"We're going to run into Jupiter?!"

Cassie stood on her tiptoes, trying to see who was talking, or just to get a better view of the ongoing commotion at the front of the cockpit. She'd been the last to arrive, having to walk all the way from the back of the ship, where she'd spent the last five days repairing the backup heater. She was beginning to regret not spending any of that time fixing the climate systems.

The six of them were way too many for the small, stuffy space.

It didn't help that Shrey was the only one sitting down. "Technically, no." He put their projected trajectory up on the big screen. "The new calculations show we won't hit it, but we'll come way too close."

Cassie shuffled to the side as much as she could, trying to peer around Danny's shoulder. It didn't really work.

"Close enough to kill us?" Danny asked grimly.

"Maybe, or it could just send us completely off course." Shrey shrugged. "Hard to tell until we get closer."

Brendan stared at the screen, scowling thoughtfully. "We'll have to use the engines..."

"Not in dark mode," Shrey reminded him.

Helen nodded thoughtfully, her eyes on the map. "But we can use our maneuvering thrusters."

"We can't," Cassie blurted out.

The entire crew turned around to stare at her.

Cassie shrunk back against the wall, as if she could disappear by just making herself a little smaller.

"Why not?" Helen asked, from her spot at the front of the room.

"They're all still out," Cassie explained, her voice small in comparison. "Most were damaged, and the ones that weren't don't have power."

"And fixing the thrusters...?" Helen asked, trailing off as she saw the expression on Cassie's face.

Cassie shook her head. "We'd need to dock."

"Can we use the engines in dark mode?" Geoff asked, completely serious. "What if we set them really really low?"

Shrey twisted around in his seat, purely to shoot Geoff an annoyed look. "Even if we could reconfigure the system to do that, the Ellidium signature would shine right through our cloak."

"It would be the same as dropping out of dark mode," Brendan stated. "It's too risky."

Danny smirked slightly, a glint in his eye. "Right now it's too risky."

"Jupiter is inside the dark zone," Brendan reminded him, slightly confused.

"Barely," Cassie muttered, with no indication that anyone had heard her.

"It's basically planet territory," Danny countered. "We can risk dropping out there, turn on the engines for a quick correction, then go back into dark mode."

Shrey looked at Danny in shock, as if he couldn't believe the younger man was even suggesting such an idea. "We can't risk dropping out of dark mode for even a moment."

"It's better than crashing into a gas giant," Danny pointed out, sounding a little smug. "The further out we go, the lower our chances of being spotted."

"And the closer we get to Jupiter, the longer we'll have to run the engines," Shrey argued. "That's longer we'll be out of dark mode."

"Why?" Geoff interjected loudly.

"It's a combination of time, thrust and distance," Shrey told Geoff curtly before turning his attention back to Danny. "Every minute we're visible is extremely risky, we shouldn't drop out at all."

"Boost the engines then," Geoff suggested. "Make us go faster so it won't take so long."

"Yeah, I'll just supercharge the engines to two thousand percent." Shrey scoffed lowly. "No problem."

"Sure, let's do that," Geoff replied happily.

"It's a spaceship, not a racecar," Shrey explained, very clearly annoyed. "We can't just add extra thrust."

Geoff shrugged it off. "Come on, we just need to change course a little so we miss it." He gestured to the dotted curve on the screen. "There's got to be something we can do."

The room fell silent. No one spoke up. No one had any ideas.

Cassie shifted uncomfortably, feeling suddenly much more grateful about being completely forgotten by everyone else.

"Okay," Geoff began, rubbing his goatee in intense concentration. "What if we... vented some atmosphere?"

Danny snorted gruffly. "We need that air to breath, idiot."

Shrey shook his head adamantly. "Do you even know how much this ship weighs? That wouldn't do anything."

It didn't take long for the conversation to devolve from there.

Cassie was jostled as people began to move about the flight deck, her back pressed into one of the armrests uncomfortably. At the moment, she was simply thankful that no one was asking her any questions. Because she was all out of ideas. Maybe it was just the heat getting to her, the air was beginning to feel a little suffocating, but it didn't look like there was an easy way out of this.

Danny had pushed past Geoff to lean over Shrey's shoulder and was pointing animatedly at their pilot's workstation. "Just run the numbers for how long we'd need the engines."

"It's not going to matter if it's three hours or three days," Shrey argued. "It's still too dangerous."

"I'd prefer not to drop out of dark mode at all," Helen finally spoke. "Let's call that Plan B, for now."

"That suggests we actually have a Plan A," Danny grumbled.

"Then start thinking of one," Helen countered immediately. She looked around the room, meeting the gaze of each of her crew in turn. "That applies to everyone. Start brainstorming."

"This doesn't change our immediate priorities," Brendan announced to the now silent group. "We have time to solve this problem."

"Eighty three days exactly," Shrey whispered grimly.

Helen crossed her arms. "That's your cue to get back to work."

There were unhappy murmurs all around. Cassie didn't stick around to hear what they said, slipping out before anyone could remember she'd ever been there in the first place. The pressure to keep the ship operational already felt overwhelming, but this was worse. That didn't mean she was about to give up.

After all, she hadn't signed up for this mission only to die by being crushed inside a gas giant.