Ambition (36 page)

What Yang did receive was a number of ostentatiously named medals: Free Warrior First Class, Glory of the Republic, the Heinessen Memorial Award for Outstanding Military Service, and more. When he got home, Yang noticed that the little boxes that the medals came in were just the right size, so he used them to keep bars of soap in and tossed the medals themselves into a corner of his locker. Julian supposed that the only reason he didn’t throw them away was that he was planning to eventually sell them off to an antique dealer and use the money to buy history books and liquor.

What Yang had been happier about than the medals was that he had managed to get Merkatz a status of “guest admiral”—meaning he was to be treated as a vice admiral. He had also had him named “special advisor to Iserlohn Fortress commander.” Eventually, he was sure to become an admiral officially, and having Merkatz’s experience in fighting enemies to the fore, as well as his prudence in dealing with allies to the aft, would surely be of great help to Yang. Particularly since a major battle against Duke von Lohengramm of the empire might be coming as soon as next year.

Yang’s subordinates, too, were buried under mountains of medals and letters of appreciation, but since Yang himself wasn’t promoted, their ranks stayed the same as well … with one exception. Due to his accomplishments in the battle to liberate Shanpool, von Schönkopf advanced to rear admiral. This was because the residents of Shanpool had strongly demanded it, it was explained, but with there being only one promotion, a crack appeared in the Yang Fleet’s unity, and one theory even claimed that the promotion had been ordered out of spite by Admiral Dawson, acting director of Joint Operational Headquarters. Admiral Cubresly had been released from the hospital and would be returning to active duty soon, so this was Admiral Dawson’s final act as acting director.

Also, while certainly not a matter of high-ranking officers, Julian’s military equivalency was changed from lance corporal to sergeant. Now he was a junior officer. It was said that Chairman Trünicht had personally put in a good word for him, but regardless of how Julian had gotten there, this meant that he now had the qualification needed to board assault craft such as spartanians. For Yang, this meant that the decision about whether or not to honor the boy’s wish to enlist was closing in on him.

Also, Captain Bay advanced to rear admiral and was named Trünicht’s head of security. Although he was believed at first to have participated in the coup d’état, he had in fact informed the council chair of the plot, and in recognition of his having helped the head of state escape, he had not merely been forgiven but had been given an entirely new position.

It was also during this period that a trader from Phezzan by the name of Boris Konev arrived on Heinessen and took a job in the commissioner’s office …

On a frontier planet several thousand light-years removed from the imperial capital of Odin, a meeting was being held in an old stone building in an out-of-the-way corner of a desolate mountainous region.

After listening to what the men in black robes had to say, an old man who was also wearing black said in a dry voice, “It’s not that I don’t understand your complaints. In the recent struggle, Rubinsky was not necessarily efficient. That’s certainly true.”

“It’s not only that, Your Holiness. It’s rather the lack of passion he engenders. All I can think is he’s forgotten our goal and has gone running off after his own interests. ‘Another two or three years.’ ‘Another two or three years.’ That’s all he says.”

Filled with indignation, a relatively younger voice replied: “Don’t get impatient. We’ve waited eight hundred years—another two or three mean nothing. For now, let’s give Rubinsky time. If he’s abandoned Mother Earth, the next trip he takes will be to the grave.”

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.

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.

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—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.