“Signal 94-A”
In 2246, Earth stopped listening.
The Deep Space Relay Network, once humanity’s proudest achievement, was powered down
after decades of silence. Billions of dollars, thousands of satellites, and not a single reply from
the stars.
Except one.
Signal 94-A.
It arrived on a Tuesday, buried in static, almost discarded. The tech who found it, Mara Anoa’i,
had only listened out of boredom. But there it was: a sequence of tones, repeating every 94
seconds. Not random. Not human. And not quite music—something older. Sadder.
She flagged it. Her superiors ignored it.
After all, the program was shutting down. Budgets slashed. Staff let go. Curiosity had become a
liability.
But Mara couldn’t let go.
She recorded the signal onto an old data chip, slipped it into her coat, and walked away from
the station for good. She moved to a quiet town by a frozen lake, where the sky was clean and
the nights were long.
And every night, she played the signal.
Years passed. She didn’t expect a reply.
Then, one winter evening, the tones changed.
They answered.
Not in words. Not even in sound. But in dreams. The moment she fell asleep, she saw
them—tall, luminous beings walking through oceans of stars, leaving trails of golden dust. They
had no mouths, but they sang.
Their message was simple:
“We heard you. We always did.”
She woke up with tears on her face.
The rest of the world never heard Signal 94-A. It was scrubbed from archives, lost in
bureaucratic decay. But Mara kept listening.
Because out there—somewhere—the stars had sung back.