...immediately after he caught sight of the lights marking the town, he pressed the ejection button and felt himself flung upward with a greater violence than he had expected. for a moment he was enveloped in darkness; then, as his body spun, he saw the lights of the town again. his fall was slackening and suddenly, as the chute popped open to its full extent, he was jerked sidewise and began swinging in wide arcs. an updraft caught the chute, forcing it back toward the looming peaks and slowing the swinging; but in a moment it slid out of the updraft and was floating smoothly downward.

...peering down, he tried to gauge how close he might be drifting to solid ground, but the darkness made it impossible to judge. he found himself tensing, then consciously willed himself to relax. when he hit, he had to be relaxed. the spatter of brilliance that was the space port was almost dead ahead. a blackness intervened to shield out the spaceport lights and he hit the ground, knees buckling under him...