a.k.a. Ronosaurus Rex
(Click here for the first part of this story: A Distant Voice: Preface.)
The day Auntie Azra realized that she had probably found traces of extraterrestrial communication, I was bored and lonely. No one to play with, no one to talk to.
I was alone, as usual.
When we made contact, it was not an earth-shattering meeting. It was not an invasion, nor an offer of friendship. It was not even contact. It was a whisper overheard in the darkness.
We were eavesdropping on a conversation that had taken place 90 years before. It would take 90 years before our ecstatic greetings reached Kepler 266f and another 90 years before we could hope for a reply.
Yet that distant voice changed everything.
Image credit: NASA Ames / SETI Institute