Tori was asleep when the answer to their hail came. They all were. Fortunately, the ship’s comm system recognized the message as speech, recorded it, and alerted them that they had a message to listen to.

As soon as Tori saw the notification, she called the others to the bridge. She wasn’t sure why she felt nervous, but she had to wipe sweat off her palms as she waited for her friends to join her. She also took a deep breath before telling the communications module to play the recording.

A whispery voice in a staticky background came over the sound system, speaking in strangely accented English. “Tori? Victoria Jackson? Is that you? But how can it be? Surely you—”

A burst of static cut the speaker off, but Brian, Gabe, and Lu were all staring at Tori.