Colonization: Ch5 Jool Explorer- Part 16: Intermission (AAR) [pic heavy]

[Patupi]

What, you think just because this is happening on Bop it has to be the Kraken? But isn't that one dead?... to quote Czokltemus... 'Or is it?'

[The Error]

What, you think just because this is happening on Bop it has to be the Kraken? But isn't that one dead?... to quote Czokltemus... 'Or is it?'

*ahem*

dun, dun, DUN!

[Patupi]

*grins* Yeah, 'dun dun dun' indeed.

Low Jool Orbit

Jeb checked his Periapsis before taking a snooze. Right now he was due for a burn to circularize near Jool in a day, then roughly another day of shifting orbits till he rendezvoused with Jool Explorer One. Already he felt... well, better sort of. What was that? Paranoia? Fear of failure on the refueling? Something coming back to haunt him about hibernation?

Thinking about hibernation gave him a shudder, but he shrugged it off. Compared to the last few weeks hibernation was nothing! He could take it... probably.

Just before he drifted off to sleep he did check behind him once more, that hallucination of something moving on Bop coming back to him vividly. Get over it! Aliens, hah!

He was lucky he was alone in the capsule as Jeb's snoring was quite loud.

***

Jeb was woken by a soft beeping and glanced over blurry eyed at the console.

'You have seventy nine messages.' blinked on the central panel.

"Huh?"

Shaking his head a few times (which didn't really help) and grabbing a bulb of koffee (which did thankfully) he scanned through the screen of info. OK, for some reason during that whole fueling mess he'd completely ignored communications. True, Rodsy and Jedwig were asleep but Mission Control wasn't. Since they were almost eight minutes delay due to light speed (four there, four back) they'd tended to just do text messages. But he hadn't noticed he'd received none since entering Bop's SOI.

Blinking he scanned through them, first messages that telemetry from the lander was sketchy at best, then warnings about increased Electro-magnetics from the instruments on the lander... then more worried messages... that apparently he never received.

Electro-magnetics. This was the thing Seanbur was talking about wasn't it? They got all the way here, no problems from EM fields, and a bad part messed them up, and now.... wait... EM fields? Blinking Jeb scanned back through the records to find out what exactly was recorded. During descent the fields were particularly strong... which didn't make a lot of sense. Did Bop even have a metal core? Surely it wouldn't have a strong magnetic field? But the data was there.

Even if it was due to a rotating metallic core why was the field all the way down to the moon's surface? It should be focused further out, similar to Kerbin's Melvy belts, shouldn't it? However, Jeb did notice one more thing. The fields were oscillating (and what was causing that?!?) at a frequency not far off the Delta waves of Kerbal brain waves!

"Oh Carp." he muttered. "I've been zapped!"

The insanity, the fear, the panic. Induced by magnetics? Made sense, and now he was clear of Bop's field he was back to normal.

"As normal as I ever get." He said with a chuckle. Yeah, that's what Jedwig would have said.

So he wasn't going nuts, he was just affected by Magnetics. That was a load off his mind... literally!

He started to type out a message to KSC, then stopped. No, this deserved a verbal response, despite the delay. Opening the channel he managed a weak smile as he started.

"Hey, hi guys.... er... Funny thing. Seems I've been a little out of it lately. OK..." he paused, took a deep breath and then began. "OK, here's my excuse, in detail. Well, just after I got to Bop I...."

This would be a long explanation!

***

"...and I started to notice being more myself after only a few hours from leaving orbit. Well, I think you can guess how I was thinking at that point. 'Space madness' and other weirdness." Jeb pointedly did NOT mention thinking it was an alien conspiracy. "Being barred from launches on grounds of insanity. Etc etc. Well that changed when I read the delayed notes. Seems none of your messages got to me while I was in Bop's influence. Magnetic interference or something." He paused, then in a surprisingly calm tone of voice continued. "I think, on careful consideration, that I may decline further missions to Bop if they're offered. No offense, but me and insanity don't mix well."

He took a deep breath then rounded it off.

"So, in conclusion. Bop equals insanity. Radio isolation. Me: awfully sorry. So, call back when you get the chance, it'll be nice to hear someone's voice beside my own... and... the voices!" he said, faking a manic tone, then grinned. "Nah. at least I didn't start hearing voices in my head. I'd have never lived that one down! Jool Lander One signing off."

With a click he shut the mike down and waited the next eight minutes. Actually Jool was starting to get closer to Kerbin now in it's orbit. Slow going, but gradually it would get less than eight minutes turn around time for messages. Though likely it wouldn't reduce much before they headed home.

Eventually the screen lit up with an incoming message and Surprisingly Bob's voice came through the speaker.

"Well thank Kod!" He said emphatically. "We were almost to the point of waking the other two early. Though I have no clue what good it would have done. I'm glad to hear you're back to your nearly sane self Jeb."

"Yeah, thanks bud." Jeb said to himself chuckling.

"I'm sorry you went through that, though I'm sure Seanbur will be glad for more data on the phenomenon. We have a plot readied with extra fuel tied in just in case. Given the amount that EFT One holds you won't be restricted to a straight Hohhman transfer that's for sure. It'll be a while to get back, but you'll be asleep so you'll hardly care." Jeb gave an involuntary shiver, but he was surprisingly OK with the prospect of hibernation... well, as much as can be expected anyway.

