a brief history of ooranye
36: The actinium fulfilment

[continued from 35: Tu Rim]

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 Terran 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 the 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 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 contribute to the push of that outcome.

Secondly, towards the end of the era, during UTU-8, 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 us, the Terrans. From Day 11,002,739 of the Actinium Era (which occurred during our year 3564 AD), our scientists 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, it became apparent from this stand-offishness of ours that we were enforcing some sort of blockade of the planet, or else skirting an invisible barrier. This gave the Uranians a clue as to what Year Zero might bring: the breaking of the blockade or barrier, followed by their achievement of space travel. That would signal their challenge to Earth!

Meanwhile long conversations and exchanges of ideas took place over the radio. 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 without any accompanying drastic event. People had been waiting with bated breath for a world-changing cataclysmic something, yet life went on as before. Sunnoad Iyen Noom 80525 and his advisors knew that matters could not be allowed to rest thus. Fate evidently was waiting for the Nenns to act. So 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. Only thus could Year Zero be fittingly marked.

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.

>> A Brief History of Ooranye