Daniel’s mind filtered away the low drone of the aircraft’s engines, the occasional rattling of secured tanks and the chatter of over thirty French soldiers he hitched a ride with, leaving him to his thoughts. He still couldn’t believe it. In an age where humanity created practically usable artificial gravity and established a colony outside the Milky way, it took him 29 years to leave earth. His excitement was coated in a layer of bitterness, however. The laboratory went silent and remained that way for three days now. The fact that the documents regarding this mission he was told he will get never found his way to him didn’t help the situation at all. A voice in his head told him that operating solely on information he read in a science magazine wasn’t safe. He rummaged through his bag and the file containing his documents, earning a few puzzled looks from the French crewmen, but found nothing.

“Lavit Launch Facility is directly on our Starboard side. We’re landing in five minutes, so stay buckled up.” He looked out the window and observed the anthill that was the launch pad, dominated by the Sentinel in the middle. As soon as the plane landed, he let the French deal with the jammed cargo ramp and headed towards the building through which he assumed they were supposed to board the ship. After looking around in vain to find an officer in charge of the operation, he found the room mentioned in his transfer order. Two people were already inside, one civilian and one military by their looks. He shot a quick salute to the soldier and sat down, his mind trying to find a reason why someone would wear a uniform with the camo pattern nearly two centuries old, and failing to come up with any.