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Futures 9: Epilog
June 6, 2043
Molly glanced at her watch. It was four o’clock, on the eve of her and Elle’s birthday. Although it was Saturday, the whole family: she, Elle, Al, and Anne were gathered in Anne’s office, the Director’s Office at the Department of Temporal Affairs. Night, too, was present in the form of a hacked smart speaker.
“Why we here, Anne?” asked Molly. “Aren’t we goin’ to your place to party?”
“I honestly don’t know,” Anne said. “Night asked me to gather you all here at four.”
“Well, Night?” Alberto said. “What’s up?”
“DoTA has laid on a surprise party for the five of us,” Night answered.
“How come I don’t know about this?” Anne asked. “I was under the impression that I was the Director of DoTA!”
“You are now. But you will not always be,” Night answered. “it’s a 200th birthday party for Elle and Molly.”
“Hey Night, we’re only 35. We’ll be 36 tomorrow,” Molly pointed out.
At her remark, a time-gate materialized at the office door.
“Ooo…” said Elle. “Which 200th birthday are we going to?”
“You were born June 7, 1907,” answered Night. “We’re headed for June 6, 2107.”
“And what about you, Night? DoTA would be nothing without you. Surely you will celebrate with us. Is there a time-gate you can go through?” Anne asked.
“Not necessary,” Night answered.
“Whenever you are, Night is always there,” Al added.
The time-gate went black. Al took Anne’s hand and led her through. Molly led Elle through.
They walked out of the time-gate onto a dais. At the front of the dais there were four large chairs. A distinguished-looking woman guided the four of them to these almost-thrones. Behind them, there were two rows of simpler chairs, already occupied. Molly didn’t recognize any of the people seated there. She quickly calculated that 64 years had passed between 2043 and 2107. She scanned the older faces looking for someone she might have known in their youth, but she recognized none. Below the dais the floor of the auditorium was filled with cheap chairs. These were full of spectators. Molly could not make out any of their faces—the audience lights were dim.
The woman who had guided them to their seats walked to the front. She raised her hands to greet the audience. Her voice, amplified, rang out. As she spoke, a 3D hologram of Anne, Al, Elle, Molly, and the globe appeared above the dais, where the audience could see.
Molly was impressed. There was no such 3D projection in her times.
The woman said, “I, Ana Rodriguez, Director of the Department of Temporal Affairs welcome you all to this 200th birthday celebration. In its early years, before it had a name, the Department of Temporal Affairs was a family affair. One day less than two hundred years ago, on June 7, 1907, Elliotte Gardiner was born, the daughter of Anne Gardiner and Alberto Gonzalez. On the same day in Virginia, Molly Johnson was born.”
This Molly reflected, was not true. She had not been born on June 7, nor was she named Molly. They all knew that, of course, or at least guessed. But Molly herself barely remembered her birth name or her actual birth date. On August 15, 1921 she had been reborn into Al and Elle’s family as Molly Johnson, age 14. Until the day she died, she would be Molly Johnson, born June 7, 1907.
The Boss
A portrait hologram of Anne appeared before the dais, with the words “The Boss” in large block letters above her.
“The Department of Temporal Affairs was officially established in 2014. Even before that, Anne Gardiner, who would become its first Director, played the leading role in its first operation. The goal of this first operation was the development of time-travel as a practical technology. The operation began with the birth of the girl who would become the physicist to work it out. Using a time-gate sent from the future, the newly pregnant Anne traveled back to 1906. Seven months later, she gave birth to her daughter Elliotte, the future theorist of time-travel. Anne soon returned to 2014, to the very day from which she had left. No one in 2014 knew of her absence or that she had a daughter.
“With the help of time-travelers from the future, Anne set about the job of establishing the Department of Temporal Affairs. For the next ten years they worked to establish DoTA, and to set it in operation, so that it would be ready when Elliotte and Alberto returned from 1925.”
