brightly painted and, so far as Enely could see, empty chest stood in one corner. Cinnamon tickled the back of his throat and he frowned. 

“This way please - excuse the mess.” Gerselle opened another door and the tickle became an insistent rasp agains the roof of his mouth, making him cough. Embarrassed, he covered his mouth with one hand and followed Gerselle into what was very obviously a sleep room. He looked up from another muffled cough and clamped his hand to his face in shock. Jonton? Must be - but what…? Surreptitiously he stared at the figure leaning against the trunk, trying to make out where Kerm ended and kerbal began. All the leaves around his head - he must be Communing already but he’s still watching us. How on…

“Thanks, love. Welcome everybody, and for anyone who’s visited before, welcome back.” Jonton smiled. “Please - take a bunk and join me. We don’t have too many guests this morning so Gerselle and I won’t need to keep you waiting long.” Jonton gestured at the nearest bunk. “Each bunk has two pillows but if you need another one, do let me know. For now, just make yourselves comfortable so that the leaf clusters are just resting against your forehead. The leaves will tickle a bit to start with but that shouldn’t last long.”

Enely sat down on the nearest bunk and removed his shoes. Across the room he saw Cal doing the same. He flashed Enely a quick thumbs up before lying back and wedging a pillow under his head. Enely looked around the room as more kerbals took their places and the enormity of the situation finally struck home. We're going to do this. All of us - Communing with one Kerm. He flicked a glance at Jonton. Or so Cal said but he's not a Keeper. And something about that Keeper doesn't look right to me.

With a mental shrug, Enely lay back on his own mattress and propped his head lightly against the overhanging leaves. There was a brief pause followed by a familiar tickling against his scalp and then a soothing white light. He barely had time to wonder at the unfamiliar sensation before the expected rush of images, emotions and then, shockingly, mental voices, rolled over him.

---------

Well that... explains... explains everything. Tears trickled down Enely's cheeks but whether they were from the emotional backwash from his brother and sister kerbals, the story he'd just witnessed or the raw-edged memories of Communing with his own Kerm slicing their way to the surface, he couldn't tell. Automatically, he ran his fingers gently through his hair, checking that the Kerm leaves had properly disengaged. And Pillars preserve me, I can understand why Cal and Tivie came back to see that again. He sat up and swung his feet off the bunk, relieved to see that his weren't the only moist eyes in the room.

Cal walked over to him, eyes red-rimmed, sniffling against the back of his hand. "That was even better second time around." he mumbled thickly. "Our story...sharing it with Jonton and everyone else. Worth every step of the walk and everything we put aside to get here again." He cleared his throat. "Think me and Tivie'll get some fresh air - along with everyone else I'd expect. You still wanting to talk to Jonton?"

Enely nodded. "If he'll speak to me. I think I might be some time - shall I meet you back at the marquee."

"That would be lovely," said Tivie, draping her arm over Cal's shoulders. "Good luck, Enely  - I hope Jonton can help you with whatever you were looking for."

"Me too," said Cal, "He'd better not go malka on you, Sage or no Sage." He clapped Enely on the back and joined the small queue of kerbals still filtering out of the sleep room.

Enely waited patiently on his bunk, eyes downcast. He fished Donman's token out of his pocket and sat quietly, rubbing his thumb over the gold embossed seal. He heard the faint click of the door closing behind the last pilgrim and then a soft, enquiring cough. He looked up to find Jonton staring at him curiously. 

"Can I help you?"

"I'm not sure," said Enely, "but I was told you could." He stood up and proffered the token to Jonton. "And sent to find you."

Jonton's eyebrows rose and he looked at Enely more speculatively. "This looks official," he said. "Who sent you, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Chief Ambassador Donman," said Enely. "It is a long story I'm afraid."

"They always are somehow," remarked Jonton, half to himself. "but a strange kerbal sent on a mysterious errand from Donman is the longest one yet, I'm thinking." He peered at the square of embossed card. "Even if you weren't carrying this, I'd be curious. Did Donman give you any kind of message to bring?"

