The Shadows of Charos

By Stephen Bayliss

Following a war on the planet Charos that only ended with the use of nuclear weapons, the Tolmaran Empire, under the banner of the Strahger dynasty, took control of the entire world and have ruled for a hundred years. But Charos has problems. Its climate is warming and disasters beset the planet. However, its ruler, Creto Strahger, sits of an evening with a glass of Agali wine and contemplates the rolling green hills and great oceans of Earth, its air and water so much more pristine than that of Charos. He lives to conquer and dreams of ruling not one world but two. And the dream could become a reality. The Charos Space Programme has built the first faster than light drive, the Lieth Ah Domah - The Breath of God. This breakthrough could make Strahger's ambition a reality. But there are those on Charos who oppose him, they call themselves, Sa Domari - The Free. Caught up in this struggle are three people. Alvo Thoria, who has secretly dedicated his life to opposing Strahger, Laria Praxi, a young woman working on the Space Programme who gets drawn into the struggle for freedom and Creto Strahger himself, the would be tyrant of two neighbouring worlds. Through the thoughts and words of these three, we follow the struggle to warn and protect the Earth. Can Sa Domari and its allies thwart Strahger and aid unsuspecting Earth? Or will Strahger achieve his goals despite the best efforts of those who oppose tyranny?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stephen Bayliss
• Release date: Apr 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005037291

Stephen Bayliss

I was born in Christchurch New Zealand in 1959 and I am currently resident on the Kapiti Coast just north of New Zealand's capital Wellington. I am a former journalist previously employed at the New Zealand Press Association where I was a sub editor and reporter. I have studied papers in Renaissance Literature and Twentieth Century Literature at Victoria University, Wellington. I have also spent a number of years as a part-time song writer and rock musician and in the early 1990s recorded an album of original music with Kiwi Pacific Records. I have had short fiction published in literary fiction magazines such as Landfall, Takahe and Bravado. I live close to the coast and enjoy walking in the summer sunshine on the beach.

Book preview

Characters

Alvo Thoria - One of the secret leaders of rebel organisation Sa Domari, The Free. Senior correspondent for Sa Intrium Dra, The Council of Information, in Strahgarvand. (Chapter One)

Crali  - Wife of Tarka Morvo. A great beauty and socialite with a keen mind. Moves in diplomatic social circles. Of the Great Families. (Chapter Two)

Crassian Hargan - Member of Sa Intrium Mantah, The Council Wise. Chief of Defence, commander of all the armies, air forces and navies of Charos. (Chapter Three)

Creto Strahger - Current dictator of Charos. Head of Sa Intrium Mantah, The Council Wise. Son of former dictator, Kragar Strahger. Known as Sa Gyla Ah Kata, The Light of Kata, also as Sa Harla Ah Kiel, The Bringer of Grief. (Chapter Three)

Danah Maygor - Virologist and microbiologist working for Sa Domari. (Chapter eight).

Darg Karlin - Member of Sa Intrium Mantah. Head of Sa Tahgus, the intelligence and secret police organisation for all of Charos. (Chapter Three)

Dorgad - A senior Tolmaran diplomat recently returned from a posting in Altorum. Laria encounters him and his partner at Tarka Morvo’s dinner party. (Chapter Two)

Dramon Thoria - Alvo Thoria’s cousin, a cook in the Tolmaran navy and childhood companion of Alvo. (Chapter One)

Esan Varga - In his sixties, a close friend of Tarka Morvo’s and an innovative and brilliant engineer at the Space Research and Development Centre. It was he and his team that made the Lieth Ah Domah, Breath of God, faster than light spacecraft a working reality. (Chapter Two)

Griggs, Colonel - EAIC head of Recovery and Salvage. (Prologue)

Haydar Forlian - Head of Sa Intrium Dra, The Council of Information, and in charge of all Dra bulletins and Sa Intrium Mantah’s propaganda. All edicts to Sa Desia, The People, from The Council, indeed from Strahger himself, go through Forlian. (Chapter Three)

Jarno - Sa Domari operative who is the main point of contact for the organisation in Creethum. (Chapter Twelve)

Kahsa Norva - Member of Sa Intrium Mantah, The Council Wise. Finance minister who oversees all the krela houses in every province and country and whose many employees across the world monitor the financial health of Charos. (Chapter Three)

Kaza Greefor - Sa Domari organizer from island of Zianta. (Chapter six).

