117 years before the Gaea Space Program
Jeb looked around for one more time. The Jesca II was fully fueled and ready to go into space. It would be the last time he and the others would see Kerbin. Twenty-three Kerbals, eleven male and twelve female ones, had been chosen for the Mission. His wife, Valentina, a pilot like him, was also onboard. Kerbin had been undergoing a dramatic change. Sea Level had been going lower constantly since the planetoid Saphen had passed Kerbin two years ago. Mun and Minmus were on their Way into the Sun, and the year was almost twenty days shorter than it used to be. “Commander Jebediah Kerman to Control Tower. Please report Sea level”. “Sea Level at negative two hundred and eighty, repeat, negative two hundred and eighty. You can’t anymore rely on an emergency watering”. Jeb knew that. By now, Kerbin’s shore was too far away to guarantee that safety. Jesca III would bring the other about fifty employees with the left familys, altogether only a hundred and twenty-one Kerbals. Expectations were that from the 70 million Kerbals about 10 000 had survived. One and a half years, and Eve, which had a much bigger problem, as Saphen had been intersecting at two Megametres, or less than three Eve radii from center to center, would further mess things up, estimately setting perikerbol at about four Gigametres, intersecting Eve’s and possibly even Moho’s Orbit. He had been around for so long, had seen the days of the Great Unity a hundred years ago. “Ready for Lift-off.” “Initiating Launch Sequence, Lift-off in two minutes.” “Copy that.”
Ten minutes later Jeb swapped places with Valentina, to be able to concentrate on other things. ‘All Kerbal civilization has been will be lost’, he thought. But the command had a plan. The two ships met at the Dairea, which had been fully fueled for the Mission. The Target: the Ciro System, seven light years away. Their Astronomers had detected periodic anomalous gravitational influences, the System had three known planets, one of them possibly habitable. Boarding on that ship, featuring seats for about two hundred Kerbals, was without any problems. Jeb took over Command again, as chief Officer he chose Bill, a reliable Engineer and friend from back at University. The ship was piloted by Desmond and Malcolm Kerman, both known as skilled from various Duna and Jool Missions. “Altitude, Desmond?” “Point four two Megametres. Apokerbin at point eight five.” “Set Target to Ciro. And Activate as we reach point seven.”
Soon the Drive was activated and the Dairea flew out of Kerbin’s Sphere of Influence. Jeb noted: Year 6651 after the first manned flight. The last Kerbals destined to live are now on their way to a new home. Hopefully successful. Kerbals may live long, but not forever. Minutes later Malcolm took over control of the Drive and shot out of the Kerbol System at full throttle. It would be a matter of two hours to manage to fly into the System of Ciro. Hopefully they could land on a planet there. Hopefully they’d be able to build up a new civilization.
After days of an empiric search(they had luckily brought telescopes, three in total), they found a candidate. Apart from the three known Gas Giants, known to Kerbalkind as Nero, Otho and Gauss, there seemed to be a fourth planet. The Image was surprisingly similar to what they had as a faraway photo of Kerbin, and Life was expected there too. They flew to the position, and indeed, there was a planet, and they called it Gael. It was a planet younger than Kerbin, but had the same Rotational and Orbital Periods as their former home planet. Of course, as the Star, Ciro, was smaller and lighter, Gael was farther away. The last thing he saw before he got unconscious was the Spacecraft lighting the upper Atmosphere up because of the incredible Speed they still had. It was like a direct Aerobraking on Kerbin from a Moho Mission. at about five Kilometres per Second the four inflatable Heat Shields tried to keep up with the Reentry, but ultimately, the Mission seemed to end in Disaster. But Malcolm, as he had done quite a bit of Atmospheric Entry training, piloted the Ship safely downwards anyway, paying close attention to the Retrograde Marker. He knew about the responsibility he had. But he knew how to handle the Situation very well too. As he switched Instruments to Landing Mode to deploy the parachutes when Safe, he was confident that the Mission would go to Plan. And he was right about this. "Five thousand Metres. Parachute Deployment", the mechanical voice sounded through the cockpit. They soon had safely Landed and walked away to build homes. The Space Program was not that important for now. They could rebuild it later. But they would do. They had always rebuilt things when something got wrong.