Three Days Before Icarus
Three days before Tom Wright boards the Icarus for humanity’s first interstellar mission - a journey that will return him to Earth 150 years in the future - star presenter Bengt Palmgren sits down with the world’s most enigmatic traveller.
In this fictional interview inspired by First Light Rising, Palmgren presses Tom about the mission, the strange phenomenon known as the Dive, and the secrets he may be carrying into the stars. As the questions become sharper, a controlled studio conversation turns increasingly tense—and reveals just how little humanity understands about the man chosen to leave it behind.
From Outcast to Immortal: An Immortal Sci‑Fi Origin Story (rev)
This episode introduces a desert rite of passage turning into a speculative novel origin episode by KA Langfeld. Meet Thumee, a young woman on a desert planet who is stung by a GoRak—a creature whose venom is said to be incurable. Facing certain death, Thumee discovers she can enter a meditative trance called the Dive, where she manipulates Light to purge poison and keep her body alive without food, water, or shelter.
But the Dive comes with a devastating cost: it distorts time. When Thumee vanishes, she can reappear decades—sometimes centuries—later, severed from everyone and everything she knew. As her reality fractures, she learns the Dive isn’t only a mental state—it’s a connection. That link leads her to IlaRia, an alien traveller who reveals Thumee’s so-called “eccentricity” is actually an immortal heritage in Kalangfeld alien contact stories.
This episode bridges five millennia of history and rewrites Thumee’s identity: she isn’t the demon her village feared—she’s part of an ancient interstellar family—the Kindred of Old.
Want to read along? Thumee’s Origin Story is free to read on KA Langfeld’s blog.