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so good. He knew he must be at least three centimeters taller after four months in zero gravity and wondered how long it would take for his spinal column to compress back to normal once on the planet’s surface.
    Finished with his stretches, Jack kicked off his deck shoes, leaving them floating on the other side of the room. He pulled out his sleep sack from a locker, hooking each end to opposite bulkheads. He unzipped it and climbed inside, zipping up only the interior netting to hold him floating in place. He reached up and turned off the overhead light, leaving the bunk light on behind his head. He looked at the pictures on the wall to his right. His wife and children, his parents, and great-grandpa, still alive after all these years. The old guy was one of only three original crew members still living, and would be celebrating his one hundred and eighth birthday on the surface of the new world, whichever one they ended up choosing.
    Jack switched off the light and turned the room ventilators on high to drown out extraneous noises from elsewhere in the ship—a trick old-man Wilkins had taught him many years ago. In the darkness, he worried about all the personnel problems he had dealt with in the last few months. Oh well, I’m sure everyone will find it easier to get along after we get down on the surface and get a little more elbow room , he thought as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

CHAPTER TWO
    Tony passed gracefully through the hatch from the forward section of the Icarus, which contained various laboratories, agricultural bays, and storage lockers. Once inside the midship airlock, he pivoted in mid-flight and gently pushed off of the aft bulkhead of the airlock. He carefully closed the hatch and checked the seal, then slowly turned, scanning the other three hatches that led to the port airlock, aft habitat bay, and starboard auxiliary docking airlock. Satisfied they were all properly secured, he made his way up into the transfer tube that led to the LRV, closing and securing the hatch at the bottom of the tube behind him. As he pulled himself along, hand over hand, it occurred to him that he would not pass through this tube again for at least two months. It seemed funny that even though they had all complained about their cramped living space, he would miss the familiarity of the Icarus after they reached the surface.
    Once inside the small airlock of the LRV, he secured the outer hatches of both the transfer tube and the LRV, then ascended one more level into the midship compartment between the flight deck and the passenger corridor. One last hatch to close , he thought as he sealed the airlock’s inner hatch.
    As he moved aft into the passenger corridor, he could see the rest of the crew securing themselves into their flight seats. At the back of the compartment, Mac, who minutes earlier had made a similar inspection of the Icarus from aft to midship, was settling into his seat in the last row next to Will.
    Tony looked at each of his crewmates, ensuring they were all strapped in, with helmet visors closed and locked, and life-support packs in standby mode. Each of their faces betrayed their varying levels of stress. From Adia, who was scared to death and strapped in so tight she could hardly breathe, to Mac, who, at the back of the compartment, was either too aloof or too stupid to be nervous.
    Tony turned and pulled himself down into his seat, attaching the thigh straps across his legs, buckling them into their receptacles just in front of his crotch. Pulling the tails of the thigh straps snug, he tucked them into their belt loops to keep them from floating about. Then he twisted his arms through the shoulder harness, first left then right, and attached both the waist and chest buckles, pulling them snug as well. “Everyone ready?”
    “Ready as we’ll ever be,” Maria responded with strained enthusiasm.
    “Let’s start this ride, already!” Mac insisted with gusto.
    Tony looked up at the