Wildest Skies
Novella 21,528 words Recommended by 2 award/anthology sources
"The planet was dead and alive. It was the strangest thing to look down on. Ed Linklater squeezed his way into the narrow forward observation nacelle. The nacelle was shaped like a coffin, which wasn’t a nice thought. Anyone claustrophobic would never manage. Not for a second."
Quasar links out; the story lives on Asimov's, where the author gets the click.