Part 1 - Outward Bound

Tinny music rattled around the Rockomax Mission Control room as Nelton watched the bouncing, swaying figures on the main screen with an equal mix of amusement and exasperation. The irritatingly chirpy blend of drums and synthesisers faded briefly, spiked to a loud and sudden peak and then cut out. One of the figures struck a dramatic, if cramped, one-handed pose, his other hand still firmly clamped around the frame of his acceleration couch.

"Yeahhh! Flyin' to the Mün - and poppin' some moves!"

Nelton rolled her eyes. "Copy that, Pioneer. Be advised; Guidance and FD concur that your slang is approximately 6.53 years out of date."

"So just about ready to come back round again, Flight," grinned Kerke. "We're not behind the times - we're leadin' the times!"

"The good commander begs to differ," said Seanan. He panned his hand-held camera round and zoomed in on a very familiar face. The slap of palm on forehead echoed through the capsule.

"Guys - what in the first Kerm is... correction, how in the first Kerm did you…"

"Personal effects, Flight," said Barrie happily. "No weight limits breached and there's nothing like a mascot for luck. So what better mascot than..."

Seanan recognised his cue. The image on Nelton's screen zoomed back to reveal a small bobble-head doll attached to the main control panel by a patch of fabric. It seemed to be shaking it's head at Kerke's pose.

"Commander Kerbiman - "Kerb" - Kerman! Hero of Duna!"

Nelton groaned. "I've got a commander who's six years behind the times, a scientist who believes in lucky mascots.."

"For sound psychological reasons, Flight, " said Barrie blandly.

Nelton ignored the interruption. "Do I want to know what my landing module pilot has in store for us?"

Seanan's eyes flicked to the cardboard tube stashed under Barrie's couch. "Nothing to report, Flight, " he said equably. "One boring, by-the-book kerbonaut here."

"Well thank the Kerm for small mercies," muttered Nelton. "Okay you lot, the book is telling me that we've got a platform alignment check to make and an MOI burn to set up, not to mention a set of environmental system checks to run. Back in your seats team - playtime is over."

Kerke swung himself onto his couch and reached for his waist restraints. "Copy that, Flight," he said crisply. He glanced sideways at Barrie, who was strapping herself in at the navigation station. "All crew secured, cancelling thermal control roll...now."

"Okay, Flight, give me a check on the SME gimbal settings please."

"Plus point five zero pitch by minus point one eight yaw, Pioneer."

Seanan scanned his instruments. "Confirmed. Thanks, Flight."

Kerke flipped over a page on his flight plan. "And we abort on red-line chamber overpressure, black-line underpressure, excess tank delta-P or sustained off-nominal pressure drop in either tank. Proceed with engine shutdown and mode-2 abort at MOI plus fifteen, course corrections to follow on instructions at periapsis plus two hours."

"Down cold, Pioneer. Nerves kicking in?"

Kerke stared at the engine control panel. "That's affirmative, Flight. We're a long way from home right now."

"We got you out there, we'll get you back, Pioneer. Two minutes to loss of signal."

"It's pitch black out there, Kerke," Barrie offered quietly. "And it went black at the right time. We're driving straight down the road."

Seanan swallowed hard and turned his head towards the window. He sensed the vast dark bulk beneath them, a looming presence against the star-studded depths, blocking out the reassuring light from Kerbol.

Shadow of the Mün - we're in the shadow of the Mün…

Mission Control interrupted his thoughts. "Thirty seconds to loss of signal. All systems Go, Pioneer. Good luck."

"See you on the other side, Flight."

Kerke held up a hand, fingers outstretched, eyes fixed on the flight clock, counting down the seconds on his fingers. Just as he clenched his fist, the radio crackled, static hissing loudly from the speaker. He breathed a muted sigh of relief, clicked off the radio and sat up a little straighter from his couch. "Straight down the road indeed. Lets get to it."

Seanan checked and rechecked his instruments, fingers gripping the edge of the control panel tightly. Burn program loaded, SAS in AUTO, tank pressures nominal. Across the capsule he heard Barrie murmuring to herself, checking off the items on her own memorised checklist. He glanced at a set of indicator lights. Valve controllers and gimbal motors drawing power.

"Platform reference set for MOI. Attitude is green, autopilot is good." Barrie's voice rang across the capsule, making Seanan jump. He unpeeled his fingers from the control panel, doing his best to hide the tremor in his voice.

"SME is Go, guys. Engineering station strapped in for burn."

"Navigation strapped in."

Kerke nodded. "Four minutes to ignition. Proceed at sixty seconds, Seanan."

The seconds crawled past. A blue light began to flash on Seanan's panel and unhesitatingly, he leaned forward and pushed a single button. All three kerbonauts watched the flight clock intently; Kerke uncaging the manual ignition button, hand hovering over it as they waited.

"Ten seconds."

"Five...four...three...two..."

"One."

The service module engine lit, pushing Seanan back onto and then firmly into, his couch. "Uhh - getting some transients here. Going to secondary... no hold that, we're good. Pressures coming up...okay coming up nicely now."

"Delta-P?" asked Kerke sharply.

"Spiked for a second but balancing," said Seanan. "Chamber pressure back between the lines and holding."

