Atlantis: Primus River Expedition

Atlantis: Primus River Expedition

"Atlantis is full of life, but other than the river, there isn't a hint of green. There is complexity here, but other than the spike trees, very little is recognizable. On this world floaters and squirmers seem to rule. Gas bags and worms are Atlantis's animals. The sponge rocks and spike trees are its plants.

"But I'm not certain those terms - animal and plant - even apply here. It is an alien world; billions of years of unique development. We're four and a third light-years and forty travel years from Earth. I'm not sure how well we'll adapt. But we'll have to, if we're ever going to leave our spinning home and settle on its namesake world.

"We've traveled little more than a klick up river from the base camp. The air is thick with airborne spores from the sponge rocks. Willard says they're benign - they don't affect our lungs at all. But I wonder how much of that is guesswork and hope, and how much is empirical data. We've only been here a few weeks. Every day, every trip into the field, is a spasm - a rapture - of discovery."

--Dr. Fatima Hernandez Sforza, Primus River Expedition; personal journal: 4 August, 2105