"I don't think so," said Enely slowly. "He just said that if there was one person on Kerbin who could understand what I'd been through, it would be you. Then he told me that he'd communed with you." He paused, eyes roaming over the top of Jonton's head. "At the time I thought he was just talking about communing with your Kerm - which was strange enough - but after this morning, I'm beginning to think that he meant exactly what he said.”

Jonton nodded. “That’s another long story,” he said. “But yours first I think if Donman has sent you halfway around Kerbin to tell it.” He smiled at Enely’s surprised look. “You’re not the only Wakiran visitor we’ve had since this began.” He reached over to his pedestal and poured Enely a mug of water. “Something to wet your throat before we start.”

Enely sipped his water for a moment, gathering his thoughts, before putting the mug to one side. “They were looking for volunteers,” he began, “to help start new Groves. Hazachim especially - I suppose they thought that desert farmers could make a Grove work nearly anywhere. For my village, the timing couldn’t have been better. Our Kerm had just seeded and we didn’t know what to do; we’re right on the edge of the Hazachi, we couldn’t think of anywhere to plant a new Grove and our Keeper was at her wits end. So going with them was an easy decision, although if I’d known there’d be quite as much sea travel involved I might not have been so keen.”

Jonton listened politely to Enely’s description of his voyage to Dazji island and the founding of his new village, only starting to pay attention when the tale moved onto details of Kerm cuttings and planting what would become its second year saplings, interjecting the occasional question of his own. His face darkened, branches rustling in anger at Enely’s description of the Forseti invasion and by the time the uprooted Kerm saplings were being loaded onto their ship, the sleep chamber was thick with flying Kerm leaves and the cloying stench of cinnamon. Outrage gave way to a brief smile as Enely described his first Communion, which rapidly turned into horror and then deep mourning as he finished his story with his conversation with Donman at the sunset pyre.

Enely looked up at the muffled sob from the doorway and saw Gerselle drying her eyes on her poncho sleeve. Behind him, he heard Jonton blowing his nose vigorously. “I can see what Donman sent you here,” he said at last. “Although I think he was being optimistic about the understanding part. But what about you, Enely?”

“He can stay with us,” said Gerselle firmly. “And when the memories get too much, he can Commune with you. It’ll be close enough to be good for him but not close enough to remind him.” She and Jonton shared a look. “Whatever else Donman may say, you are definitely the only person on Kerbin that can do that for him, Jonton Kermol.”

Enely looked at them both. “That would be extremely kind,” he said softly. “Thank you. But ‘not close enough to remind me?’ Who are you, Jonton? And what happened to your Kerm? I didn’t get much time as a Keeper but that Communion with you and the others…that wasn’t anything like any Communion that I remember.”

“No,” agreed Jonton. “It wouldn’t have been. And I think it’s time you heard my long story if you’d like to join me again?”

“I would,” said Enely, lying back on his bunk and adjusting the pillow under his head. “I would like that very much.”

---------

“Flight, Payload.”

“Go ahead, Payload.”

“Fairing jettison confirmed, Flight. Receiving telemetry from all four button sats.”

“Copy that, Payload. Status please, Booster.”

“Looking good, Flight. Second stage engine is Go. Passing through one-ten kilometres.”

“Thanks, Booster.” Geneney watched Lucan make a note in his logbook, headset plugged into the console alongside his, switching from one communication loop to the next, completely absorbed in the ebb and flow of conversation from the flight controllers. He clicked his own microphone over to their private channel. “What’s your reading, Flight?”

Lucan started, eyes flicking rapidly over his console. “Uh, concur with Booster. Engine is Go. Guidance is… one moment.” He toggled his headset. “Guidance sounds pretty relaxed, boss. Can’t tell for sure without going on-loop, but I think we’re Go.”

Geneney glanced at the repeater displays on his own console. “Recommend you check your rate indicators, Flight.” He saw Lucan frown for a second before his expression cleared. 

“Copy that, boss. Attitude control stable - minimal vehicle excursion in roll and yaw. Pitch looking good.”

“Chamber pressure?”

“High but stable, and under redline.”

“Booster call?”

