Nahema Nakota

Nahema Nakota is a pioneer who was on the Cicada at the time of its crash landing onto Proteus. As an ecologist, Nahema was able to recognise that the Protean ecosystem was dying, describing it as being "sustained by its own rot".

Nahema was amongst the vanished Pioneer group who constructed Camp One though she has no memory of this. Her remains were found at the site. The discovery of this, the fracturing of the Pioneers leading to the formation of Jubilee, as well as her friend Zip being reset by NoA, caused Nahema to become jaded.

235,000 hours ago Chap and Mantis, seemingly working with Nahema, destroyed the Old Habitat. Nahema fled in the direction of the World Tree, leaving a download near the Observatory addressed to Sophie Boucher titled "Why I Did It" in which she explained her reasoning for destroying the colony. A second download titled "We Must Voluntarily Die" was left in the Tadpole Pens in which Nahema expressed that there was no reason for the Pioneers to continue suffering on Proteus, and they should instead choose to die.

Sophie Boucher believed that Nahema, fuelled by Masefield-induced delusions and depression, intended to cause the deaths of all the humans on Proteus to serve the World Tree. Sophie resolved to pursue and stop Nahema, and to kill the World Tree herself in order to eliminate Masefield.

Nahema's last known action was to leave the log "Day One" at the Old Habitat in which she proclaimed that any human who found the log may be the last human being in the universe and tells them "Forget your debt. Forget NoA, forget Alterra, forget Zezura and the life you imagined. It's all gone now. You're going to die here, and that's all right. Pick the most interesting thing you can see and explore."

Nahema also planted the explosive that flooded the Welcome Center, though the timing of this event is uncertain.

Relevant Databank Entries

Nahema - "Eutrophication"

"Nahema, field notes, go. Day 400. Bad news. I see signs of eutrophication.

[long sigh]

There are a lot of jellies here. They're feeding on decay....somewhere in this ocean, everything is dying, and it's causing runaway growth downcurrent. Eutrophication. The jellies will poison the water, and this place will die too.

This is how mass extinctions get started.

I'll leave a copy of this log to mark the current edge of the jelly growth."

Source: Found in a cave beneath the Necrolei Hills, southwest of the Old Habitat

Nahema - "Parasite attack"

Nahema, field notes, go. [breathing hard] One of those vampire squid just came at me.

Madeleine saw me throwing flares and came to investigate, and the squid went after her. I guess it likes marrowbreach blood better than mine. I should find Maddy...make sure she's not hurt.

The squid was sick. Nodes on its skin — not green, not kharaa, but maybe a fungal infection? I wonder if squid get rabies here. Damn! I hope they can't pass it to the marrowbreaches.

Source: Found at Hill-Plateau Wreck 2

Nahema - "Why I did it"

Sophie. I'm sorry I destroyed your colony. Please listen: I did it because you couldn't. Because you're a good leader and you never give up on the mission.

And I know where this mission will end.

NoA is going to start printing duplicates.

You, and me, and Zip, and Mantis, and Mogami's kids and Thing One and Thing Two and all the rest. Every morning the biobeds will print ten thousand of us,. Every day we'll maximize our KPIs and OKRs and NOA's utility function will say: these people are happy and healthy, mission complete. Humanity is thriving.

Then in the evening we'll all climb into the beds and NoA disintegrates and resets us. A perfect day. Forever. No more mutinies. No more Masefield. No aging, no retirement, no waste. Just peak performance.

But NoA couldn't do that on its own. NoA would need human help to bypass its restrictions.

And you'd help it, Sophie. I know you would. If it was the only choice left - you'd do whatever it takes to keep your crew alive.

So I had to stop you.

Source: Found on a platform under the Axum Observatory, near the Bloom Node

Nahema/Zip - "Untitled entry"

NAHEMA: any time I say Nahema, journal, go, it starts recording. Then I print the important parts in quartz, in case I get reset.

ZIP: So it's recording now?

NAHEMA: Oh. Yeah. I guess it is.

ZIP: Are you embarrassed? Hey! Nahema's hanging out with me in an air pocket and she's milking the sponges!

NAHEMA: Now I am obviously embarrassed.

ZIP: Why?

NAHEMA: Because you seem to think sponges are mammals.

ZIP: Is it because you've recorded permanent evidence you have a friend? Or is it me, specifically, who's an embarrassment?

NAHEMA: I have lots of friends. They worry about me if I don't show up. This sponge secretes an antibiotic for me, because I feed it. People think solidarity is something for humans with full bellies. But they're wrong, Zip. Nature isn't just red in tooth and claw. There's more going on than a market of violence.

ZIP: So come down and visit the hot caves with me. Display a little solidarity.

Source: Found in a cave air pocket north from the Colonist Bunker (Salvage)

Political Consciousness

They had to justify our destruction. So they lied.

One of the lies went like this: "The Mongolians don't purchase fabricator libraries from other transgovs. They pirate and copy." That part is true. "Denying fabricator libraries to their colonists is part of a pattern of population abuse." That's the lie. Abuse? Call it emancipation.

The fabricator is the ENEMY.

The fabricator is the death of craft. The fabricator expunges skill from the act of making. The fabricator turns us all into customers at the company store.

In pre-fabricator economies, humans had skills-skills like bowcraft, animal husbandry, tracking, felt-making, and fermentation. Our skills weren't fungible. One person could not be substituted for another.

But everyone buys the same product at the fabricator. A rat can ferment the same airag as an old herder. A great artisan gets the same drab, focus-grouped carpets that are trampled by the feet of Alterra human resources.

Humans are mimics—mimics of expertise. The Mongolians who inspired us used their expertise to flourish on the steppe. They challenged the wilderness and it made them great. But now there is no skill to mimic. Only a fabricator to feed. One customer is the same as another. The pigs fill the trough and the trough menu tells them what they need. And there are no great pigs.

It is only a matter of time until the transgovs - pressured by the revolutionary existential terror of the alien, poisoned by the strangling bottleneck of Collapse Capitalism - take the next step, and render the human being itself fungible.

If the product can be fabricated, why not the customer?

-Mongolian Independent States Cadre Handbook

{metadata reader's note="Mantis loves this stuff. But his job requires fabricators at every step. If he didn't use them he couldn't compete. The better replicator wins. Any biologist can tell you that. So what does he want me to take from it? - Nahema}

Source: Found under debris at 420m in the hole where Sleep Bay 3 lies

Nahema - "Stop dying so much"

Singh, it's Nahema. Personal question. When you see a halfmoon flapping around sideways like a fool—what do you think it's doing? Exercising? Rehearsing an escape? Displaying its fitness to mates?

There has to be a reason, right? Whenever we see a behavior, the first question we ask is 'how is that adaptive?' And that's good science. Isn't it?

Oh. Chap wants you to stop dying so much. You're using up too much biobed goo.

Source: Found next to an abandoned Tadpole at the Great Jaw in the Dolerite Spires

Additional Databank References

• Sophie/Nahema - "It's all going to die"
• Nahema - "Day one"
• Nahema - "Frozen tyrant"
• Nahema - "How we got here"
• Nahema - "Play God"
• Nahema - "Was I murdered?"
• Nahema - "We must voluntarily die"
• Programmable Detonator
• Sophie - "In pursuit of Nahema"
• Nahema/Mantis - "Power plant repair plan"
• Welcome Center Recording
• Nahema/Zip - "We were friends?"