The Grand Bishop stared at the western horizon beyond the window. A shining disk of orange was dyeing the land and the sky in brilliant evening colors. The sun showed not the slightest sign of aging, but what of Earth? Though praised in song for bringing life to the universe, it was merely the doddering, geriatric offspring of that brilliant sun now.
The trees had withered, the soil had lost its nutrients, and the birds and the fish had practically vanished from the sky and the sea. And after polluting and destroying the world that was its mother, the human race had abandoned this planet, rushing hurriedly off to their foolish slaughters among the stars.
That would last only a little bit longer, though. Humanity’s homeland would be revived, and once again, it would be from Earth that history began. The last eight centuries of misbegotten history, the history of that period when humanity had abandoned the Earth, had to be erased.
It wasn’t as if there wasn’t any progress on that front. After all, the leader of one of the two great powers had fallen under their spell. Eventually, the other surely would as well. Beneath the dry, withered skin of the Grand Bishop, a burning certainty was growing.
SE 797, IC 488. An unusual year, in that the flames of war did not blaze between the two powers dividing humanity. Vast energies had been expended by both on civil wars and their resolutions, but unlike years past, they had been unable to launch large-scale military expeditions at one another.
Both of their civil wars had produced victors, but whether those victors were satisfied with their victories was another matter altogether. As one gained something enormous while losing something dear, the other increased in allies while a danger from behind increased as well.
In any case, in times such as these, one year’s tranquility did nothing at all to guarantee peace for the following year. The Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance, and both of their peoples, felt that this year of undeclared truce was only a promise of more war in the next year and couldn’t help feeling more uneasy instead of less.
That year, Reinhard von Lohengramm was twenty-one, and Yang Wen-li was thirty. Both still had more future in their lives than past.
about the author
Yoshiki Tanaka was born in 1952 in Kumamoto Prefecture and completed a doctorate in literature at Gakushuin University. Tanaka won the Gen’eijo (a mystery magazine) New Writer Award with his debut story “Midori no Sogen ni…” (On the green field…) in 1978, then started his carrier as a science fiction and fantasy writer. Legend of the Galactic Heroes, which translates the European wars of the nineteenth century to an interstellar setting, won the Seiun Award for best science fiction novel in 1987. Tanaka’s other works include the fantasy series The Heroic Legend of Arslan and many other science fiction, fantasy, historical, and mystery novels and stories.
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Ten billion days—that is how long it will take the philosopher Plato to determine the true systems of the world. One hundred billion nights—that is how far into the future Jesus of Nazareth, Siddhartha, and the demigod Asura will travel to witness the end of all worlds. Named the greatest Japanese science fiction novel of all time, Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights is an epic eons in the making. Originally published in 1967, the novel was revised by the author in later years and republished in 1973.
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