Johanna's Journey -- USEAK -- an Alternis Adventure - Chapter 1
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Summary: Jebediah Kerman crashes a ship at Laythe, and when he comes to, he's in another universe, and another gender.
A KSP Mission Report in the Alternis Kerbol Rekerjiggered solar system with Outer Planets Mod added, at 2.56x SigmaDimensions rescale, with ChemicalPropulsion for realistic rocket fuels and bits and pieces of Bluedog Design Bureau for space probe parts.
INTRODUCTION
Jebediah Kerman stayed steeled as ever as the Oceangoer-II spaceplane fell apart around him. The situation was dire, but there was no use panicking. The Oceangoer was now nothing more than a spaceplane cockpit flying at hypersonic speeds through Laythe's atmosphere.
"I've lost telemetry on the rest of the crew," reported Valentina. Valentina was someone that Jeb admired greatly. A brief pang of sadness coursed through Jebediah's insides at the knowledge that Valentina wouldn't make it out alive. Somehow his own self preservation didn't factor into it. But Jebediah never had very much in the realm of self preservation instincts--it was always about completing the mission, or keeping the crew safe, that sort of thing.
Jebediah looked back to see the hatch in the cockpit forced open, with nothing but hot air behind the door. "Confirmed, the crew compartment is gone," Jebediah said. More pain in his insides. Jebediah hadn't known them for as long, but Jesbella, Munlock, and Gwencella were gone. His crew was gone. Some of his best friends in the world, who had spent years traveling to Jool with him, who had become like family to him.
"We can't abort to orbit, we can't survive on the surface, we're out of options," Valentina said.
Hearing desperation in Valentina's voice hurt. This was perhaps the most dire situation Jebediah had ever been in. But Jebediah refused to lose hope. He got out of his seat, and struggled under the changing gee-forces to reach the supply container. There was a parachute pack.
"What are you doing?" Valentina said.
"I don't plan on crashing into that ocean. Even if it means I die of oxygen deprivation or starvation or whatever, at least I'll get to see Laythe's surface," Jebediah said.
Valentina paused. "Alright. I'll join you."
The two Kerbals helped eachother don the parachute packs, and then Valentina jumped out of the rear hatch. Jebediah followed.
The two fell through the atmosphere of Laythe. Jebediah tumbled around in the air. The green blur of Jool flew overhead.
Jebediah pulled the parachute cord, but he was still tumbling. Now he was wrapped up in the parachute, uselessly.
Jebediah fought the parachute, but the ground was fast approaching. Jeb took one last look at the great green mass that was Jool in the sky, and then, CRACK!
----
Jebediah was in an old Mk1 capsule now, like the ones that were used for the first flights of the KSP.
The pod was overturned, bobbing up and down. "What the hell?" Jeb said. His voice sounded all wrong, high pitched like when he was a boy. "What the hell!?"
"Promise 3, Capcom, confirm you are in Stable-3 condition," said a voice through the headset. She was a woman, but Jeb didn't recognize the voice. It wasn't anyone on the Joolean Explorer.
Jebediah had never heard of Promise-3.
"Promise 3, Capcom, Johanna, you still in there?"
"Capcom What's going on? Am I still on Laythe?" Jebediah said.
"Laythe? You must have really been knocked out," said the capcom officer. "Recovery team is on their way to fish you out of the ocean."
"Capcom, Jebediah, What happened to Valentina?" Jebediah said.
There was silence on the line for a bit. "Promise 3, Capcom. Flight surgeon says you may have been knocked out from the landing. Help's coming real soon. Hang tight, Joh."
Jeb let out an exasperated breath. "Capcom, Jebed--uh, Promise 3. Who is Joh? What is going on, where am I?"
"Promise 3, Capcom. You're Johanna Kerman, you're in a suborbital space capsule that has just finished its mission, and you're in the sea east of the Cosmodrome."
"On Kerbin?" Jebediah said.
"Yes, on Kerbin."
Jebediah could hear the faint muffled sound of helicopter blades, and soon enough the capsule was righted, and lifted onto a vessel. The recovery crews unbolted the door, and Jebediah climbed out, lost balance, and fell to the ground. "Uuurughhh..."
