Explorer #4

Oh god...my head...
Nothing but pitch black.
Arrgh. What happened...
Still nothing but darkness.
I floated motionless in the cabin for what only felt like a few seconds. I slowly regained conciousness, and had trouble regaining my bearings. Blacking out in space was very hard on my body.

"Explorer, this is Ken, goddamnit, can you hear me?"
"Y-y-yes." I replied weakly.
"Oh thank god, we thought we lost you there. We're in the dark down here, we have absolutely no telemetry. What in the hell is going on?"
"I-I don't know. Wait one, I need a moment."

I rubbed my face, trying to avoid the sore spots, and trying to shake the cobwebs off of my mind. I looked around the dark cabin, trying to see. My hand found the emergency lights, and turned them on. They illuminated the cabin with an eerie red glow. I was able to see the damage to the panel. A few broken switches, a cracked MFD screen, and some random things, like my gloves, floating about in the cabin.

"Ground, the cabin is beat to hell, I'm beat to hell, and I'm not sure what works, and what doesn't. I'm not sure about the trunk though."
"We copy that, if you could give us a sitrep on the trunk, we'd appreciate it."
"On it."

I looked at the mirror angled out the window and was shocked at what I saw. Pieces of debris and frozen liquid floated about, and I could tell that the antenna that was used to transmit the telemetry was missing.

"Uhh, ground, looks like half the trunk is gone, along with the high gain."
"Roger. We'd like to run some tests, to see what works, and what doesn't. How's that sound?"
"Sounds pretty good. However, as soon as we're done with that, I'd like to start working on the DOB and RE. I don't think she'll hold together much longer."
"We'll get working on those. Alright, do you know where the checklist is?"
"No, but I'll get looking for it."

I looked around, and spotted it floating near the docking tunnel. I snatched it and flipped to the diagnostics and system testing page.

"Alright control, I'm ready to get to work. Numero uno."

We worked through the checklist, thankfully, the damaged switches were not needed, and the MFD screen wasn't too badly damaged.

"That's the checklist, now about getting the heck down from here."
"We've been working on that, and we figure that it's a safe bet that the trunk engine is done for, so we're gonna have to use the inboard abort engines."
"That sounds good, but they're gonna have to burn for a while, and they weren't meant to move Explorer and the trunk."
"We know that, and we're not totally confident about the heat shield integrity. So we think it's best if we keep the trunk on through EI."

If it worked for John Glenn, it would work for me. Right?

"Sounds like a plan. Any idea where I'll put down?"
"Off the west coast of California, the recovery ships in Hawaii won't have enough time to get there, the Navy has volunteered two frigates and some fast boats."
"Hell of a welcome home. Anyways, I'll start the manoever, stand by."

I switched the RCS to 'Internal-yaw' and oriented the capsule until it faced retrograde.

"Ready to light the engines."
"Roger that. Ten seconds."
I waited.
"Five, four, three, two, one, now!"

I flipped the switch, and felt myself being thrusted into the seat. Finally something worked. I watched the seconds turn into minutes on the burn timer, and felt the steady push keep me firmly rooted in my seat. After two minutes, the engines shut off, and I was finally released.

"SECO."
"Copy. EI in fifteen minutes. Good luck."
"Thanks."

I slipped on my helmet and put on my gloves. I floated over to my seat after looking for any loose items, and fastened the harness.

"Two minutes to EI, stand by for LOS."
"Copy the one twenty."

I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes. I waited to feel myself slowly being pushed into my seat. I opened my eyes and looked over at the MFD, which had a virtual gimbal onscreen, and made sure the capsule was in a proper alignment. It was.

"Sixty seconds."
"Roger."
I played the waiting game once again.

I felt a slight jolt as the ship started to slow down. I felt the G forces building up. I felt myself being pushed further and further into the seat. My eyes glanced up to the MFD. Still on the line. What seemed like forever went by. After two minutes, I glanced up at the MFD again. It was a bit off, but that was to be expected. I looked out the hatch window at the firestorm outside. Slowly, the illumination in the window seemed to be getting more and more intense. I looked at the virtual gimbal again. My heart stopped. The indicator that showed the orientation of the capsule was flirting with the edge of the safe zone. The Explorer was rocking back and forth. Not a good thing. If the swaying got too intense, the radio package, and the parachutes would be charred beyond use. I tried to counteract the wobbling. It wasn't helping. Something was causing it. My mind overloaded as it thought about the possible causes.

Was the capsule breaking up?
Were the RCS misfiring?
Was the MFD malfunctioning?

Then it hit me.

The trunk. Damn it.