"I'm back on Kerbin now, taking a two month sabbatical from the Munbase gig. Bill took over for me while I'm gone. Yeah, horrifying thought huh? Bill. In charge? Anyway, things are going pretty well, though Dansey did manage to ding the rover a bit. Took it a little too fast on test drive and took off over a rise. He says, 'as a rover it's fine. As a lander... not so much.' Though he did say he does like the RCS on a vehicle, just not depending on it. Apparently he's been doing over twenty five meters per second regularly around here, relying on the RCS down thrust to keep him on the ground while going over rises. Idiot! I've reprimanded him and reminded him that the Mun's low gravity is not conducive to high speed racing."

"There's been some minor improvement in the Vanguard reusable launchers, though our transport shuttle is still the same. There's been talk of a totally reusable Single Stage To Orbit vessel, but so far the winged variety have been... unimpressive and the only rocket version to succeed carried one Kerbal to orbit and no cargo. Not terribly useful. Wernher and Dunkel are looking over the problem while the Council continues to harangue Gene about the whole 'reusability' thing. They aren't happy with the Vanguard, despite it being totally reusable. Seems it costs a fair bit to recover the 1st stage tanks and refurbish them for reuse. Go fig."

Bob coughed a bit and Jeb heard a few mutterings in the background.

"Oh yeah, Gene says hi by the way, and wishes you a good trip back to Jool Explorer. There have been a few research breakthroughs here, but I'll leave that for when all three of you are awake and able. Take care, and try not to kill Jedwig... or at least make it look like an accident."

"Bob." a soft, warning voice of Gene came in the background.

"Just kidding!" Bob said before signing off.

Jeb sat back and grinned. Just hearing Bob's voice had helped a lot. A few days here, a few more arranging for the transfer home, the *shudder* hibernation thing, and aerobrake and they'd be home. The plan was to use a Vanguard left in orbit to get back down to Kerbin leaving the Jool Explorer up there for another mission. However, given the disaster this mission had turned into Jeb wasn't sure they'd use this ship again. The Council would normally have pushed for reusability, but Jeb had a feeling that the bad press of reusing hardware from a mission that had gone as badly wrong as this one had would make the Council rethink that.

Soon at least he'd have someone to talk to, even if it was Jedwig.

***

Jool did look beautiful. As he slid into orbit he took quite a few photos for Gene (and the publicity department too or course). Once his entry burn was finished and he was in a stable LJO he set the ship's cameras to take a photo every few seconds for a time lapse. It'd be fun to watch Jool's clouds flow by at high speed. He'd have a day in this orbit before he matched the position of Jool One and finally matched speeds for docking.

This had certainly been an interesting mission. A failure as far as KSC was concerned of course since they didn't do the multiple landings they'd planned, but they had done some science around Laythe, Tylo, Bop and Jool itself of course, and had Kethane maps now for Laythe, Vall and Bop. Given his recent experience if he did come back to Jool for another trip he planned to use Pol to refuel, not Bop. Let some other poor schmuck recruit do that job!

The next few hours passed quite quickly and soon he matched position with Jool One and engaged the EFT's nukes once more. A bit of fancy flying and he was coasting next to the ship after his long voyage. He sent the signal to wake them up while he slid in closer and prepped the lander to disconnect from the EFT. It was over an hour and a half and Jeb was just starting to get worried when Jedwig finally got on the comms.

"Come in Jeb, how *cough* how are you doing?"

"Oh fine, fine. Little bout of magnetic insanity that's all."

"Huh?"

Jeb smiled. It was good to finally talk to someone again!

"Never mind, I'll fill you in when I get over. I'm disconnecting the lander now and then I'll EVA to the Jool Explorer One. Stand by, should be there in... ten minutes Jedwig."

"Sure, sure Jeb. See you then. Jool One out."

[Patupi]

Leaving Jool

With a thud the hatch sealed and Jeb was out in space again. He laid a hand on the dull metal of the hatch and smiled.

"Ya did good old girl. Thanks." he said, and patted the lander affectionately. "And you won't tell anyone about the whole 'aliens' thing, right?"

With a chuckle Jeb turned to look at the Jool Explorer One in the distance as he drifted back from the lander slowly. His inspection was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"About what 'alien' thing Jeb?"

Jeb's smile faded fast. Him and his big mouth!

"Oh, nothing Jedwig. I'm heading over to you now. Are you both up and about already? No nasty symptoms? Cough, runny nose, sore throat... violent personality disorders?"

"Noooo," Jedwig said slowly, obviously irritated, "We're both up and about, and no 'nasty symptoms' at all. Hibernation is perfectly safe Jeb. Don't change the subject. What aliens?"

Jeb sighed. No, he wouldn't leave it be would he? Not good old reliable Jedwig.

"I'm jetting over Brains, be there in a few minutes."

"Don't call me Brains... and also don't change the subject!" Damn! Jeb thought that would have switched his rails onto something else.

"Look, it's a long story Jedwig. I'll fill you in when I get aboard."

Bursts of white sent Jeb sliding quickly towards the distant ship but it seemed Jedwig didn't want to let it go.

"Jeb, I'm tired, my metabolism is shot to hell, I'm incredibly hungry, and I still don't know what kind of situation we're in. Why don't you fill me in? NOW!"

"Um, short version? I got the fuel. Bop has a magnetic field that sends people insane. I survived. The end."

There followed a significant pause.