Keda Tartha - Laria’s first boyfriend whom she meets at Sa Intrius Ket, The Third School. A transfer student from Chiata, a country on the large continent south of the equator and Altorum. (Chapter Two and Chapter Four)

Kragar Strahger - Deceased. Former leader of Sa Jatah, former dictator of Charos, father to Creto Strahger. (Prologue)

Cramos Karak - Dissident author who when put on trial gives the rebels their name - Sa Domari, The Free. Sentenced to the Thernian mines. (Chapter One)

Laria Praxi - Physicist and mathematician at Space Research and Development Centre. Expert on Lieth Ah Domah, The Breath of God, the faster than light spacecraft. (Chapter Two).

Ligo Praxi - Laria Praxi’s father. A general science lecturer at the local Sa Intrius Ket, the Third School. It was Laria’s father who had given her the love of science from an early age. (Chapter Three)

Magla Drados - Renowned elderly Tolmaran  scientist and engineer. Designer of the first practical faster than light drive, Leith Ah Domah, The Breath of God. (Prologue)

Makanah - Leader of Creethum village close to Space Elevator on Creethum (Chapter eleven).

Marga Norska - Member of Sa Domari high council, representing Altorum. (Chapter six)

Maro - Tolmaran philosopher, lived about 2000 years ago. (Prologue)

Nilus - Creto Strahger’s personal assistant. A young man who is the son of one of Strahger’s old security detail. Strahger has shown him much favour and he is well versed in the intricacies of Charos politics. (Chapter Three)

Philo - Tolmaran general, lived about 800 years ago. Known for his military tactics and strategies. (Prologue)

Pierson, General C. - Officer in command, Extraterrestrial Activities Investigation Committee (EAIC), Science Division. (Prologue)

Pralah - Wife of Creto Strahger. A keen intellect and undertakes many diplomatic duties. (Chapter Three)

Resia - Partner of mining director and engineer Sagar. Laria encounters her at Tarka Morvo’s dinner party (Chapter Two)

Sagar - A mining director and engineer for one of the Great Family mining enterprises. Laria encounters him at Tarka Morvo’s dinner party. (Chapter Two)

Seetha Crado - Dissident poet and philosopher. (Prologue)

Tarka Morvo - A renowned astrophysicist and spacecraft engineer. Head of  the Space Research and Development Centre in Tolmara. Laria’s boss and of the Great Families. (Chapter Two)

Triala Edak - Noted physicist and mathematician at the Space Research and Development Centre. In her senior years but vital to the development of the Lieth Ah Domah, Breath of God, faster than light spacecraft. Of the Great Families. (Chapter Two)

Vanta Morium - Head of Sa Domari military wing. (Chapter One)

Veena - Laria Praxi’s mother. (Chapter Four)

Viana Mergida - Member of Alvo Thoria’s work collective, his lover and a member of Sa Domari who first gets him involved in the rebellion. (Chapter One)

Zar Kormin - An old friend of Creto Strahger’s father, Kragar Strahger. He stood by Kragar  through the conflict with the Altorum empire. After the conflict he dedicated himself to scientific pursuits for many decades and faded from public view. Known for his kindness to the young Creto. (Chapter Three)

The Shadows of Charos

Glossary

Ah - Of, or The One, depending on context (see Ah-Ka)

Ah-Ka­ - The One Ruler, Creto Strahger; leader

Akanta - Day of rest, once every ten days

Akrian - A kind of blue and green opal stone

Altarvand - Port city on East Coast of Altorum

Altorum - Country in Western hemisphere; once Altorum empire; once democratic

Amarkia - Ancient Tolmaran Goddess of Peace

Amna Stone - Diamond

Ar Bardur - To ‘go through the gate’, to die (colloquial)

Ar- Go

Ar Nosa - Go in good health

Ar Nosa Cra Tah - ‘Go in good health and fight well’, (farewell for Tolmaran warriors)

Ar Tah - Go well; good; fine (greeting)

Argana - Spring

Arlania - Country on southern border of Altorum

Arva - Love

Asperian - Crimson and pink insect trapping flowers found on Creethum

Braleria - Equatorial country in southern hemisphere

Calfias­ - purple alpine flower

Charos - Earth like planet orbiting Alpha Centauri-A

Chiata - Country in southern hemisphere, south of equator and Altorum

Corda - Medium sized country on southern border of Tolmara

Cra - Fight, battle

Crado, Seetha - Dissident poet

Creethum - Island on equator where Space Elevator located; people of said island

Dala - Black; dirty black; dark skinned (derogatory)

Delka - Measurement of distance; one delka = approx. 1.5 kilometres

Domah - God

Domari - Free; freedom

Dra - Information, news

Drakah - Science

Eda moss - Moss from Zianta that glows in certain gases; luxury item

Elera - country in north of continent below equator

Epah- Farm animal; quadruped with strong smelling excrement; used for meat

Esar - Island nation north west of Tolmara where Alvo’s grandfather emigrated from

Gah - Blood

Gah Domah! - expletive, ‘the blood of God’

Garan - large hall, meeting place of the Grand Parliament

Grieja - Mythical Tolmaran beast with large claws and ribbed wings

Grindak - Type of eagle-like bird, found in lower reaches of Kregias mountians

Gyla - light

Habravand - Capital city of Altorum.

