SOMEHOW, THEY MADE it—mostly because the restroom door opened out and thus created a barrier in the narrow passageway. And then they were all together in the cockpit and the door had been safely secured, although the raptors continued to assault it for several moments, denting it inward and filling the flight deck with their muffled snarls and barks, until that, too, subsided, and they could see on the monitors next to the steering yokes that the animals had retreated.
Peter wasted no time in seating himself in the pilot’s chair and buckling in, while Samantha took the jumpseat next to the window (there were two of them) and did the same. The cab turned white as a meteor passed them not 200 feet away—and everyone gasped. Dawn, meanwhile, continuing to break.
“We’re just in time,” said Pe
