The Sky Project

Author: Alex Rivera

It started as a science fair project. Build a drone that could fly higher than the rest.

But somewhere between coding flight patterns and soldering wires, I realized I wanted it to do more. I wanted it to see what we couldn’t.

The night before the fair, I launched it from my backyard. It climbed past the clouds, higher than my dad’s old telescope could track. The GPS stopped responding.

For a few seconds, it sent back static. Then an image.

Not stars. Not space. Something looking back.

The next morning, the drone was gone.

The fair judges gave me “honorable mention.” But every night since, my radio buzzes at 2:13 a.m., the exact time I lost contact. A voice says:
“Keep building.”