03 // FLASH FICTION // GODFALL

Godfall

I thought it was a cloud of dust, a film across the great brightness that was the star. I blinked, dazed in the sudden twilight. Hours of squinting through the viewport, shielded as it was, had left me temporarily blind in the new dark.

This mass cast its shadow over everything—the transport ship, its crew, even the open space and planets in our wake. The running lights of our vessel seemed pitiful compared to the depth of the void this shadow created. It was an absolute eclipse, stretching as far as I could see in every direction.

My supervisor turned to me in his seat, halfway through adjusting his respirator. He seemed amused by my disorientation—he'd seen new recruits come and go over the years, so I was doubtlessly not the first.

The shadow only grew darker as the ship weaved its way through the asteroid belt, cutting a pre-charted path. The only light was provided by floating beacons in the void, wired to let us know we were still on the correct heading.

"We're here," my supervisor announced. Other, older salvage workers seemed to accept this statement, but I was only more confused. We were where? There was nothing but empty space, the asteroids, and the endless dust cloud. This mining job was top-secret, restricted to all but the most trusted by Terran authorities, so why was this patch of asteroids such a well-kept secret?

My supervisor read me like a book, and a dry laugh escaped his throat. "We're here," he insisted. "Tell you what, I'll get your pack ready for you this one time, you go take a closer look before we land."

Not one to question him, I stood up and approached the viewport, staring into the abyss. I could barely make out small asteroids drifting against the backdrop of immense, uniform darkness. It was like a wall of midnight, a place where everything stopped.

It felt like the edge of the universe.

From behind me, I heard my supervisor speak quietly to another worker. "Let's give the new kid his introduction, shall we?" 

A moment later, he spoke aloud. "D.E.A.C.O.N, activate flood lighting."

The AI complied, and a moment later the front viewport was awash with powerful luminescence, cutting through the dark miasma.

To my confusion, the darkness changed at once—though it remained infinitely black, the light seemed to bounce off of it. I could even see a speck that seemed to be... me... our ship... reflected back across the vast void.

Then I looked upwards, and saw white. 

The darkness had an end—if I craned my neck and looked high above, I could see that this circular shadow ended, feathering out into a vast white plane on all sides. It was unfathomably distant, yet all at once the realization struck me.

I was staring into an eye, vast and unblinking.

On the surface far below I could now make out the distant shapes of human buildings—habitations, landing pads and mining machinery, an entire settlement constructed within the vast ocular plane.

Behind me, my supervisor chuckled.

"Remember how humanity used to worship gods?" he queried. "Well, the only reason we stopped is because we reached out... and all we found were corpses."