In the distant future, humanity has evolved the technology to listen to the whispers of the Universe itself. The Aware Universe revealed the knowledge to remake the human form, perfecting their bodies and minds, and inadvertently create their own gods. After falling to their knees in worship of their own creations, humanity soon realized their gods were flawed and hindered with very human emotions such as greed, lust, and rage. The humans rebelled, waging the most destructive war humanity has known, the Deluge, which lasted thousands of years, washing over the populated worlds. It remade the landscape of human civilization forever, leaving it in ruins and clinging to a handful of desolate worlds and ancient, artificial habitats. Six thousand years after the death of the last god and the end of the Deluge, a simple-minded orphan boy on a cold, barren planet receives a message in a dream. A message from a black hole...