III
The short flight and docking in the belly of the huge craft was so ordinary, as if they had travelled from one city to another. Although Etta didn’t like flying, there was nothing frightening or mysterious in those. She felt like that now, as if she were about to step out in some friendly city like New Palermo or Singapore but the illusion was shattered once she stepped out of the vehicle.
It was a windowless hangar of some sorts, where three small, empty crafts were clasped to the walls, waiting for the passengers. The seals of Earth Union and the ‘Viking 01’ symbols were painted on the sides of the ships. The young man wearing black, tight-fit suit with the pilot’s badge on the chest and a tiny tattoo at the side of his forehead, meaning he was a 100 percent mentally stable unit, w
