KLM Books

I write things.

[kurtislucmillette]

"There is a great importance in accepting the human species into the fold as a new council party. Our society is too stable. Our culture is dead and no one is innovating. It has been proven every time on every world that stagnant societies die off and are replaced. I have lived among them on Terrah. They have as much to offer us culturally as we all do to them technologically."

- Kimoria Hera'ur, addressing the state of galactic society, 2021.

[kurtislucmillette]

Exile's Return I

Chapter One

Introduction

Kharak. Even the sound of it’s name foretells it’s harsh environment. This desert world has been our home for over four thousand years. The hot sands of the great deserts are all our people know or have known for generations upon generations. The polar regions beyond the seas harbor the only habitable land on this planet. Equatorial temperatures can rise above the boiling point of water. Even the oldest of our clans remember nothing more than here. Many ancient markings indicate that we did not originate from this world, and some believe Sajuuk, our god, banished us here for our sins. Faith aside, not until recent scientific discoveries were made did we uncover the inevitable truth: we are aliens to this world.

One hundred years ago, a satellite’s propulsion systems malfunctioned. Instead of scanning for orbital debris, it faced downward towards the Banded Desert discovering something in the sand. An expedition was sent. What they found was an ancient starship burred in the sands. Symbols of ancient times were written across it’s plating. Markings known only to the oldest texts still preserved in the libraries of Tiir. Deep inside the relic was a power plant that sent our technological advancement centuries ahead of our time. Farther in still, a single stone that would change the course of our history forever.

On the Guidestone was carved a galactic map, and a single word more ancient than the clans themselves, Hiigara. Our home.

The word united the clans as one. A massive colony ship was designed that would take two generations to complete. It demanded new technologies, new industries, and new sacrifices. The greatest of these was made by the young neuroscientist Karan Sjet. She had herself permanently integrated into the colony ship as its living core. She is now Fleet Command.

The promise of a new home united the entire Kushan race. Everyone’s mind became focused on a single question: Where do we come from? Every effort put into building the ship that would seek it out among the stars…