Inferno: A Chronicle of a Distant World (The Galactic Comedy)

by Mike Resnick

After her ship took off, I drove to the lab, pushed all thoughts of her from my mind, and spent the rest of the day working fruitlessly on a cure for the SLIM disease.

  Epilogue

  James Krakanna sat at his desk, a pile of documents to his left, an equally high pile to his right. He sighed and looked out over the city center.

  There was so much work to be done, so much more than he had anticipated out there in the forest, when his enemies were Barioke and then Dushu—tangible, palpable things. Now his only enemy was failure, for while Faligor could live with Dushu's army in the north and the disease that was eating away at its core, it had hope for the future again, and the only thing it couldn't tolerate was another undermining of that hope.

  How did I chance to be sitting here, he asked himself. I'm just a schoolteacher. I never aspired to the presidency, never wanted it, and now I seem unable to relinquish it. I suppose it is that while my skills may not be up to the task, my vision is clear. I see where we came from and where we are, and I see where we must go. It is a twisting, winding road with many obstacles, but we must traverse it, and we must do so on our own.

  We have come a long way since Susan Beddoes first met with the Sitate Disanko. It is but one lifetime, yet it has encompassed almost five million lives. We have had a mirror held up to our collective soul, and we have not liked what we have seen there.

  I don't know what the future holds for me, or even if I can stay the course—but I know the diamond still exists, washed clean with the blood of my people. It has survived the worst intentions of ourselves and the best intentions of others, so doubtless it will survive me too.

  Krakanna sighed again, and he picked a document off the top of the pile. The future would have to take care of itself. His job was here in the present, and it was time to go back to work.

  Still, he wished he could be here to see what his world had become in the next fifty or eighty years. He was almost certain that he would be proud of it.

  —The End—

  CHRONOLOGY

  Chronology of the universe created in BIRTHRIGHT: THE BOOK OF MAN (through May 1, 2010), showing the year, the era, and the title:

  1885 A.D. "The Hunter" (IVORY)

  1898 A.D. "Himself" (IVORY)

  1982 A.D. SIDESHOW

  1983 A.D. THE THREE-LEGGED HOOTCH DANCER

  1985 A.D. THE WILD ALIEN TAMER

  1987 A.D. THE BEST ROOTIN' TOOTIN' SHOOTIN'

  GUNSLINGER IN THE WHOLE DAMNED GALAXY

  2057 A.D. "The Politician" (IVORY)

  2908 A.D. 1 G.E.

  16 G.E. Republic "The Curator" (IVORY)

  264 G.E. Republic "The Pioneers" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  332 G.E. Republic "The Cartographers" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  346 G.E. Republic WALPURGIS III

  367 G.E. Republic EROS ASCENDING

  396 G.E. Republic "The Miners" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  401 G.E. Republic EROS AT ZENITH

  442 G.E. Republic EROS DESCENDING

  465 G.E. Republic EROS AT NADIR

  522 G.E. Republic "All the Things You Are"

  588 G.E. Republic "The Psychologists" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  616 G.E. Republic A MIRACLE OF RARE DESIGN

  882 G.E. Republic "The Potentate" (IVORY)

  962 G.E. Republic "The Merchants" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  1150 G.E. Republic "Cobbling Together a Solution"

  1151 G.E. Republic "Nowhere in Particular"

  1152 G.E. Republic "The God Biz"

  1394 G.E. Republic "Keepsakes"

  1701 G.E. Republic "The Artist" (IVORY)

  1813 G.E. Republic "Dawn" (PARADISE)

  1826 G.E. Republic PURGATORY

  1859 G.E. Republic "Noon" (PARADISE)

  1888 G.E. Republic "Midafternoon" (PARADISE)

  1902 G.E. Republic "Dusk" (PARADISE)

  1921 G.E. Republic INFERNO

  1966 G.E. Republic STARSHIP: MUTINY

  1967 G.E. Republic STARSHIP: PIRATE

  1968 G.E. Republic STARSHIP: MERCENARY

  1969 G.E. Republic STARSHIP: REBEL

  1970 G.E. Republic STARSHIP: FLAGSHIP

  2122 G.E. Democracy "The 43 Antarean Dynasties"

  2154 G.E. Democracy "The Diplomats" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  2239 G.E. Democracy "Monuments of Flesh and Stone"

