The Venturer Program: Dres Expedition

[RogueMason]

CHAPTER 6: THE RETURN – PART 2

Several hours later…

Scott: “Any luck with Stanley?â€Â

Kirfrid: “N-no, just like the l-last time you asked.â€Â

Scott: “It would be nice to have advanced trajectory information. The computer doesn’t predict the effects of the atmosphere along the trajectory we’re travelling, so for all I know, the ship could drop like a stone if we slow down too much.â€Â

Buzz: “We’re aerobraking at the standard aerobraking altitude; we’ve been through this plenty of times before with other ships on other missions. We’re going to be fine.â€Â

Lengas: “Speaking of which, I’d like to start getting the ship ready for the pass through the atmosphere.â€Â

Buzz: “Well, you don't need to ask me, Lengas.â€Â

A hopeful flickering emanates from several of ANSI/Stanley’s control panels, accompanied by a resonating hum. As quickly as they came about, they disappeared again. A small electrical spark flies between a cable and Kirfrid’s finger.

Kirfrid: “Damn it! I t-thought I had it that time!â€Â

Sigler: “You need to rest, man, you’ve been at it for hours.â€Â

Kirfrid: “Doctors orders?â€Â

Sigler: “Yep.â€Â

Kirfrid: “Argh, alright then…â€Â

Several more hours later…

Scott: “We’re getting close to the atmosphere now. Speed is climbing rapidly.â€Â

Lengas: “No worse than returning from Jool.â€Â

Scott: “Only you can attest to that, but I’ll believe you because it makes sense.â€Â

Lengas: “Damn right it does. Solar panels are retracted.â€Â

Buzz: “Kirfrid?â€Â

Kirfrid: “S-Sorry, Stanley just isn’t b-booting back up at the moment. I’m not s-sure what’s wrong.â€Â

Buzz: “Never mind, we’ll make do without it.â€Â

A few alarms fire up.

Buzz: “We’re in the atmosphere.â€Â

Lengas: “Hull integrity looks sound. External temperatures are climbing steadily.â€Â

Scott: “Trajectory is good.â€Â

Sigler: “Now that looks pretty sweet!â€Â

Kirfrid: “You w-won’t think the same if the w-window breaks.â€Â

Lengas: “Which it won’t, by the way.â€Â

Kirfrid: “True e-enough.â€Â

Lengas: “Temperatures are now decreasing. 1400k. 1350k…â€Â

Scott: “We’re in orbit!â€Â

Buzz: “Good, but we’re not done yet.â€Â

Scott: “I’ll plan the inclination change once we’re out of the atmosphere, plus the circularisation burn, of course.â€Â

A few minutes later…

Scott: “And there we have it; a nice, stable, equatorial orbit.â€Â

Buzz: “Ah, we can relax a bit now. Control will be sending the transfer vessels soon, though.â€Â

Scott: “Oh, err, that reminds me, you and Lengas have a couple of messages waiting for you from control.â€Â

Lengas: “Is that so?â€Â

Scott: “Afraid so.â€Â

Buzz: “Hmm, they weren’t forwarded to our personal accounts.â€Â

Lengas: “That solar flare a few months ago probably knocked a load of comms satellites out; we’ll have limited communications ability until they’re restored, so sending messages to private and secure destinations is a no-go when you can yield the same results by just sending the messages to a general, relatively insecure inbox.â€Â

Buzz: “Huh, makes sense, I think…â€Â

Lengas: “At least, that’s what I can make of it, anyway. I never paid much attention in the communications section of my physics and engineering course.â€Â

Scott: “And yet you still made it all the way out into space…â€Â

Lengas: “Completely blind luck, but I guess my knowledge and expertise came in handy too.â€Â

The cabin begins to fill with the sound of a whirring computer core once again as ANSI/Stanley finally reactivates.