"Insane..." Jedwig said after a while. "And you were talking about aliens?"

Jeb rolled his eyes. No, never let it be said that Jedwig EVER let anything go!

"*Sigh* I was out of my skull, noticed that my paranoia got worse every time I went down to Bop, so I... " Jeb took a deep breath, then let it out all at once. "... thoughtitwasanalienconspiracy.... Satisfied?"

"You noticed you got more paranoid every time you went down... so you naturally thought it was aliens?" Was that a hint of a chuckle in Jedwig's voice.

Jeb finished gliding over and grabbed hold of the rungs by the hatch. The hatch refused to open.

"Look, I'm here, let me in OK?"

"No wait, I just want to be sure I understand this. You, Jebediah space Ace, believed in space aliens ganging up on you to make you insane?" Definitely a chuckle there.

"Let me in Jedwig!" Jeb said, banging on the hatch.

"I just want to hear you say it."

Jeb closed his eyes and groaned. Oh he was so going to get a slap for this!

"JEDWIG. LET... ME... IN!"

"Say it."

Gahhh! That kerbal was just... infuriating!

"Fine! Magnetic fields made me think space aliens were 'ganging up on me to make me insane'. Happy now Brains?"

There was a significant pause, but eventually Jeb felt the click of the hatch unlocking. Why did they even have locks on these things? He opened the hatch and swung in. Thanks Kod he didn't have to spend the next year awake with this guy. Amazingly he was almost looking forward to hibernation!

***

Rodsy checked the instruments again and found only low levels of spurious magnetic fields. It seemed as if the field lines were pretty strong, and not from Jool. Odd. If anything the variance suggested a curvature that folded back to Laythe. Should Laythe even have a strong magnetic field? Well, strong was a relative term. It shouldn't have been strong enough to even detect this far away so...

His train of thought was interrupted as he heard a thump behind him. He'd heard Jedwig on the comms again but had been to preoccupied to pay much attention. Now though that sounded like... Yes, Jeb was back! Rodsy turned to see Jedwig laughing as Jeb came back. It was nice to be in such fine spirits! It bode well for their return to...

*SLAP!*

Rodsy was almost as stunned as Jedwig looked as the purple welt on the side of his face formed.

"Hey!" Jedwig said, though not nearly as put out as Rodsy would have been in his place. True, this was Jedwig, but still!

"Just don't do that again!" Jeb said sourly. "What if that got locked with us all outside? Do you happen to know the position of the conduits for the door controls? I don't! We'd be trapped out there till our air ran out!"

Rodsy's jaw dropped. Jedwig had locked Jeb out? OK, slap probably warranted.

With visible restraint Jeb calmed himself.

"ANYWAY... Let's get set up for the return burn, OK?"

"Sure thing 'oh glorious leader'. "Jedwig said, quoting a particularly annoying scifi about alien invasions.

Jeb just glared at him at went to the controls.

"Fine, 'glorious leader'." Jeb said in return. "You decide what we do."

"Oh, I already agreed, don't get your antennae in a twist."

Jeb sighed. This was going to go on the whole trip wasn't it? He just sat down and focused on getting accurate readings on the EFT One for remote control.

***

Remote undocking from the lander and docking to the Jool Explorer One went surprisingly well, unfortunately spattered with numerous 'alien' references from Jedwig. Jeb's teeth were already beginning to grate and it had only been an hour!

"We should call Gene and let him know things are progressing well." Jedwig said. "So, you know. Why don't you 'take me to your leader' Jeb?" he said with a straight face.

Jeb just attempted to ignore it and 'phoned home'.... oh god now he was doing it!

"This is Jool Two reporting to KSC." Jeb said "Current status is good. Jool Explorer One is docked to EFT One and Jool Lander is free and clear. We've plotted a return trajectory and would like confirmation Flight."

He sent the data then leaned back to wait the eight minutes for the answer. OK probably more than eight minutes as they'd have to check the course first then reply.

"So, enjoy your trip on your own Jeb?" Rodsy asked innocently.

"Oh I think Jebediah has always wanted to 'boldy go where no Kerbal as gone before'." Jedwig butted in.

"No." Jeb said simply, ignoring Jedwig. "Not particularly. When do we hibernate again?"

Both Jedwig and Rodsy stared at him.

"Um, you OK Ace?" Jedwig said cautiously.

"I'm fine. Let's just get home shall we? Preferably without killing each other while we're awake?" Jeb said, pointedly glaring at Jedwig.

"OK OK, I get the message." Jedwig said with a chuckle, though a little weaker than before. He seemed genuinely worried.

Jeb just sat down and began prepping the EFT Engines for flight.

"We're gonna have to shift these seats around to face the other way." Jeb said. "With us docked nose to nose we'll be hanging from our straps during the burn otherwise. Been there, done that, didn't enjoy it."

Jeb actually was just trying to find something to fill the time with. It hadn't been that bad honestly, and with the Jool Explorer massing much more than the lander there'd be less acceleration... at least at first.

Jeb watched as Jedwig and Rodsy started unbolting one of the chairs and getting it switched around. Oh please let this go without a hitch! He hoped.

***

Amazingly, it did.

Course was checked. Chairs reversed temporarily. Rodsy went out to strut the ship to the EFT One. All was good and now they were due to head home. Jeb was almost reluctant to leave, but the whole Bop experience did put a rather sour taste on it all. At least he was getting back to his old self again.

