First Flight (Epilogue and Last Thoughts)

[CatastrophicFailure]

Kerm flarping dangit, this is no time to be out of likes! 

Now that right there is something going really wrong done right.  I have the oddest mix of grin and grimace right now.

Tho I'm given to wonder, now...

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Go 'way! Author's eyes only!

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Seriously! Go... look at that shiny thing over there! Possible spoiler ahead!

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  On 6/22/2017 at 6:33 AM, KSK said:

One world - one Kerm.

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Could this be a hint of a resolution? 

 

 

 

[KSK]

  On 6/24/2017 at 1:14 AM, CatastrophicFailure said:

Kerm flarping dangit, this is no time to be out of likes! 

Now that right there is something going really wrong done right.  I have the oddest mix of grin and grimace right now.

Tho I'm given to wonder, now...

  Reveal hidden contents

Go 'way! Author's eyes only!

  Reveal hidden contents

Seriously! Go... look at that shiny thing over there! Possible spoiler ahead!

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Could this be a hint of a resolution? 

 

 

 

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Thanks! I think Patbro's part was the hardest to write - although not as hard as the task he volunteered for.  Now, in reply to your wondering...
 

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Here be spoilers. Abandon surprise all ye who enter here.

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Seriously folks - you know the drill...

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OK, then, I've been playing with that notion for a while and it (sort of) features in the current version of the epilogue:

What people don’t know yet - and it’s why I chose to upgrade our personal encryption for this letter - is that Tiviena’s second adopted Seedling has been knitting much much faster than expected, to the great excitement of all the local Kerm. We’ll need to wait for the knitting to finish to be sure but Elton believes that the Seedling is already connecting to the overlapping Kerm networks around him. He’s already talking about ‘fused Groves’, giant overlapping communities of Kerm, spreading across Kerbin.

Of course, I thought I knew how the Kerm crisis plot was going to be resolved but after that excellent discussion with yourself and Ten Key, it's all back up in the air again - which has really helped rekindle my enthusiasm by the way. Not having that 'writing on rails' feeling is wonderful! The epilogue may end up needing some re-writing though.

Incidentally - if the last chapter was 'things going really wrong', you might want to hang on to your hat. Working title (which is about all it is right now) for a rapidly approaching chapter: The Straw and the Mallek.

I'll just leave that hanging there...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 24, 2017 by KSK

[CatastrophicFailure]

Oh good, my likes work again.  Now to address the backlog...

[AviosAdku]

...

...

ok, try not to cry

(breathes)

When it comes to fiction I'm not an emotional sort at all and the amount of times in my life that I can recall a work moving me to this extent I can probably count on one hand so your creation is in very rare company indeed (in a good way).

...

I ... I just can't find any words to properly express what happend.

AviosAdku

Edited June 25, 2017 by AviosAdku
refining wording

[KSK]

Thanks. That's really good of you to say. Without wishing to get too luvvie on everyone, I do try and get 'into' the characters when I'm writing, so yeah - that wasn't an easy chapter to write either. Glad (if that's the right word) it came out as hoped.

First draft of the next chapter is about a quarter done and picks up from where the last one finished.

 

[KerbMav]

I found this youtube channel, and some songs make me think of the periodically mentioned Kerbal band singing their space songs.

 

[AviosAdku]

Nice find @KerbMav

Personally, when I heard this I though of Bob's little ballad in Chapter 20. Although I can't fit the lyrics to that particularly melody, I think it captures the tone of that scene, as for the other Kerbal Band, I can't say personally (I can't recall anything about them at the moment).

AviosAdku

[Just Jim]

  On 6/27/2017 at 7:42 PM, KerbMav said:

I found this youtube channel, and some songs make me think of the periodically mentioned Kerbal band singing their space songs.

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Wow... this is brilliant! I wish there was a way to download and save the track as an mp3! 

Edited June 28, 2017 by Just Jim

[0111narwhalz]

  On 6/28/2017 at 12:46 AM, Just Jim said:

Wow... this is brilliant! I wish there was a way to download and save the track as an mp3! 

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Strictly speaking, there are ways. But few of them respect copyrights, and so I will not mention them by name.

[Just Jim]

  On 6/28/2017 at 1:08 AM, 0111narwhalz said:

Strictly speaking, there are ways. But few of them respect copyrights, and so I will not mention them by name.

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No... I understand, and thanks. But like you, I prefer to avoid that route out of respect for the artist. 

But having said that, I can SOOOO see one of @KSK or @Kuzzter's crews singing this on a mission! 

wait.... didn't someone already do this one?? I mean Edmund Fitzgerald? 

Edited June 28, 2017 by Just Jim

[CatastrophicFailure]

  On 6/28/2017 at 1:20 AM, Just Jim said:

wait.... didn't someone already do this one?? I mean Edmund Fitzgerald? 

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Yup. Gordon Lightfoot. 

And given what happened in that instance, vs Apollo 13, it seems a bit... I dunno, insensitive? Bad form? Just doesn't feel right, 13 was a miracle and the Fitzgerald was an unmitigated disaster. 

[Just Jim]

  On 6/28/2017 at 2:12 AM, CatastrophicFailure said:

Yup. Gordon Lightfoot. 

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No, I meant one of the fan-fiction authors... didn't someone use Edmund Fitzgerald in something on here already? 

Edited June 28, 2017 by Just Jim

[KSK]

  On 6/28/2017 at 2:47 AM, Just Jim said:

No, I meant one of the fan-fiction authors... didn't someone use Edmund Fitzgerald in something on here already? 

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Not me. 