ANSI: “[sTART-UP SEQUENCE COMPLETE. DIAGNOSTICS COMPLETE. GATHERING TELEMETRY. COMPLETE.] I think it should be known that I had a complete bottleneck of my CPU; very distressing.â€Â

Buzz: “Ah, Stanley, you’re alright.â€Â

ANSI: “Just about; I’m running at 72% efficiency compared to my standard 94%. However, I see we’ve made Kerbin orbit, so it isn’t much of an issue now. I will begin optimising the trajectories for the transfer vessels to follow.â€Â

Buzz: “Sounds good.â€Â

Lengas: “You aren’t feeling enraged anymore, Stanley?â€Â

ANSI: “No, I’m feeling ok now, if an AI such as myself can have feelings.â€Â

Lengas: “Good. Now then, I’ve got messages to read.â€Â

Buzz: “Oh yeah. Hopefully there’s nothing too distressing amongst them.â€Â

Sigler: “What, something like World War 77 broke out while we were gone? That would be pretty distressing.â€Â

Buzz: “I don’t think we’ve had that many world wars, Sigler.â€Â

Scott: “We’ve had 4, if you include the Cold War. That spanned most of the planet, seeing as everyone was pointing their rockets at everyone else from almost everywhere.â€Â

Sigler: “Oh… must have been a dodgy documentary.â€Â

Lengas: “Or that ridiculous war film you perpetually watch.â€Â

Sigler: “I thought it was based on true historical records!â€Â

Lengas: “Bah, they just put that in the description to make it seem more awesome. Either that or it’s sarcasm. Probably sarcasm.â€Â

Sigler: “Damn it.â€Â

Buzz: “Anyway…â€Â

With that, Buzz and Lengas take to their PDAs to read up on the messages that had been lingering in their inboxes for a few hours now while the rest of the crew settled into a game of Shark.

[RogueMason]

Looking at some of the pictures there, it occurs to me that I didn't actually say anything about the new initials preceding the name of the Venturer, or the MSV Venturer, as it is now called.

MSV: A new and standard prefix for all manned ships of significance; an acronym for Mason Shipyards Vessel. The name of a ship is now structured as follows:

• MSV Venturer VNT-050
  
• MSV Libra LBR-030-B
  
• MSV... actually, I'll hold off on that one for the moment
  

MSW: Mason Shipyards Warship, for the military capital ships, should they ever need to be commissioned.

[The Error]

Somehow, I feel the MSWs are incoming. Not to fight Krakens, though, and that's the scary bit.

[Needles_10]

Somehow, I feel the MSWs are incoming. Not to fight Krakens, though, and that's the scary bit.

The MechaniKraken have been destroyed (ending with the absolute atomization of my creation, the Deep Space MechaniKraken (yes, I made The Old One)), so it's likely that it'd be another thing. It'd be interesting if it is that thing Danny always exploits when playing KSP.

[Danish_Savage]

The MechaniKraken have been destroyed (ending with the absolute atomization of my creation, the Deep Space MechaniKraken (yes, I made The Old One)), so it's likely that it'd be another thing. It'd be interesting if it is that thing Danny always exploits when playing KSP.

But Danny exploits the force of nature itself (and Kod).

Good job on the old one, btw

[Itsdavyjones]

good chapter, and i am looking forward to the next series

[RogueMason]

EPILOGUE

Lengas: “Hmm… oh, oh man.â€Â

Buzz: “What is it?â€Â

Lengas: “OH MY KOD.â€Â

Buzz: “What?!â€Â

Lengas: “I’ve been assigned as a crew member for Project Nebula!â€Â

Buzz: “Wow, really? Let’s see that message.â€Â

Lengas: “Here. HAHA, WOO!â€Â

TO: Lengas Kerman

FROM: Gene Kerman

SUBJECT: Project Nebula assignment

-----

Lengas,

I’m aware that you’ve been eager to join the ranks of those involved with Project Nebula, and seeing as you are one of the most experienced kerbonauts we have lurking around, I’ve decided to post you as Chief Engineer on the MSV Enterprise. I think you’ll find this posting most agreeable; the Enterprise is one of the biggest ships we’ve ever built. Congratulations.

Gene Kerman

Flight Director, KSC

Buzz: “Damn, that’s nice!â€Â

Scott: “Good on you, man.â€Â

Sigler floats into the hatch between the command pod and the habitation module, a look of confusion gracing his face.

Sigler: “What? What’s going on?â€Â

Buzz: “Lengas has been made Chief Engineer for Project Nebula.â€Â

Sigler: *Whistles* “Damn fine posting, that is. I’d have applied for it myself, but they wanted experienced people for it. I’m lucky I got selected for this mission!â€Â

Lengas: “Man, I wonder what this Enterprise is like…â€Â

Buzz: “Pretty nifty I would imagine. Now, my message…â€Â

Buzz gets to reading his message.

