it was obvious that we were in the hands of some ulterior motive. the earth was now a distant blue spot in space, even the moon appeared distant as our familiar corner of the galaxy slipped away. there was little point in struggling with the situation, we were resigned to the arrival of a destination unknown and to a mystery.
'i calculate we are traveling close to the speed of light.'
'impossible'
'yes. i thought so to but then i thought you said we were on a case looking for a missing girl.'
'i'm sorry, i had no idea, everything seemed ligit. i guess there's not much we can do but wait.'
'mmm, i can think of something, just to pass time.' stella said with a sparkle in her eyes that matched the stars.

although time was dilating around us we must have travelled in that sphere for several hours before it started to decelerate. we were heading towards what looked like a small city on what we both saw was europa. saturn's rings on the east cut through space in a band of dust and rock, a purple cloud of atmosphere obscured the moons surface.
there was a slight tremor, then the vessel stopped.
a band of light entered as an opening appeared and there before us was a little girl and, her parents, my clients.

we walked into a small high ceilinged area where we were given a seat and offered food and wine. the mother took my hand as she sat opposite me.
'i'm sorry to have abducted you and your friend like this, but when you hear why you will understand.'
'yes an explanation would be appreciated.'
the mother spoke, soft and clear, her voice educated with wear and tear and time.
'the high levels existed for many hundreds of years, far above the lows, our society diverged in a totally different path, we had access to wealth and resources and the pursuit of material things began to appear mindless, we looked inwards at our culture and lives and began to ask the perennial philosophical questions. science and technology were redirected towards our endeavors and about 400 years ago we came to the conclusion that human beings were a failed experiment, we had spent 40000 years evolving very slowly towards annihilation and decadence, there was very little to be proud of. sure we had build these beautiful tall buildings but so had termites, we had created symphonies and cathedrals but these so had whales and one could say that nature is a cathedral made without hands. the beauty of a river or a lake as the sun rises, the numinous exists all round. yes humans were really not that wonderful our destructive natures outbalance the constructive side of ourselves, and like all species that reach an evolutionary dead end we were moving towards extinction. our birth rates declined, our endeavors in philosophy and religion stagnated and eventually we reached that state of decay, entropy.'
stella interjects, ' you paint such a bleak picture, why do you need a reason for anything, the animals don't need a reason they just are. your mistake is you think your better than the animals.'
she had a good point.
'we learnt quickly that we were facing the end of humanity.'
'what about us on the lower level. are we not human?'
she laughed, 'of course but you live on the scraps we throw down, if we die then you will follow, there's been no progress in the lower levels for 50 years what makes you think there ever will be.'
'just becuase there has been no progress does not mean it will never occur, after all one could apply the same rules to your level.'
'yes well we do.' she smiled and there was a moment for me to gaze around the strange room. it was bathed in soft light that came from no observable source, there were no windows or natural lighting, just a weird clinical feel to everything, the chairs we sat on were comfortable but functional, no style really, nothing, no traces of habitation. it were as if we sat in a waiting room.
'the upper levels have ascended. as you have.'
'ascended? what the fuck does that mean?'
another smile and then her words.
'it means you are dead.'