“What about Maika?” I asked, not yet fully awake, but quickly caught myself. Vanderhuse pretended he didn’t hear me.
I took a shower, got dressed, and went into the control room. The unpleasant thoughts of yesterday took over again. I didn’t want to talk to anybody or see anybody. Vanderhuse signed off duty and went to bed after informing me that there’s nothing going on around the ship and in six hours, Komov will relieve me.
It was precisely twenty-two hundred hours local time. Onscreen, the flames of aurora borealis were flashing above the mountains, strong wind blew in from the ocean, tearing apart the cap of fog above the hot swamp, pressing leafless bushes to the ground, throwing onto the beach fragments of instantly freezing foam. On the landing strip, leaning slightly into the wi
