Any Landing You Walk Away From

Bright lights!  Smoke!  An alarm of some foreign machination bleated high, then low.  Warning sign flashed on, then off.  Restraints held tight to chest and shoulders as all senses were tuned to one loud, bright and smoke-filled word: EMERGENCY!

The Traveler's eyes darted along with fingers from panel to panel, searching for anything that looked like a switch.  Some switch to eliminate the smoke and silence the alarm.  Slowly, he regained his calm and remembered the process that had started the great machine.  Not switches.  No.  Not dials either.  Glass screens, sensitive to the touch.  And not bank after bank of equipment as he was accustomed, but just two glass screens, each with dozens of functions.  Quite foreign but somehow elegant and simplistically intuitive.

His fingers swiped away screen after screen until the icon of a flame shown in bright and menacing red.  He pressed hes finger on the flame and somehow, without click or switch, the glass recognized pressure and the flame symbol became highlighted and several new icons appeared.  He pressed each and all without discrimination until the howl of the siren fell quiet and numerous, concealed fans vacuumed the cabin clear in seconds.

suddenly all was calm and the restraints fell slack.  The Traveler turned his attention again to the elegant glass screen, searching through page after page until it shown what was clearly a door sliding open.  

He took a few preparatory breaths and, with caution, fingered the screen.

There was a twin-chirping sound and the cabin door slid open, filling the vessel with bright, natural light and wild, fresh, uncontrolled and uncontrollable air!