The Atlanteans of Proxima b: Chapter 3

5th - 25th August in the Year of Our Lord 2732

Mar 07, 2025

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Captain's Log, 5^th August in the Year of Our Lord 2732

1230 Hours

I have been captured but my captors have not stripped me of my belongings so maybe I am not a captive. Hard to say. I cannot leave and they will not let me out of my sight but neither can I communicate with them in any meaningful way.

Two of the men, dressed in bronze coloured armour with blue cloaks, are searching through the cart. The other two stand guard over me leaning on high tech spears that look to be some form of pulse rifle too. The armour is head to toe and fashioned from some material I don't know. As I write this one is looking over my shoulder but he cannot comprehend my words any better than I can comprehend his. All I can do is wait.

1300 Hours

I am being led eastward with the cart. The four soldiers cannot have came on foot, they must have a vehicle of some kind near by.

1400 Hours

They have a ship. A sleek ship of gold, long and thin with a mermaid, or perhaps a siren, figurehead. There are no sails or propellers or visible engines, not even wings. Whatever this is is advanced and from the look of it could exit the atmosphere.

1430 Hours

I am on board their ship and have been strapped into a seat in the cargo bay along with my cart and supplies. Two soldiers once again look over me while the other two ventured further into the ship, I presume to speak to their commanding officer.

While my nerves are shredded a small part of me is elated that I will not have to cross the continent by cart and on foot.

1500 Hours

It all happened so fast. The take off, flight, and landing are done. We are somewhere else, possibly thousands of miles eastward from where I was captured. There is no way we have reached the east coast, surely?

2100 Hours

I am still on the ship. The soldiers and whoever else have been gone since my last entry but I have been left in the cargo bay. All the doors are sealed and there is no way out, nor can I figure out the terminals or controls of anything in here. What are they waiting for?

Captain's Log, 6^th August in the Year of Our Lord 2732

0200 Hours

They have come for me –

Captain's Log, 10^th August in the Year of Our lord 2732

0900 Hours

My equipment and supplies have been returned to me. While I was secluded they kept me fed and watered but little else. I do not know where I am or what has changed though I now wait in what appears to be an office. Someone is coming.

1300 Hours

A man by the name of Akakios and a woman called Korinna have questioned me on everything ranging from the population of the colony to intricate historical tidbits of Earth since they've been on Proxima b. They found it humorous that we call them the Opli because that is what they call the planet and view themselves as Atlanteans.

I did not have a name for what my colony calls itself, we have been so focussed on survival that a name seemed premature, as if it could curse our efforts in some way. Lord knows a great many colonies of Earth failed after being given grand names.

The Opli... the Atlanteans call us New Comers or New Arrivals. Akakios did tell me their word for it but I cannot wrap my tongue around it, I wish Taliesin or one of the linguists could have joined me but then they would have been captured too and that would do no good for the colony. Evidently the Opli have been studying our language which makes me wonder what else they know and if they have been watching us the whole year we've been on the surface.

1500 Hours

Korinna kindly informed me I would be remaining in seclusion and that my guards are not to communicate with me, not that I could if I wanted to. I am allowed this journal and a single book, I chose one of Father Cooperson's Bibles, one in Greek and English, hopefully I can wrap my head around at least the alphabet.

1900 Hours

Food is frequent, flatbreads, roasted meats and vegetables, rather plain and rarely with any sauce other than some oil. Nothing is salted either, which is odd given the sea that surrounds the continent is salt water. My colony has a salt pit where we trap sea water and leave it to evaporate, why don't the Opli?

Each meal is served with a thin wine and a cup of water. For a prisoner it is quite good, I suppose, though I have never been a prisoner before. The wine is sour but not strong, more like vinegar in fact.

Captain's Log, 11^th August in the Year of Our Lord 2732

0100 Hours

I am guessing at the time now, it is been too long since I was last outside but I do know the guards change three times a day, well three times for my day. I think. Maybe they don't but having been created for Earth's 24 hour days I have a feel for it. I wonder how the Opli break down their day?

Captain's Log, 14^th August in the Year of Our Lord 2732

This is not how I imagined my visit going. I was sceptical of being allowed free reign of their town, city, or whatever it is but never thought I'd be a prisoner.

Captain's Log, 21^st August in the Year of Our Lord 2732

I wonder if the colony know I have made it. They couldn't stage a rescue, though maybe a negotiation could occur.

No, I'm being ridiculous. The Opli have soldiers, we do not.

Why do the Opli have soldiers if they were the only ones here?

Captain's Log, 22^nd August in the Year of Our Lord 2732

I have had no luck with learning the Greek alphabet. I don't know why I thought I could in the first place.

Captain's Log, 23^rd August in the Year of Our Lord 2732

Food was different today, only a flatbread and oil. No wine either. Guards now change more regularly. Hard to know the time.

Captain's Log, 24^th August in the Year of Our Lord 2732

If my dates are correct I would be on the final leg of my cross-continent journey by now. Instead I am stuck in a cell, a pleasant warm cell but a cell all the same.

Captain's Log, 25^th August in the Year of Our Lord 2732

1100 Hours

I had given up hope of the Opli speaking with me again but Akakios and Korinna visited and led me to the surface. I am still not allowed to go, or even see, outside but I now have free reign of the building I am being held in. They wish for me to read some of their history and ask questions should I have any. They have a single book, quite short, of their history, apparently it took a great deal of time to translate and write. Akakios seemed solemn about the whole thing.

1700 Hours

Well that was disappointing. I have a litany of questions, many of which are about the Opli's time on Proxima b which is scant in their record, the great bulk of it concerns Earth. It seems something about this people is trapped in that mythical past of four thousand years ago, what makes a people look to the past so eagerly? If only I could understand their language and venture outside...