Silently, Geneney counted down the seconds. watching Lucan from the corner of his eye. He reached zero just as the other kerbal looked up. “Negative, boss. No change, no call.”

Satisfied, Geneney nodded. “Always watch your own repeaters. The comm loops are good for situational awareness and gauging flight team mood but never get lost in them. You have the critical figures right in front of you so use them. Now - what’s your recommendation on that overpressure?”

“Wait for controller report at SECO minus two minutes,” said Lucan promptly. “Check pressure at SECO minus one, wait ten, call for throttle-back if required.”

“Good. Why?”

“Midline pressure at SECO-1 to mitigate hard restart.”

Geneney’s headset crackled. “Flight, Booster.”

“Go ahead, Booster.”

“Chamber pressure high and holding at SECO minus two, Flight. Recommend throttleback shutdown.”

“Noted and confirmed, Booster. Thank you.”

For the rest of Minmus 1’s climb to orbit, Lucan flipped back and forth between the Booster and Guidance loops, eyes glued to his repeater displays. The second stage engine shut down on time at the correct pressure and he hastily stifled a sigh of relief. The checkout orbit flew past in a stream of status reports from the Payload and Comms teams, confirming vehicle startup, deployment of the PV arrays and the successful activation of a host of other critical systems. Then Geneney leaned forward in his chair and Lucan gripped the edge of his console.

“All stations report in for TMI.”

One by one, the controllers gave their go-ahead. Lucan let go of his console with an effort. Would you relax, he told himself. It's not like there’s a crew up there.

“Booster is Go. Starting re-press and ullage sequence.”

Lucan’s gaze flicked from his console to his Flight Director and back again. Geneney sat calmly in his chair.

“Tank pressures nominal. Igniters armed. Go at thirty.”

“Ullage motors firing…and we have ignition. Thrust at ten percent… throttling up…”

Everyone in the control room turned to watch the main screen, currently showing Minmus 1’s orbital track around Kerbin. On a smaller screen to one side, velocity and projected apoapsis readouts both raced upwards and then suddenly stopped. A light on Geneney’s console winked out.

“Flight, Booster.”

“Go ahead, Booster.”

“Injection burn complete, Flight. Payload deployment confirmed.”

“Thanks, Booster.” Geneney reached for his coffee cup and took a long drink. “Good work team. FD - let’s get those trajectory numbers firmed up before we hand the vehicle over to Probodyne.

---------

Twin spacecraft raced through the outer reaches of the Kerbol system. Far beyond the orbit of Duna they flew, their passage through the asteroid belt marked by a solitary speck on a pair of photographs, both long since transmitted home to Kerbin, itself reduced to a pale blue dot against the vast blackness.  Sending that picture home would be a task for another spacecraft on another day and in time it would become an iconic image of the space age. For now, the need to conserve fuel overrode all other considerations; even the tiny quantities of propellant needed to spin the spacecraft around being saved for the rigours to come. 

Onwards they travelled whilst other spacecraft made landfall on Duna, probing its soils and atmosphere and finding them suitable for life. Outward they soared whilst, far behind them, kerbals walked on the Mün, making light of the impossible and sparking the all-consuming efforts of Project Starseed. And now, at last, their long journey was finally drawing to a close.

A dot against the starscape gradually expanded into a luminous green disk attended by three darker dots, each long studied by kerbal astronomers who named them Laythe, Tylo and Vall. Now ragged bands of shadow and brightness could be seen across the face of the disk, lending perspective and revealing it as a colossal sphere streaked by complex patterns of cloud and lashed by titanic winds.  The two spacecraft raced the emerald behemoth, leading it then swinging past; letting its immense gravity brake them onto a new trajectory. Now they spun, obeying long-ago programmed instructions, engines pointing forward at a carefully calculated angle. Streams of glowing gas erupted from one, slowing it still further and closing it's path; a tiny Joolian mun on a collision course with it's bigger cousin Laythe.  The other spacecraft flew on, its fate decided by a pair of wires. 

