VIII.
Etta was slowly walking back from the meeting. It was a warm evening in late June, the first stars appearing in the sky, and the young woman wondered, for the first time since she arrived here, if she was sure she wanted to leave Earth. Even so ruined, it was still beautiful, and what could be waiting on far-away Enceladus? On the other hand, it was necessary. The small satellite with the artificially created ecosystem was to become the first extraterrestrial colony. The children who grow up there will go to the stars, leave the solar system forever, colonize a planet they have never seen before, and have their own offspring there. Mankind will survive even if the Earth is destroyed. This thought was kind of reassuring, even joyful in a sense, in spite of the awareness of the huge r