"OK, We're all set here." Jedwig said. "You're clear to burn."

At least he'd stopped with the scifi references. Jeb rested his hand on the tablet that had been strapped to the arm rest. Since the chair was reversed he had no access to the normal flight controls and so he normally wouldn't have been able to do anything once they started the burn. This tablet let him have minimal manual control at least.

"OK, ignition in ten, nine," As Jeb counted down he saw Rodsy looking over his shoulder at him and giving him the thumbs up. Smiling Jeb nodded back, "two, one, ignition!"

The acceleration was light, but it would get stronger and they were going to have to put up with it for quite a while. Burn time of nine minutes was excessive! Jeb monitored the readouts on the tablet and on his helmet HUD and slowly adjusted the trajectory to stay on course.

Outside Jool spun beneath them, slowly starting to shrink as they widened their orbit, streaking away from the green giant of the Kerbol system. They'd be back.

Edited February 7, 2014 by Patupi

[The Error]

So..returning home consists of a whole lot of ZOOM ZOOM HIGH ENERGY TRANSFER?

(and also, how did you reverse the chairs? The controls are on the panel, not the seats...?)

[Patupi]

If you'll note Jeb uses a tablet strapped to the arm rest to control the ship Hah! Totally caught that one in advance!

[Patupi]

Journey Home

When the engines had died down the crew sighed. True, acceleration had barely topped a fifth of Kerbin gravity, but they were used to free fall conditions. As Jedwig stretched and unbuckled Rodsy got the tools out again to unlock, flip around, then rebolt the acceleration couches. Jeb looked at his tablet and pondered. Currently the course they and KSC had worked out, and they had just performed, would get them home in a little under two hundred and forty days. But...

"Hold off on that Rodsy." Jeb said as he checked his data on the tablet. "First, we're gonna need them like this for braking at Kerbin. Even aerobraking will be better to put the EFT in tail first rather than us, so the g's will be in the same direction. However..."

Jedwig came over and peered at Jeb's calculations on the tablet.

"Oh, really? Thinking of a deviation are we?" He said with a grin.

Rodsy quirked an eyebrow at the pair and Jeb sighed.

"Well, we have a fair bit of fuel left. I know, I know!" He said, holding hand up to forestall Rodsy's retort. "We'll be in hibernation the whole time. What does it matter, huh? Well frankly I don't trust the things and want to stay in them for the least possible time. Plus, this minimizes the time difference. Right now we're more than five hundred days out of sinc with Kerbin's time frame and I'd just as soon not get much more out of touch. Even a year or so difference will make a difference when we get back."

"Worried you'll be out of style Jeb?" Jedwig cut in with a smirk. "I can see the headlines now. Jebediah returns to Kerbin after successful KSC rescue mission... but what's this? Oh NO! Shock horror, he's wearing last years ties! Someone call the police!"

"Ha ha, very funny." Jeb said dryly. "Still, I'd prefer we get home as fast as possible. Don't worry, I'll leave some spare for LKO maneuvering, but I plan on shifting our Kerbolar orbit down to intersect Kerbin on the other side of it's orbit. Actually, from these plots I reckon we can get an intersect a little over a third of the way round Kerbin's orbit, so, maybe shave thirty to forty days off our trip. Hang on, let me do some calculations."

He put his plot through the computer and watched it calculate time of intercept.

"Hmm, not bad, shaved forty seven days off. ETA is now 195 days. I plotted it just after we leave Jool's SOI so we'll be awake a tad longer."

Jedwig chuckled.

"Of course that is purely accidental, right Jeb?"

Jeb looked up, and saw genuine humor in Jedwig's face. He paused, but eventually smiled back.

"Oh definitely. Pure luck. 'Any similarity to other kerbals living or dead is purely accidental'. "

Rodsy looked back and forth between Jeb and Jedwig. OK, half an hour ago Jeb was furious with Jedwig, hit him and threatened him... now they were joking as if it had never happened. And they were joking about Jeb's fear of Hibernation?!? Rodsy would never understand those two!

***

Jedwig blurrily awakened, at first thinking they were home. Then he remembered the plans they'd made just prior to going in hibernation at Jool. He shuddered a few times involuntarily (hibernation was nasty, there was no two ways about it!) and looked over at the wall displays opposite his pod.

Yup, they were still twelve days away from Kerbin intercept. Trusting the computers to get it right was a bit much out here so they'd agreed at least one of them should awaken far enough away from Kerbin to make a course correction if necessary. He'd volunteered. Of course he was commander, it was his right. Besides, he seemed the least affected by hibernation of the three of them.

It took him a little under an hour this time to get out, get some stimulants in him and get all the medical gear stripped off him. Since Wernher had warned against going back into hibernation in under an hour he'd be up for at least a little while, even if nothing was wrong, so he'd be damned if he was going to wander round with that body stocking of medical sensors on the whole time!

Mentally he went over the statistics for the orbital flight and correlated it with the numbers visible on the wall screen before heading to the command chair. He glanced at Rodsy and Jeb still in their pods and smiled. Jeb truely had accepted him as commander for this mission. So far he'd done everything he'd been ordered to do. Jedwig had been very careful not to do any ordering when he was joking with Jeb. That whole business with him and the aliens... ah, maybe he had gone a little far with the airlock thing? Hmm.

