Excerpt from somewhere half-way through Lost Planet, Book 2 in the Matrix Trilogy:

The ceiling is still the floor but thankfully the acceleration and spinning have stopped. Upside down, I realise that at least I'm breathing again, even if my whole body is sore and my guts feel like they've been rearranged. All in all, I feel really odd. This is immediately explained by a voice saying; “We made orbit!”

“You Ok?”, is all I manage to croak out before bile rises in my throat. I break out into an immediate cold sweat as I focus on not bringing up. As anyone knows, this process is unpleasant and I can't talk so I just lie still, conscious of floating in the grasp of the crash-web which feels really weird. Waiting for something nasty to happen, I keep my eyes closed but next thing I'm conscious of is her arms around me and a her face up close. “You were great Schwann”, as she hugs me hard through the crash-web. Vacshield deflated, her pupils are more dilated than I'd ever seen. She is home and I feel sick, small and unwanted, a puppy.

"You were great Schwann..".

There's a moment of clarity as the vertigo let's go. I take the gap.

“Thanks, but I did nothing.”

“Yah, but we expected you to panic.” She looks away; “I expected you to panic”.

Hysteria boils in me and I can't help replying; “I still might...”

For some odd reason, the thought of being allowed to panic makes me want to laugh so badly that I have to look away and bite my lip. I really don't want to be some Earther lamebrain who's going to get hysterical on her spaceship but this is enough to start me off and for a while I lose it completely as the tears roll down my face. She hugs me tighter and after a while I calm down because I'm not breathing so good.

“Slow down, you got to breath slowly up here. Lots of oxygen - understand?”