There was little Josefina missed about Earth, but a sky without depth
was what she missed the most. An overcast and enveloping morning, the
sound of air around her. A shallow gradient to the east. Here, she could
see to infinity in all directions, and infinity was all.

Away in the distance, the peaks of Terra Firma stood without shadow or
reason. Turning away from the plain and moving back over the horizon
they receded toward more of the same. The land could often be like the
sky, she thought, if the need arose.

Moving inside, to the steely comfort of the base camp, she put herself
aside and began the interval. Twenty minutes treadmill, twenty minutes
of delay before the first dispatch came through. Building a rhythm from
her breath and that of the support systems, she lost herself in floor
and ceiling.

The base had been built by the Union, but it was the base that kept
Josefina. Bathed in the gentle reek of silicon and graphite she moved
through its tunnels, and the base kept her. She knew not to pull back
its skin and confront its structure, lest she uncover a problem she
could not solve.

She brushed her fingers over a terminal, and found no news. With
distance came uncertainty, and Josefina had learned to live in wait.
News came not from Earth but from the interstellar relay, and the news
was never news at all. She had learned that infinity could not be
rushed.

From the corner of the room came a slow wave, catching Josefina off
guard. It made its way through her, a heavy shiver of potential. As it
left her, she felt a flicker of unease. Tapping the terminal once more,
neutral grey, nothing to report.

Far off in the base, she felt a change. A low drone had begun to reach
her. She sat heavy in the chair for a moment, beginning to feel the
onset of a slow tide of discord. A remembered realisation that space had
not the will to be benign.

Getting to her feet, she began to move towards the source of the drone.
The walls seemed to exude it, and she could not help but fear the base
that kept her. Behind and beyond its surface lay the howling chaos of
the vacuum. Moving through it, and towards it.

The base was moving underneath her, sliding her towards the source of
the ever deepening buzz. She found herself at the outer wall of the
base, palms against its shuddering surface, forcing through its
shuddering surface towards the causality that lay outside.

Neutral grey filled her mind and filled her, with intent beyond her own.
Josefina stepped through and found that the sky was much like the land,
and that was what had changed.