On October 14, 1998, a radio telescope in Arecibo had recorded a single, anomalous blip from the direction of Proxima Centauri. The signal-to-noise ratio was so low that the automated system had flagged it as a microwave oven. But the raw timestamp, converted from sidereal seconds into a truncated integer, was .
Elara's coffee cup froze halfway to her lips. 389339
The simulator wasn't generating noise. It was receiving . On October 14, 1998, a radio telescope in