Seekers of Earth — Kyle Pratt

Lucas Baldwin, the young son of a powerful lord, is on his first deep space training mission. Advancing through a captured facility he encounters a lunatic girl about his age. Only later does he realize that the girl, Rachel, is speaking English, a long dead language. Rachel talks of an Earth still in existence and more advanced than the horse-and-buggy world that had supposedly been destroyed. All his life Lucas has been taught that more than three hundred years ago, pre-industrial Earth was destroyed by the advancing Valac hegemony. The Mage, a benevolent and highly-advanced race, were able to save a few thousand people. These surviving humans are offered sophisticated technology in return for their help in the fight against the Valac. Humans have become the guardians of the Mage. But now Lucas wonders if the history he has been taught is all a lie -- but such thoughts are treason. Seekers of Earth is a 38,000-word introductory novella to the Guardian Knights of Terra series.