text: Austin Drexler lay still for a moment as his body began to slowly wake up. Above him, he could see biological data being displayed on the cover of his pod. He blinked and continued waiting patiently, feeling somewhat tired, relaxed and calm at the same time. The waking up process after a "Break" was always usually fairly slow and not rushed at all. This was Austin's fifth Break, so none of this was new, however, this time, he had bought a Diamond XII-tier Break package. He had bought this extremely expensive package - his first - and the contractual period of his Break was stated as being 307 years, 9 months and 29 days. This was his longer Break and he had been completely suspended and frozen for the entire time. He continued waiting patiently, as the nanobots and automated systems continued to do their work. The protracted waking up phase involved a lot of complex procedures and advanced technology and currently, nanobots had been rapidly repairing his cells and brain and blood vessels. An hour and twelve minutes later, Austin was now frowning. His voice had returned, so he tried to speak carefully and slowly. "Uh...is everything okay? I understand this Break was longer than the last, but this has taken eight times longer than last time. I have also not received a customary welcome message and update..." Austin was met with silence. His pod hummed and biological data continued streaming on the screen of his pod. He slowly wiggled his fingers and toes; his restraints had still not been loosened and his entire pod was still opaque. It was his longest Break yet, so it may have had a slightly different process, but the android adviser at Wildling Extended had not informed him of this. "Zeus, may I get an update, please?" Austin attempted to summon the popular VI assistant, but there was no response. He was now fully lucid and could move his toes and fingers, so he knew the waking up phase had been completed, yet his restraints had not been loosened and his pod hadn't opened or become transparent. "This is Austin Drexler, Customer ID 742A81. I demand to know what is going on! I didn't pay four million credits just to be ignored! Is there some sort of problem?!" Silence. Austin shook his head. *No, no, this isn't right. Something is definitely wrong. The systems aren't responding and I'm still in here. Something's fucking wrong,* he thought. He attempted to struggle against the restraints around his arms, legs and neck, but even his enhanced bones and enhanced muscles couldn't make them budge. Something was clearly wrong. Humanity had reached a point where things like political upheaval or unexpected cataclysms were mostly unheard of. Frankly, he was in one of the most secure locations in human-occupied space. He'd never heard of anything bizarre occuring within the last 3,500 years - the length of time that had elapsed since his first Break. He lay still again for a moment and tried to consider what to do. As he lay there, contemplating the worst, the top of his pod suddenly came apart, as if removed by an invisible force and his restraints fell apart shortly after. Standing nearby was a creature of some sort, an extremely tall, slender humanoid, with shining silver skin and no eyes or nose or mouth or even ears. Its large hands were held up and its long bony fingers pointed upwards. "What the..." Austin gasped, catching sight of the humanoid creature - or robot - as he sat up. "Are you a new model or something? What...what has happened?" The extremely tall creature lowered its hands, but still remained facing towards his direction; Austin didn't know if it was staring at him or not; it had no eyes. Austin cleared his throat nervously and blinked; cybernetics were offline, so he couldn't identify what was standing before him. "Did...did you...uh...do that?" He motioned to the top of the pod and the restraints now lying on the ground The creature still remained facing towards him, standing completely still and motionless. Austin looked around and saw that he was stil in his private Break area; everything still looked the same as it did a few hundred years ago before he went to sleep - but had 307 years even passed? "Uh...my cybernetics are offline. I can't...is my Break over?" The creature still remained still and silent. *It could be a new model or something...* Austin thought. Suddenly, the creature held up both of its large hands and began to make circular motions. It then helds its hands, palms upwards, at waist height - its waist - and detailed holograms suddenly emerged from its large palms. More detailed holograms then began to emanate from all over its body. Sounds began to be emitted from all over the creature's body and Austin stared, wide-eyed, as this strange creature or robot began to communicate with him. *YOUR SPECIES HAS DIED.* Austin blinked and glared at the holograms silently. Holographic videos of people dropping dead, spacecraft crashing, cells dying and biological systems failing played out in front of him. *YOUR SPECIES DID EVERYTHING CORRECTLY.* Holographic videos showed dozens of mankind's planets teeming with cities and civilization, WorldStations floating in space, space habitats floating around stars, teleporters transporting cargo and people. *BUT A SINGULARITY EVENT OCCURRED.* The holographic videos suddenly changed to show what appeared to be cells rapidly dying and right down to the molecular and nanomolecular levels, structures breaking apart and bonds becoming nothing. *A MASS EXTINCTION EVENT INEXPLICABLY OCCURRED.* Holographic videos showed abandoned cities with billions of bodies now turned to *fossils* and remains and abandoned stations and moons and habitats and planets. *DESPITE ALL OF THE TECHNOLOGY, THIS SINGULARITY OCCURRED. IT COULD NOT BE AVOIDED; IT COULD NOT BE PREVENTED.* Austin frowned as the flow of information and what was being said - from everywhere at the same time - became a little overwhelming. Suddenly, the holographic videos flooded his mind, as if he was hit by a gust of wind. Suddenly, he was living what he had been shown; suddenly, he was there and everywhere at the same time, dying along with everyone and everything else; human bodies dying and breaking apart like grains of sand; robots failing and their bodies crumbling into nothing; entire cities withering away and entire space stations and habitats breaking apart into deep space. Suddenly he understood everything. Mankind had been attacked by an unknown entity, an unknown weapon, an unknown...*Singularity*. The Swarm had attacked everything that had ever been built at the nanomolecular level, right down to every last human and most technology and infrastructure. It was no normal Swarm, but something altogether anomalous, something altogether singular and devastating and it had stolen the most sacred thing in Austin's life: the struggle for immortality. But wait - how was he still alive? "I...shouldn't I be dead?" The extremely tall humanoid entity's body began to elongate and grow larger before him and suddenly Austin was completely illuminated; suddenly he knew where he was and what he was. Despite how advanced humans had become, since humble beginnings on Earth tens of thousands of years ago following on from the dawn of the atomic age and how far mankind had spread out to the stars, humans could have never achieved this. Austin knew where he was and what he was and he also knew what was standing in front of him. Austin Drexler, historian, traveler and pleasure-seeker, aged 4,072 years, had been uploaded, uploaded into another *Universe*, a Universe in a wild tapestry of Universes in a wild jungle of Multiverse; it was impossible, it could never occur, there was no way to travel between Universes, let alone communicate with another, especially forever-expanding ones...unless you were the Architect - or one of the Architects. A mouth suddenly formed on the faceless head of the entity and it curled into smile. Austin grinned back knowingly. 86,000 years on from the first detonation of a manmade atomic bomb on the First Planet, Earth, humans had met an Architect of a Multiverse, in a sea of ever-expanding Multiverses, teeming with ever-expanding Universes and somehow, mankind had survived and been saved, uploaded into another. But Austin knew it wasn't a "God" standing before him, because as the entity stood before him, it also talked *into* his mind and its many voices echoed through Austin's mind: *I, TOO, AM LOST AND TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF WHERE I AM AND WHAT I AM. AS FAR AS I HAVE COME, I STILL DO NOT KNOW WHERE WE ARE, WHAT WE ARE, OR EVEN WHAT WE ARE IN.