All at once, memories hit Jebediah like a brick.
Promise 1
Johanna Kerman sat towards the back of the Launch Control room, staring out the window at the launchpad. A rocket, fueled by Ethanol and Liquid Oxygen, would be launched in a few seconds. Not for the first time of course--when tensions were heating up in the west, many of these rockets were tested and many more were built.
This rocket, Promise 1, was a promise of a better future, one where Kerbals could work together for a common purpose, one where rockets would be used for scientific gain, and not warfare. It was a ballistic missile with the bomb taken off.
The rocket shot into the air, and Johanna smirked. She couldn't believe she was going to get to ride on one of those things one of these days. She was a stunt driver for the film industry, not a test pilot, but that's why the USEAK liked her--she wasn't ex-military.
The rocket pitched away from the space center, towards the sea.
Within a few short moments, the rocket splashed into the sea. "Confirmation, we have L.O.S.," said a voice somewhere at one of the telemetry stations.
The room erupted into cheers. For a crash landing in the sea, there was an awful lot of celebration.
In the days that followed, the telemetry was analyzed, and the engineers were confident: It was time to strap a Kerbal to one of these things.
Promise 2
Promise 2 was essentially a stretched version of Promise 1, with a prototype "Mk1" space capsule mounted atop it. Before the capsule's inaugural spaceflight, it will need to be tested in atmospheric flight, and that was Promise 2's primary mission.
Robert Kerman, a former air force pilot, took command.
"Are you at all afraid of going up in flames?" said a member of the press, during the press conference.
"Oh, terrified," Robert said, with a sarcastic smile. "Haha, but no," he said, "I have every confidence in the USEAK's engineers."
Robert had been right to trust the engineers--his flight went perfectly, without a hitch. His apoapsis was 54 kilometers--significantly short of space--but he wasn't too concerned with the altitude record. Being the first Kerbal to be launched on a rocket was a good enough 'first' for him.
"Joh, you're in for a real treat," Robert said, in the astronaut complex.
"What do you mean?" Johanna said. She was helping Svetlana into a mockup for a next generation space suit. Technicians took notes on the process, looking for ways to streamline it and address any concerns.
"You've been selected for Promise 3," Robert said.
"Hah! Really?" Johanna said. "Yes! In your face Svetlana," and she pointed at her face.
Svetlana stared will an unimpressed expression, but Joh couldn't see it through the space suit visor.
Promise 3
Johanna was now being strapped into a rocket larger than any that had flown. A significantly stretched version of Promise 2, Promise 3 would be powerful enough to reach space, and it was Joh that got to be the first Kerbal there. Joh smiled a great big smile as the countdown progressed to 1 minute, then 30 seconds, then 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 and liftoff!
She carefully steered the rocket sideways. Too shallow and she wouldn't reach space, but too steep and she'd risk not having enough air to slow her down on descent, and crash into the ocean.
At engine flameout Promise 3 was travelling almost horizontal, a simulacrum of the flight profile of orbital missions to come. But Promise 3 wasn't going nearly fast enough for that.
As she coasted into space, she steered her capsule around to get a look at the planet Kerbin below.
"Capcom, Promise 3, I can report that I appear to be in space! The sky seems to be entirely below me. Gods, what a view. Weightlessness feels a little disorienting, but nothing I can't handle. Can't wait to get back up here in a roomier ship!"
"Promise 3, Capcom, that's assuming you're gonna fly in space again. The USEAK might not want to risk their famous first ever astronaut's life on subsequent missions."
"Capcom, Promise 3, eat your heart out Svetlana."
While in space, Johanna ran a science experiment to examine the reaction of a sample of Gymnomycota mysteria to the vacuum of space. The biological material clumped into a sphere, and became hard and brittle, losing its water to evaporation.
Actually analyzing the samples would have to wait for scientists back on Kerbin.
On reentry, there was a weak lick of flames around the (unshielded) craft, but nothing serious. This was nothing compared to the rigors of the orbital reentries to come.
"Capcom, I'm getting a strange readout on my speedometer."
"We see it. Something's gone wrong with the parachute."
