Minmus Acres: A Skyscraper on Minmus

[Kieve]

JAD, you damn tease. By the time you post the next update I'm not gonna have any nails left to bite.

Fantastic update, as always. Just don't keep us hanging too long for the next one...!

Hope you feel better soon comrade. Spring fever is no fun.

[JAD_Interplanetary]

Chapter X: Homecoming

The shuttle flew in a low approach over Barttop Ridge, giving the passengers the best view of their new home. Eleven new residents of Minmus Acres were arriving today. They would be getting impatient to have a little more room to stretch out, after having spent almost a week aboard the orbiting transit depot, the newly re-named "Gusdard's Courage Station".

Watching the shuttle from the upper deck of the executive penthouse, Gus sipped a juice box. A flashing console in his peripheral vision gave him the names and accommodation details for the new arrivals, but he didn't pay any attention to it. One of the staff would be in charge of briefing the new residents and showing them to their apartments. Gus would be down in the common room after dinner to meet and welcome them, but for now, he had no specific duties to attend to.

Still, he felt something like a compulsion to watch each new batch of residents arriving.

His silent vigil was broken by the pilot's landing request. "Minmus Acres, this is Shuttle One requesting landing clearance and coordinates."

"Roger, that, Shuttle One, cleared for landing, zone northwest," Cal responded over the radio.

Gus set down his juice box, and was surprised by an arm slipping itself around his waist. Even in her condition, the light gravity made it easy for Maryenny to climb silently through the hatches of their penthouse suite. Gus smiled and leaned back against her.

"I'm doing the welcome briefing today," Maryenny said, looking over his shoulder at the incoming shuttle. "I have to head down soon."

"Stay with me. You have a few minutes," Gus said, taking her hand and giving it a small squeeze. She sigh contentedly at the gesture, the tiny sign of their affection, and the reminder of what they had both almost lost.

It had been that same small hand squeeze, Maryenny's hand on his, that Gus had felt after almost five weeks of unconsciousness. Hers was the first face he saw when he finally opened his eyes.

She had been on the first new module delivery that had gone up after the incident. In addition to the observation deck, the top four luxury habitation modules needed replacement or extensive repair. When she arrived, every moment she wasn't performing her air traffic and monitoring duties, she had spent by his side. And even though she wasn't his doctor, it was her encouragement, and sometimes her stubbornness, that had kept him going through the months of physical therapy.

Maryenny had been there when Cal told Gus the story of how he had been rescued.

"It was all Bart," Cal told them. "After disabling the sensors, he got into his EVA suit and through the airlock just as you fell. He couldn't reach you before you bounced off the corner of the tower, but he caught you before you hit the ground. Managed to get his RCS under you and set you down light as a feather. Good thing, too. Another minute later and it would have been too late to slap that emergency patch on your visor. He even shared his air pack with you until I rescued Enwise and Johnski and we got out to you with a stretcher."

Gus had spent days thanking Bart, until the young technician couldn't even come into the medical pod without a deep green blush on his face. Maryenny had baked him countless snacks as her own form of thanks.

Johnski and Enwise had stuck around until repairs and construction were complete, then headed back Kerbinside. Before they had left, the five original residents of Minmus Acres had gotten good and tipsy on fermented juice boxes, and had a big send off. Gus watched them leave with a certain amount of pride and envy.

The doctors explained to him how dangerous it would be for him to go back to Kerbin. The fall, more specifically, the initial bounce off of the tower, had shattered his legs and done a lot of damage to his internal bits. Lifting him off the surface probably would have killed him; re-entry to Kerbin definitely would have. And with his bones healed in Minmal gravity, it was a certainty that he'd never walk in normal gravity ever again. Staying on Minmus, it would be easier for him to get around, and in time, he was moving through the tower just as fast as anyone else.

Being exiled on Minmus wasn't without its perks. Fear of a lawsuit by the kerbonauts' families had made Rockomax more than willing to offer up the full cost of repairing and completing the tower. Additionally, they made Gus the executive director of Minmus Acres, and gave him the luxury penthouse as his personal apartments.

KSC had sent up the finest doctors and physical therapists money could buy. They had also shipped up a fully stocked engineering and design studio for him, so he could continue his work from Minmus. Bill had given him his pick of the engineering department for his team, with promises that they would be on-site at the tower at the earliest opportunity. Gus was given complete autonomy on which missions his team would tackle. The idea of having an off-world engineering team had apparently opened entirely new horizons for KSC.