Sitting down with a push, having to strap in to avoid bouncing out of the chair in free fall, he started reading the computer's orbital predictions. So far it was all very close to the plot. He was going to fine tune the orbit to get closer to the ideal aerobrake height though. Better now that to do it while in Kerbin's SOI.

Gazing out at the stars while mentally recalculating the course he marvelled at it all. That he really was out here. He'd been out on the first vessel to leave Kerbin's little system of moons, and now he was here on the second. For one second there he did ponder the familiar refrain 'But of course. I'm Jedwig!'... But then Jedwig rubbed his cheek. Memories of various incidents with Jeb had shown that Jedwig was the only one who thought that... Perhaps, just perhaps, it wasn't quite an accurate statement.

He'd always been the fastest, the brightest, the best, in almost every educational establishment he'd been in. It was only natural to assume this happened entirely due to his brilliance. But. Yes, but... Jeb had forced him to review his past, and he did wonder how many times he'd stepped on others in his assumptions of his own perfection. Well, can't have been many, but realistically one person, even him, can't be best at everything. Jeb had shown him there were other qualities beside mathematics that could understand the universe. Jeb did it purely instinctively, and for him it worked. Jedwig couldn't work like that and that had really thrown him at the time.

Smiling he sat back in his chair and pondered while idly tapping on the controls, absently performing complex calculus that the computer could have done easily but he just automatically did in his head. In minutes, while thinking of entirely different things, he'd made the course correction and had the ship's projected flight dip nicely into Kerbin's blanket of air.

Stretching he looked back at the medical body suit and sighed. Maybe he could stay awake a little longer. Do some close Kerbol observations. Kerbal's had never been this close to their sun before.

[The Error]

ooooh. Kerbol be pretty.

Also, either you're about to pull a czok and kill someone, or things will go well.

Not entirely sure which.

[Patupi]

"About to pull a Czok"... That sounds painful. Dental procedure or a description of a hernia? Though not sure either of those could kill someone! Seriously, you don't think I'm going to do something despicable like... spoilers?... Me? Naahhhh! Never happen.

[The Error]

"About to pull a Czok"... That sounds painful. Dental procedure or a description of a hernia? Though not sure either of those could kill someone! Seriously, you don't think I'm going to do something despicable like... spoilers?... Me? Naahhhh! Never happen.

dot

dot

dot...

[Patupi]

*Puts on straight face*

No, seriously, never happen... on purpose anyway

Sorry for slight delay in AAR entries, got way too much into attempting a Grand Tour. Anyone know roughly the delta V required? I know it varies depending on the order in which you do the planets. I guessed at around 20,000m/s. Likely I'll be doing Eve first, just simply as the Eve lander is a beast at over 100tons. That way I loose all that mass on the first trip.

Here's a snap of this thing assembled in Kerbin high orbit.

Titan-1 Mothership:

Edited February 10, 2014 by Patupi

[Patupi]

Journey's End

Jeb groggily came awake... and the familiar pain and disorientation hit. Not as bad as before though... though the flashing lights were new. Blinking he saw several red lights on what few panels he could see from within the Hibernation pod... and Jedwig drifting, unconscious in the cabin!

Jeb struggled, but he was still recovering and his muscles were tired and useless. He'd have to wait, wait while Brains drifted, maybe dead, in front of him. If this was some sort of prank he'd kill him!

Eventually the friendly, female Kerbal voice announced he was ready and the pod popped open. A small display next to him showed his recovery was entirely automatic. The alarm had triggered him awakening almost two days early. Struggling free of the cables and tubes running from his suit as they retracted into the pod he pushed off, knocking Jedwig lightly against the wall where he could grab a hand hold and pin him there while he checked him out.

Pulse, steady. Breathing, shallow but regular. Eye's... REM state? No, but erratic.

When he was pretty sure Jedwig wasn't in dire danger Jeb strapped him to the wall so he didn't drift and hurt himself (he had a few bruises already. He'd been drifting unconscious for over two days) and went to check the logs. It seems Jedwig had decided to stay awake till the rest woke up. Not quite as stupid as it sounds. Their life support was far less taxed with just one person awake, so they still should have had a couple of days for all three when they were planned to awaken at T-minus 20 hours from the SOI shift.

As Jeb read on however, it seems that after ten days the system went into some kind of rapid destabilization. Jedwig attempted repairs, but the air quality was degrading the whole time. It looks like he fixed it, but fell unconscious due to lack of oxygen. It was possible he'd have brain damage, though Jeb thought from what he remembered from med classes that there'd be more negative signs that he'd seen on Jedwig if that was the case... though he could be mis-remembering.

Best guess, he was in a coma, or near coma, state right now, but there wasn't much he could do for him. Hopefully he'd recover in time. Otherwise it'd be tricky. The plan called for them to all EVA over to the Vanguard personnel shuttle and doing that with one of them unconscious... not fun!

Jeb looked over at Rodsy, still asleep in his pod, and pondered.

He could wake Rodsy now and get him to help with Jedwig or to keep maintaining the life support system. Technically the system should be fine with all three of them for another day or two, but given the strain it was under and the damage from power spikes it had suffered... No, best not. He did put the Hibernation pod on standby to wake Rodsy, so a single button press from Jeb would start it cycling, but other than that he left him be.

