It has always been said that nighttime on Orion Station is impossible to define. The two suns illuminating the nebula made the shadows cast at unpredictable angles, and the colours became unreal - purples turning to greens, greens to navy blue. Tonight, however, seemed different. The base trembled in a silence that neither the hum of the fans nor even the soft purr of the generators could pierce. Julia, a young astrophysicist with her hair tied up in a clumsy bun and her face adorned with traces of safety goggles, sat in the main observation room. Only she and her companion, the android Vex, kept vigil among the indicator lights and monitors. The rest of the crew was asleep, tired from another day of experimenting with the mysterious H-9 gas. Behind the armoured glass was a view of a swirling cloud of dust. Occasionally, unexpected luminous bands appeared, as if someone was chalking across the dark sky. Julia stared at the screens, trying to work out why the radio astronomy sensors had started to pick up an unknown, repetitive signal - as if someone, or something, was trying to send a message towards the station. "What do you think, Vex?" - she asked, glancing at the humanoid android standing next to the console. Vex had a display with a subtle blue light instead of a face, and his voice sounded slightly metallic, though it carried distinctly human notes. "The possibilities are many, Ms Juliet. A collapsing plasma wave.... Perhaps the passage of a comet. However, the pattern of repetition is interesting. It is not random noise. It resembles ... a message." Julia felt her hair stand up on end. She was a scientist, not a fantasy hunter, but she couldn't deny the thrill of excitement. Each successive piercing of the signal sounded as if someone was insistently knocking on the door. Vex analysed the data and projected the hologram onto the wall: the line of binary code kept repeating itself, arranging itself in an unfamiliar pattern. This was something they had never seen before. Behind the glass, in the darkness, the nebula lit up with a sudden flare. "Should we go outside?" - Julia asked, unable to take her eyes off the hologram. Vex hesitated, then nodded. They both put on their suits and crossed the airlock. She hoped her heart wasn't beating as loudly as she thought it was. As soon as they stood on the observation platform, the sky in front of them lit up - and a moving shape began to form in the centre of the nebula, as if something huge and unknown was trying to break through the veil of dust. The signal in Julia's headphones took on a new rhythm, fast and disturbingly accurate. At one point, the flare took on the intensity of the sun. The platform trembled. Julia and Vex looked at each other. Was someone calling them, or was it just the nebula playing tricks on their senses? Then a point of light appeared in the darkness. It was growing fast, taking on colours, becoming clearer than anything they had seen in weeks of research. Julia closed her eyes, feeling her hands clench tighter on the railing. And when she looked again at the sky stretching out before her, she saw....