St Jacobs

St Jacobs (Chara III)

Fictional planet. First mentioned (only as Chara III) in The Chara Talisman.

The primary star, Chara (aka Beta Canis Minoris) is at the extreme edge of what is considered T-Space in the Carson & Roberts era. As a result, the planet is rarely visited, although it has clearly terraformed. There is some archeological evidence that there once was a native species at least capable of agriculture, but there no records of human contact, and they are probably extinct.

There are no cities as such. The planet is largely uninhabited except for a Mennonite farming community, New Conestogo, who gave the planet its name (after a town on Earth in a largely Mennonite area of southern Ontario).

The planet has two moons, both smaller than Earth's. There are at least three continents, one extending over the north pole (the pyramid is on this one, in the mountains to the west of a central plain), the other, southern continent the site of the farming community (New Conestogo)

"Chara III loomed large in the forward window screens. The coloring was Earth-like, with deep blue oceans, dark green vegetation on the three large land masses, mixed with the browns of desert and the white of snow-capped mountains and polar ice. The south polar region was ocean, with patches of sea ice reflecting white. A large, roughly peanut-shaped land mass stretched from the equator to over the north pole, covering perhaps a quarter of the northern hemisphere. Patterns of white cloud swirled about the planet."

-- from The Chara Talisman, Chapter 20