The Actinium
Era - era 89 - lasted 11,176,884 Uranian days, or 456 Uranian
years; equivalent
to 38,319 Earth
years.
In character and outlook it was the last
great "pure" Uranian era, before our present era of space travel
and interplanetary contact caused that subtle change of atmosphere
brought about by the immigration of even small numbers of
off-worlders.
To a remarkable degree, era 89 was
also the epitome, the summing up, the fulfilment of all earlier eras. Just
as the blood of fourteen thousand lifetimes of humanity flowed
in the veins of the Actinium Era Nenns, so did glimmers
from their past light up their present culture with some of the brilliance
of the Phosphorus and the Osmium, the daring of the
Vanadium and the Praesodymium, the mystic glow of the
Argon and the Cobalt, the heroism of the Rubidium and the Francium, the
wisdom of the Zinc and the Gold, the moral, mental and physical hues of
88 ages in all their variety of length and experience.
Blending with
these were some new ingredients, as follows:
Firstly, the approach of Uranian Year Zero.
(See Systems of historical dating in use on Ooranye
.) At the start of era 89, the UTU countdown stood at
-456 Uranian years. This meant that the Year Zero was still so
many lifetimes in the future (remember, one Uranian year, at 84 of
Earth's years, is a longish lifetime) that it was hard to relate to
it personally. Yet, as the number gradually crept down, it became
food for thought in idle moments, especially as the lengthening Actinium
Era began to seem the probable last great era before the
Zero. Reflective minds began to wonder what the final shape of
society might be like, as Zero approached, and how that might affect the outcome
of whatever stupendous event was destined to happen in that year; and
what one's own self might personally do to contribute one's
own little push to that outcome.
Secondly,
during UTU-8 towards the end of the era, there occurred an event so
striking that, had it not been for the UTU countdown being so close to
its end, would surely have caused an
eomasp. This event was none other
than First Contact with the Terrestrials.
From Day 11,002,739 of the Actinium Era, the scientists
from Earth in their orbiting ships began to survey Ooranye and
converse with its inhabitants. As days went by and they did not
land, nor offer to bring any Uranian aloft in their ships,
it became apparent that they were enforcing some sort of blockade
of the planet. This, in turn, gave Uranians a clue to what
Year Zero, when it came, might bring: their breaking of the
blockade, their achievement of space travel, their challenge to
Earth. Meanwhile Earth history, language and ways of thought began to tinge
the culture of Ooranye (and vice versa).
The crisis which did cause the
eomasp which
brought era 89 to its end, occurred when UTU-0 arrived
and nothing seemed to happen. People had been waiting with
bated breath for something world-changing and perhaps cataclysmic, yet life
went on as before. Sunnoad Iyen Noom 80525 and his advisors
knew that matters could not be allowed to rest like this. Fate, evidently,
was waiting for the Nenns to act; the Year Zero event would have to
be caused deliberately. The people of Syoom must do something so big that
it could not have been dared at any other time. Thus it would fittingly mark
Year Zero.
By this reasoning, the decision was made to try to
succeed where Fiarr Fosn 723 and the Great Fleet of the Phosphorus Era
had failed.
>> The Assault on Arclour
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