Disra Senkovi, head of the Terraforming team, awakens from decades of cryosleep on the terraforming ship, the Aegean. Forgoing the standard data-feed wake-up, he uses a custom dream of the Great Barrier Reef that he hacked into the ship’s systems. His personality profile shows excellence at working in isolation but poor performance with colleagues. He is woken personally by the mission’s Commander, Yusuf Baltiel, who has embargoed critical information from the rest of the crew. Baltiel is visibly agitated and reveals there is a major problem with their destination, the planet Tess 834h. Senkovi reviews the system data, confirming their target is in the habitable zone along with an ice-world, Tess 834g. As he analyzes the atmospheric readings for Tess 834h, he discovers the reason for Baltiel’s secrecy: The planet they were sent to terraform is already home to a thriving, complex ecosystem.

Baltiel gathers the 13-person crew and reveals that their target planet, Tess 834h, is inhabited. He presents drone footage of a diverse and alien biosphere, including jellyfish-like creatures flying through the air and vast, strange flora. Citing the mission’s lack of protocol for this scenario, Baltiel declares his intention to abandon terraforming in favor of studying the new world.