This day in Trinity Universe history: The big day

[aberrantangels]

1985
[Aberrant] André Joseph Corbin, later the Utopian and Aberrant known as "Bender," born in Leith, Scotland.

If I understand the timing correctly, though, he's not even a nova yet as of today. Right now, he's got his dream job as a footballer (what we heathen Americans call a soccer player), thanks to having (as Exposé: Aberrants puts it) "more athletic talent in a toenail clipping than some teams had in their starting lineup." And he's a cocky bastard who says things like "Aw Christ, I'm about to run for a whole shitin' football game. Why do I have to stand through some pissant country's national anthem on top've it?" But even the people who hate him — for his contempt for tradition; for mocking the talent, appearance, ancestry and/or hygiene of his opponents; or what have you — have to admit he's got the skills.

1998
[Aberrant] N-Day. The research satellite Galatea explodes at 1218 GST, killing its crew and raining quantum-charged radioactives into the jet stream. At 1531 EST, the first publicly-known nova, Randel "The Fireman" Portman, erupts while fighting a school-bus fire in New York. Louis M. Freeman also manifests his plasma powers at this time, fleeing police and National Guard alike. (Jeremiah Scripture, life-partner of Divis Mal, erupts no later than this date.)

Two things about the Galatea explosion are known to very few. One is the reason the satellite exploded; the other is the nature of the energies that started the Nova Age.

Adventure! mentions passim that the explosion was a repeat of the Hammersmith Incident, leading me to conclude that the station was hosting an experiment with zero-point energy. (I actually wrote that up as fact in an appendix to The Age of Hope, my mindseyetheatre adaptation of the pulp-era Trinity Universe game.)

Whether or not he caused the disturbance to the station that sent the experiment out of control, Divis Mal played a role in what came next. He charged the debris with his own quantum signature, sending a gentle rain of what used to be called "dynamic Inspiration" all over the world. This time, Æon wouldn't be able to hide what was going on. Not completely, anyway.