Hega - City in Chiata

Hola - Autumn, The Fall

Holusa - Board game of clans fighting for control of imaginary provinces

Intrium - Council; see Sa Intrium Mantah

Intrius - School; see Sa Intrius Ket

Jit - Small, timid quadruped common throughout Charos, mainly nocturnal

Jotah - The Moon of Charos; father

Kalia - Flower like a water lily with indigo petals, tropical and subtropical

Kalietah - Stringed instrument, popular throughout Charos

Kamori - Plump and tasty Game bird that nests on the ground

Karinda Berry Tree - Common southern plant, orange flowers, yellow edible berries

Kata - Alpha Centauri-B

Ket - Three, third

Konos - Rare, ice-blue coloured crystal

Kontari - Great ocean in South Western hemisphere

Kori - Giant tree, common in tropical regions, long lived

Korsa - Tasty fish, considered a luxury item

Kragarvand - Port city in northeast Tolmara, about 800 delkas from Strahgervand

Kratah - Courage. The national sport of most of Charos. Final on the Festival Day

Kregias mountians - Mountain range in north of Tolmara, named after explorer

Krela - Money, currency

Kreth Ah Domah - The Storm of God; nuclear conflict

Kurindah - Land of the Dead in Tolmaran myth

Kyras - the Raining Trees

Ledah - Sweet yellow fruit, tropical

Lieth - Breath, breathe

Lieth Ah Domah - Breath of God, faster than light spacecraft drive

Lider wood - Dark hardwood from jungles of Braleria

Lila grass - Common tall green reed, temperate

Lo - To be

Lo Domari! - To be free! (exclamation)

Lorias - Summer

Magla Drados - First spacecraft fitted with the Leith Ah Domah faster than light drive

Mantah - Wise; see Sa Intrium Mantah

Marah - Sorrow

Maro - Ancient Tolmaran philosoper. Also name of crewed faster than light spacecraft

Malietha - Port city in Creethum

Morlah - Winter

Moru - Bright coloured almost extinct, rain forest bird, sacred to the Creethum

Ne - Small

Nevand - Village

Nosa - Health, healthy

Olkah oil - Cordan cooking oil, prized for flavour it adds to meat

Olvera - Strong spirits drink, hard to come by

Pagari - Plant with large round leaves found in Creethum rain forest

Pelia River - River running through Altarvand

Rahgi - Drink which is a mild stimulant made from leaves of rahgini bush

Ryla - Crystal that gives out blue-white flash when exposed to light

Sa - the

Sa Arva Tah - Marriage, the partnership, literally ‘the love good’

Sa Desia - the ‘people’, the species, as per the term ‘humanity’

Sa Domari - The Free, resistance movement active across all of Charos

Sa Garan Sa Desia - The Great Hall of the People, (Strahgervand)

Sa Gyla Ah Kata - The Light of Kata, the second sun, name for Creto Strahger

Sa Intrium Dra - The Council of Information

Sa Intrium Drakah - The Council of Science - oversees all science on Charos

Sa Intrius Ket - The Third School, university

Sa Jatah - The All, The Everyone, The Party

Sa Marah - The Sorrow; first great war between Tolmara  and Altorum

Sa Tahgus  - The Instrument; see Sa Tahgus Ah Vara Mantah

Sa Tahgus Ah Vara Mantah - The Instrument of Law Wise; police, secret police

Sa Ula Ah Gyla - The Valley of Light, Kregias mountains

Salah - Red tropical fruit found in Creethum

San - Great; vast

Satah - Swift

Savah - Ancient Tolmaran goddess of sleep

Se - Big

Se Ula - Big valley; canyon

Shilom - Lizard like creature; common in warmer parts of Charos

Si - Wife; husband; partner

Si­-Ah-Ka - Wife of the One Ruler; Pralah

Silda Suit - Two piece garment, thermally regulated

Silta - Grain for bread

Soltar - To fall, fallen; The Fallen, those dispossessed by the Government

Strahgervand - Capital city of Tolmara

Suikan - Domesticated animal, bred for its meat and hide

Tah Lo - Be lucky; good luck

Takamori - Village close to Space Elevator on Creethum

Tako - Large fish, prized for its sweet tasting meat

Targah stone - Green translucent stone, common in Tolmaran households

Temaras - Flax plant yielding coarse fibre, for packaging goods, bags etc

Thernian Mines - Mines where dissidents and criminals are sentenced to hard labour

