In the year 2149, Earth’s skies were silent. Humanity had long abandoned radio waves, shifting to quantum communication, leaving the old frequencies empty. Yet one night, an observatory in the Andes picked up a faint signal—an old-fashioned Morse code transmission, pulsing steadily from Proxima Centauri.
Dr. Elara Niven, a tired astronomer on her final shift before retirement, decoded the message:
“WE SURVIVED. ARE YOU STILL THERE?”
Her hands trembled. Proxima’s colony ship had launched eighty years ago and was believed destroyed after contact was lost. No rescue mission was ever sent.
She tried to send a reply, but the system only allowed reception—Earth had long dismantled its deep-space transmitters. Humanity, in its hunger for progress, had forgotten how to answer.
Dr. Niven stared at the lonely pulse of light across four light-years and whispered into the silence:
“Yes, we’re still here.”
No one heard her but the stars.
