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Excerpts

Arlene stared out the porthole, ashen-faced. "Jesus, Fly!" She slid her hand along the deck and pointed; I just barely saw a huge piece of the ship below us, tumbling end over end, shattering into splinters scores of meters long. The alien ship, strong as it was, was never intended to burn through the atmosphere like this! It was fracturing along heat seams, separating into components. "Forward!" I shouted, nearly blacking out with the effort. It was getting hard to talk; we needed all our breath to bear down, force the blood back into our heads. Thank God we were lying down-- sitting up, at six g's, we might have passed out. "Forward!" I shouted again, starting to crawl. "Nav...Room...One!" If any component of the ship was to survive the fiery reentry, it would be that one. besides, if that section went, there went the navigational controls-- and we would all die anyway.