Accidentally placed too close together, a pulse of electricity through one wire was enough to melt a bridge to the second. Onboard systems sensed the short circuit, shutting off the power and preventing a possible fire. But the damage had been done. A relay failed to close on command, starving a heater coil of power. A frozen fuel line remained frozen to the end, starving its rocket engine of vital propellant.  Pressure sensors detected the lack of fuel, triggering backup programs within the probe core. Attitude control thrusters fired to compensate but the moment had passed. Too little, too late, the smaller rocket engines too weak to slow the spacecraft enough for even a gas giant to snare it. Eventually it would skim past a pollen grain shaped boulder, before breaking free of the Jool system and flying onwards into the outer reaches, trapped in a long lonely orbit about distant Kerbol.

The discovery of a hitherto unknown Joolian munlet provided scant compensation for Hope 1's builders, now watching anxiously from many millions of kilometres as Hope 2 sped towards its destination. 

Thrusters fired, turning a collision course into a grazing pass through Laythe’s atmosphere, or what the Laythe Observation and SpecTroscopy team hoped would be a grazing pass. With no time for a pathfinding flyby mission to supplement observations from Kerbin and allow more precise trajectory calculations, the best the LOST mission planners could do was to err on the side of caution, recommend an increased margin on the heat shield and hope for the best.

Hope 2 broke apart, aeroshell base gliding away from spindly upper body. Thrusters fired again, nudging the upper body onto a flyby trajectory, doomed to endlessly loop back and forth between Jool and Laythe, sporadically transmitting data back to Kerbin until its batteries could no longer hold the meagre charge gleaned from its photovoltaic cells. Meanwhile, the base shell plunged onwards towards its own fate. 

Days passed, then hours, then mere minutes. Tiny rockets around the rim of the base shell fired again, making final attitude adjustments. The first faint wisps of gas ripped themselves apart against the onrushing spacecraft in a rapidly building, nacreous glow. The glow turned sullen red, swiftly ascending through orange and yellow, then flaring back to white.

The fire faded.

With a crack, the aeroshell split open. Drogue parachutes streamed out behind the plummeting spacecraft, jerking it away from the charred remains of the heat shield before fluttering free. Jointed metal legs unfolded, a second set of parachutes blossomed, held, and fell away. Then with a final burst of rocket fire, Hope 2 came to a gentle stop on the surface of Laythe. Photovoltaic panels unfolded, trickle charging onboard batteries. The main antenna unfurled, swung round then tilted, aiming at a precise point in the sky above. Hope 2 sent a single burst transmission back to Kerbin and then fell silent.

---------

“Oh for a lump of plutonium and the fins to cool it.”

“Will you stop moaning about that Kerm blighted radioisotope generator,” snapped Jernie. “I know it was the sensible option - everyone knew it was the sensible option but we didn’t get a choice. As you know very well so would you please, for the love of little kerblets, just shut up!” She jabbed a finger at Sidbo. “And before you say it, yes they knew we were trying to save the world and yes ‘not scattering radioactive junk over our new home,” was a stupid excuse, but we just have to live with it.” She snorted. “Although I’d love to know what they thought we were going to do with the plutonium. Plate it over the heat shield presumably.”

Sidbo squirmed in his chair. “Sorry, Jernie. No more complaining - promise.”

Jernie sighed. “It’s not that I don’t agree with you, Sid. RTGs on the orbiters shouldn’t have been too much to ask for and might have given us enough juice for a proper telemetry feed from Hope 1. How are we supposed to fix things without data?”

“Speaking of data,” Sidbo said cautiously, “the Jool spectroscopy was pretty spectacular. Looks like it’s even managed to stump Dunney.”

“Hah. He’s not stumped, he’s ‘working through an interesting problem’. Or half-problem, given that he was predicting methane before we even launched.”

“It has to be some kind of scattering effect,” said Sidbo. “Methane wouldn’t make it such an obvious green.” He drummed his fingers on the edge of his console. “Wonder if we could grab some spare computer time - put together a model of particle size against composition, try and figure out what’s in those clouds.”

