surmise that is my backpack with my equipment. My body in so much pain I don’t know how I am going to stay afloat or move but I put it into third gear and paddle toward the sound I heard. I reach my backpack and grab hold, thankful it’s floating and luckily I have packed some things inside which can hold me up as I rest for a few minutes. I tremble with soaked and freezing body.
It’s hard to kick and move a floating backpack through thin sheets of ice with no light and no direction. My only hope is to reach some type of land mass before hypothermia overtakes me to the grave.
The NokDaki Clan of Krondor speaks a language I’m unable to understand, but I learn fast and they seem friendly.
I only know they belong to the tribe because they grunt it while they help me and my feet find solid ground. The Ananoki torches they hold cast dancing shadows on the sheer solid stone all around.
I stand shivering with cold thinking it should be warmer if I am closer to the earth’s core when suddenly the one who seems to be the leader speaks in my language.
“We are the NokDaki. Gods of all that is and will be and have been before, and we have summoned you to find us. We know who you are and where you have come from,” with a wave of his staff my clothes are completely dry and a warmness encompasses my body. “My name is Noagami and I will be your god to guide you on your journey through our land and on your way as everything is explained to you.
I am speechless and frozen in a different manner this time, as if time has come to a screeching halt and my mind is scrambled once again. I try and take the information in but it is not being processed correctly. I must have knocked myself out and am dead now with hallucinations seeping into my mind.
“You are alive and I am no hallucination Mike, I can assure you of that,” we begin walking through the dark passageway with other tall NokDaki.
“You read minds? How can you do that? You read my every thought,” I blurt out to the leader.
“Gods can read minds and speak in telepathy. For we are the highest of the creatures anywhere in existence throughout the universe and we will explain everything to you when we are ready.”
In The Beginning There Is Total Darkness
Eric Oakley sits staring out the window at blackness, nothing but black space unbending. Wisps of cold drifting past; it is hard to believe the vessel is cruising at 60,000 miles an hour. If one could measure speed with no reference point other than a white dot here and there, white dots that never move. Cold black empty space 459 degrees below zero, nothing but artificial light beaming off his reflection on a window kept warm from artificial heat. Dimming the lights with a push of a button, this is how it has been, the journey to nowhere, just somewhere, hopefully not as void of life as has been for the past ten years. The search continues infinite space looming ahead if that means forward. Now Eric doesn’t know, being confused, as to how much further or how much longer this trip will take, the captain at the helm should know, and that’s what matters, but every planet surveyed has yielded nothing.
Eric never thought he would become extra-terrestrial, but when he was terrestrial, he felt a normalcy about planning a future.
Nevertheless, when his planet became unstable, the One World Government decided to send out several vessels deep into space looking for another habitable planet. He never thought they would travel this deep and what happens when they find a habitable planet this far away from home? I guess that is what the commanders decide when and if the time comes. Eric is a master with DNA forms and even created a new mammal for his final government exam for the journey. He created several failures until he got a mammal that resembled an otter, but Eric is an apprentice with many talents, learning the craft of creation.
Eric does some number crunching and concludes that the vessel is 5 billion 256 million miles from home. Knowing that the ship has jumped through several wormholes he scratches through his calculations.
The captain at the helm probably knows and that’s what matters. Eric knows that the ship keeps moving, never stopping-into darkness.
Eric's videophone blurts out; “its Timothy calling,” He prefers Tim. Pressing the button to answer, "What's up Tim?"
Tim's image shows him riding his stationary bike "What's it look like man? Have to stay in shape in deep space."
Eric turns the lights up and moves to the kitchen "I know, but I prefer to lift 12 oz's!" Grabbing a beverage from the refrigeration unit on the wall noticing his unit is empty except for beer.
Tim Continues "we have it pretty good considering that we are like a couple billion miles from home."
"5 billion 256 million miles and counting to be exact." retorts Eric like a smart mathematician, “not including the worm hole jumps, which I can’t calculate that far or random.”
"You always were good with numbers and science," returns Tim while breathing heavily.
"Well I have to be knowledgeable in those and most all other areas to be a DNA master," smiles Eric as he takes a long drink from his beverage container.
"Well, I have to know math and be in shape as a master fighter pilot in deep space."
"Touché, master flight man Tim." Moving to sit down again, Eric continues "Are you done with the bike man, I want to get out of this room and go see Janelle, and get my mind off things."
Walking down the wide corridor of the hallway, looking out the windows into deep black space, Eric is headed toward the restaurant to join Janelle, his girlfriend. Tim runs up alongside, “It’s amazing!”
“Dang, don’t you knock first; you startled the hell out of me.”
“Sorry dude, but I still am amazed at the size of this ship. Fifty restaurants; a mall of stores, 100,000 people with babies being born, 4 hospitals and police stations, Fire hazard response teams for the nuclear ion regionalization engines.
Eric stops walking and turns to face Tim, “Do you understand that it has been the same for the past 10 years?”
“We are going to need all of these things and people to colonize a new world?” Walking again, “That is why we have a payload of fighter, and transport ships and that is why we send out scouting ships to survey deep black space.”
“Sorry man if I hit a nerve, but I heard a rumor from those scouting pilots saying that we are getting closer to a habitable planet.”
Eric Stops again, “What are you saying?”
“I am saying that the scouts took samples in space somehow and brought the samples back to the scientists. The scientists analyzed the information and either determines that the elements are favoring habitable area or not. I don’t know, it’s like a needle slowly moving from red, to yellow, then to green.”
“That is crazy, there is no sign…”
“Dude, are you a scientist?”
“No, but…”
“I’m not either, I fly craft but they are scientists and study this information and they should know what is going on, that’s their job.”
“Ok, but don’t tell Janelle or Stacy!”
“I won’t