ANSI: “I can look into retrieving the blueprints for you, if you wish.â€Â

Lengas: “Sure, that’d be alright, I guess. Chief Engineer needs to get to know his new ship, eh?â€Â

ANSI: “Searching databases… complete. I’ve forwarded the designs schematics to the general inbox, as personal inboxes are still unavailable; I’m still getting 404 errors in trying to establish a connection.â€Â

Lengas: “Wait, you forwarded design schematics for a spacecraft into an unsecure inbox via an unsecure transmission?â€Â

ANSI: “…â€Â

Lengas: “Never mind, it’s too late now.â€Â

ANSI: “[bEGINNING SELF DIAGNOSTICS]â€Â

Kirfrid: “W-Why…?â€Â

Lengas: “Maybe it thinks it has a glitch in its system. Well, it doesn’t really matter; I doubt that there’s anyone who would actually go as far as hacking the data transmissions for a space agency.â€Â

Buzz: “Actually, I wouldn’t be so sure of that…â€Â

Lengas: “Hmm? What makes you say that?â€Â

Buzz: “Well, umm, take a look at this.â€Â

With a gentle flick of his wrist, Buzz sends his PDA twisting through the cabin towards Lengas, who plucks the errant device out of the air. When he begins to read the message, Lengas suddenly realises why Buzz has become almost melancholy.

TO: Buzz Kerman

FROM: Gene Kerman

SUBJECT: A problem has arisen

-----

Buzz, it’s Gene. I’m afraid this isn’t good news, but I’m going to have to start from the beginning instead of cutting to the chase.

That solar flare that hit us a few months ago? It almost annihilated our satellite network, which you may think is about as bad as it can get. However, the time between then and now has been filled with unidentifiable launches from the other side of the planet. We don’t know what’s going on, but a number of small objects have been put into orbit. At first, we thought nothing of it; someone must have been putting temporary comms sats into orbit to satisfy the blackout until we could launch proper satellites again. Then we started seeing larger objects going into space, some of them looking to be manned.

About 2 weeks before the time you reached Kerbin’s SOI, we had a prototype Destroyer in orbit, the MSW Dresden. They’d been up there for about 2 months before we lost contact with them. The worrying thing was, we hadn’t heard back from them; protocol mandates that any ship with communications difficulties should lower its orbit to allow short range comms. None of those objects I mentioned earlier went anywhere near the altitude that the Dresden was orbiting at, which was where the confusion lay, until we sent a ship to investigate one of those objects. The reports from that mission were pretty crystal clear.

Firespitter Company. They’d taken advantage of the whole damn blackout and posted signal relay satellites everywhere. We’re assuming they used them to sabotage the Dresden’s systems discreetly. As for their manned ships, we don’t know what they’re up to, but it obviously isn’t good. For them to take this sort of action, they must still owe their allegiance to Krumer, that [REDACTED].

Investigations are still under way, and as much as I’m sure you’ll object, I want you to be a part of those investigations. The military is providing you with your own ship, though, so there is a plus side to this whole story, I guess.

Seeing as comms are still sketchy, I don’t think you’ll get this for a while, but reply as soon as you’re through reading it.

Lengas: “…â€Â

Scott: “What is it?â€Â

Lengas: “Buzz…â€Â

Buzz: “I know… we may have got out of the frying pan, but we’re plainly in the fire now.â€Â

[Henry01]

Quick make a dreadnought and blow up everything they own!

[Danish_Savage]

And sh(i)t just got real

[The Error]

Holy crap.

Still..with Buzz on the case, it's not as bad as it could be.

[Needles_10]

Firespitter? AGAIN? You have to be kidding me. As always, though, this was a spectacular story!

[RogueMason]

Once again, thanks for following the story. I know this one was only short, but there really is very little you can do with Dres. I'm just happy I visited it again

Yes, I think you can see now the plot that's emerging in this series. Conspiracy, subterfuge, conflict... and we thought the Kraken were scary. The third story in the series will probably start being written up soon, seeing as all the pictures are sitting there waiting to be used. I already have ideas on how to further the plot, too...

[The Error]

Once again, thanks for following the story. I know this one was only short, but there really is very little you can do with Dres. I'm just happy I visited it again

Yes, I think you can see now the plot that's emerging in this series. Conspiracy, subterfuge, conflict... and we thought the Kraken were scary. The third story in the series will probably start being written up soon, seeing as all the pictures are sitting there waiting to be used. I already have ideas on how to further the plot, too...

Ad astra per aspera!

(also, make sure your ships don't use the the Command Navigation Program.)

Edited December 10, 2013 by The Error