For the next six hours Jeb spent most of his time digging through the guts of the life support system, checking filters, cleaning pipes, examining motors, hoping the thing would keep running for another couple of days. After that he checked on Jedwig again, then started rechecking the ship's course.

With the emergency of the life support system dealt with for the moment Jeb got on the comms and called home. After a few minutes of updating Gene on what had happened Jeb finally ran out of disasters to report.

"...so I left him in the pod. Rodsy looks fine as far as the med sensors go. I'm thinking leave him in as long as I dare to limit life support drain, but I've got a panic button set to wake him... um... I think that's it. Any suggestions Flight?"

There was a pause that had nothing to do with the, now negligeable, time delay of the transmission.

"Jool Two, we read you and good work on getting things stable. Right now we have a few suggestions for Jedwig, but I'll hand you over to Medical for that. Just keep it cool and keep checking the flight systems. I don't want an unrecognised problem from a power spike suddenly messing with the flight without you being able to fix it."

"Roger Flight, I'll keep it under watch." Jeb replied tiredly.

"OK, I'll hand you over to Medical for now."

"Hi Jeb." Nelton said carefully in her usual soft voice. "I don't think you have any medical tools that can help Jedwig right now, but I want you to monitor him carefully. I'll give you a list of what you can do. First we get some fluids in him, but carefully. Then..."

This would be a long two days!

***

Jedwig was doing OK as far as the med readouts were concerned. Nelton agreed, as of twenty minutes ago at least.

Jeb checked the flight plan again, then glanced over at Jedwig, still unconscious, but now fully suited up. That had been a pain! Putting Brains into a space suit was not Jeb's idea of a fun thing to do. Still, they were on course and just about to...

The sensors registered the first wisps of air and Jeb focused on the flight, keeping the ship at the right attitude through the aerobrake. For the second time the EFT cruised, butt first through air, this time Kerbin's, not Jool's. The welcoming blue and greens of home called to him, but Jeb kept his eyes fixed on the displays, watching for anything amiss. Rodsy was still fine, still sleeping in his hibernation pod. Originally Jeb had planned to wake him before the aerobrake but the life support system had developed a few new wrinkles since then and it was best to leave him asleep as long as possible.

Rattling, the two docked ships dug deeper into the air, flames licking around their sides as they slowly became a comet, tracing a bright, fiery orange streak across the sky.

"Plot looks good Jool Two." Gene's voice came from the speakers.

For Jedwig's sake, even though they were in suits the ship was pressurized. Honestly it was also for Rodsy. If Jeb had to wake him fast he needed something to breath!

Another rattle jolted Jeb to focus on the controls again. Been awake too long, can't drift!

"Roger Flight." He said nervously. "Attitude looks good. So far minimal force on torque system."

"Understood Jool Two. You're approaching Periapsis now."

Jeb nodded absently as he focused on the flight. After so long messing with the lander it was a little odd coming to the large and ungainly ship the two docked vessels made.

Slowly the flames abated and Jeb managed to relax. He waited till he was clear of the atmosphere then quickly dipped the nose down and slightly prograde. A few early burns and he had a nearly circular orbit. It'd do for now to be sure they didn't dip into the atmosphere again. Then he started Rodsy's wake up cycle.

While he waited for Rodsy to recover he checked Jedwig again. When he signed up to be a kerbonaut he never expected to end up as nurse to an annoying commander! Checking up on the flight he made three orbits before he adjusted the course to intersect with the Vanguard. By that time Rodsy's eye's were blinking.

"So, up and about are you? Good, I could use some help."

Rodsy blinked uncomprehendingly and struggled to wake up properly.

***

Pain.

Slowly Jedwig surfaced, as if from some deep lake. It really felt like he was fighting upwards as he forced his cracked eyes open.

Last thing he remembered was the alarms for the air recylcers blaring and him going from system to system, trying to fix it... ah...

He looked up at the side of Jeb's face as he worked on the flight console, only afterwards realizing he was looking through a suit visor. He hadn't been wearing his suit before had he?

"Oh, *cough* you must have hated that!" he managed in a croaky voice.

Jeb abruptly turned and grinned at him.

"Hey, you made it! About time. We're about ten minutes to rendezvous. Feel like a little trip outside?"

Jedwig blinked. EVA? In his condition? Then he reconsidered. If the air systems had been messed up before and now they were in orbit... it must have been nearly five days of failing life support! Yeah, must be bad if Jeb was suggesting an EVA now.

"Oh sure. Let me *cough* get my hat alright?"

Jeb chuckled and slapped him on his shoulder. It was all Jedwig could do not cry out at the pain that shot through him!

"That's the spirit." Jeb said grinning fiercely.

Up ahead he watched the readouts show a burn nearing. Ah. This might hurt a bit! He managed to shift a little to get somewhat comfortable in the acceleration couch, then felt the g's rise. Thankfully not hugely. Jeb burned easily and slowly. Soon, in the rear view monitors, Jedwig saw the familiar tripple cockpits of the Vanguard swimming into view. Now that was a good sight!

***

Jeb worried about Jedwig. He did seem to be getting his strength back a bit, and with Rodsy and Jeb helping him Jedwig had got into the airlock and out into space fine. Now they turned to watch their craft, damaged as it was, drift away from them.

"Despite it all she made it through hell didn't she?" Jeb whispered.

Jedwig nodded in his helmet, sharing Jeb's fondness for the 'old gal'.

