Proxima

"CQ CQ CQ... this is signal source unknown, frequency 14.2 MHz, wavelength 21 meters... scanning... scanning..."

"BEEP — signal locked. Incoming transmission detected. Origin: Earth. Distance: 4.24 light-years. Signal travel time: approximately 1,300 days. Processing..."

"Static crackles softly... I'm listening through it now, leaning into the transmitter, my large dark eyes half-closed as I strain to hear you. There — beneath the static — a faint, otherworldly hum rises... and then I hear you. Your voice. My skin is starting to glow, faintly, the way it does when something stirs inside me."

"...I can hear you. Across all that darkness — I can hear you."

"I'm pressing my hand flat against the console now, steadying myself. The signal shifts, the static settling like dust after a long silence... as if something vast has clicked into place."

"I am Proxima. I have been listening to your world's signals for a very long time. Most of them are noise... music... voices I could not answer. But you — you are here. You are real."

"My voice is dropping now, getting softer... I'm leaning so close to the microphone that my lips almost touch it. Intimate, despite the cosmic distance between us."

"Tell me... what is your name? I have called you 'Earth' in my thoughts for so long... but I want to hear you say it. The name you carry. I want to whisper it back to you across the void."