What (may have) happened after the pod fell into the smoke?

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

We've all seen the trailer and its unexpectedly less-than-optimistic ending. Scott Manley proposed that they had a

, but here's a way that they might have survived with no sepratrons required. (I'd make a video of it if I could -- in fact, this began life as an outline for such a video -- but instead I'll subject you to my writing.)

---

Jeb, Val, and Bob stared in disbelief at the status screen, but the display was unmoved by their shock. Their parachute was gone, and they were hurtling to the ground at hundreds of meters per second.

Thinking quickly, Jeb realized that they would fall slower if they left the capsule, and Bill started yanking on the door handle with all of his strength. It refused to budge, no matter how he pulled and pulled...until Val reminded him that it was a "push"-door. With a nudge, the door opened and was ripped away by the rushing wind, but the astronauts weren't worried about damaging the capsule at this point -- and if Wernher complained, he could fly the next one himself!

Exactly as they had trained, Bill left, then Val, and then Jeb, all tumbling away from the pod, snatched into the air by the sudden drag force. Jeb swooped up to them with his jetpack, and they linked arms, smiling with relief that they were alive and unharmed. Their smiles vanished when a crash from below reminded them that they would not remain so for much longer. Jeb glanced at his friends, Val gazing steely-eyed ahead and Bill screaming incoherently, counting down their descent, until, with just under a hundred meters remaining, he tightened his grip, clutching them to his chest, while he thumped his jetpack controls with his elbow, pitching backwards. He was sure he wouldn't like the thump on the back he was about to receive, but as last visions went, he figured he could do worse than seeing his friends against the blue sky -- all the better if he could give even slightly improve their odds of survival. Val's eyes widened when she realized what he was doing, but the ground rushed up and met them before she could voice a protest.

---

Hearing and touch were the first of Val's senses to return, and at first she thought the rumbling and bumping was that of a peculiarly gentle rocket, but her eyes revealed that she was riding inside the support truck. Suddenly recalling the crash, she looked around frantically. Bill was in his seat and alive (and asleep), but Jeb's was empty. Seeing her awake, the technician riding with them explained that she and Bill had been found and picked up during the survey of the debris field, and that they were nearly finished. After a few more minutes, the driver halted the truck, calling out that he had seen something. Val and the technician hopped out, and found a Kerbal-shaped crater in the ground, but no Jebediah. The driver shrugged; they were at the edge of the debris field, so if Jeb wasn't there, he probably wasn't anywhere. The ride back to Kerbal Space Center was a solemn one.

---

Bob quickly joined the somber mood when Val and Bill entered the Astronaut Complex without Jeb. The desk worker and attendant suddenly thought of tasks that urgently required their presence elsewhere, and so the remaining three astronauts were left alone in their grief. After a few minutes, they were interrupted by a hammering at the door. Val ignored it at first, but the hammering persisted, and so she spun on her heel and marched to the door, ready to give the disturbance a piece of her mind, Bill and Bob following in her wake. Her rebuke died on her lips when she opened the door to find Jebediah -- scorched and scraped, but very much alive! Bill, Bob, and Val rushed to embrace him, confirming that he really was standing before them, and then demanded an explanation for his survival.

He explained that his "plan" to cushion Val's and Bill's impact with his body worked (as they knew), but that he had not died as he had thought he would -- rather than being crushed into the ground, they had inexplicably bounced off of it, leaving the peculiarly-shaped craters they found later. However, the impact had torn Val and Bill from his grip, and so when he came to rest after bouncing and sliding for hundreds of meters, his crewmates were nowhere to be found. He had decided that the most prudent course of action was to walk back to the Astronaut Center. Bill, Bob, and Val were frustrated that he had caused them such grief by taking an extended journey, but were more relieved that he was alive. He had also not been idle on his journey; leading them to the coffee table, he laid out some sketches he had made of ideas for their next rocket. As much fun as he had had with their latest one, he wanted the next one to be even bigger and better. For one thing, it would have four seats, so that they could all fly together! Bill suggested that they should give it better emergency parachutes, while Bob opined that they should make the rocket actually get to space and not explode, but Val just grinned and nodded. No matter what happened, flying (or falling) was much more fun with all three of her crewmates. And with all of them together, they could figure out anything -- the sky wasn't even the limit!

---

Doot, doo-doo-doo-doot, doo-doo-doo-doot, doot!

Edited May 9, 2015 by Kerbas_ad_astra
Title + "(may have)"

[Whirligig Girl]

The funny part is I knew exactly what was meant by Doot, doo-doo-doo-doot, doo-doo-doo-doot, doot!

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

The funny part is I knew exactly what was meant by Doot, doo-doo-doo-doot, doo-doo-doo-doot, doot!

Glad you got it. Like I said, this began life as notes for a trailer extension, and I couldn't have ended it any other way.

I also just noticed that the blurb that's visible when you mouse over this thread's title (in the main forum) cuts off in the perfect place: "We've all seen the trailer and its unexpectedly less-than-optimistic ending. Scott Manley proposed that they had a hidden launch escape system, but..."