These vague imaginings appeared as translucent figures in Yang’s consciousness. He accepted that universal hegemony was Emperor Reinhard’s alone. To make up for it, he would establish his republican autonomy on a frontier planet in preparation for the inevitable erosion and collapse of the Lohengramm Dynasty. There he would nurture the sprout of a pan-humanist democracy. The time needed for growth and qualitative advancement of such democratic ideals was much longer than any he needed for himself.
Once humanity was intoxicated by the drug of a sovereign nation, no social system would exist in which the nation didn’t sacrifice individuals. But social systems in which the sacrifice of individuals by nations was difficult to achieve seemed to live up to their intended value. Not everything would be accomplished in Yang’s lifetime. But he could sow the seeds. He was no match for Ahle Heinessen and his ten thousand–light-year march.
Even so, Yang was more aware than ever of his own unavoidable omnipotence. If he had any ability to predict the future, it was in his ability to make the tactically impregnable Iserlohn Fortress a base of democratic government, despite having to abandon it in order to save the Free Planets Alliance, and to guarantee his freedom of movement.
But there was no use in regretting it now. For starters, during the Vermillion War that followed, he’d ignored the government’s order yet was unable to finish off Reinhard von Lohengramm. In the end, Yang acted to the best of his abilities. He, too, wanted the intelligence and resources of the Phezzanese.
“Phezzan, huh?”
Yang was unaware that Emperor Reinhard had designs to relocate the capital to Phezzan and make it the center of the universe. Neither did he know that Phezzan was intimately connected to the Church of Terra, and had, in fact, acted as its puppet. But it was an indispensable element in his long-term plans. Ideally, he thought, he could use Boris Konev as an intermediary to borrow the power of independent merchants. But that, too, would have to wait until Julian returned. Yang interrupted his walk through a maze of speculation as he took the beret off his face.
“Frederica, a cup of black tea.”
He then put the beret back on his face. No one could hear the words he muttered under it.
“Two months, just two months! If things had gone as planned, I wouldn’t have had to work for another five years…”
After being set free by the “rebel force,” João Lebello naturally wanted to negotiate with an enraged Imperial Navy, but before that gave the following instructions to the national defense committee.
“I want a letter reinstating Admiral Bucock to his former position. We might just need him if we’re going to mop up Yang and his gang.”
Although Lebello was anxious about plowing a one-way course to villainy, his sense of duty to protect the alliance’s independence and sovereignty from the empire’s coercion had only grown stronger. Future historians would likewise recognize that he drew a line between the elites who tried to deceive Yang Wen-li. Ultimately, Lebello believed in his country, whereas Yang didn’t. Perhaps the wall had grown too thick between these two who would ideally have worked together. But Lebello was truly reluctant to have his accomplishments remembered by posterity only in relation to Yang Wen-li.
As the reflected stars twinkled in her indigo eyes, Katerose von Kreutzer, called Karin, stood on the observation deck of the warship Ulysses. Her cheeks were flushed from having just finished her training, her pulse slightly elevated above normal. With one leg stretched out straight and the other slightly bent, her back was barely touching the wall—just like her father, as her mother used to say. She thought it was annoying. Who didn’t strike this pose at some point? If she were a man it wouldn’t matter, but as a woman, she didn’t take kindly to being likened to a man she’d never met.
Karin crushed the paper cup that had contained her protein-enriched alkali drink. She tried to shake off her father’s imagined face, only to replace it with another. Having only just met that flaxen-haired boy two years her senior, she was reluctant to remember him.
“What’s so special about that weakling anyway?”
Muttering an insult she didn’t necessarily believe, Karin returned her attention to the vast ocean of stars, as yet unaware that, somewhere along those waves, her father’s cruiser was making its approach.
The year SE 799 had already proved traumatic for humanity, and it still had a third left to go. No single year in history, it seemed, had ever been so greedy about giving time to breathe. Whatever it was that had been set in motion, people had no way of knowing if the cards were in their favor. They were all sick of war, but not yet used to peace.
On August 13, an autonomous entity in a star system near the Iserlohn Corridor declared its secession from the empire-ruled alliance.
El Facil.
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 career 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.
HAIKASORU
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USURPER OF THE SUN—HOUSUKE NOJIRI
Aki Shiraishi is a high school student working in the astronomy club and one of the few witnesses to an amazing event—someone is building a tower on the planet Mercury. Soon, the Builders have constructed a ring around the sun, threatening the ecology of Earth with an immense shadow. Aki is inspired to pursue a career in science, and the truth. She must determine the purpose of the ring and the plans of its creators, as the survival of both species—humanity and the alien Builders—hangs in the balance.
THE OUROBOROS WAVE—JYOUJI HAYASHI
Ninety years from now, a satellite detects a nearby black hole scientists dub Kali for the Hindu goddess of destruction. Humanity embarks on a generations-long project to tap the energy of the black hole and establish colonies on planets across the solar system. Earth and Mars and the moons Europa (Jupiter) and Titania (Uranus) develop radically different societies, with only Kali, that swirling vortex of destruction and creation, and the hated but crucial Artificial Accretion Disk Development association (AADD) in common.
TEN BILLION DAYS AND ONE HUNDRED BILLION NIGHTS—RYU MITSUSE
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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Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Volume 6 Page 25
