The cosmic silence was unlike any other silence - it had neither an end nor a beginning. Chiara gazed intently through the transparent dome of the observation deck of the Aurora ship as it glided gently through the Andromedusa nebula. Next to her, in comfortable swivel chairs, sat her friends: Lu and Tami. They were all first-year students at the elite Space Academy, but now - as part of their internships - instead of poring over textbooks, they were expected to solve a real puzzle. Their task was to investigate an old research station, Vesper XI, abandoned for a decade after a mysterious accident. As Aurora entered orbit around the abandoned complex, Lu glanced at the flashing console controls. - 'Girls, I've got something,' she said in a hushed voice. - 'The scanners picked up an unknown signal. It's coming straight from the station. Tami listened for a moment to the crackles and squeaks that resembled coded messages. - This is not a standard emergency signal. He... kind of repeats itself, but it changes a bit. It almost sounds like a ... echoing voice. Chiara looked through the porthole, seeing Aurola's lights reflecting off the station's rusted panels. There were particles of ice floating around her, like frozen rain. - 'Can we go in there? - She asked quietly. Lu checked that all systems were ready for docking. - 'It's safe, at least according to the sensors. But something doesn't seem right to me. If someone is out there, why didn't they send out a normal distress call? They decided to land. The door to the station's airlock creaked open and the interior drowned in semi-darkness. Every step echoed through the empty corridors. The walls were covered in frost, but the station's computer booted up as if it had been waiting for someone for years. Suddenly, a message flashed on the control screen: "HAVE YOU ARRIVED?". Immediately afterwards, a mysterious, distorted whisper came from the speakers, in which each of the girls recognised her own name....