Crash Landing: The tale of 3 Kerbals

by Jebediah Kerpony

Chapter 9 : I'm Waking up, to ash and dust

Author's Note:

Hey guys, comment on how you think the story is progressing. It'll help me gauge how to write the story better.

Year Unknown, Day Unknown, Hour Unknown, Minute Unknown, Second Unknown
Location - Unknown
Goliath Warp Drive

Jebediah was floating aimlessly around the cockpit of the spacecraft. He had just regained consciousness and his head was killing him. He opened his eyes and there was certainly a scene to behold. There was little to no electrics on at that current moment. The solar panels had obviously not been deployed after the warp ended and the batteries must have run low. The ship was probably only powering life support systems until that drained too.

Jeb shook his head and felt a sharp pain coming from his forehead. He placed his hand on his forehead and pulled it away. Blood. He had obviously hit his head hard at some point. He decided to head to the medical bay to patch himself up and to make sure that nothing else was hurt.

He floated out of the cockpit and towards the medical bay, passing flickering screens, all reading either error or critical failure. Jeb just ignored them for the time being. He arrived at the door to the medical bay and saw the light was on. He entered the room and saw Bob at one of the cabinets, putting his left arm into a sling.

"Oh, hey Jeb. Thank god you're awake. When I woke, I couldn't see..."

"YOU SON OF A..." Jeb shouted as he flung himself at Bob. Bob didn't have time to react before he got floored into the wall by a sucker punch by Jeb. Jeb also flew back a bit due to Newtons 2nd law of relativity.

"Aargh, what the hell was that for?" Bob spat at Jeb, blood gushing from his inner cheek.

"For launching the drive before the timer was set, we're literally stranded in space until we run out of oxygen!" Jeb shouted.

"It was either this or a slow death from solar radiation!" Bob replied. "They were both a death sentence."
Jeb looked at Bob. He was right. Either way they were going to die. Jeb just stood there and looked at the wall. He sighed. He turned back towards Bob, guilt dripping from his face. He had just punched his best friend. Even if they were stranded in space, at least they would be together for their last moments. All three of...

"Bob, you didn't happen to see Bill did you?" Jeb said starting to panic slightly. With the current conditions they were both in, Bill could be in even worse shape.

"Uhh, I didn't. I was still very dizzy when I made my way over here." Bob replied.

"We better find him, and fast!" Jeb said. The two kerbal's forgot their injuries and threw themselves at the door trying to find Bill as fast as physically possible.

"Jeb, you check the front of the ship down, I'll check from back to front. Got it?" Bob asked.

"Got it." Jeb said as he began traveling the length of the ship, trying to find his possibly fallen comrade.

When he arrived at the cockpit, nothing had changed. There were still notepads and pencils floating around and the low humming coming from the air vents. Jeb checked every last nook and cranny that Bill could be but was unable to find him. It was at this moment that Jeb decided to check some of the instrument panels. The oxygen levels were fine, the electromagnets had shut down correctly and the ship had withstood no outstanding damage. All was well until Jeb checked the electricity gauge.

3% - 15 minutes auxiliary power remaining

This was horrible news. As soon as the auxiliary power unit failed, it was game over. Life support would fail and the ship would begin rapidly cooling until Jeb, Bill and Bob most likely froze to death.

"BOB!" Jeb shouted. "GET TO THE COCKPIT NOW!"

"DID YOU FIND BILL?!?" said a faint voice in the background.

"NO, BUT SOMETHING EQUALLY AS BAD IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN!"

"WHAT?" said Bob's voice, slowly getting louder.

"We have 14 minutes of electricity remaining." Jeb said as Bob flew in thought the door.

"Shit. Where is Bob?"

"I still have no idea. I've still to check storage cupboards but the chances of him being in there is very unlikely." Jeb said.

"Worth a shot." Bob said. They both flew out of the cockpit doors and started inspecting the entire ship looking for evidence of Bill's presence.

After searching for 11 minutes, the two kerbal's had found nothing. The ship was completely silent apart from their presence. They both decided to head back to the cockpit to sit down and have a drink. Bob went over to a storage cabinet and pulled out two bottles of premium Korona beer. He passed one to Jeb, kept one to himself and kept the last in the open cupboard. They both sat down in their respective seats and just lay there, slowly nursing their drinks. After a long silence, Bob broke out a question that was on both of their minds.

"So...what do you think happened to Bill?"

"I'm not sure Bob...where ever he is, whether floating in the darkness of space or creating a shooting star for a planet or star, I'm sure he's happy." There was a short pause.

"We've lived a good life Jeb, I'm glad we spent it as a team." Bob said.

"Likewise Bob, likewise." Jeb said. They turned towards each other and clicked bottles, causing a small amount of beer to float out an into the cabin. They both laughed. Jeb turned towards the electrics panel one last time.

0.1% - 10 seconds

"Here we go..." Jeb said.

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
2
1
1
1

"Several seconds passed. Well more than the ten that the computer had registered seconds earlier. There was a very awkward silence, as the lights and panels should have gone out. Jeb questioned himself, maybe the computer underestimated the power levels of the auxiliary power unit. That was probably the answer. Then something even more peculiar happened. The counter for the electricity levels started to rise.

"Bob, your never going to believe this!" Jeb exclaimed.

"And you're not going to believe this." Bob replied.
Jeb was very confused. He turned around to confront Bob on what he meant but when he turned, he saw his answer and it needed no words. Outside the ship, floating beside the side window was a very recognizable face.

Bill.

The two kerbal's were ecstatic. Not only was their friend ok, but the power was recharging at a steady rate too. Bill had a big grin on his face. He was glad the others were ok. He mouthed the word 'air-lock' to the crew and used jet pack to get over to the hatch. As he entered, he could already see the two kerbals waiting to greet him. After closing the metal door, he equalized the air pressure in the airlock and opened. It only took microseconds before Jeb and Bob were crashing into him.

"Easy guys, easy." Bill said.

"We thought you were dead!" Bob said.

"Well, you would have been if I had not opened the solar panels manually." Bill replied.

"What use will that make in the middle of space?" Jeb said with confusion in his voice.

"Follow me." was all Bill said.

The arrived at the cockpit and started booting up all the main systems. Most equipment took some time to synchronize but Bill was only waiting for two. Either the SAS units or the RCS thrusters. After about a minute, the SAS units were ready for use and Bill took the controls.

"Ok guys, I want you to look through the roof window." Bill said.
The two kerbal's obliged and the stars and galaxies slowly stared moving from back to front. Then the stars began becoming more faded and a odd yellow aura began forming. Then a brilliant glare came from the window, causing both kerbal's to shield their eyes. A star. The two kerbal's were amazed at their luck. They had warped right next to a new star, so the solar panels which had to be opened manually, could provide power.

"That...is...awesome." Jeb said.

"That's not even the best part." Bill replied.

"What do you mean?"
Jeb peered at a pale blue dot in the sky to the right of the star.

"Is that...an exoplanet?"

Comments

[harts fire]

Looking good. I can see this is going to get interesting fast.

[Tornadopelt]

Radioactive, by Imagine Dragons. That's one of the lyrics to the song.

[Periapsis]

"YOU SON OF A..." Jeb shouted as he flung himself at Bob. Bob didn't have time to react before he got floored into the wall by a sucker punch by Jeb. Jeb also flew back a bit due to Newtons 2nd law of relativity.

Don't you mean his third law? Each force has an equal an opposite force?