Thoras - Ancient Tolmaran god of hunting

Tiah - Charos hour, approx. 100 minutes

Tokata - Proxima Centauri

Tolmara - Country in eastern hemisphere, now continental empire

Trieka - Two legged animal used for racing and riding

Ula - valley

Ur - No; not; un (general negative)

Ursan - Small, insignificant; colloquially - poor, not of the Great Families

Vand - City, town

Vara - Law

Varka - Dangerous carnivore found in rain forests of Creethum

Vikah - Breeze

Zianta - Equatorial island

The Shadows of Charos

Prologue

E.A.I.C. Sigint: - B975-23

Classification: - Top Secret Umbra

Ref: - SD 06/08/2023-26

To: - All members Extraterrestrial Activities Investigation Committee

From :- General C. Pierson, Officer in Command, EAIC Science Division

Date: - Aug 18, 2023

Sigint As Follows:  —  All branches of the EAIC Science Division have now reported back to me in regard to the purported un-crewed spacecraft recovered approximately 134 degrees West, 29 degrees North, between Honolulu and San Francisco by the USS Delaware on July 15th (Ref: SD 07/17/23-20).

As you know, the vehicle was shipped to the naval base at San Francisco where it was then handed over to the EAIC’s head of Recovery and Salvage Division, Colonel Griggs, who had the craft transported  to our facility at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Over the last month all units of the Science Division have conducted investigations on the vehicle.

This morning they approached me with a combined conclusion which stated that:

Given the technology and construction of this vehicle, its origin is most likely to be extraterrestrial.

Summary

Appearance:  —  The craft was dark grey, roughly cylindrical and just over 15 metres in length. At its maximum it was 6 metres in width and 3 metres high. It carried no outward markings or insignia while what labelling of internal equipment there was appeared to be in an unknown language.

Propulsion Division:  —The craft appears to be powered by a working model of an Alcubierre-Froning Warp Drive. For those of you on the EAIC without a scientific background I will explain briefly what that means:

Albert Einstein’s theories state that as a craft approaches the speed of light it increases its mass, requiring ever more energy to propel it forward. His equations show that at the speed of light, the craft would achieve infinite mass and thus would need infinite energy to accelerate. This is of course impossible, meaning that a craft cannot travel faster-than-light.

However, based on Einstein’s field equations in General Relativity, Mexican theoretical physicist, Miguel Alcubierre, postulated that a spacecraft could achieve faster-than-light travel by warping space. Put simply, rather than exceeding the speed of light within a local reference frame, a spacecraft would traverse distances by contracting space in front of it and expanding space behind it, resulting in effective faster-than-light travel. The empty space behind a starship is made to expand rapidly, pushing the craft in a forward direction. So, with this technology, the spacecraft itself does not contravene Einstein’s theories, it merely rides the contraction and expansion of space to its destination.

The recovered craft appeared to draw its energy for propulsion directly from the fabric of space-time. It had a photon particle force field surrounding it which was emitted directly from its surface. This force field served as both a shield and screen, eliminating atmospheric friction and  protecting from radiation and debris. It also served to screen time dilation or other relativistic effects and helped acceleration while extracting energy from the craft’s motion through the quantum vacuum. It was once thought that such a propulsion system would require all the energy of the universe, but new theoretical calculations about a decade ago, showed that the mass-energy requirements for a spaceship could be reduced from the equivalent of something the size of the planet Jupiter to that of the size of the Voyager One spacecraft (700 kg) or less. This craft would appear to confirm those calculations.

As stated, all our work in this area is theoretical for the most part, but those who have made this initial study of the craft believe it is a practical faster-than-light vehicle, the ‘real thing’, as it were. I do not have to tell you the significance of these findings to our current scientific thought, space exploration capabilities and technology in general should they prove to be correct.

The Propulsion Division is firmly of the opinion that such technology is well beyond the capabilities of Russia, China or other states with some grasp on the means of space faring. Given our present level of theory and understanding of such propulsion systems, it is projected that several years of study and experimentation would be required for a working knowledge of the technology.

Intelligence Division:  —  The Intelligence Division reports that the craft was outfitted with highly sophisticated optical, infra-red, X-ray radar and spectrographic devices with a resolution capability currently unobtainable. It appeared designed to monitor, photograph and film a huge volume of information. It is also coated with an as yet unknown alloy and paint which would, it is believed, have made it difficult to detect by ground-based radars.

Its communication and antennae equipment appear to be based on some form of  quantum entanglement devices and were set to send data in the direction of Alpha Centauri. The conclusion of the Intelligence Division, with a so far superficial and limited grasp of its capabilities, is that the craft’s function was probably to orbit and study military activities and signals.