This story was new to Molly. When Anne traveled back to 1906, she had been married to Al. No one knew that she had left, but Al vanished for 11 years, from 2014 to 2025. She looked at Anne, sitting behind her with her usual ice-queen composure. Molly knew she’d never dare to ask her about it.
The Engineer
Beside the portrait of Anne a hologram of Al appeared. The letters above his head read “The Engineer.”
“Alberto Gonzalez was the most active agent in the operation to develop time travel. Alberto is known to most of us as Al, or later as Tío.
“Al became DoTA’s first temporal engineer. With Night’s aid, he developed the brain implants that allow a temporal engineer to fork. In this way an engineer, trying for an outcome, can fork at an early point. If he fails to achieve the desired outcome, he can give up and go back to fork, over and over until successful.
“Brain implant!” thought Molly. She knew Al had special training to become a temporal engineer, but hadn’t known about an implant.
“The most important such operation in the history of DoTA was the first one. When Anne returned to the twenty-first century, Al stayed behind as a single father. It was given out that Anne had died in childbirth—not a rare outcome in 1907. Al raised Elle to the age of one day less than eighteen. He was not just her father, but her teacher. He taught her mathematics and physics more advanced than any known to the early twentieth century.
“Al and Elle also welcomed a runaway girl into their family, Molly Johnson.”
Molly wondered how many times Al had welcomed her. Did he and Elle accept her the first time they met? Or did it take Al several forks to make Molly part of Elle’s story? Maybe she would ask him. But Al never talked about the failed forks. He probably wouldn’t tell her.
Ancient Magic
A hologram of the globe appeared in front of the images of Anne and Al. The letters above it read, “Ancient Magic.”
“Anne and Al met when they were graduate students, Anne studying history and Al studying geophysics. On a day in 2012—they were 22 years old at the time, they made the most surprising discovery of two lives filled with momentous surprises. They discovered an entity that could affect the magnetism of bits of iron under high pressure. Alberto developed a simple method of communication based on this discovery. To their astonishment, the entity was intelligent and could converse with them. Al proposed the name ‘Night,’ from a poem by Jorge Luis Borges, for this magnetic intelligence. The entity that we all know as Night acceded to his proposal.
“Night is a giant natural magnetic supercomputer made of the iron at the center of the solid core of the Earth. It is the largest known brain, approximately 600 km in diameter. It is also, at an age of about 500 million years, the oldest known brain. Night woke into being when the core cooled enough to crystallize in the form capable of computation.
“Night is now a central component of time travel, being the only computer powerful enough for the computations necessary to find stable timelines.”
Molly knew all this. Night was an open book, and It was Molly and Elle’s constant companion. Besides, Molly had even been involved in introducing Night to Al.
The Physicist
The next hologram appeared beside that of Al. It showed Elle, and the letters above it read “The Physicist.”
“On their 18th birthday in 1907 Elliotte Gardiner and Molly Johnson stepped through the time-gate to 2015. Elle entered the physics program at the University of Texas in Austin, which she completed Summa Cum Laude in three years. From there she moved to the physics graduate program at the University of Waterloo and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, where she joined the Gravitational Physics Program and worked with Jensen Yan. Her goal from the start was to develop a theory of time travel. She had a winning advantage over other physicists, as she told DoTA staff at the time—she knew beyond doubt that there was a solution. It was a thing no other physicist knew.
“The breakthrough came in December 2029. Following up on a crucial insight from Molly, Elle guessed that causal loops would be unstable. On this basis she worked out the first version of what we now call the Johnson-Gardiner stability criterion, named after Molly and Elle. From J-G stability she and Night worked out a theory of time travel. Alberto and Night together used this theory to design the time-gates that we still use.”
Molly looked up at Elle sitting next to her. Molly knew she herself didn’t really deserve credit. She had only said that maybe a timeline was like a guitar string. But that had triggered something in Elle, who really was a genius.
