Calm and Chaos

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 Fine drizzle drifted slowly down from the dark sky, glowing when it passed close to the spaceport floodlights, eddying into all imperfect shelter with random breaths of wind. Bright lights shone everywhere, giving a surreal daylight to the night above. Behind the terminal windows people read books, browsed through the shops, ate and drank in cafés and restaurants, in all possibility ignorant of the weather outside. The robots making flight checks on the Lakon Spaceways Transporter on the launch pad couldn't have cared less.

     The flexible tunnel between the terminal and ship was manoeuvred into place; people started moving along it. Drops of water on the windows slowly ran down, sometimes coalescing with one another and moving faster. Where the tunnel met the ship a puddle was beginning to form in the slight sag of the roof. When everyone was aboard and the entrance detached a small waterfall cascaded down onto the ground.

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