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SUMMARY: Prologue to my second Sci-Fi Novel; any feedback/ideas appreciated!

Kasheen Gneban was cold.
She closed her thin jacket and smiled as she observed the night sky.
Being cold wasn´t exactly common on Talien, whose two suns ensured that the nights were few and short. As Kasheen stared into the pich-black, cloudless sky with what few stars were visible, she couldn´t help but wonder what would await her when she went aboard the orbital transport tomorrow.
She smiled involuntarily, as the orbital platform came into sight. A much more prominent feature than any of the stars visible from Talien, she had never seen the night sky without it, or didn´t remember it. Her grandmother had used to tell her stories of when they would sit in front of their house at night and watch the stars, undistrubed by the shining, but clusterof lights orbiting the planet. She had been three years old back then, so of course she didn´t remember.
Kasheen closed her eyes for a minute and thought about what she would leave behind on the coming voyage, a voyage with no return. She thought about her mother and grandmother, the only family she had ever known, who would both stay behind to face the end of life on the planet. A few months ago, Kasheen would have cried at the thought, but since then the sadness had been replaced by a feeling of responsibility and pride. She reopened her eyes and looked up into the sky again, out into the vast expanse of space, where the furture waited. The future not only for Kasheen Gneban, but also for the Eudorian people.


Civilization: Eudoria
Planet of Origin: Talien

Talien is the only planet in a binary, system in the peripheral regions of the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy.
It is a huge, very old planet with no moons and a rough climate. Due to the two suns, daytime lasts for over three weeks, and during the time both suns are up, temperatures reach near the boiling point of water. Due to this fact, most of the planet is covered by sand, and only a small equatorial belt along the axis of rotation allows vegetation. Due to its age, Talien is extremly rich in natural resources. Its atmosphere consists of helium, carbon dioxide and methane. Plantlife is confined to the vegetation beld and the bottom of the oceans. Wildlife is sparse, but even in the sandy deserts and sand-covered mountain ranges of the polar continents, a small variety of animals exists.

The evolution of the Eudorian race has three main influences: First, the fact that on Talien, life was only possible along the equator; Second, the abundance o energy and natural resources . And third, that they were not the first sentient species to evolve on the planet.
The first two facts led to a comparably peaceful evolution – with no need to compete for resources and almost no cultural , religious or nationalistic diversity, there was little cause for conflict. And while that aided the evolution as a single people and nation and helped to overcome the problem of population control, it also slowed down technological advance significantly. For over fifty thousand years, the Eudorian people were content with their equatorial continent, only sparsely exploring the polar, sand-covered wastelands.