The world tried to move on.
But I couldn't.
While debates fizzled out and newsfeeds moved on to elections and scandals, I kept working. I barely ate. I barely saw sunlight. Every paper I wrote began with the same quote: "We don't need to believe to act,sometimes hope is enough."
I'd submitted my designs for deep-space probes. Created proposals for temporal-shift comms. My theories on relativistic compression made headlines in niche journals. I was chasing a ghost, yes ,but the chase had given me my mind back. My heart back. I was no longer just the planet's forgotten genius.
I was alive.
Then, one day,just a little over a year after the first message,something strange happened.
A message came again.
But it wasn't from the same signal.
It was new.
It was crisp. Clean. Clear. High bandwidth. No degradation. That alone should've told me something was wrong.
The screen blinked white, then:
"Hello viewers across the galaxy!"
I froze.
The image snapped into focus. It was her,Lena. The woman from the videos. Alive. But… different.
She stood in front of a green screen, cables everywhere. She wore the same lab coat. Same exhausted smile.
Only now, she looked fine. Rested. Her skin glowed. Her hair was styled. Crew members moved behind her. Laughter echoed faintly.
She clapped her hands.
> "Aaaaand… cut! That's a wrap on 'Echoes of Earth.' Thank you, everyone!"
The camera zoomed in.
She faced it fully.
> "If you're watching this, and you believed me… I'm sorry."
My breath caught.
> "Well ,not that sorry."
She smiled, disarmingly warm.
> "My name really is Lena. I am an actress. And yes,everything you saw was a lie. A beautiful, tragic, high-budget lie."
> "The 'death of humanity' was scripted. The voices you heard? Fellow actors. The static? Post-processing filters. The anomaly? Entirely fictional."
My heart was pounding.
She continued:
> "So why did we do it? Simple: for the story. For the reaction. For you."
> "See, a trillionaire named Calyx Vellum funded this little performance. His dream was to create the galaxy's first interstellar prank. Something that would haunt deep space, waiting for some intelligent race to catch it. A prank across millennia."
She paced slightly.
> "We figured we'd die long before anyone ever saw it. But we also hoped someone would,and maybe they'd cry. Or laugh. Or start building starships."
She stared into the lens, eyes a little more serious now.
> "Because even lies have weight."
> "And sometimes? Lies can save lives."
I was still sitting. Still staring.
She leaned closer. Her voice dropped.
> "Maybe you were depressed. Maybe you were lost. Maybe you thought the stars had nothing left to offer."
> "But you saw me. You heard me. And for a moment ,you cared."
> "You worked harder. You loved deeper. You remembered what it felt like to chase something impossible."
She smiled again. Sad this time.
> "I don't know who you are. But I know what you did with our little lie."
Behind her, someone laughed and shouted, "Come on, Lena! We got a blooper reel to shoot!"
She winked.
> "So from all of us on Earth,past or future… Thanks for watching."
> "And hey ,don't stop dreaming."
The screen cut to black.
Silence.
My lab was quiet. The world outside was loud,within minutes, networks were exploding with rage, disbelief, laughter, fury, betrayal. Lawsuits. Protests. Memes.
But I didn't say a word.
I just sat back.
And I smiled.
Because yes,it was a lie.
But it reminded me what truth felt like.
And maybe that was enough.
---
THE END