Computer Division:—The most astounding findings come from the Computer Division. They report that the craft used Artificial Intelligence networks for its general operations, its navigation and to track and avoid obstacles such as meteors and asteroids.

The on-board computers consisted of a network of four quantum computers of about 50 ‘qubits’ each, working in harmony with a complementary network of half a dozen classical computers.

Once again, let me offer a brief explanation in regard to quantum computing:

Data in a classical computer, with which we are all familiar, is represented by ‘bits’ which can be either 1 or 0. Data in a quantum computer, a ‘qubit’, can be 1 and 0 simultaneously, an effect known as ‘superposition’. This means that calculations can be done much faster on a quantum computer. There are four possible states for the data, 00, 10, 01 or 11. A classical computer needs to check each of the four possibilities one at a time - a quantum computer can check all four states at once. For example, a 500 ‘qubit’ computer could analyse more data than there are atoms in the observable universe.

Although quantum computers could solve in seconds problems that would take classical computers thousands of years, they probably won’t completely replace standard computers but be used for things standard computers find difficult, such as studying natural systems. Another advantage is that ‘qubits’ can be quantumly entangled, that is, they will affect each other from anywhere else in the universe.

Quantum computing is currently being studied in the United States by the National Quantum Initiative and there is also a planned research facility in China and other countries. However, I am reliably informed that our present level of technology and understanding is at the ‘vacuum tube’ stage and the craft’s computers are well beyond that level of development.

The Computer Division also reports that the on-board computers and their function would seem to be consistent with the Intelligence Division’s belief that the spacecraft’s intended purpose was as a military spy satellite. Alarmingly, they found more than this.

Once a rudimentary understanding of the design and operation of the on-board computers had been gained, an interface between the craft’s classical computers and the EAIC computer system was established, no easy task, and further study taking much time will be needed to establish some sort of interface with the quantum computer network.

The craft’s computers did not have screens but displayed their information in a hologram form. It was at the point of beginning to download the craft’s information that a dramatic event occurred. Text began appearing on these hologram displays in six different common languages, including English.

It was clear that whoever implanted this ‘message in a bottle,’ so to speak, within the craft’s computer memories, knew a great deal about our own computer technology and what kind of interface would need to be established.

Conclusion

While I personally am not yet completely convinced that this is a confirmed contact, upon reading a transcript of the message carried by the craft and considering the other scientific evidence to hand so far, it is my recommendation that a Code Daedalus should be initiated.

As your liaison to the President and his advisers I must respect the combined opinion of  the EAIC Science Division and act accordingly. If further evidence shows beyond reasonable doubt that this is a confirmed contact, it is my recommendation that it be regarded as hostile.

I include a copy of the message (Umbra: For Your Eyes Only) and copies of the complete reports to date of the EAIC Science Division. Please let me have your recommendations by noon tomorrow as I would like the full opinion of the committee before I report to the White House at 1800 hours. From this point on please use Daedalus Sigint channels only.

Encl:

1. Transcript from spacecraft.

2. EAIC Science Division’s reports and conclusions.

––––––––

EAIC Sigint B975-23 continued:

Classification: - Top Secret Umbra (For Your Eyes Only).

Attention: - Extraterrestrial Activities Investigation Committee members.

Content: - Transcript from spacecraft recovered 129º W, 29º N by USS Delaware,

1930 hours, June 15th, 2023.

Transcript as follows:—

To the people of conviction on Earth, the people of conscience, those who crave a peaceful future. I bring a warning to your world.

Know now that you are not alone. We are your nearest neighbours, and there are those amongst us who have looked with desire upon your blue island sphere. Your bountiful planet, with its ribbons of life affirming water running to your pounding oceans, its minerals hugged deep to its breast, its air like a translucent shell protecting the nascent life within. But your people? I say if you have faith, pray to Domah, to God, for your people. They are undesired, they are not coveted, they are a mere itching bug found within a comfortable bed. Therein lies your peril.

But, I hear you say, our waters are tainted, our air polluted and harsh, the planet warming day by day, bringing great storms and floods here, deadly droughts there, our precious ice-caps in danger of melting and inundating half the world, hurricanes and disease bringing death and destruction. What use could another race, another species, have for long suffering Earth, its very pores and lungs clogged and wheezing? Ah my friends, you have not seen this world.

Our masters do not listen when the scientists tell them the planet is heating, the climate is changing. They are deaf to the cries of the prophets that ring out around our world. But our home shakes and shudders, convulses and sweats and shivers. Global warming is close to being a runaway system and it will be many centuries before its ravages abate on our world. Those who hold us in thrall think only of wealth and power, use up all our futures, spend them in waste and want.