When the tower was finally complete and ready for residents, Rockomax and KSC had sent up a contingent of VIPs for the ribbon cutting ceremony. Rocky Kerman, Jr. was with them, and spoke with Gus after the ceremony.

"Gus, we feel just awful about what happened to you. And not being able to come back to Kerbin, well shucks, that's a heck of a thing. But listen here, I couldn't be more proud of what y'all have accomplished up here, and when I think of how it all could have been for nothing without your sacrifice, well, it just don't sit right with me that you don't get a little more out of the deal. So I've decided to make you my Vice President of Off-world Construction Projects. Of course, you'll get to keep your job at KSC, too. I don't expect you to have to give up what you love doing. But given the press this place is getting back home, and the length of the waiting list of kerbals wanting to move in, I'm sure there'll be plenty of more work of this type coming KSC's way. And I want you as our inside man on future projects."

Gus had been too stunned at the time to accept. And he had been doubly stunned when the official offer letter came through. He hadn't ever seen a root-sign followed by so many zeroes in reference to a salary before.

And yet, he still felt terrible about all the awards and accolades. He felt like a fraud, considering the whole incident had been his fault from the beginning. He confessed the entire truth about the botched docking connections to original team and Maryenny, but they all figured his actions and sacrifice saving Enwise and Johnski, not to mention the tower, had more than made up for his mistake.

He also confessed it to Jeb, when the pilot had come up to visit for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Jeb brought the full engineering post-mortem report with him. It was then that Gus learned the entirety of what had gone wrong, the confluence of mistakes and unfortunate coincidences that led to catastrophe.

"The original sensors were working perfectly," Jeb told him. Gus had already known that. "But importantly, the indicators were working just fine, too, showing red." Gus also knew that. "What went sideways, was that Bart replaced the sensors, thinking they were faulty. And the sensors he replaced them with had bad indicators. So even though the sensors still read that there was no mag seal, the indicators showed green. And no one bothered to check with the engineering systems computer until the incident. You all just trusted the indicators." Jeb had laughed heartily at that. "What did I tell you about safety systems? If it's not one thing, it's another."

By this point, the entire incident had been thoroughly dealt with, so for Gus there was nothing to do except shake his head, and keep apologizing to anyone who would listen, until they finally told him if he didn't stop apologizing, they would gag him.

Jeb had spent several days at the tower, mostly lounging around, or sightseeing the landscape on the new rocket sleds KSC had sent up. But he also spent a fair amount of time with Gus in the medic pod, talking about space travel, exploration, and kerbalkind's future in the universe. He and Gus still didn't agree on a number of points, but over the course of his visit, Gus gained a new respect for the swaggering pilot.

Which is why, on the last day, Gus made a very important request of Jeb.

Maryenny had come down to eat her lunch in the medic pod with Gus. Jeb was already there.

"Jeb, you're a captain, right?" Gus asked.

"Commander," Jeb corrected him with a grin.

"Whatever. That means, you have certain authority, right? In various civil matters?"

Jeb cocked his head, confused. Maryenny slowly lowered her spoon, eyeing Gus suspiciously.

"I...I guess...I mean, I'm not sure..." Jeb stuttered.

"Because there's something I've been meaning to do for a long time."

"Gus," Maryenny began, "I think that can wait until you're on your feet again."

"No," countered Gus. "I've waited too long already." Maryenny's eyes teared up briefly, but she quickly regained her composure, and smiled at him.

"Well, I'm not doing it with a mouth full of lunch," she said. "So it can wait at least until after we've finished eating."

"Fine," said Gus, grinning widely. "It'll give us time to drum up some witnesses. Cal is probably around somewhere."

"I still have no idea what you two are yammering on about," confessed Jeb, looking back and forth between them.

After the situation was explained, Jeb had been delighted to accommodate them. All the staff at the tower had celebrated that evening, toasting the new first family of Minmus Acres.

Gus's attention turned back to the present, as the shuttle outside canceled its horizontal vector and began slowly sinking towards the base of the tower. Maryenny's arm was still around him, her hand in his. His finger rubbed slowly over the chip of transparent, mint-colored Minmal rock he had polished into a ring for her.

She kissed his cheek and said, "I really have to go now. The new arrivals will be waiting." She turned towards the hatch, her growing stomach brushing his back, her uneven balance still graceful in the light gravity. Gus spun around after her, wrapping her in his arms.

