Three friends catch a strange signal from Proxima Beta, and when the warning repeats, something moves outside the observatory door.
In the town of Goats, on the edge of Space Station Earth III, lived three friends: Lena, Kajtek, and the robot Maks. Every day they slipped into the old observatory outside town, where dusty telescopes stood under cobwebbed beams and the air always smelled faintly of metal and moon dust. It was their favorite place to tinker, guess, and stare at the stars.
That evening, as the station’s lights glowed across the domes, Lena nudged the radio-wave receiver while adjusting a dial. The needle jumped. A sound crackled through the speaker, so soft she almost thought she imagined it. Then it came again, steady and rhythmic, as if someone far beyond the station were tapping out a message.
Kajtek leaned over the console, his face shining with excitement. “That’s no ordinary noise. It’s a signal. Maybe from Proxima Beta.”
Maks tilted his square metal head and ran the sound through his sensors. The screen blinked, shimmered, and filled with glowing characters:
COME... WE NEED HELP... WE ARE NOT ALONE...
The room went still.
Lena reached for the planetary atlas. Kajtek yanked open his homemade computer. Maks was already calculating routes, distances, and fuel paths in a rapid stream of numbers. Outside, the dark sky pressed against the windows, crowded with stars.
Then the receiver flashed white.
A second signal burst through the silence, shorter this time, sharper, like an alarm. And just as the sound died away, a faint rustle came from the other side of the observatory door, as if something had brushed the metal floor and stopped to listen.