Chapter 1: A New, Old Hope

When Mark awoke the first thing he noticed was the sleeping form next to him. This brought back memories from the night before when he and Lana had finally "discovered" each other after being friends since early childhood. They had been in love with each other since their early teens but neither had been able to tell the other about their feelings. As he tried to untangle himself from his new lover she stirred and smiled up at him.

"Good morning love." she said, "I never thought last night would happen. I'd given up hope and was going to finally give into Andrew's advances." Her smirk at the end let him know she was only teasing.

"Well good morning to you too then." Mark smiled back to her, "I hope you didn't mind sleeping in the cave all night. I guess we just kind of drifted off after everything."

Stretching her neck Lana replied, "I wouldn't have had it any other way."

"Well, if you don't mind, I must go take care of some morning business." he said as he was walking further into the cave. As he was standing near a bend, empting his bladder, he began to think how this was definitely going to be one of the best days of his young life. After finishing up, he turned and was going to go back to her side when he caught a hint of light coming from around the bend. He called back to Lana to come check out the back of the cave with him then started to walk around the bend. As he cleared the turn he saw that the cave suddenly started to descend rather quickly, so he decided to wait for her to catch up.

Soon she was by his side and they moved down deeper into the cave. All of a sudden the cave flattened out and the walls seemed smoother and more uniform. he quickly spotted a small red light almost completely coved by dirt, but still faintly shining through about chest level on the cave wall, several meters up to his left. When he approached and began to clear the dirt away a voice began to repeat "Warning unauthorized attempted entry hanger bay three, Warning unauthorized..." After the first few seconds of confusion, he grabbed Lana and began to back away from the wall in the direction they had come in. Just as they got the bottom of the rise that would lead them out of the cave, a voice commanded,

"Halt and identify yourself!"

He was barely able to stammer out, "Mark Evans and Lana Stevens."

The voice replied, "Identification not recognized, please step forward for bioscan."

Mark answered, "I don't understand, who are you... where are you?"

"Please step forward for identification bioscan," was the only response.

Mark motioned for Lana to backup then he took a few hesitant steps forward and asked, "Now who are you and where are you hiding?"

"Scan complete. Unable to identify. Please state rank and unit number."

This only confused Mark all the more. "I really don't understand. Whoever you are you must know that talk like that will get you arrested."

"Unable to identify rank and u..." all of a sudden in the middle speaking the voice died, only to be replaced by a much more pleasant, almost feminine sounding voice, saying, "I'm sorry for that, but it took a few minutes to 'wake' me after your bioscan was reported as unidentifiable to my computers." This statement made him even more nervous and confused.

"Look, I don't know who you are or what you want but I don't want trouble, so we are gonna walk out of here and pretend this didn't happen. You are either trying to pull some kind of sick joke or get us all killed. Either way I want no part of it."

At this a young fairly attractive female, dressed in some odd uniform, seemed to materialize directly in front of him. Jumping backwards, he yelled, "What the hell? How did you do that?"

The young woman replied, "Simple, while we've been talking my systems were coming online. Just as you finished saying you were going to leaving my holographic emitters came online so I thought I would show you who I was. Now, if you don't mind, I have a few questions for you. First, why do you keep talking about getting arrested?"

Mark answered quickly, "Well, you keep talking about forbidden topics, like a rank and unit number. I don't know what those are but they sound like something to do with a military and you should know that we are not allowed to have anything like a military. Except for the Keepers, but they're only law enforcers and have no weapons. They're only to observe and report to the Gods through the priests who is breaking laws. Also you spoke of computers, those are forbidden technology. We're only allowed to develop mechanical technologies. How can you not know this?"

While Mark spoke, Lana quietly stepped up behind him and took his hand. The woman responded, "Let's just say I've been asleep for a long time. My next question is why do you follow these laws?"

"Well, for the most part that's how it has always been. Well at least since the Gods came and freed us from the oppression of the old evil Gods. Also, as for the military we have no need, the Gods protect us from all that would do harm. Computers were the means for the old evil Gods to control us so we must never try to build them again lest the old Gods try to reemerge."

The woman seemed to think for a moment then said, "These Gods, do you know what they look like? Those old Gods you speak of, why are they referred to as evil?"

He responded, "No one knows what the Gods look like, well except maybe the High Priests. They're rumored to be able to speak directly to the Gods. And the old Gods were evil, everyone knows of how they oppressed us and forced us to do their bidding."

The woman smiled then said, "I think I have a few things to show you that you might be interested in. But first, you must know that what I'm about to show will change this world forever and you'll never be able to go back to your old life. Would you want to continue?"

He just looked back her, not sure what to do. Lana squeezed his hand and whispered into his ear, "I think we should listen to her and see what she has to show us. My grandfather used to tell stories of how today's Gods are the evil ones and the old Gods were truly our protectors. What if he was right?"

He shook his head and said, "Alright, we'll listen, and watch, what you have to tells us. But after you've your say if we don't like it we'll walk, understand?"

"That will be acceptable," the woman said, "But I warn you, what I'm about to show may frighten you at first. So please, let me explain everything before you make any decisions."