Year 4, Day 235, Hour 6, Min 52, Sec 00
Low Kerbin Orbit
Goliath Warp Drive
"Today...you are going to witness something amazing, something kerbalkind has never done before. We are going to bend...space and time!" Gus Kerman said as he addressed the thousands of kerbals that stood outside the VAB. The gathering contained every single kerbal of the space program, except the one's on missions, in mission control or on holiday. It also included various members of the public that wanted to witness the monumental occasion. After the opening sentence was given, a huge round of applause and cheering was heard. After it died down, Gus addressed the mass again.
"I am so glad all of you could make it today. This is the story you will be telling your children, and their children and possibly the children after that." After another applause, Gus turned and pointed at the VAB.
"Behind me on the Vehicle Assembly Building, two of our best pilots, Dermon and Carlos are unraveling a giant screen so we can project the event LIVE for all of you to see!" Another monstrous applause. "It is being streamed Live from Danny Kerman, who is currently in orbit about 300m behind the Warp Drive. Can you hear us Danny?" There was a loud radio static as the projector and sound system connected to the Pegasus 9 and relayed the transmission to Danny. After it patched itself up, Danny gave a warm hello into the camera.
"Hey guys, Danny here and I am on EVA at the moment. As you can see." Danny said as he opened up the Live stream. He flipped the camera towards the Pegasus 9, then to Kerbin and finally back to him. There was an array of oohs and aahs from the crowd. Mainly from the public of course, this was a first glance of space for them. Pretty standard for the crew and employees of the Kerbal Space Program.
"So anyway, you're all here to witness the first ever warp jump for kerbalkind, pretty awesome stuff huh..."
Meanwhile on board the Warp Drive
"Ok...electricity levels are green, RCS is green, SAS is responsive, Dark matter is contained and snacks are at 89%. Looks good to me." Bill said as he concluded his final check of the primary systems.
"Awesome. Just 5 more minutes till the jump. Is everyone at their seats?" Jeb asked. 'Hell Yeah' was the response he got.
"Ok guys, just gonna inform mission control we will start filling the drive with the dark matter and jump in the next 3 and a half mins." Bob said as he connected himself to the frequency that mission control used.
"This is Bob Kerman to Mission Control, do you copy? Over"
"This is Mission Control, we hear you loud and clear. What is your message? Over."
"The stage is set, we are ready to jump. Do we have full clearance? Remember once we start the process, NOTHING can stop it unless you want a anti-matter explosion on your hands." Bob said, fully aware of the risk at hand. There was a brief pause.
"This is Mission Control, jump is a go." Bob turned to the others.
"We have clearance, lets do this!"
Jeb flipped a switch and a massive warning appeared on his touch screen monitor asking 'Are you sure you want to start the Dark Matter injection?' He pressed the 'OK' button and the ship began to whir. All the electromagnets that kept the antimatter from hitting regular matter engaged. On Bill's screen, a big timer appeared that stated how long they had until the warp drive was ready to jump. It read;
1 min, 20 sec.
The crew sat their monitoring all the systems speechless. Their was nothing to be alarmed about. All the systems read nominal and the injection of the dark matter was fine. All they had to do was wait.
Meanwhile in mission control, their was definitely something to worry about. Three satellites that orbited the sun in the Lagrangian point all simultaneously went offline. This was very odd and only two outcomes could be of probability. One, an asteroid or comet was currently in the way of the signal blocking all communication or number two, there was a gigantic solar flare heading straight for Kerbin. If option two was true, the lives of everyone in orbit around Kerbin, the Mün or Minmus could be in serious jeopardy. Especially the warp drive.
"Ok, first off, tell Bob of the the warp drive to abort the jump to the Joolian system, second of all, alert any kerbals in orbit around the light side of Kerbin, the Mün or Minmus and tell them to activate the necessary protocol." Gene Kerman said to the whole of mission control. Seconds passed as several calls were made to different stations and bases. Then the received the news from the warp drive.
"Sir, it would appear they have already started the drive, they say they can't turn it off as they would explode." Leeroy Kerman said to Gene.
"*sigh...can anyone confirm if it's a solar flare it not?" Gene asked impatiently. After about 5 seconds, he got his answer.
"Sir, the Kubble telescope confirms its a solar flare." said a kerbal from the back of the room.
"How long until it reaches the warp drive?" Gene asked, hoping it would be enough time for the crew to jump to Jool.
"Uhh...42 seconds sir."
Back on the Warp Drive
"45 seconds until the jump, I hope the flare doesn't reach us in time." Bill said.
"It shouldn't, by the time it was detected, it would take at least another minute to reach us." Bob replied. "Ok, final systems check. Dark matter Injection?" "Check" "Alignment?" "Check" Mech-Jeb?" "Check" "Electroma...."
"This is Mission Control, we have reason to believe that the solar flare will hit in approximately 25 seconds, you have to jump NOW!" said the voice of Gene Kerman screaming down Bob's headset. Bob looked at the time until the jump. It was only now passing 25 seconds. They weren't going to make it.
"Guys, the solar flare is due to hit 3 seconds before we jump, we have to go NOW!" Bob shouted at Jeb.
"We can't jump prematurely! The Mech-jeb unit needs to calibrate while the drive ignites so it can set the correct time for the timer to stop the drive inside the ship!" Jeb said to Bob.
"18 seconds guys!" Bill said.
"If we don't jump in time, we'll be exposed to high doses of radiation!" Bob shouted at Jeb.
"If we jump prematurely, the drive could malfunction and destroy more than just us Bob." Jeb said
"10 seconds!"
Bob was out of time, he would have to act now. If he didn't, they would more than likely be exposed to the full power of the suns radiation, killing them within days of reaching Jool. He pointed at a panel on Jeb's left hand side and shouted 'LOOK'. As Jeb turned, he jumped straight at the big, red button that read 'WARP'. Bill realized what Bob was doing.
"BOB, NOOOO!!!" Bill shouted as he tried to grab his arm. It was no use. Bob slammed the button and the warp engaged.
Several seconds earlier
"Danny, you need to get back in your ship immediately, there is a solar flare heading straight for you. Impact 40 seconds, Over" Mission control said to Danny. He instantly activated his jetpack and headed for the Pegasus 9. As he floated over, he told his audience on the ground what was going on.
"Ok, so I've have been instructed to get back in the Pegasus 9's Radiation bay as a solar flare is incoming. I will leave the camera on the side of the ship but I will more than likely cut out as soon as the flare hits so I apologize in advance." Danny said as he entered the Pegasus 9.
On the ground, after the latest transmission was heard, there were a mixture of aww's from the crowd. The crew there on the other hand were very concerned. A solar flare could easily kill anyone without a radiation bay at hand. They all hoped that the Warp Drive got away safely and Danny reached his bay in time. All they could do was watch the Warp Drive and the count down time in the corner.
7...6...5...4
There was a massive blinding white light that was projected from the Warp Drive, the space around it warped closer and closer and then...it was gone. A second later the transmission cut out.
3.
The counter had stopped when the drive warped. It had gone a full 3 seconds too early.
In Mission control, there was complete silence. It had been confirmed that the Warp drive jumped, but nobody new if it was successful or not. It would be another 17 hours until they could communicate with the Laythe Base. All but 3 satellites remained functional in orbit around Kerbin, these one's were on the dark side of the planet. Unfortunately, they were Global Positioning System Satellites so they could use them to talk with Laythe. They had to wait until the planet turned on it's axis until they could point their massive dishes at the Joolian system to confirm the Warp Drive's arrival. They would find out soon enough.