Kentaurus Prime is Alpha Centauri I -- the first planet from its primary, Alpha Centauri A. Alpha Centauri is also known as Rigil Kentaurus, and it is from this that Kentaurus Prime gets its Terran name.

Kentaurus Prime orbits its primary at a distance of about 200 million kilometers, or about 1.25 Astronomical Units. Its mass is 30 percent greater than Earth's. The planet's radius is 16,000 kilometers, about 1,000 km greater than Earth's radius, making the planet about 10 percent more dense than Earth and making its gravity about 10 percent greater.

Kentaurus Prime has two moons, Chrii'Mara and Chal'Mara. Chrii'Mara is slightly larger than Mercury and orbits Kentaurus Prime at a distance of 450,000 km. Chal'Mara is roughly the size of Ceres and orbits Kentaurus Prime at an average distance of 75,000 km.

The world's atmosphere is similar to Earth's, but with slightly higher levels of carbon dioxide and higher trace levels of ammonia and methane. The heightened carbon dioxide levels and the warming effect of two suns keep the planet's average temperature around 41° Celsius. In contrast, Terra's average temperature is 25° C.

The Kentauran homeworld also has a great deal more liquid water than Terra -- humidity is a constant 85 percent, and 90 percent of the world's surface is covered in water. Most of the surface water is less than one meter deep, however, with more than 40 percent of it contained as fresh water in wetland terrain.

Kentaurus Prime and its two moons, Chal'Mara and Chrii'Mara.
Artwork © 2004 by Vissroid.

The vast majority of Kentauran flora and fauna are inedible, even poisionous, to Terrans, and vice-versa. Indeed, many xenobiologists were surprised that anything on Kentaurus Prime is compatible with Terran life. The environment is harsh. Animals such as kalreets, semi-intelligent predators much like Terra's now-extinct dinosaurs, make survival in the Kentauran wilderness a daily struggle.

It is an environment, however, in which the Kentauran race 3 billion strong has evolved to survive and prosper. An average Kentauran adult male stands 2.25 meters tall and weighs between 135 and 180 kg. The Kentaurans' outer covering is scaled, organic body armor that is several times stronger than steel. Kentaurans also possess 4-cm retractable claws on each of the four digits of their hands and feet. These claws can slice through the hull of a starfighter.

Kentaurans' vital organs are in their torsos and bear a passing similarity to Terrans' heart and lungs. However, Kentaurans have two hearts and glands along their digestive tracts that perform the same tasks as a Terran's pancreas, liver, and kidneys. Finally, Kentaurans have a specialized set of internal alveoli that pulls water from the air they breathe, so that a Kentauran in his native environment needs to drink very little water.

A Kentauran's head vaguely resembles that of a Terran chameleon. The Kentauran's eyes are in the top-front corners of his head and can move either independently or in tandem. Kentaurans smell through two small nostrils on their snouts, with help from scent receptors on their tongues. Small patches of skin on either side of the nostrils act as a second set of eyes that see infrared. The Kentauran's larynx developed to produce a set of sounds distinct from Terrans' language and can reproduce Terran speech only with difficulty.

The Kentauran-Terran language barrier disappeared within three months of first contact. How we could translate Kentauran so quickly is a mystery that the Terran Explorer Corps has yet to share. The most likely explanation is that one or more members of the team was an Al'Tari linguist -- one of many fields in which the Al'Tari are highly capable. However, one report claims that one or more members of the first contact team understood Kentauran from the first time they heard it.

Terrans and Kentaurans formed the Alliance of Kentaurus, signed by Neprhal and Admiral Tenaka Aug. 24, 2127, and ratified by the Terran Parliament Sept. 2. The terms of the alliance provided for sharing the two nations' commerce and culture, establishing embassies on the two homeworlds, placed the Proxima Centauri system under joint control, and provided for construction of a space station there to accommodate trade and communication between the two worlds.

The Ceti blitzed the Rigil Kentaurus System in April 2146. News from the planet has slowed, and refugee

One of the most recent developments in the war with Tau Ceti has been the occupation of Kentaurus Prime. News from the planet since the Ceti took the system in mid-September has slowed to almost nothing; what remains of a Kentauran government or resistance movement, we do not know. The Terran embassy on Kentaurus Prime is presumed i destroyed; the work that was once done by that embassy is now shared between the Kentauran embassies on Terra and on Providence Station.

Thanks to the Kentauran embassies, and with special thanks to Ambassador Nephryl at Providence Station, we do have some information on Kentauran culture. A more complete database of Kentauran culture and history was destroyed during the Sekhmet incident just days ago; a new database is still under construction. What little we have rebuilt follows.

Kentauran history is a long one--their history as a spacefaring race alone spans the last three thousand years and dates back to the height of their civilization. This height, about two thousand years ago, saw Kentaurus Prime as the capital of a republic that spanned five star systems. What happened to force the decline of this republic to the single star system it now occupies is unclear--we have been able to gather no solid information except for several vague references to an "Ancient Enemy." What has become of the other four star systems, we do not yet know. What we do know is that the Kentauran Republic lost these systems one-at-a-time to their "Ancient Enemy" until, 600 years ago, Kentaurus was the only system remaining in the republic.

The Kentauran culture is also old and remarkably continuous--it has suffered none of the breaks and interruptions that were so frequent throughout Terran culture in the past seven thousand years. Kentauran culture has adapted through a slow process of evolution, though brief periods of revolution and rapid cultural movement are evident at some points in their history.

Kentauran culture is one that keeps Kentaurans immersed in the harsh wilderness that surrounds them. One of the members of the first contact team noted that it is sometimes difficult to tell where a Kentauran city ends and the jungles and wetlands begin. Ambassador Nephryl explains, "We do not hold ourselves apart from nature. We are an integral part of our world's environment. Removing ourselves from this environment, or changing it unnecessarily, does a disservice both to that environment and to our place in it."

This reverence of their natural surroundings is a central common belief in a largely individual belief system. Kentaurus' two suns--Alpha Centauri A and B--play a role as well, both through their affects on the Kentauran day and night, and through their differing significance as "the Eyes." The Eyes, as well as the Kentauran wilderness and other Kentaurans, provide sources of information and inspiration for many Kentaurans.

Ambassador Nephryl provided more information in this area: "Each Kentauran has an inherent awareness of the path he or she must follow, as well as the best means of following it. That does not mean every Kentauran follows his or her own path in the best way possible or at all--we are no more or less flawed than Terrans. We are, however, aware of the individual nature of these paths: what is a good path for me may be the worst possible path for my neighbor.

"There is neither a single best path for inspiration and information. Likewise, there is no single worst path. Most often, the three most reliable sources are one's ears, one's mind, and one's heart. Or hearts. One thing that is required is a strong sense of self-honesty, something we strive for in ourselves. . . and, upon achieving it for ourselves, can discern it in the Universe around us. This honesty has been the source of some. . . enigmatic statements from time to time.

"One more central belief our people hold is the belief that nothing is impossible. To say that something is impossible is to deny that somewhere in an infinite Universe, someone will accomplish it anyway. That I am alive today--that I survived an assassination attempt that should by all rights have killed me-- is an 'impossibility.' That Terrans now use machines to walk among the stars is an impossible feat. . . that you are capable of walking among the stars without the aid of machines is an even more impossible concept. However, the impossibility of the feat has not stopped you from achieving it, nor has the impossibility of the concept.

"Your race will learn in time is that impossibility is a barrier between what can be done. . . and what must be done."