Untitled: Chapter 1

Throughout the history of humanity, and far before our time, there has always been a search for the theory of everything, the grand universal truth. Few species have come close to finding this universal truth, and indeed, many species have come across truths that seem truer to some than to others, but one truth is truer than the rest: Space is wide and seemingly without limit. From tiny, insignificant solar systems like Sol to supermassive stars that form galaxies so vast that time bends as it stretches across black holes.

This vastness has a knack for putting you in your place, whichever place that might be at the time. For Boras Gelpien of Drak, for example, that place was kneeling over a toilet in a backstreet Berlin bar after a long night of Texas hold ‘em and cheap shots of something called ‘Mexikaner’. This wasn’t exactly where he intended to end up on a Saturday night; he had actually been looking forward to a slow night at the hotel, poring over paperwork and a glass of milk. Instead, he decided to follow a group of rowdy tourists who looked like they knew where they were going into a shady-looking bar, of which Berlin had plenty. This was his evening, and he was spending it losing money, his sobriety, and much of his dignity.