Most of what follows (I've come to think of this story as Exode) was given to me by my mother. Searching back through my earliest memories and on until the day I last saw Hana, I can now appreciate that, having been born on Earth, she was always thinking about Earthlings and how little they know about their origins. However, I suspect that she accepted the fact of that ignorance without question and never anticipated that her own son would have an opportunity pass on to the people of Earth the story of their creation.
The vast majority of Exode is the story of my grandfather, Parthney. As a trained Interventionist and tool of the Fru'wu, he probably could not even contemplate the possibility of what I have done: indiscriminately sharing with Earthlings his knowledge of the humans (and near-human Sedronites) who live on other worlds. On those occasions when Parthney was living on Earth and he allowed an Earthling to learn part of the hidden story of humanity, those Earthlings were not allowed to share what they had learned with other Earthlings. I am not under the same restrictions...conditions on Earth have changed following first contact with the Buld, transient as that contact has so far been. A great force is now pushing you Earthlings out into the universe, pushing you towards realization of your hidden history.
When I was young, I only really knew my own home world. My parents' tales of Earth and Hemmal seemed remote as fiction. Hana often spoke of Earth and Boswei, my father, told me about growing up on Hemmal. Below, I've appended the story of how I struggled against my own ignorance and made my way to Earth. Earth still seems like a fiction, truly a world out of time, and I have no interest in staying here.
Mechanics. Hana asked me to search Earth for her husband. I was successful in that task and it became convenient to make use of Hana's husband to create a written account of the story that Parthney passed on to his grandchildren. When you read Exode you will learn why this was necessary. I had Hana and Boswei at hand and available to respond to questions about Parthney's story. I heavily relied on my parents (well, Hana) while learning my grandfather's story and without their help I would have been unable to make sense of the strange worlds he had experienced. I've helped Hana's husband (A.K.A. "the Editor") compile an Exode Glossary that will have to serve as an aid for Earthlings when they read Exode. In the short time available to me, that is the best I could do.
I fear that Earthlings will have little chance to view what follows as anything but fiction. I'm reminded of what Wittgenstein once wrote and it seems to match my sentiments, so I'll let him speak for me: "It is not impossible that this will bring light into one brain or another, but, of course, it is not likely."
-Izhiun
Editor's note: I've passed along this message (above) from Izhiun in the exact form it had after he composed it. As far as I can tell, Izhiun is no longer on Earth. While he was here on this planet, I only got one transient glimpse of him, so we never had a chance to talk face-to-face. Were he still here among us, I would try to convince him to change his thinking about "Hana's husband". I can understand why Hana might have chosen to describe me to Izhiun as her husband. However, the truth is more interesting than what can be conveyed by the convenient label "husband". More on that, later.
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Exode is copyright John Schmidt, but the text of the story is licensed for sharing under the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) license.
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