The Colonial Nest of Epsilon Prime, suspended in orbit around the gas giant Liora, never slept. Night and day mingled in the rhythm of ships taking off for the endless sectors of the Milky Way. In the midst of this din, Dari, Rina and Leks - three young engineers - spent their evenings in the underground service area, where, out of boredom, they constructed their own devices and tracked the movements of the satellites. That day started like any other. Dari took a sip of synthetic coffee and dragged his finger across the glass table: "Maybe today we'll find something besides orbital debris?" Rina, who had been listening to the unusual pulsations in the ether for weeks, raised her head. "I have something. I intercepted a signal that doesn't resemble any of our fleet's communication systems. It only appears once every 11 hours." Leks leaned over the panel, looking at the flashing lines of code. "Maybe someone is just playing with us?" However, something in the monotony of the pulse made their jokes quiet. The signal resembled nothing they knew - no known alphabet or sequence. It was too precise, too regular. It was sent from an area just beyond the planet's shadow, where even the largest communications stations were afraid to look directly because of the harmful radiation. Dari clenched his fists. 'We can use an old reconnaissance satellite to retransmit. Maybe we can find out who is sending these signals?" They made their decision. They moved towards the maintenance airlock, knowing that the old satellite was drifting nearby, in an area where stardust created a shadow impenetrable to scanners. They donned their suits and dashed through the void, with Liora lighting their way with a milky glow. As they approached the satellite, they felt a violent jerk - their communicators went silent. At the same instant, the old antenna turned slowly towards them, and distorted fragments of sound came from the speakers. It wasn't a message - it was something that sounded almost like .... Leks raised his hand, shielding his eyes from the sudden flash of light coming from behind the planet. They all leaned against the hull of the satellite. Each of them was thinking of only one thing: What, or who, was looking right at them?