The closer they got to their final destination, West, the more a sense of awe grew inside Ell—mixed with anxiety. Now she treated the heightened sensations of the last few months as something ordinary, something she had gotten used to. On Earth she convinced herself that the flight wouldn’t be easy. The planet was wrapped in pale green-silver clouds—so thick that the signal barely reached the surface. West didn’t look small at all, as it had been shown in the atlas. Ell watched as the planet’s body “loomed” toward their now suddenly tiny ship.