“In our spare time,” said Jernie dryly. “It’d probably be quicker just to launch another probe and take a closer look. I’ll let you figure out how to deal with the radiation though.” Her console bleeped. “Ahh - finally!” She frowned. “Strange - looks like we’ve got an image file too. There shouldn’t have been enough bandwidth for that and the atmospheric data.”

“No, there shouldn’t,” said Sidbo. “Let’s have a look.”

A black circle appeared on the main screen, fringed with a bright white ring. Sidbo stared at it, scratching his head. “Well that would compress down to a nothing, but what on Kerbin… oh you have to be joking? Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Jern?”

Jernie banged her head gently on the edge of her console. “We send a probe Kerm knows how far for Kerm knows how long - and end up with a stuck lens cap.”

“Maybe a couple of day-night cycles will shake it loose said Sidbo. “I don’t think we’re missing much though - this atmosphere is definitely no prize. Just look at that sulphur trace - and I’m pretty sure there’s chlorine in there too.”

Jernie looked over his shoulder. “I’ll take your word for it,” she said. “Another fun problem for Dunney I’d say.”

“He’ll have plenty of time,” Sidbo noted. “If we hadn’t already picked out Duna for Starseed, I’d be getting real depressed about now. I’ll work through this mess properly with Dunney but at the moment I’m thinking we can just file this one under ‘interesting puzzles’ and be done with it.

 

<< Chapter 62:     Chapter 64>>

Edited May 1, 2020 by KSK

[CatastrophicFailure]

Bless you, good sir! Just the soothing distraction I needed. 

I recall a while back you mused about your story being too "Jordan," as if it were a bad thing. I'd say your writing is very Jordanian (not to be confused with that other Jordanian), you definitely share his talent for weaving dozens of threads together into a coherent Pattern. And speaking of Jordan, I also note a (probably unintentional) parallel to a certain other group suddenly shown their shrouded past through... unusual means. Tho your Kerbals seem to be taking the revelation much better. 

Pity about that lense cap tho. Somewhere, there's a certain Russian probe engineer who can sympathize. 

[OrtwinS]

7 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Bless you, good sir! Just the soothing distraction I needed. 

I recall a while back you mused about your story being too "Jordan," as if it were a bad thing. I'd say your writing is very Jordanian (not to be confused with that other Jordanian), you definitely share his talent for weaving dozens of threads together into a coherent Pattern. And speaking of Jordan, I also note a (probably unintentional) parallel to a certain other group suddenly shown their shrouded past through... unusual means. Tho your Kerbals seem to be taking the revelation much better. 

Pity about that lense cap tho. Somewhere, there's a certain Russian probe engineer who can sympathize. 

The 'bad' Jordan sentiment refers to the risk of letting storylines drag on for several books without any noteworthy progress. It's a fear of mine I mentioned to KSK some time (over a year) ago when he got to some elaborate Kerm-world-building. Apparently it stuck, I hope I didn't cause him too much Jordan-anxiety.

Either way, KSK, I think you succeeded perfectly well avoiding Jordan-esque proza while supporting multiple intertwined plot-lines  .

 

The next goal is aproximating Steven Erikson's (Malazan Book of the Fallen) brilliant way to make all those loose ends tie up in an intricate yet not too far-fetched ending. (yes KSK, I'm setting high goals here, you only have yourself to blame for setting high standards  ) 

 

About that lens cap... can happen to everyone, just don't let it happen another 3 times (poor Soviet engineers).

[Yukon0009]

Wow, it's been a while since i went through this, there's so many new chapters!

[superstrijder15]

20 hours ago, KSK said:

Next up - a big thanks to superstrijder (I think I spelled that right  ) for all your endorsements. Posting elsewhere on the forum whilst watching the 'likes' popping up in real-time was a wonderfully heartening experience!

This story is awesome! I red(?) trough it in only 5 days! I also think this thread has gotten about 125 likes from me in that time, I wanted to give more, but: 

Quote

You are only allowed to give 25 likes per day. You cannot give any more likes today.