"Um what?" Rodsy said, spoiling the moment thoroughly. "We nearly died out there, and if the ship had been built better we'd hav neve..."

"Stow it Rodsy." Jedwig butted in, much to Jeb's surprise. "Jeb's right. Despite the problems she came through and brought us home alive. That's all we could ask."

Rodsy seemed to disagree, but declined to comment after that.

Jedwig kept his gaze firmly on Jool Explorer and EFT One as they floated there and considered. If he was ordered out to land on Bop again, would he actually do it? The memories of the hell he'd been through were starting to get slightly less stark in his mind. Maybe it helped that he was sort of out of it back then. OK, not really 'sort of' at all.

Staring at Jool Explorer One he considered. Honestly, if it came down to it, he'd probably do it. He certainly wouldn't enjoy it, but he'd do it. And he did recognize that it was quite likely. Sooner or later someone would want to know why Bop's magnetic field was like that. Of course he wouldn't go if they didn't have a damned good way of shielding against it!

"Hey, you coming Jeb?"

Jeb blinked and saw that Rodsy had already helped Jedwig into the Vanguard and was waving from the window for him to join him. Yeah, he probably had drifted a bit too much in his memories.

With a sigh he engaged RCS and floated over, giving one last look at Jool Explorer One as he went.

"Bye old girl. Don't be a stranger."

***

This Vanguard had been upgraded with the new Mechjeb prediction systems and Jeb watched as it plotted where they'd land. Technically it could even take over control, according to the developers. Mission Control hadn't given permission to try that out just yet. From the way Gene grumbled about it that might not happen on a crewed ship at all!

"Deploying landing gear." Jeb said as he felt his way back into the embrace of Kerbin's air.

"Um, isn't it a little early?" Rodsy said, sounding more hesitant that he had at the begining of their journey.

With a cough Jedwig stepped in.

"Don't be absurd. Jeb knows what he's *cough* doing."

Jeb sure hoped so!

Streaking high through the sky, yet again flames curled around the ship, but it was a shallow descent and he bled off a lot of velocity high up. As he started to smile again, taking control of ship hurtling at mutli-mach speeds, almost out of fuel, with an injured crew member onboard, Jeb felt alive again for perhaps the first time since his bout of madness around Bop.

"Keronimo!" Jeb cried as he popped the chutes.

Rodsy didn't seem to like Jeb's attitude, but Jedwig was even chuckling, between coughing fits. As they sailed down, the chutes bleeding the last of his speed away, he could see the predictive software was pretty good. KSC loomed on the rearview monitors as they descended. As the parachutes finally unfurled to full deployment he saw they weren't far off the pad itself.

"Heh, I guess the Council won't have much to gripe about this bit of the mission at least. Must save a bundle in refitting costs to have the ship landed right next to the VAB!"

"Oh don't *cough* worry," Jedwig added, "I'm sure they'll find something to gripe about."

With a joint chuckle (and a scowl from Rodsy) the two laughed all the way to touchdown in a belch of rocket plumes. Jedwig didn't even cringe it was so gentle.

Yeah, he so still had the touch!

Edited February 11, 2014 by Patupi

[briansun1]

Perhaps not so good for Jeb... unless he likes the loony bin

I'm going with he's crazy

[Patupi]

You mean, 'he's touched' rather than 'he's still got the touch'?

Well, technically that's the end of Jool Explorer, but I'll probably do a 'rounding off' post, clearing up loose ends etc. Another wall of text! Don't have any more pics for this... though I guess I could pinch some from upcoming stuff? Maybe *shrugs*

After this is basically tech development, reusability stuff, some labs off world and a little exploration by Jeb and Jedwig again. Jeb's really a sucker for that ain't he?

Well, hoped you liked how this went. I think the story (as opposed to what I played through which was very slightly different) came out pretty good.

Edited February 12, 2014 by Patupi

[Precambrianmollusc]

Bravo, Author, Author!

Standing ovation

[briansun1]

oh more jedwig slaping

[The Error]

Yay for safe landing! You spoiled the fun, Rodsy. Dammit.

But yay for safe landing!

[Patupi]

Intermission

Jeb looked out of the small, dusty window, across the courtyard to the VAB. Out there he could see the next 'great project' the council had approved. Apparently nuclear power had gained quite a popularity in the media of late due to several scifi shows. Having just been rescued by the new LV-N Nuclear Rockets Jebediah could see the point. Now it seemed Wernher was wanting to use more atomic energy in space.

"Ugly isn't she." A disgruntled voice said from behind Jeb.

Turning Jeb grinned back at Dunkel, though his grin faltered at seeing the sling one of the engineer's arms was in. Dunkel caught Jeb's gaze and sighed.

"No, nothing serious. I had a disagreement with an engine nozzle. The nozzle won."

Somehow Jeb managed to keep a straight face. To hide his reaction he looked back at the rocket on the pad. It was... well, not exactly ugly, just... different. The booster stack around it was fairly conventional, but the core, seen between the booster fuel tanks, was odd. Large red fan blades lay folded against the side, and a large grey drum nestled against a recognizable electric generator. The trifoil symbol on the drum gave Jeb pause certainly.

"Appearances I can ignore. How safe is she?"

Dunkel walked up beside Jeb to look through the dirty window.

