<span style="color: #00BFFF"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 150%; line-height: 116%;">David</span></div></span><br/><br/><div style="text-align: justify;">“Chinese is widely spoken,” Echo said, “but English is the dominant language in much of pop culture and international relations. The Eras of the Cosmonauts move with the times and place. Two thousand years ago, the Cosmonauts were not even chosen from this universe, much less humans.” <br/><br/>David noticed that the voice did not address Tessa's question about how she knew things about them. When he looked at Tessa he could see that she was struggling with everything. He felt a bit selfish for thinking of his own feelings. Of course, she was struggling too, he wasn’t the only one. He had to realize that he wasn’t in this alone, she was in this with him. He didn’t know how to feel about being told he needed to save existence. It was true, however, that he had always felt out of step with the rest of the people in his life.<br/><br/>“We can be Not-Heroes together,” he said, smiling at Tessa, shyly. “It’s funny how she told us to rest and then throws a whole ‘your destiny is to save the universe’ at us,” David joked, chuckling. “All of this might be kind of fun if it weren’t for the fact that I have no idea what happened to John,” David’s smile faltered. He sighed and lowered his spoon thinking about how he couldn’t even connect to John. <br/><br/>“Wait, what do you mean ‘this universe?’” David asked, in the middle of lifting his spoon to take another bite.  <br/><br/>The voice ignored him and continued on, “In regards to other planets, Tessa, do not mistake the existence of the Cosmonauts for an indication of an ever-present galactic society. It is true that there are many spacefaring species, a few of them in this universe, but reaching a level of true Galactic dominance is next to impossible. There are many extinction level events that a species must overcome to enter each level of civilization. For example, here in Midgard, there is only one Type 2 Civilization at the other end of the universe in a galaxy called, Farside, by a very creative astrophysicist named Julia Heart – who was part of the group that updated many of the names we used for the planets and galaxies here in Midgard. They might have changed Midgard to Universe Prime, but many of the other Cosmonauts felt that it placed an importance on this universe over others. Throughout the rest of the universe, including a galaxy relatively close to the Milky Way, there are four Type 1 civilizations. Your own planet, Earth, is currently predicted to become a Type 1 civilization in the next 100 years. Type 3 civilizations are extremely rare and most of them fall before too long. Star Wars actually does a good job of showing how a Type 3 civilization might meet its end.”<br/><br/>David thought it was interesting how Echo seemed to be very knowledgeable about pop culture.<br/><br/>“Wait, are you saying we’re in Asgard?” David asked, putting down his wine glass. Absently, he realized he was saying ‘wait’ a lot, it was kind of a quirk of his.  <br/><br/>“I feel that the house is more akin to the giant tree Yggdrasil, which connects all the worlds, but the Vikings felt that this was Asgard. In fact, during the generation dominated by Vikings, the house looked quite different. We’ve kept some of the Norse names, but other Earth civilizations have made their mark as well. To the Greeks, we were Mount Olympus, and to an old civilization your historians haven’t discovered yet, the house was The Great Seed. However, we have taken great pains to stay completely hidden from humans and all forms of life. These cultural stories were created independently from us and the house. We have never had a hand in steering the ideas that humans have about god and the creation of the world. Such things would be against our laws.”<br/><br/>There was a pause. David thought he could detect sadness in the last sentence Echo had spoken. <br/><br/>“That leads us to our current dilemma,” the voice finally continued. “The Laws are under siege. Many have been broken and taken prisoner, bound within a powerful artifact and hidden across the Allworlds. We would protect them, except that we do not know their location, as per the Law of Equal Truths, which prohibited either side from knowing the location of the Laws. In order to maintain the balance, we could not know the location of the Laws without the other side knowing it as well. The Law of Equal Truths was the first to be broken and bound. We have ways of knowing when they go after a Law, but it is usually quite last minute and we must move quickly to protect the law. Sometimes it is something else we must protect, such as a person or a civilization.”<br/><br/>David wondered what Echo meant by Type 1 and Type 2 civilizations. He had so many questions, especially about the laws. <br/><br/>David chuckled and smiled at Tessa, “I have too many questions. I’m kind of afraid to ask because I don’t know if I can handle more exposition in my brain.” He was trying to remain calm and joking helped, but he didn’t know if his fear and nervousness was visible to Tessa.</div>