Kerke nodded tersely, eyes focused on his instruments. Grey light spilled through the capsule window, throwing unseen shadows across his chest. Beside him, Seanan and Barrie were breathing heavily, unaccustomed to their sudden weight after over three days in free-fall.

"Chamber pressure... holding. Propellant levels are good."

Kerke reached for the engine shutdown button. "Thirty seconds to go. Twenty..."

The service module engine roared silently in the vacuum.

"Three...two...one..."

"Shutdown!"

Barrie's fingers raced over her computer keyboard. "Delta-v is low but we have an orbit! One-eleven by three-five-five!"

"And thank the Kerm for that." Seanan mopped his forehead with his flight suit sleeve. "Thought we were in trouble there for a minute."

Barrie shook her head. "One hundred and eleven kilometres away after travelling over four hundred thousand kilometres to get here. I thought Pioneer 1 was cutting it close but...Kerm, the trajectory team are on their game today."

Kerke grimaced. "Apoapsis is high. Not surprising after that burn but we'll need to compensate at circularisation."

"Shouldn't be a problem," said Barrie, "We've got the fuel for it. I can compute a correction burn if you like but I imagine Mission Control will want to run the numbers themselves. All the important burns are farside on this flight. Works for me - we get a chance to fix any screw-ups before Nelton gets to see them."

"Not until Foxham have had a chance to look at that engine we don't," said Kerke heavily. "I didn't like that start-up at all. This was supposed to be our sightseeing orbit anyway, so lets use it for that." He took hold of the attitude controls and eased Pioneer 3 into a slow roll.

Seanan tipped his head to one side, blinking at the streaks of grey sliding past the capsule window. He moved a little closer, trying to ignore the reflected lights from the instrument panel, peering through the window rather than at it. Then suddenly, perspective twisted and, like seeing the hidden image in an optical illusion for the first time, he found himself looking down at a landscape unlike anything on Kerbin.

"Oh sweet..."

"Craters upon craters upon craters..." Barrie whispered in awe.

"And then some more craters on top of those," said Kerke, "Can't see what else those speckles would be."

"Boulders?" suggested Seanan.

"Kerm - I hope not. Rocks that we can see from orbit are not what we need anywhere near the landing site."

"Hard to tell with the sunlight at this angle," Barrie noted. She squinted out of the window. "Is it just me or are you guys seeing colours down there?"

"Just looks grey to me," said Seanan. "Well, lots of different greys."

"No - I see them too," said Kerke, "Very faint tans and golds and pale pinks. Near the horizon and around the crater edges mainly."

Seanan knocked on the window. "These are pretty thick - they're probably just distorting the view."

Kerke shook his head. "Too subtle for that. Maybe something to do with contrast - I don't know. Kinda pretty though."

The whirring fans and muted gurgles from the depths of the life support systems provided a reassuringly homely backdrop to the stark vista of greys, black and washed out, translucent pastels unrolling beneath them. The three kerbonauts watched the Munar landscape drift past, each of them lost in his or her own thoughts. Occasionally, out of ingrained habit, Kerke scanned the advisory panels in front of the commander's station for warning lights before turning back to the window.

Seanan stirred. "Still not seeing any gold or tan out there," he said quietly, "but I am getting some blue."

A sliver of azure light crested the horizon, swelling rapidly into a gleaming blue hemisphere, streaked and whorled with iridescent white. Reluctantly, Kerke dragged his gaze away and switched on the radio. The crackling static shook Seanan out of his contemplation. He tapped a rapt Barrie on the shoulder on the way back to his couch, managing a credible impersonation of Nelton's clipped tones. "Playtime's over."

Broken fragments of words surfaced from the static as Pioneer 3 soared out from the Munar farside. Barrie frowned. "Getting a lot of noise still on high gain one. Switching antennas." She reached forward and clicked a switch on her panel.

"F...ght to...eer 3. Co...in Pione... Fli... to Pioneer 3. Come in Pioneer."

"Pioneer 3, Flight. Receiving you loud and clear on high gain two."

Nelton's reply was drowned out by the storm of cheers in the background. The kerbonauts winced at the heavy thud from the speaker, followed by a muffled voice shouting over the noise. "Copy that, Pioneer - good to have you back."

Kerke grinned. "Good to be on the noisy side of the Mün again, Flight." The grin disappeared. "Please be advised that MOI was off-nominal, we're seeing a three-five-five apoapsis - requesting update for circularisation."

"Say again, Pioneer?"

"We had a hard SME start, Flight. Recovered before we could switch to secondary valves but still gave us an under-burn."

"Understood, Pioneer. Propulsion are on it. Flight dynamics are waiting for the tracking data but we'll get a circularisation update to you once they have a good trajectory fix. Suggest you start the landmark tracking on this orbit whilst we work this, and we'll set up for circularisation on orbit three."

"Sounds good, Flight. Can't say we were paying much attention to the timings on that last orbit but the major craters all seemed to be in the right place."

"You don't want to see the expression on the boss's face right now, Pioneer," Nelton said dryly. "On a different note, CapSys is on-loop and ready with a troubleshooting procedure for high-gain one. Please switch to loop B and stand by."