His hands rested on the top of her bulging belly, and he kissed the back of her neck.

"I was thinking about names," he whispered. "What do you think of...Egghead?"

She chuckled, then pursed her lips in mock serious thought. "Egghead...Egghead Kerman...little Eggy, for short...hmmm. That sounds...like a possibility," she laughed.

Gus floated around in front of her and gave her another kiss. When he pulled back, she was wide-eyed and smiling at him.

"You're going to be late," he said. She rolled her eyes at him, gave him another peck on the cheek, then left through the hatch, heading down towards the base of the tower.

Gus looked back out the bay window at the broad landscape of Minmus spread out below. He sipped his juice box and contemplated his life.

He would be in history books for completing the monumental engineering task of Minmus Acres, the first interplanetary wonder of kerbalkind. He was married to the kerbal he loved. Their child would be in history books as the first kerbal born outside of Kerbin. He had the respect and attention of an entire world. He had not one, but two high-paying jobs that afforded him many opportunities to work on projects that engaged his mind. There was always more work coming.

Gusdard Kerman enjoyed his work.

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[Zucal]

That was so beautiful. Been following this the whole time. I expect more of Gus and Co. adventures!

[JAD_Interplanetary]

Final stats for Minmus Acres:

• Construction time: 287d, 5h, 18m
  
• Mass of tower: 1106.33 tonne
  
• Part count: 2624
  
• Height at highest structural element: 152.7 meters
  
• Height at highest point: 154 meters
  

• Room for ~1041 kerbals (counting all parts with crew capacity)
  
• Designed living spaces (discounting parts with crew capacity not intended for habitation)
  
  • 56 family habitats (hitchhiker pods)
    
  • 36 luxury apartments (re-purposed science pod + 2 cuppolas)
    
  • 1 penthouse (8 x science pod + cuppola)
    

• # module launches from KSC: 30
  
• # module landings on site: 39
  
• # tanker launches: 13
  
• # auxiliary/infrastructure launches: ~5
  

[Kieve]

I have no words. That was magnificent.

Well done.

[spaceman1999]

Can you quick save and then hit it with whack a Kerbal... FOR SCIENCE!

[Commander Zoom]

A touching conclusion to an epic tale, and an astonishing feat of engineering and construction.

[JAD_Interplanetary]

Epilogue

"Wa-HOOOOOOO!" Cal shouted, as the sled hit the crest of the ridge and took off. The other side of the ridge dropped away, leaving the sled gliding a few dozen meters off the ground in the Minmal gravity.

"Oh Kerb," Wenmar gulped in the seat behind him, swallowing down the breakfast threatening to come back up. "Would you mind not doing that? I'm...feeling a bit queasy back here."

Cal grinned maniacally, and slammed on the downward thrusters, sending them racing back towards the hard packed frozen ground. They landed with a "THUMP", sending up dust and icy splinters. The skids bit into the hardpack, and slid forward another hundred meters before grinding to a halt.

Wenmar burped nauseously inside his helmet. "Don't do that either, please."

Cal turned around, flashing a mischievous smile. "You get used to the gravity. It's great. After a while it's like flying!"

The sled teetered on the edge of a huge crater. The ground sloped precipitously away towards the flat bottom, eleven kilometers below them. The sun was just rising, casting sharp shadows over the landscape, every ridge and hill outlined in sharp contrast.

The crater wall curved around almost two hundred and seventy degrees, before flattening out into a shallow ridge that connected it to the larger Flats to the west. The bottom of the crater had the same smooth icy terrain as the Flats, reflecting mint green sparkle in the rising sun.

"It's beautiful, yeah?"

Wenmar looked over the landscape skeptically. "If you like barren wastelands."

"Who doesn't like barren wastelands?"

"Hey, Cal, take it a little easier on the sled. If you don't want to walk home, that is." The second sled skidded to a stop beside them, a forward jet of monoprop slowing it before it plummeted over the edge of the crater.

"Sorry, boss," Cal smirked.

Gus checked the rear of his sled to make sure none of the surveying equipment had shifted. He turned to study the scene below. "We're here?"

"Yes," replied Wenmar, pulling up the mapping details on a tablet. "Minmus 87-2."

"Bo-ring," said Cal.

"He has a point," Gus agreed. "What are you going to call it?"

Wenmar looked around nervously. "I...I don't think I should. I mean, I've only been here two weeks, and..."

