Crash Landing: The tale of 3 Kerbals

by Jebediah Kerpony

Chapter 5 : Preperation

Year 4, Day 235, Hour 3, Min 46, Sec 02
Low Kerbin Orbit (Trajectory = SubOrbital)
Pegasus 9 SSTO

As the spaceplane ascended towards its apoapsis, Jeb took it upon himself to enter in the maneuver the craft was going to perform into the on board computer, also known as 'Mech-Jeb'.

"Ok, we'll be burning along the prograde marker at 100% throttle...with the RCS thruster's...for approximately 54 seconds to ensure a steady orbit at 115000m above Kerbin." Jeb said.

"Hey Jeb, maybe make it 52 seconds." said Bill from across the cockpit, still trying to play snap with Bob.

"Why should I do that? That would put the periapsis significantly lower than the apoapsis."

"Well, we're slightly late, thanks to your shenanigans with Bob, so that orbit would be a few minutes faster, resulting in us catching up."

"Point taken Bill." Jeb then entered in 52 to the Mech-Jeb unit at went to join Bill and Bob with a game of snap.

18 minutes later

"SNAP!" Bob shouted.

"Damn it Bob, that's the fifteenth time in a row you've won." Jeb said.

"And also, stop hitting the cards so hard when you snap, it takes forever to pick them all up and I'm pretty sure we're already down 5 cards." Bill said

"If I didn't hit them so hard, you would hit them first." Bob replied. "Plus, they're my cards and I don't really care if I lose a few." Bob said victoriously.

"I'm pretty sure Mission Control cares Bob." Bill replied.

Uninterested in where the argument was going, Jeb went over to the map screen on the front console. It showed a nice and detailed 3D model of Kerbin, various satellites and stations with all of their trajectories and orbits. Their craft, the Pegasus 9, was highlighted from the rest by having a bright blue coloured trajectory (colour, NOT color(I'm British)) , and it's target, the Goliath Warp Drive's trajectory was a bright yellow. Also, there was a dull orange marker at their apoapsis. This was their maneuver, and judging by the counter in the corner, it was in 29 seconds away. Jeb strapped in and turned to the others to tell them to sit down, but saw their debate about loose playing cards becoming very heated. He decided to sit and watch, waiting for the perfect moment to tell them about the maneuver.

"But they could get lodged in a throttle, or distract a pilot!" Bill shouted.

"How could they get stuck in a throttle, they would just bend and fling off." Bob retaliated

"Guys!" Jeb said, getting their attention. "That maneuver is coming up pretty soon."

"How long?" they asked in unison. Jeb turned, looked at the screen, looked back with a cheesy grin on his green face.

"Round about...now." The craft suddenly ignited all 4 RCS thrusters on the back of the ship, accelerating it at 1.45 Gee's. Bill and Bob, not being strapped in or holding on to anything were launched towards the rear of the cockpit at 14.2 m/s^2. After slamming into the wall, they were pretty much pinned there for the whole 52 seconds. Jebediah laughing the whole time.

"Jeb...y...you bas..." was all Bob could muster as the force of the acceleration was making him struggle to breath. After the burn was complete, the three Kerbal's felt weightless once more.

"Burn complete" said the Mech-Jeb unit. Jeb then checked the map screen again to see the apoapsis was 115000m and the periapsis was 110000m. He then turned on the closest approach icon, and sure enough, they would be with 100m of the warp drive by the next orbit. Bill's estimate was pretty spot on. He turned and told his crew the good news and Bill smiled at his estimate being spot on.

They then decided who was doing what during the upcoming docking with the warp drive. It was decided that Jeb would pilot the procedure, Bill would give directions and monitor Mono-propellant usage to make sure they didn't run out of fuel and Bob would overlook the entire operation from EVA. He would also be using an inbuilt camera on his spacesuit which would be linked up to one of Bill's monitors he was overlooking. After everything was confirmed with all the Kerbals, they informed mission control about the procedure and they gave them the go ahead. Now they just had to wait.

1 orbit later

"Ok guys, I'm going to cancel out our velocity relative to the Warp Drive in a few moments. Are you all secure?" Jeb asked the crew. There was no messing around with this maneuver. That Warp Drive was millions of Kollars in the making. Damaging it even slightly would result in a massive loss in the KSP budget. The contractors of the mission would not be happy and they would probably pull out of the operation. The three Kerbals would also probably lose their jobs.

"Yeah, we're ready when you are." Bob replied.

