There is a trick that cat owners, when moving home, can use to help their pet become familiar with their new surroundings. Simply dab her paws in butter, and while she licks them clean she’ll look around the room, taking everything in, becoming accustomed to her new surroundings. It’s a trick that works quite well.

The principle being used here was much the same, only over a much, much longer period of time. for a start, their “pet” had been effectively dead for centuries, kept in perpetual stasis where time seemed to stand still and nothing happened, purely because it couldn’t. It was somewhat evocative of watching televised golf.

They’d taken him out of stasis and placed his cold body in the middle of the labyrinth. Some time passed before his eyes opened. His body was numb, his mind cloudy, but he had enough strength to sit himself up. While his mind cleared and his body thawed, he simply looked around the room he was in, taking everything in, becoming accustomed to it.

Ah, he thought. It’s begun.