AFTERWORD
It is now forty years since those words were written and much has changed on Mars. On our dying planet, warfare has been replaced with a single-minded struggle for survival. Our communications technology has caught up to that of Earth and we have found this method to share our story with those of you who believe but have been unable to join us on Barsoom.
Rab Taven and his scientists saved the atmosphere plants, and every city and agricultural operation, in every corner of the planet, is now protected by a camouflaged dome. From space Mars appears lifeless. If you should eventually find us, you will be received with courtesy but told to leave. We can see what is happening to you, and we cannot allow you to destroy us as you are destroying your magnificent planet.
Tarin assumed his responsibilities as Jed of Kobol when he came of age, and our irrepressible Cara is a world unto herself. You may hear more of them some day.
Carthan and I returned to the Rift Valley a few years ago but, to our great disappointment and mystification, could not find the colonnaded façade of the portal terminal, though we searched for days. It was as if every atom of its existence had been obliterated.
We often wonder what became of our migrants in Moon Valley. Were they joined by more settlers from the Rift? Did they survive the centuries, eventually blending into European settlements? Or did they perhaps add their genes to those of the Ktunaxa people? After twelve hundred years there is no way to know.
And yet . . . now that I think back on my teaching years in the valley, I recall two or three children who had startlingly white hair. . .
Lara O'Dae, Kobol, 2013