"Ok, retrograde burn in 3, 2, 1, now." The small RCS thrusters all over the craft began slowing the craft down, relative to the Warp drive. After 15 seconds, they were floating just 163m from the target and traveling towards it a massive 0.1 m/s. Bob headed towards the pressurization chamber to put on his spacesuit.

"Ok guys, see you on the other side." said Bob as he opened the door. Just as he was closing it Jeb shouted 'Remember your Jetpack'. He'd left it once before and it was a good thing Lengus Kerman was their to put on his suit and pull him back to the ship.

"I will." he replied. He then shut the door, put on his spacesuit and jetpack. He double checked all the connections to make sure there was no chance of a leak and hit the big red button that read 'Depressurize'. On Bill's control panel, a red flashing light appeared signaling the sudden depressurization of the room behind him. It pressed the alarm to shut it off. Most Kerbals would think that having a alarm for a depressurization of the depressurization room would be pointless, but the hatch could break or debris could strike so it's good to have one just in case. Moments later, a second light appeared signaling the opening of the hatch to space. He pressed this light in as well, turning it off.

"CRRKK...This is Bob Kerman, I have EVA'd successfully and I'm moving into position. I'm turning on the camera now. Over." Bob said from outside the craft.

"This is Jeb, we hear you loud and clear." Jeb replied. "Hey Bill, how much mono-propellant do we have?"

"We have about 5 minutes worth if all thrusters were at 100% throttle." said Bill. Jeb nodded and began translating upwards towards the docking port of the Warp Drive. Then, a strange voice came over Jeb, Bill and Bob's headset.

"Were you guys forgetting about me?" the voice asked. Just after the strange transmission, the docking port of the Warp Drive opened up, and a Kerbal got out. No-one recognized who it was.

"Who are you, mission control didn't tell us their was going to be a 4th Kerbal on this mission." Bill asked.

"There isn't, but did it ever occur to you that plane you're in will need a pilot to land it home?" said the Kerbal. Silence. The Kerbal then began laughing. He activated his jetpack and flew over to Bob. As he got closer, Bob recognized the Kerbal.

Danny Kerman

"Hey Danny, haven't seen you in a while!" said Bob

"Yeah well, I've been monitoring this bad boy of a ship for the last 3 weeks. I hope you guys brought more snacks, it's almost out." Danny said.

"We did. Hey, could you also angle the Warp Drive's docking port towards us slightly, we don't have excess amounts of fuel and I really don't want to have to push this massive plane."

"Sure thing Bob, just give me a moment." And with that, Danny flew back into the docking port and took command of the Warp Drive. From outside, you could see various SAS units turning on and the massive beast began lining itself up with the spaceplane that was coming ever closer. After it was lined up, Jeb accelerated the spaceplane up to 0.65m/s and just waited for them to slowly glide together. After a few minutes, they were just 3 meter's apart so Jeb yet again slowed them down to 0.1m/s.

"Mono-propellant is at 45% Jeb." said Bill. " You also need to translate to the left by 0.21 meters."

"Thanks Bill, I'll take that into account." Jeb replied. They were becoming ever closer. 2 meters, 1 meter.

"Bob, are we lined up properly?" asked Bill.

"Perfect. You may activate the electromagnets now." said Bob.

"Roger." Bill activated the electromagnets...and nothing happened.

"Huh? Why aren't we docking? Bob?" Bill said very confused.

"The Warp Drive's docking port is positive, yours should be negative." Bob said

"Oh" After switching the magnet switch to the other side, the magnets instantly connected and the 2 ships were now 1. Docking Complete said the Mech-Jeb unit.

After about an hour of bringing surplus of supplies and bounty of snacks, Jeb,Bill and Bob waved goodbye to Danny through the docking port. He then flew into the Pegasus and closed the docking port from his end, subsequently closing the Warp Drive's docking port. The three crew then and inspected every single last piece of the warp drive to make sure everything was in check. You don't want a faulty warp drive do you now. After another 2 hours had passed, the EVA inspection was complete, the internal electrics were all functional and all computers were behaving normally, the crew of three Kerbals were ready for the jump to the Joolian system. Just one more orbit to go.

Author's Note:

It's about to go DOWN!
"Or toward Jool."
Shut up Bill.

Comments

[PiMan]

(colour, NOT color(I'm British))

Cute, but unnecessary and distracting. You'd already used British English in an earlier chapter with Spike and "mum".

[Muranuse]

WHOA WHOA WHOA! Just hold on a second,

Danny Kerman

You put Danny2462 and Jeb in the same jet. Do you want to doom all of Ponykind?