But who are they, and who am I that must cry alarm over the great distance,  the gulf of night that separates us? First, let me tell you of our world. The Earth and my home are much alike, separated at the births of our respective suns to grow apart and unable until now to communicate. There are those amongst us who say this is not coincidence, that it is part of Domah’s plan. I have no such faith, or at least, only in my most despairing hours, and there have been many, too many to tell in this brief exchange.

We have been aware of your presence for many decades. Sixty years or so ago, we detected the carrier waves of your television broadcasts and the radar signals of what turned out to be your ballistic missile Early Warning Systems falling on our numerous receivers, our many ears, as our astronomers listened to the songs of the stars and wondered as you have wondered if we were alone.

We have sent probes, to us conventionally powered with fission and matter-antimatter engines, long voyages with more than eight year waits for their information, for your secrets. From these we learnt your languages, felt your desires, hopes and ambitions, studied your day to day lives, your reality, your dreams. I say we know you but you do not know us, you do not know yet what to fear, and how great that fear must be. And we are close!

So close it is only ignorance that has kept us apart, it is only lack of the proper tools. In my language, the name of our planet is Charos. Our sun you call Alpha Centauri-A, in your terms, about four light years from Earth. At the moment we are the closest star to you. Eighty thousand years from now that will no longer be true as our respective stars follow their dance around the galaxy and drift apart, but it is the present that concerns us and for now we are neighbours.

We know with your present level of astronomy you have detected several thousand exoplanets and it is only chance that you have not detected Charos. After all, the cosmos does not give up its secrets easily. You have not detected us through direct imaging - looking for a Jupiter sized planet would be like looking for one of your football fields on your Mt Everest, while looking for an Earth sized planet would be like looking for one of your tiny red spiders on that same mountain. Other methods, such as astrometric - looking at a star’s movement to see if there is a planet tugging on it; doppler spectroscopy - the shifting of light to the blue or red depending on whether  the star is moving towards or away from you; transit method - where about one per cent of stars will line up on edge with Earth and planets can be detected as the light dims by a small percentage; microlensing - where you stare at a background star and if something passes between you and the star the light bends and the background star brightens. Despite all of these techniques we have remained hidden and we believe it is only future technology, such as your planned Wide Field Infra-Red Survey star-shade telescope, or the yet to be built Square Kilometre Array radio telescope network that may bring our troubled home to your attention. So as I say, it is chance we have not been discovered, and chance that throws us so close together. But what more can I tell you of my Charos, what needs to be told?

Charos is so like the Earth, used to be so like the Earth, I almost begin to believe those that would put their trust in Domah are right. We are a water planet, seventy five per cent, a cool blue-green sphere seen from beyond the arms of gravity, orbiting high above our turbulent lives. A tilt of eighteen degrees in our axis gives us seasons, not as harsh as those on Earth it is true, but harsh enough. There are five continents, numerous islands, ninety seven different races and many languages. Not as many as Earth, but we have easily spilled as much blood, given ourselves over time and again to war, atrocities, persecution. We have found many ways, reasons to kill. You see my friends? Are we not alike? But we have learned little, while you might yet have hope. But I must resist digression. I must tell you what you need to know, your time, our time, grows ever shorter.

We are larger than Earth, a little. You would, should you walk upon our shores and fields,  find the greater gravity a burden to begin with. Total population of Charos - about nine billion. Too many! Despite the history of wars, poverty, starvation, our populations increase. We have many industrial and agricultural artifices, but we still struggle to sustain so many people. Many go without even the essentials of adequate daily nourishment and other necessities.

But so many separate souls, how do I begin to describe the details of our daily lives? To talk of what we dream at night, of what inspires us? It is hard to know what to say in so brief a message, this historic communication is, as I have said, intended as a warning, but I have been allowed some licence by my colleagues, so I will say what I believe is needed.

Ours is not a world of darkness, but a world of light, a world of pale reflections. When the sun sets, great Kata rises in the sky, our second sun - to your astronomers, Alpha  Centauri-B, at a distance of twenty three Astronomical Units from our sun. At night, our planet is lit as if a solar eclipse was occurring during the day, but as some of your scientists have speculated, Alpha Centauri-B, Kata, is far enough away for planets to have developed around Alpha Centauri-A.

Our literatures, our songs, our myths, are not full of a frightening blackness, but twilight, a time of shadows, of half truths, of ill-illuminated lies. You would think that a world that was bathed in a constant affluence of light would lay open its deeds and conflicts for all to see. Not so. We are a secretive race, our ancestors praying for cover of cloud so that great Kata might not reveal their misconducts,  their treacheries and bloody schemes. We have learned to conceal our inner selves from that incessant light.

