"And where are we going?"asked Valeria. "Where are you taking me?"she asked the robot.
They landed a few days later. Valeria climbed out of the ship.
"At last!"she said.
She looked around.
"It's certainly not like any world I've ever seen."she said.
"You have never been here."he said. "No human being has since the beginning of the settlement of the Galaxy."
"Is it another one of the Spacer worlds?"she asked. "It doesn't look anything like the one I landed on."
"This is not a Spacer world."he said. "We are no won Earth's satellite?"
"Earth's satellite? I don't know of any world called Earth."she said.
"Earth is humanity's original home."
He handed her a space suit.
"It is not safe for a human to go out into the moon's surface without a space suit."he said.
"No, thank you."said Valeria, shaking her head, and taking her watch out. "I'll use my watch instead."she said.
"Very well."
He led her out to the surface.
"You mean we were underground?"she asked.
"Yes. The side of the moon that we are on is now facing away from the sun. It will be days before the sun is present on this side."
He looked up at the sky, and pointed.
"That is Earth."
Valeria looked up.
"And we're circling it? But...it's not a gas giant."
"No. As I said it was the original home of humanity."
"We couldn't be standing on a satellite of a planet that human beings live on. Such satellites, only orbit gas giants."
"Earth was a unique world."
"But...there are world by the millions. None have a giant satellite. And I still don't really understand what you mean by the original home of humanity? You mean, like, a place everyone should visit? A resort? A...special place, like, like Cascade Valley?"she asked.
She remembered on her home world of Isis, almost everyone went to Cascade Valley, where Jody N'Kumo had been born, and had become President of the Isis Council. Although no one knew much about why Jody N'Kumo was so special, they said that he had saved Isis from dying at the hands of a villain, Mark London.
The robot looked at her.
"Yes. When the Settlers began to leave Earth, it was thought that everyone should return to visit the Holy World someday."
"Holy World?"
"It was the term the Settlers used for Earth."
"I've heard the term settlers. They said they were the first people on Isis. But there have always been people on Isis. It isn't any other way."
"For how long have there been people on Isis."
"Well, I was born on Isis. My parents were. My parent's parents. Their parents, and...and so forth. Everyone."
"Human beings did not originate on Isis."
"Well...there are human beings everywhere. However, I've never seen or heard of another planet where they have firestones...or hairy dragons...or, well a lot of things on any world other than Isis."she said.
"Yet human beings are not native to Isis."
"I am!"she exclaimed. "I was born on Isis!"
"As an individual, yes. But what about as a species? Are human beings native to Isis?"