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the silent ballet came to a close.
    “Balloots at maximum pressure, alignment looks good, harnesses look good, all systems show ready for aero-braking,” Frank announced confidently, letting out a barely audible sigh of relief.
    The port balloot shifted slightly, its alignment marker offset from that of its neighbor. As Frank was about to point out the discrepancy, it spontaneously fell back into alignment. Probably just settling in , he thought.
    “Very well,” Jack commented as he and Lynn settled back into their seats.
    “One minute to aero-braking,” Frank added, tightening up his harnesses.
    Jack’s mind began to wander as he tightened his own harness. His thoughts drifted down to the planet’s surface below. In a few short hours, he would be the first human being to set foot on an extrasolar planet. The moment had not been important to him before. After all, his people had set new records every minute of every day, since their voyage began over three generations ago. None of them, with the exception of the few remaining original crew members, had ever known a life outside of the Daedalus. All of their lives had been leading up to this moment in time. All to get to this system, perhaps even this planet.
    Lynn ran the aero-braking procedures over in her head. She thought about the things Frank had said to her after the last deceleration burn. He was right, she did lack experience, and the rushed manner in which she was trained for this mission also left her at a disadvantage. But she was the best pilot on the Daedalus. Better than all the Ishkins combined. Her sim scores had proven that. She still couldn’t understand what the others had against her and longed for an opportunity to show them what she could do, what she was capable of doing. If they would just give her a chance.
    “Fuel pumps on standby.” Out of the corner of his eye, Frank noticed the balloots shifting again. But before he could turn to look closer, they once again quickly fell back into place. “Reactor plant safe at two percent.” Frank looked up at the mission chronometer.
                    
    “ Thirty seconds to aero-braking, ” their comm-sets crackled.
    Maria reached across the narrow aisle and took Adia’s hand. It was pale, even for Adia, and it was trembling. Adia accepted her hand without hesitation, her helmet still pointed straight ahead. Maria wasn’t sure, it was difficult to see Adia’s face with her helmet on, but she suspected her eyes were shut.
    Sara was also scared, but she wasn’t about to let the others know, especially Mac. Surprisingly, she thought of her husband. Brad was a nice enough guy, not too bad looking either. He subscribed to the same traditions to which the previous generations clung so dearly, but at least he understood and respected her beliefs, even though he had tried to change her point of view on more than one occasion.
    Still, he wasn’t really a husband. At least not in the true sense of the word. But then, the others weren’t either. Most of them had learned to amiably live together after being assigned respective mates based on the genetics tables. But after two years of marriage, they had drifted apart, just as she knew they would. Sara suspected that Brad was having an affair with his co-worker in the biogenetics lab. But at least he was being discreet about it. He even came to see her off, keeping up appearances for her sake.
    A few seats over, Laura wasn’t necessarily calm, but she was under control. She wasn’t the type to worry about things over which she had no control. She had grown up on a sixty-year-old spaceship hurtling through the cosmos at nearly twenty percent light speed. There were so many things out there that could have killed them without warning, so worrying about the unknown could drive a person to insanity. Instead, she chose not to contemplate every possible danger ahead of her.
    Of course, she did think about her family. She and her husband had