Space Research Station Eden-7 drifted slowly in orbit around the blue planet Gliese 104b. Among the vast corridors, full of quiet electrical murmurs, Lena traversed the paths leading to the greenhouse. She was the youngest botanist on the crew, and she quietly considered Eden-7 home - this was where she had grown up and where she would learn about the wonders of alien worlds without leaving the metal walls of the station. The greenhouse was her favourite place. Although the temperature and humidity were always strictly controlled here, Lena felt as if she were in a real forest among the plants. The artificial sun shone on the multi-coloured leaves and the sprouting buds pulsed gently with nutrients. That night, Lena was on duty alone. As she walked along the rows of exotic flowers, her attention was caught by a glass sphere in which the latest specimen was being grown - 'Vita Lucida', a plant collected on a recent expedition to the planet Irius. It had been sprouting slowly until now, but today.... something has changed. The delicate shoots swirling around the inside of the sphere shone with an inner light that had not been there before. Lena leaned over to get a better look, when suddenly the sphere flared blindingly. A fleeting shadow flashed behind her back. Lena turned abruptly, but beyond the row of gigaprotes she saw no one. An alarm flashed on the control screen: unknown changes in the greenhouse's atmosphere. The sensors showed an increase in the level of unknown particles, and the lights on the panels began to pulsate red. At the same moment, from a nook between the incubators, Lena heard a strange, quiet whisper - she had never heard it before. A shiver ran through her. After all, she should be all alone here... She stood still, listening to the murmur, which seemed to pulse in rhythm with her heartbeat. She grabbed her hand-held scanner and moved slowly closer to where the sound was coming from. The artificial moon cast a silvery light, elongating the shadows of the plants on the greenhouse walls. Suddenly, the light flicked on and Lena felt a gentle whiff of icy air on the back of her neck. As she reached the incubator, she looked down and saw something that could forever change her outlook on life in the universe - at that exact moment, all the lights in the greenhouse abruptly went out and the station shook from an unknown pulse of energy....