Wild-light696 - 107-20 Min Direct

The mission clock still ticked in his HUD:

The signal wasn’t from Earth. It was from a probe he’d launched years ago, before the accident—a tiny AI he’d nicknamed Wild-light . The probe had drifted far beyond the solar system, learned to feel in the dark, and turned back when it sensed Leo’s loneliness.

Here’s a short story built from the elements you provided: wild-light696 - 107-20 Min

“You came home,” Leo whispered.

Now, at 107 hours, with 19 minutes left, Leo understood. The mission clock still ticked in his HUD:

Not a voice. A pattern. Pulses of light through the static, arranging themselves into shapes he almost recognized: a hand reaching, a door opening, a child’s drawing of a sun.

17 minutes.

Leo smiled, closed his eyes, and for the first time in 107 hours, let the story end not with static, but with light.