TWO HOURS LATER, the orbiter entered its final orbit.
“Solomon, this is Rambutan. We’re preparing for reentry.”
“Roger that, orbiter. You finish collecting the loose objects?”
Yukari detected the faintest hint of sarcasm in Kinoshita’s cool voice.
“All, er, objects have been collected…and all indicators are green. We’re ready to come home.”
“Roger that. Over and out.”
“All right.” Yukari glanced over at her copilot. “Let’s nail this splashdown and win back some of the reputation we’ve just squandered. All’s well that ends well, right?” She grinned. “Woo-hoo! Seychelles coral reefs, here I come!”
Yukari opened her landing checklist. “So, what’s first? Helium pressure?”
“Hoi, HePRS, open!”
“Nitrogen supply?”
“N2SPLY, on!”
“Attitude adjustment…RCS-MAN.” Yukari set the controls to manual and began adjusting their attitude by hand. Once you got used to it, it was a lot faster than entering numbers with the sequencer. Control panels throughout the capsule began to chirp and blink as the orbiter rotated until its stern was facing forward.
“Hoi, we’re in position.”
“All right. Solomon, this is Rambutan. Standing by for reentry burn.”
“Rambutan, you’re cleared for reentry burn.”
“Starting reentry burn sequence.”
Yukari flipped up the sequencer start switch cover and placed her finger on the button.
Beep beep beep beep.
“Hoi? We’re getting an error from the fish tank.”
“Great, what now?” Yukari swore under her breath and undid her harness. Her body floated up into the cabin and she twisted until she was facing the control panel behind her seat. “Okay…so what’s wrong?”
“Rambutan, this is Solomon. You have an error in your testing equipment?”
“Hoi, we do. Yukari’s checking it out.”
“We’re putting a hold on reentry until it’s fixed. Bringing those goldfish back alive is a success condition for your mission.”
“We know, we know,” Yukari snapped. “We’re getting error code...115.”
“Error code 115, roger. They’ll look into it at Sagamihara. If we can get that fixed within twenty minutes, you can come home as planned. Otherwise we’re going to our second splashdown target.”
“No way! That’s in the South China Sea! There’s, like, pirates there!”
“If you don’t like it, you’ll just have to make those repairs in time. But don’t rush it.”
“Roger.”
A communication came in from the Space Science Laboratory in Sagamihara almost immediately.
“Rambutan, this is Space Lab. According to our telemeter the error code is 315. Confirm.”
“Rambutan to Space Lab, the panel’s showing error code one-one-five, not three-one-five.”
“Roger that. None of the device monitors are showing problems. Can you send us a video feed of the fish?”
“Our video channel’s closed already. Should we assume this error’s a glitch, then?”
“Hold on, we’re still looking into it. We’ll be with you shortly.”
“Roger.”
Yukari returned to her seat and awaited instructions. “Nine minutes…I was really looking forward to doing some skin diving.”
“Space Lab to Rambutan. We have an IFM request for you. You’re going to have to do some maintenance. First we need a visual check of the goldfish.”
“Roger.”
Yukari frowned and once again left her chair. “Sorry, Matsuri, we gotta hug again.”
“Hoi.”
She was submitting a design change request as soon as they got back. It was ridiculous to have to get out of her seat every time she wanted to do anything with the testing equipment.
Yukari slid over Matsuri, pushed down her seatback, and peered into the fish container. The goldfish were swimming erratically in every direction, which wasn’t unusual, except that their mouths were opening and closing a little too fast.
“Space Lab, this is Rambutan. The goldfish are all alive, but they seem to be opening and closing their mouths more quickly than usual.”
“How fast, exactly? Like, open...open...open?”
“No, more like open, open, open.”
“Can you check the reading on the diffused oxygen monitor? Go to MON, press the up arrow twice, code 107.”
“Roger that. MON, up arrow twice...”
“Yukari, did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
Behind her, Matsuri shrugged. “I dunno. It sounded like a compression pump starting up.”
“Could you be quiet a sec? I forgot the code!”
“Oops, sorry.”
“Space Lab, could you give me that code again?”
“That’s 107.”
“Right, 107. The monitor’s reading 0218.”
“Yukari, the sequencer’s started up.”
“Huh?”
“Rambutan, the DO levels are too low. I want you to check the QD on the fish container.”
“Roger that, Space Lab. What did you say, Matsuri?”
“I said the sequencer’s going! It’s going to start a burn soon!”
“But we didn’t start the sequencer!”
“Then someone else did. Look at the SEQ display scroll by.”
“No way!” Yukari’s face went pale. It occurred to her that she had left the switch cover open. Had she accidentally bumped it when she was maneuvering around the cabin?
“Well we have to stop it right away!”
The shock of the burn came just as Matsuri was reaching for the instrument panel.
“Yipes!”
The experimentation panel hit Yukari’s face at 0.1 G.
“Ow ow ow ow! Matsuri, cut off the OMS, now!”
“Your butt’s in the way!”
Yukari grunted and twisted. “It’s not that big. How about now?”
“Just a little farther.”
“Will you stop that thing already!”
“There, got it!”
The sound of the compressor faded.
“Rambutan, this is Space Lab. Our telemetry’s stopped. Is something wrong?”
“Oh, uh, well, I just ran into the panel. Maybe I accidentally turned the switch off with my nose—”
“Rambutan, this is Solomon. Our monitors are showing a brief OMS burn. What’s going on up there?”
“Well, the sequencer just started up and—”
“Yukari,” Matsuri whispered, “we’re losing altitude.”
“Could you read off the switch positions on panel one—”
“Wait. You stopped the burn manually—”
“This is Space Lab again. Once we have a signal can you resume your check of the QD—”
“That partial burn is problematic. Better prep for a crash landing—”
“Yukari! We’re losing altitude fast!”
“Will you all just shut up for one second!” Yukari wailed. “I told them it was too much to do experiments and pilot this thing at the same time!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Yukari had a laundry list of things she wanted to check with base, but their altitude had already fallen below 130 kilometers and the capsule was beginning to bump atmosphere. When the vivid orange plasma of reentry covered the windows, their radio would cease to function.
Yukari pushed all thoughts of the goldfish from her head and strapped herself in. Their angle of reentry was good. They’d make it into the atmosphere at least. But where would they land? Last estimates had put them somewhere between Northeast China, the Sea of Japan, the Japanese islands, and the North Pacific...
“Hope we don’t land in North Korea,” Yukari muttered, gritting her teeth against the rising gravity.
They were past 4 G now. It was becoming difficult to speak.
Six G. Yukari’s body weighed six times more than it did at sea level, six times more than her bones and muscles were used to. The capsule vibrated like a saltshaker in the hands of an impatient child.
Yukari wondered for what seemed like the one-hundredth time why it always shook so much. She felt her body sinking into the seat until she felt like a human pancake, and she knew that the worst was yet to come.