The forest is unusually still.

You are alone at the observation site, surrounded by aging field instruments, a small radio, spare batteries, and handwritten notes. The air is cool and damp, and the trees press close around the clearing. Your instruments have been tracking a rare celestial object for the past few days.

At first, the readings were normal.

Now, something is wrong.

The main sensor plots a trajectory that resembles a meteor—until it suddenly accelerates, slows, and veers in a way no natural object should. The lines on the screen jitter, stabilize, then distort again.

The radio crackles with static. It cuts out for several seconds, then returns as if nothing happened.

The backup device shows the same anomaly.

Then every instrument fails.

The disruption lasts exactly fifteen minutes.

When the systems return, the readings look normal again. The radio resumes its signal. The forest remains silent.

But one of the instruments has recorded a raw, unexplained pattern buried beneath the noise.

It does not resemble a meteor trail.

It does not resemble any atmospheric event in your records.

You are still alone in the clearing.

What do you do?