• Prologue

    The Fog cleared. After 900,000 years of waiting for someone to find me, the fog that stopped me finally clears.

    My name is Tamerai; well at least I think it is, that is all except a few numbers, which are my other names. I am the last of my race, for all the others are dead or mutilated horribly into the Flood, which I will not speak of because it brings back too many memories, which I’d rather forget. My eyes are the darkest of greens, my hair is brown and short, and the rest I do not remember.

    I open my eyes; a bright light blinds me, I slam my eyes shut again. Slowly I bring my eyes back out of the darkness. Weird creatures stare down at me. They look like me, but different all the same. No, they were different. The heads were smaller and the nose is larger.
    “Welcome back, it’s about time somebody found us.” Said a voice in my head. It was Tameria, my AI who will always be with me. A hacker of every computer, master of every technology. Well maybe not everything.
    “Tam, do you know what the date is?” I ask sleepily, ignoring the faces still staring at me.
    “Date Unknown, remember I shut down when you went into Cold Sleep”
    “Urgh looks like I’ll have to do it myself, again.” Slowly I sit up, and it’s a lot harder when you’ve been frozen solid for just under 1 million years. After several attempts, my muscles finally obey. I see that I’m in a laboratory. I’m attached to several monitors. Bracing myself, I grabbed a handful of wires and cords and yanked. Pain coursed up my arm, least I knew I was alive and that this was not a dream. Shaking the after-shock, I got off the hard medical bench; stretching to wake my painfully stiff muscles I went out the hard white door into the main corridor. It was probably a medical center.
    Then something strange was happening, the creatures that were watching me before were running; but in slow motion. Returning my watch to where I was going I headed down corridor after corridor until I found a sign.
    It read: ‘Main Exit’ and a large green arrow sitting next to the alien words pointed down into another white tunnel. Slowly I followed the signs towards a large steel door. Taking a final deep breath of the medical smelling air, I pushed open the doors and a stinging hot pain enveloped me and there was black again.

    * * * * *

    When I woke up I was in a lab, yet again, except the walls were made of a purple alloy, no, everything was made of the strangely colored alloy. A spark in a corner alerted me of another presence in the room. It was strange creature, It was pale pink with a big thing that looked like a bladder that you would find in a ball, except massive and it had hundreds of tentacles that could split into fine, needle-thin cilia. Tameria popped up pages of Information about the creature; he began to call them Engineers because they fixed things. That’s strange but true, because if I were assigned something I’d do it always, just like the Engineers want to do their job, fixing things. Suddenly the door of the room’s luminous red light glowed green and the door hissed open, a tall figure, around 2.5m high, walked in. Clicking its two toed hooves against the metal, the noise rattled through my head. All the noises around me cause a cacophony of ancient screaming and explosions echoing in my mind. It felt like my head was going to explode. The pain was barely bearable. I cradled my head in my hands. Screaming in silence for the pain to stop. Then a hand was laid on my back and all the pain disappeared. At a quick feeling of mercury sliding down my spine, I realized what had happened. The creatures had taken Tameria, my lifeline. Tameria looked after me, if I didn’t have him; I would of probably died of mortal injuries or have suicided. I felt the hand still resting on my back. Though it was unnecessary, it was comforting as the presence of Tameria in my mind slowly increased. I looked up to see the creature. It’s mandibles quivered slightly in the vented breeze. Its simple gray armor glistened and its dark eyes stared simply. He seemed kind enough to understand.
    “Hello, young one, what is your name?” I said, startling myself at the sound of my weak voice. The creature stared for a second dumbly.
    “My name, Sacred One, is Quava ‘Tsunamee. I am presented by the Grand Prophet Hierarchs as your servant.”
    “Thank you Quava, my name is Tamerai. Do you mind telling me what the date is and where you found me?”

    “Sacred Tamerai, this is the 9th Age of Reclamation, and we found you in an unconscious state outside a Human Medical Center. We are now in High Charity, the great Covenant City”

    I felt Tameria absorb all this information and his presence weakened slightly as he dived into the City’s Computer Network.
    “And why do you call me sacred? I am everything but sacred.” I asked further, quenching my thirst for knowledge.
    “My master is humble, surely you know?” I shook my head. ”You are a God for the Covenant, Holy One.” Alarmed, I pushed further.
    “My race can not be Gods, we are nothing but Blood Traitors and Power Hungry Fiends!” It was his turn to be shocked.
    “But the Prophets? The Technology? The Holy Rings? Everything?” he stuttered crazily.
    “I am nothing but a Coward that ran away in fear.” I said quietly to myself, but the creature heard. Shock smeared across his face.

    I hadn’t known it at the time, but what my outburst had done was worse that I could ever imagined. It had changed the fate of the universe...