"William H. Keith Jr. - Warstrider 03 - Jackers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Keith jr William H)

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 94-94313
ISBN: 0-380-77591-3

All rights reserved, which includes the right to
reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form
whatsoever except as provided by the U.S. Copyright Law.
For information address The Ethan Ellenberg Literary
Agency, 548 Broadway, #5-E, New York, New York 10012.

First AvoNova Printing: November 1994

AVONOVA TRADEMARK REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. AND IN
OTHER COUNTRIES. MARCA REG1STRADA. HECHO
EN U.S.A.

Printed in the U.S.A.
 RA 10 987654321




Prologue


It was the celebration of the new year, the first day of
the month of Sho-gatsu, and the celebrations were in full
swing throughout the vast, slow-turning wheel that was
Tenno Kyuden, the Palace of Heaven. His Divine Majesty,
the Emperor of Man, had left the parties and ceremonials
early, however, retiring to his private quarters. Now, he
floated alone in space, the stars of the Shichiju scattered
about him, colored motes in emptiness. That vista of suns
adrift against the fog-glowing band of the Milky Way was
illusion, of course, a ViReality given form and texture by
the AIs that governed the palace, but the Emperor found it
a useful one, a way of putting into perspective his own
relative unimportance against the sweep and glory of the
galactic backdrop.
There were many among his subjects who thought of
the Emperor as a godтАж though Shiginori Konoye the man
was all too aware of his own frailty. In the eighty-fifth year
of his reign, which he had called Fushi, an era-name
meaning Immortality, he was 181 Terran Standard years
old. With medical nangineering and the antisenescence
meteffectors coursing through his veins, cleaning,
rebuilding, and repairing, there was theoretically no limit to
the years of additional life he could expect. Expecting,
however, was one thing. Wanting was something else.
Shiginori Konoye was tired.
With most of his life passing here within the Imperial