Suborbital

“Hey John.”

He sighed, steeled his nerves, and hit ‘send’. “Yeah. I’m here, Rod.”

“What about transferring fuel from the service module to the lander, separating, then doing a forced burn down to me, and then back up again. If we—”

“You’re already too far behind us, and we won’t come around again until after you’re into the atmosphere.” He knew this already. He knew this. “I’m sorry, Rod.”

He let go of the ‘send’ switch and rubbed his eyes.

“John, one more idea. If I can get the jetpack working again, and manage to—”

He turned off the comms.