There was the dark, forever the void, and Rafe moved in it, calling sometimes - "Jillian, Paul -" but no one answered.

He should have been cold, he thought; but he had no more sense of the air about him than he had of the floor underfoot.

He turned in different directions, in which he found himself making slower and slower progress, as if he walked against a wind and then found himself facing (he thought) entirely a different direction than before.

"Aaaiiiiiiiiii!" something howled at him, went rushing past with a glow and a wail like nothing he had ever heard, and he scrambled back, braced for an attack.

It went away, just sped off insanely howling into the dark, and he sank down and crouched there in his nakedness, protecting himself in the only way he had, which was simply to hug his knees close and sit and tremble, totally blind except for the view of his own limbs.

"Jillan," he whispered to the void, terrified of making any noise, any sound that would bring the howler back.  His own gold-glowing flesh seemed all too conspicuous, beacon to any predator.

Android.  He reminded himself what he was, that he could not be harmed; but his memories insisted he was Rafe Murray.  It was all he knew how to be.  And he knew now that they were not alone in this dark place.

At last he got himself to his feet and moved again, no longer sure in what direction he had been going, no longer sure but what the darkness concealed traps ahead, or that he was not being stalked behind.

"Jillan," he called aloud.  "Paul."

Had that been one of the aliens - that passing, mindless wail, or some other victim fleeing God-knew-what ahead?

What is this place?

They were androids.  That was what they were, what he had been when he had met his living body - met Rafe.  Something had projected him into that green-noded corridor.

But then, he reasoned, Rafe ought to have been a projection sent in turn to him, and he had not been.  Viewpoint troubled him, how he had seen through hologrammatic eyes.  How that Rafe had thrust his hand into the heart of him and cursed him - Evaporate, why don't you?

Why not? a small voice said.  If I'm an android they can make me what they like.  Can't they?

Maybe they have.