Stars glimmered in Jebediah Kerman's eyes as he stared out of the spacecraft's cupola capsule windows. Above him was the massive green gas planet of Jool, and below him, it's icy second moon, Vall.
Most would've found the scene amazing, beautiful even. But to Jebediah, it was terrifying.
But it was not the appearance of the universe around him that frightened him, it was his current state.
In minutes, his spacecraft would collide with the large moon at tremendous speeds, far greater than what anyone could survive. And to make the case even worse, he wasn't alone.
"Jebediah, we're 200,000 kilometers above Vall, and the surface is coming up at us over 600 meters a second!"
Along with Jebediah was a large fleet of 48 more small spacecraft, and screaming in Jebediah's headset was one of the pilots. They too, had only minutes until impact.
"Stay calm!" Jebediah boomed. "I'm transitioning all spacecraft pods over to manual override. In a few moments, I will have full control of the fleet." And with that, the screens in Jebediah's capsule transformed into an explosion of numbers, maps and trajectories. He now had full control.
While examining their altitude above Vall, their velocities, their positions and their fuel quantities, Jebediah had an idea. Taking a deep breath, Jebediah stated his next order.
"All odd-numbered Kerbonauts 1 through 47 relocate into even-numbered vessels immediately!"
"But sir!" one of the pilots urgently asked, "We have hardly enough RCS fuel in our EVA packs to do that!"
Jebediah had thought of this. "Now here's an idea: open both airlock doors at the same time. The vacuum should give you enough of a kick to get to another vessel!"
"But sir!"
"Now!"
They followed his orders immediately. As Jebediah had said, they all opened both of their airlock doors. The air rushing out of their vessels propelled them into the void of space. But now a new problem arose, how were they to be sure that they would hit another spacecraft?
But to all 24 Kerbals' surprises their EVA packs suddenly burst to life. They had no idea what was happening.
But as if Jebediah could read their thoughts, he told them, "Everyone stay calm. I'm am temporarily taking full control of your EVA suits. Just go along with my maneuvers, and you'll all be perfectly fine!"
So they did. As the Kerbonauts flew through space, Jebediah frantically controlled their spacesuits' small thrusters, RCS thrusters as they were called. "One maneuver at a time, one maneuver at a time…" Jebediah thought to himself as one by one he brought the Kerbonauts to safety.
Finally it was over.
All 24 of the Kerbonauts were safely perched on another space vessel, and soon they all clambored into each one of the crew compartments. Now half the fleet's crew was crammed into just 24 spacecraft. By normal standards, this was dangerous. But to Jebediah, this was fantastic. Now he had only to deal with 24 spacecraft instead of 48. He knew that one more maneuver and they would live. Jebediah checked their trajectory. The fleet was now just below 100,000 meters above Vall's surface. They were running out of time, only a minute or so left.
"Is everyone safely seated?" Jebdiah asked the fleet urgently.
"Yes sir!" each one of them replied.
"Alright!" Jebediah started, "All ships set thrust vector to 0 degrees latitude. On my mark, activate your rocket engines at full throttle!" Without another word being said, the fleet turned their vessels facing parallel to the moon below them.
"T minus fifteen seconds!" The crew was on full alert, all waiting for the precise second they were to burn horizontal to the ground.
"T minus ten seconds!"
"T minus five seconds!"
"3, 2, 1!" Instantaneously, all the spacecraft ignited their engines. The capsule shook almost violently.
"We have ignition!" Though Jebediah knew this was a dangerous burn, as they would have to be at least moving hundreds of meters a second horizontally, he decided to take the risk. It was now only a matter if they would have enough fuel or not.
Seconds dragged on into minutes. Jebediah, hoping as hard as could this would work, stared unblinkingly at their resources. "100 units of fuel left" The number quickly dropped to 90, then 85, then 80. Meanwhile, their trajectories moved closer and closer to the edge of the moon. If their periapsis, the lowest altitude they would get above the moon, rose above the surface, then they would make it out alive. But if they ran out of fuel before they could get their periapsis above the surface at all, they would collide with the surface at hundreds of meters a second.
"Jebediah!"
"We're not going to make it!"
"We need to stop this now!" The pilots screamed in horror that they would run out of fuel, but Jebediah cut them off from his mind. "45, 40, 30…"
Their periapsis was only hundreds of meters below the surface, but it rose.
"Jebediah, we have fifteen units left! Kill the burn now!"
"No! Periapsis is at a negative fifty meters!"
But as Jebediah screamed at the pilot, the panic stopped. All he could hear was dead silence just as quiet as space. Confused, Jebediah looked at the dashboard. It read "Periapsis: positive 150 meters."
The fleet began cheering. It seemed to be as loud as a sonic boom, but Jebediah kept his headset on. They had only a few units of fuel left. But finally, with their lowest altitude of 784 meters above the surface of Vall, their fuel burnt out. Now, a rescue vessel could save them. There was hope for all of them.
But as they now safely flew through space, the sound of the cheers changed, almost faded in a way. The voices were no longer of the fleet, but of those he knew very well: Mission Control.
"Congratulations Jebediah," Gene Kerman, the head of the Kerbal Space Program, cheered, "You've passed the simulation with flying colors!"
The stars around Jebediah's spacecraft then faded into a singular white glow. Jool, along with its moon Vall, died out into the whiteness. Behind him, a door opened.
Jebediah stepped out, and through the door was the staff of the KSP Mission Control team, all cheering and congratulating him.