"Mulch! Capcom, I can see the lines tangled up. The chute isn't fully deploying."
"Promise 3, brace yourself, you're coming down fast."
CRACK!
"Promise 3, do you read? Johanna?"
At the KSC
Jebediah Kerman had been checked out by the doctor, who told him he had a concussion. But everyone kept referring to him as Johanna. It was a pretty name and undeniably nicer than his own, sure, but he was Jeb, not Joh. He felt like he'd be the crazy one if he brought that up just now, so he kept his concerns quiet.
The thing was, there was actually some pretty compelling evidence he wasn't Jebediah. For one thing, his voice was different. His hands and feet were smaller. And his hair was much longer than the buzzcut he normally wore, tied in a pony tail on the back of his head.
In the privacy of his quarters on the recovery ship, he stared at himself in the mirror. It was a bizarre experience. Jeb had never liked mirrors. He knew he was considered attractive, but all he could ever muster in the mirror was apathy. But here, this unfamiliar visage looked more familiar than his own reflection. The image of this woman wasn't particularly attractive, but she was a lot nicer on the eyes than Jeb's own reflection had been. He was a young woman, no more than 40 years old, nearly 80 years younger than he should be. He did sorta look a bit like his mother, like this Johanna could have been related to him. Suddenly a long repressed memory played through his mind. Standing in front of a mirror wearing his mother's clothes as a child. Jeb closed his eyes and shook off the embarassing thought. That child would have thought this was a miracle. But he was long past such childish flights of fancy. He was a veteran astronaut, best of the best, he had to set an example not just for the space center but for Kerbalkind as a whole. Whatever that child might have thought, he was wrong.
When the ship docked at the KSC port, Jeb disembarked, and shouted.
"WHAT ON KERBIN IS THAT!?"
Another memory popped into Jebediah's head.
Johanna kept scanning around the horizon until she found Jool. Seeing it totally disconnected from Kerbin was a stunning sight, one which rendered her speechless. And there, too, was Laythe, the innermost of the three large moons, Kerbin's sister planet. Joh stared for several moments, until she remembered she had to operate the science equipment.
How could that be Jool? Jool was green, wasn't it? Jebediah had never felt such a tenuous grasp on his own sanity, not even when he was stranded on Ike all alone during the Duna expedition. That concussion must have hit her stronger than she thou--stronger than he thought.
Mod Notes
The main mod of this playthrough is indeed Alternis Kerbol Rekerjiggered.
https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/120246-112x-alternis-kerbol-rekerjiggered-v270-2025-april-16-compatibility-update/
Alternis, the Kerbal goddess of change and difference, has smited the Kerbol system, and our favorite BadS pilot seems to have gotten caught up in it.
The main difference is that Kerbin is a moon of Jool, and Jool is blue and orbits the Sun where Kerbin used to. But as we'll see, there are many other differences.
I'm also playing with Outer Planets Mod, and a compatibility patch that shifts OPM objects around in the style of Alternis's stock system alterations.
I'm playing with Sigma Dimensions -- 2.56x resize and rescale, and 1.6x rotation period scale.
I'm playing with more mods than I care to list out, but it includes the Near Future Suite, Far Future Technologies, CryoEngines, ReStock, ReStockPlus, ReStockPBR, Space Station Parts Expansion, Kerbal Atomics, a cut down version of BDB (mostly just the engines, probes, and science). The alcohol rockets are from AlcoholicAeronautics.
I'm also playing with Snacks! and with the Chemical Propulsion set of mods. It's my first time playing with any kind of realistic fuels, other than cryo engines. It'll be interesting to see how this changes the game.
I'm also playing with a customized tech tree. The main differences:
Tricoupler, Bicoupler, and Quadcoupler are moved to early tech tree where they can actually be useful.
Whenever you unlock a new size category of fuel tanks, you get all lengths at the same time. None of this stacking flat disk-tanks together into a wobbly mess nonsense.
Struts are earlier.
Otherwise it's Community Tech Tree with Chemical Tech Tree and the early tech tree changes of AlcoholicAeronautics.
Keep reading on the KSP Forums!
A quick little preview of what's to come:
(There will be no further updates on tumblr.)