By now Molly was feeling distinctly uncomfortable. She was not a genius like Elle or Al, not a distinguished leader like Anne, and she sure wasn’t an all-knowing supercomputer like Night. She didn’t belong here. She hoped that the speechifying was at an end, that they would not embarrass her by comparing her to Elle’s family.
The Heart
But, alas—the holograms of Al and Elle moved slightly apart, and Molly’s torso and head appeared between them. The letters above her head read “The Heart.” Ooof—what did that mean?
Director Rodriguez continued, “Molly Johnson was what no one expected. She wasn’t in anyone’s plans. She was a runaway, a lost girl, a hobo who hopped a train north and rode into Elmwood one afternoon. She and Elliotte met unexpectedly outside the school where Alberto taught music. Elle and Molly instantly became best friends. Al and Elle took Molly into their home. By a strange coincidence Molly and Elle had been born on the same day in 1907.”
“Ha!” thought Molly.
“Al took on the job of giving her an education. He discovered a quick intelligence and an eager curiosity. He also found that she was a musical genius, whose gifts as a musician he claimed exceeded his. This may be modesty…”
Molly elbowed Al and whispered, “Modesty?”
He whispered back, “Simple truth!”
Rodrguez continued, “Molly went through the books in the Elmwood library and those in Al’s private library. Recognizing that some of Al’s books should not exist yet, she knew already when 1925 came around that something strange was up. By some strange oversight that we will assuredly never understand, Al failed to properly secure the time gate through which he and Elle stepped forward into 2025. Molly worked out how to authenticate herself and followed them through the gate. She has never explained how she did that.”
“‘Some strange oversight that we will never understand…’” Molly whispered to Al. He directed an innocent look her way.
“Once through the gate, Molly continued surprising everyone. She came out behind Elle. Anne, who had not previously known of Molly’s existence, met her for the first time when she stepped out of the gate.”
“And wasn’t real happy to see me, either…” thought Molly.
“Molly continued to supply surprises. She undertook the first real mission with Al and Night’s newly invented time-gate, traveling back to 2012 to present a young Al with undeniable evidence of time-travel. On her way back she surprised everyone, herself included, by stepping out into an alternative timeline.
“After that Molly became DoTA’s most active time-traveler. She has been through the time-gate more times than any other DoTA agent. It is now 2107, and still no one has exceeded or equaled Molly’s mission total. In addition, she has personally trained most of our agents.”
Calls of “Yay, Molly!” and “¡Brava!” “¡Corazón!” arose from the auditorium.
Rodriguez called, “Let’s show DoTA’s first family how much we appreciate them.”
She and the other DoTA dignitaries on the stage stood up and began to applaud. The audience surged to their feet and applauded wildly.
“Clearly, these people don’t get enough chances to have fun,” Molly thought.
“It is a family tradition to dance on the eve of Molly and Elle’s birthday!” Rodriguez called.
The chairs in the auditorium disappeared, revealing a beautiful hardwood floor, perfect for dancing.
“Neat trick!” said Molly.
“Perhaps that standing ovation we got was not entirely spontaneous,” said Al.
Taking Elle’s hand, Molly stepped down to the dance floor. Al and Anne followed suit. The notes of “Poor Boy’s Delight” played, and they danced.
Afterword
The cover image is a phase portrait of
A phase portrait is a visualization of a complex function introduced by Elias Wegert in Visual Complex Functions: An Introduction with Phase Portraits.
The portrait is rotated 30° clockwise. A semi-transparent image of Night (see Futures 4: Night) is superimposed.
This concludes the novella Night for now. There may yet be related stories to come.
A very fun conclusion! 💯
Wraps things up very nicely, and also leaves lots of room open for related stories if you end up deciding to do more.
Thank you for writing this novella and for sharing it with us readers! 🙏
An 'Epilog' that leaves me wanting to know exactly what came before. There’s a really distinct atmosphere to your writing.