The Atlanteans of Proxima b: Chapter 9

19th - 20th September in the Year of Our Lord 2732

Apr 25, 2025

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Captain's Log, 19^th September in the Year of Our Lord 2732

1200 Hours

I cannot think. I cannot eat. I cannot sit. All I can do is pace as my thoughts scatter themselves in a panic. I have prayed for my life. I have prayed for Rex to contact me. I have prayed for Akakios and the assemblymen to see sense.

I'm doomed.

I must have hope, I must have faith.

Captain's Log, 20^th September in the Year of Our Lord 2732

0800 Hours

The guard informed me through hand gestures that it is time to go to the Ecclesia. I am to be escorted by four armed soldiers, the only article I am allowed beyond clothing is my device which appears, once again, to be requested as evidence but as last time no one but me knows how to use it, though Akakios could probably figure it out given the time. It is odd that he hasn't done this. Or, maybe it is a sign. I should focus on the problem at hand and not wonder about a stranger's actions, no matter how odd.

0900 Hours

The Ecclesia is sparsely attended, only by assemblymen and senior ones at that, and two younger women who I have not seen before. The doors were closed as soon as I entered, meaning the reduced number is some arcane legality due to my supposed crime. I have committed no crime other than visiting and attempting to help a foreign land. How do I get that across when only Akakios speaks my language well enough to converse.

Akakios is ashen faced, the two old men beside him stern though I am surprised when the one on Akakios's left, with the shock of white hair, asks me how I am, in my own language, though his grammar is muddled and the pronunciation stilted. Perhaps there is a chance.

Korinna is not present, not that I am surprised. Though she is surely crucial in the case against me... no, she is a traitor in their eyes and her testimony would be untrustworthy, worthless in fact. I need to focus on the here and now and say a prayer to God for only he can save me now.

“That Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts; that being rooted and founded in charity.” - Ephesians 3:17

If the Atlanteans punish charity then I am blameless for I have done no wrong, nor has Korinna or Rex Haverham, nor the soldiers who assisted us. I do not want these people to die out, for the first colony beyond Earth's sun to be a failure, to live on a new world already scarred with ruins. Humanity must flourish, everywhere, and for that to happen the Atlanteans must survive and thrive alongside us.

1000 Hours

Akakios has monologued his version of events from our first meeting up until this very point, close to the end, where my “spying was obvious”, he had already distanced himself but not made his suspicions known, at least he did not say he had. The two women are translators for either side of the Ecclesia, it is odd that Akakios is speaking in my language and having it translated, presumably it is a prepared speech. I did not foresee this but it could work in my favour if these women are required to translate everything that is said.

1010 Hours

I am being given time to make a defence. Given this has been rushed I have only a few scant notes but I will focus on the charity of my actions, the selflessness of what I sought to do.

1030 Hours

The white haired assemblyman has asked a dozen questions so far, all piercing in his guttural, broken, attempt at speaking my language. Akakios is exasperated by it, as if the bridging of the language barrier disrupts his plans. Maybe it does. The women translate still, though it is slow now we have proceeded beyond Akakios prepared speech.

They do not believe me that my colony has no weapons. Even for hunting. They scoff at this, as if no one sensible would leave something so vital off a cargo list. I explain we believed the planet to be barren of animal life. They doubt me but do not outright disbelieve me, after all Proxima b is a far far way from Earth and judging whether there were dogbears would be impossible.

The assemblymen are understanding of my charitable angle but they are suspicious of the open hand from strangers. I do not blame them. The Atlanteans have been alone out here for thousands of years, struggling to hold their society together amidst a long drawn out crisis. The fact it hasn't splintered into factions warring over the ashes is a miracle. I see God's hand in this, that we were meant to find this lost tribe of Earth, I was meant to help them. I must have faith.

1100 Hours

Akakios lost his temper during my statement and continued his relentless accusations to the point where I was unable to respond between tirades. The white haired assemblyman beside him had to ask him to allow me time to respond, at least that was what one of the women hastily translated.

I do not know what I have done to make Akakios so angry. His position of influence, power, and wealth must rest require the slow death of his civilisation, though from this point on it would be a very quick death given the fertility rate is almost non-existent. I cannot convince him I am not a threat, that my colony is not a threat, but the others, the old men who will never be grandfathers, the two women who will never be mothers, those I can sway. Continuation of the self through children is the most natural desire in all the worlds.

1230 Hours

There is a lull in the proceedings and it is then that a man with a black beard with a thick white stripe on one side a few rows behind Akakios stands and poses a question – “What do you expect your people will find?”

It is such a simple question, yet one I am unsure how to answer. I have no predictions, I don't know enough about “the specimen” to have ideas like that, so I ask him what has been tried. The assemblymen either side of Akakios allow the man to inform me.

They have tried everything they know of, from genetic engineering to vaccines to isolation. Nothing, so far, stops the effect. Eventually the compound will fester in a human subject through environmental poisoning and render them effectively sterile in 90%+ of cases. Without “the specimen” and its excretions the permanent sunlight withers the plants, very little grows in the total dark and the flora and fauna there are still suffused with the excretions because those species eat the egg-thing in the underground and on the surface. The stuff is everywhere and it is tens of millions of years of evolution in the making, it is not something our paltry sciences will solve over night barring a miracle.

He repeats his question and all I can say is that our fresh perspective may turn up something new. He sits back down heavily, disappointed. I would be too.

1330 Hours

Akakios is finished. He has no more to present. The notes I had made, the messages and such of Korinna's, along with how we went about acquiring “the specimen” are all pointing in a single direction. That we, my colony, are plotting to wipe out our only competitors. Only they are not competitors, this planet is massive and there is no reason we cannot share it. Akakios is unconvinced. I can only hope my talk of charity convinces the others.

A vote will be held after lunch.

1500 Hours

The time of the vote. I ate nothing. I am nauseous to the pit of my stomach.

1505 Hours

I failed to convince them of my innocence, 27 votes to 19. Closer than I expected but not close enough.

I am to be hanged alongside Korinna, as an enemy spy.

I did not journey thirty years through space to die such an ignominious death! Christ preserve me.

1515 Hours

My escort has come to take me away to the undertown jail.

1520 Hours

This device has connected to a satellite (the Council have been busy) and downloaded a plethora of data, all of it from Rex Haverham. I shout and attract the attention of everyone still in the Ecclesia. The soldiers restrain me but the white haired assemblyman ushers them to bring me forward, he voted not to execute me. I am released, now I have to sift through the messages and data and pray something in there saves my life and all of theirs.

I am praying for there to be a miracle in these messages.