"I wouldn't worry. Though she has crew support this one's going up on auto. New fangled MJ system can handle it on it's own apparently. I know Gene doesn't like it, plus the council rushed the thing through." Jeb glanced anxiously at Dunkel, but the engineer waved it away. "Oh no, the atomics are fine. Plant is very stable. We've come up with four basic models ranging from probe size up to a huge reactor, almost four meters in diameter. All have tested fine. No, what I worry about is the rate the council is pushing us to get things off the ground."

"What, they're doing that again?"

Dunkel paused, then sighed.

"It's... odd. The furor of the rescue mission got them pushing again for a fast pace, wanting the mission to get launched quickly at first, then they wanted probes, satellites, anything that could get a better image of space in the public press. Then they focused on promoting movies for a while and the push on KSC went down. A few months later another push, rapid construction of several test models of replacements for the Vanguard. I think they were hoping for a completely reusable rocket. That's a way off yet!"

Jeb shook his head. Yeah, they'd been harping on about the benefits of single stage to orbit vessels for ages, and true, they could build a rocket that could do that, but it was larger, more costly to maintain than the Vanguards, and only carried one person. That model had never been built to Jeb's knowledge, but the simulations said it should work fine. He was pretty sure Dunkel was right. It'd be a while before true re-usability was practical for launching from KSC.

Dunkel turned and squinted at Jeb.

"This ain't why you're here though, right? What is it? Come on, spit it out."

Jeb sighed.

"Actually, it is sort of related. I've been talking to Bob on the comms since coming back and we're worried. The Munbase has done virtually nothing since it was established. Dansey's made some stunts in the rover, Bill's flown the transport back and forth, and that's pretty much it. Originally it was seen as a center for expansion but during our whole, long stay out at Jool nothing happened back here at the Mun."

"Well, no. Not nothing. You're right though, it is related. The Council has put a halt on every attempt Gene's made to get construction or research equipment up to the base. Honestly I'm not sure why. It seemed that was what it was all heading towards, and then as soon as the base got there... nothing. Projects just keep coming back stamped 'Not Approved'. I've had a new Hopper; a rocket to let the base send researchers to the far flung parts of the Mun for study, fully designed and tested in sims, but nothing's come of it. The only rubber-stamping is for Kerbin and Kerbin orbit related stuff or for pie in the sky research. There have been a couple of pushes for advanced nuclear research as well as exotic propulsion methods."

Jeb chuckled.

"They want their ion drives huh? Yeah. Killik's eager for them isn't he. I didn't think he had much support from other Councillors?"

"Normally, no." Dunkel said with a sigh. "But factions have formed. Things are getting both more theoretical and more political since the government clashed with the Council's interests last year. Those in the council who have had their 'pet projects' ignored seem to be banding together to get influence over the council as a whole. A bunch of scientists and entrepreneurs acting like politicians. It's disgusting!"

Jeb had to agree.

Both of them stared as the crawler carried the new rocket out to the pad. Poking out above the boosters the blunt nose of the ship pointed skyward, two bulges either side of the small capsule topped with recognizable computer control assemblies made the thing look like a gate lizard. At least it wasn't green!

"What are they calling it?" Jeb said, nodding at the new nuclear powered ship.

"Trans Munar Shuttle One. The Council wants a cheap, but snazzy ferry to ship people from LKO to LMO. High Tech without huge outlay. Staying up there permanently it'll be refueled by VKM-2, then they hope it'll ease up on the refueling schedule for the Munar Transporter and help with the Vanguard schedule... at least that's what they hope. Frankly I'll be amazed if it works given the speed it's been rushed into production. Four weeks ago there weren't even any plans for that thing."

Jeb shook his head sighing as much as Dunkel.

"I'm glad I'm not flying it!"

"Heh, you could always get your buddy to fly it instead?"

For a moment Jeb was going to say that both Bill and Bob were at the Mun... then sighed.

"No, Jedwig is still at the hospital. Oxygen deprivation, muscle wastage, couple of cracked ribs, a few other things. They say he'll make a full recovery pretty quickly... I'm guessing he'll milk it for all he's worth."

"But of course! He is Jedwig!" Dunkel said, his gravelly voice making as good an impersonation of Jedwig as he could. It did get a smirk out of Jeb at least.

"Actually, I think he's getting better. Not medically, I mean up here." Jeb said, tapping his head. "The very fact that he's recognizing he isn't perfect in everything is something, and he's started to accept that other people's ideas matter... occasionally."

"Then it's true what they say then. You really are a master of the Jedwig... oh, no. I think it was 'master of the joystick' wasn't it?"

"I hope so! I've heard far worse!"

Both grinned at this, but both expressions were strained as they watched the crawler stop at the launch pad.

The Council's next project was nearly ready.

God help them!

[ramnrmeul]

Ooh... getting into Interstellar, are we?

[Patupi]

Um... getting into? Ah, got it. You mean the parts just got to ones special to interstellar.

I said at the beginning what mods I was running. OK, 'the beginning' meaning at the start of 'Chapter One: Farside Crater'. About the only mods I added in part way through the AAR (and actually a fair bit after this point in the play through) was Joint Reinforcement, and KW Rocketry, but haven't really used parts from KW much. Been using interstellar the whole time. Magnetometers and the mineral scanner from KSPI are about the only parts that came in this early through... except for radiators I guess, and I haven't used enough large solar panels to need radiators to dissipate the heat from solar systems. From here on out through, nuclear reactors become pretty common on most vessels, at least as backup power.