Outcasts of Gideon

Falling to Earth

Houith followed closely behind the woman, the crowd around them dissipating. She found this to be a common practice of these people. They seemed always to be moving from one place to another, one crowd to the next. The universe was not open to them. They could not experience it in the same way as the Atua. Instead, they lived through their interactions.

The woman called Leela was not the same as the others Houith had met. While she had discovered that each human was unique, Leela's differences were less appealing. The woman was similar to Cara in some ways, with an openness, a friendliness. These qualities drew Houith along, as she imagined they did other humans. However, while she seemed open and friendly, it was less genuine than how Cara expressed it.

The word 'genuine' reverberated in Houith's mind. It was not a word that had direct translation in her language. She pieced its meaning together from other words and from her convergence with Dawn. To be genuine was to embrace natua, the essence of being. In Leela, she sensed a duplicitousness. It was something so rare among the Atua, she might not have recognized it at all. Yet she herself had recently engaged in duplicity in Aitaoperaa. In her case, she justified it as necessary to calm her people. She didn't find the same rationale available for Leela.

Despite this, she chose to follow the other woman. She sensed no threat in the act. Danger was a concept she had to learn from Dawn as well. The notion required a world such as this, one where three dimensions limited movement. In Aitaoperaa, escape from threat was always available.

They worked their way through the station known as Aristarchus Junction. Leela appeared to know this place well. She moved quickly, sweeping past empty shops and dimly lit hallways. As far as Houith could tell, the station was shutting down for the night. She'd learned that humans operated in cycles of waking and dreaming. This was another concept she'd have to recount to her people. Here the station was showing signs of that daily waning.

Leela frequently looked back toward Houith. She peered around the patch covering one of her eyes. Her smile accompanied each glance, beckoning Houith further.

As the corridors of Aristarchus Junction narrowed, so did the light. Houith didn't notice it at first. When she finally did, she attributed it to the waning day. That made sense for a short while. However, the further they advanced, the less real the ebbing light seemed. Around them wasn't merely the light of the station, it was an encroaching darkness.

Houith recalled experiencing something similar once before. She'd been exploring a galaxy some distance from her own. It was a formless collection of stars, one in its infancy. There she encountered a darkness like this. At its edges sparkled dust and particles. As she advanced, all light faded. In that instance, she chose not to proceed. Her travels would never bring her close to the phenomenon again.

Here it presented itself once more. They were walking into it, advancing through it. There was no mistake about it, Leela was leading her deeper into the darkness.

Leela turned her head again, her ever present smile lighting the way forward. It was the certainty in her visible eye that finally inspired alarm. Houith stopped. Leela continued. That was when Houith saw how the woman advanced. Her legs weren't moving. She was progressing without using her human form. Houith discovered that she was also floating along, following without trying.

"What is this place?" asked Houith. She looked around to discover that the darkness enveloped them completely. Gone were the vestiges of human life on the small moon. Gone was the moon itself. They had entered a place, a time, a plane.

"We will wait for them here." Leela turned fully, her body coming to rest in the void.

"Here?" Houith lacked a frame of reference for this.