"And you're one of the first three kerbals to ever set foot on this particular piece of Minmus," Gus cut him off. "That means naming rights go to you."

"Surely, one of you is better suited..."

"There's enough stuff on this rock named after Cal and me," Gus sighed.

"Yeah," said Cal. "We just spent three days traveling over Caldan Ridge, the lower Cal Lands, across the Sea of Cal, through Gusdard Pass, up and down the Hills of Maryenny..." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Watch it," warned Gus, smirking.

"Sorry, boss," Cal shrugged. He turned to Wenmar. "Go ahead, be famous."

"Ummm, I guess...Wenmar Crater?" the surveyor shrugged.

Cal made a sound like a game shower buzzer. Gus shook his head. "Wanna try that one again?"

Wenmar pursed his lips and looked around again. "Erm, how about...oh, I don't know."

"Take your time. It's an important thing. Kerbals on Minmus will forever know this place by the name you give it."

"Yeah, no pressure," chuckled Cal.

Wenmar tried to concentrate on a sufficiently grand sounding name, but all he felt was sick, like he had for the entire four weeks since he had left Kerbin. He felt as if he would never get used to the low gravity. His stomach rumbled again, threatening to bring up the shredded wheat-like paste they had boiled in the pressure cooker for breakfast back at Minmus Acres. The night before, they had used the same pressure cooker to make a stew in honor of today's expedition. Stew, he thought, boiler, pot, kettle...

"How about, Wenmar's Cauldron?"

Gus gave a low whistle.

Cal gave a loud laugh. "Nice one!"

"Wenmar's Cauldron, it is," said Gus, typing it into his tablet. "Now let's go do what we came here for."

The other two nodded agreement. Gus gave his sled a shot of thrust, and launched himself down the slope. Cal and Wenmar waited until he was a safe distance below them, then followed.

Minutes later, they were parked on the flat bottom of Wenmar's Cauldron. Gus waited patiently while the others unloaded the survey equipment. Wenmar planted the first marker away from the sleds, then gave Gus a high-sign. Gus swung his sled around and headed out to the edge of the crater floor.

"This the last site?" asked Cal.

"Yes, and the most promising," Wenmar confirmed. "They wanted something equatorial, but isolated, with a more exacting approach and departure than Minmus Acres."

"Lots of different terrain, too," said Gus, veering around a boulder.

"Yes, that was important. A variety of situations for different trainging exercises is a vital requirement."

"You think this place fits the bill?" asked Gus.

Wenmar shrugged. "Preliminary analysis was positive. We're here to take initial measurement and make absolutely sure."

"So what's wrong with Minmus Acres?" demanded Cal.

"Minmus Acres is residential, made for families, and kerbals who want a summer home in space. This new facility is a training ground, a full-scale laboratory for new habitation technologies, a blueprint for future colonies, and also a way-station for colonists. An interplanetary transit hub. State-of-the-art, and all that."

"Hear that boss, we're obsolete already!" laughed Cal.

"I look forward to a comfortable retirement in the near future," responded Gus.

"On the contrary," Wenmar cautioned them. "While construction is underway, Minmus Acres will be the central hub for all personnel and equipment. You'll probably be busier than ever."

"I didn't think we could get any busier," sighed Gus. His sled skidded to a halt. He spun it around to face back toward the middle of the crater. "In position," he radioed.

"Proceed with first sighting."

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JAD Says:

The sleds in this update are so much fun! I had a blast ripping around Minmus, doing power slides and jumping them over ridges and speeding down hills (up to 60 m/s in places.)

Thank you to everyone for your encouragement! I hope you enjoyed the story and the build, and were inspired to make your own massive creations.

This is the last chapter of this story, but it hints at what is to come. We haven't seen the last of Gus and friends, but the next story will probably see a new set of characters take center stage.

For now, I'm putting the massive construction projects on hold so I can have some fun with 1.0 and get back to exploration and Science! I'll be posting some of my adventures, but they'll probably be more traditional mission logs, not dramatizations.

Anyway, thank you again for reading and your kind words!

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Loved this story!

Although... were those red things Launch Clamps in the final screenshot of the tower?

[JAD_Interplanetary]

Glad you enjoyed it!

Although... were those red things Launch Clamps in the final screenshot of the tower?

They are Kerbodyne ADTP-2-3 structural adapters with red lights shining on them. http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Kerbodyne_ADTP-2-3

The idea was to make it look like foundational pylons driven into the ground to support the tower. But really, they're just sitting on top of the surface. You can see the ground plate landing in the first chapter's screenshots.

