City of Cathay, in the 98th Year since the Landing (Y.L.) 

Today was another hot day.  The Mothership Council chose the Bay of Chaude because it seemed like the most habitable spot: Warm in the winter, plenty of land to grow food on and lots of natural resources along the coast. But they did not know how hellishly hot it could get in the summer.  To take my mind off of the heat and the Council meeting this week, I took a shuttle to the Mothership and read through old records the Council transferred to the Hub during the first 50 years of the colony.  They were a mix of trade agreements, diary entries by the original Founders Prophet, Taryne Sheffield, and scientific reports collected and sent back to the archives by the survey team.  

The woman who was the original Founders Prophet was very charismatic.  From all the accounts in other diaries and records of the period, she played a huge role in shaping the office into what it is today.  She encouraged the settlers and kept them from giving up during some of the worst moments in the colony’s history.  She was able to avoid outright civil war with the AGP and kept the colony together at the beginning of the Esle Plague that swept through the Eldritch and Cathay settlements.  Compared with the problems she dealt with, my 'issue' should be a breeze: a minor dispute with the AGP over tunneling through the Mountains to Cathay and mineral resources.  No big deal, right?  Except for some reason it isn’t. 

I’m not sure whether it is due to Gerrard Monterreil, AGP internal politics or the internal politics of the followers of the Sect.  Monterreil is the AGP chairman.  He lives in Vieta, the third and last settlement founded before my tenure as Founders Prophet.  A real bastard from all accounts gathered by my aides.  His first wife left or disappeared on him, depending on who is telling the story.  Her mother helped him raised their only child, Ceres.  There are rumors that his daughter ran away, but she stayed in Vieta.  Eventually, she became a Peacekeeper in Vieta, their version of security in the settlement.  To this day, they remain estranged.  If I sent some of my agents to Vieta, they might be able to get more information from his daughter that might help in the negotiations.  He has been rumored to be behind some of the deaths of people who opposed him…but no one has any evidence.  

Today, I did what I normally did when I had problems.  I talked them over with my predecessor as Founders Prophet, Fiorella Tully.  Just like she did when I was her aide, she gave me good advice and made me laugh.  Tully had dealt with the AGP's leaders throughout her tenure.  She was in her garden when I found her that afternoon. The heat didn't seem to bother her in spite of being in her 70s.  She was stretched out on a lawn chair under a tree.  A tall pitcher of ice tea and a bowl of fruit sat on a table next to her.  She may have had the right idea.  I could feel a light breeze when I sat down on the grass next to her chair.     

Her advice: Be honest, but assume they are scheming behind and around you.  They are vipers, she said, her eyes twinkling.  We both burst out laughing.  Then she reached into the basket of fruits and vegetables and pulled out a light green fruit that looked like an Earth apple and held it out.  I tried to take it from her and she didn't let go.  

"This is the AGP," she said.  "It looks like an apple?  It looks good to eat?" she asked me.  When I nodded, she took out a pocketknife and peeled the green skin away with her tanned, wrinkled hands.   The skin spiraled away to reveal flesh that was mottled blue and green. 

"That is not an apple," I told her.  

She beamed and nodded.  

"Exactly.  This is a new Kiannon fruit that I am testing.  Your scouts found it in the hills near Eldritch.  It is poisonous to us, but some birds can eat it and it can be used for medicines. I'm also trying it out as a cleaning agent," she said laughing.   

"The AGP can be useful.  Stay focused on what you need from any game they are playing.  If you don't get what you need from the game, don't play."  She threw the half-peeled fruit out into the bushes that surrounded her garden.  

"Thank you, M'am."  

"I miss our chats, Rei.  Please come by more often," she said.  She stood up slowly, grabbed the basket and began heading back down the path leading to her house.  

Tully has helped me so much.  I wish I could talk to the other leaders of the Sect.  I'll keep reading through the records.  

Hub Records from Kiannon
Founders Sect leader, Taryne Sheffield
April 15 Y.L.

Thank God for the Mothership Council.  Cool heads need to prevail if we are to survive on this planet.  God help me, I am not one of them.  We need balance in the Council.  The infighting in the AGP has spat out another leader - this time it's Wendy Bechard.  I couldn't believe it.  I hadn't known her for very long before the Sleep, but I thought we wanted the same thing.  We want to start the colony off in the right direction.  

Of the12 members on the Council we have roughly three factions.  The Military that run and maintain the Mothership, the group that is led by me and the third group that is calling themselves the Ascendant Group Party.  Ascendant to what, I don't know.  They don't seem very inclined to agree with the rest of us who want to follow the principles we signed agreement to before the Sleep.  We don't expect not to have an impact on Kiannon, but we want to join the system that is thriving below, not dominate it and not to drive it to extinction.  The goal is balance.  Like slipping into a pool, we want to displace a little water, but not cannonball in so that half the water is lost.

They call us religious fanatics. That we're acting as if the planet is sentient.  I told them that most of us remember what the last decade on Earth was like.  We had turned it into a wasteland.  And that we remember our history.  Wen made a crack about me acting as if I was a Prophet.  I told her that if I was a Prophet, I would be like the Old Testament Prophets that warned the people to stay faithful.  I would prophesy that if we did, we could prosper on Kiannon indefinitely.  That shut them up long enough for us to get through the rest of the plans for settling Cathay.  

So much to do.  I spend a lot of time in the Viewport looking down at Kiannon.  It truly is a sight for sore eyes.  The seas are as blue as Earth.  The drones we sent down sent back videos of grasslands, forests and white capped mountains.  I am tired of breathing in processed air.  I want to smell earth and the smell of rain.  Once the scans have cleared it for us, we'll be sending down the first few groups of colonists.  My children will finally see why we made this choice.