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By the time it becomes obvious that something is wrong, it's too late to abort entirely.
Star skippers do not, in theory, have to be spaceships in the conventional sense of the term. But hopping out to an untrafficked spot in the void is the best way to avoid thaumaturgical interference in a calculation as precise as jumping between star systems, so people tend to anchor the enchantments on airtight hulls with basic intrasystem propulsion.
So when the ship jerks, it shouldn't be more than a distraction; it doesn't matter what untrafficked bit of space you take off from--
Except that it most definitely isn't the case that the ship was hit by a piece of space detritus, this is a glitch in the steering, and the navigation enchantments are chained together for power efficiency.
She can't cancel the jump, at this point. All she can do is shunt all the power from everything non-essential into the safeties and cross her fingers that it works.
...
The jump is more unpleasant than a controlled jump ought to be. It feels as though the gravitational forces from every intervening star are operating on her at once. She's pretty sure that's not how it actually works, but that's how it feels.
They land, and she throws up.
When her breathing slows and she takes her head out from between her knees, she notices that they're under gravity, despite the fact that artificial gravity was definitely one of the nonessentials she cut.
She checks the exterior readings. Breathable atmosphere. Approximately one gravity of force. Temperatures well within the tolerable band, even for a complete inaugment like her. No detectable poisons or hexes. No detectable thaumaturgical field, which is very weird for an inhabitable planet unless they are way outside known space.
She tries to pull up a star chart and fails because it is whatever planet they landed on it is apparently currently the day side of it.
"What the fuck just happened?" Tanya demands.
"I'm not sure yet," Linda replies. "Do you want to try to figure it out, or to try to figure out where we are?"
"Even once we know what went wrong, we're still going to need to figure out where we are in order to get back," Elaine points out reasonably.
"But it's apparently daylight, at the moment," Linda says, frowning at her instruments. "If we sort out the glitch now, and wait until nightfall to try to astro-orient ourselves..."
"Assuming this planet isn't tidally locked," Elaine says, lips pressed together.
"No, it would be a lot hotter then," Linda points out absently. "It could have an inconveniently long day cycle, though, especially if it were currently early in it. But I think we ought to check to make sure there isn't anything in the environment that the readouts aren't picking up but that could prove dangerous on short notice."
The other girls agree with a certain level of subdued alarm, and Linda keys open the hatch. The skipper isn't meant to operate in atmo, but she can climb out fine anyway.
An alien with bright red hair climbs out of the small spaceship that appeared suddenly between two tall buildings and looks around in complete bewilderment.
