Port workers were busy clearing a landing pad for the enormous spaceship to land. On all four sides of the pad, guides were positioned holding red smoke sticks, to help the pilot land right.
Unlike other smaller spaceships, this one was huge. The spaceship was so tall that even as it neared the ground, a bird was sliced to death in one its rotors. It had the Royal sigil of the Republic of Earth embossed on its body. Spectators were lined up far away, near the boundary walls of the space port. Even they could see that this was no ordinary ship, but the personal transport of the Prime Minister of the Republic – Anirudh Abraham Isai.
Children of the lower levels scampered to get a look at the ship and its inhabitant. Rana and his friends had been playing hide and seek in the streets of level 27, when they heard the foghorn. They immediately rushed here to watch the spectacle.
It was so rare for a Royal Minister to come out in the open, that most lower level people live their entire lives without ever having looked at them. Usually, spaceships of such prominent men were docked in the higher level ports. But, today, since only the pad near to level 29 was free for landing, they could witness how the Royals really looked.
The doors to the ship came down with a whoosh. From within, in two neat files, soldiers walked out on either sides of a floating palanquin.They were all suited up in pitch black attack proof suits from top to bottom. All of them carried M56 Proton Blasters.
They were the Guardians, specially trained and sworn to protect the royal ministers with their lives. Since, there were almost a hundred Guardians surrounding the palanquin today, it was evident that The Prime Minister was within it.
It was rumored among the masses that the Prime Minister was a Neptunian. Nobody knew if there was any truth to it, but as all rumors go, the one who started it was long dead. Rana wanted to look at the face of the man who could afford to travel in such a huge spaceship. He moved away from the boundary walls and neared the gateway. The gateway was crowded with people waiting for an audience with the prime minister. It was obvious from the business suits they were wearing, that they are officers and secretaries from the higher levels. Rana’s father, who worked as a welder in the spaceport wanted his son to become an officer like them.
Rana got caught in the stampede of men, who were all taller and bigger than himself. As the palanquin made its way out of the port, Rana stood on his toes and craned his neck to get a look at the minister. The palanquin screen drifted by a sudden gust of wind, and in that tiny moment he saw the wrinkled, pinkly and inhuman face of a person. The kid had seen a lot of extra terrestrials to understand that the man in the palanquin was not a humanoid. So, the rumors were true he guessed. Having done what he wanted to do, he moved away from the crowded gateway and came back to the boundary wall. His friends were nowhere to be seen. They must have returned to level 27, to continue their games. He too decided to go back.
On hearing a sudden commotion from behind, he turned back one last time at the spaceport gateway and saw the prime minister get into a hover. As he stepped in, the prime minister looked at Rana and smiled for a brief moment. Rana’s eyes opened wide and his throat dried up in disbelief. Before he could do anything, the hover had disappeared in the crowded streets of level 29.
He rushed off towards his friends to brag to them about this, but they had already moved on to other sources of excitement. Even if he told them they wouldn’t believe him.
War of the galaxy 