Then there is Tokata, brother of Kata, a bright blood spot in the sky - to you the red dwarf star, Proxima Centauri. We know you have discovered the rocky world orbiting Tokata and speculated on whether it has any life. Unfortunately, it is a deadly, hostile world. Tokata gives off great bursts of solar flares that blast the planet you called Proxima Centauri-B, making it unfit for habitation. We have explored it with robotic probes but no peopled landing has been attempted there. Tokata was once worshipped as the God of War by ancient civilizations, as was your sister planet, Mars. It is there now in the sky as I write, like a red beacon, a flag of warning hoisted against the brilliance of Kata, a warning that has not been heeded, that is frustrated by that ever present second sun, that large uncompromising star.

We have other planets in our solar system, six in all - all metallic, including Charos, and several moons orbiting these various worlds. We have explored all these worlds and moons, with probes, with robots, with people. None are fit for habitation and none are practical for exploitation of resources, their climates and conditions so adverse even our technology would not suffice. Only Charos, like Earth, is a happy set of coincidental circumstances - just the right distance from the sun - eighty nine million of your miles - just the right size, a comfortable elliptical orbit - a journey of four hundred days a year. All things in precarious balance and harmony to sustain the creation, the emergence of intelligent life. So here we are, marooned upon our long suffering planet, turning to avarice, indeed theft, to solve our multiple problems.

And what are we like? How would we appear to you? We are humanoid in appearance, opposable thumbs, dextrous hands and fingers, faces that vary of course with our different races, but that are generally of a more obvious oval nature than your own, with a high cranium and eyes about twice the size of yours. We have retained a small amount of body hair, particularly on the heads and faces of males, but we are not as hirsute as the men of earth. We are longer lived than you, with average life expectancy for the more affluent and healthy at one hundred and sixty years. We give birth to our young similar to your mammalian way. It is our belief that the genetic differences between your species and ours may not be that great, that this suggests a homogeneity of life amongst the stars - a subject that could easily fill this communication and many more besides.

I believe that if we met face to face you would not consider us so unusual as to appear utterly alien, but more like a race from your own world, previously undiscovered. Only the Creethum would strike you with their other-worldliness. They are an island race out of contact with the rest of Charos until about one thousand years ago. We have black populations, there are swarthy skinned and pale races. But be assured, we have racial prejudice, indeed, in many parts of Charos the current regime is founded upon it, and across the span of years millions have died because of it. Still, what is in a colour? Are we born with the knowledge of our differences? We all live and love, sleep and dream,  struggle and hope, age and die. As I have said, we have learned little but suffered much.

But how can dry information - the speed of our planet’s rotation, its diameter, annual  rainfalls, strength of magnetic field, isothermal fluctuations, ozone depreciation - convey what the experience of being here is like, to breathe the air of another world, see its sights, taste its waters, feel the swell of its great oceans?

Let me indulge myself for a moment. When I was a child, my family went in Lorias season, summer, to the great Kregias mountains in the north of my country. We stood upon a cliff-top at sunset and looked down into Sa Ula Ah Gyla, the Valley of Light. The air was still and cool, the sweet smell of calfias, a vivid purple alpine flower, hanging in the air like a thick invisible mist. In that spot, at that time of year, the sun sets right into the far mouth of the valley, painting myriad hues and shades across the variegated stone that makes up the great walls falling thousands of feet to the floor below. Then, just before the sun is completely gone, the last rays strike the ryla crystals imbedded all through the walls of the valley. As the last drop of sun touches each crystal it gives off a flash of bluish-white light. It is as if an entire galaxy of stars is being born, living and flaring out of existence in that darkening valley, a brilliant shower of light cascading down. Then, when the sun is gone, Kata is there, making black ghosts of the surrounding peaks, dark giants looking down with disdain on we who dare to behold such beauty.

But Charos has its malevolent touch, interwoven with the fading glory of a once elegant world. When I was a young man I was in a province of Elera, the northern most country of a continent that lies below the equator. The province had been strip-mined on a vast scale, great tracts of arable land denuded and then abandoned when the ore became scarce and uneconomical to recover. The people of  the province were moved to an area in the south of Elera, little better than a desert, a scarred, arid plain that resisted the best attempts at cultivation. Not long after the relocation, the crops failed on a massive scale, there was famine and over two million people were starving.

