ALTUM

ALTUM by J.F. Luzuriaga is a tale set several millennia before humankind's recorded history. It is a story of celestial travelers from different star systems in the galaxy who came to Earth for various reasons.

The handful of places on Earth where nascent native communities and early civilizations lived were in the Nile of Egypt, the Tigris-Euphrates of Mesopotamia and Babylonia, the Indus-Ganges of the Harappan and Vedic societies, the Minoan-Mycenaean area, in the Yellow River of the Shang area, and in the Phoenicia area. The other places on the planet that had the potentials of evolving into communities were Mali, Jenne-Jeno, Ghana, Songhay-Songhai, Aksum-Axum, and Meroe in Nubia, Khmer, Funan, Chenia, and Zimbabwe.

The respective civilizations of the three star systems of Mintaka, Alnilam and Alnitak, collectively known as the Orion asterism, had already sent a starship to Earth. The Orion collective initially chose to make their base in the Nile area of Egypt. Subsequently, they decided to set up another base under the sea on Earth using their highly advanced underwater and submersible technologies. The Orion starship had brought along a compact orbital space station, and which was deployed into space in a low orbit around Earth.

Similarly, the different civilizations of the seven star systems of Alkaid, Mizar-Alcor, Alioth, Megrez, Phecda, Merak and Dubhe, functioning as a stellar collective, and called the Ursa asterism, had likewise dispatched to Earth a space vessel and a space transport. The Ursa collective had selected the Indus-Ganges area as their initial base on Earth. Over time, they had established another base in Asia.

Many of the settlers from Sirius had intermingled, and later intermarried, with Earth's native inhabitants. The Sirius settlers had relocated the offspring from their intermarriages, including the indigenous mothers of their children, to an extension base of theirs in the Minoan-Mycenaean area.

Unlike the Sirius settlers, the Orion contingent distanced themselves physically from the native inhabitants. They communicated to the local populations through handpicked local intermediaries and selected individuals from the native peoples. Aside from instilling into the minds of the native inhabitants that they were gods who descended from the sky, the Orion settlers were fearful of contracting communicable diseases and illnesses from the local populace.

The mining camps of the Sirius settlers expanded gradually, and whole ecosystems were built around them, with large numbers of the native populace becoming 'colony obligates', where they depended entirely on their relationships with the Sirius colonies to survive. A significant part of the 'colony obligates' ecosystem was the construction by these settlers of ornate and intricate vertical and horizontal structures and edifices, scattered among various mountains across the planet, and chiefly made of stone, for the indigenous civilizations in those places.