Epilogue
Saturday 18 June 2831
María Escovedo was in pain; mental anguish actually. She was watching a tragedy unfold while being totally helpless. María was not alone. The entire solar system watched as the Trillium Support facility released selected videos for public viewing.
They watched as 17-year-old Esperanza Ramirez requisitioned and collected bomb-making materials and chemicals. They watched as over the following weeks she ever-so-carefully fashioned the components into three devices, each with an electronic timer. Some watched with a morbid fascination, but most watched with horror. The pain of helplessness afflicted planet Earth.
They were watching history. They were watching something that had happened three lightyears away and there was no longer a way to affect the outcome. Charlatans and idiots claimed they could send psychic messages instantaneously across the void. A few even claimed they succeeded in achieving hyperspeed communications using quantum entanglement. Most religious people hoped their prayers would be answered.
The best chance to avert disaster was far more prosaic. Trillium Support sent out a message nearly 6 years ago alerting the crew to the possibility that something diabolical was brainwashing Esperanza and perhaps recruiting her to sabotage Project Trillium.
Everyone watched now as the plot played out. Everyone watched as Esperanza and a robot planted the deadly devices just minutes before the warning message was expected to arrive. ¿Would the message arrive in time to interrupt the plot? There was a betting line on the outcome and as the deadline approached, the smart money was on disaster.
The world watched as the warning message arrived and the bombs had not yet detonated. The world watched as crew members woke to watch the incoming warning. The world watched heartbroken as the video suddenly became nothing but random snow and buzzing.
Sunday 19 June 2833
The video feed from Trillium arrived crisp and clear. After buffering and playing back 15% faster, an emotionally drained audience at Trillium Support gratefully cheered, hugged one another, and watched. Esperanza Ramirez sat cross-legged on the floor wearing a long-sleeved yellow shirt open at the front revealing a black halter top and grey mid-thigh shorts. Her golden blond hair hung to her shoulders. She was barefoot. Beside her stood her mother, Estrella, cradling a sleeping Angelina.
“Hi everybody. It’s me, Es Ramirez, the brainwashed bomber. Well, not really brainwashed and not really a bomber, as you’ve undoubtedly figured out by now. But I sure scared the crap out of my mom. I consider that fair payback for not believing me all these years.”
“You, girl, are going to like pay dearly for my grey hairs from that bomb scare,” interrupted her mother.
“Mom. Let me explain to the folks back home what went down.”
“Go ahead. I promise not to butt in again … until I do.”
“OK. Sometime back when I was thirteen, probably, I wanted to see some videos that I didn’t feel comfortable having my secret friend know about. You probably know what I mean.” At that, Esperanza gave an exaggerated stage wink.
“I knew that she, the ‘voice’, could hear and see just about everything I did. Also, she knew what stuff I requested from other crewmembers; stuff like photos and videos. So, I started experimenting. After a few trials, I knew that she wasn’t so magical after all. She used the same cams & microphones that the controller used to record what we do; and curiously she did not know about stuff I downloaded from the library to my e-pad. So, I got to look at the videos I wanted.”
Esperanza paused to drink from a cup and then continued. “You gotta realize that at that time I totally believed that Guthi-guthi was real and great; apologies to Star Children out there. But since my secret friend wasn’t so magical, I started questioning the things she said to me. I guess it took a couple of years before I also questioned her motives. And then mom encouraged me to read her book manuscript. That’s when I learned about all the dirty deeds against mom and Trillium perpetrated in the name of Guthi-guthi.
“Sure enough; last month she asked me to make three bombs – one for each of the modules. She even helped me with all the chemicals and plans. Of course I made them so they couldn’t explode at all; they just looked enough like bombs to fool her.
“I got to thinking about how all this secret conversation and stuff was going on without the controller being aware; well I was studying computer technology so I figured that somewhere on Trillium some data component was probably hacked to host an AI system. And probably the only thing keeping my secret friend safe was that it was hunkered down. I figured that if it popped its head up, the controller would pull its plug.
“So, I programmed a service on the controller that would make it stop broadcasting Trillium’s time signals like a tenth of a second before the bombs were supposed to detonate. That would also stop the timers in the fake bombs since I rigged them to work from the time signals. I figured the little fucker would shit bricks when …”
“ESPERANZA!”
“Yes, mom,” Esperanza snidely replied as she turned and glared at her mother before continuing. “I figured my secret friend would freak out and take the chance to come out of hiding to advance the clocks just a tenth second more. Then the controller would know about her, be able to locate her, and delete her.
“Well, with your warning message coming when it did and with mom coming to my room when she did, my secret friend popped her head up early to block the warning and to keep me from talking to mom. So, the controller blew her away early. So much for my cleverness.”
Estrella interjected, “Dear, I wish you would have let us in on all of this.”
Esperanza turned and gave her mother an evil-eye glare for a long moment before turning back to the camera. “So, if you have any questions for me, just send them to Trillium Support. Maybe your question will be among those selected to be forwarded to me. You’ll get your answer in about seven years.”
With that, Esperanza smiled broadly and waved good-bye to the camera.