  2275 G.E. Democracy "The Olympians" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  2469 G.E. Democracy "The Barristers" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  2885 G.E. Democracy "Robots Don't Cry"

  2911 G.E. Democracy "The Medics" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  3004 G.E. Democracy "The Policitians" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  3042 G.E. Democracy "The Gambler" (IVORY)

  3286 G.E. Democracy SANTIAGO

  3322 G.E. Democracy A HUNGER IN THE SOUL

  3324 G.E. Democracy THE SOUL EATER

  3324 G.E. Democracy "Nicobar Lane: The Soul Eater's Story"

  3407 G.E. Democracy THE RETURN OF SANTIAGO

  3427 G.E. Democracy SOOTHSAYER

  3441 G.E. Democracy ORACLE

  3447 G.E. Democracy PROPHET

  3502 G.E. Democracy "Guardian Angel"

  3504 G.E. Democracy "A Locked-Planet Mystery"

  3504 G.E. Democracy "Honorable Enemies"

  3505 G.E. Democracy "If the Frame Fits…"

  3719 G.E. Democracy "Hunting the Snark"

  4375 G.E. Democracy "The Graverobber" (IVORY)

  4822 G.E. Oligarchy "The Administrators" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  4839 G.E. Oligarchy THE DARK LADY

  5101 G.E. Oligarchy THE WIDOWMAKER

  5103 G.E. Oligarchy THE WIDOWMAKER REBORN

  5106 G.E. Oligarchy THE WIDOWMAKER UNLEASHED

  5108 G.E. Oligarchy A GATHERING OF WIDOWMAKERS

  5461 G.E. Oligarchy "The Media" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  5492 G.E. Oligarchy "The Artists" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  5521 G.E. Oligarchy "The Warlord" (IVORY)

  5655 G.E. Oligarchy "The Biochemists" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  5912 G.E. Oligarchy "The Warlords" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  5993 G.E. Oligarchy "The Conspirators" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  6304 G.E. Monarchy IVORY

  6321 G.E. Monarchy "The Rulers" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  6400 G.E. Monarchy "The Symbiotics" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  6521 G.E. Monarchy "Catastrophe Baker and the Cold Equations

  6523 G.E. Monarchy THE OUTPOST

  6524 G.E. Monarchy "Catastrophe Baker and a Canticle for

  Leibowitz

  6599 G.E. Monarchy "The Philosophers" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  6746 G.E. Monarchy "The Architects" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  6962 G.E. Monarchy "The Collectors" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  7019 G.E. Monarchy "The Rebels" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  16201 G.E. Anarchy "The Archaeologists" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  16673 G.E. Anarchy "The Priests" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  16888 G.E. Anarchy "The Pacifists" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  17001 G.E. Anarchy "The Destroyers" (BIRTHRIGHT)

  21703 G.E. "Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge"

  Novels not set in this future:

  ADVENTURES (1922-1926 A.D.)

  EXPLOITS (1926-1931 A.D.)

  ENCOUNTERS (1931-1934 A.D.)

  HAZARDS (1934-1939 A.D.)

  STALKING THE UNICORN ("Tonight")

  STALKING THE VAMPIRE ("Tonight")

  STALKING THE DRAGON ("Tonight")

  THE BRANCH (2047-2051 A.D.)

  SECOND CONTACT (2065 A.D.)

  BULLY! (1910-1912 A.D.)

  KIRINYAGA (2123-2137 A.D.)

  KILIMANJARO (2234-2241 A.D.)

  LADY WITH AN ALIEN (1490 A.D.)

  A CLUB IN MONTMARTRE (1890-1901 A.D.)

  DRAGON AMERICA: REVOLUTION (1779-1780 A.D.)

  THE WORLD BEHIND THE DOOR (1928 A.D.)

  THE OTHER TEDDY ROOSEVELTS (1888-1919 A.D.)

  THE BUNTLINE SPECIAL (1881 A.D.)

 

 

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