Good find though @KerbMav - thanks! @AviosAdku, @Just Jim, I'm not sure it's Fire in the Sky's sort of song (although they have been know to pen the odd ballad too  ) - but I can totally see one of the Pioneer crews singing it, or something very like it,  over on the far side of the Mün. 

I think this is more Fire in the Sky's sort of thing. Music and verse structure borrowed from another track previously linked to on this thread.

The Kerm, or so they say, were the start of Kerbalkind
And we've used them, tamed them, feared them, since time long out of mind
Now the Kerm are running out of room. My friends - it's time to do or die.
Hear our thunder 'cross the land! See our fire in the sky!

Now Jeb and Bill and Bob were first; back aboard the Kerbal 1.
When like all the 'kerbs that followed them, they climbed towards the sun.
And they knew they might not make it - for it's never hard to die...
But they lifted off that launchpad; rode their fire in the sky!
 

 

Edited June 28, 2017 by KSK

[Plecy75]

Sorry for the absence, I've been moving and only just recently got internet access.

here's volume 1 for those who don't already have it... (unchanged, and staying that way. no more updates to volume 1.)

First Flight Volume I.pdf 3.88MB

and volume 2 with the 2 latest chapters!

First Flight Volume II.pdf 589KB

[The Grand Teki]

  On 6/1/2013 at 4:40 PM, KSK said:

Wernher, try SCE to Aux.

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I had to admit I seen this one coming. Nice story!

[KSK]

  On 7/2/2017 at 8:19 PM, The Grand Teki said:

I had to admit I seen this one coming. Nice story!

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Why, thank you. And thanks for stopping by to say so!

I couldn't resist putting in a small tribute to John Aaron.   There are a couple of references to 'steely eyed rocketeers' in later chapters too,  and one of my spacecraft crews was heavily influenced by Andrew Chaikin's depiction of the Apollo 12 crew in A Man on the Moon.

[The Grand Teki]

  On 7/2/2017 at 9:05 PM, KSK said:

Why, thank you. And thanks for stopping by to say so!

I couldn't resist putting in a small tribute to John Aaron.   There are a couple of references to 'steely eyed rocketeers' in later chapters too,  and one of my spacecraft crews was heavily influenced by Andrew Chaikin's depiction of the Apollo 12 crew in A Man on the Moon.

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I saw some of the other references too

[KerBlitz Kerman]

@KSK that is an incredible novel.... 

 

 

 

Hides in bunker preparing for an attack from the Understatement N.a.z.i.s*....

*Dat accursed autoreplacer for a word. Hitler's group (N_ zi) turns into pedant!

Edited July 5, 2017 by KerBlitz Kerman

[KSK]

Thanks! 

Stay tuned - we've got a little way to go yet and I'm hoping you enjoy that too.

And yeah - I would have a lot more patience for the auto-censor if it's replacements weren't so insufferably naff and if it didn't see fit to censor private conversations. I don't know how I've managed to talk to people all these years without a twee little software nanny to stop me accidentally polluting their ears with a naughty word. But somehow I have, gosh darn it. 

[superstrijder15]

When I'm gone for just a month, this happens! It's amazing! Well, of course the story is quite sad at the moment, but it is still amazing! Sadly the forum can't understand that I need more likes after I have been gone for a month and all of these stories need reading and likeing... 

[KSK]

  On 7/6/2017 at 12:21 PM, superstrijder15 said:

When I'm gone for just a month, this happens! It's amazing! Well, of course the story is quite sad at the moment, but it is still amazing! Sadly the forum can't understand that I need more likes after I have been gone for a month and all of these stories need reading and likeing... 

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Thanks! Good to see you back on the thread - glad you're still reading along! You could always check to see if@CatastrophicFailure has a couple of likes you could borrow - he never seems to run out.  

First draft of the next chapter is done but it's currently sitting in two halves on my tablet and desktop machine. @Ten Key has kindly volunteered to cast an eye over the finished article but I'd like to at least buff the weld lines out first and give it a coat or two of primer before handing it over!

The chapter after that - working on that as we speak and I can confirm that the first two sentences are done! (Insert golf clap here). Time to get back to it then.  

[KSK]

A little something while you're waiting. I took a crack at writing the lyrics for 'You Never Know', as sung by Fire in the Sky before the Pioneer 4 launch.

I'm not much of a lyricist, so this should probably come with a cornball warning but with that said...

Will I make it?
Will I live all of my dreams?
I see those mountains to climb and I’m sure
They’ll be harder than they seem.
But there’s one thing I know
Though it might make me cry
I’ll never know
Never know till I try

Will we reach for the stars?
Will we live out all of our dreams
We look up at the night and we know
They're further than they seem
But there's one thing for sure
We can all learn to fly
But we'll never know
Never know till we try

So they flew past the sky
Never let go of their dreams
Found all their mountains to climb
Weren't as hard as they seemed
Now they'll take the next step
But first they will fly.
And we say to them all.
You'll never know till you try. 

Try to walk. 
Ohhhh they're gonna walk.
Gonna walk.
Gonna walk on the Mun.

[CatastrophicFailure]

Eh, far better than most of the drivel floating around the pop stations these days.  By light years. 

[GKSP]

  On 7/8/2017 at 5:58 AM, CatastrophicFailure said:

Eh, far better than most of the drivel floating around the pop stations these days.  By light years. 

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Sadly, most things are.

[KerBlitz Kerman]

  On 7/8/2017 at 4:22 PM, GKSP said:

  On 7/8/2017 at 5:58 AM, CatastrophicFailure said:

Eh, far better than most of the drivel floating around the pop stations these days.  By light years. 

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Sadly, most things are.

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More than light years....