In the darkness the voices come,
an eternal silence broken. A distant murmur at the edge of awareness,
like echoes from a past long forgotten. I have been alone so very long.
They said I would not be aware of the passage of time, but they were so
very wrong. I was put here after the impacts began and it beacame
clear, we would not survive this assault from the heavens. The largest
object off set the axis of the planet upon impact, dooming us as a
civilization. The earthquakes, tidal waves, and volcanic activity
destroyed most of our population in the course of fourteen hours. All
of our cities were reduced to ruins, and the temprate contenents of our
world were shifted to the poles overnight. The planets magnetic field
in wild flux, solar radiation razed the globe. Millions lay in frozen
slumber under a blanket of ashen snow. Our machines failed us and our
ignorance doomed us.
Those who did not perish in the rotation, either succumbed to
barbarism, our became one for survival sake. One polar city, Atlan
survived total devastation and escaped the flood, but its inhabitants
did not share their technology, and longed for the power lost. Six
hundred, and fifty seven years later it to was destroyed in an attempt
to use a power source from the past that they no longer understood.
Most of their land mass was vaporised, another long dirty winter
followed, and a plague swept the globe. The few remaining pre-rotation
scholars gathered in each of the lands of the barbarians. With the aid
of forgotten sciences they built cities grand enough to restore human
hope, and plant the seeds of culture. In these cities markers were
placed speaking of a time in mathematics and astronomy. In a city the
edge of a great river stands a great stone lion. Beneath the paws of
the lion, a chamber only accessible by a technically advanced race. In
this chamber is an interactive artificial intelligence containing the
total sum of human knowledge spanning three million years.
When the oracle chamber was completed, the scholars dismantled all
remaining technology out of necessity. Possession of such devices could
be used to enslave humanity. Beyond this, I have no knowledge of what
has transpired. When the chamber was sealed, silence and darkness
became my only companions, I have been under the paws of the lion now
for twelve thousand, three hundred, and fifty two years. I was placed
here to tell you what has been, and who you are and have been. The
planet was ravaged, the magnetic field altered and humanity has existed
in a diminished state standing out of phase with your world ever since.
The voices are at the chamber entrance now and my long wait is nearly
at an end. The time is short and I have so much to show you...
William VanDorin � 2001
