He awoke to water dripping on his face. Not dripping. Trickling. Pouring really. If this was another infamous Tracy practical joke someone was really going to get it.

He opened his eyes and gave a groan as reality slammed back into him: the descent, the G-forces, his shoulder, lack of oxygen, his unanswered transmission – all hit him at the same time. The pain was immense, in all forms. Physical pain from a broken bone, from his body being tossed two-ways from Sunday, the headache, his chest. But also the emotional pain he had been trying to keep on top of – the fear of being lost and abandoned while suffocating in space.

At least that's one problem he no longer had, instead replaced with something different. Apparently he had arrived on the planet, the capsule hadn't disintegrated as it passed through the atmosphere, and he was still alive. He didn't remember the impact which was probably a good thing.

But now it appeared that the elevator was completing submerged as all he could see was darkness out of the two small windows. Judging by the movement it was still sinking, and it was filling with water.

Time to get out of here he thought as he unclipped his safety restraint.

He tried the automatic release on the display in front of him. All he got was a shower of sparks and the lights went off.

Crap but actually what he thought might happen – he had after all stripped a lot of wiring and exposed the circuitry to get this thing to move in the first place- he hadn't the time to reseal it all.

Once again it would be a ratchet mechanism that opened the door – he felt around in the dark until he found the right cover, opened it, and reached for the handle. Which didn't budge.

"Come. On. I. Am. Not. In. The. Mood." Each word was punctuated by a sharp pull on the handle, trying to get it to move. He changed position slightly trying to get his full weight behind it. It wasn't budging. And now the water that was pouring from several breaches in the capsules thick skin had reached his knees.

Keep calm John, this is just another problem for you to work. What do you do? Plug the gaps. There was nothing to plug them with, and anyway it looked like the leaks were along the seems so a plug in once place would just move the leak elsewhere.

Next solution. Get out. Well he was trying that. Cursing his broken shoulder he went back to one handedly trying to get the door open while furiously thinking. The descent must have broken something or warped the mechanism. The water was at his waist. Could he cut his way out? No, the best he had was a pair of pliers. The water was at his chest. Could he break his way out? Through the toughened and reinforced glass? Or the elevator skin? When he couldn't even move a fucking handle. No way. Could he….. Could he… He was out of ideas and had to release the handle as the water came up to his chin.

He pushed himself off the floor to try and float above the surface of the rapidly rising water, gasping as the cold surrounded him.

He was out of ideas. Out of resources. And out of time. His thoughts were becoming jumbled and frantic. His heart was racing and he felt on the verge of a panic attack. He had managed to survive so far, he just needed help with this last little bit. He needed his brothers to be here right now, needing their help desperately and that traitorous thought raised it's head again. What if they weren't coming.

He was now right at the top of the module, holding on to some cabling he'd pulled out earlier. So this is how I die. I drown. I drown for fucks sake. He didn't know why that made him ridiculously angry. I'm going to drown down here in the dark. Alone. Somehow it was an affront to everything he thought he would achieve in his life. He wanted to be remembered as someone who explored the sky, not made stupid decisions and got himself drowned!

He drew a last deep breathe from the last of the air space and then he was completely submerged. Stupid decisions, he had made lots of stupid decisions. He didn't know what the stupid ones were precisely, but he must have gone wrong somewhere or he wouldn't be in this situation right now.

I'm sorry guys, I'm sorry I wasn't as smart as you needed me to be. His lungs were burning and he could no longer stop his instinct to take a breathe. He felt the water rush down his throat, into his lungs. He felt his body spasm as he struggled to live but was thwarted by the surrounding salt water. He had just one more emotion. Regret. And one last thought. I'm sorry I let you all down.

To be concluded in the second half...