I absolutely love the storyline of Jonton the an-Kerm The reason for this is probably that usually one can kinda predict whats going to happen: good end, to do so they blow up the death star in epic battle, the film is focused on Luke so he'll drop the bomb. But with this story there are multiple possibilities. A solution will be found, but will it by found in extrakerbinial colonies or in some trick by Jonton, or by finding out how to safely put many grooves on the same territory( by Jonton or the scientists). Or something else entirely!

Excited already for further chapters! 

Edited June 8, 2016 by superstrijder15
Moar reasons

[Madrias]

18 hours ago, KSK said:

“We send a probe Kerm knows how far for Kerm knows how long - and end up with a stuck lens cap.”

I laughed harder than I probably should at that.  Don't know how many pictures I've tried taking where I forgot to remove the lens cap first.  Always makes you feel like a dunce.

[KSK]

Spike-covered medieval device still rampaging around, CF?   That sucks - hope things get better soon.

I'm tickled by all the lens cap comments - I had no idea that had been a problem in real life! Good thing the Hope probes haven't been dispatched to Eve yet is all I'm saying and yeah - those poor Soviet engineers. Reminds me a bit of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

So I built a castle launched a probe to Venus and it sank into the swamp the lens cap got stuck.
So I sent another one - and the lens cap got stuck...
So I sent another and ЬЯЗZHЙЭVS SHФЗ, the PЦTIЙSКI lens cap got stuck!

Edited June 8, 2016 by KSK

[KSK]

Bah - editor decided that I needed everything in italics for my last post. Lets start again. Where was I...

Ahh yes. CF, OrtwinS - very glad the writing has succeeded in capturing Good Jordanisms whilst avoiding Bad Jordanisms!  I remember OrtwinS comment well - if I recall correctly, I'd just spent two paragraphs or so describing Gerselle and Joenie planting out weeds.  There was method in the madness - that piece of worldbuilding has popped up a couple of times since - but at the time it was definitely a good comment well made. And no - no Jordan anxiety, although you might just have kicked off a bout of Erikson anxiety.  I think I've got a plan for wrapping up all the plot threads into a coherent whole but I guess you folks will have to be the judge of that in the end.

One thing's for sure though, that plan has been vastly improved by a comment from Ten Key. A little twist of perspective and suddenly what was in danger of being slightly contrived suddenly flows very naturally. More on that to come. 

Yukon - welcome back! Yep, still rolling on although there is an ending I promise.

Superstrijder15 - what to say. Thank you so much for the kind words and I hope you enjoy the rest of Jonton's story as it unfolds!

[JakeGrey]

Jonton's taking the fact he's become a tourist attraction with commendable sangfroid, I must say.

[superstrijder15]

Hey Jake, you got the link to next frontier? The one in your signature is outdated

[KSK]

Here  you go. I might be a teeny bit biased about this - but you're in for a treat. And I have a sudden urge to re-read it myself!

[JakeGrey]

Thanks KSK. And fair warning, that story contains a certain amount of content the official KSP forum moderators deemed harmful to minors.

[KSK]

Ahh yes - that's a good point. I was thinking that anyone of an age or disposition to tear through First Flight in five days wasn't going to be fazed by that but yeah - good catch and fair warning.

[CatastrophicFailure]

13 hours ago, OrtwinS said:

About that lens cap... can happen to everyone, just don't let it happen another 3 times (poor Soviet engineers).

... wait, it happened THREE times??

[superstrijder15]

8 hours ago, JakeGrey said:

Thanks KSK. And fair warning, that story contains a certain amount of content the official KSP forum moderators deemed harmful to minors.

Allright... I'll be careful. By the way, you might want to update your signature.

[KSK]

9 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

... wait, it happened THREE times??

Four apparently, although there were backups on the first two. From Wikipedia:

The Venera 9 lander operated for at least 53 minutes and took pictures with one of two cameras; the other lens cap did not release.
The Venera 10 lander operated for at least 65 minutes and took pictures with one of two cameras; the other lens cap did not release.
The Venera 11 lander operated for at least 95 minutes but neither cameras' lens caps released.
The Venera 12 lander operated for at least 110 minutes but neither cameras' lens caps released.