Children of Caliburn

An alien sun rises on an alien world, and strange people speaking strange tongues call it home.  The planet Caliburn orbits at 1.2 AU around its parent star Arturus, and its nights are often lit by its twin moons, Gallid and Anslot.  The Caliburni had tamed the seas and the skies, drilled  deep into Caliburn herself and tore from the earth's bosom riches beyond imagining.  They had decoded the secret knowledge that governed the motions of the planets and stars, and even peeked into the inner workings of spacetime itself.  Most important to the pride of the Caliburni people, they had discovered the forgotten past of the Caliburni themselves.  For millenia legend had spoken of the sacred homeland of the Caliburni.  Tayra Sulthri!  The name was fire on one's tongue and warmth in one's heart.  In eons past the Caliburni emerged from this earthly paradise, and enjoyed its gifts and prosperity, tribute to the spirit of the Caliburni people, and testament to the love and the pride Sulthri had for her distant child.  

But then, the legends spoke of suffering and death at scales unimaginable.  For decades the skies of Caliburn lit up with the fires of hell, and Sulthri's gifts slowed to a trickle, and then stopped entirely.  Caliburni longships, strong and swift, nearly the equal of even Sulthri's ships, shattered like glass in the battles of the sky.  Warriors were sent off to fight, and none ever returned.  The remaining Caliburni watched helplessly every night as the Last War was fought and lost.  When the war was over, the starvation and plagues began.  Sulthri sent no more aid, and the Caliburni had no more ships to go out and find her.  The knowledge to construct these ships was lost, the last Builders having departed with the launching of the last fleet, to defend Sulthri and her crown.  

The Caliburni remembered, though.  They knew their mother was not dead, but merely sleeping, lost in the deep expanse of stars which covered the night sky.  The Caliburni would rebuild the fleet one day, when they'd rediscovered the knowledge that had been lost, and found once again the skills they would need to acquire the supplies from their own planet, instead of taking it from the gifts Sulthri graciously offered.  The Caliburni would grow strong, and when they were ready, they would set out to find their lost homeland.  

These were the tales grandmothers told to their children, at least.  But as Caliburn matured, the whispers of a lost past were found everywhere.  In ancient tombs and forgotten libraries they found more and more evidence to support the tales.  Wreckage, ground into dust by millenia of ice and fire, still orbited the planet in great rings, too faint to see unaided.  On the moons, huge shipping yards and orbital defenses were discovered, many of their inhabitants remaining where they had spent their last moments, mummified by ice and vacuum.  Records untouched for thousands of years gave listed the nearby stars, their inhabitants, and how to get there.  Designs for a superluminal drive, the last gift from the Caliburni's forebears, would take explorers to these stars in weeks while conventional travel would take centuries.  

When it became clear that the legends were true, the Caliburni realized they truly could fulfill the hopes of their ancestors.  Three ships were constructed, the Legacy, the Birthright, and the Heritage, and given their sacred task.  "Find our homeland.  Tell them we are still here.  Tell them that we have not forgotten."  The ships were launched into the night, and carried the dreams of the Caliburni people upon them.  

A directive was passed to the captains through hushed conversations behind closed doors, though.  Caliburn must not be placed in danger.  Sulthri must be told of Caliburn, but no other.  These captains had to be prepared to destroy their ships completely, killing themselves and their crew, rather than allow a hostile force to discover where Caliburn herself was.  

The night was dark, and among one of the multitude of stars sat Tayra Sulthri.  But what else was among that frozen skyscape?  What dangers had been waiting since the Last War, not dead, but only sleeping?