In 500... (or less)

Check the Math

Ned's hands clacked feverishly on the keypad, almost in time with all of the warnings and alarms going off.

"What's it looking like?!" Parker was frantic. Ned tried to sound relaxed.

"We're too heavy," he replied. "If we don't jettison some weight, we'll end up in the atmosphere."

The ship shuttered as the drag of the atmosphere slowed it down.

"Get in the cargo bay," Ned ordered. "See what you can find to shed weight. Anything we're not going to need to get home."

Parker rushed through the ship, trying to inventory the items in the cargo bay in his head. All this over a few meteoroid strikes. The mission was going to be a failure at any point, now their lives were at stake.

"What have we got?" Ned's voice crackled through Parker's headset.

"The crane arm, I think I can detach it," Parker answered. He tried to remember the procedure from the simulator. It was one of those situations they didn't spend much time on. When would you need to shed a few hundred kilograms in a hurry?

"That's a start," Ned answered. "Let me run the numbers."

Ned hated math. He always wanted to be an astronaut. The math was a necessary evil. Now it was a matter of life and death.

"If you can get the crane arm loose, we ought to be able to have enough fuel for a burn to escape the atmosphere," he told Parker. "But do it fast."

Parker felt the sweat bead on his forehead as he worked to arm the explosive bolts to detach the crane.

"How confident are you in the numbers?" he asked Ned. "Is this going to be enough? Are you sure it's enough!?"

"Get it loose now!" Ned barked. "I need to open the doors and get it out before we fire the engines!"

"Almost there. Just another 10 seconds."

Ned watched the control panel for the light signaling that he could blow the bolts and jettison the crane.

"Parker! It's now or never!" Ned looked at the numbers again, just as the light to blow the bolts came on.

He quickly opened the cargo bay doors, then fired the bolts. He heard Parker scream through the com.

"I'm not out of the bay yet!" Parker hadn't bothered to tether himself and now was fighting a losing battle to hang onto one of the grips in the bay. The suction was just too great.

"Close the door!" he pleaded.

The crane cleared the cargo bay doors, but Ned didn't close them just yet. He watched the camera, as Parker finally lost his hold and tumbled into space.

"Ned! Ned!!"

"Sorry," Ned said as his finger hovered over the button to fire the engines. "I ran the numbers twice. Turns out we were 75 kilograms too heavy."

The engines roared to life. Parker always had been too trusting. 

Ned looked over his shoulder at the planet and the thin streak of fire which was once was his shipmate plummeting into the atmosphere.