Homecoming: Harmony(1992)

Orson Scott Card

They named the new world Harmony, expressing their greatest hope. As refugees from a devastated Earth, they knew humanity would never survive another global war.

Convinced that the only way to prevent such terror was to see that their descendants knew and used science, but never developed the transportation systems and high-tech weaponry that would let them destroy themselves, they built a master computer to be the guardian of the human race.

The people of Harmony thrived—genetically altered so they could mentally receive the computer’s transmissions, and potentially dangerous ideas could be blocked—and they worshiped the voice within them…what they called the Oversoul.

But for all its seeming omniscience, the Oversoul was a machine. It had been 40 million years since humans landed on Harmony, and it was breaking down. Systems were failing; it was losing the ability to communicate with and control people—and it understood the consequences of that deterioration. Repairs were essential, but in order to be repaired its core would have to be taken back to Earth to interface with the master computer there.

For that, it required human help.

Peace had long reigned in Basilica—wondrous ancient city, where honorable men received due honor, and where women controlled the government, owned all property, communed most directly with the Oversoul…and lived without fear.

But these were changing times. Of late, only a few holy women heard the words of the Oversoul, yet a man—Volemak, the husband of one of Basilica’s most esteemed citizens—had been granted a vision!

It was the beginning of the end for Basilica. For the first time in history there was violence in her streets as ambitious men vied for power—and Volemak, betrayed by a jealous kinsman, was forced to flee into the desert with his sons.

There, the Oversoul revealed its purpose: they and their wives and a chosen few others were to begin a monumental journey…ultimately, a voyage across space to Earth. But Volemak’s elder sons, who did not revere the Oversoul, were determined to sabotage the plan. And so it fell to the youngest to lead them all—14-year-old Nafai, who heard the voice of the Oversoul more clearly than anyone else on Harmony…