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flight status display on the forward overhead monitor. There were less than five minutes left before the Icarus would make contact with the upper atmosphere, and begin its aero-braking maneuver. He was suddenly very conscious of the emergency escape tube to his right. If they had to abandon both the Icarus and the LRV in the event of a catastrophe, it was his responsibility to activate the system and get everyone to the emergency escape pod in the drop pod bay on the underside of the aft end of the Icarus. The entire evacuation process was supposed to take less than two minutes, after which the system would shut down, permanently sealing the fate of anyone left behind.
    That would be the hard part, of course. He wasn’t supposed to wait for the flight crew. His job was to get the six other crew members into the chute, and immediately follow them. Those were the rules, and he understood them. He just hoped he would never have to abandon the flight crew.
    Tony switched his comm-set to the primary channel. “Frank, this is Tony.”
    “ Yes, Tony, ” Frank’s voice crackled through the comm-set.
    “The Icarus is secure, LRV set at condition yellow. We’re ready to go back here.”
                    
    Frank looked at the ship’s status board. No red lights. “Copy that, Tony,” he called through his comm-set. “Standby…” Frank looked at the mission chronometer, checking it against the LRV’s chronometer. “Ship is set at condition yellow, Jack. The board is green and all systems show ready. One minute to terminal course change.”
    “Very well,” Jack responded. “Execute insertion burn.”
    “Executing insertion burn,” Lynn replied.
    There was a slight jolt that sent a shudder through the LRV, followed by the low hiss of chemical jets spraying their exhaust out into the void of space, causing a slight change in the ship’s attitude.
    “Deceleration engines are ready to burn,” Frank reported.
    “Insertion burn in five…” Jack started.
    It was the last burn they would execute on their approach to Tau Ceti Five. It was also the only burn that would be done with their dedicated deceleration engines, instead of flipping the ship over to use their main engines.
    “Four…”
    Without this burn, the Icarus would be traveling too fast to execute her aero-braking maneuver, and instead would loop around the planet and be flung out the other side.
    “Three…”
    “Fuel pumps are on…”
    “Two…”
    “Decel is armed…”
    “One……execute,” Jack instructed.
    Frank activated the Icarus’s deceleration engines. He immediately felt a low rumble throughout the ship. It was nowhere near as intense as the deceleration burns they had conducted using the main engines, but it was coming from the front of the ship rather than from the back, so it felt more pronounced.
    All three of them watched their displays as the Icarus slowly altered her course and speed, coming to align itself with Tau Ceti Five’s upper atmosphere.
    Thirty seconds into the insertion, Frank made the announcement. “Coming up on PNR.”
    Jack glanced at his flight display, checking that all the numbers were correct before committing to the insertion.
    “Point of no return in five…” Frank warned.
    Everything on Jack’s flight display looked correct. “Continue the burn,” Jack ordered.
    “I concur,” Lynn replied.
    There was no turning back now.
    “Continuing the burn,” Frank acknowledged.
    For another sixty seconds, Jack watched the ship’s speed decrease at the expected rate.
    “Decel engines cutoff in five seconds,” Frank announced.
    Jack smiled. They were going to end their insertion burn on schedule, at the exact target speed for aero-braking. The week long process of deceleration was nearly complete.
    “Three……two……one……DECO,” Frank announced, as he tapped the button to kill the deceleration engines. The low rumble stopped, and the flight deck again fell silent.
    “Insertion burn