Kamu’s Wave
Preserving Ancient Knowledge and Cultures: Indigenous Tales from Rehabilitated Edge Colonies
The Tale of Kamu’s Wave
Survivors of the lone remaining colony at X-047 refer to their planet as Kamu, and compare it to one of many islands in a desolate sea. Any similarities between their folktales and the planet’s position on the edge of space is purely coincidental. Or so our leading experts seem to agree.
What is our goal with the gradual dissemination of this and similar studies? To show the rehabilitation, recovery, and reintegration of lost Exodus colonies is possible and should always be pursued. Native populations need not fear losing their culture and identity in the process. After all, we must safeguard and preserve every manifestation of humanity. One of them may hold the key, or at least shine some light on the answers we so desperately seek.
Without further ado, here is a transcript of Kamu’s Wave, one of several local origin stories, as told by a colony elder to our research team’s translator bot.
Kamu’s Wave
Life in the island village transpired as usual, its inhabitants having finally settled into a routine, years after their ship became stranded near the edge of the world. You wouldn’t have found them on a map. At least not on one from their own time. They knew there were other castaways in the archipelago, but leaving was not an option. The thieving tides had taken what the storm left behind, and there were no trees, or sails, or oars to build and power a new vessel. All they could do was live their lives, or not…
Not too far North, Kamu itself crumbled into a godless sea, giving birth to the giant wave that would consume us all. As it barreled towards the shores of a thousand islands, a crimson crest formed at the top. You couldn’t see from afar, but what would have passed as foam revealed itself to be countless tiny creatures sharing the surf. A legion of frozen, ravenous demons taking shape, surfing in unison on icy flakes, and devouring everything in their wake.
Chief among these demons, a figure rose up above the pestilential wave, stretching its nebulous scarlet wings after an eons-long slumber. Its sound was a timeless, foreboding wail. None could survive the wave.
The piercing noise awoke the feverish crew of a nearby ship, marooned in yet another nameless slice of edge-land. Seconds later, you could hear your bunkmate scream in agony as the inhabitants of a thawing permafrost feasted on his sickly flesh. None could survive the wave.
Watching over this macabre spectacle, the winged creature rejoiced. There was no hope left for humankind on Kamu. Any pleads for help would drown in the vastness of the sea. Nonce could survive the wave.
Against the suffering of men, and without the slightest concern for them, the water moved forward. At the crest, a surf and a feast. A bloody frenzy of demons sharing small bites of flesh along the top of an endless, inescapable wave. A second island fell, and then a third, until the ring of death closed onto itself on the other side of Kamu, devouring any memory of the creature’s passing. But the journey didn’t end there. Frozen into a polar ice column, the legion now waits. Perched at the top, the Red Bird is bidding its time. It knows the iceshelf will break apart soon enough, signaling the time to erase the world of humans once again.
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At the village, everyone awaits the second coming. Based on archaeological excavations on other islands, we have learned the same was also true for most of Kamu’s now extinct colonies. The wave is inevitable. The Red Bird will return. Life on the edge of the world is frail. Nothing can be done beyond accepting a predestined, collective, and cyclic end. Imagine their surprise when a ship descended from the heavens, carrying with it our rather stoic and most definitely awkward scientific delegation. How absurd must we have looked to them?
Among the many challenges we face, the need to understand origin stories, such as The Wave, rests atop of our list. Why? First, we have the official reason, which is that more humans and more colonies are never a bad thing. Talk about absurd… Second, and most importantly, is learning how primitive, isolated groups of people could possibly know about edge-space and its inner workings. It’s always best to doublecheck whenever leading experts agree too fiercely on anything.
Could it be, for instance, that Kamu’s ancestral inhabitants, whose Exodus ship was lost at the edge of our inverse, passed on this information to subsequent generations? And if so, how? We hope to shed light on the answer to this and other questions once we arrive… if we arrive.