[Kozak]

Glad you enjoyed it!

They are Kerbodyne ADTP-2-3 structural adapters with red lights shining on them. http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Kerbodyne_ADTP-2-3

The idea was to make it look like foundational pylons driven into the ground to support the tower. But really, they're just sitting on top of the surface. You can see the ground plate landing in the first chapter's screenshots.

I must have the save file of this. I MUST HAVE IT. I MUST HAVE MY PRECIOUS.

but seriously, i'd love to play around with this, maybe turn it into a small city?

[Zephram Kerman]

Just found this story after following the link in your sig. Great stuff! Best base I have ever seen, and I really enjoyed your writing style. I hope you do something like this again someday. +Rep, of course, and 5 stars to the thread, too.

[Ferdoni]

What a monstrous building...

[Coga19000]

*reads about Guscard's Courage Station*

Sniff. You deserved it, pal. I would accept no less.

*Gus drinks through a juice box *

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT

[waterlubber]

*reads about Guscard's Courage Station*

Sniff. You deserved it, pal. I would accept no less.

*Gus drinks through a juice box *

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT

https://youtu.be/I2ozPMVBuyo?t=4m16s

Anyway, this was great! The save is probably in the gigabyte range, ha. What was your simspeed towards the end? 10 seconds per frame?

[JAD_Interplanetary]

The save is probably in the gigabyte range, ha. What was your simspeed towards the end? 10 seconds per frame?

It was probably about 2-3 seconds per frame. It was painful at times. The save isn't that big, but the memory usage is just shy of the limit. It took about 10 minutes to load from the tracking station, and about 6 minutes to load whenever a ship would pass within physics range.

[Seaview123]

I just stumbled on this thread and read it all the way through in one sitting, and I can't tell you how impressive this project was. You've definitely got a flair for writing, too, as I was kept on the edge of my seat the whole time. Thanks again for sharing this epic story with us.

[Sharkman Briton]

You. New project updates. now.

This thread was beautiful, I loved the love story going on, I got really confused though, because I thought the descriptions was suggesting it was Maryenny that was into Gus, and I laughed so hard at Cal "Up and down the Hills of Maryenny *wiggles eyebrows suggestively*"

Oh yeah, any news on the new project? have you even started? Your signature says this is your current project, but it's finished, I would love to hear some updates on that subject.

[JAD_Interplanetary]

Thank you for the compliments! I'm really glad you enjoyed it.

I've been screwing around in career mode lately, exploring the new physics with some SSTO planes, and learning the new resource mining system. Haven't had a lot of time to play lately, but eventually I'll start a new project. I'm eyeing Gilly as a potential site for another skyscraper. Any story that goes along with it will take place in the same continuity as this one, but with a new cast (and some cameos.) But all that is in the future, when I have some real life bandwidth to plan and play.

I hope I inspired you to take on some monumental construction projects of your own. If so, please post them on the forum!

[Sharkman Briton]

Sounds cool, heres some ideas of how you could build it

Big mothership carrying the neccessary parts, they go down one at a time

the hard way, all the way from KSC (but more fun)

use KAS cranes and that mod that allows you to make stuff with KIS/KAS.

Anyway, can't wait to hopefully see something about Gus, maybe Cal and Maryenney (think I got her name right) you should expand more on the story ark of it, maybe use some texture replacer heads to give the different characters well, character and stuff, and I DEFINATELY want to see some group of screens every once in a while or at the end of the chapter or even in the story that shows story elements, if it happened on minmus acres it would be like: Gus landing in his hab module, thinking, it's hard to explain what I mean, I mean kind of making scenes and stuff that adds more to the story, like on Oceans of Eve, which is another story that has alot of scenes made, I like that.

At least call the drones Alpha 2, Beta 2, Carrot 2 and Django 2, or even better pick them up from minmus and bring them to Gilly! It would be cool to see Maryenney being in mission control for this too, and I see a chance to bring Gus over, considering he couldn't go back to kerbin because of the gravity, Gilly has even lower gravity so he would be fine there, use every darn excuse you find to use the old cast

Love the story, now I have the next part of Oceans of Eve to wait for, Kron 5, some update on After The Storm and the next skyscraper. Squad darn now I need to set myself a challenge and make a Kerbal love story in it!

[Sharkman Briton]

Hey, JAD. Any news on this subject?