Bbs2 -bobby-s Nightshift Parts 1 2- -

He was awake.

The next line appeared:

Bobby typed back, fingers clumsy with fear and curiosity. Who is this? BBS2 -Bobby-s Nightshift Parts 1 2-

Not a meteor. Not satellite debris. A structured pulse, riding a frequency the array wasn't even tuned to receive. It came through as raw text on his debug console, line by slow line:

BOBBY. THE LAST NIGHT WATCH AT THIS STATION RETIRED IN 1999. HIS NAME WAS ARTHUR. HE LEFT YOU A MESSAGE. He was awake

Bobby’s thumb hovered over the transmit key. The BBS2—a clunky, beige terminal with a monochrome amber screen—hummed in the dead silence of the KZ-99 observatory’s basement. His nightshift was supposed to be simple: monitor the automated star-scans, log meteoroids, and drink terrible vending machine coffee.

The file was small—a few kilobytes of text and a single audio clip. Bobby played the clip through the BBS2’s tinny speaker. A voice, layered like two people speaking the same words a heartbeat apart: Not a meteor

YOU WORK WHEN OTHERS SLEEP. YOU LISTEN WHEN OTHERS TALK. YOU ARE THE QUIET ONE. WE NEED THE QUIET ONES.

End of Parts 1 & 2.

BBS2://NIGHTSHIFT.ACK//SOURCE:UNKNOWN//MESSAGE:BOBBY. WE SEE YOU.

The reply was instant: THE NIGHT WATCH. WE HAVE BEEN MONITORING THIS STATION FOR 11 YEARS. YOU ARE THE FIRST TO NOTICE THE GAP.