<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">The stress of the situation was punctuated by scrapes, bangs, and slams harsh enough to send anyone reeling. There was little keeping Maggie from tears, but for the time being, her pride was overshadowing her urge to cry. It was all so scary though, and there was little the men could do to help the problem. If there was, she had seen how well they worked together and how they all knew their ship, she was confident she would not be as fearful. Instead all she could do was grit her teeth together and watch as Andrijan tried to maneuver them through the debris field. They listed and lulled, were smacked and banged, and Maggie felt her stomach roll uncomfortably.<br/>
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She nearly jumped out of he seat when a piece of debris crashed into the window and was held in place by the thick straps of her seat belts. The crack in the window spread into more cracks that led to tinier cracks. They branched and branched, and Maggie found it both beautiful and completely horrifying. If that glass shattered, they would all be dead.<br/>
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The others understood the peril they were in as well, and were swiftly trying to find a way out of it. The only problem was that they didn’t sound like the plan was to figure out a safer course for them to take so they could reach the refueling station. No, they were speaking a landing on a planet. That was completely against what Maggie had planned for and if the ship landed in the condition it was in, she highly doubted it would have the strength to take off again without some reconstruction. Who knew how long that would take? Her father didn’t have time to wait for her to arrive; there was already a strong chance she was too late.<br/>
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She began to protest the decision to land on the unknown planet, her lips even parted to do so, but the sudden surge of power from the ship knocked her back against her seat. It knocked the window out of her and once the initial shock of the acceleration was over, Maggie took a couple quick gasps for air to refill her lungs while Curtis asked everyone’s status. She was fine, shaken but completely fine. The sounds coming from the seat beside her were not promising for Moore however, and she leaned forward to try to get a look at him.<br/>
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“Moore doesn’t sound all right,” she answered Curtis with a worried frown, “I’m not sure he’s breathing too well. If he cracked a rib when he fell, he could have punctured his lung.” She couldn’t detect the wheezing sound that would come with such an injury, but that didn’t mean much and Maggie’s green eyes studied the mechanic shrewdly before looking back to the other two men. “He needs medical attention no matter what and that planet isn’t going to have it.”<br/>
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“We need to change course,” Maggie announced firmly, not at all on board with the decision they were going to land on that planet, “That might be a reserve planet, but we don’t know how often anyone checks in on it. Plus we don’t know why it’s only a reserve planet.” Usually the government chose reserve planets by how inhospitable they were. Planets that could hold and nurture humans were used for humans; others were used to keep the environmentalists happy by labeling them reserves and leaving them to simply be. “Besides,” Maggie decided to finish with her strongest argument, “This ship isn’t gonna be able to withstand taking off again if we land now. We’re far better off trying to find that refueling station and getting help there.”</span>