They came to the nearby towns in search of salvation, but none was afforded. Outside one of these towns, in one of their pitiful encampments, I walked among them as they lay, listless and skeletal in the red dust, the air filled with the crying of hungry infants and the moans of the dying. I stopped in front of one man - there was some quality about him, I don’t know exactly what, some kind of nobility in his expression, a subtle defiance as death began to claim him - I looked into his eyes, calm eyes, I with the well fed flesh on my bones and the sustenance of the elite running through my veins. His gaze held mine and seemed to say - why do I die while you live? Why is the world thus? - I walked on. I turned my back and walked on.

I felt guilt, shame. Despair that suffering on such a scale could prevail unopposed. And none would dare oppose, for this was the work of Sa Jatah - The All, The Everyone, the masters of Charos. I will tell you of Sa Jatah. Time and space do not allow a full history of our world as this may be the only possible communication, but let me spare a few words to take you back in time, to when the present order was born, when Sa Jatah first reached out with its cold hand and grasped our civilization.

About four hundred years ago, certain countries on Charos underwent what you would call an Industrial Revolution. Great factories, powerful machines began to flourish, to transform our cities and landscapes and those countries that had these means began to prosper. It was also a time of exploration of the world, of discovery and conquest, of great ships that went to every corner of  Charos. As a result of these breakthroughs and expanding trade, two great empires began to flourish.

In the Eastern hemisphere was the great continental empire of Tolmara, one nation formed from the annexation of many. In the Western hemisphere was another great agglomeration of acquired and absorbed nations, the mighty Altorum empire. The establishment of these two dynasties was forged largely in the fires of innumerable small wars, fought over territory, trade and resources, but at this stage Tolmara and Altorum, though they had often regarded each other across the diminishing world with bared teeth and snarling political rhetoric, had not openly engaged in conflict on any large scale.

The discovery of oil and the subsequent invention of the combustion engine two hundred years ago changed all that. As on your world, oil quickly became the life blood of our economies and fifty years after its common use there was a great scramble to claim and hold oil rich territories. This led to the first open conflict between Tolmara and Altorum, a war no-one living endured but known and remembered in our language as Sa Mara - The Sorrow - a nine year protraction of slaughter that neither side could win as hundreds of thousands would die to hold oil territories that a season later would fall to the enemy’s hands. At length, with their economies collapsing and growing unrest from their long suffering populations, Tolmara and Altorum sued for peace.

But the war had changed everything, the people would no longer tolerate their former autocratic rulers who had cost them their brothers, their sisters, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers. In Altorum the leadership was overthrown and a system of democracy set in place. But Tolmara was not so fortunate. There Sa Jatah rose out of the disorder and took power. In a few short and bloody years it subdued any resistance, reorganised the empire, gave no credence to democratic principles and declared Altorum to be the unforgiven enemy.

Fifty years of threatened terror ensued. The Tolmaran empire began from day one to prepare anew for its overthrow of Altorum, dedicating its not insubstantial resources to the invention of ever more deadly engines of war. The atom was split, in both Tolmara and Altorum, its secrets began to unfold and were quickly handed over to those who in their hearts still worshipped Tokata, the God of War. Tolmara detonated the first atomic weapon and Altorum, putting aside its petty and dangerous internal squabbles, followed, and both empires began to race towards annihilation, dedicating their economies, their resources to the creation of more powerful, more astringent nuclear devices. 

At this time Sa Jatah was headed by its founder, Kragar Strahger, a bitter man whose father and brother had been killed in the war. Kragar Strahger had an unyielding hatred of all things Altorum, a black desire in his mind to destroy those who had destroyed his family. It is said he awoke one morning and described to his personal servant an inspirational dream.

In  this dream, he stood atop a high mountain with all the peoples of Charos before him, praising his name while if he so wished, with a mere wave of his hand, he could cause the ground to quake, the seas to rise and the stars themselves to go out. That very day he proclaimed Altorum could no longer be tolerated - he declared war. This was the beginning of what came to be called, Kreth Ah Domah - the Storm of God.

The conflict lasted less than three seasons, not even a year. The war escalated in that short space of time to an all out conflagration, only Tolmara or Altorum would remain. In the last eight days of the war Tolmaran nuclear missiles rained down as if Kragar Strahger was indeed commanding the stars and comets of the sky to fall upon his enemies. Fifteen Altorum cities were obliterated from the face of Charos.

The rulers of Altorum bickered amongst themselves as to whether they should launch their own missiles. Fortunately for Charos, wise heads prevailed, and the Altorum government was persuaded by their chief scientists, that a counter strike would bring more retaliation in a never-ending spiral of destruction that would see Tolmara and Altorum eventually launch all of their many thousands of nuclear weapons. This would cause a Nuclear Winter effect that would darken the skies for between twenty and thirty years. All crops would fail, all livestock would die, nine billion people would starve to death and only a few thousand survivors would remain - perhaps enough to repopulate the